GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Revenue operations › September 2026 Edition

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 company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
PandaDoc
Contested
25% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 73 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessPandaDoc47%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketPandaDoc25%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseIronclad22%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01PandaDoc25%6%32accepted challenger
02Juro16%6%31accepted challenger
03Ironclad12%31%48criticized challenger
04Concord6%0%19accepted challenger
05SpotDraft6%11%19accepted challenger
06LinkSquares4%7%30accepted challenger
07GetAccept4%0%13accepted challenger
08ContractWorks4%9%11accepted challenger
09ContractSafe2%8%12accepted challenger
10DocuSign2%14%14accepted challenger
11Malbek2%17%12accepted challenger
12DocuSign CLM2%44%32criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
16Icertis0%56%27criticized challenger
15Conga CLM0%36%28criticized challenger
14Sirion0%30%23criticized challenger
13Agiloft0%30%27criticized challenger
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.
Head to head
PandaDoc vs JuroPandaDoc vs IroncladJuro vs Ironclad

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 →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01PandaDoc25%
02Juro16%
03Ironclad12%
04Concord6%
05SpotDraft6%
06LinkSquares4%
07GetAccept4%
08ContractWorks4%
09ContractSafe2%
10DocuSign2%
11Malbek2%
12DocuSign CLM2%
13Agiloft0%
14Sirion0%
15Conga CLM0%
16Icertis0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. 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.
Ironclad
31%
15 of 48 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“**Avoid enterprise platforms** (Ironclad, DocuSign CLM) - typically start at $20,000-50,000/year” Mistral Small, budget prompt
DocuSign CLM
44%
14 of 32 labels negative · 10 of 12 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 CLM
36%
10 of 28 labels negative · 9 of 12 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
Icertis
56%
15 of 27 labels negative · 7 of 12 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 twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

22 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 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 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner8 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
sirion.ai
vendor site · Sirion7 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
ironcladapp.com
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
summize.com
vendor site · Summize6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
docusign.com
vendor site · DocuSign5 answers · 10 citations · 2 models
contractsafe.com
vendor site · ContractSafe5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
getaccept.com
vendor site · GetAccept5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
conga.com
vendor site · Conga5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
bindlegal.com
vendor site · Bind4 answers · 8 citations · 1 model
g2.com
4 answers · 4 citations · 3 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
juro.com
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.

gartner.com/reviews/market/contract-life-cycle-management
7 answers · 3 models
getaccept.com/blog/best-contract-management-software
5 answers · 2 models
sirion.ai/library/clm-platform/contract-management-software
5 answers · 2 models
bindlegal.com/resources/best-software/best-clm-tools
4 answers · 1 model
conga.com/resources/blog/contract-management-tools
4 answers · 1 model
ironcladapp.com/journal/contract-management/best-contract-management-tools
4 answers · 1 model
juro.com/learn/clm-contract-lifecycle-management-software
4 answers · 2 models
learn.g2.com/best-clm-software
4 answers · 2 models
summize.com/clm-hub/best-clm-software
4 answers · 2 models
whatfix.com/blog/clm-software
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 Haiku 4.5Ironclad
Three alternativesJuro, LinkSquares, SpotDraft
PandaDocChanged
Three alternativesConcord, GetAccept, signNow
Sirion
Three alternativesConga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Juro
SpotDraft
Four alternativesConcord, ContractSafe, ContractZen, PandaDoc
no first choiceagainst: Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, LinkSquares, Workday CLM
GPT-5.4 miniIronclad
Two alternativesConga CLM, DocuSign CLM
DocuSignChanged
One alternativeContractbook
Ironclad
Five alternativesAgiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, LinkSquares
Concord
Four alternativesDocuSign, Dropbox Sign, Juro, PandaDoc
against: Ironcladno first choiceagainst: Icertis
Gemini 3.5 FlashIronclad, Juro
Four alternativesGatekeeper, LinkSquares, SpotDraft, Stackpack
against: Agiloft, Icertis, SirionJuro, PandaDocChanged
Two alternativesDocuSign, Ironclad
against: Adobe Acrobat Sign, Agiloft, HelloSign, IcertisIcertis, Ironclad, Sirion
Five alternativesAgiloft, DocuSign CLM, Juro, LinkSquares, SpotDraft
Zoho Contracts
Three alternativesContractSafe, Lexagle, PandaDoc
against: Conga CLM, IroncladIronclad
Four alternativesContractSafe, Gatekeeper, Juro, LinkSquares
against: Icertis, Sirionagainst: Agiloft, Conga CLM, Coupa, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, PandaDoc, Proposify, SAP Ariba, signNow
Perplexity SonarJuro
Three alternativesIronclad, LinkSquares, SpotDraft
PandaDocChanged
Four alternativesConcord, Contractbook, DocuSign, signNow
no first choice
Eight alternativesAgiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, Juro, LinkSquares, SAP Ariba Contracts
ContractWorks
Three alternativesConcord, Contractbook, Zoho Contracts
no first choiceagainst: Conga CLM, ContractSafe, ContractWorks, ContractZen, Contractbook, Coupa, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, LinkSquares, Malbek, Oneflow, PandaDoc, SAP Ariba, Workday CLM
Grok 4.1 FastIronclad, Juro
Four alternativesConcord, DocuSign CLM, LinkSquares, SpotDraft
against: Icertis, SirionPandaDocChanged
Three alternativesAdobe Acrobat Sign, DocuSign, Dropbox Sign
no first choicePandaDoc, Zoho Contracts
Two alternativesContractSafe, ContractZen
against: DocuSign CLM, Ironcladno first choice
Ten alternativesAgiloft, Bind, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, Juro, LinkSquares, Sirion, SpotDraft
against: Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, SAP Ariba, SpotDraft
Mistral SmallLinkSquares
Three alternativesDealHub, Ironclad, Juro
PandaDocChanged
Two alternativesDocuSign, GetAccept
no first choiceConcord, PandaDoc
Three alternativesBind, ContractSafe, ContractZen
against: DocuSign CLM, Ironcladno first choiceagainst: Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, Workday CLM
DeepSeek V4 FlashJuro
Seven alternativesConcord, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, PandaDoc, Salesforce Service Cloud, SpotDraft
against: Icertis, SirionPandaDocChanged
Four alternativesConcord, DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, Ironclad
no first choice
Seven alternativesAgiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign, Icertis, Ironclad, Malbek, Sirion
Zoho Contracts
Three alternativesContract Flash, ContractZen, PandaDoc
against: Agiloft, ContractPodAi, DocuSign CLM, IroncladBind, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, Juro, SpotDraft
One alternativeConga CLM
against: Agiloft, Icertis, Sirionagainst: Agiloft, Conga CLM, Coupa CLM, DocuSign CLM, Gatekeeper, Icertis, Ironclad, Malbek, Sirion, Workday CLM
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceGetAcceptChanged
Two alternativesDealHub, PandaDoc
Ironclad CLM
Five alternativesAgiloft Contract Management Suite, ContractWorks, Icertis Contract Management, Summize, Workday CLM
ContractWorks
Five alternativesBind, Concord, Juro, LinkSquares, SpotDraft
no first choiceagainst: Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad
Qwen 3.7 FlashMalbek
Four alternativesConga CLM, Gatekeeper, Ironclad, Zoho Contracts
GetAccept, PandaDocChangedagainst: DocuSignIcertis, Sirion
Four alternativesAgiloft, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, LinkSquares
Zoho Contracts
Three alternativesContractZen, Oneflow, PandaDoc
against: Microsoft SharePoint/Word Templatesno first choice
Four alternativesAgiloft, Concord, Ironclad, Seal Software
against: Icertis, Salesforce CLMagainst: Box, DocuSign CLM, Google Drive, Icertis, Ironclad, Oracle Agile, SharePoint
Kimi K2Juro, SpotDraft
Four alternativesBind, Concord, Ironclad, PandaDoc
against: ContractPodAi, IcertisPandaDocChanged
Three alternativesGetAccept, LinkSquares, signNow
Sirion
Seven alternativesAgiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, Juro, LinkSquares
PandaDoc, Zoho Contracts
Three alternativesContractSafe, ContractWorks, GetAccept
against: Ironclad, Juro, SpotDraftno first choice
Four alternativesConcord, Juro, LinkSquares, SpotDraft
against: DocuSign CLM, Ironcladagainst: Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis
GLM 4.7 FlashXConcord, Juro
Two alternativesAgiloft, Ironclad
PandaDocChanged
Four alternativesConga CLM, DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, Ironclad
Ironclad
Nine alternativesAgiloft, Concord, DocuSign CLM, GenieAI, Icertis Contract Intelligence, Juro, LinkSquares, Sirion, Workday CLM
ContractZen
Three alternativesConcord, PandaDoc, Zoho Contracts
no first choiceagainst: Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, Juro, NetDocuments, Sirion
MiniMax M2.5LinkSquares
Two alternativesContractbook, Ironclad
PandaDocChanged
One alternativeGetAccept
against: DocuSignIcertis, Ironclad
Four alternativesAgiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, SAP Ariba Contracts
ContractSafe, Zoho Contracts
Two alternativesContractWorks, GetAccept
no 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
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:54yes88 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:32yes45 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:47yes1624 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:38yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:06yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:34yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:27yes018 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:44yes01 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:37yes030 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 05:05yes024 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:21yes014 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:21yes018 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:02yes811 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:27yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:18yes1118 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:07yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:18yes010 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:27yes06 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:37yes021 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:09yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:48yes046 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:00yes025 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:06yes034 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:52yes021 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:25yes910 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:05yes69 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:32yes1925 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 05:03yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:47yes06 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:06yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:47yes032 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:46yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:51yes033 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:46yes024 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:59yes034 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:30yes09 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 05:00yes913 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:31no03 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:07yes2021 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:32yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:39yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:32yes09 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:27yes015 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:49yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:26yes044 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:39yes043 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:51yes024 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:19yes011 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:34no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:04yes511 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:32yes1624 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:50yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:46yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:39yes012 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 22:54yes017 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:50yes01 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:04no040 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:51yes045 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:58yes034 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:03yes016 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:04yes148 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:27yes37 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:08yes1623 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:56yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:22yes011 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:58yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:49yes074 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:06yes03 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:37yes091 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:54yes060 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:41yes013 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:07yes018 s

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.

Also in revenue operations

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
← BillingCPQ →