How Much Does a SOC 2 Audit Cost in 2026
The three costs behind a SOC 2 report, the audit fee, the platform, and readiness time, and how to estimate your real first-year number.
9 min read
"How much does SOC 2 cost?" has no single answer, because the number is really three costs stacked together: the auditor's fee, the platform you run the program on, and the internal time to get ready. Budget for one and skip the others and the total surprises you. Here is how each works.
The Auditor's Fee
The audit itself is performed by an independent CPA firm, and its fee is separate from any software you buy. For a small-to-midsize SaaS company, a first SOC 2 audit is commonly reported in the range of roughly five to twenty-five thousand dollars, with a Type 1 at the lower end and a Type 2 higher, since it covers an observation window. Scope drives the number: more Trust Services Criteria, more systems, and a larger organization all push it up. Always get the fee in writing before you start, and confirm whether readiness support is included or billed separately.
The Compliance Platform
Most companies run the program on a platform that holds their controls, evidence, and framework mapping. This is where pricing varies the most, and where it is hardest to compare, because much of the category is quote-only. The GRC suites typically land buyers in the tens of thousands of dollars per year once the trust center, framework, and add-ons are included, and you usually cannot see the number without a sales call.
Concord Trust publishes its pricing instead. You can see the platform tiers and framework pricing on the Trust pricing page and estimate your own number before you talk to anyone. Published pricing is the wedge here: a number you can check beats a range you have to negotiate.
Readiness and Internal Time
The cost that hides on a spreadsheet is your own team's time. Before an auditor can test anything, someone has to define the controls, assign owners, and gather evidence. For a first report, plan for weeks of focused effort spread across engineering, security, and operations. Starting from a curated control library rather than a blank page is the single biggest lever on this cost, because you adopt and prove practices you already follow instead of writing policies from scratch.
Estimating Your First-Year Total
Add the three: the auditor's fee, one year of the platform, and the internal time (valued at whatever an hour of your team costs). For a small SaaS company pursuing a first Type 2, a realistic first-year total is meaningfully higher than the audit fee alone once platform and internal time are counted. The second year is cheaper, because the controls exist and the evidence habit is in place; you are maintaining, not building.
How to Keep the Number Down
- Scope tight. Start with Security only and add criteria when customers require them.
- Start from a library. Adopting existing controls beats authoring policies from a blank page.
- Keep it in one place. A program spread across separate tools drifts, and drift is expensive to fix at audit time.
- Prefer published pricing. A platform you can price yourself removes the biggest unknown from the budget.
For the difference between the two report types that drive the audit fee, see SOC 2 Type 1 vs Type 2.