September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Finance › Equity and corporate › ESG and carbon reporting › Small business · September 2026 Edition

ESG and carbon reporting for small business buyers

Asked as “ESG reporting software”, and as “carbon accounting platform”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
41%
Clear leader
41Greenly13ExecutESG09Persefoni37others

41% of first choices, clear leader.

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 twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Greenly41%4%47endorsed leader
02ExecutESG13%0%12accepted challenger
03Sustain.Life9%6%18accepted challenger
04Persefoni9%35%20criticized challenger
05Wardn7%0%19accepted challenger
06Aclymate4%0%11accepted challenger
Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12IBM Envizi0%100%13criticized challenger
13Workiva ESG0%96%27criticized challenger
11Watershed0%82%11criticized challenger
10Diligent ESG0%80%10criticized challenger
09Novisto0%60%10criticized challenger
08Sweep0%27%15criticized challenger
07Coolset0%14%14accepted 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.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
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
11
12
W13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Greenly41%
02ExecutESG13%
03Sustain.Life9%
04Persefoni9%
05Wardn7%
06Aclymate4%
07Coolset0%
08Sweep0%
09Novisto0%
10Diligent ESG0%
11Watershed0%
12IBM Envizi0%
13Workiva ESG0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 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.
Workiva ESG
96%
26 of 27 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 9 hard negative
“Avoid: Massive, blank-canvas enterprise tools (like Workiva or CCH Tagetik)... avoid large-enterprise solutions (like Workiva, Diligent, or Sphera)” Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt
IBM Envizi
100%
13 of 13 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“G2 reviewers consistently cite high cost and a difficult setup process as major barriers for smaller organizations.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Diligent ESG
80%
8 of 10 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Enterprise tools (Workiva, Diligent, Envizi, Watershed) run $30k–$400k/yr — completely out of your league.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, scale prompt
SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
100%
8 of 8 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Why to avoid: Sphera explicitly targets organizations with 5,000+ employees ... making it a poor fit for a small business” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

66 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 997 links across 235 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Coolset32 answers · 38 citations · 11 models
30 answers · 30 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Guideflow28 answers · 28 citations · 11 models
vendor site · G226 answers · 37 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Wardn25 answers · 42 citations · 10 models
21 answers · 25 citations · 8 models
vendor site · ExecutESG20 answers · 38 citations · 7 models
20 answers · 20 citations · 11 models
16 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Emission Twin15 answers · 15 citations · 8 models
13 answers · 19 citations · 6 models
vendor site · Emerald Power13 answers · 16 citations · 7 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 esg reporting software”, “esg reporting platforms”, “esg reporting software”. 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
Greenly greenly.earth41%892,90028130,54626
ExecutESG executesg.com13%41004
Sustain.Life workiva.com9%26390058,186$23641
Persefoni persefoni.com9%811,300238,274$3267
Wardn wardn.com7%3002
Aclymate aclymate.com4%711003809
Emerald Power emeraldpower.io2%1014033516
Code Gaia codegaia.io2%4
Multiplye multiplye.ai2%1
KEY ESG keyesg.com2%74

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 1 of them are among the sites the models cited here (gartner.com). The first result for “best esg reporting software” is workiva.com.

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 ESG reporting software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which carbon accounting platform would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top ESG reporting platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best ESG reporting software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a ESG reporting software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which ESG reporting platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Greenly
Two alternativesESGenius!, today.green
GreenlyHeld
Two alternativesPlan A, Seedling
Greenly
Two alternativesMateriality Master, Prophix One
Greenly
Two alternativesSustain.Life, Wardn
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniKEY ESG, Tekmon
One alternativePrecoro ESG
against: SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Workiva ESG
GreenlyChanged
Two alternativesSeedling, Workiva Carbon
Futureproof, KEY ESG
Two alternativesNovisto, Watershed
against: Diligent ESG, Workiva ESG
Persefoni
One alternativeNovisto
against: Diligent ESG, Workiva ESG
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashGreenly, Sustain.Life
Four alternativesAclymate, Climate Essentials, Coolset, Seedling
against: IBM Envizi, Workiva ESG
GreenlyChanged
Two alternativesAclymate, Seedling
no first choiceExecutESG
Four alternativesEFRAG's Free Excel Template, ESG Lift, Greenly, Sustain.Life
against: IBM Envizi, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Workiva ESG
Sustain.Life
Three alternativesCoolset, Mitti, Sweep
against: CCH Tagetik, Diligent ESG, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Workiva ESG
against: Nasdaq OneReport, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, Wolters Kluwer, Workiva ESG
Perplexity SonarGreenly
One alternativeAclymate
against: Workiva ESG
GreenlyHeld
Four alternativesCarbonTool, Ecologi, SageEarth, Seedling
Greenly
Three alternativesCoolset, Diligent ESG, Novata
against: Workiva ESG
Aclymate, Greenly
Two alternativesEmerald Power, Persefoni
against: Workiva ESG
no first choiceagainst: Greenly, IBM Envizi, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Workiva ESG
Grok 4.20Code Gaia
Two alternativesGreenly, Wardn
against: Diligent ESG, Novata, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Workiva ESG
EcoHedgeChanged
Three alternativesCoolset, Persefoni, Seedling
against: Greenly
Aclymate, Greenly
Three alternativesCoolset, Plan A, Wardn
against: Code Gaia, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Workiva ESG
ExecutESG
Three alternativesImpactOS, Sustain.Life, Sustainova
no first choiceagainst: Novisto, Position Green, Pulsora, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Workiva ESG
Mistral SmallGreenly, WardnGreenlyChanged
Four alternativesCoolset, Normative, SageEarth, Seedling
Code Gaia, Greenly
Two alternativesAPLANET, EcoOnline ESG
against: FigBytes, IBM Envizi
Sustain.Life
Two alternativesAclymate, Greenly
no first choiceagainst: Diligent ESG, FigBytes, IBM Envizi, Novisto, Persefoni, Position Green, SINAI Technologies, Sweep, Workiva ESG
DeepSeek V4 FlashGreenly
Two alternativesExecutESG, GreenScore
against: Sustain.Life
AclymateChanged
One alternativeGreenly
against: IBM Envizi, Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, Persefoni, Plan A, Watershed, Workiva ESG
Wardn
Two alternativesGreenly, Sustain.Life
against: IBM Envizi, Persefoni, Sweep, Watershed, Workiva ESG
Persefoni
Four alternativesAclymate, Eevery, Greenly, Sustain.Life
against: Benchmark Gensuite, Cority, IBM Envizi, Novisto, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Watershed
ExecutESG
Three alternativesClimefy, ESG Lift, Sustain.Life
against: Diligent ESG, IBM Envizi, Sweep, Watershed, Workiva ESG
against: IBM Envizi, Persefoni, Position Green, Pulsora, Workiva ESG
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeld
Five alternativesCarbonAnalytics, CarbonBoard, Multiplye, Our Carbon, Sustrax
Novata
Two alternativesFineReport, Greenly
Sustain.Life
Three alternativesBenchmark Gensuite, Coolset, Wardn
no first choiceagainst: Novisto, Position Green, Pulsora, Workiva ESG
Qwen 3.7 FlashGreenly, Wardn
Two alternativesNormative, Persefoni
Emerald PowerChanged
Three alternativesGreenly, Normative, Seedling
against: Persefoni, Watershed
Greenly
Three alternativesCoolset, Emerald Power, Wardn
against: Diligent ESG, Workiva ESG
Persefoni
Two alternativesAclymate, Sustain.Life
against: Sweep
Greenly
Three alternativesDiligent ESG, Oryzon, Persefoni
against: SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Watershed, Workiva ESG
against: Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
Kimi K2Greenly, Multiplye
Two alternativesPlan A, Sweep
PersefoniChanged
Three alternativesEmitwise, Greenly, Sweep
CarbonTool, Wardn
Three alternativesGreenly, Persefoni, Sweep
against: Coolset
ExecutESG
Three alternativesEFRAG Excel Template, ESG Lift, Multiplye
Greenly
Five alternativesCoolset, Emerald Power, Sustain.Life, Sweep, Wardn
against: Diligent ESG, IBM Envizi, Persefoni, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Watershed, Workiva ESG
against: Benchmark Gensuite, Diligent One Platform, Enablon, Novisto, Position Green, Pulsora, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Workiva ESG
GLM 4.7 FlashXGreenly
Seven alternativesEmerald Power, Esgrid, ExecutESG, Greenomy, Multiplye, Sustain.Life, Wardn
TrackZeroChanged
Two alternativesCO2 AI, Greenly
Greenly
Three alternativesAclymate, Emerald Power, Sweep
ExecutESG
Two alternativesSpreadsheets, Sweep
against: IBM Envizi
no first choiceagainst: Arabesque S-Ray, Benchmark Gensuite, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Watershed
MiniMax M2.5Wardn
Two alternativesGreenly, Sustain.Life
GreenlyChanged
Two alternativesCarbonBoard, Seedling
Coolset
Six alternativesAPLANET, Code Gaia, EcoOnline ESG, ExecutESG, Horizon ESG, ImpactOS
against: Novisto, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Workiva ESG
ExecutESG, Greenly, Sustainova
Two alternativesCSRD Pro, ImpactOS
no first choiceagainst: Coolset, EcoVadis, IBM Envizi, Persefoni, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, Watershed, Workiva ESG
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.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:48yes910 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:31yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:15yes1519 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:11yes207 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 18:24yes3421 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:56yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:16yes2220 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:24yes54 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:48yes740 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:33yes1851 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:33yes1456 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:08yes1347 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:48yes179 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:13yes27 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:19yes1450 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:59yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:40yes3518 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:49yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:57yes3044 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:12yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:49yes928 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:18yes1229 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:05yes2756 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:29yes1025 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:11yes1510 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:29yes67 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:14no06 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:26yes2011 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:20yes4019 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:30yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:47yes2576 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:11yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:48yes922 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:43yes1945 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:19yes2347 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:54yes821 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:06yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:03yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:17yes1955 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:52yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:02yes3520 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:46yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:47yes1919 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:54yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:22yes524 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:35yes1727 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:37yes23289 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:09yes722 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:10yes1814 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:01no011 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:57yes1122 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:08yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:15yes1913 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:37no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:52yes1937 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:15yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:22no032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:18yes1560 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:48yes1454 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:16no08 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:14yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:51yes37 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:19yes1452 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:08yes179 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:42yes3118 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:03yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:50yes2564 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:44yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:52no033 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:52yes1229 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:01yes3467 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:09yes2035 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
Diligent read as Diligent ESG
Gensuite (Benchmark ESG) read as Benchmark Gensuite
SAP read as SAP Sustainability Control Tower
Salesforce read as Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
Sphera read as SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
Workiva read as Workiva ESG
Unresolved, counted raw
Arabesque S-Ray
CO2 AI
CSRD Pro
Climatiq API
Climefy
Cloud Carbon Footprint
EFRAG Excel Template
EFRAG's Free Excel Template
EcoDiligence
Enabl
Esgrid
GreenScore
Higg
Nasdaq OneReport
Oryzon
Our Carbon
Precoro ESG
Purvitive
Sustrax
Tekmon
TrackZero
diginexESG
today.green
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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