The 7 best procurement softwares 2024
The overall outlook of the procurement function has evolved rapidly over the past few years. In the past, procurement was seen as a cost-center but, not anymore they are expected to deliver value through each dollar they spend. So, now procurement software become a necessity more than a competitive advantage. Businesses have started investing in procurement technology to streamline their purchasing processes and bring spend visibility and control. But with so many options available out there, choosing the right procurement software for your needs can be difficult. Don't worry, we got you covered!
We’ve curated and put together an in-depth guide for the top procurement softwares available in the market. We've covered the key features, pros, cons, and ratings for each of the procurement platforms. This guide is designed to help you find the best solution to meet your needs irrespective of your size.
The best procurement softwares
- SAP Ariba for managing direct and indirect spend
- Coupa for business spend management
- ivalua for unique and complex procurement process needs
- Jaggaer for higher education institutes
- Zip for guided buying experience
- Precoro for small businesses
- Procurify for seamless purchase ordering and approvals
What Makes the Best Procurement Software?
There is no one-size-fits-all solution, each organization has its unique procurement needs based on its size, industry, geo, team structure, and internal processes.
Before you get started, clearly understand and define your requirements. Document everything from the scope, current challenges, process gaps, budget, and expected capabilities. To have a smooth change management its important to pick a software that aligns with your and stakeholders expectations.
The top procurement software isn’t about having a comprehensive set of features, but how well those features align with your organizational needs. Nonetheless, some key capabilities set them apart and apply to every organization. They make your procurement management simpler, more efficient, and effective. In particulare, they offer,
Easy to Use
A well-designed procurement tool should be easy to use by both procurement specialists and employees in your organization. It should be simple to understand for anyone to use without extensive training or technical expertise.
Workflow automation
It is at the heart of every modern procurement software. The best tools automate your repetitive tasks such as purchase order creation, approvals, and invoice processing. Automated workflows speeds up your procurement cycle and eliminate human error.
Reporting and Analytics
Procurement platforms provide advanced analytics tools that offer real-time spend and process insights. In addition, they offer customer report functionality to slice and dice your purchasing data to gain insights into spending patterns, supplier performance, and compliance metrics.
Seamless integration
The best procurement software easily connects with financial platforms and other existing technology stacks. It ensures all your data flows effortlessly between systems and eliminates the need for manual data entry and errors.
Managing supplier information and relationships
Top-tier procurement tools offer comprehensive supplier management features, including supplier evaluation, onboarding, performance tracking, and risk management. They empower you to build a strong supplier relationship and manage risks effectively.
With recent developments, AI started to have a huge effect on how companies build procurement platforms. But for now, I wasn't impressed with many software solutions that made a big deal of it. The majority of them were some form of generative AI wrappers.
Each procurement software on this list offers a free demo. So, you can talk to their sales teams to explore the product functionalities and see them in action. Lastly, the ideal solution should meet your unique needs while fitting within your budget.
With over half a decade of experience in the procurement technology space and spending countless hours on research, I’ve identified the top solutions that are likely to provide the best value for a wide range of organizations. I’ve reviewed and compared these tools in terms of their features, user experience, and overall effectiveness.
The best procurement management tools at a glance
Company | Best for | Standout Feature | Gartner Peer Rating |
SAP Ariba | Managing direct and indirect spend for enterprises | Supplier network | 4.2/5 (375 ratings) |
Coupa | Business spend management | Community Intelligence | 4.7/5 (648 ratings) |
ivalua | Unique procurement process needs | Flexibility | 4.7/5 (83 ratings) |
Jaggaer | Education and Public Procurement | Public Procurement | 4.4/5 (193 ratings) |
Zip | Guided buying experience | Intake to Procure | 4.8/5 (49 ratings) |
Precoro | PO system for Small Businesses | Simple and affordable | 4/5 (1 rating) |
Procurify | Seamless purchase order management | Easy to use and Punch-out Integration | 5/5 (1 rating) |
Best enterprise procurement software for managing direct and indirect procurement
SAP Ariba
SAP Ariba offers a comprehensive suite of cloud procurement solutions that streamline your purchasing processes and improve supplier relationships. Its reporting and analytics capabilities provide you with actionable insights into all the procurement activities.
Ariba is known for its sophistication as it can support both direct and indirect procurement categories. It strives to remain relevant by continuously improving its capabilities with new modules to address the changing procurement needs.
However, users find it cumbersome due to its complex and poor user interface. Ariba normally takes years to fully deploy and has limited scope when it comes to customization. Additionally, their support services have been consistently criticized by their customers, as they find it difficult to get fast and consistent support when needed.
Despite these challenges, Ariba stands out when it comes to sourcing and the supplier network capabilities. It is particularly valuable if your organization's procument is sourcing heavy and wants to enhance your RFP, auction, and bidding processes.
Key Modules
- eProcurement
- Supplier Network
- Sourcing
- Contract Management
- Analytics and Reporting
Pros
- SAP Ariba provides a complete and integrated solution for the entire procurement lifecycle.
- It seamlessly integrate with other SAP products like their ERP systems.
- SAP Ariba's vast supplier network provides you access to millions of suppliers worldwide.
Cons
- Many users find SAP Ariba complex and challenging to learn.
- It is difficult to customize their platform to meet your specific business needs.
- The high cost of implementing and maintaining SAP Ariba is a downside.
Best enterprise business spend management software
Coupa
Coupa is an all-in-one spend management software that helps you to gain visibility and control into your company's spend. It offers capabilities to manage all your procurement, sourcing, and expense management processes in a single platform.
Coupa offers a supplier portal and doesn’t charge for your supplier licenses. Its built-in integration with third-party catalogs like CDW and Amazon adds further value.
Coupa's powerful analytics and reporting capabilities include custom reports and dashboards. It enables users to track KPIs, analyze trends, and derive actionable spend insights.
In addition, Coupa constantly introduces new features and capabilities based on its customer feedback.
On the downside, it has some limitations when it comes to customization. Coupa doesn't offer the flexibility to support your unique process and policy needs. Compared to the other Coupa alternatives, its UI might feel outdated and complex.
The lack of a modern look and feel can affect user experience and product adoption. Additionally, Coupa can be costly and makes it less accessible for smaller businesses.
Overall, Coupa’s strong spend management capabilities and its vision for business spend management make it an exciting option. However, its high cost and limited customization may be a disadvantage for some organizations.
Key Modules
- Sourcing
- Contracts
- Procurement
- Expenses
- Invoicing
- Supplier Network
- Analytics
Pros:
- It offers all procurement capabilities from sourcing and contracts to purchasing and invoicing in one centralized platform.
- Many customers highlighted Coupa's comprehensive analytics and reporting features.
- Coupa's supplier portal is one of the most sorted out as they don't charge you for supplier licences.
- It offers built-in integration with 3rd party catalog websites like CDW and Amazon
Cons:
- The onboarding process for suppliers into their supplier management module is often described as cumbersome and not user-friendly.
- Coupa lacks customization and it can't handle complex and unique business requirements.
- Coupa could be expensive for growing and small businesses.
Best procurement software for flexibility
Ivalua
Ivalua excels in providing a flexible solution that aligns with your business and process needs. The source-to-pay suite offers eprocurement, sourcing, contracts, supplier management, and advanced analytics. The platform's flexibility makes it easier to automate your processes as is, rather than changing your process to fit into the system. It improves your process efficiency, compliance, and end user adoption.
The integration across modules is generally seamless, enabling the sharing of fields and data. While customization is one of the key strengths, it often comes at an additional cost. At times implementing exceptions to standardized modules and functions is a challenge.
Additionally, the AI-based functionalities, such as chatbots, predictive purchasing, and contract analysis/generation, are still developing and are not yet fully matured.
Overall, Ivalua’s flexibility and strong support make it a valuable tool for complex, multi-industry organizations, though its customization costs and emerging AI features are points to consider.
Key Module
- Sourcing
- Procurement
- Contracts
- Supplier Management
- Supplier Risk
- Spend Analysis
Pros:
- Ivalua offers extensive customization to tailor the software to your unique processes and requirements.
- Its clean and intuitive interface makes it accessible for both power users and occasional users alike.
- Ivalua has options for data visualization, custom report creation, and in-depth spend analysis.
Cons:
- Integration Ivalua with other systems is challenging, especially with SAP and other ERPs.
- Its custom deployment makes it difficult to upgrade for future enhancements.
- Ivalua lacks of a dedicated mobile app for end-users.
Best procurement tool for education and public procurement
Jaggaer
Jaggaer is a leading procurement software in the high education industry. It helps you to automate your entire procurement process, from creating online tenders and collecting bids to managing approvals and contracts.
Jaggaer’s sourcing module allows you to conduct sourcing events with multiple sourcing scenarios. Its responsive and knowledgeable customer support team is highly appreciated by its customers.
However, Jaggaer doesn't offer flexibility for customization. It could be a disadvantage for organizations with unique procurement processes. And, integrating Jaggaer with other financial applications and systems could be complex and time-consuming.
Jaggaer is a good option if you're looking to digitalize your procurement processes and need a sophisticated sourcing module.
Key Modules
- Sourcing
- Contract Management
- Supplier Management
- Inventory Management
- eProcurement
- Spend Analysis
Pros:
- Jaggaer's sourcing capabilities like online tender floating, bid collection and the ability to automatically disqualify suppliers based on criteria.
- Its ability to build multiple sourcing scenarios to identify the best suppliers.
- Customer service is quick to get back to you.
Cons:
- End to end reporting is also a bit challenging.
- The system doesn't offer a travel & expense solution.
- Invoice automation is very labor intensive to get setup.
- The workflow engine might not be flexible to your needs.
- The inter-connectivity across the modules is not seamless.
Best intake to procure system
ZipHQ
Zip’s integrated intake and procure-to-pay tools help you to gain spend transparency and control. Its orchestration capability allows you to create custom workflows based on the type of purchase to improve complaint and spend control. Zip has a modern and intuitive user interface and its onboarding is seamless and straightforward.
Zip stands out compared to its alternatives in terms of cost-effectiveness, rapid deployment, and workflow orchestration capabilities.
Yet, the platform's performance during peak times is shared as a concern. Like other players, Zip also has limitations when it comes to customization. Its core procurement capabilities are not as sophisticated as the intake module.
Overall, Zip is a modern procurement tool if you focus on user adoption and compliance. But, it might not be the right solution if your procurement process is mature and complex.
Key Modules
- Intake-to-Procure
- Procure-to-Pay
- Sourcing
- Payments
- Vendor Cards
Pros:
- With process orchestration, you can include or exclude workstreams and/or approvers on need basis.
- You can easily track your progress with slack notifications.
- The system is intuitive, so training and onboarding will be easy.
- Zip's implementation and customer support teams.
- Its self-admininstration functionality provides flexibility and reduce the dependency on IT team for changes.
Cons:
- The platform is more simplified and doesn't have the function to support more complex and longer process.
- Limited customization in reporting dashboard
- Lack of advance AI capabilities flag supplier risks.
- Inability to share reports or dashboard
Best procurement system for SMBs
Precoro
Precoro is not as comprehensive as the other tools covered here but they offer all the necessary features to manage your procure to pay processes. It includes centralized purchase requests, approvals, and budget tracking, helping you to gain process efficiency and visibility.
Precoro effectively address the issues with delays and cumbersome paperwork in manual procurement processes. Its approval workflows enable you to handle a high volume of purchase orders while retaining control and visibility.
In summary, Precoro is a simple, easy to use, and budget-friendly procurement tool that helps with order management and budget tracking. Its user-friendly interface and exceptional customer support are an advantage.
Key Modules
- Procurement
- AP Automation
- Spend Management
- Supplier Management
Pros:
- It is very easy to use as it is straight forward
- Good value for money.
- Great customer support services
Cons:
- Limited features and functionalities
- Simple reporting capabilities
Best cloud procurement software for seamless purchase order process
Procurify
Procurify is a user-friendly procurement solution that helps you to streamline the PO management process and budget management. Its intuitive interface simplifies your purchase order approval, creation, and invoice payment processes.
Procurify improves efficiency and compliance with its product catalog and punchout capabilities. Its integration with marketplace sites like Staples and Amazon simplifies purchasing and budget control. Customers appreciate how it speeds up purchase order processing and manages expenses effectively, from reimbursements to travel and credit card payments. However, some users find the features somewhat limited.
Key Modules
- Procurement
- Accounts Payable
- Spending Card
- Integrations
- PunchOuts
Pros:
- Intuitive interface makes it easy to navigate and use.
- Provides tools for tracking and controlling spending effectively.
- Designed to meet the needs of both small and large organizations.
Cons:
- Glitches with fetching correct data from punch-out catalog
- Some users report issues with data syncing.
- Lacks advanced reporting capabilities.
Which procurement platform is best for you?
Just like with any other business tool, there's no single "best" procurement software—only the one that best fits your organization's unique needs. Each procurement platform varies in terms of its capabilities, user interface, price, and customer support. So, it's important to choose a platform that aligns with your procurement requirements, budget, and priorities.
All these platforms offer free trials, demos, and POCs, take advantage of them. It will be easy for you to validate how well they meet your specific process and policy needs. This hands-on experience will help you determine which solution offers the right mix of functionality, ease of use, and customization for your business.
About the Author
Elanchezhian Anandhan
Elanchezhian Anandhan is a procurement technologist with a passion for transforming how businesses manage sourcing and purchasing through innovative tools and automation. With a background in marketing and extensive experience in SaaS Procurement Technology, Elan specializes in evaluating and implementing cutting-edge procurement technologies to optimize operations and enhance efficiency.