Compared with the alternatives
Including where they win. A comparison in which one product wins every row is one nobody believes, and nobody should.
| AuditPrep | Vanta / Drata | A spreadsheet and a folder | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evidence collected on a schedule | Yes — four collectors today | Yes — dozens of integrations | No. Somebody does it, or nobody does |
| Policy management, training, vendor reviews | No | Yes | No |
| Control mapping and a readiness dashboard | No, deliberately | Yes | No |
| Every item dated, sourced and hashed | Yes | Yes | Rarely, in practice |
| Auditor access without an account | Yes, date-scoped and revocable | Usually an auditor seat | A shared folder link, which never expires |
| Export you can verify offline | Yes — manifest with a hash per file | Varies | No |
| Cost for a five-person company | $29/month (not yet charged) | Typically five figures a year | Free |
When Vanta or Drata is the better buy
If you need a compliance programme rather than an evidence pile — policies written and acknowledged, security training tracked, vendor risk reviewed, a dozen frameworks mapped, an auditor already inside the tool — buy one of them. They do all of that and AuditPrep does none of it. If your board or your largest customer has asked for a readiness dashboard, they have one and this does not.
That is not a hedge. It is the actual boundary of this product, and finding it out three weeks in would be worse for you than reading it here.
When a spreadsheet is genuinely fine
If you have one audit ever, six pieces of evidence, and one person gathering them in a fortnight, a folder works and it is free. This starts paying when the same evidence has to be gathered again next quarter and somebody has to say which quarter each screenshot came from.
When AuditPrep is the right choice
You know what evidence your auditor wants. You want it gathered on a schedule, dated, sourced, and handed over in a form they can check — without a five-figure contract for features you will not open.
We organize evidence. We do not certify. Everything in the table above is about gathering and handing over evidence. None of it is a claim about whether your controls pass, and no tool on this page decides that — your auditor does.