Uprite Services leads our 2026 list of the best vCISO providers in San Antonio with a Security Lead Score of 7.53. Bridgehead IT (7.28) and 7tech (6.96) follow closely. Five firms passed our gates and were scored on November 9, 2026.
Quick picks
- Best on our numbers. Uprite Services, our own firm. We sell vCISO services in San Antonio as part of a managed plan, and our managed security services run the monitoring it relies on.
- Best for a security chief who leads during an incident. Bridgehead IT, a San Antonio firm whose Guardian service lists incident response leadership and whose page gives a yearly budget range.
- Biggest local review record. 7tech, headquartered off MacArthur View with 113 Google reviews at 5.0 and its own security operations center in San Antonio.
- Best written deliverables. GXA, whose vCISO page lists two service tiers, a CISSP-led practice and a start within two weeks.
- Longest tenure. Custom Information Services, in Texas IT since 1989, with a vCISO page written for San Antonio buyers.
We searched for “best vCISO San Antonio” and several close variants in early November. The results were mostly national lists, vendor blogs and one Canadian firm’s city pages. None of them scored San Antonio firms against anything a buyer could check. So we built one ourselves. Then we printed the math.
We used Apify to read each candidate’s own vCISO page, About page and San Antonio page on November 9, and the Google ratings came from Apify Google Maps pulls we ran for our other San Antonio lists on October 28 and November 3. Fifteen firms were candidates. Five had both a real vCISO page and a confirmed tie to the San Antonio metro, and those five were scored on the same seven criteria.
Know one thing first. This is our website. We sell vCISO services, which gives us a stake in how this comes out. So the weights, factor scores and re-runs are all printed here. Our lead is narrow. In five of the re-runs below, another firm comes first.
Why San Antonio Firms Bring In a Fractional Security Chief
Start with the local numbers. In its May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts 1,350 information security analysts in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro. Their median pay is $122,560. The same survey counts 4,090 computer and information systems managers in the metro, with a mean salary of $166,630.
Those 1,350 analysts are spread across banks, insurers, hospitals, defense contractors and the security firms that serve them. San Antonio also hosts a large military cyber presence around Joint Base San Antonio and Port San Antonio. It hires the same people. A 70-person manufacturer on the East Side or a 150-person clinic group in the Medical Center will have a hard time hiring a full-time security executive. Most don’t need one. They need a person who decides what the security program covers and checks that it gets done.
Federal rules name the role. The FTC’s Safeguards Rule at 16 CFR 314.4 covers financial businesses such as car dealers, mortgage brokers and tax preparers. Each one must name a Qualified Individual to run its security program. That person reports to the board in writing every year. Under 45 CFR 164.308, part of the HIPAA Security Rule, every covered entity and business associate must name a security official. Size doesn’t matter here. Neither rule exempts a small business from that duty.
Defense work adds a third reason, and it matters more here than in most Texas metros. The Department of Defense’s CMMC program rule took effect on December 16, 2024. The DFARS rule that puts CMMC into contracts took effect on November 10, 2025, and the requirements are phasing in over several years. A San Antonio subcontractor that handles Controlled Unclassified Information will be asked to show a working program built on NIST SP 800-171, with a named person accountable for the plan, the score the company reports to the government and the evidence behind it.
Texas has its own incentive. Senate Bill 2610 took effect on September 1, 2025. It applies to Texas companies with fewer than 250 employees, and if one of them is sued after a breach, it can avoid exemplary damages, as long as it kept a security program that follows a recognized framework at the tier for its size. Companies with 20 to 99 employees must meet CIS Controls Implementation Group 1. Companies with 100 to 249 employees need a program built to a framework such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. The law doesn’t require anything. It only helps a company that had the program in place before the breach.
The reporting deadline is short. A breach that touches 250 or more Texans has to be reported to the Texas Attorney General within 30 days of discovery. Thirty days isn’t long. Someone has to know which systems held whose data, and that work is much easier before an incident than during one.
Our cybersecurity services in San Antonio page covers the tools. This list is about the person who decides how those tools are used, who checks that the controls stay in place and who reports on all of it to the owners or the board. That’s a different job from a vCIO’s, and our guide to how a vCISO differs from a vCIO explains the split.
How We Ranked These San Antonio vCISO Providers
Each firm was scored from 0 to 10 on seven criteria. We only used public evidence, which meant the firm’s own vCISO page, its About or location pages and its Google listing. The weighted total is what we call the Security Lead Score. Nobody paid to be here. We didn’t ask any firm for numbers either. If we got something wrong, tell us. We’ll fix the score too.
Two gates came first. First, the firm’s own site needed a page about its vCISO or fractional CISO service. A passing mention didn’t count. Several good firms failed here. That doesn’t prove they can’t do the work. It means a buyer has no written promise to point to. The second gate was a tie to the San Antonio metro that we could confirm, either a street address in the metro or a San Antonio page with a local phone number. Five firms cleared both.
| Criterion | Weight | What earns points |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Google record | 15% | Stars and number of reviews on the firm’s San Antonio Google listing, with the review count scored in bands |
| 2. vCISO depth | 22% | Its own vCISO page, plus a risk assessment, written policies and program, owner or board reporting, help with vendor reviews and questionnaires, and a stated cadence or hour count |
| 3. Named-role coverage | 15% | At least three frameworks listed, a written offer to be the FTC Qualified Individual or the HIPAA security official, CMMC or NIST SP 800-171 listed, and SB 2610 discussed |
| 4. Execution behind the plan | 14% | Monitoring and managed IT run by the same company, a vCISO who takes charge during a live incident, and round-the-clock coverage or a posted response time |
| 5. San Antonio presence | 12% | A street address in the metro, a San Antonio page that names the vCISO service, and a headquarters in the metro |
| 6. Commercial transparency | 12% | A posted vCISO price or price range, a stated client size or hour count, a no-cost first assessment or call, and a stated start date or written guarantee |
| 7. Tenure and credentials | 10% | How long the firm has operated by its own account, its own SOC 2 or ISO 27001 report, and credentials of named practitioners |
One criterion favors us. It’s named-role coverage. We are the only firm of the five whose San Antonio pages address SB 2610, so we get three points there that nobody else gets. If you delete that criterion, Bridgehead IT moves to first and 7tech to second, and we fall to third. Our table below shows it. We kept the criterion because the safe harbor applies to any Texas business under 250 employees that holds sensitive personal data, which describes most of our readers, but you can judge whether it should count.
Two criteria cost us. We publish no stand-alone vCISO price, so transparency hurts our score. We’re not headquartered here either. Our head office is in Houston, and our San Antonio team works from Radium Street near the airport. 7tech and Bridgehead earn full local credit. We don’t.
The 5 Best vCISO Providers in San Antonio at a Glance
| Provider | Score | Best for | San Antonio base | Published vCISO price | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uprite Services | 7.53 | One team for the program and the controls | Radium St, near the airport | No, priced by scope | Won’t act as your Qualified Individual |
| Bridgehead IT | 7.28 | A security chief who leads during incidents | Central Pkwy S, headquarters | $40,000 to $160,000 a year, as typical cost | No written-policy deliverable named |
| 7tech | 6.96 | Local SOC and the biggest review record | MacArthur View, headquarters | No, menu pricing without figures | Frameworks barely named on the page |
| GXA | 6.02 | Detailed deliverables and a two-week start | I-10 office, Dallas headquarters | No | San Antonio listing shows no rating |
| Custom Information Services | 4.23 | Long Texas tenure | Local phone, no street address | No | Headquarters in Arlington |
The 5 Best vCISO Providers in San Antonio (2026)
1. Uprite Services, security leadership and the controls under one contract
Security Lead Score 7.53 / 10
Uprite is a managed IT and security company. We sell vCISO work as an add-on to a managed plan. The person who writes your program works with the engineers who run your monitoring, patching and backups, and when the program calls for a change, those engineers make it and save the proof with the program.
Uprite opened in 1999. Our San Antonio office is at 11831 Radium Street, and its Google listing shows 4.9 stars across 43 reviews. That’s our only listing in the metro, so there was no weaker profile to average in. Houston listings don’t count here.
- Each engagement starts with a risk review. We check it against the SB 2610 tier for your headcount.
- Our San Antonio security page names CMMC and NIST SP 800-171 readiness for defense work and HIPAA controls for clinical work, and our CMMC compliance in San Antonio page covers the assessment side.
- Our pricing page lists $40 per user per month for security-only coverage with SIEM and SOC monitoring, $100 for co-managed IT and $138 for fully managed IT.
- Every agreement carries a 120-day satisfaction guarantee. Average response time is 5 minutes.
- We hold a SOC 2 Type 1 report from 2023.
Our weak spots are real. The score shows them. No vCISO price is posted. We price the vCISO work after a scoping review. That makes it hard to compare us on price before a call. Monthly hours aren’t stated either. We don’t serve as anyone’s FTC Qualified Individual or HIPAA security official. That title stays with your company. We support the person who holds it and keep the records.
We scored incidents strictly. Our vCISO writes the incident response plan, and our incident response team handles containment. That’s a plan-level role. Bridgehead IT says its fractional CISO leads during an incident, so it got full credit on that point and we didn’t.
One conflict isn’t scored. If we are your vCISO and your IT provider, our vCISO checks work done by our own engineers. We deal with that by keeping written proof and sending the report to the owners, not to IT. Some boards would still rather have an advisor from outside. That’s a fair choice.
We fit best with a San Antonio company of 25 to 250 people that wants the security program and the tools on one contract. A defense supplier with a CMMC date coming up or a practice with a HIPAA risk analysis overdue fits well. A company with a good internal IT team that only wants an outside review fits us less well. GXA or Bridgehead may suit that buyer better.
2. Bridgehead IT, a San Antonio security chief who steps in during an incident
Security Lead Score 7.28 / 10
Bridgehead IT is headquartered at 1355 Central Parkway South, and its Google listing shows 4.8 stars across 70 reviews. Its fractional CISO service is sold as Bridgehead Guardian, which the firm calls CISO as a Service. A separate service called Watchtower provides its security operations center.
The Guardian page lists a cybersecurity roadmap, compliance and risk oversight for CMMC, HIPAA and NIST, incident response leadership, security awareness training and quarterly strategy reviews. A longer page on fractional CISO work describes how an engagement runs. Assessment comes first. Quarterly strategic planning meetings and monthly tactical meetings follow, with on-demand help for cyber insurance applications and incident response leadership during an event, which no other firm here says its vCISO provides.
Bridgehead also gives a budget figure. Most firms here don’t. Its fractional CISO page says the annual cost typically ranges from $40,000 to $160,000, depending on size, maturity and regulation. That works out to roughly $3,300 to $13,300 a month. It’s a typical range rather than a price list, but it’s more than the other four firms publish.
The firm earned ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, announced in December 2025. Its About page says it offers month-to-month agreements. Its own site shows staff who joined in 2009, so the firm has been operating for at least 17 years.
Some things cost it. Neither Bridgehead page names a written security program or policy set as a deliverable. It names three frameworks but says nothing about SB 2610. No Qualified Individual offer appears. No free consultation is advertised. Delete our named-role criterion and Bridgehead moves to first place. A price-first buyer would also rank it first, by four hundredths of a point.
Bridgehead suits a San Antonio company that wants a local, certified firm and a security leader who takes charge when something goes wrong. If your auditor’s first request is a policy binder, ask Bridgehead to show you a sample before you sign.
3. 7tech, a local security operations center and the biggest review record
Security Lead Score 6.96 / 10
7tech sits at 2544 MacArthur View, near the airport, and has the largest Google record of any firm here, with 5.0 stars across 113 reviews. Nobody else here comes close. Neal Juern started the company in March 2012 as Juern Technology, a one-person shop in San Antonio, and it took the 7tech name in July 2023 after eleven years under the old one. It runs its own security operations center in San Antonio and says it never outsources security work.
Its service has two names. One page calls it a virtual Chief Security Officer, or vCSO, and covers physical security as well as data security. That page lists monthly IT security meetings, quarterly vulnerability scans, an executive leadership meeting, annual policy reviews, third-party penetration testing and representation during insurance and regulatory audits, which covers most of what an insurer or a prime contractor asks to see each year. A second page, titled vCISO, says its CMMC preparedness vCISO has helped more than 80 clients reach audit readiness and offers a 60-day satisfaction guarantee.
The firm’s About page lists five MSP 501 awards, most recently in 2026, and a place on the 2025 CRN Security 100. It also reports a 97.4% customer satisfaction rating for 2025.
Named roles hurt it most. The vCISO pages we read name CMMC and mention HIPAA in client stories, and they don’t list a broader framework set. We found no mention of SB 2610 or the Qualified Individual role. The page mentions menu pricing. No figures appear. We also didn’t find a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 report for 7tech itself. A buyer who wants a San Antonio headquarters and the largest review record would rank 7tech first.
7tech is a strong call for a San Antonio defense supplier working toward CMMC that wants its security team, monitoring and vCISO in one local building. If your regulator asks for a written framework map, ask 7tech to show one at the first meeting.
4. GXA, the most detailed vCISO page we read
Security Lead Score 6.02 / 10
GXA is headquartered in Dallas and has a San Antonio office on the I-10 frontage at 7550 Interstate 10. It says it has been in business in Texas for more than 21 years. It holds a SOC 2 Type II attestation and ISO 9001 certification, and its security practice is led by CEO George Makaye, a CISSP.
GXA sells its vCISO service in two tiers, gShield vCISO Basic and gShield vCISO Compliance. Every deliverable is named. They include a 12-month security roadmap, a written information security program, an annual risk assessment and risk register, an incident response plan with tabletop exercises, quarterly security reviews, board reporting, vendor risk reviews, answers to customer security questionnaires and oversight of penetration tests. The compliance tier covers HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI DSS, CMMC, NIST SP 800-171, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, ISO 27001 and GDPR, and it uses Vanta or SecureFrame for evidence.
The page says most engagements begin within two weeks of signing and that a 30-minute discovery call is free. It targets 20 to 500 employees. A 24/7 security operations center running GXA’s managed detection and response sits under the vCISO.
Two things held GXA back. The Google listing for its San Antonio office showed no rating in our pull, which zeroed the review factor even though the office itself is real and sits on the I-10 frontage. GXA also has no page written for San Antonio. It lists a Dallas phone. With a perfect Google record, GXA would score 7.52, one hundredth behind us. That’s nearly a tie. The same scoring ranks GXA first for a buyer who wants advisory work only, and first on the board that counts only what each vCISO page says.
GXA fits a mid-size San Antonio company that wants the most clearly documented vCISO deliverables and doesn’t mind a Dallas-based team. It’s especially strong for a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 project, because GXA has been through its own audit.
5. Custom Information Services, 1989 roots and a page for San Antonio buyers
Security Lead Score 4.23 / 10
CustomIS, short for Custom Information Services, has done IT work in Texas since 1989. Its headquarters is at 1201 North Watson Road in Arlington. It has a San Antonio phone number, (210) 972-3111, and a vCISO page written for San Antonio and Bexar County. Its San Antonio pages also cover New Braunfels, San Marcos and Schertz.
That page covers security strategy, risk management and compliance, oversight of the incident response plan, security architecture, awareness training and reporting to executives and the board. It names HIPAA, GDPR, CMMC, NIST, PCI DSS and SOC 2, and it mentions policy development and vendor risk assessments. A free call is offered. It also runs 24/7 support.
Its score is low. Each reason is checkable. CustomIS publishes no San Antonio street address, and our Maps pull found no San Antonio Google listing under its name, so the review factor scored zero and local presence earned only the points for its San Antonio page. No price or hours appear. Its vCISO oversees the incident plan, per the page, rather than running the response. We found no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 report for the firm itself.
CustomIS is worth a call if tenure matters most to you and you’re comfortable with a team based outside the metro. Ask who your vCISO would be. Ask where that person works.
How the Ranking Moves Under Different Weights
Every ranking depends on weights. We re-ran ours several ways so you can see where our lead holds and where it doesn’t.
| Re-run | First | Second | Where Uprite lands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drop any one criterion except named roles | Uprite Services (7.20 to 8.01) | Bridgehead IT or GXA | 1st in six of seven |
| Drop named-role coverage | Bridgehead IT 7.86 | 7tech 7.84 | 3rd |
| All seven criteria weighted equally | Uprite Services 7.38 | Bridgehead IT 7.12 | 1st |
| Defense supplier facing CMMC | Uprite Services 7.52 | Bridgehead IT 6.97 | 1st |
| Already has an MSP, wants advisory only | GXA 7.60 | Uprite Services 6.92 | 2nd |
| Price-first buyer | Bridgehead IT 6.68 | Uprite Services 6.64 | 2nd |
| Wants a San Antonio headquarters and a big review record | 7tech 10.00 | Bridgehead IT 8.27 | 3rd at 8.21 |
| Only what each vCISO page says | GXA 7.18 | Uprite Services 6.86 | 2nd |
We also tried random weights. Uprite won 5,469 of 10,000 sets. Bridgehead IT won 1,940, 7tech won 1,729 and GXA won 862. That’s a lead. It isn’t a landslide.
A skeptic should look at the page-only row. It ignores reviews, offices and tenure and scores only what each vCISO page promises. GXA wins it because its page is the most complete of the five. If you only care about what’s in writing, start there.
Firms We Checked but Did Not Rank
Ten more firms came up in searches and didn’t make the list. GuardsArm has a San Antonio vCISO page, but it is one of more than 60 nearly identical city pages across the United States and Canada, and we found no San Antonio office. Calvetti Ferguson had a San Antonio vCISO page, but that address now redirects to Cherry Bekaert’s June 2026 announcement that it acquired the firm. That page is gone.
Mandry Technology is headquartered in Lubbock and has a San Antonio service hub on Hardy Oak Boulevard. Its homepage lists SOC 2 Type II work, a 24/7 security operations center and virtual CIO advisory. The San Antonio cybersecurity page that mentioned vCISO guidance now returns an error, and we found no other vCISO page on its site, though the firm may still sell the work under another name. Infonaligy has an office in New Braunfels and a useful guide to vCISO costs, but we found no vCISO service page.
We also checked the sitemaps of well-known San Antonio IT firms. TechSage Solutions, Computer Solutions, SecureTech and Digital Fire Team showed no vCISO or fractional CISO page. Computer Solutions has an excellent Google record of 5.0 across 116 reviews, and TechSage is strong on CMMC. Integris and CMIT Solutions both have San Antonio pages, but the pages we read named no vCISO service. They may still offer it. Ask them directly.
How to Choose a vCISO Provider in San Antonio
Begin with ownership. Decide who in your company will hold the named security role, and whether that person sits on your payroll or the provider’s, because that one decision changes which of these five firms can help you. Under the Safeguards Rule, an outside provider can be the Qualified Individual only if your company stays responsible, a senior employee oversees the provider and the provider keeps its own security program. None of the five firms here offers to take that role in writing.
Most San Antonio buyers fall into one of four groups.
- A defense subcontractor near Port San Antonio or Lackland needs a NIST SP 800-171 program, a score in the Supplier Performance Risk System and evidence for a CMMC assessment.
- A medical, dental or behavioral health practice in the Medical Center needs a named HIPAA security official and a current risk analysis.
- A dealership, lender or tax office needs a Qualified Individual and an annual written report to its board or owner.
- A 100-person company with no regulator may only want the SB 2610 protection before its next insurance renewal. If you are not sure you need a vCISO at all, read whether a San Antonio small business needs a vCISO.
All five firms name CMMC, and Uprite, 7tech and GXA describe that work in the most detail, so the first group should start with them. The second and third groups need a vCISO who will work beside a named internal officer, which any of the top four can do. The fourth group should compare price first. Only Bridgehead gives a range.
Take these five questions to the first call.
- Who would our vCISO be, and what certifications does that person have?
- How many hours or meetings a month are included?
- Will you take a named role, in the contract?
- Who puts in the controls you recommend, and what proof will we see?
- What will the second year cost?
Write the answers down. Compare them side by side.
Budget is the hard part. Four of the five firms post no number. Bridgehead’s typical range of $40,000 to $160,000 a year is the only local figure. The BLS mean salary for an IT manager in the San Antonio metro is $166,630 before benefits. A fractional engagement buys part of that role. Our guide to vCISO cost in San Antonio shows how monthly retainers are built. Our guide to cybersecurity cost in San Antonio covers the tools side of the budget. Our ranking of the best cybersecurity companies in San Antonio covers the firms that run those tools.
Before signing, ask each firm for a sample board report with names removed. A vCISO who has written several will have one ready.
Our Verdict
Uprite Services ranks first on our scoring. We fit best when one team should write the security program and also run the controls. We earned that on program depth, named-role coverage and execution. We lost points on price transparency, local headquarters and incident leadership. Those losses are real. Our lead over Bridgehead IT is a quarter of a point.
If you want a San Antonio firm whose security chief leads during an incident, call Bridgehead IT. If a local operations center and a long review record matter most, call 7tech. If you already have an IT provider and want the most detailed written deliverables, GXA is the one to call. Whoever you hire, get the hours, any named role and the proof of work written into the contract. A healthcare buyer can also read our HIPAA cybersecurity services in San Antonio page for the controls side.
Who owns security at your company right now?
Send us the last security questionnaire a customer gave you, or your latest cyber insurance application. We’ll mark each answer that has an owner and proof, and list the gaps we’d fix first. There’s no commitment.
Talk to a vCISOSan Antonio vCISO Questions We Hear Most
Who is the best vCISO provider in San Antonio?
On our Security Lead Score, Uprite Services ranks first at 7.53, followed by Bridgehead IT at 7.28 and 7tech at 6.96.
The lead is narrow. If the named-role criterion is removed, Bridgehead IT ranks first. A buyer who wants only advisory work would rank GXA first. Our table shows every re-run.
What do San Antonio vCISO providers charge?
Bridgehead IT puts typical fractional CISO costs at $40,000 to $160,000 a year, about $3,300 to $13,300 a month, and the other four firms quote by scope.
Uprite, 7tech, GXA and CustomIS post no stand-alone vCISO price. For scale, the BLS mean salary for an IT manager in the San Antonio metro is $166,630 before benefits. Ask every firm how many hours or meetings the monthly fee includes.
Can an outside vCISO serve as our Safeguards Rule Qualified Individual?
Yes, if your company stays responsible for compliance, names a senior employee to oversee the provider and requires the provider to keep its own security program.
Those conditions come from 16 CFR 314.4. None of the five firms on this list offers the role in writing. We work with the person you choose and keep that person’s records.
Do San Antonio defense contractors need a vCISO for CMMC?
CMMC doesn’t require a vCISO, but a contractor handling Controlled Unclassified Information needs someone accountable for its NIST SP 800-171 program and assessment evidence.
The DFARS rule that puts CMMC into contracts took effect on November 10, 2025, with requirements phasing in over several years. For a small supplier near Joint Base San Antonio, a vCISO is one way to fill that role without a full-time hire.
Is a cybersecurity program required by Texas law?
No, but SB 2610 gives most small Texas businesses a reason to have one.
A Texas company with fewer than 250 employees can avoid exemplary damages after a breach if its program met the right framework tier. The tier depends on headcount, and a firm with 100 to 249 employees needs a full framework such as NIST CSF. If 250 or more Texans are affected, the company must still tell the Attorney General within 30 days.
Can you trust a list written by the firm ranked first?
You can check it yourself, because every weight, factor score and re-run is on this page.
We set the criteria first. Two of them cost us points. We published five re-runs where another firm wins. Every fact about another firm came from its own website or its Google listing in early November 2026. Tell us if something is wrong. We’ll rescore it.
