The Short Answer
SOC 2 compliance costs $20,000–$100,000 in the first year for most SaaS companies, depending on company size, how many gaps need fixing, and which audit firm you choose. Here's the 30-second summary:
The number most companies get wrong: They budget for the audit fee and forget everything else. Auditor fees are often less than half of total first-year SOC 2 spend. Remediation, tooling, internal team time, and pen testing are where the real costs live — and none of them appear on the auditor's invoice.
Every Cost Category, Broken Down
There are six distinct cost buckets in a SOC 2 program. Most companies only plan for two of them.
| Cost Category | Typical Range | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gap Assessment / Readiness | $0–$15,000 | Strongly recommended | Free if self-assessed (e.g. our tool), $5–15K if consultant-led. The single highest-leverage spend — identifies exactly what needs fixing before the auditor finds it. |
| Remediation | $5,000–$80,000+ | Yes — as needed | Implementing missing controls: security policies, MFA, logging, encryption, access reviews, vendor management. Highly variable — companies with strong existing security spend far less here. |
| Compliance Tooling | $0–$30,000/yr | Optional | Platforms like Vanta, Drata, Secureframe automate evidence collection. Not required but saves 150–300 hours of internal time. Manual alternative is possible with spreadsheets. |
| Type I Audit Fee | $7,000–$30,000 | Required | Point-in-time assessment of control design. Startup-focused CPA firms charge $7–15K; larger firms charge $20–30K+. Only licensed CPA firms can issue SOC 2 reports. |
| Type II Audit Fee | $12,000–$50,000 | Required for most enterprise sales | Tests operating effectiveness over 3–12 months. More expensive than Type I due to evidence review volume. Most enterprise customers require Type II, not Type I. |
| Penetration Test | $5,000–$20,000 | Expected by most auditors | Annual pen test is not technically required by SOC 2 but is expected as evidence of the Vulnerability Management control. Scope and cost vary significantly. |
| Internal Team Time | $15,000–$60,000 | Yes | 100–400 hours of engineering, security, and ops time at fully-loaded cost. Often the largest single cost and almost always underestimated. Does not appear on any vendor invoice. |
| Year 1 Total (typical) | $40,000–$100,000 | Audit-only companies at the low end; full compliance program with tooling at the high end | |
Type I vs Type II: What Each Costs
The most common question after "how much does SOC 2 cost?" is whether to get Type I or Type II first. The cost difference is real — but so is the strategic difference. For a full comparison of which to get and when, see our post on SOC 2 Type I vs Type II.
| Factor | SOC 2 Type I | SOC 2 Type II |
|---|---|---|
| Auditor fee | $7,000–$25,000 | $12,000–$50,000 |
| Minimum timeline | 45–90 days from gap assessment | 9–18 months total (observation period can't be skipped) |
| What it proves | Controls are correctly designed right now | Controls have operated consistently over time |
| Enterprise acceptance | Accepted temporarily; often followed by "when does your Type II start?" | Standard expectation for enterprise procurement |
| Best use case | Unblock an immediate deal while Type II observation period runs | Ongoing enterprise sales requirement |
| Annual renewal cost | N/A (usually get Type II after) | $12,000–$40,000/year (70–80% of first audit) |
The smart play: Get Type I to unblock immediate deals, then start your Type II observation period the same day. Don't pause between them — every day your observation period runs is a day you can't get back. Most enterprise customers will accept Type I temporarily but will ask for Type II within 6–12 months.
SOC 2 Cost by Company Size
Company size is the single biggest cost driver after security maturity. Here's what to expect at each stage:
Early Stage
- Type I audit: $7,000–$15,000
- Type II audit: $10,000–$20,000
- Tooling: $5,000–$15,000/yr
- Pen test: $5,000–$8,000
- Simple infrastructure, limited scope
Mid-Stage
- Type I audit: $12,000–$25,000
- Type II audit: $20,000–$40,000
- Tooling: $10,000–$25,000/yr
- Pen test: $8,000–$15,000
- Multiple systems, growing team
Late Stage
- Type I audit: $25,000–$60,000+
- Type II audit: $40,000–$100,000+
- Tooling: $20,000–$50,000/yr
- Pen test: $15,000–$30,000
- Multi-region, multiple TSC, Big 4
Find out where your gaps are before the auditor does
A free gap assessment tells you exactly what needs fixing — so you can budget for remediation accurately.
What Makes SOC 2 More Expensive
Two companies the same size can have wildly different SOC 2 costs. Here's what drives the variance:
Security maturity. This is the biggest variable of all. A company that already has MFA enforced, comprehensive logging, an incident response plan, and a vendor management process will spend a fraction of what a company starting from scratch pays in remediation. Security maturity reduces both remediation costs and auditor time — controls that are mature and well-documented are faster to test.
Number of Trust Services Criteria. Security is mandatory. Every additional TSC (Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, Privacy) adds scope to the audit and increases fees. Most SaaS startups begin with Security only. Adding Availability adds 15–25% to audit cost; adding all five roughly doubles it.
Infrastructure complexity. Each distinct system in scope multiplies auditor effort. A single-product SaaS on AWS is far simpler than a company with multiple products, a mix of cloud providers, on-premise infrastructure, and customer-facing APIs across multiple environments.
Auditor choice. This is the most controllable cost lever. Big 4 firms (Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, EY) charge a significant premium — often $60,000–$150,000+ for a Type II audit. Mid-tier national firms charge $20,000–$50,000. Startup-focused boutique firms charge $8,000–$25,000. For companies under 200 employees, the Big 4 are almost never the right choice — their reports aren't more credible to your customers, and you pay three to five times more for the same outcome.
Number of employee seats. Many compliance platforms and auditors price by headcount. A 10-person company pays meaningfully less than a 100-person company using the same tools and auditor.
Compliance Tooling: Do You Need It?
Compliance automation platforms like Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, and Sprinto integrate with your cloud infrastructure, automatically collect audit evidence, and guide you through control implementation. They cost $10,000–$30,000/year depending on your headcount and the platform.
You probably need tooling if: you don't have a dedicated compliance person, you're using multiple cloud services (AWS, GCP, Azure), you want to run continuous monitoring rather than point-in-time evidence collection, or you're planning to pursue multiple frameworks (SOC 2 + ISO 27001, SOC 2 + HIPAA).
You can likely skip tooling if: you have a small, simple infrastructure on a single cloud provider, you have an engineer or security person who can own evidence collection manually, and you're pursuing Security TSC only.
The math: If a compliance platform costs $15,000/year and saves your team 200 hours of manual evidence collection work, and your engineers cost $150/hour fully loaded — the platform pays for itself three times over in year one, before counting the reduction in auditor time from having clean, organized evidence.
Hidden Costs Nobody Tells You About
These are the cost categories that consistently blindside first-time SOC 2 programs:
Internal team time. A typical SOC 2 engagement consumes 200–400 hours of internal time: writing policies, implementing controls, gathering evidence, responding to auditor requests, and coordinating across teams. At a fully-loaded engineering cost of $150–200/hour, that's $30,000–$80,000 in labor cost that never appears on any invoice but is very real.
Remediation tooling. The gap assessment will identify controls you don't have. Implementing them often requires new software: an MDM solution ($5–15/user/month), a password manager if you don't have one, a SIEM or logging platform, a vulnerability scanner. These costs are ongoing, not one-time.
Legal review of security policies. Many organizations have a lawyer review their Information Security Policy, Privacy Policy, and vendor contracts as part of SOC 2 prep. Expect $3,000–$10,000 for a legal review of key documents.
Re-audit costs. If the auditor finds significant gaps mid-audit, you may need to remediate and re-run portions of the audit. This is avoidable with a solid readiness assessment upfront — and it's one of the most compelling reasons to run a gap assessment before engaging an auditor.
Productivity loss. SOC 2 is a company-wide project. The weeks leading up to an audit pull engineers, product, and ops away from their normal work. This is real cost that's nearly impossible to quantify but consistently underestimated by first-timers.
Annual Maintenance Costs
SOC 2 isn't a one-time cost. Enterprise customers expect a report dated within the last 12 months, which means an annual Type II audit cycle. Here's what ongoing maintenance typically costs:
| Annual Cost | Typical Range | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Type II audit | $12,000–$40,000 | 70–80% of initial audit cost once your controls are mature. Same auditor is typically cheaper in renewal years. | |
| Compliance platform | $5,000–$30,000 | Annual subscription. Prices increase with headcount. | |
| Annual penetration test | $5,000–$20,000 | Expected by auditors as evidence of vulnerability management. Required annually. | |
| Internal maintenance time | $10,000–$30,000 | 50–150 hours/year for evidence upkeep, policy updates, control monitoring, and audit prep. Lower than year one once systems are in place. | |
| Annual renewal total | $25,000–$80,000/yr | Significantly lower than year one. Most companies stabilize at $30–50K/year. | |
6 Ways to Reduce Your SOC 2 Costs
Run a gap assessment before engaging an auditor
The most expensive SOC 2 mistakes happen when companies engage an auditor before knowing their gaps. Auditors charge by the hour — finding gaps during the audit is far more expensive than finding them beforehand and fixing them. A free gap assessment tool takes minutes and pays for itself many times over. Start here.
Scope narrowly — Security TSC only to start
Every additional Trust Services Criterion (Availability, Confidentiality, etc.) adds auditor scope and cost. Start with Security only. Add other criteria in future audit cycles when customers specifically ask for them. Most companies find that Security-only satisfies 80–90% of enterprise procurement requirements.
Choose a startup-focused auditor, not a Big 4 firm
Big 4 firms charge a significant premium for SOC 2. For companies under 200 employees, a startup-focused boutique CPA firm produces a report that is equally credible to your customers at 30–60% of the cost. Ask your peers or compliance platform for auditor referrals — finding the right firm is worth the research time.
Use a compliance platform for evidence collection
Manual evidence collection — pulling logs, taking screenshots, tracking access reviews in spreadsheets — consumes hundreds of hours. Compliance platforms automate this for $10–30K/year. At a fully-loaded engineering cost of $150/hour, 200 hours of saved time is worth $30,000. For most teams the math favors tooling clearly.
Start before a deal forces your hand
The most expensive SOC 2 is an emergency SOC 2. When a deal demands it immediately, you're forced to hire expensive consultants, rush remediation, and discover gaps under pressure. Starting 12–18 months before you need the report lets you proceed methodically, remediate at your own pace, and choose better vendors at better prices.
Pursue SOC 2 and ISO 27001 in parallel
If you eventually need both SOC 2 and ISO 27001, pursuing them simultaneously with a shared evidence base reduces total work by 30–40% compared to doing them sequentially. The frameworks have 70–80% control overlap — you're doing most of the same work either way. Running them in parallel with the right tooling is significantly cheaper than two separate programs.
Before you budget for SOC 2, know your gaps
Our free tool maps your current controls against SOC 2 requirements in minutes — so you know exactly how much remediation work you're facing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does SOC 2 compliance cost?
SOC 2 compliance typically costs $20,000–$100,000 in the first year for most SaaS companies. This includes a gap assessment ($0–$15,000), remediation work ($5,000–$80,000+ depending on gaps), compliance tooling ($0–$30,000/year), Type I audit fees ($7,000–$25,000), and Type II audit fees ($12,000–$50,000). Internal team time — 200–400 hours — adds significant cost that never appears on any invoice. The biggest variable is your starting security posture: companies with strong existing security spend far less on remediation.
How much does a SOC 2 Type 1 audit cost?
A SOC 2 Type I audit fee is typically $7,000–$25,000 for a company with 10–100 employees, depending on infrastructure complexity, number of TSC in scope, and auditor choice. Startup-focused boutique firms charge $7–15K; mid-tier national firms charge $15–25K; Big 4 firms start at $40,000+. Audit fees do not include readiness, remediation, or tooling.
How much does a SOC 2 Type 2 audit cost?
A SOC 2 Type II audit fee is typically $12,000–$50,000 for most SaaS companies. Type II costs more than Type I because the auditor must review evidence across a 3–12 month observation period rather than a single point in time. Annual renewal audits are typically 70–80% of the initial Type II cost once your control environment is mature and well-documented.
Can I do SOC 2 without compliance tooling?
Yes — no law or standard requires you to use a compliance platform. Many companies complete SOC 2 using spreadsheets and manual evidence collection. The tradeoff is 200–400 hours of internal labor. Compliance platforms cost $10–30K/year but save that time. For teams without dedicated compliance staff or with complex infrastructure, the platforms usually pay for themselves. For small teams with simple infrastructure, manual is viable.
What is the cheapest way to get SOC 2?
The lowest-cost SOC 2 path: run a free gap assessment first, scope to Security TSC only, choose a startup-focused boutique CPA firm, handle evidence collection manually if your team can absorb the hours, and start with Type I to unblock deals while your Type II observation period runs. A lean startup with strong existing security can complete SOC 2 Type I for $15,000–$25,000 all-in. The worst-cost path is starting without a gap assessment, choosing the wrong auditor, and discovering major gaps mid-audit.
How much does SOC 2 cost per year after the first year?
Annual SOC 2 maintenance typically costs $25,000–$60,000/year. This includes the annual Type II audit renewal ($12,000–$40,000), compliance tooling subscription ($5,000–$30,000), annual penetration test ($5,000–$20,000), and internal team time for evidence upkeep (50–150 hours/year). Year two and beyond are significantly cheaper than year one once controls are implemented and evidence collection is running.