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At the end of Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker races through the Death Star trench, hearing the ghostly voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi telling him to trust him. Luke places blind trust in an intangible energy that surrounds him, he defeats Darth Vader and blows up the dreaded Death Star.
While this story works for science fiction, real-world customers can no longer afford to place blind trust in their vendors – they need documented assurance that their business partners and vendors are secure. To obtain this assurance, most companies engage in third-party audits, especially those operating within highly regulated industries. However, as organizations plan their budgets, many have little to no insight into how much the security audits really cost.
No auditor wants to provide an estimate before understanding the client’s environment. A large enterprise will likely have a more complex IT environment which takes more time to review and test. Small organizations will have a limited environment which reduces the time spent on reviewing and testing controls.
When looking at the costs from the average mid-size business, people should assume a limited IT environment consisting primarily of traditional workstations, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and mobile devices. Starting from that premise, organizations can increase or decrease the hours spent and hourly salaries as needed. However, for the average mid-size organization, the costs of an audit can be estimated across the different activities.
What is the security audit process?
No matter what type of audit an organization need to complete, the process remains essentially the same:
- Planning: Defining the systems to be audited, the testing methodology, and the auditor
- Preparing: Reviewing previous audits and documentation, conversations between the auditor and senior leadership, gathering documents
- Conducting the audit: Engaging in on-site testing and off-site document reviews
- Reporting: Documenting audit findings, auditor recommendations, and management response
- Following up: Implementing corrective actions and remediation plans
Each step in the audit process costs an organization time and money. In some cases, an organization can easily understand the direct costs, like how much an organization needs to pay the audit firm. In other cases, the costs are hidden, like the time it takes to write up processes or collect documentation.
Who is involved in an application security audit?
To get a sense of the true costs associated with an audit, an organization need to make a few assumptions:
- Audit type: Typically organizations will undergo a System and Organizational Controls (SOC) audit.
- Hourly cost of labor: Various people across the organization spend time on tasks related to the audit.
Audits can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months from start to finish, depending on how an organization allocates resources.
As part of the estimate, an organization want to consider the following hourly estimated pay per employee type as researched in July 2025:
Auditor costs can be either a flat fee or an hourly rate set by the firm. This evaluation assumes a regional accounting firm rather than a large “Big 4” organization.
What to expect?
Depending on which online article an organization read, estimated costs for security audits can range anywhere from $700 to $60,000. A range like this makes most numbers appear, at best, made up and at worst vaguely useless.
Problematically, security audits are never a one-size-fits-all solution. The range consider various factors that influence the time an audit takes, including:
- Size: More users and data increase costs.
- Industry vertical: Audits for highly regulated industries cost more.
- Complexity: More applications, devices, systems, and networks increase cost.
- Staffing: Fewer people to manage the audit increases costs.
- Audit firm: Various auditor rates based on experience impact cost.
A security audit will review everything about an organization’s data protection, including:
- Corporate systems and networks
- Build, development, and production environments
- Application security and coding practices
Total estimated security audit costs: $12,014-$15,970
This evaluation of security audit costs should be considered a minimum baseline. The following evaluation assumes:
- Small to mid-size organization
- Appropriate staffing
- Organized documentation that’s easy to collect
- Primarily entry level employee and auditor salaries
- Prior audit reports available
- Least amount of time to complete tasks
Most security audits will cost more than this example. However, this evaluation seeks to provide insight into unaccounted for hours and administrative costs. So let’s get started!
Total cost of planning: $936
Planning and scoping an audit is time-consuming. When evaluating direct and hidden costs, organizations should consider the following:
- $782: 2 hours for a CEO to review objectives and risk assessment and gain board approval for scope, policies, and processes.
- $154: 2 hours for a compliance special to choose a new auditor or connect with a previous auditor
Total cost of preparation: $3,823-$6,283
During the preparation phase, most costs associated with the audit will be internal time and resources. Organizations often fail to consider the time spent creating the documentation that their auditors need. For example, penetration test results may not be considered part of the audit itself, but auditors need to know that the organization completed the testing.
When evaluating direct and hidden costs, organizations should consider the following:
- $150: 6 hours for an administrative assistant to compile documentation supporting policies, procedures, training, and assignment of responsibility.
- $2460: 60 hours for penetration testing for security of the corporate systems and networks.
- $105: 3 hours for a developer to gather technical documentation supporting secure software development lifecycle controls.
- $154: 2 hours for a compliance specialist to engage in pre-examination interviews.
- $782: 2 hours for a CEO to engage in pre-examination interviews.
- $172: 4 hours for the auditor to engage in pre-examination interviews.
If the organization is a software company or needs to prove application security compliance, then it should also consider these additional costs:
- $2460: 60 hours for penetration testing software’s or web application’s security.
Total cost of conducting the audit: $6,298-6,858
The audit itself consists of:
- Off-site document review
- On-site interviews
- Additional documentation requests
- Review of additional documentation
The additional documentation requests are another often overlooked hidden cost. An auditor’s job is to understand an organization’s stated policies and processes, then map those to what an organization is doing.
In some cases, an organization may have documentation but failed to provide it earlier. This process becomes time-consuming as people look for the information in systems and documents, ask the auditor clarifying questions, and email peers to find what they need.
When evaluating direct and hidden costs, organizations should consider the following:
- $3870: 90 hours for the auditor to engage in onsite testing, including interviews and sampling.
- $860: 20 hours for the auditor to review documentation off-site.
- $385: 5 hours for a compliance specialist to respond to auditor questions.
- $782: 2 hours for a CEO to respond to auditor questions.
- $129: 3 hours for the auditor to write up the request for additional documents.
- $100: 4 hours for an administrative assistant to package the additional documents.
- $172: 4 hours for the auditor to review additional documentation.
If the organization is a software company or needs to prove application security compliance, then it should also consider these additional costs:
- $350: 10 hours for a developer to respond to auditor questions.
- $210: 6 hours for a developer to collect additional documentation about software development processes and application security.
Total cost of reporting: $880
The report is the outcome of the audit, giving an organization the final “grade” and identifying any issues that an organization needs to address.
When evaluating direct and hidden costs, organizations should consider the following:
- $258: 6 hours for the auditor to write the executive summary, background, objectives, scope, methodology, findings, and recommendations.
- $231: 3 hours for the compliance specialist to review the report, meet with management, and draft a management response.
- $391: 1 hour for the CEO to review the report and discuss the management response with the compliance specialist.
Total cost of following up: $1,013
Once the auditor leaves, an organization may still have some additional costs associated with the audit. If an auditor detects any issues that require immediate remediation, the organization needs to create a timeline for addressing them and specific steps for how to address them. Typically, corrective actions should be completed within 60-90 days.
If the auditor identifies any opportunities for improvement, the organization should either implement changes or document its risk-based decision for not implementing them.
When evaluating direct and hidden costs, organizations should consider the following:
- $231: 3 hours for a compliance specialist to create and document the plan.
- $782: 2 hours for a CEO to review the plan and report to the board.
The business value of security and compliance
Security audits are critical to an organization’s revenue as customers increasingly require third-party attestation over their vendors’ data protection programs. Further, as organizations seek to reduce audit costs, they begin looking into various technologies that streamline or automate processes. With an understanding of the hourly costs associated with different audit activities, organizations can begin quantifying the value that technology offers.
Similarly, as organizations scale their operations, they need to consider how different business-enabling technologies increase their security audit costs. By starting with a baseline quantification, they can gain the insight needed to understand how their security and compliance activities impact the bottom line and better estimate overall costs.
