Competitive Intelligence for Cybersecurity Companies
Know each competitor's exploited flaws, test results and certifications before your prospect asks, and win deals with facts instead of fear. The complete guide for product marketers, sales engineers and founders at security vendors.
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Definition
What is competitive intelligence for cybersecurity companies?
Competitive intelligence for cybersecurity companies tracks the other security vendors you sell against, not the attackers. It covers their products, prices, test results, certifications, vulnerability records and next moves. Product marketers, sales engineers and founders use it to win deals, set prices and plan the roadmap.
The word "intelligence" means something else in your market, so be precise inside your team. Threat intelligence tells a defender who may attack and how. Competitive intelligence tells a vendor who it will meet in the next deal, and what that vendor can prove.
Proof is what makes security different. Buyers cannot test every product they shortlist, so they lean on third parties: government lists of exploited flaws, test labs, certification bodies, peer reviews. Most of that record is public and dated. Your competitors' track record is written down by someone else.
There is also a lot to track. In a 2024 study by IBM and Palo Alto Networks, executives in 18 countries said their companies ran 83 security tools from 29 vendors on average. Each of those vendors is a competitor to someone.
Use cases
How security vendors use competitive intelligence
In most of your deals, the competitive moment starts outside your company: a government agency, a test lab, a certification body or a platform's price list. These are the jobs those records feed.
Answering a competitor's flaw
When a competitor's product lands on a list of exploited flaws, prospects ask you about it. Prepare a calm answer: which versions, which fix, and whether your product has a similar record.
Reading test results
MITRE and labs like AV-TEST, AV-Comparatives and SE Labs publish who took part and what they tested. Know which competitors joined, which stayed away, and what each result covers.
Racing for certifications
FedRAMP in the US, C5 in Germany, SecNumCloud in France, ISMAP in Japan: each one opens a market. Track where competitors stand in the queue, not only the logos they already show.
Selling against a platform bundle
A large vendor can add your category to a licence the buyer already pays for. Know what the bundle really includes, how deep it goes and when the buyer's contract renews.
Winning the channel
MSSPs, resellers and cloud marketplaces carry a few vendors per category. Watch which competitors your partners list, what they earn on them, and what their customers ask for.
Displacing an incumbent
Most security deals replace a product the buyer already runs. A renewal date, a new CISO or a competitor's price rise opens the window. Know each one before your rep calls.
In practice
Competitive intelligence examples for security vendors
Security news reaches your prospects the same morning it reaches you. What decides the deal is how fast your team has a sourced answer, and how calmly it is delivered.
Illustrative examples · CompetitorX is a fictional competitor
The competitor move
CompetitorX's VPN appliance is added to CISA's list of exploited flaws during your evaluation.
Your move
Brief your reps the same day, so nobody improvises. Don't raise it first. If the prospect asks, answer with the record: affected versions, fix date, the deadline the agency set. Then show how you ship fixes.
Within hours of the entry.
The competitor move
CompetitorX tells your prospect it came first in the latest MITRE evaluation.
Your move
MITRE does not rank vendors, and its citation policy forbids that claim. Don't argue on the call. Walk the prospect through the published results for the attack steps they care about, then test those steps in the proof of value.
Before the next technical call.
The competitor move
CompetitorX's encryption module appears on NIST's list of modules under test.
Your move
That is often the first public step towards US government sales, months before the certificate. Check which product it covers. Tell your public sector team, and confirm your own dates before a tender asks.
Within the week.
The competitor move
CompetitorX adds your category to its platform, free until your customer's renewal.
Your move
Don't cut your price first. Find out what the bundle covers in this customer's setup and test it there. Then show the gap in numbers: detections, response time, the staff hours each product needs.
Six months before the renewal.
The competitor move
A large platform vendor acquires CompetitorX.
Your move
Its customers will wonder about the roadmap, support and data. Don't call them on day one. Watch the new owner's first changes to pricing, packaging and support, then reach the customers those changes hurt.
Over the next two quarters.
The competitor move
CompetitorX has a global outage after a bad update.
Your move
Say nothing about it in public. Give your reps an honest note on how you test and roll out your own updates. Check your own incident history before anyone compares the two.
The same day.
What to know
What to know about each competing security vendor
Most of these answers sit in public records. The rest come from your sales engineers, your partners and your lost deals.
Their proof
- Which tests did they enter this year, and which did they skip?
- What did each test cover, and which product version?
- Which certifications do they hold, for which product and region?
- Which certifications are in progress but not announced?
Their record
- How often do their products appear on lists of exploited flaws?
- How fast do they publish fixes and advisories?
- Have they had a public outage or breach, and what changed after it?
- Did they sign CISA's Secure by Design pledge or the UK's Software Security Code of Practice?
Their offer
- What comes free with their platform, and what costs extra?
- Do they charge per endpoint, user, data volume or workload?
- Which MSSPs, resellers and marketplaces sell them?
- Where do they host customer data, and under which country's law?
Their deals
- Which product do they replace most often, and how?
- Where do you beat them, and where do you lose?
- What do they tell prospects about your product?
Sources
Where security vendors find competitive intelligence
Your market is unusual: much of what you need about a competitor is published by a third party, with a date on it. Begin with your own teams, then add the records.
What you already hear
- Proofs of value
- Your sales engineers watch the competitor's product run in the prospect's environment. Log which tests each product passed, and why.
- Won and lost deals
- Ask the buyer what decided it. Security buyers often name a test result, a certificate, a price or a bundle.
- Partners and MSSPs
- They carry several vendors in your category. They know which one their customers ask for, and which one pays them better.
- Recorded calls
- Prospects repeat what a competitor told them about you. Search calls recorded in Gong or Modjo for each competitor's name.
- Your security researchers
- If your company runs a research team, it reads each advisory in your market closely. Agree on how it flags the ones a prospect may ask about.
What competitors publish
- Lists of exploited flaws
- CISA's catalogue in the US and ENISA's EU Vulnerability Database list the flaws attackers already use, with dates. Filter both by your competitors' names.
- Advisories and CVE records
- Most vendors publish security advisories with a feed you can follow. Many also assign their own CVE numbers, so read a third party's write-up as well.
- Release notes and docs
- Detection updates, new integrations and end-of-life notices show up there before any launch post. A changelog analysis prompt sorts them by what a prospect would notice.
- Test results
- MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations, AV-TEST, AV-Comparatives and SE Labs publish who took part. Note who stayed away, and which reports a vendor paid for on its own.
- Certification registers
- The FedRAMP Marketplace, the Common Criteria portal, France's ANSSI catalogue and Japan's ISMAP list show who holds what. Each register has its own traps, so check a vendor's security certifications for scope and dates.
- Marketplaces and tenders
- AWS Marketplace shows some list prices, and the UK's G-Cloud publishes pricing documents. That is competitor pricing many security vendors keep off their own site.
- Peer reviews
- PeerSpot and Gartner Peer Insights carry many security reviews. Review sites show where users struggle after the proof of value is over.
- Job ads
- A competitor hiring for FedRAMP, sovereign cloud or a new country is preparing a market. Job postings show it a year before the launch.
Stay on the right side of the line
Use a competitor's trial under your real name, after reading its licence: some security vendors ban competitive benchmarking and any access by a competitor. Never probe or test a competitor's systems, which is unauthorised access in most countries. Quote MITRE results within MITRE's citation policy, and keep each comparison verifiable, as advertising rules in the EU, the UK and the US require.
Signal vs noise
Which competitor news a security vendor should act on
Your market produces news all day: advisories, launches, funding, reports, research talks. Keep what could change a live deal, a price or your certification plan.
Track
Act within a week
- A competitor product added to a list of exploited flaws
- A certification won, lost or in progress
- Your category added to a competitor's platform
- A price or packaging change
- An acquisition in your category
Skim
Monthly roll-up
- Analyst reports and rankings
- Conference launches
- Funding rounds
- New MSSP and reseller deals
- Research on new attacks
Ignore
Unless it repeats
- Attack news with no product angle
- Awards and badges
- Vendors' comments on a rival's incident
- Vendors you never face in deals
- Arguments between vendors on social media
A competitor's flaw is the hardest call. Ask two questions. Does this prospect run the affected product? Has your own product had a similar flaw? If the answer to the second is yes, prepare a defence, not an attack.
The UK's National Cyber Security Centre published a method in 2025 to judge whether a flaw was forgivable or unforgivable. It gives your team neutral words for a tense conversation.
Know what other security vendors changed this week
Flares tracks competing vendors' products, pricing and messaging, so your team hears about each change before a prospect does.
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Distribution
How competitive intelligence moves inside a security vendor
In a security company, the people who know the most about competitors rarely sit in marketing. Sales engineers run the proofs of value, researchers read the advisories and partner managers hear from MSSPs. Your job is to connect them.
What comes in
Sales engineers
How the competitor's product did in each proof of value.
Security research
New flaws and advisories in your market, read with an expert eye.
Partner managers
Which vendors MSSPs and resellers push, and on what margins.
Analyst relations
What analysts hear from competitors, and where categories are heading.
What goes out
SalesBattlecards
A sourced answer to each competitor's flaw, test and bundle.
ProductRoadmap review
Gaps that cost proofs of value, with the deals and their value.
Public sector and complianceCertification plan
Which certifications competitors hold or pursue, market by market.
LeadershipMonthly brief
Platform moves, acquisitions and price changes that touch the plan.
PartnersPartner portal
The answers MSSPs need to sell your product over another.
The handoff that breaks most often runs from research to sales. A competitor's advisory reaches reps as a rumour, two weeks late. Agree on who writes the one-paragraph answer, and who approves it before reps use it.
Each team then works it into its own routine. Product marketing owns the battlecards, product managers own the gap list, and the sales team decides when a prospect hears it.
The deliverable
What goes on a competitor proof sheet
Security buyers ask one question in many forms: can you prove it? A battlecard tells your reps what to say. A proof sheet holds what third parties say about each competitor, with dates. Keep a sheet for each competitor you face in deals.
01Test results
Each MITRE round and lab test they entered or skipped, with the date and what it covered.
02Certifications
Each certificate by product, region and expiry, plus anything listed as in progress.
03Vulnerability record
Their entries on lists of exploited flaws over the last two years, and how fast they shipped fixes.
04Incidents
Public outages and breaches, and what they changed afterwards.
05Platform and bundle
What comes free with their platform, and what costs extra.
06Pricing model
Per endpoint, user, data volume or workload, with any public list price.
07Channel
The MSSPs, resellers and marketplaces that sell them, and where.
08Approved answers
The two-sentence answer to each point above, cleared for reps.
09Last checked
Who checked each line, and when.
Build it on a competitor profile template, then add the proof blocks. Link it from each battlecard, so a rep can show the source when a prospect asks.
For the product side, a feature parity matrix lines up detections, integrations and deployment options for each vendor.
The security calendar
The cybersecurity calendar for competitive intelligence
Your market runs on a fixed calendar. Competitors save launches for the big conferences, test results arrive at set times and public budgets close on set dates. Plan your competitive work around it.
- 1
RSAC Conference
Spring, San Francisco- Expect launches and new claims in the weeks before.
- Collect each competitor's new messages from talks and booths.
- Update battlecards the week after.
- 2
Infosecurity Europe
June, London- Watch how competitors pitch to European buyers.
- Note new local partners, regions and sovereignty offers.
- 3
Black Hat and DEF CON
August, Las Vegas- Read the research talks: some expose flaws in products you compete with.
- Prepare answers for flaws in your own products too.
- 4
Budget season
September to November- The US federal year ends on 30 September.
- European buyers plan next year's budgets, and it-sa in Nuremberg opens in October.
- Check competitors' certifications before public tenders open.
- 5
Test results
December- MITRE has published its endpoint results in December.
- Read who took part and what was tested before the claims start.
- 6
EU deadlines
September 2026 and December 2027- The Cyber Resilience Act requires reporting of exploited flaws from 11 September 2026.
- Its main rules apply from 11 December 2027.
- Track which competitors say they are ready, and how.
Routine
A competitive intelligence routine for a security vendor
The lists and registers update on their own schedules. Tie each check to one of them, and keep the time small. The weekly check matters most, because flaws move fastest.
Weekly
30 minutes- Filter new entries on the lists of exploited flaws by competitor.
- Read competitors' new advisories and release notes.
- Send sales one line on anything a prospect may raise.
Monthly
2 hours- Check certification registers and NIST's lists of modules in process.
- Read new peer reviews of your top three competitors.
- Review proofs of value won and lost.
Quarterly
Half a day- Read listed competitors' results for platform and pricing moves.
- Update each competitor proof sheet.
- Brief leadership on bundles and acquisitions.
Before a conference
Half a day- List what each competitor launched last year, and what it promised.
- Prepare reps for the claims you expect.
- Decide who attends which competitor talks.
Listed vendors explain their platform and pricing strategy to investors each quarter. Their earnings calls are where a bundle aimed at your category is first announced.
If you are a founder with no one on competitive intelligence yet, keep the weekly check. Flaws and certifications move deals faster than anything else.
Freshness
How fast security competitor intel goes stale
In security, some facts expire in days and some last years. Here is how long each kind of competitor intel stays true, and which event should send you back to it.
| What you track | Goes stale in | Update it when |
|---|---|---|
| Exploited-flaw entries | Days | A new entry or a fix release |
| Security advisories | A week | A new or updated advisory |
| Test results | A year | A new MITRE round or lab report |
| Certifications held | A year | A register change or an expiry date |
| Certifications in progress | A quarter | A new entry on a list of products under test |
| Platform bundles | A quarter | An earnings call or a new licence tier |
| Pricing models | A quarter | A marketplace listing or pricing page changes |
| Analyst placement | A year | A new report in your category |
| Ownership | Six months | An acquisition or a new investor |
| MSSP and reseller lists | Six months | A change on a partner page |
| Hosting and sovereignty offers | Six months | A new region or a local partner |
| What they say about you | A month | A prospect quotes a new claim |
Date every line on the proof sheet. A flaw fixed a year ago, quoted as if it were still open, costs you more trust than it costs the competitor.
Metrics
How to measure competitive intelligence at a security vendor
Measure deals, not reports. And read each number per competitor, because a platform and a point product beat you in different ways.
Competitive win rate
won competitive deals ÷ (won + lost competitive deals)
Split it by the type of competitor: a platform that bundles your category, or another specialist. The two need different answers.
Competitive displacement rate
wins where the buyer left a named incumbent ÷ closed deals against that incumbent
Most security deals replace something. This shows which incumbents you can move, and where campaigns should aim.
Time to insight
median hours between a competitor event and an approved answer for sales
Measure it after each flaw, outage or test release. Prospects read the news the same morning, so hours count.
Report them by segment too. A vendor you beat in mid-market deals may win most public tenders, because it holds a certificate you don't have yet.
Pitfalls
Competitive mistakes security vendors make
Security buyers are trained to spot fear and exaggeration. Most of these mistakes cost you their trust, not only the deal.
Using a competitor's breach or outage
Buyers call it ambulance chasing. Answer when they ask, with the record, and never celebrate.
Attacking a flaw you also have
Check your own entries on the same lists first. Buyers remember the smaller incidents too.
Calling a test result a ranking
MITRE does not rank vendors and bans "#1" claims. Oversell a result and the prospect will check it.
Comparing certificate logos
Check which product, region and version each certificate covers. Many cover less than the logo suggests.
Fighting a free bundle on price
You cannot be cheaper than free. Show what the bundle misses, and what it costs to run.
Watching only the big names
The startup in last month's proof of value is the competitor you know least about. Add it.
Automation
How to automate competitive intelligence for cybersecurity companies
Of all these checks, the ones on competitors' own pages slip first: release notes, pricing, packaging, partner lists. They change without a press release, and nobody on the team owns them.
Competitive intelligence platforms exist for exactly this. Flares watches competing security vendors' product pages, pricing, messaging, reviews and hiring, and reports each change with its likely effect on your deals. If you record calls in Gong or Modjo, it also picks out the competitors your prospects name. It does not read lists of exploited flaws, test results or certification registers. Those checks stay with you.
Competitor alerts
A new product page, a price change or a new partner, the day it goes live.
Weekly competitive digest
Each Monday, the week's changes at competing security vendors, most urgent first.
Live battlecards
Each competitor's offer, claims and answers, updated when they change, with the date of each edit.
Answer every competitor claim with facts
Flares turns competitors' launches, price moves and new claims into live battlecards your sales engineers can trust.
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FAQ
Cybersecurity competitive intelligence FAQ
How does competitive intelligence contribute to cybersecurity?
For a security vendor, it shows who it competes with and what each competitor can prove: test results, certifications, vulnerability records, prices and bundles. Product marketers, sales engineers and founders use it to win deals and plan the roadmap. Defending a company against attackers is a different job, called threat intelligence.
What is the difference between threat intelligence and competitive intelligence?
Threat intelligence tracks attackers: who they are, how they work and what they target. Security teams use it to defend. Competitive intelligence tracks competing companies: their products, prices and plans. A security vendor's research team may do the first, while its marketing and sales teams need the second.
What are the Big 4 in cybersecurity?
The phrase usually means the cyber practices of the Big Four audit firms: Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG. Among product vendors, there is no agreed list. Palo Alto Networks reported $11.5 billion of revenue for its year to July 2026, and CrowdStrike $4.8 billion for its year to January 2026. For your own analysis, your big four are the four vendors you meet most often in deals.
What are the 5 C's of cybersecurity?
There is no official list. Most blogs list change, compliance, cost, continuity and coverage. The framework buyers actually rely on is NIST's Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, with six functions: govern, identify, protect, detect, respond and recover. It also works as a grid for comparing competitors: map each product to the functions it covers.
How do you do a competitor analysis for a cybersecurity company?
List the vendors you meet in deals, including platforms that bundle your category. For each one, collect its test results, certifications, vulnerability record, pricing model and channel, all dated. Add why you won or lost against it. Then turn it into a sales battlecard per competitor, with an approved answer to each point.
Which framework works best for a cybersecurity competitor analysis?
Compare competitors on the proof buyers ask for, not on a generic grid. For detection products, MITRE ATT&CK maps which attack techniques a product covers. NIST's framework shows which functions each vendor serves. SWOT still helps for strategy, but it says little in a technical evaluation.
Can you use a competitor's vulnerability in your sales pitch?
Never open with it. Buyers dislike vendors who chase a competitor's bad news, and your product may have a similar record. If a prospect asks, answer with the public record: the affected versions, the fix and the date. Then explain how you ship fixes, which is the question the buyer really cares about.
Are MITRE ATT&CK evaluation results a ranking?
No. MITRE publishes how each product behaved in an emulated attack, with no scores, ranks or ratings. Its citation policy forbids claims like "#1 in detection" and comparisons with a named competitor. Read the results step by step for the techniques your prospect cares about, and test those steps yourself.
Why did some vendors stop taking part in MITRE evaluations?
Microsoft said in June 2025 it would skip the 2025 round. SentinelOne and Palo Alto Networks followed in September 2025, citing product and engineering priorities. Eleven vendors took part in the 2025 endpoint round, against 19 the year before. A vendor that stays away has no fresh result to quote, so buyers ask for other proof.
How can you tell a competitor is going for FedRAMP or another certification?
Watch the lists that show work in progress. NIST lists encryption modules under test and in process, before they are validated. NIAP lists products in evaluation, and the FedRAMP Marketplace shows products in process. Job ads for compliance or sovereign cloud roles often come first.
How do you compete against a security platform that bundles your product?
Don't fight free on price. Find out what the bundled feature covers in the customer's setup, test it there, and show the gap in detections, time and staff. Time your offer to the customer's renewal. Some buyers still pick a specialist for a category where the bundled version is shallow.
Should you contact a competitor's customers after its outage or breach?
Don't do it in the days that follow. Buyers call it ambulance chasing, and it can damage your name more than theirs. Keep your normal campaigns running. If a customer of theirs reaches out, answer honestly, and wait for the renewal conversation to make your case.
Is competitive intelligence legal for security vendors?
Yes, with clear lines. Read a competitor's licence before you test its product: some ban benchmarking and any use by a competitor. Never probe or test its systems, never use leaked data from its breach, and quote test results within the tester's rules. Keep each comparison accurate and checkable, as advertising law requires in most countries.
What tools do security vendors use for competitive intelligence?
Security vendors usually pair the CRM and call recordings with a shared space for battlecards, plus bookmarks to the public records: exploited-flaw lists, test results and certification registers. Competitive intelligence software then watches competitors' sites, pricing and messaging, so nobody has to check them by hand.
Ready? Your competitors won't wait for you.
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