Governance, Risk, and Compliance software plays a critical role in helping organizations optimize their governance strategies, streamline their risk management processes, and ensure compliance with industry and government regulations. By consolidating and streamlining these key functions, GRC platforms enable organizations to effectively monitor, assess, and mitigate risks, manage compliance planning and reporting, and ensure that they’re achieving their business goals successfully and ethically.
GRC platforms typically offer an integrated suite of tools and capabilities that cover areas such as enterprise risk management, policy management, audit management, compliance management, internal control management, and incident management. They provide a centralized and holistic view of a company’s risks, controls, and compliance status, enabling organizations to make data-driven decisions and prioritize resources more effectively.
The GRC platform market is thriving, with multiple vendors offering solutions that cater to various industries, company sizes, and risk management needs. In this article, we’ll explore the top GRC platforms. We’ll highlight the key use cases and features of each solution, including compliance templates, policy mapping, managing risk, continuous monitoring, and in-depth reporting.
Hyperproof is an IT compliance and risk operations platform that streamlines security assurance. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Hyperproof offers real-time reporting on GRC functions through multiple admin dashboards.
Why We Picked Hyperproof: We like Hyperproof’s ability to configure specific programs for various compliance regimes like NIST, SOC2, and FedRAMP, and its comprehensive auditing capabilities that allow detailed evidence collection and external auditor access.
Hyperproof Best Features: Features include real-time GRC reporting, customizable compliance programs for over 110 templates, flexible automation setup, and over 60 integrations with apps like AWS, Salesforce, and Microsoft 365. The platform also supports detailed audits with granular control over data visibility and automated risk assessments based on vendor questionnaires.
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Pricing: For detailed pricing, visit Hyperproof directly.
Who it’s for: Hyperproof is best suited for mid-market to large enterprises needing a compliance framework-agnostic platform with customizable programs and comprehensive auditing capabilities.
Kaseya’s RapidFireTools Compliance Manager GRC is a SaaS-based IT risk management suite designed to streamline governance, risk, and compliance processes. It supports major compliance frameworks like NIST, PCI DSS, SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA, ensuring organizations of all sizes can automate and manage compliance assessments effectively.
Why We Picked Compliance Manager GRC: We appreciate its comprehensive support for multiple compliance frameworks and the ability to automate assessments, significantly reducing manual effort.
Compliance Manager GRC Best Features: Key features include automated compliance assessments, support for major frameworks, customizable compliance templates, third-party vendor assessment portal, end-user security awareness training, and advanced policy controls. Integrations include native compatibility with other Kaseya products, such as Vulscan for vulnerability management.
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Pricing: For detailed pricing, contact Kaseya directly.
Who it’s for: Compliance Manager GRC is ideal for companies and MSPs seeking to automate and manage compliance assessments efficiently, particularly those requiring multi-tenant support and white-labeling options.
Mitratech Alyne is a cloud-based, AI-driven governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) platform that enables CISOs and compliance teams to assess risk, implement compliance requirements, and make data-driven, risk-aware decisions. To achieve this, Alyne delivers continuous enterprise and third-party risk monitoring and management, ESG, cyber security and IT risk management, and information governance.
Alyne offers over 1,500 pre-built templates mapped to compliance regulations and controls, including ISO 27001, SOC 2, PRA SS1/22 & SS2/22, COBIT, NIST CSF, CCAR, SR 11-7, DFAST, SOX, and ECB TRIM. It automatically maps and summarizes documents, and uses AI and machine learning to help users identify and understand the relevant regulations for their business, then mitigate and report on any associated risks. This includes making sure users are storing, using, and managing data in line with corporate policies and regulatory requirements. Alyne also offers integrations with third-party data providers such as Black Kite and Security Scorecard for third-party risk management, and allows users to connect their own Snowflake instance or BI tool to the platform for a more holistic overview of risk across the entire tech stack.
Alyne is quick to deploy and configure without the need for any coding, making it accessible to non-technical users. Once deployed, it’s straightforward to manage, thanks to its intuitive interface and customizable reporting dashboards. Overall, we recommend Mitratech Alyne as a strong solution for midsize to large enterprises looking to streamline their risk identification, qualification, and quantification processes, improve their data governance, and ensure compliance with evolving data privacy and security requirements.
Archer Insight is a risk management solution that enables decision-makers to analyze the economic impact of risks and the value of potential mitigations. It integrates risk quantification into the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program, offering a standardized approach to understanding enterprise-level risk.
Why We Picked Archer Insight: We appreciate Archer Insight’s ability to convert qualitative risk ratings into quantitative values, facilitating a scalable and consistent approach to risk management.
Archer Insight Best Features: Key features include a built-in methodology for risk quantification, a pre-built mathematical model for analyzing various risk types, cost-benefit analysis capabilities, and detailed risk comparison for prioritization. It also offers the Bowtie method for risk illustration and control mapping for measuring control costs. Archer Insight integrates with existing data and processes, enhancing its user-friendliness.
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Pricing: For specific pricing details, please contact Archer directly.
Who it’s for: Archer Insight is ideal for organizations seeking a comprehensive and standardized approach to risk management, particularly those with diverse risk types and a need for detailed economic analysis.
AuditBoard is a comprehensive risk management platform designed to enhance audit, risk, IT security, and ESG programs. It streamlines workflows and connects risk insights across functions, providing real-time reporting and a holistic view of an organization’s risk landscape.
Why We Picked AuditBoard: We appreciate AuditBoard’s AI-driven content generation and recommendations, which significantly enhance efficiency and effectiveness in risk management.
AuditBoard Best Features: Key features include AI-driven content generation, no-code analytics, automated evidence collection and testing, and intuitive reporting through visual dashboards. Integrations include Microsoft Office, Google Drive, Jira, ServiceNow, GitHub, Qualys, Fastpath, Alteryx, Snowflake, PowerBi, and Tableau.
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Pricing: For detailed pricing, contact AuditBoard directly.
Who it’s for: AuditBoard is best suited for organizations looking to enhance their audit, risk, and compliance programs with a comprehensive, AI-driven platform that integrates seamlessly with existing systems.
Diligent HighBond is a Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solution that streamlines GRC processes and provides executives with a high level of assurance. It centralizes control over GRC, allowing organizations to design automated, end-to-end workflows that ensure real-time policy adaptation.
Why We Picked Diligent HighBond: We appreciate HighBond’s advanced data analytics, which make in-depth insights accessible to users regardless of technical expertise. Its ability to pull risk data from across the organization and share it through customizable storyboards and one-click reports provides real-time insights to decision-makers.
Diligent HighBond Best Features: Key features include automated workflows for real-time policy adaptation, advanced data analytics, customizable risk and control libraries, and comprehensive visibility through ready-to-use dashboards and reports. Integrations include the ability to pull risk data from across the organization, and it adheres to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and follows ISO/IEC 27001 standards, implementing an Information Security Management System (ISMS).
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Pricing: For pricing details, visit Diligent’s website directly.
Who it’s for: Diligent HighBond is best suited for organizations looking to enhance governance and reduce costs through automation, advanced analytics, and customizable features. It is ideal for businesses that require comprehensive visibility into GRC data and real-time policy adaptation.
Drata is a compliance automation platform that helps businesses achieve audit-ready status with the support of security and compliance experts. It features over 85 native integrations and the ability to create custom integrations through an open API, allowing seamless evidence collection and control monitoring across various systems.
Why We Picked Drata: We appreciate Drata’s extensive integration capabilities and its ability to automate evidence collection, eliminating manual tasks like screenshot-taking and spreadsheet management.
Drata Best Features: Key features include automation of evidence collection, over 85 native integrations, open API for custom integrations, more than 17 pre-built compliance frameworks, a library of over 500 controls, customizable controls, pre-configured tests, pass/fail thresholds, continuous control monitoring, role-based access, and separate workspaces for different business units.
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Pricing: For pricing details, visit Drata’s website directly.
Who it’s for: Drata is ideal for businesses seeking to streamline their compliance processes with automation, particularly those with diverse compliance needs and multiple business units.
IBM OpenPages is an AI-powered Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) platform that integrates risk management functions within a unified environment. It is designed for seamless integration with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, enabling businesses to efficiently identify, manage, monitor, and report on risks and regulatory compliance.
Why We Picked IBM OpenPages: We appreciate its adaptability and full configurability, supporting tens of thousands of users. Its comprehensive dashboards and dimensional reporting provide clear insights into organizational risk.
IBM OpenPages Best Features: Key features include a task-focused user interface that minimizes training, customizable user experiences with favorites, heat-maps, and sibling relationships, dynamic guidance for building key fields, comprehensive dashboards, charts, and dimensional reporting. It also includes GRC-embedded workflows that can run on-demand, scheduled, or upon object creation, drag-and-drop functionality for workflow modification, a calculation engine for automating risk-related calculations, and a single data repository for a consistent view of compliance and risk management.
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Pricing: For pricing details, please contact IBM directly.
Who it’s for: IBM OpenPages is best suited for large enterprises and organizations that require a scalable, configurable GRC solution to manage extensive risk and compliance needs across multiple levels and departments.
LogicGate Risk Cloud is a centralized platform designed to enhance business risk management programs. It streamlines operations by reducing redundant controls, automating evidence collection, and facilitating cross-team collaboration.
Why We Picked LogicGate Risk Cloud: We appreciate its no-code interface, which allows businesses to adapt to changing risk environments without technical expertise. The platform’s ability to quantify risk in monetary terms also stands out, aiding clear communication with stakeholders.
LogicGate Risk Cloud Best Features: Key features include a shared risk register, centralized control repository, and platform-wide reporting capabilities. It supports customization of program architecture and workflow streamlining. Additional features include integrated third-party risk intelligence, automated workflows, notifications, and control evidence collection. The platform covers solutions like controls compliance, cyber risk management, operational resiliency, data privacy management, enterprise risk management, environmental/social/governance, internal audit management, policy management, regulatory compliance, and third-party risk management.
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Pricing: For pricing details, visit LogicGate Risk Cloud directly.
Who it’s for: LogicGate Risk Cloud is ideal for businesses of all sizes looking to enhance their risk management programs, particularly those needing a flexible, comprehensive solution to manage various risk types and compliance requirements.
Onspring GRC Management is a comprehensive solution that unifies governance, risk, and compliance practices. It effectively manages frameworks like ISO, NIST, and CMMC, and automates compliance testing and attestations across functional groups.
Why We Picked Onspring GRC Management: We appreciate its robust risk register creation and streamlined risk assessment processes. The platform’s integrated modules automate and prioritize risk assessments effectively.
Onspring GRC Management Best Features: Key features include automation of compliance testing and attestations, risk management for risk assessments, internal audit for audit plans and workpaper management, and compliance for control library and regulatory monitoring. Additional modules cover policy management, third-party vendor risk, environmental, social, and governance issues, incident and asset management, and continuity and recovery. Onspring integrates with live dashboards, key metrics, and audit-ready reports.
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Pricing: For pricing details, visit Onspring directly.
Who it’s for: Onspring GRC Management is best suited for organizations seeking a unified solution to manage governance, risk, and compliance across various frameworks and operational areas. It is ideal for businesses aiming to improve decision-making and operational resilience.
Resolver is an all-in-one governance, risk, and compliance solution that streamlines processes and enhances risk culture within businesses. It focuses on four key areas to provide valuable insights and automate tasks, helping organizations operate more securely and efficiently.
Why We Picked Resolver: We like that Resolver offers comprehensive enterprise risk management, supporting organizational boards and senior leaders in identifying and managing risks from a strategic perspective.
Resolver Best Features: Features include enterprise risk management, regulatory compliance monitoring, data-informed and risk-based internal audit processes, and vendor risk management. Integrations include workflow management, timed reminders, and user-friendly interfaces for audit clients.
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Pricing: For pricing details, visit Resolver directly.
Who it’s for: Resolver is best suited for businesses looking to enhance their governance, risk, and compliance processes, particularly those needing comprehensive risk management and regulatory compliance solutions.
SAI360 is a comprehensive compliance and risk management solution that equips businesses with tools to maintain a culture of compliance and make informed decisions. The platform features unified management systems, real-time dashboards, and automated workflows to identify gaps, detect problems, and respond to risks.
Why We Picked SAI360: We appreciate SAI360’s unified management systems that provide a complete view of risk across an organization, along with its real-time dashboards for immediate risk assessment.
SAI360 Key Features: The platform offers enterprise and operational risk management, risk and control self-assessment, continuous KPI monitoring, and actionable analytics. It also includes ethics and compliance learning with customizable, multilingual training on over 20 risk topics. Additional tools cover digital risk management, vendor risk management, and business continuity, supported by an extensive regulatory content knowledge base. The solution integrates with Evotix, providing end-to-end EHS and sustainability services.
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Pricing: For detailed pricing, contact SAI360 directly.
Best Suited For: SAI360 is ideal for large enterprises and organizations that need robust risk management and compliance solutions across multiple domains, including ethics, digital risk, and sustainability.
A platform that provides a single solution for governance, risk, and compliance.
Connects data, processes, and risks to streamline governance.
An integrated governance, risk, compliance, and quality management solution.
A cloud-based platform for reporting, compliance, and enterprise risk management.
Selecting the right Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solution involves aligning the platform with your organization’s risk management, compliance, and governance needs. Consider these key steps to make an informed choice:
Assess Your Risk and Compliance Environment: Evaluate your organization’s risk profile, including operational, financial, IT, and third-party risks, alongside regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS) to identify critical needs.
Define Integration and Scalability Goals: Factor in your existing tech stack (e.g., ERP, CRM, SIEM) and growth plans to ensure seamless integration and support for evolving business demands, such as cloud or hybrid environments.
Prioritize Automation and Analytics: Choose a solution that automates repetitive tasks and provides actionable insights to reduce manual effort and enhance decision-making across governance, risk, and compliance functions.
Focus on critical features to ensure comprehensive risk management and compliance:
Unified Risk Management: Look for platforms that centralize enterprise, operational, IT, and third-party risk management with consistent frameworks, such as ISO 31000 or COSO ERM, for holistic visibility.
Automated Compliance and Audit Tools: Prioritize solutions with regulatory change tracking, pre-built templates (e.g., SOC 2, NIST), and audit management to streamline compliance and reduce errors.
AI-Driven Analytics and Reporting: Ensure features like real-time dashboards, risk heatmaps, and AI-powered insights to prioritize risks and generate compliance-ready reports.
Low-Code Customization and Integrations: Verify no-code/low-code capabilities and integrations with tools like ServiceNow, Salesforce, or Microsoft Azure to adapt to unique workflows and enhance efficiency.
Balance functionality with usability to maximize adoption and impact:
User-Friendly Interface: Avoid complex platforms that burden teams, opting for intuitive consoles with customizable dashboards to simplify policy management and risk monitoring.
Vendor Support Quality: Select providers with responsive support, detailed documentation, and resources like training or AI-driven virtual assistants (e.g., IBM OpenPages with Watson) for smooth deployment.
Testing and Trials: Use demos, free trials, or user reviews on platforms like G2 or Capterra to validate usability, integration, and performance before committing.
Our guide to the leading Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) platforms offers a comprehensive overview of solutions designed to streamline risk management, ensure regulatory compliance, and enhance organizational governance. The article evaluates tools based on features like unified risk frameworks, automated compliance tracking, AI-driven analytics, and robust integrations, catering to organizations of all sizes. It highlights the importance of balancing automation, scalability, and usability to mitigate risks, align with standards like GDPR or ISO 27001, and foster a risk-aware culture in dynamic regulatory and threat landscapes.
Key Takeaways:
Holistic Risk Management: Top GRC platforms consolidate enterprise, IT, and third-party risks into a single view, enabling proactive mitigation and strategic decision-making.
Automation and Compliance: Choose solutions with automated workflows and regulatory templates to reduce compliance costs and ensure audit readiness.
Scalable and Adaptable: Prioritize platforms with low-code customization and integrations to support growing businesses and evolving regulations.
We’ve explored the leading GRC platforms, highlighting how these tools help organizations manage risks, ensure compliance, and strengthen governance. Now, we’d love to hear your perspective—what’s your experience with GRC solutions? Are features like AI-driven analytics, automated compliance tracking, or seamless integrations critical for your organization’s risk strategy?
Selecting the right GRC platform can transform how you navigate regulatory complexities and mitigate risks, but challenges like customization or user adoption can arise. Have you found a standout solution that’s enhanced your governance processes, or encountered hurdles with scalability or usability? Share your insights to help other organizations navigate the GRC landscape and choose the best tool for their needs.
Let us know which solution you recommend to help us improve our list!
Before we can understand governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) tools, we need to talk about what GRC actually is. GRC is the collective term for aligning IT and business goals, whilst managing risks and ensuring adherence to industry and federal compliance requirements. Implementing a GRC strategy can help organizations to achieve their business goals successfully and ethically, remove uncertainty when it comes to decision-making, and achieve compliance.
As the name suggests, there are three key components of GRC:
For example, an organization in the healthcare industry must comply with HIPAA, a regulation that protects patients’ privacy. To be non-compliant could result in heavy fines and litigation, so the organization would need to implement measures to ensure patient data is handled and stored securely.
GRC software helps organizations implement and manage their GRC programs; businesses can keep track of their policies, manage risk, and ensure compliance, all via a single platform. This enables organizations to carry out GRC processes with more accuracy and efficiency by allowing them to replace time-consuming and potentially inaccurate manual processes.
Today, most GRC solutions are cloud-based and offer lots of automation to make GRC processes easier to carry out, and more accessible. However, it’s important to remember that an effective GRC program doesn’t just rely on the technology; it also involves implementing an organization-wide GRC strategy that also considers the roles and people involved.
There are a few key benefits to implementing GRC tools:
There are a lot of GRC tools on the market, each designed to help organizations meet specific governance, risk, or compliance goals. As such, each tool is likely to offer a slightly different feature set. However, there are some features that you should look for in any GRC software:
Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) tools centralize and streamline the processes of managing organizational risks, ensuring regulatory compliance, and enforcing governance policies. They operate through a unified platform that integrates data from various sources, such as IT systems, third-party vendors, and internal audits. The software uses frameworks like ISO 31000 or COSO ERM to assess risks, mapping them against business objectives and compliance requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA).
GRC tools automate tasks like regulatory change tracking, policy updates, and audit preparation using pre-built templates and workflows, reducing manual effort. AI-driven analytics, such as risk scoring or predictive modeling, prioritize high-impact risks and provide real-time dashboards or heatmaps for decision-makers. Integration with tools like ServiceNow or Microsoft Azure enables seamless data sharing and workflow automation across departments.
By consolidating risk assessments, compliance tracking, and governance policies, GRC tools provide a single source of truth, enhancing visibility and accountability. They also generate audit-ready reports to simplify regulatory inspections, helping organizations stay compliant and proactive in dynamic risk landscapes.
GRC tools benefit organizations of all sizes that face complex risk management or regulatory challenges. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) leverage GRC platforms to simplify compliance with regulations like GDPR or PCI DSS, enabling lean teams to manage risks without extensive resources. Enterprises with global operations or diverse IT environments benefit from centralized risk visibility, scalability, and automation to handle thousands of assets and stakeholders.
Industries with stringent compliance requirements, such as finance (SOX, Basel III), healthcare (HIPAA), and energy (NERC CIP), rely on GRC tools for audit management and regulatory reporting. Organizations with significant third-party vendor ecosystems, like retail or manufacturing, use GRC to assess vendor risks and ensure supply chain compliance.
Any organization aiming to reduce compliance costs, mitigate operational or cyber risks, or foster a risk-aware culture finds value in GRC tools, particularly those prioritizing strategic decision-making and regulatory resilience.
Caitlin Harris is the Deputy Head of Content at Expert Insights. As an experienced content writer and editor, Caitlin helps cybersecurity leaders to cut through the noise in the cybersecurity space with expert analysis and insightful recommendations. Prior to Expert Insights, Caitlin worked at QA Ltd, where she produced award-winning technical training materials, and she has also produced journalistic content over the course of her career. Caitlin has 8 years of experience in the cybersecurity and technology space, helping technical teams, CISOs, and security professionals find clarity on complex, mission critical topics like security awareness training, backup and recovery, and endpoint protection. Caitlin also hosts the Expert Insights Podcast and co-writes the weekly newsletter, Decrypted.
Laura Iannini is a Cybersecurity Analyst at Expert Insights. With deep cybersecurity knowledge and strong research skills, she leads Expert Insights’ product testing team, conducting thorough tests of product features and in-depth industry analysis to ensure that Expert Insights’ product reviews are definitive and insightful. Laura also carries out wider analysis of vendor landscapes and industry trends to inform Expert Insights’ enterprise cybersecurity buyers’ guides, covering topics such as security awareness training, cloud backup and recovery, email security, and network monitoring. Prior to working at Expert Insights, Laura worked as a Senior Information Security Engineer at Constant Edge, where she tested cybersecurity solutions, carried out product demos, and provided high-quality ongoing technical support. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity from the University of West Florida.