Penetration Test vs. Bug Bounty ROI Analyzer

Combine expected breach losses avoided, critical issues uncovered, and total testing investment to spotlight the risk-adjusted ROI of pairing penetration tests with bug bounty programs.

Include vendor fees plus fully loaded internal labor devoted to the assessment.
Number of critical findings you expect to identify and remediate before threat actors exploit them.
Average financial impact per critical exploit, including response, downtime, legal, and customer churn costs.
Optional. Leave blank if no bounties were paid—the calculator defaults to $0 additional spend.

Educational information, not security advice.

Examples

  • $60,000.00 pen test, 5 critical vulnerabilities avoided, $100,000.00 breach cost each, $40,000.00 bounty spend ⇒ Result: 400.00% ROI
  • $50,000.00 pen test, 4 critical vulnerabilities avoided, $75,000.00 breach cost, $20,000.00 bounty spend ⇒ Result: 328.57% ROI

FAQ

How do I estimate breach cost per critical issue?

Blend forensic response, legal fees, SLA penalties, customer churn, and downtime associated with a single critical exploit, or use published breach cost benchmarks as a starting point.

What if I only reward bug bounties when vulnerabilities are confirmed?

Enter the payouts you anticipate for the period. If no vulnerabilities were rewarded, leave the field blank to model penetration testing spend alone.

Can this handle medium-severity findings?

Yes. Adjust the vulnerability count and breach cost assumptions to the severity tier you want to examine, or run separate passes for critical and high findings.

How should I treat in-house red teams?

Convert internal red-team hours into a dollar value and add them to penetration testing spend so ROI reflects fully loaded labor and tooling.

Additional Information

  • ROI equals avoided breach losses minus total investment, divided by the combined testing spend, and is presented as a percentage.
  • Setting bug bounty spend to $0.00 highlights the standalone effect of your penetration test without crowdsourced findings.
  • Calibrate breach cost per critical vulnerability using annualized loss expectancy, industry studies, or internal incident data.
  • You can input fractional vulnerability counts to test scenarios where only a portion of an exploit surface is mitigated.

Related calculators