How much does SOC 2 certification cost?
Complete breakdown of SOC 2 costs including software, audit, and hidden fees. Learn how to budget for SOC 2 and avoid common pricing traps.
Trusted by 600+ companies from startups to enterprise
$30-150K
Traditional total cost (year 1)
3-6 months
Traditional timeline
Days
With Comp AI
Cost breakdown
What you'll actually pay for SOC 2
A complete breakdown of every cost category
| Category | Traditional | Comp AI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compliance software | $20,000 - $80,000/year | Included | Vanta, Drata, Secureframe charge based on company size and frameworks |
| SOC 2 audit | $10,000 - $50,000 | Included | Auditor fees vary by scope and complexity |
| Penetration test | $5,000 - $25,000 | Included | Required annually, often forgotten in budgets |
| Implementation/setup | $5,000 - $15,000 | Included | Professional services for initial setup |
| Security tools | $2,000 - $10,000/year | Varies | MDM, endpoint protection, SIEM (may still be needed) |
| Internal time | 200-500 hours | 20-50 hours | Staff time for implementation and maintenance |
Watch out
Hidden costs to watch for
What vendors don't tell you upfront
Integration fees
Some platforms charge extra to connect AWS, Azure, or specific tools
Included with Comp AI
Additional frameworks
ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR often cost extra per framework
Included with Comp AI
User seat fees
Per-user pricing adds up as your team grows
Included with Comp AI
Support tiers
Premium support often costs 20-30% more
Included with Comp AI
Annual renewals
Audit and pen test costs recur every year
Included with Comp AI
Remediation costs
Fixing failed controls can delay certification
Compare
Comp AI vs. competitors
See how we compare on price and features
| Feature | Comp AI | Vanta | Drata |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base software cost | Talk to us | $22,000-80,000/yr | $20,000-60,000/yr |
| Audit included | |||
| Pen test included | |||
| All frameworks included | |||
| Setup fees | $0 | $3,000-10,000 | $2,000-8,000 |
| Open source |
FAQ
SOC 2 cost FAQ
Common questions about SOC 2 pricing
A SOC 2 audit typically costs $10,000-$50,000 depending on your company size, scope, and auditor. With Comp AI, audit costs are bundled into your subscription.
Total first-year costs typically range from $30,000-$150,000+ when you add software, audit, pen test, and internal time. With Comp AI, we bundle everything into transparent pricing.
Yes. SOC 2 requires annual audits and continuous compliance monitoring. Traditional tools charge $20-80K/year plus audit fees. Comp AI includes renewals and audits.
Technically yes, but it takes 3-6x longer and requires significant manual effort. Most companies find that automation pays for itself in time savings.
Compliance that actually improves your security
Most platforms give you a checklist. We give you a security posture you can prove - continuously, automatically, and in the open.
- Evidence that's never stale
- Most platforms rely on manual screenshots and spreadsheets. By the time you collect evidence, something has already regressed. We pull evidence continuously from 500+ integrations - every config, every screenshot, every log - so your compliance posture reflects reality, not last quarter.
- Integration platform on GitHub
- Policies written for your business, not a template
- Other platforms hand you generic policy documents and call it done. We generate every policy from the context you provide during onboarding - your stack, your processes, your risk tolerance. No two customers get the same boilerplate.
- A device agent that never sleeps
- A checklist doesn't stop a misconfigured laptop at 2am. Our open-source device agent runs 24/7 on every employee machine - checking disk encryption, firewall status, screen lock, password length, and antivirus. Failures are flagged instantly, not discovered during the next audit cycle.
- Device agent on GitHub
- Automated tests you can write yourself
- Say "show me that SSL is active on my domain" and it generates an automated test that runs daily. Or give it browser instructions - "go to our GitHub repo, click settings, verify branch protection rules" - and AI opens a browser, verifies the control, and screenshots the result. Every evidence piece is auditable and logged.
- Trust portals that reflect reality
- Most trust centers are static marketing pages. Ours is live-monitored - only published policies appear, and only verified controls are shown. The moment a policy is marked as draft or a control fails, it's removed automatically. What your customers see is what you actually have.
- View ours
- Open source and verifiable
- Most compliance platforms are black boxes - you trust them because you have to. We're fully open source. Every agent, every integration, every check is auditable on GitHub. You don't take our word for it, you verify it.
- View the full source on GitHub
Don't let compliance slow down your pipeline
AI agents automate the busywork - evidence collection, monitoring, audit prep - so your team can focus on closing deals.