Smartly vs Secureframe vs Oneleet: The 2025 Compliance Reality Check Every Startup Needs
The compliance automation industry has exploded since 2020. Enterprise buyers started demanding proof of security before even booking a call. And suddenly SOC 2 and ISO 27001 were no longer distant goals—they became survival requirements. This is the unfiltered comparison you won't see on vendor websites.
Quick Snapshot: Smartly vs Secureframe vs Oneleet
TLDR Summary
Smartly is engineered for teams with real deadlines who cannot afford to fail or restart. Fastest readiness timelines (30-45 days), most predictable audit outcomes, strongest hands-on guidance, and best pricing aligned to startup needs.
Secureframe is polished and premium-priced with many frameworks, but overwhelms lean startups with heavy configuration and requires internal GRC expertise (4-7 months for first-time teams).
Oneleet is strong for penetration testing and monitoring but not designed for audit speed. Great for long-term security operations, not optimized for certification acceleration.
1. The Core Philosophy: Three Companies, Three Completely Different Approaches
Before diving into features, you need to understand each platform's DNA. Their philosophy determines everything from onboarding speed to audit outcomes.
Smartly: Precision. Execution. Human expertise on top of automation.
Smartly was built for a single mission: Make ISO 27001 and SOC 2 fast, predictable, and guided by engineers and auditors who have walked the hard path dozens of times. Smartly focuses on one promise—reduce your audit timeline from months to weeks and remove the guesswork that kills momentum in most startups.
It combines heavy automation with direct human involvement from compliance engineers, allowing teams to move fast without drowning in vague tasks.
Where Smartly stands out:
- • Real auditors in the loop
- • Exact templates aligned to actual audit expectations
- • Guided evidence collection
- • Asia and global-friendly pricing
- • Certification fees included in plans
It feels engineered for teams that have real deadlines and cannot afford to fail or restart.
Secureframe: Great library, heavy checklists, and expensive expansion
Secureframe is often considered the premium brand in compliance automation. Their platform has breadth: dozens of frameworks, hundreds of policy templates, and strong sales presence across US markets. But their systems lean heavily on customers doing the work themselves.
Secureframe gives you a structure, but the burden of interpreting what the auditor wants remains on your team.
Reality for most users:
- • You get a large toolbox
- • You still need to build your own house
This works if you have a large security or GRC team. But it overwhelms lean startups that need clarity over endless configuration choices.
Oneleet: Cybersecurity heavy, compliance light
Oneleet positions itself as a cybersecurity marketplace: PTaaS, vulnerability management, vendor scanning. They have added compliance modules over time, but compliance is not their core. They lead with security first, then try to bolt compliance on top.
This approach helps if you want long-term security operations. But it sacrifices the precision needed to pass a certification fast.
Their compliance modules still feel early stage:
- • Limited ISO 27001 depth
- • Light SOC 2 structure
- • Fewer controls automated
- • Less audit readiness coaching
Great product for long-term security monitoring. Not designed for audit speed.
2. Onboarding and Time to Results: The Most Important Metric for Startups
Most compliance vendors brag about beautiful dashboards. But none of that matters if your team cannot get through onboarding fast enough to close deals.
| Platform | ISO 27001 Readiness | SOC 2 Type I | SOC 2 Type II | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smartly | 30–45 days | 21–30 days | 90 days | Zero guesswork, fastest execution speed |
| Secureframe | 4–7 months | 3–6 months | 6–12 months | Requires internal GRC expertise |
| Oneleet | No clear timeline | No clear timeline | No clear timeline | Not optimized for certification speed |
Smartly: 30 to 45 days to audit ready
Startups choose Smartly because it eliminates wasted cycles. The platform tailors controls to your business model, industry, region, and tech stack. Evidence tasks are pre-structured to match auditor expectations. The team assigns a dedicated compliance specialist who stays with you from day zero through certification.
Smartly wins for raw execution speed.
Secureframe: 4 to 7 months for first-time teams
Secureframe has automation. But large portions of the journey still rely on your team configuring every control and interpreting every requirement. If your company has no existing ISMS or security program, this becomes a long uphill battle.
Most users report many unread tasks, lots of documentation to customize, and slow progress without internal GRC expertise. Secureframe works best for mature teams, not first-time founders.
Oneleet: No clear timeline
Oneleet does not position itself as a compliance fast-track solution. Their strengths lie in penetration testing and continuous visibility, not readiness acceleration.
Clients typically report it's hard to estimate completion, compliance feels less guided, documentation templates are fewer, and the ISO 27001 journey remains manual. Great for security maturity, not optimized for certification speed.
Verdict: Smartly delivers the fastest and most predictable path to certification. Secureframe takes 3-5x longer for first-time teams. Oneleet has no clear certification timeline.
3. Automation Depth and Accuracy: Real Automation vs Surface-Level Dashboards
This is where the difference becomes clear. Some platforms automate what actually matters. Others automate tasks that look helpful but don't move you closer to certification.
Smartly: Deep, audit-aligned automation
Smartly automates evidence collection, policy management, risk assessment, asset inventory, control tracking, vendor management, gap detection, and continuous monitoring.
Smartly also preloads risk scenarios and control validations that match what auditors expect. This is the difference between automation that helps you pass and automation that simply populates a dashboard.
Secureframe: Broad automation, but scattered
Secureframe has many integrations, but accuracy varies. Some evidence connections pull partial data. Others require manual verification. There are hundreds of tasks that require interpretation to complete.
Automation exists. But it is not enough to guarantee a clean audit without human GRC expertise.
Oneleet: Limited compliance automation
Their monitoring tools are strong for cybersecurity, but compliance automation is lighter with fewer integrations for SOC 2, less evidence categorization, basic ISO documentation templates, and manual risk workflows.
Strong for security engineers. Not ideal for compliance owners.
Verdict: Smartly provides the deepest audit-aligned automation. Secureframe has broad but scattered automation. Oneleet focuses on security automation, not compliance evidence.
4. Pricing Structure: Transparent vs Inflated vs Unclear
Pricing matters for startups more than anything. Especially when founders must justify spending to investors.
Smartly
Smartly is known for transparent Asia and global-friendly pricing with ISO 27001 certification included, SOC 2 Type I or II included, no surprise premium modules, and no forced upsells.
Smartly is built for startups who need predictable cost and guaranteed outcomes.
Secureframe
Secureframe is premium-priced with high annual license fees, certification not included, many features gated, and additional frameworks costing more.
Great platform if you have budget and a dedicated GRC team.
Oneleet
Oneleet pricing is more security-focused with heavy fees for PTaaS, compliance modules lightly priced but basic, and costs rising as you expand the security scope. Not built for compliance as a primary goal.
Verdict: Smartly provides the most transparent and all-inclusive pricing. Secureframe is premium-priced with many add-ons. Oneleet focuses on security services pricing.
5. Customer Support and Guidance: The True Make or Break Factor
Automation alone cannot get you certified. Real support matters.
Smartly: Dedicated specialist who guides you until the finish line
Smartly assigns a real compliance expert, SLA-based response time, hands-on help writing documents, auditor-backed guidance, and support during live audits.
This is why Smartly customers pass on the first attempt consistently.
Secureframe: Friendly support, but not deep step-by-step help
Secureframe offers general guidance, library access, and good documentation.
But they do not walk you line by line through evidence requirements. You must interpret.
Oneleet: Cybersecurity expertise first, compliance help second
Support exists but the team is structured around security, not compliance frameworks.
Verdict: Smartly provides dedicated compliance specialists who guide you to certification. Secureframe offers documentation but not hands-on coaching. Oneleet focuses on security support.
6. Documentation Quality and Audit Readiness
Documentation determines whether you pass Stage 1 or face months of rework.
Smartly
Exact templates aligned to actual audit expectations, written by real auditors, structured to ISO and SOC 2 requirements. Most companies use Smartly's documents as-is with minimal customization required.
Secureframe
Hundreds of policy templates with strong structure, but heavily detailed and geared toward large compliance teams. Not plug-and-play. Companies must rewrite content extensively.
Oneleet
Basic documentation templates with limited ISO 27001 depth and light SOC 2 structure. Templates require significant customization and expansion.
Verdict: Smartly provides the most audit-ready documentation. Secureframe has extensive templates but requires heavy customization. Oneleet's documentation is basic.
7. Continuous Monitoring
Maintaining compliance after certification requires continuous monitoring to stay audit-ready year-round.
Smartly
Comprehensive continuous monitoring across cloud configurations, user access, endpoints, policies, control completion, security events, and required evidences. Ensures systems never drift out of compliance.
Secureframe
Strong integration-based monitoring with automated evidence collection from connected systems. However, monitoring accuracy depends on integration configuration and manual validation is often required.
Oneleet
Excellent security monitoring with vulnerability scanning and attack surface monitoring. However, compliance-specific continuous monitoring is limited and not aligned to ISO 27001 or SOC 2 evidence requirements.
Verdict: Smartly provides comprehensive compliance-focused continuous monitoring. Secureframe has strong integration monitoring. Oneleet excels at security monitoring.
8. Audit Preparation
Comprehensive audit preparation determines whether you pass on the first attempt or face delays and rework.
Smartly
Complete audit preparation with expert-validated documentation, pre-mapped controls aligned to Annex A and Trust Services Criteria, direct coordination with certification bodies, and dedicated specialist support through the entire audit process.
Secureframe
Audit preparation features including readiness reports, evidence collection workflows, and gap analysis. However, teams must interpret requirements and drive their own audit readiness without hands-on coaching.
Oneleet
Limited audit preparation specific to compliance certifications. Focus is on security testing reports rather than structured ISO 27001 or SOC 2 audit preparation workflows.
Verdict: Smartly provides the most complete audit preparation with expert guidance. Secureframe offers tools but requires self-driven preparation. Oneleet is limited for compliance audits.
9. Integration Ecosystem
| Platform | Integration Count | Focus | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smartly | 200+ | Compliance evidence automation | Audit-aligned |
| Secureframe | 100+ | Broad framework coverage | Variable accuracy |
| Oneleet | Moderate | Security and vulnerability tools | Security-focused |
Verdict: Smartly offers the most compliance-focused integrations with audit-aligned evidence automation. Secureframe has broad integrations with variable accuracy. Oneleet focuses on security tool integrations.
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10. User Experience
User experience impacts how quickly teams can navigate requirements and maintain momentum.
Smartly
Clean, guided interface designed for non-technical founders. Every section aligns with audit milestones, making compliance feel straightforward and achievable. Minimal learning curve with expert support at every step.
Secureframe
Polished interface with comprehensive dashboards and reporting. However, the complexity can overwhelm first-time users, and the learning curve is steep without GRC experience.
Oneleet
Security-focused interface designed for technical teams. Compliance features feel secondary and less integrated into the overall platform experience.
Verdict: Smartly offers the most startup-friendly and certification-focused experience. Secureframe has a polished but complex interface. Oneleet serves technical security teams.
11. Scalability
Scalability ensures the platform grows with your organization's needs over time.
Smartly
Scales naturally as startups grow. Start with ISO 27001, add SOC 2 later, maintain both certifications on the same platform with continuous monitoring and automated evidence collection.
Secureframe
Designed for multi-framework scalability with support for dozens of compliance standards. Best suited for companies planning to maintain multiple certifications simultaneously.
Oneleet
Scales with security program maturity, adding more penetration tests, vulnerability assessments, and security monitoring as companies grow their security operations.
Verdict: Smartly scales with certification needs, Secureframe scales with multi-framework requirements, Oneleet scales with security program maturity.
12. Risk Management Capabilities
Risk management is at the core of ISO 27001 and critical for SOC 2 compliance.
Smartly
Auditor-approved risk templates, automated risk scoring, treatment planning, control mapping, and evidence alignment. Built to pass audits without over-engineering your risk program.
Secureframe
Comprehensive risk assessment tools with customizable risk registers, risk scoring matrices, and treatment tracking. Strong functionality but requires expertise to configure and maintain effectively.
Oneleet
Security-focused risk identification through vulnerability assessments and penetration testing. Limited structured risk management aligned to ISO 27001 or SOC 2 requirements.
Verdict: Smartly provides the most practical and audit-ready risk management. Secureframe offers comprehensive but complex risk tools. Oneleet focuses on security risk identification.
13. Strengths and Weaknesses Summary
| Platform | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|
| Smartly | Fastest certification timelines, most predictable audit outcomes, strongest hands-on guidance, best pricing aligned to startup needs, deepest alignment with actual auditors, highest ease of use for non-experts | Focused on ISO 27001 and SOC 2, not dozens of frameworks |
| Secureframe | Premium brand recognition, broad framework coverage, comprehensive policy library, strong US market presence | Expensive, slow for first-time teams, requires internal GRC expertise, certification fees not included |
| Oneleet | Strong penetration testing, excellent vulnerability management, comprehensive security monitoring, good for long-term security operations | Not designed for audit speed, limited ISO 27001 depth, light SOC 2 structure, compliance is not the core focus |
14. Who Should Choose Each Platform
Choose Smartly if:
- You need ISO or SOC 2 fast.
- You want to close enterprise deals immediately.
- You want certification fees included.
- You want a guided, low-stress experience.
- You want high accuracy without hiring a GRC team.
Smartly is the best fit for startups, SMEs, and growing product teams that need results quickly and predictably.
Choose Secureframe if:
- You have a dedicated security team.
- You want many frameworks in one place.
- You have the budget for a premium tool.
Secureframe shines in larger companies with internal expertise.
Choose Oneleet if:
- You want cybersecurity services first.
- You want annual pentesting.
- You want continuous attack surface monitoring.
Oneleet is a security platform, not a compliance accelerator.
15. Framework Scope and Capability
| Platform | ISO 27001 | SOC 2 | GDPR | Additional Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smartly | Full | Full | Yes | Certification speed and execution |
| Secureframe | Full | Full | Yes | Multi-framework breadth |
| Oneleet | Basic | Basic | Limited | Security testing and monitoring |
Verdict: Smartly and Secureframe offer full ISO 27001 and SOC 2 support. Smartly optimizes for certification speed. Secureframe provides multi-framework breadth. Oneleet offers basic compliance support.
16. Feature Comparison
| Feature | Smartly | Secureframe | Oneleet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to Certification | 30–45 days | 4–7 months | No clear timeline |
| Documentation Quality | Audit-ready, minimal customization | Extensive, requires heavy customization | Basic templates |
| Automation Depth | Deep, audit-aligned | Broad but scattered | Security-focused |
| Expert Support | Dedicated specialists until certification | General guidance, library access | Cybersecurity-focused support |
| Pricing Transparency | 100 percent transparent | Premium, many add-ons | Security service pricing |
| Certification Included | Yes | No | No |
| Best Fit | Startups and SMEs | Large companies with GRC teams | Security-first organizations |
17. Final Verdict: One Clear Winner for Startups and Fast-Growing Teams
Smartly
One clear winner for startups and fast-growing teams that need results quickly and predictably.
Secureframe
Polished and premium, but not engineered for fast certification.
Oneleet
Strong for penetration testing and monitoring, not for audit speed.
Smartly wins for:
- • Fastest readiness timelines
- • Most predictable audit outcomes
- • Strongest hands-on guidance
- • Best pricing aligned to startup needs
- • Deepest alignment with actual auditors
- • Highest ease of use for non-experts
Secureframe is polished. Oneleet is strong for penetration testing and monitoring. But neither is engineered for the one thing startups actually need: fast, predictable, audit-ready compliance that closes deals.
If you want SOC 2 or ISO 27001 to become a growth multiplier instead of a stress multiplier, Smartly is the platform built for your trajectory.
18. Why Smartly Leads the Compliance Automation Race
Smartly has redefined how startups achieve compliance. Its approach blends automation, expertise, and transparency — giving teams control, confidence, and speed.
With Smartly, you get:
- ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification in weeks, not months.
- Continuous compliance through automated monitoring.
- Expert guidance from start to finish.
- Transparent, pay-after-certification pricing that eliminates risk.
Secureframe brings polish. Oneleet brings security testing. Smartly brings results.
Smartly: The fastest path to ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certification — built for startups that move fast, build trust, and grow securely.
Startups don't need hundreds of templates. They need clarity. They need speed. They need a system that reduces complexity instead of creating more of it. That is exactly what Smartly delivers.