What happened to Laika
Laika was an early entrant in GRC automation for SOC 2, founded in New York and operating as a platform-only vendor through the late 2010s and early 2020s alongside Vanta, Drata, and Secureframe. The platform supported automated evidence collection, control library mapping, policy templates, and Trust Posture dashboards in roughly the same shape as the rest of the category. In 2023, Laika merged with Pivot Point Security (a long-established information security audit and consulting firm) to form Thoropass. The merger was structured to combine Laika's GRC platform technology with Pivot Point Security's owned audit firm capability, creating the only major SOC 2 vendor that owns both the platform and the audit team in-house. The Laika brand was retired and existing customers were transitioned to Thoropass branding and contracts. Industry coverage of the merger is available in the original 2023 announcement and on the Thoropass site at thoropass.com.
What changed in the pricing model
The structural change was significant. Pre-merger Laika sold a platform subscription only, with audit firms partnered for the actual SOC 2 audit (similar to how Vanta, Drata, and Secureframe operate today). The platform-only pricing landed in the $15,000 to $40,000 range per year for mid-market SaaS, with the audit fee paid separately to a partnered CPA firm. Post-merger Thoropass operates a bundled audit-plus-platform model where the audit fee is included in the platform contract. The bundled pricing typically lands in the $20,000 to $60,000 range per year all-in. Total spend has therefore not changed dramatically, but the structure changed from two-vendor (platform plus audit firm) to one-vendor (Thoropass for both).
The buyer-side implication is that the auditor flexibility that defined the platform-only Laika model (you could switch audit firms without leaving the platform) is no longer present in Thoropass. The audit team is part of the same vendor, and switching auditors requires leaving Thoropass entirely. This is the largest operational risk with the contemporary Thoropass model and is described in detail on the Thoropass cost page.
For existing Laika customers
Existing Laika customers transitioned to Thoropass continue to receive support and pricing continuity through the existing contract term. The platform technology underlying Thoropass is largely the same Laika platform with Pivot Point Security audit team integration layered on top. The user interface and workflow are largely continuous; the primary difference is that the audit firm relationship is now part of the same vendor rather than a separately contracted partner.
The decision point for existing Laika customers is the renewal cycle. At renewal, Thoropass typically presents a multi-year quote that locks in the bundled-audit model at the contemporary pricing. Compare that quote against the alternatives: Vanta plus a separately contracted CPA firm, Drata plus a separately contracted CPA firm, or Sprinto plus a boutique CPA firm. For buyers who value vendor simplification and the workflow integration of the bundled-audit model, staying with Thoropass usually makes sense. For buyers who value auditor flexibility (e.g. wanting to move to a Big 4 firm at Series C as part of IPO preparation), migrating to a platform-only alternative is usually the right call.
For new buyers searching for Laika
New buyers searching for Laika should evaluate Thoropass as the contemporary product. The Laika brand is fully retired and there is no separately purchasable Laika product. The relevant pricing reference is the Thoropass cost page on this site, which walks through pricing by company size, the bundled-audit model, and the auditor lock-in trade-off in detail. The realistic alternatives to Thoropass for SOC 2 are Vanta, Drata, Secureframe for healthcare SaaS, Sprinto for budget-constrained sub-100-employee teams, Scrut Automation for multi-framework mid-market workloads, Scytale for AI-assist marketing positioning, and Strike Graph for the discrete tier model with bundled-audit middle tier.
The Pivot Point Security context
Pivot Point Security was a long-established information security audit and consulting firm with a reputation for technical depth in security assessments and SOC 2 audits. The firm operated independently for nearly two decades before the 2023 merger with Laika. The contemporary Thoropass audit team is largely composed of former Pivot Point Security audit professionals; the audit deliverable is recognised by enterprise procurement teams equivalently to reports from Schellman, A-LIGN, Coalfire, or other established firms. For buyers concerned about the credibility of a relatively young vendor, the Pivot Point Security audit heritage is the relevant continuity signal.
The merger combined two complementary capabilities (platform technology from Laika, audit firm depth from Pivot Point Security) and the resulting vendor is differentiated in the GRC platform category. Whether the bundled-audit model fits a particular buyer's situation is a separate question covered on the Thoropass cost page; the credibility question of whether Thoropass can deliver a recognised SOC 2 audit is settled by the Pivot Point Security audit team continuity.
Concrete next steps for Laika-related searches
If you are an existing Laika customer evaluating renewal, read the Thoropass cost page for the contemporary pricing structure and the auditor lock-in trade-off. Compare that quote against the platform-only alternatives at your scale. If you are a new buyer who landed on Laika through search, start with the Thoropass cost page and the broader platforms comparison page, and use the audit firms guide to understand the separate-vendor alternatives for the audit side of the programme. The historical Laika brand association does not affect the contemporary buying decision; the decision is between Thoropass (bundled audit) and the platform-only alternatives (Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, Sprinto, Scrut, Scytale, Strike Graph) plus a separately contracted CPA firm.