Vanta or Drata plus a consultant: what will the total cost be?
The platform is only half the bill. What Vanta or Drata plus expert help actually costs together, and why the tool alone rarely gets you through Stage 2.
By Kellwick Team · July 18, 2026 · 2 min read
A compliance platform like Vanta, Drata or Sprinto is a subscription - commonly a few thousand up to low five figures a year, depending on your size and the frameworks you switch on. But the platform is only half the story. It collects and monitors evidence; it does not decide what good evidence is, run your risk assessment, or sit in the audit for you. The total cost is the subscription plus the expert time to turn a screen of green checks into something an auditor accepts.
If you already have a platform that is half-configured, the fastest and often cheapest fix is a Vanta / Drata / Sprinto Cleanup - from $4,500, typically $4,500-$10,000 - rather than a full assessment from scratch.
The two-line budget
| Line | Typical | What it buys |
|---|---|---|
| Platform subscription | a few thousand to low five figures / year | Evidence collection and monitoring (billed by the vendor) |
| Expert help | from $4,500 | Turning green checks into audit-grade evidence |
The platform number is set by the vendor and scales with headcount and frameworks - get a quote from them directly. The expert line is where we can be precise: see the pricing page.
Why the tool alone rarely gets you through Stage 2
A platform will happily show a control as "passing" when the underlying evidence would not survive an auditor's question. The classic failures we clean up:
- A green check backed by a screenshot, not a dated record that the control actually ran.
- Monitoring switched on but never reviewed - collection is not the same as monitoring.
- A risk register and Statement of Applicability that the platform does not build for you, left thin or generic.
- Controls marked in scope that no one actually owns.
What a cleanup covers
A workspace review, a control and evidence gap analysis, a pass to clear the false greens, a remediation plan, and evidence an auditor will actually accept. Full inclusions on the pricing page.
The honest recommendation
Keep the platform - it genuinely saves time on evidence collection. Just budget for the expert layer on top, and do not treat a dashboard full of green as readiness. If you want to know which you need, the pricing calculator will route you in five questions.
Figures are indicative and not a binding quote. Kellwick is independent of the platforms and is not a certification body.
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