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 US SaaS company chasing enterprise deals
SOC 2 gets the first enterprise deal. Then a customer is in health care, a second is in California, a third is in Texas, and the obligation set grows with the map.
| Where it comes from | The instrument |
|---|---|
| Enterprise security | SOC 2 and often ISO 27001, because the buyer's security team asks |
| Privacy | CCPA and CPRA, plus the growing list of state privacy laws in Virginia, Colorado, Texas, and beyond |
| Health data | the HIPAA Security Rule the moment a customer is a covered entity, with a business-associate agreement to match |
| Payments | PCI DSS at whatever SAQ level the integration lands in |
Why Lavawall® fits here
It ships these frameworks pre-built. For US buyers that means HIPAA, CCPA and the state privacy laws, NIST SP 800-53, and the public-sector set from CJIS to IRS 1075 and ADA Title II. 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
If your entire obligation today is SOC 2 or ISO 27001, you are cloud-native with no health, payment, or public-sector exposure, and you most want an introduction to an audit firm, Vanta is built for exactly that.
Frequently asked
- Does Lavawall cover US state privacy laws?
- Lavawall covers CCPA and CPRA and maps to the common requirements of the newer state privacy laws. The catalogue grows as more states take effect, and every framework is included in Complete rather than billed separately.
- Is Lavawall a US company or Canadian?
- Lavawall is built by ThreeShield, a Canadian audit firm, and your data and its AI processing can run entirely on US-based infrastructure, including AWS GovCloud and Microsoft GCC for public-sector workloads. You choose the region.
- We only need SOC 2 today. Why not Vanta?
- If SOC 2 really is your whole obligation, Vanta is built for it and its auditor network is worth paying for. Most US organizations pick up a second and third obligation quickly, and that is where the per-framework and single-track model starts working against you.