Obligary vs Compliance Software Alternatives: Which Is Right for Your UK Business?

UK compliance management software comparison

Compliance rarely becomes difficult because nobody cares about it.

It becomes difficult because the renewal date is in one person’s calendar, the responsibility sits in somebody else’s head, the supporting document is buried in an inbox, and management cannot see the current position without asking several people.

A spreadsheet can list obligations. A shared drive can hold files. A project-management tool can assign tasks. But somebody still has to connect all three.

That is why we created Obligary. We built it to give growing UK businesses a shared compliance calendar, clear task ownership, a private evidence vault and practical reporting in one workspace. Businesses can start with recurring company obligations and add document control, ISO or Cyber Essentials workflows as their requirements grow.

We have also launched the Obligary Android companion app, helping owners, team members and advisers review priority work and capture evidence away from the desk. Our iOS companion app is coming soon.

In this guide, we compare Obligary with several types of compliance management software for UK SMEs, including Asana, ComplianceAlert, SkillProof, PICMS, ISOvA, Conformio and ISMS.online, now presented as IO. We explain where each platform is strongest, how published entry prices compare and which requirements each product is most likely to suit.

The quick verdict

We created Obligary for businesses whose main challenge is managing recurring compliance work and keeping the supporting evidence organised.

It is particularly relevant when a business needs clear answers to five practical questions:

1. What needs to be done?
2. When is it due?
3. Who owns it?
4. Where is the evidence?
5. What can we show management, an adviser or an auditor?

Other platforms may be a better fit when the requirement is narrower or considerably more specialised. ComplianceAlert now combines regulatory monitoring with action, evidence and AI-led workflows. SkillProof concentrates on staff training and competency records. Conformio concentrates on guided ISO 27001 implementation. PICMS, ISOvA and IO provide deeper management-system, regulatory or multi-framework capabilities.

The important point is that these products do not all solve the same problem.

How to choose compliance management software in the UK

Start with the operational problem rather than the longest feature list. A simple requirement-to-category comparison is often more useful than asking which platform is “best” in the abstract.

If you are searching for compliance management software in the UK, first decide whether you need compliance calendar software, regulatory intelligence, workforce records or specialist ISO compliance software. For teams facing audits or customer due diligence, compliance evidence management is just as important as reminders because the proof must remain connected to the work it supports.

The same principle applies when comparing compliance software for small businesses: the right level of structure is usually more valuable than the largest possible feature list.

What does Obligary do?

We designed Obligary to help a business shape its compliance calendar from the outset. Organisation details and profile prompts inform a set of UK SME starter actions, after which the team can review dates, assign owners, add its own tasks and create custom categories.

From there, we built Obligary to support a repeatable compliance routine:

• Owners see overdue work, upcoming deadlines, missing evidence and items waiting on third parties.
• Reminders and assignment notifications keep responsibilities visible.
• Evidence is uploaded to a private vault and linked to the relevant task or record.
• Internal users, suppliers, advisers and other external contacts can receive a focused, time-limited evidence-upload link without being given general workspace access.
• Reports can be produced for tasks, evidence, management reviews and ISO work.
• Audit packs can bring documents, evidence and open actions together for review.
• Consultants and advisers can use separate client workspaces, client switching and portfolio-level reporting.

This is an important distinction. We did not build Obligary as simply a document repository or reminder application. We built it to connect the action, the owner, the deadline and the proof. You can review the full workflow on the Obligary how-it-works page.

See the work and evidence position clearly

We designed the desktop workspace to put the current position in front of the team: what is overdue, what is due next, where evidence is missing and which high-risk actions need attention. The calendar then gives users a practical way to filter and plan the work by date, area, category, risk and status.

Evidence that retains its context

Saving a document is not the same as maintaining useful compliance evidence.

A file called insurance-final-v3.pdf may be perfectly valid, but it becomes difficult to rely on when nobody can immediately tell:

• Which obligation it supports.
• Who supplied it.
• Whether it has expired.
• Whether a more recent version exists.
• Whether it has been reviewed.
• Which report or audit pack should include it.

We designed Obligary’s evidence workflow to preserve that context. Evidence health considers links, ownership, expiry information and usefulness, helping teams identify weak records before a management review, adviser meeting or audit conversation.

ISO and Cyber support without forcing every customer into a large suite

We designed the core workspace so businesses can use Obligary as a compliance calendar without enabling specialist standards functions. When more structure is required, they can add Controlled Documents, ISO Core, Cyber Essentials readiness or individual ISO packs.

The current specialist packs cover:

• ISO 9001 quality management.
• ISO 14001 environmental management.
• ISO 45001 occupational health and safety.
• ISO/IEC 27001 information security.
• ISO 22301 business continuity.
• ISO 50001 energy management.
• Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus readiness.

ISO Core adds internal audits, findings, corrective actions, objectives and management reviews. Controlled Documents adds document owners, version histories, review dates, approvals and acknowledgements. The modular structure allows a smaller business to add specialist workflows only when a genuine need arises. See the Obligary ISO and Cyber add-ons for the current scope.

Obligary mobile companion app for Android

We have launched an Android companion app so Obligary users can keep everyday compliance work moving when they are away from the desk. It works alongside the main web workspace rather than replacing it, giving owners, team members and advisers a focused way to review tasks, act on priorities and attach evidence from a phone.

The Android companion app can be used to:

• View assigned tasks and wider workspace tasks, then search and filter open work.
• Review priority actions and open task details with clear next steps.
• Take photographs or document scans as evidence and upload existing files from the phone.
• Add expiry or review dates and link evidence to the relevant task or tasks.
• Send secure evidence requests and view uploaded records where the user has permission.
• Receive task reminders and service notifications, with cached workspace information and queued updates helping when connectivity is limited.

Representative compliance software market comparison

The table below compares published entry pricing and primary product focus. It is not a like-for-like feature or value ranking.

Currency and tax treatment are not standardised across vendors. We display Obligary’s UK prices including VAT, ISOvA states that its published prices exclude VAT, Asana charges in US dollars per user, Conformio charges in euros, and IO uses tailored quotations.

How much does Obligary cost?

We publish Obligary’s monthly prices inclusive of UK VAT. The annual figures below are simply 12 times the current monthly price; they do not imply an annual contract or annual-payment discount.

We currently price individual specialist ISO packs and the Cyber Essentials readiness pack at £15 per month each, including VAT. Check our live Obligary pricing page before making a purchasing decision.

Obligary compared with spreadsheets and compliance software alternatives

Obligary vs spreadsheets and shared calendars

The lowest-cost alternative to compliance software is usually a spreadsheet, a shared calendar and a collection of folders.

This can be sufficient when a business is very small, obligations rarely change and one person retains all the knowledge. The difficulty appears as responsibilities spread across the team.

Spreadsheets normally require somebody to maintain formulas, recurring dates, status conventions and reporting views. Calendar reminders can signal that something is due, but they do not automatically create an organised evidence chain. Shared folders hold files, but the connection between each file and the relevant obligation may depend on naming conventions and staff memory.

We built Obligary to replace that fragmented process with one working routine. Tasks can have owners, due dates, status, risk and evidence requirements. Supporting records remain linked to the work, and reports use the live task and evidence data rather than relying on a separate monthly spreadsheet update.

Obligary vs Asana

Asana is a well-established general work-management platform. Its Starter plan is currently listed at $10.99 per user per month when billed annually, or $13.49 with monthly billing. It includes timeline and Gantt views, dashboards, forms, custom fields and unlimited automations. The Advanced plan is listed at $24.99 per user per month when billed annually and adds portfolios, goals, workload and approvals.

Asana can be configured to manage compliance tasks. It is particularly attractive when a business already uses it for projects, marketing, product development or operations.

However, its public product structure is centred on general work management. The customer must decide how to represent obligations, evidence, expiry dates, audit records, standards and compliance reports. Templates and custom fields can help, but the business still owns the process design.

With Obligary, we provide compliance-specific structures from the start:

• UK SME starter actions.
• Compliance-focused dates, status and ownership.
• Evidence requirements and evidence health.
• Secure external evidence requests.
• Compliance, audit-pack and ISO reporting.
• Optional standards registers and management-review workflows.

There is also a pricing-model difference. Asana publishes per-user prices. At its listed annual Starter rate, five paid users equal $54.95 per month and ten equal $109.90 per month. We price Obligary by organisation rather than displaying a per-user charge.

Obligary vs ComplianceAlert

ComplianceAlert has evolved beyond a simple alerting product. Its current public proposition combines monitoring of UK regulatory sources with a sector-specific action centre, evidence vault, inspection packs, document templates and an AI assistant.

Its Starter plan is listed at £19 per month and includes plain-English email alerts, document templates, limited daily access to its AI assistant and a sector-specific checklist. The £78-per-month Pro plan adds unlimited AI questions, a compliance audit and score, document generation and additional alert channels.

This means the products now overlap in actions, evidence and reporting, but their centres of gravity remain different:

• ComplianceAlert emphasises live regulatory monitoring, sector and region-specific action generation, AI guidance, incident logging and inspection readiness.
• With Obligary, we emphasise the organisation’s recurring internal calendar, named ownership, evidence context and health, temporary evidence requests, scheduled reporting, modular ISO and Cyber workspaces, and adviser portfolio management.

Obligary vs SkillProof

SkillProof is a specialist staff-training and workforce-compliance system.

Its Starter plan is currently listed at £49 per month and includes up to 50 staff, one site, training records, training by role, a compliance matrix, evidence requests, checks, licence records, reminders and basic reports. Its Growth plan is listed at £129 per month and adds multiple sites and departments, manager dashboards, reminder histories, professional registrations, policy-read confirmations, audit packs, CPD records and scheduled exports.

SkillProof is therefore likely to be stronger when the central question is:

“Are our people trained, qualified, licensed and up to date?”

With Obligary, we address a broader organisational question:

“Are our company obligations, recurring actions, evidence, documents and standards work under control?”

There is some overlap in dates, evidence requests, reminders and reporting. The difference is the underlying data model: SkillProof is organised around employees, roles, training requirements, qualifications and registrations; we organise Obligary around company obligations, recurring compliance actions, evidence, reports and optional management-system workflows.

Obligary vs PICMS

PICMS positions itself as a more comprehensive UK ISO and sector-compliance platform.

Its published pricing includes industry products from £89 per month, ISO Essentials at £149 per month and Professional at £449 per month. ISO Essentials is listed with one ISO standard, five users and core modules. Professional supports more standards and users and adds more extensive AI evidence-mapping and sector capability. PICMS also advertises UK legal-register and regulatory-monitoring functionality.

PICMS is therefore a stronger candidate when a business needs:

• A detailed ISO certification-management platform.
• A UK legal register and regulatory monitoring.
• More extensive risk and asset registers.
• AI-assisted evidence mapping.
• Specialist sector packs.
• More substantial certification-readiness tooling.

We built Obligary for a lighter operational need. We price our Business + ISO Core plan at £79 per month including VAT, our ISO 9001 configuration at £94 per month, and our combined quality, environmental and health-and-safety configuration at £124 per month.

These figures are not equivalent bundles. PICMS includes deeper specialist, legal-register and AI functionality. With Obligary, our proposition is a lower-cost route from day-to-day obligations and evidence management into the standards a business actually needs.

Consultant pricing

Our Agency route for Obligary starts from £99 per month, with separate client workspaces, client switching and portfolio reporting. PICMS advertises Consultant Starter at £599 per month, including white labelling and three clients. These are not identical products: PICMS presents a more extensive consultant and certification proposition, while we offer a lower-cost route for advisers whose main need is organised tasks, evidence and client reporting.

Obligary vs ISOvA

ISOvA offers a Legal Compliance Manager for £1,500 per year excluding VAT. Its published features include more than 700 pieces of legislation, practical compliance guidance, a UK legal register, monthly updates, controls, evidence storage, auditor access and ten users.

Its wider Integrated Management System is listed at £4,500 per year excluding VAT and includes the Legal Compliance Manager together with risk registers, corrective actions, objectives, KPIs, audit planning and evidence storage.

ISOvA has a clear strength where the buyer needs a maintained legal register and more extensive guidance about applicable legislation. That is not the core problem we built Obligary to solve.

We currently price our Full IMS route at £169 per month including VAT, or a £2,028 12-month run-rate. ISOvA’s Integrated Management System equates to £375 per month before VAT. The ISOvA price includes legal-register and legislative-update capabilities that sit outside the core promise we make to Obligary customers.

Obligary vs Conformio

Conformio is purpose-built around ISO 27001 implementation and maintenance.

Its Starter plan is listed at €145 per month, with a published annual option of €1,199. It includes three user accounts, mandatory documents, up to 100 risks and a project-management module. The wider product includes editable documents, guided implementation, risk assessment, Statement of Applicability support, evidence collection, internal-audit preparation and reminders.

Our ISO/IEC 27001 route begins with Business + ISO Core and the £15 specialist information-security pack, producing a listed total of £94 per month including VAT.

The products have different ambitions. Conformio focuses on guiding a business through ISO 27001 documentation and implementation. We built Obligary’s ISO 27001 pack within a wider company compliance workspace that can also cover general obligations, quality, environment, health and safety, business continuity and energy-management activities.

Obligary vs ISMS.online / IO

ISMS.online, now presented as IO, sits further towards the mature multi-framework end of the market.

Its platform supports more than 100 frameworks, with preconfigured content, policies, risks, controls, integrations, APIs and optional specialist support. Pricing is tailored through a quotation rather than published as a simple entry-level monthly figure.

This makes IO a logical candidate for organisations with established compliance teams, multiple frameworks, substantial integration requirements or a need for ongoing specialist support.

We made a different trade-off with Obligary: we publish clear monthly prices, allow a company to start with a free or low-cost workspace and avoid requiring a business to scope a large compliance implementation before it can begin organising recurring work.

What makes Obligary good value?

Price alone should not determine the choice of compliance system. A low-cost platform that requires weeks of configuration, or is ignored by the people doing the work, is not necessarily good value.

We believe Obligary’s value comes from six areas.

1. It begins with compliance rather than a blank project

Generic work-management products are flexible, but flexibility means the customer must decide how the process should work. We built recurring actions, evidence requirements, expiry dates, external evidence requests, reports, audit packs and standards work into Obligary from the start.

2. It connects work with proof

The evidence vault is not presented as an isolated file store. Evidence remains linked to the action, document, standard or record it supports, making the information more useful during internal reviews, adviser meetings, tender preparation and audits.

3. It uses transparent published pricing

Businesses can see the Free, Starter, Business, Business + ISO Core and standards-pack prices without entering a sales process. This is useful for smaller organisations that need to make a proportionate buying decision.

4. Specialist functionality is modular

A company that only needs recurring obligations and evidence does not have to buy the complete standards environment. Controlled Documents, ISO Core, individual ISO standards and Cyber Essentials readiness can be added when a genuine requirement arises.

5. It is designed for the people completing the work

Compliance software only produces value when staff use it consistently. We designed Obligary’s My Work view to prioritise overdue actions, upcoming tasks, missing evidence and items waiting on others, helping each owner concentrate on the next action rather than navigate an entire compliance system.

6. It supports compliance work away from the desk

Our Android companion app lets authorised users review tasks, capture evidence, add review details and keep actions moving from a phone. We are also bringing the companion app to iOS soon.

When Obligary may not be the right product

No responsible compliance software comparison should claim that one platform is right for every organisation.

We do not position Obligary as the strongest fit where the primary requirement is:

• Continuous legislative monitoring and an automatically maintained legal register.
• Detailed staff competencies, courses, CPD and professional registrations.
• Extensive prewritten ISO 27001 documentation and implementation consultancy.
• Mapping hundreds of controls across many security frameworks and enterprise systems.
• Legal advice, compliance decisions or a guarantee of certification.

We have not designed Obligary to submit filings, make compliance decisions, provide legal advice, certify an organisation or replace an accountant, consultant, certification body or competent adviser. We designed it to keep deadlines, owners, evidence, reminders and reports organised so the appropriate people can act.

That boundary is a strength. Software should support accountable decisions, not create a false impression that purchasing a subscription automatically makes a business compliant.

Which Obligary plan is most suitable?

Choose Free when:

You want to test the routine with one organisation and a small number of live actions without providing payment-card details.

Choose Starter at £19 per month when:

You manage a limited compliance calendar and mainly need recurring actions, an evidence vault and reminder emails.

Choose Business at £49 per month when:

Your organisation has a larger or growing obligation list and needs unlimited compliance actions, reports and exports.

Choose Business + ISO Core at £79 per month when:

You need controlled documents, internal-audit records, findings, corrective actions, objectives and management reviews.

Add a specialist ISO or Cyber pack when:

You are actively implementing or maintaining a particular standard and need the relevant registers and workflows.

Choose the Agency route from £99 per month when:

You are a consultant or adviser who needs separate client workspaces, client switching and portfolio reporting.

Final comparison

The most sophisticated compliance platform is not automatically the right one for a growing business.

A general project tool can be too unstructured. A regulatory-intelligence platform can be more specialised than the organisation’s immediate need. A dedicated ISO suite can be more than the business currently requires. A large multi-framework platform can introduce a sales and implementation process disproportionate to a small team’s operational problem.

We designed Obligary for the operational middle ground:

• More structure than a spreadsheet.
• More compliance context than a generic task manager.
• More evidence discipline than a calendar.
• Less complexity than a heavyweight governance, risk and compliance platform.
• A clear route from routine company obligations to ISO and Cyber readiness.
• An Android companion app for priority work and evidence capture, with iOS coming soon.

For UK businesses that want to make deadlines visible, assign responsibility, collect the right evidence and produce a clear current report, we offer Obligary as a focused and transparently priced starting point.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and methodology

• Obligary: how it works, pricing and ISO and Cyber add-ons.
• Obligary Android companion app on Google Play.
• Asana pricing and plan features.
• ComplianceAlert product features and pricing.
• SkillProof pricing and feature comparison.
• PICMS UK ISO compliance platform and pricing.
• ISOvA software pricing.
• Conformio pricing and ISO 27001 features.
• ISMS.online / IO plans and platform features.

Last verified: 17 July 2026. This article is general product information, not legal, regulatory, certification or procurement advice.