How does compliance automation work? Straight answers

In four steps. Software checks the sources regulators publish to once a day: official journals, guidance, framework updates. When something changes, it produces a plain-language summary with the primary source cited. Each change names the framework on your register it touches. You mark each obligation in place or a gap, the policy update for a gap is drafted for your review, and everything is logged. Machines do the reading; your team keeps the decisions.

The compliance scan is live and on sale. It runs on the homepage, returns real regulatory information, and gives you one free run; after that the Starter plan is $149 a month or $894 a year for up to 300 runs a month. Daily monitoring of your saved register comes with the plan.

No. The scan returns general regulatory information: obligations from a curated rulebook map plus recent changes found in public sources. It is a starting point for your own review, not advice, and every result says so. Decisions that matter belong with qualified counsel.

No. Your industry, framework and region selections are used to build the result and are never written to a database or an application log. Results render in your browser and disappear when you leave the page.

Vanta and Drata monitor your controls to keep you audit ready for security frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001, and they do that well. ComplianceOfficer starts one level up: it checks the regulations themselves once a day, across security, privacy and financial-crime regimes, and tells you which framework on your register each change touches. The comparison pages state both sides fairly.

Both plans, published in full: Starter at $149 a month or $894 a year, which is 50 percent less, for up to 300 runs of the compliance scan a month with the sector notes and the regulatory change watch. Enterprise is $298 a month or $1,788 a year for up to 3 people on one register: the owner adds two colleagues, each signs in with their own link, the audit trail names who acted, and the team shares 600 scans a month. It is bought by card the same way. There is no free tier: the scan gives you one free run, then asks for the plan. Creating your account charges nothing.

We email you a 6-digit code. Enter it in the same window and your account is confirmed. No card is collected to create the account, and you can unsubscribe any time. The compliance scan does not wait for any of this: it is on sale today.

The covered set is SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, BSA/AML with sanctions, SOX and PCI DSS, plus one sector line by industry: state money transmission for fintech, NAIC model laws for insurers, state health privacy for health tech.

No, and it is not designed to. It replaces the tracking and cross-checking hours, the volume work. Judgment, sign-off and legal advice stay with your team and your lawyers; the product exists so they spend their time there.

ComplianceOfficer, a software company run by an independent team. You can always reach the team directly at support@complianceofficer.ai.

Very few. On 23 August 2026 we opened the public pricing pages of Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, Sprinto, Hyperproof, Onspring and LogicGate. All seven describe tiers or a licensing model and none of the seven shows a dollar figure; every one routes to a demo or quote request. We publish ours: Starter at $149 a month or $894 a year, Enterprise at $298 a month or $1,788 a year.

Recorded buyer contracts put the median between roughly $12,000 and $54,000 a year depending on the platform, with the full range running from about $1,620 to $153,365. OneTrust sits at a $12,000 median, Vanta at $20,000, Drata at $25,000, Hyperproof at $41,400, Workiva at $49,420 and LogicGate at $53,783. Figures verified 16 September 2026.

Usually yes, and the size varies far more than buyers expect. Average discounts off first quote run from about 11 percent on Workiva to about 30 percent on Vanta, so a flat twenty percent assumption is wrong at both ends. Watch the year two and year three uplift: multi-year deals in this category commonly step the fee up rather than holding it flat.

Standard support is normally bundled, but named customer success, guided audit preparation and dedicated implementation usually are not. Implementation is the line that surprises people: across this category it commonly runs 30 to 100 percent of first-year license, and it is rarely in the headline quote. Ask what triggers a change order before you sign.

For a group with several legal entities, expect roughly $30,000 to $120,000 a year against a single-entity median nearer $20,000. The driver is how the vendor counts an entity, and four different counting models are in common use. Separate legal entities do not automatically need separate privacy programs, which is where most of the avoidable cost sits.

The category splits in two. Control-evidence platforms such as Vanta, Drata and Secureframe automate the reporting that proves controls operated. GRC platforms such as Workiva, LogicGate and Onspring automate the reporting that goes to a board or a regulator. ComplianceOfficer sits above both, watching the rules themselves and reporting what changed for the frameworks on your register.

Look for three things rather than a feature list: a calendar that understands anniversary and rolling obligations instead of only quarters, evidence captured with its source and date at the moment of review, and policy versioning that shows what your manual said on the date being examined. Most platforms are built for auditors first and compliance officers second.

Plan for 6 to 12 weeks for a single-entity deployment on one or two frameworks, and 3 to 6 months for a multi-entity group with several systems to integrate. The variable is almost never the software. It is how long it takes your team to agree the control set and produce a clean systems and entity inventory.

Often yes, because the obligations barely overlap. A bank is examined against a compliance management system and BSA/AML. An SEC-registered adviser owes Rule 206(4)-7: policies, an annual review and a designated chief compliance officer. A FINRA member owes supervision, supervisory control testing and a CEO certification. Buying one spine for all three usually means testing controls you do not owe.