How much should website security cost a small business in 2026?
"How much should I spend on website security?" is a fair question with a confusing answer, because the market runs from free to five figures. Here's an honest map for any business in 2026.
The free tier: £0, and worth running
Free scanners (including Solvbeat's) will check your TLS, headers, DNS and known-vulnerable libraries with no card. Always start here — but know that "free" usually means external, surface-level, and one-off.
The specialist tools: ~$90–$500/mo
Focused scanners like Intruder (~$119/mo) and Detectify (~€90–€275/mo) do one thing — external scanning — well. Aikido ($350+/mo) covers code for dev teams. Good value if that one thing is your whole need.
The enterprise platforms: £1,000s/mo or /yr
UpGuard (from ~$5,999/yr), Qualys and Tenable (custom, typically thousands) are priced for organisations with security teams. Powerful, and overkill for most small businesses.
What's actually worth paying for
- Coverage of the inside, not just the outside — a server agent, not just an external scan.
- Someone who acts — a human pentest and remediation, not just a longer list.
- Plain-English findings and real support.
For most SMBs, right-sized security lands at £38–£625/mo — which is exactly the range Solvbeat is built for: the coverage of a platform and the judgement of an analyst, without the enterprise invoice.
See what you get free — run a free scan → · see the full comparison table →
Pricing and capabilities are taken from each vendor's publicly available information as of September 2026 and can change — always check the vendor's own site for the latest. This comparison reflects our reading of what each product is documented to do, written to help you choose, not to disparage anyone. Intruder™, Detectify™, Aikido™, UpGuard™, Qualys™, Tenable™ and Snyk™ are trademarks of their respective owners.