3rdRisk vs.

BitSight

Scoring vs. Managing

BitSight is best known for its external security ratings, offering quantitative, data-driven insights into the cybersecurity posture of an organisation. It measures risk, benchmarks it against peers, and provides early warnings about emerging threats.

3rdRisk, on the other hand, transforms those insights into action. The platform does not simply score suppliers; it helps teams manage risk—assigning tasks, tracking remediation progress, and maintaining audit trails for accountability. This distinction marks the difference between understanding risk and operationalising its management.

Risk Visibility

BitSight continuously scans a company’s external digital footprint, detecting vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compromised systems. It provides an objective, outside-in view of cybersecurity health.

3rdRisk adds the missing internal dimension. It enriches cyber ratings with business context, such as contractual obligations, criticality of services, dependency mapping, and compliance status. This contextualisation allows organisations to prioritise actions where they matter most—on the suppliers and systems that truly affect business continuity and regulatory exposure.

Ratings

BitSight uses a numeric scoring model ranging from 250 to 900, indicating the level of cyber hygiene and security maturity of an organisation. These scores are derived from observed security events and are benchmarked across industries.

3rdRisk supports custom scoring frameworks across multiple domains—cybersecurity, compliance, ESG, financial, and operational risk. This flexibility allows organisations to tailor risk assessment models to their specific frameworks (e.g., DORA, ISO 27001, COSO, or internal control systems) and to aggregate scores into an overall third-party risk posture.

Contextual Management

BitSight identifies risk signals and flags issues for review. Its strength lies in speed and breadth of detection across millions of digital assets.

3rdRisk complements this with contextual management. The platform clarifies ownership (“who is responsible”), tracks progress (“what has been done”), and structures remediation plans (“what comes next”). This enables organisations to move seamlessly from detection to mitigation, supported by transparent workflows and audit-ready documentation.

Integration

3rdRisk integrates BitSight ratings natively within its risk management workflows. This integration allows cyber ratings to automatically trigger supplier reviews, risk escalations, or compliance checks. 3rdRisk also combines these external insights with other data sources—such as ESG ratings, financial health indicators, and sanctions screening results—to create a holistic supplier profile.

In essence, BitSight provides the external signal; 3rdRisk transforms it into operational intelligence.

Compliance Alignment

BitSight supports continuous monitoring of cyber risk but does not directly map to regulatory frameworks. It is a valuable input for compliance teams but not a complete compliance management tool.

3rdRisk bridges that gap. It is explicitly designed to align with European and international regulations, including DORA, NIS-2, the EBA Outsourcing Guidelines, GDPR, and LkSG. The platform provides built-in templates, assessment frameworks, and reporting capabilities that help compliance teams evidence readiness and meet audit requirements efficiently.

Collaboration

BitSight offers limited vendor interaction capabilities; suppliers can access their own scores through BitSight’s portal to review and improve their cyber posture, but collaboration remains largely one-directional.

3rdRisk takes a collaborative approach. It provides role-based dashboards and shared workspaces that connect risk, compliance, procurement, and IT teams with suppliers in real time. This fosters transparency, accountability, and joint problem-solving across the supply chain.

Platform Flexibility

BitSight is purpose-built for cyber visibility and does this exceptionally well. Its scope, however, is intentionally focused.

3rdRisk is highly customisable and modular. Organisations can extend the platform to new risk domains, design bespoke workflows, and automate assessment cycles. This adaptability makes it suitable for both mid-market and enterprise organisations that need to evolve their TPRM programmes over time.

Data and Automation

BitSight excels in large-scale, data-driven cybersecurity analytics. Its continuously updated datasets provide real-time insights into the security posture of hundreds of thousands of entities worldwide.

3rdRisk takes a multi-source approach. It pulls information from external data providers (including BitSight), internal assessments, financial data, sanctions lists, and ESG sources. It then automates risk reviews, alerts, and control testing—turning diverse inputs into actionable insights with minimal manual effort.