Independent physical security assessments in California generally range from about $3,600 to $15,000 for a single facility, and up to roughly $50,000 for large or multi-site engagements, according to published figures from consultancies including SEVN-X and Silva Consultants. Where a given project lands depends on facility size, number of sites, complexity, and scope.
Those are market figures, not a Wittner Security Consultants rate card. What follows is what actually moves the number, so you can judge a quote rather than just receive one.
A physical security assessment is not a walk-through and a checklist. What you are buying is judgment: a structured evaluation of what could go wrong at your facility, how likely it is, what it would cost you, and what genuinely reduces the risk. The deliverable is a prioritized, defensible set of findings you can act on, take to a board, or put out to bid.
The price reflects the senior time that judgment takes: the on-site survey, sometimes at more than one hour of the day, the analysis behind the findings, and a written report clear enough to be useful to people who were not there.
Five things move an assessment's price more than anything else:
Physical-security-specific pricing is genuinely hard to find, because most search results conflate it with cybersecurity. The figures that do exist, from established independent consultancies, cluster like this:
Treat these as orientation, not a quote. They are other firms' published figures, cited so you have a reference point. Your actual price should be a fixed number, given to you in writing, before any work begins.
The lowest-priced, or free, assessment usually comes from a company that makes its money somewhere else: a guard firm that staffs officers, or an integrator that sells the equipment. The assessment is not the product. It is the sales call. It is genuinely free in the sense that the invoice arrives later, attached to a recommendation to buy what they happen to sell.
An independent assessment costs money precisely because the assessment is the product. Nobody is recouping it on the back end. That is also why an independent finding can conclude that your existing system is fine, or that the real fix is procedural and costs nothing, a conclusion a vendor is structurally unable to reach. The assessment itself frequently pays for itself in exactly this way.
Published market figures from independent consultancies run from roughly $3,600 to $15,000 for a single facility (SEVN-X), and up to about $50,000 for large or complex multi-site engagements (Silva Consultants). Those are market ranges for orientation, not one firm's rate card. Your price depends on facility size, number of sites, complexity, and scope, and should be fixed in writing before work begins.
Because "a physical security assessment" covers everything from a focused look at one building to a comprehensive review of a multi-site utility with regulatory obligations. Facility size, number of sites, complexity, and how thoroughly the deliverable must be documented are the biggest variables. A precise number requires scoping the specific job.
Be careful. A free assessment almost always comes from a company that earns its money selling guards or equipment, so the assessment functions as a sales call and tends to conclude that you need what that company sells. An independent paid assessment has no such incentive and can honestly tell you to do less. The fee buys objectivity.
For an independent assessment, typically: scoping, an on-site survey performed by the consultant personally, analysis of findings against real threat likelihood and consequence, and a written report with prioritized, costed recommendations, followed by a debrief. Confirm exactly what a given quote includes, because "assessment" is defined differently by different firms.
Tell Paul what you are protecting and what prompted the reading. He will tell you honestly what the work involves and whether he is the right person for it.