Penetration Testing Cost for UK SaaS Companies (2026)

A penetration test for a UK SaaS company typically costs £5,500 to £35,000 in the UK market. The low end is a single web application with one user role. The high end is a multi-tenant product with its API and a cloud account review. The price is the number of testing days multiplied by a day rate of £1,100 to £1,400.

What does a penetration test cost for a SaaS company?

Most SaaS companies fall into one of four scopes, typically costing between £5,500 and £35,000 in the UK market. What you pay depends on how many tenant-facing surfaces are tested and how complex each one is, because that sets the number of testing days. The table shows the typical range for each scope.

Scope	What is tested	Days	Typical UK cost
Single-role web application	One customer-facing application with a single user role, such as a first product for a first enterprise questionnaire	5 days	£5,500 to £7,000
Web application plus API	The application above and the REST or GraphQL API behind it, with token and object-level authorisation checks	9 to 10 days	£9,900 to £14,000
Multi-tenant application and API	Several user roles, tenant isolation, delegated administrators, organisation invites, data export paths, single sign-on and the API behind them	14 to 21 days	£15,400 to £29,400
Multi-tenant platform plus cloud review	The multi-tenant scope above, plus identity, storage and key management in the cloud account that hosts it	17 to 25 days	£18,700 to £35,000

These are market ranges, worked out from typical engagement lengths and UK day rates of £1,100 to £1,400. They are a guide for budgeting. The pricing page shows the engagement lengths for each type of test, and the quote form gives an exact fixed price for your scope.

What drives the price?

The number of testing days drives the price, and the scope drives the number of days. On a SaaS product, five things move the day count more than anything else: how many user roles the application has, how tenancy is built, how many API endpoints carry tenant data, how customers log in, and how many cloud accounts sit behind it.

• User roles. An owner, admin, member and read-only role each need their boundaries tested. A product with eight roles takes longer than one with two, because every boundary between roles is a separate check.
• Tenancy model. Shared tables with row-level security, separate schemas and separate databases fail in different ways. Tenant isolation is the test enterprise reviewers care about most, so it gets the most time.
• API surface. Endpoint count, the authentication flows in use and any partner or marketplace integrations. See API penetration testing.
• Identity. SAML or OIDC single sign-on, SCIM provisioning, custom domains and API keys each add cases, because each is a way into the wrong customer’s organisation.
• Cloud accounts. One production account is a small review. Several accounts, regions and a build pipeline make a larger one.

Tester grade is not a pricing factor, and neither is the size of the testing company. Two quotes for the same scope should differ mainly in the number of days. If one quote is much lower, compare the day counts first. Our web application penetration testing cost page goes through the same logic for a single application.

What is included, and what costs extra?

A quote should cover scoping, testing, the report, a walkthrough of the findings and a retest. Ask every company you approach to confirm each of those in writing, because retests and out of hours work are the two items that most often appear later as extra charges.

With EJN Labs, the quote is a fixed price for a defined scope. It includes:

• Testing by UK-based, CREST-certified testers.
• Findings in a client portal as they are confirmed, each with a CVSS score.
• The report on the last day of testing, and a walkthrough call.
• Free retests until findings are resolved.
• Out of hours slots, with no out-of-hours, callout, cancellation or rescheduling fees.

What changes the price is a change of scope: a second application added after the quote, extra user roles, or a larger cloud estate than the one described. If the scope grows, you get a new fixed price before any extra work starts.

How do you get a quote, and what will you be asked?

Send the list of systems you want tested and say who has asked for the evidence. A testing company needs a few facts about each system to count the days. Having them ready is the fastest way to get a firm price, and it makes quotes from different companies comparable.

1. Which applications and APIs are in scope, and which environment will be tested: production or a staging copy.
2. The number of user roles, and how tenants are separated from one another.
3. How customers sign in: password, single sign-on, API keys, or all three.
4. Roughly how many API endpoints carry customer data, and whether an OpenAPI specification exists.
5. Which cloud provider hosts the product, and how many accounts or subscriptions are involved.
6. Who asked for the test and the exact wording: an enterprise questionnaire, an auditor request or a contract clause.
7. Any release freezes or audit dates to plan around.

SaaS organisations can use a CREST-accredited company or a CHECK provider, depending on what their requirement states. EJN Labs is CREST-accredited. If the questionnaire or contract names an accreditation, say so when you ask for the quote.

Does SOC 2 or ISO 27001 set the scope or the price?

Not directly. The AICPA’s 2017 Trust Services Criteria behind SOC 2 do not mandate a penetration test, and nor does ISO 27001. UK GDPR Article 32(1)(d) requires a process for regularly testing the effectiveness of your security measures without naming penetration testing as the method. The detail is on our page about penetration testing for SaaS.

How EJN Labs approaches pricing for SaaS companies

EJN Labs is a CREST-accredited UK penetration testing company with a dedicated SaaS and cloud service. We scope each system by what it does and who uses it, count the days, and give you one fixed price for the defined scope.

We test the systems an enterprise reviewer asks about: multi-tenant web applications, customer portals, admin consoles, REST and GraphQL APIs, single sign-on and provisioning, and AWS, Azure or GCP configuration. Testing is safe by default on production, with no denial of service, and out of hours slots are available.

Retests are free until findings are resolved, so the price you agree covers the evidence that issues were fixed as well as the evidence that they were found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a penetration test cost for a SaaS company?

Typically £5,500 to £35,000 in the UK market. A single-role web application at 5 days is £5,500 to £7,000. A web application plus API at 9 to 10 days is £9,900 to £14,000. A multi-tenant platform plus cloud review at 17 to 25 days is £18,700 to £35,000. These ranges use UK day rates of £1,100 to £1,400.

Why does a multi-tenant product cost more to test?

Because every boundary between customers is a separate test. Several user roles, delegated administrators, organisation invites, data exports and single sign-on each add cases, so the day count rises. That is why a multi-tenant application and API is typically 14 to 21 days, against 5 days for a single-role application.

Is the retest included in the price?

It depends on the company, so ask for it in writing. With EJN Labs, retests are free until findings are resolved, and there are no out-of-hours, callout, cancellation or rescheduling fees. The quote is a fixed price for a defined scope.

Can we test a staging copy instead of production to keep the price down?

Price follows the days, not the environment, so a staging copy does not make a test cheaper by itself. It can make the test safer to run. Tell the testing company which environment you have, and whether it matches production in code, roles and tenant set-up. EJN Labs tests production safely by default, with no denial of service.

How long does a SaaS penetration test take?

Between 5 and 25 testing days for the scopes in the table above. A single-role web application is typically 5 days, a web application plus API is 9 to 10 days, and a multi-tenant platform plus cloud review is 17 to 25 days. EJN Labs delivers the report on the last day of testing.

Get a fixed price for your platform

Tell us which systems are in scope and who has asked for the evidence. Request a fixed-price quote and we will come back with the number of days, the price and the earliest start date.

Related: Does SOC 2 or ISO 27001 Require a SaaS Penetration Test? What Enterprise Buyers Ask For, Best Penetration Testing Companies for UK SaaS Companies, penetration testing for SaaS companies, penetration testing cost in the UK, API penetration testing and multi-tenant SaaS penetration testing.