Should certifications drive the compliance score entirely?

No — certifications are necessary but not sufficient. Pair them with audit-report quality and the scope of the certification. SOC 2 Type II on a partial scope is weaker than full-scope Type I.

How do I score incident response when there hasn't been a public incident?

Use tabletop exercise quality and willingness to share their IR playbook under NDA. Vendors that won't share an IR playbook score under 5 by default.

Is uptime really a security metric?

Yes — availability is one of the three pillars of information security. A vendor with 96% uptime is a vendor where the security team is firefighting instead of preventing.

Specialized Professional

SaaS Vendor Security Assessment Radar Chart Template

Compare SaaS vendors on compliance, encryption, support, uptime, and incident response to support procurement decisions.

Used 1,231 times

Vendor A
Vendor B

About this template

A SaaS vendor security radar gives procurement and security teams a structured rubric for evaluating tools beyond a SOC 2 checkbox. Compliance, encryption, support, uptime, incident response and data residency together cover what actually matters in a security questionnaire. Use it for vendor shortlists, annual reviews of existing tools, and as a board-friendly summary that doesn't require reading a 60-page audit report.

Attributes included

Compliance
Certifications held — SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP as relevant.
Encryption
At-rest, in-transit and key management posture — including BYOK options.
Support
Security responsiveness specifically — how fast does the vendor answer a security question.
Uptime
Historical SLA performance, not the contractual number.
Incident Response
Quality of past disclosures, post-mortems and notification timeliness.
Data Residency
Control over where data is stored and processed — region pinning and cross-border behaviour.

Sample items

Vendor A
Vendor B

How to use the SaaS Vendor Security Assessment template

1Click "Use this template" to load the preset attributes and sample data into the builder.
2Rename attributes or items to match your context — every value is editable inline.
3Adjust scores using sliders or by typing values directly. Toggle items on or off to compare subsets.
4Pick a color theme, then export your chart as PNG or SVG, or share a live link.

Frequently asked questions

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