Caisson vs Drata
Drata automates and cross-maps your compliance program. Caisson is the controls in your codebase it collects from. These compose: here is the honest line.
Which should you use?
Different layers, and often both. Drata is a deep GRC automation platform: continuous control monitoring, automatic control cross-mapping across frameworks, evidence collection, a Trust Center, and questionnaire automation, a subscription that keeps you continuously audit-ready. Caisson is the code that implements the controls Drata monitors: fail-closed Postgres RLS with isolation tests, a WORM + hash-chained audit trail, per-tenant field encryption, and OSCAL evidence packs, one-time, in your own codebase. Drata proves and cross-maps your posture; Caisson is the posture, as source.
What Drata is
Compliance automation platform (GRC SaaS). Facts below were read from drata.com on 2026-07-07.
- A GRC / trust-management platform advertising 8,500+ customers and a 4.8 G2 rating on its live site (verified 2026-07-07).
- Continuous monitoring, automated evidence collection, and control cross-mapping so one control maps across multiple frameworks and stays audit-ready.
- A Trust Center, questionnaire automation, and third-party risk management, increasingly driven by autonomous AI agents.
- Connects to your stack and collects evidence from it; it does not ship the application controls that produce that evidence.
An honest comparison
Where Drata has a capability, it is marked. Caisson is the compliance and tenant-isolation substrate; Drata wins the rows it wins.
| Detail | Caisson | Drata |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous stack/cloud monitoring + automated evidence collection | from your own app code | |
| Runs the audit workflow (evidence-for-auditor, questionnaires) | — | |
| Hosted Trust Center for prospects | — | |
| Third-party / vendor risk management (TPRM) | — | |
| 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 Drata is genuinely better at
A comparison that only flatters one side isn't worth reading. Here is what this kit does well.
Drata's strength is breadth of automation: map a control once and reuse it across frameworks, with continuous monitoring and guided remediation. For a team scaling from one framework to several, that cross-mapping is a genuine time-saver Caisson does not attempt.
Evidence collection, an audit hub, a Trust Center, and questionnaire automation run the ongoing program. That operational layer (the workflow around an audit) 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.
Drata pulls evidence from the systems you built. Caisson is those systems' controls (fail-closed RLS with isolation tests, a hash-chained audit trail, and an evidence-pack generator) as source you own, CI-tested on every push, emitting OSCAL evidence a platform can ingest.
Caisson is a one-time perpetual license you own the source of; Drata is a subscription. Caisson does not cross-map frameworks across your org or manage your auditor: it is the earlier layer, the implemented controls.
Which should you pick?
You need continuous monitoring, control cross-mapping across many frameworks, an audit hub, and a Trust Center, the audit program automated and run for you.
You want the implemented controls (RLS with isolation tests, a WORM audit trail, and OSCAL evidence) as code you own and test in CI, one-time.
Implement the controls with Caisson and automate the program with Drata; Caisson emits the OSCAL evidence Drata would otherwise collect from your stack.
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 Drata alternative?
Does Caisson do control cross-mapping like Drata?
How do the pricing models differ?
Ship the compliant backend.
Explore the Compliance bundle, browse every module in the marketplace, or read another comparison.