GRC consulting firms help companies build the governance, risk and compliance programs that customers, auditors and regulators now expect. GRC is the combined discipline of setting security and risk policy (governance), identifying and treating the risks that threaten the business (risk), and proving adherence to frameworks and laws such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST CSF, PCI DSS, HIPAA and CMMC (compliance). In practice, a GRC consultant might write your policy set, run a risk assessment, prepare you for a first SOC 2 audit, stand up a third-party risk program, or configure a platform such as ServiceNow IRM, Archer, Drata or Vanta so the program keeps running after the engagement ends.
The market is crowded and uneven. Some firms are really audit shops with an advisory arm, some are penetration testers that added compliance work, and some are platform implementers that know ServiceNow or Archer far better than they know ISO clauses. This list focuses on firms whose own sites show real governance, risk and compliance consulting work, mixing focused specialists with a few mid-size and larger firms. If your compliance work is tied to product security or connected devices, our roundup of embedded security testing companies and device auditors covers the testing side.
Every firm below was checked against its own website for the services, credentials and client names we mention. Where a figure is the firm’s own claim, we say so.
GRC Consulting Firms At A Glance
Company
Headquarters
Best For
Core Services
risk3sixty
Roswell, GA, US
Mid-market and enterprise teams running several frameworks at once
GRC, risk management, PCI DSS, SOC 2, CISO as a service
Best GRC Consulting Firms In 2026
The firms are ordered by how tightly their work fits governance, risk and compliance consulting, not by size.
1. risk3sixty — Multi-Framework GRC Programs Backed By Its Own fullCircle Platform
risk3sixty is a Roswell, Georgia firm co-founded by Christian Hyatt and Christian White. Its work is organized into three lines: Secure (penetration testing, red teaming and assessments), Comply (ISO 27001, 27701, 42001, 22301 and 9001, SOC 1, 2 and 3, PCI DSS, HITRUST, FedRAMP, CMMC, NYDFS and privacy) and Optimize, which covers multi-framework programs and compliance as a service.
The distinguishing piece is fullCircle, the firm’s own GRC platform, which it describes as agentic and says is included at no extra charge for clients in its broader program. That matters for companies trying to harmonize SOC 2, ISO and PCI controls into one set of evidence rather than running three parallel projects. The firm says its consultants are all U.S. based and that it has completed more than 3,000 engagements.
Client logos on its site include Salesloft, GE Vernova, Dish, VMware and Workday, with testimonials from Centene Corporation and Juvare. risk3sixty also cites recognition as an elite boutique firm by SANS and as a best consulting firm by Consulting magazine, per its site.
Best for: mid-market and enterprise security teams that carry several frameworks at once and want one partner to design the program, run the tooling and handle certification work.
2. Rhymetec — Drata Elite Partner And Vanta Partner Running vCISO Programs For SaaS
Rhymetec is a New York firm that pairs compliance work with offensive security. Its managed services include vCISO, ISO internal audits, gap assessments and GRC platform work, and its framework coverage runs from SOC 2 Type 1 and 2 and ISO 27001, 27017, 27018 and 42001 to PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, NIST, FedRAMP, CMMC, DORA, NIS2 and the EU AI Act.
The fit for startups is the platform angle. Rhymetec is listed as an Elite Partner in Drata’s service partner directory and its own site describes a partnership with Vanta, so it is used to working inside the compliance automation tools many SaaS companies already pay for. That combination is useful when a team has bought Drata or Vanta and discovered the software does not write policies, scope controls or answer auditor questions on its own.
Named clients and testimonials on its site include Duolingo, Modern Health, Meltwater, Orum, ContractSafe and Agentnoon. Agentnoon credits Rhymetec with reaching ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 in about a third of the expected time, according to the client’s own testimonial. The company says more than 1,200 companies use its services.
Best for: venture-backed SaaS companies that need a fractional security leader and hands-on help getting a compliance platform to audit-ready.
Templar Shield is a San Diego risk, security, identity and AI governance advisory firm. Where most firms on this list start from frameworks, Templar Shield starts from the platform: its ServiceNow partner profile lists it as an Elite consulting and implementation partner specializing in Integrated Risk Management, Security Operations and identity.
The certification counts on that profile back the claim. It shows 35 certified implementation specialists in ServiceNow Risk and Compliance and 8 in Third-party Risk Management, plus a Certified Master Architect and a Certified Technical Architect. Templar Shield’s own site describes ServiceNow IRM and SecOps “flightpaths,” regulatory content packs and an AI Guardian offering built on ServiceNow, and says it was named ServiceNow’s 2026 AMS Risk & Security Partner of the Year.
The firm does not name individual clients on its homepage. It says it has worked with more than 100 Fortune 1000 companies and government entities, with over 300 clients served, and lists energy and utilities, financial services, public sector, healthcare and manufacturing as focus industries.
Best for: enterprises that have chosen ServiceNow as their GRC system of record and need policy, risk, audit and vendor risk modules designed and configured properly.
4. BARR Advisory — Kansas City vCISO And GRC Engineering Firm For Cloud Companies
BARR Advisory was founded in 2014 by Brad Thies, a CPA, and lists Kansas City as its headquarters. It focuses on cybersecurity and compliance for technology and cloud service providers, with advisory and managed services that include virtual CISO and program management, remediation, continuous monitoring and vulnerability management, plus a GRC engineering practice.
BARR is also an assessor. Its company overview lists it as a HITRUST Authorized Assessor and a PCI DSS Qualified Security Assessor, and says it is eligible to perform ISO 27001, HITRUST and SOC 2 audits. That gives buyers a choice of using BARR for readiness, risk and vendor assessments, or for the attestation itself, but not both on the same scope. One testimonial on its site makes the point directly: “BARR is not our auditor. They are our security partner.”
Clients shown on its site include Airtable, C2FO, Certn, Securiti, SHI and Sentry, with testimonials from Quickbase and RxSense. The firm says it serves clients in more than 20 countries and reports a Net Promoter Score of 91.
Best for: SaaS and cloud providers that want a long-term vCISO who understands what auditors will ask for across SOC 2, ISO, HITRUST, FedRAMP and CMMC.
5. URM Consulting — ISO 27001 And ISO 22301 Specialist With Its Own Abriska Risk Software
URM Consulting is based in Reading, UK, and has more than 20 years of experience helping organizations build information security management systems, according to its site. Its ISO 27001 service covers gap analysis, risk assessment, implementation and internal audit, and its ISO 22301 practice handles business impact analysis, continuity plans and exercising.
The GRC depth comes from the software it builds. URM’s Abriska product family covers information security risk (Abriska 27001), audit and actions (19011), supplier risk (27036), business continuity (22301) and enterprise risk (31000). Clients can run the risk process in a tool designed around the same standard the consultants are implementing, rather than a spreadsheet that falls apart after certification.
URM says it has helped more than 500 organizations achieve ISO 27001 certification. It is also a PCI DSS QSA company, a CREST accredited tester and a Cyber Essentials certification body, and it covers GDPR, SOC 2, NIS 2, NIST CSF and ISO 42001. Published case studies include AMT-Sybex for ISO 27001 and The ai Corporation for SOC 1 and SOC 2.
Best for: UK and European organizations that want an ISO-first consultancy and a risk tool to keep the program running afterward.
6. GRC Solutions — The Rebranded IT Governance Ltd, Co-Authors Of A Long-Running ISO 27001 Guide
GRC Solutions is the new name for IT Governance Ltd, the Ely, UK company founded in 2002 by Alan Calder. Its history page says Calder and fellow director Steve Watkins were the first in the UK to implement an ISMS against BS 7799, the precursor to ISO 27001, and co-wrote an ISO 27001 and 27002 guide now in its eighth edition.
The business now combines governance, compliance and technical assurance. Services on its site include ISO 27001 consultancy and implementation, a data protection officer service, PCI DSS consultancy through its QSA, and Cyber Essentials certification support, alongside training and documentation toolkits. The company lists ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications of its own, plus CREST membership and CHECK assured status.
Client logos on its site include Volkswagen, Slaughter and May, Freshfields, Severfield, Arkessa and Congenica. The firm says it has served thousands of organizations over more than 20 years.
Best for: organizations that want to build internal GRC capability through a mix of consulting, staff training and ready-made documentation, particularly in the UK and Ireland.
Truvantis is a San Francisco security and compliance firm and an authorized PCI DSS Qualified Security Assessor company, according to its site. Beyond PCI, it offers SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification services, HITRUST, NIST CSF and CIS Controls work, privacy consulting and vendor risk management.
The GRC side shows up in its program services: risk assessments, security program development and security program operation, plus flexible virtual CISO arrangements. That makes Truvantis useful for companies that need someone to own the program day to day, not just a one-time gap assessment. It also runs penetration tests scoped specifically to SOC 2 and ISO 27001 requirements, which keeps testing evidence aligned with the audit.
Testimonials on its site come from the Golden State Warriors, Dunn-Edwards Corporation, High Flying Foods, Inkling and Amino, which gives a sense of the range, from consumer brands that take card payments to software companies selling into enterprises.
Best for: companies where PCI DSS is the anchor framework and leadership wants a vCISO to extend the program to SOC 2, ISO and privacy.
8. Accorian — New Jersey Firm Pairing Managed Third-Party Risk With Its GORICO Platform
Accorian is headquartered in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with offices in Bengaluru, Pune, Dubai and Toronto. Its compliance practice covers HITRUST, ISO 27001, 27701, 22301 and 42001, NIST, PCI DSS, SOC 1 and 2, CMMC, HIPAA, GDPR and the EU Cyber Resilience Act, and its consulting side includes risk assessments, vCISO services and a multi-compliance bundle.
Two things stand out. First, Accorian runs managed third-party risk management, which is the part of GRC many smaller security teams never get to. Second, it offers GORICO, its own AI-enabled GRC platform for evidence collection, policy management and continuous compliance monitoring. Accorian also describes itself as one of a small number of organizations offering both audit and testing services on a unified platform, so buyers should confirm which role it will play on a given scope.
Testimonials on its site come from Sagility, Meetup, BlueMatrix, OSHI Health, KAI Health and Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, among others, with a heavy healthcare and SaaS mix. The company says it has made the Inc. 5000 list four years running.
Best for: healthcare and SaaS organizations that want vendor risk handled as a managed service alongside their own framework work.
9. GuidePoint Security — Reston GRC And Executive Advisory Practice Listed As An Archer Partner
GuidePoint Security was founded in 2011 and is based in Reston, Virginia. Its GRC practice is split into governance (program, policy and governance structures), risk (identifying and remediating financial, legal, strategic and security risk), business resilience (continuity and IT disaster recovery), executive advisory and compliance, with dedicated offerings for PCI DSS, HIPAA, CMMC readiness and FedRAMP advisory.
For buyers who need ongoing coverage, GuidePoint offers compliance management as a service and virtual CISO support. It also appears in Archer’s partner directory, which is relevant for organizations running or migrating an Archer GRC instance. Its broader security business means risk findings can be tied to remediation work without bringing in another firm.
GuidePoint says its expertise has helped a third of Fortune 500 companies and more than half of U.S. cabinet-level agencies. It is larger than the specialists above, so it suits programs that span many business units rather than a single first audit.
Best for: large enterprises and public sector organizations that want board-level risk advisory and compliance support from a firm that can also deliver the technical fixes.
10. Network Intelligence — Mumbai-Founded PCI QSA And HITRUST Firm Serving Global Banks
Network Intelligence was founded in 2001 by K. K. Mookhey, is headquartered in Mumbai and now has operations across the Americas, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, including a U.S. entity in Plano, Texas. The company says it has more than 500 security professionals.
Its governance, risk management and compliance practice sits alongside testing and managed security. Accreditations shown on its site include PCI QSA, HITRUST, CSA, CREST and SWIFT CSP, and it publishes case studies on SOC 2 compliance and guidance on India’s DPDP Act. A client testimonial describes a CISO as a service arrangement covering strategy and budgeting, which is the closest the firm comes to a named vCISO offering.
Client logos on its site include American Express, Standard Chartered, Morgan Stanley, FIS, FICO, Western Union, Jack Henry, Airtel and Saint-Gobain. That list points to its core strength: regulated financial services organizations that face PCI, SWIFT and local regulator requirements across several countries.
Best for: banks, payment firms and multinationals that need GRC support across India, the Middle East and the U.S. from one provider.
How To Choose A GRC Consulting Firm
Do you need a program built or a single audit passed?
A first SOC 2 Type 1 is a bounded project: scope the system, write policies, close control gaps, collect evidence. A real GRC program is ongoing: risk registers that get reviewed, vendor assessments that happen every year, policies that change when the business does. Firms that sell vCISO or compliance as a service are built for the second. Be honest about which you need, because a project-only firm will leave you with binders and no owner.
Will the same firm advise you and audit you?
Several firms on this list both consult and assess. That is fine, but independence rules generally stop a CPA firm from auditing controls it designed, and certification bodies and CMMC assessors have similar restrictions. Ask up front which role the firm will play, and if you want them as your auditor later, keep readiness work with someone else.
Which frameworks are actually required of you?
Start from customer contracts and regulators, not from a vendor’s framework menu. U.S. SaaS buyers usually ask for SOC 2, European buyers often prefer ISO 27001, card payments bring PCI DSS, defense work brings CMMC and NIST 800-171, and healthcare brings HIPAA and often HITRUST. A good GRC consultant will map these to one control set so you collect evidence once. Ask to see how they handle that mapping.
Does the firm know your GRC platform?
Platform skill is not interchangeable. A Drata or Vanta rollout for a 50-person startup and a ServiceNow IRM build for a bank need very different people. Check the vendor’s own partner directory for the firm’s listing and certification counts rather than relying on a logo on the firm’s homepage. If you have not picked a platform yet, ask the firm whether it earns resale margin on any tool it recommends.
Who will do the work day to day?
Ask for the names and credentials of the people on your engagement (CISA, CISSP, ISO 27001 Lead Implementer or Lead Auditor, platform certifications) and whether any work is offshored. Larger firms can staff big programs but may rotate junior consultants. Specialists are often more senior per hour but have less bench depth if your timeline slips.
What does success look like at the end?
Agree on concrete outputs before you sign: a certificate or report by a date, a risk register with named owners, a vendor inventory with tiering, a configured platform with handover training. Fixed-fee proposals for defined deliverables are easier to manage than open-ended hourly work, and they force both sides to agree on scope early.
Conclusion
The best GRC consulting firms differ mainly in where they start. risk3sixty, Rhymetec, BARR Advisory and Truvantis start from frameworks and fractional leadership, Templar Shield starts from enterprise GRC platforms, URM Consulting and GRC Solutions start from ISO, and Network Intelligence brings depth in financial services compliance. Match that starting point to your biggest pressure, whether it is a customer demanding a SOC 2 report or a board asking for a real risk program.
Whichever firm you shortlist, check its claims on the vendor directories and certification registries, ask who will staff the work, and settle the advise-or-audit question early. If your compliance needs are tied to software you are building, our guide to custom software development companies can help you find a build partner that works well with your governance, risk and compliance consulting team.
