What do compliance platforms like Vanta and Drata cost in 2026?

Most do not publish prices. Vendr's anonymized transaction data puts Vanta and Drata at $12-25K a year for companies under 50 employees on one framework, Secureframe at $12-20K, Sprinto at a $15,000 median contract, and Scrut at a $7,250 median. Thoropass runs $20-40K with its own audit inside, and Oneleet lists a $24,000 all-in-one package. Screenata publishes $5,988 a year per framework with every module included.

Does it matter who picks the SOC 2 auditor?

It matters to the customer who reads the report. Some vendors sell the audit inside the platform price, and if you only need a report to clear a checkbox, that can be enough. A customer's security review is where it gets tested: in a bundle, the auditor is chosen and paid through the vendor whose software produced the evidence. Ask any vendor whether it also provides your auditor. With Screenata you choose and pay the firm directly, and the evidence is signed so the firm can verify it outside the platform.

How do I check SOC 2 audit quality before signing?

Choose the audit firm yourself and name it before you sign. Check that it is enrolled in the AICPA Peer Review Program, that its review is completed, and that the result is published. Ask what makes a low fee possible, and whether your auditor can verify the evidence without relying on the platform that produced it.

SOC 2 Total Cost 2026: Platform Prices Compared

Q: What does SOC 2 cost in year one?

For a company under 50 employees, a SOC 2 Type II in year one costs $37-45K run yourself in spreadsheets, $49-70K run yourself on Vanta or Drata, $42-178K on Vanta or Drata with a consultant or vCISO, and $22-33K with Screenata, with your team's time counted at $150/hr. The auditor fee is the same on every path: $7-15K for a Type II at a startup-focused firm. A Type I runs $29-34K, $41-59K, $34-67K, and $14-22K on the same paths.

The cheapest SOC 2 platform often produces the most expensive year one. A platform fee is one line of four: the auditor, the platform, any consultant, and the hours your team spends. For a company under 50 employees, a SOC 2 Type II costs $49-70K in year one on a Vanta- or Drata-class platform once that time is counted, and a report your buyer declines can add a second audit on top.

This guide lays out the full year-one cost by path, lists what 11 compliance platforms charge in 2026, and explains the costs a low sticker price hides.

What does SOC 2 cost in year one?

A SOC 2 Type II costs $22-178K in year one depending on how the work gets done. The auditor fee barely moves. The platform, the consultant, and your team's hours do.

The figures below cover year one to a Type II report for a company up to 50 employees and one legal entity, Security criteria only, an independent startup-focused CPA firm, penetration test excluded, with your team's time priced at $150/hr.

Path	Auditor	Platform	Consultant	Team time	Cash	With team time
Excel + DIY	$7-15K	$0	$0	~200 hrs	$7-15K	$37-45K
Vanta/Drata + DIY	$7-15K	$12-25K	$0	~200 hrs	$19-40K	$49-70K
Vanta/Drata + vCISO	$7-15K	$12-25K	$5-120K	~120 hrs	$24-160K	$42-178K
Screenata	$7-15K	$5,988	$0	60-80 hrs	$13-21K	$22-33K

For a Type I, which covers readiness and a point-in-time audit, the same paths run $29-34K, $41-59K, $34-67K, and $14-22K with team time counted.

The platform band is Vendr's transaction data for Vanta and Drata under 50 employees. The consultant band runs from Workstreet's published $5K readiness project to a $10K a month retainer for twelve months. Excel + DIY carries the same hours as Vanta/Drata + DIY, because your team collects, uploads, and follows up on the evidence either way. Team hours assume readiness is concentrated in one or two months, then a few hours a month through the observation window; they sit below Vanta's own State of Trust figure of about ten hours a week, so they understate the gap between paths.

What do compliance platforms charge in 2026?

Most compliance platforms do not publish a price. The table uses each vendor's own pricing page where one exists and Vendr's anonymized transaction data otherwise, fetched September 3, 2026. Vendr figures describe what companies paid, not a vendor list price.

Platform	Price published?	Year-one platform price	Who audits	Comparison
Screenata	Yes	$5,988/yr per framework, every module included	An independent firm you choose and pay
Vanta	No	$12-25K/yr, 1-50 employees, one framework; modules add $3-15K each (Vendr)	Your auditor, via Vanta's partner network	Screenata vs Vanta
Drata	No	$12-25K/yr under 50 employees; implementation packages $5-20K (Vendr)	Your auditor, via Drata's partner network	Screenata vs Drata
Secureframe	No	$12-20K/yr under 50 employees, one framework (Vendr)	Your auditor	Screenata vs Secureframe
Sprinto	No	Median contract $15,000/yr (Vendr)	Your auditor, via Sprinto's network	Screenata vs Sprinto
Scrut Automation	No	Median contract $7,250/yr, observed $5,160-27,050, flat across frameworks (Vendr)	Your auditor, via Scrut's network	Screenata vs Scrut
Thoropass	No	$20-40K/yr under 50 employees for a single SOC 2 Type II, audit inside (Vendr)	Thoropass's own CPA firm	Screenata vs Thoropass
Oneleet	No	$24,000/yr all-in-one package with a penetration test (Vendr observed list)	An external CPA firm through Oneleet's portal, at their price	Screenata vs Oneleet
Comp AI	No rate card	Free to self-host under AGPL; managed tier by quote	Bundled by default with a vendor-selected firm	Screenata vs Comp AI
Delve	No	Quote, demo-gated	Referred through Delve's network	Screenata vs Delve
Scytale	No	Quote; tiered bundles with advisory	Your auditor, via Scytale's network	Screenata vs Scytale

Each comparison page shows the full year-one breakdown for that vendor, including which modules cost extra and what your team still does by hand. The comparison index covers every vendor side by side.

Why can the cheapest platform cost more?

A low platform price moves cost into lines that do not appear on the invoice. Four of them decide whether year one is actually cheap.

Your team's time is the largest line

On the DIY path, about 200 hours of team time in year one comes to $30K at $150/hr, more than the platform and the auditor combined at the low end. A cheaper dashboard that leaves the same evidence collection, uploads, and follow-up to your engineers saves on the invoice and spends it on the roadmap. Dropping the platform does not fix it either: run in spreadsheets, the same year is $37-45K, because the licence goes and the hours stay. The question to ask of any platform is how many of those hours it removes, and which ones.

An auditor the platform chose

Some vendors sell the audit inside the platform price. That is legal and common, and if you need a report only to clear a checkbox, it can be enough. The report gets tested later, in a customer's security review. In a bundle, the firm attesting to your controls is chosen and paid through the vendor whose software produced your evidence, and in April 2026 the AICPA named bundled fee-setting and referral concentration as independence threats. So ask the question directly: does your platform vendor also provide your auditor?

Delve is the public example of how this goes wrong. In March 2026 it was publicly accused of producing fake evidence and steering customers to rubber-stamp auditors; it denies the compliance allegations, and Y Combinator parted ways with it in April.

A report your buyer declines

A SOC 2 report only has value if the buyer who asked for it accepts it. When an enterprise security team declines a report, the discovery usually comes inside their procurement process, about three months into a deal cycle. You then pay an independent firm for a second audit, $5-10K for a Type I or $7-15K for a Type II on top of the first, and that does not count the deal that waited.

Evidence that has to be redone

A Type II auditor samples evidence from any date in the observation window. Screenshots without a capture date, exports with no source, or evidence that cannot be traced to the control it supports get requested again during fieldwork. Each request pulls someone back into work they thought was finished, and a month-end scramble to rebuild a quarter of evidence is where DIY hours pile up.

How do you check audit quality before you sign?

Audit quality can be checked before you commit, and none of the checks depend on the price.

Choose the audit firm yourself, and get its name before you sign anything.
Look the firm up on the AICPA Public Firm File to confirm it is enrolled in the Peer Review Program.
Confirm its peer review is completed, and ask for the published result: pass, pass with deficiencies, or fail.
Ask what makes a low fee possible. A high-volume firm with standardized evidence can explain it in a sentence.
Ask whether your auditor can verify the evidence without taking the platform's word for it: capture dates, source systems, and a trace from each policy claim to the test that proves it.

Where does Screenata fit on cost?

Screenata is $5,988 a year per framework for a standard startup scope, typically up to 50 employees and one legal entity, with every module included and no per-seat fees. Screenata does not sell the audit or take referral fees from audit firms, so you choose the firm and pay it directly. Each additional framework is priced lower, because it reuses the first one's evidence, and larger programs are scoped individually.

The saving shows up in the hours line. Vera, Screenata's agent, runs the scheduled checks, collects evidence through APIs, screenshots, and guided procedures, and follows up with owners, so your team's part in year one is 60-80 hours of review, approvals, and attestations. Every artifact is dated, signed, and traceable to the control it supports, which is what lets any auditor verify it independently.

To see the numbers for your own report type and plan, use the SOC 2 cost calculator.

The Real Cost of SOC 2: Why the Cheapest Platform Isn't the Cheapest Program