PolicyCo vs Drata: Policy Management Focus
Deep policy lifecycle management vs. broad GRC automation
Drata is a leading GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) automation platform that helps organizations achieve and maintain SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and other certifications. It automates evidence collection across your tech stack and includes policy management as one of many features. PolicyCo is purpose-built for policy lifecycle management: authoring, version control, approval workflows, procedure distribution, attestation tracking, and compliance mapping. These tools solve different parts of the compliance puzzle, and many organizations use both.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | PolicyCo | Drata |
|---|---|---|
| Policy authoring | Rich collaborative editor with contextual comments, granular article-level version control, and redlines | Policy editor with templates; designed for creating policies that map to framework controls |
| Version control | Article-level versioning with formal release numbers, effective dates, and side-by-side comparison | Policy versioning available; focused on maintaining current versions for compliance mapping |
| Approval workflows | Multi-stage workflow: articles reviewed individually, approved into Release Candidates, then formally released | Policy approval workflows with owner assignment and review tracking |
| Compliance framework mapping | Map individual articles to controls with many-to-many relationships across SOC 2, HIPAA, NIST, ISO, and custom frameworks | Comprehensive control mapping across 20+ frameworks with automated evidence linking |
| Automated evidence collection | Evidence templates linked to procedures with manual upload and API-based automation | Deep integration with 100+ tools (AWS, GitHub, Okta, etc.) for automated, continuous evidence gathering |
| Procedure management | Full procedure lifecycle with department ownership, visibility controls, and linked evidence | Policies are the primary unit; procedures are not a distinct managed object |
| Procedure distribution | Dedicated Viewer with ChatGPT search for employee self-service access to procedures | No dedicated procedure distribution interface for end users |
| Attestation tracking | Department-based attestation with automated reminders, IP tracking, and exportable reports | Policy acknowledgment tracking available for employees |
| SSO | Included on all plans with SCIM provisioning | Available on business and enterprise plans |
PolicyCo
Rich collaborative editor with contextual comments, granular article-level version control, and redlines
Drata
Policy editor with templates; designed for creating policies that map to framework controls
PolicyCo
Article-level versioning with formal release numbers, effective dates, and side-by-side comparison
Drata
Policy versioning available; focused on maintaining current versions for compliance mapping
PolicyCo
Multi-stage workflow: articles reviewed individually, approved into Release Candidates, then formally released
Drata
Policy approval workflows with owner assignment and review tracking
PolicyCo
Map individual articles to controls with many-to-many relationships across SOC 2, HIPAA, NIST, ISO, and custom frameworks
Drata
Comprehensive control mapping across 20+ frameworks with automated evidence linking
PolicyCo
Evidence templates linked to procedures with manual upload and API-based automation
Drata
Deep integration with 100+ tools (AWS, GitHub, Okta, etc.) for automated, continuous evidence gathering
PolicyCo
Full procedure lifecycle with department ownership, visibility controls, and linked evidence
Drata
Policies are the primary unit; procedures are not a distinct managed object
PolicyCo
Dedicated Viewer with ChatGPT search for employee self-service access to procedures
Drata
No dedicated procedure distribution interface for end users
PolicyCo
Department-based attestation with automated reminders, IP tracking, and exportable reports
Drata
Policy acknowledgment tracking available for employees
PolicyCo
Included on all plans with SCIM provisioning
Drata
Available on business and enterprise plans
Key Differences
Drata provides broad GRC automation across your entire tech stack, with policy management as one component. PolicyCo goes deeper on policy lifecycle management, with granular article versioning, procedure management, department ownership, and a dedicated distribution Viewer.
PolicyCo treats procedures as first-class objects with their own lifecycle, department ownership, and distribution system. This is especially valuable for organizations where the "how" (procedures) is as important as the "what" (policies), such as nonprofits distributing procedures to volunteers.
Drata's strength is automated evidence collection from integrated tools. PolicyCo focuses on evidence linked to procedures, supporting both manual upload and API-based collection. If your primary need is automated evidence gathering from your tech stack, Drata has a significant advantage.
Many organizations use both tools: PolicyCo for deep policy and procedure management with distribution and attestation, and Drata for broader compliance automation and automated evidence collection.
Which Is Right for You?
Choose PolicyCo if...
Organizations that need deep policy lifecycle management, procedure distribution to large workforces, department-based ownership, and attestation tracking. Especially strong for nonprofits and organizations where procedure management is as important as policy governance.
Choose Drata if...
Organizations primarily focused on achieving and maintaining SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA certification with automated evidence collection from their tech stack. Best when the primary goal is broad compliance automation rather than deep policy management.
The Bottom Line
PolicyCo and Drata address different aspects of the compliance landscape. Drata excels at automated GRC evidence collection across your entire technology stack. PolicyCo excels at policy lifecycle management, procedure distribution, and attestation tracking. If your primary challenge is gathering evidence from cloud services, Drata is the stronger choice. If your primary challenge is managing the policy-procedure-evidence chain with distribution to a large workforce, PolicyCo is purpose-built for that. Many compliance-mature organizations use both.
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