As a startup, getting SOC 2 compliant demonstrates you take data security seriously from the get-go. It sets you apart from competitors and builds credibility with potential enterprise clients. Plus, it’s often a hard requirement for closing big deals.
Many investors also view SOC 2 as a must-have for startups. It shows you have proper governance, risk management, and data security practices in place – key factors for sustainable growth.
And the earlier you implement SOC 2 controls, the smoother your compliance journey. It’s much harder (and costlier) to retrofit security and compliance later on.
Luckily, there are tools designed to make SOC 2 compliance easier for startups from day one. These tools streamline the compliance process, offering support and automation to help you stay on track.
Let’s take a look at our list of the top 5 compliance tools for startups.
5 Best SOC 2 Compliance Tools in 2024
1. Scytale
Regarding SOC 2 compliance, Scytale leads the charge for startups.
By design, Scytale provides hands-on compliance guidance and an easy-to-use interface, catering to the needs of smaller companies that are more agile and, therefore, epitomizing next-generation compliance. Their real strength is serving startups—and it shows in everything they do. They’ve helped hundreds of startups get SOC 2 compliant by simplifying every little thing in this complex process.
It has an individual approach, practical tools, and control monitoring to help a business assure its SOC 2 compliance without much in-house expertise. In other words, Scytale is the ideal solution that provides specialized, supportive, and practical compliance for any startup.
2. OneTrust
OneTrust is a fully-fledged platform for secure handling of company data. Its vision focuses on aiding teams in innovating responsibly while mitigating security, privacy, governance, and compliance risks.
OneTrust’s platform provides an end-to-end solution, well known for its strong integrability with pre-existing tech stacks so that you don’t compromise data integrity or compliance anywhere else in your systems.
However, OneTrust may best suit large, well-established enterprises with an in-house compliance or security team. The depth of functionality and scaling capability the platform offers may be too much for small startups. Unnecessary complexity here may result in increased costs later on.
3. JupiterOne
JupiterOne provides visibility across all cloud and on-premise assets, such that all connections between assets and potential vulnerabilities are easily overseeable and their impact understood.
It also notifies you of all significant changes so that you’ll be updated on the potential risk events of non-compliance activities. The platform will also automate all evidence collection for your SOC 2 audit, which is very helpful for startups who lack the time to do this by hand.
Compliance alone, however, is not the key focus of JupiterOne. Its capabilities in terms of asset visibility and vulnerability management are brilliant, but compared to other capabilities it has in store for any seeking startup, the features of SOC 2 compliance are relatively less comprehensive.
4. LogicGate
LogicGate manages GRC from a holistic perspective. This enriching platform can be the single source of truth today for all your compliance efforts, including SOC 2.
What’s more, owing to the no-code app builder and greatly benefiting from pre-built templates in customizing processes and workflows, automated GRC tasks are created with no need for a paid consultant or any IT genius—a very strong approach point about compliance tailored to any startup’s needs.
While LogicGate does support SOC 2 compliance, it’s not a crucial part of the offering. Hence, for startups seeking a tool exclusively for SOC 2 purposes, reliance on LogicGate alone might be short-lived, with additional resources or platforms needing to be brought in.
5. AuditBoard
Last but not least, AuditBoard is the solution that empowers simplicity throughout the audit lifecycle—from risk assessments to SOC 2 control testing. Companies can perform a wide array of auditing tasks, which in turn means that AuditBoard globally becomes a platform where your audit, risk, IT security, and ESG tasks converge.
It facilitates teams’ communication related to compliance tasks in a way handy for small teams in startups looking to get everyone on the same page regarding SOC 2 compliance.
While useful, AuditBoard shares the same possible weakness as OneTrust:, in that it is particularly better-suited for large, established companies with in-house compliance and security teams. Its highly specialized features and rather exhaustive approach make it too much for startups, lowering its cost-effectiveness over time.
Wrapping Up SOC 2 Compliance Tools for Startups
So there you have it – a review of 5 leading SOC 2 compliance tools for a startup to consider.
While SOC 2 compliance may seem way out of the reach of many resource-constrained startups, the right software will make this process considerably more tractable. Don’t wait until a customer is demanding SOC 2. Roll out the best practices early with the above solutions at your side; do it right, and you’ll cruise through your SOC 2 audit to that compliance badge of honor, showing customers you mean business about protecting their data.
Now, find the software that best fits, implement it with confidence, and sleep easy about your SOC 2 compliance worries!
