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ComplianceOfficer

Pricing · personal trading and code of ethics

ComplySci pricing and what COMPLY costs a year for RIAs and broker-dealers

ComplySci, now the Comply Platform, starts at about $3,000 a year for a small firm, the figure all three big software directories list. Everything above that is quoted on covered employees and modules. The vendor's own pricing page is a 404, there is no AWS Marketplace listing, and Vendr has no recorded contracts, so the best tool you have is a precise headcount and a short module list.

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Investment adviser (RIA), US · first rows of a real scan

  • § 01 Written AML program with a named officer
  • § 02 KYC / Customer identification program
  • § 03 Customer due diligence and beneficial ownership
  • § 04 Transaction monitoring and SAR filing
§ 02

The public record

ComplySci cost from every public source we could check

We went to the places where software prices usually leak: the vendor's site, the cloud marketplaces, contract benchmarks and federal award data. Here is what each one holds for COMPLY, as of 13 October 2026.

The $3,000 figure is real but narrow. Directory prices are usually supplied by the vendor and show the cheapest configuration, usually a small adviser with a handful of access persons on the code of ethics module alone. Treat it as the entry ticket, not as the price of the platform a 200-person asset manager actually uses.

The federal order is worth reading carefully. It was firm fixed price, not competed under simplified acquisition procedures, with one offer received, and its options run to September 2029. The record describes public records search, which sounds like political contribution screening, but it does not name the product, so it tells you what COMPLY charges a large buyer for one service line, not for the platform.

§ 03

The billing unit

How ComplySci pricing is built per covered employee and module

Employee compliance software is metered on the people it watches. For an adviser that is every access person under Rule 204A-1. For a broker-dealer it is every associated person with an outside brokerage account. Four lines then decide how big the quote gets.

  • Who counts. Access persons only, all employees, or everyone with a login. A firm with 60 staff and 22 access persons is quoted on very different numbers depending on the answer.
  • Which modules. The Comply Platform sells employee compliance as separate pieces: code of ethics, trade monitoring, conflicts of interest, political contributions and outside business activities, case management and reporting.
  • How trades arrive. COMPLY said in 2022 that it had direct feeds from more than 200 brokerage firms. Staff at brokers outside that list mean statement uploads, which is manual work every quarter.
  • Firm-side extras. Compliance calendar, risk assessments, annual review and the policy builder are separate firm compliance products, and the consulting and registration services are billed as services.

The feed can cost money on the broker's side too. Schwab describes direct employee trading feeds as typically free and indirect feeds as an annual charge that varies with the number of accounts, so count the accounts as well as the people.

Compliance officer reviewing a quarterly personal securities transaction report at her desk
Every quarterly transaction report is one covered person on the invoice.

§ 04 · Who you are buying from

ComplySci, RIA in a Box, NRS and illumis are now one vendor

Several names on a typical adviser shortlist belong to the same company. That matters at renewal, because a bake-off between two COMPLY products creates no price pressure at all.

For a small adviser this is often good news: one contract can cover the code of ethics, the annual review and the compliance calendar. For a buyer trying to negotiate, it means the real competitors are StarCompliance, MyComplianceOffice and Smartria, not the other COMPLY brands. Our RIA in a Box cost breakdown shows how that product is billed per user each month.

Chief compliance officer at a registered investment adviser reviewing a contract renewal notice
The rule sets the workload. The workload should set the quote.
§ 05

What the rules make you collect

The SEC and FINRA duties a ComplySci quote is really pricing

Before you compare vendors, write down what your code of ethics already obliges you to collect. That list is the scope, and a scope you can defend is the strongest position in a pricing call.

Duty Source Timing
Initial holdings reportAdvisers Act Rule 204A-1Within 10 days of becoming an access person
Annual holdings reportRule 204A-1Once every 12 months
Quarterly transaction reportRule 204A-1Within 30 days of quarter end
Pre-approval of IPOs and limited offeringsRule 204A-1Before the trade
Consent and duplicate statements for outside accountsFINRA Rule 3210Before opening, then ongoing

A firm that only needs these five things for 20 access persons is buying the code of ethics module, not the platform. Say so on the first call. Pre-clearance workflows, restricted lists, gifts and entertainment logs and political contribution screening are real needs for some firms and padding for others. The personal trading compliance software guide walks through each requirement in detail.

§ 06

The competitors

ComplySci pricing against StarCompliance, MCO and Smartria

Public price evidence only. None of these vendors prints a rate card, which is exactly why a written scope and two competing quotes matter more here than in most software categories.

Vendor Public price evidence How trades come in Best for
ComplySci (Comply Platform) $3,000 a year starting price on three directories; pricing page 404; no Vendr contracts Direct feeds from more than 200 brokerage firms (COMPLY, 2022) Advisers and asset managers that want one vendor for employee and firm compliance
StarCompliance Quoted. Vendr records only two purchases, too few to benchmark About 100 direct feeds plus hundreds more through clearinghouses, refreshed every 24 hours Larger firms with global staff and complex restricted lists
MyComplianceOffice (MCO) Quoted. No recorded contracts on Vendr Direct feeds, statement and confirm capture, manual upload Broker-dealers and banks that want trading, OBAs and attestations in one suite
Smartria "Customized pricing" by firm size and complexity Trades from "thousands of brokers and custodians" Small and mid-size RIAs
RIA in a Box (COMPLY) Monthly fee per user; SEI clients get 10% off and a waived implementation fee Reconciles employee trades against restricted lists Small RIAs buying compliance as a service. Same parent as ComplySci
ComplianceOfficer $149 a month or $894 a year, $298 a month for up to three people, published Does not collect trades Tracking the SEC and FINRA rule changes behind your code of ethics and drafting the policy update

The honest read: if your staff hold accounts at mainstream US brokerages, all four platforms will cover them, and the decision comes down to the modules you need and the quote you can get. Send each vendor your actual list of brokers and ask which arrive by direct feed. If the archiving side is on the same budget, see Global Relay pricing against Smarsh.

§ 07

Before you sign

How to get a fair ComplySci quote at renewal

With no published rate to point at, these four moves do the work an anchor price would.

1

Count access persons

Give the vendor the number your code of ethics names, not your total headcount, and get the counting rule into the order form.

2

Strip the modules

Price the code of ethics alone, then each add-on as its own line, so you can see what political contribution screening or case management costs.

3

Quote outside COMPLY

StarCompliance, MCO or Smartria. A quote from RIA in a Box is a quote from the same company.

4

Cap the renewal

A written cap on the yearly increase and a fixed price per added covered person. Ask for both before the first invoice.

Get started for $149 a month RIA compliance software Broker-dealer compliance software
§ 08

Where we fit

What ComplianceOfficer does next to an employee compliance platform

ComplySci watches your people. It does not watch the rules your people are measured against, and those move: the SEC's marketing rule, Regulation S-P's amended incident response and vendor oversight duties, FINRA's guidance on outside activities. When one of them changes, your code of ethics and written policies have to change with it.

ComplianceOfficer keeps a register of the obligations that apply to your firm, 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 the register for an investment adviser in under a minute.

§ 09

Questions buyers ask

How much does ComplySci cost?

ComplySci, now sold as the Comply Platform, publishes no price. Its pricing URL returned a 404 on October 13, 2026. Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp all list a starting price of $3,000 a year on a flat rate, which is the floor for a small firm. Larger RIAs and broker-dealers are quoted on the number of covered employees and the modules they switch on, so the real figure comes only from a quote.

Is ComplySci the same as COMPLY?

Yes. ComplySci bought NRS, illumis and RIA in a Box in 2021, and on November 8, 2022 the four businesses were unified under the parent brand COMPLY. The product formerly called ComplySci is now the Comply Platform. RIA in a Box became Comply for RIA and NRS became ComplianceGuardian. Old complysci.com links redirect to comply.com.

Who owns ComplySci?

ComplySci took a $120 million growth equity investment from K1 Investment Management in June 2021, which funded the acquisitions that formed COMPLY. Comply Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in New York. Terms of the RIA in a Box acquisition were not disclosed.

How is ComplySci priced?

By scope rather than by a public rate. Personal trading vendors generally quote on covered employees, the people whose accounts and trades the code of ethics reaches, and then add modules such as trade monitoring, conflicts of interest, political contributions and outside business activity tracking. Ask how a covered employee is counted, because that one definition moves the quote more than any discount.

What are the alternatives to ComplySci?

The usual shortlist is StarCompliance, MyComplianceOffice (MCO) and Smartria for employee and personal trading compliance, with RIA in a Box for small advisers, although that is also a COMPLY product. None of them publishes a price. Archiving vendors such as Global Relay and Smarsh are a different purchase that often sits beside it.

Does the federal government buy from COMPLY?

Once, on the public record. USAspending shows a firm fixed price order from the Executive Office of the President, Office of Administration, to Comply Technologies, Inc. for public records search services: $86,400 for September 29, 2024 to September 28, 2025, with options running to 2029. The record does not name the product.

Know which rule changes touch your code of ethics before the next renewal

One register of the SEC and FINRA rules that apply to your firm, checked daily, with a policy update drafted for each gap you mark. $149 a month for one owner, $298 for up to three people, month to month. Compare every plan on pricing.

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