Probo vs Drata: a compliance officer or a compliance platform?

Probo is compliance software with a dedicated compliance officer on top. Your compliance officer runs your compliance program for you, all year, on Probo’s compliance software, whatever the framework: SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR and more. Drata is a compliance platform your team runs itself.

Disclosure: Probo publishes this comparison. We say plainly when Drata is the better choice.

Many teams who come to Probo from Drata tell the same story: they paid for a year, connected everything, and the project stalled before anyone booked an auditor. Not because the platform was bad, but because nobody had the time to do the work.

Key takeaways

• Drata is a platform. Probo is a platform and a team. On top of Probo’s software, you get a real human compliance officer, dedicated to your company and available on Slack and on calls, not an AI bot.
• Fewer integrations, the right ones. Drata connects to a long list of tools. Most of what they pull is more than an auditor needs. Probo connects what your controls actually require.
• Tailored, not templated. Your program is built from a risk analysis of your company and your stack, not a control set you have to fit into.
• Built for AI agents. A full GraphQL API, an MCP server and a CLI let your AI agents work on compliance with your team and your compliance officer.
• Open source, no lock-in. The device agent and the platform are open source (MIT licensed). Export your data anytime.

Do you want a platform or a team?

A prospect just sent a security questionnaire asking for your SOC 2 report. You look at Vanta, Drata and Secureframe. They all promise to automate compliance.

Automation doesn’t mean someone else does the work. It means you get software to help you do it yourself. That’s the real choice between Probo and Drata: who actually does the work.

What you get with Drata

Drata is compliance automation software with a large customer base. It connects to your cloud, identity provider, HR and code tools, pulls evidence automatically, installs an agent on your employees’ computers and gives you template policies and a standard set of controls to implement across frameworks.

What teams who switched from Drata to Probo tell us:

• The integrations were oversold. Alerts fired on things that had nothing to do with their controls, so they turned most of them off after a couple of weeks.
• The controls were rigid. They had to fit their company into Drata’s way of seeing compliance, instead of the other way around.
• The agent was a black box. It ran on every laptop, and nobody could check what it did.
• The project stalled. Someone on the team, usually the CTO, became a part-time compliance manager, then ran out of time.

And with a platform, your team still has to:

• Understand the framework well enough to configure everything correctly
• Adapt template policies so they reflect how your company actually works
• Review vendors and decide what’s acceptable risk
• Work out whether you’re ready to book the audit, how to book it and what the auditor will ask
• Keep everything running after the report: access reviews, offboarding, policy renewals

What does Probo actually do for you?

Getting you audit ready:

• Onboarding on Probo. Your compliance officer sets up the integrations you need: SCIM, your access review tool, the device agent if your controls need it.
• A full risk analysis of your company. Then a gap analysis and a compliance roadmap for your target framework.
• Your compliance documentation, written for you. Risk assessments, asset and data registries, policies, third parties and their assessments.
• Missing evidence, collected with you. Your officer knows what the auditor will ask for and chases the gaps before they do.
• Representation during the audit. They tell you when you’re ready, prepare you for what the auditor will ask and handle the back and forth.

Then running your compliance all year:

• Policy renewals and signatures through the employee portal.
• Quarterly access reviews and an access review at every offboarding, validated with you in Slack before anything changes.
• New-hire controls. Background checks, access granted and documented, policies signed.
• Security meetings and questionnaires. Regular meetings with your officer, and help with your customers’ security questionnaires.

Your only job is implementing the security measures your officer identifies as gaps.

Built for AI agents

Probo is built for your AI agents to work on compliance together with your team and your compliance officer. Everything in the platform is available through an open GraphQL API, an MCP server with 400+ tools for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other assistants, and the prb CLI.

In practice, your own agent can do your side of the work: make the change in production, update a setting, capture the evidence, then mark the task done in Probo for your compliance officer to review. An agent always acts with the permissions of the person who connected it.

Drata also has a public API and an MCP server. Before you choose, check what each one can actually write, not just read. With Probo the answer is everything, and the code is open source, so you can verify it.

An AI assistant creating a risk and a task in Probo through MCP. See AI agents in Probo.

Why tailored beats templated

Template-based platforms ship the same policies and the same control set to every customer, then ask you to bend your company around them. 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, the program starts from your stack and your processes. If you already do code review on every pull request, that’s your change management evidence. You don’t need a new process just to satisfy a template.

A template gets you through the audit. A tailored program keeps you compliant after it.

Side-by-side comparison

How long does it take, and how much of your time?

It depends on your setup, but it’s always faster when experts do the work and follow up with you. With Probo, a small company with a standard stack can be audit ready in 2 to 4 weeks, and your team spends around 5 to 10 hours in total.

On a do-it-yourself platform, teams tell us they spend 40 to 60 hours, spread over months, before they’re even sure they’re ready. More on this in how long SOC 2 takes.

What about 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: Probo takes no margin on it. 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.

Drata doesn’t publish its prices. Quotes our prospects have shared range from about $8,500 to more than $15,000 a year for the platform alone, before the audit and before your team’s time. Compare all-in: the platform, the audit and the hours someone on your team spends running it. For what drives the total, see how much SOC 2 costs.

Switching from Drata

Migration is part of the service. Moving your data takes a few hours, and the whole switch takes about a week, run in parallel with your current setup so nothing breaks before your renewal date.

Whichever vendor you pick, ask four questions:

• Who is the auditor, and can you verify their peer review or accreditation? Here’s how to evaluate SOC 2 report quality.
• Are the policies templates, or written for your company?
• Is the device agent mandatory, and can you read its code?
• What can the API and MCP actually write, not just read?

When Drata is the better choice

Drata is a good fit if:

• You have a security or compliance person with time to own the program.
• Continuous automated monitoring across many tools is your main requirement.
• You prefer running the tooling and processes in-house, and you’re comfortable coordinating directly with auditors.
• 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, alongside your team and your compliance officer.

If that’s you, the Probo platform is also an option on its own, free and open source if you self-host it or hosted on Probo Cloud: larger companies give it to their security team to build their own setup, with the open API, MCP server and self-hosting.

When Probo is the better choice

Probo fits better if:

• You want someone to run compliance for you, before and after the audit.
• You started on a platform and the project stalled.
• Your stack or processes don’t fit a standard template.
• You want to check the code of anything that runs on your devices.
• You want your AI agents to work on compliance with your team.
• You’re targeting frameworks beyond SOC 2, like ISO 27001, HIPAA, NIS2 or DORA. Not sure which one you need? Start with which compliance framework fits your company.

Conclusion

The real question isn’t which platform has more integrations. It’s who does the work in month four, when the quarterly access review is due and your CTO is shipping a release.

Book a call with a Probo compliance officer to see what a program built around your stack looks like.

Comparing other options too? Read Probo vs Vanta, Probo vs Oneleet, Delve alternatives and Vanta alternatives in 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Is Probo a Drata alternative?

Yes, but a different kind. Drata is a platform your team operates. Probo is a platform plus a dedicated compliance officer who runs your program for you, before and after the audit.

How much does Probo cost compared to Drata?

Probo starts at $10,000 for the year, platform and compliance officer service included; the price depends on the size of your team. If you want to run compliance yourself, the Probo platform alone is free and open source to self-host, or available on Probo Cloud. The audit is paid to the auditor at cost, and Probo takes no margin on it. Drata doesn’t publish its prices; quotes our prospects have shared range from about $8,500 to more than $15,000 a year for the platform alone.

Can I switch from Drata to Probo?

Yes. Migration is part of the service and takes about a week, run in parallel with your current setup. Your compliance officer moves your controls, documents and evidence over and maps them to a program built around your stack.

Does Probo have as many integrations as Drata?

No, and that’s deliberate. Most integrations collect far more than an auditor needs. Probo connects the tools that matter for your controls, and everything is open through a GraphQL API, an MCP server and a CLI, so missing connectors are quick to add.

Does Probo install an agent on our laptops?

Only if your controls need it. The Probo device agent is open source, so you can read exactly what it checks and what it sends.

Can my AI agents work on my compliance with Probo?

Yes. Everything in Probo is available through an open GraphQL API, an MCP server with 400+ tools and the prb CLI, so your AI agents can work on your compliance program together with your team and your compliance officer.

Can I keep my auditor?

Yes. Probo works with any serious auditor. Before working with one, Probo runs a reference check to make sure they’re legitimate.