Compare
Ironclad is enterprise CLM software. Vendr tracks a median annual contract near $40,000, plus $10,000 to $40,000 in implementation, and your team still operates it. Atlas gives you free unlimited e-sign, unlimited seats, and a Managed Contracts Department from $1,500/mo that does the work. For a large legal department or a small one, Atlas is the lower-cost, faster path.
TL;DR
Around $40,000 a year at the median, plus a separate implementation fee of $10,000 to $40,000, before you pay anyone to run it.
Ironclad does not publish pricing. The best public data comes from Vendr, which tracks hundreds of real purchases. The median annual contract lands near $40,000, with small and mid-market deals at $40,000 to $80,000 a year and large enterprises at $200,000 and up.
Implementation is a separate mandatory line item: $10,000 to $40,000 for standard rollouts per Vendr, with complex deployments reported at $75,000 and up. Onboarding takes 4 to 12 weeks and generally assumes a dedicated legal ops resource.
Pricing blogs report entry contracts around $15,000 a year and AI add-ons that can exceed the base platform cost. Those figures are not confirmed by vendor or transaction data, so treat them as estimates.
| Cost line | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median annual contract | ~$40,000/yr across 300+ tracked purchases | Vendr |
| Typical range, all sizes | $30,000 to $250,000+/yr | Vendr |
| Small/mid-market (10 to 20 users) | $40,000 to $80,000/yr | Vendr |
| Large enterprise (1,000+ employees) | $200,000+/yr | Vendr |
| Implementation (one time) | $10,000 to $40,000 standard; $75,000+ complex | Vendr |
| Typical first-year total, small/mid-market | $50,000 to $105,000 | Vendr |
| Atlas Growth, one year | $3,000 ($249.99/mo, 50 runs/mo) | Atlas pricing |
| Atlas Managed Contracts Department, one year | From $18,000 ($1,500/mo), work included | Atlas pricing |
All of the operating work. Ironclad is a platform your team staffs; Atlas can staff it for you.
Ironclad is a platform your team runs: intake, drafting, routing, chasing signatures, filing, renewal tracking. Buying it usually means also staffing it. A US contracts administrator costs roughly $86,000 to $105,000 a year fully loaded, on top of the software.
Atlas removes that choice. The software is simple enough to run yourself from $99.99/mo. If you do not want to run it, the Managed Contracts Department does intake, drafting from your templates, routing, chasing, filing, renewal calendar, and monthly reporting from $1,500/mo.
That managed option is priced by company size and contract volume, so it scales like an outsourced contracts function. A large enterprise adds volume, not headcount.
Atlas has no seat pricing, no implementation fee, and every integration on every plan. Ironclad licenses per user and scopes integrations in paid contracts.
Ironclad licenses per user and scopes integrations in paid implementation contracts. Atlas has no seat pricing and includes every integration, the REST API, and the MCP server on every plan.
Atlas also has a permanent free plan with unlimited e-sign and PDF and DOCX support. Ironclad offers a demo-gated 14-day trial only.
| Feature | Atlas | Ironclad |
|---|---|---|
| E-sign | Free, unlimited, forever | Included in a quote-only platform contract |
| Seats | Unlimited on every plan | Per-user licensing throughout |
| Integrations | All included on every plan | Scoped and priced in implementation contracts |
| API and agents | REST API and MCP server on every plan | Scoped in implementation |
| Free plan | Yes, unlimited e-sign plus trial runs | No; demo-gated 14-day trial only |
| Implementation fee | None | $10,000 to $40,000+ (Vendr) |
| Time to first contract | Same day | 4 to 12 weeks onboarding (reported) |
| AI features | Included: field detection, drafting from templates, structured extraction | Add-on priced, reported to cost extra |
| Audit trail | Audit certificate and SHA-256 hash on every signed document | Included |
| Humans who run your contracts | From $1,500/mo | Not offered; partners do setup, not operation |
Enterprise
Yes. Atlas has no seat pricing, so a 10,000-person company pays nothing extra for users, and the Managed Contracts Department scales with your contract volume.
Atlas is built for a five-person startup and a Fortune 500 procurement team on the same plan structure. Seats are unlimited on every plan. Adding your whole legal, sales, and finance org costs nothing.
Access is controlled with admin and member roles, teams, and workspaces. Each organization sees only its own agreements. Signers see only the fields meant for them. Every signed document carries an audit certificate that records who signed, when, and from where, and the signed PDF is hashed with SHA-256 so any later change is detectable.
Developers and agents get the same surface on every plan: a REST API, an MCP server, an append-only event log you can poll, idempotency keys, and templates. The Business plan prices workflow runs by volume. Outbound webhooks are in development. SAML SSO and SCIM provisioning are planned but not yet available.
When the contract load outgrows your team, the Managed Contracts Department runs intake, drafting, routing, chasing, filing, and reporting for you. It is priced by company size and contract volume, so it works as an outsourced contracts function that grows with you instead of a headcount line.
| Requirement | Atlas |
|---|---|
| Seats | Unlimited on every plan, no per-seat pricing |
| Roles and access | Admin and member roles, teams, workspaces, per-organization isolation |
| Audit trail | Audit certificate on every signed document, SHA-256 hash of the signed PDF |
| Compliance | ESIGN and UETA in the US; eIDAS in the EU where applicable |
| Encryption | In transit and at rest |
| API and agents | REST API, MCP server, event log, idempotency keys, on every plan |
| Approval control | A person clicks Send before any signer gets an email |
| Volume pricing | Business plan: 100+ workflow runs a month, custom volume pricing |
| Outsourced operations | Managed Contracts Department, priced by company size and contract volume |
| Outbound webhooks | In development |
| SAML SSO and SCIM | Planned, not yet available |
Managed service
Only from Atlas. No competitor on these pages bundles people who run your contracts; Atlas does, from $1,500 a month.
Ironclad has no managed contracts offering. Implementation partners do setup, not ongoing operation.
No software vendor in this category bundles humans who run your contracts. If you want the work done for you, the rest of the market offers two options: ALSPs like Axiom at published rates of $150 to $350 per hour, or a contracts administrator hire at roughly $86,000 to $105,000 a year fully loaded ($7,200 or more a month).
The Atlas Managed Contracts Department starts at $1,500 a month, priced by company size and contract volume. That is about one fifth of a loaded contracts admin hire, software included. The Atlas team runs each contract from intake to filed: intake by email, Slack, or form, drafting from your approved templates, routing and chasing, approvals routed to whoever you name including in-house or outside counsel, filing executed copies into your CRM, drive, and finance tools, renewal and obligation tracking, and reporting built around what you track. During negotiation Atlas coordinates counsel's redlines and edits with the other side. Atlas does not give legal advice.
Questions
Yes, by an order of magnitude for most teams. Vendr tracks Ironclad median annual contracts near $40,000 plus $10,000 to $40,000 implementation. Atlas Growth is $3,000 a year. The Managed Contracts Department, where Atlas does the work for you, starts at $18,000 a year, and that includes the people.
Atlas. E-sign is free and unlimited, and paid plans start at $99.99/mo with unlimited seats and all integrations. If you want the work done for you, the Managed Contracts Department starts at $1,500/mo, about one fifth of a loaded contracts admin hire.
No. Ironclad offers a demo-gated 14-day trial only. Atlas has a permanent free plan with unlimited e-sign, unlimited team members, and trial workflow runs.
Third-party purchase data reports 4 to 12 weeks of onboarding, a separate implementation fee of $10,000 to $40,000 for standard rollouts, and an assumption of dedicated legal ops staffing. Atlas has no implementation fee. You can send your first contract the day you sign up.
No. A large legal department is where Ironclad costs the most: $200,000 and up a year for 1,000-plus employee companies per Vendr, plus implementation, plus the staff to operate it. Atlas gives that same department unlimited seats, admin and member roles, teams and workspaces, an audit certificate on every signed document, and a REST API and MCP server on every plan. The Business plan prices workflow runs by volume. The Managed Contracts Department takes on intake, drafting, routing, chasing, filing, and reporting as an outsourced function that grows with your volume. Outbound webhooks are in development. SAML SSO and SCIM are planned but not yet available.
No. Ironclad is software your team operates. The humans-included alternatives are ALSPs at $150 to $350 per hour or a contracts hire at roughly $86,000 to $105,000 a year loaded. The Atlas Managed Contracts Department starts at $1,500/mo.
The Managed Contracts Department routes it to your in-house or outside counsel for approval, coordinates their redlines and edits with the other side, and handles everything else: intake, drafting, routing, chasing, filing, and tracking. Ironclad sells the negotiation workflow software; your team and your lawyers still do the negotiating inside it. Atlas does not give legal advice.
Unlimited e-sign is free. You pay when Atlas handles the rest.