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.
TrafficGuard
TrafficGuard is an automated ad fraud prevention software that detects, mitigates, and reports on invalid traffic across your entire digital advertising journey to protect your marketing budget.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Cobalt | TrafficGuard |
|---|---|---|
| Website | cobalt.io | trafficguard.ai |
| Pricing Model | Custom | Freemium |
| Starting Price | Custom Pricing | Free |
| FREE Trial | ✘ No free trial | ✓ 30 days free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✓ Has free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2013 | 2018 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, USA | Perth, Australia |
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.
TrafficGuard
TrafficGuard helps you stop wasting your ad spend on bots, crawlers, and malicious competitors. By analyzing every click and impression in real-time, the platform identifies invalid traffic before it drains your budget. You can protect your campaigns across various channels, including search, social, and programmatic, ensuring your ads reach genuine human audiences who are actually interested in your products.
The software provides you with detailed transparency through granular reporting and automated blocking. Instead of manually auditing your traffic, you can rely on its multi-layered defense system to handle mitigation automatically. This allows you to scale your advertising efforts with confidence, knowing your data is clean and your return on investment is accurately measured without the noise of fraudulent activity.
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.
TrafficGuard Features
- Real-time Blocking. Automatically block known bots and fraudulent IP addresses from clicking your ads to save your budget instantly.
- Search Protection. Protect your Google Search campaigns from competitor clicking and automated bots to ensure your ads reach real customers.
- Social Verification. Audit your social media traffic to identify invalid engagement and optimize your spend toward high-quality human audiences.
- Custom Blacklists. Create and manage your own exclusion lists based on specific IP ranges or behaviors that you find suspicious.
- Granular Reporting. Access detailed dashboards that show you exactly which sources are driving invalid traffic so you can optimize your placements.
- IVT Detection. Identify sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) using machine learning algorithms that adapt to new fraud patterns as they emerge.
Pricing Comparison
Cobalt Pricing
TrafficGuard Pricing
- PPC protection for Google Ads
- Up to $2,500 monthly ad spend
- Real-time IP blocking
- Basic reporting dashboard
- Email support
- Everything in Free, plus:
- Up to $10,000 monthly ad spend
- Multi-user access
- Advanced fraud analytics
- Competitor click protection
- Priority email support
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
TrafficGuard
Pros
- Easy setup process for Google Ads accounts
- Immediate visibility into invalid traffic sources
- Automated blocking saves hours of manual work
- Helpful customer support team for technical setup
Cons
- Interface can feel complex for beginners
- Pricing scales quickly with high ad spend
- Occasional false positives require manual adjustment