The Comp AI Alternative for Non-Technical Founders
Comp AI gives its price only on a sales call, and its open-source edition is built for teams that can self-host. SimpleAudit is built for every other founder: published pricing, self-serve signup, nothing to install.
Feature comparison
| Feature | SimpleAudit | Comp AI |
|---|---|---|
| Self-serve signup (no sales call) | ||
| AI Policy Generation | ||
| Conversational AI Interface | ||
| Endpoint device agent | ||
| Open source / self-host | ||
| Automated Evidence Collection | ||
| Integrations | None (upload or push evidence) | 580+ claimed |
| Multiple Frameworks | SOC 2 (more planned) | SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, FedRAMP and more |
| Risk Register | ||
| Vendor Management | ||
| Access Reviews | ||
| Published price |
Self-serve signup (no sales call)
AI Policy Generation
Conversational AI Interface
Endpoint device agent
Open source / self-host
Automated Evidence Collection
Integrations
Multiple Frameworks
Risk Register
Vendor Management
Access Reviews
Published price
Pricing
Time to value
Total first-year cost including the audit
No platform on this page includes the audit. The CPA firm that signs your SOC 2 report is a separate purchase. Our row uses our audit partner's starting price; for the others, add the fee your auditor quotes.
SimpleAudit Starter
- Platform, first year
- $480
- Audit
- Type 1 from $5,000
- First-year total
- from $5,480
Comp AI
- Platform, first year
- Not published (quote after a call)
- Audit
- + your auditor's fee
- First-year total
- Depends on your auditor
| Option | Platform, first year | Audit | First-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimpleAudit Starter | $480 | Type 1 from $5,000 | from $5,480 |
| Comp AI | Not published (quote after a call) | + your auditor's fee | Depends on your auditor |
From $40/mo (Starter, billed annually at $480). Essentials is $199/mo billed annually. Our row is the lowest first-year cost: Starter ($480 a year) plus a SOC 2 Type 1 from MJD Advisors, a peer-reviewed, US-based CPA firm, from $5,000. Starter covers the Security criteria only, for one user and one audit preparation. It gets you audit-ready, but the audit tools (audit window tracking, the audit package export, audit documents and auditor fields) are on Essentials, so on Starter you hand your evidence to the auditor yourself. A Type 1 is the option when a prospect needs a report in under about 3 months. Our recommended path is a security-only SOC 2 Type 2 with a 3-month observation window: MJD prices it from $7,500, and with Essentials ($2,388 a year), which runs the audit, the first year starts at $9,888. MJD Advisors is SimpleAudit's audit partner.
Comp AI publishes no prices; its pricing page offers your price on a 20-minute call (read 2026-10-02).
The hidden cost of Comp AI’s technical-founder model
Comp AI pitches itself as AI-native and open source, and for a technical team that is an attractive combination. It is also no longer a small challenger: it raised a $34M Series A in September 2026 and says it has 1,000+ customers. The question for a non-technical founder is not whether Comp AI is credible. It is whether its model assumes people you do not have.
Start with the buying process. Comp AI publishes no prices; its pricing page says you get your exact price on a 20-minute call. For a founder who needs SOC 2 because a customer asked last week, a sales cycle is a cost before the work even starts.
Then there is guidance. Comp AI's G2 reviews are positive overall, but the most common complaint, in 19 of 73 reviews when we read them on 2026-09-29, is a lack of guidance, and 13 mention a steep learning curve. Those are the exact gaps a first-time compliance owner falls into.
The open-source path has its own price. Self-hosting Comp AI means running Docker, PostgreSQL and OAuth configuration yourself, which is a fair trade for a team with DevOps capacity and a weekend job for everyone else.
None of this is a knock on the engineering. If you are a pre-seed or seed founder without a DevOps hire, though, the total cost includes your own nights and weekends.
Why teams choose SimpleAudit over Comp AI
Teams choose SimpleAudit over Comp AI when they need SOC 2 without an engineer to run the platform, and when a sales call is too slow for the deal they are trying to close.
No published price
Comp AI's pricing page lists no prices; you get your price on a 20-minute call. For a founder who needs SOC 2 because a customer asked, a sales cycle is the wrong shape.
Source: trycomp.ai/pricing, read 2026-10-02
Guidance is the most common complaint
Of Comp AI's 73 G2 reviews, 19 mention a lack of guidance and 13 a steep learning curve. Those are the gaps a first-time compliance owner falls into.
Source: G2 reviews of Comp AI, read 2026-09-29
Built for teams that can run it
Comp AI's open-source edition is self-hosted: Docker, PostgreSQL and OAuth configuration, then ongoing maintenance. A strong fit for a team with DevOps capacity; a hard start for everyone else.
Source: github.com/trycompai/comp, June 2026
What makes SimpleAudit different
Public pricing, self-serve signup
See the price in 5 seconds. Start in 5 minutes. No sales call, no discovery meeting, no procurement cycle. From $40/mo (Starter, billed annually at $480). Essentials is $199/mo billed annually. The number on the website is the number you pay.
Conversation-first AI for non-technical founders
Comp AI points its AI at your systems: agentic evidence collection and AI penetration testing. SimpleAudit's AI talks to the founder, in plain language, about the business, and writes your policies from that conversation.
No agent, no DevOps, no homework
We host everything ourselves on Microsoft Azure, which maintains its own SOC 2 report. No open-source repo to clone, no containers to deploy, no endpoint agents to install on employee laptops. You focus on your business; we handle the compliance platform.
Who Comp AI is actually right for
Comp AI is right for a technical team that wants an open-source core it can inspect or self-host, and an agentic platform that collects evidence from its systems and adds AI penetration testing. With a $34M Series A in September 2026, it has the money to keep building. If you have an engineer to run it and are comfortable getting your price on a sales call, it is a credible choice. If you are a pre-seed founder who wants to read the price before a call, SimpleAudit fits better.
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