The Best RFP Software —- A Buyer’s Guide 2025

When it comes to buying an AI RFP automation tool, it’s overwhelming to actually find out who the best RFP software is.

After all, every product claims to have the latest, greatest model with the best features.

And yet, when you sit through the demos, they all blend. Everything looks amazing on paper—until you have to use it.

So, how do you separate the real game-changers from the overhyped software? How do you avoid spending months onboarding a tool that ultimately slows your team down?

That’s exactly why we put together this buyer’s guide. We’ll walk you through the different types of RFP tools, what to look for, and even rank the top options available in 2025.

By the end, you’ll know exactly what to ask vendors, what red flags to avoid, and most importantly—how to pick an RFP automation tool that actually saves you time instead of creating extra work.

Let’s get started.

Dealing with RFPs and compliance questionnaires is a pain point that Sales and IT teams face on a regular basis. There are a few routes you can take when trying to modernize this process.

This is by far the most painful approach. In most cases, a dedicated teammate will be assigned to own the questionnaire response process. In larger organizations, this can involve a full team with a complex workflow, and the need to maintain a large library of information.

Most companies want to transition away from this costly and inefficient approach – in fact, we recently did a study on how long it takes to manually complete an RFP.

These tools are more common among enterprises and larger organizations where the RFP workflow is high-volume and has many movings parts. If you’re looking for a large software suite that can help you ‘project manage’ a high volume of RFPs and questionnaires, this might be the category for you.

The biggest downside is that users report spending more time researching, manually writing responses, and maintaining a large knowledge base due to the lack of answer automation.

Looking at legacy RFP tools? Check out these guides:

Believe it or not, some revenue teams have tried leveraging traditional knowledge management and enablement tools to improve their RFP response workflows. Unfortunately, this is like fitting a square peg in a round hole. Though the user personas do often overlap, enablement tools do not address the pain points associated with responding to sales and compliance questionnaires.

Looking at legacy enablement tools? Check out these guides:

In a similar vein, IT and security teams have tried using compliance software to address the questionnaire problem. While these are great tools for achieving infosec compliance, the technology does not translate well into the specific pain point of responding to complex RFPs and questionnaires. Despite some of these tools having questionnaire assistants, they are limited and still require you to research and manually write responses.

Furthermore, these tools get siloed into the security teams when in fact most RFP and compliance questionnaire activity comes from the sales org. This is why many of our customers use 1up alongside their existing IT compliance software.

This category is widely-considered to be the modern approach to automating RFPs and security questionnaires, and answering sales questions 10x faster. By combining Large Language Models with an automated knowledge base, tools like 1up deliver a user experience that addresses specific pain points.

The result is an automation experience that Sales and IT teams love to use daily at companies of all sizes. Here’s a demo of what that looks like:

The RFP software market is filled with so many tools, but not all tools are created equally. Some promise full automation but leave you in a maze of manual work. Others offer powerful AI capabilities, but their usability is so frustrating that teams avoid using them altogether.

We’ve evaluated the top RFP software options based on actual performance to cut through the noise, not just feature lists. 

We looked at automation quality, ease of use, integration flexibility, and real-world adoption. The result? A ranked list that highlights not just who’s making the biggest claims but who’s actually delivering.

Here’s how the top RFP tools stack up in 2025.

We know that listing ourselves as the best RFP software may seem biased, but don’t just take our word for it; companies like Gladly and Continu trust 1up to handle their RFPs.

1up will allow your sales process to move more quickly, seamlessly, and accurately. 

1up helps sales teams fill out RFPs, questionnaires, and DDQs in record time, sometimes in seconds. We centralize all of your data in a large knowledge base, eliminating the need for manual searches. 

No more interrupting teammates. No more endless searches through dozens of files. Your team members can ask their sales questions in their messaging system, like Slack, MS Teams, or Google Chat.

You can also export a Word Doc or Excel Sheet to be automatically filled out with data from your knowledge base, making your salespeople experts in minutes. No doc to upload? No problem. We have a browser extension that will work directly on your web pages. 

As an added bonus, 1up provides valuable insights. Our analytics reveal trends, content gaps, and key data on what your customers and reps are asking.

We offer a free 14-day trial, something that no one else does, so you can see for yourself how we can help you. You can have your first RFP response completed before your lunch break.

Loopio is a content management system (like Responsive). 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.

As for the downsides, well:

And again, no free trial, so you can’t even check it out before you invest.

Responsive, formerly known as RFPIO, has a big claim to fame: it’s self-proclaimed the “most robust platform!” What this means for users is that you can begin considering an RFP or questionnaire from the very first day and follow it through to the end. 

Responsive offers to partner with users in Strategic Response Management, “powering all types of information exchange across an opportunity lifecycle.” 

Similar to Loopio, Responsive is also a traditional content management platform. This means you’ll have to manage your content library, which takes time out of your day.

The primary focus of Responsive is in the name. It is committed to providing quick, accurate automated responses to RFPs and questionnaires. The tools the company offers also help break down silos among departments, helping teammates communicate more effectively. 

Still, there are significant problems with Responsive: 

And on top of it all, Responsive doesn’t even offer a free trial to get started. 

Qvidian’s biggest claim to fame as a sales enablement platform is that it is a cloud-based proposal management software. Its goal is to help teams build proposals through strong collaboration and powerful, highly intelligent AI. Qvidian has a team of professional, educational, and technical service teams. 

They call themselves proposal experts. So, if you’re looking to automate your proposal, of any kind, Qvidian is probably going to show up in your search. They also commit to scaling with you as your business grows. 

Specifically, Qvidian is ideal for financial services companies looking to win more deals. 

In terms of cons, users complain most about the following: 

You also get no free trial, and no pricing list. So you’ll have to spend 30 minutes watching a demo only to find out you don’t want to pay their prices. No thanks.

QorusDocs is aptly named as this automated response software goes above and beyond RFPs and questionnaires. You can also automate pitches, presentations, and even statements of work. It’s like ChatGPT combined with automated response software. The best of both worlds. 

In short, QorusDocs combines AI-driven content generation with response automation, creating a versatile tool for document management.

It’s proposal management in the guise of sales enablement. 

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

The downsides of QorusDocs include: 

These are enough to turn virtually anyone away. Automation is supposed to make your work easier, not more difficult. 

Ombud is a sales enablement platform that centralizes user content and allows for easy access. Through automation, users can streamline their RFP responses, proposals, and SOWs. 

Positioning itself as an “intelligent assistant,” for sales teams, Ombud saves time and adds efficiency to the sales process. 

The AI platform at Ombud facilitates the management of multiple files across workspaces and portals. Teammates can collaborate with each other or with clients. They can assign tasks and follow the sales process from start to finish from within a team or as a client. 

Still, for all their talk of intelligent assistance, the downsides are no fun: 

If the whole point is to get automated responses, and the automated responses aren’t great, why are we even considering this one? 

Choosing an RFP automation tool isn’t just about checking off a list of features—it’s about finding a system that integrates seamlessly into your workflow, delivers accurate answers, and truly reduces the time and effort your team spends on RFPs. Use this criteria list to separate the best from the rest:

This is the #1 most important factor. Your responses should use accurate sources you trust. Answers should always be truthful and should have strong protections in place for incorrect responses. All responses should be formatted correctly with transparency on how they’re being generated. A slow, accurate response is better than a fast, dishonest hallucination. 

Customer data should never be used to train Large Language Models. As for certifications, SOC2 compliance is a table stake and should not be considered a differentiator. Instead, consider the vendor’s team composition and background – do they have a dedicated InfoSec function? How have they protected customers from data leakage? For reference, here’s a brief overview of 1up’s approach to data security.

Answers should only take a few seconds to generate. Long, complex questions might take longer, but they should still be much faster than it would take a human to write. A simple benchmark we use is that a questionnaire tool should be able to deliver at least 100 high-quality answers per hour.

Your tool should be easy to use out of the box with minimal setup. Newly added users should get familiarized with the dashboard quickly, without the need for setup calls or extensive training. The easier it is to use, the faster you’ll get value out of it. 

You should be able to import a variety of file types and data sources, including gated webpages and 3rd party repositories such as Google Drive, Confluence, and more. A powerful knowledge base will automatically refresh itself to ensure your answers are up-to-date and accurate. 

Users should be able to control their answer generation, sources, and knowledge base structure. A flexible system should allow users to influence answers based on pre-selected sources. Users should also be able to set statuses, monitor usage, and ensure that questionnaires are streamlined from start to finish.

You should be able to automate answers to documents in any format. Microsoft Excel, Word, PDF, and even web-based questionnaires should be supported out-of-the-box. When it comes to web-based question sheets, a good approach is to use an RFP questionnaire browser extension.

Does the tool require you to continue living in Excel or Word Documents? If the whole point of looking for an automation tool is to get away from living in spreadsheets, then make sure that’s what you’re getting. You should be able to hand off a document to an AI, step away, and come back to a completed project ready for your review. Anything less is proof of extra steps.

Ask for a specific customer story that lines up with your company size or industry.

If you’re a small or medium business, a case study explaining how a large enterprise adopted AI might not be relevant to you. Conversely, a tool that focuses on small, nimble teams won’t necessarily translate well to a large complex organization.

For example, 1up has been deployed across companies ranging in size from 10 to 10,000 employees. Here’s an RFP automation customer story for Tellennium, a leader in enterprise expense management. Here’s another for FusionAuth, a leader in the Identity Access Management space who use 1up to automatically generate thousands of RFP responses.

To dig deeper, ask for a reference of someone who has renewed their contract. The key to telling great customer stories isn’t sales, it’s adoption. Are they still using the tool? Why did they stick around? Why not?

Ask the hard questions and you’ll be surprised how many customers churn when it comes to RFP management software.

Finally, don’t just settle for online reviews.

I know, G2 Reviews can be a great signal, but remember that many companies trade Starbucks gift cards for a positive review. Yes, most of these are paid for, unfortunately.

Anytime a vendor flashes their G2 review badge at you, ask them to speak with a customer. There’s no better way to validate a review than by speaking with a reference.

If you want to cut through the sales speak and marketing noise, here’s a list of direct questions you should ask the vendors you’re reviewing.

Once you’ve selected your preferred tool, it’s time to pick a pricing plan and inform your finance team.

At 1up, our pricing plans vary based on questionnaire volume. All pricing tiers include unlimited single answer generation and free integrations such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Single Sign-On login.

At this stage, you may also be required to get approval from your IT/Security team. Depending on company policies, you might have to share a vendor risk questionnaire with your preferred vendor (how ironic).

Here are some considerations when procuring a tool like 1up:

Finally, make sure you can get a free trial. Don’t just settle for a demo. You want to be able to test multiple questionnaire types, formats, and answer modes. This is how you can ensure that your team picks the right tool for the job.