AI contract lifecycle management
Organise contracting.
Ironclad
A contracting platform with workflow design, AI and a contract repository.
YOUR TEAM OWNS
Your contracting process, platform governance and approval decisions.
Alaro vs Ironclad
Ironclad provides a contract lifecycle management platform with AI and workflow automation. Alaro is an AI paralegal for recurring legal work, including the handoffs between people and systems.
Manage the lifecycle. Delegate the work.
Consider Ironclad when you need a contracting platform and a structured record of agreements. Consider Alaro when you want recurring work carried through an agreed process, with Alaro maintaining that workflow. They can serve different roles: a system for contracts and a service that progresses the work around it.
Managed AI paralegal
Hand over the work.
Alaro
An agreed recurring legal workflow, maintained and run for you.
YOUR TEAM OWNS
The playbook, approvals and decisions that require your judgement.
Where the responsibility sits.
Compare the work you are buying—and what your team still needs to own.
| Decision | Ironclad | Alaro |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A contract lifecycle management platform with AI and automation. | An AI paralegal carrying out agreed recurring workflows. |
| How standards are applied | Templates, workflow rules and business context shape the contracting process. | Alaro scopes your playbook, precedents, approval rules and escalation points with you. |
| How work moves | Automated routing and approvals, plus agents for contracting tasks. | Alaro progresses the agreed workflow across your communication and business systems. |
| What your team owns | Agree rollout, data migration, workflow governance and the human approval model. | Approve the operating rules and handle exceptions or judgement calls. |
| What to test | Contract records, routing, reporting and behaviour across your integrations. | Missing inputs, follow-ups, approval routing, signature and filing in the agreed scope. |
| Implementation question | Who owns workflow changes and repository quality after implementation? | Which steps will Alaro own, and when must a human intervene? |
Follow the work. See what changes.
From the first message to the final record. Explore how Alaro handles an agreed workflow—and the decisions that stay with you.
TRY THIS IN YOUR DEMO
A renewal. A decision. A complete record.
Start with an expiring supplier agreement and a commercial change. Ask each provider to show how the request reaches the right owner, how an exception gets approved and how the final agreement and next renewal date are recorded.
Your precedents. Your approved positions. Your approval rules. Alaro checks the work against them and asks before going outside them.
Ask in your demo: what happens when a clause falls outside our playbook?
Hand over the work in the channel you already use. Alaro gathers the context and missing information needed to get started.
Ask in your demo: who follows up when an input is missing?
Connect the systems needed for the agreed workflow, from documents and approvals to signature and filing.
Ask in your demo: which handoffs are included in our scope?
When you need specialist legal review, ask Alaro to coordinate it. Your team keeps the decisions reserved to it.
Ask in your demo: which exceptions come back to us, and what legal support is included?
See the outstanding actions and ask about unsigned or renewing documents. The useful endpoint is a complete record, with anything unresolved made clear.
Ask in your demo: can we see the next action and who owns it?
What does Ironclad offer?
Ironclad covers contract creation, review, signing, storage and analysis. Its platform includes a no-code Workflow Designer and automated routing, approvals and notifications. This makes the contracting process and the record of each agreement central to the evaluation.
Ironclad also describes agentic contracting: Ironclad Agent can find answers or direct work to agents and workflows, using contract and deal history as context. Its integration catalogue includes business systems such as Salesforce. Evaluate those capabilities directly; Ironclad is more than a passive document store.
Product references: Ironclad contract lifecycle platform, Ironclad AI, Ironclad integrations, Ironclad platform overview.
When to choose each
Consider Ironclad if
- You need a common contracting process and a central contract repository.
- Legal operations wants configurable workflows and visibility across the contract lifecycle.
- You want to evaluate AI within the platform that holds your contract data.
Consider Alaro if
- Recurring legal work is consuming time in follow-ups, approvals and handoffs.
- You want your business to delegate through email, Slack, Teams or WhatsApp.
- You want Alaro to maintain the agreed workflow while your team handles judgement calls.
Can you use both?
Alaro’s published product description names Ironclad among the systems it can work with, subject to scoping. A team could retain Ironclad as its contract system and delegate an agreed stream of requests to Alaro. Decide where the authoritative document lives, which system records approvals and what Alaro may read or change. Confirm the supported actions before connecting the workflow.
How should you compare pricing?
Request an Ironclad proposal that covers your workflow requirements, integrations, AI scope, data migration and support. Then compare it with the cost of the recurring work you would delegate to Alaro. A platform purchase and a managed workflow may solve different parts of the same problem, so they are not always competing budget items.
Alaro scopes each workflow and prices the type and volume of work upfront, without per-seat or per-token charges. Confirm included actions, support and any volume changes in your proposal.
What should you check before sharing legal work?
- Which data can the service access, where is it processed and how long is it retained?
- What are the rules for model training, subprocessors and deletion?
- Which actions need approval, and can access be limited to the intended matter?
- Who reviews exceptions, and what legal support is actually included in the agreement?
Use Alaro’s Trust Centre and each provider’s current security documentation during procurement. Confirm the arrangements for your organisation and jurisdiction; the presence of an AI agent does not itself settle those questions.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Alaro and Ironclad?
Ironclad is a contract lifecycle management platform with AI and workflow automation. Alaro carries out agreed recurring legal work across communication channels and business systems. The choice depends on whether you need a contracting platform, delegated work, or both.
Does Ironclad automate work or just store contracts?
It automates work. Ironclad describes workflow routing, approvals and agentic contracting alongside its repository. Compare the tasks included in your proposal and who operates them after rollout.
Can Alaro work with Ironclad?
Alaro names Ironclad in its published description of connected systems. The actions, access and handoffs for your organisation must be confirmed when the workflow is scoped.
Would Alaro replace our CLM?
Not necessarily. You can evaluate Alaro for recurring work while keeping your CLM as the contract record. Agree which service owns each step so the process does not create duplicate records or conflicting actions.
What should we test in an Ironclad comparison?
Test a complete matter, including a non-standard approval, a missing document and a change after signing. Check the audit trail, next-action owner and final record as well as the initial draft.
Product sources
Explore the other comparisons
In practice
See what delegation looks like.
How Dominus went from three contracts to 27 people across seven departments.
Read the Dominus story