SOC 2 vs ISO 27001: Which Should You Pursue First?

If you sell software to enterprise customers, you will eventually face this question. Both SOC 2 and ISO 27001 signal that your organisation takes security seriously, but they are different in scope, structure, and market expectations.

Quick Comparison

SOC 2 is an attestation by a CPA firm that your controls meet the AICPA Trust Services Criteria. It is a report, not a certificate. It is predominant in North America.

ISO 27001 is a certification by an accredited body that you operate an Information Security Management System. It is a certificate valid for 3 years (with annual surveillance audits). It is predominant in Europe, Asia, and globally.

When to Start with SOC 2

• Your customers are primarily North American
• You need to close deals faster (SOC 2 Type I can be achieved in weeks)
• You are a SaaS company and Type II is the expected standard
• Your customers explicitly ask for a SOC 2 report

When to Start with ISO 27001

• Your customers are in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East
• You want a management system (not just a point-in-time report)
• You operate in regulated industries (finance, healthcare) where ISO is expected
• You plan to pursue additional ISO standards (27701, 42001)

Doing Both Efficiently

The good news: there is approximately 70% overlap between SOC 2 and ISO 27001 controls. If you plan your compliance programme right, pursuing both is not twice the work.

Shared Controls

• Access control policies and enforcement
• Change management procedures
• Incident response processes
• Risk assessment methodology
• Vendor management
• Security awareness training
• Logging and monitoring

Framework-Specific Controls

SOC 2 only:

• Service commitments and system requirements (CC1)
• Availability commitments (A1)
• Processing integrity criteria (PI1)
• Privacy criteria (P1)

• ISMS scope definition (Clause 4.3)
• Statement of Applicability
• Management review (Clause 9.3)
• Continuous improvement (Clause 10)

The Strategy

1. Build once, satisfy twice — create your policies and controls to satisfy both standards
2. Reuse shared evidence — the same access control policy can substantiate requirements in both frameworks
3. Start with the one your biggest customer needs, then layer on the second
4. Assess sufficiency for each — the same access control policy substantiates both ISO A.5.15 and SOC 2 CC6.1, but each is assessed on its own requirement

How Netallion Helps

Netallion assesses your evidence against ISO 27001 (93 Annex A controls), SOC 2 (57 Trust Services Criteria), and NIST CSF (106 subcategories) at the requirement level — determining, for each, whether the evidence is sufficient rather than merely present. Because the frameworks overlap heavily, one strong piece of evidence can substantiate requirements across all three, and readiness is assessed against each so you can see exactly where a single document carries.

SOC 2 is an attestation by a licensed CPA firm and ISO 27001 is issued by an accredited body — Netallion assesses your readiness ahead of both; it performs neither. Read the assessment methodology, or see how Netallion assesses SOC 2 and ISO 27001 readiness.