About ZeroTrustCost.com
An independent reference for the cost of zero-trust security architecture. Operated by Digital Signet, founded by Oliver Wakefield-Smith. Built so the budgeting question for ZTNA, SSE, microsegmentation, identity-aware proxy and zero-trust-rollout services can be answered without a vendor demo or a pitch deck.
Why we built it
Zero-trust security is one of the most marketed and least price-transparent categories in enterprise security. Each vendor frames the architecture around its own product, and the published pricing rarely includes the integration, identity-broker, and managed-rollout costs that move a $50k subscription to a $250k programme. Most top-ranking pages on the cost question are from vendors selling ZTNA software, integrators selling rollout services, or consultancies selling readiness assessments. This site exists to publish defensible cost ranges by vendor and rollout phase, surface the hidden-cost categories (identity-broker, network refactor, certificate-and-PKI overhead, MFA fatigue mitigation), and provide a calculator that takes operational inputs and returns a like-for-like figure across vendors.
Who runs this site
Oliver runs Digital Signet, an independent AI-development studio that builds data-led pricing and decision tools using public datasets. After 20 years as a solutions architect and tech lead across media, utilities, satellite, and data, he founded Digital Signet to apply autonomous AI development methodology to real software at scale.
Reach Oliver: [email protected]. Profile: LinkedIn.
About the studio
This site is operated by Digital Signet, an independent AI-development studio founded by Oliver Wakefield-Smith. It is part of a portfolio of consumer cost-reference and calculator sites we run as a live R&D lab for our Signet methodology, an autonomous AI development team that ships real software at scale.
Digital Signet does not sell ZTNA or SSE software, does not run a managed zero-trust rollout practice, does not act as a vendor reseller or integrator, and does not accept paid placements from any vendor in the zero-trust space. Editorial direction is set by Oliver. Drafts are produced via Digital Signet's autonomous AI development methodology and reviewed against the editorial framework before publication.
For consulting enquiries (fractional CTO, AI product strategy, autonomous-dev-team setup): see digitalsignet.com.
What we hold to
- Source pattern. Built on public reference material across the relevant publisher landscape.
- No paid placements. Does not sell ZTNA or SSE software, does not run a managed zero-trust rollout practice, does not act as a vendor reseller or integrator, and does not accept paid placements from any vendor in the zero-trust space. Independent of every named third party in the relevant space.
- Math is documented inline. Where the site has a calculator, inputs and assumptions are visible on the calculator page. Nothing is hidden behind opaque scoring.
- Update only when underlying reality changes. Triggers: Major vendor pricing-model change (e.g. per-user to per-protected-resource); New entrant publishing pricing materially below the existing band; Published analyst-quadrant repositioning that materially affects vendor tiers; NIST or CISA published guidance changes that affect rollout scope expectations.
Contact
For corrections, methodology questions, or scenarios that don't fit cleanly: [email protected].