The Cost Breakdown
Initial certification: Readiness assessment ($15-30K), gap remediation ($20-50K), audit ($30-80K), tooling ($10-40K/year). Total: $75-200K.
Annual maintenance: Continuous monitoring ($10-30K), annual audit ($25-60K), policy updates ($5-10K). Total: $40-100K/year.
Revenue impact: SOC 2 removes the #1 enterprise sales objection ("are you SOC 2 compliant?"). Companies report 2-5x increase in enterprise pipeline after certification. One enterprise deal typically exceeds the entire SOC 2 investment.