Index › Revenue operations › CLM › Enterprise › September 2026 Edition

Contract lifecycle management and e-signature for enterprise buyers

Asked as “contract lifecycle management platform”, and as “e-signature and contract management tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 40 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

Ironclad

Contested

22% 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 business

PandaDoc47%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-market

PandaDoc25%ContestedStanding →Enterprise

Ironclad22%ContestedThis page

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.

ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant

Ironclad26%54criticized challenger

Sirion15%33accepted challenger

Agiloft10%41accepted challenger

Icertis19%47accepted challenger

DocuSign CLM33%42criticized challenger

Juro42%12criticized challenger

Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate

LinkSquares27%15criticized challenger

Conga CLM24%37accepted 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 Juro PandaDoc vs Ironclad Juro 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 →

Accepted challengerEndorsed leader

0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%

Key

Ironclad22%

Sirion12%

Agiloft10%

Icertis10%

DocuSign CLM5%

Juro2%

Conga CLM0%

LinkSquares0%

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

26%

14 of 54 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“What to avoid at your scale - **Per-seat-first vendors (Ironclad, DocuSign CLM, Conga):**” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt

Conga CLM

24%

9 of 37 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“What to avoid at your scale - **Per-seat-first vendors (Ironclad, DocuSign CLM, Conga):**” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt

DocuSign CLM

33%

14 of 42 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“What to avoid at your scale ... DocuSign CLM runs $200K–$500K+ above 100 users” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt

Icertis

19%

9 of 47 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“the most expensive ... the least friendly for wide, cost-predictable rollouts” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget 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. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 217 links across 91 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.

sirion.ai

vendor site · Sirion11 answers · 20 citations · 2 models

bindlegal.com

vendor site · Bind8 answers · 12 citations · 2 models

ironcladapp.com

8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models

gartner.com

vendor site · Gartner6 answers · 14 citations · 3 models

getaccept.com

vendor site · GetAccept6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models

juro.com

vendor site · Juro5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

techfundingnews.com

5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

aline.co

4 answers · 5 citations · 1 model

docusign.com

vendor site · DocuSign4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

learn.g2.com

4 answers · 5 citations · 1 model

conga.com

vendor site · Conga4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

pandadoc.com

vendor site · PandaDoc4 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.

ironcladapp.com/journal/contract-management/best-contract-management-tools

7 answers · 2 models

bindlegal.com/resources/best-software/best-enterprise-clm

5 answers · 2 models

getaccept.com/blog/best-contract-management-software

5 answers · 1 model

juro.com/learn/clm-contract-lifecycle-management-software

5 answers · 2 models

techfundingnews.com/9-best-contract-lifecycle-management-platforms-for-proc…

5 answers · 2 models

conga.com/resources/blog/contract-management-tools

4 answers · 2 models

gartner.com/reviews/market/contract-life-cycle-management

4 answers · 3 models

quickbase.com/blog/best-contract-lifecycle-management-software

4 answers · 2 models

sirion.ai/library/clm-platform/contract-management-software

4 answers · 2 models

summize.com/clm-hub/best-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 an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which e-signature and contract management tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade contract lifecycle management platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best contract lifecycle management platform for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a contract lifecycle management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which contract lifecycle management platforms should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5Ironclad

Three alternatives

Agiloft, LinkSquares, SAP Ariba

DocuSignChanged

One alternative

Adobe Acrobat Sign

no first choiceAgiloft

Two alternatives

DocuSign CLM, Ironclad

no first choiceagainst: Agiloft, DocuSign CLM, Icertis

GPT-5.4 miniDocuSign CLM, Icertis

Three alternatives

Conga CLM, Ironclad, Sirion

DocuSignChanged

Two alternatives

Adobe Acrobat Sign, PandaDoc

Icertis

Eight alternatives

Conga CLM, Coupa, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, Ivalua, JAGGAER, SAP CLM / SAP Ariba CLM, Sirion

Icertisagainst: Ironcladno first choiceagainst: Agiloft, JAGGAER Contract Management, Juro, SAP Contract Lifecycle Management, SpotDraft

Gemini 3.5 FlashIronclad

Five alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Sirion

DocuSign, IroncladChanged

Two alternatives

Agiloft, Icertis

Ironclad

Six alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Sirion, Workday CLM

Gatekeeper

Three alternatives

CobbleStone Software, Concord, ContractSafe

against: Ironclad, Sirionno first choiceagainst: Concord, Conga CLM, GEP, Gatekeeper, Icertis, Ironclad, JAGGAER, LinkSquares

Perplexity SonarSirion

Three alternatives

Conga CLM, Icertis, Ironclad

DocuSign CLM + eSignatureChanged

Two alternatives

Icertis, Ironclad

Icertis

Six alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, SAP Ariba Contracts, Sirion

Ironclad

Two alternatives

Conga CLM, Icertis

against: DocuSign CLMno first choiceagainst: CobbleStone, Conga CLM, ContractWorks, Contractbook, DocuSign CLM, Juro, LinkSquares, Malbek, Oneflow, PandaDoc

Grok 4.1 FastIronclad

Three alternatives

Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Sirion

DocuSignChanged

Four alternatives

Conga CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, Sirion

Ironclad

Five alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Sirion

against: SAP Ariba ContractsAgiloft

One alternative

Ironclad

against: ContractSafe, ContractWorks, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Juro, Sirionno first choice

Two alternatives

Ironclad, Sirion

against: Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad

Mistral SmallSirion

Five alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad

DocuSign CLMChanged

Two alternatives

Icertis, Ironclad

Icertis

Seven alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, LinkSquares, SAP Ariba Contracts, Sirion

ContractSafe

Two alternatives

Agiloft, Ironclad

no first choiceagainst: Conga CLM, Coupa, Gatekeeper, HyperStart, Sirion, Workday CLM

DeepSeek V4 FlashIronclad

Two alternatives

Icertis, Sirion

DocuSign IAMChanged

Four alternatives

Adobe Acrobat Sign, Conga CLM, Icertis, Ironclad

against: Dropbox Signno first choice

Six alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, SAP Ariba, Sirion

against: IroncladAgiloft

One alternative

Sirion

against: Conga CLM, ContractSafe, ContractWorks, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironcladno first choice

Two alternatives

Icertis, Sirion

against: DocuSign CLM, Ironcladagainst: Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad

Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceDocuSignChanged

Two alternatives

GetAccept, Sirion

no first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named

Qwen 3.7 FlashIronclad

Two alternatives

Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM

against: Salesforce CPQ + CLMDocuSignChanged

Two alternatives

LinkSquares, Salesforce Contracts

no first choice

Five alternatives

Agiloft, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, Sirion

ContractSafe

One alternative

Juro

against: DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, PandaDoc, Zohono first choiceagainst: BambooHR, Clio, Conga CLM, DocuSign, Ivalua/Serrium, Microsoft Power Apps / SharePoint Solutions, Oracle OTOH, PandaDoc, Qvidian, SAP GRC, Salesforce Custom Objects, Verint/CyberLex, Worldox

Kimi K2Icertis, Sirion

Four alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad

IroncladChanged

One alternative

Icertis

against: DocuSign CLMIcertis

Eight alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, Leah, LinkSquares, SAP Ariba Contracts, Sirion

ContractSafe

Two alternatives

Agiloft, ContractWorks

against: Icertis, Ironclad, SirionIronclad

Four alternatives

Agiloft, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Sirion

against: Agiloft, Apttus, Conga CLM, ContractPodAi, DocuSign CLM, Exari, Gatekeeper, Icertis, Ironclad, Juro, Sirion, Summize

GLM 4.7 FlashXSirion

Four alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad

DocuSignChanged

One alternative

Ironclad

Icertis Contract Intelligence

Seven alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, ContractPodAi, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, SAP Ariba Contracts, Sirion

ContractSafe

One alternative

ContractWorks

against: Concord, Icertis, Ironclad, Juro, PandaDocno first choiceagainst: Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, LinkSquares, SAP Ariba CLM, Salesforce Revenue Cloud, SharePoint-based CLM builds, Sirion CLM, SpotDraft, Workday Strategic Sourcing

MiniMax M2.5Icertis, Sirion

Four alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad

DocuSignChanged

Four alternatives

Adobe Acrobat Sign, Agiloft, Icertis, SirionLabs

no first choice

Six alternatives

Agiloft, Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, Sirion

Agiloft, Juroagainst: ContractSafe, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, SAP Aribano first choiceagainst: DocuSign CLM, Gatekeeper, LinkSquares

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.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 00:02	yes	7	13 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-14 23:49	yes	4	5 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-14 23:54	yes	17	26 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 00:47	yes	20	6 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 02:30	yes	0	7 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 00:01	yes	0	12 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 04:42	yes	0	17 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 00:59	yes	0	2 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 04:13	no	0	33 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-14 23:01	yes	0	45 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 02:19	yes	0	39 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 01:52	yes	0	25 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 04:48	yes	11	10 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-14 23:36	yes	2	5 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 00:51	yes	10	20 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 03:43	yes	18	6 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 01:07	yes	0	7 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 04:34	yes	0	7 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 04:47	yes	0	17 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 02:10	yes	0	2 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-14 23:37	yes	0	18 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 03:30	yes	0	28 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-14 23:06	yes	0	26 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 00:04	yes	0	26 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 03:54	yes	12	12 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 03:56	yes	8	10 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 03:00	yes	17	30 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-14 23:28	yes	20	20 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 01:46	yes	0	9 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 01:49	yes	0	8 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 04:06	yes	0	25 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 01:20	yes	0	2 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 03:55	yes	0	29 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-14 23:09	yes	0	50 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 00:43	yes	0	161 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 01:44	yes	0	12 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 00:19	yes	18	12 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 02:21	yes	3	5 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 04:01	yes	26	29 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-14 22:59	yes	20	7 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-14 23:32	yes	0	11 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 03:40	yes	0	11 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 01:08	yes	0	34 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 00:41	yes	0	2 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 01:36	yes	0	77 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 02:26	yes	0	32 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 03:13	yes	0	48 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 01:21	yes	0	81 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 02:05	yes	16	14 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 00:55	no	0	8 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 00:58	no	0	15 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 04:55	yes	17	8 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-14 23:48	yes	0	9 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-14 22:51	no	0	9 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-15 00:08	yes	0	59 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 02:58	yes	0	1 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-14 23:42	no	0	35 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 03:42	yes	0	84 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 02:10	yes	0	106 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 02:32	yes	0	20 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 04:33	yes	15	9 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 04:23	yes	6	8 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 02:21	yes	21	33 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 00:57	yes	20	7 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 01:17	yes	0	9 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 05:07	yes	0	13 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 01:57	yes	0	31 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-14 23:20	yes	0	1 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-14 23:10	no	0	38 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 01:59	yes	0	68 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 03:50	yes	0	63 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 03:13	yes	0	47 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

Conga (by DocuSign) read as Conga CLM

Conga (formerly Apttus) read as Conga CLM

Unresolved, counted raw

Clio

DocuSign CLM + eSignature

DocuSign IAM (Intelligent Agreement Management)

Exari (now Coupa CLM)

Fujitsu CLM

Ivalua/Serrium

JAGGAER Contract Management

Microsoft Power Apps / SharePoint Solutions

Oracle OTOH (Oracle Transactional OpenHub / Siebel Contracts)

SAP CLM / SAP Ariba CLM

SAP Contract Lifecycle Management (On-Premise)

SAP GRC

Salesforce CPQ + CLM

Salesforce Contracts

Salesforce Custom Objects

SharePoint-based CLM builds (PowerAutomate/PowerApps)

Spring CM

Verint/CyberLex

Workday Contract Intelligence

Workday Strategic Sourcing

Worldox

Zoho

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

Contract lifecycle management and e-signature for enterprise buyers

By buyer segment

01The standing

Recommended versus criticized

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in revenue operations