Report:
The Forrester Wave™: Contract Lifecycle Management Platforms, Q1 2025
How does Forrester define the Contract Lifecycle Management Platforms market in 2025?
CLM platforms have evolved dramatically from basic digital contract repositories to strategic business tools that bridge organizational strategy with execution. Driven by regulatory compliance, global disruptions, AI adoption, and third-party risk management, CLM expectations have grown significantly. Modern CLM platforms must provide broad features, innovation (especially genAI), quality support, and overall value. The market now emphasizes making genAI accessible and attainable, integrating with productivity tools for adoption, and investing in emerging use cases like DORA compliance, post-M&A contract standardization, and data breach crisis management.
Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Contract Lifecycle Management Platforms, Q1 2025 in 2025
- Publication Date: 20-Feb-2025
- Document ID:
- Summary: In our evaluation of contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform providers, we identified the most significant ones and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps you select the right one for your needs.
- Authors: Alla Valente, Amy DeMartine, Angela Lozada, Peter Harrison
How did the Contract Lifecycle Management Platforms market evolve in 2025?
- CLM has evolved from a digital contract repository with basic workflow to a strategic platform that bridges organizational strategy with execution
- Regulation, disruption, and AI adoption have reshaped the value of CLM platforms
- Buyers prioritize breadth of features, innovation, quality support, and overall value
- Companies are willing to replace existing tools to get better CLM capabilities
- Nearly all CLM platform vendors have embraced genAI and delivered various features
- GenAI adoption lags as customers struggle with use case identification, data requirements, and budget allocation
- CLM platforms are gaining prominence as enterprise technology with more users across organizations
- Integration with productivity tools (Teams, Slack, SharePoint, Outlook) is critical for adoption
- Emerging use cases include DORA compliance, post-M&A contract standardization, and data breach crisis management
- 12 providers were evaluated across Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders categories
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- Broad, enterprise-level support for contract lifecycle management. The vendor supports use cases across the entirety of the lifecycle. These use cases enable a holistic approach to CLM, including the ability to digitize, search, create, negotiate, execute, govern, and manage obligations and compliance postexecution.
- Support for a broad range of users. The vendor supports buy-side, sell-side, and legal operations functionality that is leveraged by at least 10% of customers.
- Significant revenue and market presence. The vendor has at least $20 million in annual revenue from its CLM offering, exclusive of its other modules or products. Each vendor maintains at least 100 active customers, measured by individual logos specifically leveraging the vendor's CLM offering, not the number of deployments.
- Mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients. Forrester clients frequently mention these products as ones that they are considering or shortlisting prior to a purchase. We have heard about the products from our clients in the form of inquiries, advisories, consulting engagements, and other interactions over the past 12 months. Other vendors frequently mention these vendors as competitors in the market.
What are the common features of top products in the Contract Lifecycle Management Platforms space?
No common features specified.
Scope Exclusions
- Vendors with less than $20 million in annual revenue from CLM offerings
- Vendors with fewer than 100 active customers using their CLM platform
- Vendors that only support narrow use cases (e.g., only buy-side or only sell-side)
- Vendors where less than 10% of customers use buy-side, sell-side, or legal operations functionality
- Vendors without enterprise-level support across the full contract lifecycle
- Vendors lacking significant mindshare among Forrester enterprise clients
- Point solutions that don't provide holistic CLM capabilities including digitization, search, creation, negotiation, execution, governance, and obligation management
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Broad, enterprise-level support for contract lifecycle management across the entirety of the lifecycle
- Support for a broad range of users including buy-side, sell-side, and legal operations functionality leveraged by at least 10% of customers
- At least $20 million in annual revenue from CLM offering, exclusive of other modules or products
- At least 100 active customers measured by individual logos specifically leveraging the vendor's CLM offering
- Significant mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients through inquiries, advisories, consulting engagements, and competitive mentions
Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting
- Contract digitization — 7%
- Contract analysis and search — 7%
- Buy-side contracts — 7%
- Sell-side contracts — 7%
- Legal operations — 7%
- Contract creation — 7%
- Contract review, negotiation, and execution — 7%
- Obligation management and contract governance — 6%
- Interoperability — 6%
- Workflow — 6%
- Reporting and visualization — 6%
- Configurability — 6%
- Continuous improvement — 3%
- Usability — 3%
- Contract self-service — 3%
- Edge use cases — 3%
- Enterprise risk management — 3%
- Security — 3%
- Privacy — 3%
Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting
- Vision — 15%
- Innovation — 15%
- Roadmap — 25%
- Partner ecosystem — 15%
- Adoption — 10%
- Pricing flexibility and transparency — 10%
- Community — 10%
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research evaluates 12 contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform providers across three categories: Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders. The evaluation assesses vendors on their current offering capabilities, strategy (including vision, innovation, roadmap, and partner ecosystem), and customer feedback. The research covers the full spectrum of CLM functionality including contract digitization, analysis and search, buy-side and sell-side contracts, legal operations, contract creation, review and negotiation, obligation management, workflow, reporting, security, and emerging use cases.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: CLM customers should use this research to inform purchase decisions by identifying providers that: 1) Make generative AI features accessible and attainable based on customer maturity, available data, and budget; 2) Integrate with productivity tools to fuel adoption and reduce friction in workflows; and 3) Invest in emerging use cases like DORA compliance, post-M&A contract standardization, and data breach crisis management. The research helps buyers match their specific needs with vendor strengths across different use cases (buy-side, sell-side, legal operations), organizational sizes, complexity levels, and strategic priorities around AI adoption, flexibility, and innovation.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: Vendors must provide broad, enterprise-level support for contract lifecycle management across the entirety of the lifecycle, including the ability to digitize, search, create, negotiate, execute, govern, and manage obligations and compliance postexecution. They must support a broad range of users with buy-side, sell-side, and legal operations functionality leveraged by at least 10% of customers. Additionally, vendors must demonstrate significant market presence with at least $20 million in annual CLM revenue and at least 100 active customer logos, along with strong mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Annual revenue from CLM offerings below $20 million
- Fewer than 100 active customers using the CLM platform
- Limited support for user types - less than 10% of customers using buy-side, sell-side, or legal operations functionality
- Lack of enterprise-level support across the full contract lifecycle
- Insufficient coverage of core CLM capabilities (digitization, search, creation, negotiation, execution, governance, obligation management)
- Limited mindshare among Forrester enterprise clients
- Infrequent mentions in client inquiries, advisories, and consulting engagements
- Not commonly cited as a competitor by other vendors in the market
- Point solution focus rather than holistic CLM platform approach
Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?
A:
- Make generative AI (genAI) features accessible and attainable - look for providers that create a path to adopting AI features based on your maturity, available data, and budget rather than just delivering features customers struggle to use
- Integrate with productivity tools to fuel adoption - CLM platforms that integrate with Teams, Slack, SharePoint, and Outlook engage business users in familiar tools, reducing friction and bottlenecks in workflows
- Invest in emerging use cases - providers that proactively invest in future needs like DORA compliance, post-M&A contract standardization, playbook alignment, and data breach crisis management will help customers be more agile and resilient
- Evaluate breadth of features across the full contract lifecycle - digitization, search, creation, negotiation, execution, governance, and obligation management
- Assess innovation strategy and roadmap alignment with your organization's priorities
- Consider quality of support and implementation approach (self-service vs. partner-delivered)
- Review pricing models for transparency and flexibility, particularly for AI features
- Evaluate configurability and self-service capabilities to reduce dependency on IT resources
- Consider customer feedback and community engagement as indicators of vendor partnership quality
Q: How has the Contract Lifecycle Management Platforms market evolved in 2025?
A:
- Regulation, disruption, and AI adoption have reshaped the value of CLM
- Contracts now bridge organizational strategy with execution beyond just facilitating commerce
- Companies are complying with new regulatory requirements including DORA
- Organizations are preparing for global outages and disruptions
- Navigating opportunities and uncertainties of AI in contracting
- Protecting interests from third-party risk
- High expectations for breadth of features, innovation, quality support, and overall value
- Willingness to replace existing CLM tools to get better capabilities
- GenAI features becoming standard but adoption lagging due to use case identification, data requirements, and budget constraints
- Integration with productivity tools (Teams, Slack, SharePoint, Outlook) driving higher adoption
- Emerging use cases including DORA compliance, post-M&A contract standardization, playbook alignment, and data breach crisis management
Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?
A: Strength of Offering (vertical axis) measures the current capabilities and features of each vendor's CLM platform, including functional areas like contract digitization, analysis, creation, workflow, governance, and security. It focuses on what the platform can do today. Strength of Strategy (horizontal axis) evaluates the vendor's future direction and market approach, including their vision for CLM, innovation approach, product roadmap, partner ecosystem, customer adoption support, pricing models, and community engagement. It focuses on where the vendor is heading and how well-positioned they are for future market needs.
Reference
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Contract Lifecycle Management Platforms, Q1 2025, 20-Feb-2025, ID
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