Independent Resource · Updated July 2026

SOC 2 Compliance Cost in 2026

Half of a SOC 2 budget has a published price and half does not. The GRC platforms list real numbers on AWS Marketplace; no CPA firm on earth publishes an audit fee. This site shows you exactly which is which, cites the published half, and models the rest openly rather than inventing it.

Cheapest platform listed

$7,500

Published, up to 100 employees

CPA audit fee

No firm publishes one

Quoted per engagement

Timeline

4-15 months

Start to report issuance

Platform figure is an AWS Marketplace list price per 12-month contract, checked July 2026. See every published dimension.

Interactive Budget Builder

Company Size

Report Type

Approach

Cost Component	Low	Typical	High	Type
GRC automation platform	$10K	$18K	$40K	Annual
CPA audit fees (Type 2)	$12K	$25K	$60K	Annual
Readiness assessment	$3K	$6K	$12K	One-time
Security tooling upgrades	$5K	$15K	$50K	One-time
Penetration testing	$5K	$12K	$20K	Annual
Internal staff time (~100 hours)	$6K	$9K	$12K	One-time
Policy and legal documentation	$2K	$4K	$7K	One-time
Employee security training	$1K	$3K	$5K	Annual
Year 1 Total	$43K	$91K	$206K

This is our model, not a quote and not a published rate. It applies the assumptions set out on the methodology page to the inputs you chose above. The audit lines in particular are our own planning assumptions: no CPA firm publishes a SOC 2 rate card, so replace them with real quotes as soon as you have them. The platform line can be anchored to the prices vendors actually publish on AWS Marketplace.

What has a price, and what has a quote

This is the distinction that decides whether a number you read anywhere about SOC 2 is worth anything. Some of these components have real published prices you can check in a browser. Others have none, and never will, because of how they are sold.

Published, and checkable

Seven GRC platforms publish list-price dimensions on AWS Marketplace. Secureframe and Sprinto each list a platform fee of $7,500 for up to 100 employees. Drata lists $25,000 at a 100-FTE capacity plus $7,500 flat per framework. Vanta lists Essentials from $14,000 for 1-20 employees. Strike Graph publishes a full rate card with Scale at $18,000.

Those are real, public facts, and they are the anchor for the largest checkable line in your budget. They are also scoped to different employee bands, so they are not interchangeable.

Every published dimension, with its band

Quoted, with no rate card anywhere

No CPA firm publishes SOC 2 fees. Not Schellman, not A-LIGN, not Coalfire, not Linford & Co, not Johanson Group, not Prescient Assurance, not one. A SOC 2 examination is an attestation engagement scoped per client and fixed in an engagement letter.

So any fee table attributed to a named audit firm is a number that firm never published. What you can know is what drives the quote, and every driver is something you decide before you ask for one.

What actually sets an audit quote

Full cost breakdown

Every component of a SOC 2 programme. The platform row carries a published price. The rest are our own planning model, not published rates, and the methodology page sets out exactly how each is built and what it assumes.

Component	Planning figure	Basis	What drives it up	Frequency
GRC automation platform	from $7,500/yr	Published	Employee band, framework count, add-on modules. Compare published prices	Annual
CPA audit fee (Type 1)	Quoted per engagement	No rate card	Boundary, criteria count, evidence readiness. Auditor guide	One-time
CPA audit fee (Type 2)	Quoted per engagement	No rate card	Observation window, sample sizes, exceptions found. Type 1 vs 2	Annual
Readiness assessment	$3K-$30K	Our model	Systems in scope, team size, consultant vs self-directed	One-time
Security tooling upgrades	$5K-$50K	Our model	EDR, SIEM, vulnerability scanning, SSO, DLP gaps	One-time
Penetration testing	$5K-$20K	Our model	Scope, app complexity, provider tier. Full pricing guide	Annual
Internal staff time	$20K-$150K	Our model	Hours worked against a loaded hourly rate. Usually the largest line	One-time
Policy and legal work	$2K-$10K	Our model	Custom policies vs templates, legal review requirements	One-time
Employee training	$1K-$5K	Our model	Headcount, training platform choice, custom vs off-the-shelf	Annual

Published figure is an AWS Marketplace list price per 12-month contract, checked July 2026, and is a floor rather than a quote. Rows marked as our model are this site's own planning ranges, built the way the methodology page describes. They are not published rates and no vendor or firm has stated them.

Three approaches to SOC 2

Every path gets you the same report, because the report is defined by an AICPA standard rather than by how you prepared for it. The difference is cost, timeline, and how much of the work lands on your own team. The figures below are our model.

DIY / Manual

$40K-$80K+

Lowest out-of-pocket cost, but the evidence collection, spreadsheet tracking and policy writing all land on your team. High risk of audit delay from disorganised evidence.

Best for: Teams with existing security expertise and spare capacity

Automation Platform

$25K-$60K

Best total cost for most companies. The platform line is the one part of this you can check before you buy: published prices start at $7,500 a year.

Best for: Most B2B SaaS companies (20-500 employees)

Full-Service Consultant

$60K-$150K+

Hands-off. A consultant runs the process from gap analysis through audit. Highest cost, least internal disruption. Best when security expertise is limited.

Best for: Companies with no internal security team

Our model, covering the full programme including the audit and internal staff time. See the methodology for how these are built.

Full approach comparison with decision framework

The costs vendors do not mention

Every compliance vendor quotes you their own line item. Here is what sits outside it. These are our model, not published figures.

$20K-$150K

Engineering opportunity cost

Engineering time pulled from product work, priced at a loaded hourly rate. Often the single largest line in the whole programme and the one most budgets leave out entirely.

3-12 months

Sales cycle delays

Every quarter without a report is a quarter of enterprise deals that stall. Whether that is expensive depends entirely on your deal sizes, so put your own numbers on it rather than ours.

$5K-$50K

Security tool upgrades

Your auditor will expect EDR, log management, vulnerability scanning and SSO. If you do not already run them they are not optional, and platform pricing does not include them.

$2K-$10K

Policy and legal work

Information security policies, acceptable use, incident response plans, vendor management. Templates help, but legal review of your specific versions is real work.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does SOC 2 compliance cost?

A SOC 2 programme has two big lines and they behave differently. The GRC platform is software with a real published price: several vendors list prices on AWS Marketplace, from $7,500 a year for a platform scoped to 100 employees up to $25,000 for the most expensive listed at that band, plus a framework line. The audit is a CPA engagement with no published price at all, quoted against your scope. So half the budget can be looked up and half cannot. The budget builder on this page models a full programme from your own inputs; it is our model, not a quote, and its assumptions are set out on the methodology page.

How much does a SOC 2 audit cost?

There is no published answer, and any site that gives you a confident one is giving you a number no firm ever published. A SOC 2 examination is an attestation engagement performed under AICPA standards, scoped and priced per client and fixed in an engagement letter. No CPA firm publishes a rate card. What you can know is what moves the fee: your system boundary, which Trust Services Criteria are in scope, Type 1 or Type 2, the length of the observation window, how many systems and locations are involved, and how ready your evidence is. Those are all things you control before you ask. Put one written scope in front of three firms and compare what each quote includes.

What is the cheapest way to get SOC 2 certified?

The lowest out-of-pocket path is doing the evidence work yourself and paying only the audit fee, but that trades cash for a large amount of engineering time, which is the cost most budgets miss. A GRC platform buys most of that time back, and unlike the audit it has a checkable price: the cheapest platform dimensions published on AWS Marketplace start at $7,500 a year. Whether that trade is worth it depends on what your engineers' time is worth and how much spare capacity you have, which is what the budget builder on this page is for.

Is SOC 2 Type 1 worth it or should I skip to Type 2?

If you have a deal blocked today and the prospect will accept Type 1, it is a useful interim step. But Type 1 then Type 2 means paying for two examinations, and each carries the firm's setup and walkthrough work, so the two-step path costs more in total than going straight to Type 2. Most companies should skip Type 1 unless they need a quick proof of compliance while working toward Type 2.

How long does SOC 2 take?

Total timeline from start to report is 4 to 15 months. Readiness takes 1 to 6 months, the Type 2 observation period is 3 to 12 months, audit fieldwork is 2 to 5 weeks, and report issuance is 2 to 6 weeks. Companies with existing security controls and a GRC platform can compress the readiness phase significantly.

Do I need all five Trust Services Criteria?

No. Security, the Common Criteria, is the only mandatory one. The other four (Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, Privacy) are optional. Most B2B SaaS companies only need Security. Add Availability if you have uptime SLAs, Privacy if you handle personal data under regimes like GDPR or CCPA, and Confidentiality if you handle classified customer data. Each additional criterion adds control points and testing hours, so each one adds to the audit fee, but how much is a matter for your firm's quote rather than a published rate.

What are the hidden costs of SOC 2?

The ones vendors rarely mention are engineering time pulled from product work, sales cycles that stall while you wait for the report, security tooling your auditor will expect that you may not already own, and legal review of your policies. Engineering time is usually the largest and the most often left out entirely. The budget builder on this page models these from your own inputs so they land in the number rather than surprising you later.

Is Vanta or Drata better for SOC 2?

On price, the published listings do not let you compare them directly, because they are scoped to different bands: Vanta's cheapest package covers 1-20 employees at $14,000 and is worded as a starting cost, while Drata's platform fee covers a 100-FTE organisation at $25,000 plus $7,500 flat per framework. Where Drata can be compared, against Secureframe and Sprinto at the same 100-employee band, its published figures are the highest of the three on both lines. Drata's flat per-framework fee is the most legible pricing in the category and genuinely useful for a multi-framework roadmap. On product quality this site takes no view, because the places that claim to rank these platforms are review aggregators and we do not launder them.

SOC2ComplianceCost.com is an independent resource. We are not affiliated with the AICPA, any audit firm, or any compliance automation vendor. Platform prices are vendors' own published marketplace list prices, checked on the date shown. Everything else is our model, and our model is not a quote. Always get quotes from multiple auditors and vendors for your specific scope.