HM awards
Reserved for validated medium and high findings. High and critical share the top severity weight in the current payout logic.
PricingBuilt like a visible ledger
Simple, transparent pricing for security contests.
You pay a flat 10% platform fee. Researcher, QA, and judge rewards stay in separate pools, and any unused high and medium reward budget goes back to the client instead of being kept by the platform.
Platform fee: 10%Separate pools for findings, QA, and judgesUnused high/medium budget goes back to the clientPricing shown clearly up front
PoolHow the money is segmented
A $100,000 contest pool should be clearly divided, not shown as one total.
Zerantiq splits the pool into separate parts for HM findings, QA rewards, and judge compensation. That makes it clear where the money goes and keeps review incentives out of the main findings budget.
$100kreference pool
HM awards93.14%
QA awards3.86%
Judge awards3.00%
$93,140
QA awards
Split separately across valid submissions to reward report quality and coverage.
Judge awards
Distributed in proportion to judging workload so review effort is not hidden inside the HM pool.
FeeFlat platform fee
One flat 10% fee. No pricing tiers.
Zerantiq charges one flat 10% platform fee across contests. The goal is simple quoting: one percentage, one closeout rule, and no separate bands for different contest sizes.
Platform fee
10%
Every contest uses the same flat 10% platform fee. There are no pricing tiers to decode or negotiate.
Calculated on
Awarded value
The fee is applied to the amount actually awarded at closeout, not to unused high and medium budget.
Quoting model
One rule
A smaller contest and a larger contest follow the same fee rule, which makes pricing simple to explain.
OutcomeWhat the client pays
The closeout price moves with awarded value, not with wasted budget.
The reference model uses a 10% platform fee on awarded value and returns unused HM funds to the client. That means low-finding contests stay fair instead of becoming expensive empty shells.
Full HM pool awarded
$110,000
$10,000 feeClient pays the full $100,000 awarded pool plus the platform fee.
No HM findings
$7,546
$686 feeOnly QA and judge awards are paid, and the unused $93,140 HM budget is returned.
Partial HM findings
$62,546
$5,686 feeA $50,000 HM allocation plus QA and judge awards yields a lower total client outlay.
CoverageWhat the fee includes
What the 10% platform fee covers.
The reward pool is for researchers and judges. The platform fee covers the operating work needed to run the contest cleanly from setup to closeout.
The fee pays for the work around the contest, not the reward pool itself.
Clients are paying for structured contest setup, reviewer workflow, payout administration, and clear final reporting. That keeps the invoice understandable and the reward pool reserved for participants.
Scope setupContest configuration
OperationsJudging and review
OutputsReporting and closeout
FAQCommon pricing questions
The rules are simpler when each dollar has a job.
Do you keep unused prize-pool funds?
No. The documented pricing policy is to return unused HM budget to the client. The reporting layer already tracks unallocated value separately so closeout is visible.
What does the 10% platform fee cover?
The fee covers contest setup, researcher workflow, structured judging, reporting, and the execution infrastructure behind the editor and test runs.
How are duplicate findings handled?
Duplicate medium and high findings share the HM pool through weighted discovery logic instead of pushing the entire amount to a single report.
What happens if no high or medium findings are found?
Only the non-HM awards that are actually due are paid, and the unused high and medium budget is returned to the client under the pricing policy shown on this page.
ReadyTo price a contest?
Launch with a flat fee you can explain and a payout model clients can trust.
Zerantiq is built to make security contest pricing legible to founders, finance teams, judges, and researchers at the same time.
Platform fee: 10%Separate pools for findings, QA, and judgesUnused high/medium budget goes back to the client