Last reviewed: July 2026. No vendor quotes you the whole number, because no vendor sells the whole number: the platform quotes the platform, the auditor quotes the audit, and nobody quotes your team's hours. All three lines are sales-gated or negotiated, which is why "SOC 2 cost" is genuinely hard to pin down - and why everything below is publicly reported or from procurement data, labeled as such, with the gaps stated plainly.
This guide is independent. GRC Migrate takes nothing from platform vendors or audit firms - no commissions, no partnerships. Our revenue comes from services partners, disclosed plainly.
The all-in stack
Line 1 - the platform. Entry configurations for a single framework at sub-50 employees are publicly reported around $10,000–12,000/yr on Vanta (some reports as low as ~$7,500) and roughly $7,500–15,000/yr on Drata Foundation; median actual buyers land at ~$20,000/yr (Vanta) and ~$25,000/yr (Drata) per procurement data. Line 2 - the audit. A SOC 2 Type 2 external audit is separate, and its cost is driven mainly by the tier of firm you engage - more than company size. We don't publish audit-cost figures yet; we won't cite numbers we can't source to a party with no stake in them. Line 3 - your team. The platform automates evidence collection, not judgment: policies, access reviews, and auditor interaction are internal hours no matter what you buy. We won't invent a dollar figure for that line - anyone who does is guessing with your budget.
Got a platform or audit quote in hand?
Send it - we'll tell you where it sitsA real person reads it against the benchmark data and replies within one business day: negotiable, typical, or actually good.
Independent by structure: we take nothing from platform vendors - no commissions, no partnerships. Our revenue comes from services partners, disclosed plainly.
The ranges above are useful for a gut check, but every contract is its own animal - headcount mix, timing, and negotiation history all move the actual number. If you'd rather skip the math and just have someone look at yours:
The platform line, without the brochure
Watch two things beyond the sticker. Implementation and onboarding: reported at ~$5,000–25,000 on Drata, quoted separately and often surfaced late - ask for it in writing alongside the subscription quote. Future frameworks: add-ons are publicly reported around $5,000 each on Vanta and $1,500–7,500/yr each on Drata; if ISO 27001 is plausibly next, price it at signing, not mid-contract - the cost-stacking guide shows why the timing matters more than the sticker. Full quote mechanics live on the Vanta and Drata pricing pages.
The audit line
The single biggest driver of audit cost is which tier of firm you engage - more than company size. The same scope can be quoted very differently by a boutique specialist and a Big Four firm.
We don't publish audit-cost figures yet. We won't cite numbers we can't source to a party with no stake in them. What we do publish · methodology.
Scope is the second lever - systems in scope, locations, trust service criteria beyond security, and the observation window all move the number within a tier. A Type 1 report (point-in-time, rather than the Type 2 observation window) is typically lower than a Type 2. Two disciplines regardless: get the audit quoted before you commit to a timeline (auditor availability is a real constraint), and if a platform offers a bundled audit, price the audit separately anyway so you know what the bundle is actually worth.
First-year discount vs renewal reality
The signature price is the marketing price: first-year discounting is standard, and publicly reported customer accounts put year-two totals 20–50% higher once discounts roll off - before mid-contract additions compound the base. The standard protection is a renewal cap negotiated at signing. Already holding a surprising renewal? The Vanta and Drata renewal guides are the playbook, and the renewal calculator puts your own numbers on it in two minutes.
What you actually get back:
Sample review - composite illustration, not a client.
Where your quote sits
Your renewal came in at $26,400 against $22,000 in year one - a 20% increase. Two anchors for that. The absolute number first: at 85 employees you're past the sub-50 entry configurations (publicly reported around $10,000–12,000/yr), and the median actual Vanta buyer pays about $20,000/yr per Vendr transaction data - so $26,400 is above median for a single framework, but not an outlier at your size. Now the increase itself: renewal quotes commonly arrive 10–20% higher absent proactive renegotiation, per the same procurement data, and yours sits at the top of that band. Decomposed: standard Vanta contract language commonly includes up to a 10% annual uplift term - buyers report negotiating it to 3–7% - and the rest of your 20% is first-year discount roll-off, not the market moving. Nothing in this quote shows scope additions, which is the ingredient that pushes year-two totals into the 20–50% range buyers commonly report.
What's negotiable
Two levers before anything else. A renewal cap: ask for future increases capped in writing, in this contract - it costs one sentence now and it's the whole negotiation next cycle. And timing plus paper: quarter-end pressure with a written competing quote are the two levers that work on every vendor in this category. Watch the calendar either way - per Vanta's published Master Subscription Agreement (vanta.com/legal/terms), subscriptions auto-renew for successive one-year periods unless written notice lands 30+ days before the period ends.
The honest read
At a $4,400 delta, renegotiating likely beats switching - migration labor would eat several years of that saving before it paid for itself. That flips when the gap you can't negotiate away outruns what a migration costs you in hours; if the number won't move, that's worth actually calculating rather than assuming.
Every review is read and written by a human - you'll have yours within one business day.
Get a personal read on your quote - free
Send the number and we'll tell you honestly how it sits against the benchmark data - negotiable, typical, or actually good. A real person reads it; you'll get a personal read within one business day. It also sharpens the anonymized benchmark behind this page.
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Best fit: companies of 20–500 employees on (or moving to) a compliance platform. Smaller or earlier? The guides and calculator are yours free - no form needed.
The timeline is a cost too
A Type 2 report needs an observation window plus audit fieldwork plus report issuance - months, not weeks, end to end. If a live deal is blocked now, that timeline is the real price of having waited for a trigger: the common play is a Type 1 to keep the deal moving with Type 2 running behind it (the sequencing logic is on the SOC 2 decision page). Never had a report and a buyer just asked for one? The options by deadline - including the auditor letter for a this-week deal - are on no SOC 2 yet, deal on the line. Rushed programs also pay rush prices on all three lines - the cheapest SOC 2 is the one you decided about early, whichever way you decided.
Frequently asked questions
Don't budget from a brochure.
Send your quote for a personal readFree, one business day, a reply from a person - and it sharpens the anonymized benchmark behind this page.
Independent by structure: we take nothing from platform vendors - no commissions, no partnerships. Our revenue comes from services partners, disclosed plainly.
Figures reflect publicly reported and buyer-reported data as of the review date; contracts vary and vendors change terms. This is market information, not legal or financial advice.