April 15, 2026

Best TPRM Software in 2026: The shift to continuous monitoring

Written by

Vanta

Reviewed by

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If you’re still managing vendor risk through spreadsheets, email chains, and manual follow-ups, you already know the cost. Your team spends hundreds of hours chasing documents and compiling reports, only to get point-in-time snapshots that go stale the moment they’re completed. Meanwhile, regulations like the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) now call for continuous proof of vendor oversight.

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For example, a vendor might pass a security review in Q1, but introduce a new critical vulnerability or misconfigured S3 bucket in Q2 that goes completely unnoticed until the next assessment cycle.

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The right third-party risk management (TPRM) software replaces manual burden with automation, continuous monitoring, and AI-powered analysis that keeps pace with growing vendor ecosystems. Instead of chasing vendors for SOC 2 reports over email or tracking evidence in spreadsheets, modern platforms automatically collect documentation, flag expired reports, and alert you when a vendor’s security posture changes (e.g., new vulnerabilities, expired certificates, or breach indicators).

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Below, we compare six leading TPRM platforms to help you find the one that fits your specific compliance needs, team size, and risk priorities.

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Top 6 TPRM software platforms
Vanta Optro (fka Auditboard) OneTrust SecurityScorecard UpGuard BitSight

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Why third-party risk management software matters

Vendor risk is only growing. More than half of organizations have had a vendor experience a data breach in the past year, putting them at risk of compliance issues, revenue loss, and reputational damage. At the same time, manual, spreadsheet-based vendor assessments can’t keep up. Teams spend hours chasing vendors and updating reports that are outdated almost immediately—like emailing a vendor for their latest SOC 2, tracking the response in a spreadsheet, and setting a reminder to check back months later.

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That’s why continuous monitoring is now the baseline. As AI adoption grows and data sharing expands, organizations need real-time visibility into vendor risk—to catch issues early and stay compliant without slowing the business down.

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Regulatory pressure from DORA, SEC, and CMMC

From finance to defense, new regulations impact how teams manage vendor risk—and raises the stakes.

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Real-time accountability replaces annual reviews

New regulations require continuous oversight of third-party vendors, making legacy tools built around annual reviews no longer enough. These frameworks expect real-time visibility and faster response times, with real consequences for organizations that don’t have ongoing monitoring in place.

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Key regulatory requirements driving TPRM adoption

DORA requires financial entities in the European Union to maintain detailed registers of ICT providers and conduct ongoing risk assessments—not just annual reviews—so they always have up-to-date visibility into vendor risk. For example, organizations must track changes in vendor criticality and reassess risk when a provider’s services or dependencies change.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cybersecurity disclosure rules require public companies to report material cybersecurity incidents within set timelines, including those involving third parties. That makes continuous monitoring critical for timely detection and reporting. So if a key SaaS vendor is breached, you need near real-time awareness to meet disclosure deadlines.
CMMC calls for defense contractors to verify that supply chain partners meet specific cybersecurity maturity levels on an ongoing basis before and during engagement with controlled unclassified information. This includes continuously validating that vendors maintain required controls—not just at onboarding.

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Supply chain attacks and expanding vendor ecosystems

The average enterprise now relies on hundreds of third-party vendors, each representing an ever-evolving attack surface. According to Verizon's 2025 DBIR, third-party involvement in breaches doubled to 30%, highlighting how attackers exploit smaller, less-secured vendors to access larger organizations. One example: teams might onboard new AI tools for customer support or analytics without formal security review, creating unmanaged vendor risk.

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This risk compounds as organizations adopt more SaaS and AI services. Vendor ecosystems are growing faster than security teams can keep up. KPMG's 2026 survey found 83% of executives plan to expand partner networks in the next one to three years. Shadow IT—tools adopted without formal procurement approval—introduces constant blind spots. Without continuous monitoring, these risks remain invisible until they become incidents.

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How we evaluated TPRM software

We assessed leading TPRM platforms based on how well they help security and GRC teams slash manual effort, streamline vendor onboarding, and maintain compliance across SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA. Specifically, we looked at how platforms perform across real workflows like onboarding a new vendor, responding to an audit request, or identifying a newly introduced vendor risk.

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The criteria below focus on the capabilities that drive real outcomes, not just features.

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Criterion	Why it matters	Questions to ask vendors
Automation and continuous monitoring
Automated vendor discovery and classification	Shadow IT vendors that bypass procurement create hidden risk exposure you cannot manage, like unsanctioned SaaS tools connected via SSO or expense data.	How do you detect shadow IT vendors that have not gone through formal procurement? What triggers your vendor intake process?
Continuous vendor monitoring	Quarterly snapshots go stale immediately. You need real-time alerts when vendor security posture degrades, such as expired certificates or newly disclosed vulnerabilities.	How frequently do you monitor vendor security posture? What triggers automatic alerts, and how quickly does your platform surface them?
Evidence collection automation	Manual follow-up for vendor documents consumes hundreds of hours per year—especially when tracking expiring reports or missing artifacts.	What percentage of vendor evidence collection runs automatically? How do you handle evidence validation and expiration tracking?
Integration depth with existing tools	Fragmented tools create blind spots when TPRM data cannot flow between systems like procurement, ERP, and cloud infrastructure.	How many integrations do you offer, and how deep is the data sync? How do you connect to procurement and cloud infrastructure tools?
Intelligence and reporting
Executive and board-level reporting	Clear risk summaries—like top vendor risk exposures and trend lines—enable leadership to make informed decisions about risk and investment.	What executive dashboards and board-ready reports does your platform provide? How can we customize reporting to highlight the metrics leadership cares about?
Fourth-party risk visibility	Visibility into your vendors’ vendors reveals hidden concentration risk, such as multiple providers relying on the same subprocessor.	What visibility into fourth-party relationships do you provide? How do you map and monitor your vendors' critical dependencies?
Threat intelligence integration	External breach and vulnerability data ensures vendor risk scores reflect real-world threats as they emerge.	How do you incorporate external threat intelligence into vendor risk scores? What sources do you use, and how quickly are new threats reflected?
Customizable risk categories	Custom risk categories address industry-specific concerns, such as handling sensitive data types or regulated information.	How can we create custom risk categories and assessment criteria? What pre-built risk scenarios do you offer for our industry?
Vendor volume scalability	Your platform must scale to hundreds or thousands of vendors without performance issues or steep cost increases as your ecosystem grows.	How many vendor relationships can your platform manage? How does pricing change as our vendor population grows?
Scalability and enterprise readiness
Multi entity and business unit support	Organizations with multiple entities or regions need segmented vendor risk views with centralized reporting across business units.	How does your platform support multiple legal entities with separate vendor populations? How do you provide both segmented and consolidated reporting?
Role-based access and workflow customization	Granular permissions ensure the right teams review the right vendors, with workflows that route higher-risk vendors through additional scrutiny.	How flexible is your role-based access control? How can we customize approval workflows based on vendor risk tier or business unit?
Framework compliance mapping	Automatic mapping of vendor controls to frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA eliminates manual cross-referencing during audits.	How does your platform map vendor security controls to specific framework requirements? How do you track vendor compliance across multiple frameworks simultaneously?
Vendor assessment and review efficiency
AI-powered security review automation	AI-driven document analysis replaces hours of manual review per vendor, such as summarizing lengthy security reports into key risks.	How does your AI analyze vendor security documentation? What is the accuracy rate and how much human review is still necessary?
Questionnaire automation and intelligence	Adaptive questionnaires that reuse prior answers and scale by risk tier eliminate repetitive work across assessment cycles.	How does your platform auto-populate questionnaires from previous responses? How do you tailor questionnaire depth based on vendor risk tier?
Vendor portal and collaboration tools	Self-service vendor portals reduce delays from email-based evidence collection by enabling direct document submission and tracking.	Do you provide a vendor-facing portal for document submission? How do you track vendor response times and automate follow-ups?
Review cycle time reduction	Faster review workflows accelerate procurement timelines—for example, shortening vendor onboarding from weeks to days.	What time reduction do customers typically see in review cycles? How do you surface metrics on pre- and post-implementation cycle times?
Risk assessment and prioritization
Risk scoring and prioritization framework	With hundreds of vendors, intelligent scoring helps you focus limited resources on the highest-impact relationships, like prioritizing critical infrastructure providers over low-risk tools.	How does your platform calculate and prioritize vendor risk scores? How can we customize risk weighting based on our business context?
Inherent vs residual risk tracking	Tracking both inherent and residual risk shows your true exposure after controls are applied, such as how requirements like MFA reduce vendor risk over time.	How do you differentiate between inherent and residual risk? How can we track risk reduction over time as controls are implemented?
Risk to asset mapping	Mapping vendors to specific assets and data flows reveals business impact—for example, identifying which vendors access sensitive customer or production data.	How do you map vendor relationships to specific assets, data types, and business processes?

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Disclaimer: To help you find the best TPRM software, we’ve researched and ranked a selection of leading platforms. While we may be biased about Vanta being the top option, we aim to provide a comprehensive view so you can choose the right fit for your organization.

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Best TPRM software platforms

The following platforms represent different approaches to third-party risk management. We evaluate each on positioning, key capabilities, ideal use cases, and how they perform against the standardized criteria above.

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1. Vanta

Vanta is the leading Agentic Trust Platform that unifies compliance, risk, and customer trust workflows in a single system. Unlike point solutions that address only vendor risk, Vanta connects TPRM to your broader compliance program so vendor assessments stay current alongside your internal controls, evidence, and policies.

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For TPRM, specifically, Vanta swaps spreadsheets and point-in-time reviews with continuous, automated vendor monitoring. AI-powered security reviews analyze vendor documentation and flag key risks automatically, while continuous monitoring tracks changes in vendor security posture and sends real-time alerts. Vanta supports multiple risk registers with enterprise roll-ups for organization-wide visibility, flexible risk scoring you can customize to your business context, and risk-to-asset mapping that connects vendor relationships to the data and systems they access.

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Vanta builds vendor risk management into the same platform that automates compliance across SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, HITRUST, and GDPR. The vendor evidence you collect for risk assessments maps directly to framework requirements without duplicate work. With a customizable vendor risk rubric, centralized vendor portal, and continuous monitoring alerts, Vanta gives you the visibility to prioritize high-impact vendor risks and the automation to act on them efficiently.

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Key features

AI-powered vendor security reviews that analyze documentation and automatically flag key risks
Continuous monitoring with real-time alerts when vendor security posture changes
Multiple risk registers and enterprise roll-ups for organization-wide visibility
Flexible risk scoring customizable to your business context
Risk-to-asset mapping connecting vendors to specific data types and systems
Framework compliance mapping across SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and others from a single platform
Centralized vendor portal for document submission and collaboration
Questionnaire Automation powered by Vanta AI with cited, review-ready responses

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Ideal for

Enterprise and mid-market teams seeking unified trust management where TPRM connects to broader compliance and risk programs.

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Pros	Cons
Unified platform: Vendor risk management sits alongside your compliance and trust workflows, so TPRM isn’t siloed from the rest of your GRC program.	Enterprise onboarding: Organizations with highly custom legacy GRC workflows may need dedicated implementation support to migrate existing processes.
Continuous monitoring: Automated alerts surface vendor risk changes in real time, replacing point-in-time assessments that quickly go stale.	Vendor adoption: Vendors unfamiliar with portal-based evidence submission may require initial guidance to adopt the self-service workflow.
AI automation: AI reviews vendor security documentation and highlights key risks, cutting down manual review time for each vendor.	Specialized ERM: Organizations looking for standalone enterprise risk management platforms with capabilities beyond third-party risk may need integral tooling.

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2. Optro (fka AuditBoard)

Optro is a connected risk platform spanning internal audit, IT compliance, SOX, and operational risk management. It provides capabilities for organizations that need TPRM as part of a broader internal audit and risk management program, with strong cross-functional risk visibility.

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The platform provides limited out-of-the-box continuous monitoring for vendor risk, with fewer pre-built integrations and a more manual approach to evidence gathering compared to platforms designed around continuous automation.

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Key features

Cross-functional risk management dashboards
Internal audit and control testing workflows
IT compliance and SOX management modules
Vendor risk assessment questionnaires

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Ideal for

Internal audit teams looking to consolidate SOX, IT compliance, and vendor risk into one audit-focused system.

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Pros	Cons
Audit integration: Deep integration with internal audit and SOX compliance workflows for unified audit management.	Manual workflows: Primarily relies on point-in-time evidence collection instead of continuous monitoring. Out-of-the-box monitor templates are limited and require manual setup and threshold configuration.
Cross-functional visibility: Connects vendor risk to broader operational risk metrics across the organization.	Implementation time: Can require significant time and resources to deploy across an enterprise environment.
Reporting depth: Strong executive reporting capabilities for traditional risk management metrics and audit findings.	Security monitoring: Provides only point-in-time visibility for device monitoring and has limited out-of-the-box vulnerability management integrations without real-time detection capabilities.

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3. OneTrust

OneTrust is a broad privacy, governance, and risk management platform offering privacy-centric TPRM capabilities. It serves organizations with heavy regulatory requirements around data privacy, such as GDPR and CCPA, with extensive vendor lifecycle management features.

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Built through acquisitions rather than as a unified architecture, the OneTrust platform is a compliance automation module that offers limited monitoring frequency compared to platforms with continuous, hourly testing. Evidence gathering also relies more heavily on manual processes, creating workflow challenges compared to natively built platforms designed for continuous trust management.

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Key features

Privacy and consent management integration
Data mapping and AI governance tools
Vendor lifecycle management workflows
Regulatory compliance templates

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Ideal for

Privacy and legal teams that prioritize data privacy regulations over continuous security monitoring.

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Pros	Cons
Privacy focus: Excellent alignment with data privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA for privacy-first organizations.	Platform complexity: The broad feature set can make the platform difficult to navigate for focused security teams.
Data mapping: Strong tools for mapping vendor data flows and consent management across the vendor lifecycle.	Integration gaps: TPRM features can feel disconnected from other security workflows and compliance programs.
Template library: Extensive library of regulatory compliance templates for various industries and frameworks.	Cost scaling: Pricing can scale quickly as you add different modules and capabilities to the platform.

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4. SecurityScorecard

SecurityScorecard is a security ratings and external risk monitoring platform that’s great for outside-in risk assessment. It evaluates vendors based on externally visible signals, such as open ports, patching habits, and past breaches without requiring vendor input.

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This approach provides valuable visibility but operates in isolation from broader GRC programs, creating data silos that unified platforms eliminate.

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Key features

External attack surface monitoring
Cyber risk quantification and scoring
Threat intelligence integration
Digital footprint analysis

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Ideal for

Security operations teams that want to monitor the external attack surface of their vendor ecosystem without relying on questionnaires.

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Pros	Cons
Outside-in visibility: Assesses vendor security posture without requiring vendor participation or cooperation.	Data isolation: Operates separately from internal compliance and risk register workflows, creating integration challenges.
Continuous scanning: Provides real-time updates on externally observable security flaws and vulnerabilities.	Context limitations: Cannot assess internal controls, policies, or compliance framework adherence without vendor input.
Threat intelligence: Integrates external breach data into vendor risk scores for real-world threat context.	False positives: External scans can flag issues that are mitigated by internal compensating controls you cannot see.

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5. UpGuard

UpGuard combines vendor risk management with attack surface management, blending outside-in monitoring with inside-out vendor assessments. It offers data leak detection and external security ratings alongside traditional questionnaire-based assessments for comprehensive third-party visibility.

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Teams must manually integrate UpGuard's findings into central GRC systems to connect vendor risk with internal compliance programs.

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Key features

Data leak detection
Cyber risk scoring and security ratings
Vendor questionnaire automation
Attack surface management

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Ideal for

Security teams looking for a dedicated tool that combines external security ratings with automated vendor questionnaires.

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Pros	Cons
Hybrid approach: Combines external scanning with internal questionnaire data for comprehensive vendor assessment.	Integration effort: Requires manual work to connect findings to broader GRC and compliance programs.
Leak detection: Strong capabilities for finding exposed data on the public internet and dark web.	Limited scope: Lacks deep internal audit and compliance framework mapping capabilities.
Risk quantification: Provides clear, quantifiable cyber risk scores for vendor prioritization.	Scalability challenges: Managing complex, multi-framework compliance programs can be difficult outside a unified platform.

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6. BitSight

BitSight is built for enterprise teams that need an outside-in view of vendor risk. It scores vendors based on external signals and is particularly useful for turning cyber risk into financial impact for board-level conversations, with strong insight into fourth-party and supply chain risk.

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However, it’s less robust when it comes to internal control mapping and deep compliance integrations compared to more all-in-one platforms.

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Key features

Financial quantification of cyber risk
Fourth-party risk and supply chain intelligence
Continuous monitoring and benchmarking
Board-reporting dashboards

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Ideal for

Large organizations and financial institutions that need to quantify cyber risk financially for board-level reporting.

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Pros	Cons
Financial metrics: Translates cyber risk into financial metrics for executive leadership and board presentations.	Compliance gaps: Lacks deep integration with internal compliance frameworks like SOC 2 or ISO 27001.
Supply chain visibility: Strong capabilities for mapping extended supply chain dependencies and fourth-party risk.	Internal blind spots: Cannot evaluate a vendor's internal security policies or access controls without questionnaires.
Benchmarking: Allows organizations to compare vendor risk against industry peers for context. Start with your compliance scope.	Enterprise pricing: Enterprise-grade pricing that may be prohibitive for mid-market organizations.

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How to choose the right TPRM software for your organization

Selecting the right platform requires matching your compliance needs with the appropriate level of automation and integration.

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Define your compliance requirements and risk appetite

Start by identifying which frameworks require vendor oversight—like SOC 2 or PCI DSS—and how much third-party risk your organization is comfortable taking on. This will shape the level of assessment and monitoring you need from your TPRM platform.

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Understand your vendor landscape

Take stock of how many vendors you manage, including which ones have access to sensitive data or critical systems. This helps you determine whether you need a platform built for dozens of vendors or thousands—and how much automation is necessary.

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Map integrations early

Look at the procurement, HR, cloud infrastructure, and security tools your TPRM platform needs to connect to. If integrations fall short, you’ll end up with the same manual workarounds you’re trying to avoid.

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Decide on a point solution or platform

Consider whether vendor risk management should live in a point solution or as part of your broader compliance and trust program. Unified platforms can reduce duplicate evidence collection and keep vendor assessments aligned with your internal controls.

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Test with real data

Instead of relying on a demo dataset, test each platform using your actual vendor assessment workflows. Pay attention to how it handles evidence collection, questionnaire automation, risk scoring, and reporting with real vendors and documents.

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Plan for scale

Consider how pricing scales with more vendors, additional users, and expanded framework coverage. A tool that fits your budget today but becomes too expensive later can create unnecessary migration risk.

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Build a TPRM program that scales with your business

As vendor ecosystems grow and regulatory requirements expand, the gap between what manual processes can handle and what your organization needs widens. The right TPRM software closes that gap by automating evidence collection, continuously monitoring vendor security posture, and connecting third-party risk to your broader compliance program.

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Vanta unifies vendor risk management with compliance and trust workflows in a single platform, allowing you to see, prioritize, and act on third-party risk without adding headcount or managing disconnected tools.

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Request a demo to see how Vanta automates TPRM.

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Frequently asked questions about TPRM software

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What is the difference between TPRM software and vendor risk management software?

TPRM covers all third-party relationships—including contractors, partners, and suppliers—while vendor risk management focuses specifically on vendors. Most modern platforms bring both together into a single risk and compliance framework.

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How does TPRM software support SOC 2 and ISO 27001 audits?

TPRM software automates vendor evidence collection and maps controls to SOC 2 and ISO 27001 requirements, helping ensure your audit evidence stays current, organized, and easy to report on.

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Can AI-powered TPRM tools replace manual security questionnaires?

AI can significantly reduce manual work by auto-populating responses and analyzing vendor data, but human review is still essential—especially for high-risk or complex vendors.

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How often should organizations reassess third-party vendor risk?

It depends on risk level: critical vendors often require continuous monitoring and quarterly reviews, while lower-risk vendors may only need annual reassessments. Continuous monitoring helps reduce reliance on fixed schedules.

Access Review Stage	Content / Functionality
Across all stages	Easily create and save a new access review at a point in time View detailed audit evidence of historical access reviews
Setup access review procedures	Define a global access review procedure that stakeholders can follow, ensuring consistency and mitigation of human error in reviews Set your access review frequency (monthly, quarterly, etc.) and working period/deadlines
Consolidate account access data from systems	Integrate systems using dozens of pre-built integrations, or “connectors”. System account and HRIS data is pulled into Vanta. Upcoming integrations include Zoom and Intercom (account access), and Personio (HRIS) Upload access files from non-integrated systems View and select systems in-scope for the review
Review, approve, and deny user access	Select the appropriate systems reviewer and due date Get automatic notifications and reminders to systems reviewer of deadlines Automatic flagging of “risky” employee accounts that have been terminated or switched departments Intuitive interface to see all accounts with access, account accept/deny buttons, and notes section Track progress of individual systems access reviews and see accounts that need to be removed or have access modified Bulk sort, filter, and alter accounts based on account roles and employee title
Assign remediation tasks to system owners	Built-in remediation workflow for reviewers to request access changes and for admin to view and manage requests Optional task tracker integration to create tickets for any access changes and provide visibility to the status of tickets and remediation
Verify changes to access	Focused view of accounts flagged for access changes for easy tracking and management Automated evidence of remediation completion displayed for integrated systems Manual evidence of remediation can be uploaded for non-integrated systems
Report and re-evaluate results	Auditor can log into Vanta to see history of all completed access reviews Internals can see status of reviews in progress and also historical review detail