Picking the Right SOC 2 Software: A Beginner’s Guide

Businesses today have started identifying SOC 2 as a strategic asset. It has become an enabler for enterprise deals, a way to bypass lengthy security questionnaires and a badge of trust. As founders and CISOs seek to obtain it quickly and leverage the benefits they are increasingly turning to automation and SOC 2 software. It saves them hundreds of manual hours and months of processes.

According to a report by Polaris Market Research – The compliance, governance, and risk market is expected to touch $97 billion by 2028, with the software segment bagging the largest market share. And rightly so—compliance automation software aligned to frameworks like SOC 2 has enabled business certifications at half the costs and 10x the speed.

But the sheer number of market options makes choosing the right solution a cumbersome process. This blog lists down the best SOC 2 compliance tools and shows you how to choose the right one for your business.

What is SOC 2 software?

SOC 2 software is a platform that helps organizations align their controls with the requirements of SOC 2, streamlining compliance processes, and monitoring internal controls. The software protects sensitive customer data from unauthorized access and achieving audit-readiness by automating predictable complaince tasks, initiating remediation, and maintaining strong documentation.

How is SOC 2 compliance software helpful for organizations?

A SOC 2 compliance software makes it easy to navigate through the stringency of SOC 2 requirements by reducing manual work, facilitating better implementation of controls and simplifying audit preparation.

Here are 5 benefits of SOC 2 compliance software:

1. Streamlined SOC 2 compliance workflows

A SOC 2 certification software streamlines compliance workflows by automating repetitive tasks saving time and costs. It minimizes documentation effort and flags deficiencies in system configurations as well as internal control gaps for structured implementation.

2. Policy Management

SOC 2 requires the formulation, distribution, and management of various policies related to data protection—a SOC 2 compliance solution centrally manages the development and enforcement of these policies, expediting and simplifying the process.

Sprinto additionally provides out-of-the-box policy templates to remove the guesswork from security operations. It also ensures policy acknowledgements from stakeholders and sends reminders in case of any misses.

3. Real-time monitoring

As compliance is an ongoing activity, it becomes imperative to ensure continuous readiness. SOC 2 compliance tools enable real-time monitoring of control implementation and send automated alerts in case of potential issues facilitating proactive response.

4. Audit management

SOC 2 software automates the evidence collection process for each compliance task, facilitating smooth audits. This saves the auditor’s time, eliminating the need for repeated requests for context and evidence and makes room for better collaboration.

Sprinto also features an independent audit dashboard where you can collaborate with our vetted auditor network for breezy audits.

5. Scalability

SOC 2 compliance software are scalable solutions and allow you to get compliant with multiple frameworks without duplicating the efforts. The software helps map common controls across standards and minimize the time needed to get audit-ready.

5 Best SOC 2 compliance software

With numerous solutions available, it’s essential to differentiate between tools that simply tick the compliance box and those that provide long-term value – think about fast-tracking compliance, out-of-the-box read-to-launch compliance programs, automated evidence collection that’s powered by wide and intelligent integrations, continuous monitoring systems that can flag and triage alerts, and risk management suite that not only allows you to identify risks, but assess and prioritize them as per your business landscape. 

Lastly, you would also want to ensure that tool enables a smooth auditor-auditee collaboration, and streamline communications during an audit. 

Here are the top 5 SOC 2 compliance software that you must check out:

Sprinto

Sprinto is a compliance software solution helping SaaS businesses with security solutions like SOC 2. It automates manual compliance tasks, helping companies streamline their SOC 2 compliance end-to-end by continuously monitoring controls across all 5 SOC 2 trust service criteria. With Sprinto you have granular and real-time visibility into your security controls allowing you to roll out changes, monitor your security posture, streamline pre-audit checks, and accelerate certification with ease.

Sprinto integrates into your tech stack and helps you launch an audit-grade SOC 2 compliance program. And it is 10x faster than manual methods as it eliminates the need for tedious spreadsheets and other manual processes while ensuring 100% audit success. It also ensures that SOC 2 compliance is not just achieved, but is always maintained.

Read how Ripl achieved SOC 2 compliance readiness in just 25 days, one-third of the expected time.

G2: 4.8/5

Top Features

• Automated control mapping to SOC 2 controls: Sprinto automatically maps the relevant SOC 2 controls when you select the applicable criteria
• 24×7 real-time continuous monitoring: Critical assets are regularly monitored at granular levels and automated alerts are raised in case of deviations.
• Role-based access controls: Sprinto helps manage access reviews and automatically revokes access when an employee leaves the organization
• Automated collection and presentation of evidence: Evidence is collected in Sprinto’s security hub and translated for the auditor in the audit dashboard
• Systematic escalations: Tasks are segmented into critical, due, and failing for tiered remediation.
• Vulnerability and incident management: In-built continuous vulnerability scanning and incident management module along with integration capabilities with other tools
• Pre-built policies and security training modules: You can publish these across the organization and track acknowledgments/training completion
• Scalable compliance programs: Sprinto helps you reuse the work done for one compliance framework for other standards by mapping common controls
• Automated workflows: You can create new workflow checks and assign them to an owner while setting up triggers for misfires.
• Vendor risk management: Vendor risk is automatically collected by analyzing type of data being accessed

Pros

• Fast set-up and deployment
• Centralized visibility and progress tracking
• No loss of engineering bandwidth
• Straightforward collaboration with auditors through the audit dashboard
• Tailored for unique business cases

Read how Ripl achieved SOC 2 compliance readiness in just 25 days, one-third of the expected time.

Cons

• The system might consume resources extensively in rare scenarios and for intensive tasks
• Any service data transmitted through trial services will be lost unless you purchase the subscription to the same service.

Hyperproof

Hyperproof is a SOC 2 certification software helping organizations easily track and automate compliance tasks. It helps build a continuous compliance program for SOC 2 with real-time compliance status, automated workflows, and centralized operations.

Features

• Pre-built SOC 2 compliance program template
• Continuous oversight of compliance status
• Centralized dashboard for reporting and live status
• Risk classification based on technology, human factor, and external risks
• Simplifies evidence-collection tasks

Pros

• Provides training and education resources for helping organizations get started
• Simplifies software configurations for users without technical expertise
• Makes use of audit templates for various processes and industries
• Maintains audit trail changes with timestamps for easy investigation

Cons

• The user interface feels less responsive at times
• Certain automation areas offer limited choices and lack detail
• Limited integration options

Auditboard 

Auditboard is an audit, security, and IT risk management platform that offers a suite of features to improve the efficiency of security and compliance teams. It is preferred by internal auditors, risk managers, and compliance professionals across industries to ensure, regulatory adherence, and establish governance practices.

Features

• Risk assessments to help prioritize risks
• Continuous control monitoring to observe control performance 
• Automated evidence collection that reduces manual lift 
• Audit planning and management to keep audits on track 

Pros

• Unifies risk management and compliance efforts, breaking down silos 
• Strong focus on collaboration, allowing audit teams to communicate efficiently and manage tasks in real-time.
• Offers flexible customization options to tailor the platform to specific business needs.
• Robust reporting and analysis features that improve stakeholder buy-in, and enables course correction
• Scalable as the business grows and the security functions mature

Cons

• Complicated workflows and a steep learning curve. 
• Latency in support 
• Some users also reported challenges with integrations, requiring further technical support to effectively integrate them with other third-party systems like Excel

Anecdote 

Anecdote’s strength in the GRC space stems from humanizing compliance and risk management processes through intuitive storytelling and data-driven insights, which come together to drive better decision-making. The software is preferred more by mature GRC teams that regularly engage with board and stakeholders to report GRC ROI and take an active role in risk and compliance advisory of business decisions. 

Features

• Connected, data-driven dashboards that simplify reporting and bring out the right story
• Automation baked into the platform to automate routine compliance tasks 
• Intelligent risk insights and integrated risk management 
• An analysis engine that keeps false positives at bay, optimizing bandwidth and enabling strategic GRC decisions 
• Continuous control monitoring for security posture management 

Cons

• For teams still striving to achieve GRC maturity, Anecdote may feel overwhelming. Its advanced features and customization options can be complex to navigate without a solid foundation.
• The storytelling approach, while great for engagement, may risk oversimplifying complex compliance issues. 
• Depending on the level of customization and features needed, the platform may become costly for smaller organizations or those with limited GRC budgets.

Secureframe

Secureframe provides a centralized solution to automate compliance for security and privacy standards like SOC 2. Organizations can streamline their security efforts with platform-enabled risk management, real-time alerts, expert support, and end-to-end compliance processes.

Features

• Automated risk assessment and triage
• Real-time alerts for critical vulnerabilities and incidents
• Automated evidence collection
• Helps map controls and tests to frameworks
• Offers filterable view for employee device monitoring

Pros

• Actionable notifications for employees to take up tasks
• Customizable policies and automated tests as per business requirements
• Automated responses to RFPs available
• Efficient vendor relationship lifecycle management

Cons

• Unambiguity related to failing compliance tests
• The platform presents a learning challenge
• Integrations are clunky and can be hard to find

Logicgate

LogicGate RiskCloud is an automated GRC platform designed for large enterprises seeking to enhance their risk quantification programs. By mapping risks to financial outcomes, it provides deeper insights into the risk environment and its potential impacts, empowering organizations to make informed decisions.

Features: 

• Strategic Risk Management to align GRC with business objectives
• Enterprise Risk Management to centralize risk management of disparate business units
• Tools to report on ESG progress
• Workflows and control assessment tools to conduct internal audit
• Automated Evidence Collection to build an audit trail of control performance
• Business Continuity Management to ensure preparedness and quick recovery from disruptions

Pros

• Monte Carlo simulations to project the financial impact of an incident
• Centralized platform for managing risk assessments, compliance, and reports, leading to better visibility and accountability.

Cons 

• While configurable, the breadth of customization options can lead to a learning curve, requiring time and training to fully leverage.
• Depending on the level of customization and the number of users, the pricing model may be a concern for smaller organizations or startups with limited budgets.

Exabeam

Exabeam is primarily a security intelligence platform that offers features like threat detection, incident response, and security information and event management (SIEM). It leverages AI, machine learning, and user behavior analytics to arm teams with intelligence to mitigate risks proactively. 

As a part of their offerings, they also offer compliance tools for frameworks like SOC 2 and more. 

Features:

• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) to centralize the collection, normalization, and analysis of security event data from diverse sources.
• Continuously control monitoring to support risk management processes essential for SOC 2 compliance.
• Real-time alerts to help you curb security and compliance drifts. 

Pros

• The platform leverages ML algorithms to identify threats better and help you manage your security posture. 
• The platform features a clean user interface, making it easier for security teams to navigate, monitor, and respond to incidents.
• Automation helps you collect evidence for SOC 2 with less manual effort. 

Cons

• Exabeam may be costly for teams on a limited budget. 
• As a security intelligence platform, Exabeam focuses on risk management rather than compliance automation, shaping its product roadmap and current features accordingly.

Vanta

Vanta, with its automation, and unified dashboards, can simplify an organization’s SOC 2 journey with continuous oversight, automated evidence collection, and better audit preparedness.

 Features

• Automated tests to detect and remediate issues
• Real-time security posture monitoring
• Easy-to-track custom policy creation
• Proactive alerts for any misfires
• Vulnerability detection by pulling data from scanners

Pros

• Round-the-clock risk and misconfiguration assessment
• Easy to create and manage inventory of essential assets
• Data analysis across the web traffic for security insights
• Automated workflows for employee onboarding and offboarding

Cons

• Limited integration options
• Too many alerts with less contextual information
• Limited help with the remediation of issues

Drata

Drata is a compliance software tool that makes navigating through SOC 2 journey easier for cloud-hosted organizations. It helps automate security assessments, control monitoring, and compliance tracking to ensure smooth auditing processes.

Features

• Real-time compliance status with continuous control monitoring
• Built-in risk assessments
• Endpoint monitoring and configuration evidence collection
• Automated reminders for security training and policy acknowledgments
• Centralized vendor management

Pros

• Streamlined compliance program for end-to-end management
• User behavior monitoring for anomaly detection and quick alerts
• Gives insights about denied entries and policy enforcement with cloud gap analytics
• Helps create workflows for better IT ticket handling

Cons

• Add-on features are separately invoiced, increasing the overall cost
• Some infrastructure components require submission of manual evidence as these are not auto-monitored
• Renewal document upload requires the deletion of expired documents manually

Thoropass

Thoropass is an audit management platform that’s designed for teams of all sizes undertaking security and compliance initiatives. The tool minimizes manual effort and streamlines collaboration with the auditor during your security audits. 

Features:

• Built-in window to collaborate with your auditors from day 1, curbing back and forth and streamlining the entire audit process in one place. 
• Tools to automate evidence gathering for compliance audits 
• Dashboard to track audit progress and security posture 

Pros

• It supports major frameworks like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and SOC 2 
• Solutions are scalable and tailored to the needs of different industries like FinTech.

Cons

• As per some user reviews, new users might find ThoroPass’s interface intricate, requiring more time to navigate and utilize all features effectively.
• Access to advanced functionalities may require extra costs, making comprehensive usage financially challenging for some organizations. 

SOC 2 compliance tools by categories

In the case of large-scale organizations, there may be a requirement for area-focused expertise and comprehensive coverage. Businesses choose different categories of SOC 2 compliance solutions, like endpoint management software, identity and access management tools, and more.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

SIEM solutions help organizations identify and respond to cyber threats with real-time monitoring across the IT infrastructure. They help in providing a quick snapshot of security and compliance activities by collecting data from various sources. An automated response is triggered upon detection of an incident.

How do they assist with SOC 2 compliance: SIEM solutions facilitate log monitoring, threat detection, incident response, forensics, and audit-trail documentation.

SIEM examples:  

Splunk: Splunk gives comprehensive insights into the risk environment by collecting data from multiple sources and correlating it to identify malicious patterns. Splunk SIEM raises high-fidelity alerts for rapid response and incident management.

LogRhythm: LogRhythm streamlines data collected from endpoints, serves, applications, etc., to automate investigations. It has in-built playbooks for enhancing response preparedness and reducing downtime.

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

IAM solutions help organizations manage access privileges and permissions to networks and databases while ensuring security and preventing misuse. These tools ensure the right people have access to the right information on-need basis. They also help track user activities for identifying uncommon behaviour.

How do they assist with SOC 2 compliance: IAM tools ensure role-based access controls, authentication and authorization, documentation, and reporting, which are necessary for the security, privacy, and confidentiality principles of SOC 2.

IAM examples:

Okta: Okta manages privileged access, identity governance, and the workforce lifecycle for protecting against unauthorized intrusions and cyber-attacks. It is enriched with features like single sign-on and adaptive MFA for ensuring a secure environment across the IT infrastructure.

OneLogin: OneLogin comes with cloud-based authentication processes, user provisioning, de-provisioning, and identity lifecycle management for workforce access management. It supports an advanced synchronized directory, single sign-on, and smartfactor authentication for ensuring security and compliance.

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerability management tools help identify, prioritize, and mitigate vulnerabilities across networks and other information assets. They scan networks, databases, endpoints etc for weaknesses and include remediation measures like patch management for fixing vulnerabilities.

How do they assist with SOC 2 compliance: The SOC 2 common criteria (CC7.1) talks about entities having detection and monitoring procedures for identifying vulnerabilities. Vulnerability management tools make conducting these internal and external vulnerability checks/VAPT scans easy, remediating them on time and keeping a record of VAPT reports.

Vulnerability Management examples:

Qualys: Qualys helps identify critical assets, discover and prioritize risks, and track remediation for managing vulnerabilities throughout their lifecycle. The in-built orchestration workflows fast-track the organization’s response capabilities and facilitate quick patch management.

Nessus: Nessus helps organizations assess vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across the asset inventory with authenticated scans. The real-time continuous assessment and built-in threat prioritization accelerate remediation and ensure quick, decisive actions.

Endpoint detection and response

Endpoint detection and response tools help with real-time monitoring of endpoint devices like desktops, laptops, and mobiles to detect and respond to any security threats. These tools initiate automated responses like isolation of affected systems upon detecting a security violation.

How do they assist with SOC 2 compliance: For SOC 2, it is crucial to maintain a list of devices storing, processing, or transmitting critical data. EDR tools help track all endpoint devices and enforce checks like antivirus, screen-lock, etc, on these devices.

End-point detection and response examples: 

Crowdstrike Falcon: Crowdstrike Falcon ensures real-time visibility into endpoints and uses machine learning and behavior analytics for identifying suspicious behavior. It helps identify the origin of compromise for investigations and enables the IT staff to contain the spread.

Singularity XDR: Singularity XDR assists IT teams with enhanced visibility into network-connected endpoints and enables autonomous responses. No manual triage or scripting is required for threat resolution, which reduces employee burden and improves mean time to respond.

Data Loss Prevention

Data loss prevention tools monitor data flows and network traffic to identify any loss, tampering, leakage, unauthorized access, or other potential threats. It discovers sensitive information and enforces remediation measures like encryption in case of a malicious event.

How do they assist with SOC 2 compliance: SOC 2 readiness requires visibility into data and reporting how confidentiality, privacy, and data integrity are maintained. DLP tools help organizations manage data at rest and in motion and raise alerts on catching indicators of compromise.

Data loss prevention examples:

Symantec Data Loss Prevention: Symantec monitors and protects data from unauthorized access or loss across cloud, email, web, endpoints, and storage. Content-aware detection helps discover sensitivity across the IT infrastructure and initiates preventive action for risk mitigation. 

Forcepoint: Forcepoint provides risk-adaptive protection against data theft and breaches by classifying data and enforcing and adjusting policies as per user behavior. Data is secured throughout its lifecycle with its extensive coverage across web, cloud, and private applications.

Network security

Network security tools keep a watch on the network traffic to detect any intrusions and protect the organization’s information assets. These tools raise alerts on identifying indicators of compromise and are also used for troubleshooting.

How do they assist with SOC 2 compliance: SOC 2 compliance standards require critical assets to be protected against any kind of malware. Network security tools help in protecting these ass