RiskReconvsUpGuard

Compare the capabilities and features of RiskRecon and .
Also, see how they stack up against UpGuard.

Compare the capabilities and features of RiskRecon and UpGuard. See which solution performs best across a range of categories.

Did you know UpGuard was voted #1 on G2 and has been for over two years?

RiskRecon vs
RiskRecon vs UpGuard

See how they compare side-by-side.
General summary
5 stars
UpGuard is an end-to-end third-party risk management platform with best-in-class time-to-value and scalability from initial implementations to beyond. 
UpGuard delivers powerful, integrated tools for automated third-party monitoring, in-depth risk assessment and remediation, and one-click reporting. 
By combining actionable insights with built-in risk management workflows, UpGuard helps organizations maintain comprehensive oversight of their supply chain security posture and equips them with the necessary tools to shut down emerging risks rapidly.
RiskRecon specializes in external security monitoring and asset attribution with strong accuracy and strong cloud scanning capabilities, which are particularly valuable for IT-centric organizations. Owned by Mastercard, RiskRecon has stable financial backing and solid scanning accuracy. However, it remains primarily focused on external scan strengths and takes a partnership-first approach to TPRM workflows.
Key strengths
UpGuard excels by completing full vendor scans every 24 hours, which provides near real-time visibility into vendor security postures while seamlessly integrating native end-to-end AI-powered vendor assessment workflows.
UpGuard's licensing model and efficient learning curve offer best-in-class time to value and program efficiency.
RiskRecon provides a notably accurate external scanning solution and offers practical remediation guidance. It even prioritizes vulnerabilities by asset value for IT teams.
Key weaknesses
UpGuard's focus on core frameworks like ISO 27001 and NIST offers robust coverage for most security and compliance needs, though organizations requiring highly specialized or region-specific regulations may choose to augment it with dedicated GRC modules. 
Its strengths in cybersecurity and continuous monitoring ensure strong TPCRM capabilities, but those seeking an all-encompassing governance solution (e.g., covering environmental or privacy regulations) might benefit from additional integrations.
RiskRecon takes a partnership and integration-first approach to vendor assessment workflows. This necessitates the adoption of an additional solution provider to achieve an optimal assessment experience, as supported by the RiskRecon platform.
Usability and learning curve
UpGuard offers best-in-class time to value for initial implementations. 
UpGuard's platform architecture is designed from the ground up to deliver a quick and shallow adoption curve. UpGuard's clean and intuitive interface ensures ease of ongoing operation and rapid pick-up from new staff members as needed.
RiskRecon is focused on delivering clear, actionable findings for IT and SecOps-centric security teams with a clean interface for surfacing and remediating risks. While its limited scope of purely external scan data can simplify usage, complications can quickly arise for those integrating RiskRecon with a partner provider for assessment workflows.
Community support
UpGuard Summit brings together a community of security leaders from leading companies, explores the future of security and helps businesses stay secure. The UpGuard cybersecurity and risk management blog is updated four times a week and our breach research blog has uncovered and secured some of the largest data breaches.
RiskRecon offers stable support with detailed product documentation and guides available.
Release rate
4 stars
UpGuard has adopted DevOps principles internally to develop, test, and release software continuously, ensuring fast, consistent, and safe releases.
Star rating
RiskRecon does not appear to publicly share regular release rates, roadmaps, or documentation for solution updates.
Star rating
Pricing and support
5 stars
UpGuard has a transparent pricing model which you can view here. UpGuard pricing starts at $5,999/year and scales with your company.
Star rating
Public pricing is not available. Does not publically offer a free trial.
Star rating
API and extensibility
4 stars
UpGuard offers a standard API to pull data into other enterprise applications.
Star rating
RiskRecon features basic integration options for exporting findings and connecting with ticketing systems or GRC solutions. Offers integrations with GRC platforms, such as RSA Archer, Sigma Ratings, Whistic, and more.
Star rating
Third-party integrations
4 stars
Connect UpGuard with over 4,000+ apps using our Zapier integration.
Star rating
Offers integrations with GRC platforms, such as RSA Archer, Sigma Ratings, Whistic, and more.
Star rating
Predictive capabilities
5 stars
As UpGuard checks for misconfigurations across your Internet footprint, many important breach vectors are covered, including phishing, ransomware susceptibility (like WannaCry), man-in-the-middle attacks, DNSSEC, vulnerabilities, email spoofing, domain hijacking, and DNS issues. Data leaks are automatically surfaced by the platform for your team to assess and close before they become breaches.
Star rating
Allows users to implement a baseline configuration within the RiskRecon portal to match risk structures being used to manage enterprise and third-party risk. Risks monitored provide visibility into email security, application security, network filtering, and more.
Star rating
Customers
5 stars
The New York Stock Exchange (ICE), Morningstar, TDK, PagerDuty, Hopin, and IAG. Read our customer stories.
Star rating
Major customers include Informatica, Tufts Health Plan, the University of San Francisco, and Sentara.
Star rating
G2 rating
Accurate as of March 2025
5 stars
4.5, based on 383 reviews. Named a G2 Market Leader for Third Party & Supplier Risk Management Software.
Star rating
4.5, based on 2 reviews.
Star rating
Security rating
A
944
/ 950
X
950
/ 950
X
950
/ 950

RiskRecon vs product overview

RiskRecon vs UpGuard product overview

Learn more about the products and how they compare.

RiskRecon and UpGuard both offer Vendor Risk Management and TPRM solutions, but with differing results. Below, we assess the capabilities of each solution to help you invest in the right solution for your specific Vendor Risk Management security needs.

RiskRecon Overview

RiskRecon is headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, with a presence in Boston, MA, and representatives around the world. RiskRecon enables users to gain deep, risk-contextualized insight into the cybersecurity risk performance of all third parties by continuously monitoring across 11 security domains and 41 security criteria.

The platform can be used for third-party risk management, enterprise risk management, and mergers & acquisitions.

Riskrecon UI
Riskrecon UI. Source: riskrecon.com

UpGuard Overview

UpGuard is a third-party risk and attack surface management platform that helps global organizations prevent data breaches, monitor third-party vendors, and improve their security posture. 

UpGuard’s platform uses proprietary security ratings, data leak detection capabilities, and remediation workflows to proactively identify security exposures.

UpGuard’s all-in-one third-party risk and attack surface management software intelligently groups risks into six categories: website risks, email security, network security, phishing & malware, reputation risk, and brand protection. 

Usability & Learning Curve

RiskRecon and UpGuard offer their services via SaaS and are accessible from web-based platforms that can help users monitor and manage vendor risks.

  • RiskRecon: Cloud-based platform offers minimal need for installation. Workflow requires time to master.
  • UpGuard: Very intuitive workflow allows new users to master the functions of the platform very quickly. User-friendly workflow also expedites the vendor onboarding process.
"UpGuard has improved the customer experience, reduced vendor onboarding times and introduced an industry-leading security posture, to elevate our customer well above all of its competitors."

- UpGuard customer.

Capabilities

RiskRecon and UpGuard help organizations stay informed about their vendors’ information security risks as part of a third-party risk management (TPRM) program.

  • RiskRecon: Offers cybersecurity ratings and deep reporting capabilities to help businesses surface and manage cyber risks.
  • UpGuard: Offers real-time visibility into any third-party vendor’s risk posture & security rating, along with total automation for managing vendor due diligence and remediation programs.

Predictive capabilities

RiskRecon and UpGuard all identify risks using passive scans on a third party’s public-facing attack surfaces. However, RIskRecon doesn't match the breadth of of UpGuard's Vendor Risk Management functionality. RiskRecon third-party risk mitigation strategy is primarily focused on security ratings, which is just one component of Vendor Risk Management. UpGuard, on the other hand, supports the complete VRM lifecycle.

  • RiskRecon:. Primarily focuses on security risk ratings as a third-party risk mitigation strategy.
  • UpGuard: Supports the complete Vendor Risk Management lifecycle with multiple features, including security ratings, third-party data leak detection, security quetionnaire management, domain hijacking prevention, attack surface monitoring, compromised credential detection, etc.

Community Support

RiskRecon and UpGuard offer comprehensive online resources to educate and inform customers.

UpGuard's blog content, however, is reviewed by industry experts to verify trustworthiness. UpGuard's VRM blog content has also been regarded as more in-depth and helpful. In addition to its VRM blog, UpGuard regularly hosts a virtual summit to keep the global cybersecurity community updated with the latest VRM developments.

  • RiskRecon: Offers a customer user academy, consistently updated company blog, coverage of critical global security events, and a regular webinar schedule for sharing best practices.
  • UpGuard: UpGuard keeps the VRM community continuously updated with the latest industry developments through its blog content and quarterly summit event.

Release rate

  • RiskRecon: RiskRecon does not appear to publicly share regular release rates, roadmaps, or documentation for solution updates.
  • UpGuard: UpGuard has adopted DevOps principles internally to develop, test, and release software continuously, ensuring fast, consistent, and safe releases. UpGuard has a regular release rate every two weeks, with all features, changes, and improvements listed under UpGuard Release Notes.

Pricing & Support

Cyber risk platforms can be expensive and the common use of opaque pricing policies often takes power away from the purchaser. With most services offering tiered licensing options and add-ons, finding a solution that fits your needs and budget can prove more difficult without transparent pricing.

  • RiskRecon: Public pricing information is not available. However, according to user reports and platform reviews, RiskRecon's platform pricing reportedly start at $10,000 and increases based on the number of vendors monitored.
  • UpGuard: UpGuard has a fully transparent and publicly accessible pricing model which you can view here. If you have any questions, please email sales@upguard.com.

API & Extensibility

APIs are useful for technical staff, but not all information security teams have access to developers. In this situation, standard third-party integrations are an essential part of decision-making.  

RiskRecon and UpGuard offer integrations into other platforms.

Third-party integrations

APIs are useful for technical staff, but not all information security teams have access to developers. In this situation, standard third-party integrations are an essential part of decision-making.  

RiskRecon and UpGuard offer integrations into other platforms.

Customers

The best proof of the superiority of a solution comes directly from its customers. White RiskRecon services many known brands, UpGuard's customer base includes more distinguished companies.

  • RiskRecon: Customers include Informatica, Tufts Health Plan, University of San Francisco, and Sentara.
  • UpGuard: Customers include the New York Stock Exchange (ICE), Pagerduty, TDK, IAG, and Tech Mahindra. 

Here's what a few UpGuard customers had to say about their experience. You can read more on Gartner reviews.

"UpGuard has given us a view of our vendor security posture. The ability to launch a questionnaire or ask for a plan of remediation for items that show as vulnerable is also a great added value and a time saver. UpGuard is also very customer-focused. They respond quickly to issues and questions and welcome any input that could improve the product. Overall it is one of the best value add tools we have."
"The simplicity of the product is fantastic. My team and I were able to be up and running in minutes. We monitor risks on over 25 vendors in near real-time and use these statistics to report to the C suite and Board of Directors. UpGuard has become part of the critical cybersecurity metrics that we monitor and report upon."
"The ease of use and simplicity of the product is excellent. We were able to be up and running with 50 vendors within minutes, not hours. The reporting is used for monthly statistics and is reported to our Senior Management. UpGuard has become an integral part of our critical cybersecurity metrics that we monitor and report upon."

Customer Reviews

Gartner Peer Insights

Overall ratings for the IT VRM Solutions market. Accurate as of January 2024
UpGuard logo

RiskRecon

Gartner Peer Insights

Overall ratings for the IT VRM Solutions market. Accurate as of January 2024
5 stars
4.4, based on 160 reviews. Named a Representative Vendor in the 2022 Gartner Market Guide for IT VRM Solutions
Star rating
4.2, based on 61 reviews
Star rating
UpGuard logo

RiskRecon

Gartner Peer Insights

Overall ratings for the IT VRM Solutions market. Accurate as of January 2024
5 stars
4.4, based on 160 reviews. Named a Representative Vendor in the 2022 Gartner Market Guide for IT VRM Solutions
Star rating
4.2, based on 61 reviews
UpGuard logo
5 stars
4.4, based on 160 reviews. Named a Representative Vendor in the 2022 Gartner Market Guide for IT VRM Solutions
RiskRecon
4.2, based on 61 reviews

G2

Accurate as of March 2025
UpGuard logo

RiskRecon

G2

Accurate as of March 2025
5 stars
4.5, based on 383 reviews. Named a G2 Market Leader for Third Party & Supplier Risk Management Software.
Star rating
4.5, based on 2 reviews.
Star rating
UpGuard logo

RiskRecon

G2
Accurate as of March 2025
5 stars
4.5, based on 383 reviews. Named a G2 Market Leader for Third Party & Supplier Risk Management Software.
Star rating
4.5, based on 2 reviews.
UpGuard logo
5 stars
4.5, based on 383 reviews. Named a G2 Market Leader for Third Party & Supplier Risk Management Software.
RiskRecon
4.5, based on 2 reviews.

Glassdoor

Accurate as of January 2024
UpGuard logo

RiskRecon

Glassdoor

Accurate as of January 2024
5 stars
4.6
Star rating
3.8, based on 19 reviews.
Star rating
UpGuard logo

RiskRecon

Glassdoor
Accurate as of January 2024
5 stars
4.6
Star rating
3.8, based on 19 reviews.
UpGuard logo
5 stars
4.6
RiskRecon
3.8, based on 19 reviews.

Security rating

  • RiskRecon: Distils its assessment criteria into a simple score from 0-10 with letter breakdowns from A-F for corresponding ranges of scores.
  • UpGuard: Security rating scale of 0-950, ranked as A: 801-950, B: 601-800, C: 401-600, D: 201-400, F: 0-200. You can request your free security rating by clicking here.

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