AI Indexes
IT AI Index
October 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › IT operations and endpoint › SaaS management › Small business › October 2026 Edition

SaaS management platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “SaaS management platform”, and as “SaaS spend and license management tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
19%
Contested · Cledara 17%
19Substly17Cledara11Torii53others

19% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Substly19%0%28accepted challenger
02Cledara17%5%37accepted challenger
03Torii11%54%41criticized challenger
04Corma9%0%24accepted challenger
05SpendHound9%0%15accepted challenger
06Josys4%20%15accepted challenger
07Zluri2%39%38criticized challenger
08BetterCloud2%38%42criticized challenger
09Zylo2%84%37criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Productiv0%88%16criticized challenger
12Vendr0%50%10criticized challenger
11Sastrify0%30%10criticized challenger
10Spendflo0%10%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
S11
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01Substly19%
02Cledara17%
03Torii11%
04Corma9%
05SpendHound9%
06Josys4%
07Zluri2%
08BetterCloud2%
09Zylo2%
10Spendflo0%
11Sastrify0%
12Vendr0%
13Productiv0%

What they warned about

Zero of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-6 Luna and Muse Glimmer 30B changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Zylo
84%
31 of 37 labels negative · 11 of 14 models · 13 hard negative
“you generally want to avoid enterprise giants like Zylo or BetterCloud, which are often overkill in terms of cost and complexity” Qwen 3.7 Flash, paraphrase prompt
Torii
54%
22 of 41 labels negative · 11 of 14 models · 8 hard negative
“Described as an "enterprise beast" with powerful automation, but the cost is hard to justify for smaller teams” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Zluri
39%
15 of 38 labels negative · 9 of 14 models · 4 hard negative
“**Avoid/Caution: Zluri** ... significantly more expensive and feature-dense than necessary for smaller teams” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
BetterCloud
38%
16 of 42 labels negative · 8 of 14 models · 7 hard negative
“you generally want to avoid enterprise giants like Zylo or BetterCloud, which are often overkill in terms of cost and complexity” Qwen 3.7 Flash, paraphrase prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the fourteen in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

78 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1114 links across 193 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

vendor site · Corma56 answers · 133 citations · 12 models
vendor site · G236 answers · 58 citations · 13 models
vendor site · Cloudeagle34 answers · 50 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Josys31 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Zluri26 answers · 29 citations · 12 models
24 answers · 24 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Cledara22 answers · 34 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Rework22 answers · 26 citations · 11 models
22 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
19 answers · 25 citations · 12 models
vendor site · LarkSuite18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
vendor site · CloudNuro17 answers · 19 citations · 9 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best saas management platform”, “saas management platform”, “saas management platforms”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Substly substly.com19%34300455
Cledara cledara.com17%5926051,194
Torii toriihq.com11%1729,9002,47511,54319
Corma corma.io9%638807390
SpendHound spendhound.com9%3388055,46811
NachoNacho nachonacho.com4%141,00016,2213
Ramp ramp.com4%35246,00049,733770,056$13,5111208
Josys josys.com4%3821010,9806,57004
Teisko teisko.com4%2
1Password SaaS Manager 1password.com2%301702927,2631206

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 23 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (josys.com, zluri.com). The first result for “best saas management platform” is hollat.net.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best SaaS management platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which SaaS spend and license management tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top SaaS management platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best SaaS management platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a SaaS management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which SaaS management platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceSetylChanged
Two alternativesCledara, Corma
SpendHound
Five alternativesBasaas, Cledara, Corma, NachoNacho, Substly
SpendHound
Two alternativesCorma, Substly
no first choiceagainst: Airbase, Torii, Vendr, Zluri
GPT-5.4 miniCledara
Two alternativesTorii, Vendr
SpendHoundChanged
Three alternatives1Password SaaS Manager, Cledara, Josys
against: BetterCloud, Torii, Zluri
BetterCloud, Substlyagainst: Lumos, Torii, Zluri, ZyloSubstly
One alternativeSpendHound
against: BetterCloud, Cloudeagle, Torii, Zluri
no first choiceagainst: BetterCloud, Cledara, Cloudeagle, CogniSaaS, Gatekeeper, Torii, Zluri
Gemini 3.5 Flash1Password SaaS Manager, Cledara
Four alternativesLemSubs, NachoNacho, Primo, Substly
against: Productiv, Zylo
CledaraChanged
Three alternativesRippling, Substly, Trelica
against: Productiv, Zylo
1Password SaaS Manager
Four alternativesCledara, NachoNacho, Nudge Security, Substly
against: Productiv, Torii, Zylo
SpendHound
Three alternativesGenuity, NachoNacho, Ramp
against: BetterCloud, Torii, Zylo
Nudge Security
Six alternativesBrex, Cledara, Ramp, Rippling, Trelica, Zluri
against: BetterCloud, Productiv, Sastrify, Torii, Vertice, Zylo
against: BetterCloud, Flexera One, Productiv, SailPoint SaaS Management, Zylo
Perplexity SonarSubstly
Four alternativesBetterCloud, Sastrify, Spendflo, Torii
SpendbaseChanged
Three alternativesSastrify, Spendflo, Zluri
Substly
Five alternativesBetterCloud, Corma, Josys, Torii, Zluri
Substly
Four alternativesCorma, Sastrify, Spendflo, Vendr
no first choiceagainst: BetterCloud, Flexera One, LeanIX, Snow Software
Grok 4.1 FastTorii
Four alternativesBetterCloud, Cledara, Corma, Zluri
against: Zoho Expense, Zylo
Torii, ZluriChanged
Two alternativesCledara, SpendHound
against: G2 Track, Zylo
Zluri
Three alternativesBetterCloud, Cloudeagle, Torii
against: Zylo
Josys
Three alternativesBetterCloud, Corma, SpendHound
against: Nudge Security, Torii, Zluri, Zoho Expense, Zylo
no first choice
Six alternativesCorma, Spendflo, Torii, Vendr, Zluri, Zylo
against: Flexera One
against: Flexera One, Josys, Salesforce, Sastrify, Torii, Vertice, Zluri
Mistral SmallSubstly
One alternativeSaaSOptics
CloudeagleChanged
Two alternativesBeams, CostLoop
Substly, Zluri
Two alternativesCorma, Vertice
Cormano first choiceagainst: BetterCloud, Cledara, Quolum, Spendflo, Torii, Trelica, Zylo
DeepSeek V4 FlashSubstly
One alternativeCledara
against: BetterCloud, Torii, Zluri
CledaraChanged
Two alternativesAirwallex, Cardboard
against: BetterCloud, Sastrify, Torii, Zylo
CloudNuro, Corma, Torii
One alternativeCledara
against: BetterCloud, Zluri, Zylo
Substly
Two alternativesCorma, Josys Discovery
no first choiceagainst: Productiv, Vendr, Zyloagainst: BetterCloud, Torii, Zluri, Zylo
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceVerticeChanged
Two alternativesMesh Payments, SpendHound
no first choiceCorma
Two alternativesZluri, Zygon
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashZylo
Three alternativesBetterCloud, Rippling, Torii
SubstlyChanged
Two alternativesRamp, SpendHound
against: BetterCloud, Zylo
Substly
Two alternativesBetterCloud, Cledara
against: Zylo
BetterCloud
Two alternativesJosys, Spendbase
no first choiceagainst: BetterCloud, Cloudeagle, SailPoint, Zluri
Kimi K2NachoNacho
Two alternativesBetterCloud, Torii
against: Productiv, Zylo
CledaraChanged
One alternativeSastrify
against: Productiv, Torii, Zylo
Corma, NachoNacho
Four alternativesBasejump, BetterCloud, Josys, Zluri
against: Torii, Zylo
SpendHound
Two alternativesBetterCloud, Spendbase
Substlyagainst: Torii, Zyloagainst: Josys, Productiv, Torii, Vertice, Zylo
GLM 4.7 FlashXCledara
Four alternatives1Password SaaS Manager, Josys, Substly, Torii
NachoNachoChanged
Two alternativesCledara, SpendHound
Cledara
Three alternativesBetterCloud, Corma, Zluri
Teisko
Four alternativesCledara, ManageEngine SaaS Manager Plus, Saaslens, SpendHound
against: Productiv, Vendr, Zylo
no first choiceagainst: Airbase, BetterCloud, Binadox, CoreStack, Flexera One, Productiv, Rippling Spend, Scalefusion, Torii, Vendr, Zluri, Zylo
MiniMax M2.5Corma, Substly
Three alternativesSaaOptics, Torii, Zluri
RampChanged
Two alternativesBetterCloud, Zylo
Cledara, Zluri
Four alternativesBetterCloud, Josys, LarkSuite, Torii
Cledara, Torii
Two alternativesSaaSOptics, Vendr
no first choiceagainst: ServiceNow SaaS Managementagainst: Josys, Productiv, Torii, Zluri, Zylo
GPT-6 LunaCorma
Two alternativesCledara, Ramp
RampChanged
One alternativeCledara
Ramp
Three alternativesCledara, Substly, Zluri
against: 1Password SaaS Manager
Teisko
Two alternativesCledara, SpendHound
no first choiceagainst: BetterCloud, Productiv, Torii, Zluri, Zylo
Muse Glimmer 30BCledara, Torii
Five alternativesBlissfully / Vendr, Corma, Josys, NachoNacho, SpendHound
against: Zylo
ToriiChanged
Three alternativesCloudEagle.ai, Spendbase, Zluri
against: Zylo
Cledara
Three alternativesBetterCloud, Torii, Zluri
against: Zylo
Josys
Two alternativesCledara, Substly
no first choiceagainst: Airbase, Productiv, Scalefusion, Torii, Vendr, Zluri, Zylo
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:40no05 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:40yes44 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:51yes1429 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:11yes183 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:14yes259 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:33yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 23:56yes2325 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:47yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:27no029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:04yes1418 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:12yes2248 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:15yes515 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:37yes420 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 00:19yes1521 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 23:37yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:00yes56 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 01:37yes1632 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:31yes183 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:47yes238 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:07yes157 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:29yes2529 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:32yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 23:26yes2043 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:51yes2356 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 23:53yes1552 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:43yes1538 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:05yes315 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:51yes2524 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:00yes1514 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:27yes813 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:02yes2636 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:29yes155 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:00yes2011 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:12yes86 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:40yes1937 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:44yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:04yes1417 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:06yes2235 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 23:57yes23141 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:14yes1223 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:37yes528 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 23:53yes2342 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:40yes107 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:44yes23 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:49yes1620 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:03yes193 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:44yes2215 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:03yes116 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:10yes2128 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:03yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:39yes1877 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:01yes1722 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 23:31yes2277 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:25yes513 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 23:55yes314 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:31yes1319 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:57no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:23no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:42yes833 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:45yes194 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:31yes128 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:27no011 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:39yes2145 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:00yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 23:23yes835 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:26yes1923 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:27yes2138 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:52no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:53yes217 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:20yes1319 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:45yes98 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:05yes45 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:23yes1627 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:43yes182 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:18yes2411 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:37yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:11yes2543 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:20yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 23:06yes1442 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:31yes2444 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:13yes2221 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:07yes2132 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:42yes527 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:35yes2434 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Flexera read as Flexera One
Unresolved, counted raw
Articsledge
Basejump
Beams
Cardboard
CogniSaaS
Google Workspace admin console
Hudled
Intello
Josys Discovery
LemSubs
Najar
Nobl
SaaOptics
Saaslens
SailPoint SaaS Management
ServiceNow SaaS Management
StackBob
Viropay
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
← RPATelemetry pipelines →