Free exposure check vs hiring a penetration tester
Both have a place. Here is what each one actually does, what it costs, and which one you need first — so you can decide with facts instead of marketing.
Start free, then decide. Attackers run automated scans against the whole internet looking for exactly what a free exposure check finds — unpatched apps, open ports, known CVEs like the Nextcloud Collabora RCE. Checking that takes 30 seconds and costs nothing.
A free check is not a pentest. It will not find logic flaws in your checkout flow, privilege-escalation chains, or anything requiring credentials. If you handle customer data or need a report an auditor accepts, hire the human.
The most expensive option is doing neither — paying pentest prices for findings a free check would have caught in 30 seconds is the real waste.
How to use them together
Today: run the free check. Fix anything it flags — these are the issues most likely to be exploited first.
Before launch or audit: hire a tester with a clean baseline, so their hours go to deep findings, not basics you could have fixed free.
After any incident: free check for immediate exposure, tester for root-cause and assurance.
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