Why I Built a SOC 2 Starter Plan for Small Teams

Starter is SimpleAudit's plan for a team preparing for its first SOC 2 audit. It covers the Security criterion for one user, with the AI policy builder, gap analysis and evidence obligations drawn from your policies. Move up to Essentials when you start your audit window. From $40/mo (Starter, billed annually at $480). Essentials is $199/mo billed annually.

Key takeaways

• Starter covers the Security criterion only, for one user, with a 3-day trial that needs no card.
• It gets you audit-ready: policies written, gaps found and evidence organized before you commit to an audit window.
• Essentials adds the other four criteria, audit-window tracking and room for your team and your auditor.
• What you paid for Starter is credited toward your first year of any annual plan, and your work carries forward.

The cheapest way to prove you're serious about your first SOC 2 audit, without paying for a team you don't have yet.

Updated 27 September 2026: Starter's price changed to $480 a year ($40 a month, billed annually). The prices in this post are current.

Every compliance platform I looked at before founding SimpleAudit was priced for a company I didn't have yet. Multiple seats. All five Trust Services Criteria bundled whether you needed them or not. A price built for the team running its second SOC 2 audit, not the team trying to figure out if it can survive its first security questionnaire.

I built Starter because that gap is real, and it's a gap I sat in myself before I understood it.

You don't need the whole platform to prove you're serious. You need to be able to say "yes, we're working on it" and mean it.

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The problem with pricing compliance software like it's for enterprises

Trust Services Criteria come in five flavors: Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. Security is the only one every SOC 2 report requires. The other four are add-ons you bolt on when a specific deal demands them.

Almost every platform I evaluated charged for all five whether I asked for them or not, because that's the number that makes a pricing page look complete. If you're a two-person company answering your first vendor security questionnaire, you don't need Processing Integrity. You need Security, and you need it to not cost as much as your first hire.

What $480 actually buys

Starter is $480 a year ($40 a month, billed annually), Security criteria only, one user, a 15 GB evidence vault. It runs on a 3-day trial. No card needed to start it, so use those three days deliberately. It's not a trimmed-down demo: it's the AI policy builder, gap analysis against the real standard, and evidence obligations pulled from your own policies, not a generic checklist.

Here's the part I want to be honest about: it does not run your audit. Starter gets you audit-ready (policies written, gaps closed, evidence organized) for your first SOC 2 conversation. When you're ready to actually enter your observation period and hand a package to your CPA firm, you move up to Essentials, which adds the other four criteria, audit-window tracking, and room for your team and your auditor to work alongside you.

I built it as two separate moments because that's how it actually happens. You don't decide to buy compliance software and start your audit the same week. You spend weeks, sometimes months, figuring out what you don't have yet, writing it down, and closing the gaps. Then you commit to a window and go. Charging the same price for both moments punishes the team still in the first one.

Who should start here, and who shouldn't

Start on Starter if:

• This is your first SOC 2 conversation, and nobody's asked for a report with a hard deadline yet.
• You're a solo founder or a two-to-three person team, where one login covers everyone who needs it.
• You need to move from "we have nothing written down" to "here's our policy set and our gap list," fast, without hiring someone to hold your hand through it.

Skip straight to Essentials if:

• A prospect has already told you they need a report by a specific date.
• You need more than one person in the tool: your ops lead, your engineer, or your auditor.
• You're past the writing stage and ready to start your observation window this quarter.

	Starter	Essentials
Price	From $40/mo, billed annually at $480	$199/mo billed annually
Trust Services Criteria	Security only	All five
People in the tool	One user	Your team and your auditor
Audit-window tracking	No	Yes
Best for	Your first SOC 2 conversation, before any deadline	A report needed by a set date, or a window starting this quarter

Why I priced it at $480, not free

I thought about giving this tier away. I didn't, for the same reason Type 1 audits are usually the wrong move: a free tool trains you to treat the work as free, and SOC 2 readiness isn't free. It's just cheaper to do right than most people think. $480 a year ($40 a month, billed annually) is a real commitment, small enough that it's not a budget conversation, big enough that you'll actually use it instead of signing up and forgetting it exists.

Compare it to the alternative. Full SOC 2 cost (audit fee included) still starts around $5K-8K for a lean, peer-reviewed shop, and that's before you've written a single policy. Starter isn't trying to replace that number. It's trying to replace the $0 you were spending because you didn't know where to start, with $480 that actually gets you somewhere.

Get audit-ready for $480.

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Read the transcript

Every founder knows this moment. Getting SOC 2 ready can take months to figure out, and the cost of getting help makes it even harder. Most founders don't know where to begin. SimpleAudit starts with a conversation, plain language, no jargon. From one conversation, your entire workspace is built, personalized to your stack, built for founders, clear next steps every time. Policies are drafted automatically, based on your answers. Refine any policy with AI suggestions that highlight what matters. Every module comes with built-in guidance. Vendors, risks, access reviews, handled with AI that knows your setup. Your SOC 2 readiness updates in real time. Clear progress, no guesswork. Review security assessments, store evidence, and stay organized, all in one place. Complete your business impact analysis with guided step-by-step prompts. Most startups spend up to $20,000 on software and consultants just to get ready. SimpleAudit starts at $199 a month. Right-sized SOC 2 for startups. You're closer than you think. Start your free trial. No credit card. No setup. SimpleAudit.io.

The part I want you to actually remember

Starter isn't the cheap seat at the adult table. It's the plan for the moment before you know if you need the adult table at all. Use it to find out: write your policies, run the gap analysis, see what a Security-only SOC 2 report actually requires of a company your size, before you commit to a full audit window and everything that comes with it.

When you're ready to run the real thing, Essentials is one click away, and the $480 you paid for Starter is always credited toward your first year of any annual plan. Everything you built on Starter carries forward. Nothing gets thrown out.

Get audit-ready for $480/yr. Start free trial

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Written by Joe, who led SOC 2 at a prior company before founding SimpleAudit, the AI-guided compliance platform built for founders and owners who don't have a CTO hat to wear.