Schellman CMMC Assessment Cost: $40K to $220K

Vendor profile

Schellman is an independent US CPA firm with a cybersecurity attestation and certification practice that has grown to over 600 staff. The firm holds accreditations across the major information-security frameworks: SOC 1 / SOC 2 / SOC 3 (as a CPA firm), ISO 27001 / 27017 / 27018 / 27701 (through registered certification body partnership), HITRUST (CSF Assessor), PCI DSS (QSA), FedRAMP (3PAO), and CMMC (C3PAO). The breadth is unusual and is the firm's primary commercial differentiator. Verify current CMMC C3PAO authorisation at cyberab.org/Marketplace.

Schellman's reputation in the FedRAMP 3PAO market is strong; the firm has performed a meaningful share of FedRAMP authorisations over the past decade. That federal-cyber muscle memory translates well to CMMC because the underlying NIST control families overlap heavily. Schellman has published several practitioner-facing notes on the CMMC-FedRAMP control mapping and on how the new 32 CFR Part 170 final rule changes the assessment landscape. These public-facing resources are reasonably good signals of the firm's depth.

On staffing, Schellman deploys named Certified CMMC Assessors per the Cyber AB authorisation requirement. The firm has invested in cross-training existing FedRAMP 3PAO assessors to add the CCA qualification, which means CMMC engagement teams typically bring strong federal-cyber experience. For contractors that value depth over price, Schellman is regularly cited as a top-three choice.

Fee bands by company size

Schellman does not publish per-engagement pricing. The bands below align with the broader C3PAO market profile (see C3PAO cost page) and reflect practitioner reports of typical engagement fees. Schellman tends to land toward the upper end of each band because of the brand premium.

FedRAMP bundle fees reference the FedRAMP Moderate baseline. See the FedRAMP cost sister site for the standalone FedRAMP cost picture.

Where Schellman is the right choice

For SaaS vendors selling to DoD plus commercial enterprise customers, Schellman is regularly the most efficient choice. A typical pattern: a B2B SaaS vendor needs SOC 2 Type 2 for commercial buyers and CMMC Level 2 because some of its customers are defense contractors. Schellman can carry both attestations with substantial evidence reuse. The combined fee is typically 20-30 percent below the cost of running two separate engagements with two separate firms. The bundling efficiency improves further if FedRAMP enters the picture, because the underlying NIST control set is the same.

For managed service providers (MSPs and MSSPs) selling to defense customers and operating their own cloud service, Schellman fits the dual-obligation pattern (FedRAMP for the cloud service, CMMC for the operating organisation) particularly well. The firm's federal-cyber depth means the CMMC team understands the FedRAMP-CMMC inheritance mechanics, which can save 50-100 hours of evidence collection during the CMMC engagement.

For contractors with a Schellman SOC 2 Type 2 already in place, adding CMMC to the existing engagement is almost always cheaper than starting from scratch with another C3PAO. The cost gradient is large enough that some contractors who would otherwise have chosen a different C3PAO end up with Schellman simply because the existing relationship makes the bundling math compelling.

When Schellman is not the right choice

For pure-DoD contractors with no commercial framework obligations and no FedRAMP authorisation, Schellman's bundling advantage disappears and the brand premium becomes harder to justify. A boutique C3PAO can deliver the same CMMC Level 2 certification at the lower end of the small-tier band ($30K-$45K) versus Schellman's upper-end positioning ($40K-$65K). The certification has the same value either way: Cyber AB issued, fully recognised by DoD acquisition.

For very small contractors (under 25 employees, single CUI workload), Schellman's methodology can feel over-structured. The firm runs engagements with the same rigor whether the client is a 10-person sub-contractor or a 500-person prime, which is reassuring for risk-averse clients but can be more process than necessary for the smallest engagements.

For contractors with PCI DSS in the mix but not SOC 2 or FedRAMP, ControlCase's PCI heritage often produces a cleaner bundling story than Schellman's broader portfolio. See ControlCase CMMC cost for that comparison.

Statement of Work levers specific to Schellman

For Schellman engagements the strongest fee-mover is explicit bundling commitment. A multi-framework Statement of Work that names SOC 2, CMMC, and ISO 27001 up front typically prices 15-25 percent below the sum of standalone engagements. Pin this in the contract; do not assume the firm will apply the discount post-engagement.

The second lever is the platform choice for evidence handling. Schellman's preferred platforms include the firm's own client portal and the major commercial GRC platforms. If your organisation has existing investment in a GRC platform, confirm at scoping that Schellman will accept evidence pushed from that platform rather than requiring upload to the Schellman portal. The duplicate-upload labour can be substantial (40-80 hours over an engagement).

The third lever is the timing of the CMMC engagement relative to other framework engagements. Running the CMMC engagement at the same calendar window as the SOC 2 Type 2 reporting period maximises evidence reuse because the same point-in-time evidence satisfies both frameworks. Running them six months apart loses much of the bundling benefit. Plan engagement timing around this.