--- question: "Should I budget the SOC 2 audit and remediation separately?" title: "Budget the SOC 2 Audit and Remediation Separately" seoTitle: "SOC 2 Remediation Cost vs Audit Cost: How to Budget" summary: "Yes. The audit is the small, predictable line: $5,000–$10,000 for a Type I or $7,000–$15,000 for a Type II at a startup-focused CPA firm, the same whichever way you prepare. Remediation, implementing the controls the auditor tests and proving they keep working, is the larger line and the one that varies. In a Type II year for a company under 50 employees, that work takes about 440 hours of team time in spreadsheets ($66,000 at $150/hr), about 200 on a Vanta- or Drata-class platform ($30,000), about 120 with a vCISO ($18,000, plus the consultant), and 60–80 with Screenata ($9,000–$12,000). Folding both into one number is how founders end up surprised by the total." publishedAt: "2026-09-15" updatedAt: "2026-09-15" keywords: - "SOC 2 remediation cost" - "SOC 2 budget" - "SOC 2 audit vs remediation" - "how to budget for SOC 2" - "SOC 2 hidden costs" - "SOC 2 implementation cost" pillar: "SOC 2 Cost and Budget" faqs: - question: "What is the difference between the SOC 2 audit and remediation?" answer: "The audit is an independent CPA firm testing your controls and issuing the report. Remediation is the work that makes the controls exist and hold: enforcing MFA, protecting branches, encrypting data at rest, testing a backup restore, removing access when people leave, and keeping dated evidence of each one. The audit fee is quoted up front. Remediation depends on how far your current setup is from the controls, and it lands in your team's hours." - question: "How much does SOC 2 remediation cost for a startup?" answer: "Most of it is team time. For a company under 50 employees, a Type II year takes about 440 hours in spreadsheets, about 200 on a Vanta- or Drata-class platform, about 120 with a consultant or vCISO, and 60–80 with Screenata, including fixing the controls. At $150/hr that is $66,000, $30,000, $18,000, and $9,000–$12,000, before the platform or consultant fee. The auditor fee on top is $7,000–$15,000 for a Type II on every path." - question: "What happens if remediation is rushed before the audit?" answer: "A report that looks complete can still fail the enterprise review it was bought for, when the buyer's security team reads it line by line and asks about a control the report covered lightly. If a customer only needs a report on file, that may never come up. When it does, the control has to be fixed and tested again while the deal waits. Budgeting the remediation separately keeps that work in front of the audit instead of behind it." --- ## Why Separate the Audit From Remediation? The two lines behave differently. The audit fee is a quote from a CPA firm, and at a startup-focused firm it lands in a narrow band: $5,000–$10,000 for a Type I and $7,000–$15,000 for a Type II. It barely moves whether you prepare in spreadsheets, on a platform, with a consultant, or with an agent. Remediation is the work the auditor tests. It covers every control in scope: MFA on admin accounts, branch protection and reviewed changes, encryption at rest, log retention, an incident response plan you have exercised, a backup restore you have actually run, offboarding inside the window your policy promises, and a review of the vendors that touch customer data. Its cost depends on the gap between your current setup and those controls, and it is paid mostly in your team's hours. A single budget line for "SOC 2" hides the part that varies inside the part that doesn't. ## What Does Each Line Cost? Year one to a SOC 2 Type II, up to 50 employees, one legal entity, Security criteria, an independent startup-focused CPA firm, penetration test excluded. Team time includes fixing the controls and is priced at $150/hr. | Line | Excel + DIY | Vanta/Drata + DIY | Vanta/Drata + vCISO | Screenata | |------|-------------|-------------------|---------------------|-----------| | Audit (Type II) | $7–15K | $7–15K | $7–15K | $7–15K | | Platform, one year | $0 | $12–25K | $12–25K | $5,988 | | Consultant or vCISO | $0 | $0 | $5–120K | $0 | | Team time, with remediation | ~440 hrs ($66K) | ~200 hrs ($30K) | ~120 hrs ($18K) | 60–80 hrs ($9–12K) | | **Year-one total** | **$73–81K** | **$49–70K** | **$42–178K** | **$22–33K** | The audit row is identical across the table. Everything that separates the paths is in the rows below it. Model your own report type and plan with the [SOC 2 cost calculator](/tools/soc-2-cost-calculator), and see how the platform lines compare vendor by vendor in [the real cost of SOC 2](/resources/blog/the-real-cost-of-soc-2-why-the-cheapest-platform-isnt-the-cheapest-program). ## What Happens When Both Are One Budget? The usual failure is a report bought against the audit budget alone. The fee is small, so the choice optimizes for the fee, and the remediation gets squeezed into whatever time is left before fieldwork. The report can still come back looking complete. The cost shows up later, inside a customer's procurement. An enterprise buyer's security team reads the report line by line, finds a control that was covered lightly, and asks for evidence that it works. Now the control has to be fixed and tested again while the deal waits, which is the most expensive moment to do work that was always going to be needed. If you are weighing a vendor that sells the audit inside its price, ask one question before you sign: does your platform vendor also provide your auditor? ## How Do You Keep Remediation From Growing? 1. **Scan before you scope.** Find the gaps against your actual cloud, code, and identity setup before you book an auditor, so the remediation budget is based on what you found rather than a guess. 2. **Scope to Security only** unless a customer contract requires Availability, Confidentiality, or Privacy. 3. **Count a control as done only when there is dated evidence that it works.** A setting that is on but undocumented gets requested again during fieldwork. 4. **Re-check on a schedule.** Settings drift during a Type II window, and a drifted control found by the auditor costs more than one found by you. 5. **Choose the auditor yourself**, and confirm its AICPA peer review is published. See [which SOC 2 auditor a startup should choose](/resources/answers/which-soc-2-auditor-should-a-startup-choose). ## Where Does Screenata Fit? Screenata cuts the remediation line rather than the audit line. Vera scans your cloud, code, and identity providers, writes the fix steps for each failing check, opens the ticket, and re-verifies after your engineer applies the change; the finding closes on its own once the nightly re-check passes. Evidence comes in through APIs, screenshots, and guided procedures, dated and signed so any auditor can verify it. Your team's part in a Type II year is 60–80 hours of applying fixes, approvals, and attestations. Screenata is $5,988 a year per framework for a standard startup scope, typically up to 50 employees and one legal entity. Screenata does not sell the audit, so the auditor fee stays its own line, paid directly to a firm you choose.