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FAQ · 25 questions

Cyber range and security training FAQ

Short answer

Short answers to the questions security leaders ask most when choosing training: which type fits, what the platforms publish about price, which ones start free, and how this site matches them. Each answer links to the page that goes deeper. Facts come from vendor pages read on 27 September or 11 October 2026.

By The Range Desk · Cyber Range Compare · Published 2026-10-11 · Updated 2026-10-13

Desk research from public vendor, standards and regulator pages read on 27 September, 11 October and 13 October 2026. Profiles follow our published method; we did not run the products.

Training types

What is a cyber range used for?

A cyber range lets a SOC or incident response team practise detecting and responding to a live simulated attack together, usually on real security tools. It is the closest training gets to a real incident for technical staff.

Read more: Cyber range

What is the difference between a cyber range and hands-on labs?

A range trains a team under a live attack; labs train one person on one skill at a time. Labs are shorter, cheaper and self-paced; ranges test coordination and tooling.

Read more: Hands-on lab libraries

What is a crisis simulation?

An exercise for the people who make decisions in an incident, in which the scenario changes as it runs: new information arrives, simulated stakeholders push back and, on some platforms, the adversary reacts to each decision.

Read more: Tabletop and crisis simulation

Is a tabletop exercise still worth running?

Yes, if it leads to fixes. A discussion-based tabletop tests whether people know their roles and authority. Its weakness is preparation time and how rarely it runs; platforms that generate scenarios make it easier to run more often.

Read more: Tabletop and crisis simulation

Is awareness training enough for compliance?

It covers the requirement that staff are trained on threats such as phishing. It does not show that your response team has exercised its incident response plan, which is a separate expectation in most frameworks.

Read more: Awareness training

Which training type should we buy first?

The one that matches the gap your last incident or audit exposed. Technical misses point to labs or a range; slow decisions and confused escalation point to a crisis exercise; clicks and unreported phishing point to awareness training. The finder turns that into a recommendation.

Read more: Training type finder

Prices and free options

Which training platforms publish prices?

Of the twelve platforms here, Conducttr publishes a full licence list (£11,950 to £25,725 a year), Hack The Box publishes its Professional plan ($2,500 per seat per year), and KnowBe4 publishes awareness prices from $1.63 to $3.75 per seat per month on a 3-year term. TryHackMe lists business plans at $99 and $199 per month, though we could not confirm whether that is per user. The others do not publish prices on the pages we read.

Read more: Platform fact grid

Can a team start hands-on labs for free?

Yes. TryHackMe has a free individual tier, HTB Academy has a free start, and Hack The Box's Lite business plan lists a 14-day free trial.

Read more: Hands-on lab libraries

Are there free tabletop exercises?

Yes. CISA publishes over 100 free tabletop exercise packages, and KnowBe4's free October 2026 awareness kit includes four tabletop exercise documents. Both are material you run yourself.

Read more: Tabletop and crisis simulation

How much does a cyber range cost?

None of the platforms here that sell a team range publishes its price, so expect a quote. Ask what is included: number of team exercises, seats, whether the range can use your own tools, and reporting.

Read more: Cyber range

What does a consultant-run tabletop cost compared with a platform?

Consultant prices are not published on the pages we read. TryHackMe states its tabletop exercises are 56% more affordable than the average consultancy tabletop; that is the vendor's own figure.

Read more: TryHackMe

What should a proof of concept include?

Real people from the team you want to train, one scenario or lab path that matches your gap, a fixed time box, and an agreed test of what the output must show, such as an after-action report your auditors would accept.

Read more: Reading a training vendor's price page

The platforms

Which platforms sell both labs and a cyber range?

Cloud Range, Cyberbit and Immersive Labs sell hands-on labs and a cyber range without a condition. Hack The Box and TryHackMe sell labs and list simulators or range access with conditions.

Read more: Cyber range

Is Reflex Security a cyber range?

No. Reflex Security sells crisis simulation: it builds a crisis from your environment and runs an adversary that reacts to each decision, for technical, legal and executive teams. Technical players can query simulated logs in its Investigation Console, but it has no lab library or range.

Read more: Reflex Security

What does Immersive Labs cover?

Labs, cyber drills, a live-fire range on the customer's own tools, and crisis simulation, all on Immersive One. It is the only platform here selling the first three types without a condition. It does not publish prices.

Read more: Immersive Labs

Is Cyberbit's crisis simulation sold separately?

No. Cyberbit states Crisis Sim 360 is only offered as an add-on to a Cyberbit Readiness plan.

Read more: Cyberbit

What is Hack The Box Crisis Control?

Hack The Box's platform-led tabletop: scenario waves, injects, emails, news and social updates, optional hands-on investigation, and a Golden Report at the end. Its price is not published.

Read more: Hack The Box

Who is iluminr for?

Boards, executives, crisis and risk teams, with short microsimulations and evidence mapped to regulations such as DORA, ISO 22301 and APRA CPS 230. It has no technical labs.

Read more: iluminr

What makes Conducttr different?

It is built for designing and running your own crisis exercises, simulates news and social media around the players, and publishes a full price list.

Read more: Conducttr

Where does KnowBe4 fit?

Awareness training and simulated phishing for every employee, with published per-seat prices. It is not incident response training and sells no range, labs or crisis simulation platform.

Read more: KnowBe4

What does Cloud Range offer?

Live-fire attack simulations across IT, OT/ICS, cloud and hybrid environments on a replica of your network with licensed SOC tools, 1,500+ hands-on labs and team exercises, and simulation-supported tabletop exercises. It does not publish prices.

Read more: Cloud Range

Is SimSpace still a training range?

SimSpace builds an environment and runs an attack against your team, your tools or your AI agents, but its pages now centre on validating AI agents under the name AI Proving Grounds. Labs and crisis exercises are not described.

Read more: SimSpace

How this site works

How does the finder decide?

Each answer adds points to the training types it makes more relevant. Platforms that sell a picked type then get points for selling it and for matching your constraints, with budget checks counted double. All rules are published.

Read more: How the matching works

Why are there no scores?

Because the right training depends on who you train and why. A score would hide the constraint that matters, such as whether a platform has a range at all.

Read more: /how-the-matching-works#ordering

Did you test the platforms?

No. Every fact comes from public vendor pages read on 27 September or 11 October 2026. Vendor figures are labelled as vendor statements.

Read more: /how-the-matching-works#limits