Smarsh is one of the most recognized names in communications compliance. If you’re evaluating Smarsh competitors or looking for a modern Smarsh alternative for SEC or FINRA compliance, this page compares Comma Compliance and Smarsh across capture, security, pricing, and exam readiness.
At a Glance
Smarsh is an enterprise platform built for large financial institutions. It acquired TeleMessage in 2024 to power its mobile capture: the same TeleMessage that was breached in May 2025 and suspended service. Smarsh now documents that product as Capture Mobile. Comma Compliance is purpose-built for banks and broker-dealers with flat pricing, point-of-delivery capture, and open-source transparency on key capture modules.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Comma Compliance | Smarsh |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | End-to-end — capture, archive, supervision, policy matching, and exam-ready case management, with open source transparency. | Modular capture, archive, supervision, and review workflows across multiple systems |
| Built-in archive | Yes — included in platform. Option to push to 3rd party. | Yes |
| WORM storage | Yes — written at point of capture | Yes |
| iMessage capture method | Point-of-delivery — not iCloud-dependent | Via a partner, SnippetSentry, on corporate-owned and BYOD devices |
| WhatsApp capture | Yes: captures both WhatsApp Business and personal WhatsApp. Open-source. | Via Capture Mobile (formerly TeleMessage), which was breached and suspended in May 2025. Smarsh published updated Capture Mobile documentation in August 2026. |
| Signal capture | Yes — open-source capture code published on GitHub | Via Capture Mobile (formerly TeleMessage). |
| Transparency | WhatsApp, Signal and Android text messaging capture code published openly on GitHub — no NDA, no request required | Proprietary; capture methodology not publicly disclosed |
| Channels supported | 40+ channels where conversations happen: iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, SMS, Voice, Microsoft 365, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, Gmail, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, Webex, Bloomberg Chat, Salesforce, Telegram, and more | 80+ channels including email, mobile, social, voice, collaboration |
| Personal vs. business separation | Automatic contact-based filtering — personal contacts can be excluded automatically | Structural separation via separate compliant app, MDM containerization, or carrier-level capture |
| Policy processing | Yes — built in | Yes — via enterprise platform |
| Custom policy matching | Yes | Yes |
| Case management | Built for regulatory examination prep, with e-discovery for investigations that span channels, in one place | E-discovery and litigation-oriented, integrating with 3rd party Vendors. |
| AI compliance monitoring | Real-time policy scanning; human validation before escalation; no client data used for training without consent | “AI-powered supervision” |
| Data ownership | Client retains full ownership; never sold or shared outside authorized sub-processors | Enterprise terms |
| Infrastructure | AWS and Azure, multi-AZ clustering. | AWS-based |
| Pricing model | Transparent pricing, enterprise pricing available. All platforms included. No per-connector fees, no storage overages, no export fees. | Not publicly listed; enterprise contract required; per-connector add-ons common; export fees may apply per contract |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no credit card required | Not publicly offered |
Competitor feature descriptions reflect publicly available documentation and may not capture all capabilities. Information is reviewed periodically.
When Smarsh may be a better fit
- Compliance programs built around legacy supervision and review workflows
- Firms already standardized on Smarsh’s ecosystem or long-term contracts
- Teams that require tight integration with e-discovery platforms like Relativity
What Happened to Smarsh’s WhatsApp and Signal Capture
Smarsh acquired TeleMessage in February 2024 to power its WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram capture. In May 2025, a hacker breached TeleMessage’s backend in under 20 minutes. WIRED reported that the attacker got in through an unprotected server memory dump that exposed usernames, passwords, and unencrypted message content. Smarsh had owned the company for more than a year. TeleMessage suspended all services.
A CVE (CVE-2025-47729) confirmed that archived messages were stored as plaintext despite end-to-end encryption claims, and CISA added TeleMessage flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. In August 2026, Smarsh published documentation for Capture Mobile (formerly TeleMessage) that lists WhatsApp and Signal capture. That documentation does not describe what changed in the capture architecture after the breach. Our timeline of the TeleMessage breach has the full sequence.
For firms evaluating Smarsh for WhatsApp or Signal archiving today, that is a direct question worth asking before signing a contract. Ask in writing:
- Was the server that handled decrypted messages replaced, or patched?
- Does Capture Mobile still use any TeleMessage backend components?
- What independent testing covers it, and can you see the report?
Smarsh users: your archive will look different
If your Comma archive looks lower volume than your Smarsh archive, that’s not a gap. That’s the difference between capturing signal and capturing noise.
Legacy archivers built around email create duplicates by design: every reply appends the prior thread, every forward duplicates the chain. Smarsh shipped Echo Cancellation in December 2024 specifically to reduce that review load.
Comma’s architecture doesn’t create the problem in the first place.
The iMessage Capture Problem
Smarsh does not capture iMessage on its own. Its documentation says it partners with SnippetSentry to archive iMessage data from corporate-owned and BYOD devices, so iMessage capture depends on a second vendor. Comma captures at point of delivery, writing messages to WORM storage immediately, in the same platform that archives and reviews them.
See why firms switch from Smarsh to Comma.
A 20-minute walkthrough — real capture, real-time flagging, transparent pricing.
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 an 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 my policy models? (e.g., different languages, customer-complaint responses)
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Switching from Smarsh? Enterprise capabilities included.
Comma handles multi-entity broker-dealer groups, custom data residency, and dedicated implementation. The features Smarsh charges enterprise pricing for are included at Comma's flat rate.