As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly compare software suppliers for your business.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a spreadsheet and create columns for supplier, requirement, evidence, price, billing period, contract term, risk and source link.
   2. Write the business requirements, user numbers, essential integrations, security needs, implementation constraints and decision priorities in the first sheet.
   3. Gather each supplier's current proposal, pricing page, terms, privacy information, security documentation, integration list and trial notes, then paste or upload them to the chatbot.
   4. Paste the supplied prompt and replace each bracketed slot with your requirements, priorities and evidence.
   5. Copy the resulting comparison table into the spreadsheet and compare every price, feature and contract statement against the cited supplier page or document section.
   6. Ask each shortlisted supplier the unanswered questions, record their written answers in the spreadsheet, and run the prompt again with those answers before making the purchase decision.

   Prompt

   Compare these software suppliers for my business using only the information I provide and clearly identified current public sources if browsing is available.
   
   Business context:
   - Business type: [business type]
   - Users and teams: [number and types of users]
   - Main workflows: [workflows the software must support]
   - Current system: [current software, if any]
   - Required integrations: [integrations]
   - Security, data hosting or compliance requirements: [requirements]
   - Implementation deadline: [deadline or none]
   - Budget basis: [monthly, annual, per-user or total budget]
   - Decision priorities and weights: [for example, price, functionality, support, security and ease of use with weights adding to 100%]
   
   Suppliers and evidence:
   [Paste supplier names, links, quotes, product pages, terms, proposals, trial notes and any meeting notes here.]
   
   Produce:
   1. A comparison table with one row per supplier and columns for every stated requirement.
   2. Separate confirmed facts, supplier claims, assumptions and missing information.
   3. A total-cost comparison using only supplied figures. Keep currencies, billing periods, user counts, VAT treatment, implementation fees, renewal terms and cancellation terms separate. Do not estimate or invent prices.
   4. A weighted score based only on the priorities and weights supplied. Show the calculation and do not score a criterion when the evidence is missing.
   5. A shortlist and provisional recommendation, with the evidence supporting each conclusion.
   6. The five most important questions to ask each shortlisted supplier.
   7. Contract, privacy, security, integration and implementation risks that need human checking.
   8. A decision checklist stating what I must verify before signing.
   
   Cite the exact source or document section for every material claim. If two sources conflict, show both and mark the conflict. Do not describe a supplier as best, cheapest or compliant unless the evidence proves that specific claim. End by stating what cannot be decided from the supplied evidence.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.