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Conga CLM vs. Gavel Exec: Enterprise CLM or AI Redlining in Word?
Conga CLM runs the contract lifecycle for legal, sales and procurement, often on Salesforce. Gavel Exec helps lawyers review and redline in Word. Here’s which fits your team.
Choose Conga CLM if your company wants one contract system for legal, sales and procurement, tied to Salesforce or your ERP, from intake and approvals to signature, obligations and renewals, and has the budget and team for a CLM rollout. Choose Gavel Exec if your lawyers need AI review and redlining in Word now, without a CLM project: it starts with 25 free queries and no credit card, then costs $160 per user per month.
Conga CLM was formerly Apttus Contract Management; Apttus and Conga combined in 2020. This comparison covers Conga CLM after its October 2026 release, its X-Author for Contracts Word add-in and, briefly, Conga Composer.
Conga CLM
Conga CLM manages contracts from request to renewal for legal, sales and procurement: pre-approved templates and clauses, guided requests, approval workflows, e-signature, a searchable repository with AI data extraction, and obligation tracking. Its October 2026 release added Redline AI, AI search, compliance screening and an MCP server for AI assistants. It is a full CLM, not just an AI review tool.
Gavel Exec
Gavel Exec is AI contract review, redlining, and drafting software for legal teams. It works in Microsoft Word and online, so attorneys can review contracts inside Word or use browser-based workflows for broader contract analysis.
Gavel Exec supports playbook-based review, redlining, drafting, benchmarking, batch analysis, and multi-document comparison. Playbooks can be generated with AI, built from uploaded files, created manually, or started from built-in playbooks created by practicing attorneys. Gavel Exec publishes pricing at $160 per user per month or $1,740 per user annually, and offers 25 free queries per user with no credit card required.
Why companies choose Gavel Exec over Conga CLM
- Start this week, without a CLM project: Gavel Exec is a Word add-in for AI contract review and a browser app you sign up for yourself, with 25 free queries per user and no credit card. Conga doesn’t publish prices, its “Try Conga CLM” button leads to a demo request, and Conga itself says implementation time and cost rank among the top concerns customers raise when choosing a CLM.
- Works on its own, in Word on Windows, Mac and the web: Gavel Exec runs in Word for Windows, Word for Mac (2016 or later), Word on the web and Microsoft 365, plus a web app. Conga’s X-Author for Contracts add-in connects Word to your Conga CLM org, and Conga’s install guide lists Windows and Mac, not Word on the web.
- Market benchmarking, not only your own history: Gavel Exec’s contract benchmarking marks each provision on-market, off-market or missing for the jurisdiction, industry and company size you choose. Conga’s Redline AI recommends clause wording from your organization’s own negotiation history and scores drift from your approved standards.
- Playbooks a lawyer can start from: Gavel Exec includes built-in playbooks, and generates rules from your checklists, spreadsheet playbooks or signed agreements (.docx, PDF or .csv). Conga CLM compares language to the negotiation playbook your team sets up in Conga.
Already on Conga CLM? Where Gavel Exec fits
Start by checking what Conga already gives your lawyers. The October 2026 release added Redline AI, and Conga now integrates GC AI and is rolling out a Legora integration, so your CLM may already cover review. Add Gavel Exec seats for lawyers who negotiate counterparty paper in Word and want built-in playbooks or market benchmarking, or who review contracts that never enter Conga. Signed contracts, approvals and obligations stay in Conga. Gavel Exec works on the document open in Word, so the redlined draft goes back into Conga like any other Word file. Both are Word add-ins from Microsoft AppSource; neither vendor documents running them side by side, so test both in your Word setup. If Conga’s AI already covers your review work, another seat may add little.
Conga CLM (formerly Apttus Contract Management) is an enterprise contract lifecycle management platform with a repository, approvals, e-signature, obligation tracking and, since October 2026, Redline AI against your playbooks; it runs on Salesforce or Conga’s own platform, connects to Word through the X-Author add-in on Windows and Mac, and is priced by quote. Gavel Exec is AI contract review, redlining and drafting in Word on Windows, Mac and the web, plus a browser app. It starts with 25 free queries and no credit card, then costs $160 per user per month. In both, a lawyer approves every change.
When to choose Conga CLM or Gavel Exec
Choose Conga CLM if you want one enterprise system for every contract across legal, sales and procurement: a searchable repository, approval workflows, e-signature through Conga Sign or DocuSign and Adobe Sign, obligation tracking, deep Salesforce, ERP and SAP Ariba integration, Composer document generation and, since October 2026, Redline AI with portfolio-wide clause-drift scores. Not for you if you want to start without a sales process or a CLM rollout, or your lawyers work in Word on the web: Conga doesn’t publish prices, and its X-Author install guide lists Windows and Mac only.
Choose Gavel Exec if your lawyers negotiate contracts in Word and want AI redlines against built-in or their own playbooks, plus market benchmarking, this week and at a published per-seat price, whether or not the company runs a CLM. It suits transactional lawyers at law firms and in-house teams who negotiate in Word. Not for you if you need a system that stores signed contracts and routes approvals and signatures: that is Conga CLM’s job, and Exec can sit beside it for the lawyers who redline counterparty paper in Word. For documents generated from intake forms, see Gavel Workflows.
Conga CLM vs. Gavel Exec: pricing, trial and features
US public terms checked November 14, 2026. Conga doesn’t publish prices or a free trial; expect a quote after a demo. Gavel Exec publishes its per-seat price, with team pricing for 10 or more seats. Sources: Conga pricing and Gavel Exec pricing.
| Feature | Conga CLM | Gavel Exec |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Not published; quote-based. Conga’s pricing page asks you to request pricing. Composer, Conga Sign and CPQ are separate products. | $160/user/month or $1,740/user/year; 1,000 queries per user per month; team pricing for 10+ seats. |
| Billing | Not published. | Month to month, no long-term commitment; $1,740/user/year if billed annually. |
| Free Trial | No free trial listed; “Try Conga CLM” leads to a demo request. | 25 free queries per user; no credit card required. |
| AI Features | Redline AI against your playbooks, risk flags, AI search and summaries, data extraction, GDPR/HIPAA/sanctions screening, MCP for Claude, Agentforce and Copilot. | Review, redlining, drafting, playbooks, market benchmarking and browser analysis tools. |
| Playbooks | Compares language to your negotiation playbook; Clause Library Builder turns your Word templates into a clause library. | Built-in playbooks; rules from your checklists, spreadsheet playbooks or signed agreements (.docx/PDF/.csv); editing and sharing. |
| Word Integration | X-Author for Contracts add-in for Word on Windows and Mac, connected to Conga CLM; authoring also in Google Docs. Word on the web not listed. | Word add-in for Windows, Mac (2016+) and the web, plus a browser app at exec.gavel.io. |
| Support | Conga support, training and professional services; Conga says enterprise customers receive 24/7 support. | Exec help center and phone support 7 days a week. |
Conga CLM ratings and both products’ demos
Ratings as listed on G2, read November 14, 2026: Conga CLM 4.3 out of 5 from 624 reviews, and Conga Composer 4.4 out of 5 from 923 reviews. G2’s review summary says users praise Conga CLM’s Salesforce integration and automation, and that some find the initial setup complex and time-consuming. Ratings cover the product as reviewers use it, not the October 2026 AI features specifically.
Watch Gavel’s 71-second Exec walkthrough: a stock investment agreement redlined against an attached term sheet in Word, then a vendor-agreement playbook run with accepted edits appearing as tracked changes. Conga’s CLM page offers an interactive tour, “Watch a Contract Go From Redline to Renewal”, and a two-minute video, “Accelerate contract review with Conga CLM”, showing AI flags for risky terms and playbook deviations. Vendor demonstrations show how a product works, not how well it compares.
Transcript: Gavel Exec walkthrough (71 seconds)
[0:07] A Series A preferred stock investment agreement is open in Microsoft Word with the Gavel Exec add-in.
[0:13] “Redline this document”: negotiation style set to market, negotiating for “the company”, a term sheet attached as context, and the instruction to make the terms match it.
[0:23] Exec checks the documents, context, precedent and market data.
[0:27] High-priority suggestions appear with an explanation and accept / reject controls. One corrects the investment amount to match the term sheet ($250,000 → $500,000).
[0:35] Playbooks: Gavel’s built-in playbooks and the team’s own (NDAs, MSAs, DPAs, contractor and vendor agreements).
[0:39] The Vendor Agreements playbook runs. Each rule passes or fails, and failed rules show a reason and proposed changes.
[0:47] Accepted changes appear in Word as tracked changes in the limitation-of-liability clause.
[0:51] A new rule, “Automatic Renewal Restrictions”, is written in plain language and added to the playbook.
Do Conga CLM and Gavel Exec both redline against a playbook?
Yes. Conga’s October 2026 release added Redline AI, generally available since October: upload a redlined contract and it marks it up against your playbooks, flags language as favorable or unfavorable, and lets you accept or reject each change with one click. It recommends wording from your own negotiation history, screens for GDPR, HIPAA and sanctions exposure during review, and scores how far executed contracts have drifted from your approved clauses across the portfolio.
Gavel Exec redlines the whole agreement in Word as priority-ranked tracked changes and comments, based on your precedent and playbooks, with the reasoning behind each change, plus missing-term lists and playbook pass/fail results. You accept or reject each change in Word, as you would a colleague’s markup.
The difference is where the work sits. Conga CLM’s review is one step in a CLM workflow that also covers intake, approvals, signature and obligations. Gavel Exec is built for the negotiation itself, in Word.
Illustration: reviewing a customer’s master services agreement for the supplier
You represent the supplier. The customer’s draft makes your liability unlimited for any breach of the agreement; your illustrative playbook caps liability at 12 months of fees, with carve-outs only for confidentiality and indemnity. The expected redline replaces the unlimited-liability sentence with a cap of “the fees paid in the twelve (12) months before the claim” and adds the two carve-outs, with a comment explaining why. You decide whether to accept, edit or reject it, and check that the indemnity and insurance clauses still fit. Done by hand, this is a clause-by-clause read against your checklist. Both vendors document a playbook-to-redline workflow; this is an evaluation scenario, not a test either product ran.
What about Conga Composer and document generation?
Conga Composer is a separate product for generating documents from your data. Conga says it produces over 10 million documents a month for more than 8,000 customers: quotes, proposals, contracts and invoices as PDF, Word, Excel or PowerPoint, filled from Salesforce or another CRM or ERP, in bulk if needed. It installs from the Salesforce AppExchange, and the October 2026 AiMe Template Generator turns Word documents into templates.
Gavel Exec reviews, redlines and drafts contracts in Word. If your firm wants intake forms that fill client documents, that is Gavel Workflows, Gavel’s document automation product, with a 7-day free trial. For sales documents generated from Salesforce at volume, Composer is built for that job.
What do you need to run Conga CLM or Gavel Exec in Word?
Conga CLM for Salesforce runs on the Salesforce platform and stores all contract data in Salesforce; Conga also offers Conga CLM on its own Advantage Platform and connects to CRM, ERP and procurement systems such as SAP Ariba. Lawyers work in Word through X-Author for Contracts, installed from Microsoft AppSource on Windows 10 or 11 (Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel 2208 or Office 2021) or on Mac, with a separate add-in for European customers. Conga CLM also supports authoring in Google Docs.
Setup: Conga’s new One-Click Setup deploys a working CLM org with standard workflow, clauses and templates, and its Clause Library Builder turns your Word templates into a clause library. Conga says larger teams will still configure their own flows, and its support pages say Conga Contracts is set up by Conga Services or a certified partner.
Gavel Exec needs an account at exec.gavel.io; the web app works without a download. To redline a specific document, add the Word add-in from Microsoft AppSource. It runs in Word for Windows, Word for Mac (2016 or later), Word on the web and Microsoft 365; if IT manages Microsoft 365 centrally, an admin may need to enable it.
Does Conga CLM work in Microsoft Word?
Yes. Conga’s X-Author for Contracts add-in connects Word on Windows or Mac to Conga CLM; Conga’s install guide doesn’t list Word on the web. Gavel Exec runs in Word for Windows, Mac and the web, plus its own browser app, without a CLM.
How much does Conga CLM cost vs. Gavel Exec?
Gavel Exec costs $160 per user per month, or $1,740 per user per year, after 25 free queries per user with no credit card. Each paid seat includes 1,000 queries a month, and the monthly plan has no long-term contract. Teams of 10 or more seats get team pricing. See Exec plans
Conga CLM’s pricing is not published; it’s quote-based. Conga’s pricing page asks you to request pricing, and Composer, Conga Sign and CPQ are separate Conga products. Plan for setup and configuration in the quote, not only seats.
How much does Conga CLM cost?
Conga CLM’s pricing is not published; it’s quote-based, and you request it from Conga. Gavel Exec publishes its per-seat price and starts with 25 free queries per user.
Does Conga offer a free trial?
Conga doesn’t list a free trial for Conga CLM or Composer; the “Try” buttons on both product pages lead to demo requests. Gavel Exec starts with 25 free queries per user and no credit card.
Security and data use: Conga vs. Gavel Exec
Conga’s Trust & Compliance Center lists SOC 2 Type II for the full platform, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701, plus HIPAA Security, PCI DSS, GDPR and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Data is encrypted at rest and in transit, with SSO via SAML 2.0 and hosting in the US, EU and APAC. Conga says its generative AI features use Microsoft Azure OpenAI.
Gavel Exec is SOC 2 Type II certified and has Zero Data Retention agreements with the AI model providers it uses, including OpenAI. Gavel security
Is Conga CLM SOC 2 certified?
Yes. Conga lists SOC 2 Type II covering its full platform, audited annually, plus ISO 27001 and ISO 27701. Gavel Exec is also SOC 2 Type II certified.
Does Conga use my contracts to train AI models?
Conga says customer data is never used to train shared or global AI models. Gavel doesn’t use customer data, prompts or documents to train AI models and has Zero Data Retention agreements with its AI providers.
Who makes Conga CLM and Gavel Exec?
Conga is a Houston-based company led by CEO Dave Osborne. It says more than 10,000 customers use it, including over half of the Fortune 100, across CLM, CPQ, pricing and document automation; it completed its acquisition of the PROS B2B business on February 2, 2026. In legal AI it partners as well as builds: GC AI is integrated into Conga CLM, and a three-phase Legora integration started with pulling Conga contracts into Legora. Gavel is part of Relativity, which also offers e-discovery software.
Is Conga CLM the same as Apttus?
Yes, by lineage. Apttus and Conga combined in May 2020 and operate under the Conga name; Conga’s legal documents still refer to “Conga Corporation f/k/a Apttus Corporation”, and its CLM documentation to the Apttus Contract Management application.
Who owns Conga?
Thoma Bravo. When Apttus and Conga combined in 2020, Thoma Bravo remained the lead strategic investor, with Insight Partners keeping a material stake, and Conga’s leadership page refers to “Conga’s acquisition by Thoma Bravo in 2020”.
Related comparisons
Method: Gavel editorial review by Richard Poelderl. Checked against Conga’s and Gavel’s public pages on November 14, 2026. Gavel, part of Relativity since June 12, 2026, publishes this comparison and sells Exec. No hands-on comparative test of the two products was conducted. Corrections: contact Gavel.
It’s the best system I’ve tried, and I’ve tried many. I’ve found Gavel Exec really good to work with and responsive to how I negotiate, how I redline.
Martin Algie, Principal at MIA Contract Lawyers
How to test Gavel Exec on a live contract
Pick an agreement you have already negotiated, so you know its issues. Start from a built-in Exec playbook or generate rules from your checklist, run it in Word and compare the redlines with your own markup. If your company already runs Conga CLM, run the same agreement through Conga’s Redline AI and compare what each flags, what you reject and how long checking takes.
Start with 25 free queries and no credit card. If Conga’s AI already covers your review work, another seat may add little. If you need to store signed contracts, route approvals and track obligations, that is a CLM’s job, and Conga CLM is built for it.
Try your playbook on a contract in Word
Run an Exec playbook on an agreement you’re negotiating and review the proposed redlines and comments. Start with 25 free queries; no credit card required.
Frequently asked questions
Methodology
This comparison uses publicly available product, pricing, and review information. Features, pricing, and access terms may change, so buyers should verify current details directly with each vendor.
Compare Exec with Conga’s Redline AI on one contract
Run the same counterparty draft through Exec in Word and through Redline AI, then compare what each flags and which edits you keep. 25 free queries, no credit card.
