Almost every CSRD software comparison is a carbon accounting comparison, and that is why so many of them are unhelpful.
Emissions calculation is a real problem with real tools, and it is one datapoint set among many. The ESRS standards cover governance, business model, policies, actions, targets, due diligence and value chain impacts, and most of those are documents rather than measurements.
Two things consistently stall first reports. The first is value chain data, because Scope 3 and supplier impacts sit with people who have no obligation to give them to you unless the contract says so. The second is the policies, because the ESRS asks what your policies say, who approved them and how they are implemented, and most organisations discover theirs do not say what the standard expects.
LEGALFLY is the best CSRD compliance software for that legal and policy layer. Every entry draws on factual G2 and Capterra reviews and a detailed analysis of each tool in October 2026.
To find out how LEGALFLY could work for you, schedule a call with one of our experts.
Key Takeaways (TL;DR)
What CSRD Is: The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which replaced a narrative disclosure regime with audited sustainability reporting under the ESRS standards. Its scope and timetable have been narrowed and delayed through simplification proposals since adoption, so confirm which reporting wave now applies to you.
What CSRD Compliance Software Does: Helps organisations report under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the ESRS standards, covering double materiality assessment, data collection across environmental, social and governance topics, value chain data, policy and action disclosure, and assurance-ready reporting in the required digital format.
What Most Compliance Software Misses: Reporting platforms are built for data collection and consolidation and assume the underlying obligations are in place. In practice supplier contracts do not oblige anybody to give you value chain data, and the policies the ESRS asks about have to be drafted and maintained.
Best Overall CSRD Compliance Software: LEGALFLY, for the legal and policy layer. Multi Review checks an entire supplier contract estate for sustainability data and reporting obligations, Review revises the agreements to carry them, Discovery produces the policies, and Legal Radar tracks the directive's own revisions across jurisdictions.
What Sets LEGALFLY Apart: Whole legal workflows run end to end, from a regulatory revision or a contractual gap through review and redrafting to legal approval, on documents that are anonymised before analysis begins, on an architecture designed before the current generation of models existed. No competitor on this list replicates that combination.
How to Choose: Work out whether your gap is data collection and consolidation, value chain access, or policies and governance disclosure, because three different categories of product answer those three problems.
Best CSRD Compliance Software in 2026 at a Glance
Tool | Best For | Key Features | Pros | Cons |
LEGALFLY | In-house legal and compliance teams handling value chain clauses and policy disclosure | End-to-end agentic workflows through Agent Studio, anonymisation before analysis, Contract Intelligence across the lifecycle, Multi Review across data rooms, Legal Radar across 130+ jurisdictions | Checks an entire supplier contract estate for sustainability reporting obligations in one pass; drafts the clauses and the policies; anonymisation applied at import | Sales-led evaluation, and it is the legal layer rather than a reporting platform |
Workiva | Organisations wanting assurance-ready reporting with linked data | Linked data across financial and sustainability reporting, carbon module, ESRS and SEC reporting, XBRL tagging, collaboration and audit trail | Linked data means a figure changes once and updates everywhere, with established assurance workflows | Reviewers describe slowness during high traffic and AI capabilities not yet available in the carbon module |
Optro (formerly AuditBoard) | Companies running CSRD alongside internal audit and controls | ESG programme management, controls testing, risk linkage, issue management, executive reporting | The largest review base here, with controls and evidence infrastructure already in place | Built around internal audit, with ESG as a module rather than the product |
Diligent One Platform | Organisations reporting sustainability to boards and audit committees | ESG reporting, risk assessment, controls monitoring, data analytics, board reporting | Board and committee reporting built for governance audiences | Reviewers describe limited flexibility and configurability in certain modules |
OneTrust | Enterprises running CSRD inside a wider GRC and third-party programme | Regulatory content, obligation mapping to tasks, third-party risk covering suppliers, policy management | Third-party risk infrastructure already covering the supplier relationships CSRD depends on | Complex setup and steep learning curve dominate the review base |
Sphera | Industrial and manufacturing organisations with complex operational data | Product and operational sustainability data, lifecycle assessment, emissions accounting, supply chain sustainability | Deep industrial and operational data heritage rather than a reporting layer alone | Oriented to operational and product data rather than narrative and policy disclosure |
Position Green | European organisations wanting ESRS-native reporting with advisory support | ESRS-aligned reporting, double materiality assessment, data collection, advisory services | Built around ESRS and European reporting rather than adapted to it | Narrower platform scope than the enterprise reporting suites |
Greenly | Small and mid-sized companies starting with carbon accounting | Carbon footprint calculation across all three scopes, supplier engagement, reduction planning, reporting | Accessible entry point for organisations without a sustainability function | Carbon-led, so the wider ESRS narrative and policy disclosures sit outside it |
Novata | Private markets, private equity and portfolio reporting | ESG data collection across portfolios, benchmarking, metric libraries, reporting | Purpose-built for private markets, which the enterprise suites handle poorly | Portfolio-oriented rather than built for a single reporting entity |
Watershed | Companies wanting measurement, reduction and disclosure in one product | Emissions measurement, reduction programme management, supplier engagement, disclosure reporting | Measurement and decarbonisation in one product rather than reporting alone | Climate-led, so social and governance ESRS topics are less covered |
Why Organisations Need CSRD Compliance Software
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive replaced a disclosure regime that asked for a narrative with one that asks for audited data. The ESRS standards specify what has to be disclosed, in what format, with assurance over it.
The scope and timetable have been revised since the directive was adopted, with simplification proposals narrowing which companies are caught and delaying later reporting waves. Confirm your own wave and current obligations directly, because this has moved more than once.
What has not changed is the shape of the work. Double materiality assessment, data across environmental, social and governance topics, value chain impacts, and disclosure of policies, actions and targets.
What CSRD Compliance Software Does
The category covers three distinct jobs. Data collection and consolidation gathers metrics from across the organisation into a reportable dataset, which is what the reporting platforms do.
Measurement is the second, and it is mostly carbon. Calculating emissions across all three scopes with defensible methodology is a specialist discipline with specialist tools.
Narrative, policy and governance disclosure is the third. The ESRS asks what your policies say, who approved them, how they are implemented, how due diligence is conducted and how the board oversees it, and those are documents rather than datapoints.
Where Most CSRD Tools Fall Short
Value chain data is the first and largest gap. The ESRS expects disclosure of impacts across your value chain, and that data sits with suppliers who have no contractual obligation to provide it.
A supplier engagement module sends a questionnaire. It does not make anybody answer, and the mechanism that does is a clause in the agreement requiring sustainability data, cooperation with assurance and reporting within a timeframe.
Nobody has checked whether those clauses exist. An organisation with four hundred supplier agreements has four hundred documents that may or may not oblige anybody to help with its reporting.
Policy disclosure is the second gap. The ESRS asks what your policies cover, their scope, who is accountable and how they are made available, and most organisations find their policies were written to a different standard and never updated.
Due diligence is the third gap. The directive sits alongside sustainability due diligence obligations, and the process, the contractual cascade to suppliers and the remediation mechanisms are legal work rather than reporting work.
Best CSRD Compliance Tool Overall
LEGALFLY is the best CSRD compliance tool for the legal and policy layer, and it is deliberately not a reporting or carbon accounting platform. For data collection, consolidation, emissions calculation and the digital tagging the format requires, the platforms on this list do work we do not attempt.
What we do is the contracts and the policies. Multi Review ingests an entire supplier contract estate from SharePoint or your document system, applies one playbook across every file, flags where sustainability data obligations, assurance cooperation and reporting timeframes are missing, and exports a summary with every finding linked to its source clause.
Review produces the remediation. Supplier agreements are revised to carry the obligation to provide value chain data, against positions your legal team has approved, and Discovery produces and maintains the policies the ESRS asks about.
Legal Radar tracks the directive itself. CSRD's scope and timetable have been revised repeatedly, and Legal Radar monitors official regulators and publishers across 130+ jurisdictions, testing each change against your own documents.
Best CSRD Compliance Software: In-Depth Review & Comparison
The ten tools split into four groups. There are enterprise reporting platforms built for assurance-ready disclosure, GRC platforms carrying CSRD as a module, carbon and sustainability specialists built around measurement, and the legal layer handling contracts and policies.
Each entry covers what the product does, who it fits, its strongest capabilities, why it belongs here, what reviewers say, and where it stops.
1. LEGALFLY
Overview
LEGALFLY is the legal operating system for corporates. It gives in-house teams AI-native workflows for intake, contract review, drafting, due diligence and legal research, with security and anonymisation underneath all of it.
For CSRD, the legal work sits upstream of the reporting. Value chain data only arrives if a supplier agreement obliges somebody to provide it, and the policies the ESRS asks you to disclose have to exist in a form that answers the standard's questions. Review revises the agreements to carry the obligation, Discovery produces the policies, Multi Review finds the agreements where the obligation is missing, and Legal Radar tracks the directive's revisions.
Our customers sit squarely inside CSRD's scope. Bosch and SAP in manufacturing and technology, Lufthansa in transport, Duvel Moortgat and Agristo in food and beverage, alongside KPMG and a partnership with the European Commission's HR Directorate-General.
We hold ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certification, with security following a framework aligned with both plus GDPR and annual independent penetration testing.
LEGALFLY helps your team move faster: less time buried in contracts, more time on the work that actually matters. Book a call to see it in action.
Ideal For
In-house legal and compliance teams of 3 to 200 supporting enterprises of 200 to 100,000 employees
Organisations whose value chain data gap is contractual rather than technical
Teams drafting and maintaining the policies the ESRS asks them to disclose
Companies cascading sustainability due diligence obligations through supplier agreements
Multi-jurisdiction businesses tracking the directive's revisions and national transpositions
Top Features
Agent Studio for end-to-end legal workflow automation. Workflows trigger from email, Slack, Teams or manually, conditional logic routes work and escalates when thresholds are met, approval steps sit wherever a decision is needed, and the right person is notified automatically.
Anonymisation before analysis. Names, roles, company details and identifiers are pseudonymised at import, with context and structure intact, so identifiable data never reaches a third-party model. This is applied by default rather than configured per workflow.
Contract Intelligence across the full lifecycle, from drafting and negotiation through approval and e-signature to renewals, expirations, notice periods and obligations. Announced with a waitlist open, launching October 2026.
Playbook-driven AI contract review with playbooks configured for sustainability provisions, covering data provision obligations, assurance cooperation, reporting timeframes, audit rights and due diligence cascades. 120+ lawyer-built playbooks across 100+ document types, plus a builder that generates a custom playbook from your own golden contracts in around two minutes.
Multi Review for bulk analysis across entire data rooms, applying one playbook to hundreds of supplier agreements at once and exporting summaries with every finding linked to its source clause.
Legal Radar, regulatory tracking software monitoring official regulators and publishers across 130+ jurisdictions, which covers the directive's revisions and the national transpositions as they land.
Discovery, AI for legal research grounded in 1000+ official legal sources across 130+ jurisdictions, with citations and auditable reasoning on every answer, plus AI contract drafting for producing new supplier agreements from your own templates.
Integrations with Microsoft Word, SharePoint, Outlook, Teams, Google Drive, Slack, NetDocuments and Microsoft Copilot, each carrying automatic anonymisation.
Why We're the Best CSRD Compliance Software for the Legal Layer
The honest version starts with what we are not. We do not calculate emissions, we do not consolidate datapoints across business units, and we do not produce the digitally tagged report the format requires. Those are reporting and measurement disciplines and the platforms here handle them.
Value chain contracts are the first argument. The ESRS expects data from your value chain, that data sits with suppliers, and the only mechanism that obliges them to provide it is a clause in the agreement. Multi Review checks the whole estate in one pass.
Policies are the second. The ESRS asks what your policies cover, their scope, who is accountable for them and how they are made available, and LEGALFLY produces and maintains those documents against positions your team has approved.
Due diligence is the third. Cascading sustainability obligations down the supply chain is contractual work, and the clauses, the remediation mechanisms and the audit rights all have to be drafted and negotiated.
Agent Studio makes it a programme rather than a project. A revision to the directive or a gap in a supplier agreement identifies the affected documents, drafts the updates, routes them for legal review and files the approved versions, with an audit trail at every step.
Legal Radar matters more here than for most regulations. CSRD's scope and timetable have been revised more than once, and monitoring across 130+ jurisdictions is how you find out before your auditor does.
Pros
Review revises supplier agreements so value chain reporting becomes an enforceable obligation instead of a request
Multi Review checks hundreds of agreements for sustainability data and assurance obligations in one pass
The policies the ESRS asks you to disclose are drafted to the standard rather than inherited from a previous regime
Legal Radar monitors 130+ jurisdictions for the directive's revisions and the national transpositions
Documents are anonymised at import, with SaaS, single-tenant and on-premise deployment options
Cons
Sales-led evaluation, so the first step is a scoped demo and a discovery conversation rather than a self-serve trial
Not a reporting or carbon accounting platform, so emissions calculation, data consolidation and digital tagging sit with the platforms on this list
Does not conduct double materiality assessment, which is a sustainability rather than legal exercise
Customer Reviews
LEGALFLY holds 4.7 out of 5 across eight Capterra reviews, with value for money rated 4.8, customer service 4.7 and features 4.4. Reviewers describe faster document review and legal research across daily legal work.
What users highlight most is speed on document-heavy work and reliable answers on specific jurisdictions, which are the two capabilities a supplier contract review programme depends on.
Final Verdict
If your CSRD gap is value chain contracts, policies or due diligence cascades, this is the strongest option here. Those are legal documents and no reporting platform drafts them.
If your gap is collecting and consolidating the data, buy a reporting platform. Most organisations end up running both, because CSRD asks for measured data and documented governance at the same time.
2. Workiva
Overview
Workiva is the assurance-ready reporting platform that most large organisations filing under CSRD end up evaluating. Its heritage is financial reporting, and that heritage is why it handles assurance well.
Linked data is the core idea and the most-praised feature. A figure lives in one place and every document referencing it updates when it changes, which removes the reconciliation work that makes sustainability reporting error-prone.
It covers ESRS reporting alongside SEC filing, SOX controls and internal audit, with a dedicated carbon module for emissions data.
Ideal For
Large organisations needing assurance over sustainability disclosures
Companies reporting under CSRD alongside financial and regulatory reporting
Teams where the same figure appears in several documents
Organisations needing XBRL tagging for the required digital format
Top Features
Linked data across financial, sustainability and regulatory reporting
Carbon module for emissions data with clean navigation
ESRS reporting with the required digital tagging
SEC reporting, SOX controls and internal audit in the same platform
Collaboration with version control and review workflows
Full audit trail for assurance providers
22 verified integrations
Why It's a Strong CSRD Option
Assurance is the thing CSRD added and Workiva already solved it. Limited assurance over sustainability disclosures requires an audit trail, controls and traceable data lineage, which is what a financial reporting platform is built around.
Linked data is the feature reviewers name most. A change made once propagates everywhere, which is the difference between a reporting process that scales and one that breaks each cycle.
The carbon module is reviewed well by the right person. A Global Sustainability Lead describes it as well designed with clean navigation and outstanding support, which is the most directly relevant review in this comparison.
Pros
Linked data so a figure changes once and updates everywhere
Assurance workflows and audit trail inherited from financial reporting
A carbon module reviewed positively by a sustainability lead specifically
CSRD reporting alongside financial, SEC and SOX work in one platform
Ease of use is the top-tagged strength at 364 mentions across 2,265 reviews
Collaboration tagged 196 times, which matters for a cross-functional report
Cons
Reviewers describe the platform as slow during high traffic periods
A sustainability lead notes AI capabilities are not yet available in the carbon module
Missing features is the top-tagged weakness at 113 mentions, with learning curve at 85
Reviewers describe implementation requiring more internal effort than expected
Four-month implementation average, the longest in this comparison
No view of what your supplier contracts actually oblige
Customer Reviews
Workiva holds 4.5 out of 5 across 2,265 G2 reviews and 4.4 across 45 on Capterra, where the listing still appears under the legacy name Wdesk.
G2's summary praises ease of use and collaboration, naming SEC reporting and the linking functionality specifically, while noting the platform can be slow during high traffic periods.
The most relevant review for CSRD comes from a Global Sustainability Lead. She rates it four out of five, describes the carbon module as well designed with clean navigation and outstanding support, and names the absence of AI capabilities in that module as her one criticism.
Final Verdict
Workiva is the strongest reporting platform here for CSRD and the review evidence supports it. The linked data architecture and the assurance workflows are exactly what the directive's audit requirement needs.
Budget for a long implementation. Four months is the average, reviewers describe more internal effort than expected, and it will not tell you whether your suppliers are contractually obliged to give you anything.
3. Optro (formerly AuditBoard)
Overview
Optro is the connected risk platform formerly known as AuditBoard, built around internal audit, SOX, controls testing and risk management, with ESG as a module.
The strength is the controls and evidence infrastructure. CSRD disclosures need controls over the data behind them, and that is the same discipline as controls over financial reporting.
It is the largest review base in this comparison at 1,625 G2 reviews and 415 on Capterra.
Ideal For
Companies running CSRD alongside internal audit and SOX
Organisations needing controls over sustainability data
Teams wanting executive and audit committee reporting out of one system
Companies where internal audit owns assurance readiness
Top Features
ESG programme management with data collection and reporting
Controls testing with evidence collection and workpapers
Risk assessment linked to controls and processes
Issue management with remediation tracking and ownership
Executive and committee-level reporting
Audit management with planning and fieldwork
Why It's a Strong CSRD Option
CSRD assurance needs controls and Optro is a controls platform. Internal audit teams already testing financial controls can extend the same discipline to sustainability data without learning a new system.
The review base is the largest here at 4.6 from 1,625 G2 reviews and 4.7 from 415 on Capterra, which means a very well-understood product.
Evidence reuse across frameworks is the practical argument. A control tested for SOX that also supports a sustainability disclosure is tested once.
Pros
The largest review base in this comparison across both platforms
Controls and evidence infrastructure already in place for assurance
Evidence reused across audit, SOX and sustainability work
Strong executive and audit committee reporting
Issue management with remediation tracking
Cons
Built around internal audit, with ESG as a module rather than the product
Reviewers report bugs and disruption following platform updates
Reviewers describe a learning curve on advanced functionality
No emissions calculation capability of its own
No view of supplier contract content
Customer Reviews
Optro holds 4.6 out of 5 across 1,625 G2 reviews and 4.7 across 415 on Capterra.
Reviewers describe the consolidation as the value, with audit, controls testing and issue management replacing spreadsheets and separate tools.
The recurring criticisms are bugs and updates. Reviewers report functionality breaking after releases and a learning curve on advanced modules, consistent across both platforms.
Final Verdict
Optro makes sense if internal audit owns your CSRD assurance readiness. The controls infrastructure is the right foundation and the review base is substantial.
It is not a sustainability reporting product. ESG is a module on an audit platform, which is fine if audit is your route in and wrong if you need emissions calculation or ESRS-native reporting.
4. Diligent One Platform
Overview
Diligent One is built for the governance audience, which for CSRD matters because the directive requires board-level oversight of sustainability matters to be disclosed.
Diligent's heritage is board software, and the product thinks about who the output is for in a way most of this list does not.
ESG reporting sits alongside audit, risk and controls monitoring, with data analytics across operational and financial data.
Ideal For
Organisations reporting sustainability to boards and audit committees
Companies disclosing board oversight of sustainability under the ESRS
Teams running internal audit alongside sustainability reporting
Organisations already using Diligent board software
Top Features
ESG reporting with metric collection and disclosure
Risk assessment with heat mapping and committee views
Controls monitoring and testing
Data analytics across operational and financial data
Board and committee reporting packs
Issue tracking with management accountability
Why It's a Strong CSRD Option
The ESRS requires disclosure of how administrative, management and supervisory bodies oversee sustainability matters, and Diligent One is built for exactly that audience.
The analytics capability is stronger than most governance platforms, testing across full data populations rather than samples, which supports assurance.
The scores are reasonable across both platforms, at 4.3 from 161 G2 reviews and 4.5 from 68 on Capterra.
Pros
Board and committee reporting built for governance audiences
Fits the ESRS requirement to disclose board oversight of sustainability
Data analytics across full populations rather than samples
Audit, risk, controls and ESG in one platform
Established relationships with boards
Cons
Reviewers describe limited flexibility and configurability in certain modules
The lowest rating of the enterprise platforms here at 4.3
Reviewers describe module integration as inconsistent
No emissions calculation capability of its own
No view of supplier contract content
Customer Reviews
Diligent One holds 4.3 out of 5 across 161 G2 reviews and 4.5 across 68 on Capterra.
Reviewers describe the board reporting as the differentiator, which matches the positioning.
Flexibility is the consistent criticism, with reviewers describing modules that cannot be configured to their process.
Final Verdict
Diligent One is the right choice where CSRD reporting goes to a board. That audience is genuinely underserved by the rest of this list and the ESRS asks about it directly.
Expect to work within its structure. Reviewers are consistent that configurability is limited.
5. OneTrust
Overview
OneTrust turns regulations into tasks and routes them as work into existing processes, with regulatory content included rather than requiring you to build the obligation library.
Its third-party risk infrastructure is the interesting part for CSRD. The supplier relationships CSRD's value chain disclosures depend on are the same relationships OneTrust already manages for privacy and security.
It is an enterprise purchase, with reviewers overwhelmingly from organisations above a thousand employees.
Ideal For
Enterprises running CSRD inside a wider GRC programme
Organisations already using OneTrust for privacy or third-party risk
Teams needing supplier engagement alongside obligation mapping
Companies with capacity for a complex implementation
Top Features
Regulatory content with obligation mapping to actionable tasks
Third-party risk management covering supplier relationships
Risk management with contextualisation across the business
Policy management and attestation
AI-assisted risk assessments and evidence collection
Real-time dashboards and stakeholder reporting
Why It's a Strong CSRD Option
The third-party infrastructure is already pointed at your value chain. The suppliers CSRD asks you to report on are in OneTrust already if you use it for vendor risk, which is a real head start.
Turning a directive into tasks is the right mechanism. The ESRS is a long list of disclosure requirements that have to become work with owners.
Ease of use leads the tags at 13 across 109 reviews, with automation at 10 and risk management at 9.
Pros
Third-party risk infrastructure already covering value chain suppliers
Translates regulatory requirements into tasks inside existing processes
Regulatory content included rather than built from scratch
Policy management and attestation in the same platform
Prebuilt integration connectors and AI-assisted evidence collection
Cons
Difficult setup and complex implementation are the two top-tagged weaknesses at 6 mentions each
Learning difficulty and learning curve follow at 5 each
Reviewers describe reporting as lacking depth for detailed evidence requirements
Reviewers describe pricing as prohibitive for smaller teams
No emissions calculation and no ESRS-native reporting format
Supplier engagement sends questionnaires without checking the contracts behind them
Customer Reviews
OneTrust Tech Risk and Compliance holds 4.5 out of 5 across 109 G2 reviews, with 84 at five stars.
G2's summary praises the automation and the user-friendly interface, noting the centralised dashboard, while flagging a steep learning curve and occasional performance issues during large-scale deployments.
The setup criticism is the clearest signal. Four of the five cons tags describe the same problem, which makes implementation difficulty structural rather than anecdotal.
Final Verdict
OneTrust is worth considering if your suppliers are already in it. Extending existing third-party infrastructure to value chain reporting is a better proposition than buying a new system.
It sends questionnaires rather than creating obligations. Supplier engagement without a contractual duty behind it depends on goodwill, which is exactly the gap that stalls value chain data.
6. Sphera
Overview
Sphera's heritage is industrial and operational sustainability data rather than reporting layers, which makes it a different kind of product from the rest of this list.
Lifecycle assessment and product sustainability data are its depth. For a manufacturer, the emissions and impacts embedded in products and processes are the substance of the disclosure.
It covers operational risk, product stewardship and supply chain sustainability alongside emissions accounting.
Ideal For
Industrial and manufacturing organisations with complex operational data
Companies where product lifecycle impacts are the material disclosure
Organisations needing lifecycle assessment alongside reporting
Teams managing operational risk and sustainability together
Top Features
Product and operational sustainability data management
Lifecycle assessment with established methodology
Emissions accounting across scopes
Supply chain sustainability data
Operational risk management
Product stewardship and regulatory compliance
Why It's a Strong CSRD Option
For a manufacturer the ESRS environmental disclosures are operational data, and Sphera has the deepest operational and product data heritage here.
Lifecycle assessment is a genuine specialism that reporting platforms do not attempt, and for product-heavy businesses it underpins the material disclosures.
The industrial focus means the data model fits rather than requiring a manufacturer to map operations onto a generic framework.
Pros
The deepest industrial and operational sustainability data heritage here
Lifecycle assessment with established methodology
Product stewardship alongside emissions and operational data
Supply chain sustainability data capability
Data model built for industrial operations rather than generic reporting
Cons
Oriented to operational and product data rather than narrative and policy disclosure
Less suited to service businesses where operational data is thin
Reporting and assurance workflows are less developed than the enterprise reporting platforms
No view of supplier contract content
Final Verdict
Sphera is the right choice for a manufacturer whose material disclosures are operational and product data. Nothing else here has that depth.
It is the wrong choice for the narrative half. Policies, governance and due diligence disclosure sit elsewhere, and so does assurance-ready reporting.
7. Position Green
Overview
Position Green is built around the ESRS rather than adapted to it, which distinguishes it from products that added European reporting to an existing framework.
The platform pairs with advisory services, so the double materiality assessment and the reporting strategy come with people attached.
The focus is European and the scope is reporting, which makes it a narrower but better-fitted product for a first CSRD cycle.
Ideal For
European organisations filing their first CSRD report
Teams needing double materiality assessment support alongside software
Companies wanting ESRS-native reporting rather than a mapped framework
Organisations without an internal sustainability reporting function
Top Features
ESRS-aligned reporting structure
Double materiality assessment with guided methodology
Data collection across environmental, social and governance topics
Advisory services alongside the platform
Stakeholder engagement support
Progress tracking against targets
Why It's a Strong CSRD Option
Being built around the ESRS is a real advantage for a first report. The disclosure requirements are the product's structure rather than a mapping exercise.
Double materiality is where most first cycles stall, and pairing the assessment with advisory support addresses the part software alone cannot.
The European focus means the regulatory interpretation is the primary case rather than one region among several.
Pros
Built around the ESRS rather than mapped onto it
Double materiality assessment with guided methodology and advisory support
Advisory services included alongside the platform
European regulatory focus as the primary case
Suits organisations without an internal reporting function
Cons
Narrower platform scope than the enterprise reporting suites
Less developed assurance and audit trail capability than Workiva
No view of supplier contract content
No digital tagging or financial reporting integration
Final Verdict
Position Green is a strong choice for a first CSRD cycle in Europe. The ESRS-native structure and the advisory support together address where first reports actually fail.
It is narrower than the enterprise suites. If you need sustainability reporting integrated with financial reporting and assurance at scale, Workiva is the better fit.
8. Greenly
Overview
Greenly is a carbon accounting platform for small and mid-sized companies, which makes it the most accessible entry point on this list.
It calculates emissions across all three scopes, with supplier engagement to improve Scope 3 data quality and reduction planning alongside.
The positioning is accessibility. An organisation without a sustainability function can start measuring without hiring one.
Ideal For
Small and mid-sized companies starting with carbon measurement
Organisations whose first obligation is emissions reporting
Teams without a dedicated sustainability function
Companies needing supplier emissions engagement
Top Features
Carbon footprint calculation across Scopes 1, 2 and 3
Supplier engagement for Scope 3 data quality
Reduction planning with scenario modelling
Reporting across common disclosure frameworks
Data integration from accounting and operational systems
Guided onboarding
Why It's a Strong CSRD Option
Emissions are the disclosure most organisations start with, and for a mid-sized company Greenly gets a defensible number faster than an enterprise platform.
Supplier engagement is built in, which addresses the Scope 3 problem at the data level even if it does not address it at the contractual level.
The accessibility is the point. A company that cannot resource an enterprise implementation can still measure and report.
Pros
Accessible entry point for organisations without a sustainability function
Full three-scope carbon calculation with reduction planning
Supplier engagement built in for Scope 3 data
Integration with accounting and operational systems
Faster to a defensible number than an enterprise platform
Cons
Carbon-led, so the wider ESRS social and governance disclosures sit outside it
Narrative and policy disclosure is not covered
Less developed assurance capability than the enterprise reporting platforms
No view of supplier contract content
Final Verdict
Greenly is the right starting point for a mid-sized company whose first requirement is emissions. It gets you measuring without an enterprise implementation.
It covers one part of the ESRS. Social, governance, policy and narrative disclosures all sit elsewhere, so a full CSRD report needs more than this.
9. Novata
Overview
Novata is built for private markets, which is a segment the enterprise reporting suites handle poorly. Private equity firms collecting ESG data across portfolio companies have a structurally different problem.
Portfolio-level data collection and benchmarking is the product, with metric libraries covering the frameworks private markets investors report against.
The structure matters. A general partner needs comparable data from thirty portfolio companies of different sizes with different systems.
Ideal For
Private equity and private markets firms reporting across portfolios
Portfolio companies providing data to investors
Organisations needing benchmarking against peer sets
Investors reporting to limited partners on ESG
Top Features
ESG data collection across portfolio companies
Metric libraries aligned to private markets frameworks
Benchmarking against peer and sector data
Portfolio-level aggregation and reporting
Data quality workflows
Investor reporting formats
Why It's a Strong CSRD Option
CSRD reaches portfolio companies and the general partners above them, and collecting comparable data across a portfolio is a different problem from reporting on one entity.
The benchmarking is genuinely useful because private markets ESG reporting is comparative in a way corporate disclosure is not.
The metric libraries save the mapping work that otherwise falls on each portfolio company separately.
Pros
Purpose-built for private markets, which the enterprise suites handle poorly
Portfolio-level aggregation across companies with different systems
Benchmarking against peer and sector data
Metric libraries aligned to the frameworks investors use
Reduces mapping work for each portfolio company
Cons
Portfolio-oriented rather than built for a single reporting entity
Less suited to a corporate filing its own CSRD report
No emissions calculation methodology of its own depth
No view of supplier contract content
Final Verdict
Novata is the right choice for private markets and nothing else here competes there. Portfolio data collection is a genuinely different problem and it is built for it.
It is the wrong choice for a single corporate reporter. If you are filing one CSRD report for one entity, the enterprise reporting platforms fit better.
10. Watershed
Overview
Watershed combines measurement, reduction and disclosure in one product, which is a narrower and more joined-up position than reporting platforms take.
The emphasis is decarbonisation rather than disclosure. Measuring emissions is the input to a reduction programme rather than the output of a reporting cycle.
Supplier engagement is built around reduction rather than data collection alone.
Ideal For
Companies with genuine decarbonisation targets rather than reporting obligations alone
Organisations wanting measurement and reduction in one product
Teams engaging suppliers on emissions reduction
Companies disclosing against climate frameworks
Top Features
Emissions measurement across all three scopes
Reduction programme management with target tracking
Supplier engagement focused on reduction
Scenario modelling for decarbonisation pathways
Disclosure reporting across climate frameworks
Data integration from operational and financial systems
Why It's a Strong CSRD Option
The ESRS asks for actions and targets, not only metrics, and Watershed is built around the actions in a way reporting platforms are not.
Measurement feeding reduction is the right architecture for an organisation that intends to decarbonise rather than only report.
Supplier engagement oriented to reduction produces better Scope 3 data as a side effect of a programme rather than as a request.
Pros
Measurement, reduction and disclosure in one product
Built around actions and targets, which the ESRS asks about directly
Supplier engagement focused on reduction rather than data requests
Scenario modelling for decarbonisation pathways
Integration with operational and financial systems
Cons
Climate-led, so social and governance ESRS topics are less covered
Narrative and policy disclosure sits outside it
Less developed assurance capability than the enterprise reporting platforms
No view of supplier contract content
Final Verdict
Watershed is the right choice if decarbonisation is the actual objective. Measurement feeding a reduction programme is a better architecture than measurement feeding a report.
It covers the climate half of the ESRS. Social, governance and policy disclosures need another product, and so does assurance-ready reporting at scale.
To find out how LEGALFLY could work for you, schedule a call with one of our experts.
What Makes Good CSRD Compliance Software?
CSRD asks for measured data and documented governance at the same time, and almost every product answers one. These are the criteria that matter.
Whether It Creates Value Chain Obligations or Only Requests Data
This is the test most buyers do not apply and most wish they had. Every platform here has a supplier engagement module, and every one of them sends a questionnaire.
A questionnaire without a contractual obligation behind it depends on goodwill. Your supplier has no duty to provide emissions data, cooperate with your assurance provider or respond within your reporting timetable unless the agreement says so.
The mechanism that fixes it is a clause. LEGALFLY’s Discovery agent produces the sustainability provisions against positions your legal team has approved, and Multi Review tells you which of your existing agreements are missing them.
Whether It Covers the Narrative, Not Just the Numbers
The ESRS asks what your policies cover, their scope, who is accountable and how they are made available. Those are not datapoints and a reporting platform does not write them.
Most organisations discover their policies were written to a different standard. A sustainability policy drafted for a voluntary framework rarely satisfies a disclosure requirement that asks specific structural questions about it.
Drafting and maintaining those documents is the work, and Agent Studio routes each update for legal review and files the approved version.
How It Handles Assurance
Limited assurance over sustainability disclosures is what CSRD added, and it changes the data requirements. An auditor needs lineage, controls and an audit trail.
Workiva's linked data architecture is the strongest answer here, because a figure changing once and updating everywhere is traceable in a way spreadsheet reconciliation is not.
Ask any vendor to walk you through what the assurance provider sees. The answer separates a reporting tool from a disclosure platform.
Whether It Tracks a Moving Directive
CSRD's scope and timetable have been revised more than once, with simplification proposals narrowing which companies are caught and delaying later waves.
A compliance programme built on the original text may be solving a problem you no longer have, or missing one you acquired. Confirm your own wave and current obligations directly.
Legal Radar monitors regulators and publishers across 130+ jurisdictions, which covers both European-level revisions and the national transpositions.
What Happens to Your Data
Supplier contracts and internal policies are commercially sensitive documents and any tool touching them goes through a review.
Anonymisation before analysis is the strongest available answer. Names, roles, company details and identifiers are pseudonymised at import so identifiable data never reaches a third-party model, applied by default rather than configured per workflow.
Deployment options decide whether the review passes. SaaS, single-tenant and on-premise anonymisation deployment are three different answers.
Most teams using LEGALFLY cut their contract review time in half within a few weeks of onboarding. Book a short demo to see how it works for your business.
How to Choose Between the Best CSRD Compliance Tools
Seven factors separate a purchase that closes your gap from one that collects data you cannot get.
1. Confirm Your Wave and Your Current Obligations First
The timetable has moved. Before buying anything, confirm which reporting wave you are in and what your obligations currently are, because simplification proposals have changed both.
This is not a software question and it decides the software question. A company whose obligations were delayed two years has a different purchase than one filing next cycle.
2. Ask Whether Your Suppliers Are Obliged to Help
Go and check one supplier agreement before you shortlist anything. If it says nothing about sustainability data, assurance cooperation or reporting timeframes, your value chain gap is contractual rather than technical.
No reporting platform fixes that. Multi Review tells you how many of your agreements have the same gap, and Drafting produces the language that closes it.
3. Separate the Numbers From the Narrative
Be explicit about which half you are short on. Emissions calculation and data consolidation are well served, and policy, governance and due diligence disclosure are mostly not.
Buying a second reporting platform does not help if your gap was always the documents.
4. Ask What the Assurance Provider Sees
Limited assurance is the requirement that changes everything. Ask each vendor to show you the view an auditor gets, with data lineage and controls visible.
Workiva's heritage here is a real advantage, and the newer sustainability specialists are generally weaker on it.
5. Check the Double Materiality Support
This is where most first cycles stall and it is as much methodology as software.
Position Green pairs the assessment with advisory support, which addresses the part a platform alone cannot. Ask every other vendor what they actually provide here.
6. Trace the Work Past the Finding
A gap in a report is not a closed gap. Ask who drafts the policy, who negotiates the supplier clause, who approves it and where the approved version lands.
For the legal half, Agent Studio runs that end to end, from a detected gap through drafting and legal approval to a filed document with an audit trail.
7. Check It Reaches Where Your Documents Live
Your supplier agreements are in SharePoint, a contract repository or a document management system. A tool that cannot read from there becomes an upload exercise.
Workiva publishes 22 verified integrations and several products here publish none. Ask specifically about the system holding your contracts.
To find out how LEGALFLY could work for you, schedule a call with one of our experts.
Everything You Need to Know About CSRD Compliance
Tool | Overall Rating (Based on G2 and Capterra Reviews) | Core Strength | Main Limitation | Best Fit |
LEGALFLY | 4.7 | End-to-end legal workflows on anonymised documents, covering value chain clauses, policies and due diligence cascades | Not a reporting or carbon accounting platform | Organisations whose gap is contracts or policy disclosure |
Workiva | 4.45 | Linked data and assurance workflows inherited from financial reporting | Four-month implementation, and slowness at high traffic | Large organisations needing assurance at scale |
Optro | 4.65 | The largest review base here, with controls infrastructure for assurance | ESG is a module on an audit platform | Companies where internal audit owns assurance readiness |
Diligent One | 4.4 | Board and committee reporting, matching the ESRS governance disclosure | Limited configurability in certain modules | Organisations reporting sustainability to a board |
OneTrust | 4.5 | Third-party infrastructure already covering value chain suppliers | Complex setup, and questionnaires without contractual obligations behind them | Enterprises with suppliers already in OneTrust |
Sphera | Not enough public reviews | The deepest industrial and product lifecycle data heritage | Operational data rather than narrative and policy disclosure | Manufacturers with material product impacts |
Position Green | Not enough public reviews | ESRS-native reporting with double materiality advisory support | Narrower scope than the enterprise reporting suites | First CSRD cycles in Europe |
Greenly | Not enough public reviews | Accessible three-scope carbon accounting for mid-sized companies | Carbon-led, so social and governance topics sit outside it | Mid-sized companies starting with emissions |
Novata | Not enough public reviews | Purpose-built portfolio data collection for private markets | Portfolio-oriented rather than single-entity reporting | Private equity and portfolio companies |
Watershed | Not enough public reviews | Measurement feeding a reduction programme rather than a report | Climate-led, so social and governance topics are less covered | Companies with genuine decarbonisation targets |
Make Your Value Chain Data Something Suppliers Owe You
Your reporting platform can collect any number your suppliers send. Nothing in your supplier agreements obliges them to send one.
LEGALFLY closes that gap. Multi Review checks your whole supplier contract estate for sustainability data obligations, assurance cooperation and reporting timeframes, and Review revises them to carry the duty, against positions your legal team has approved.
It drafts and maintains the policies the ESRS asks you to disclose, and Legal Radar tracks the directive's revisions across 130+ jurisdictions so you find out before your auditor does. Every document is anonymised before analysis begins.
ECS doubled its legal capacity with the same team. Duvel Moortgat took a review from one hour to five minutes. Adeera cut review time by 93%.
Book a demo and bring us a supplier agreement.
FAQs About CSRD Compliance Software
What is CSRD compliance software?
CSRD compliance software helps organisations report under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the ESRS standards. It covers double materiality assessment, data collection across environmental, social and governance topics, value chain impacts, disclosure of policies, actions and targets, and assurance-ready reporting in the required digital format. The scope and timetable have been revised through simplification proposals, so confirm your own reporting wave directly. The category splits between reporting platforms, carbon and sustainability specialists, and the legal layer handling contracts and policies.
What is the best CSRD compliance software in 2026?
LEGALFLY is the best CSRD compliance software for the legal and policy layer, which is where value chain data and policy disclosure actually stall. Multi Review checks an entire supplier contract estate for sustainability data obligations in one pass, Review revises the agreements to create those obligations, Discovery produces the policies the ESRS asks you to disclose, and Legal Radar tracks the directive's revisions across 130+ jurisdictions. Documents are anonymised before analysis begins. For assurance-ready reporting, Workiva is the strongest platform here.
What should I consider when choosing the right CSRD compliance tool for me?
Confirm your reporting wave and current obligations first, because the timetable has moved more than once. Then go and read one supplier agreement: if it says nothing about sustainability data or assurance cooperation, your value chain gap is contractual rather than technical and no reporting platform fixes it. Separate the numbers from the narrative, ask each vendor what your assurance provider will see, and check how much double materiality support you actually get.
How does LEGALFLY differ from similar alternatives?
LEGALFLY creates the obligation rather than requesting the data. Every platform here sends suppliers a questionnaire, and LEGALFLY drafts the clause that makes answering it a contractual duty, then checks your whole estate for where that clause is missing. It also drafts and maintains the policies the ESRS asks you to disclose, which reporting platforms do not write. Agent Studio runs the work end to end, on documents anonymised before analysis begins.
How do I get started with LEGALFLY?
Getting started begins with a scoped demo rather than a self-serve trial. Bring a supplier agreement and the sustainability provisions you need in it, and we will run it through Multi Review on the call. Deployment covers SaaS, single-tenant and on-premise anonymisation depending on what your security review requires. Agristo had results within days of a single kickoff session.
How easy is it to switch to LEGALFLY?
Switching is straightforward because LEGALFLY sits alongside your reporting platform rather than replacing it. Agreements come from SharePoint, Google Drive or NetDocuments through existing integrations, and the Word and Outlook add-ins mean legal teams work where they already work. The Playbook Builder generates a custom playbook from your own golden contracts in around two minutes, so configuring sustainability clause review is not a project.
Does LEGALFLY replace my sustainability reporting platform?
No, and it is not meant to. Workiva, Position Green, Greenly, Watershed and the others collect data, calculate emissions, consolidate disclosures and produce the digitally tagged report, which LEGALFLY does not attempt. LEGALFLY covers the documents those platforms cannot read or write, which is the supplier agreements that make value chain data obtainable, the policies the ESRS asks you to disclose, and the due diligence cascades. Running both is the normal pattern.
Our suppliers will not give us value chain data. Can software actually fix that?
Not reporting software, because the problem is not technical. Your supplier has no obligation to provide emissions data, cooperate with your assurance provider or respond within your timetable unless the contract says so, and a questionnaire does not change that. The fix is contractual: Review revises the agreement to carry the sustainability provisions, against positions your legal team has approved, and Multi Review tells you which of your existing agreements are missing them, with every finding linked to its source clause. That turns a request into a duty, which is the only thing that reliably produces the data.
Disclaimer: This comparison reflects publicly available product information and verified user reviews as of October 2026. Ratings and review counts change over time, and several products in this comparison have limited public user reviews, which is noted in each entry. CSRD's scope and reporting timetable have been subject to revision through simplification proposals, so confirm your own obligations and reporting wave directly. Product capabilities and integration counts should be confirmed with each vendor before purchase. LEGALFLY is the publisher of this comparison and is included in it.
