Achieving SOC 2 compliance is a major milestone for any company, especially for SaaS businesses. It’s the gold standard for demonstrating to your customers that you have robust security controls in place to protect their data. But the path to a SOC 2 report can be long, complex, and incredibly time-consuming. It involves collecting mountains of evidence, managing hundreds of security controls, and coordinating with auditors—all while trying to run your business.
Fortunately, a new generation of tools has emerged to streamline and automate this process. These platforms connect to your tech stack, continuously monitor your controls, and collect the evidence needed to prove your compliance. They can turn a year-long manual effort into a matter of weeks. But with several strong contenders on the market, how do you know which one is right for you?
This guide will provide a clear, actionable comparison of the top SOC 2 compliance tools for 2026. We will break down their features, strengths, and ideal use cases to help you find the perfect partner for your compliance journey.
How We Evaluated the SOC 2 Compliance Tools
We assessed each tool based on criteria that are critical for achieving and maintaining SOC 2 compliance efficiently:
- Automation and Integration: How well does the tool automate evidence collection, and how many integrations does it offer across your tech stack?
- Comprehensiveness: Does the tool just focus on compliance management, or does it also help with the underlying security work?
- User Experience: How intuitive is the platform for both technical and non-technical users?
- Auditor Collaboration: How effectively does the tool streamline the audit process?
- Scalability and Pricing: Can the tool grow with your company, and is the pricing model transparent?
The 5 Best SOC 2 Compliance Tools
Here is our analysis of the top platforms designed to get you audit-ready, faster.
1. Aikido Security
Aikido Security is a developer-first security platform that takes a unique approach to compliance. While most compliance tools focus on monitoring and evidence collection, Aikido focuses on automating the underlying security work required to become compliant. It unifies nine different security scanners into a single platform—helping you find and, most importantly, fix the vulnerabilities in your code, dependencies, and cloud infrastructure that are essential for passing a SOC 2 audit. Learn more about how Aikido supports vulnerability management or explore pricing options to get started.
Key Features & Strengths:
- Automated Security Fixes: Aikido’s standout feature is its AI-powered autofixes. It automatically generates code suggestions to fix vulnerabilities directly within developer pull requests. This automates a huge part of the remediation work required for SOC 2.
- Unified Security Controls: By combining SAST, SCA, secret detection, IaC, and cloud security (CSPM) into one platform, Aikido provides a single place to manage the technical controls that auditors will scrutinize.
- Intelligent Triaging: Aikido automatically identifies which vulnerabilities are truly reachable and exploitable. This helps you prioritize the most critical fixes for your SOC 2 audit and demonstrate effective risk management.
- Seamless Developer Integration: Natively integrates with developer workflows in GitHub and GitLab. This embeds security and compliance tasks directly into the development process, making it easier to maintain continuous compliance.
- Evidence for Technical Controls: Aikido provides the evidence and reporting needed to prove to auditors that you have effective vulnerability management, secure coding practices, and cloud security posture management in place.
Ideal Use Cases / Target Users:
Aikido is the best overall solution for any company that needs to do the hands-on security work required for SOC 2. It’s perfect for development and security teams who are responsible for implementing technical controls and for founders and managers who need an efficient way to get their product audit-ready.
Pros and Cons:
- Pros: Automates the actual security work, not just the evidence collection. Drastically reduces the time spent on remediation, consolidates multiple security tools, and is exceptionally easy to set up.
- Cons: It focuses on implementing and proving technical security controls rather than managing the entire compliance program (e.g., HR policies). It is best used alongside a compliance automation platform.
Pricing / Licensing:
Aikido offers a free-forever tier to get started. Paid plans use a simple, flat-rate pricing model that is predictable and easy to manage.
Recommendation Summary:
Aikido Security is the top choice for actually achieving the security posture required for SOC 2. By automating the fixing of vulnerabilities, it addresses the most difficult and time-consuming part of the compliance journey, making it an indispensable tool for any team serious about security.
2. Drata
Drata is a leading security and compliance automation platform that helps companies achieve SOC 2, ISO 27001, and other frameworks. It focuses on continuous control monitoring, pulling evidence automatically from your cloud services, HR systems, and other tools to ensure you are always audit-ready. For teams seeking to understand the requirements behind key frameworks, resources like OWASP Top 10—2025: Changes for Developers offer valuable context.
Key Features & Strengths:
- Continuous Control Monitoring: Integrates with over 75 tools (AWS, GCP, GitHub, HR platforms, etc.) to automatically collect evidence that your controls are operating effectively. Consider combining Drata’s integrations with best practices highlighted in Top Open Source Dependency Scanners to enhance your vulnerability management process.
- Comprehensive Compliance Frameworks: Provides pre-built control mappings for a wide range of frameworks, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and HIPAA.
- Automated Evidence Collection: Automates the process of gathering screenshots, logs, and configurations, saving hundreds of hours of manual work.
- Auditor-Focused Experience: Features a dedicated portal for auditors to access evidence directly, which dramatically streamlines the audit process.
Ideal Use Cases / Target Users:
Drata is ideal for fast-growing startups and mid-sized companies that need to achieve SOC 2 or another compliance framework as quickly and efficiently as possible. It’s perfect for founders, compliance managers, and security leaders who need to manage the entire compliance program from a central hub.
Pros and Cons:
- Pros: Extensive library of integrations, highly automated evidence collection, and a very user-friendly interface. Excellent customer support and a strong network of audit partners.
- Cons: It is a premium-priced platform. It tells you what is broken but doesn't fix the underlying technical issues for you.
Pricing / Licensing:
Drata is a commercial platform with annual subscription pricing based on the frameworks and features selected.
Recommendation Summary:
Drata is a top-tier choice for managing your compliance program and automating evidence collection. Its powerful automation and intuitive platform make it one of the fastest ways to get audit-ready.
3. Scrut Automation
Scrut Automation is another comprehensive compliance automation platform designed to simplify risk management and information security compliance. It offers a broad suite of tools to help companies monitor their controls, manage risks, and streamline audits for frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001.
Key Features & Strengths:
- Unified GRC Platform: Combines control monitoring, risk assessment, and vendor management into a single platform.
- Automated Evidence Collection: Connects to a wide range of cloud services, code repositories, and collaboration tools to gather compliance evidence automatically.
- Risk Management Module: Includes tools to help you identify, assess, and mitigate risks across your organization, which is a key requirement for SOC 2.
- Flexible and Customizable: Allows for a high degree of customization of controls and policies to fit your specific business needs.
Ideal Use Cases / Target Users:
Scrut is well-suited for mid-market and enterprise companies that need a flexible and comprehensive platform to manage multiple compliance frameworks and a formal risk management program.
Pros and Cons:
- Pros: Strong risk management features, flexible platform, and a good library of integrations.
- Cons: The user interface can sometimes be less intuitive than competitors like Drata or Vanta. It is an enterprise-focused solution with a corresponding price point.
Pricing / Licensing:
Scrut Automation is a commercial product with custom pricing based on the size of the organization and the modules required.
Recommendation Summary:
Scrut is a powerful and flexible platform for organizations that need to go beyond basic compliance and build a mature, integrated risk management program.
4. Sprinto
Sprinto is a compliance automation platform designed to make the SOC 2 process fast and straightforward, particularly for cloud-native companies. It focuses on intelligent automation and providing a clear, step-by-step path to getting audit-ready.
Key Features & Strengths:
- Intelligent Automation: Automatically maps your existing processes to SOC 2 controls, identifies gaps, and provides clear guidance on how to close them.
- Continuous Monitoring: Connects to your tech stack to continuously collect evidence and ensure that your controls remain effective over time.
- Smart Workflows: Guides you through tasks like employee onboarding, security training, and policy acknowledgments, ensuring that the people-centric parts of compliance are handled correctly.
- Audit-Ready Dashboards: Provides real-time dashboards that show your compliance posture, which can be shared directly with auditors.
Ideal Use Cases / Target Users:
Sprinto is a great fit for tech startups and SaaS companies that are built on modern cloud infrastructure and want a guided, efficient path to achieving SOC 2 compliance.
Pros and Cons:
- Pros: Very user-friendly and provides a clear, guided experience. Strong automation for cloud-native environments.
- Cons: Its library of integrations may not be as extensive as some of the larger players in the market.
Pricing / Licensing:
Sprinto is a commercial platform with pricing based on the size of the company and the selected compliance frameworks.
Recommendation Summary:
Sprinto is an excellent choice for cloud-native companies looking for an intelligent and user-friendly platform to guide them through the complexities of SOC 2.
5. Vanta
Vanta is one of the pioneers in the compliance automation space and remains a market leader. The platform helps companies automate up to 90% of the work required for SOC 2 and other security frameworks by continuously monitoring systems and collecting evidence.
Key Features & Strengths:
- Continuous Monitoring: Connects to your cloud provider, identity provider, and other systems to continuously test your security controls against SOC 2 requirements.
- Large Integration Ecosystem: Offers a massive library of integrations, allowing it to connect to almost any tool in a modern tech stack.
- Comprehensive Task Management: Provides a clear list of tasks required to become compliant, assigns them to owners, and tracks them to completion.
- In-Platform Security Training: Includes built-in security awareness training for employees, helping you meet a key SOC 2 requirement directly within the platform.
Ideal Use Cases / Target Users:
Vanta is a fantastic choice for companies of all sizes, from startups to enterprises, that need a proven, reliable, and highly automated platform to achieve and maintain SOC 2 compliance.
Pros and Cons:
- Pros: Market leader with a mature and reliable platform. Very large library of integrations and excellent reporting features.
- Cons: Like its direct competitors, it is a premium solution. The platform helps you find problems but relies on your team to perform the actual remediation.
Pricing / Licensing:
Vanta is a commercial product with annual subscription pricing that depends on company size and the number of frameworks.
Recommendation Summary:
Vanta is a market-leading and trusted platform for automating SOC 2 compliance. Its powerful monitoring and comprehensive feature set make it a top choice for any company on a compliance journey.
Putting It All Together for a Successful Audit
Compliance automation platforms like Drata, Vanta, and Sprinto are game-changers. They transform the audit process from a manual nightmare into a streamlined, automated workflow. These tools are essential for managing your compliance program, monitoring controls, and collecting evidence.
However, they all share a common challenge: they are excellent at telling you what you need to fix, but they don't do the fixing for you. A failing control for "vulnerability management" in your compliance dashboard translates into real, hands-on work for your engineering team. This is the most difficult and time-consuming part of any SOC 2 project.
This is why Aikido Security is a critical and complementary part of the modern compliance stack. By automating the discovery, triage, and—most importantly—the remediation of vulnerabilities, Aikido directly addresses the underlying security work required to pass your audit. For more insights on how security tools like Aikido compare to others, check out this analysis on code analysis tools and the comparison of SonarQube vs. GitHub Advanced Security. Combining a compliance automation platform to manage the program with Aikido to automate the security work creates the fastest and most efficient path to achieving and maintaining SOC 2 compliance.
Secure your software now
.avif)
