A client asked us if we were SOC 2 compliant. I stared at the email for a full minute. SOC 2? I had heard the term thrown around at conferences. I knew it had something to do with security audits. But I had absolutely no idea what it actually required, how long it took, or how much it cost.

Six months later, we passed our Type II audit. The process was not fun, but it was far less terrifying than I expected. The biggest revelation: 80% of SOC 2 compliance is stuff you should already be doing as a responsible engineering team. The other 20% is documentation.

Here is everything I wish someone had told me on day one. No jargon. No consulting-firm doublespeak. Just the practical guide I needed when that client email landed in my inbox.

What SOC 2 Actually Is (In Plain English)

SOC 2 stands for System and Organization Controls 2. It is an auditing standard created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). In simple terms, SOC 2 is a formal process where an independent auditor verifies that your company protects customer data properly.

It is not a certification — you do not "get certified." Instead, you receive an audit report that says "we checked their security controls and here is what we found." Clients and prospects can read this report to decide whether your security practices meet their standards.

Why does it matter? Because enterprise companies will not buy from you without it. Period. If you sell SaaS to companies with more than 500 employees, SOC 2 is table stakes. Their procurement and security teams will ask for your SOC 2 report during the sales cycle. If you do not have one, you lose the deal.

At CODERCOPS, we went through the SOC 2 process because we handle client data and code. Multiple enterprise prospects told us they could not move forward without it. The ROI was clear: SOC 2 unlocked a tier of clients that was previously inaccessible.

Type I vs Type II: Which Do You Need?

There are two types of SOC 2 reports, and the difference matters:

Type I: A Point-in-Time Snapshot

A Type I report says: "On this specific date, these security controls existed and were designed properly."

It is like a building inspection that checks whether you have smoke detectors installed. The inspector does not wait around to see if they actually go off during a fire.

Timeline: 2-4 months from start to report Cost: $10,000-30,000 (audit fees) Good for: Getting started, satisfying initial client requests, proving you are serious about security

Type II: Continuous Monitoring

A Type II report says: "Over this 3-12 month period, these security controls were in place AND they actually worked."

The auditor checks that your access reviews happened quarterly. That your vulnerability scans ran monthly. That your incident response plan was followed when an incident occurred. It is not enough to have the controls — you have to prove they operated effectively.

Timeline: 3-12 month observation period + 1-2 months for audit Cost: $20,000-50,000 (audit fees) Good for: Enterprise sales, building long-term trust, actual security improvement

Which Should You Get First?

Start with Type I. Get it done in 2-3 months. Use it to unblock enterprise deals immediately. Then begin your Type II observation period. By the time your first Type I expires, you will have a Type II report ready.

Month 1-3:   Implement controls, get Type I report
Month 4-15:  Begin Type II observation period (6-12 months)
Month 16-17: Complete Type II audit
Month 18+:   Annual Type II renewal (much easier)

The 5 Trust Service Criteria — Explained for Engineers

SOC 2 evaluates your organization against five "Trust Service Criteria" (TSC). You do not have to address all five. Only Security is required. The other four are optional, and you should only include them if they are relevant to your business.

1. Security (Required)

This is the only mandatory criterion. It covers: Is your system protected against unauthorized access?

What the auditor checks:

  • Access controls (who can access what)
  • Network security (firewalls, encryption in transit)
  • Monitoring and alerting (can you detect intrusions)
  • Incident response (what happens when something goes wrong)
  • Vulnerability management (do you patch your systems)
  • Change management (how code gets to production)

For engineering teams, this is 90% of the work.

2. Availability (Optional)

Can customers access your system when they need it?

What the auditor checks:

  • Uptime SLAs and monitoring
  • Disaster recovery plan
  • Backup procedures
  • Capacity planning

Include this if you sell SaaS with uptime guarantees. Skip it if you are an agency or consultancy.

3. Processing Integrity (Optional)

Does your system process data accurately and completely?

What the auditor checks:

  • Data validation
  • Error handling
  • Quality assurance processes
  • Transaction completeness

Include this if you handle financial data, process payments, or do data transformations. Skip it for most SaaS products.

4. Confidentiality (Optional)

Is confidential information protected?

What the auditor checks:

  • Data classification (what is confidential vs. public)
  • Encryption at rest
  • Data retention and disposal policies
  • NDA processes

Include this if you handle sensitive client data (source code, financial records, healthcare data). Most B2B SaaS companies should include this.

5. Privacy (Optional)

Is personal information collected, used, and disclosed properly?

What the auditor checks:

  • Privacy notice/policy
  • Consent management
  • Data subject rights (deletion, access requests)
  • GDPR/CCPA compliance overlap

Include this if you collect personal data from end users. There is significant overlap with GDPR, so if you are already GDPR-compliant, this is low effort.

Our Recommendation

For most startups and agencies, start with Security + Confidentiality. These two criteria cover the controls that enterprise clients care about most. Add Availability later if you sell SaaS with uptime SLAs. Skip Processing Integrity and Privacy unless your business specifically requires them.

What Engineering Teams Actually Need to Implement

Here is the concrete list of controls your engineering team needs to have in place. I am going to be specific because vague advice like "implement access controls" is useless.

1. Multi-Factor Authentication Everywhere

Every service that touches your infrastructure needs MFA enabled:

  • GitHub (or GitLab/Bitbucket) — enforce org-wide MFA
  • AWS / GCP / Azure — MFA on all IAM users, especially root
  • Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 — enforce for all employees
  • Supabase / database providers — MFA on admin accounts
  • Vercel / hosting platforms — MFA on all team members
  • Slack — org-wide enforcement
  • Password manager (1Password, Bitwarden) — MFA on the vault itself

The auditor will check MFA enforcement across all critical systems. If even one admin account lacks MFA, it is a finding.

What we did at CODERCOPS: We use 1Password Teams with enforced MFA. Every team member has hardware keys (YubiKey) as their primary 2FA method. Software TOTP is the backup. SMS-based 2FA is disabled entirely — it is vulnerable to SIM swapping.

2. Audit Logging

You need to be able to answer: "Who accessed what, when, and from where?"

At minimum, log:

  • Authentication events (login, logout, failed login)
  • Authorization changes (role changes, permission grants)
  • Data access to sensitive resources
  • Infrastructure changes (deploy, config change, scaling)
  • Admin actions (user creation, deletion, password reset)
Example audit log entry:
{
  "timestamp": "2026-03-13T14:22:31Z",
  "actor": "anurag@codercops.com",
  "action": "user.role_change",
  "target": "new-dev@codercops.com",
  "details": {
    "old_role": "viewer",
    "new_role": "editor",
    "project": "client-dashboard"
  },
  "ip": "203.0.113.42",
  "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0..."
}

You do not need to build this from scratch. Most SaaS tools already generate audit logs. Your job is to ensure they are:

  • Retained for at least 1 year (auditors check this)
  • Centralized in a log management tool (Datadog, Splunk, CloudWatch)
  • Tamper-proof (write-once storage, separate from production systems)

3. Encrypted Backups and Disaster Recovery

The auditor will ask: "If your primary database was deleted right now, how long until you are operational again?"

You need:

  • Automated daily backups (at minimum) of all databases and critical data
  • Encryption at rest for all backups (AES-256)
  • Off-site backup storage (different region or provider from production)
  • Tested restore process — actually restore from backup at least quarterly and document it
  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO) documented — how long to recover
  • Recovery Point Objective (RPO) documented — how much data loss is acceptable
Our setup at CODERCOPS:
- Supabase: Point-in-time recovery enabled (RPO: 0, RTO: <1 hour)
- Source code: GitHub with redundant clone to separate Git host
- Client data: Daily encrypted snapshots to S3 (different AWS account)
- Restore test: Quarterly, documented in Notion with screenshots

4. Vulnerability Scanning and Patching

You need a process for finding and fixing security vulnerabilities in your code and infrastructure.

Automated scanning tools:

  • Dependabot or Renovate for dependency updates (free)
  • Snyk or Socket for vulnerability scanning ($0-500/month)
  • GitHub Advanced Security for code scanning (included in Enterprise)
  • AWS Inspector or equivalent for infrastructure scanning

Patching process:

  • Critical vulnerabilities: patched within 24-48 hours
  • High vulnerabilities: patched within 7 days
  • Medium vulnerabilities: patched within 30 days
  • Low vulnerabilities: patched within 90 days

Document this policy. The auditor will check that you follow it by looking at your actual patching history.

5. Code Review Requirements

This is one of the easiest controls and one that most teams already follow:

  • No direct pushes to main/production branches — enforce branch protection rules
  • At least one approval required for pull requests
  • No self-approvals — someone else must review your code
  • CI checks must pass before merging (tests, linting, security scanning)
# GitHub branch protection rule (documented for auditor)
Branch: main
Rules:
  - Require pull request reviews: 1 minimum
  - Dismiss stale reviews: enabled
  - Require review from code owners: enabled
  - Require status checks: [tests, lint, security-scan]
  - Require branches to be up to date: enabled
  - Include administrators: enabled
  - Allow force pushes: disabled
  - Allow deletions: disabled

6. Access Review Process

Every quarter, review who has access to what. Remove access for anyone who no longer needs it.

This sounds tedious, and it is. But it is one of the controls auditors check most carefully.

What we do:

  1. Export user lists from GitHub, AWS, Supabase, Google Workspace, and all other tools
  2. Compare against our current team roster
  3. Remove access for departed team members (this should happen immediately at offboarding, but the quarterly review catches anything missed)
  4. Review permission levels — does this developer still need admin access to production?
  5. Document the review in a shared document with date, reviewer name, and actions taken

7. Incident Response Plan

You need a documented plan for handling security incidents. The plan does not need to be complex. It needs to exist and be followed.

Our incident response plan (simplified):

Phase Action Owner Timeline
Detection Alert triggered via monitoring On-call engineer Immediate
Triage Assess severity (Critical/High/Medium/Low) On-call engineer Within 15 minutes
Containment Isolate affected systems Engineering lead Within 1 hour (Critical)
Communication Notify affected clients Founder Within 4 hours (Critical)
Investigation Root cause analysis Engineering team Within 24 hours
Remediation Fix the vulnerability Engineering team Within 48 hours (Critical)
Post-mortem Document lessons learned Engineering lead Within 1 week
Improvement Implement preventive measures Engineering team Within 2 weeks

The auditor will check that you have this plan AND that you followed it during actual incidents. If you had zero incidents during the audit period, they will ask you to run a tabletop exercise (a simulated incident walkthrough).

8. Change Management Process

Every change to production must go through a documented process:

  1. Change requested (ticket created in Jira/Linear/GitHub Issues)
  2. Change developed (code written in a branch)
  3. Change reviewed (pull request approved)
  4. Change tested (CI/CD pipeline passes)
  5. Change deployed (automated deployment)
  6. Change verified (post-deploy monitoring)

You probably already do most of this. The SOC 2 part is documenting that you do it and being able to show the auditor evidence (pull request history, deployment logs, ticket trail).

What You Can Skip (Do Not Over-Engineer)

Here is what I wish someone had told me before we started: you do not need to do everything perfectly. SOC 2 is about having reasonable controls, not about being Fort Knox.

You Do Not Need a Dedicated Security Team

For companies under 50 people, a developer or engineering manager can own security part-time. You do not need a CISO. You need someone who takes ownership and follows through.

You Do Not Need to Build Custom Monitoring

SaaS tools count. If you use Datadog for monitoring, Snyk for vulnerability scanning, and 1Password for password management, those are legitimate controls. The auditor does not care whether you built it or bought it.

You Do Not Need Perfect Documentation on Day 1

Start with good-enough policies and refine them over time. A two-page security policy that your team actually follows is better than a 50-page document that nobody reads.

You Do Not Need to Be PCI DSS or HIPAA Compliant

SOC 2 is separate from PCI DSS (payment card security) and HIPAA (healthcare data). If you do not process credit cards or handle healthcare data, you do not need those certifications. SOC 2 alone is sufficient for most B2B SaaS companies.

You Do Not Need Zero Findings

A SOC 2 report with minor findings is still a passing report. Most companies have a few findings in their first audit. The auditor documents them, you fix them, and your next audit is clean. A report with 2-3 minor findings is normal and does not scare away enterprise clients.

Tools That Automate 80% of the Work

Compliance automation platforms connect to your existing tools (AWS, GitHub, Google Workspace, etc.), pull evidence automatically, and flag gaps. They reduce the manual work from "full-time job for three months" to "a few hours per week."

Platform Starting Price Strengths Weaknesses
Vanta $5,000-15,000/yr Most popular, excellent integrations, good UI Expensive for small teams
Drata $5,000-12,000/yr Strong automation, good for fast-growing teams Newer, fewer integrations
Secureframe $4,000-10,000/yr Best for startups, lower starting price Less mature enterprise features
Sprinto $3,000-8,000/yr Budget-friendly, good for small teams Fewer advanced features
Thoropass (formerly Laika) $6,000-15,000/yr Strong audit management, concierge service Higher price point

What These Platforms Actually Do

  1. Integrate with your tools — pull user lists from GitHub, AWS configs, Google Workspace settings
  2. Continuously monitor — alert you when MFA is disabled, access is not reviewed, or backups fail
  3. Generate evidence — automatically collect screenshots, exports, and logs for the auditor
  4. Track policies — host your security policies and track employee acknowledgment
  5. Manage the audit — coordinate with the auditor, share evidence, track findings

Our experience with Vanta: We chose Vanta because of its integration depth. It connects to 100+ tools and automatically collects about 80% of the evidence our auditor needs. The remaining 20% is manual — things like policy reviews, access review documentation, and incident response plans.

Setup took about 2 weeks. After that, ongoing maintenance is roughly 2-3 hours per week.

The Full Cost Breakdown

Here is what SOC 2 actually costs for a company with 10-50 employees:

Type I (First Year)

Item Cost Range Notes
Compliance platform $4,000-15,000/yr Vanta, Drata, or equivalent
Audit firm $10,000-30,000 Independent CPA firm
Engineering time 100-200 hours Implementing controls, fixing gaps
Policy writing 20-40 hours Security policies, incident response plan
Penetration test $5,000-15,000 Often required by auditor
Total $25,000-75,000 Plus engineering opportunity cost

Type II (Annual Ongoing)

Item Cost Range Notes
Compliance platform $5,000-15,000/yr Annual subscription
Audit firm $15,000-50,000 Type II requires more auditor time
Engineering time 50-100 hours/yr Ongoing maintenance, access reviews
Penetration test $5,000-15,000/yr Annual requirement
Total $30,000-90,000/yr Much less engineering time after Year 1

Is it worth it? For us, unequivocally yes. Our first enterprise contract after getting SOC 2 was worth more than the total cost of compliance. One client paid for the entire process.

Timeline: From Zero to SOC 2

Here is a realistic timeline based on our experience:

Month 1: Assessment and Gap Analysis

  • Sign up for a compliance platform (Vanta, Drata, etc.)
  • Connect all your tools and services
  • Review the gap report — what controls are you missing?
  • Select an audit firm (get quotes from 2-3 firms)
  • Assign an internal owner for the compliance project

Month 2: Implementation

  • Enable MFA everywhere (highest priority)
  • Set up audit logging and monitoring
  • Write security policies (acceptable use, access control, incident response, data classification)
  • Enable branch protection and code review requirements
  • Set up vulnerability scanning (Dependabot, Snyk)
  • Configure encrypted backups and test restore
  • Conduct first access review

Month 3: Type I Readiness

  • Complete all control implementations
  • Have all team members acknowledge security policies
  • Conduct a penetration test
  • Run a tabletop incident response exercise
  • Pre-audit readiness review with your compliance platform
  • Schedule Type I audit with your audit firm

Month 4: Type I Audit

  • Auditor reviews evidence (mostly from your compliance platform)
  • Auditor interviews key personnel (usually 2-3 one-hour calls)
  • Auditor identifies findings (if any)
  • You remediate findings
  • Auditor issues Type I report

Months 5-16: Type II Observation Period

  • Continue operating all controls
  • Quarterly access reviews (documented)
  • Monthly vulnerability scan reviews
  • Incident response following your documented plan
  • Continuous monitoring via compliance platform
  • Evidence collection happens automatically

Month 17-18: Type II Audit

  • Auditor reviews 12 months of evidence
  • Auditor verifies controls operated effectively throughout the period
  • Auditor issues Type II report

Lessons Learned: What Surprised Us

The Auditor Is Not Your Enemy

I expected the audit to feel adversarial. It was not. Our auditor was helpful, pointed out gaps we had missed, and gave us practical advice on how to fix things. They want you to pass. A good auditor is more like a coach than a cop.

Access Reviews Are the Biggest Time Sink

Implementing technical controls (MFA, encryption, monitoring) is straightforward engineering work. Access reviews are tedious administrative work that nobody enjoys. Automate as much as possible. Use your compliance platform's access review features.

Documentation Beats Perfection

Your incident response plan does not need to be perfect. It needs to exist, be documented, and be followed. Our first version was two pages. The auditor was fine with it because we could demonstrate that the team knew the plan and had practiced it.

Employee Security Training Is Easy

Most compliance platforms include employee security training modules. Your team watches 30-60 minutes of training videos and answers a quiz. That is it. It counts as a control, and it takes minimal effort.

Common Audit Findings for First-Time Companies

Based on our experience and conversations with auditors, here are the most common findings:

  1. Missing MFA on one or more services — there is always one tool you forgot
  2. Incomplete access reviews — you did three quarterly reviews but missed one
  3. Undocumented exceptions — a developer had admin access for a reason, but you did not document why
  4. Backup restore not tested — you have backups but never verified they actually work
  5. Incomplete offboarding — a former contractor still had access to a staging environment

None of these are catastrophic. They are minor findings that get documented and fixed.

The ROI: Why SOC 2 Is Worth It

Beyond unlocking enterprise clients, SOC 2 forces you to build security practices that you should have anyway. After going through the process, CODERCOPS has:

  • Better access control hygiene — we actually review and revoke access regularly
  • Faster incident response — we have a plan, we have practiced it, and we know who does what
  • More secure infrastructure — MFA everywhere, encrypted backups, vulnerability scanning
  • Stronger client trust — we can share our SOC 2 report with prospects, and it closes deals faster
  • Lower insurance premiums — our cyber insurance premium dropped 15% after we got SOC 2

The security improvements alone make the investment worthwhile, even before you factor in the revenue impact.

Getting Started: Your First Week

If you are reading this and thinking "we need to do this," here is your action plan for the first week:

Day 1-2: Sign up for a compliance platform trial (Vanta and Drata both offer demos). Connect your primary tools. Review the gap analysis.

Day 3-4: Enable MFA on all critical services. Start with the ones where it is not enabled yet. This is the highest-impact, lowest-effort control.

Day 5: Write your first security policy. Use a template from your compliance platform. It does not need to be perfect — it needs to exist.

Week 2: Start researching audit firms. Ask for referrals from other startups in your network. Get quotes from at least two firms.

Week 3-4: Begin implementing the remaining controls based on your gap analysis, prioritized by risk.

The hardest part is starting. Once you have a compliance platform connected and a gap list in front of you, the work is straightforward engineering tasks. No black magic. No specialized security knowledge required. Just disciplined execution.

Need Help with SOC 2 Compliance?

At CODERCOPS, we have been through the SOC 2 process ourselves. We help engineering teams implement the technical controls required for SOC 2 — from infrastructure security to audit logging to CI/CD hardening.

What we can help with:

  • Technical control implementation (MFA, logging, backup, monitoring)
  • Infrastructure security review and hardening
  • CI/CD pipeline security (branch protection, scanning, deployment controls)
  • SOC 2 readiness assessment for engineering teams

We are not auditors and we are not compliance consultants. We are engineers who have done this ourselves and can help your team do it efficiently.

Get in touch if you are starting your SOC 2 journey. Or check out our other engineering guides for more practical advice.

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