Scrut pricing and Scrut Automation cost from its AWS rate card and recorded contracts

The short answer: Scrut Automation lists $15,000 a year for companies with up to 20 employees, and buyers on Vendr record a median contract of $7,250, with deals from $5,160 to $27,050. Scrut's own website prints no price, so the $15,000 comes from the one place it does publish: its AWS Marketplace listing. Audit fees are separate. If you are between 20 and 100 employees, there is no public number for you at all, which is the main thing to know before the first sales call.

Every figure below was read on October 15, 2026. If you are still deciding between SOC 2 platforms rather than pricing Scrut specifically, our SOC 2 compliance software guide covers what the category does and does not do, and the Vanta alternatives comparison puts Scrut beside every major rival.

What the Scrut rate card on AWS Marketplace says

Vendors that sell through AWS Marketplace have to price every contract option they list, because the buyer pays through an AWS bill rather than a sales order. Scrut's listing has exactly one option.

Two details matter more than the price. First, there is a single size. Sprinto and Secureframe both publish cards that hold to 100 employees, so a 60-person company can price them before talking to anyone. At Scrut, the 21st employee takes you off the card and into a private quote. Second, there is no framework line. Scrut sells the platform with frameworks included, which is a real advantage once you need a second certification.

Why the Scrut median is half its list price

Vendr's recorded Scrut contracts have a median of $7,250 a year. That is less than half of the $15,000 list for the smallest company size Scrut publishes. A median below list for the entry band is unusual. For comparison, Drata's recorded median of $25,000 matches its listed platform fee to the dollar.

There are two honest readings, and both probably contribute. One is discounting: Scrut competes on price against Vanta and Drata, and a sales team that routinely closes at half of list will show exactly this pattern. The other is scope: some recorded deals may be renewals signed before the current card, partial products, or very small companies on promotional terms. Vendr does not report an average discount for Scrut, so you cannot separate the two. What you can do is quote the median back to the rep. A $15,000 list price is a ceiling for a company under 20 people, not a target.

Scrut pricing against Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, Sprinto and Thoropass

Published list prices from each vendor's own AWS Marketplace listing, plus Vendr medians where they exist. Watch the headcount column: the cards do not cover the same company sizes, so a straight comparison of the first number is misleading.

Read this way, Scrut is the lowest recorded contract in the group, and for a company under 20 people its list price sits level with Vanta and Drata's Foundation package. Sprinto is cheaper at list for one framework. Thoropass is the only one that bundles the audit, which can make its higher contract cheaper all in. The rate cards behind each row are on Vanta pricing, Drata pricing, Secureframe pricing, Sprinto pricing and Thoropass pricing.

What a first SOC 2 with Scrut costs in total

The platform is only one of three lines in a first-year SOC 2 budget for a small US software company. The other two are the audit and the hours your own team spends.

• Platform. $7,250 to $15,000 for a company under 20 people, depending on how hard you negotiate.
• Audit. Paid to a licensed CPA firm, not to Scrut. A Type I is the smaller engagement; a Type II covers an observation window of usually three to twelve months and costs more. Get two auditor quotes before you sign the platform, because some platforms have partner auditors at agreed rates.
• Internal time. Writing and adopting policies, fixing the controls the platform flags, and running security awareness training. The platform shortens this; it does not remove it.

A realistic range for the platform plus a Type I audit for a company under 20 people is the platform figure above plus the auditor's fee. If the platform quote comes back near $15,000, you have room to push toward the median.

How to negotiate Scrut pricing

1. Quote the median. Tell the rep you have seen recorded contracts at $7,250 and a list price of $15,000, and ask where your quote sits between them.
2. Lock the headcount rule. If you are near 20 people, ask how employees are counted (contractors, part-time, open roles) and what the price is at 21, 50 and 100 before you sign, so growth does not set the renewal.
3. Get "frameworks included" in writing. The listing has no framework line. Make the order form say that adding ISO 27001 or HIPAA during the term costs nothing.
4. Diary the renewal. The AWS contract is non-cancellable and non-refundable. Put the renewal date and the notice window into a contract tracker with renewal alerts on the day you sign, because the cheapest time to renegotiate is before the auto-renewal, not after.

Is Scrut worth it?

For a software company under 20 people that needs SOC 2 and expects to add ISO 27001 or HIPAA within two years, it usually is: frameworks come included and recorded contracts are the lowest in the category. It is a weaker fit if you are already past 20 people and want a published price to plan around, because Sprinto and Secureframe publish cards to 100 employees. And if you need a broader GRC program with unlimited users and vendors, compare it with a flat-rate platform: our ZenGRC pricing breakdown shows what unlimited users and frameworks cost.

Where ComplianceOfficer fits

Scrut collects evidence for the frameworks you pick and tests your cloud controls every day. It does not tell you when a US rule behind those controls changes, such as a new state privacy law, an FTC Safeguards Rule update or an SEC cybersecurity disclosure requirement that your customers start asking about. ComplianceOfficer does that part: it keeps a register of the obligations that apply to your company, checks the primary sources every day, explains each change in plain language and drafts the policy update for every gap you mark. It costs $149 a month for one owner, and the scan at the top of this page shows your register in under a minute. It runs next to Scrut, not instead of it.