MyCMMC vs. Hiring a CMMC Consultant: Side-by-Side Comparison

When you're trying to figure out how to get CMMC-ready, the default answer everyone gives you is "hire a consultant." That's not wrong. But most small contractors don't understand what a consultant actually does — and how much of what they charge for is documentation labor that follows a predictable, repeatable framework.

This isn't about bashing consultants. They serve a real purpose. It's about helping you understand what you're buying, so you can spend your compliance budget where it actually makes a difference.

The Numbers

Let's start with what you'll pay. These figures come from publicly available pricing from firms like Workstreet, Paramify, and Cabrillo Club, combined with industry-standard consultant hourly rates.

The honest comparison: a typical consulting engagement for documentation alone runs $30,000–$60,000 for a small contractor. Total engagements including advisory, gap assessment, and documentation run $50,000–$300,000 depending on complexity. MyCMMC's Assessment-Ready Package is $7,500, one-time, no annual renewal.

What You Actually Get

Here's where consultants often leave you short. The standard consulting deliverable is an SSP, some policies, and a POA&M. What C3PAO assessors actually want to see goes further — and the gap between "what the consultant delivered" and "what the assessor is looking for" is where most documentation surprises happen.

The asset inventory, CUI data flow diagram, and shared responsibility matrix aren't optional extras — assessors look for them. When a consultant doesn't include them in scope, you end up paying for a second engagement to fill the gap, or scrambling to produce them yourself before your assessment date.

The 322-Objective Advantage

This is the part most contractors don't hear about until they're sitting in front of a C3PAO assessor.

NIST 800-171 has 110 controls. Most consultants — and every GRC platform we've looked at — write SSPs at the control level. That's what the documentation says to do, and it's technically correct. The problem is that C3PAO assessors don't evaluate at the control level.

Assessors use NIST 800-171A, which breaks those 110 controls into 320 assessment objectives. CMMC 2.0 adds 2 additional objectives, for a total of 322. Each objective is a specific thing the assessor checks: an interview question they'll ask, a configuration they'll verify, or a document they'll review. When your SSP only speaks to the high-level control, you end up in a back-and-forth with your assessor, trying to prove that the objective is satisfied even though your documentation doesn't directly address it.

MyCMMC builds SSPs at the 322-objective level from the start. Every objective has a direct narrative response that maps your actual environment — your specific tools, configurations, and processes — to what the assessor is looking for. That's not just better documentation. It's documentation built for how assessments actually work.

Timeline Comparison

The documentation phase of a CMMC engagement is almost always on the critical path. The longer it takes, the longer before you can schedule your C3PAO assessment — and C3PAO scheduling backlogs are real through at least 2026.

The 15-minute intake is what replaces the weeks of discovery calls and back-and-forth that eat up consultant billing hours. You answer 31 specific questions about your environment — your systems, your CUI flows, your tools, your network — and the document generation runs from those answers. No scheduling, no meeting coordination, no waiting for someone's availability.

When a Consultant Still Makes Sense

There are situations where a consultant is the right call. Be honest about your situation before deciding.

You need hands-on technical remediation. If you're starting with zero security infrastructure — no MFA, no SIEM, no endpoint detection, no proper access controls — someone needs to configure those systems. That's not documentation work. That's IT work, and it requires someone in your environment. Hire an MSP or IT security firm for that piece. MyCMMC handles the documentation; they handle the implementation.

You need someone present during your assessment. Some contractors want a consultant in the room when the C3PAO team arrives — someone who knows the framework deeply and can answer assessor questions in real time. That's a legitimate use of consulting hours. It's also not something you need for the documentation phase.

You have a genuinely unusual environment. International operations, classified adjacency, extensive multi-tier subcontractor chains, or systems that don't fit the standard CUI enclave model — these add complexity that benefits from advisory time. If you're a standard small contractor with a defined set of systems that handle technical data, you're not in that category.

You want to outsource your entire compliance program. Some companies don't want to engage at all — they want to hand the whole thing to a consultant and receive a finished product. That's a valid choice. It's also why full consulting engagements run $50,000–$300,000. If you're willing to spend 15 minutes answering intake questions and review documents before signing off, you don't need to pay for that level of hand-holding.

The bottom line: MyCMMC replaces the documentation labor. It doesn't replace strategic advisory, technical remediation, or in-person assessment support. If you need those things, hire a consultant for those things. Don't pay consulting rates for document generation.

Frequently Asked Questions