SOC 2 Compliance: Manual vs. Automation Vendor
| Aspect | Manual Process | Vendor (Sprinto, Vanta, Drata, etc.) |
|---|---|---|
Policy Creation | Write policies from scratch (may adapt free templates). Needs legal/security review. Takes weeks. | Pre-built, auditor-approved templates you customize in hours. |
Evidence Collection | You track screenshots, exports, and reports in shared folders/spreadsheets. Very time-intensive during audit prep. | Automated integrations pull AWS, GCP, GitHub, Okta, etc. evidence continuously in the background. |
Task Tracking | Manually maintain a compliance tracker (Excel, Jira, Notion). Requires discipline to keep up-to-date. | Built-in dashboards showing control status, gaps, and pending actions. Automatic reminders for overdue items so you dont lose the certification |
Monitoring Controls | Manually schedule quarterly access reviews, DR drills, vulnerability scans. Easy to miss deadlines. | Continuous monitoring — system flags non-compliance (e.g., inactive MFA, new public S3 bucket). |
Vendor Management | Manually collect SOC 2 / ISO certs from your vendors, track renewal dates. | Vendor portal + automated vendor risk tracking and reminders. |
Audit Readiness | Heavy scramble before the audit — weeks of pulling evidence, formatting it, and mapping to TSC. | Evidence always up-to-date; auditor gets direct platform access, reducing prep time drastically. |
Audit Relationship | You find and contract your own auditor, negotiate scope, and handle submissions manually. | Many vendors have preferred auditors and bundle audit services or introductions. |
Team Time Required | High — expect 150–250+ hours spread across engineering, DevOps, HR, and management in Year 1. | Lower — often 40–70% less time commitment in Year 1; Year 2 is even lighter. |
Scalability for Yearly Renewal | Each year you repeat manual evidence gathering; some documents reused but many controls revalidated from scratch. | Continuous monitoring means Year 2 renewal is much lighter — mostly gap-closing and small updates. |
Cost (Tools) | Low direct cost for tools (using existing cloud & ticketing), but high labor cost internally. | Vendor subscription cost — typically $8k–$25k/year for your company size. |
Cost (Audit) | External auditor: $15k–$25k for SOC 2 Type II, billed separately. | Same audit cost — sometimes vendors have preferred rates ($10k–$18k). |
Learning Curve | You build deep internal expertise in SOC 2, trust criteria, and control mapping. | Lower learning curve; but team may rely heavily on the vendor and know less about the “why” behind controls. |
Pricing Overview (as of 2025)
Vendor | Annual Subscription | Typical Audit Cost (Separate) | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
Sprinto | ~$12k–$18k/year | ~$10k–$18k | Strong AWS/GCP/Azure integration, good for remote teams. |
Vanta | ~$10k–$20k/year | ~$10k–$18k | Very polished UI, lots of integrations, widely used by startups. |
Drata | ~$15k–$22k/year | ~$10k–$20k | More automation for complex orgs, strong continuous monitoring. |
Manual | $0 vendor fee | $15k–$25k audit cost | Time-heavy; high internal labor cost and audit risks if something is not in good shape. |
💡 These are recurring yearly costs because SOC 2 Type II is valid for 12 months — auditors check the next year’s period, so the process repeats.
Yearly Renewal Impact
- Manual:
- Year 1 is heaviest — building policies, controls, evidence library from scratch.
- Year 2 still requires substantial effort — re-gather evidence, run tests, update policies.
- If you let evidence gathering slip during the year, renewal scramble is real.
- Vendor:
- Year 1 heavy but easier — setup integrations, customize policies, initial evidence collection.
- Year 2 renewals are smoother — the vendor already tracks controls and evidence continuously, so it’s about filling any gaps and updating minor changes.
- Continuous monitoring drastically reduces “audit season stress”.
- Lower rejection risk as the vendor doesn't allow audits until you're all good to go.