Updated October 2026

Coalfire Federal CMMC Cost: no published fee schedule

One of the larger Cyber AB authorised C3PAOs, Coalfire Federal carries deep cross-framework experience and a structured remote-assessment workflow. It publishes no fee schedule, and we do not invent one. This profile covers what is verifiable: how to confirm authorisation, where the cross-framework bundling actually pays, the Statement of Work levers that move assessor hours, and the trade-offs against smaller boutique C3PAOs.

Vendor profile

Coalfire is a long-established federal cybersecurity assessment firm headquartered in Westminster, Colorado. The Coalfire Federal practice focuses on government-facing frameworks: FedRAMP, FISMA, DoD Cloud Computing SRG, HITRUST, PCI DSS, SOC 2, and now CMMC. Coalfire became a Cyber AB authorised C3PAO during the initial wave of C3PAO authorisations. The current Cyber AB Marketplace listing is at cyberab.org/Marketplace; verify Coalfire Federal authorisation status there before any engagement.

The firm's CMMC delivery sits inside a broader federal-cyber consulting business, which is the main differentiator versus boutique C3PAOs. Contractors that already hold or are pursuing a FedRAMP authorisation, a FISMA ATO, or an existing Coalfire SOC 2 engagement can sometimes combine work to reduce duplicate evidence collection. For a contractor pursuing CMMC Level 2 and FedRAMP Moderate in parallel (a common pattern for managed service providers selling to the DIB), the cross-framework efficiency is real and quantifiable.

On the staffing side, Coalfire Federal deploys named Certified CMMC Assessors (CCAs) per the Cyber AB requirement. CCAs are authorised by the Cyber AB and listed in the same marketplace. Most engagements deploy a lead CCA plus 1-2 supporting CCAs depending on assessment scope. Engagement-team continuity (the same CCAs working your account through readiness and into formal assessment) is something to negotiate in the Statement of Work; it materially reduces rework when the formal assessment begins.

What Coalfire Federal charges, and why no page can tell you

Coalfire Federal does not publish per-engagement pricing, and this page does not estimate it. A figure attached to a named firm's undisclosed fee has no inputs you could check, and it lands with a reader as a Coalfire price while being nothing of the kind. So there are no Coalfire fee numbers here.

What is publishable is the shape of the cost, because every C3PAO prices the same way: assessor hours times a rate. DoD's cost analysis behind the 32 CFR Part 170 final rule, 89 FR 83092 (15 October 2024) models that engagement at 120 assessor hours for a small entity and 200 hours for an other-than-small entity, at $260.28 per hour: $31,234 and $52,056. That is a federal planning figure, not a price any firm has agreed to, but it is the only published anchor and it tells you which lever matters. Full workings on the C3PAO cost page.

Getting a comparable number out of Coalfire Federal

Ask for proposed assessor hours and team composition broken out by assessment phase, not a single engagement price.
Ask for on-site and remote days separately, with the travel assumption behind the on-site days.
Ask what triggers a change order: added assets, added sites, a re-opened finding, a second evidence round.
Ask whether any readiness or advisory work would sit in the same legal entity, which bears on the conflict-of-interest rules.
Send one identical scope document to two or three authorised C3PAOs. Hours quoted against identical scope is the only comparison that means anything.

Where Coalfire Federal is well-positioned

For contractors selling to multiple federal-civilian and DoD agencies, having one assessment firm carry the full framework portfolio reduces audit fatigue. A managed service provider holding FedRAMP Moderate, a HITRUST authorisation for healthcare customers, and CMMC Level 2 for DoD work can negotiate a multi-framework engagement that compresses evidence-collection labour, because one set of MFA or logging evidence can answer the equivalent control in each framework. The saving shows up as fewer billed hours rather than a discount, so ask for the bundled engagement to be quoted in hours against the same scope as the separate engagements.

For contractors with mature security programmes that need a thorough, structured assessment workflow, Coalfire's remote-assessment competence is a fit. The firm has built tooling and process around evidence collection that works well for organisations with good documentation hygiene. For contractors with disorganised evidence libraries or weak SSP authoring, a more hand-holding boutique C3PAO may produce less friction.

Coalfire Federal also has visible adjacency to penetration testing and red-team services, which are not part of the C3PAO assessment itself but are required for Level 3 (DIBCAC) preparation. Contractors expecting to need a NIST SP 800-172 enhanced security assessment in addition to Level 2 may find the same-firm continuity useful, though there are conflict-of-interest considerations to navigate (CMMC C3PAO assessor and penetration tester for the same client should not be the same engagement team).

Statement of Work levers that move price

The single biggest fee mover is assessment boundary. A Statement of Work that defines a tight enclave (one VPC or one tenant, with documented inheritance from FedRAMP-authorised cloud services) commits fewer assessor days than one that requires the assessor to clarify boundaries on-the-fly. Pre-engagement effort on the SSP and the boundary diagram pays back at roughly 2-3x in C3PAO fee savings. Use the inheritance discussion to maximise FedRAMP-Customer-Responsibility credit; the CMMC vs FedRAMP page covers the mechanics.

The second lever is on-site versus remote days. On-site days carry travel on top of assessor time, so a Statement of Work that limits on-site to a short kickoff and findings session removes both. The trade-off is that some controls (physical security especially) are easier to evidence in person. Negotiate the on-site day count against the controls that genuinely need eyes-on observation rather than accepting a blanket allocation, and ask for the travel assumption in writing so you can see what you are buying.

The third lever is multi-year commitment. Some C3PAOs will discuss reduced rates on the year-3 triennial reassessment in exchange for booking it at the time of initial certification. Whether any given firm entertains that, and on what terms, is a commercial conversation rather than something published, so ask directly. The cost of the option is locking yourself to one firm three years out.

The fourth lever is bundled gap-assessment and remediation-services scope. Coalfire Federal cannot perform the gap assessment AND the formal C3PAO assessment for the same client because of independence rules. But Coalfire Cybersecurity (the broader consulting practice, often delivered through a Coalfire sister entity) can perform gap and remediation work, then hand off to a different Coalfire team for the C3PAO engagement. Whether that bundling actually saves money depends on the specific entities involved; verify with the firm at the time of the engagement.

Alternatives worth considering

For sub-50-employee contractors with a single CUI workload, a boutique C3PAO is worth quoting alongside the larger firms. Smaller firms are typically more flexible on scheduling and on Statement of Work scope. Whether they also come in lower is not something anyone publishes, which is exactly why you send one identical scope document out to several authorised C3PAOs and compare the hours they propose. The trade-off against a larger firm is brand recognition (which matters with primes that run a preferred-vendor list) and breadth of cross-framework experience.

For mid-size contractors with multiple framework obligations, Schellman and ControlCase are direct alternatives to Coalfire Federal. Schellman has a stronger SOC 2 / PCI / ISO 27001 footprint; ControlCase has the PCI QSA heritage and a strong CMMC ramp. Both are profiled on dedicated pages: see Schellman CMMC cost and ControlCase CMMC cost.

Related cost pages

Frequently asked questions

Is Coalfire Federal a C3PAO?

Yes. Coalfire Federal is on the Cyber AB authorised C3PAO marketplace. Coalfire is one of the longest-standing federal-cyber assessment firms, with deep FedRAMP, FISMA, and HITRUST history. The CMMC C3PAO authorisation is a relatively recent addition to that portfolio. Always verify current authorisation status at cyberab.org/marketplace before signing a Statement of Work, because authorisation can change.

How much does a Coalfire Federal CMMC Level 2 assessment cost?

Coalfire Federal does not publish per-engagement pricing, and nobody outside the engagement knows what it charges, so this page gives no Coalfire fee figure. What is publishable is the structure every C3PAO prices on: assessor hours times a rate. DoD's own cost model in the 32 CFR Part 170 final rule (89 FR 83185-83186) assumes 120 assessor hours for a small entity and 200 for an other-than-small entity at $260.28 per hour, which is $31,234 and $52,056. Use that to sanity-check the hours in a quote, and ask Coalfire for proposed hours and team composition by phase rather than a single engagement price.

What is Coalfire Federal good at?

Coalfire Federal carries strong cross-framework experience (FedRAMP, FISMA, PCI, HITRUST, SOC 2) which can streamline assessments for contractors who hold multiple authorisations. For contractors with an existing Coalfire engagement on another framework, adding CMMC to the engagement can produce some bundling efficiency. Coalfire also has a reputation for thorough remote-assessment workflows, which fits contractors who prefer to minimise on-site days.

How long does a Coalfire Federal engagement take?

From signed Statement of Work to certification posting, a typical engagement runs 3-6 months. The breakdown: scope-confirmation and pre-assessment readiness check (2-4 weeks), formal evidence collection and document review (4-8 weeks), assessor on-site or remote evidence sessions (1-3 weeks), draft assessment report and contractor response cycle (2-4 weeks), final report and certification submission (2-3 weeks). C3PAO scheduling backlogs in 2026 have stretched the calendar elapsed time to 6-12 months from engagement signature.

Should I pick Coalfire Federal over a smaller C3PAO?

It depends on what you optimise for. Larger C3PAOs like Coalfire bring brand recognition (useful for prime-contractor visibility) and cross-framework experience. Smaller C3PAOs are typically more responsive on scheduling and more flexible on Statement of Work scope. Nobody publishes fees, so relative price is not knowable from outside: send one identical scope document to several authorised C3PAOs and compare the assessor hours each proposes. For 200+ employee contractors with multi-site complexity or multiple framework obligations, the breadth of a larger firm tends to matter more.

What should I include in a Statement of Work?

At minimum: a clear definition of the assessment boundary (in-scope assets, locations, user populations), the planned use of inherited controls from any FedRAMP-authorised External Service Providers, the deliverables (draft report, final report, POA&M handling), the timeline with named milestones, the on-site day count assumed in the fee, the rate for additional assessor days if scope changes, the indemnification posture, and the escalation path for findings disputes. Get the fee broken down by phase so you can stage payment against milestones.