Diligent Pricing: Is It Worth It In 2025? [Reviewed]

The platform operates on a custom pricing model that is not publicly disclosed, similar to many competitors in the GRC space. 

In this guide, I’ll cover everything that I was able to find on Diligent’s pricing structure, including how they calculate their pricing and reported numbers.

➡️ I’ll also introduce you to a Diligent alternative that has a more affordable pricing structure, is quick to set up, and comes with premium customer support without paying 6 figures a year.

How Does Diligent Calculate Its Pricing?

Diligent's pricing is calculated based on several key factors that I was able to find:

• Base platform access that will give you access to its Diligent One Platform solution.
• The modules that you’ll need: Different solutions (Audit Management, Compliance Management, Risk Management, etc.) are billed separately.
• The number of user seats that you’ll need.
• A one-time implementation fee.

➡️ Diligent typically requires multi-year contracts and comes with implementation assistance, so do keep that in mind as well.

Does Diligent Have A Free Plan Or A Free Trial?

As of July 2025, Diligent offers a free trial for potential customers but does not provide a permanent free plan.

Even though the trial needs to be requested through their sales team, the tool allows you to test features and functionality before committing to a contract.

How Much Does Diligent Really Cost?

According to 3rd-party data from Vendr, the median buyer of Diligent spends $23,800/year for its solution, with the tool going up to $45,792/year. 

But that does not really tell us how the pricing has been calculated – I mean, it could be $23,800 for 5 or 500 seats.

Here’s what else I was able to find:

According to insiders, the core platform starts at $5,000/year for its basic access to Diligent One Platform.

After that, there are reported prices for the tool’s user-based pricing component from the UK government, which claims it costs £700/seat/year in the G-Cloud 14 framework.

There’s also a reported one-time installation fee, which starts at £5,000 for the essential package, £7,500 for the Pro package, and £10,000 for the Enterprise package.

As for the separate modules, AWS Marketplace pricing shows specific modules: 

• Audit Management Essentials: $53,600.
• Audit Management Pro: $83,600.
• Audit Management Pro Plus: $113,600.

All of which for a 12-month contract.

Any Surprises at Contract Renewal?

Users of Diligent report that there are instances of 20%+ price increases if you’re not staying on top of renewals.

That means your organization might have to negotiate a multi-year deal to avoid an expensive auto-renewal that was not expected.

"Stay on top of renewals with Diligent. They will auto-renew agreements with 20%+ pricing increases if not negotiated." – Vendr Insider.

Does Diligent Provide Good Value for Money?

Enterprise-grade users of Diligent are generally satisfied with the platform, noting that they appreciate the platform’s module-based application approach as it gives a clear segregation and overview based on their specific project needs.

The module-based application approach (Projects, Compliance Maps, Frameworks, Asset/Risk Manager, etc.) makes it suitable for the different areas of risk management and compliance - it gives a good and clear segregation and overview based on the specific project needs.’’ – G2 Review.

However, smaller enterprises find the platform to be rather expensive for their more simplistic needs.

‘’The issue Diligent One Platform brings to the table is price, which can pose as a barrier if your business is small. The platform’s features are powerful, but if a company doesn’t need all those advanced features, the cost will probably be too high.’’ – G2 Review.

Apart from this, customers of the platform complain about its steep learning curve, which has prolonged their onboarding process, as well as the platform’s outdated user interface.

‘’Diligent One Platform’s steep learning curve is one of its downsides for the uninitiated. Though the platform is packed with power, like risk assessment tools and custom reporting, it's not great for beginners to get started with. Users, most in particular the new ones, find the onboarding process too long.’’ – G2 Review.

All things considered, Diligent is worth it for large enterprises looking for comprehensive GRC functionality with customizable modules, but the platform can get quite expensive for smaller companies or enterprises with simpler needs.

Looking For a Diligent Alternative?

SmartSuite (that’s us) offers the best Diligent alternative for banks and credit unions with our modern, no-code project management platform that helps you simplify complex regulatory requirements.

Our GRC solution helps you automate policy creation, approval, and control assessments in one unified platform.

SmartSuite helps you move faster, manage policies smarter, and adapt easily, without having to sign up for multiple training sessions on how to use the platform.

💡 We have recently partnered with the Cyber Risk Institute to deliver a CRI profile for U.S. Banks' compliance needs.

Let’s go over the functionality that makes SmartSuite the best choice for teams looking to make the switch from Diligent: 👇

All-In-One Governance, Risk & Compliance

Platforms like Diligent make it so that best-in-class GRC solutions can be accessible only to the biggest of organizations with their expensive pricing structure.

However, I believe that compliance should be simple, automated, and accessible to all financial institutions, regardless of their size.

Our no-code, intuitive platform empowers compliance managers and CISOs to automate all GRC processes with ease.

SmartSuite helps you achieve and maintain compliance without the expense and complexity of adapting legacy GRC solutions like Diligent to accommodate new compliance requirements.

Here are the use cases that you’ll get with SmartSuite:

• Create reports and dynamic dashboards: Monitor executive views into your organization's overall risk profile with powerful charting and metrics widgets. 

• Collaborate and respond to risks in real-time: Engage key stakeholders in a real-time discussion of potential threats or vulnerabilities.

Our software will also let you get instant updates when critical information is available.

• Automate policy creation, real-time approval, and control assessments: Streamline risk management by building an integrated program on a single platform.
• Keep risk and compliance data secure: Define your teams and manage access to information across all GRC practice areas.

• Integrate with your existing systems: Our GRC software lets you integrate with existing systems and data to consolidate and centralize your data. 

• Automate for accuracy and efficiency: Remove inefficiencies and the chance for human error by automating repeatable workflows.

SmartSuite's no-code automation builder provides you with a visual interface that makes it easy to respond to events and take action. 

That means your compliance team can customize your GRC workflows without technical resources.

• Monitor, measure and score: Create risk calculations and metrics to evaluate every aspect of risk.

• Policy management: It’s possible to establish a strong foundation from the get-go with streamlined and flexible policy management.

You’ll be able to assign ownership, manage revisions, and ensure your policies consistently align with key business initiatives and regulatory requirements.

• PSTOS Compliance Tracker: Designed for regulatory compliance and built on SmartSuite.

This solution focuses on data security as the core of compliance frameworks with services such as compliance readiness, virtual CISO, and IT security implementation.

Learn more about it from this webinar that we did on the topic:

Prioritize & Mitigate Risks

With SmartSuite, you can create a centralized risk register to effectively identify potential risks to your organization.

You will be able to properly assess threats and establish risk mitigation strategies inside SmartSuite.

Your team can ensure that the appropriate controls are in place and measure their effectiveness by evaluating risk indicators and displaying results in SmartSuite’s rollup reports and dashboards.

💡 Pro Tip: Teams that use our platform use automation to move tasks through defined workflow stages that comply with their policies and procedures.

We understand how crucial threat management is and the need to respond quickly to incidents.

SmartSuite lets you centralize incident response and threat mitigation by linking incidents to assets and organizational data to offer context during your investigations.

Your compliance team can also set up automation with our no-code automation builder to escalate critical events to make sure that your team is aware of active risks to your organization.

Pre-Built GRC Templates

We have prepared a few GRC templates for compliance teams looking to get started right away, instead of building everything from scratch.

Our general risk management template includes a:

• Risk register, where you can break down the risks, the risk owner, the annual loss expectancy, risk event category, risk type, volatility, and status.

• Issue assessments, where you’ll be able to see a comprehensive breakdown of each risk.

• Action plans, where you can describe the actions (best practices) to mitigate the risks.

• A separate tab for control standards, your findings, exception requests, risk assessment by type, and risk assessment issues.

You can customize our risk management template here.

Alternatively, check out and customize our 14 other risk management templates for various use cases, such as contract management, policy management, and incident management.

How is SmartSuite different from Diligent?

Unlike Diligent, SmartSuite offers a solution for compliance leaders with:

• A modern platform with an intuitive interface that does not confuse your team or require training.
• An affordable and transparent pricing structure with a generous free plan to help you get started and play around with the platform before you commit.
• Automated workflows that can help your team build multi-step automations to trigger actions at the right time.
• Best-in-class customer support and account management (at no additional cost) will help your team with setting up the automation inside the platform.

➡️ SmartSuite is better for agile, mid-market companies or cross-functional teams as it offers flexible templates, no-code automation, and quick deployment, making it ideal for teams that need visibility across risk, compliance, and operations, without heavy IT involvement.

➡️ Diligent is better for enterprises and government agencies that are looking for best-in-class secure board portals, audit tools, ESG tracking, and regulatory compliance.

💡 Case Study: Find out how MediaLab transformed operations, minimized risk, and saved $40,000+ per year by offsetting software costs.

How Is SmartSuite’s Pricing Different From Diligent’s?

Unlike Diligent, SmartSuite offers a free plan with access to 250+ automation actions, team collaboration, multi-dashboard views, and more.

There’s also no implementation fee, as you can get started with our pre-built templates right away.

There are four paid plans with a 14-day free trial (no CC required):

• Team: Starts at $12/user per month, including Gantt charts, timeline views, 5000 automation runs, and native time tracking.
• Professional: Starts at $30/user per month and adds two-factor authentication, Gmail & Outlook integrations, and unlimited editors.
• Enterprise: Starts at $45/user/month and includes access to audit logs, data loss prevention, and 50,000 monthly API calls.
• Signature: A customized plan tailored to your organization’s needs and team size with no predefined limits.

Next Steps: Get Started With SmartSuite & Our Ready-To-Use GRC Templates For Free

If you’re looking to build GRC workstreams and effectively prioritize and mitigate risks, consider giving SmartSuite a chance with our free plan and ready-to-use GRC templates.

SmartSuite’s platform offers just the right customization, native collaboration capabilities and a library of 200+ project management templates to help compliance teams create and maintain a project management workflow.

Here’s what's in it for your team when you try SmartSuite:

• Access to a generous free plan with features including multi-board views (Kanban, Chart, Map, Timeline, Card, and Calendar), 100 automations/month, and 40+ field types, including formula and linked record fields.
• No-code automation builder to set up to 500,000 trigger/action workflows.
• Built-in productivity tools, including time tracking, status tracking, and checklists.
• Team collaboration and planning tools such as whiteboards and SmartSuite docs.
• Resource management across projects and teams.
• 40+ field types, including the option to add your custom fields.

Sign up for a free plan to test the water or get a 14-day free trial to explore all its amazing features.

Or, if you’d like to talk to our team of experts, schedule a demo.

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