Cybersecurity compliance software: A unified, scalable solution

IT compliance managers and CISOs are drowning in manual processes that fragment cybersecurity compliance across multiple frameworks. Compliance and security teams spend weeks manually collecting evidence for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and NIST/SOX audits, juggling Excel spreadsheets, shared drives, and disconnected point solutions. What should serve as a strategic pillar of enterprise security is often reduced to a manual grind — endless spreadsheets, disjointed tools, and version-controlled chaos across shared drives.

That said, the biggest issue is that they divert your team’s focus from high-value security initiatives and expose your organization to real risk.

Evidence collection and control mapping routinely turn into a multi-week fire drill as teams sift through siloed data sources, duplicate requests, and outdated documents. Without a centralized view, your executives rely on stale compliance snapshots, fostering a false sense of readiness. When audits hit, organizations risk failing their compliance audits and security audits, along with heavy fines and damage to their reputation.

A modern cybersecurity compliance software addresses these issues head-on. In this guide, we’ll look at the top platforms for this purpose and give you a checklist to help you choose the best platform for your needs.

Top cybersecurity compliance tools in 2025

There are several cybersecurity compliance platforms to help you manage your controls and collect evidence — but there are several nuances that set them apart. While each platform addresses specific aspects of compliance management, organizations need to evaluate:

• How well these tools integrate with their existing workflows
• How well they scale with their growth
• Whether they provide the right capabilities required for multi-framework environments

1. AuditBoard

AuditBoard provides a comprehensive, connected risk platform that changes how organizations manage cybersecurity compliance across multiple frameworks.

Most point solutions address isolated compliance challenges, such as evidence collection, automation, or governance. However, AuditBoard combines all these aspects into a unified platform, allowing you to access your controls, evidence, and collaboration tools in one place. Here's how:

• Centralized control mapping that links different security requirements directly to your tech environment, policies, and responsible owners
• Automated evidence collection from integrated systems with real-time status tracking and automated reminders
• Cross-framework support that allows teams to map controls across ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST, and other standards simultaneously
• Real-time dashboards that provide continuous visibility into compliance status, gap analysis, and audit readiness
• Built-in collaboration tools with role-based access, automated workflows, and complete audit trails

Melissa Austrie, EVP, Chief Audit Officer, Stellar Bank, says:

2. Point solutions

Point solutions excel at addressing specific compliance challenges with specialized functionality. Tools like vulnerability scanners, access management platforms, or evidence collection systems often provide best-in-class capabilities for their particular domain.

While they offer fast deployment and lower up-front costs, they do come at the cost of:

• Creating data silos
• Dealing with integration challenges
• Managing extra administrative load

3. Integrations

Some organizations build compliance programs by connecting existing security and business tools through APIs and custom integrations. This approach uses current technology investments while creating centralized data flows. But it gets harder to maintain these integrations over time and creates potential points of vulnerability, leading to possible attacks.

4. Manual spreadsheets

Many organizations still rely on Excel spreadsheets and shared drives to track controls, collect evidence, and manage compliance activities. And it’s understandable since there’s a low initial cost and you get full control over your data. But there’s a possibility of higher error rates, and these processes break down during audits if there are gaps in your evidence collection processes.

What modern cybersecurity compliance software should solve

Cybersecurity compliance has gotten complicated. What used to be a once-a-year audit exercise has evolved into a constant juggling act of multiple frameworks, evolving cyber threats, and regulatory compliance requirements that seem to change every quarter.

Modern solutions need to go beyond basic checklist management to provide strategic capabilities that strengthen your compliance posture while reducing administrative overhead. Crucially, they must reframe compliance from a checkbox exercise into a direct driver of improved security outcomes, transforming your audit evidence into a map of your organization's defenses.

Centralize control mapping across frameworks

UnderDefense estimates that SOC 2 Type 1 preparation costs $91,000 for companies with less than 50 employees and $186,000 for larger teams. Over time, these costs multiply when organizations manage separate compliance efforts for each framework, increasing the overall cost of running these audits.

In short, it's like building three different houses when you could build one house that meets all the building codes. That's why you should choose a platform that:

• Automatically maps overlapping regulatory requirements across frameworks
• Creates common control sets that satisfy multiple industry standards simultaneously
• Integrates with the platforms you already use to pull data regularly

Automate evidence collection and retention

In 2024, Boeing was asked to pay $51 million in penalties by the U.S. State Department for unauthorized export of arms. The issue was that they lacked the necessary documents and audit trail, which ultimately led to a significant financial and reputational loss.

To avoid this, choose compliance solutions that remove this administrative burden through automated evidence collection. For example, if someone uploads an access control policy for ISO 27001 compliance, the same policy should also reflect across NIST or other frameworks with similar requirements.

Enable real-time reporting and audit readiness

Today's enterprises need real-time visibility, which means your software of choice should:

• Provide continuous monitoring that alerts you to security gaps proactively, not months later during an evidence-gathering fire drill.
• Track control effectiveness and enable teams to remediate control failures.
• Alert stakeholders to prioritize potential issues that pose the greatest risk to the organization long before they become an audit finding.

Also, verify if you’re able to customize these dashboards to reflect the metrics that matter the most to you and your organization.

Support collaboration across security, risk, and compliance

A-LIGN's 2023 Compliance Benchmark Report found that 21% of organizations say that limited staff resources are the biggest challenge when it comes to audit processes. The cost of poor collaboration goes beyond frustration — organizational silos and communication breakdowns contribute to regulatory violations that result in billions in penalties.

Your compliance software should facilitate collaboration without creating additional overhead. Ideally, it should include role-based access controls and automated workflow routing. Instead of relying on email chains that create version control issues, the platform should give you the ability to capture every action (and decision) so you always have an answer as to who did what and when.

Scale with your tech stack and team structure

One thing to keep in mind is that your organization won't remain the same forever. Your team could double in size, you could acquire a company, or you might expand into new markets. However, if your entire compliance process relies on spreadsheets or point solutions, your processes may not scale effectively.

So, adopt a platform that scales with your organization and its compliance program. For example, it could either have a suite of integrations you might use in the future or offer flexible permissioning in case your team or organizational structure changes.

How AuditBoard unifies cybersecurity compliance at scale

Auditboard uses the connected risk management approach to help you achieve compliance at scale. Let’s dive further into the details.

1. Access shared control libraries across multiple frameworks

One of AuditBoard's most powerful capabilities is its ability to create and maintain shared control libraries that map across NIST, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and other cybersecurity frameworks. You don’t have to manage separate control sets for each compliance standard.

Instead, you can establish common controls across multiple frameworks and simplify the entire process altogether. All you have to do is maintain one policy that meets all these standards and map them to the right framework.

This isn't just about efficiency. By ensuring a control like “Enforce MFA on all external-facing systems” is defined once and applied everywhere, you create consistent defense-in-depth and eliminate weak spots that arise from managing multiple, slightly different control sets.

If there’s a change in the policy or corresponding framework, you’ll be nudged to review and make changes as needed — automatically. As a result, your team doesn’t need to bog themselves down with manual and duplicate work across different controls.

2. Automate evidence management and workflow routing

Manual evidence collection is still one of the most time-consuming aspects of compliance audits — which requires weeks of coordination between multiple teams. But you can automate all the busywork using AuditBoard by creating centralized workflows that remove redundancies and give you real-time visibility into the evidence-collection process.

For a security team, this means the platform isn't just collecting evidence for an auditor; it's providing a near-real-time data feed on control health. An automated alert that an access review is overdue is also an alert that a potential security risk is emerging

The platform's evidence collection workflow locates evidence in one central location for all requests, with evidence automatically mapped to controls and related framework requirements. Also, automated reminders reduce the need for follow-ups and escalations, helping teams meet evidence deadlines like access reviews without unnecessary delays. For example, quarterly access reviews or annual policy updates trigger automated reminders to stakeholders, with status updates flowing directly to compliance dashboards.

The platform can also integrate with existing tools through API connections, automatically pulling evidence from security tools, HR systems, and other business applications.

3. Customize and use real-time dashboards for audit and risk teams

AuditBoard's real-time dashboards provide continuous visibility into compliance status, testing progress, and security posture across all frameworks and business units. These dashboards update automatically as testing is completed, with test status progressing through defined phases (Open, Completed, Under Review, and Reviewed). Your reviewers receive automated notifications when work is ready for their attention.

Plus, the platform includes pre-built dashboards and reports that capture the information required for activities like:

• Executive reporting
• Audit committee presentations
• Regulatory submissions

You can easily modify these dashboards without coding or programming experience, adding visuals, data points, and filters based on their specific reporting needs.

4. Collaborate with cross-functional teams using built-in capabilities

Cybersecurity compliance inherently requires coordination between multiple organizational functions, each with different perspectives, priorities, and working styles. Coordinating regulatory compliance across IT, security, risk, and business functions often results in fragmented communication, version control issues, and missed updates — undermining accountability and slowing down response times.

AuditBoard's collaboration features eliminate the email chains and version control issues that typically fragment these efforts. The platform includes automated request workflows that enable stakeholders to access the system, see what's been requested, and upload documentation without requiring extensive coordination with the compliance team.

Here’s how this helps your internal teams:

• Process owners can receive certification requests with just one click and propose or accept changes directly within the platform.
• All communication happens within the solution through emails, notes, and comments that maintain an audit trail of all interactions.
• The platform's flexible permissioning provides view-only or edit access when certain conditions are met. As a result, stakeholders can review and pull relevant information on their own.

5. Take advantage of AI-powered automation and intelligent recommendations

AuditBoard leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to automate repetitive tasks and provide intelligent recommendations that enhance compliance effectiveness. The platform's AI capabilities analyze historical testing data, control performance, and risk patterns to identify areas requiring attention and suggest process improvements.

For example, the platform can automatically prioritize high-risk control testing, route evidence requests to appropriate stakeholders based on organizational structure, and flag potential compliance gaps before they become issues.

6. Use a connected GRC platform with a unified data core to consolidate efforts

Unlike standalone compliance tools, AuditBoard operates as part of a connected governance, risk, and compliance platform with a unified data core. This architecture makes sure your compliance activities align with broader risk management initiatives and strategic business objectives.

The connected platform shares data across audit, controls, IT compliance, enterprise risk management, and sustainability teams, ensuring alignment with business objectives and eliminating data silos that create inefficiencies.

Also, the fact that AuditBoard has 200+ integrations to pull compliance and security data from ensures you can take advantage of real-time monitoring and automated evidence collection at all times.

Brittany McKinley, Internal Audit Manager at Elevations Credit Union, says:

Unify cybersecurity compliance at scale using AuditBoard

In 2025, the line between compliance management and active cyber defense has blurred. A reactive, spreadsheet-driven approach is no longer a viable strategy for protecting your organization and building trust with customers.

Unifying your cybersecurity compliance isn't just about surviving your next audit with less effort. It’s about transforming your security program from a defensive cost center into a strategic business enabler. It's about giving your security teams the visibility and time they need to focus on what matters: staying ahead of threats and building a truly resilient enterprise.

That’s why we’ve built AuditBoard as we recognize the needs of security leaders and understand how fragmented approaches can impact your organization. Enterprises that use AuditBoard report measurable improvements: 49% deeper insight into organizational and operational risk, 50% better stakeholder engagement, and a 281% ROI over three years from GRC efficiency gains.

Ready to turn your cybersecurity compliance process from an administrative burden to a strategic advantage? Request a demo to see how AuditBoard can help you.

About the authors

Kyle is an Information Security professional with a background in GRC and cybersecurity operations. With experience supporting clients at Accenture, Ernst & Young, and AuditBoard's Product Solutions Team, Kyle has a passion for helping organizations improve their information security posture and reduce risk. He now helps organizations navigate GRC transformation with a technology-driven approach.