Engage Compliance vs Formiti

Key takeaways

• Both offer fractional DPO with multi-jurisdictional coverage, so choose Formiti for multi-country representative services across many jurisdictions and Engage Compliance for direct senior expertise across EU, UK, and US.
• We operate an expert-led model with the same senior DPO on your account, while Formiti uses a service-firm model with a team of practitioners and a network of representatives.
• We provide direct GDPR (EU and UK), US state privacy laws (CCPA and 19 others), and AI Act coverage, coordinating with regional specialists for non-EU/non-US work that Formiti’s network covers directly.
• We publish tiered pricing (Privacy Advisory From €600, DPO Foundation From €1,000, DPO Complete From €4,500 per month); Formiti does not publish pricing and quotes based on company size and scope.
• We suit SaaS, FinTech, HealthTech, and AI companies at Seed through Series C valuing direct senior practitioner access, including AI companies needing AI Act expertise.

At a glance

Formiti is a UK-based privacy compliance services firm offering data protection officer services, EU Representative service, UK Representative service, and multi-country privacy compliance. The firm advertises coverage across multiple jurisdictions and has a network model for representative services in various countries.

Engage Compliance is an expert-led fractional DPO and privacy compliance consultancy based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Experience across 100+ startups and enterprises including Amazon, Coinbase, and Robinhood. Tiered pricing published from €600 per month.

Both firms serve technology companies including SaaS, FinTech, and HealthTech.

Service model

Formiti operates on a service-firm model with a team of practitioners and a network of representatives in various jurisdictions. The firm handles a range of privacy compliance services including DPO, EU Rep, UK Rep, training, audits, and DSAR services.

Engage Compliance operates on an expert-led model with direct senior practitioner engagement. Each client works directly with a senior DPO, backed by specialist advisors. This model is structurally different from team-based service firms and tends to deliver more senior expertise per engagement at the cost of capacity constraints.

For companies that prioritize direct senior practitioner access, the expert-led model is structurally different. For companies that prioritize multi-jurisdiction coverage with local representative networks, team-based firms have structural advantages.

Geographic coverage

Formiti emphasizes multi-country coverage with representative services in various jurisdictions. This can be valuable for companies with operations or customers across multiple regions.

Engage Compliance is established in the Netherlands with US working presence. Direct GDPR (EU and UK), US state privacy laws (CCPA and 19 others), and AI Act coverage. For non-EU or non-US specialist work (Brazil LGPD, China PIPL, Japan APPI, etc.), Engage Compliance coordinates with regional specialists rather than maintaining direct coverage.

For companies operating in many jurisdictions globally, Formiti’s network model may provide simpler coordination. For companies operating primarily in EU, UK, and US, Engage Compliance’s direct expertise model is typically deeper.

Pricing transparency

Engage Compliance publishes tiered pricing on the website (Privacy Advisory From €600, DPO Foundation From €1,000, DPO Complete From €4,500 per month).

Formiti does not publish pricing. Pricing is discussed in consultation calls and quoted based on company size and scope.

Senior expertise

Experience across 100+ startups and enterprises including Amazon, Coinbase, and Robinhood.

Formiti was founded by industry practitioners with privacy and compliance backgrounds. Specific senior expertise and prior roles are less prominently featured in the firm’s positioning.

For companies that value documented senior expertise at recognizable companies, the expert-led positioning of Engage Compliance is structurally different.

ICP fit

Both firms serve growing technology companies. Specific fit considerations:

• Formiti is well suited for companies needing multi-country representative services across many jurisdictions, particularly if those jurisdictions extend beyond EU, UK, and US.
• Engage Compliance is well suited for technology companies in SaaS, FinTech, HealthTech, and AI sectors operating worldwide with EU, UK, and US data processing obligations, particularly those at Seed through Series C stages valuing direct senior practitioner access.

For AI companies specifically, Engage Compliance has direct EU AI Act expertise and EU establishment supporting AI Act conformity assessment coordination.

Which to choose

Choose Formiti if your operations span many jurisdictions globally and you need a single firm to coordinate representative services across them, and if a team-based service model fits your needs.

Choose Engage Compliance if your operations are primarily in EU, UK, and US, you want direct senior practitioner access from a privacy leader with documented in-house experience at recognizable companies, you value transparent published pricing, or you need AI Act compliance expertise alongside GDPR.

Note: Outsourced DPO is also referred to as external DPO, virtual DPO, fractional DPO, or DPaaS. Local-language equivalents include externer Datenschutzbeauftragter (Germany), DPO externe (France), DPO esterno (Italy), DPD externo (Spain).

Get started

If you want to evaluate Engage Compliance for your fractional DPO needs, book a consultation.