Horizon3.ai will not name a NodeZero price until you have sat through a demo. Buyer data fills the silence, pinning the median contract near $18,600 a year, billed per asset, with a wide estate reaching $59,720.
CodeAnt AI prints its rates on the page, which is the first thing that separates the two.
Short answer: NodeZero has no public pricing. Its
horizon3.ai/pricingpage shows four cumulative tiers (Flex, Core, Pro, Elite) with no dollar figures, so a quote needs a demo. Vendr puts the median around $18,600 per year, ranging to $59,720, priced per asset. The 30-day trial reverts to read-only when it ends.
How Much Does NodeZero Cost?
Nowhere on Horizon3.ai will you find a fee, a billing cycle, or a per-unit rate. The pricing link redirects to a feature-comparison page, and the only button on it books a demo.
The usable numbers come from Vendr, a procurement platform that logs what companies actually sign for. It pegs the median NodeZero deal at $18,600 a year, the range at $18,600 to $59,720, and the meter at one charge per asset or per IP.
Read that as a planning estimate rather than a quote. Vendr never says how many contracts sit behind the median, and Horizon3.ai has never confirmed a rate of its own.
NodeZero Tiers at a Glance
Four packages stack from Flex up to Elite, and the public page prices none of them. Whichever you land on, the Vendr range is the only anchor you get walking in.
Tier | Positioning | What it adds over the tier below | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
NodeZero Flex | Autonomous episodic penetration testing | Base package: unlimited internal, external, cloud, Kubernetes, AD, and phishing tests, plus External Asset Discovery, 1-click Verify, reports, the MCP Server, Vulnerability Management Hub, and Endpoint Security Effectiveness | Quote by demo |
NodeZero Core | Continuous autonomous penetration testing | Scheduling and Threat Informed Perspectives | Quote by demo |
NodeZero Pro | Precision threat detection and emerging threat intel | Tripwires and Rapid Response | Quote by demo |
NodeZero Elite | Risk-based exposure management | NodeZero Insights, High-Value Targeting, Advanced Data Pilfering, Threat Actor Intelligence, and Vulnerability Risk Intelligence | Quote by demo |
Every test type ships even at Flex. The tiers separate on how often you test, how much detection you get, and how much intelligence you get back, never on test volume.
Is NodeZero Worth It in 2026?
On a large network you test continuously, NodeZero earns its price. On a codebase or a handful of apps, the spend lands on the wrong layer, and CodeAnt AI covers that layer for free before you commit.
Horizon3.ai backs the value up, though the source deserves a footnote. Its commissioned Forrester Total Economic Impact study claims $1.63 back per dollar and a 63% three-year ROI for a 2,000-employee composite, built from $325,000 a year in recovered secops time, cancelled third-party pentests, and retired scanners.
One paying customer landed somewhere else entirely. Karrie Westmoreland, a Senior Security Engineer, gave NodeZero 3 stars on PeerSpot and walked after 18 months, citing “high cost for low-yield real attacks.”
Whether it is worth the money comes down to the shape of your estate.
The value question | NodeZero’s answer |
|---|---|
Cheaper than manual pentests? | Yes, unlimited autonomous tests undercut per-engagement consulting fees |
Predictable to budget? | No, the per-asset unit is unpublished, so renewals scale with your estate |
Worth it for a thin attack surface? | Often not, per reviewers who saw low yield and did not renew |
Worth it at network scale? | Yes, for continuous assumed-breach testing across many hosts |
Provable before you buy? | No, you get a 30-day trial, not a free scan |
CodeAnt AI answers that last row differently. A free scan puts the findings in front of you before you commit a dollar.
What Does the Free Option Include?
The trial runs 30 days and self-serve, and it is not a permanent free tier. Accounts open in read-only, and one company email upgrades you once, verified through an emailed token.
When the month is up, the account slides back to read-only. You keep the view, but in Horizon3.ai’s phrasing you “cannot take action like running pentests or verifying remediation.”
CodeAnt AI skips the countdown. Its free one-URL scan needs no card and only bills when it turns up a high or critical issue.
What Drives the NodeZero Bill?
Two levers set your quote: the size of your attack surface, and how far up the tiers you climb.
Asset count. The per-asset meter is why the median $18,600 climbs toward $59,720 as you authorize more hosts.
Scheduling. Recurring, continuous pentests unlock at Core, since Flex only runs on demand.
Detection and deception. Tripwires and Rapid Response wait until the Pro tier.
Executive reporting. NodeZero Insights and threat intelligence are Elite-only.
How Much Does a NodeZero Pentest Cost?
A single pentest has no price of its own, because Horizon3.ai folds unlimited pentests into every tier. The pentest is the subscription.
So you never pay per assessment, but you also cannot buy just one, only the whole package at around $18,600 a year through a demo quote.
CodeAnt AI’s pentest reads your code, runs black, white, and grey box modes, starts free on one URL, and charges only when it finds something high or critical.
What NodeZero Gets Right on Pricing
For the network buyer, the packaging has genuine upsides.
Unlimited testing at every tier. No per-pentest meter, even on Flex.
No volume penalty. A team running weekly tests pays what a team running one pays.
More than one way in. The AWS Marketplace and channel-partner private offers both skip the standard sales motion.
Committed-spend economics. AWS customers on an EDP can fold NodeZero into compute they have already promised to buy.
Partner licensing. MSSPs spread concurrent pentests across client tenants on one license.
Bundled unlimited pentests are the honest answer to per-assessment consulting fees, and much of what powers the Forrester math.
What to Watch Before You Sign Up
Every item here stays invisible until you are already in a sales cycle.
No public prices. You budget off third-party estimates, and the AWS listing shows no number either.
Per-asset scaling. The $18,600 median is a floor that rises with every IP you add.
A trial, not a tier. Thirty days, then read-only, and one verification per company email.
Whole-tier jumps. Scheduling, Tripwires, and Insights each cost you a full package upgrade.
Unstated term. Compliance pages mention 12-month retention and Vendr shows annual deals, yet the packaging page names no billing cycle, so pin it down in writing.
Our NodeZero features breakdown covers what that spend actually buys, module by module.
How Does NodeZero Pricing Compare to CodeAnt AI?
CodeAnt AI publishes its numbers and starts free. NodeZero quotes by demo off a per-asset model, and the two aim at different layers, so the table below reads as much like a scope decision as a budget one.
Dimension | NodeZero | CodeAnt AI |
|---|---|---|
Published prices | None, quote by demo | Yes, $20 to $24 per user per module per month |
Typical cost | About $18,600 to $59,720 a year, per Vendr | Per seat, per module, visible before you buy |
Entry point | 30-day trial, then read-only | Free one-URL scan, no card, plus a 14-day trial |
Billing unit | Per asset or per IP, rate unpublished | Per user, per module |
Pentest cost | Bundled and unlimited, quote by demo | Free first scan, pay only on high or critical findings |
Procurement | Demo, AWS Marketplace, or channel partner | Self-serve signup |
Layer tested | Live network, identity, and cloud | Source code and running apps |
For a team shipping software, CodeAnt AI wins on transparency and a free start. NodeZero takes the assumed-breach network layer once a sales conversation is on your calendar. The full CodeAnt AI vs NodeZero comparison works through the features.
Where This Leaves You
No demo, no price. Past that gate, plan on $18,600 a year at the low end and more as your attack surface grows.
NodeZero fits when a live network, Active Directory, and cloud all need continuous autonomous testing, the estate is large enough to justify the per-asset spend, and a procurement cycle is not a dealbreaker. Weighing the wider field is easier with our NodeZero alternatives guide.
CodeAnt AI is the call when you would rather tie spend to seats and findings, and run a free scan today instead of waiting on a quote.
