Forrester Wave Evaluates the Top Contract Management Platforms

Independent, data-driven assessments often identify industry leaders and highlight areas where other vendors can improve. For organisations evaluating contract life cycle management (CLM) platforms, the objectivity and depth of the Forrester Wave report are unmatched. Its ranking reflects the strengths of its features and strategies, making it an excellent guide for executives who need strong performance and practical innovation in their solution of choice.

What Is the Forrester Wave?

The Forrester Wave is an independent evaluation of providers within a specific market. In a crowded technology landscape where vendors promote overlapping capabilities, buyers look to it as a structured guide to determine which solution aligns with their operational priorities. For business leaders, this means access to a detailed and impartial assessment of CLM tools. Instead of relying on product demos or marketing claims, you see a quantified comparison of how vendors stack up against one another.

In its review of Contract Life Cycle Management Platforms, Forrester conducts an in-depth, side-by-side comparison of vendors using 26 criteria. These span current product capabilities, strategic direction and customer feedback.

The result is a transparent scoring model that shows how each provider performs across the dimensions that matter most to enterprise teams. Capabilities such as contract authoring, digitisation of legacy agreements, workflow automation, governance controls and risk tracking are assessed based on their performance in live enterprise environments.

What Are the Top Forrester Wave Contract Management Platforms?

The latest Contract Management Platforms report identified 12 providers across Leaders, Strong Performers and Contenders. Here’s a closer look at the four industry leaders, starting with the one that best balances functionality with innovation.

1. Agiloft

Agiloft tops the Forrester Wave contract management platforms report, especially for teams that want structure without heavy IT involvement. It’s a no-code CLM solution built on Amazon Web Services that supports both pre- and post-signature agreement activities for midmarket and enterprise organisations. Customers often point to its flexible workflows and strong obligation tracking as key strengths. It includes a generative AI Prompt Lab that scans contracts and suggests improved clauses and fallback language.

Agiloft stands out for its detailed reporting and visualisation tools. A built-in finance tab helps users track budget commitments against contract obligations, and task management features keep reviews and approvals on schedule. Its AI tools review terms at scale, which helps legal and procurement teams handle high volumes without slowing down. Partners deliver around 60% of implementations, enabling organisations to align the platform with their internal processes.

2. Sirion

Sirion is another leader and an AI-native CLM platform built on an agent-based architecture. It extracts structured data from contracts to track obligations, monitor compliance and match invoices to agreed terms. The system supports multiple languages, including Asian scripts, and captures more than 50 metadata fields, including regulatory clauses and service commitments.

It manages the phases before and after signing. Many people use it to standardise templates, control amendments and flag risk across large contract portfolios. Its AI groups and scores issues by similarity, which helps legal and procurement teams decide where to act first. Organisations operating across jurisdictions often rely on Sirion to keep legal requirements and operational execution aligned.

3. Ironclad

Ironclad ranks as an industry leader, offering strong features focused on sell-side contracting and legal operations, with configurable workflows and built-in e-signature and customer relationship management (CRM) integrations. Its AI assistant, Jurist, answers legal questions and links back to the source language. It’s widely used by technology companies moving through digital transformation.

Customers often see faster contract creation and smoother internal reviews, especially when IT support is limited. The platform gives users the flexibility to design their own workflows, which works best when clear governance rules are in place. Its SaaS model reduces reliance on heavy implementation services, and its AI tools generate summaries and cover sheets that help speed up negotiations.

4. Icertis

Icertis provides enterprise-grade CLM with industry-specific capabilities for sectors such as health care, investment banking and federal contracting. Its AI identifies compliance obligations, key commercial terms and risk indicators. It also matches the terms with invoices for buy-side transactions.

Customers value the platform’s stability and performance. Its multimodel AI approach enables organisations to apply different models based on the type of contract analysis required. Icertis supports hybrid and on-premises deployments, which suit companies with strict IT and data policies. For teams handling large volumes of complex agreements, Icertis turns contract data into actionable insights that support operational control and risk management.

How to Choose the Right CLM Platform

The top Forrester Wave vendors provide more than just contract storage. They automate tasks, reduce errors and integrate with enterprise systems. If you’re weighing your options, here are a few of the things you should consider:

• AI capabilities: Does the platform analyse obligations, detect risks or suggest optimised clauses?
• Workflow integration: Can it plug into Teams, Slack, SharePoint or CRM systems?
• Post-signature management: How effectively does it handle renewals, amendments and compliance tracking?
• Deployment flexibility: Are SaaS, hybrid or on-premises options available?
• Customer support: Are training, partner services and community resources accessible?

Agiloft, Ironclad, Sirion and Icertis each deliver unique strengths. Agiloft combines AI automation with a flexible no-code platform. Ironclad prioritises configurable workflows for dynamic teams. Sirion excels at post-signature compliance and multilingual support. Icertis offers enterprise-grade AI and industry-specific templates.

Advance Your CLM Strategy With Proven Leaders

Choosing the right contract management platform means finding one that actually fits your team’s needs. The Forrester Wave gives you unbiased, data-driven insight so you can look past marketing claims. Focus on the features that matter most and choose a solution that delivers real, measurable results for your business.