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By Mariana Hagström
Avokaado Founder & CEO
Ironclad is a contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform designed for legal teams at large companies to manage contracts more effectively. It allows organizations to design and deploy digital contracts, collaborate across teams, and analyze contract data for insights using AI-driven tools.
Despite Ironclad’s popularity, organizations sometimes seek alternatives. This can happen when their current CLM provider is no longer able to meet their evolving needs, or when they encounter challenges managing the entire contract lifecycle. There could also be other internal reasons, such as wanting to achieve faster time-to-revenue, better oversight of contract risks and obligations, improved cross-team collaboration, and reduced manual work in the contracting process.
In this article, we’ll explore some reasons behind organizations not wanting to continue working with Ironclad. To help such organizations, we have compiled a list of seven top alternatives to Ironclad. We’ll highlight key features, pricing insights, pros, and cons for each. We’ll also outline what criteria to consider when evaluating CLM software, so you can make an informed choice.
While Ironclad is one of the most recognizable CLM solutions, it may not be the perfect fit for everyone. Organizations may consider switching from Ironclad for several reasons, some of which we’ve looked into.
Before we get into detailed profiles, here’s a quick overview of the seven Ironclad alternatives we’ll cover:
Avokaado is a contract management platform positioned as a contract intelligence solution for legal and business teams. Founded in Estonia, Avokaado’s mission is to replace legal chaos with clarity by treating contracts not just as files but as live data assets.
Avokaado offers a comprehensive feature set covering the entire contract lifecycle. Let’s go over some of the key capabilities that are part of the platform.
Avokaado provides a powerful template-based document automation engine. Legal teams can build dynamic templates with clauses, conditional logic, and smart fields (variables) to auto-generate contracts with zero copy-paste within Avokaado’s proprietary aDoc document format. Even complex templates and workflows can be managed by legal or ops users without writing a single line of code.
Teams can collaborate in real-time on Avokaado, thanks to version tracking and centralized comments. It supports in-app commenting and discussions for internal reviews, as well as secure sharing with counterparties.
Avokaado integrates electronic signatures directly into its workflows and also batch signing. Approval workflows are customizable, ensuring each contract gets the necessary internal sign-offs. The Compliance Center further enforces policies and approval tracking automatically.
Avokaado’s “data-first” architecture means key details (party names, dates, values, clause selections, etc.) are captured as structured data points, not buried in PDFs. Contracts are organized in a secure repository with party management and a data registry that links contract data across workflows, making them fully searchable and reportable.
An AI-powered OCR is also available for imported documents, so even third-party contracts can have data extracted.
Avokaado is AI-powered at its core. Its AI engine can automatically tag clauses and extract key terms from contracts for monitoring. It offers extensive contract analytics and dashboarding. Avokaado’s contract intelligence platform provides predictive insights and advanced reporting based on the structured data captured.
Avokaado’s Avo is an AI-native infrastructure built to automate legal work beyond traditional CLM. Unlike add-on AI tools that analyze documents after creation, Avo is designed to generate, review, negotiate, and manage contracts autonomously yet under your organization’s rules and playbooks. Each AI agent (for example, an NDA Agent or MSA Agent) follows structured contract logic, ensuring every output is verifiable and compliant through built-in checks and scorecards.
Avo extends Avokaado’s current contract intelligence capabilities by turning routine legal tasks into governed, auditable workflows that teams can rely on. It aims to deliver measurable time savings and faster deal cycles while maintaining full control.
Avokaado supports integration with popular third-party systems, like Salesforce (CRM), BambooHR, and Personio (HRIS), via its API. This means contracts can be connected to sales deals, HR onboarding, procurement processes, etc., syncing data bi-directionally. It also offers an open API for custom integrations.
Avokaado is built with enterprise security and compliance in mind. The platform is hosted in the EU on secure cloud infrastructure, is GDPR-compliant, and offers end-to-end encryption. Other security aspects include role-based access and audit trails through its Security Center, and on-premises deployment for custom plans.
For regulated industries, Avokaado provides compliance checks and policy enforcement.
In addition to the extensive feature list above, Avokaado also offers:
Avokaado’s pricing can be as flexible as your business. There are no restrictive packages or vaguely defined tiers. Your organization gets a tailored plan built from the modules and tools you actually need. Choose a combination of contract automation, AI tools, compliance, e-signing, or other add-ons and integrations that fulfil your exact business use cases, and you will get a solution that aligns perfectly with your requirements.
Avokaado is particularly well-suited for in-house legal teams and legal operations professionals in data-driven organizations. It is aimed at companies that want to manage the entire contract lifecycle with exceptional visibility and control while keeping speeds up.
Avokaado would be an excellent fit for:
See how one customer, Tele2, improved their NDA turnaround time from 50 hours to 50 minutes with Avokaado. Similarly, Avokaado also helped equipment rental company Ramirent effortlessly automate 300 HR documents in 3 months.
ContractZen is an all-in-one governance software suite, with contract management being one of its main modules. It is a cloud-based platform that centralizes contracts and corporate records with quick searches and easy usability.
Pricing
ContractZen has tiered plans on a per-user, per-month basis. The Standard plan, priced at $9.50 per user per month, unlocks core features, such as board meeting management, 50GB document storage, and email reminders. The other two plans are Advanced, priced at $27 per user per month, and Custom, for enterprise clients who might have higher requirements. The contract management feature is available with all three plans.
ContractZen is best for startups and SMBs (maybe 10 to a few hundred employees) that need a secure repository for contracts and corporate documents with excellent search and ease of use. It’s aimed at companies that want a simple, affordable solution to manage contracts and things like board meetings and entity documents in one secure hub without purchasing additional software.
It might not be great if you need a heavy-duty CLM that automates negotiation or integrates deeply with sales processes.
Founded in 2015, LinkSquares initially gained fame for its AI tool that could analyze large volumes of executed contracts to pull crucial insights. It has since expanded into a full CLM covering pre-signature drafting and approvals as well.
Pricing
LinkSquares, like many enterprise CLMs, hasn’t officially published a public price list. It doesn’t have any details about pricing components up on its website either. All we know is that it offers a yearly subscription model, with a Basic tier – the only one on LinkSquares’s Capterra profile and some other directories – priced at $10,000 per year.
LinkSquares is ideal for legal teams in medium to large enterprises that have a significant volume of contracts and are particularly interested in leveraging contract data. If your company has thousands of contracts and multiple departments involved in contracting, LinkSquares is a great option. It can also fit well if you already use Salesforce, DocuSign, etc., and want a CLM that will integrate smoothly.
Juro is an all-in-one, browser-based contract management platform that emphasizes a smooth, collaborative experience for legal and business teams. The AI-native platform enables users to create, negotiate, approve, sign, and manage contracts in one unified digital workspace.
Pricing
Juro hasn’t published any specifics about their pricing structure, but their website does mention that they build custom plans according to organizational needs. Pricing is based on contract volume and not on the number of users.
Juro is best for high-growth and high-volume companies and modern legal teams that value speed and user experience. Additionally, if sales, HR, and legal teams all need to use the CLM, Juro is great because it’s intuitive for all.
ContractWorks (an Onit company) is a contract management platform known for its simplicity and value-driven pricing. It is focused on secure document storage, milestone tracking, and ease of use, making it ideal for teams seeking a quick-to-implement CLM.
Pricing
ContractWorks offers two tiers for its CLM: Standard and Premium. Both come with unlimited users, so prices are determined by contract volume, number of eSignature licenses, and whether or not you require any advanced features. You can also request a free trial.
ContractWorks is ideal for small and mid-sized legal teams that need a secure, organized contract repository and basic management without complexity. For such companies, cost is a big factor, and ContractWorks delivers critical functionality at a much lower price than other enterprise CLMs. Also, unlimited users means legal can involve other departments without exorbitant costs adding up.
Conga (which merged with Apttus in 2020) has a long history in CLM and CPQ (configure-price-quote) software. Conga CLM is an enterprise-grade contract management platform that automates complex contract processes. It offers deep CRM integration and robust document generation capabilities.
Pricing
Conga CLM is typically priced per user with tiered editions, but the website does not contain any specific details. According to their Salesforce AppExchange profile, the lowest tier, the CLM Default Plan, is priced at $35 per user per month.
Conga often targets mid-to-large organizations. It’s designed to handle high-volume contracting and intricate approval rules, making it popular with sales operations and legal teams at large companies, particularly those using Salesforce. It would also be a great choice if your contract process is tightly linked with quoting and revenue management. If you already use any other Conga tools, their CLM would be a natural extension and thus integrate well.
DocuSign CLM is an end-to-end contract management solution that automates document generation, approvals, and storage. The platform is tightly integrated with DocuSign eSignature and other business systems, with the aim to extend to pre- and post-signing stages of the CLM process.
Pricing
The DocuSign website lists various packages for its eSignature service, ranging from $15 to $65 per user per month, with custom quotes available for Enhanced plans. But there’s no mention of the CLM module and whether or not it is a part of the listed price plans.
DocuSign CLM is a great fit for companies that have outgrown manual contracting but aren’t so large to require heavily tailored solutions yet. Also, if you currently use DocuSign for hundreds of users, adding the same brand’s CLM to the stack makes sense because users may be able to get started with the new functionality easily on a platform they already log into regularly.
Choosing the right contract lifecycle management platform involves evaluating several key criteria to ensure it fits your organization’s needs. You should generally prioritize a CLM that offers:
It often helps to run a pilot or proof-of-concept with top vendors, using a sample workflow, to see which one really matches your team's day-to-day contracting process. The right CLM should not only solve today’s problems (like cutting an NDA from 5 days to 5 minutes) but also position your legal and ops teams for tomorrow’s challenges.
Choosing the right Ironclad alternative largely depends on your team’s priorities. Are faster approvals what you want? Or would you rather achieve better contract data visibility, or perhaps improved collaboration across departments? Do you have any other goals?
Each provider on our list has its strengths, but if you’re looking for a data-first, AI-powered platform built for the entire contract lifecycle, Avokaado stands out. It’s designed to help legal and business teams act proactively with automation, compliance, and real-time insights built in.
If your goal is to turn contracts into a source of strategic value rather than administrative work, it’s worth seeing what Avokaado can do. Book a personalized demo with Avokaado and experience how contract intelligence can transform your team’s workflow.
See how Avokaado replaces chaos with clarity by automating manual work, cutting delays, and giving you full visibility across every document.
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