The Real Question: Do You Want a Tool or a Team?
Here's a scenario that plays out in startups every single day: Your sales team just landed a meeting with an enterprise prospect. The demo went perfectly. The champion is excited. Then the security questionnaire arrives, and suddenly you're staring at a requirement that stops everything cold: "Please provide your SOC 2 Type II report."
You start researching compliance solutions and quickly discover names like Vanta, Drata, and Secureframe. They promise to "automate" your path to SOC 2. But here's what those marketing pages don't tell you: automation doesn't mean someone else does the work. It means you get software to help you do the work yourself.
This is the fundamental question most founders miss when evaluating compliance solutions: Do you want a tool to manage, or a team that handles everything? The answer determines whether you'll spend 5 hours or 100+ hours on your SOC 2 certification. It determines whether your CTO stays focused on product development or becomes a part-time compliance manager. And it determines whether you're locked into a vendor forever or maintain complete ownership of your compliance program.
Let's break down exactly what you get with each approach, because the difference between Probo and Vanta isn't about features. It's about who actually does the work.
Vanta Overview: What You Get With a Compliance Automation Platform
Vanta has built an impressive compliance automation platform. They've raised hundreds of millions in funding, serve thousands of customers, and have become the default name many people think of when they hear "SOC 2 software." But understanding what you actually get, and what you're still responsible for, is critical before signing up.
The DIY Model Explained
Compliance automation platforms like Vanta operate on a straightforward premise: give companies the tools to manage compliance themselves. You get a dashboard, integrations with your tech stack, template policies, and checklists that track your progress toward certification.
The platform connects to your AWS, Google Workspace, GitHub, and other systems to automatically pull evidence. It flags when something falls out of compliance, like an employee without two-factor authentication enabled. It provides templates for the 20+ security policies you'll need to write.
This is genuinely useful technology. The problem isn't what the platform does. The problem is what it doesn't do.
You still need to understand SOC 2 requirements well enough to configure the platform correctly. You still need to customize those template policies to actually reflect how your company operates. You still need to coordinate with auditors, answer their questions, and manage the back-and-forth that inevitably happens during an audit. The tool tracks your compliance work. It doesn't do your compliance work.
Hidden Time Investment Most Companies Discover Too Late
The marketing says "get SOC 2 certified in weeks." The reality looks different.
Most companies using DIY compliance tools discover they've signed up for 100-200+ hours of internal work. Your CTO or head of engineering becomes a part-time compliance manager. Someone needs to learn the framework, configure the platform, write and customize policies, chase down evidence, coordinate vendor reviews, and prepare for auditor calls.
As we've explored in our analysis of compliance automation tools, template-based approaches often create more work, not less. You spend hours customizing generic policies to match your actual business processes. You discover that "automated" evidence collection still requires manual review and organization. You realize that having a dashboard full of green checkmarks doesn't mean you're actually ready for an auditor's questions.
The hidden cost isn't just time, it's opportunity cost. Every hour your technical leadership spends on compliance is an hour not spent on product development, customer support, or strategic initiatives that drive revenue.
Probo Overview: Full-Service Compliance That Does the Work for You
Probo takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of giving you software to manage compliance yourself, we provide a dedicated compliance team that handles your SOC 2 certification end-to-end.
The Hands-Off Model: Your Dedicated Compliance Team
When you work with Probo, you get actual compliance experts: not chatbots, not ticket queues, not a knowledge base you're expected to search through yourself.
Your dedicated compliance officer does the work for you. Learn your business, your tech stack, your processes. We perform a complete risk analysis of your company and build a custom compliance program based on your specific context, not generic templates applied to every customer.
Here's what our team handles for you:
- • Risk assessments and gap analysis: We analyze your current security setup and identify exactly what needs to change
- • Policy and documentation creation: We write your security policies from scratch, custom to your business
- • Vendor security reviews: We evaluate your vendors and handle questionnaire back-and-forth
- • Audit preparation and evidence collection: We prepare all evidence and coordinate with auditors on your behalf
- • Audit day representation: We join audit calls, answer questions, and handle findings
Your only job is implementing the security measures we identify as gaps. We handle literally everything else.
Open Source Platform: Your Data, Your Control, Forever
Here's something most compliance vendors don't want you to think about: what happens if you leave?
With typical compliance tools, your policies, documentation, and evidence live on their platform. If you cancel your subscription, you lose access to everything you've built. You're starting from scratch with a new vendor, or you're paying renewal fees forever because switching costs are too high.
Probo is built on an open-source compliance platform. You get full access to everything: your policies, your evidence, your entire compliance program. If you ever decide to leave, you take it all with you. No lock-in. No ransom.
This isn't just about flexibility. It's about ownership. Your compliance program represents significant intellectual property: documentation of how your company operates, your security controls, your risk management approach. That should belong to you, not be held hostage by a vendor.
Head-to-Head Comparison: Probo vs Vanta
Let's get specific about what differs between these two approaches.
Who Does the Actual Work
Vanta: You do. The platform provides tools, templates, and tracking, but your team is responsible for understanding requirements, configuring the system, writing policies, collecting evidence, and managing the audit process.
Probo: Our compliance experts do. You implement security measures we identify as gaps. We handle everything else: documentation, risk analysis, vendor reviews, auditor coordination, and ongoing maintenance.
Time Investment Required From Your Team
Vanta: Plan for 100-200+ hours of internal work across your team. Someone needs to own compliance as a significant part of their job.
Probo: Approximately 5 hours total. A few onboarding calls, implementing identified security gaps, and a final review before audit.
Support Model: Slack or Call Access vs Ticket Queues
Vanta: Support typically comes through ticket systems, chatbots, and knowledge bases. You submit questions and wait for responses. For complex issues, you might get escalated to a human, eventually.
Probo: Your dedicated compliance officer is available on Slack or call. Real conversations with real experts who know your company, your context, and your specific compliance program. No tickets. No chatbots. No waiting.
Policy Creation: Custom-Written vs Template-Based
Vanta: You get template policies that you're expected to customize for your business. This sounds helpful until you realize you need to understand both compliance requirements AND your own operations well enough to modify legal and security documentation appropriately.
Probo: We write your security policies from scratch. Our team learns how your company actually operates and creates documentation that reflects reality, not generic templates with your company name inserted.
Audit Day: Expert Representation vs You Figure It Out
Vanta: When the auditor has questions, you answer them. When there are findings, you address them. When something needs clarification, you figure it out.
Probo: We join audit calls, answer auditor questions, and handle the back-and-forth from start to finish. You'll still talk with the auditor, your company is being audited, not us, but you're not doing it alone.
What Happens If You Leave
Vanta: Your compliance program lives on their platform. Cancel your subscription and you lose access to the policies, evidence, and documentation you've built.
Probo: Everything is yours. Our open-source platform means you maintain complete ownership. Leave whenever you want and take your entire compliance program with you.
The SOC 2 Reality Check: What Actually Happens With Each Approach
Getting SOC 2 compliant sounds straightforward until you actually start. Let's look at what typically happens with each approach.
The Tool Approach Reality
- • What you think: "We'll knock this out in a few weeks."
What actually happens: 3-6 months of your CTO's time. - • What you think: "Our security is already solid."
What actually happens: 20+ policies to write from scratch. - • What you think: "We'll just use a tool."
What actually happens: Now you're managing a tool AND doing compliance. - • What you think: "The auditor will guide us."
What actually happens: Auditors audit. They can't help you prepare.
The tool approach puts you in the driver's seat for a journey you've never taken before. You're learning compliance frameworks, configuring platforms, writing documentation, and managing auditor relationships, all while trying to run your actual business.
The Full-Service Approach Reality
With Probo, the process looks different:
- • Step 1: Onboarding Call, We spend the time necessary to understand your exact context and how your company runs.
- • Step 2: We Build Your Program, We perform a complete risk analysis. Based on the results, we create a custom compliance program, write your security policies, review your vendors, and assess associated risks. Your only job is implementing security measures we identify as gaps.
- • Step 3: Evidence Collection, Our platform automatically collects your evidence. When everything is complete, we review together to ensure proper implementation.
- • Step 4: Audit & Certification, We coordinate with the auditor, join all calls, answer questions, and handle any findings. You get your SOC 2 report.
- • Step 5: We Run Your Compliance, Monthly or quarterly security meetings with your expert. Continuous availability for any need. We even fill out your security questionnaires.
Understanding how long SOC 2 actually takes depends heavily on which approach you choose. A small company with a standard tech setup can be audit-ready in 2-4 weeks with full-service support. The same company using a DIY tool? Often 3-6 months.
Cost Comparison: Total Investment Beyond the Sticker Price
When comparing compliance solutions, most companies focus on subscription costs. That's a mistake. The real cost includes everything you invest: money, time, and opportunity cost.
The Hidden Costs of DIY Compliance Tools
Platform subscription fees are just the beginning. Factor in:
- • Internal time: 100-200+ hours at your team's hourly rate
- • Learning curve: Time spent understanding compliance requirements
- • Tool management: Ongoing platform administration and maintenance
- • Audit coordination: Managing auditor relationships and communications
- • Policy customization: Adapting templates to your actual business
- • Vendor reviews: Chasing questionnaires and evaluating third parties
When you calculate the fully-loaded cost, including what your CTO or engineering lead's time is actually worth, DIY compliance often costs more than full-service alternatives. You're just paying in time instead of money.
What Full-Service Compliance Actually Includes
With Probo, your investment covers:
- • SOC 2 Type I or Type II report completion
- • Custom security policies tailored to your business
- • Complete risk assessment documentation
- • Branded trust center page for prospects and customers
- • Full access to our open-source compliance platform
- • 12 months of maintenance and renewal preparation
- • Dedicated compliance officer available on Slack or call
- • Auditor coordination and management
No hidden costs. No surprise time investments. No learning curves for your team to climb.
Which Solution Is Right for Your Company?
Both approaches work. The right choice depends on your specific situation, resources, and priorities.
Choose Vanta If...
- • You have dedicated compliance or security staff with bandwidth to own this
- • Someone on your team genuinely wants to learn compliance frameworks
- • You prefer managing tools and processes internally
- • You have 100-200+ hours of internal capacity available
- • You're comfortable coordinating directly with auditors
- • You're okay with vendor lock-in on your compliance documentation
Choose Probo If...
- ✓ You want experts to handle compliance while you focus on your product
- ✓ Your technical leadership is already stretched thin
- ✓ You don't want to learn compliance frameworks, you just want results
- ✓ You value your time at more than the cost of full-service support
- ✓ You want dedicated experts available on or call, not ticket queues
- ✓ You want to own your compliance program forever, even if you leave
The fundamental question isn't about features or pricing. It's about whether you want to become a compliance expert or partner with one.
Conclusion: Stop Managing Compliance, Start Having It Handled
The compliance tool market has convinced many founders that the only way to get SOC 2 certified is to learn compliance, configure platforms, write policies, and manage audits themselves. That's one way. It's not the only way.
Probo exists because we believe there's a better approach. Your CTO should be building product, not learning SOC 2 requirements. Your engineering team should be shipping features, not chasing vendor questionnaires. Your company should own its compliance program, not rent it from a vendor who holds your documentation hostage.
When you work with Probo, you get:
- • A dedicated compliance team that handles everything from documentation to audit day
- • Custom policies and programs built for your specific business, not templates
- • Real experts on Slack or call available when you need them
- • Complete ownership of your compliance program through our open-source platform
- • 5 hours of your time instead of 200+
SOC 2 certification shouldn't require becoming a compliance expert. It should require partnering with one.
