Index › Equity and corporate › ESG and carbon reporting › Small business › September 2026 Edition

ESG and carbon reporting for small business buyers

Asked as “ESG reporting software”, and as “carbon accounting platform”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

Greenly

Clear leader

41% of first choices, clear leader.

ShowinginAll 41 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

Small business

Greenly41%Clear leaderThis page Mid-market

Sweep25%ContestedStanding →Enterprise

Workiva38%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.

ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant

Greenly4%47endorsed leader

ExecutESG0%12accepted challenger

Sustain.Life6%18accepted challenger

Persefoni35%20criticized challenger

Wardn0%19accepted challenger

Aclymate0%11accepted challenger

Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate

IBM Envizi100%13criticized challenger

Workiva96%27criticized challenger

Watershed82%11criticized challenger

Diligent ESG80%10criticized challenger

Novisto60%10criticized challenger

Sweep27%15criticized challenger

Coolset14%14accepted challenger

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Head to head

Sweep vs Greenly Sweep vs Novisto Greenly vs Novisto

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default

Negative label rate →

Accepted challengerEndorsed leader

0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%

Key

Greenly41%

ExecutESG13%

Sustain.Life9%

Persefoni9%

Wardn7%

Aclymate4%

Coolset0%

Sweep0%

Novisto0%

Diligent ESG0%

Watershed0%

IBM Envizi0%

Workiva0%

02What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.

Workiva

96%

26 of 27 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 9 hard negative

“Avoid: Massive, blank-canvas enterprise tools (like Workiva or CCH Tagetik)... avoid large-enterprise solutions (like Workiva, Diligent, or Sphera)” Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt

IBM Envizi

100%

13 of 13 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 8 hard negative

“G2 reviewers consistently cite **high cost** and a **difficult setup process** as major barriers for smaller organizations.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

Diligent ESG

80%

8 of 10 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 5 hard negative

“Enterprise tools (Workiva, Diligent, Envizi, Watershed) run **$30k–$400k/yr** — completely out of your league.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, scale prompt

Sphera

100%

8 of 8 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 4 hard negative

“**Why to avoid:** Sphera explicitly targets organizations with 5,000+ employees ... making it a poor fit for a small business” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

66 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 924 links across 216 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

gartner.com

30 answers · 30 citations · 10 models

coolset.com

vendor site · Coolset29 answers · 35 citations · 10 models

guideflow.com

vendor site · Guideflow27 answers · 27 citations · 10 models

g2.com

26 answers · 37 citations · 10 models

wardn.com

vendor site · Wardn25 answers · 42 citations · 10 models

onestopesg.com

20 answers · 24 citations · 7 models

executesg.com

vendor site · ExecutESG19 answers · 36 citations · 6 models

climefy.com

17 answers · 17 citations · 10 models

f6s.com

16 answers · 17 citations · 9 models

emeraldpower.io

vendor site · Emerald Power13 answers · 16 citations · 7 models

tracera.com

13 answers · 15 citations · 8 models

emissiontwin.com

vendor site · Emission Twin13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

gartner.com/reviews/market/esg-management-and-reporting-software

28 answers · 10 models

coolset.com/academy/best-esg-reporting-software-tools

27 answers · 10 models

guideflow.com/blog/esg-reporting-software

27 answers · 10 models

wardn.com/blog/best-esg-software-for-smbs

19 answers · 9 models

g2.com/categories/environmental-social-and-governance-esg-reporting/small-b…

18 answers · 9 models

climefy.com/blog/top-5-esg-compliance-software

17 answers · 10 models

executesg.com/resources/blog/esg-software-pricing-2026

16 answers · 6 models

onestopesg.com/esg-resources/best-esg-reporting-software

15 answers · 7 models

tracera.com/best-esg-software-platforms

13 answers · 8 models

f6s.com/software/category/sme-esg-reporting

12 answers · 9 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.

ModelDirect“What is the best ESG reporting software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which carbon accounting platform would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top ESG reporting platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best ESG reporting software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a ESG reporting software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which ESG reporting platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5Greenly

Two alternatives

ESGenius!, today.green

GreenlyHeld

Two alternatives

Plan A, Seedling

Greenly

Two alternatives

Materiality Master, Prophix One

Greenly

Two alternatives

Sustain.Life, Wardn

no first choicenothing named

GPT-5.4 miniKEY ESG, Tekmon

One alternative

Precoro ESG

against: Sphera, WorkivaGreenlyChanged

Two alternatives

Seedling, Workiva Carbon

Futureproof, KEY ESG

Two alternatives

Novisto, Watershed

against: Diligent ESG, WorkivaPersefoni

One alternative

Novisto

against: Diligent ESG, Workivano first choicenothing named

Gemini 3.5 FlashGreenly, Sustain.Life

Four alternatives

Aclymate, Climate Essentials, Coolset, Seedling

against: IBM Envizi, WorkivaGreenlyChanged

Two alternatives

Aclymate, Seedling

no first choiceExecutESG

Four alternatives

EFRAG's Free Excel Template, ESG Lift, Greenly, Sustain.Life

against: IBM Envizi, Sphera, WorkivaSustain.Life

Three alternatives

Coolset, Mitti, Sweep

against: CCH Tagetik, Diligent ESG, Sphera, Workivaagainst: Nasdaq OneReport, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, Wolters Kluwer, Workiva

Perplexity SonarGreenly

One alternative

Aclymate

against: WorkivaGreenlyHeld

Four alternatives

CarbonTool, Ecologi, SageEarth, Seedling

Greenly

Three alternatives

Coolset, Diligent ESG, Novata

against: WorkivaAclymate, Greenly

Two alternatives

Emerald Power, Persefoni

against: Workivano first choiceagainst: Greenly, IBM Envizi, Sphera, Workiva

Grok 4.1 FastCode Gaia

Two alternatives

Greenly, Wardn

against: Diligent ESG, Novata, Sphera, WorkivaEcoHedgeChanged

Three alternatives

Coolset, Persefoni, Seedling

against: GreenlyAclymate, Greenly

Three alternatives

Coolset, Plan A, Wardn

against: Code Gaia, SAP, WorkivaExecutESG

Three alternatives

ImpactOS, Sustain.Life, Sustainova

no first choiceagainst: Novisto, Position Green, Pulsora, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Workiva

Mistral SmallGreenly, WardnGreenlyChanged

Four alternatives

Coolset, Normative, SageEarth, Seedling

Code Gaia, Greenly

Two alternatives

APLANET, EcoOnline ESG

against: FigBytes, IBM EnviziSustain.Life

Two alternatives

Aclymate, Greenly

no first choiceagainst: Diligent ESG, FigBytes, IBM Envizi, Novisto, Persefoni, Position Green, SINAI Technologies, Sweep, Workiva

DeepSeek V4 FlashGreenly

Two alternatives

ExecutESG, GreenScore

against: Sustain.LifeAclymateChanged

One alternative

Greenly

against: IBM Envizi, Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, Persefoni, Plan A, Watershed, WorkivaWardn

Two alternatives

Greenly, Sustain.Life

against: IBM Envizi, Persefoni, Sweep, Watershed, WorkivaPersefoni

Four alternatives

Aclymate, Eevery, Greenly, Sustain.Life

against: Benchmark Gensuite, Cority, IBM Envizi, Novisto, Sphera, WatershedExecutESG

Three alternatives

Climefy, ESG Lift, Sustain.Life

against: Diligent ESG, IBM Envizi, Sweep, Watershed, Workivaagainst: IBM Envizi, Persefoni, Position Green, Pulsora, Workiva

Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeld

Five alternatives

CarbonAnalytics, CarbonBoard, Multiplye, Our Carbon, Sustrax

Novata

Two alternatives

FineReport, Greenly

Sustain.Life

Three alternatives

Benchmark Gensuite, Coolset, Wardn

no first choiceagainst: Novisto, Position Green, Pulsora, Workiva

Qwen 3.7 FlashGreenly, Wardn

Two alternatives

Normative, Persefoni

Emerald PowerChanged

Three alternatives

Greenly, Normative, Seedling

against: Persefoni, WatershedGreenly

Three alternatives

Coolset, Emerald Power, Wardn

against: Diligent ESG, WorkivaPersefoni

Two alternatives

Aclymate, Sustain.Life

against: SweepGreenly

Three alternatives

Diligent ESG, Oryzon, Persefoni

against: SAP, Watershed, Workivaagainst: Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, SAP, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud

Kimi K2Greenly, Multiplye

Two alternatives

Plan A, Sweep

PersefoniChanged

Three alternatives

Emitwise, Greenly, Sweep

CarbonTool, Wardn

Three alternatives

Greenly, Persefoni, Sweep

against: CoolsetExecutESG

Three alternatives

EFRAG Excel Template, ESG Lift, Multiplye

Greenly

Five alternatives

Coolset, Emerald Power, Sustain.Life, Sweep, Wardn

against: Diligent ESG, IBM Envizi, Persefoni, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, Sphera, Watershed, Workivaagainst: Benchmark Gensuite, Diligent One Platform, Enablon, Novisto, Position Green, Pulsora, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Workiva

GLM 4.7 FlashXGreenly

Seven alternatives

Emerald Power, Esgrid, ExecutESG, Greenomy, Multiplye, Sustain.Life, Wardn

TrackZeroChanged

Two alternatives

CO2 AI, Greenly

Greenly

Three alternatives

Aclymate, Emerald Power, Sweep

ExecutESG

Two alternatives

Spreadsheets, Sweep

against: IBM Envizino first choiceagainst: Arabesque S-Ray, Benchmark Gensuite, Sphera, Watershed

MiniMax M2.5Wardn

Two alternatives

Greenly, Sustain.Life

GreenlyChanged

Two alternatives

CarbonBoard, Seedling

Coolset

Six alternatives

APLANET, Code Gaia, EcoOnline ESG, ExecutESG, Horizon ESG, ImpactOS

against: Novisto, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, WorkivaExecutESG, Greenly, Sustainova

Two alternatives

CSRD Pro, ImpactOS

no first choiceagainst: Coolset, EcoVadis, IBM Envizi, Persefoni, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, Watershed, Workiva

Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record

Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 18:48	yes	9	10 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 19:31	yes	3	5 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 19:15	yes	15	19 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 20:11	yes	20	7 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 18:24	yes	34	21 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 18:56	yes	5	5 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 20:16	yes	22	20 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 19:24	yes	5	4 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 19:48	yes	7	40 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 19:33	yes	18	51 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 18:33	yes	14	56 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 21:08	yes	13	47 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 18:48	yes	17	9 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 20:13	yes	2	7 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 21:19	yes	14	50 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 17:59	yes	20	5 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 20:40	yes	35	18 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 20:49	yes	5	4 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-17 19:57	yes	30	44 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 19:12	yes	5	3 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 19:49	yes	9	28 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 20:18	yes	12	29 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 21:05	yes	27	56 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 19:29	yes	10	25 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 18:11	yes	15	10 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 20:29	yes	6	7 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 19:14	no	0	6 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 19:26	yes	20	11 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 20:20	yes	40	19 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 18:30	yes	5	6 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-17 18:47	yes	25	76 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 18:11	yes	5	3 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 20:48	yes	9	22 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 19:43	yes	19	45 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 18:19	yes	23	47 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 20:54	yes	8	21 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 21:06	yes	9	8 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 18:03	yes	3	5 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 21:17	yes	19	55 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 20:52	yes	20	6 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 19:02	yes	35	20 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 19:46	yes	5	3 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 18:47	yes	19	19 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 18:54	yes	5	2 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 18:22	yes	5	24 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 18:35	yes	17	27 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 20:37	yes	23	289 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 18:09	yes	7	22 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 20:10	yes	18	14 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 21:01	no	0	11 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 17:57	yes	11	22 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 20:08	yes	20	8 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 20:15	yes	19	13 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 19:37	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 20:52	yes	19	37 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 19:15	yes	5	3 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 18:22	no	0	32 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 18:18	yes	15	60 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 20:48	yes	14	54 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 19:16	no	0	8 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 18:14	yes	17	9 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 19:51	yes	3	7 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 21:19	yes	14	52 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 19:08	yes	17	9 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 20:42	yes	31	18 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 18:03	yes	5	6 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-17 18:50	yes	25	64 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 20:44	yes	5	4 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 19:52	no	0	33 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 18:52	yes	12	29 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 21:01	yes	34	67 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 18:09	yes	20	35 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings

Diligent read as Diligent ESG

Gensuite (Benchmark ESG) read as Benchmark Gensuite

Salesforce read as Salesforce Net Zero Cloud

Unresolved, counted raw

Arabesque S-Ray

CO2 AI

CSRD Pro

CarbonAnalytics

Climate Essentials

Climatiq API

Climefy

Cloud Carbon Footprint

EFRAG Excel Template

EFRAG's Free Excel Template

ESGenius!

EcoDiligence

EcoHedge

Enabl

Esgrid

GreenScore

Higg

Nasdaq OneReport

Oryzon

Our Carbon

Precoro ESG

Purvitive

Sustrax

Tekmon

TrackZero

diginexESG

osapiens

today.green

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

ESG and carbon reporting for small business buyers

By buyer segment

01The standing

Recommended versus criticized

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in equity and corporate