For a 1–10-person SaaS team with a simple system and controls ready, $7,000 to $10,000 is a useful Type 2 audit budget when shopping among lower-cost specialists. Type 1 starts with a $5,000 to $7,000 planning budget. These are budget-shopping scenarios, not market averages. Software, preparation, and testing cost extra when your proposal excludes them.
The directory covers small specialists, full-service CPA firms, and Big Four offices. These reference bands describe that wider market; a small startup shopping on price can come in below them.
| Firm type | Type 1 | Type 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Specialist CPA firm | $10,000–$35,000 | $16,000–$50,000 |
| Full-service CPA firm | $20,000–$60,000 | $30,000–$80,000 |
| Big Four | $40,000–$140,000 | $60,000–$200,000 |
Each band runs from the median listed minimum to the median listed maximum for that firm type. Most directory prices are estimates. They are neither minimum fees nor a record of what most buyers paid. See the sources and calculation.
Use the SOC 2 audit cost calculator to adjust company size, report type, and scope. Specialist estimates keep the same lower-cost buying assumption as your team grows, with allowances for size and scope. The result is a budget to test with quotes, with the assumptions shown beside it.
$7,000 to $10,000 is a reasonable budget-shopping scenario for a Type 2 audit when you have 1–10 people, one simple SaaS system, Security-only scope, and controls ready for testing. You are comparing lower-cost specialists and do not need a particular large-firm name on the report.
The starting range comes from our Zero Day CPA pricing estimate. We also check the model against anonymized quote patterns. It remains a planning estimate, not a firm-confirmed offer or a survey of startup spending. Some small-scope offers cost less; extra systems, criteria, or a required auditor brand can cost more. The calculator methodology explains this reference and the adjustments.
Ask for the audit fee, Type 2 observation dates, and exclusions in writing. A short first report may not meet a customer's requirement for a longer period. The Type 2 cost guide covers that choice and the next audit; the startup budget guide covers the wider first-year plan.
Your first-year budget is the audit fee plus the preparation, software, testing, and staff time you actually need. A prepared startup buying a lower-cost audit has a different bill from a team hiring consultants to build its controls. Start with your audit quote, then add the work in your own plan.
The software pricing comparison and penetration-testing cost guide help with those separate purchases.
These figures cover different company sizes and scopes. They are useful for checking a proposal, not for adding up a startup budget.
| Budget row | Current planning range | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| CPA audit — Type 1 | $10,000–$35,000 | Specialist planning band. Use when the requester accepts a report at a specified date. Big Four Type 1 is $40,000–$140,000. |
| CPA audit — Type 2 | $16,000–$50,000 | Specialist planning band. Use when the requester needs operating-effectiveness evidence over a specified period. Big Four Type 2 is $60,000–$200,000. |
| Compliance platform | $3,600–$78,125 | Sourced annual-USD envelope across comparable directory records; it mixes confirmed figures and labeled estimates, omits unknowns, and is not a typical price. |
| Penetration test | $8,000–$30,000 | Separate scope in most proposals; confirm test type, targets, and retest policy. |
| Internal labor | $25,000–$90,000 | Opportunity-cost range from buyer and partner submissions; not a vendor invoice. |
| Control remediation | $5,000–$50,000 | Applies only when readiness finds work that must be completed before or during the engagement. |
| Scope-change exposure | $10,000–$30,000 | Buyer-reported change-order range; prevent it by freezing the system boundary and criteria. |
Do not add both audit types or blindly total every maximum. A buyer pursues one report path, and not every add-on applies. The ranges use different evidence classes: audit bands regenerate from the directory, while non-audit rows are dated planning inputs described on the cost sources page. The cost calculator models a specific scope; it does not turn optional rows into required spend.
SOC 2 is an attestation, not a certification, so there is no separate certificate fee. The phrase usually refers to the CPA examination: $10,000 to $35,000 for Type 1 or $16,000 to $50,000 for Type 2 at a specialist firm, before any separate readiness, software, testing, remediation, or labor cost.
Ask the requester which report it means. Type 1 addresses control design at a specified date; Type 2 also addresses operating effectiveness throughout a specified period. Calling every quote “certification” hides that difference and makes price comparisons unreliable.
Give every CPA firm the same five inputs, then compare written inclusions and change triggers. Without a normalized brief, a lower quote may simply exclude work another firm included.
We match firms to your scope and bring their ballpark quotes back. Free and anonymized.
Third-party price points reviewed in June 2026 corroborate the organization-group ranges above: first-person buyer reports from public forums, and figures audit firms publish about their own market. Duplicate, ambiguous, and low-credibility sources were rejected. See our monthly-refreshed cost statistics for how these figures move each month.
| Figure | Covers | Source |
|---|---|---|
| $20,000 | Total / type not stated | First-person figure in an r/msp thread, Nov 2024 |
| $12,000 | Total / type not stated | First-person figure in an r/SaaS thread, Jan 2024 |
| $15,000 | Type 2 audit | First-person figure in an r/msp thread, Dec 2025 |
| $5,500 | Type 1 audit | First-person figure in an r/soc2 thread, Mar 2025 |
| $10,000 | Readiness phase | First-person figure in an r/cybersecurity thread, Nov 2023 |
| $13,500 | Readiness phase | The Pun Group (CPA firm in our directory), readiness guide, Nov 2025 |
| $27,500 | Total / type not stated | The Pun Group (CPA firm in our directory), cost guide, Dec 2025 |
| $85,000 | Total / type not stated | A-LIGN SOC 2 guide, Mar 2026 — an "up to" upper bound, not a typical fee |
| $50,000 | Type 2 audit | FRSecure SOC 2 Type 2 overview (undated) |
Compliance-automation platforms publish estimates too: across the guides of Drata, Sprinto, Secureframe, and Vanta, audit figures run $7,500 to $45,000. Those are estimates rather than recorded prices, so we don't table them individually — but every reviewed record, including the platform figures, is listed with its method and retrieval date on the sources page. We show these figures so you can compare our audit fee estimates with prices reported elsewhere; we do not use them to calculate the ranges for each type of firm above. Read a platform's own audit-cost estimate as marketing content: it has an incentive to make the audit line look small next to its own subscription fee.
Three decisions made before an RFP determine whether the quotes describe the same job. Normalize those inputs before comparing price.
A Security-only scope is usually narrower than one with additional criteria. Add Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, or Privacy when the report's intended users need them, and have each firm price the same selection.
Our data shows large price differences by organization group. Ask whether a named customer, regulator, lender, or board actually requires a particular firm before paying for brand and scale you do not need.
Have every firm state whether readiness, system-description support, extra samples, re-testing, travel, add-on criteria, report revisions, and scope changes are included. A low fee with open-ended exclusions is not the low-cost quote.
The pricing questions buyers usually need answered before they issue an RFP.
Tell us your audit type, criteria, system count, and target date. We send the same scope to matching firms so the quotes describe the same job.
Menu