Everything You Need to Know About GRC Software Pricing
Don't get blindsided by hidden compliance costs, here's what you can expert to pay for GRC software.
GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) software can help automate compliance processes and streamline risk management and regulatory compliance. These tools help reduce manual work and mitigate errors as well as ensuring your team can meet your compliance needs without burning out your engineering team.
But trying to get an answer on how much that software actually costs isn’t always straightforward. And for good reason — there’s a lot that goes into the final price of GRC software, such as: your organizational needs, employee headcount, and the key features you require.
In this guide, we’ll go into more detail on the key factors influencing GRC pricing and give you some ballpark figures to help you estimate costs.
What is GRC Software?
GRC software is a centralized system that helps you manage cybersecurity rules, risks, and compliance in one place.
Without GRC software, you’re likely using spreadsheets, Google Drive folders, recurring calendar reminders to keep on top of compliance, and manually collective screenshots as evidence your systems are working as they should be.
GRC software automates these processes. For example, instead of one of your engineers needing to manually take screenshots as evidence, a GRC tool will query the API every hour to verify it is on in real-time.
Here’s what else GRC software can help with:
- Automated Risk Assessment: GRC software can help identify and prioritize risks, from internal vulnerabilities and third-party vendors.
- Continuous Compliance Monitoring: Rather than a last-minute rush to get audit-ready every year, GRC software montiors compliance 24/7 and tracks how your posture lines up against the requirements of specific frameworks (like SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA).
- Workflow Automation: Streamlining repetitive tasks ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks.
- Centralized Document and Policy Management: GRC software acts as a secure space for your SOPs, audit logs, and policies.
- Reporting and Analytics: A dashboard that tracks your compliance posture in real-time.
How Much Does GRC Software Cost?
I’ll caveat this by saying that GRC software pricing varies significantly depending on the tool and your specific needs, so it’s impossible to say exactly what GRC software will cost your business right now.
GRC vendors tend to base pricing on the complexity of your needs and the size of your business. If you’re a startup looking to cover a single framework like SOC 2 costs will likely start at around $10,000 per year for a cloud-based solution. As you add more frameworks (ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, etc.), costs tend to increase accordingly.
For a mid-size SMBs, you could be looking at $20-60K+ and at the enterprise level annual contracts could run $150K–$180K+ depending on company size (and number of users), frameworks, and your security infrastructure. Some GRC platforms may also charge a one-time onboarding or setup fee.
Plus, you also need to consider setup fees. If you’re not familiar with GRC platforms like Vanta, it’s often worth working with an expert compliance team to help streamline your setup and onboarding.
Key Factors That Influence the Price
GRC software isn’t like your average saas product. These tools are very complex and help your company keep on top of key compliance tasks like: incident management, third-party risk management, regulatory changes. Due to the level of service they provide, you’ll rarely find flat pricing.
Four key factors influence your compliance software price are:
Required Compliance Frameworks
If you just need to monitor SOC 2 compliance policies and controls, you’ll likely pay less than tracking multiple frameworks like SOC 2 plus ISO 27001 or HIPAA. Most organizations will start out with one framework but you should also factor your future compliance needs (and the potential costs into your decision making process.
Employee headcount
Like most software tools, your headcount is big factor in pricing. A startup that needs five seats will pay less than an enterprise business needing to track compliance across 500 teammates and multiple offices.
Deployment Model
How the GRC platforms are deployed is a significant determinant in the pricing. A GRC software can be
- Cloud-based: Hosted by the software vendor and accessed via the internet. The vendor manages the infrastructure, updates, and security, and offers subscription pricing.
- On-premise: Installed and hosted on the company's own server. If you choose on-premises deployment, your IT team manages the infrastructure.
Additional Costs to Be Mindful Of
Integration and Implementation costs
For the modern GRC solution, its basic plans include integrations with your existing tech stack: AWS, Google Workspace, Slack, and GitHub. However, if you need to increase its integration capabilities with on-prem legacy tools, your integration cost will increase.
Maintenance and Support
Several GRC solutions can have ongoing maintenance and support fees. These costs include software updates, technical support, expert help, renewals, and more. Some vendors may charge higher for fast and guaranteed responses.
For example, SAP maintenance and support fees can be 17%-22% of the maintenance base (the sum of costs associated with the license, so the higher the total cost, the higher the maintenance)
Onboarding and Training Costs
Onboarding fees are charged by some GRC tools. You may also be required to pay additional expenses, such as training and support fees. Training ensures your team has an understanding of regulatory requirements, your security posture and policies, as well as how your GRC software works.
Sometimes software providers will offer training directly. However, a lot of time time organizations will hire another third-party firm to conduct training. The costs for this can vary depending on whether you’re looking for in-house or online training. Many providers also charge per employee, so your headcount will come into play here too.
How GRC Pricing is Structured
GCR software pricing depends on the software vendor and the services they provide. Generally, it falls into two buckets:
Subscription Pricing
Most cloud-based GRC tools use a subscription pricing model, where you pay an annual recurring fee. The costs will depend on everything we’ve discussed above (frameworks, headcount) and also the level of features required, with some providers offering tiered subscriptions depending which additional features your organization may need.
Legacy/Perpetual Licensing Pricing
This is commonly associated with on-premises software deployment, where the software is hosted on your own server, and you own the asset.
It is costlier than the subscription pricing model because you’re paying a high upfront cost ofor all for the license, and then ongoing maintenance. You also need skilled engineering and compliance experts to help you monitor system.
Automate Your GRC with Worksheet's AI GRC
When you’re looking at the cost of GRC software, don't just look at the price of the software subscription, it's more than that. You need to take a 360-degree approach considering setup and maintenance, expert consulting, and training costs.
Want support? At Workstreet we’ve built and operated more startup GRC programs than any other company. We're fast, thorough, and have a track record of 100% success.
Our AI-powered GRC, offers turnkey compliance for SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and 20+ other frameworks. We handle the entire process for you so you can focus on your business.
