ISO 27001 vs SOC 2 — which does a SaaS need?

SOC 2 and ISO 27001 solve the same problem — proving to buyers that you handle their data responsibly — but they do it differently.

SOC 2 is a US-centric AICPA attestation. It's control-focused (Trust Services Criteria) and produces a report signed by a licensed CPA firm. US enterprises treat it as the default.

ISO 27001 is an international ISO certification. It requires a documented Information Security Management System (ISMS) with formal governance clauses (4–10) plus Annex A controls. European, UK, and APAC enterprises treat it as the default.

For a SaaS deciding which to pursue first, the buyer geography decides:

US-heavy pipeline: SOC 2 first. It's faster to Type 1 (8–12 weeks) than to ISO certification (6–10 months) and unblocks more revenue faster.

European or global pipeline: ISO 27001 first. GDPR-adjacent procurement teams treat SOC 2 as unfamiliar and often push back.

Both markets: pursue them in parallel. About 80% of the underlying controls overlap. The marginal work for the second certification is the ISMS governance layer (for ISO) or the auditor's fieldwork (for SOC 2). Total incremental cost is ~30% on top of doing either alone.

One pattern that works well: complete SOC 2 Type 1 in month 3, use the same control implementation as the base for ISO 27001, ship ISO certification in month 9, and issue SOC 2 Type 2 in month 12 covering the same window.