10 Best Vendor Management Software Solutions for 2024

Every organization wants to boost operational efficiency and improve costs while doing so. Achieving both is only possible if the organization partners with strategic external vendors and leverages the services of contract employees. But there’s a catch: overseeing these external relationships can add to already-overwhelmed teams.

Enter vendor management software.

A tool that centralizes all vendor information for one-click access. This software not only simplifies vendor operations but also offers significant cost savings, allowing enterprises to gain a competitive advantage by improving overall business processes.

Instead of toggling between different tools, teams effortlessly handle vendor operations from a single, user-friendly platform.

In this comprehensive guide, we’re covering the 10 best vendor management software to help you make a smart, informed decision.

But First, What Is Vendor Management Software?

Vendor management software helps businesses to manage and coordinate their external vendors and suppliers. Managing vendors through these software solutions allows organizations to find, vet, contract, and manage vendors offering specialized services.

Both supply chain and vendor managers use vendor management systems to manage day-to-day vendor-specific tasks such as:

• Streamlining vendor onboarding by enabling vendors to submit their documents online, which the platform checks for accuracy and compliance
• Automating procurement workflows such as processing invoices, creating purchase orders, etc.
• Tracking vendor’s performance using key metrics such as satisfaction score, delivery times, and so on
• Driving instant communication between the vendors and the company using features such as direct messaging, file-sharing, etc.
• Identifying—and mitigating—diverse risks related to external vendors, such as operational risks, financial risks, and more

Top 10 Vendor Management Software at Glance

Here’s a quick comparison of the top 10 vendor management solutions in terms of features and pricing:

Vendor Management Platform	Best For	What’s Offered in Free Plan
1. Nifty	Tracking milestones, streamlining vendor interactions, managing supplier tasks and projects, and collaborating with vendors	Unlimited members and 2 active projects
2. Airbase	Collaborative workflows and risk management to build global strategic vendor partnerships and onboard vendors easily	For up to 100 employees, – Support employee spend, pay vendors on time, and access timely reporting
3. Square	Automating time-intensive manual tasks and accessing important vendor data at your fingertips	For up to 100 employees, support employee spend, pay vendors on time, and access timely reporting
4. QuickBooks Online	Syncing financial data into a centralized dashboard and customizing workflows	Free trial for 30 days; no free plan available
5. Beeline	Automating the management of your extended workforce	NA
6. Kissflow Procurement Cloud	Driving fast purchasing decisions and flexible vendor management	Basic plan starts at $1,500/month with: – Simple use cases   – Internal users
7. Vanta	Automating vendor onboarding, risk assessment, and remediation to strengthen security posture	Core plan includes: – One compliance framework – 300+ integrations – Employee management – Access management – Risk management – Vendor management
8. Precoro	Managing budget as well as approval workflows	Core plan starts at $249/month, billed annually
9. Ramp	Tracking transactions and analyzing spend-related insights	Ramp: $0/user/month includes: – Unlimited cards and smart controls – Travel booking – Automated expense management – Vendor management and accounts payable – Accounting software sync – Real-time saving insights
10. Zip	Streamlining vendor relationships with powerful collaboration features	NA

Top 10 Vendor Management Software: Detailed Walkthrough 

1. Nifty 

Want vendor management software ideal for tracking milestones and utilizing project management tools? Nifty is for you. It combines various features, such as task management, team collaboration, performance tracking, and reporting, within a single platform.

Owing to its power-packed features, Nifty enables you to handle various vendor-related tasks of varying complexities. Its task management and roadmap features offer a bird’ s-eye view of your vendor management process.

Key Features:

Task management

Nifty automates your vendor workflows and elevates the vendor management experience by allowing you to:

• Set roles and permissions for tasks
• Bundle contextual tasks in Lists and categorize the progress of every List with Statuses
• Assign team members to Lists and Statuses to view where they are in the vendor lifecycle process
• View ongoing tasks and projects in 6 customizable and immersive views such as Swimlane, Kanban Board, Calendar, Report, and more
• Customize your workflow with custom fields, assignees, dependencies, and so on, and share with external stakeholders:

Milestones

Nifty’s Milestones (Roadmap) feature helps you map the course of your vendor management project. You can set the milestone expectations, add due dates, and add tasks directly to the Milestones and deliver a single source of truth.

As and when your team completes tasks tied to a Milestone, the tool automatically updates—automating the Milestone’s progress and ensuring you always have accurate information:

Let’s say you want to select high-quality vendors for a project. Nifty makes the process easy by allowing you to see how potential vendors overlap with your milestone deadlines and budget.

Limitations:

• Some users find Nifty to be a little overwhelming, given the number of features

Pricing:

• Free forever plan: $0 (unlimited tasks and users)
• Starter plan: Starts at $39/month – up to 10 members
• Pro plan: Starts at $79/month – up to 20 members
• Business plan: Starts at $124/month – up to 50 members

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2. Airbase 

If you’re overwhelmed by receipts, invoices, and payments, consider Airbase, an all-in-one vendor management tool.

Airbase helps small businesses, especially those with 100 to 500 employees, manage expenses effectively. You can handle accounts payable, expenses, and corporate cards in one place.

Key Features:

• Real-time audit trail: Automatically records every transaction and provides an accessible audit history
• Global finance management: Supports multi-subsidiary and multi-currency transactions and makes foreign payments easy in the process
• 3-way matching: Matches invoices against purchase orders and item receipts synced from NetSuite
• Vendor portal: Allows vendors to manage their details, send invoices, upload documents, and track payment statuses

Pros:

• Airbase cards can be used with Apple Pay or Google Pay for contactless payments
• Integrates with popular general ledgers such as NetSuite
• Offers advanced approval rules for customized workflows
• Manages multiple vendors, verifies invoices, and reduces fraud

Cons:

• UX is confusing as per some users, with basic tasks taking too many clicks
• Simple tasks like booking ledger entries are time-consuming
• The expense reimbursement module can be better

Pricing: Contact the team for pricing on the following plans:

• Standard: Up to 200 employees 
• Premium: Up to 500 employees
• Enterprise: Up to 5000 employees

G2 score: (4.8/5 stars)

Capterra score: (4.8/5 stars)

3. Square for Retail

If you’re looking to automate time-draining manual tasks, Square for Retail is an excellent fit. For instance, if your business is running low on items, this vendor management tool automatically generates purchase orders for you to review and send to suppliers.

The tool allows you to make strategic decisions about selecting the best vendors, making the right purchases, creating accurate vendor sales reports, and more.

Key Features:

• Squared Dashboard: Combines all vendor details in a centralized place and provides easy access to important data
• Inventory management solution: Helps you to keep a tab of your stock levels and transfer stock to locations in real-time
• Filter reports and easy-to-view graphs: Allows you to determine top vendors by sales and analyze the number of units sold with visual graphs and reports

Pros:

• Tool is easy to use and intuitive
• Platforms works well offline 

Cons:

• The pricing is too steep 
• Selecting custom reports is time-consuming

Pricing:

• Vendor management is available with a subscription to Square for Retail
• Free 30-day trial available

G2 score: (4.4/5 stars)

Capterra score: (4.7/5 stars)

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4. QuickBooks Online

Managing vendor information across multiple systems was never this easy. QuickBooks Online syncs everything you need into one easy-to-use dashboard. It’s customizable, too, so you can set it up to display the vendor details that are most important to you.

Key Features:

• Vendor tracking: Keeps all vendor details organized, from contact information to payment terms
• Bill management: Simplifies bill payments by organizing all vendor invoices in one place. It also allows you to choose how you want to pay vendors, whether by check or direct deposit
• Expense synchronization: Automatically syncs expenses and transactions with your bank and credit card accounts for easy tracking
• Project costing: Monitors project costs by tracking expenses, labor, and income to get a clear picture of profitability
• Mileage log: Categorizes trips and track miles for business purposes so that you can easily manage travel expenses
• Automated payroll: Allows you to review, approve, and automate payroll processes for salaried employees

Pros:

• Integrates seamlessly with popular third-party apps such as PayPal, Shopify, and Salesforce
• Matches receipt photos to transactions and categorizes them for tax purposes
• Regularly backs up all data to protect against loss

Cons:

• Users can’t open multiple custom reports simultaneously
• Bank account syncing is limited to major institutions
• Only one user can log in at a time, which can be a bottleneck for larger teams

Pricing: 

• Simple Start: $30mo per month 
• Essentials: $60 per month
• Plus: $90 per month
• Advanced: $200 per month

G2 score: (4/5 stars)

Capterra score: (4.3/5 stars)

5. Beeline

Want to manage an extensive network of external consultants and partners? Wish to onboard, offboard, source, and optimize vendors without added effort? Trust Beeline Beeline Extended Workforce Platform, a SaaS-based tool, to help you manage your vendor relationships. Organizations often have to deal with temporary staff, contingency workers, consultants, and more. 

Beeline Extended Workforce platform empowers your brand with greater visibility into the performance and utilization of your external workforce, compliance with vendor agreements and regulations, the cost and budget allocation for external resources, and the overall efficiency and impact of your vendor relationships.

Key Features:

• Templates: Access to preconfigured reports, dashboards, workflows, and templates
• Automation: Automated approvals for headcount, time, budget, invoices, and expenses
• Self-service activation: It is an easy-to-activate VMS that users can activate by themselves

Pros:

• Great reporting and dashboard where users can see every step that needs to be completed in one place
• Plenty of user guides and support documents for specific processes
• Allows for direct sourcing from talent pools and can be easily integrated
• Enables users to get a 360-degree VMS experience—whether it’s exporting a report, creating dashboards, releasing requests to suppliers, modifying requests, and so on

Cons:

• Not too many self-service options to make updates/changes by users themselves
• Interview management feature within Beeline is highly lacking
• Customer service and the onboarding process need revisiting
• Analytics can be improved 

Pricing: Contact the team

G2 score: (3.7/5 stars)

Capterra score: (4.3/5 stars)

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6. Kissflow Procurement Cloud

Kissflow Procurement Cloud is a versatile source-to-pay software solution that goes beyond just vendor management—it offers features for sourcing, contract management, inventory control, invoice automation, spend analysis, and custom integrations, within one platform.

With its user-friendly interface and powerful capabilities, Kissflow Procurement Cloud streamlines the entire procurement process, from sourcing suppliers to paying invoices.

Its customizable workflows and real-time analytics provide deep insights and help organizations make data-backed decisions. All in all, this comprehensive solution is best-suited for all your modern procurement needs.

Key Features:

• Automated supplier onboarding: Makes the onboarding process quick and efficient
• Catalog management: Lets both suppliers and buyers easily create and manage catalogs
• Shipping updates: Allows suppliers to create shipping notices and update purchase orders with shipping details
• Comprehensive module access: Helps vendors to interact with all relevant modules, such as shipping notices, purchase orders, and invoices
• Address management: Allows suppliers to manage multiple “remit to” and “ship from” addresses for invoicing
• Supplier reviews and risk management: Helps buyers capture reviews and flag suppliers to mitigate risks
• Vendor information management: Enables suppliers to manage their contact details, invoice preferences, purchase order transmission preferences, discount terms, and payment terms

Pros:

• Easy to learn and use as a vendor management tool
• An incredibly flexible tool that allows any level of customization
• Allows users to create various workflows for several use cases
• Users claim that customer support is top-notch

Cons:

• The ability to auto-update Kissflow Datasets must be improved
• The tool’s UI is not end-user-friendly
• Offers real-time updates and demonstrates a smooth flow in processing requests
• Access to log history is restricted to subscription type

Pricing:

• Basic: Starts at $1,500/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

G2 score: (4.3/5 stars)

Capterra score: (4.1/5 stars)

7. Vanta: Vendor Management Software for Business Ops Team

Vanta helps you manage security and compliance programs, getting you audit-ready in weeks, not months. It makes it easy to meet standards such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA. It guides you through the process and ensures you get the reports you need with one click.

Just connect your tools to Vanta, fix gaps, and work with a Vanta-approved auditor to complete your audit. It’s the smart way to grow your business, stay compliant, and build trust with your partners.

Key Features:

• Trust reports: Automates NDAs and creates customized reports to answer common security questions and reduces back-and-forth communication
• Questionnaire automation: Automates responses to security questionnaires, allows you to build a library of Q&A, and tracks frequently used responses
• Risk management: Simplifies the risk assessment process, optimizes audit workflows, and addresses issues quickly
• Vendor risk management: Streamlines vendor reviews by automating discovery, risk assessment, and remediation
• Access management: Ensures only authorized users can access critical systems and lowers chances of internal misuse as well as external threats

Pros:

• User-friendly interface 
• Automation is easy to configure
• Extensive and valuable support from the onboarding team 
• Access to high-quality resources

Cons:

• User roles are restricted
• Advanced features are only available for higher subscription

Pricing: Contact the team. Vanta offers three pricing models – Core, Collaborate, and Scale.

G2 score: (4.6/5 stars)

Capterra score: (4.7/5 stars)

8. Precoro

Imagine having all your vendor information, purchase orders, invoices, and contracts in one convenient place—that’s what Precoro offers. It helps you to manage your vendor relationships by centralizing everything you need and streamlining your vendor management workflows.

You don’t need to sift through endless emails and documents to find critical information. With Precoro, every detail is at your fingertips so that you can make well-informed decisions and cultivate strong vendor relationships. Embrace a new standard of vendor management—simplified, efficient, and effective—courtesy of Precoro.

Key Features:

• Supplier management module: Centralizes all vendor data, such as purchase orders, invoices, and contracts, in one location
• Smart notification: Automatically tracks agreements and key deadlines, sending timely reminders to ensure nothing is overlooked
• Self-service supplier portal: Vendors can independently manage their catalogs, update pricing, adjust delivery schedules, and respond to RFPs (requests for proposals) directly through the portal
• Custom approval workflows: Precoro’s workflows enforce compliance and control over spending

Pros:

• Superb customer support and easy-to-use interface
• Comprehensive suite of features to track spending, manage approvals, and create purchase orders

Cons:

• The tool’s custom approval workflows are somewhat rigid and can only be customized to a certain extent
• Users claim that its reporting feature can be better

Pricing:

• Core: Starts at $249/month, billed annually
• Automation: Starts at $999/month, billed annually
• Suite: Custom pricing

G2 score: (4.7/5 stars)

Capterra score: (4.8/5 stars)

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9. Ramp: Vendor Management Software for Finance Team

Ramp is custom-made for finance operations that modern teams can use easily. Offering corporate cards, expense management software, bill payments, and vendor relationship management, Ramp can automate all your financial processes and lay the foundation for healthier businesses.

Over 20,000 businesses, including the likes of Shopify, Zola, Opendoor, and Glossier, use Ramp to close their books 8x faster.

Key Features:

• Corporate cards: Allows users to create custom virtual cards and set permissions for spending
• Automated expense management: Helps create employee cards with built-in policies
• Procure-to-pay: Enables streamlining of the purchasing process by centralizing intake to capture all spending requests
• Vendor management: offers robust features for overseeing and collaborating with vendors, such as performance tracking and compliance management
• Invoice management: Provides tools for efficient invoice processing and tracking
• Budgeting and forecasting: Helps manage budgets and forecast spending accurately
• Contract management: Simplifies contract creation, tracking, and compliance
• Vendor performance tracking: Allows monitoring of vendor performance against key metrics
• Integration capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with other systems for enhanced workflow

Pros:

• Easy to set up and use
• Motivates employees to track expenses better
• Offers useful integrations such as QuickBooks, Teams, etc.
• Allows you to revise cards for projects, budgets, and vendors to improve spending tracking and prevent fraud
• Helps make reimbursements directly into employee’s bank account

Cons:

• No download feature for the accounting system
• Receipts don’t sync with Quickbooks Desktop

Pricing:

• Ramp: $0/user/month
• Ramp Plus: $15/user/month, billed monthly
• Ramp Enterprise: Custom pricing

G2 score: (4.8/5 stars)

Capterra score: NA

10. Zip

Are you looking for agile and highly functional vendor management software? Your search ends with Zip—the leading intake-to-pay and procurement orchestration platform.

This platform is easy to use and you can easily modify the workflows. The best part is that you can view the workflows in the highly visual and immersive swimlane format.

This way, you can see all your business spending clearly and in a timely manner and have a comprehensive view of your finances.

Key Features:

• Intake-to-procure: Makes requesting and buying easy and allows the team to start a purchase or vendor request smoothly
• Procure-to-pay: Simplifies purchasing and ensures smooth order placement as well as tracking from purchase to payment
• Sourcing: Helps find top vendors and suppliers while streamlining the vendor management process and ensuring quality partnerships
• Global payments: Enables global payments to execute timely transactions worldwide
• Vendor cards: Provides vendor cards for secure and convenient transactions

Pros:

• Customer support team is receptive to user feedback
• Platform is highly customizable and can be configured to the user’s specific workflows
• Tool is intuitive and allows employees to easily initiate a purchase or vendor request
• The tool consolidates all the steps and tools used in finance and procurement processes into one platform
• Allows integration with accounting systems such as NetSuite

Cons:

• Lacks options to automate review fields
• Limited functionality for vendor compliance
•  Users claim that the onboarding process is not up to mark

Pricing: Contact the team

G2 score: (4.7/5 stars)

Capterra score: (4.8/5 stars)

Buying Vendor Management Software? Key Considerations to Keep in Mind

When selecting a vendor management system for your company, evaluate your decision from multiple aspects. The idea is to choose a vendor management platform that aligns with your operations to improve vendor coordination and simplify your workflow:

• Determine your unique vendor management needs and goals
• Select software with API capabilities for customized integrations 
• Ensure the tool integrates with apps your team uses frequently to transfer data easily
• Evaluate if the software integrates with platforms for inventory, accounting, and project management
• Consider how the integrations will help you leverage resources and boost efficiency
• Assess if these tool’s features align with your business objectives 

Choose Nifty: Among the Top Vendor Management Solutions Available Today

Nifty is an end-to-end vendor management solution with power-packed features and intuitive interface to simplify vendor management.

• Need to select strategic suppliers? ✅
• Want to make cost-friendly purchases? ✅
• Wish to allocate resources optimally? ✅

Nifty transforms all your vendor processes with useful features for selecting supplier selection, contract management, purchase tracking, vendor performance monitoring, and more, all rolled into one platform. Arm your team with Nifty for a seamless vendor management experience. Sign up today.