Caisson vs Delve
Delve's AI agents collect your evidence. Caisson is the controls in your codebase: producing evidence anyone can verify without trusting the collector. After 2026's fabricated-reports allegations, that difference is the story.
Which should you use?
Different layers, and since March 2026, a live trust question. Delve is an AI-native compliance platform: autonomous agents gather screenshot evidence, fill out security questionnaires, and scan your infrastructure daily, backed by 1:1 Slack support. In March 2026 it was publicly accused of delivering AI-fabricated SOC 2 reports to hundreds of customers (TechCrunch, 2026-03-22; one named customer confirmed exposure). Those are reported allegations, not findings, but they reframed the category's buying question: can you verify your compliance evidence without trusting the vendor that collected it? Caisson's answer is structural: the controls live in your codebase, and the evidence is deterministic, hash-chained, and anchored outside your database, verifiable by your auditor with no trust in a collector required.
What Delve is
AI-native compliance platform (GRC SaaS). Facts below were read from delve.co on 2026-07-07.
- An AI-native compliance platform whose autonomous agents auto-collect evidence, take screenshots, fill security questionnaires, and scan infrastructure daily (verified 2026-07-07).
- Covers SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001, and FedRAMP, and customizes controls to your team, integrations, and risk tolerance.
- Positions itself as a compliance partner, not just software: 1:1 Slack support with security experts responding in minutes, plus a free trust center.
- Connects to and scans your infrastructure; it does not ship the application controls it evaluates.
- In March 2026, Delve (YC-backed, $32M raised) was publicly accused of delivering AI-fabricated SOC 2 reports to 400+ customers (TechCrunch, 2026-03-22; licens.io, 2026-04-03). One named customer, Lovable, publicly confirmed exposure, and Delve published its own response (2026-03-20/21). The incident was still the category's cautionary reference in vendor roundups as of 2026-06-28. These are reported allegations, dated: read the primary reporting.
An honest comparison
Where Delve has a capability, it is marked. Caisson is the compliance and tenant-isolation substrate; Delve wins the rows it wins.
| Detail | Caisson | Delve |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous stack/cloud monitoring + automated evidence collection | from your own app code | |
| AI agents auto-collect evidence + answer questionnaires | deterministic OSCAL packs | |
| Hosted Trust Center for prospects | — | |
| Runs the audit workflow (evidence-for-auditor, questionnaires) | — | |
| Evidence verifiable without trusting the vendor | hash chain + external write-once anchor | — |
| Fail-closed Postgres RLS + automated cross-tenant isolation tests | — | |
| WORM evidence store + append-only hash-chained audit trail | — | |
| SOC 2 / HIPAA / EU AI Act evidence packs + OSCAL export | — | |
| Per-tenant field encryption (envelope, per-tenant key) | — | |
| License model | One-time perpetual, own the source | Annual subscription |
What Delve is genuinely better at
A comparison that only flatters one side isn't worth reading. Here is what this kit does well.
Delve's autonomous agents handling screenshots, questionnaires, and daily scans (backed by fast 1:1 expert Slack support) is a genuinely modern, low-lift onboarding. For a team that wants compliance busywork off their plate quickly, that AI-plus-human model is a real strength.
Tailoring controls to your stack and risk tolerance, with experts on hand, is more hands-on than a pure self-serve tool. That partner posture is real and is not what a code library provides.
Where Caisson draws the line
The compliance and tenant-isolation substrate a launch kit leaves to you.
The 2026 allegations reframed what compliance evidence is worth: evidence you can't independently verify is a promise, not proof. Caisson's audit trail is hash-chained and anchored write-once outside your database, and its evidence packs are deterministic and byte-stable: your auditor can check integrity without trusting Caisson, a collector, or an AI agent. That property is the product.
Delve's agents gather evidence from the systems you built, screenshot by screenshot. Caisson is those controls (fail-closed RLS with isolation tests, a hash-chained audit trail, and an evidence-pack generator that emits byte-stable OSCAL) as source you own, CI-tested on every push, so the evidence is reproducible rather than re-collected.
Caisson is one-time and owned, not a subscription: it does not monitor your org or manage your auditor, and its evidence packs are versioned in your repo where they can be re-generated and re-verified at any time.
Which should you pick?
You want AI agents to collect evidence and answer questionnaires with fast expert support (compliance busywork taken off your plate as a service), and you've done your own diligence on the vendor.
You want the implemented controls and evidence your auditor can verify independently of any vendor (RLS with isolation tests, an externally anchored WORM audit trail, and byte-stable OSCAL packs) as code you own and test in CI, one-time.
The layers still compose: a GRC platform can present evidence Caisson's code produces. The 2026 episode is the argument for owning the evidence layer no matter which platform presents it: deterministic, externally anchored evidence stays verifiable regardless of who collects, summarizes, or files it.
One-time, own the source.
Caisson is a one-time perpetual license — the price never recurs, and it includes 12 months of updates from your purchase date, renewable per entitlement afterward at 40% of list per year. The Base substrate is Apache-2.0; the compliance modules are commercial.
Compliance bundle
$1,649, one-time. Fail-closed RLS, WORM, the audit chain, evidence packs, and the framework and signing carves — the whole substrate this comparison is about.
À la carte
Take a single module from $49 — audit-worm, field-crypto, or compliance-core on their own, onto your existing Postgres app.
Everything bundle
$2,259 covers every bundle and every à-la-carte module, plus the open base, in one purchase.
Common questions.
Is Caisson a Delve alternative?
What are the Delve fabricated-reports allegations?
How is Caisson's evidence different from Delve's AI collection?
How do the two price?
Ship the compliant backend.
Explore the Compliance bundle, browse every module in the marketplace, or read another comparison.