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Drata automates compliance monitoring. SimpleAudit uses AI to do the compliance work for you, from policy generation to risk assessment.
| Feature | SimpleAudit | Drata |
|---|---|---|
| AI Policy Generation | AI for questionnaires, vendor risk and control mapping | |
| Conversational AI Interface | ||
| Continuous Monitoring | ||
| Integration Marketplace | ||
| Risk Register | ||
| Vendor Management | ||
| Access Reviews | ||
| Multiple Frameworks | SOC 2 (more planned) | |
| Published price |
No platform on this page includes the audit. The CPA firm that signs your SOC 2 report is a separate purchase. Our row uses our audit partner's starting price; for the others, add the fee your auditor quotes.
| Option | Platform, first year | Audit | First-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimpleAudit Starter | $480 | Type 1 from $5,000 | from $5,480 |
| Drata | $12,000–$28,000 | + your auditor's fee | Depends on your auditor |
From $40/mo (Starter, billed annually at $480). Essentials is $199/mo billed annually. Our row is the lowest first-year cost: Starter ($480 a year) plus a SOC 2 Type 1 from MJD Advisors, a peer-reviewed, US-based CPA firm, from $5,000. Starter covers the Security criteria only, for one user and one audit preparation. It gets you audit-ready, but the audit tools (audit window tracking, the audit package export, audit documents and auditor fields) are on Essentials, so on Starter you hand your evidence to the auditor yourself. A Type 1 is the option when a prospect needs a report in under about 3 months. Our recommended path is a security-only SOC 2 Type 2 with a 3-month observation window: MJD prices it from $7,500, and with Essentials ($2,388 a year), which runs the audit, the first year starts at $9,888. MJD Advisors is SimpleAudit's audit partner.
Drata's range is Vendr's buyer data for companies under 50 employees on SOC 2 (read 2026-09-29). Drata publishes no prices.
Teams choose SimpleAudit over Drata when they want AI to do the compliance work, not just monitor the compliance infrastructure they build themselves.
"Be aware of their salespeople who overpromise and underdeliver" — "They are not 'holding your hand' through the process as they sell it out to be."
Source: Verified Drata User, G2 2/5 (Feb 2026, Organic)
Drata's automation depends on connecting your systems (it lists 200+ integrations). Someone on your team sets those up before the automated checks mean much.
Source: drata.com, read 2026-09-29
Drata's pricing page has no prices, only a demo request. Vendr's buyer data puts companies under 50 employees at $12,000–$28,000 a year before the audit.
Source: drata.com/pricing and Vendr buyer data, read 2026-09-29
Drata is a control-monitoring platform: you configure integrations, it watches for drift. SimpleAudit is an AI-guided compliance partner: you talk to it, it builds your program, explains your auditor’s questions in plain language, and keeps you on cadence month after month.
SimpleAudit's AI walks you through each step in plain language, from your first policy to your auditor's questions, on every plan. Drata's 2026 releases put its AI to work on questionnaires, vendor risk and control mapping for GRC teams; SimpleAudit's AI is aimed at the person doing compliance for the first time.
Drata assumes you have someone who can wire AWS, Okta, and Jira integrations. SimpleAudit is built for the founder or ops lead who doesn’t have that person yet — common at the seed stage — where policies and evidence come from a conversation, not an integration setup project.
Drata is right for a team that already has a security or GRC owner and wants continuous control monitoring across many connected systems (Drata lists 200+ integrations), with room to add frameworks beyond SOC 2. Its 2026 releases, AI agent governance, agentic vendor risk and questionnaire automation, are built for that buyer, usually a company at Series A scale or later. If no one on your team will own integrations and you need one SOC 2 report, Drata's price buys capability you will not use yet: Vendr's buyer data puts companies under 50 employees at $12,000–$28,000 a year before the audit.
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