What is Annual pentesting?
An annual pentest is a scoped engagement, usually run by a human testing firm once a year, that attacks your application within an agreed window and ends in a report. It's a snapshot of the app on the days it was tested.
Comparison at a glance
| Aspect | Barrion | Annual pentesting |
|---|---|---|
| How often it runs | On a schedule you set (daily to yearly, or a custom rhythm), or on demand | Once a year, plus any extra test you book after a big change |
| Time to proof | A run finishes within hours. From Standard up, a security engineer reviews the report before it's released | Days to weeks of booking and testing, then the report |
| Coverage drift | Each release can be tested soon after it ships, so new endpoints don't wait months | Everything shipped after the test window goes untested until next year |
| Retest | A retest reuses scope and credentials and holds no credits. Scheduled runs label findings new, still open, resolved or regressed | Often one retest included, sometimes billed separately |
| Audit evidence | A dated report per run plus run-over-run history. Supports the evidence auditors ask for, but acceptance is their call | One formal report per year, widely recognised by auditors and customers |
| Cost model | Per run in credits on /pricing. Continuous programs are scoped to your apps, cadence and depth, so talk to sales | Fixed fee per engagement, set by scope and tester days |
| Human judgement | AI agents test, and a security engineer reviews each report from Standard level up | Human testers throughout, strongest on novel business logic |
| Continuous AI pentest, checked against the live app | Yes. AI agents test your app on a schedule or on demand, and findings are checked against the live app before the report | No. One point-in-time test per year |
Who Barrion is best for
Teams that ship web apps and APIs weekly or faster and want each release tested soon after it goes out. You set a schedule (a daily Light run plus a monthly Deep run is a common pairing) or let Barrion run when it detects a change, and you see which findings are new, fixed or back again.
Who Annual pentesting is best for
Compliance programs and customer contracts that name an annual, independent penetration test, and the judgement-heavy work people still do best: novel business logic, unusual auth flows and anything outside web apps and APIs, such as internal networks or Active Directory.
Frequently asked questions
What does an annual pentest miss if we deploy every week?
Everything you ship after the test window. A yearly test covers the app as it was on the days it ran, so a new endpoint, a changed access check or a fix that got reverted can sit untested for up to a year. Continuous pentesting reruns the test on a schedule or on demand, which shrinks that gap to days.
Does compliance still require an annual pentest?
Often, yes. PCI DSS v4.0.1 requirement 11.4 asks for internal and external penetration testing at least once every 12 months and after significant changes to infrastructure or applications (source: pcisecuritystandards.org). SOC 2 and ISO 27001 don't fix a frequency, but auditors commonly expect a yearly test. Continuous pentests add evidence between those tests. Whether they replace a formal test is your auditor's or QSA's decision.
How do we run continuous and annual pentests together?
Keep the formal yearly test and schedule Barrion pentests in between, for example a daily Light run plus a monthly Deep run. Hand the continuous results to your yearly testers up front so they can skip what's already proven and spend their time on business logic.
How are continuous pentests priced compared with an annual test?
An annual test is usually a fixed fee per engagement. Barrion runs are paid in credits per run, and the per-run prices are on the pricing page. Continuous programs are part of the Business plan. Each one depends on the number of apps, the cadence and the depth, so it's scoped with sales rather than listed.
Is it safe to pentest production continuously?
Barrion's runs are rate-limited and non-destructive, and scope and off-limits paths are approved before any traffic is sent. Many teams point the frequent runs at staging and keep a smaller, approved scope for production.
Summary
Run both. Keep the yearly test for the auditor and for the paths that need a human, and let continuous pentests cover the fifty-odd releases in between. PCI DSS v4.0.1, for example, asks for internal and external penetration tests at least once every 12 months and after any significant change (requirement 11.4, source: pcisecuritystandards.org, checked 2026-09-26). A continuous run is one practical way to handle the second part, as long as your assessor agrees it fits your scope. Barrion's per-run prices are on the pricing page. A continuous program is scoped to your apps, cadence and depth, and sales will price it for your setup.
Explore Barrion further
Try the same checks Annual pentesting runs against your own site with the free website security scan (no signup), browse our full tool catalog covering TLS, security headers, CSP, cookies, DNS, and email auth, or read per-check explainers in /learn for the background on what each test means and why it matters. If you want a deeper look at how Barrion stacks up across the market, the full Barrion vs competitors comparison walks through the trade-offs in one place, and the pricing page shows what's included in each plan.