Vanta is very good at one path: SOC 2, ISO 27001, and the frameworks a SaaS company meets on the way to an enterprise deal. Inside that path it is strong. The trouble is that this buyer is on more than that one path.
A city of 40,000 in Iowa
One city runs policing, fire and EMS, utilities, a water system, and a records office, and each one brings its own rulebook.
| Where it comes from | The instrument |
|---|---|
| Policing | the FBI CJIS Security Policy 6.1, with the 5.9.5 requirements still live |
| Tax and benefits | IRS Publication 1075 for federal tax information |
| Cloud procurement | GovRAMP (formerly StateRAMP) for the products it buys |
| Water | AWIA for a system serving more than 3,300 people |
| Records and accessibility | Iowa chapters 22, 21, and 715C and ADA Title II |
Why Lavawall® fits here
It ships these frameworks pre-built. For the public sector that means CJIS 6.1 and 5.9.5, IRS 1075, GovRAMP, ADA Title II, AWIA water, and NIST SP 800-53, with the regional coverage a municipality actually faces. Vanta builds the unusual ones as custom frameworks; Lavawall carries them and includes every framework in its Complete tier rather than charging per framework.
It is the platform, not a connector to one. Lavawall runs its own agent on your endpoints and its own connectors into Microsoft 365, Entra, Intune, and Google Workspace, so the evidence comes from the same system that runs the control, with continuity as a working module in the same console.
Pricing, published
Almost nobody in this category publishes a number, and pricing opacity is the single most-cited complaint in Vanta’s aggregate reviews, ahead of missing features. So here is ours, beside theirs.
Lavawall® Complete
$89.50 /seat/year
Annual, two months free. A seat is the greater of your managed devices or your Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace licensed users, never both.
Starts at $2,240/year for the first 25 seats, and every compliance framework in the catalogue is included, along with the business-continuity module, your policies, and a Trust Centre.
No per-framework fee: the whole catalogue is in Complete. Volume discounts start at 51 seats.
Vanta
from US$14,000 /year
Essentials package, 1–20 employees, as published on Vanta’s own AWS Marketplace listing (accessed 28 August 2026). Marketplace and direct pricing can differ.
That floor covers one framework. The buyer this page is written for has four, five, or six.
Volume discount, by seat
| 1–50 seats | list price |
| 51–250 seats | 5% off |
| 251–1,000 seats | 10% off |
| 1,001–5,000 seats | 15% off |
| 5,001+ seats | 20% off |
A few scenarios
| Organization | Assumptions | Lavawall / year |
|---|---|---|
| 20-person BC health-tech | 25 seats (the minimum), every framework it needs included | $2,240 |
| 50-person services firm | 50 seats, every framework included | $4,475 |
| 250-seat organization | 250 seats at the 5% volume tier, every framework included | $21,256 |
For the 20-person band, Vanta’s published floor is US$14,000 for one framework. Lavawall®’s $2,240 covers every framework the buyer needs.
For most of these buyers, though, the real alternative to Lavawall is not another compliance platform at all. It is a consultant at $15,000 to $40,000 and a spreadsheet, repeated every year, with nothing left behind between engagements. See the full pricing page for the calculator.
When Vanta is the better choice
There is almost no public-sector case where Vanta is the better fit, because its frameworks and a municipality's barely overlap. If a government contractor's single requirement is SOC 2 for a commercial product line, that is the exception.
Frequently asked
- Can Lavawall run inside a US government cloud?
- Yes. Your data and its AI processing can run on US-based infrastructure, including AWS GovCloud and Microsoft GCC, which is what CJIS and public-sector residency expectations call for. Lavawall does not claim a FedRAMP or GovRAMP status it does not hold; ask us for its current position.
- Does Lavawall handle CJIS and the sanction dates?
- Yes. Lavawall assesses CJIS 6.1 and the pre-modernization 5.9.5 requirements that are still sanctionable, with the October 2024 and October 2027 gates dated, from one shared control library.
- Why not Vanta for a government buyer?
- Vanta is built for SOC 2 and ISO 27001, which a municipality rarely needs. The frameworks a city is actually audited against, CJIS, IRS 1075, and the records laws, are the ones Vanta leaves to a custom build.