Best Vendor Management Software 2025: VMS features, comparisons and reviews

Vendor management software is a digital solution that helps businesses manage relationships with vendors, suppliers, and third‐party contractors

It enables organisations to easily onboard vendors, track their performance, automate procurement processes, ensure compliance, and optimise contracts.

The right vendor management system can improve efficiency, mitigate risks, and enhance vendor collaboration.

If you’re ready to go to market, download our guide below for a comprehensive buyer’s toolkit designed to help you optimise your research and selection process.

Below, we help you to navigate different vendor management systems available, how to make your purchasing decision and what vendor management software features you should prioritise.

Best vendor Management Software 2025

1. Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper is more than just a vendor management solution. It’s a full Vendor & Contract Lifecycle Management (VCLM) platform, built to manage every stage of the vendor relationship from initial onboarding to contract renewal and risk mitigation.

Unlike traditional solutions that only handle procurement or contract storage, Gatekeeper provides complete control over the vendor lifecycle, allowing your business to optimise workflows, maintain compliance, strengthen vendor relationships and drive performance across your portfolio.

With built‐in AI‐driven insights, businesses can proactively identify risks, monitor compliance, and streamline vendor negotiations - all while ensuring transparency and accountability.

Gatekeeper is well credited for its:

• Ease of Use: Rated 9.0 for ease of use on G2, making it one of the most intuitive platforms available.
• Ease of Setup: Rated 8.1 on G2, allowing your team to get up and running quickly without the need for extensive IT support
• Customer Support: Rated 9.4 for support rating on G2, ensuring users receive top‐tier assistance.

Customer reviews of Gatekeeper highlight:

• Once we created the workflows within Gatekeeper, and integrated Gatekeeper with NetSuite, we were able to see all this spending for our vendors and align the spending to specific contracts and receive alerts for contracts and expirations that are coming up." – Gubio Henrique, Senior Vice President of Sourcing and Purchasing, Redwood Logistics
• "Gatekeeper gives us excellent control and visibility of spend, which we have never had before. We have been able to terminate contracts that no longer serve us with a total value of circa £1m. ” - Krupa Patel, Head of Procurement UK & US (Global).

• Gatekeeper was incredible to work with when it came to pricing, they understood our budget and were willing to work with us every step of the way to find a price that would work for both sides.” - Darin Van Duser, Vendor Management Supervisor, NYCM

2. SirionLabs

SirionLabs' AI‐driven Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform enhances vendor management by automating contract authoring, monitoring obligations, and assessing supplier performance.

This comprehensive approach ensures compliance, optimises financial management, and mitigates risks, leading to more effective vendor relationships and improved business outcomes.

SirionLabs vs Gatekeeper

Ease of Use: SirionLabs scores 8.6 on G2, compared to Gatekeeper’s 9.0. Users often find SirionLabs complex and unintuitive, leading to slower adoption and higher training demands. In contrast, Gatekeeper’s user‐friendly design ensures teams can easily navigate the platform and manage contracts efficiently.

Ease of Setup: With a 7.4 rating on G2, SirionLabs requires more time and resources to implement, often causing delays. Gatekeeper, rated 8.1, streamlines deployment, allowing organisations to get up and running quickly and realise value sooner.

Customer Support: While SirionLabs holds a 9.3 rating for support, users report slower issue resolution and extended back‐and‐forth communication. Gatekeeper goes further, offering highly responsive, proactive support to ensure users receive timely assistance and maximise their platform experience.SirionLabs Customer Reviews:

• “Minor bugs in the tool can cause either complete stoppage of the process or the need to re‐start the process”
• “The tool is a big lift, and it might take our firm and teams some time to grow into all of its features.”
• “If not careful the flows could end up being too complex. Keep in mind user experience/value creation versus what the actual needs are of the company.”

3. Coupa

Coupa supports vendor management by providing a centralised platform for onboarding, compliance checks, and performance tracking. It streamlines supplier registration, ensuring vendors meet regulatory and business standards while offering visibility into key metrics such as cost, reliability, and service quality.

Coupa also facilitates collaboration, enabling smoother communication between procurement teams and vendors to reduce delays in contract negotiations and approvals.

Coupa vs Gatekeeper

• Ease of Use: Coupa scores 8.3 on G2, compared to Gatekeeper’s 9.0. Its complex interface slows adoption, requiring extra training to manage vendors and procurement effectively. Gatekeeper’s intuitive design ensures teams can work efficiently with minimal learning time.
• Ease of Setup: With a 7.3 rating on G2, Coupa’s setup can be lengthy and IT‐intensive, delaying time to value. Gatekeeper, rated 8.1, enables faster deployment, allowing organisations to onboard quickly and optimise vendor management with ease.
• Customer Support: Coupa’s 7.8 support rating falls short of Gatekeeper’s 9.4. Users report slow response times and challenges with technical issues. Gatekeeper offers highly responsive, proactive support, ensuring quick resolutions and a seamless user experience.

Coupa customer reviews reveal that:

• “It is very limited to adapt to customer needs, it seems intended to smaller companies with centralised procurement teams”
• “It is very tough to customise the tool to your needs, self‐service. There is a lot of dependency on how the tool is set up originally or reliance on outside resources to modify the tool after setting it up.”
• “Customer service is inexistent. Not easy to roll out.”

4. Icertis

Icertis enhances vendor management through its AI‐powered Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform, Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI), by streamlining supplier onboarding, tracking vendor performance, and ensuring compliance through its Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) application.

The platform’s risk management capabilities proactively assess and monitor supply chain risks, helping organisations mitigate operational, financial, and reputational threats. Icertis also facilitates obligation management, enabling businesses to track commitments and optimise performance while reducing commercial risks.

Icertis vs Gatekeeper

• Ease of Use: Icertis scores 8.0 on G2, compared to Gatekeeper’s 9.0. Its interface can be less intuitive, requiring more effort to navigate and manage contracts effectively. Gatekeeper’s user‐friendly design ensures a smoother experience with minimal training.
• Ease of Setup: With a 7.6 rating on G2, Icertis’ setup can be more complex and time‐consuming. Gatekeeper, rated 8.1, streamlines deployment, enabling faster onboarding and quicker time to value.
• Customer Support: Icertis holds an 8.4 support rating on G2, while Gatekeeper leads with 9.4. Gatekeeper’s highly responsive, proactive support ensures users receive top‐tier assistance whenever they need it.

Customer reviews of Icertis show:

• “The implementation team was very flexible - which is a negative in this case as they didn't advise on best practices and we ended up spending a long time undoing what we had implemented. Also, very lengthy implementation and onboarding process. The system is not intuitive and users require a lot of support.”
• “There was/is simply too many errors, lifting the errors took quite a lot of time.”
• “It took a while to learn how to use it properly and it can at times be somewhat clunky and cumbersome.”

5. Ironclad

IronClad, although not specifically designed for VLM, supports vendor management by streamlining contract creation, negotiation, and compliance tracking for supplier agreements.

With automated workflows, Ironclad ensures that vendor contracts are reviewed and approved efficiently, reducing bottlenecks in procurement and supplier onboarding.

Its AI‐driven analytics provide insights into contract risks, renewal deadlines, and obligations, helping businesses maintain strong vendor relationships and ensure compliance.

Ironclad vs Gatekeeper

• Ease of Use: Ironclad scores 8.9 on G2, just below Gatekeeper’s 9.0. While both are user‐friendly, Gatekeeper’s more intuitive interface reduces the learning curve, making contract and vendor management smoother and more efficient.
• Ease of Setup: Ironclad is rated 8.2, slightly higher than Gatekeeper’s 8.1, but often requires more customisation, leading to longer implementation times. Gatekeeper prioritises rapid deployment, enabling organisations to onboard quickly and realise value sooner with minimal disruption.
• Customer Support: Ironclad holds an 8.9 support rating, but Gatekeeper leads with 9.4. With faster response times and proactive assistance, Gatekeeper ensures users receive expert support when they need it, minimising downtime and maximising efficiency.

Ironclad customer reviews highlight:

• “The repository is a bit clunky and there are some features that are not intuitive to utilise”
• "The search function leaves something to be desired, the customised filters are not very helpful either"
• “Their support department is laughable. Instead of getting on a call to understand the issue they will just send you the same support article over and over saying "did this help?"

What vendor management System features should you prioritise?

AI-Driven Vendor & Contract Intelligence

• Extract and analyse contract data automatically, ensuring key terms, obligations, and risks are surfaced proactively.
• Track renewal deadlines, compliance statuses, and financial commitments in real-time.
• Gain actionable insights into vendor performance and contract utilisation.

Vendor Portal for Self-Service Management

• Provide vendors with a dedicated portal to manage their own information, documents, and compliance requirements.
• Reduce administrative burden by enabling vendors to update details, submit required documentation, and track approval statuses.
• Maintain a complete audit trail of vendor interactions, ensuring transparency and accountability.

Smart Forms for Automated Vendor Data Collection<

• Use configurable Smart Forms to collect vendor information, compliance documents, and certifications dynamically.
• Automatically validate responses against internal policies and regulatory requirements.
• Seamlessly integrate collected data into workflows, approvals, and risk assessments.

Automated Vendor Onboarding & Compliance Management

• Standardise onboarding with pre‐configured workflows, ensuring all vendors meet compliance and due diligence criteria.
• Automate approval processes across procurement, legal, finance, and IT teams.
• Track and enforce compliance requirements, with automated reminders for document expirations and policy renewals.

Workflow Automation for Vendor Approvals & Risk Assessments

• Customisable approval workflows ensure vendor onboarding, contract approvals, and renewals follow best practices.
• Automate risk assessment checks, flagging high‐risk vendors based on predefined criteria.
• Provide real‐time visibility into where vendors are in the approval process.

Vendor Risk & Performance Monitoring

• Assign risk scores to vendors based on financial stability, security compliance, ESG commitments, and operational performance.
• Continuously monitor vendor performance against agreed SLAs and KPIs.
• Automate alerts for performance deviations, contract breaches, or regulatory non‐compliance.

Vendor Contract & Renewal Management

• Automatically track key contract dates to prevent unintended auto‐renewals or lapses in service.
• Set up renewal workflows to ensure contracts are reviewed, renegotiated, or terminated in a timely manner.
• Integrate with eSignature solutions to streamline contract execution.

Centralised Vendor & Contract Repository

• Maintain a single source of truth for all vendor‐related contracts, communications, and compliance records.
• Ensure all vendor interactions, approvals, and risk assessments are fully auditable.
• Use powerful search and filtering capabilities to locate key vendor information instantly.

Finance & Procurement System Integrations

• Connect vendor and contract data with ERP, procurement, and finance systems to eliminate data silos.
• Automate financial tracking, linking contract obligations with payment and invoicing workflows.
• Improve forecasting accuracy with real‐time contract spend insights.

Governance, Risk & Compliance Controls

• Implement strong governance frameworks to enforce vendor management best practices.
• Ensure all actions are fully auditable, providing a defensible compliance position.
• Automate policy enforcement and regulatory reporting to mitigate risks.

vendor management FAQ

What is vendor management software?
Vendor management software is a digital solution that helps businesses oversee vendor relationships, track performance, automate contract workflows, and ensure compliance with procurement policies.

How does Gatekeeper differ from other vendor management solutions?Gatekeeper takes a Vendor & Contract Lifecycle Management (VCLM) approach, providing end‐to‐end automation, AI‐powered insights, and superior usability compared to competitors like Coupa, Icertis, and Ironclad.

Which industries benefit most from vendor management software?
Industries that rely on multiple vendors - such as finance, healthcare, IT, and manufacturing - benefit significantly from vendor management software to improve compliance, reduce risk, and enhance procurement efficiency.

Can vendor management software integrate with existing systems?
Yes, leading vendor management tools like Gatekeeper offer seamless integrations with ERP, procurement, and contract management systems to ensure smooth workflows.

If you're ready to improve your vendor management processes, contact us today.