SOC 2 compliance costs UK SaaS companies around £25,000 in the first year, ranging from £10,000 for a lean Type I audit to £60,000 or more for a Type II audit with a wide scope. The audit fee is only part of the bill — internal engineering and security time spent gathering evidence usually costs more than the auditor invoice itself.
Why this matters
UK SaaS companies chasing enterprise contracts hit the same wall in 2026: procurement teams ask for a SOC 2 report before signing. Budgeting for it late means either delaying the deal or rushing an audit and paying a premium for it.
Knowing the real cost range before you start lets you pick the right audit type, the right auditor, and the right level of automation — instead of discovering the true price halfway through a SOC 2 compliance engagement.
How much does SOC 2 compliance cost for UK SaaS companies
The total cost breaks into four buckets: readiness work, software, the audit fee itself, and staff time. Here is how those stack up for a typical UK SaaS company in 2026.
| Cost component | Typical range (2026) |
|---|---|
| Readiness / gap assessment | £2,000 - £8,000 |
| Compliance automation software (annual) | £3,000 - £15,000 |
| Auditor fee — Type I | £7,000 - £15,000 |
| Auditor fee — Type II | £15,000 - £45,000 |
| Penetration test (often required by customers) | £5,000 - £15,000 |
| Internal staff time | 100 - 300 hours |
The auditor fee is the line item most companies research. It is rarely the biggest cost driver once you count engineering hours spent screenshotting access controls, chasing policy sign-offs, and re-running evidence when an auditor asks for more detail.
SOC 2 compliance cost for UK SaaS companies sits between £10,000 and £60,000 in 2026, and the gap between those numbers is almost entirely about audit type and how much of the evidence-gathering you automate.
SOC 2 Type I: £10,000-£20,000 total cost
A Type I audit checks whether your controls are designed correctly at a single point in time. It is the faster, cheaper route. Most UK SaaS companies use it as a first report to unblock an early enterprise deal.
- Auditor fee typically £7,000-£15,000
- Readiness work adds £2,000-£5,000 if you are starting from scratch
- Timeline: point-in-time snapshot, so no waiting months to collect evidence
- Best for: early-stage SaaS companies with one urgent deal on the table. Verdict: proceed if you need a report fast.
SOC 2 Type II: £20,000-£60,000 total cost
A Type II audit tests whether those same controls actually operated correctly over a 6-12 month window. It costs more because the auditor samples evidence across the entire period, not a single day.
- Auditor fee typically £15,000-£45,000 depending on trust service criteria scope
- Readiness and remediation work adds £3,000-£8,000
- Internal time climbs toward the 300-hour end of the range because evidence has to be current every month, not just on audit day
- Best for: SaaS companies renewing an existing SOC 2 report or facing enterprise procurement that specifically asks for Type II. Verdict: budget for it, but automate evidence collection first — work through the SOC 2 readiness checklist before you sign an auditor.
Why SOC 2 compliance cost varies so much
- Number of trust service criteria in scope — Security is mandatory; adding Availability, Confidentiality or Processing Integrity adds auditor hours and fee
- Company size and system complexity — more infrastructure, more vendors, more evidence to review
- Whether you use compliance automation software — manual evidence collection eats the 100-300 internal hours; automated evidence collection compresses that sharply
- Auditor firm choice — Big Four and large mid-tier firms price higher than boutique CPA firms that specialise in SaaS audits
- Readiness before the audit starts — walking in with policies unwritten and access reviews undone means paying for remediation mid-audit instead of fixing it beforehand
- Whether a penetration test is bundled in — some customers require a current pentest alongside the SOC 2 report, adding £5,000-£15,000
OneClickComply automates evidence collection for SOC 2 so the hours that usually eat a founder's calendar get handled by the platform. You focus on growing the business.
Cut your SOC 2 evidence workload
Automated evidence collection handles the hours that drive your audit bill.
How much does a SOC 2 Type II audit alone cost?
A SOC 2 Type II audit alone — the auditor fee, excluding readiness work and software — costs £15,000 to £45,000 in 2026 for most UK SaaS companies. Scope and company size decide where you land: a Security-only report for a 20-person SaaS company sits at the low end, a multi-criteria report for a 200-person platform sits at the top.
Is SOC 2 cheaper than ISO 27001 for UK companies?
SOC 2 and ISO 27001 costs overlap heavily once you include readiness and internal time, so neither is reliably cheaper. Budgeting guidance for ISO 27001 certification costs shows a similar spread — the deciding factor for UK SaaS companies is which certification your target customers actually ask for, not which one costs less.
Can you get SOC 2 certified without hiring an auditor?
No. SOC 2 is not a report you self-issue; a licensed CPA firm has to perform the audit, which is why the auditor fee of £7,000-£45,000 is unavoidable. What you control is everything around that fee — readiness work, software and internal hours are where the total cost is won or lost.
Frequently asked questions
One last thing
The biggest cost mistake UK SaaS companies make in 2026 is not picking the wrong auditor. It is starting the Type II observation window before evidence collection is automated, which turns a 100-hour job into a 300-hour one spread across a stressed engineering team. Fix the evidence pipeline first, then start the clock. Seriously simple cyber compliance.