SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 are three report types in the AICPA’s System and Organization Controls suite, all issued by licensed CPA firms — but they differ in subject and audience. SOC 1 reports on controls relevant to customers’ financial reporting; it’s for finance teams and their auditors. SOC 2 reports on data security against the five Trust Services Criteria; it’s the detailed, restricted-use report security and procurement teams request. SOC 3 covers the same criteria as SOC 2 but as a short, general-use summary you can publish publicly — a trust seal, not a substitute. Most SaaS companies need SOC 2, and some add SOC 3 for marketing. Here’s the full three-way comparison.
What is the difference between SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3?
The three reports split along two axes: what they measure (money vs data) and who may read them (restricted vs public). SOC 1 measures controls over financial reporting. SOC 2 and SOC 3 both measure data security against the AICPA’s Trust Services Criteria — but SOC 2 is a detailed report restricted to customers and their auditors, while SOC 3 is a brief summary anyone may read. All three are attestations performed by a licensed CPA firm under the AICPA’s SSAE 18 standard.
SOC 1 vs SOC 2 vs SOC 3 comparison table
| SOC 1 | SOC 2 | SOC 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | Controls over financial reporting (ICFR) | Data security (Trust Services Criteria) | Same criteria as SOC 2 |
| Question it answers | ”Could this vendor affect our financial statements?" | "Can we trust this vendor with our data?" | "Has a CPA verified this company’s security?” |
| Detail level | Full controls + auditor tests | Full controls + auditor tests | Short summary — no control details or test results |
| Distribution | Restricted use — customers and their auditors | Restricted use — typically shared under NDA | General use — post it on your website |
| Primary readers | Customers’ finance teams and auditors | Customers’ security, IT, and procurement teams | Anyone — prospects, press, the public |
| Type 1 / Type 2 versions | Yes, both | Yes, both | No — always covers a period (derived from a SOC 2 Type 2) |
| Typical for SaaS? | Only if your product touches customers’ books | Yes — the default ask | Optional marketing add-on |
| Standard | SSAE 18 (AT-C 320) | SSAE 18 + TSC (TSP 100) | SSAE 18 + TSC (TSP 100) |
Three one-line memory hooks: SOC 1 is for accountants, SOC 2 is for security teams, SOC 3 is for your website.
What is a SOC 1 report?
A SOC 1 report is an independent audit of the controls at a service organization that are relevant to its customers’ internal control over financial reporting (ICFR). If errors in your service could flow into a customer’s financial statements — payroll runs, invoices, processed transactions, serviced loans — their auditors need assurance about your controls, and SOC 1 is how you provide it. Its scope is built on control objectives you define around how your service touches financial reporting; there is no fixed checklist.
You likely need SOC 1 if you’re a payroll processor, billing/invoicing platform, claims administrator, or financial transaction system. Most pure SaaS products don’t need one. The full breakdown of who needs which — with a decision table — is in SOC 1 vs SOC 2: What’s the Difference and Which One Do You Need?.
What is a SOC 2 report?
A SOC 2 report is an independent audit of your data security controls measured against the AICPA’s five Trust Services Criteria: Security (mandatory in every report), plus Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy as scoped. It’s the report SaaS companies, cloud providers, and managed-service firms are asked for, because the people running vendor reviews care about how their data is protected.
A SOC 2 report is restricted use: it contains your detailed system description, your control list, and (in Type 2) the auditor’s tests and results — including any failures. That’s sensitive material, which is why it’s shared with named customers, usually under NDA, rather than published. It comes in two versions — Type 1 (control design at a point in time) and Type 2 (operating effectiveness over a 3–12 month observation window). Choosing between those two is its own decision; we cover it in SOC 2 Type 1 vs Type 2: Which One Should You Get First?, and the full path to the audit is in the SOC 2 Compliance Checklist: The 10-Step Guide for 2026.
What is a SOC 3 report?
A SOC 3 report is a general-use summary of a SOC 2 examination — same Trust Services Criteria, same CPA firm, same underlying audit, but stripped of the detailed system description, control list, and test results so it can be distributed to anyone. What remains is short: management’s assertion, the auditor’s opinion, and a brief system overview — typically a few pages instead of the 60–100+ pages of a full SOC 2.
Key facts about SOC 3:
- It is derived from a SOC 2 Type 2 examination. A SOC 3 reports on operating effectiveness over a period, so there is no “Type 1” SOC 3 — you can’t get one from a point-in-time audit.
- It is not a separate audit. The auditor issues it from the same engagement as your SOC 2 Type 2, usually for a modest add-on fee (commonly ~$2,000–$10,000, versus running a whole second audit).
- It exists for marketing and public trust. Because it’s general use, you can post it on your website, link it in sales decks, and reference it publicly — things you cannot do with a restricted-use SOC 2. This lineage goes back to the AICPA’s public-facing SysTrust/WebTrust seals, which SOC 3 replaced.
- It contains no findings. A reader learns that a CPA firm issued an opinion on your controls, but not what the controls are or how they were tested.
Think of SOC 3 as the public receipt for the private audit.
Can a SOC 3 replace a SOC 2?
No. A SOC 3 cannot replace a SOC 2 in a vendor security review, because it omits exactly what reviewers need to see: the control descriptions and the auditor’s test results. When an enterprise security team asks for “your SOC 2,” they intend to read the details — which criteria were in scope, which controls exist, what the auditor tested, and whether there were exceptions. A SOC 3 answers none of that.
Where each fits in practice:
- Prospect’s security/procurement team asks for evidence → send the SOC 2 (under NDA).
- Website trust page, sales collateral, press → publish the SOC 3.
- Early conversations before an NDA is signed → the SOC 3 is a useful teaser that a real SOC 2 exists behind it.
The one thing a SOC 3 does replace is the vague “we take security seriously” paragraph: it’s third-party proof you completed a real SOC 2 Type 2, verifiable by anyone. Companies like AWS and Google Cloud publish SOC 3 reports publicly for exactly this reason while keeping their SOC 2 reports gated.
Which report (or combination) do you need?
For almost every SaaS company the base answer is SOC 2; SOC 1 gets added when your product touches customers’ financial reporting, and SOC 3 gets added when you want public proof. The common combinations:
| Your situation | Get | Why |
|---|---|---|
| SaaS storing customer data | SOC 2 | The default ask in every security questionnaire |
| SaaS + want a public trust page | SOC 2 + SOC 3 | SOC 3 is a cheap add-on to the same Type 2 audit |
| Payroll, billing, claims, loan servicing | SOC 1 (often + SOC 2) | Your output flows into customers’ books |
| Fintech / payments | SOC 1 + SOC 2 (± SOC 3) | Touches both financial reporting and sensitive data |
| Cloud/hosting provider at scale | SOC 1 + SOC 2 + SOC 3 | Serves finance auditors, security teams, and the public |
| No customer asking for anything yet | None yet — build controls first | Reports have a shelf life; controls compound |
A practical sequencing note: because SOC 3 rides on a SOC 2 Type 2 engagement, the decision point for adding it is when you scope your Type 2 audit — mention it to your CPA firm then, not after the report is issued. And if you haven’t received your first compliance ask yet but expect one, An Enterprise Customer Asked for SOC 2. What Should You Do? covers how to respond without derailing the deal.
How much does each report cost?
SOC 1 and SOC 2 cost roughly the same because they’re the same kind of CPA attestation — audit fees typically run ~$5,000–$15,000 for a Type 1 and ~$10,000–$40,000+ for a Type 2 — while SOC 3 is the cheap one, usually a ~$2,000–$10,000 add-on to an existing SOC 2 Type 2 engagement. Summary for a small SaaS company:
| Report | Typical cost | Time to obtain |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 1 Type 1 | ~$5,000–$15,000 | ~6–12 weeks once controls are ready |
| SOC 1 Type 2 | ~$10,000–$40,000+ | Readiness + 3–12 month observation window |
| SOC 2 Type 1 | ~$5,000–$15,000 | ~6–12 weeks once controls are ready |
| SOC 2 Type 2 | ~$10,000–$40,000+ | Readiness + 3–12 month window + ~4–8 weeks of audit work |
| SOC 3 | ~$2,000–$10,000 as an add-on | Issued alongside the SOC 2 Type 2 report |
| Compliance automation platform (optional) | ~$2,000–$15,000/yr | Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, etc. |
Where budgets actually go wrong is not the audit fee — it’s arriving at the audit with gaps in the evidence. A Type 2 (which both SOC 1 and SOC 2 need, and SOC 3 depends on) samples evidence across the whole observation window, and evidence you didn’t collect at the time can’t be recreated. Controls that run continuously and log as they go are what keep audit hours, and exceptions, down.
Figures are typical market ranges at time of publication and vary by auditor, scope, and region. Get quotes from a licensed CPA firm for your specific situation.
Are there other SOC reports besides 1, 2, and 3?
Yes — the AICPA suite also includes SOC for Cybersecurity and SOC for Supply Chain, though both are far less commonly requested than SOC 1 and SOC 2.
- SOC for Cybersecurity is an entity-wide report on an organization’s cybersecurity risk management program, designed to be general use — aimed at boards, investors, and regulators rather than individual customers. It evaluates the whole company’s program, not one service system.
- SOC for Supply Chain reports on the controls of organizations that produce, manufacture, or distribute products, addressing supply-chain risk for business partners.
For a SaaS company, neither replaces SOC 2. If a customer, prospect, or questionnaire mentions “SOC” without a number, they mean SOC 2 in the overwhelming majority of cases — the giveaway is who’s asking, as covered in the SOC 1 vs SOC 2 decision guide.
How Warin fits into a SOC strategy
Warin doesn’t issue SOC reports — only a licensed CPA firm can. Warin’s job is the layer underneath: the continuous security evidence that SOC 2’s Security criteria (and therefore SOC 3) are graded on:
- Continuous monitoring keeps unbroken coverage across your Type 2 observation window — the thing point-in-time scans can’t provide.
- Web application scanning and network scanning generate the dated vulnerability reports auditors sample.
- Asset inventory and subdomain discovery keep your audited scope reconciled with what you actually expose.
- Risk prioritization and fix guides document the finding-to-fix loop behind your remediation SLAs.
The auditor-ready detail is in How to Prove Vulnerability Management for SOC 2 (Evidence Guide).
FAQs
What is the difference between SOC 2 and SOC 3? Both are based on the same AICPA Trust Services Criteria and the same underlying examination, but SOC 2 is a detailed, restricted-use report containing control descriptions and auditor test results, shared with customers under NDA. SOC 3 is a short, general-use summary that omits those details and can be published publicly.
Is SOC 3 a real audit? Yes — a SOC 3 is issued by a licensed CPA firm from the same examination as a SOC 2 Type 2. It’s not a lighter audit; it’s a lighter report. The testing behind it is identical to the SOC 2 Type 2 it derives from.
Can you get a SOC 3 without a SOC 2? In practice, no. A SOC 3 reports on operating effectiveness over a period against the Trust Services Criteria, which is what a SOC 2 Type 2 examination establishes. Auditors issue SOC 3 reports alongside a SOC 2 Type 2 engagement, typically for a modest add-on fee.
Is there a SOC 3 Type 1 and Type 2? No. SOC 1 and SOC 2 each come in Type 1 (point-in-time design) and Type 2 (operating effectiveness over a period), but SOC 3 always covers a period because it derives from a SOC 2 Type 2. There is no point-in-time SOC 3.
Which SOC report can be shared publicly? Only SOC 3. SOC 1 and SOC 2 are restricted-use reports intended for customers and their auditors, usually shared under NDA. SOC 3 is designated general use, which is why companies post it on their websites as public proof of a completed SOC 2 Type 2.
Does a SaaS startup need SOC 1, SOC 2, or SOC 3? Almost always SOC 2 — that’s what security questionnaires and procurement teams ask for. SOC 1 only applies if the product affects customers’ financial reporting (payroll, billing, transactions). SOC 3 is an optional public add-on once a SOC 2 Type 2 is complete.
What do SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 have in common? All three are attestation reports in the AICPA’s System and Organization Controls suite, performed by independent licensed CPA firms under the SSAE 18 standard. They differ in subject matter (financial reporting vs data security) and distribution (restricted vs general use).
Do AWS and Google publish SOC reports? They publish SOC 3 reports publicly, because SOC 3 is general use. Their SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports exist too but are restricted use, available to customers through gated programs such as AWS Artifact rather than on the open web.
Final Thoughts
SOC 1 vs SOC 2 vs SOC 3 stops being confusing once you see the two axes: subject and audience. SOC 1 is the financial-reporting report for your customers’ accountants. SOC 2 is the data-security report for their security teams — detailed, restricted, and the one almost every SaaS company eventually needs. SOC 3 is the same audit’s public summary — a trust seal for your website, never a substitute for the real report.
Whichever combination you land on, they all rest on the same foundation: controls that demonstrably ran, day after day, across an observation window. That evidence layer is the part you can start today — long before you engage an auditor.
Building the evidence layer before the audit? Warin runs continuous external attack surface monitoring — web app scanning, network scanning, subdomain discovery, SSL/TLS checks, and breach monitoring — and produces the dated reports auditors sample. Start your 14-day free trial.