Vendor comparison
IO, until 2025 ISMS.online, carried the category term in its company name for twenty years and is cheaper to buy than we are. Where the two part ways is the German layer: statute, operations, AI. This comparison names both, with source and date of record.
Book a free demoAll figures on IO recorded on 1 and 2 August 2026 from public sources.
The case against us first. Anyone who recognises themselves in one of these four points is better served by IO, and we would rather say so here than in a call three weeks from now.
IO publishes no list prices, but third parties do: the Vendr buyer guide states roughly 6,000 US dollars a year on average, Capterra a starting price of 375 pounds. OdySecure starts at 12,900 euros a year. For a company that wants ISO 27001 certification on the smallest possible software budget, IO is the cheaper route.
IO lists over a hundred standards and regulatory instruments in its catalogue. If you want ISO 27001, SOC 2, DORA, TISAX and a range of international frameworks in one tool, you will find more breadth there than with us.
IO cites more than 1,000 organisations and 65,000 users, plus 264 reviews on G2 at 4.5 out of 5. We are younger and do not have those numbers. If your procurement wants to see numbers and reviews on that scale, that is an argument against us.
IO ships HeadStart with pre-filled policies and controls; reviews speak of around 80 percent of requirements covered at the start. If you need a first document set quickly, that gets you moving faster.
Four differences that are not a matter of taste. They follow from IO being a British vendor with a German website, and us being a German vendor with German operations.
IO lists NIS-2 as an EU directive. The German implementing act and KRITIS are not in the catalogue, and BSI IT-Grundschutz is absent entirely. Anyone who has to demonstrate compliance against § 30 BSIG and the BSIG annexes will not find that layer in the catalogue.
The catalogue holds 62443-4-1 and 4-2, that is secure product development and components. The operator level 2-1 and the system level 3-x are missing, and those are exactly where plant assessments run. For an industrial company with OT, that is the part that matters.
IO names a primary hosting supplier based in the United Kingdom and four data centre locations in total across the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia. OdySecure runs exclusively in Germany with OVHcloud, a European provider without a US parent. On top of that: no DACH office at IO, no German phone number, headquarters in Brighton.
As of 2 August 2026 IO's Trust Centre names no models, no processing location and no subprocessors for AI features, and there is no selectable operating mode. With OdySecure the language model runs in sovereign mode in Germany, every answer carries a source and a metric, and every query is logged for audit.
Only figures that can be evidenced. Where a source is uncertain, it says so.
| Feature | IO (ISMS.online) | OdySecure |
|---|---|---|
| Price | no list prices; Vendr average approx. 6,000 USD/year, Capterra „from £375“ (period unclear) | public pricing page, platform from €12,900/year |
| Frameworks in catalogue | over 100 | 50 in the catalogue, of which 21 standards and 29 regulatory instruments |
| BSI IT-Grundschutz | not in the catalogue | included |
| German NIS-2 act and KRITIS | not in the catalogue, EU directive only | § 30 BSIG and BSIG annexes |
| IEC 62443 | 4-1 and 4-2 | also 2-1 and the system level |
| Hosting | primarily UK, four locations incl. USA | exclusively Germany, OVHcloud |
| AI transparency | no public information on model, location, subprocessors | sovereign mode in Germany, answers with source, audit log |
| Implementation | software plus coaching content, implementation stays with client or partner | platform, senior CISO support bookable from €3,600/month |
| DACH presence | German website, no office in the German-speaking region, no German phone number, HQ Brighton | German entities, German phone number |
| Reviews | G2 4.5 on 264; Capterra DE 4.5 on 8; OMR 0 | no public review profiles yet |
The „Reviews“ row argues against us and stays in for that reason. On OMR Reviews, a German review platform, IO has zero reviews as well.
If the software should be cheap, broad and international, take IO. If you have to demonstrate compliance against German statute, operate in Germany, and know which model answers your questions, then you are in the right place here.
See it against your own catalogueThirty minutes, no preparation needed. We show the platform against your requirements, not against our slides.