There are no set rules, but these tools and platforms will help you meet SOC 2 compliance requirements
The cost of SOC 2 compliance can range from $5,000 to $25,000. And that’s on the low end.
Ensuring SOC 2 compliance is a chief concern for cloud-native product developers. It signals to clients and customers that their information is being kept in a secure network environment.
However, there’s no definitive checklist for meeting SOC 2 compliance guidelines. This makes it difficult to assess whether or not you’ll meet the standard before an SOC 2 audit is performed. After all, your certified public accountant won't have the information you need.
SOC 2 compliance software will ensure your organization’s security is up to snuff. The following list details prominent SOC 2 compliance solutions that startups, SMBs, and enterprise businesses can use to create a SOC 2-compliant network environment.
Key Takeaways
- SOC 2 compliance requires more than a checklist because you must align your security practices with the AICPA’s Trust Services Criteria.
- Automation platforms simplify and accelerate compliance by saving time and reducing errors.
- Choose a tool that fits your growth stage and stack to ensure it integrates seamlessly with your current infrastructure.
The Best SOC 2 Compliance Software and Platforms
Creating an SOC 2 compliant organization is important for facilitating business at all levels. You’ll most likely want to partner with a SOC 2 compliance automation platform to get these controls up and running. Here are some of the industry’s best options.
DuploCloud
by DuploCloud
DuploCloud is an end-to-end DevSecOps platform. It assists with the deployment and provisioning of cloud applications. The platform features built-in compliance features for security standards of the SOC 2 type. It also aids with other compliance standards like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR.
DuploCloud’s ability to dramatically reduce cloud development pipelines makes it an ideal solution for SOC 2 compliance for startups. Still, it can serve organizations of all sizes.
Vanta
by Vanta
Vanta offers a centralized application to manage an organization’s security and compliance. It specializes in onboarding and offboarding employees and contractors. This eliminates the need to remove an offboarded employee’s system access manually. Instead, SOC 2 compliance automation will handle everything. Then it will run an SOC report for auditors. The onboarding tools make it an effective option for SMBs scaling up.
SecureFrame
by SecureFrame, Inc.
SecureFrame enables continuous compliance monitoring across a tech stack. It’s built to proactively remind administrators to run tests and view audit logs. This keeps recent updates at the forefront of utility. Additionally, SecureFrame can notify all personnel to complete tasks. These include policy acceptance and security awareness training. These are valuable for SOC 2 type certifications.
Drata
by Drata, Inc.
URL: https://drata.com/
Drata provides continuous monitoring services built to scale with organizations of any size. The platform’s control library offers more agency over security protocols. This allows organizations to implement custom controls that suit their needs. Drata will also show real-time views of an organization’s compliance automation program. At the same time, it will gather audit data.
Thoropass
by Thoropass.
Thoropass is a complete automation platform for organizations to start with SOC 2 automation compliance. It then expands to other frameworks, such as GDPR and HIPAA. The platform features in-app audit automation and management. These are designed to make the audit process as fast and efficient as possible.
SOC 2 Compliance Tools by Category
The AICPA Trust Services Criteria is more a set of guidelines than rules. As such, there’s not a definitive checklist that ensures compliance. Adopting a security-driven mindset across the organization will be the predictor of success. Organizations may use the following tools and software to create a solid foundation for SOC 2 compliance. And they won't have to automate the entire compliance process.
DuploCloud’s SOC 2 Compliance Checklist covers:
- Controls, processes
- Implementation
- More
These help govern the SOC 2 compliance efforts.
Download it today to learn more.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems
A SIEM system will aggregate security data from various sources. These can include endpoint security and intrusion detection systems. This helps create comprehensive, searchable reports for security teams to analyze in the event of a breach.
In recent years, the definition of a SIEM system has been updated. It now includes User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR).
UEBA will analyze anomalous behavior, such as strange logins. It will then highlight it for teams to look into. SOAR will automate the actions security teams must take to respond to an incident. This eliminates the need for analysts to create manual responses to individual security systems. For example, SOAR could quarantine a laptop infected with malware to ensure no other endpoint is affected. Meanwhile, UEBA would detect that the malware came from a phishing email and block access to the link containing the malware.
SolarWinds
by SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC.
URL: https://www.solarwinds.com/security-event-manager
SolarWinds provides a variety of network management software designed to increase an organization’s security posturing. It is particularly useful for monitoring network performance, performing bandwidth analysis, and remotely managing endpoint devices. Of course, this includes SOC 2 type compliance. The software also includes health score ratings for leadership teams. These give an overview of application and service performance.
Exabeam
by Exabeam
Exabeam provides comprehensive incident response workflows and UEBA analysis to help detect cyber threats. The software also uses machine learning in a variety of ways. For example, Clustering detects commonalities between artifacts and groups them according to their common features to identify DDoS attacks.
Wazuh
by Wazuh, Inc.
URL: https://wazuh.com/
Wazuh is an open source platform that combines SIEM, EDR, and HIDS into a single system. The platform provides protection for public and private clouds, as well as on-premises data centers to actively monitor and detect security threats and events as they arise. Wazuh features dashboards for regulatory compliance, vulnerabilities, file integrity, configuration assessment, cloud infrastructure events, and more.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Systems
A DLP system will help discover, classify, and protect sensitive data. It will monitor data activity coming in and out of a network, send an alert when it detects suspicious activity, and keep sensitive data from leaving the network. This is particularly valuable for transferring and analyzing sensitive customer information, like addresses and credit card information. Once sensitive data has been identified, DLP can use techniques like tokenization, masking, and redaction to preserve data without compromising its processing integrity.
BetterCloud
by BetterCloud, Inc.
URL: https://www.bettercloud.com/
BetterCloud’s DLP system is particularly useful for small organizations that rely heavily on Google Drive for storing and accessing sensitive information. The company provides a real-time API-based solution that leverages Google’s Drive Activity Report and Push Notification APIs for reporting.
Forcepoint DLP
by Forcepoint
URL: https://www.forcepoint.com/
Forcepoint is a more generalized DLP solution designed for a zero friction user experience. The toolset audits behavior in real time and uses Forcepoint’s Risk-Adaptive Protection to stop data loss before it occurs.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) Systems
IAM systems cover the provisioning and de-provisioning of user accounts, as well as authentication, authorization for actions, and auditing to ensure that each step of the process has been completed correctly.
They have become an increasingly important tool in recent years in part due to the rise of remote work, which has seen more endpoints being used outside of secure network conditions.An IAM system is useful for SOC 2 compliance because it can be used to enforce least-privilege principles, ensuring that users only have access to the resources they need to perform their jobs. Additionally, IAM systems will monitor access to sensitive data, such as client information.
Okta
by Okta
Okta is a robust IAM tool with Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) capabilities. Its combination of features enables fast, passwordless access to various applications.
JumpCloud
by JumpCloud Inc
JumpCloud is a cloud-based directory service that allows organizations to manage and secure both user identities and devices. It enables automatic provisioning and de-provisioning of users across multiple applications and resources, as well as device and password management capabilities.
Vulnerability Management
Implementing Vulnerability Management is an important part of a holistic SOC 2 compliance solution. As the name implies, a vulnerability scanner will analyze a network, server, application, or the like. It will then identify and provide an SOC 2 report of vulnerabilities.
Once identified, the scanner will flag and submit an SOC 2 report of vulnerabilities for further review.
Nessus
by Tenable
URL: https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus
Nessus helps your service organization identify and remediate vulnerabilities within their IT infrastructure. It will scan networks for vulnerabilities and provide detailed assessments of risks. Finally, it will perform an SOC 2 report.
Network Segmentation
Network segmentation divides a computer network into smaller parts, often down to individual endpoints. Doing so can prevent a widespread cyberattack from infecting more devices and enhance network performance. The more granular level of network segmentation is microsegmentation, which will provide better network traffic visibility across data centers and clouds.
CloudGuard
by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.
URL: https://www.checkpoint.com/cloudguard/#
CloudGuard enhances the native microsegmentation and elastic networking of cloud environments, delivering advanced security and consistent policy enforcement built to scale. The software allows organizations to secure workloads running in both hybrid and public cloud environments.
Zscaler Private Access
by Zscaler
Zscaler Private Access is a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) segmentation tool designed to give each endpoint secure, direct connectivity to private applications without placing them on an organization’s network. It supports both user-to-app and app-to-app segmentation, as well as process-to-process/identity-based microsegmentation for communication within a cloud.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans
Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) plans (BCDR) establish how a business will continue operating during an emergency scenario. This is perfect preparation for an SOC 2 audit.
It also lays out what steps will be taken to return to its full operational state. Having a predetermined plan can help with decision-making in extreme circumstances. This plan for security controls can also boost morale and create a better sense of risk management.
BCDR plans have long been used to plan for events like natural disasters. Still, the rise of cybersecurity attacks has made data security contingencies and processing integrity important aspects of BCDR. Part of both an SOC 2 audit and SOC 2 compliance is ensuring that organizations maintain accessibility to critical services. As a result, BCDR is essential.
Archer Business Resiliency
by Archer Technologies LLC
URL:https://www.archerirm.com/business-resiliency
Archer Business Resiliency is designed to help organizations achieve full operational resiliency It does this by identifying and cataloging mission-critical processes and systems. Visibility into resiliency tasks allows organizations to respond to incidents swiftly, mitigating risks in the event of a crisis.
Ready to take your understanding of SOC 2 Compliance Software, and compliance in general, further? Check out The Complete Guide to SOC 2 Compliance.
Work with DuploCloud
If your organization is looking to lower its operating costs while speeding up its development and time-to-compliance timeline, DuploCloud can help. Our platform takes a holistic approach to DevSecOps automation.
Choosing the right SOC 2 compliance software isn’t just about passing an audit. It’s about building trust with your customers and stakeholders. These tools both simplify the compliance journey and enhance your overall security posture.
By integrating the right platform into your workflow, you can:
- Automate tedious tasks
- Minimize human error
- Free up valuable engineering resources
Whether you're a startup or an enterprise, investing in the right compliance solution today can prevent costly security issues tomorrow. Explore your options and compare features. And don’t forget to choose the platform that best aligns with your goals for scalability, security, and speed.
We ensure that your cloud applications are ready to deploy at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional development. We also commit to the highest level of processing integrity. If you want to learn more about how DuploCloud can reduce costs by up to 75%, contact us today.
FAQs
What is SOC 2 compliance, and why does it matter?
SOC 2 compliance is a framework for managing and protecting customer data based on five "Trust Services Criteria." These include security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
It’s essential for cloud-native companies because it demonstrates to customers and partners that your systems and processes meet a high standard of data protection and security.
How does SOC 2 compliance software help with the audit process?
SOC 2 compliance software automates the collection of evidence, monitors control effectiveness in real-time, and keeps audit documentation organized. You can choose from platforms: DuploCloud, Drata, and Vanta.
These streamline onboarding, track access, enforce security policies, and generate auditor-ready reports. This helps to greatly simplify the audit preparation process.
How do I choose the right SOC 2 compliance platform for my company?
Start by identifying your business size, infrastructure, and compliance goals. Smaller teams might benefit from all-in-one automation tools like DuploCloud or Vanta. Larger enterprises may prefer more customizable solutions with advanced monitoring, like Drata or SecureFrame.
Look for platforms that integrate easily with your tech stack and support multiple frameworks if you anticipate scaling compliance needs.
Is SOC 2 compliance a one-time effort?
No. SOC 2 compliance is an ongoing process that involves continuous monitoring, regular audits (usually annually), and a culture of security across the organization. Most of the tools featured in this article support continuous compliance. They help organizations stay aligned with SOC 2 requirements as they evolve.
