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

Contract lifecycle management and e-signature for small business buyers

Asked as “contract lifecycle management platform”, and as “e-signature and contract management tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
PandaDoc
Clear leader
47% of first choices, clear leader.
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 leaderThis pageMid-marketPandaDoc25%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseIronclad22%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01PandaDoc47%7%58endorsed leader
02ContractSafe18%7%44accepted challenger
03Zoho Contracts10%0%16accepted challenger
04Concord8%0%34accepted challenger
05GetAccept4%0%16accepted challenger
06Juro2%5%22accepted challenger
07Dropbox Sign2%0%11accepted challenger
08DocuSign2%29%17criticized challenger
09SpotDraft2%40%10criticized challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
15Ironclad0%91%32criticized challenger
13Icertis0%88%16criticized challenger
14DocuSign CLM0%71%31criticized challenger
12Agiloft0%71%17criticized challenger
10Contractbook0%12%17accepted challenger
11ContractWorks0%7%15accepted 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01PandaDoc47%
02ContractSafe18%
03Zoho Contracts10%
04Concord8%
05GetAccept4%
06Juro2%
07Dropbox Sign2%
08DocuSign2%
09SpotDraft2%
10Contractbook0%
11ContractWorks0%
12Agiloft0%
13Icertis0%
14DocuSign CLM0%
15Ironclad0%

02What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, 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.
DocuSign CLM
71%
22 of 31 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 10 hard negative
“G2 cons include "too expensive for small teams" (28 reviews), steep learning curve (23 reviews), complex setup.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Ironclad
91%
29 of 32 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 10 hard negative
“Systems to AVOID (For Now) ... **Ironclad, DocuSign CLM, Agiloft, Icertis:** These are powerful tools, but they are designed for large, in-house legal departments.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt
Icertis
88%
14 of 16 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 10 hard negative
“Icertis: Enterprise-focused for regulated giants; $150K–$700K/year; 6–12 month implementations. Explicitly called "overkill for small businesses"” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Agiloft
71%
12 of 17 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Enterprise-first CLM platforms like Icertis, Ironclad, Agiloft, and sometimes DocuSign CLM can be overkill for small teams” Perplexity Sonar, 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. 199 links across 81 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.

worksbuddy.ai
vendor site · WorksBuddy10 answers · 10 citations · 2 models
g2.com
9 answers · 16 citations · 3 models
sirion.ai
vendor site · Sirion8 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
learn.g2.com
7 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
conga.com
vendor site · Conga7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
getaccept.com
vendor site · GetAccept6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
juro.com
vendor site · Juro6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
bindlegal.com
vendor site · Bind5 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
pandadoc.com
vendor site · PandaDoc5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
ironcladapp.com
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
summize.com
vendor site · Summize5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
contractsafe.com
vendor site · ContractSafe4 answers · 8 citations · 3 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.

g2.com/categories/contract-lifecycle-management-clm/small-business
8 answers · 3 models
worksbuddy.ai/blogs/what-are-the-best-contract-management-lifecycle-softwar…
8 answers · 2 models
conga.com/resources/blog/contract-management-tools
7 answers · 2 models
juro.com/learn/clm-contract-lifecycle-management-software
6 answers · 2 models
getaccept.com/blog/best-contract-management-software
5 answers · 2 models
learn.g2.com/best-clm-software
5 answers · 2 models
bindlegal.com/resources/best-software/best-clm-tools
4 answers · 1 model
ironcladapp.com/journal/contract-management/best-contract-management-tools
4 answers · 1 model
sirion.ai/library/clm-platform/contract-management-software
4 answers · 1 model
summize.com/clm-hub/best-clm-software
4 answers · 1 model

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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which e-signature and contract management tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top contract lifecycle management platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best contract lifecycle management platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a contract lifecycle management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which contract lifecycle management platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Oneflow
Three alternativesAline, DealHub, Juro
against: DocuSign CLMPandaDocChanged
Two alternativesDropbox Sign, Proposify
Concord, PandaDoc
One alternativeDocuSign CLM
against: IroncladConcord
Three alternativesContractSafe, PandaDoc, Zoho Contracts
no first choiceagainst: Agiloft, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad
GPT-5.4 miniJuro, SpotDraft
Two alternativesConga CLM, DocuSign CLM
against: CLM 365, Workday CLMPandaDocChanged
Two alternativesAdobe Acrobat Sign, Dropbox Sign
ContractSafe
Three alternativesConcord, Contractbook, PandaDoc
against: IroncladContractSafe
One alternativeCLM 365
against: DocuSign CLM, Ironcladno first choiceagainst: Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, Juro, Lexion, Sirion CLM
Gemini 3.5 FlashPandaDoc
Three alternativesConcord, ContractSafe, Juro
against: DocuSign CLM, Icertis, IroncladPandaDocHeld
Three alternativesDropbox Sign, Juro, Oneflow
against: DocuSignJuro
Four alternativesConcord, ContractSafe, ContractZen, PandaDoc
against: Agiloft, Icertis, IroncladZoho Contracts
Four alternativesConcord, Contract Flash, ContractSafe, PandaDoc
against: Agiloft, DocuSign CLM, IroncladContractSafe
Five alternativesConcord, ContractWorks, Contractbook, Juro, PandaDoc
against: Agiloft, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironcladagainst: Conga CLM, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets + Google Drive/SharePoint, SirionLabs
Perplexity SonarPandaDoc
Four alternativesConcord, ContractSafe, Contractbook, DocuSign CLM
PandaDocHeld
Two alternativesDropbox Sign, signNow
PandaDoc
Five alternativesConcord, ContractSafe, ContractWorks, Contractbook, Zoho Contracts
Zoho Contracts
One alternativeConcord
against: ContractSafe, PandaDocno first choiceagainst: Agiloft, ContractSafe, ContractWorks, Contractbook, Coupa, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, Leah, LinkSquares, Oneflow, PandaDoc, SAP Ariba, SpotDraft
Grok 4.1 FastContractSafe, PandaDoc
Two alternativesConcord, Zoho Contracts
against: DocuSign CLM, IroncladPandaDocChanged
Four alternativesContractSafe, DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, GetAccept
ContractSafe, PandaDoc
Three alternativesConcord, ContractWorks, Zoho Contracts
against: Icertis, IroncladPandaDoc
Three alternativesConcord, Jotform Sign, Signeasy
against: Agiloft, ContractSafe, DocuSign CLM, IroncladContractSafe, PandaDoc
Two alternativesDocuSign CLM, Juro
against: Agiloft, Conga CLM, ContractPodAi, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, LinkSquares, SAP Ariba Contracts, Sirion CLM
Mistral SmallContractSafe
Three alternativesContractbook, GetAccept, PandaDoc
PandaDocChanged
Three alternativesDropbox Sign, GetAccept, signNow
against: DocuSignContractSafe, PandaDoc
Five alternativesContractWorks, DocuSign CLM, GetAccept, Juro, Zoho Contracts
Zoho Contracts
Three alternativesContractSafe, GetAccept, PandaDoc
no first choice
Six alternativesAgiloft, ContractWorks, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, LinkSquares, PandaDoc
against: Agiloft, CobbleStone Software, Conga CLM, Coupa Contracts, Icertis, SAP Ariba Contracts, Sirion, Workday CLM
DeepSeek V4 FlashPandaDoc
Four alternativesConcord, ContractSafe, Contractbook, Juro
against: Agiloft, IroncladPandaDocHeld
Two alternativesDropbox Sign, GetAccept
against: DocuSignPandaDoc
Six alternativesConcord, ContractSafe, ContractWorks, Contractbook, Juro, SpotDraft
against: DocuSign CLM, IroncladContractZen, PandaDoc
One alternativeConcord
no first choiceagainst: DocuSign, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironcladagainst: Agiloft, CobbleStone Contract Insight, Conga CLM, Contractbook, DocuSign CLM, Gatekeeper, Icertis, Ironclad, PandaDoc, Sirion
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceDocuSignChanged
Two alternativesBindLegal, Pipedrive
Contractbook
Three alternativesContractSafe, DocuSign CLM, PandaDoc
ContractSafe, GetAccept, PandaDoc
Three alternativesBind, Concord, ContractWorks
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashPandaDoc
Two alternativesContractSafe, Juro
against: DocuSign CLMPandaDocHeld
Three alternativesDocuSign, Dropbox Sign, HubSpot Quoting
PandaDoc
Four alternativesContractbook, Juro, Oneflow, Zoho Contracts
against: IroncladZoho Contracts
One alternativePandaDoc
against: ContractZenno first choiceagainst: SAP, Salesforce Contract Lifecycle Managementagainst: Ironclad, LawVu, Lexion, Oracle Procurement Cloud, SAP Ariba, ServiceNow, SpotDraft
Kimi K2ContractSafe, PandaDoc
One alternativeSpotDraft
against: DocuSign CLM, Icertis, IroncladPandaDocChanged
Four alternativesConcord, ContractSafe, Dropbox Sign, signNow
against: DocuSign, Ironclad, SpotDraftConcord
Six alternativesContractSafe, ContractWorks, Contractbook, Juro, PandaDoc, Zoho Contracts
against: DocuSign CLM, IroncladConcord
Four alternativesBind, ContractSafe, ContractZen, Zoho Contracts
against: DocuSign CLM, HelloSign, Ironclad, LinkSquares, PandaDocBind, Concord, ContractSafe, PandaDocagainst: Agiloft, ContractPodAi, DocuSign CLM, Ironcladagainst: CobbleStone Software, Conga CLM, ContractPodAi, DocuSign CLM, Icertis, Ironclad, LinkSquares, Sirion
GLM 4.7 FlashXContractSafe, PandaDoc
Three alternativesConcord, GetAccept, Zoho Contracts
Dropbox SignChanged
Two alternativesDocuSign, PandaDoc
ContractSafe
Five alternativesConcord, ContractZen, Contractbook, GetAccept, PandaDoc
Concord, PandaDoc
Two alternativesAgiloft, Zoho Contracts
no first choiceagainst: Conga CLM, Icertis, LinkSquares, Malbek, SAP Ariba, Salesforce Revenue Cloud, Sirion CLM, SpotDraft, Summize
MiniMax M2.5GetAccept, PandaDoc
One alternativeContractSafe
PandaDocChanged
Three alternativesDocuSign, HelloSign, Signeasy
ContractSafe
Five alternativesAgiloft, ContractWorks, GetAccept, Juro, PandaDoc
against: Icertis, Ironclad, Workday CLMZoho Contracts
Three alternativesContractSafe, ContractZen, PandaDoc
no first choiceagainst: Agiloft, DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, Sirion
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 04:03yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:37yes44 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:09yes2221 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:35yes2016 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:33yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:44yes010 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:07yes037 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:01yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:54yes026 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:53yes032 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:43yes039 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:40yes024 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:20yes87 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:15yes37 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:14yes1319 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:56yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:17yes08 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:55yes07 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:52yes015 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:26yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:09no033 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:31yes042 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:35yes046 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:58yes014 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:36yes87 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:16yes411 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:25yes1721 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:42yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:38yes08 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:38yes09 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:54yes059 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:46yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:00yes046 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:33yes063 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:23yes026 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:26yes013 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:41yes149 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:47yes44 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:07yes2725 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:15yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:13yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:01yes08 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:50yes042 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:42yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:54yes073 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:42yes029 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:27yes063 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:24yes010 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 22:52no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:26no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:02yes2126 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:12yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:48yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:51no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:04yes025 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:22yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:14no038 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:23yes043 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:14yes058 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:52yes014 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:56yes199 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:43yes64 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:32yes2330 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:04yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:45yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:58yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:44yes068 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:31yes01 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:35yes054 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:45yes049 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:15yes025 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:48yes028 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 (Apttus) read as Conga CLM
Conga (formerly Apttus) read as Conga CLM
Unresolved, counted raw
Aline
Coupa Contracts
Eversign
Google Docs + Sheets
LawVu
Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets + Google Drive/SharePoint
Onit
Oracle Procurement Cloud
SAP
Salesforce Contract Lifecycle Management
Signaturely
Xodo Sign
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 →