Introducing the HackerOne Bug Bounty Maturity Framework: A Guide to Operational Excellence
"What should we be doing? Are we running a good program?"
Bug bounty program managers ask questions like these all the time. A strong program isn’t just scope and rewards. It’s the day-to-day operations that build researcher trust and deliver consistent internal value.
Without a shared baseline, teams keep reinventing the basics, researchers face inconsistent expectations across programs, and it’s harder to justify operational investments internally.
Until now, there hasn’t been a shared framework for what “good” looks like in practice.
The HackerOne Bug Bounty Program Maturity Framework is designed to give teams a shared baseline for what “good” looks like, along with a practical roadmap to reduce friction, drive deeper researcher engagement, and demonstrate clearer risk-reduction impact internally.
Built with Input from Researchers and Security Leaders
At HackerOne, we run two parallel advisory boards, bringing them together for shared experiences focused on insights, networking, and holistic ecosystem feedback.
- Hacker Advisory Board: experienced security researchers who share what earns their attention, what keeps them engaged, and what breaks trust in program operations.
- Technical Advisory Board: customer security leaders who pressure-test what strong operations look like inside real-world constraints like policy, resourcing, and risk.
Throughout 2025, we collected feedback from these two advisory boards. We asked researchers what makes a program worth investing time in and what causes them to disengage. We asked customers what they wish they had known earlier about building a program that scales.
The patterns were consistent: programs succeed when they communicate clearly, handle reports predictably, follow through on commitments, and make it easy for researchers to do high-quality work.
That’s the “why” behind this framework. Researcher engagement and customer outcomes reinforce each other. When researchers trust how a program runs, they engage more deeply, and customers get a better signal and faster risk reduction.
What’s Included in the Bug Bounty Maturity Framework
The Bug Bounty Maturity Framework organizes over 60 practices across three maturity tiers and four operational categories.
Tiers
| Maturity Tier | What It Means | Why It Matters |
| Baseline | Foundations for program health. The operational fundamentals that many security researchers expect before they invest deeply in a program. | Establishes trust and predictability, encouraging researchers to participate and submit high-quality reports. |
| Competitive | Practices that earn repeat engagement. Habits that reduce friction, build trust, and make it easier for experienced researchers to prioritize your program. | Increases repeat participation and improves signal through stronger researcher engagement. |
| Exemplary | Advanced practices for mature programs. Aspirational investments some teams choose to make as programs grow. These are recognized and celebrated, but not expected. | Differentiates top programs and supports long-term scale and resilience as the program grows. |
Categories
- Communication & Transparency
- General Best Practices
- Policy Page & Program Setup
- Report Handling
How to Use the Framework in Your Context
This framework is guidance, and there’s no expectation that every team adopts every practice all at once.
It’s also normal to be in different places across categories. A program might be Competitive in communication but still be building Baseline strength in report handling.
Additionally, context matters. Regulatory requirements and internal policies vary across organizations. If you can’t implement a practice exactly as written, focus on its intent and adapt it to your environment.
Use it as a roadmap: start where you are, choose what matters most for your program, and build from there.
How to Put the Framework into Action
We encourage bug bounty program managers to:
- Reflect on your program and where it stands today. Where are you strong? Where do you want to grow in the next quarter? The next year?
- Talk to your Customer Success Manager if you’re a HackerOne customer. They can help you identify gaps and prioritize improvements based on your goals and constraints.
Better programs benefit everyone. Researchers get clearer expectations and better experiences, customers get more engagement and higher quality results, and the industry moves forward together. HackerOne is committed to revisiting, revising, and improving the framework as the ecosystem evolves.
