dcomply vs Consently
A 3-person Delhi CMP + light-DSAR + productised-consulting shop, DPDP-native and honestly priced, that covers roughly 4-5 of the 17 DPDP obligations. We wrote this the way you would want a peer to write it: what they are good at, what they are not, and when we honestly are not the right pick.
Origin: India (Delhi, 3 employees, unfunded, founded 2025)
Pricing: Published INR ₹0 / ₹25k / ₹60k / ₹1.2L per yr
Scope: DPDP consent + light DSAR + consulting (~4-5 obligations)
The scorecard at a glance
Module scope
81+ Indian modules
Pricing on the site
₹12,999 · ₹29,999 · ₹89,999
Hash-chained evidence
EvidenceChain across every event
vDPO from ₹2,499/mo
4 tiers up to Premium
India data residency
ap-south-1 default
Same scorecard applied to every comparison. Compare and pick.
Side-by-side
Scope, evidence, pricing, residency
| Capability | dcomply | Consently |
|---|---|---|
| Origin & headquarters | India-headquartered, India-incorporated | India (Delhi, 3 employees, unfunded, founded 2025) |
| Total modules | 81+ across 12+ Indian regulators | DPDP consent + light DSAR + consulting (~4-5 obligations) |
| Published pricing | ₹12,999 / ₹29,999 / ₹89,999 on pricing page | Published INR ₹0 / ₹25k / ₹60k / ₹1.2L per yr |
| India data residency | ap-south-1 default, no cross-border by default | Regional option or globally hosted |
| Hash-chained cryptographic evidence | EvidenceChain across every event (/proof) | Conventional audit log |
| DPDP §6 vs §7 lawful basis | Schema-level column with 6 DPDP-native values | Typically GDPR-lawful-basis mapped via config |
| RBI / SEBI / IRDAI / MCA / CERT-In modules | Native | Not covered |
| GST / Labour / POSH / RERA / FSSAI / EHS / healthcare | Native | Not covered |
| vDPO / DPO-as-a-Service | From ₹2,499/mo, 4 tiers up to Premium | Typically not offered |
| Self-serve signup, time-to-live | Instant signup, live in under an hour | Demo-gated or partner-led onboarding |
| Customer proof surfaces | Live public directories (110 verified brands) | 3 unattributed testimonials, no named logos |
Verdict
When each is the right pick
Choose dcomply if
- You need the full 17-obligation DPDP surface, not just consent and DSAR.
- You expect an auditor to inspect a hash-chained evidence trail (EvidenceChain).
- You want India-native schema at the column level for lawful basis (Sec. 6 vs Sec. 7).
- You need sector regulators (RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, CERT-In, MCA, POSH, GST, RERA, FSSAI) in the same workspace.
- You want a vDPO service alongside the platform (dcomply from ₹2,499/mo, 4 tiers).
- You want production customer proof surfaces (110 verified brands across Grievance Officer + Delete My Data directories) — not stock testimonials.
The moment your DPDP programme leaves the consent surface — the moment your DPO asks for a ROPA, a DPIA sign-off, a breach clock, a vendor DPA register, a cross-border log, or a retention policy — Consently is out of scope and dcomply is where the work happens.
Choose Consently if
- You only need a cookie banner + simple DSR intake, and you accept the ~4-5-obligation footprint.
- You are a very early-stage bootstrapped team where ₹25k/yr matters more than platform depth.
- You already own ROPA / DPIA / breach / vendor / retention on other systems and only need the CMP layer.
- Bhashini 22-language notice rendering is your dominant use case (dcomply also supports 23 Indian languages, but Consently leads on this narrow claim).
If Consently's ~4-5-obligation coverage is genuinely all you need and you value published pricing over platform depth, they will do fine at the low end.
What we deliberately do not do:
no ROPA, no DPIA, no Vendor / Third-Party Risk, no Data Discovery, no Policy Generator, no SDF console, no cross-border-transfer tracker, no retention automation, no audit-log evidence export, and no real customer logos (three testimonials read as placeholder text). Their advertised /features, /live-showcase, and long-form guide pages 404. No SOC 2, no ISO 27001, no subprocessor list, no press hits. If those are what you need most, take that seriously.
Answers
Questions we hear about this pairing
Consently ships roughly 4-5 of the 17 DPDP obligations end-to-end (consent management, notice manager, light DSAR intake, parental consent, and Consent Manager registration content). dcomply covers 16-17: everything above plus ROPA, DPIA, breach notification with 4-hour escalation, vendor / third-party risk, data discovery, policy generator, cross-border transfer tracker, retention automation with daily auto-delete and consent purge, SDF console (DPO appointment, additional DPIA, audit schedule), grievance officer console with DPB appeal workflow, DPDP training, and multi-model audit log with evidence export.
Yes. dcomply publishes ₹12,999 / ₹29,999 / ₹89,999 tiers on the pricing page, plus vDPO from ₹2,499/mo across four tiers. Consently's public ladder runs ₹0 / ₹25k / ₹60k / ₹1.2L/yr with per-record overages and a separate implementation ladder (₹0 to ₹99,999) and AMC ladder (₹24,999 to ₹1.5L+). Both are transparent, both are honest — the difference is what you get for the money.
Both cover all 22 Eighth Schedule languages plus English on Section 5 consent notices. The engine underneath is different: Consently uses Bhashini (the government statistical machine-translation API, generic-domain trained). dcomply uses Claude AI with legal-terminology-aware prompts and per-notice caching, which is higher accuracy on regulatory text. dcomply also ships Rule 3(2) accessibility features (audio, braille, screen-reader flags on the notice record) which is a separate DPDP obligation Consently does not surface. Coverage is the same; output quality and Rule 3(2) coverage are not.
Only if your DPDP programme genuinely stops at cookies + a rights inbox. For a small startup that will grow into ROPA, DPIA, breach handling, vendor risk, or a sector regulator (RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, CERT-In), dcomply is the cheaper long-run choice because you avoid buying and integrating 6-8 additional tools later. dcomply's Starter tier at ₹12,999 is priced to compete at the same buyer level while covering the full surface.
Consently does not publish a SOC 2 attestation, ISO 27001 certificate, subprocessor list, penetration-test attestation, or a public status page as of last check. Trust signals on their site rely on Bhashini + DigiLocker + legal-partner branding rather than security certifications. dcomply publishes a full trust surface (see /proof and /security) with ap-south-1 default hosting, EvidenceChain hash-chained event log, and named India-based operations.
Their site lists three testimonials attributed to generic names without company names, LinkedIn profiles, or logos. They advertise "1000+ businesses / 10M+ consents" — the visible source is 33 AppSumo lifetime-deal buyers (4.18★) plus free-tier signups. dcomply operates public directories with 110 verified brands (Grievance Officer + Delete My Data), plus DPDP Verified businesses and live DPB Orders tracker — every proof surface is checkable.
Blog cadence: they publish DPDP long-tail content at ~3 posts/week and own several bottom-funnel search terms (DPDP consent manager, DPDP for AI chatbots, DPDP for Shopify). Consulting packaging: they publish rupee-priced consulting bundles (₹49k / ₹1.5L / ₹3-6L) that are easy to compare. If your evaluation is dominated by search-first discovery or by comparing published consulting rate cards, they will show up more visibly.
Yes technically, but you would maintain two consent stores, two audit trails, and two vendor relationships. dcomply's consent module already covers what Consently covers (banner + purpose consent + versioned notices + parental + 23-language + DSR intake) at the same or lower total cost, so most teams that evaluate both end up consolidating on dcomply. If Consently is already deployed and switching cost is high, dual-run for a quarter is fine, then decommission.
Try dcomply for free. No credit card.
81+ modules · India-native schema · vDPO from ₹2,499/mo · Published INR pricing