Alternative to Drata & Vanta

Alternative to Drata and Vanta: the audit platform built for the auditor, not the self-assessed

Drata and Vanta deserve credit: they brought automation into compliance. But look closely at who they actually serve. These platforms are built for the internal team of a company that continuously monitors its own compliance, ahead of an audit run by someone else. You — the auditor, the consulting firm, or the CISO running an end-to-end ISO 27001 engagement for a third party — are not their target customer. AuditForge was built for the opposite: putting the auditor at the center, with a multi-client portal, orchestrated technical scans, and a report that comes out in minutes rather than days.

The problem Drata and Vanta don't solve

Both platforms excel at one specific use case: a company that wants to continuously prove its SOC 2 or ISO 27001 compliance to its own customers, with integrations that automatically collect evidence from its own cloud environment. That's a continuous self-assessment tool, not an audit engagement tool. Three concrete limits when you're the auditor or the firm running the engagement, not the audited company:

You can't manage several clients in a segregated space with strict per-engagement data isolation.

You can't launch orchestrated, traceable infrastructure scans (network, cloud, TLS) from the tool: these platforms rely on client-side API integrations, not a scan campaign you control.

You don't generate a mission report under your own firm's brand at the end: these tools feed your client's evidence file, not your own deliverable.

AuditForge: built for the audit engagement, not to replace it

AuditForge equips the professional running the audit: cybersecurity consulting firm, CISO on an internal mission, independent auditor. The whole engagement fits in a single flow, from asset mapping to scan campaigns (Nmap, Nuclei, testssl.sh, Prowler for cloud posture), through cross-framework assessment across six frameworks with automatic mappings.

ScopingAsset mappingScan campaignsCross-framework assessmentRisk register & SoAReport under your brand

Result measured on our pilot engagements: up to 40% time saved on the evidence-collection phase alone, the one that usually eats up the most billable days with no added value for your client.

Detailed comparison

Criterion	AuditForge	Drata	Vanta
Primary target audience	Audit firms, CISOs on engagement, independent auditors	Internal teams doing continuous self-assessment	Internal teams doing continuous self-assessment
Multi-mandate client portal with per-firm isolation	Yes, native	Not publicly communicated as a feature dedicated to third-party audit firms	Trust Center to share a status, not a multi-client engagement space
Orchestrated technical scans (network, vulnerabilities, TLS, cloud)	Yes: Nmap, Nuclei, testssl.sh, Prowler, with authorization and traceability	Limited capabilities according to available public comparisons	Vulnerability management via cloud integrations, no scan campaign driven by the auditor
Frameworks covered	ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO/IEC 27002:2022, PCI-DSS 4.0.1, GDPR, CIS Controls v8.1, NIST CSF 2.0, with cross-mappings	Mainly SOC 2, ISO 27001 and a self-service framework catalog	Mainly SOC 2, ISO 27001 and a self-service framework catalog
Risk register and SoA generated automatically	Yes, with an interactive matrix and threat catalog	Not positioned as an audit engagement management tool	Not positioned as an audit engagement management tool
Engagement report under the firm's brand	Yes, customized DOCX/PDF, generated in minutes	Evidence-oriented reporting for the audited company, not a firm's deliverable	Evidence-oriented reporting for the audited company, not a firm's deliverable
Data sovereignty	Hosting guaranteed in the European Union	US platform, hosting location to verify contractually depending on the region	US platform, hosting location to verify contractually depending on the region
Pricing	Transparent, simple quote based on the number of engagements	Roughly $15,000 to $100,000 per year according to the public sources cited below	Roughly $10,000 to $80,000 or more per year according to the public sources cited below
Announced time saving on evidence collection	Up to 40%	Not publicly quantified for this specific use case	Not publicly quantified for this specific use case

Comparison built from Drata and Vanta's public documentation and third-party benchmark sources. Pricing changes regularly and is negotiated case by case: always ask for a current quote before deciding.

What this actually changes for your firm

A typical ISO 27001 engagement ties up a senior auditor for several days just chasing the client, sorting evidence received by email, and cross-checking it against the standard's requirements. With AuditForge, the client uploads evidence to a portal dedicated to their engagement, framework mappings are calculated automatically, and you spend your billable time on analysis rather than admin. That's the differential that directly hits your margin per engagement, not an abstract marketing promise.

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Sources cited for the Drata and Vanta data: Vanta vs Drata (official Vanta comparison), Vanta Pricing 2026 — Costbench