How much time do you spend creating documents in your business?
What about managing and organizing those documents?
On a long enough time horizon, and with no external support, you’ll probably sink hundreds, if not thousands of hours into these endeavors.
But you no longer have to.
Generative AI and other advanced technologies have begun to transform the world of document creation and management. Sure, they aren’t perfect. They can’t do everything for you and there are some areas where AI simply falls flat.
But even rudimentary AI tools, when properly utilized, can save you a ton of time through automation of repetitive tasks.
So what are the best document automation software platforms available today? And how do you choose the right fit for your needs?
What Is Document Automation Software?
Document automation software comes in many varieties, but these platforms typically have a handful of core features in common. They’re designed to facilitate faster document creation with the use of AI-based research, large language models (LLMs), access to data, and generative AI. They may also include features like templating, e-signature creation, file organization and management, and even security and compliance standards.
Some document automation software platforms are designed to serve as many businesses and individuals as possible, offering a broad range of features that can be used generically. Others are very focused, targeting a single niche or serving a specific type of client.
In any case, document automation software can help you in several ways:
- Saving time. The primary function of document automation software is to save you time. Manually creating new documents from scratch is a time-consuming process, even if you utilize copy/paste as much as possible. Automation features can save you hours of time every day if your job is document intensive.
- Saving money. By extension, document automation software can help you save money. You won’t have to pay people as much, because they won’t be spending as much time on these tedious and repetitive tasks.
- Improving consistency. Some business owners appreciate document automation software because it improves accuracy and consistency. While AI hallucinations do exist, machines tend to make far fewer mistakes than human beings do – and they’re universally more consistent.
- Facilitating easier distribution and collaboration. Most document automation software platforms try to make it easier for people to collaborate on documents and include features for easy sharing and distribution as well.
- Streamlining management. Flaws and discrepancies in your file organization can be devastating in certain circumstances. That’s why so many document automation software platforms attempt to streamline this set of responsibilities.
Criteria for the Best Document Automation Software Platforms
There are lots of document automation software platforms available today.
So how did we choose the best?
- Total features. First and foremost, we considered the total features available to users. While more robust platforms obviously had an advantage, we also considered simplistic platforms that serve specific needs for a reasonable price.
- User experience. We also needed to consider the overall user experience. A document automation software platform isn’t necessarily going to save you time if it takes you countless hours to learn and still gives you headaches. Overall design and ease of use were both important considering factors.
- Applicability/niche utility. The question of applicability and niche utility was a complicated one. On some level, we wanted to give an edge to tools that could be used by a wide range of businesses for a wide range of applications. But in some cases, highly specialized niche platforms are incredibly important; for example, lawyers and law firms have much more intensive document management needs than the average B2B business focusing on sales proposals.
- Data sources. Document creation platforms rely on many possible data sources, including specific archives, user supplied information, and the general web. More data sources and more relevant data sources were weighed more heavily.
- Collaboration tools. The ideal document automation software platform has a host of collaboration tools, making it easier for users to share information with each other, oversee the document creation process, and engage with finished documents.
- Security and privacy. We also needed to make sure that the tools we listed took security and privacy into consideration. After all, many of these documents contain sensitive pieces of information and require technical precision from a legal perspective.
- Reporting and analytics. Lower on the priority list were reporting and analytics features. These are nice to have, but they aren’t essential for all applications or all businesses.
- Support. Similarly, we considered the amount of customer support available for each tool.
- Pricing. And of course, we considered pricing as it related to available features. We expect more advanced tools to be more expensive and less advanced tools to be less expensive.
The Top 20 Best Document Automation Software Platforms
These are some of the best document automation software platforms we could find, in no particular order:
1. Law.co
Law.co is a niche tool, but it’s incredibly powerful in its respective field: law. Law.co helps lawyers and law firms with creating legal documents like contracts, case briefs, and more. It also has advanced legal research capabilities, free contract templates, and access to a full case database. With its powerful generative AI, it can save lawyers and paralegals hours of work every day – and streamline document management at the same time.
*Disclaimer: Law.co is under common ownership with DEV.
2.Templafy
Templafy hopes to completely eliminate the need for manual document work, from creation to templating to managing signatures. It’s designed to be used by large corporations with complex compliance and brand consistency needs, so it has a host of tools to help you in those areas. However, it’s not cheap and not especially accessible for new users.
3. Document Studio
Document Studio, designed for Google Sheets, utilizes Google Workspace in service of mass document creation. It can help you automate document creation and emails and sports integrations that extend far beyond Google’s default suite. However, it’s not a great fit for users who aren’t already intimately familiar with Google Sheets.
4. BrandQuantum
BrandQuantum primarily integrates with Microsoft products, so it’s ideal for businesses that are already used to dealing with Microsoft Office applications. It can help you create and manage documents throughout your organization, and it includes support for branding elements as well.
5. ContractBook
If you’re looking for end-to-end contract lifecycle management, ContractBook could be the right platform for you. As the name suggests, it primarily focuses on creating, managing, organizing, and distributing contracts. It comes with a host of built-in email and collaboration features, but it’s not quite as robust as some of the broader tools on this list.
6. airSlate
airSlate is document workflow automation software that’s ideal for medium to large businesses. It’s designed to assist with document management across many different departments and comes with robust automation features that can integrate with most CRM and ERP software systems. However, this platform doesn’t use generative AI.
7. ClickUp
ClickUp is designed to make it easy not only to create documents, but also link those documents together and better organize your files at the highest level. It was also created specifically with asynchronous team collaboration in mind, so it has a host of features to keep your team productive and efficient.
8. DocuGenerate
DocuGenerate automates the process of creating complex documents, pulling data from myriad sources to make comprehensive reports, summaries, and other documents. It has a wide range of advanced features, but the tradeoff is that it comes with a relatively steep learning curve. It doesn’t offer generative AI, but it does integrate with most ERPs and CRMs.
9. Formstack
Formstack is primarily oriented to help create and manage forms, surveys, and other similar documents. However, it can also help with personalized documents, contracts, and reports. There are some feature limitations here, but Formstack is suitable for a wide range of businesses – and it can integrate with a multitude of platforms.
10. Experlogix
Experlogix extends beyond document management and offers a full suite of features for all your file management processes. In addition to top-level document generation and e-signature functionality, this tool has a host of organization and management tools to help you keep your files secure. It integrates with a wide range of other software platforms as well.
11. Jotform
Jotform is a free tool that makes it easy to combine form data into a PDF document. Its features are somewhat limited, but its primary function is fast, efficient, and very easy to use. It also has hundreds of free templates that users can access if they need a starting point – as well as onboard signing and payment capture.
12. Gavel.io
Gavel.io is another document automation software platform that caters to lawyers and law firms. It supports the creation and management of many important legal documents, it has client-facing collaboration features, and it’s designed to be easy to use. However, it doesn’t come with many integrations and may not be the best tool in its class.
13. Conga Composer
Conga Composer relies primarily on data from Salesforce and can create even very complex customer-related documents in seconds with the right prompts. It has some limitations due to its Salesforce-centric approach, but it can facilitate much easier document creation and management given an already Salesforce-centric environment.
14. Woodpecker
Woodpecker is cold email software designed for B2B companies, but it’s fantastic for automating nearly all your document creation needs. It offers more than 2,000 software integrations and has a nifty tracking system to improve your email management workflows. There’s also a great Word plugin that makes document generation even simpler.
15. Hotdocs
HotDocs serves a handful of specific industries, including legal, real estate, and financial services. With a focus on technical precision and tight document controls, it may not be a good fit for every business. However, it has impressive template-based document creation tools, detailed options and controls, and relatively easy setup, given its powerful capabilities.
16. Docsie
Docsie brands itself as “your AI knowledge base partner,” and it enables you to create, share, and manage documents related to products, knowledge bases, help centers, user manuals, SOPs, and help centers. It also has some great localization features, which is ideal for making localized versions of your most important product documents.
17. PandaDoc
PandaDoc is an ideal solution for small and medium-sized businesses that need e-signature capabilities and a general range of document needs. It’s capable of automating nearly every stage of your document workflow, but its features for sales proposals and contracts are especially nice. Customization options and scalability are somewhat limited, however.
18. DocuSign Gen
Specifically created for Salesforce, DocuSign Gen is perfect for sales teams in search of document creation automation. You might be familiar with DocuSign for its e-signature solutions, but now the company is offering a wider range of document automation and time-saving features.
19. Crove
Crove is designed to take the tediousness and repetitiveness out of documents like contracts, reports, invoices, and proposals. It’s great for small businesses and offers intuitive usability, making it easy to learn and adopt. It doesn’t have many advanced features, so it may not be ideal if you have complex needs, but it is highly affordable.
20. ChatGPT
While it wasn’t created specifically for business document automation, there’s no denying that ChatGPT is impressive when it comes to generating content based on conversational user prompts. It doesn’t have a ton of features and comes with some finicky limitations, but it’s an excellent starting point if you’re only dabbling in document automation.
Choosing the Right Document Automation Software
So how do you choose the right document automation software for your needs?
- Evaluate your needs. Before you can answer that question, you need to understand what your needs truly are. Take some time to outline all your document creation and management needs and speculate about the perfect document automation solution before you start shopping around. This way, you won’t end up paying for features you don’t really need.
- Shop around. We’ve created a fairly robust list of document automation software platforms to choose from, but more emerge every day. Make sure you shop around and dig into the details before making any major decisions.
- Take advantage of free trials. Most of the tools on this list either have a free version or a free trial available. Take advantage of these opportunities to use the tool for free, so you can see how it works in a practical setting.
- Conduct a wide range of tests. Before you start trusting any document automation tool too much, you should conduct a wide range of tests. Make sure the document automation processes are reliable as they’re claimed to be.
Building Your Own Document Automation Software Platform
Of course, not every document automation software platform is going to be a good fit for your business.
If your business has a wide range of niche needs, there may not be any tools currently available on the market to serve you.
If that’s the case, your best option is to build your own document automation software platform from scratch. Naturally, it’s more expensive than purchasing an existing tool, but it should give you exactly what you need.
Everything starts with hiring the right team of developers. So if you’re in the market for a document automation software solution, reach out to us today and let’s start the conversation!
Connect with Ryan on Linkedin.
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