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What is Smarsh?
Smarsh has served customers since 2001 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Its platform supports communications capture, archiving, surveillance and discovery for regulated organizations.
Smarsh Enterprise Platform captures, archives, governs, surveils and discovers communications across more than 100 channels, including email, mobile messaging, social platforms, collaboration tools, video and voice. Its main applications include Capture, Enterprise Archive, Conduct and Discovery, with Professional Archive positioned for smaller or business deployments. The platform centralizes communications for retention, supervision, investigations and legal response. Teams can select applications around capture, archiving, supervision and discovery while retaining a common communications record for investigations and ongoing compliance work.
Enterprise Archive provides immutable WORM retention, unified search, legal holds, export, e-discovery and chain-of-custody controls. Smarsh documents support for SEC Rule 17a-4, FINRA, FCA and MiFID II requirements, while Conduct uses AI, machine learning and lexicon-based surveillance to identify risk and conduct anomalies. Broad coverage can increase implementation and governance requirements. Its scope centers on communications governance rather than broad enterprise compliance, so requirements outside message retention, review and investigation need separate evaluation.
Smarsh targets regulated enterprises with complex communications estates, especially financial institutions, insurers, advisers and public-sector organizations. Pricing is quote-based and may include platform, content-usage, functionality, implementation and professional-services fees. AWS Marketplace lists a $25,000 annual minimum platform fee for Cloud Capture plus a required per-user, per-year content SKU. The AWS figure covers a platform minimum rather than a complete deployment, because content subscriptions and other selected services add to the final cost.
Key features
Multichannel capture
Captures email, mobile and text messages, social, instant messaging, collaboration, video and voice communications across more than 100 channels.
Enterprise archiving
Stores communications in a cloud archive with immutable WORM retention and support for regulated retention requirements.
Communications surveillance
Uses AI, machine learning, lexicons and conduct-anomaly monitoring to identify risk and triage supervision alerts.
Unified search
Provides searchable access across archived communications for compliance reviews, investigations and operational oversight.
Legal holds
Supports custodian-based legal holds, targeted collection, export and chain-of-custody workflows for e-discovery.
Regulatory retention
Supports SEC Rule 17a-4, FINRA, FCA and MiFID II retention and supervision requirements.
Voice compliance
CallCabinet adds compliant call recording, voice analytics, voice surveillance and voice insights.
Smarsh pricing
Vendr lists observed annual contracts from $3,288 to $131,276, with a $22,759 typical contract value; these are third-party benchmarks, not published entry plans. AWS Marketplace lists a $25,000 annual Cloud Capture platform minimum plus required per-user content subscriptions. Smarsh sets customer-specific fees in an order form, including selected services and implementation.
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Capture | From $25,000/yr platform feeAWS Marketplace minimum platform fee; content SKU is additional. | Cloud Capture platform access, plus required per-user, per-year content SKU |
| Enterprise Platform | Custom | Capture, Archive, Conduct and Discovery capabilities configured for enterprise communications compliance |
| Professional Archive | Custom | Archive capabilities for smaller or business deployments |
Free trial: A free trial is available only when specified in an Order Form or Service Subscription Form; the default term is 30 days when no other term is stated.
Pros & cons
Pros
- Supports more than 100 communications channels across text, social, collaboration, video, voice and email.
- Combines immutable archiving, surveillance and e-discovery in one enterprise platform.
- Documents support for SEC Rule 17a-4, FINRA, FCA and MiFID II requirements.
- CallCabinet and TeleMessage extend voice, mobile messaging and carrier-direct capture coverage.
Cons
- Pricing is not publicly standardized and may add usage, implementation, functionality and professional-services fees.
- The AWS Marketplace minimum requires an additional per-user, per-year content SKU.
- Broad channel coverage can require substantial implementation and communications-source governance.
- AI surveillance and alert triage require compliance teams to define lexicons, policies and review processes.
Who is Smarsh best for?
- Financial institutions supervising high volumes of regulated communications across multiple channels.
- Broker-dealers and investment advisers needing retention aligned with SEC, FINRA, FCA or MiFID II requirements.
- Compliance teams combining communications archiving with conduct surveillance and alert triage.
- Legal and investigation teams requiring centralized search, legal holds, targeted collection and export.
Frameworks and use cases
Integrations
Notable customers
Frequently asked questions
How much does Smarsh cost?
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Smarsh uses quote-based pricing, with fees set in an Order Form and potentially separated into platform, content usage, added functionality, implementation and professional services. AWS Marketplace lists a $25,000 annual minimum platform fee for Cloud Capture, plus a required per-user, per-year content SKU; Vendr reports a $22,759 annual contract benchmark.
How long does it take to implement Smarsh?
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Implementation time depends on the number of communication channels, retention policies, users and regulatory requirements in scope. The commercial terms separately identify implementation and professional services, so deployment planning is part of the customer order rather than a fixed product timeline.
How does Smarsh compare with Global Relay?
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Both products address regulated communications capture, archiving and supervision for financial-services organizations. Smarsh documents more than 100 channel types, integrated Conduct and Discovery applications, and expanded voice and mobile coverage through CallCabinet and TeleMessage.
Which integrations does Smarsh support?
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Documented examples include Zoom, Slack, Bloomberg Chat, WhatsApp, Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and Webex. The supported set varies by communications source and product configuration.
Who is Smarsh designed for?
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Smarsh is designed for regulated enterprises, especially banks, brokerages, insurers, registered investment advisers and public-sector organizations. Professional Archive is positioned for smaller or business deployments, while Enterprise Platform targets complex, multichannel compliance programs.
Is Smarsh secure and accurate for regulatory supervision?
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The platform describes encryption in transit and at rest, geographically dispersed availability zones, data-residency support and 99.99% site availability. Its archive supports immutable WORM retention, while surveillance accuracy depends on configured lexicons, models, policies and human review.
Sources
Facts and pricing verified on October 19, 2026. Vendors change pricing often, so confirm with Smarsh before buying. How we research
