Cobalt
Cobalt is a Pentest as a Service platform that combines SaaS efficiency with a global community of security experts to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in your applications.
Recorded Future
Recorded Future is a comprehensive threat intelligence software providing real-time visibility into digital risks by collecting and analyzing data from the open, deep, and dark web to protect your organization.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Cobalt | Recorded Future |
|---|---|---|
| Website | cobalt.io | recordedfuture.com |
| Pricing Model | Custom | Custom |
| Starting Price | Custom Pricing | Custom Pricing |
| FREE Trial | ✘ No free trial | ✘ No free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✘ No free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2013 | 2009 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, USA | Somerville, USA |
Overview
Cobalt
Cobalt transforms traditional penetration testing into a dynamic, tech-enabled experience through its Pentest as a Service (PtaaS) platform. You can move away from slow, static PDF reports and instead launch comprehensive security assessments in days rather than weeks. The platform connects you directly with a vetted community of on-demand security researchers who test your web applications, APIs, and cloud infrastructure in real-time.
You can manage the entire testing lifecycle from a single dashboard, allowing your developers to communicate directly with testers for faster vulnerability remediation. It integrates with your existing development workflows to ensure security keeps pace with your release cycles. Whether you need to meet compliance requirements like SOC2 or harden your external attack surface, you get actionable data and on-demand retesting to stay secure.
Recorded Future
Recorded Future helps you stay ahead of cyber threats by automatically collecting and analyzing data from across the entire internet. Instead of manually searching for leaks or vulnerabilities, you receive real-time alerts about risks specifically targeting your brand, infrastructure, and third-party partners. It transforms vast amounts of unstructured data into actionable insights, allowing your security team to prioritize the most critical threats before they impact your business operations.
You can use the platform to monitor for leaked credentials, track emerging malware trends, and identify malicious domains mimicking your brand. By integrating this intelligence directly into your existing security stack, you reduce the time spent on manual research and accelerate your incident response. It is designed for security operations centers and risk management teams in mid-market to enterprise-level organizations across all major industries.
Overview
Cobalt Features
- On-Demand Pentesting Launch a manual pentest in as little as 24 hours to meet tight production deadlines or compliance windows.
- Real-Time Reporting View vulnerabilities as testers find them so your team can start fixing critical bugs before the test even finishes.
- Direct Researcher Access Chat directly with your assigned security experts to clarify findings and get specific guidance on complex remediation steps.
- SDLC Integrations Push findings automatically to Jira, GitHub, or Slack so your developers can manage security fixes in their existing tools.
- Complimentary Retesting Request a free retest once you've applied a fix to ensure the vulnerability is fully resolved and verified.
- Compliance Reporting Generate audit-ready reports for SOC2, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS with a single click to satisfy your stakeholders and auditors.
Recorded Future Features
- Brand Intelligence. Monitor the web for typosquatting, leaked credentials, and brand mentions to protect your reputation and customers from phishing.
- SecOps Intelligence. Enrich your internal security alerts with external context to identify which threats are real and which are false alarms.
- Vulnerability Intelligence. Prioritize your patching schedule by seeing which vulnerabilities are actually being exploited by attackers in the wild right now.
- Threat Intelligence. Access detailed profiles on threat actors and malware families to understand their tactics and better defend your network perimeter.
- Third-Party Intelligence. Assess the real-time security posture of your vendors and partners to identify risks within your digital supply chain.
- Dark Web Monitoring. Search underground forums and marketplaces for your sensitive data or mentions of your company to prevent data breaches.
Pricing Comparison
Cobalt Pricing
Recorded Future Pricing
Pros & Cons
Cobalt
Pros
- Significantly faster setup time than traditional consulting firms
- Direct communication with testers speeds up remediation
- Clean dashboard replaces messy PDF report management
- High-quality, vetted researchers provide deep manual insights
Cons
- Credit-based pricing can be complex to forecast
- Platform focus is primarily on manual testing over automation
- Premium pricing reflects the high-touch expert service
Recorded Future
Pros
- Real-time alerts significantly reduce your time to detect emerging threats
- Extensive data coverage across the dark web and technical sources
- Integrates easily with your existing SIEM and SOAR tools
- Visual threat maps make complex data easy for your team to understand
Cons
- Premium pricing makes it a significant investment for smaller teams
- Large volume of data requires time to master advanced filtering
- Initial configuration takes effort to tune out irrelevant noise