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Fortra's Cobalt Strike vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortra's Cobalt Strike
Ranking in Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)
5th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
The NodeZero Platform by Ho...
Ranking in Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)
2nd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (9th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (13th), Penetration Testing Services (1st), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) category, the mindshare of Fortra's Cobalt Strike is 2.4%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai is 11.9%, up from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai11.9%
Fortra's Cobalt Strike2.4%
Other85.7%
Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)
 

Featured Reviews

CB
Tech Cyber Security Specialist, Director at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Advanced customization empowers offensive security operations
Cobalt Strike offers significant customization capabilities. It allows for the freedom to implement personalized approaches to security tasks, along with easy integrations with scripting tools. The solution provides a high level of automation for attackers, making it a crucial tool for offensive security. Additionally, it can be used by real threat actors, increasing its credibility in emulating real-world scenarios.
SH
Chief Information Officer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has unified our IT teams by providing clear visibility into network vulnerabilities and accelerated remediation with real-world attack testing
One of the things that we've shared with Horizon is just the reporting. They've made a lot of changes over time, but when examining computers, most average normal people don't look at a computer and identify it as 114.82.117.180. They identify it as 'the printer for accounting.' When many of the reports give the very detailed technical IP address or serial number, that's really not helpful for anyone other than the person, the hands-on person that's trying to remediate it. All the managers, all the leaders, having information in that format isn't helpful. Being able to have information about what those devices are would be very helpful. There's a technical reason they can't just have an easy button because some people have really complicated networks. When examining things for the average company, the average executive, that 114 number, there's only one of those. But if examining an AT&T or a Walmart, it isn't unique. They haven't solved that problem. But for the 90% of companies, being able to have just a human readable name for all devices on your network in all of the reports all of the time would be the most beneficial.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It also made a lot of post-exploitation activities easier."
"Cobalt Strike offers significant customization capabilities."
"For us, The NodeZero Platform is literally the single best security solution we have because the way that it works is we're able to scan every part of our network, both internally and externally, and then get completely actionable feedback that doesn't matter if it's for an application developer or a network admin."
"Honestly, it's one of the most transformational technologies we've implemented in our company."
"The NodeZero Platform is amazing; what I love most about it is that it's automated and comparable to the manual pen testing we did with a third-party company, but with the added benefit of unlimited retesting to validate fixes."
"I rate the stability of the NodeZero Platform a ten out of ten."
"The NodeZero Platform's real attack capabilities help in identifying vulnerabilities on our on-prem systems because it provides actual vulnerabilities by attacking our systems."
"Overall, I'd rate NodeZero at nine to 9.5 out of ten."
"Penetration testing and scans are useful features."
"My favorite feature about The NodeZero Platform is that it's autonomous, and it truly delivers on that promise—it can be set and forgotten while it performs its tasks, and it does exactly what it claims to do."
 

Cons

"The stability of the tool can be improved."
"Probably its delivery methods could be improved."
"I encountered challenges with patch management, as we struggled to test and implement patches due to time constraints. This led to our patch management process being ineffective."
"You need to be cautious about what it scans, as it could potentially cause issues."
"The only issue we’ve encountered is that sometimes the scans take a long time to complete."
"The areas for improvement for The NodeZero Platform involve integration and automation. It would be beneficial if it could integrate directly with vulnerability management tools that would allow the platform to automatically import data, identify vulnerable systems, and test targets immediately, potentially even enabling automated feedback loops for rescanning since the process is currently manual."
"One of the areas where improvement is needed is in the visibility and reporting for large enterprises."
"The speed of the scans takes some time, but in my opinion, it is not surprising for what it is doing."
"The reports are quite useless."
"They've added a chatbot which isn't particularly useful, but when it can't answer questions, it forwards messages to human support."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's expensive."
Information not available
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra's Cobalt Strike?
While not inexpensive, Cobalt Strike is a comprehensive platform. Its pricing reflects the capabilities and flexibility it offers. The solution can be cost-effective when utilizing its full potenti...
What needs improvement with Fortra's Cobalt Strike?
The stability of the tool can be improved. There are some limitations, but they tend to be more from outside of the tool rather than within it. The limitations often come from operators who may lac...
What is your primary use case for Fortra's Cobalt Strike?
I use Cobalt Strike to emulate threat actor activities.
What do you like most about Horizon3.ai?
Penetration testing and scans are useful features.
What needs improvement with Horizon3.ai?
I think The NodeZero Platform could improve by leveraging GPUs for password cracking, which would be pretty good.
What is your primary use case for Horizon3.ai?
We use The NodeZero Platform for control validation and we are also looking for the likelihood of vulnerabilities.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Horizon3.ai
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Government agencies, Defense Industrial Base organizations, and enterprises in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and criticalinfrastructure rely on NodeZero to meet rigorous security and compliance requirements with continuous, scheduled, and on-demand testing.
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortra's Cobalt Strike vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.