What is SOC 2 compliance?

SOC 2 (System and Organisation Controls 2) is a security audit standard defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). It evaluates whether a service organisation's controls meet the Trust Service Criteria: Security (required), Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy (optional). A SOC 2 report is produced by an independent CPA firm after examining the organisation's security controls against those criteria. It is not a certification (there is no pass/fail badge) — it is an audit opinion stating whether the controls are suitably designed and operating effectively over the audit period. Enterprise buyers use it as evidence that a SaaS vendor has implemented baseline security controls around data protection.

What is the difference between SOC 2 Type I and Type II?

SOC 2 Type I evaluates whether your security controls are suitably designed at a single point in time — a snapshot audit. It answers 'do you have the controls in place?' Type II evaluates whether those controls operated effectively over a period of time — typically 6 or 12 months. It answers 'did your controls actually work continuously?' Enterprise buyers almost always require Type II, not Type I, because Type I can be obtained in weeks with freshly implemented controls that have never been tested in practice. Type I is useful as an intermediate step: get Type I first, then operate for 6 months and get Type II at the end of the observation period.

What are the SOC 2 Trust Service Criteria?

The Trust Service Criteria (TSC) define what SOC 2 evaluates. Security (CC — Common Criteria) is required in every SOC 2 report. The others are optional: Availability (the system is available as committed — relevant for SaaS with uptime SLAs); Processing Integrity (system processing is complete, accurate, and authorised — relevant for financial processing systems); Confidentiality (information designated as confidential is protected — relevant for data that must not be disclosed to unauthorised parties); and Privacy (personal information is collected, used, retained, and disclosed in conformity with privacy commitments). Most SaaS companies include Security and Availability. Add Confidentiality if your enterprise buyers ask for it (common in legal, financial, and healthcare sectors).

How long does SOC 2 compliance take?

A realistic timeline from starting readiness work to receiving a Type II report: 3–4 months to implement controls and evidence collection processes; 6 months minimum observation period (the auditor must observe controls operating in practice); 2–3 months for the audit fieldwork and report production. Total: 11–13 months end-to-end for your first Type II. Teams that start with a readiness assessment (gap analysis against the criteria) in month 1 and implement controls systematically reach Type I in months 3–4 and Type II 6–7 months later. Companies that underestimate the readiness phase commonly extend this to 18–24 months.

How much does SOC 2 compliance cost?

Total cost has three components: internal preparation (engineering and security staff time — typically 400–800 hours across the organisation for a first audit); tooling (compliance automation platforms: Vanta $15,000–$30,000/year, Drata $20,000–$40,000/year, Secureframe $15,000–$25,000/year — or manual evidence collection with lower tooling cost but higher staff time); and audit fees (CPA firm fees for a Type II audit: $15,000–$50,000 for a small-to-mid SaaS company; $50,000–$150,000+ for a larger or more complex organisation). Total first-year cost: $40,000–$150,000 for most SaaS companies, with ongoing annual renewal at $25,000–$80,000.

Do I need a SOC 2 compliance platform like Vanta or Drata?

Compliance automation platforms (Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, Tugboat Logic) connect to your cloud provider, code repository, identity provider, and MDM to collect evidence automatically — reducing the manual burden of proving controls are operating. For a first audit, they significantly reduce internal staff time and help identify gaps quickly. Whether they are worth the $15,000–$40,000/year cost depends on your headcount: for companies with fewer than 50 employees and a first audit, the ROI is usually positive because they save 200–400 hours of engineering and ops time. For companies with a dedicated security team and established control documentation, the ROI is weaker. You do not need a platform to get SOC 2 — auditors will accept manual evidence — but the process is more labour-intensive.

What are the most commonly failed SOC 2 controls?

The controls that most commonly require remediation during SOC 2 readiness: access control (terminated employees with active accounts; excessive privilege; no MFA on critical systems); vulnerability management (no formal scan schedule; unpatched critical CVEs past SLA; no penetration test in the last 12 months); change management (code deployed to production without documented approval or review); incident response (no written incident response plan; incidents not formally documented and closed); vendor management (critical vendors not assessed for their own security posture); and backup and recovery (backups not tested for restorability; no documented RPO/RTO).

How do enterprise buyers use SOC 2 in vendor evaluation?

Enterprise security teams request a SOC 2 Type II report as part of vendor due diligence, typically alongside a security questionnaire (CAIQ, SIG, or custom). The security team reviews the auditor's opinion and the description of controls, the scope of the audit (which systems and criteria are covered), and any exceptions noted. Exceptions — controls that did not operate effectively during the audit period — are read carefully: a single exception in a low-risk control may be acceptable; repeated exceptions or exceptions in access control or data protection are typically dealbreakers. Having a current (less than 12 months old) SOC 2 Type II report in scope covering your SaaS product removes a security questionnaire round and accelerates the sales cycle by 4–8 weeks.

2026-08-18 · Updated 2026-08-18

SOC 2 Compliance for SaaS Companies: What It Is, What It Costs, and How to Get It (2026)

Enterprise buyers do not ask whether you are SOC 2 compliant because they enjoy reading audit reports. They ask because security reviews without a SOC 2 report mean their security team must send you a 200-question questionnaire, wait 3 weeks for responses, and then assess the answers manually. A current SOC 2 Type II report replaces most of that process and signals that an independent third party has already validated your controls.

The problem is that most SaaS companies approach SOC 2 as a project to complete, get the report, and file away — and then spend the next year scrambling to maintain controls that were implemented hastily for the audit rather than built into operations. This guide covers what SOC 2 actually tests, how to build controls that are sustainable, and what the audit process looks like from the inside.

What SOC 2 Actually Tests

SOC 2 evaluates controls against the Trust Service Criteria, not against a fixed checklist. The Security criteria (required) cover:

Control category	What is evaluated
CC1: Control environment	Organisational commitment to security; management oversight; HR security practices
CC2: Communication and information	How security policies are communicated and maintained
CC3: Risk assessment	Formal risk assessment process; identification and assessment of threats
CC4: Monitoring	Ongoing monitoring of controls; internal audit function
CC5: Control activities	Policies, procedures, and technical controls to mitigate risks
CC6: Logical and physical access	Access provisioning, MFA, privileged access, physical security
CC7: System operations	Vulnerability management, change management, incident detection
CC8: Change management	Formal SDLC, code review, deployment controls
CC9: Risk mitigation	Vendor risk management, insurance, contracts

Every sub-criterion has specific evidence requirements. The auditor tests a sample of control operations during the observation period.

Type I vs Type II: What Enterprise Buyers Accept

	SOC 2 Type I	SOC 2 Type II
What it tests	Controls suitably designed at a point in time	Controls operating effectively over a period
Observation period	None (snapshot)	Minimum 6 months
Time to obtain	3–6 months from starting readiness	11–14 months (including observation period)
What enterprise buyers accept	Occasionally, for early-stage companies	Standard requirement for most enterprise deals
Value	Intermediate milestone; signals compliance progress	The document enterprise procurement requires

The practical path: start readiness work in month 1, implement controls and collect evidence in months 2–4, get Type I in month 4, continue operating through month 10, complete Type II fieldwork in months 11–12.

The Core Controls That Matter Most

Access control (highest weight)

The single most common source of audit findings:

Controls required:
- MFA enforced on all production system access (SSO IdP, AWS console, GitHub, Salesforce)
- Principle of least privilege: users have only the access their role requires
- Formal user access provisioning process (documented requests, approvals)
- Quarterly access review: validate that all current access is still needed
- Automated deprovisioning on employee termination (within 24 hours of offboarding)
- Privileged access (production admin) requires separate approval and is logged

Access control evidence the auditor will sample:

Termination deprovisioning logs (did the accounts get disabled within SLA?)
Quarterly access review documentation (who reviewed, when, what was found)
MFA enforcement reports from your IdP (Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace)

Vulnerability management

Controls required:
- Automated vulnerability scanning of production infrastructure on a defined schedule (weekly minimum)
- Defined remediation SLAs: Critical CVEs patched within 7–30 days; High within 30–60 days
- Annual penetration test by a qualified third-party firm
- CVE remediation tracked and closed with evidence
- Software composition analysis (SCA) scanning in CI pipeline

Change management

Every change to production must be:

Peer-reviewed (pull request with at least one approver)
Automatically tested (CI pipeline passes)
Approved before deployment
Deployed through an automated pipeline (no direct production access)

Evidence: GitHub/GitLab PR approval history, CI/CD logs, deployment records.

Cost Breakdown for a First SOC 2 Type II

Category	Typical range	Notes
Compliance platform (Vanta, Drata, Secureframe)	$15,000–$40,000/year	Reduces internal engineering time significantly
Penetration test	$10,000–$30,000	Required; annual; cost varies by scope
CPA audit firm (Type II)	$15,000–$50,000	Small-to-mid SaaS; Big Four is 3–5× more
Internal engineering time	$30,000–$80,000 (implied cost)	300–600 hours across security, engineering, ops
Policy and procedure documentation	$5,000–$15,000	Internal or consultant-assisted
Total first-year cost	$50,000–$150,000	Varies widely by company size and existing maturity
Annual renewal cost	$25,000–$80,000	Lower; controls already built

What Enterprise Buyers Look for in a SOC 2 Report

When a buyer's security team reads your SOC 2 report, they check:

Report date and coverage period — Is it current (less than 12 months old)? Is the coverage period at least 6 months?
Scope — Does the scope include your actual production environment and the systems that will handle their data?
Criteria covered — Security is minimum; Availability matters for SaaS; Confidentiality matters for regulated data
Auditor's opinion — Is it unqualified (clean)? Or are there exceptions?
Exceptions — What controls had exceptions? Were they remediated? Exceptions in access control or data protection are often dealbreakers

An unqualified Type II report covering Security and Availability with a 12-month observation period, less than 6 months old, typically satisfies enterprise security reviews with no follow-up questionnaire.

Common Mistakes That Delay the First Audit

Mistake	Consequence	Fix
Starting observation before controls are implemented	Findings from the entire observation period	Fully implement controls before observation start date
Treating SOC 2 as a one-time project	Controls lapse; renewal audit finds exceptions	Build controls into operational procedures permanently
No evidence collection process	Unable to produce samples during fieldwork	Automate evidence collection from day one
Scope creep during audit	Audit expands, cost increases	Define and lock scope before engagement
Selecting an auditor without SaaS experience	Auditor unfamiliar with cloud-native controls	Require references from SaaS companies of similar size
No quarterly access reviews	Access control exceptions guaranteed	Put quarterly access reviews in the calendar and own them

Enterprise sales cycles for SaaS products commonly stall on security reviews. A current SOC 2 Type II report does not eliminate all security questions, but it reduces a 6-week questionnaire cycle to a 30-minute review in most cases — and signals to a prospective enterprise buyer that security is an operational discipline rather than an afterthought.

For help assessing your current security control environment against SOC 2 requirements or building a compliance programme as part of a broader security engagement, see our Enterprise Software Development capabilities or get in touch. Our Web Application Security guide covers the underlying technical controls that SOC 2 requires in production systems.

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