Contract lifecycle management and e-signature
Asked as “contract lifecycle management platform”, and as “e-signature and contract management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
01The standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all six models, for a mid-market B2B software company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.
Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
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16Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01PandaDoc25%
PandaDoc25%02Juro16%
Juro16%03Ironclad12%
Ironclad12%04Concord6%
Concord6%05SpotDraft6%
SpotDraft6%06LinkSquares4%
LinkSquares4%07GetAccept4%
GetAccept4%08ContractWorks4%
ContractWorks4%09ContractSafe2%
ContractSafe2%10DocuSign2%
DocuSign2%11Malbek2%
Malbek2%12DocuSign CLM2%
DocuSign CLM2%13Agiloft0%
Agiloft0%14Sirion0%
Sirion0%15Conga CLM0%
Conga CLM0%16Icertis0%
Icertis0%02What they warned about
A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Ironclad31%
15 of 48 labels negative · 11 of 6 models · 3 hard negative
“**Avoid enterprise platforms** (Ironclad, DocuSign CLM) - typically start at $20,000-50,000/year” Mistral Small, budget prompt
DocuSign CLM44%
14 of 32 labels negative · 10 of 6 models · 5 hard negative
“Avoid DocuSign CLM and Conga CLM due to their consistent pattern of user complaints around cost, complexity, and support.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Conga CLM36%
10 of 28 labels negative · 9 of 6 models · 3 hard negative
“Customer reviews show high levels of dissatisfaction with feature usability, interface design, and overall scalability.” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Icertis56%
15 of 27 labels negative · 7 of 6 models · 4 hard negative
“Icertis consistently ranks at or near the top of the "approach with caution" list... Who should avoid: Any organization under ~500 employees” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
03What they cite
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the six in this edition.
Sites the answers cite
22 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 6 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 190 links across 82 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 2 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.
vendor site · Gartner8 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Sirion7 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Summize6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · DocuSign5 answers · 10 citations · 2 models
vendor site · ContractSafe5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · GetAccept5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Conga5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Bind4 answers · 8 citations · 1 model
4 answers · 4 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Guideflow4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Juro4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
Pages the answers cite
The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.
7 answers · 3 models
5 answers · 2 models
5 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 1 model
4 answers · 1 model
4 answers · 1 model
4 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 2 models
04How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best contract lifecycle management platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which e-signature and contract management tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top contract lifecycle management platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best contract lifecycle management platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a contract lifecycle management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which contract lifecycle management platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Opus 5no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Claude Opus 4.8no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-6 Astrano first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.6 Solno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.1 Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Perplexity Sonar Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against
05The record
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Zero rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
Category-scoped readings
Conga read as Conga CLM
Unresolved, counted raw
Agiloft Contract Management Suite
Conga Contracts
DocuSign eSign
GenieAI
Google Workspace/Docs
Icertis Contract Management
Ironclad CLM
Lexagle
Microsoft SharePoint/Word Templates
NetDocuments
Oracle Agile
Oracle CLM
Salesforce CLM
Seal Software
Stackpack
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.