Kantis vs Vanta
Kantis is a European alternative to Vanta: same security & identity use case, headquartered in United Kingdom and governed by UK GDPR, while Vanta is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Reach ISO 27001, SOC 2 and GDPR readiness with automated evidence collection, tailored policies, auditor coordination and a team doing the work.
- Jurisdiction
- United Kingdom
- Primary privacy law
- UK GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
Audit evidence collects itself from your cloud, HR and ticketing systems, and the live view of what is failing right now is what keeps teams renewing. No figure appears anywhere on the site; everything begins with a demo and a quote, and no free option exists. Vanta Inc. runs from San Francisco with California law written into its subscription agreement.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Kantis vs Vanta at a glance
| Kantis | Vanta | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | United Kingdom | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | United Kingdom | United States |
| Primary privacy law | UK GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need security & identity built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Vanta ecosystem |
Choose Kantis if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Vanta if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Vanta ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
About Kantis
Kantis gets B2B startups certified without eating weeks of their CTO's time. It pairs a compliance platform with a team that does the readiness work, covering ISO 27001, SOC 2, UK and EU GDPR, the EU AI Act and ISO 42001, and quotes a typical four to eight weeks to certification.
The process starts with a free gap assessment that maps your infrastructure against the 93 ISO 27001 controls. Kantis then writes tailored policies, maps evidence in its platform and coordinates the accredited certification body, which issues the certificate itself. After the audit, continuous monitoring keeps you ready for surveillance audits and renewals.
Key benefits:
- Free gap assessment maps where you stand before any paid step
- Done-for-you readiness with tailored policies and evidence mapping
- Auditor coordination with independent, accredited certification bodies
- Several frameworks from ISO 27001 and SOC 2 to GDPR, EU AI Act and ISO 42001
- Light team load quoted at 15 to 20 hours of total team time
- Continuous monitoring for surveillance audits and renewals
- Recognised audit routes through UKAS and DAkkS accredited bodies and AICPA SOC 2 examinations
Kantis is the trading name of We Make Tech Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with its office on Tottenham Court Road in London, United Kingdom. Its privacy policy says primary infrastructure is hosted in Frankfurt, Germany, and Tokyo, Japan. The platform runs on Vercel, a US company, and the policy also lists Stripe, PostHog and Cal.com among its providers, so some processing involves US-headquartered vendors.
Ideal for UK and European startups that need a certificate to close enterprise deals and would rather hand the work to a team than buy a platform and do it themselves.
Why choose Kantis over Vanta?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Vanta is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Kantis removes that overhead. As a United Kingdom-based provider, it operates under UK GDPR, and data stays in the United Kingdom, which the European Commission recognises as offering an adequate level of protection. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.