Responsive Alternatives: 6 Best Choices for Automated RFPs

Anyone who’s dealt with RFPs knows they’re a massive headache. You spend hours—or days—bothering teammates, scavenging for just the right document, and triple-checking answers, only to realize the deadline is creeping up way too fast. 

And if your process isn’t airtight, mistakes slip through, and suddenly, your proposal isn’t as competitive as it should be.

Now, you don’t need to drown in questionnaires because you can automate your RFPs with the right AI. This saves you a ton of time.

And, when searching for an RFP software, Responsive (previously known as RFPio) is one of the big names in this space, but let’s be real—it’s certainly not the best software out there since it does have problems with accuracy, a complex interface, among many other things.

So, in this article, we’ve rounded up the top Responsive alternatives that do RFP automation—but better. Let’s take a look.

Before we look at the Responsive competitors, let’s look at why Responsive (RFPio) isn’t the right fit for most people. After all, it’s a leading automated response software with some real benefits. 

The fact that you can make your RFP response process more efficient is brilliant. The problem is that it doesn’t make it that much more efficient since it acts like a traditional content management system. 

This is a huge hassle and means you have to clean up old and duplicate responses, update responses constantly, and maintain a large library of questions and answers.

This only scratches the surface. There are significant problems with Responsive that make users want to seek out alternatives. 

Customers have reported the following issues with Responsive:

Now that we know what we don’t love about Responsive let’s look at the competition.  

Loopio is essentially a content management system like Responsive, meaning you’ll spend a lot of time cleaning up responses and updating responses as well. It is one of the most popular automated response software companies that lets teams manage every step of the sales cycle from within AI-powered workflows. 

From deciding whether to accept an RFP to tracking prospects as they view your docs, Loopio helps you do it all. 

The platform’s structured content library is a key feature, ensuring teams can organize and reuse accurate responses. However, maintaining this library requires ongoing effort—if they’re outdated, AI-generated answers may miss the mark.

Loopio supports multiple file formats (Word, Excel, PDF, and web-based questionnaires) and includes reporting tools to track content performance. While automation speeds up responses, manual oversight is still needed for formatting, customization, and keeping content fresh.

Loopio does not offer a free trial, and pricing information isn’t available on their website. The company asks you to contact sales to discuss their essentials, plus, advanced, and enterprise plans.

Of course, we had to include our own platform, not just to self-promote, but because we truly believe we offer the fastest, most accurate responses to RFPs, fully automated.

Don’t just take it from us. You can also ask companies like FusionAuth, WalkMe, and Deliveroo why they chose 1up to automate sales questionnaires.

1up has built a reputation for having a single source of truth — you — that is always reliable and always accurate. We’ll connect directly to your source material, and our AI, K.B. will pull answers in record time. It will even include links back to the source. 

Your team members can ask single questions in their messaging system, like Slack, MS Teams, or Google Chat. Or, you can have a Word Doc or Excel Sheet to be automatically filled out, no matter how long it is. Plus, we even have a browser extension that answers questions for you on the web if you don’t have a doc.

Comparing 1up vs Responsive? Click here for a deeper dive.

1up offers a 14-day free trial and starter, as well as pro and enterprise plans.

Ombud offers centralized content management, collaboration, and file sharing, including doc signing in real time, creating a seamless workflow. 

Ombud wins with its clientele because of its AI-powered platform that helps users manage multiple files across workspaces and portals from within a team or as a client. Teams can easily collaborate on RFPs and also leverage AI to summarize documents and generate new content based on existing stored data.

QorusDocs offers automation for pitches, presentations, and statements of work. It combines AI-driven content generation with response automation, creating a versatile tool for document management.

It’s proposal management under the guidance of sales enablement. 

QorusDocs has a team that is experienced in legal documents, architecture, engineering, and IT services. So, users get specialized support for their content needs.

Seismic is a sales enablement platform that helps you store and access all your content in one place. The founders saw a need for sales and marketing teams to “become more nimble and deliver personalization and customization for their customers.” 

The specific goal of Seismic is to automate the creation of pitchbooks, making it easier for teams to present their products in modern, innovative ways. 

However, Seismic is super difficult to figure it out and use all of the features. And it has zero RFP automation capabilities, which will cost you a lot of time and money in the long run. 

Qvidian powered by Upland, is a proposal management software that is widely used in financial services. They help financial companies create strong proposals while making compliance easier to manage. 

The platform also includes Qvidian Analytics, which tracks recipient engagement to provide deeper insights.

While Qvidian offers solid organization features and an intuitive interface—especially after a recent update—some users find its document architecture overly technical and its content update process less than seamless.

Qvidian software by Upland does not offer pricing information on its website. Interested parties will need to request a demo or chat with sales to get more information.

At the end of the day, picking the right automated response software comes down to what actually fits your business needs—not just today but months or even years down the line. Every company runs on a different rhythm, and the level of complexity in your projects and your budget will play a big role in the decision when choosing a Responsive competitor.

The upside? You don’t have to make that call blindly. Options like 1up give you a free trial, a demo, or at least a sneak peek into what they’re all about. 

That’s where 1up stands out. You get all three—a free trial, a demo, and a platform that just works.
See for yourself. Book a 1up demo today.