CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Drata vs Knox Systems

Drata sells software that helps customers earn and keep trust with continuous compliance, integrated internal and third-party risk, and real-time customer assurance. Knox Systems sells pre-authorized infrastructure on which SaaS vendors can inherit 60% to 80% of required controls. CISO Tribune files both under Compliance automation. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Drata
  • Knox Systems
Drata vs Knox Systems: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
DrataDrata sells software that helps customers earn and keep trust with continuous compliance, integrated internal and third-party risk, and real-time customer assurance.drata.comKnox SystemsKnox Systems sells pre-authorized infrastructure on which SaaS vendors can inherit 60% to 80% of required controls.knoxsystems.com
What it sells
  • Compliance Automation[17]Automates evidence collection, monitors controls and tracks remediation in one platform.
  • Trust Center[1][9][20]A secure, self-serve destination for reviewing security posture and requesting documents.
  • AI Questionnaire Assistance[21]Centralizes how teams manage inbound security questionnaires.
  • Enterprise GRC[18]Centralizes controls, risks, policies and evidence across business units.
  • KnoxAI[2][5][6][7]Monitoring and remediation software that automates control mapping, vulnerability detection and real-time remediation.
Categories
Headquarters
San Diego, United States[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2020[2]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesPrivately held
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • September 16, 2026Drata launched Third-Party Risk Management as a standalone offering for criteria-based, evidence-driven vendor risk decisions in a single platform.[25]
  • August 4, 2026Drata announced Limited Availability of AI Agent Governance, which helps enterprises discover, monitor, govern and trace the AI agents running inside their organizations.[24]
  • June 10, 2026Drata introduced AI Agent Governance, a new offering focused on managing risks and oversight requirements of AI agents.[28]
  • June 10, 2026Drata announced a new AI Agent Governance capability that extends its trust platform to cover the governance of AI agents operating inside enterprises.[12]
  • March 24, 2026Drata unveiled a set of agentic AI capabilities covering third-party risk management and customer assurance.[26]
Not stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Drata sells mainly to security, GRC, and sales teams that want compliance, risk, and assurance work in one platform. Drata describes compliance tooling for small teams that stay audit-ready, and support for unifying governance, risk, and compliance across business units and regions. Drata says it is building AI Governance with select enterprises across financial services, healthcare, and software.Knox Systems states that any cloud software that processes, stores, or transmits federal data must be FedRAMP authorized before an agency can purchase it. Knox Systems sells to customers deployed on a major hyperscaler and using CI/CD pipelines for deployments. Knox Systems says its customers inherit existing ATOs across federal and DoD agencies.
Last verified
September 27, 2026November 5, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Compliance automation is the primary category of both Drata and Knox Systems.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Drata is also filed under Third-party risk and security ratings.
  • Drata lists Compliance Automation, Trust Center, AI Questionnaire Assistance and Enterprise GRC. Knox Systems lists KnoxAI.
  • Drata is headquartered in San Diego, United States.
  • Drata was founded in 2020.
  • Knox Systems is privately held.

How they differ

Drata is headquartered in San Diego, United States, and was founded in 2020, while Knox Systems is privately held.

Drata sells Compliance Automation, Trust Center, AI Questionnaire Assistance and Enterprise GRC. Its compliance product supports 30+ standard frameworks and connects to over 300 integrated tools to automate evidence collection. Drata also unifies internal and third-party risk in one platform. Knox Systems sells KnoxAI, monitoring and remediation software that automates control mapping, vulnerability detection and real-time remediation. Knox Systems also sells pre-authorized infrastructure on which SaaS vendors can inherit 60% to 80% of required controls.

Knox Systems says customers inherit its 15+ existing ATOs across federal and DoD agencies including DHS, FEMA, Marines, Treasury, and VA. It also names Adobe, Celonis, and BigID in describing its experience running enterprise applications. Drata says it is building AI Governance with select enterprises across financial services, healthcare, and software. On September 16, 2026, Drata launched Third-Party Risk Management as a standalone offering. On August 4, 2026, Drata announced Limited Availability of AI Agent Governance.

What it sells: Drata

What Compliance Automation does[17]
Compliance Automation centralizes controls and evidence in one place and automates collection across tools. It assigns control owners and routes remediation to the right people. It provides a real-time view of control health and evidence coverage.
What Trust Center does[1][9][20]
Trust Center standardizes how key security information and compliance reports are published, requested, approved, and accessed. It uses structured access requests, approvals, and permissioning. It includes a trust library with reusable, consistent responses.
What AI Questionnaire Assistance does[21]
AI Questionnaire Assistance centralizes how teams manage, track, and collaborate on inbound security questionnaires. Analytics dashboards show AI accuracy, AI completion rate, and total number of responses generated.
What Enterprise GRC does[18]
Enterprise GRC consolidates control requirements, policies, evidence sources, ownership, and workflows into a single system of record. It assigns accountable owners to controls, risks, and evidence with standardized workflows and escalation paths.

What it sells: Knox Systems

What KnoxAI does[2][5][6][7]
KnoxAI is Knox's proprietary monitoring and remediation software, trained on 10 years of Federal audit data. KnoxAI automates control mapping, vulnerability detection and real-time remediation. Knox Systems provides a dedicated, isolated sub-account for each customer, protected by KnoxAI and with no shared tenant data.

Questions about Drata and Knox Systems

What do Drata and Knox Systems sell?
Drata sells Compliance Automation, Trust Center, AI Questionnaire Assistance and Enterprise GRC. Knox Systems sells KnoxAI.
Are Drata and Knox Systems in the same category?
Yes. Compliance automation is the primary category of both on CISO Tribune.
Where are Drata and Knox Systems headquartered?
Drata is headquartered in San Diego, United States.
When were Drata and Knox Systems founded?
Drata was founded in 2020.
Who owns Drata and Knox Systems?
Knox Systems is privately held.
Who are Drata and Knox Systems sold to?
From its own pages, Drata sells mainly to security, GRC, and sales teams that want compliance, risk, and assurance work in one platform. Knox Systems states that any cloud software that processes, stores, or transmits federal data must be FedRAMP authorized before an agency can purchase it.
What have Drata and Knox Systems announced recently?
September 16, 2026: Drata launched Third-Party Risk Management as a standalone offering for criteria-based, evidence-driven vendor risk decisions in a single platform.

About Drata

Drata sells software that helps customers earn and keep trust with continuous compliance, integrated internal and third-party risk, and real-time customer assurance. Drata offers the Drata Agentic Trust Management Platform and solutions that fit customer needs. Drata says autonomous AI agents automate compliance, manage internal and third-party risk, and continuously prove security posture. Drata brings controls, risks, policies, and evidence into one system to standardize governance, strengthen accountability, and reduce risk across the enterprise.[3][4][6]

On the compliance side, Drata supports 30+ standard frameworks, and customers can create their own custom frameworks. Drata maps controls once and applies them across standards. Customers connect to over 300 integrated tools, or their own tools via API, to automate evidence collection. Control statuses in the Drata platform are kept updated daily, and customers are notified immediately when drift occurs. Compliance Automation centralizes controls and evidence in one place and automates collection across tools. Drata provides one secure hub where auditor collaboration, evidence requests, and approvals are centralized. Drata can scan code during development to identify control gaps before production.[16][17][18]

For risk, Drata unifies internal and third-party risk in one platform. Internal and vendor risks can be monitored side by side in one system, with scoring, ownership, and remediation tracking. Risk registers are customizable so teams can create custom risks, assign owners, set categories, score by impact and likelihood, determine treatments, and map to controls.[6]

For third-party risk, Drata's agent evaluates every third party against the customer's own standards, and every result comes with the exact evidence behind it. Drata brings vendor inventory, risk tiers, assessments, and evidence together in a single system of record. Vendors can be synced from procurement, CLM, and other systems, and assessment decisions are written back to those same tools. Drata AI can enrich vendor profiles with firmographic and risk data.[10][19]

For assurance, Trust Center gives prospects, customers, auditors, and other stakeholders a secure, self-serve destination to review security posture, request access to documents, and get answers immediately. Trust Center uses structured access requests, approvals, and permissioning. Trust Center includes a trust library with reusable, consistent responses. Drata automatically generates answers to lengthy security questionnaires based on provided information, and subject matter experts approve or edit the response. AI Questionnaire Assistance centralizes how teams manage, track, and collaborate on inbound security questionnaires. Drata provides AI answers to trust questions asked via Slack and Microsoft Teams.[1][7][20][21][22]

Drata also builds AI features into the platform. Drata AI embeds intelligence across compliance, risk, and assurance workflows. Drata discovers every AI agent running in the environment, enforces policies before an action executes, and produces auditor-grade proof of every decision. Drata says it is building AI Governance with select enterprises across financial services, healthcare, and software. Drata logs every decision in a tamper-evident record. Drata connects AI assistants to a Drata workspace via the MCP protocol using OAuth 2.1 with SSO and full audit logging, while enforcing user-level permissions. Drata AI builds automated tests for AWS, Azure, and GCP.[22][23]

Drata collaborates with hundreds of technology partners and audit firms. Enterprise GRC consolidates control requirements, policies, evidence sources, ownership, and workflows into a single system of record. Drata lets customers manage multiple compliance programs across products or business units while maintaining centralized governance.[1][4][5][7][8][9][10][11][16][17][18][19][21]

Drata on the record

Sources

Drata full record

  1. [1]drata.comDrata · drata.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Drata raises 25m series a to accelerate rapid growth of its security and compliance automation platform 301317989Drata via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published June 23, 2021 · Tier A
  3. [3]Agentic Trust Management Platform | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]The Agentic Trust Management Platform | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Drata MCP Server | Run Your GRC Program From AIDrata · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Experience Integrated Risk Management | DRATADrata · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Security Assurance Platform for Real-Time Trust | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Drata Open API | Automate Evidence and Reporting | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Security Questionnaire Automation Software | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Agentic TPRM Assessment | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]CMMC Compliance Automation Software | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Drata Expands Trust Management Platform to Support Governance of Enterprise AI AgentsDrata · published June 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Welcoming Aneal Vallurupalli as Drata’s Chief Financial OfficerDrata · published November 5, 2025 · Tier A
  14. [14]Drata Launches Agentic TPRM Assessment at RSADrata · published March 24, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Drata Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier C
  16. [16]Achieve Continuous Compliance | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Compliance Automation Software | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]Enterprise GRC Software | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  19. [19]Agentic Third-Party Risk Management Software | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  20. [20]Trust Center Software | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  21. [21]AI Security Questionnaire Automation | AIQA| DrataDrata · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  22. [22]Drata AI Features | Agentic Trust Management for GRCDrata · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  23. [23]AI Agent Governance Software | DrataDrata · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  24. [24]Drata Extends Trust Management Platform to Continuously Monitor and Govern AI AgentsBusiness Wire · published August 4, 2026 · Tier A
  25. [25]Introducing Drata Third-Party Risk ManagementDrata · published September 16, 2026 · Tier A
  26. [26]Drata Unveils Industry-First Agentic AI Capabilities to Transform Enterprise Trust WorkflowsDrata Newsroom · published March 24, 2026 · Tier A
  27. [27]A New Brand for a New Era of Agentic TrustDrata · published March 23, 2026 · Tier A
  28. [28]Drata brings visibility, control and auditability to enterprise AI agentsHelp Net Security · published June 10, 2026 · Tier B
  29. [29]Drata Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2G2 · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier C

Knox Systems full record

  1. [1]knoxsystems.comKnox Systems · knoxsystems.com · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Knox systems awarded mission critical saas security company of the yearKnox Systems · knoxsystems.com · published January 12, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Knox systems raises 25m series a to scale largest ai managed cloud to deliver 90 day fedramp at 90 lower costPRNewswire · knoxsystems.com · published March 17, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]What Is FedRAMP Compliance? Guide for SaaS LeadersKnox Systems · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Platform | Knox SystemsKnox Systems · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Why Knox | Knox SystemsKnox Systems · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Knox Systems | FedRAMP in 90 Days for 90% LessKnox Systems · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Knox AI for FedRAMP 20xKnox Systems · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]About | Knox SystemsKnox Systems · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Adobe | Customer Stories | Knox SystemsKnox Systems · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]7AI | Customer Stories | Knox SystemsKnox Systems · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]6 FedRAMP Automation Solutions for SaaS Vendors Pursuing ATOKnox Systems · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Vannevar | Customer Stories | Knox SystemsKnox Systems · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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