The Bootstrapped Founder's Guide to SOC 2: What It Actually Costs, Takes, and Whether It's Worth It

SOC 2 costs between $40K and $120K+ in the first year for a startup with fewer than 50 employees using the traditional path — once you include the engineering time most vendors conveniently leave out of their estimates. That range depends on whether you do the preparation yourself, hire a consultant, or use an AI agent. If you've been blocked by an enterprise prospect's security questionnaire and you're trying to figure out what SOC 2 actually involves, keep reading.

Why you're reading this

Someone sent you a security questionnaire. Or your champion at a target account said "we need SOC 2 before legal will approve the deal." Maybe your biggest prospect has a vendor risk management policy that requires SOC 2 reports from all SaaS vendors.

So you Googled it. And everything is confusing.

One Reddit thread says SOC 2 costs $15K. Another says $60K. Someone says "avoid it at all costs." A Vanta sales rep told you it takes 6 weeks. A consultant told you 6 months. A friend at another startup said they did it in 3 months but their CTO didn't write code for the entire time.

Most SOC 2 content online is written by companies selling you something. Audit firms, GRC platforms, consultants. They all have different incentives and none of them give you the full picture.

What follows is based on interviews with boutique SOC 2 audit firms, Reddit threads from founders who actually went through it, and our own experience building compliance tooling. We'll tell you when SOC 2 isn't worth it, too.

What SOC 2 actually is (it's not a certification)

SOC 2 is not a certification. You don't "get certified." What you get is an auditor's opinion on whether your security controls are designed properly (Type I) or working consistently over time (Type II). The report is issued by a licensed CPA firm, and it covers one or more Trust Services Criteria: Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy.

For most B2B SaaS startups, you only need Security. Don't add Availability or Confidentiality unless a specific contract requires it. Every additional criterion adds scope and cost. Start with the minimum.

The auditor examines your controls and your evidence. Controls are the rules you've set up (e.g., "all production changes require a pull request review"). Evidence is the proof those rules actually work (e.g., screenshots of GitHub branch protection settings, a sample of merged PRs showing approvals). The auditor writes a report documenting what they found. Enterprise buyers use that report to decide whether they trust you with their data.

How much does SOC 2 actually cost?

Every founder asks this first. Here's what we found from auditors, managed service providers, and founders who've been through it.

Line-item cost breakdown

Component	Cost Range	Notes
Audit fee	$8,000-$15,000	Boutique firm, Security TSC only, <50 employees
Compliance platform	$10,000-$20,000/year	Vanta, Drata, or similar GRC software
Consulting / vCISO	$24,000-$60,000/year	$2K-$5K/month; most first-timers need one
Penetration test	~$10,000/year	Often deferred to Type II
Security tooling	$2,000-$8,000/year	MFA, endpoint protection, security training
Engineering time	60-100 hours ($9K-$15K at $150/hr)	The single biggest hidden cost (10-20 hrs / $1.5K-$3K with AI agent)

The first five items are straightforward. The last one is where most founders get surprised.

The hidden cost: engineering time

Every Reddit thread about SOC 2 includes some version of this comment: "You have to do it in house, it takes a long time and many man hours." GRC software shows you gaps. It does not close them. Someone on your team still has to enable CloudTrail in all regions, configure branch protection rules, set up endpoint management, write incident response procedures, and dozens of other tasks.

For a first-time audit at a startup without dedicated security staff, expect your CTO or a senior engineer to lose 2-4 months of product work. That's the cost nobody puts in the budget. At $150/hr, even the DIY path burns $22,500-$37,500 in engineering time alone — because without a consultant, your team is Googling every requirement, writing every policy from scratch, and figuring out remediation on their own. A consultant cuts that to 60-100 hours. An AI agent that already understands your codebase cuts it to 10-20.

Total first-year cost by path

Path	Software	Consulting	Audit	Pen Test	Internal Team	Total Year 1	Savings
DIY with GRC platform	$10,000-$20,000	$0	$8,000-$15,000	Deferred	150-250 hrs ($22,500-$37,500 at $150/hr)	$40,500-$72,500	—
Platform + consultant	$10,000-$20,000	$24,000-$60,000	$8,000-$15,000	~$10,000	60-100 hrs ($9,000-$15,000 at $150/hr)	$61,000-$120,000	—
AI agent (Screenata)	$499/month (~$6,000/year)	$0	$8,000-$15,000	Deferred	10-20 hrs ($1,500-$3,000 at $150/hr)	$15,500-$24,000	62-80%

The savings column compares each path to the AI agent path. With Screenata, you save 62-80% compared to DIY and the platform + consultant path — mostly because the AI eliminates the engineering time sink that makes SOC 2 so expensive for small teams.

These numbers are for a sub-50-person SaaS company, Security TSC only, Type I first. If you're adding Availability, processing regulated health data, or going straight to Type II, add 30-50% to every number.

We wrote a separate piece on the full cost breakdown with edge cases if you want the deep dive.

The three paths to SOC 2 readiness

There are three realistic ways to get SOC 2 ready as a small team.

Path 1: DIY with GRC software

Buy Vanta or Drata ($10K+/year). Connect your cloud accounts. Follow the dashboard. Fix what it tells you to fix.

This works if someone on your team already understands compliance vocabulary. The integrations are good, the infrastructure monitoring is solid, and you get continuous monitoring for Type II later. But the tool assumes you know what you're doing. Policy templates are generic. The dashboard shows gaps but doesn't explain how to close them.

A managed service provider told us: "We get a lot of customers that bought Vanta or Drata 3-6 months previously. They typically haven't made the progress they want." Many founders buy the platform, connect a few integrations, get overwhelmed by the control list, and stall for months. The tool is good. It's just a tool, not a guide.

Path 2: Software + consultant or vCISO

Buy a GRC platform ($10K-$20K/year), then hire a consultant ($2K-$5K/month) or vCISO ($5K-$15K/month) to guide you through it.

This is the path with the highest success rate for first-timers. Someone experienced handles scoping, policy writing, evidence planning, and auditor coordination. You don't need to learn compliance vocabulary yourself.

The downside is cost. Most of the work is repeatable and template-driven, yet you're paying for custom human time. One 17-year audit veteran told us bluntly: "Many vCISOs are using an LLM and a control template they've pulled from a GRC tool. You can do that yourself."

An experienced auditor estimated that 50-70% of small companies use external consultants or vCISOs for compliance. That number is high partly because DIY has a high failure rate without compliance expertise.

Path 3: AI agent

A newer category. AI agents scan your infrastructure, generate policies based on what you actually do, produce your risk assessment, and package everything your auditor needs. Instead of a dashboard showing you a list of gaps, the agent produces the actual deliverables.

The upside: lowest cost, fastest prep time, and policies generated from your real infrastructure configuration rather than generic templates. No compliance expertise required. The downside: it's a newer category with less market validation, and it may not handle edge cases like HIPAA overlap or complex multi-product scoping. Best suited for standard B2B SaaS, single product, AWS/GCP, fewer than 50 people, Security TSC only.

For most bootstrapped teams, Path 3 or a hybrid of Paths 1 and 3 makes the most sense. Use the AI agent to produce the deliverables, then optionally add Vanta or Drata for continuous monitoring during Type II.

Should you start with Type I or Type II?

Start with Type I. Almost always.

Type I asks: are your controls designed correctly? The auditor reviews your documentation at a single point in time. Typical prep: 1-3 months.

Type II asks: did your controls work consistently over time? The auditor reviews evidence collected over a 3-12 month observation window (6 months recommended for a first Type II). You need to actually run your controls consistently for months before anyone audits them.

Why Type I first? Most enterprise buyers accept it while you work toward Type II, so it unblocks the deal today. It's cheaper. It's fundamentally document-driven: you produce 7 core documents, the auditor reviews them, done. And your Type I policies carry over to Type II, so you're not throwing away work.

Think of it as a minimum viable SOC 2: Type I, Security TSC only, one product, reputable boutique auditor. Expand scope only when a specific deal or contract requires it.

What does your auditor actually need?

For a Type I audit, your auditor needs 7 deliverables. That's it. Here's the list:

#	Deliverable	What it is
1	Security policies (8-17 documents)	Written, approved, matching your actual operations
2	Risk assessment	Risk register with minimum ~6 risks including fraud, plus treatment plans
3	System description	AICPA-format document covering your company, product, infrastructure, people, and commitments
4	Network diagram	Timestamped architecture diagram showing the system boundary
5	Control matrix	Every control mapped to evidence: applicable (with proof) or N/A (with rationale)
6	Vulnerability scan report	Commercial tool output with severity breakdown and remediation tickets
7	Board meeting minutes	Minutes showing cybersecurity discussion, attendee names, attested

An auditor at a startup-focused firm put it plainly: "Type 1 audit is more of a policy-based audit. Until we have all the policies in place, the risk assessment completed, system description completed, a timestamped network diagram, a vulnerability scan report, we wouldn't be able to begin with control testing."

Produce these 7 in good shape, and your auditor can begin.

The policy trap

Every auditor we spoke with cited the same #1 problem: policy-to-reality mismatch. You download a template, customize it minimally, and commit to things you don't actually do.

Your policy says "monthly access reviews." You do them quarterly. Your policy says "encrypted at rest with AES-256." Your staging database isn't encrypted. Your policy says "background checks for all employees." Contractors are excluded.

The auditor catches these. They have to. Each mismatch either forces a last-minute scramble (change your operations to match the policy, or rewrite the policy to match your operations) or results in an exception on the report.

The fix feels wrong but works: write policies that describe what you actually do, not what you aspire to do. If you review access quarterly, say quarterly. If contractors aren't background-checked, say "employees only." Auditors don't penalize honest policies. They penalize policies that don't match evidence.

Choosing an auditor

Your auditor choice matters more than your software choice. Enterprise vendor risk teams maintain approved auditor lists and will reject reports from firms they don't recognize.

Tier	Examples	Audit cost	Who trusts them
Enterprise	PwC, EY, Deloitte, KPMG	$80,000-$200,000+	Everyone
Specialized	Schellman, A-LIGN, Coalfire, BARR	$30,000-$80,000	Enterprise vendor risk teams
Startup-focused	Prescient Assurance, Johanson Group, boutiques	$10,000-$30,000	SMBs and startups

For a bootstrapped team, the startup-focused tier is where you want to be. $10K-$20K for a reputable firm with AICPA peer review and experience auditing SaaS companies your size.

One thing that catches founders off guard: your auditor cannot help you prepare. AICPA independence standards require that the firm auditing you is different from the firm advising you. They can answer clarifying questions, but they cannot write your policies, produce your risk assessment, or tell you how to structure your evidence. Firms that offer "all-in-one" prep and audit are violating independence rules, and their reports can be challenged. That's why you need a separate preparation path in addition to your auditor.

We'll publish a full guide to choosing a SOC 2 auditor with red flags to watch for.

Is SOC 2 worth it?

Depends on your market.

If you have a $50K+ ARR contract waiting on SOC 2, the math is obvious. Even at the high end of $120K+ for the traditional path, that pays for itself within a couple of years — and with an AI agent, you're looking at under $25K total, a 62-80% savings. One founder reported that getting SOC 2 eliminated 75% of inbound security questionnaires. Another said it cut their sales cycle by 3-4 weeks because the security review was effectively pre-done. If you're selling to mid-market or enterprise B2B, SOC 2 is table stakes. If you're planning an exit, acquirers pay a premium for companies with clean compliance postures, and it directly affects valuation multiples.

But if your buyers don't ask for it, skip it. Selling to SMBs, freelancers, or consumers? Nobody is checking your SOC 2 status. Pre-product-market-fit? Compliance is a distraction. "Skip until $10M ARR" is valid advice for companies whose buyers don't require it. And if you don't have basic security hygiene yet (MFA everywhere, separate environments, code review process), getting SOC 2 means rebuilding your infrastructure first. Fix the basics, then pursue the audit.

The decision is really one question: is there a specific deal or market requirement that demands SOC 2? If yes, do it. If no, invest that money in product instead.

What the AI-first path actually looks like

We covered AI agents as Path 3 above, but it's worth explaining how the workflow actually works in practice, since the category is new enough that most founders haven't seen it.

Traditional GRC platforms connect to your infrastructure via APIs and show you a checklist of gaps. You still need someone to close those gaps: write the policies, produce the risk assessment, create the system description, map controls to evidence. AI agents skip the checklist and produce the deliverables directly.

The workflow at Screenata:

Connect your cloud accounts (AWS, GCP, Azure) and code repositories (GitHub, GitLab)
Answer a guided questionnaire about your company, product, and operations
The agent scans your infrastructure, identifies your actual security posture, and generates all 7 audit deliverables
Review the output, make adjustments, and send it to your auditor

The scanning approach also solves the policy-truth problem from the section above. If your GitHub has branch protection enabled, the policy says so, with the scan evidence attached. If your AWS doesn't have CloudTrail in all regions, the policy doesn't claim it does. Every claim gets tagged: verified (confirmed by API scan), attested (you told the system), or missing (a gap you need to fix before the audit).

What to do on Monday

1. Confirm a deal requires SOC 2

Don't pursue SOC 2 on speculation. Name the specific enterprise deal or market requirement driving this. If you can't name one, reconsider whether now is the right time.

2. Scope it to the minimum

Type I. Security TSC only. One product. Do not add scope unless a contract specifically requires it.

3. Choose an auditor

Start here, not with software. Your auditor's requirements determine what you need to produce. Look for AICPA peer review (check the AICPA website), experience with SaaS companies your size, and pricing in the $10K-$20K range. Ask for a scoping call. A good auditor will tell you exactly what they need.

4. Choose your preparation path

Your situation	Recommended path	Expected cost
Technical founder, some security knowledge	AI agent (Screenata)	See pricing
Non-technical founder, no compliance experience	AI agent + spot consulting	Screenata + $1,000-$2,000
Complex scope or regulated data	Consultant + GRC platform	$61,000-$120,000/year

5. Start

The biggest risk isn't choosing the wrong path. It's stalling. Every week you delay is a week that enterprise deal sits in limbo. Pick a path, produce the deliverables, hand them to your auditor, and iterate on their feedback.

SOC 2 is not glamorous work. It won't make your product better or your users happier. But for B2B SaaS selling to enterprises, it removes the gate that blocks revenue. Get it done, get back to building.

We built Screenata because we went through this ourselves. Connect your GitHub and AWS, answer 15 questions, get an audit-ready package. Try Screenata.

Explore our detailed guides on soc 2 for bootstrapped founders: