Below is a concise, up-to-date roundup of contract management / contract lifecycle management (CLM) software in 2025, with strengths, weaknesses, and who each is best for. I checked recent vendor rankings and analyst reports from 2025 (Forrester Wave Q1 2025, Gartner Peer Insights, Capterra and vendor announcements) — key claims are cited.

Top picks (summary)

• Ironclad — Leader for ease of use, workflow flexibility, and sell‑side contracting; strong native integrations and fast self‑service workflow building. Best for: revenue‑facing legal/sales teams and organizations that want fast time‑to‑value. (prnewswire.com)
• Agiloft — Leader for no‑code configurability, data‑first approach, and strong partner/community ecosystem; good for complex procurement/legal operations. Best for: enterprises needing heavily customized workflows without heavy engineering. (Agiloft.com)
• Icertis — Enterprise CLM with powerful AI tagging, global/legal compliance features and scalability for complex, multilingual contract portfolios. Best for: global enterprises in regulated industries. (gartner.com)
• LinkSquares — Highly rated for AI extraction and analytics, good at post‑execution obligations and insights. Best for: organizations focused on analytics/insights from executed contracts. (gartner.com)
• ContractPodAi — Positioned as a legal/GenAI CLM with end‑to‑end features for legal ops, strong for enterprise deployments that want embedded legal AI. Best for: legal teams seeking integrated drafting/review automation. (gartner.com)
• DocuSign CLM — Good if you want tight integration with market‑leading e‑signature and simple contract execution workflows. Best for: teams already on DocuSign for signature who want CLM integrated with e‑sign. (apmic.org)
• Agreed/shortlist consumer choices (PandaDoc, Concord, ContractSafe, etc.) — Capterra’s 2025 shortlist highlights user‑reviewed, SMB‑friendly options (PandaDoc, Concord, ContractSafe among the most‑reviewed). Best for: small and midsize organizations with lighter CLM needs or fast, inexpensive deployments. (capterra.com)

What analysts said in 2025 (high‑level)

• Forrester’s Q1 2025 CLM Wave evaluated top vendors and placed multiple firms (including Ironclad and Agiloft) in Leaders — Forrester emphasizes evaluation across criteria such as contract creation, AI capabilities, interoperability, workflow and usability. Vendor reports and press releases reference that Wave. (Forrester report is paywalled; vendor press releases summarize their positioning). (forrester.com)
• Gartner Peer Insights and other review sites show high customer ratings for Icertis, LinkSquares, ContractPodAi, Agiloft and others — these platforms score well for enterprise features, AI extraction, and integrations. (gartner.com)
• Market trend 2025: strong focus on AI/ML for clause extraction, obligation management, and generative assistance; vendors are positioning proprietary or legal‑domain AI to differentiate from general‑purpose LLMs. Recent industry coverage shows startups and incumbents racing to "OpenAI‑proof" with domain expertise and integrations. (businessinsider.com)

Practical pros & cons (short)

• Ironclad
  • Pros: very usable UI, fast workflow building, strong sell‑side features, good CRM integrations.
  • Cons: may be priced above SMB budgets; enterprise customizations can add cost. (prnewswire.com)
• Agiloft
  • Pros: powerful no‑code customization, strong data model, flexible for procurement/legal ops.
  • Cons: initial setup and governance require planning; powerful features can be complex. (Agiloft.com)
• Icertis
  • Pros: enterprise scale, multilingual support, robust AI tagging & analytics.
  • Cons: enterprise focus → longer implementation and higher cost. (gartner.com)
• LinkSquares / ContractPodAi
  • Pros: strong AI extraction / insights, good for post‑execution analytics and legal ops automation.
  • Cons: some advanced AI features may rely on add‑ons or higher tiers. (gartner.com)
• DocuSign CLM
  • Pros: best if you need seamless signature + CLM; familiar vendor and integrations.
  • Cons: CLM depth may be less than specialized CLM leaders for complex lifecycle automation. (tomsguide.com)
• SMB tools (PandaDoc, Concord, ContractSafe)
  • Pros: lower cost, simple UX, quick deployment.
  • Cons: less powerful for enterprise compliance, complex approval routing, or deep analytics. (capterra.com)

How to pick (quick checklist)

• Define core use cases: sell‑side templates vs procurement vs third‑party/vendor contracts vs legal‑ops analytics.
• Required integrations: CRM (Salesforce/Microsoft Dynamics), ERP, e‑signature, document stores.
• Scale & governance: number of contracts, languages, global compliance needs.
• AI needs vs explainability: do you need automated extraction only, or generative drafting and clause‑level risk scoring?
• Implementation capacity: internal IT/legal resources for configuration vs desire for a managed implementation/partner.

Next steps / shortlist recommendation

1. For enterprise/legal ops with complex needs: evaluate Icertis, Agiloft, Ironclad, ContractPodAi. Use Forrester Wave Q1 2025 and Gartner Peer Insights to compare feature scores and customer reviews. (forrester.com)
2. For analytics/post‑execution insights: trial LinkSquares (good AI extraction for executed contracts). (gartner.com)
3. For sales/sell‑side focus with quick adoption: trial Ironclad or DocuSign CLM (if you already use DocuSign signatures). (prnewswire.com)
4. For SMBs or tight budgets: consider Capterra’s shortlist (PandaDoc, Concord, ContractSafe) and read recent user reviews. (capterra.com)

If you want, I can:

• build a 3‑vendor shortlist (enterprise, mid‑market, SMB) tailored to your org size, tech stack and priorities and include estimated TCO and implementation time; or
• fetch and attach the specific Forrester Wave vendor scores and Gartner Peer Insights ratings for your top 3 vendors (I can pull the current published pages and customer review excerpts).

Which would you like next?