Vendor Comparison

Comma Compliance vs. FirmScribe

FirmScribe is a mobile message capture platform focused on iMessage, WhatsApp, and Android for financial services firms. If you're evaluating mobile capture for compliance, it may be on your list. Here's how Comma Compliance compares across architecture, channel coverage, and exam readiness.

At a Glance

FirmScribe is a capture-only layer. It captures iMessage, WhatsApp, and Android messages and routes them to a third-party archive of your choice. It has no built-in archive, no supervision, no policy matching, and no case management.

Comma Compliance is an end-to-end solution: capture, archive, supervision, policy matching, and exam-ready case management across 30+ channels, at a flat per-user price.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature

Comma Compliance

FirmScribe

Architecture

End-to-end — capture, archive, supervision, policy matching, and exam-ready case management, with open source transparency.

Capture-only — routes messages to a third-party archive.

Built-in archive

Yes — included in platform

No — exports to a third-party archive.

WORM storage

Yes — written at point of capture

Dependent on third-party archive

iMessage capture method

Point-of-delivery — not iCloud-dependent

Capture methodology not publicly detailed; offers all-threads or business-threads-only mode

WhatsApp capture

Captures both WhatsApp Business and personal WhatsApp

WhatsApp Business and personal; all threads or business threads only

Signal capture

Yes — open-source capture code published on GitHub

Not supported

Transparency

WhatsApp and Signal capture code published openly on GitHub — no NDA, no request required

Proprietary; capture methodology not publicly disclosed

Channels supported

30+ channels where conversatiosn happen: iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, SMS, Voice, Microsoft 365, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, Gmail, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, Webex, Bloomberg Chat, Salesforce, Telegram, and more.

iMessage, WhatsApp, WhatsApp Business, Android SMS

Pricing model

Flat monthly pricing, all platforms included, no per-connector fees, free unlimited exports

Not publicly listed; quote required

Free trial

Yes

Not publicly offered

Personal vs. business separation

Automatic contact-based filtering — personal contacts can be excluded automatically

User-tagged — employees manually tag business threads; or all threads captured

Policy processing

Yes — built in

Not supported

Custom policy matching

Yes

Not supported

Case management

Exam-ready — built for regulatory examination prep

None

AI compliance monitoring

Real-time policy scanning; human validation before escalation; no client data used for training without consent

Not supported

Data ownership

Client retains full ownership; never sold or shared outside authorized sub-processors

Routed to customer's designated archive

When FirmScribe may be a better fit

The Archive Gap

FirmScribe captures messages and routes them to whichever third-party archive the customer designates. This requires two vendors, one for capture and one for archival.

Channel Coverage

FirmScribe supports three channels: iMessage, WhatsApp, and Android SMS. Comma Compliance covers 30+ channels in a single platform at a flat price.

Book a Demo or learn more here.

Due Diligence

Questions to Ask Any Compliance Vendor

01

Where exactly is the message first captured — at the point of delivery, or after a backup or sync cycle?

02

What conditions must be true for a message to be captured? What happens if any of those conditions aren't met?

03

If a user edits or deletes a message before capture occurs, what version gets archived?

04

Can you show documentation — architecture diagrams, code, or independent audit — of how your capture actually works?

05

Where are encryption keys stored, and who controls them?

06

Are all channels included in the base price, or are there per-connector fees?

07

Are there export or egress fees?

08

Does your case management workflow support regulatory examination prep?

09

Can cases be opened directly from flagged message threads?

10

Is any client data used to train your models? Under what conditions?

11

Can we adjust, refine, or contribute feedback to the detection models?

Also compare

Global Relay Alternative

Global Relay offers enterprise capabilities lacks support for Signal.

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SnippetSentry Alternative

SnippetSentry requires a separate archive and acts as a capture model only.

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Smarsh Alternative

Smarsh offers enterprise scale but has known gaps in WhatsApp and Signal capture.

See full comparison →

Security

Full security details →

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