Framework

PCI DSS Compliance Software

A security standard maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council that applies to organizations storing, processing, or transmitting payment cardholder data.

Compliance automation platforms ranked by rubric score
Rank Platform Score Band Assessed Scorecard
1st
Sprinto
Best overall for a first multi-framework program
84
Strong Oct 11, 2026 Scorecard →
2nd
Vanta
Best for breadth of integrations and frameworks
82
Strong Oct 11, 2026 Scorecard →
3rd
Drata
Best for teams that will build custom tests
76
Strong Oct 4, 2026 Scorecard →
4th
Secureframe
Best for federal and defense frameworks
75
Strong Oct 11, 2026 Scorecard →
5th
Scrut
Best for regional frameworks outside the US
72
Strong Oct 11, 2026 Scorecard →
6th
OneTrust
Best for companies that already run privacy on OneTrust
64
Adequate Oct 11, 2026 Scorecard →
7th
Thoropass
Best for buying the audit and the platform as one engagement
52
Limited Oct 11, 2026 Scorecard →

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a set of security requirements maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council, a body formed by major payment card brands. It applies to organizations that store, process, or transmit cardholder data and specifies technical and operational requirements designed to protect that data from unauthorized access and fraud.

Compliance requirements scale with transaction volume. Organizations that process large numbers of card transactions each year are required to undergo an annual audit by a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA), an independent auditor approved by the PCI SSC. Smaller organizations may be eligible to complete a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) appropriate to their payment acceptance method, without a full external audit.

PCI DSS requirements are organized into control objectives covering areas such as network security, cardholder data protection, vulnerability management, access control, monitoring, and information security policies. Organizations must also conduct quarterly network vulnerability scans through approved scanning vendors.

Software companies and payment processors that integrate with card payment systems, e-commerce platforms, and point-of-sale environments typically need to demonstrate PCI DSS compliance as a condition of their relationships with card brands and payment processors. A growing number of enterprise procurement processes also ask for PCI DSS compliance as a signal of security maturity, even from companies that do not directly process card payments.

Compliance automation platforms help organizations map their technical controls to PCI DSS requirements, collect evidence from their payment and infrastructure environments, and prepare documentation for their QSA audit or SAQ submission. Several platforms rated here support mapping a single control set across PCI DSS and SOC 2 in parallel.

Which platforms cover PCI DSS

All seven platforms rated on The Audit Trail cover PCI DSS: Sprinto (rank 1, score 84), Vanta (rank 2, score 82), Drata (rank 3, score 76), Secureframe (rank 4, score 75), Scrut (rank 5, score 72), OneTrust (rank 6, score 64), and Thoropass (rank 7, score 52). Each scorecard breaks the score down across all eight rubric criteria.