Caisson vs Vanta
Vanta monitors your stack and runs the audit. Caisson is the controls in your codebase it inspects. These compose: here is the honest line, own vs rent.
Which should you use?
These aren't head-to-head: they solve different halves, and the honest answer is often both. Vanta is the category-leading GRC platform: it connects to your stack, continuously monitors it, automates evidence collection, and runs the audit workflow, a subscription that watches whatever you built. Caisson is the code that implements the technical controls Vanta looks for: fail-closed Postgres RLS with isolation tests, a WORM + hash-chained audit trail, per-tenant field encryption, and OSCAL evidence packs, one-time, in your own codebase. Vanta proves your posture; Caisson makes the controls real.
What Vanta is
Compliance automation platform (GRC SaaS). Facts below were read from www.vanta.com on 2026-07-07.
- The market-leading GRC / trust platform, advertising 16,000+ customers on its live site (verified 2026-07-07).
- Continuous monitoring and automated evidence collection across your whole stack (cloud, HR, devices, and vendors), not just your application.
- Covers SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, HITRUST, and FedRAMP, with a Trust Center, questionnaire automation, and third-party risk.
- Connects to your infrastructure and watches it; it does not ship the application code that implements the controls.
An honest comparison
Where Vanta has a capability, it is marked. Caisson is the compliance and tenant-isolation substrate; Vanta wins the rows it wins.
| Detail | Caisson | Vanta |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous stack/cloud monitoring + automated evidence collection | from your own app code | |
| Runs the audit workflow (evidence-for-auditor, questionnaires) | — | |
| Hosted Trust Center for prospects | — | |
| Third-party / vendor risk management (TPRM) | — | |
| Fail-closed Postgres RLS + automated cross-tenant isolation tests | — | |
| WORM evidence store + append-only hash-chained audit trail | — | |
| SOC 2 / HIPAA / EU AI Act evidence packs + OSCAL export | — | |
| Per-tenant field encryption (envelope, per-tenant key) | — | |
| License model | One-time perpetual, own the source | Annual subscription |
What Vanta is genuinely better at
A comparison that only flatters one side isn't worth reading. Here is what this kit does well.
Vanta's reach goes far beyond an app: it integrates across cloud, HR, device, and vendor systems and continuously monitors them, flagging drift the moment it happens. Caisson does not do continuous org-wide monitoring: for that, Vanta is genuinely the leader.
Auditor coordination, a hosted Trust Center, automated questionnaires, and the broadest framework catalog turn the audit from a fire drill into a managed program. That operational layer is real and is not something a code library provides.
Where Caisson draws the line
The compliance and tenant-isolation substrate a launch kit leaves to you.
A monitor inspects code it didn't write. Caisson ships the technical controls themselves (fail-closed RLS with isolation tests, a hash-chained audit trail, WORM storage, and an evidence-pack generator) as source in your codebase, wired and CI-tested before the assessor asks.
Caisson is a one-time perpetual license you own the source of; Vanta is a subscription. And Caisson does not monitor your HR, devices, or vendors or manage your auditor: it is the earlier layer, the controls a platform grades.
Which should you pick?
You need continuous org-wide monitoring, an auditor and Trust Center workflow, questionnaire automation, and vendor risk, the audit program run as a service.
You want the technical controls (RLS with isolation tests, a WORM audit trail, and OSCAL evidence) as code you own and test in CI, one-time, rather than rented monitoring of code you still have to write.
The common reality: implement the controls with Caisson and monitor the rest of your stack plus run the audit with Vanta; the evidence Caisson emits from your own code feeds the platform.
One-time, own the source.
Caisson is a one-time perpetual license — the price never recurs, and it includes 12 months of updates from your purchase date, renewable per entitlement afterward at 40% of list per year. The Base substrate is Apache-2.0; the compliance modules are commercial.
Compliance bundle
$1,649, one-time. Fail-closed RLS, WORM, the audit chain, evidence packs, and the framework and signing carves — the whole substrate this comparison is about.
À la carte
Take a single module from $49 — audit-worm, field-crypto, or compliance-core on their own, onto your existing Postgres app.
Everything bundle
$2,259 covers every bundle and every à-la-carte module, plus the open base, in one purchase.
Common questions.
Is Caisson a Vanta alternative?
Does Caisson replace Vanta's continuous monitoring?
Own vs rent: how do the costs compare?
Ship the compliant backend.
Explore the Compliance bundle, browse every module in the marketplace, or read another comparison.