If your company is trying to close an enterprise deal, chances are the buyer's security team has already asked for a SOC 2 report. Getting one used to mean weeks of screenshotting settings, chasing coworkers for proof they turned on two-factor auth, and redoing the whole thing every year. A newer category of software — compliance automation — connects directly to the tools you already use (AWS, GitHub, Google Workspace, your HR system) and continuously checks that the controls an auditor cares about are actually in place, instead of someone manually assembling evidence once a year. Below are seven real tools in this space, from the market leaders to more specialized picks for privacy, identity, and continuous pentesting.
1. Vanta — the market leader, best if you want the widest integration coverage
Vanta automatically checks whether your actual systems meet certification requirements like SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA, instead of someone manually proving it to an auditor by hand. It's the biggest name in the space for a reason: over 16,000 customers, including technically sophisticated buyers like Cursor, Snowflake and GitHub, and 400+ integrations to pull evidence from. It was also named a Leader in Forrester's GRC Platforms Wave (Q2 2026), which is one of the few independent rankings in this category.
Watch out for: pricing isn't public — you'll need a sales call to get a number — and the "hours saved" claims in Vanta's marketing are vendor-reported, not independently audited. How much value you get also depends heavily on how many frameworks and integrations you actually need; a five-person startup pursuing only SOC 2 won't use most of the platform.
Pick Vanta if: you want the tool with the largest ecosystem and the most social proof from other companies your size or bigger.
2. Drata — Vanta's closest rival, strong on vendor risk and AI-agent governance
Drata does essentially the same core job as Vanta — continuous, automated evidence collection across compliance frameworks — and the two are each other's most direct competitors. Drata's differentiators: an "agent governance" feature that extends compliance monitoring to AI agents specifically, autonomous third-party vendor risk assessment, and a customer base of 8,500+ that includes recognizable names like Brex and Okta.
Watch out for: the overlap with Vanta is real — most teams end up choosing based on sales experience, specific integrations, or which auditor partnerships matter to them, rather than a clear feature gap. Pricing is quote-only here too.
Pick Drata if: you specifically need vendor risk management bundled in, or you're already deploying AI agents internally and want their activity covered by the same audit trail.
3. Sprinto — established, audit-firm partnerships, clearer sense of real-world cost
Sprinto automates the same tedious evidence-collection work, but has been around since 2020 and has direct partnerships with SOC 2 audit firms, which can smooth out the handoff between "software says you're compliant" and "human auditor agrees." It serves 3,000+ customers across 75 countries.
Pricing: not published, but independent sources put a SOC-2-only plan around $8,000–$10,000/year, and a multi-framework program (SOC 2 + ISO 27001 + HIPAA) between $9,000–$15,000/year, up to $30,000/year for complex setups — useful as a ballpark before you take a sales call, since none of these vendors publish numbers upfront.
Watch out for: that's a meaningful line item on top of the audit fees themselves, and Sprinto competes directly with two much more established brands in Vanta and Drata, so it doesn't offer an obvious price discount for being less well-known.
Pick Sprinto if: you want the audit-firm relationship handled for you and you're comfortable with a mid-market vendor rather than the category leader.
4. Scytale — built for a company's first audit, with AI-drafted questionnaire answers
Scytale is explicitly positioned for founders going through their first security certification, with 80+ frameworks covered and a feature that AI-drafts first responses to the security questionnaires prospects send you (a genuinely painful, repetitive task at most B2B startups). It also offers a public Trust Center so prospects can self-serve your compliance status instead of emailing your team.
Watch out for: less market visibility and fewer public reviews than Vanta or Drata, and — like every vendor here — no published pricing, so get quotes from at least two competitors before committing.
Pick Scytale if: this is your company's first audit and you want a vendor that's built its pitch specifically around that experience.
5. DataGrail — for privacy compliance (GDPR/CCPA), not security certifications
DataGrail is a different animal from the four above: instead of SOC 2, it automates privacy-law paperwork — like fulfilling a "delete my data" request under GDPR or CCPA — across every app your company uses, instead of your legal team manually chasing each vendor. It has 1,500+ pre-built SaaS integrations (versus the 50–200 typical of rivals like OneTrust) and generates a live data map instead of a static spreadsheet.
Watch out for: it's priced and positioned for enterprise complexity, so a small team might find it overkill; it's essentially competing in the same heavyweight category as OneTrust, not as a lightweight add-on.
Pick DataGrail if: your compliance headache is privacy regulation (GDPR, CCPA, Colorado CPA, Virginia VCDPA) rather than a security certification like SOC 2.
6. Zluri — identity governance, including AI agents and service accounts
Zluri tackles a specific and growing blind spot: non-human identities — service accounts, API tokens, and now AI agents — that traditional identity tools weren't built to track. It automates access reviews for SOX/SOC 2 audits and combines identity governance with visibility into SaaS spend and shadow IT.
Watch out for: it straddles two categories (identity governance and spend management) rather than excelling narrowly at one, and it's enterprise-only with no public pricing to gauge fit before a sales call.
Pick Zluri if: access reviews and non-human identity sprawl are your actual pain point, not evidence collection for an audit.
7. Astra Security — continuous pentesting instead of an annual one-off
Astra Security is the odd one out on this list in a good way: instead of compliance paperwork, it's a hired-hacker team on retainer, mostly automated. Its AI agents continuously probe your app, APIs and cloud setup instead of you paying for one big annual pentest and hoping nothing changed since. It combines continuous automated scanning with certified human pentesters, tests for 10,000+ vulnerability types, and — unlike every other vendor on this list — actually publishes its pricing.
Pricing: DAST Scanner $69–499/month, API Security $199–499/month, Cloud Scanner $99–199/month, full Pentest $1,999–5,999/year, Enterprise on quote, with a $7 trial.
Watch out for: its cumulative claims (like "$69M+ in losses prevented") aren't independently verifiable per-customer, and the human pentest component is still billed separately and isn't cheap.
Pick Astra if: you need ongoing vulnerability management and API/cloud security testing — not just an audit-evidence trail — and you actually want a price you can see before talking to sales.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|
| Vanta | Widest integrations, most social proof | Quote-only, 4 tiers |
| Drata | Vendor risk + AI-agent governance | Quote-only |
| Sprinto | Audit-firm partnerships | ~$8k–$30k/year (est.) |
| Scytale | First-time SOC 2 audits | Quote-only, tiered |
| DataGrail | GDPR/CCPA privacy compliance | Quote-only, enterprise |
| Zluri | Identity governance, non-human identities | Quote-only, enterprise |
| Astra Security | Continuous pentesting | Published: $69–5,999+ |
None of these tools make the underlying work of being secure disappear — you still need real controls, not just a dashboard that says you do. What they remove is the manual, once-a-year scramble to prove it. If you're chasing your first SOC 2, Scytale or Sprinto are built for that moment; if you want the biggest ecosystem and the most companies to compare notes with, Vanta and Drata are the default choices most buyers already recognize; and if your actual problem is privacy law, identity sprawl, or ongoing pentesting rather than a certification, DataGrail, Zluri and Astra Security solve narrower problems better than a generalist GRC platform would.