Schellman in the SOC 2 audit firm market
Schellman is the largest single-firm provider of SOC 2 attestations in the United States by engagement volume, with hundreds of audits delivered per year across SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, HIPAA, HITRUST, PCI DSS, FedRAMP, and StateRAMP. The firm is headquartered in Tampa, Florida with offices nationwide and in Europe and Asia, and operates as a mid-tier CPA firm specialising in IT audit and information security attestation. The volume creates depth in industry specialisation (SaaS, fintech, healthcare, federal-adjacent), multi-framework engagement efficiency, and process maturity that boutique firms cannot match. The firm's positioning is described on the Schellman site at schellman.com and discussed in customer commentary on G2 and similar review platforms.
The dominant brand position in the mid-tier SOC 2 audit market matters for two reasons. First, enterprise procurement teams reviewing vendor SOC 2 reports recognise the Schellman attestation by default and rarely push back on the firm's credibility. Second, the firm's engagement volume means the audit team has likely seen your industry, your tech stack, and your control implementation patterns before, which materially reduces the auditor education time during fieldwork. Both factors are real value drivers that justify the mid-tier price premium over boutique alternatives.
Pricing by scope, with realistic ranges
Schellman SOC 2 audit fees scale on three dimensions: report type (Type 1 vs Type 2), criteria count (Security alone, or Security plus Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, or Privacy), and company complexity (number of systems in scope, evidence quality, control implementation maturity). The table below presents realistic engagement fees triangulated from public buyer disclosures and aggregated buyer data on Vendr.
| Engagement Scope | Typical Fee Range |
|---|---|
| SOC 2 Type 1, Security only | $12K-$20K |
| SOC 2 Type 2, Security only | $18K-$30K |
| SOC 2 Type 2, Security + Availability | $22K-$36K |
| SOC 2 Type 2, Security + 2 add-on criteria | $28K-$42K |
| SOC 2 Type 2 + ISO 27001 combined | $32K-$50K |
| SOC 2 Type 2 + HIPAA combined | $32K-$48K |
| Multi-framework (3+) bundle | $45K-$80K+ |
Three concrete engagement scenarios
Scenario A: 60-employee Series A SaaS, SOC 2 Type 2 Security only
A 60-employee Series A B2B SaaS pursuing SOC 2 Type 2 on Security only typically receives a Schellman quote in the $20,000 to $26,000 range. The same engagement at a boutique firm (Linford & Co, Johanson Group, Prescient Assurance) would land $10,000 to $18,000, a meaningful price gap. The Schellman premium is justified when the buyer's enterprise prospects specifically value the brand recognition or when the buyer plans to add ISO 27001, HIPAA, or other frameworks within 12 to 18 months and wants the multi-framework efficiency of staying with one firm.
Scenario B: 150-employee Series B SaaS, SOC 2 Type 2 plus ISO 27001 combined
A 150-employee Series B SaaS pursuing SOC 2 Type 2 plus ISO 27001 in a combined engagement typically receives a Schellman quote in the $35,000 to $48,000 range. The combined-engagement efficiency on the Schellman side reduces the total fee by 20 to 35 percent versus running the two audits separately, because the control overlap (60 to 70 percent per the existing SOC 2 vs ISO 27001 page) means most evidence and most fieldwork can be reused across both frameworks. This is the scenario where Schellman is most defensible against boutique alternatives that may lack ISO 27001 certification and require a separate firm for the second framework.
Scenario C: 400-employee Series C SaaS, three-framework bundle
A 400-employee Series C SaaS pursuing SOC 2 Type 2 plus ISO 27001 plus HIPAA in a combined engagement typically receives a Schellman quote in the $55,000 to $80,000 range. At this scale, Schellman is competing with Big 4 firms (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) on the upper end and other mid-tier firms (A-LIGN, Coalfire, BDO) on the lower end. The Schellman engagement partner brings multi-framework experience that materially reduces the buyer's GRC manager workload during fieldwork; the cost premium versus a three-separate-boutique-firm approach is typically $15,000 to $30,000 and is usually justified by the simplification of one engagement timeline and one report-issuance cycle.
Where Schellman wins versus boutique and Big 4
Schellman wins versus boutique alternatives when the buyer is multi-framework today or planning to be within 18 months and the multi-framework efficiency justifies the price premium, when the buyer's enterprise prospects specifically value the mid-tier brand recognition over boutique anonymity, or when the buyer values the engagement partner's prior experience with similar tech stacks and industries. Schellman wins versus Big 4 alternatives when the buyer does not need the Big 4 brand premium for IPO preparation or for specific regulated industries, and the price gap (typically 50 to 100 percent) is not justified.
Schellman does not win when the buyer is genuinely budget-constrained and the boutique alternatives are sufficient (a Series A startup pursuing SOC 2 Type 2 on Security only does not typically need the Schellman brand premium), when the buyer is on an IPO track and Big 4 brand value matters more than the mid-tier price, or when the buyer is in a federal-adjacent niche where Coalfire has deeper FedRAMP/StateRAMP capability that Schellman matches but does not lead on.
Negotiation playbook
Schellman's volume gives the engagement partners more flexibility on terms than smaller firms can match. Three levers reliably move pricing. First, multi-year engagement contracts (3-year commitments) typically yield 12 to 18 percent discount versus single-year quotes in exchange for predictable revenue. Second, multi-framework bundles negotiated upfront cost materially less than serial framework additions; consolidating SOC 2 plus ISO 27001 or SOC 2 plus HIPAA into one engagement is the cleanest single move. Third, Q2 or Q3 scheduling (avoiding the Q4 year-end financial audit season when Schellman audit teams are stretched) gives the engagement partner room to negotiate. Bringing competing quotes from A-LIGN, Coalfire, BDO, Moss Adams, or boutique alternatives increases the discount room measurably. Vendr aggregated buyer data suggests 10 to 20 percent typical discount when a credible competing bid is on the table.