Consultant, software, or do it yourself? Choosing help honestly

What all three routes share

However you prepare, three facts don’t move. The assessment fee is set by IASME and paid to an IASME-licensed certification body — no route changes it. The answers describe your business and are yours to confirm. And nobody outside the certification body can promise the result: “guaranteed pass” is marketing for one of two things — prep bundled with the assessment, or an overpromise. The choice between routes is really a choice about who does the translation and the legwork.

Route 1: DIY from the official documents — £0

The NCSC requirements document and IASME’s question preview are free, accurate and complete; they are linked under Sources on this page. The honest cost is translation and time: the material is written for assessors, so a non-technical owner spends real hours decoding what is being asked before fixing anything. It suits businesses with a technically confident person and simple estates. Choose DIY when someone in the business reads this material comfortably and the estate is small and modern.

Route 2: Software — fixed price

Preparation software translates the questionnaire into plain questions, finds the gaps, and turns fixes into instructions. ReadyCert costs £149 a year (£95 for our first 50 customers): the check, verdict and gap list are free, and the paid plan adds click-by-click fixes, the eleven drafted documents and the portal answer pack. What software cannot do: physically enrol your team’s phones in MFA, replace an old laptop, or make a judgement call about an internet-exposed server — ReadyCert flags that last one for a human on purpose. Choose software when the blocker is translation and organisation rather than hands.

Route 3: A consultant — day rates

A consultant sits with you, translates, fixes alongside you, and writes what needs writing. By our estimate, typical day rates run around £600, and first-time certification takes from half a day to four days of help depending on the starting point — so budget roughly £300 to £2,400, sometimes bundled with the assessment where the consultancy is also a certification body. The value is accountability and hands; the risk is paying day rates for MFA clicks you could have done from instructions — the cost calculator shows what each route adds up to for your size of business. Choose a consultant when nobody can give it hours at all, when something is genuinely unusual — exposed servers, complex networks, partial scope — or when a failed submission has a contract deadline behind it.

Mixing routes is normal

These aren’t tribes. A common pattern: run a free check to get the gap list, clear the settings-level fixes yourself or with software, and bring in a consultant for the one genuinely awkward item. Another: DIY the lot, then pay for one hour of review before submitting. The fee and the standard stay the same throughout, so spend help where your actual blocker is.

Questions that expose any provider quickly

• “Which IASME-licensed certification body reviews my answers, and what is their fee?”
• “What exactly happens if my submission doesn’t meet the requirements?”
• “Which parts of the work do you do, and which stay with us?”
• “Does your price include the assessment, or is that on top?” — the cost guide shows what the fee should be.

Straight answers to those four mean you’re dealing with someone honest, whichever route they sell.