Compliance cost guides: SOC 2 and ISO 27001 pricing explained
Short answer
Ten guides in three tracks: price basics, reading a pricing page, and buying and budgeting. Each is written from the vendor pricing pages in our census and from published standards, read on 2026-09-29.
Price basics
GUIDE 01 · 2025-06-10
What drives compliance automation pricing
The six inputs that decide a compliance automation quote, and which vendors publish anything about them.
3 MIN READ
GUIDE 02 · 2025-07-15
Platform fee vs audit fee: two bills for one SOC 2 report
Why the software subscription and the SOC 2 audit are separate costs, and how vendors connect them.
2 MIN READ
GUIDE 03 · 2025-08-19
SOC 2 Type I vs Type II: what changes in the budget
How the two SOC 2 report types differ, and why a Type II changes the length of what you pay for.
3 MIN READ
Reading a pricing page
GUIDE 04 · 2025-09-23
How to read a compliance plan tier
What the parts of a compliance automation plan card tell you, and what they leave out.
3 MIN READ
GUIDE 05 · 2025-10-28
Framework add-ons and cross-mapping: paying for the second framework
How vendors price additional frameworks, and why cross-mapping matters to the cost of the second one.
2 MIN READ
GUIDE 06 · 2025-11-18
Security questionnaire allowances explained
What an annual questionnaire allowance is, which vendors publish one, and how to size yours.
2 MIN READ
GUIDE 07 · 2026-01-06
Headcount caps and FTE bands
How company size enters a compliance quote, and the one published headcount cap in our census.
2 MIN READ
Buying and budgeting
GUIDE 08 · 2026-02-17
How to request comparable compliance quotes
A one-page scope to send every vendor so the quotes you get back can be compared line by line.
3 MIN READ
GUIDE 09 · 2026-09-29
Auditor independence and your budget
What to check about the CPA firm behind your SOC 2 report, and why it belongs in a cost decision.
3 MIN READ
GUIDE 10 · 2026-06-16
Where the penetration test sits in the budget
Which vendors bundle a pen test, what black box and gray box mean, and how to price one alongside a compliance platform.
2 MIN READ