Skip to content
Q&A

Can I outsource SOC 2 compliance?

Yes — nearly all of it. A managed compliance provider can carry your SOC 2 from readiness through the audit: controls, policies, evidence, and auditor management. Accountability is the exception; the report describes your company.

Last updated July 26, 2026
The direct answer

Yes — nearly all of it.

Managed Compliance Services
SOC 2
SOC 2 for Startups
Q&A · Outsourcing & managed servicesDirect answer first
One question, one pageWritten by the engineers who do the work

Yes — nearly all of it.

Questions · Can I outsource SOC 2 compliance?
/0.1

The work moves; the accountability doesn’t

A SOC 2 report is an independent auditor’s opinion on your company’s controls, so two things are permanently yours: the management assertion your leadership signs, and the decisions behind it — scope, risk acceptance, which trust services criteria to include. Everything between those decisions and the finished report is labor, and labor outsources: gap assessment, platform configuration, control remediation, policy drafting, evidence collection, and the back-and-forth with the audit firm.

In a managed engagement that split works out to your team making a handful of choices per quarter while the provider spends the hours. Your engineers still ship the occasional fix in product code, but the program management — the part that eats roadmaps — moves entirely.

/0.2

What it looks like in practice

Agency’s version, described on Managed Compliance Services, pairs a GRC platform (Vanta or Drata, at partner pricing) with compliance engineers who operate it: they stand up controls, remediate what monitoring surfaces, assemble the evidence package, schedule the independent audit firm, and sit in the fieldwork meetings. After the report lands, the same team keeps the program warm for year two and answers the security questionnaires the report attracts.

/0.3

Frequently asked questions

Two questions
Can the provider that prepares us also perform the audit?No. The CPA firm issuing your SOC 2 must be independent of whoever builds and operates the controls. Agency prepares you and coordinates fieldwork with independent firms — see audit partners — which keeps the opinion clean.
Do we need any compliance staff before outsourcing?No. You need an executive sponsor to make decisions and engineers who can merge occasional changes; the function itself can be external from day one. That model is covered under outsourced compliance team.

Q&A

Get SOC 2 off your engineers’ plates

One scoping call establishes your gap, your timeline, and a flat price for closing both. 1,000+ companies served since 2021.

Talk to an Expert Top-ranked Vanta & Drata partner · 1,000+ companies served since 2021 · 4.9/5 on G2
Quick answers
Can the provider that prepares us also perform the audit?No.
Do we need any compliance staff before outsourcing?No.

Find your auditor

Auditnex makes buying audits simpler and more transparent.

Agency implements the controls, collects the evidence, and manages your auditor relationship on top of the GRC tools you already use.

Explore Auditnex

Common GRC Questions

GRC Platform & Virtual CISO FAQ

The long-form FAQ on how managed GRC and virtual CISO coverage work together.

Read the FAQ
AI-Powered

Build a Security & Compliance Team Led by Your Own Virtual CISO

Forward-Deployed Engineers + AI that lower costs, increase velocity, and raise the bar — from policy to audit to remediation. U.S.-based forward-deployed engineers, supercharged by proprietary AI, operate your program end-to-end — on top of the tools you already trust.

Talk to an Expert Automation ends where judgment begins.