RealCISO Is the Highest-Rated GRC Product by Customer Satisfaction — G2 Summer 2026
By Brian Haugli, Co-Founder, RealCISO
G2 Summer 2026 results are out for the GRC category. I want to talk about what the data actually shows — not just our placement, but what it means compared to the products everyone knows.
The headline
RealCISO earned a G2 Score of 69, placing us at the top of the High Performers quadrant — #1 out of 88 products in that quadrant by both G2 Score and satisfaction.
Our NPS is 92. The category average is 69.
For context: Vanta’s NPS is 73. Drata’s is 84. Apptega’s is 83.
Cynomi doesn’t appear in the G2 rankings at all — they don’t have enough reviews to qualify for grid placement.
Satisfaction scores don’t lie
G2 tracks eight satisfaction dimensions for every product. Here’s how RealCISO compares to the field head-to-head:
G2 grid positioning
| Product | Quadrant | Reviews | Satisfaction | Market presence | G2 Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RealCISO vCISO Platform ★ | #1 High Performers | 193 | 89 | 50 | 69 |
| Vanta | Leaders | 2,180 | 100 | 89 | 94 |
| Drata | Leaders | 1,011 | 91 | 84 | 87 |
| Apptega | Leaders | 124 | 75 | 60 | 68 |
| Cynomi | Not ranked | — | — | — | — |
Satisfaction scores head-to-head (0–100%)
NPS comparison
On seven of eight dimensions, RealCISO leads or ties the competitive set. The two areas where we’re closest to parity — ease of admin and ease of doing business with — are still at or above the category average.
This isn’t a close race. On likelihood to recommend, RealCISO scores 97%. Vanta is at 91%. On ease of setup, we’re at 98%. Category average is 88%.
So why aren’t we in the Leaders quadrant?
Fair question. G2’s Leaders quadrant is determined by two axes: satisfaction and market presence. RealCISO’s satisfaction score exceeds the Leaders quadrant average. Our G2 Score of 69 exceeds the Leaders quadrant average of 66.3.
The only thing that put us in High Performers instead of Leaders is market presence — specifically, review volume. We sit at 50 on that axis. The Leaders threshold is 51.
One point.
Vanta has 2,180 reviews. Drata has 1,011. We have 193.
Those companies are 10+ years old and have raised hundreds of millions in venture capital. RealCISO was founded in 2020 around a simple idea: compliance intelligence, not compliance software — not a growth-at-all-costs model.
The review gap is a function of time and capital, not product quality. The satisfaction data makes that clear.
What this means if you’re evaluating GRC tools
If you’re a CISO, vCISO, MSP, or compliance lead trying to decide where to put your team, here’s the honest read:
The products with the biggest marketing footprints aren’t always the ones customers are happiest with. NPS is what people say when they’re not in a sales conversation. Satisfaction scores are what 193 real customers reported after actually using the platform.
RealCISO leads both.
We built this platform because the GRC market was — and still is — full of tools that are expensive, complicated, and designed for enterprises with dedicated compliance teams. Most organizations don’t have that. They need something that works without a six-month implementation and a six-figure price tag.
These G2 scores tell me we’re getting that right.
What’s next
We’ll be in the Leaders quadrant. The satisfaction scores are there. The G2 Score is there. What’s left is review volume — and that’s just a matter of customers who haven’t yet taken five minutes to leave a review.
If you’re a RealCISO customer and you haven’t left a G2 review, I’d appreciate it. It matters more than you think.
Brian Haugli is Co-Founder of RealCISO, author of Cybersecurity Risk Management: Mastering the Fundamentals Using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (Wiley, 2021), and former VP & CSO at The Hanover Insurance Group.