It depends entirely on who's asking — and that answer frustrates a lot of security managers trying to build a business case. A cyber range can cost nothing if you're willing to build it yourself on AWS, or it can cost half a million dollars if you're running a federal defense contractor operation. Most teams sit somewhere in the middle, and that's exactly where this guide focuses.
Throughout my military service, budget conversations were constant — whether you were fighting for equipment in garrison or justifying training costs to a commander downrange. I bring that same no-nonsense lens to evaluating what security teams actually need to spend.
This tier is accessible to any team with basic cloud or virtualization skills. You're assembling the range yourself using open-source tools and cloud compute.
Best for: Individual practitioners, small IT teams building foundational skills, budget-constrained organizations that have the time to build and manage their own environment.
Real cost to watch: Staff time. A self-built range can consume 20–40 hours to stand up initially, plus ongoing maintenance. That hidden labor cost adds up fast.
This is where most 10–100 person security teams land. You're paying for managed infrastructure, pre-built scenarios, and vendor support — trading budget for time savings.
Best for: SOC teams, MSPs, and security programs that need structured training without the overhead of building and maintaining infrastructure in-house.
Real cost to watch: Per-seat pricing compounds quickly. A 25-person SOC at $600/seat/year is $15,000 — and vendors often charge separately for premium scenario packs.
These platforms replicate enterprise infrastructure at scale, support live-fire exercises with real malware in sandboxed environments, and often require dedicated staff to operate.
Best for: Defense contractors, federal agencies, large financial institutions, and critical infrastructure operators where regulatory requirements or mission criticality justify the spend.
Real cost to watch: Total cost of ownership is 2–3x the license cost when you factor in dedicated staff, hardware refresh cycles, and content development.
| Platform | Annual Cost (Est.) | Best Fit | Infrastructure |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY AWS Lab | $0–$500 | Individual / small team | Self-managed |
| TryHackMe Teams | $168/user | Training fundamentals | Fully managed |
| INE Security Teams | $3,500–$8,000 | Cert-focused teams | Fully managed |
| Cyberbit | $7,200–$20,000 | SOC teams / mid-market | Cloud SaaS |
| RangeForce | $10,000–$20,000 | Skills-gap programs | Cloud SaaS |
| Immersive Labs | $15,000–$40,000 | Workforce resilience | Cloud SaaS |
| SimSpace | $25,000+ | Enterprise / government | Cloud or on-prem |
| On-Premise Custom | $100,000–$500,000+ | Defense / critical infra | Self-managed |
Vendors rarely publish full pricing, and the sticker price is rarely the real price. Here's what actually determines what you pay:
Most SaaS platforms charge per user per year. A 10-person team at $600/seat is manageable. A 50-person team at the same rate is $30,000 — and many vendors bump unit pricing down only slightly at volume. Always get a quote for your exact headcount before budgeting.
Platforms with pre-built scenario libraries (ransomware response, phishing triage, insider threat detection) save significant staff time. Custom scenario development — building exercises specific to your environment — adds cost at every tier, either in vendor professional services fees or internal labor hours.
Cloud-managed platforms eliminate infrastructure overhead but introduce ongoing subscription dependency. Self-hosted or on-premise deployments have lower recurring costs after initial setup but require dedicated staff to maintain, patch, and operate. For most teams under 50 people, the math usually favors SaaS.
If your organization needs auditable training records for NIST 800-53, CMMC, or SOC 2 compliance, you need a platform that generates detailed logs and completion reports. Not all platforms do this equally well — and some charge extra for compliance-grade reporting exports.
For a 5–25 person security team with a realistic training budget, here's an honest framework:
The teams that waste money on cyber ranges are the ones that skip Year 1 and sign a $25,000 contract before they've built the internal discipline to actually use it. The platform isn't the hard part — blocking the time to train is.