RIA in a Box Cost and RIA Compliance Software Pricing

Most RIA compliance software does not publish a price. When we checked vendor sites in October 2026, Comply (the former RIA in a Box), Smartria, Hadrius and Orion Compliance all sent buyers to a demo. The figures that do circulate come from third parties: Comply from about $3,000 a year for a basic plan, Orion Compliance from $8,500 a year for up to 10 users, and Smartria from $50 a month on Capterra. Archiving, consultants and the cybersecurity side of the program sit on top of that, and they often cost more than the software.

This guide is for the chief compliance officer of a small or mid-size SEC-registered adviser who has to put a number in front of the partners. It covers what each vendor actually publishes, what the reported figures mean, the budget lines people forget, and where a cheaper, narrower tool is enough.

How much does RIA compliance software cost?

For a firm of 5 to 25 people, expect roughly $3,000 to $15,000 a year for an all-in-one RIA compliance platform, based on the few figures that are on record, with larger firms and firms adding trade surveillance paying more. None of the major vendors lists a full price on its own site, so every number below is either read from a vendor page or clearly marked as reported by someone else.

Two cautions on the reported figures. They are undated starting points, not quotes, and packaging may have changed since they were written; Comply alone has rebranded since. And a starting price is the price of the smallest plan for the smallest firm. A 15-person firm with personal trading surveillance and archiving should expect a quote well above it.

RIA in a Box cost in 2026

RIA in a Box now sells as Comply, and its product pages for advisers name the modules (code of ethics, trade monitoring, compliance calendar, risk assessments, annual review, an intelligent policy builder and communications archiving) without any price. The old MyRIACompliance pricing page, which once listed packages from $250 a month, now returns an error inside the Comply site. SmartAsset's January 2026 review says the same thing we found: pricing is not disclosed and you need a demo.

The most useful figure on record is InvestmentNews' note that Comply starts at about $3,000 a year for a basic plan. Use it as a floor for a small firm. What pushes a Comply quote up is the same list that pushes any RIA suite up: more access persons in the code of ethics workflow, trade monitoring with broker feeds, archiving of email and messaging, and registration help for new representatives.

Smartria pricing

Smartria's own pricing page has no numbers. It says pricing is customized to the firm's size, complexity and growth stage, and offers a demo. Capterra lists a starting price of $50 a month flat and shows 12 user reviews. Older third-party write-ups mention a separate seat price for the CCO and for each advisor. Treat all of these as a starting signal and get a written quote that names the modules, the seat count and the renewal terms.

Smartria is RIA-specific, so the workflows (annual review, employee attestations, vendor management, trade monitoring) match how a registered adviser works. That is the reason to pay for it rather than a generic tool, and the reason to check whether you actually use the modules you are quoted for.

What drives the price of RIA compliance software

Five things move a quote more than anything else.

• Access persons and users. Most suites price by the people who attest to the code of ethics or log in, so a firm with eight advisors and four support staff can land in a different tier from a firm with the same assets and five people.
• Personal trading surveillance. Pulling brokerage feeds for every access person and reviewing trades against restricted lists is the most expensive module in most suites, and a solo or two-advisor firm may not need it automated.
• Communications archiving. Required under the books and records rule, often bundled, sometimes bought separately from a specialist.
• Service included. Many RIA vendors sell software plus a consultant or a mock exam. That is genuinely useful, and it is also where a quote doubles.
• Contract length. Annual contracts are the norm, and multi-year terms usually buy a discount and a harder exit.

Archiving is a separate budget line

Email and messaging archiving is the line small firms underestimate. Vendr's buyer data, read in October 2026, puts the median Smarsh contract at about $22,759 a year, with a typical range from about $3,288 to $131,276, based on a small sample of 11 contracts that skews toward larger buyers. For Global Relay the median is about $6,793 a year across 8 purchasers. A five-person RIA archiving email only will usually pay far less than either median, but the number is real and recurring, so get it quoted at the same time as the compliance platform rather than after.

While you are standardizing email, the required disclosures in every advisor's signature are worth fixing at the same time. Rolling one approved template out to every mailbox with company-wide email signature software takes the variation out of a line examiners do read.

Compliance consultant vs software cost

Many small advisers pay a compliance consultant instead of, or as well as, a platform. Transition to RIA, a resource for advisors moving to independence, puts consultant fees at roughly $10,000 to $25,000 to set up a new RIA and roughly $8,000 to $15,000 a year after that, with complex firms paying more. That fee buys judgment: someone who has sat through SEC exams and can tell you what your examiner will focus on.

Software does not replace that judgment. It replaces the binder and the reminders. The useful question is which jobs you need a person for (policy wording, the annual review, exam preparation) and which you need a system for (dates, owners, vendor files, evidence). Our guide to whether you need a compliance consultant walks through that split.

The cost RIAs added in 2026, Regulation S-P

The amended Regulation S-P applied to smaller advisers, those under $1.5 billion in assets under management, from June 3, 2026, and to larger ones from December 3, 2025. It requires a written incident response program, notice to affected customers within 30 days, oversight of service providers with a 72-hour breach notice term, and five years of records for advisers. Many firms paid outside counsel or a consultant to rewrite the policy and stopped there.

The policy is the cheap part. The ongoing cost is running it: reviewing the program every year, exercising it, checking that the custodian, the CRM, the portfolio system and the IT provider all have the 72-hour term, and keeping the records. That is the part examiners test, and it is where a dedicated Regulation S-P compliance software setup earns its price. In Complies the SEC Regulation S-P library loads twelve recurring obligations and six policies onto the calendar on every paid plan, and Growth adds vendor due diligence with tiers, review dates and SOC 2 reports on file.

What a small RIA actually budgets

Put the pieces together and a 10-person SEC-registered adviser typically carries four compliance lines, each from a different vendor. Here is how the published and reported figures stack up.

Not every firm needs all four. A two-advisor firm with no personal trading surveillance need may skip the suite and run its calendar, policies and Regulation S-P program in a lighter tool, with a consultant for the annual review. A 40-person firm with dozens of access persons will want the suite and may find the program tool redundant. Price the jobs, not the category.

Is there RIA compliance software with published pricing?

Very little. Among the RIA-specific vendors we checked in October 2026, none listed a full price on its own website; the figures in this guide come from InvestmentNews and Capterra. General compliance platforms are more open. Complies publishes Starter at $47, Growth at $119 and Scale at $299 a month billed yearly, or $95, $239 and $599 monthly, on its pricing page. It covers the safeguards, vendor and policy side of an adviser's program, not code of ethics attestations, trade surveillance or archiving, so it is a fit when that side is your gap.

If your firm also has an affiliate licensed in New York, our NYDFS Part 500 compliance cost breakdown shows how the same records serve the April 15 certification.

How to get an honest RIA compliance software quote

Ask every vendor the same five questions in writing: the price per year at your current headcount, the price at twice that headcount, which modules are in the number and which are add-ons, whether archiving is included and at what volume, and what the renewal increase cap is. Ask for the contract length and the exit terms before the demo, not after. If a vendor will not put a number in an email, that is information too.