Develop Your CMMC Budget with Cost Benchmarks and Saving Strategies

Why Cost Planning Isn’t Optional

In its latest cost analysis for the final CMMC rule, the DoD estimated a median out-of-pocket spend of just over $100 K for a small entity to achieve a third-party Level 2 certification. That figure does not include the staff hours many companies devote to remediation and evidence prep.

That six-figure sticker shock has led some SMB owners to call CMMC an “existential threat.” Yet the same contractors admit they can’t bid on new work—or keep existing contracts—without compliance.

In other words, the cost of doing nothing is 100 percent of your future DoD revenue. The trick is to understand where every dollar goes so you can trim the fat without cutting corners.

The Five Buckets That Swallow Your Budget

Here is the list of top 5 categories that demand majority of your CMMC Budget allocation:

1. Readiness Assessment & Gap Analysis

Most companies start by hiring a consultant or using an automated platform to compare their current environment against NIST 800-171. Prices range from $5 K for a lean, spreadsheet-based review to $25 K for a deep-dive vCISO engagement. The more assets you have—and the less documentation—the higher the bill.

2. Documentation & Policy Writing

CMMC isn’t just “show me the firewall”; it’s “show me the policy that says you’ll configure a firewall and audit that configuration.” Contractors that write policies in-house spend mostly salary dollars. Those who outsource can pay $10K–$30K just for paperwork. Automated policy generators (think GPT-driven tools with FedRAMP authority) are driving that number down, but they still need human review.

3. Remediation & Tooling

Here’s where budgets balloon. Multifactor authentication, log aggregation, endpoint detection, FIPS-validated crypto modules—every missing control has a price. A 2025 survey puts average remediation at $20K–$60K for small businesses and north of $100K for mid-markets.

4. Assessment Fees

If you need a C3PAO audit (Level 2 “certification” route), expect to pay the assessor’s day rate plus travel. Market quotes in 2024–2025 show $30 K–$60 K for a single-site SMB; multi-site or complex environments can hit $120 K. Add re-testing fees if the assessor has to come back after you fix findings.

5. Sustainment & Monitoring

Passing the audit is half the story. Annual SPRS re-attestations, log storage, staff refresher training, and license renewals add $5 K–$15K per year for a small shop. Ignore sustainment and you’ll be writing emergency purchase orders twelve months later when your score expires.

Real-World Benchmarks—What Contractors Are Paying

Reality check: These are averages. A 40-person parts manufacturer with one on-prem server and a clean Microsoft 365 tenant has broken the $80K barrier. Conversely, a 90-person R&D firm with legacy Macs, on-prem AD, and no log management spent $220K.

Why Some Companies Spend Double

• CUI Everywhere. The larger your CUI footprint, the more systems fall in scope, and the more controls you can’t inherit from a cloud provider.
• On-Prem Everything. Cloud enclaves inherit encryption, logging, and patch-management controls at pennies on the dollar. On-prem means buying, provisioning, and maintaining it all.
• Tool Redundancy. Paying for a SIEM, then separately for an EDR platform that already ships logs to a cloud analytics tier, is the classic duplicate spend.
• Consultants on Speed Dial. Every extra hands-on keyboard hour is billable. DIY where you can, outsource where you must.

Eight Ways to Keep the Bill Manageable

1. Shrink the Scope

Move CUI into a GCC High or GovCloud enclave and give the rest of your network a “Level 1 only” designation. Contractors report 25 percent tool-spend reductions on average.

2. Reuse What You’ve Already Done

ISO 27001 shop? Map those controls to 800-171. Have a SOC 2 Type II report? Harvest the policies, tweak the language, and you’re halfway there.

3. Embrace Template Kits & Generative AI

A $1K library of editable policies beats writing 145 pages from scratch—or paying a consultant $15K to do the same. AI brings the first draft; humans fine-tune and sign off.

4. Share Services with Your Prime

If you’re a sub, ask the prime if they offer enclave access or SOC monitoring at cost. Buying SIEM capacity in bulk can drop the monthly rate by 40–60 percent.

5. Negotiate C3PAO Timing

Auditors have slow seasons. Schedule your fieldwork for Q2 and you might lock in a multi-site discount or avoid peak-season travel surcharges.

6. Tap Grants & Credits

State Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEPs) and SBA STEP grants routinely cover cybersecurity upgrades. A pending House bill proposes a 25 percent tax credit for CMMC tooling spend.

7. Phase Remediation Strategically

Fix the six “no-POA&M” controls first—multifactor authentication, FIPS-validated crypto, secure remote-access, etc.—to get your SPRS score above 88 and keep contracts moving while you budget for the rest.

8. Automate Continuous Monitoring

Platforms that ingest logs, flag control drift, and auto-populate your next SPRS re-attestation save hundreds of manual hours each year—which translates into real payroll dollars

Building a Budget Roadmap You Can Defend to the CFO

1. Phase 0 – Discovery (Weeks 1-4). Free scoping workshops, tool inventory, and an RFP for gap analysis.
2. Phase 1 – Foundation (Months 2-4). Finalize policies, roll out MFA, clean up account management. Budget roughly 25 percent of total spend here.
3. Phase 2 – Remediation & Hardening (Months 4-8). Buy logging, EDR, vulnerability management. Expect 50 percent of spend.
4. Phase 3 – Assessment Prep (Months 8-10). Conduct an internal audit and a mock interview. Roughly 15 percent.
5. Phase 4 – Certification & Sustainment (Month 10+). Pay the C3PAO invoice, then shift into annual evidence upkeep—about 10 percent of total.

Laying this out in a Gantt chart does two things: it avoids sticker shock by spreading costs across the fiscal year, and it gives executives measurable milestones for release of funds.

Case Snapshot: A CNC Manufacturer in Arizona Saves 45%

A 40-person CNC machine shop in Arizona received an initial quote of $140 K for CMMC Level 2 certification—almost equal to its prior-year profit. Here’s how the team cut that figure nearly in half:

• Scope reduction. CUI was migrated into a GCC High enclave, allowing the shop-floor PCs to remain Level 1.
• Grant funding. The Arizona MEP picked up $10K of the MFA hardware and training bill.
• Bundled audit. By coordinating with two peer companies to schedule the same C3PAO during the same week, they trimmed $12 K in assessor travel fees.

Final cost: $78K—a 45% savings. They then highlighted their compliance readiness in the next bid cycle and secured a $3 million, five-year contract extension.

The ROI Equation—Beyond “Keeping the Lights On”

• Contract Eligibility. Fail CMMC and your bid never gets read. That’s 100 percent lost revenue.
• Cyber-Insurance Premiums. Insurers increasingly demand evidence of 800-171 controls. Certified firms report 10–20 percent premium reductions.
• Breach Avoidance. IBM pegs the average U.S. breach at $4.45 M. Every control you implement chips away at that risk.
• Process Discipline. The documentation you write for CMMC won’t just impress assessors—it streamlines onboarding, incident response, and future standards like FedRAMP or StateRAMP.

Final Thoughts—Spend Smart, Not Blindly

CMMC isn’t a parking ticket you can shrug off; it’s the price of admission to the defense marketplace. Yes, the numbers look steep, but thoughtful scoping, tool consolidation, and a phased roadmap can cut your budget almost in half without jeopardizing compliance.

If your spreadsheet still feels overwhelming, let’s talk. We’ve helped machine shops, SaaS start-ups, and mid-market integrators build CMMC budgets they can defend to the board—and to the contracting officer. Hit the button below for a free copy of our CMMC Budget Template or to book a thirty-minute sanity check before the next RFP drops.

Compliance doesn’t have to bankrupt you—but ignoring it might.