Vanta vs Delve: what each charges and who audits you

What each one charges, and what the audit adds

Start with the software, because that is the only part either vendor prices in public. Vanta sells on AWS Marketplace with several packages and add-on modules. Delve sells one package there. The rest of each listing reads like this:

• None of the ten lines on the Vanta listing is an audit or an auditor fee, and its overview states that pricing is tiered by company size and program complexity. Source.
• Delve shows no dollar figure on its homepage, and its calls to action are to book a demo. Source.

Then the audit. A SOC 2 report is issued by a licensed CPA firm, not by a software vendor.¹ So with either product you pay a second company. Vanta publishes what it expects that second bill to be:

• Vanta states that a SOC 2 audit fee usually runs between $10,000 and $50,000, and that the all-in cost of a first SOC 2 lands somewhere between $10,000 and $80,000 or more. Source.

That range is Vanta’s estimate of the market, and the firm you pick sets the real number. It applies the same way on a Delve contract. The full breakdown of Vanta pricing adds the first-year arithmetic.

What was reported about Delve, and what Delve says

This part of the comparison is not about features. A buyer comparing the two will meet it in the first search, so here is the record in the words of the people who made it.

• TechCrunch reported that an anonymous Substack author, describing themselves as a former Delve client, accused Delve of falsely convincing hundreds of customers that they were compliant, and that Delve denied it. Source.
• Delve states that it does not issue compliance reports, and that final reports and opinions are issued solely by independent, licensed auditors. Source.
• Delve has posted that the anonymous posts about it relied on fabricated claims and data taken out of context, and lists changes it made: rebuilding its auditor network and removing firms that do not meet its standards, complimentary re-audits and penetration tests for all active customers, halting automation that interacts with audit workflows, and direct lines between customers and their auditors. Source.
• TechCrunch reported that Delve is no longer listed in the Y Combinator portfolio directory, and that Delve’s chief operating officer posted that the two had parted ways. Source.
• TechCrunch reported that LiteLLM, which had obtained two security compliance credentials by hiring Delve, would redo them using Vanta and hire its own independent third-party auditor. Source.

None of that is a finding. It is what was reported, and what the company said back. What a buyer can do with it is narrower and more useful: check the audit firm, whoever sells you the software. Ask for the firm’s name before you sign. Confirm its license with the state board.³ Ask for its latest peer review, the AICPA program that checks the quality of a firm’s attest work.² How to verify a SOC 2 report walks through the same checks for a report you already hold.

By segment: an early-stage startup

Both listings price the same band, 1 to 20 employees, for a 12-month contract. That makes the software floor close. Delve’s is lower. Both say they cover more than SOC 2:

• Delve’s homepage says it is trusted by 1,500+ companies, promises compliance in days, pitches startups, midmarket and enterprise teams, and lists SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, GDPR, PCI DSS and ISO 42001 in its framework menu. Source.
• The same Vanta page lists 400+ integrations and 35+ frameworks. Source.

For a first report the framework count matters less than the report itself. The report your first enterprise customer receives carries one name that matters more than the platform’s: the CPA firm that wrote the opinion. Pick the platform whose auditor options you would be glad to show that customer. Both vendors connect you to firms. Vanta lists a second route as well:

• Vanta’s pricing page lists access to Vanta’s auditor network and the ability to bring your own auditor among its plan features, and names no auditor fee. Source.

By segment: a larger company or an enterprise buyer

Past the smallest band, neither listing gives you a number. Both price larger teams on a quote. What you can compare in public is scale, and Vanta publishes its own:

• Vanta’s own comparison page against Delve states that Vanta has 16,000+ customers, that 20,000+ audits have been completed through Vanta, and that it works with a network of AICPA peer-reviewed audit firms. Source.

Those are Vanta’s figures about itself, printed on a page written to win against Delve. Read them as that. An enterprise security team will ask the same questions of either vendor: which firm audits you, which frameworks are in scope, and what changed after the last review. With Delve, that team can read the reporting above as easily as you can.

Where each one wins

Each has a real case. These are the ones the public record supports.

• Delve, on the listed floor. For 1 to 20 employees its AWS starting price is lower than Vanta’s Essentials package.
• Delve, if you are already a customer. Its posted changes offer active customers a re-audit and a penetration test at no charge. That is worth taking before you decide whether to move.
• Vanta, on breadth. More frameworks and integrations by its own count, and several packages and modules priced on one listing.
• Vanta, on auditor choice. Its plans list both its auditor network and the option to bring your own firm.

Drata vs Delve, briefly

Drata comes up in the same searches, and the Drata against Delve question gets asked on its own. Drata also prints no price on its website. Its plans page and its own AWS listing read this way:

• Drata’s plans page states that it is trusted by 8,500+ customers, limits the Foundation plan’s one framework to SOC 2, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, HIPAA or GDPR, and includes Audit Hub, a place to work with your auditor, in every plan. Source.
• Drata’s own AWS Marketplace listing prices the Drata Platform Fee, with capacity for a 100 FTE organization, at $25,000 for a 12-month contract, and the SOC 2 framework at $7,500 on a separate line. Source.

Together those two lines come to $32,500 a year before any audit. That is more than either listing above. It also covers a team of up to 100 people, where the others stop at 20. Drata publishes its own estimate of the audit on top:

• Drata estimates the audit fee for a SOC 2 Type 1 at $7,500 to $15,000 and for a Type 2 at $12,000 to $20,000 for small to midsize companies, and puts the total first-year cost at $25,000 for a small startup. Source.

So Drata against Delve is mostly a question of size. A team past 20 people gets a published figure from Drata and a quote from Delve. The Vanta vs Drata comparison covers the two larger platforms head to head, and the Drata pricing breakdown has the rest of its listing.

Where Polara Labs fits

We sell the platform and put the audit inside the price. Star is $2,000 one time to get audit-ready. Orbit is $7,800 a year, and your SOC 2 Type 2 audit is included in every contract year, performed by an independent partner auditor, a licensed U.S. CPA firm. The firm is named in the engagement letter, before you sign it, so you can run the same checks as above.

We sell SOC 2 through to the audit by an independent licensed U.S. CPA firm, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 readiness for certification, and HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS and NIST CSF 2.0 readiness. We publish no customer counts. If you need a framework beyond that list, Vanta is the stronger buy. Every published price we could find is in the SOC 2 software pricing index, and how to leave a compliance platform covers a move off either one.