How much does SOC 2 cost in 2026? A realistic breakdown for SMBs

For most SMBs and startups in 2026, an all-in first-year SOC 2 budget lands somewhere between $20,000 and $80,000, with many lean SaaS companies coming in around $25,000 to $45,000. The audit itself is only one line item: a SOC 2 Type 1 audit fee typically runs $5,000–$25,000 and a Type 2 audit fee $12,000–$70,000, but you also pay for readiness work, a penetration test, security tooling, and a meaningful chunk of internal time. The honest answer to “how much does SOC 2 cost” is that it depends on your scope, your audit firm, and how much of the prep you do yourself versus pay someone else to do.

This breakdown walks through each real cost so you can build a budget that holds up, instead of getting blindsided by a $15,000 line item you didn’t know existed.

The short version: what drives the total

Three things move your SOC 2 cost more than anything else:

• Type 1 vs. Type 2. Type 1 attests that your controls are designed correctly at a single point in time. Type 2 attests that they actually operated effectively over a window — commonly three to twelve months, with six-plus months the usual recommendation. Type 2 costs more and takes longer, but it’s what enterprise buyers ask for.
• Scope. The number of in-scope systems, environments, applications, and Trust Services Criteria you include. Every report covers the Security criterion; Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, and Privacy are optional add-ons that expand testing and cost.
• How much you DIY. Running your own readiness work and evidence collection on a compliance platform is far cheaper than hiring a consultancy to manage the whole engagement.

Keep those three levers in mind as we go line by line.

Line item 1: The audit fee

This is the fee paid to a licensed CPA firm to perform the examination and issue the report. Under AICPA attestation standards, only a licensed CPA firm can issue a SOC 2 report — compliance software cannot, and any vendor implying otherwise is misleading you.

As of 2026, typical SMB ranges look like this:

• Type 1 audit: roughly $5,000–$25,000
• Type 2 audit: roughly $12,000–$70,000 for small and mid-size companies

Boutique and SOC 2-specialist firms tend to sit at the lower end of those ranges; regional accounting firms in the middle; and large national or Big Four firms can run well into six figures. For a first report, most SMBs are well served by a reputable specialist or regional firm. The brand name on a Big Four report rarely changes whether you win a deal at SMB scale, and it can multiply your cost.

A common, sensible sequence is a Type 1 first to validate your control design, then a Type 2 covering the following observation window. Some companies skip straight to Type 2 to avoid paying for two reports — a legitimate choice if your controls are already mature.

Line item 2: Readiness assessment and remediation

A readiness assessment (sometimes called a gap assessment) is where you map your current state against the SOC 2 criteria and find what’s missing before the auditor does. This matters financially: a gap discovered during audit fieldwork costs more than one found in readiness, because auditors bill for the extra time and you may need a re-test.

You can approach readiness three ways:

1. DIY with a compliance platform — lowest cost, mostly your team’s time plus a software subscription.
2. Platform plus light advisory — a middle path where a consultant reviews your work.
3. Full-service consultancy — highest cost, often $10,000–$30,000+, where someone runs the program for you.

Then there’s remediation — actually fixing the gaps. This is highly variable. If you already run SSO, MFA, encryption, logging, and basic access reviews, remediation may be modest. If you’re starting from scratch, expect to invest in tooling and engineering time to close gaps before the audit window opens.

Line item 3: Penetration testing

A penetration test is a separate and frequently overlooked line item. SOC 2 doesn’t name “pen test” as a hard, universal requirement, but most auditors expect one as evidence of vulnerability management, and many enterprise customers ask to see it.

As of 2026, a quality external pen test scoped to your application and infrastructure typically runs $8,000–$30,000, with most first-time SaaS engagements landing in the lower half of that range. Compliance-driven testing usually carries a premium over a generic test because of the methodology and evidence format auditors expect. Some auditors bundle it; most quote it separately. Budget for it annually, not just once.

Line item 4: Compliance tooling and security stack

There are two cost buckets here:

• The compliance automation platform itself, which manages policies, maps controls, connects to your systems to collect evidence automatically, and tracks readiness. This is where pricing varies enormously — well-known enterprise GRC tools can run many thousands of dollars per year and price out smaller teams, while platforms built for SMBs cost a fraction of that.
• The underlying security tools the platform monitors — SSO/identity, MFA, endpoint protection, logging, and background-check or HR systems. You may already own most of these.

The platform is the highest-leverage spend on this list. Continuous control monitoring and automated evidence connectors directly attack the most expensive hidden cost of SOC 2: your team’s time.

Line item 5: Internal time (the cost everyone forgets)

The most underestimated part of how much SOC 2 costs is your own people. Someone has to write or adopt policies, gather evidence, answer auditor questions, run access reviews, and coordinate the engagement. For an SMB, that can easily consume hundreds of hours across a first-year project, usually concentrated on one or two already-busy people.

This is exactly where manual, screenshot-driven evidence collection drains budget invisibly. Automating evidence collection and monitoring controls continuously is the difference between a part-time effort and a second full-time job.

Ongoing cost: SOC 2 is annual

SOC 2 is not one-and-done. A Type 2 report covers a defined window, and customers expect a current report — typically one issued within the last 12 months. So you’ll re-budget each year for:

• A renewed Type 2 audit fee (often somewhat lower than year one, since the program already exists)
• An annual penetration test
• Your compliance platform subscription
• Ongoing internal maintenance — access reviews, policy updates, vendor reviews

A realistic ongoing annual figure for many SMBs is lower than year one but still meaningful — plan for it rather than treating SOC 2 as a one-time expense.

A sample first-year budget for a lean SaaS SMB

Every situation differs, but here’s an illustrative shape using mid-range 2026 figures:

For a startup that already has decent security hygiene and uses an SMB-friendly platform, an all-in first-year cash outlay in the $25,000–$45,000 range is realistic. Heavier scope, a larger firm, or starting from zero pushes it higher.

How to keep SOC 2 cost down without cutting corners

• Scope tightly. Include only the systems and criteria you actually need for year one. You can expand later.
• Do a Type 1 first if your controls are immature — it’s cheaper to fix design problems before a long observation window.
• Automate evidence collection so internal time doesn’t balloon. This is the single biggest controllable cost.
• Get multiple audit quotes. Fees for comparable work vary widely between firms.
• Reuse your work across frameworks. Much of SOC 2 overlaps with ISO 27001, HIPAA, and NIST CSF, so a multi-framework approach amortizes the effort.

The bottom line

So, how much does SOC 2 cost in 2026? For most SMBs, plan for $20,000–$80,000 all-in in year one, driven mainly by your audit type, scope, and how much you automate. The audit fee is the visible cost; readiness, pen testing, tooling, and internal time are where budgets actually break. Build the full picture up front and SOC 2 becomes a predictable line item rather than a surprise.

If enterprise GRC pricing has priced you out, this is the gap Forteri was built to close — a multi-framework compliance platform (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, NIST CSF, PCI, and more) with continuous control monitoring, automated evidence connectors, a Trust Center, and audit support, priced for SMBs rather than the Fortune 500. It won’t replace your CPA’s audit fee, but it can take the most expensive hidden costs — readiness and internal time — off your plate.