Free Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC) Tools
GRC tools bring policies, risk registers, controls, and audit evidence into one place so compliance work stops living in scattered spreadsheets. The free tools in this category help startups prepare for SOC2, ISO27001, or ISO 42001 before a paid GRC platform is justified.
- 33 free solutions listed
- Free for startups & SMBs
- Curated by certified experts
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- Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)33
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All Products
CISA Cyber Security Evaluation Tool (CSET)
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)CSET is a free software tool from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) that gives you a systematic, repeatable way to evaluate your security posture. It guides you step by step through your IT and operational technology environment, compares your answers to recognized government and industry standards, and provides recommendations to improve your cybersecurity.
ISO 27001 Gap Assessment
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)The ISO 27001 Gap Assessment is a free tool that measures your organization against ISO/IEC 27001:2022, the international standard for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS). Assess the Clause 4 to 10 management system requirements at the Clauses Only (Level 1) scope, or add all 93 Annex A controls at the Clauses & Annex Controls (Level 2) scope; generate a downloadable report that includes a remediation roadmap.
SOC 2 Gap Assessment
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)The SOC 2 Gap Assessment is a free tool that measures your organization against the AICPA 2017 Trust Services Criteria (with Revised Points of Focus, 2022) used in SOC 2 examinations. Assess all 61 criteria across Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality and Privacy at the SOC 2 Type I or SOC 2 Type II level; generate a downloadable report that includes a remediation roadmap.
ISO 42001 Gap Assessment
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)The ISO 42001 Gap Assessment is a free tool that measures your organization against ISO/IEC 42001:2023, the international standard for Artificial Intelligence Management Systems (AIMS). Assess the Clause 4 to 10 management system requirements at a Basic (Level 1) scope, or a Standard (Level 2) scope; generate a downloadable report that includes a remediation roadmap.
CIS Gap Assessment
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)The CIS Gap Assessment is a free tool that measures your organization against the 56 Implementation Group 1 (IG1) Safeguards of the CIS Critical Security Controls v8.1, the essential cyber hygiene baseline every enterprise should implement first, with likelihood and impact risk scoring, a ranked gap list, and a downloadable report with a prioritized remediation roadmap.
Canada Cybersecurity Baseline Assessment
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)The Cybersecurity Baseline Assessment is a free tool that measures a small or medium organization against CAN/DGSI 104:2021 (Rev 2:2026), Canada's national standard for baseline cyber security controls, with likelihood and impact risk scoring, a ranked gap list, and a downloadable report with a prioritized remediation roadmap.
CISO Assistant
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)Open-source GRC platform for cyber risk management and compliance
Eramba (Community)
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)Open-source GRC platform for risk management, compliance, and audit
Watchdog Security
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)The All Inclusive Cyber Security Platform That Startups & SMBs Trust. Affordable cybersecurity subscriptions offering complete protection that scale with your business.
RegScale
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)RegScale GRC Platform helps you stay continuously compliant with the vast number of growing regulations that govern your organization and industry - all in real-time.
SimpleRisk
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)SimpleRisk is a comprehensive GRC platform that can be used for all of your Governance, Risk Management and Compliance needs. SimpleRisk Core can be downloaded for free, installed in minutes, and provides all of the capabilities that you need when first launching your GRC program.
Open Source GRC
Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)Welcome to OpenSource GRC. This is a free, open and collaborative platform for GRC compliance mappings, controls and policies templates.
What Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC) Tools Do
GRC tools bring policies, risk registers, controls, evidence, and audit tasks into one place so compliance work stops living in scattered spreadsheets. They map your controls to frameworks such as SOC2, ISO27001, ISO 42001, CMMC, and PCI DSS, track evidence collection, and show at any moment which controls are operating and which are overdue.
A startup preparing for its first SOC2 or ISO27001 does not need an enterprise GRC platform on day one. The free tools on this page cover open-source policy libraries, risk register templates, control frameworks with crosswalks between standards, and lightweight compliance trackers, which is enough to reach the first audit and to know when a paid platform is justified.
How to Choose a Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC) Tool
- Choose a tool that already contains the framework you are pursuing; building the control list yourself is where projects stall.
- Prefer crosswalk support so evidence collected once for SOC2 counts toward ISO27001 or CMMC later.
- Make sure evidence can be attached to controls with dates and owners; that is what an auditor samples.
- If you have fewer than 20 people, a well-structured spreadsheet plus a policy library often beats a platform you will not maintain.
Need help with Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC)?
IRM runs managed GRC programs and certification readiness for SOC2, ISO27001, ISO 42001, and CMMC.
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC)Check your readiness first
Free, no signup, runs in your browser. Score your gaps and download a remediation roadmap.
Free SOC2 Gap AssessmentGovernance Risk & Compliance (GRC) Tools: Frequently Asked Questions
What does a GRC tool do?
It holds your policies, risk register, and control set, maps them to compliance frameworks, tracks evidence that each control is operating, and reports on gaps and overdue tasks. Commercial platforms add integrations that collect evidence automatically from your cloud and identity provider.
When should a startup buy a GRC platform?
When evidence collection for an annual SOC2 Type II or ISO27001 surveillance audit takes more staff time than the subscription costs, which is usually around 20 to 30 employees or the second framework. Before that, free tools and a Virtual CISO running the control calendar are enough.
Which framework should we start with?
SOC2 if your buyers are in North America, ISO27001 if they are in Europe or Asia-Pacific, CMMC if you are a US defense subcontractor, and ISO 42001 if you ship AI features and customers ask how they are governed. IRM's free gap assessments cover each so you can see the size of the gap before choosing.
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