SimpleAudit vs Compliance Consultants
Consultants get you audit-ready. SimpleAudit keeps you audit-ready, for 12 months straight, at a fraction of the cost.
Feature comparison
| Feature | SimpleAudit | Compliance Consultants |
|---|---|---|
| AI Policy Generation | Templates requiring customization | |
| Conversational AI Interface | ||
| Ongoing Compliance Cadence | ||
| Gap Assessment | ||
| Risk Register | Spreadsheet-based | |
| Vendor Management | Manual process | |
| Access Review Reminders | ||
| Available 24/7 | ||
| Published price |
AI Policy Generation
Conversational AI Interface
Ongoing Compliance Cadence
Gap Assessment
Risk Register
Vendor Management
Access Review Reminders
Available 24/7
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 Prepare
- Platform, first year
- $480
- Audit
- Type 1 from $5,000
- First-year total
- from $5,480
Compliance Consultants
- Platform, first year
- Quoted per engagement
- Audit
- + your auditor's fee
- First-year total
- Depends on your auditor
| Option | Platform, first year | Audit | First-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimpleAudit Prepare | $480 | Type 1 from $5,000 | from $5,480 |
| Compliance Consultants | Quoted per engagement | + your auditor's fee | Depends on your auditor |
From $480 one time (Prepare, 12 months of access). Prove is $299.99 a month or $2,999.88 a year. Our row is the lowest first-year cost: Prepare ($480 one time) plus a SOC 2 Type 1 from MJD Advisors, a peer-reviewed, US-based CPA firm, from $5,000. Prepare covers all five SOC 2 areas for up to 5 seats. It gets you audit-ready, but audit tracking is on Prove, so on Prepare you hand your auditor the package. 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 Prove ($2,999.88 a year), which runs the audit, the first year starts at $10,499.88. MJD Advisors is SimpleAudit's audit partner.
Consultants quote per engagement, and the audit fee comes on top of the readiness fee.
Why teams choose SimpleAudit over a consultant
Teams choose SimpleAudit over consultants when they want ongoing compliance guidance year-round, not a one-time readiness engagement that leaves them on their own for the hardest part.
High cost for guidance, not execution
You pay for templates, a gap assessment and advice, but the cross-functional coordination and evidence collection are still on you.
Source: Founder experience
Consultants disappear after readiness
Consultants deliver templates and a gap assessment, then move on. They don't maintain your compliance cadence for the 12-month audit period, the part where startups actually fail.
Source: Author experience across multiple SOC 2 cycles
You rent knowledge instead of building it
Outsourcing compliance means you can't answer auditor questions, explain management responses to clients, or adapt when infrastructure changes. You'll need to re-hire every year.
Source: Founder experience
What makes SimpleAudit different
Maintains compliance cadence year-round
The #1 problem consultants don't solve: remembering quarterly access reviews, monthly vulnerability scans, and semi-annual policy reviews for 12 months straight. For seed-stage teams without a dedicated compliance owner, this is the gap that causes findings.
Build expertise in-house
When your auditor asks questions, you'll know the answers. When clients dig into your report, you can speak intelligently. You own the knowledge instead of renting it.
A fraction of the cost
From $480 one time (Prepare, 12 months of access). Prove is $299.99 a month or $2,999.88 a year. You don't need to be a CTO, or hire one. The AI is the expert. You're the decision-maker.
Who a compliance consultant is actually right for
A consultant is the right call when the problem is bigger than one SOC 2 report: you are regulated (HIPAA or PCI on top of SOC 2), your architecture spans several regions or clouds, or you need a person in the room for audit kickoff and the auditor's walkthroughs. A good consultant brings judgment from many audits. What a readiness engagement usually does not include is the year that follows: the reviews and records your controls need month after month. That is the part SimpleAudit is built to keep running for seed-stage teams.
Ready to skip the consultant?
Start your free trial and experience AI-native SOC 2 compliance.
Start Free Trial