SOC 2 compliance software for UK and EU teams

Does SOC 2 apply to the UK?

SOC 2 does not apply as UK law. It is an American Institute of CPAs attestation standard that UK SaaS companies pursue when US customers request a current SOC 2 Type 2 report during procurement. The requirement is commercial rather than regulatory.

European buyers ask for something different more often. ISO 27001, an information-security management system standard, is the certificate a German, French or other EU enterprise customer is more likely to name in its own supplier-assurance process. Some also ask about Germany’s C5 catalogue specifically, which is covered on its own below. The scope you need is set by who is actually asking and the systems that handle their data, not by a platform vendor’s framework menu.

Should a UK or EU SaaS company pursue SOC 2 or ISO 27001 first?

Pursue the framework required by the customer deal that closes first. A US enterprise buyer commonly asks for a SOC 2 Type 2 report; a UK or EU supplier-assurance process more often names ISO 27001. Record the exact request before buying software.

The two frameworks share real control overlap. Access management, encryption, change management, logging, incident response and written security policy all inform both. What differs is the assessment itself. SOC 2 produces an independent CPA firm’s attestation report over a period of time; ISO 27001 produces a certificate issued by an accredited certification body after a management-system audit. A platform can help you collect the evidence once and reuse it across both, but it cannot decide which systems belong in scope, operate a control for you, or issue either document.

Before booking a platform demo, write down the legal entity being assessed, the products and systems in scope, the target date, and the customer language that triggered the request. Then ask the prospective auditor or certification body whether it can work from the platform’s evidence exports.

• Compare SOC 2 and ISO 27001 in full

What should a UK buyer verify before choosing SOC 2 software?

A UK buyer should verify four regional facts: the GBP contract price and VAT treatment, Cyber Essentials support when customers require it, UK service hours, and whether the proposed data region matches the customer contract. A generic “Europe” label does not answer those questions.

Cyber Essentials is a UK government-backed certification scheme built around five technical controls. It is separate from SOC 2 and ISO 27001, so a platform’s SOC 2 workflow does not establish Cyber Essentials support. Ask for the named module, control mapping and assessor handoff.

What should an EU buyer verify before choosing SOC 2 software?

An EU buyer should verify the exact production, backup and disaster-recovery regions; the contracting entity; every non-EEA subprocessor; and whether AI processing leaves the EEA. “Hosted in Europe” is not enough because Europe includes non-EU locations such as London.

The five compared platforms all list GDPR. That shared claim does not establish data residency, transfer safeguards or depth for NIS2, DORA, C5 or the EU AI Act. Ask for the relevant module, control set, evidence workflow and current legal scope rather than accepting a framework logo.

Which SOC 2 platforms fit UK and EU teams?

Comp AI, Scytale, Drata, Vanta and Secureframe have enough sourced regional detail for direct comparison. The full eligible set appears in the membership table above.

Comp AI fits an engineering-led UK or EU team that values inspectable code or wants the option to self-host. We list ISO 27001, GDPR, ISO 42001 and NEN 7510 for it, with controls mapped across frameworks rather than confirmed native per framework. The repository catalogue contains 590 integrations, and the managed offer includes 1:1 expert support. Buyers should confirm the Enterprise Edition boundary, managed-service region, GDPR depth, and exact auditor access before treating self-hosting or a framework name as proof of fit.

Scytale is the strongest starting point for a team without a dedicated compliance lead when the chosen package includes expert support. Our GRC software directory has individually source-checked pages for SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, SOX ITGC and C5, the last listed but not independently verified. Its framework library also lists the EU AI Act, with no dedicated framework page, so ask for the control mapping in a demo. Scytale confirmed 150+ as its current integration figure on 2026-08-11 and said older assets may show different totals because they are not updated simultaneously. Buyers should still verify the exact connectors they need. Its defining difference is the option to buy a named compliance expert with the platform, which matters when the hard part is not connecting AWS but deciding which controls are proportionate to your product.

Drata suits a team that already has someone accountable for compliance and wants to reuse one control program across frameworks. Our GRC software directory lists more than 300 integrations alongside SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, CMMC, NIS2 and DORA, the last two being EU-originated regulations. Its controls are shared and cross-mapped rather than confirmed fully native per framework. Drata documents SCIM-fed group-to-role synchronization, but not the full user-account creation and deactivation lifecycle.

Vanta is the practical choice when the immediate constraint is evidence scattered across a long SaaS stack. Its 400-integration catalogue is the largest among the established managed platforms in this shortlist, and its directory entry lists SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR and ISO 42001. Like Drata, its multi-framework support is built on documented cross-mapping rather than confirmed native control sets per framework. Vanta documents SCIM account lifecycle provisioning but says it may require an upgrade or add-on.

Secureframe is the pick for a team already running, or about to run, two or more frameworks at once, and its directory entry describes hands-on compliance-expert support built around that case. One external comparison reports its advertised EU data centre as AWS eu-west-2 in London, not the EU; Secureframe’s public sources reviewed for this page did not confirm the region. SSO and SCIM are both gated to its Complete tier and above, so the entry plan has neither.

Who issues the SOC 2 report or ISO 27001 certificate?

A separate qualified assessor issues the assurance result. A CPA firm issues a SOC 2 report, while an accredited certification body issues an ISO 27001 certificate. None of the five compared software platforms independently issues both documents.

Scytale, Drata and Secureframe connect customers to an external CPA firm through partner or audit-alliance programmes, and Vanta gives an added auditor scoped access inside the platform. Comp AI documents an auditor role, bulk evidence export and finding workflows, but we have not independently tested the exact workspace scope.

One platform in our wider directory does both jobs. Thoropass runs the audit itself through Laika Compliance, LLC, a legally separate CPA entity that passed its most recent AICPA peer review with a rating of pass, accepted 12 December 2025, and it is also the one platform we found with a named Cyber Essentials claim, the UK government-backed scheme. It sits outside the shortlist above because our directory carries less sourced UK and EU detail on Thoropass than on those five, not because bundling disqualifies it. Thoropass also states that its audit platform works with any GRC platform, so a UK team can keep its existing software and engage Thoropass Assurance as the auditor.

For the audit itself you still need a licensed firm. Our UK and Germany auditor listings, linked below, cover CPA firms actually doing this work in those markets, and every one of them is independent of every platform on this page.

What does SOC 2 software cost in pounds and euros?

None of the five compared platforms publishes a GBP or EUR rate card. Comp AI is quote-only with no current numeric rate card; every numeric price in our maintained records for Scytale, Drata, Vanta and Secureframe is denominated in US dollars.

Scytale has a public AWS Marketplace floor of $7,500 a year for the platform plus one framework. Observed contracts put the median at $25,000 a year for Drata and $20,000 for both Vanta and Secureframe; the pricing comparison linked below carries the current ranges. Scytale’s number is a seller-listed floor; the others are observed contract data. All five still require a written quote for the buyer’s scope.

The audit or certification fee sits on top of the platform fee and is a separate line item in every case. None of our sources gives a pound or euro figure for either the platform or the audit, so budget in dollars and convert, or push your sales contact for a number in your own currency before you sign.

• Compare observed SOC 2 software pricing

Which extra requirements matter in Germany and the EU?

German and EU buyers may need C5, NIS2, DORA or the EU AI Act in addition to SOC 2 and ISO 27001. These requirements have different legal subjects, scopes and assessment routes, so a shared control library reduces duplicate evidence but does not make the obligations interchangeable.

C5 is the German Federal Office for Information Security’s Cloud Computing Compliance Criteria Catalogue. If a German customer mentions C5, ask which catalogue version and whether the request is for an attestation, supplier evidence, a cloud-provider assurance report or a contractual statement. Of the five shortlisted platforms, only Scytale currently lists C5, and that support is vendor-claimed rather than independently verified.

The EU AI Act became applicable on 2 August 2026, with staged exceptions. The European Commission and national authorities now enforce the provisions already in force; revised high-risk-system dates extend to 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028. Neither SOC 2 nor ISO 27001 satisfies the AI Act by itself.

• Compare SOC 2 and ISO 42001 for AI products