How Today’s Pentest Models Compare and Why Continuous Wins

As threat actors grow faster, stealthier, and more persistent, the approach to pentesting needs to keep evolving. Traditional, periodic assessments no longer keep up with rapidly changing attack surfaces. Static tests offer a snapshot, but attackers see a live stream. Security testing needs to shift testing models to mirror how real-world attackers operate.

At Sprocket Security, our Continuous Penetration Testing (CPT) solution is an always on, always active, and hybrid pentesting model.

In this article, we will compare the most common models — Point-in-Time Pentests, PTaaS, Bug Bounty Programs, Automated Tools, and Continuous Penetration Testing — to explore why CPT is emerging as the most effective model for proactive security teams.

The Current Landscape of Penetration Testing Options 

Pentesting isn’t one size fits all. Thus, multiple models have emerged, each attempting to balance depth, speed, and coverage. But not all pentests are created equal.

Understanding how these approaches differ is critical to choosing the right offensive security strategy for your organization.

Below, we break down the five most common models by strengths, limitations, and where they fit in a proactive security program.

1. Point-in-Time Pentest

What it is: Scheduled manual tests, often annual or quarterly, focused on predefined scopes.

Strengths: Thorough, compliance-friendly, human-driven.

Limitations: Infrequent, static, limited to the moment in time it was conducted.

Cost: One-time cost, but with no ongoing coverage and additional fees for retesting.

Also called legacy tests, they often find real issues, but these quickly go stale as infrastructure, applications, and threats evolve.

2. PTaaS (Penetration Testing as a Service)

What it is: Platform-based testing with dashboards, ticketing, and more accessible reporting.

Strengths: Easier to manage, faster delivery, scalable.

Limitations: Still scoped and scheduled like legacy tests, not truly continuous, reactive by design.

Cost: Lower upfront costs with a subscription-based pricing, but pricing varies widely based do platform features and vendors tend to charge for each test.

PTaaS improves the testing experience but doesn’t fundamentally change the cadence or mindset of testing.

3. Bug Bounty

What it is: Incentivized, crowdsourced testing by independent researchers.

Strengths: Broad attacker creativity.

Limitations: Inconsistent coverage, duplicate noise, long feedback loops, and lack of strategic context.

Cost: Total spend is unpredictable and can spike with researcher activity. Also, it requires internal resources to tirage and validate.

Bug bounties can catch edge-case bugs but are unreliable as a primary offensive security strategy.

4. Automated Security Testing

What it is: Tools like SAST, DAST, and scanners integrated into pipelines or production.

Strengths: Fast, scalable, great for surface-level coverage.

Limitations: High false positives, lacks human creativity, and don’t emulate real attackers.

Cost: Lower costs than other testing but limited long-term value without human validation.

Automation is essential, but without human oversight, it misses critical logic flaws, chained exploits, and contextual nuances.

5. CPT (Continuous Penetration Testing)

What it is: An always-on offensive security approach combining human-led testing with automation. Simulates persistent attackers operating against your attack surface every day, not just once a year.

Strengths: Real-world attack simulation, contextual findings, real-time alerts and remediation support, unlimited retesting, and reduced time to remediation.

Limitations: Still requires strategic scoping and internal readiness to act on findings.

Cost: Higher ongoing investment than point-in-time tests, but delivers continuous coverage, unlimited retesting and faster remediation cycles.

CPT integrates with your teams and aligns with current needs and priorities, reducing remediation lag and keeping exploitation windows short.

The Rise of CPT

Today’s exploitation landscape moves at a speed that most testing methods can’t keep up with.

Each year, over 19,000 critical and high-severity vulnerabilities are disclosed. The average time to weaponize a newly disclosed vulnerability is just 5 days.

Compare that to a legacy pentest, which may take 20 days to complete and only happens once or twice a year.

That leaves organizations with hundreds of untested, high-risk days, during which attackers have the upper hand.

Attackers don’t wait for you to schedule your next pentest. They scan, exploit, and pivot 24/7. That’s where a solution like Sprocket Security’s CPT comes into play.

Sprocket’s Continuous Security Testing

Our CPT solution was built to counter this reality. We use a blend of attack surface management and humans to detect change and perform continuous testing that removes time constraints.

This more closely simulates the behavior of a persistent attacker and helps teams respond before vulnerabilities become incidents.

Here’s how Sprocket delivers real-world protection:

• Real-time visibility: Continuous monitoring of vulnerabilities and attack surface changes.
• Unlimited retesting: Retest anytime at no extra cost to quickly verify fixes.
• Expert support: Get remediation and testing guidance from our team, not just reports.
• Decreased exposure time: Reduce the window between vulnerability discovery and remediation, which leads to fewer emergency patches and lower chance of exploitation.
• Stay compliant: Always-on testing to meet SOC 2, PCI, ISO, and more.

CPT doesn’t just find vulnerabilities, but helps you respond faster, patch smarter, and build resilience against the pace of modern threats.

Why CPT Is the Future

CPT aligns security with the speed and persistence of modern development and threats. By combining expert-driven testing with real-time, actionable insights, security teams are empowered to move fast without sacrificing protection, identify real-world attack paths, and build a more resilient system over time.

CPT also plays a foundational role in enabling Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). This proactive strategy is focused on identifying, validating, and remediating risk through its five stages — scoping, discovery, prioritization, validation, and mobilization.

CPT enhances this framework in powerful ways to help your organization assess threats, validate exposures, and strengthen security.

It’s not just testing. It’s continuous, intelligent risk management designed for how attackers operate today.

Real-World Success: From Annual to Continuous Model

A Sprocket Security client in the healthcare industry was not satisfied with the coverage their annual pentest was providing them. They moved to our continuous model, which enabled their small security team to detect and remediate risks, helping protect patient data and uphold brand trust year-round! All without increasing their own headcount.

This shift didn’t just improve security, but transformed their entire approach to risk. With CPT, the client moved from a reactive, compliance-driven approach to a proactive security strategy that scales with their business.

Today, they have continuous insights into their threat exposure, faster remediation cycles, and greater confidence that their most sensitive data is protected every day of the year.

Conclusion: Security is a Journey, Not a Snapshot

Security isn’t static and your testing shouldn’t be either. While legacy pentests, PTaaS, bug bounties, and automation each bring a level of value, none offer the consistent, attackerfocused insight that CPT delivers.

Continuous Penetration Testing is more than a method of testing — it’s a mindset shift. It replaces outdated snapshots with real-time insight and constant attacker-focused validation. It’s how proactive security teams stay ahead, reduce risk, and build long-term resilience.

Sprocket Security is ready to help your organization, Watch our platform demo on-demand or reach out to request a quote from our team!

Sponsored and written by Sprocket Security.