How we source SOC 2 cost figures
The cost ranges on this site triangulate three independent input streams: (a) the AICPA standards that define what a SOC 2 audit measures, (b) public CPA audit-firm and GRC platform pricing material, and (c) named-source practitioner write-ups in the SOC 2 community. Specific figures on specific pages are not anchored to a single named publisher; the bands are the cross-source spread.
Prices verified: May 2026
Primary sources
The AICPA defines the standard. CPA firms execute the audit. GRC platforms automate the control evidence. Practitioners report the close prices. Each tier of source informs a different cost component.
- AICPA Trust Services Criteria (TSC 2017, revised 2022)
The authoritative criteria set that every SOC 2 audit reports against. Source for the five Trust Services Criteria taxonomy (Security as Common Criteria, plus optional Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, and Privacy), the control points each criterion expects, and the boundaries of what is in and out of scope.
aicpa-cima.com / topic / audit-assurance - AICPA SSAE 18 (AT-C 105 + AT-C 205)
Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 18. AT-C 105 (concepts common to all attestation engagements) and AT-C 205 (examination engagements) are the standards under which SOC 2 examinations are conducted. Source for the structure of Type 1 (design at a point in time) vs Type 2 (design and operating effectiveness over a period) reports.
us.aicpa.org / research / standards / ssae - AICPA SOC 2 Description Criteria (DC 200)
Description criteria for a description of a service organization's system in a SOC 2 examination. Drives the structure of Section 3 of every SOC 2 report and shapes the scoping work that determines how many TSC and how many control points end up in the audit, which is the single largest driver of audit-fee variance.
aicpa-cima.com / soc-suite-of-services - Public CPA-firm audit-fee schedules and quote-page disclosures
Audit firms that publish indicative SOC 2 fee bands on their public pricing or services pages. Frequently-cited firms across the SOC 2 community include Schellman, A-LIGN, Coalfire, Prescient Assurance, BARR Advisory, Insight Assurance, and Sensiba San Filippo. Specific per-firm figures are not cited on this site; the tier bands (boutique / mid-tier / Big 4) reflect the cross-firm spread.
AICPA SOC service organization peer-review register - GRC platform public pricing pages
Public pricing tier descriptions and listing-price ranges for Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, Sprinto, Scytale, Thoropass, and Comp AI. Where a vendor does not publish a tier price, the band reflects publicly-disclosed contract values from G2, TrustRadius, and customer write-ups in the SaaS-finance community.
vendor public pricing pages + G2 / TrustRadius - Published practitioner write-ups
SaaS-startup CFO and security-engineering posts on Reddit r/cybersecurity, r/cscareerquestions, the Compliance Connection Slack, and the GRC Engineering community. Used as a reality-check on whether vendor list pricing reflects deal-close pricing for Series A / B / C SaaS buyers.
practitioner community write-ups
In scope for the bands
- +Published CPA audit-firm tier bands (boutique / mid-tier / Big 4)
- +Published GRC platform tier bands (starter / growth / enterprise)
- +Trust Services Criteria scope-multiplier math for Type 1 and Type 2
- +Internal staff-hour loaded cost calculations using BLS / GMaaS midpoints
- +Type 1 / Type 2 fee-scaling ratios from cross-firm community write-ups
- +Year-2+ maintenance cost trajectory and renewal-audit discount math
Out of scope
- -Negotiated enterprise audit-fee schedules (not public; varies per engagement)
- -GRC platform contract values for named customers (covered by NDA)
- -Audit-firm partner billing rates (covered by engagement letter)
- -Big 4 SOC 2 fee scales for Fortune 500 clients (multi-million-dollar engagements outside cost-range scope)
- -Compliance-as-a-managed-service fully-outsourced pricing (deferred to consultant-cost surface)
- -Industry-specific regulatory layers (HIPAA, PCI DSS, FedRAMP) - covered by sister sites in the network
Calculation framework
Six framework rules drive every cost band on the site. Where a page-specific figure deviates from the rule, the deviation is documented on the page itself.
CPA audit-firm fees are bucketed into three tiers: boutique (Type 2 fee $7.5K-$20K, sub-50-employee SaaS, Security-only scope), mid-tier ($15K-$40K, Series A to mid-market, often Security + Availability), and Big 4 ($40K-$100K+, enterprise, often Security + Availability + Confidentiality and sometimes more). The tier labels reflect the firm's audit-practice size and SOC 2 case-load, not any quality assessment. Tier bands triangulate from public quote-page disclosures, AICPA peer-review reports, and the practitioner spread; specific per-firm prices are not cited because audit fees are negotiated per engagement.
Type 1 (point-in-time design) fees typically run 50-65% of the same firm's Type 2 (period-of-operation) fee for the same scope. Type 2 fees scale with the observation-period length: 3-month observation is rare and ~80% of 12-month fee; 6-month observation is the common entry point; 12-month observation is the steady-state. The two-step path (Type 1 then Type 2) costs more than going straight to Type 2 because both reports incur the firm's setup and walkthrough work.
Security (Common Criteria, ~60-80 control points) is the base scope. Each additional criterion adds $5K-$20K to the audit fee depending on how the firm prices criteria. Availability adds disaster-recovery and uptime control points (~10-15 additional controls). Confidentiality adds data-classification and encryption-in-transit controls. Processing Integrity is uncommon outside specific industries (financial data services, healthcare claims processing). Privacy is the most expensive add-on because it overlaps with GDPR / CCPA control work.
Platform list prices are anchored to employee count, integration count, and multi-framework support. Sub-50-employee SaaS buyers typically land in the $6K-$15K/year band (Sprinto, Secureframe starter); Series A-B mid-market in $15K-$30K/year (Drata, Vanta starter); enterprise in $30K-$60K+/year (Vanta enterprise, Drata enterprise, multi-framework bundles). Multi-year contracts and prepay typically discount 10-20% off list.
Year 1 internal staff hours range 100-300+ for platform-led implementations and 400-600+ for DIY. The loaded-cost multiplier is 1.3x the gross salary (employer NI / FICA, benefits, equipment). At a mid-market security-engineering blended rate of $80-$120/hr loaded, 200 internal hours is $16K-$24K; 500 hours is $40K-$60K. The staff-hour cost is the largest single hidden cost in DIY paths and is the reason DIY is rarely the cheapest TCO.
Year 2 maintenance falls to $15K-$40K because the Type 2 renewal audit is typically 15-25% cheaper than the initial audit, the GRC platform fee continues annually (often with a 5-10% annual uplift), and internal staff time drops to ~80-150 hours per year for evidence collection, quarterly access reviews, and policy review cycles. Penetration testing remains an annual cost ($5K-$20K) and is reported separately on penetrationtestingcost.com.
Refresh cadence
Pricing bands and audit-fee figures are re-verified against the public sources above on the first business week of every month. The verification date is held in a single constant (LAST_VERIFIED_DATE) imported by every page on the site, so the footer text, the Article schema dateModified field, and visible date labels all read from one source. Date drift across pages is structurally impossible.
Out-of-cycle refresh triggers:
- A GRC platform announces a public pricing change (Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, Sprinto, Scytale, Thoropass).
- The AICPA publishes a revision to the Trust Services Criteria or to AT-C 105 / AT-C 205.
- A major audit firm publishes a revised SOC 2 fee schedule.
- A named-source practitioner write-up reports a deal-close price that falls outside the current band.
- A correction is filed via the form below and is verified against an underlying source.
Limitations
Calculator outputs on this site are estimates, not quotes. The published bands reflect the typical SaaS-startup-to-mid-market SOC 2 engagement; companies outside that profile (Fortune 500 enterprises, highly-regulated industries, complex multi-product portfolios) routinely fall outside the bands and should treat the site as a directional reference only.
Audit-firm fees are negotiated per engagement. Tier bands triangulate from cross-firm public material and community write-ups but cannot predict the specific quote a specific firm will produce for a specific company. Always request quotes from at least three firms before committing.
GRC platform list prices drift between vendor pricing-page updates. The bands reflect the most-recent monthly verification; a vendor that changes its pricing mid-month will show as drift until the next verification cycle.
Internal staff time is the highest-variance component of the total cost. Companies with strong existing security controls (SSO, EDR, change management, vendor risk programs already in place) consistently land at the low end of the staff-time band; companies starting from scratch land at or above the high end.
Corrections process
Spotted a band that does not match your recent SOC 2 quote, your audit invoice, or a vendor pricing page? Email [email protected] with the figure and the source. Verified corrections are reflected within five business days. We do not publish customer-confidential figures; if the correction is based on an NDA-protected number, please direct us to the public-source equivalent.
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