How Much Does SOC 2 Cost?

A big customer just made SOC 2 a condition of the deal, and now you need a real number for the budget. Actual SOC 2 cost starts around $20,000 for a small company’s first year, and the audit fee is only one piece of that. Here is where the money goes, what moves the total, and how to spot a padded quote.

SOC 2 Cost: The Straight Answer

A real SOC 2 program starts at $20,000, and that is a floor, not an average. Budget from there for your first year, because the total has to cover readiness work, tooling, remediation, and the audit itself. Anyone quoting $5,000 for “SOC 2” is selling one piece of the puzzle, usually just software, and calling it the whole thing.

The total moves with three levers: the report type you pick, how many systems and people sit in scope, and how much of the work your own team can absorb. Pull any one of those levers and the price shifts by thousands. If you are still working out whether you need the report at all, start with how SOC 2 compliance works end to end, then come back to the math.

Where the Money Goes: Five Cost Components

Every SOC 2 budget splits into the same five buckets. The bands below are typical market ranges for small and midsize companies, not quotes, so use them to sanity-check a proposal rather than to hold a vendor to a number.

Notice that the audit fee is rarely the biggest line in year one. Most of the money goes to getting ready, which is also the part a good partner can compress. We keep a fuller version of this math, with scenarios by company size, on our SOC 2 cost breakdown page.

Type 1 vs Type 2: The Choice That Moves the Price Most

Type 1 costs less than Type 2, and the gap is real money. A Type 1 report describes your controls at a single point in time, so the auditor’s work wraps up fast. Type 2 tests those same controls across an observation window, usually three to twelve months, which means more evidence, more auditor hours, and a bigger invoice.

Here is the play most first-timers run: get a Type 1 to satisfy the customer who is holding up the deal, then let the Type 2 window start right away. You pay for both reports across eighteen months instead of in one big bill, and the deal closes months sooner. Ask any prospective auditor whether they discount that bundle, because many do.

The Costs Nobody Puts in the Quote

Staff time is the big one. Someone inside your company will spend real hours writing policies, sitting in auditor calls, and chasing screenshots, even with a platform doing the collection. Plan on a few hundred hours across a first Type 2, and decide up front whose calendar absorbs that.

Renewal is the other. A SOC 2 report ages out after a year, so the audit fee and the platform subscription repeat for as long as customers keep asking. Price year two before you commit to year one, because some vendors discount the first year and recover it later.

What Changes the Price

Scope drives everything. The Security category of the Trust Services Criteria is mandatory, and each extra category you add, such as Availability or Confidentiality, brings more controls, more evidence, and more audit hours. Only add the categories your customers actually name in contracts.

Headcount and stack complexity come next. Fifty laptops, three cloud platforms, and a dozen SaaS tools cost more to audit than fifteen laptops on one platform. Security maturity matters too: if you already run MFA everywhere, centralized logging, and endpoint protection, your remediation line shrinks toward zero.

The last variable is people. If nobody on your team owns security day to day, you will pay someone to collect evidence, answer auditor questions, and keep controls running between audits. Some companies hire a fractional security lead for this, and others fold it into managed cyber security services so monitoring and compliance upkeep come from one provider.

What a Fair Quote Looks Like

A fair proposal itemizes. It shows the readiness assessment, the platform subscription, the audit fee, and the pen test as separate lines, each inside the bands above: $20,000 and up for the full program, with $5,000 to $20,000 for the penetration test if you need one. When a quote arrives as one round number with no breakdown, ask for the split before you compare it to anything.

Three red flags show up again and again. A guaranteed pass is the first, since no legitimate auditor promises an outcome before testing anything. Software-only “compliance” for a few thousand dollars is the second, because a platform collects evidence but cannot write your policies or sit through the audit for you. The third is a readiness vendor that also wants to audit its own work, which auditors treat as a conflict of interest.

Get at least two quotes before you decide, and make both vendors price the same scope, because the fastest way to overpay is comparing a Type 1 quote against a Type 2 quote without noticing the difference.

How to Choose a SOC 2 Provider

You are really choosing three things at once: an audit firm, a compliance platform, and, if you want hands-on help, a security partner. Five questions separate strong vendors from expensive ones.

• Which licensed CPA firm signs the report, and how many SOC 2 audits do they finish each year?
• Does the quote include readiness, platform, audit, and pen test, or only some of those?
• What does year two cost, in writing?
• Who owns evidence collection each month, your team or theirs?
• Will the readiness vendor and the audit firm stay independent of each other?

This is where a broker earns its keep. We hold agreements with 400+ vetted providers: 54 providers in our network run security risk assessments, 40 offer virtual CISO services, and 52 do penetration testing. Tell us what your customer is demanding, and we will match you with three vetted vendors in 24 hours, free, with no sales calls until you say go. We do not care which one you pick, because vendors pay us and you never do.

When is the cheap option fine? If your stack is small, your team is technical, and the customer only wants a Type 1, a platform subscription plus a budget auditor can get you through near the bottom of the range. Spend more when the deal is large, the customer wants Type 2, or nobody internal has time to own the program.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does SOC 2 cost for a small business?

Plan on $20,000 and up for a complete first-year program, covering readiness, tooling, remediation, and the audit. A small company with a simple stack and a technical team lands near that floor. Add categories beyond Security, a Type 2 window, or outside help running the program, and the total climbs from there.

Is SOC 2 Type 1 cheaper than Type 2?

Yes, Type 1 costs less because the auditor examines your controls at one point in time instead of testing them across months. The savings come with a catch: many enterprise customers now insist on Type 2, so a Type 1 alone may only buy you time. Most companies use it as a bridge while the Type 2 window runs.

How long does SOC 2 take from start to report?

Expect three to six months for a Type 1 and nine to fifteen months for a first Type 2, counting readiness work plus the observation window. Companies with strong existing controls move faster. Timeline matters for cost because a rushed engagement usually means more consultant hours, and a stalled one means paying for tooling months before it earns anything.

Does SOC 2 require a penetration test?

No, the criteria never name a penetration test outright, but most auditors want to see one and many enterprise customers ask for the results directly. Treat it as a practical requirement. At $5,000 to $20,000 per project, it is often the biggest optional line in the budget, so scope it to the systems your report covers.

Can I do SOC 2 without a consultant?

Yes, if someone on your team has security experience and 10 to 20 hours a week to give it for a few months. A compliance platform handles evidence collection and templates, and the auditor handles the report. The consultant earns their fee when nobody internal has that time, when gaps run deep, or when the deadline sits inside 90 days.

What does SOC 2 cost per year after the first report?

Ongoing cost usually runs lower than year one, since readiness and remediation drop away, but the audit and platform fees repeat annually. Budget for the recurring audit, the software subscription, and a smaller slice of staff time to keep evidence current. Skipping a year restarts the trust conversation with customers, so treat renewal as a fixed cost of selling.

Written by Russ Herman, founder of Defend My Business. We are a technology broker, like a mortgage broker but for business security, internet, and voice. We hold agreements with 400+ vetted providers. Vendors pay us, you never do. See exactly how we make money. Questions: 1-877-453-8759 or [email protected].