Turret vs Smarsh for small RIAs
Smarsh captures 100+ channels, texts included, and quotes its price on request. Turret covers email and your website only, at a published price.
$99/mo for 5 mailboxes · no setup fee · 15-day free trial
Built by an RIA, run on our own firm's mail.
Smarsh vs Turret
| Smarsh | Turret | |
|---|---|---|
| Published price | ||
| States its setup fee up front | ||
| Works with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 | ||
| Captures texts and chat apps |
✗ means not stated on the pages we cite (setup fee: not that one is charged). Sources
Get the one-page recordkeeping checklist
What to keep, and what examiners have asked for, sourced to Rule 204-2, Rule 206(4)-7 and SEC risk alerts.
PDF, one page. No email address needed, so nothing follows.
A queue for your reviewer, not a pile
Turret archives email and your website, and triages flagged outbound mail with AI so your reviewer works a queue, not a pile.
The details
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The short answer
Smarsh captures 100+ channels, including texts and WhatsApp, and quotes its price on request.[3][4][5] Turret covers email on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 plus your website, at $99 a month for 5 monitored mailboxes, before tax. If your advisers text clients, Smarsh covers that and Turret does not.
Competitor information on this page comes from the cited public sources as of October 17, 2026. Check the vendor for current terms.
Turret archives email and your website, and triages flagged outbound mail with AI so your reviewer works a queue, not a pile.
What this means for your firm
- Turret builds its archive from your mailboxes, not from Smarsh. Texts and chat held only in Smarsh stay there, so ask for an export before the account closes.
- If your advisers do not text clients, your policy prohibits it, and your supervised scope is email and a website, Smarsh's other channels are coverage you wouldn't use.
- Billing follows monitored mailboxes, not users or archive volume, and adding a mailbox never caps coverage.
See Turret's price at your own mailbox count: use the archiving cost calculator.
Looking for a Smarsh alternative for a small RIA?
Smarsh's page for advisers addresses firms "whether you're a solo adviser or managing a multi-location practice."[2] So this is not a large vendor set against a small one. It is a very wide scope set against a narrow one. Every Smarsh figure and quotation below carries a numbered source, and the sources list says whether the vendor or a third party wrote it.
| Topic | Smarsh (as of October 17, 2026) | Turret |
|---|---|---|
| Published price | Not published for the service itself. Pages checked offer "Get a quote," "Talk to an expert," and "See a Demo."[2][3] Vendr, a third party, writes that Smarsh pricing "is not published transparently."[1] See the price section below for Vendr's estimate. | Email: $99 a month for 5 monitored mailboxes, $25 for each additional one. Published on the site. |
| Setup fee | Not published on the Smarsh pages we checked: they neither list a setup fee nor say there is none.[2][3] | No setup fee. |
| Contract term | Its posted services agreement renews in successive 12-month terms; the initial term is set by the order form, which is not published on Smarsh's adviser or SMB pages.[14][2][3] Vendr: "Enterprise contracts typically include multi-year commitments (often 3 years)."[1] | Monthly or annual billing, cancel anytime, effective at the end of the paid period. |
| Trial or way to start | Calls to action are "Talk to an expert," "See a Demo," "Contact Sales," and "Get a quote." No trial is stated.[2][3][11] | 15-day free trial, card entered at the end of setup. |
| Channels | "100+ channels including email, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Slack, Zoom, social media, and more."[4] | Email and your public website. Nothing else. |
| Text and mobile messaging | SMS, MMS, WhatsApp Business, WeChat, Telegram, native mobile voice calls, and iMessage "where supported," on corporate-owned and BYOD devices.[5] | None. No texts, WhatsApp, or iMessage. |
| Chat and voice | Teams, Slack, Zoom, Webex, Symphony, Instant Bloomberg, RingCentral, and others;[6] calls across Zoom, Teams, network carriers, and legacy PBX, as searchable transcripts.[8] | None. |
| Email platforms | Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace; "journal capture and other supported integrations as messages are sent and received."[7] | Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Sent and received mail is archived, Trash included. Spam, drafts, and chats are not. |
| Website archive | "Archive a web page or full site, and third-party links."[9] | Archives your firm's own website. |
| Marketing review | Smarsh's SEC Marketing Rule page says "Smarsh makes compliance easier with solutions that support the full lifecycle of marketing communications" and lists "Review and supervise testimonials, performance claims, and ratings." It does not name a review workflow product or tier.[13] | A Marketing Rule workflow: submission, AI pre-screen, approval. Sold as its own product or with Email. |
| Archive standard | The platform "supports immutable WORM storage for SEC 17a-4, configurable legal holds, and defensible deletion."[10] | Built for Advisers Act Rule 204-2, not Rule 17a-4. No WORM claim. A SHA-256 hash per archived message and append-only audit tables. Retention is a policy: 7 years, while you subscribe. |
| Supervision | "Intelligent Supervision" is in the small-firm offer;[3] Smarsh describes supervision that "detects market abuse patterns."[2] | Outbound mail only: 15 patterns (14 on by default), AI triage with confidence and reasoning, a reviewer queue. Inbound is archived, not reviewed. Attachments are archived with their name, type and size, but the text inside them is not scanned. |
| Data export | "Free, self-service data export ... without barriers or hidden fees."[12] | Export is operator-run, on request. |
| Scale and recognition | Smarsh states "A 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for digital communications governance and archiving solutions" and "trusted by over 6,500 customers globally."[11] Smarsh's statements. | No analyst recognition. No claim of scale. |
Smarsh beside Turret, in detail
| Topic | Smarsh | Turret |
|---|---|---|
| Published price | Smarsh Not published on the pages we cite; they say "Get a quote" a b | Turret $99/mo for 5 mailboxes |
| Setup fee | Smarsh Not published on the pages we cite a b | Turret None |
| Contract length | Smarsh Per order form; posted agreement (v0124) renews in 12-month terms c | Turret Monthly or annual; cancel anytime, effective at period end |
| Free trial | Smarsh Not published on the pages we cite a b | Turret 15-day free trial |
| Self-serve setup | Smarsh Not published; SMB page says its experts handle deployment b | Turret Yes, a setup wizard; no sales call |
| Built for small firms | Smarsh Has an SMB offer; serves solo advisers to multi-location firms a b | Turret Built for 2–20 person RIAs |
| Marketing review | Smarsh Says it helps review testimonials, performance claims, ratings d | Turret Separate Marketing plan, $99/mo; both in Complete |
| Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 | Smarsh Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace both listed e | Turret Both |
Sources for this table
- Smarsh, RIA Compliance Software & Solutions (smarsh.com)
- Smarsh, Compliance Solutions for SMB (smarsh.com)
- Smarsh Services Agreement (posted PDF, file v0124)
- Smarsh, SEC Marketing Rule (Rule 206(4)-1) page (smarsh.com)
- Smarsh, Email channel page (smarsh.com)
Price: what is published, and what is not
Smarsh does not state a price for its service on any page we checked.[2][3][10][11] That describes the pages, not the price. A quote may be reasonable for the firm that asks for one.
One other source puts numbers on cost, and it has limits. Vendr's page, labeled last updated February 2026, says pricing "varies significantly based on several factors" and gives "typically ranging from $8 to $35+ per user per month." That is Vendr's estimate, not a Smarsh price. Vendr does not say what a firm of two to twenty would be quoted, and its multi-year contract line concerns enterprise contracts.[1]
We do not turn any of these figures into a monthly total, and we do not claim Turret is cheaper. The narrower fact is that Turret's price is on its pricing page and Smarsh's is not on its pages.
Choose Smarsh if
Your advisers text clients, or use WhatsApp, WeChat, or iMessage for client business. Smarsh states it captures these, on corporate-owned and BYOD devices, where supported (see the table).[5] Turret does not capture any of it. Whether a message type is a business communication your firm must keep is a judgment for your CCO and counsel. If the answer is yes for texts, Turret is not enough on its own, and no amount of email review changes that.
You supervise chat and voice. Teams, Slack, Zoom, and recorded calls are in Smarsh's capture list.[6][8] Turret does not capture any of it: no chat and no calls, only email and a website.
You are dually registered, or have broker-dealer obligations. Smarsh states support for WORM storage for SEC 17a-4.[10] Rule 17a-4 is a broker-dealer rule. Turret is built for Advisers Act Rule 204-2 and makes no 17a-4 claim.
You are larger than 20 people. Smarsh says it serves firms from a solo adviser to a multi-location practice.[2] Turret is built for two to twenty and claims no scale beyond that.
You want the analyst recognition Smarsh states. Smarsh says it is a 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader.[11] That is Smarsh's statement. Turret has no analyst recognition.
You want a person to scope it. Smarsh's route in is a conversation: "Talk to an expert."[3] For a complicated environment, that is a reasonable way to buy.
You want self-service export in writing. Smarsh publishes a Data Freedom Guarantee with free, self-service export.[12] Turret's export is operator-run, on request, and Turret has not published a fee or turnaround for it.
Choose Turret if
Your supervision scope is email and your website, and you decided that deliberately. Turret archives sent and received mail on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, and your public site. If your advisers do not text clients and your firm's policy prohibits it, the other channels are coverage your firm would not use.
You want to read the price before you talk to anyone. Email is $99 a month for 5 monitored mailboxes, then $25 for each additional one. You can start without a call.
You want outbound review that stays quiet. Turret matches outbound mail against 15 patterns, 14 on by default, and a model triages each alert with a confidence level and its reasoning, so a reviewer opens a queue rather than a pile. Inbound mail is archived, not reviewed.
You want a flat, mailbox-based bill. Billing counts monitored mailboxes, not users and not archive volume, and coverage is never capped when a firm adds one.
What switching involves
Turret archives from your mail platform, not from another archive. Records that exist only in Smarsh, such as text messages or chat, stay in Smarsh. If you leave Smarsh, keep its archive for as long as your own retention policy requires, and ask for an export before the account closes. Smarsh states that export is free and self-service.[12] How far back Turret archives depends on the stage of your account, trial or paid. Retention is a policy (7 years, while you subscribe); it is not a statement of how much history your archive holds, which depends on what your mailboxes held.
Where Turret fits
Turret is the right size for a small adviser whose compliance program is email and a website. Stored credentials are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, the database platform encrypts data at rest, and traffic uses TLS. See pricing, email compliance, website archiving, Marketing Rule review, and security for the detail.
To try it, start the 15-day free trial; the card is entered at the end of setup. You can also ask a person first: Talk to us.
Sources
Checked October 17, 2026. "Vendor" means published by Smarsh; "third party" means not published by Smarsh.
- Smarsh (Vendr listing; per-user estimates, not published by Smarsh) Third party; Vendr's estimates, last updated February 2026.
- Smarsh, RIA Compliance Software & Solutions (smarsh.com) Vendor.
- Smarsh, Compliance Solutions for SMB (smarsh.com) Vendor.
- Smarsh, Investment Advisers Act Rule 204-2 page (smarsh.com) Vendor.
- Smarsh, Mobile channel page (smarsh.com) Vendor.
- Smarsh, IM & Collaboration channel page (smarsh.com) Vendor.
- Smarsh, Email channel page (smarsh.com) Vendor.
- Smarsh, Voice channel page (smarsh.com) Vendor.
- Smarsh, Web channel page (smarsh.com) Vendor.
- Smarsh, Archive page (smarsh.com) Vendor.
- Smarsh home page (smarsh.com) Vendor; the Gartner and customer-count statements are Smarsh's own claims.
- Smarsh blog, Breaking Vendor Lock-In (Sept 11, 2025) Vendor.
- Smarsh, SEC Marketing Rule (Rule 206(4)-1) page (smarsh.com) Vendor.
- Smarsh Services Agreement (posted PDF, file v0124) Vendor.
Competitor information is from the cited public sources as of October 17, 2026; check the vendor for current terms.
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