September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Finance › Tax and compliance › Internal controls › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Internal controls and SOX for small business buyers

Asked as “SOX compliance software”, and as “internal controls management tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
14%
Contested · Hyperproof 10%
14Complies.ai10Hyperproof10Vanta65others

14% 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 twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Vanta10%9%33accepted challenger
02Hyperproof10%19%21accepted challenger
03Drata8%8%36accepted challenger
04Mitti6%0%13accepted challenger
05QuickBooks4%0%11accepted challenger
06AuditBoard4%58%26criticized challenger
07Xero2%0%10accepted challenger
08Onspring2%8%12accepted challenger
09Workiva2%68%25criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13MetricStream0%75%12criticized challenger
12Archer0%50%10criticized challenger
11LogicGate Risk Cloud0%47%15criticized challenger
10Secureframe0%0%13accepted 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
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01Vanta10%
02Hyperproof10%
03Drata8%
04Mitti6%
05QuickBooks4%
06AuditBoard4%
07Xero2%
08Onspring2%
09Workiva2%
10Secureframe0%
11LogicGate Risk Cloud0%
12Archer0%
13MetricStream0%

What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, 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
68%
17 of 25 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Avoid enterprise-heavy platforms like Workiva, AuditBoard, or IBM OpenPages” Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt
AuditBoard
58%
15 of 26 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Avoid enterprise-heavy platforms like Workiva, AuditBoard, or IBM OpenPages” Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt
Oracle Risk Management and Compliance
100%
9 of 9 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Overly complex ERPs or enterprise-grade audit suites (e.g., SAP, Oracle, expensive audit software) | • Prohibitively expensive for most small firms.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
SAP GRC
100%
6 of 6 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Enterprise tools like Oracle GRC, SAP GRC, or ServiceNow GRC are generally too expensive, complex, and slow for small teams.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, comparative 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

64 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. 900 links across 227 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Worldmetrics33 answers · 70 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Optro32 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Netwrix26 answers · 26 citations · 11 models
24 answers · 45 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Mitti22 answers · 31 citations · 11 models
18 answers · 19 citations · 11 models
18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
vendor site · HighRadius15 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Sprinto15 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
15 answers · 16 citations · 10 models
13 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
13 answers · 13 citations · 8 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 sox compliance software”, “internal controls tools”, “sox compliance 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
Complies.ai complies.ai14%7072
Vanta vanta.com10%6140,5001,21972,260120
Hyperproof hyperproof.io10%381,6003764,238$5934
Drata drata.com8%559,90025736,41354
Mitti mitti.com6%131,9003,885268,513484
FloQast floqast.com6%3899,90019441,324$5,03976
QuickBooks quickbooks.ninja4%2881,000,00054,681253
Sprinto sprinto.com4%302,4007926,89643
Process Street process.st4%271,9004245,5405
VComply v-comply.com4%25260535,297179

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 6 of them are among the sites the models cited here (gartner.com, highradius.com, mitti.com, netwrix.com, optro.ai, v-comply.com). The first result for “best sox compliance software” is zluri.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 SOX compliance software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which internal controls management tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top internal controls tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best SOX compliance software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a SOX compliance software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which internal controls tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Mitti
One alternativeAuditBoard
against: Workiva
QuickBooks, XeroChangedDrata
Three alternativesGalvanize, Mitratech Alyne, Vanta
against: LogicGate Risk Cloud
Envelop
Two alternativesLumiform, Strike Graph
against: Workiva
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniAuditBoard, Vanta
Two alternativesDrata, Secureframe
against: Workiva
TeamMate ControlsChanged
Two alternativesDrata, Vanta
Drata, Vantaagainst: AuditBoard, LogicGate Risk Cloud, MetricStream, OneTrust GRC, Optro, StandardFusion, ideagen Internal AuditVComply
One alternativePirani
against: AuditBoard, Comply, Hyperproof, LogicGate Risk Cloud, Onspring
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashFloQast
Three alternativesAuditBoard, Drata, Vanta
against: Archer, ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management
ApprovalMaxChanged
Five alternativesBILL, FloQast, Keeper, Sprinto, Vanta
against: Optro, Workiva
Sprinto, Vanta
Five alternativesBILL, Drata, Mitti, Onspring, Ramp
Scytale
Five alternativesDrata, FlowRunner, Mitti, Screenata, Vanta
against: AuditBoard, MetricStream, Workiva
Complies.ai, Vanta
Four alternativesDrata, FloQast, Hyperproof, Secureframe
against: Archer, AuditBoard, MetricStream, ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management, Workiva
against: Archer, AuditBoard, Diligent Compliance, Google Sheets, MetricStream, Microsoft Excel, NetSuite, Oracle Risk Management and Compliance, SAP
Perplexity SonarSprinto
Three alternativesDrata, Onspring, Process Street
against: AuditBoard, SAP GRC, Workiva
HyperproofChanged
Two alternativesLogicGate Risk Cloud, Sprinto
Hyperproof
Six alternativesAuditBoard, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Suralink, Vanta, Workiva
against: MetricStream, SAP Process Control, ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management
Process Street
Two alternativesOnspring, Pathlock
against: AuditBoard, IBM OpenPages, Workiva
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.20Drata
Two alternativesHyperproof, Vanta
against: AuditBoard, ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management, Workiva
QuickBooksChanged
Three alternativesAscent Controls, LogicGate Risk Cloud, Xero
Sprinto, Vanta
Three alternativesDrata, Suralink, ZenGRC
against: Archer, Hyperproof, Oracle Risk Management and Compliance, VComply
Complies.ai
Three alternativesComplianceStack, Mitti, SmartSuite SOX Management
against: AuditBoard, Drata, Vanta
no first choiceagainst: Oracle Risk Management and Compliance, SAP
Mistral SmallDrata, Onspring
Two alternativesHyperproof, Mitti
HyperproofChanged
Two alternativesArcher, Suralink
Hyperproof
Four alternativesDrata, Onspring, Secureframe, Vanta
Complies.ai, Mitti
One alternativeManageEngine EventLog Analyzer
AuditBoard
Four alternativesDrata, Planful, Secureframe, Vena
against: ComplyAdvantage, MetricStream, Oracle Risk Management and Compliance, SAP GRC, Workiva
nothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashVanta
Three alternativesAuditBoard, FloQast, Hyperproof
against: Diligent One Platform, MetricStream, Oracle Risk Management and Compliance, SAP GRC, Workiva
SprintoChanged
Three alternativesHyperproof, Secureframe, Vanta
Drata, Vanta
Seven alternativesFloQast, Google Sheets / Excel, Hyperproof, Secureframe, Sprinto, Suralink, Workiva
against: Archer, AuditBoard, LogicGate Risk Cloud, MetricStream, ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management
Complies.ai
Two alternativesMitti, Sprinto
against: Optro, Workiva
no first choiceagainst: Microsoft Excel
Llama 4 MaverickDrataAscent ControlsChanged
Five alternativesHyperproof, Secureframe, Suralink, VComply, Vanta
VComply
One alternativeVanta
Workiva
Three alternativesComplies.ai, Drata, Process Street
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashVanta
One alternativeDrata
against: ComplianceStack
Process StreetChanged
Two alternativesVanta, Vibato Internal Control Suite – Foundation
against: Oracle Risk Management and Compliance, SAP
Drata, Vanta
Three alternativesHyperproof, Secureframe, ZenGRC
against: MetricStream, SAP Archer
Complies.ai
Two alternativesMitti, Process Street
against: Asana, AuditBoard, SAP GRC, Trello
VComply
One alternativeAuditBoard
against: Diligent One Platform, Workiva
against: Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel
Kimi K2FloQast
Three alternativesDrata, Hyperproof, Onspring
Hyperproof, VantaChanged
Three alternativesDrata, Suralink, ZenGRC
Secureframe, Vanta
Three alternativesDrata, Hyperproof, ZenGRC
Complies.ai
Two alternativesMitti, Vanta
against: AuditBoard, Drata, LogicGate Risk Cloud, Workiva
FloQast
Four alternativesDrata, Onspring, Vanta, Workiva
against: SAP GRC, ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management
against: Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, NetSuite, Oracle Risk Management and Compliance, SAP
GLM 4.7 FlashXDrata
Three alternativesControlScan, Mitti, Vanta
against: AuditBoard
Vibato Internal Control Suite – FoundationChanged
Three alternativesDrata, LogicGate Risk Cloud, Secureframe
Drata, Vanta
Three alternativesDiligent One Platform, LogicGate Risk Cloud, Sprinto
against: Oracle Risk Management and Compliance, SAP GRC, ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management, Workiva
Envelop, Mitti
Three alternativesManageEngine Log360, Probo, SolarWinds Security Event Manager
against: Drata, Hyperproof, LogicGate Risk Cloud, Optro, Vanta, Workiva
Hyperproof
Three alternativesComplies.ai, NAVEX One, Optro
against: Google Sheets, Oracle Risk Management and Compliance, SAP
MiniMax M2.5Hyperproof
Three alternativesDrata, FloQast, Onspring
Vibato Internal Control Suite – Foundation, ZenGRCChanged
Two alternativesDrata, LogicGate Risk Cloud
LogicGate Risk Cloud
Three alternativesDrata, Vibato Internal Control Suite – Foundation, ZenGRC
against: AuditBoard
Complies.ai
One alternativeMitti
against: AuditBoard, Hyperproof, LogicGate Risk Cloud, Vanta, Workiva
no first choicenothing named
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 19:42yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:33yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:03yes1720 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:20yes205 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 18:04yes2917 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:10yes1111 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:16yes2623 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:39yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:12yes1019 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:43yes1842 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:45yes21204 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:12yes1527 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:35no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:56yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:52yes1121 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:16yes126 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 18:17yes3218 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:29yes79 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:22yes2153 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:57yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:50yes19119 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:25yes1750 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:59yes858 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:32yes520 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:35yes1411 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:27yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:29yes1130 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:39yes1911 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 21:08yes2417 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:56yes911 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:07yes1925 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:13yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:46yes838 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:13yes2642 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:08yes19178 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:36yes1546 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:47yes1410 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:30yes56 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:58yes1825 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:15yes206 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 18:22yes2619 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:14yes107 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:03yes1815 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:37yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:20yes521 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:22yes2029 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:43yes1439 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:16yes1644 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:28no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:36no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:20yes721 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:03yes1810 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 20:01yes1612 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:30no012 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:58yes1821 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:09yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:10no031 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:05yes1355 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:27yes885 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:50no056 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:27yes158 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:03no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:07yes1227 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:40yes197 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 18:35yes1611 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:38yes57 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:02yes1622 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:42yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:09yes1454 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:38yes2746 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:34no052 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:46yes1798 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
Bill.com read as BILL
BlackLine read as BlackLine Controls & Certifications
Diligent read as Diligent One Platform
Excel read as Microsoft Excel
Excel spreadsheets read as Microsoft Excel
LogicGate read as LogicGate Risk Cloud
Oracle read as Oracle Risk Management and Compliance
Oracle GRC read as Oracle Risk Management and Compliance
QuickBooks Online read as QuickBooks
QuickBooks Online (QBO) read as QuickBooks
Sage read as Sage 50
ServiceNow read as ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management
ServiceNow GRC read as ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management
SmartSuite read as SmartSuite SOX Management
Vibato read as Vibato Internal Control Suite – Foundation
Vibato Foundation read as Vibato Internal Control Suite – Foundation
Vibato Internal Control Suite read as Vibato Internal Control Suite – Foundation
Unresolved, counted raw
Appsmith
Bitwarden
ControlScan
CrowdStrike
Dashlane Business
Diligent Compliance
Dollarspot
FlowRunner (by Midnight Coders)
Kira Systems
Lumiform
Microsoft Defender
Mitratech Alyne
NAVEE
Okta
OpenLane
Oversight
Pirani
Probo (open‑source)
Retool
SAP Archer
Screenata
Scrut
Softworx / ComplianceForge
SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
Strike Graph
Thriver
ideagen Internal Audit
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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