September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › IT › Security operations › TPRM › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Third-party risk management for small business buyers

Asked as “third-party risk management platform”, and as “vendor risk assessment tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
44%
Clear leader
44UpGuard26Vanta TPRM06ComplyJet24others

44% 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
01UpGuard44%5%58endorsed leader
02Vanta TPRM26%9%57accepted challenger
03Drata6%10%10accepted challenger
04Secureframe2%0%18accepted challenger
05Panorays2%20%20accepted challenger
06Venminder2%20%10accepted challenger
Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Archer0%90%10criticized challenger
12ProcessUnity0%75%20criticized challenger
13OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management0%72%25criticized challenger
10Bitsight0%57%30criticized challenger
09Prevalent0%50%20criticized challenger
08SecurityScorecard0%36%36criticized challenger
07Whistic0%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-one head-to-head pages: the top seven 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 →
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05
06
07
08
09
10
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Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01UpGuard44%
02Vanta TPRM26%
03Drata6%
04Secureframe2%
05Panorays2%
06Venminder2%
07Whistic0%
08SecurityScorecard0%
09Prevalent0%
10Bitsight0%
11Archer0%
12ProcessUnity0%
13OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, 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.
OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management
72%
18 of 25 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“small businesses should be cautious about or avoid the following third-party risk management (TPRM) platforms... OneTrust - Issues: Steep learning curve, complex and opaque pricing” Mistral Small, negative prompt
ProcessUnity
75%
15 of 20 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Avoid higher-end tools like ProcessUnity, which starts around $25,000/year” MiniMax M2.5, budget prompt
Bitsight
57%
17 of 30 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Enterprise Options to Avoid (for Small Teams) - BitSight ... overkill for most small teams” Kimi K2, comparative prompt
SecurityScorecard
36%
13 of 36 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Issues: Poor customer service, data leak detection that triggers too many false positives, and inaccurate data.” Mistral Small, 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

68 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. 949 links across 183 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · UpGuard61 answers · 119 citations · 11 models
37 answers · 37 citations · 9 models
vendor site · G235 answers · 55 citations · 12 models
vendor site · G233 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
30 answers · 43 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Vanta26 answers · 34 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Risk Ledger26 answers · 31 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Riskonnect20 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Panorays19 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Bitsight17 answers · 18 citations · 7 models
17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Mitratech14 answers · 17 citations · 5 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 third-party risk management platform”, “third-party risk management platform”, “third-party risk management platforms”. 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 visitsGoogle ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
UpGuard upguard.com44%1862,90080319,457253
Vanta TPRM vanta.com26%10172,260120
Drata drata.com6%3689,90025736,41354
ComplyJet complyjet.com6%269002,025
Secureframe secureframe.com2%2352,4003945,01427
Panorays panorays.com2%51590121,22855
Creditsafe creditsafe.com2%64,4007059,14121
Venminder venminder.com2%381,900144,9564
Risk Ledger riskledger.com2%14210142,2934
Vendorapp vendorapp.co2%9

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 13 sites; 6 of them are among the sites the models cited here (bitsight.com, gartner.com, panorays.com, riskledger.com, riskonnect.com, upguard.com). The first result for “best third-party risk management platform” is gartner.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 third-party risk management platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which vendor risk assessment tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top third-party risk management platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best third-party risk management platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a third-party risk management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which third-party risk management platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Vanta TPRM
Two alternativesOneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, Panorays
VenminderChanged
One alternativeVanta TPRM
Vanta TPRM
Three alternativesCreditsafe, Secureframe, UpGuard
Creditsafe
Two alternativesVanta TPRM, Venminder
no first choiceagainst: ProcessUnity
GPT-5.4 miniVanta TPRM
One alternativeVenminder
against: Panorays, ProcessUnity, UpGuard
Vanta TPRMHeld
Three alternativesCreditsafe, Secureframe, UpGuard
Vanta TPRM, Venminder
Four alternativesPrevalent, SecurityScorecard, UpGuard, Whistic
against: OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management
Risk 365
One alternativeVanta TPRM
no first choiceagainst: Creditsafe, D&B Risk Analytics, IBM OpenPages, Prevalent, ProcessUnity, SAP Ariba
Gemini 3.5 FlashUpGuard
Three alternativesDrata, Panorays, Vanta TPRM
against: Archer, MetricStream, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management
Drata, Vanta TPRMChanged
Two alternativesConveyor, UpGuard
against: Bitsight, ProcessUnity
UpGuard
Four alternativesDrata, Panorays, Vanta TPRM, Venminder
against: Bitsight, SecurityScorecard
LT-VRM
Six alternativesFair TPRM, Prevalent Vendor Threat Monitor, SecurityScorecard, Sprinto, UpGuard, Vanta TPRM
against: Bitsight, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, ProcessUnity
Drata, Vanta TPRM
Three alternativesCiphrix, UpGuard, Viso Trust
against: Archer, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, ServiceNow Third-Party Risk Management
against: Archer, Bitsight, BlueVoyant, MetricStream, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, SecurityScorecard, ServiceNow Vendor Risk Management
Perplexity SonarUpGuard
Four alternativesBitsight, Panorays, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM
Vanta TPRMChanged
Four alternativesCloudeagle, Hyperproof, Procurify, Spendflo
UpGuard
Five alternativesBitsight, Panorays, Prevalent, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM
against: AuditBoard, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, ProcessUnity, Riskonnect
UpGuard
One alternativeVanta TPRM
no first choiceagainst: Aravo, Archer, Bitsight, Black Kite, Diligent One, MetricStream, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, Prevalent, ProcessUnity, Riskonnect, SecurityScorecard
Grok 4.20UpGuard
Two alternativesSecureframe, Vanta TPRM
against: Bitsight, SecurityScorecard, Venminder
UpGuardHeld
Two alternativesSecureframe, Vanta TPRM
against: Hyperproof
UpGuard
Four alternativesPanorays, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM, Whistic
against: Bitsight, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management
vCISO Lite
Two alternativesFair TPRM or LT-VRM, UpGuard
against: Bitsight, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, ProcessUnity, SecurityScorecard, Venminder
UpGuard, Vanta TPRMagainst: Archer, Bitsight, MetricStream, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, ProcessUnity, SecurityScorecard
Mistral SmallRisk Ledger, UpGuard
Two alternativesPrevalent, ProcessUnity
UpGuard, VendorappChanged
Two alternativesSpendflo, Vanta TPRM
Vanta TPRM
Seven alternativesBitsight, Panorays, Prevalent, Secureframe, SecurityScorecard, UpGuard, Whistic
UpGuard
Two alternativesBitsight, Vanta TPRM
no first choiceagainst: OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, SecurityScorecard
DeepSeek V4 FlashUpGuard
Four alternativesPanorays, Prevalent, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM
Vanta TPRMChanged
Five alternativesComplyJet, Drata, SecurityScorecard, ThirdProof, Whistic
against: Archer, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management, UpGuard
UpGuard
Three alternativesPrevalent, SecurityScorecard, Whistic
against: Bitsight, Vanta TPRM
UpGuard
One alternativeSecurityScorecard
against: Bitsight, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, Prevalent
no first choiceagainst: Archer, AuditBoard, Diligent One, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, Prevalent, ProcessUnity
Llama 4 MaverickUpGuardno first choiceChangedno first choiceVanta TPRM
Three alternativesCreditsafe, Secureframe, UpGuard
no first choiceagainst: Bitsight, Panorays, Prevalent, SecurityScorecard
Qwen 3.7 FlashUpGuard, Vanta TPRM
Two alternativesCreditsafe, Secureframe
Secureframe, Vanta TPRMChanged
Two alternativesSpendflo, UpGuard
UpGuard
Three alternativesRisk Ledger, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM
against: Prevalent
ComplyJet, UpGuard
Three alternativesOneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, Secureframe, Vanta TPRM
Drata, Vanta TPRM
Four alternativesPrevalon, Riskonnect, Secureframe, UpGuard
against: OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, ServiceNow Third-Party Risk Management
against: Archer, Drata, IBM OpenPages, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Governance, Salesforce, ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management, Typeform, Vanta TPRM
Kimi K2UpGuard
Three alternativesPanorays, ProcessUnity, Vanta TPRM
UpGuardHeld
Two alternativesComplyJet, ThirdProof
against: Bitsight, ProcessUnity, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM
UpGuard
Four alternativesPanorays, Secureframe, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM
against: Bitsight, Mitratech, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, Prevalent
UpGuard
Four alternativesPanorays, Secureframe, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM
Panorays, UpGuard, Vanta TPRMagainst: Bitsight, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, Panorays, Prevalent, ProcessUnity, RiskRecon, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM, Zania
GLM 4.7 FlashXUpGuard
Four alternativesNudge Security, RealCISO, Vanta TPRM, vCISO Lite
against: SecurityScorecard
ComplyJetChanged
Two alternativesUpGuard, Vanta TPRM
UpGuard, Vanta TPRM
Two alternativesPanorays, SecurityScorecard
UpGuard
Two alternativesSecurityScorecard, ThirdProof
no first choiceagainst: Archer, Bitsight, OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management, Panorays, Prevalent, ProcessUnity, SecurityScorecard, ServiceNow Integrated Risk Management
MiniMax M2.5UpGuard
Three alternativesEnzuzo, Prevalent, Vanta TPRM
ComplyJetChanged
Two alternativesSmartsheet, Vanta TPRM
against: UpGuard
UpGuard
Five alternativesBitsight, Panorays, Secureframe, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM
UpGuard
Two alternativesSecureframe, Vanta TPRM
against: ProcessUnity
no first choiceagainst: Bitsight, LogicGate Risk Cloud, Prevalent, ProcessUnity, SecurityScorecard, Vanta TPRM
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 10:47yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:51yes24 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:57yes1218 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:29yes206 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 13:09yes3919 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:59yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:01yes811 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:36yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:04yes525 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:53yes1228 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:44yes3153 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 14:01yes2241 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:25yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:18yes14 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:15yes821 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:45yes205 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 11:12yes3716 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:14yes56 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:37yes1619 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:53yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:19yes941 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:10yes2432 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:23yes22225 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:37yes1533 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:47yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:30yes88 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:30yes1028 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:23yes209 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 10:06yes2315 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:48yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:32yes2527 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:31yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:27yes1048 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 14:12yes1239 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:50yes847 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:17yes2262 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:37yes189 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:21yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:36yes1523 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:15yes207 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 13:52yes3620 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 14:08yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:31yes2623 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:00yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:16yes960 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:52yes2258 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:25yes1218 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:25yes518 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:00no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:05no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 14:10yes925 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:45yes197 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 11:03yes1210 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:25no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:51yes1518 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:29yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:48yes1054 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:42yes1322 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:41yes1470 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:31yes525 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:07yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:27yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:43yes1723 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:37yes208 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 14:06yes1513 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:17yes139 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:22yes2631 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:15yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 14:12no036 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:33yes1565 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:02yes2866 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:03yes1235 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 One
OneTrust read as OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management
OneTrust (SMB Offerings) read as OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management
OneTrust (TPRM module) read as OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management
ServiceNow read as ServiceNow Third-Party Risk Management
Vanta read as Vanta TPRM
Unresolved, counted raw
Bitline
D&B Risk Analytics
Descartes
Fair TPRM or LT-VRM
Hypersky
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Governance
Prevalent Vendor Threat Monitor
Prevalon
Typeform
VendorGuard
Zania
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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