MyCMMC vs. GRC Platforms (Secureframe, Strike Graph, Vanta): Which Do You Need?
- GRC platforms are software you operate. MyCMMC is a set of finished documents you hand to your assessor. Those are different things.
- Secureframe, Vanta, and Strike Graph cost $6K–$30K per year. MyCMMC is $7,500 once.
- GRC platforms generate policy templates you fill out. MyCMMC generates finished policies, a finished SSP, finished checklists — all ready to sign.
- Most 15-50 person defense contractors don't have compliance staff to run a GRC platform. They need documents, not dashboards.
Overview
When you're trying to get CMMC certified, it's easy to end up looking at GRC platforms — Secureframe, Vanta, Strike Graph, Drata — because they market to compliance teams and they come up in every search. The problem is that those tools are designed to solve a different problem than the one most small contractors have.
GRC stands for Governance, Risk, and Compliance. These platforms are built for companies with dedicated compliance teams who need to manage compliance across multiple frameworks, run continuous monitoring, and generate reports for executives and auditors. That's not most defense subcontractors.
MyCMMC is a document generation service. You fill out a 15-minute intake, and we produce every document your C3PAO needs to start your formal assessment. If your question is "what software should I subscribe to," a GRC platform might be the answer. If your question is "how do I get assessment-ready documents," that's what we do.
The Fundamental Difference
Here's the clearest way to put it: a GRC platform is a tool you operate, and MyCMMC is a deliverable you receive.
When you sign up for Secureframe, you get access to a dashboard. You connect your cloud environments, configure the CMMC framework, work through their control library, write your SSP narratives inside their editor, and generate reports from their system. The platform gives you structure and automation, but you're doing the work. You need someone on your team who knows what they're doing — or you need to hire someone who does.
When you use MyCMMC, you answer questions about your company, your systems, your tools, your network, and how you handle CUI. The system takes your answers and generates a complete package of finished documents. Your SSP covers all 322 assessment objectives. Your policies are written. Your asset inventory is populated. Your data flow diagram is drawn. You review, sign, and hand everything to your assessor.
Think of it this way: if you needed a contract reviewed, you could buy legal software and learn to use it yourself, or you could hire a lawyer to give you a finished contract. For a 30-person machine shop trying to hit a DoD deadline, the finished document is usually what you actually need.
Cost Comparison
GRC platform pricing is almost never public. Most companies post "contact us for pricing" and run through a sales process. Based on market rates and what practitioners report seeing in the field, here's a realistic picture:
| Platform | Annual Cost | 3-Year Total | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secureframe | $10,000–$30,000/yr | $30,000–$90,000 | SaaS subscription |
| Vanta | $10,000–$25,000/yr | $30,000–$75,000 | SaaS subscription |
| Strike Graph | $6,000–$12,000/yr | $18,000–$36,000 | SaaS subscription |
| MyCMMC | $7,500 total | $7,500 | One-time payment |
The gap matters if your goal is to get certified and protect your DoD contracts. Spending $30,000–$90,000 on a platform you have to operate is a significant undertaking for a 20-person shop. Spending $7,500 on a finished document package is closer to what the problem actually requires.
Need hands-on guidance? Our Done-With-You package ($19,500) includes a dedicated practitioner who works through your environment with you — scope review, gap walkthrough, SSP narrative review, and pre-assessment preparation. You get the full document package plus a practitioner in your corner.
See your personalized documents before you pay. Take the free 5-minute assessment and get a sample SSP built from your actual systems and tools.
Free Readiness Check →What You Get
The output of a GRC platform and the output of MyCMMC look very different when your assessor opens the package.
| Item | GRC Platform (Secureframe, Vanta, Strike Graph) | MyCMMC |
|---|---|---|
| System Security Plan | Policy templates you write yourself inside the platform | Finished SSP, 322 objectives, personalized to your environment |
| Policy Documents | Templates you customize | 14 finished policies, ready to sign |
| POA&M | Generated from your platform data, requires configuration | Finished POA&M based on your gap analysis |
| Asset Inventory | Connected via integrations you set up | Finished document with CMMC categories |
| CUI Data Flow Diagram | Not typically included | Finished diagram specific to your environment |
| Shared Responsibility Matrix | Not typically included | Finished SRM for your cloud providers |
| Pre-Assessment Verification Checklist | Not included | Finished checklist to review before your C3PAO arrives |
| Evidence Collection Guide | Automated evidence collection via integrations | Finished guide for your specific controls |
| FIPS Validation Guidance | Not typically included | Included |
| Continuous Monitoring | Yes — dashboards, alerts, ongoing scanning | Not included — this is a document service |
| Compliance Dashboard | Yes | Not included |
| Document format | Platform-hosted, exported on demand | Downloadable PDFs with cover pages, signature blocks, CUI markings, TOC |
The GRC platforms have real strengths — continuous monitoring and automated evidence collection are genuinely valuable if you have the staff to run them. But for the specific question of "what documents do I hand my C3PAO," MyCMMC produces finished documents and GRC platforms produce tools that help you make documents yourself.
The Small Contractor Reality
Let's be specific about who this matters for. If you're a 30-person precision machining company in Ohio with DoD contracts, you probably have an operations manager, a few engineers, maybe an IT person who also handles HR tech. You don't have a GRC analyst. You don't have a compliance team. You're not going to log into Secureframe every week to keep your evidence library updated.
What you need is someone to tell you exactly what documents to bring to your assessment, produce those documents based on how your actual shop is set up, and make sure they're complete enough to withstand a professional review. That's what MyCMMC is designed to do.
The GRC platforms work well for the companies they're built for: tech companies with 100+ employees, compliance teams, and multiple frameworks to manage. They're excellent tools for those situations. They're not the right tool if you need assessment-ready documents and you don't have the internal capacity to operate a compliance platform.
When a GRC Platform Makes Sense
There are situations where a GRC platform is genuinely the better answer, and it's worth being honest about them.
If you're a larger organization — 100 or more employees with a dedicated IT or compliance function — a GRC platform gives you infrastructure for ongoing compliance management that pays off over time. The continuous monitoring, automated alerts, and evidence collection become real value when someone is actually watching the dashboard.
If you need to maintain multiple compliance frameworks simultaneously — say, SOC 2 for your commercial customers and CMMC for your DoD work, plus ISO 27001 for international contracts — a GRC platform's ability to map controls across frameworks saves significant duplication of effort.
And if you already have Vanta or Secureframe for SOC 2 and you're just adding CMMC as a new framework, it makes sense to get your money's worth from the subscription you're already paying.
MyCMMC is the faster, lower-cost path for small contractors who need assessment-ready documents without building out a compliance program from scratch. If that's your situation, you don't need a compliance platform — you need the documents.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. GRC platforms help you build and manage compliance, but you still have to write your SSP yourself using their policy templates. The platform doesn't hand you a finished document — you produce the document by operating the platform. MyCMMC generates a finished SSP covering all 322 assessment objectives, ready to hand directly to your C3PAO.
Secureframe doesn't publish pricing publicly, but typical contracts run $10,000–$30,000 per year. Over a 3-year CMMC certification cycle, that's $30,000–$90,000. MyCMMC is a one-time $7,500 payment.
No. CMMC doesn't require any specific software. What you need is a complete, accurate System Security Plan, supporting policy documents, a POA&M, and the ancillary documents your C3PAO expects — asset inventory, data flow diagram, shared responsibility matrix, and so on. You can produce those with a GRC platform, with a consultant, or with a documentation service like MyCMMC. The output is what matters.
Vanta supports multiple frameworks including CMMC, so if you're already paying for it, it makes sense to use it for CMMC compliance monitoring too. That said, Vanta still requires you to configure the CMMC framework, connect your integrations, and write your SSP narratives within the platform. If you need assessment-ready documents fast and don't have compliance staff to run the platform, MyCMMC is faster. If you're going to use Vanta long-term for multiple frameworks, it may be worth the investment.
Get your documents, not a dashboard
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