A third-party monitoring solution is essential for providing a level of risk visibility required by a successful Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) program. This post ranks the top third-party monitoring services in the market.
Ten best third-party monitoring tools in 2024
The top 10 third-party security monitoring service options for improving TPRM efficiency are ranked below.
1. UpGuard
Ideal for organizations requiring the most comprehensive level of third-party risk monitoring
UpGuard is an all-in-one TPRM solution, offering features supporting all of the phases of the TPRM lifecycle. With the platform named the #1 leader in third-party risk and supplier risk management by G2 for eight consecutive quarters, UpGuard is the leading cybersecurity solution for Third-Party Risk Management.
UpGuard can detect third-party risks at scale with one of the industry's most accurate security risk rating solutions. With notifications to alert users when each vendor’s security posture drops, UpGuard supports proactive third-party cyber risk treatment before cyber criminals detect these exposures.
With its IPv4 web space scans completed in just 24 hours, UpGuard offers one of the industry's fastest third-party risk scan refresh rates.
Learn about UpGuard’s security rating methodology >
To produce the most comprehensive risk monitoring data feeds, UpGuard combines its automated scans with point-in-time risk assessments through its library of security questionnaires, which map to popular regulatory and industry standards. UpGuard security ratings and vendor risk assessments collectively produce real-time visibility into supply chain threats and vulnerabilities in the vendor ecosystem.
An integral aspect of third-party monitoring is a streamlined process of third-party risk data collection for vendor risk assessments. Trust Exchange by UpGuard leverages automation to expedite the collection of third-party risk data from certification and completed questionnaires to calculate each third-party vendor’s security posture during the due diligence phase of TPRM.
Trust Exchange by UpGuard streamlines the risk detection and monitoring during the onboarding stage of a Vendor Risk Management program.
UpGuard’s scanning engine can detect third-party relationships and obscure technologies that comprise your digital footprint, ensuring they do not slip through the cracks of your third-party risk management program.
UpGuard users can easily generate cybersecurity reports on the platform with a single click to keep stakeholders informed of the organization’s evolving party risk exposure.
UpGuard’s cyber reports consolidate critical service provider risk insights into visualizations that make it easy for the board to understand the company’s likelihood of suffering a third-party data breach in a given reporting period.
2. SecurityScorecard
Ideal for organizations requiring third-party risk monitoring with strong visualization capabilities.
See how UpGuard compares with SecurityScorecard >
Security Scorecard’s attack surface scanning feature can detect third-party security risks related to Open Ports, DNS, HSTS, and SSL.
SSC extends its third-party monitoring capabilities to regulatory compliance, using security questionnaires to identify compliance risks against popular standards.
SSC combines its point-in-time assessments with vendor security ratings to offer users real-time awareness of emerging third-party vulnerabilities and the likelihood of vendors falling victim to a cyber attack.
However, some users have questioned the accuracy of Security Scorecard’s security ratings, which could impact the overall efficiency of a TPRM program depending on the platform for third-party risk monitoring.
“According to third-party feedback, unfortunately, it gives many false positives.”
- G2 review (read review)
To keep stakeholders informed of how a TPRM program tracks against its risk monitoring metrics, SSC offers a reporting workflow highlighting critical information security and data security risks associated with third-party partnerships.
3. Bitsight
Ideal for tracking the financial impact of third-party risks
See how UpGuard compares with Bitsight >
Like UpGuard and Security Scorecard, BitSight combines point-in-time risk assessments with security ratings to offer users real-time third-party risk monitoring capabilities. The SaaS platform positions itself as an all-in-one solution, addressing all the risk monitoring in the TPRM lifecycle.
Bitsight’s external third-party risk monitoring aims to represent a vendor’s risk profile as a cyber attack would see it - by highlighting all potential regions vulnerable to data breach attempts. However, the accuracy of Bitsight’s security ratings is questionable, with some users reporting excessive delays between when organizations complete risk remediation and when this improvement is reflected in the security risk ratings. Such delays could be a point of significant frustration when organizations make high-impact risk treatment decisions on the basis of inaccurate third-party risk monitoring insights.
Bitsight’s third-party monitoring capabilities include cyber risk quantification, which estimates the financial impacts of detected risks. This additional dimension of risk monitoring could help security teams determine which remediation efforts should be prioritized to minimize financial disruptions.
Bitisight’s ability to estimate the financial impacts of cyber risks could help reduce the risk of reputational damage associated with security incidents.
4. OneTrust
Ideal for SMBs focusing on compliance risk monitoring
See how UpGuard compares with OneTrust >
OneTrust’s third-party risk monitoring tool attributes security ratings to vendors to streamline security posture tracking. In addition, security questionnaires map to popular regulatory standards. Generated risk monitoring data is pulled into cybersecurity reports to keep stakeholders informed of TPRM efforts.
Though the platform’s intuitive design makes it quick to onboard into a TPRM program, users have raised concerns about the accuracy of OneTrust’s risk scoring process, which often delays acknowledgment of remediated risks detected through its monitoring processes.
5. Prevalent
Ideal for companies requiring a flexible approach to TPRPM
See how UpGuard compares with Prevalent >
Prevalent helps its users expedite vendor onboarding through its Global Vendor Intelligence network. Through this network, users get advanced access to third-party risk monitoring insights from vendors that have preemptively submitted completed questionnaires and risk assessments.
In addition to its shared third-party intelligence network, Prevalent’s risk monitoring capabilities extend to dark web forums, where it can detect data leaks and sensitive data dumps following a data breach.
6. Panorays
Ideal for businesses seeking in-depth third-party risk management and monitoring.
See how UpGuard compares with Panorays >
Panorays’ RIsk DNA product quantifies vendor risk scores by continuously analyzing multiple third-party risk data points, including completed vendor questionnaires and real-time threat intelligence feeds. Unlike conventional security ratings, Panorays aims to produce a personal risk rating system by contextualizing the business's unique security KPIs and KIRs when processing third-party risk monitoring data.
The Panorays platform extends its vendor detection capabilities to include 5th-party vendors, which could expand the scope of its risk monitoring capabilities.
7. RiskRecon
Ideal for companies requiring actionable insights into the cybersecurity performance of external partners.
See how UpGuard compares with RiskRecon >
RiskRecon offers real-time monitoring of vendor security risks. However, the platform does not include a natively integrated security questionnaire workflow, which could limit compliance risk data availability in its third-party risk monitoring processes.
The platform’s remediation workflow is also limited as it does not accommodate collaboration between multiple parties, which could significantly increase TPRM efficiency when coupled with a capable third-party risk monitoring tool.
RiskRecon allows users to adapt the platform to their unique risk monitoring requirements, implementing a baseline configuration that matches the third-party risk structures of a Third-Party Risk Management program.
8. Black Kite
Ideal for third-party risk monitoring processes requiring the inclusion of open-source threat intelligence
Learn how UpGuard compares with Black Kite >
Black Kite’s third-party risk monitoring tools consider various risk domains, including social media platforms, credential compromises, and dark web searches. Because the platform does not offer a natively integrated risk assessment workflow, risks detected through the platform’s risk monitoring processes cannot seamlessly progress to the remediation phase. Supplementing the platform’s TPRM workflow gaps requires integrations with separate TPRM services, which could result in higher costs.
To alleviate frustrations associated with repetitive questionnaires and lengthy due diligence processes, Black Kite leverages AI technology to parse completed questionnaires and vendor security certifications to expedite risk monitoring findings for newly onboarded vendors.
9. Drata
Ideal for organizations needing to streamline audit readiness
Learn how UpGuard compares with Drata >
Drata’s risk monitoring processes scan vendor security controls to detect risks associated with implemented compliance controls. The platform’s third-party monitoring tools map to popular standards and frameworks, such as GDPR and HIPAA, helping companies in highly regulated fields expedite compliance across their vendor ecosystem. However, the platform does not consider non-compliance risks in its risk management strategy, which could limit the effectiveness of a TPRM program.
Drata’s third-party risk monitoring capabilities are limited by the platform’s inability to detect IT assets in the external attack surface. This oversight could leave users unknowingly exposed to potential data breaches through asset vulnerabilities.
10. Vanta
Ideal for organizations focusing on vendor compliance tracking.
See how UpGuard compares with Vanta >
Vanta’s third-party monitoring solution primarily focuses on detecting compliance, not vendor security risks. This focus limits the platform’s use case to vendor compliance monitoring instead of the complete scope of risk monitoring required in a TPRM program. Vanta’s risk management solution is natively integrated, offering a unified dashboard that consolidates compliance risk monitoring and risk management visibility.
The solution bases its risk management processes on the guidelines specified by ISO 27005. This standard streamlines the remediation of compliance risks detected through risk-monitoring processes, simplifying compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA standards.
