The best CLM software in 2026 for most mid-size and large companies is on Gartner’s 2025 Leaders list: Ironclad, Sirion, Agiloft, Docusign and Malbek. Which one fits depends on the system you already run (Salesforce, SAP, Microsoft or Workday) and on price, which most vendors publish only on the AWS or Azure marketplaces, if at all.
We checked every vendor below on 5 October 2026. The market has moved since most comparison pages were written: Workday now owns Evisort, Docusign owns Lexion, Onit owns ContractWorks, SirionLabs is now Sirion with a new majority owner, and Icertis dropped from Leader to Visionary in Gartner’s 2025 assessment.
| # | Product | Gartner 2025 | Owner (October 2026) | Published price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ironclad | Leader | Independent | Quote only | Legal teams running high volumes of sales and procurement contracts |
| 2 | Sirion | Leader | Haveli Investments (majority) | $150,000 a year for 100 users (AWS) | Post-signature obligations in large enterprises |
| 3 | Agiloft | Leader | Independent | $25,000 a year for 21 licences (AWS) | No-code, configurable processes |
| 4 | Docusign CLM | Leader | Docusign | Quote only | Docusign e-signature and Salesforce users |
| 5 | Malbek | Leader | Independent | Quote only | Configurable CLM with a hands-on implementation |
| 6 | Icertis | Visionary | Independent | $200,000 a year for 100 users (Azure) | Large enterprises on Microsoft or SAP |
| 7 | Conga CLM | Challenger | Thoma Bravo portfolio | Quote only | Salesforce revenue teams that want CPQ and CLM |
| 8 | Workday CLM | Visionary | Workday | Quote only | Workday HR and finance customers |
| 9 | LinkSquares | Niche Player | Independent | $50,000 a year for 21 named users (AWS) | Legal teams with a large signed archive |
| 10 | ContractWorks | Not evaluated | Onit | Plans shown without prices; unlimited users | Small legal teams that need a repository fast |
What is a CLM Solution?
A CLM solution is contract lifecycle management software: one system that holds every contract and runs it from the first request through drafting, negotiation, approval, signature, obligation tracking, renewal and close-out. It is more than an e-signature tool, which signs one document, and more than a document repository, which only stores signed files. Our guide to the eight stages of contract lifecycle management explains what each stage involves and which laws set deadlines inside it.
Why do you need CLM tools?
Because most of a contract’s value is won or lost after signature, where spreadsheets and inboxes lose track. World Commerce & Contracting, the professional body for contract management, puts average value erosion at 8.6% of contract value, with the best performers a little over 3% and the worst above 20%. Missed renewal notice deadlines are a common cause, and some are set by law: New York and Wisconsin make automatic renewal clauses in some business contracts unenforceable unless the supplier sends a reminder inside a fixed window.
A spreadsheet can track a few dozen contracts. Once you need version history, enforced approvals, obligations with owners, and proof of when a notice was sent, you need a CLM tool.
What Features Should CLM Software Have?
Every vendor below covers the basics. The differences show up in a demo, so the third column is the question that separates a real capability from a slide:
| Feature | Why it matters | Ask in the demo |
|---|---|---|
| Central repository with structured fields | Search and alerts only work if expiry date, renewal type and notice period are captured as data | Show me every contract that renews automatically in the next 90 days. |
| AI extraction for legacy contracts | Loading old contracts is the slowest part of any rollout | Run it on 20 of our contracts. Which fields need a person to check them? |
| Templates and a clause library | Lets the business generate routine contracts without waiting for legal | Can a clause carry pre-approved fallback wording? |
| Redlining and version control | Nobody signs a draft other than the agreed one | Does it work inside Microsoft Word, and does it track the other side’s edits? |
| Approval workflow | Enforces signature authority by value and risk | Can I route by contract value and by clause deviation without IT? |
| E-signature | Some tools include a signer, others integrate Docusign or Adobe Sign at extra cost | Is e-signature included, and how many signature licences come with the plan? |
| Obligation and renewal tracking | The deadline that matters is the notice deadline, not the expiry date | Can alerts be set against the notice deadline and assigned to an owner? |
| Integrations | Contract terms must reach the CRM, ERP or HR system to be acted on | Is the connector to our CRM or ERP included or an add-on? |
| Security and audit trail | Contracts hold personal and commercial data | Can we see your SOC 2 report, and where is our data hosted? |
Which CLM Fits the System You Already Run?
The quickest way to shortlist is to start from the system your contracts must feed. Sales contracts need to live next to the CRM opportunity; procurement contracts need to reach the supplier and price records in the ERP. The table maps the common platforms to the CLM options built for them:
| If you already run | Native or closest option | CLMs with a purpose-built integration |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce (sell-side) | Salesforce Contracts ($50 per user per month, needs Sales Cloud) | Conga CLM (born on AppExchange), Docusign CLM, Ironclad (AppExchange-approved integration), Agiloft for Salesforce (August 2026) |
| SAP Ariba (buy-side) | SAP Ariba Contracts | Icertis, which SAP resells as SAP Ariba Contract Intelligence by Icertis; Sirion for SAP Ariba on the SAP Store |
| Microsoft (Azure, Dynamics 365, Word) | No native CLM | Icertis (built on Azure, integrated with Dynamics 365), Contract Logix (hosted on Azure, owned by LegalSifter), Conga (works in Dynamics and Office) |
| Workday HCM or Financials | Workday Contract Lifecycle Management (formerly Evisort) | Workday Contract Intelligence can also sit on top of another CLM to extract contract data |
| No major platform, small team | None needed | ContractWorks (unlimited users on every plan) or PandaDoc (Free and Starter plans) |
The second question is which side of the contract you sit on. Tools that grew up around the sales process, such as Conga, Docusign CLM and Salesforce Contracts, are strongest before signature, where speed to close matters. Tools built around procurement and post-signature management, such as Sirion and SAP Ariba Contracts, are strongest after it, where obligations, supplier performance and renewals matter.
How Much Does CLM Software Cost?
Most CLM vendors publish no price at all. The few published figures sit on cloud marketplaces rather than vendor websites, and each uses a different unit, so the last column converts them to a cost per licence per year. That column is our arithmetic on list prices; negotiated deals can differ.
| Product | Published list price | What it covers | Where it is published | Per licence per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Icertis | $200,000 a year | 100 users | Microsoft Azure Marketplace | $2,000 |
| Sirion | $150,000 for 12 months | 100 users | AWS Marketplace | $1,500 |
| Agiloft | $25,000 for 12 months | 20 power users and 1 admin | AWS Marketplace | about $1,190 |
| Salesforce Contracts | $50 per user per month, billed annually | Per user, on top of a Sales Cloud licence | salesforce.com | $600, plus Sales Cloud |
| LinkSquares | $50,000 for 12 months | 1 power user, 20 standard users, unlimited lite users and 2,500 documents | AWS Marketplace | about $2,380 per named user |
| PandaDoc (not a full CLM) | $19 to $49 per seat per month, billed annually | Per seat; CLM features on Business and above | pandadoc.com | $228 to $588 |
| Ironclad, Docusign CLM, Conga, Workday, Malbek, SAP Ariba Contracts | Quote only | Varies: users, contract volume, modules | Vendor sales | n/a |
Buyer-reported figures fill some of the gap. Vendr, a software purchasing marketplace, reports that Ironclad’s annual contract values typically range from $30,000 to $250,000+, and that the median Agiloft buyer pays $67,132 a year, well above Agiloft’s 21-licence list price, which suggests most deployments are larger than that package. Vendr shows no sample size on these pages, so treat both figures as a guide.
Three cost lines catch buyers out: e-signature licences when the CLM integrates Docusign or Adobe Sign instead of signing natively, the CRM or ERP connector, and the services to load legacy contracts. Ask for all three in the first quote.
Best contract lifecycle management vendors
Ranked by Gartner’s 2025 position, then by how widely each is used, with each vendor’s facts checked on 5 October 2026.
1. Ironclad
Ironclad is an independent CLM built for in-house legal teams that want to build contract workflows without IT. Its no-code Workflow Designer handles intake, approvals and signature routing, and Gartner placed it in the Leaders quadrant for the third year running in 2025. The company passed $200 million in annual recurring revenue in February 2026.
| Ironclad at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Independent (Ironclad, Inc.) |
| Gartner 2025 / Forrester Q1 2025 | Leader / Leader |
| Published price | None: custom quote, priced by products, users and workflows |
| Deployment | SaaS on US-hosted Google Cloud |
| Best for | Mid-size and large companies whose legal team runs high volumes of sales and procurement contracts |
Watch out for: integrations are priced case by case (its own pricing FAQ says some are add-ons), so ask for the Salesforce, ERP and e-signature connectors in the first quote.
2. Sirion (formerly SirionLabs)
Sirion, called SirionLabs until 2024, is strongest after signature: obligation tracking, supplier performance and analytics across large contract portfolios. Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant placed it highest of the 16 vendors on ability to execute. Haveli Investments completed a majority investment in February 2026.
| Sirion at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Majority-owned by Haveli Investments since 23 February 2026; founder Ajay Agrawal remains CEO |
| Gartner 2025 / Forrester Q1 2025 | Leader / Leader |
| Published price | $150,000 for 12 months for 100 users (AWS Marketplace list price); none on sirion.ai |
| Deployment | SaaS, deployed on AWS |
| Best for | Large enterprises managing big supplier or customer portfolios after signature; available for SAP Ariba on the SAP Store |
Watch out for: the marketplace list price is for 100 users on a 12-month term; most enterprise deals are private offers on multi-year terms, so use it as a ceiling to negotiate from, not a quote.
3. Agiloft
Agiloft is the configurable choice: workflows, approvals, data models and automations are set up without code, which suits organisations with unusual contract types or both buy-side and sell-side processes. It has been a Gartner Leader for six consecutive years and launched Agiloft for Salesforce on AgentExchange in August 2026.
| Agiloft at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Independent; FTV Capital (2020) and KKR (2024) investors; bought Screens in 2025 |
| Gartner 2025 / Forrester Q1 2025 | Leader / Leader |
| Published price | $25,000 for 12 months for 20 power users and 1 admin (AWS Marketplace list price); quote only on agiloft.com |
| Deployment | SaaS, deployed on AWS |
| Best for | Organisations that need to model their own contract process rather than adopt a vendor’s |
Watch out for: e-signature comes through Docusign and Adobe Sign integrations rather than a built-in signer, so budget for that licence separately.
4. Docusign CLM
Docusign started in e-signature and added CLM by buying SpringCM in 2018 and Lexion in 2024. Docusign CLM, now sold as part of its Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform, offers more than 100 pre-configured workflow steps and works inside Salesforce and alongside SAP Ariba. Gartner named Docusign a Leader for the sixth year in a row in 2025.
| Docusign CLM at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Docusign, Inc. (Nasdaq: DOCU); CLM came from SpringCM, acquired in September 2018 |
| Gartner 2025 | Leader |
| Published price | Docusign CLM is quote only. The published IAM plans ($40, $45 and $75 per user per month, billed annually) cover e-signature, workflow and an AI repository, not CLM |
| Deployment | SaaS |
| Best for | Companies already standardised on Docusign e-signature, especially inside Salesforce |
Lexion, now part of Docusign
Lexion, an AI contract management tool built for operations teams, is owned by Docusign. Docusign announced the deal on 6 May 2024 for $165 million in cash and completed it on 31 May 2024; its quarterly filing records $154.0 million of purchase consideration. Docusign said Lexion’s products would continue to be offered to existing customers, and the Lexion app still runs, but the lexion.ai site now routes every sales enquiry to Docusign. Treat Lexion and Docusign CLM as one vendor on a shortlist, not two.
Watch out for: the screenshots above show e-signature and API prices, which several CLM comparisons quote as if they were CLM prices. They are not: CLM is a separate, quote-only product.
5. Malbek
Malbek is the newest name among Gartner’s Leaders: it entered the Magic Quadrant for the first time in 2025, directly as a Leader. It is a founder-led CLM with no-code configuration, more than 50 integrations and a 2026 analytics product, BusinessIQ, aimed at finance and executive teams rather than only legal.
| Malbek at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Independent, venture-backed; run by its three co-founders, CEO Hemanth Puttaswamy |
| Gartner 2025 | Leader (first appearance) |
| Published price | Quote only, by user type, number of users, modules and connectors. Its Salesforce connector lists from $150 a month per 25-user bundle, on top of the Malbek licence |
| Deployment | SaaS on AWS in the US; SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II reports for 2026 |
| Best for | Mid-size and large companies that want a configurable CLM with a hands-on implementation partner |
Watch out for: Malbek’s own plans page says some integrations are complimentary and some cost extra, so get the connector list priced before you compare quotes.
6. Icertis
Icertis sells enterprise contract management built on Microsoft Azure, with an AI layer it brands Vera. It is also the advanced CLM that SAP resells to SAP Ariba customers as SAP Ariba Contract Intelligence by Icertis. Gartner moved it from Leader (2020 to 2024) to Visionary in its 2025 Magic Quadrant, while Forrester named it a Leader in its Q1 2025 Wave.
| Icertis at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Independent; interim co-CEOs appointed 17 July 2026 while the board searches for a CEO |
| Gartner 2025 / Forrester Q1 2025 | Visionary / Leader |
| Published price | $200,000 a year for 100 users (Microsoft Azure Marketplace list price, billed annually); none on icertis.com |
| Deployment | SaaS on Microsoft Azure |
| Best for | Large enterprises standardised on Microsoft or SAP |
Watch out for: the leadership change of July 2026; ask about the product roadmap and support commitments before signing a multi-year term.
7. Conga CLM
Conga started on Salesforce’s AppExchange in 2006, and its CLM is still the natural fit for sales teams that live in Salesforce and want quoting, pricing and contracts in one suite. In February 2026 it completed the purchase of the PROS B2B pricing business. Gartner placed it in the Challengers quadrant in 2025.
| Conga CLM at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Thoma Bravo portfolio company (invested 2018); Salesforce Ventures is an investor |
| Gartner 2025 | Challenger |
| Published price | Quote only, including its AWS Marketplace listing; the $0.00 shown on Microsoft’s marketplace is a placeholder, not a price |
| Deployment | SaaS; works inside Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and Office |
| Best for | Salesforce-centric revenue teams that want CPQ and CLM from one vendor |
Watch out for: the product names have changed several times (Apttus, Conga Contracts, Conga CLM), so check which edition a quote and any reference customer actually uses.
8. Workday Contract Lifecycle Management (formerly Evisort)
Workday bought Evisort on 8 October 2024 for $311 million in cash and in March 2025 made its AI contract tools available as Workday Contract Intelligence and Workday Contract Lifecycle Management, both powered by Evisort AI. Contract Intelligence reads and extracts terms from existing agreements; CLM adds requests, approvals, negotiation and signature. Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant placed Workday among the Visionaries.
| Workday Contract Lifecycle Management at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Workday, Inc. (Nasdaq: WDAY) |
| Gartner 2025 | Visionary |
| Published price | Quote only; its AWS Marketplace listing is private offers only |
| Who can buy it | Workday launched it for its HCM and Financial Management customers and prospects; whether a company with no Workday products can buy it on its own is not stated |
| Deployment | SaaS, deployed on AWS; evisort.com now redirects to workday.com |
| Best for | Workday HR and finance customers that want contract data in the same system |
Watch out for: several CLM roundups still list Evisort as an independent vendor. It is a Workday product now, and its roadmap follows Workday’s.
9. LinkSquares
LinkSquares is a legal-team CLM whose strength is contract intelligence: its LinkAI engine reads every agreement in the repository and extracts parties, dates, values and clauses, which suits teams with a large back catalogue. The company relaunched the product as an all-agentic platform in June 2026. It shows DraftKings and Wayfair among the customer logos on its home page.
| LinkSquares at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Independent, venture-backed (LinkSquares, Inc.); interim CEO Bill Hewitt, with founder Vishal Sunak on the board |
| Gartner 2025 | Niche Player |
| Published price | $50,000 for 12 months for 1 power user, 20 standard users, unlimited lite users and 2,500 documents (AWS Marketplace list price); quote only on linksquares.com |
| Salesforce | Connector from $835 per company per month, on top of a LinkSquares subscription |
| Deployment | SaaS on AWS, hosted in the US, multi-tenant or single-tenant; SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 |
| Best for | In-house legal teams that need to find and report on what is already signed |
Watch out for: pricing is by user tier (power, standard and lite) plus document volume, so count how many people need to edit contracts rather than just view them before you ask for a quote.
10. ContractWorks
ContractWorks is a simple contract repository with built-in e-signature, aimed at small legal teams that need to get contracts out of shared drives quickly. It is owned by Onit, which bought its maker SecureDocs in January 2022, and positioned below Onit’s enterprise CLM.
| ContractWorks at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Onit, Inc. |
| Gartner 2025 | Not evaluated |
| Published price | Three plans with the dollar amounts no longer shown; every plan includes unlimited users and is sized by documents stored |
| Plans | Standard: 2,500 documents and 5 e-signature licences. Professional: 10,000 documents and 10. Premium: unlimited documents, 20 e-signature licences, plus drafting, redlining and workflows |
| Deployment | SaaS |
| Best for | Small and mid-size legal teams that want a searchable repository and alerts more than drafting tools |
Watch out for: there is no mobile app in Apple’s App Store or Google Play, and drafting and workflow tools are only in the top (Premium) plan.
Not a Full CLM: PandaDoc
PandaDoc is document automation for small and mid-size businesses: proposals, quotes, e-signature and payments in one self-serve tool. It is not in Gartner’s CLM Magic Quadrant, but on 22 September 2026 it added contract lifecycle features (AI data extraction, renewal alerts, a central repository and Word editing) to its existing plans. Keith Rabkin became CEO in January 2026.
| PandaDoc at a glance | Checked 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Published price | Free ($0, 5 documents a month); Starter $35 per seat per month or $19 billed annually; Business $65 or $49 billed annually; Enterprise quote |
| CLM features by plan | AI data extraction and automatic expirations on Business and Enterprise only; AI renewal alerts optional on Business, included on Enterprise |
| Trial | 14 days, no credit card |
| Deployment | SaaS on AWS, SOC 2 Type II |
| Best for | Sales-led SMBs whose contracts start as proposals and quotes |
The second screenshot shows the same September 2023 page billed monthly: Essentials $35 and Business $65 per seat.
Watch out for: the CLM features launched on 22 September 2026 and sit mostly on the Business plan and above, so test renewal alerts and extraction on your own contracts during the trial.
How We Chose and Checked These Tools
We rebuilt this list on 5 October 2026. Every product on it was in Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant for Contract Life Cycle Management, which evaluated 16 vendors, or is built for a specific system (Salesforce, SAP, Workday) or for small teams. For each one we loaded the vendor’s own website, checked ownership in its newsroom, SEC filings or the acquirer’s announcement, read its pricing page, and searched AWS Marketplace and Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace for a published list price. We also checked every product against CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; none appeared in it.
We did not test these products hands-on, and we removed the review-site star ratings this page used to carry, because we could not confirm they were current. Screenshots are dated with the month we captured them, so treat interfaces and prices in them as history.
FAQs
What are the common features of CLM software?
A central contract repository with searchable fields, templates and a clause library, redlining with version control, approval workflows, e-signature (built in or through Docusign or Adobe Sign), obligation and renewal tracking, AI extraction of terms from existing contracts, and integrations with CRM and ERP systems.
What is the best CLM software?
There is no single best tool. Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant for Contract Life Cycle Management named five Leaders: Sirion, Ironclad, Agiloft, Docusign and Malbek. The best fit depends on the system you already run, such as Salesforce, SAP Ariba, Microsoft or Workday, and on whether you mainly buy or sell under contract.
How much does CLM software cost?
Most vendors quote privately. Published list prices on cloud marketplaces in October 2026 included Icertis at $200,000 a year for 100 users, Sirion at $150,000 for 12 months for 100 users, LinkSquares at $50,000 for 12 months for 21 named users and 2,500 documents, and Agiloft at $25,000 for 12 months for 21 licences. Salesforce Contracts lists at $50 per user per month on top of Sales Cloud.
Is there free CLM software?
Not a full CLM. PandaDoc has a free plan limited to 5 documents a month with e-signature, and its contract lifecycle features start on the paid Business plan. Enterprise CLM vendors offer demos and pilots rather than free plans.
Can contract lifecycle management systems integrate with CRM and ERP software?
Yes, and it is one of the main reasons to buy one. Conga, Docusign CLM, Ironclad, Agiloft and LinkSquares all offer Salesforce integrations; Icertis and Sirion integrate with SAP Ariba; Icertis also integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Workday CLM shares data with Workday HR and finance. Ask whether the connector is included or an add-on.
What happened to Evisort and Lexion?
Both were bought by larger vendors. Workday acquired Evisort in October 2024 and sells it as Workday Contract Lifecycle Management. Docusign acquired Lexion in May 2024 and folds it into its Intelligent Agreement Management platform, so neither is an independent choice any more.
Conclusion
Start from the system your contracts must feed, then shortlist two or three tools: a Gartner Leader built for that system, and one cheaper or more specialised option. Ask each vendor for the marketplace list price where one exists, for the e-signature and connector costs in writing, and for a pilot on 20 of your own contracts. The ownership changes on this list (Evisort to Workday, Lexion to Docusign, ContractWorks to Onit, Sirion’s new majority owner) are a reminder to ask every vendor about its roadmap before you sign a multi-year term.
References
- Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Contract Life Cycle Management, 2025 (figure as published by Sirion); vendor releases from Ironclad, Agiloft, Docusign and Workday
- Forrester Wave: Contract Lifecycle Management Platforms, Q1 2025 (Ironclad release)
- Icertis on Microsoft Azure Marketplace, Sirion on AWS Marketplace, Agiloft on AWS Marketplace, LinkSquares on AWS Marketplace
- Salesforce Contracts pricing, PandaDoc pricing, Docusign IAM plans, ContractWorks plans
- Workday 10-Q, quarter ended 31 October 2024 (Evisort) and Docusign 10-Q, quarter ended 31 July 2024 (Lexion)
- Onit acquires SecureDocs (ContractWorks), LegalSifter acquires Contract Logix, Haveli completes Sirion investment, Conga completes PROS B2B acquisition
- World Commerce & Contracting on value erosion and CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- Malbek, Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant (17 November 2025), LinkSquares all-agentic platform (June 2026), PandaDoc CLM launch (22 September 2026)
- Vendr, Ironclad pricing and Vendr, Agiloft pricing (buyer-reported, secondary)
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