To streamline the user experience and offer better services, nowadays, every organization stores, processes, and shares a mammoth amount of personal data. With data being the central attraction, safeguarding these information and how the organization handles them has become the main priority.
The General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR was introduced by the European Union with the aim to protect the rights of European customers and how organizations handle their data.
But what exactly does it mean? GDPR is one of the toughest data privacy laws and regulations, where it gives guidelines to organizations handling European clientele on how they can protect the privacy of customer data. However, compliance with the GDPR can be challenging, and that is why GDPR compliance software has grown to prominence as it streamlines the process.
In this article, we delve into some of the best GDPR compliance software in 2024 and how they can help you adhere to GDPR guidelines. Besides, we will take a detailed look into other important aspects that will help you consider the right GDPR compliance software for your organization.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
What is GDPR Compliance Software?
The General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR compliance software can be referred to as an automated tool that helps organizations catering to European clientele adhere to GDPR guidelines with ease. This software enables your organization to manage European customer data by taking care of the data privacy and consent form for processing them.
By providing functionalities like risk assessment, evidence logging, data mapping & inventory, internal audits, control monitoring, and privacy policy management, it helps your organization to stay compliant with GDPR.
There is some advanced GDPR compliance software that even provides you with reports and performs a gap analysis to help you find areas that can lead to GDPR violations.
These tools automate most of the compliance process, which not only helps in reducing resources but also eliminates the chance of human mistakes. Importantly, it helps the organization in implementing robust security measures that prevent the chance of any data breach and also improve overall data security.
Best GDPR Compliance Software in 2024
With a considerable number of options, finalizing the ideal GDPR compliance software in the current market is a huge challenge. To ease up the selection process, we have created a brief comparison table that will help you decide which software suits your organization’s requirements before you go into a comprehensive analysis of the tool:
Software | Compliance Automation | Data Mapping | Key Features | Price |
CloudDefense.AI | Yes | Yes | 1. Breach detection. 2. Critical update first approach. 3. Effective patch management. 4. Continuous compliance management. | The price is available on quote request. |
SolarWinds | Yes | Yes | 1. Automate AD account management. 2. Built-in ARM manager. 3. Access control and log management. 4. Detailed reporting. | The price is available on quote request. |
AuditBoard | Yes | Yes | 1. Automate issue management. 2. Eliminating vision control issues. 3. Centralized inventory. 4. Promote collaboration. | The price is available after you request a demo. |
LogicGate | Yes | Yes | 1. Efficient risk management. 2. Risk quantification. 3. Real-time visibility. 4. Automation of manual processes. | The price is available after you request a demo. |
Transcend | Yes | Yes | 1. Privacy request. 2. Govern client-side and backend data. 3. Quick scanning. 4. Full stack consent. | The price is available after you request a demo. |
Egnyte | Yes | Yes | 1. Simple setup. 2. Identifies patterns of personal data. 3. Complete visibility. 4. Supports on-premise file storage. | The price is available after you request a demo. |
Enactia | Yes | Yes | 1. Collaborative platform. 2. Compliance assessment. 3. Incident and data breach management. 4. Maintaining evidence. | The price is available after you request a trial. |
OneTrust | Yes | Yes | 1. Automated privacy impact assessment. 2. ROPA creation. 3. Vendor risk management.
| The price is available after you request a demo. |
Exterro | Yes | Yes | 1. Automated policy implementation. 2. Intuitive platform. 3. Real-time governance. | The price is available after you request a demo. |
Netwrix Auditor | Yes | Yes | 1. Identification of GDPR data. 2. Access right control. 3. Risk assessment. | The price is available after a free trial. |
Here’s our in-depth review of all the best GDPR compliance software we have found for you:
CloudDefense.AI
CloudDefense.AI 
From offering real-time monitoring and advanced threat detection to data protection and implementing robust data privacy measures, CloudDefense.AI helps you achieve and stay GDPR compliant.
It has emerged as a leading GDPR compliance software and has been garnering a lot of attention with innovative patch management. This software not only saves you long audits and various issues but also helps in sample data mapping.
It is considered to be a top platform for GDPR compliance because it makes advanced scanners that work better than NVD and allows your organization to maintain digital compliance.
Features
Here are some of the prominent that make CloudDefense.AI an obvious choices for modern organizations trying to achieve or maintain GDPR compliance:
Advanced Scanning
CloudDefense.AI has designed this GDPR compliance software with advanced scanning capabilities that allow them to discover micro and macro breaches efficiently. It leverages SAST, DAST, and SCA scanners to automate GDPR code coverage, as the maximum base code uses OS components.
Constant Monitoring
One of the best ways to maintain GDPR compliance is by constantly monitoring for known vulnerabilities in the open sources and other stages of the SDLC. It continuously looks for vulnerabilities and mitigates them before they can make way for attackers to get their hands on sensitive information.
Critical Update First Approach
CloudDefense.AI has designed this platform in such a way that it flags all the vital updates with a published proof of concept, enabling you to stay compliant with GDPR all the time.
Quick Reporting
This platform provides reports regarding breaches or vulnerabilities as soon as they are detected. Quick reporting not only helps the team respond to attacks but also avoids GDPR violations, as attacks are reported within 72 hours.
Data Mapping
Data mapping is another highlighting feature of this solution, where it maps GDPR articles from various trusted sources. By mapping articles like Article 32, it enables the team to diminish single points of failure through entitlement reviews.
Pros
CloudDefense.AI enables your team to eliminate the need for long audits and other impacts.
Helps in discovering micro and macro breaches quickly to avoid any GDPR violation.
It leverages a powerful suite of scanners to cover all the codebase that makes most of the OS components.
This platform integrates seamlessly with any existing IT infrastructure.
Integrates automated patch management with live repositories to ensure continuous GDPR compliance.
Cons
The user interface can be overwhelming for new employees.
Don’t just take our word for it. Book a demo and witness firsthand the power and simplicity of CloudDefense.AI.
SolarWinds
SolarWinds
The next GDPR compliance software in this list is Solarwinds. It serves as a robust consent management platform that helps in processing PII and analyzes user access to demonstrate GDPR compliance. One of the best things about this platform is that it automates AD account management for provisioning and de-provisioning, along with enforcing safe account configuration.
Pros
This platform streamlines the GDPR audit process through detailed reporting regarding access control and data.
It automates the complete account provisioning and de-provisioning process to maintain GDPR compliance.
Helps you get a detailed understanding of all the lingering risks through data visualization.
Cons
The software doesn’t offer all the documents for learning.
The customer support team isn’t agile and takes time to respond.
AuditBoard
AuditBoard
AuditBoard serves as a top-notch GDPR compliance that not only helps you manage GDPR compliance processes but also helps you diligently perform risk governance. This solution automates your policy management, enhances overall collaboration, and provides a real-time view of your GDPR audit status to ensure constant compliance. Moreover, it automates issue management to ease your compliance journey.
Pros
Automation of repetitive tasks like documentation, identified issue tracking, follow-up, and reporting.
AuditBoard streamlines policy management by making updates in real time and preventing vision control issues.
It eliminates stakeholder fatigue by helping you to use specific collected evidence for different assessments and multiple audits.
Promotes collaboration and simplifies communication with stakeholders through automating evidence collection.
Allows you to attach audits for every control on their profile page.
Cons
It doesn't show high efficiency while handling a huge amount of data.
LogicGate
LogicGate
You should also consider LogicGate, which is a renowned automated GDPR compliance software that helps organizations with the required features to maintain compliance. From optimizing your GDPR program and assessing your data processing activities to automating DPIA processes and generating custom reports, this solution ensures you can constantly maintain compliance with GDPR requirements.
Pros
It centralizes your GDPR compliance and DPIA requirements in one place to enhance the overall data processing workflow.
It is completely scalable and gives you numerous customization options.
LogicGate notifies you about data privacy risks by automating the periodic reviews of data processing activities.
The access to secrets is provided on authentication against trusted sources.
Cons
It can be laggy sometimes.
This platform is mostly suitable for organizations with no budget constraints.
Transcend
Transcend
Transcend serves as a unanimous choice whenever it comes to considering a top GDPR compliance software. Through this platform, you can easily cater to consumer privacy requests, manage data inventory and mapping, perform consent management, and manage retention requirements. It is a unique solution that lets you monitor both client-side and backend user consent to eliminate any silos.
Pros
Provides you with a proprietary Privacy Request feature to help you easily delete, modify, and de-identify user data.
It helps you scan the data stack to identify silos and categorize them through Smart Content Classification.
Through this single platform, you can govern client-side and backend data flow.
It provides you with step-by-step guidance to understand the privacy process.
Cons
The organization doesn’t offer workshops for understanding the tool.
Many users have raised concerns about technical glitches.
Egnyte
Egnyte
By locating, controlling, and safeguarding the personal data of EU residents in a cloud repository, Egnyte helps you maintain constant GDPR compliance. It is designed to support a wide range of cloud collaborations, on-premises file storage, and public cloud object stores, helping you streamline overall compliance maintenance. It is an all-round platform that also helps teams work together towards compliance adherence.
Pros
Egnyte is easy-to-use and installs GDPR compliance software that doesn't require any specialized infrastructure.
It helps in finding data patterns of PII and also identifying region-specific identifiers for each pattern.
Provides complete visibility into various data access activities like permission change, content movement, logins, and others.
It provides support for On-Premises File Storage, Cloud Collaboration, Email, hybrid deployment, and Public Cloud Object Stores.
Cons
You can face difficulty managing large datasets through this platform.
Enactia
Enactia
With Enactia, you can centrally manage and meet the data protection requirement of GDPR to maintain compliance. It is an AI-driven platform that lets you perform multiple assessments, gain insight into your data, and demonstrate accountability and trust through analytics and automated dashboards. Importantly, you can perform automated checks to ensure you continuously stay compliant with GDPR regulations.
Pros
You can commence assessments and audits of your infrastructure to ensure security posture is compliant with GDPR.
It helps you with effective incident management through Incident and Data Breach management features.
You will have the support of highly technical and responsive customer support.
It is based on a distributed architecture.
Cons
It doesn’t offer integration for on-premises Linux or Windows.
The interface can be hard to navigate.
It needs to improve its subscription plans.
OneTrust
OneTrust
Another top GDPR compliance software that requires your attention is OneTrust. It is a well-known compliance tool that lets you implement governance policies, automate PIAs and DPIAs, and various proactive measures to maintain compliance throughout. Furthermore, this platform eases up the consent management process and helps manage website cookies to comply with GDPR.
Pros
Helps in achieving privacy for processing PII through automating PIAs and DPIAs.
Creates a central inventory to store and keep track of all data processing activities required during audits.
It integrates centralized consent solutions into your infrastructure and enforces consent governance by tracking all the consents.
It eliminates risks associated with third-party integration by performing due diligence and central records for all the vendors.
Ease up GDPR management by offering a visual representation of data flow.
Cons
The subscription cost is relatively high.
Exterro
Exterro
Exterro is a highly established GDPR compliance solution that makes it easy for organizations of all sizes to comply with GDPR guidelines. This solution offers you a suite of features that lets you identify and map PII and enforce policies to ensure compliance with GDPR law. It provides you with an intuitive dashboard where you can get all the key information and discover data breaches or issues in security policy.
Pros
It helps in enforcing various protection and storage rules to implement automated policies for data recovery.
Provides a comprehensive visibility of the vital data sources across your IT environment.
Simplifies the creation of questionnaires and survey templates.
Helps in quickly identifying data sources carrying PII and other sensitive personal data.
It lets you govern survey action in real time.
Cons
The setup cost is significantly high.
Employees have to go through a steep learning curve.
Netwrix Auditor
Netwrix Auditor
The last addition to this list is Netwrix Auditor, which has emerged as a top-tier GDPR compliance solution enabling organizations to identify security threats, ease up consent management, and pass GDPR audits. This cloud-based tool gives you a visual representation of data access, user activity, and configuration changes across your IT environment to manage GDPR compliance efficiently.
Pros
Netwrix Auditor comes equipped with modern scanning capability to identify advanced threats and breaches.
It provides you with real-time threat alerts on unusual patterns of user activity or data access.
Integrates seamlessly with Windows and Linux systems.
Simplifies the GDPR audit process through customizable reports.
Cons
The support team isn’t highly responsive.
You will have to spend getting used to the interface.
What to Look For in GDPR Compliance Software?
Whenever you decide to opt for GDPR compliance software, there are certain functionalities and features that you need to keep in mind. A GDPR solution with appropriate capabilities according to your business requirements will ideally suit you. Here are a few things that you should look at in the solution:
Compliance Functionalities
A GDPR compliance software comes equipped with several critical functionalities, and you have to assess whether it carries the critical functionalities your organization needs. Functionalities like data mapping, data subject access requests, breach notification protocols, consent management, risk assessment, and privacy policy management are essential for organizations adhering to GDPR compliance.
Data Security and Privacy
Data security and privacy serve as the critical aspect of GDPR compliance software. The solution must implement robust data security measures and policies to meet the requirement of GDPR guidelines that help prevent unauthorized usage of PII.
Integration
The software you want to choose must integrate easily with your existing IT architecture. A seamless integration will not only facilitate efficient management of data privacy but also adhere to GDPR guidelines.
Automatic Updates
Most of the data privacy acts, including GDPR, change their regulation at regular intervals to cope with the evolving cybersecurity landscape. The GDPR compliance software must help your organization automatically adapt to the updated guidelines and help consumers understand how their data will be handled after the update.
Customization
Every organization has different requirements, especially when it comes to following certain GDPR regulations. The software you decide to subscribe to must give your team the customization option to cater to the specific data privacy requirement while staying compliant.
Scalability
With time, your business is going to evolve, and the amount of data you will process will also increase. The solution you would choose must adapt to the increasing complexity and volume of data.
User Interface
A top compliance software will balance functionality with easy to navigate UI and they are designed to offer the best user experience. The UI should be designed in such a way that everyone can easily utilize every functionality and learn about the operation.
Vendor Reputation
While considering the solution, you should evaluate the vendor's reputation and how they maintain a smooth operation. You should also evaluate the quality of their support and training.
What’s New in Data Privacy for Europe in 2024?
Data privacy continues to be a vital topic in 2024, and the Council of European Unions, along with the European Parliament, is bringing some changes:
Increase in Focus on Certain GDPR Aspects
In 2024, various supervisory authorities will boost their regulatory inquiries in areas like the use of artificial intelligence and children's and biometric data. SAs like the UK, Spain, and France will tighten their policies in these areas with enhanced GDPR enforcement. Spanish SA is expected to issue new guidelines on age verification, while other SAs will focus on the organization's cookie processing and management of data access requests.
Implementation of The Data Act
The European Parliament introduced a new Data Act in January 2024. It will require providers of connected products like cars and health tech devices or services to enable access to personal data generated by these products and share them with third parties. Even though this new act was introduced in 2024, it will come into effect in September 2025. Along with the new Data Act, there will be a boost in the key aspect of digital legislation before the next EU election commences in June 2024.
AI Governance Framework
As the use and integration of AI is going to increase, organizations are being directed to conduct AI governance through internal security policies and measures. The formation of this regulation will be instrumental in discovering and mitigating risks and documenting them for compliance audits. This framework will be relevant under GDPR, DSA, and AIA.
New Cybersecurity Requirements
Member States are expected to introduce Network and Information Security Directive or NIS2 into national law for cybersecurity companies and providers. The NIS2 will implement stringent cybersecurity risk management guidelines and reporting requirements, and it will take effect as a part of the EU Cybersecurity Strategy.
FAQs
How do I know if I need to be GDPR compliant?
You will have to comply with GDPR guidelines when you run an organization that is based in Europe or store data of EU clientele. If you offer services to EU citizens, process their data, or monitor their activity using their data, then you will need to be GDPR compliant. Organizations operating in some face from an EU country are also required to follow GDPR.
How do GDPR compliance platforms identify data that belongs to EU residents?
The GDPR compliance platform identifies data belonging to EU residents by performing an information audit of the personal data stored by the organization.
They evaluate the name, email address, location, ethnicity, religious beliefs, web cookies, and other personal data to identify the EU resident. Mobile device IDs and IP addresses are also assessed to verify that a particular person is an EU citizen.
Am I required to use European software or store data in European data centers to be GDPR compliant?
According to GDPR guidelines, every organization or service provider catering to EU citizens is required to store their data in European data centers or in a jurisdiction that comes under a similar law. The data can be stored outside Europe, but it must adhere to privacy laws similar to GDPR regulations.etur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Conclusion
GDPR compliance software has become a necessity for every organization dealing with European clientele. It not only streamlines the stringent GDPR law requirements but also helps in maintaining constant compliance.
Through this article, we have provided 10 best GDPR compliance software in 2024, but among all of them, CloudDefense.AI has emerged as the best choice. It has all the necessary features and advanced functionalities you need to protect the data of your European clientele while maintaining compliance.
Anshu Bansal, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist, currently co-founds CloudDefense.AI, a cybersecurity solution with a mission to secure your business by rapidly identifying and removing critical risks in Applications and Infrastructure as Code. With a background in Amazon, Microsoft, and VMWare, they contributed to various software and security roles.
