If you’re looking for a Delve alternative, start with one question: who signs the report? With Probo you get compliance tailored to your company, built to pass with a legitimate, independent auditor. You don’t need to know one: we recommend the right firm for your company. And if you already have an auditor, you can keep them.
Disclosure: Probo publishes this comparison and is one of the options. We say plainly when another one fits better.
Key takeaways
- A report is worth the auditor who signs it. Your customers’ security teams read the name on the opinion before anything else.
- We find you a legitimate auditor. You don’t need to know anything about audit firms. Probo recommends one for your company and handles the back and forth.
- Already have an auditor? Keep them. Many vendors only work with their partner auditor. Probo works with yours, after checking that the firm is legitimate.
- Tailored, not templated. Your program is built from a risk analysis of your company, not a pack of policies and controls that looks the same for everyone.
- Your existing work is checked against reality. We review your documentation, then check on calls that your policies and controls match what your team really does. What holds up is kept.
Why teams are looking for a Delve alternative
In March 2026, allegations were published about the SOC 2 and ISO 27001 reports obtained through Delve: near-identical reports across customers, and customers sent to a small set of audit firms. Delve disputes the allegations and says independent auditors are responsible for their opinions. IANS Research has a summary.
We won’t comment on it further. What matters for you is the effect: enterprise buyers now look much harder at who audited a report, and auditor quality has become the first question on our calls.
A report is worth the auditor who signs it
A SOC 2 report is not a certificate from a software vendor. It’s an opinion signed by an independent audit firm. If that firm can’t show a passed peer review, or planned almost no audit time, the report can be rejected by the customer you needed it for.
That’s why the cheapest all-in quote is rarely the cheapest outcome. Here’s how to evaluate SOC 2 report quality.
A legitimate auditor, chosen for you or brought by you
Most founders have never hired an audit firm, and you don’t have to become an expert. Probo recommends legitimate firms we know, chosen for your company: your size, your framework, your customers. Your compliance officer books the audit with you and handles the back and forth.
If you already have an auditor, you can keep them. That’s a real difference with most vendors, who only want to work with you if you go with their partner audit firm.
It’s worth asking why. If a compliance program is solid, it should pass with any serious, independent audit firm. A vendor that only works with its own partner is asking you to trust that the audit would go the same way somewhere else.
Keeping your auditor doesn’t mean Probo works with any auditor. Before working with a firm, we run an auditor assessment to make sure it’s legitimate:
- Who signs the report, and where the firm is based.
- Peer review. For SOC 2, the firm’s AICPA peer review letter, verified on the AICPA’s public file.
- Accreditation. For ISO 27001, the certification body’s accreditation (UKAS, COFRAC or equivalent), verified on the accreditor’s site.
- Audit time. How many audit days are planned. Too few means nobody is really testing.
We do this because we don’t want to support a race to the bottom in SOC 2 audits. A report that nobody tested helps no one, starting with you.
Either way, you pay the auditor directly, at cost. Probo takes no margin on the audit.
Tailored compliance, not a template
A legitimate auditor tests what your company actually does. So the program has to describe your company, not a generic one.
Template-based tools hand the same policies and the same control set to every customer. But a 5-person startup working remotely on personal laptops can’t be expected to check the same boxes as a 200-person company with several offices. Their risks are different, so their controls should be too.
At Probo, a dedicated compliance officer builds your program from a risk analysis of your company and your stack, writes your policies for you, collects the evidence with you and sits with you during the audit. Then they run your compliance all year: access reviews, offboarding checks, policy renewals.
Already have a report obtained through Delve?
We don’t take an existing report at face value, least of all one signed by an auditor who can’t show a passed peer review. Here’s what usually happens:
- We review your existing documentation. Policies, risk assessment, third-party list, plans, evidence.
- We check it against reality, on calls with your team. Are these policies and controls what you really do day to day? Same for your risks, your third parties and your plans, such as incident response and business continuity.
- We keep what holds up and rewrite the rest. Anything templated that doesn’t describe how your company works is rewritten for you.
- You pick an auditor you can verify. One we recommend, or yours after the assessment.
- The audit is done again, properly. With an engagement letter you can show your customers on day one, so deals don’t wait for the final report.
Moving your documents into Probo takes about a week. The review calls are where the real work happens.
Delve alternatives compared
| Who does the work | Auditor | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Probo | Your dedicated compliance officer | A legitimate firm we recommend, or your own after an assessment | Teams that want it done for them, with a report that holds |
| Vanta | Your team | Partner network. Ask if you can bring your own | Teams with in-house security |
| Drata | Your team | Partner network. Ask if you can bring your own | Teams building a formal security program |
| Secureframe | Your team | Partner network. Ask if you can bring your own | Teams needing federal compliance (CMMC) |
| Sprinto | Your team | Partner network. Ask if you can bring your own | Budget-conscious teams |
| Thoropass | Partly them | In-house auditors | Teams wanting platform and audit from one vendor |
For more detail on each, read Vanta alternatives in 2026, Probo vs Vanta and Probo vs Drata.
Five questions to ask any vendor
- Who signs the report? Get the firm’s name before you sign anything.
- Who chooses the auditor, and can I use another one? If not, why?
- Can I see the auditor’s peer review letter or accreditation, and verify it myself?
- Are the policies written for my company, or templates?
- Does the vendor take a margin on the audit?
Built for AI agents
Probo is built for your AI agents to work on compliance together with your team and your compliance officer. Everything is available through an open GraphQL API, an MCP server with 400+ tools and the prb CLI. AI speeds up the work. It doesn’t replace the compliance officer who knows your company, or the auditor who tests it.
What does it cost?
Probo starts at $10,000 for the year, platform and compliance officer service included; the price depends on the size of your team. The audit is paid to the auditor at cost. If your team wants to run compliance itself, you can use the Probo platform alone: free and open source if you self-host it, or hosted on Probo Cloud.
When you compare quotes, compare all-in: the platform, the service, the audit, and who the auditor is. For what drives the total, see how much SOC 2 costs.
When another option is the better choice
- You have a security or compliance person with time to own the program, and you want a self-serve platform: look at Vanta or Drata.
- Your team prefers to work in a user interface and isn’t AI-first. Probo relies less on its interface: it’s built as a structure for AI agents to work in.
- You want the platform and the audit from a single vendor: look at Thoropass, and think through the independence question.
Conclusion
Whatever you choose, choose the auditor first. A report your customers trust is the only one worth paying for.
Book a call with a Probo compliance officer to review what you have today and what it takes to get a report that holds.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Delve for SOC 2 compliance?
If you want a report your customers will trust, pick on the auditor first. Probo gives you compliance tailored to your company, run by a dedicated compliance officer, and audited by a legitimate, independent firm: one Probo recommends for your company, or your own auditor if you already have one. Vanta, Drata, Secureframe and Sprinto are options if your team wants to run a platform itself.
Do I need to find an auditor myself?
Yes, but you don’t have to. If you don’t know an audit firm, Probo recommends legitimate ones based on your company. If you already have an auditor, Probo works with them after an assessment that checks the firm is legitimate.
Why does it matter who audits my SOC 2?
A SOC 2 report is an opinion signed by an audit firm. Your customers’ security teams read who signed it. A report from a firm that can’t show a passed peer review can be rejected, and then you start again.
I already have a SOC 2 report obtained through Delve. Do I have to start from zero?
Not entirely, but don’t count on reusing the report itself. Probo looks at your existing documentation, then checks on calls with your team that your policies, controls, risks, third parties and plans match what you really do day to day. What holds up is kept, the rest is rewritten, and the audit is done again with an auditor whose peer review you can verify.
How do I check that a SOC 2 auditor is legitimate?
Ask who signs the report. Ask for the firm’s AICPA peer review letter and verify it on the AICPA’s public peer review file. For ISO 27001, check the certification body’s accreditation, such as UKAS or COFRAC, on the accreditor’s site. Ask how many audit days are planned.
How much does Probo cost?
Probo starts at $10,000 for the year, platform and compliance officer service included; the price depends on the size of your team. The audit is paid to the auditor at cost, and Probo takes no margin on it. If you want to run compliance yourself, the Probo platform alone is free and open source to self-host, or available on Probo Cloud.