Is FloQast's policy gate any more open than BlackLine's?

No. Both keep the chokepoint code proprietary as the compliance moat. FloQast's UI and workflow surface are different from BlackLine's — but the audit-defensibility question is the same: your auditor reads the vendor's documentation, not the source.

What's FloQast's per-seat pricing actually look like?

Typically $50–$150 per finance-team-seat per month, with implementation services on top. A 15-FTE finance team at $100/seat × 12 = $18K/yr in license alone, plus $30K-$80K implementation. closegate's ~$28K year-1 includes everything including ongoing API.

Can we migrate from FloQast to closegate?

Yes; the typical migration path is (1) export your existing reconciliation data + policy thresholds, (2) stand up closegate locally with that data, (3) port the thresholds to policy.yaml, (4) parallel-run for one close cycle, (5) cut over. Most teams take 6-12 weeks. The audit log doesn't migrate (it stays with FloQast); closegate's audit log starts fresh from cutover.

closegate vs FloQast — open-source policy gate vs mid-market close SaaS

FloQast is the mid-market close-cycle SaaS standard — popular with 50-500-person finance teams that find BlackLine too enterprise-heavy and full-stack ERPs (NetSuite, Sage Intacct) too operational. closegate is the open-source policy chokepoint that sits underneath any close-cycle workflow. Different layer, different problem.

The shape of each product

FloQast is a close-task-workflow SaaS. You get a polished accountant-facing UI for close-cycle task lists, a reconciliation matching engine, certifications workflow, intercompany handling, and account-flux analytics. It’s well-designed for the mid-market (5-15 FTE finance teams) and integrates cleanly with NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, Xero.

closegate is a policy-gate primitive: SoD enforcement, materiality routing, sensitive-account flagging, tamper-evident audit log. It ships an MCP server for AI-agent integration. It is not a close-cycle product — it’s the controls layer underneath one.

TCO comparison

For a 15-FTE mid-market SaaS finance team:

Cost line	FloQast	closegate
License	$40K–$90K/yr	$0
Implementation	$30K–$80K	$16K
Compute / API	included	~$12K
SOC 2 evidence prep	vendor-attested	included
Year-1 total	$70K–$170K	$28K
Year 2+	$40K–$90K/yr	~$12K/yr

Where FloQast wins

Close-task-workflow UI. FloQast’s accountant-facing UI is significantly more polished than closegate’s spartan workspace. If your team includes non-technical staff who’ll be in the close-cycle UI daily, FloQast wins on the experience.
Certifications module. FloQast has a mature certifications workflow for sub-ledger sign-offs. closegate doesn’t ship this.
Mid-market integration shape. FloQast’s NetSuite / QuickBooks Online / Sage Intacct integrations are mature and battle-tested. closegate has adapters but the ecosystem is younger.
Vendor-managed SOC 2. If your procurement won’t budge on requiring a SOC 2 Type 2 attestation bundled with the product, FloQast has it; closegate is self-attested.

Where closegate wins

Audit-defensibility. FloQast’s policy chokepoint is closed-source; closegate’s is Apache-2.0. If your auditor or SOX lead is the AI-pilot bottleneck, closegate is the unblock.
LLM optionality. FloQast’s AI features lock you to their model selection. closegate is LLM-agnostic.
MCP server. closegate exposes its tool surface via Model Context Protocol, working with Claude Desktop / Cursor / OpenAI Apps SDK out of the box. FloQast doesn’t ship MCP.
Self-hosted. closegate runs on your own infrastructure (Docker, K8s, fly.io, CapRover). FloQast is SaaS-only.
Per-entity materiality. closegate supports per-entity materiality overrides as a first-class policy.yaml field; FloQast requires services engagement.

The honest fit recommendation

If your bottleneck is “we need polished close-task-workflow UI for our non-technical accounting team, and we have budget” → FloQast.

If your bottleneck is “we’re piloting AI agents and our auditor is blocking the cutover because the controls layer is closed-source” → closegate.

If both → run closegate as the policy-gate layer underneath FloQast’s workflow UI. Several design partners do exactly this.

The 30-day eval shape

Same as the BlackLine comparison: stand up closegate locally, run last quarter’s close against your real GL data, have your external auditor walk both closegate’s source code and FloQast’s PBC bundle. Ask which is more defensible. The auditor’s answer is your answer.