Data & IT software advice
What the IT function is judged on: getting to the numbers, keeping the credentials safe, and making sure the files are still there tomorrow. 55 ranked guides covering 749 products, written for the point where a shortlist has to become a decision.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderThe guides
55 articles13 tools · 10 publish a price
Best Business Intelligence Tools in 2026
A business intelligence tool connects to your data warehouse or databases, defines shared metrics, and presents them as dashboards and reports people can query without writing SQL.
#1 Lightdash · also covers Luzmo, Metabase, Sigma
12 tools · 11 publish a price
Best Password Manager for Business in 2026
A password manager stores credentials and secrets encrypted with a key only the user holds, fills them into applications, and lets an organisation share access without sharing the password itself.
#1 Psono · also covers Zoho Vault, Idira Workforce Password Management (formerly CyberArk), Bitwarden
13 tools · 9 publish a price
Best Antivirus and Endpoint Security in 2026
Endpoint security software protects laptops, desktops and servers against malware and intrusion, and in its detection-and-response form records what happened so an incident can be investigated afterwards.
#1 WithSecure Elements · also covers Bitdefender GravityZone, ESET PROTECT, ThreatDown
16 tools · 16 publish a price
Best Cloud Storage for Business in 2026
Cloud storage keeps files on a provider’s infrastructure, synchronises them to devices, and controls who inside and outside the organisation can open or edit them.
#1 Filen · also covers Koofr, Internxt, pCloud
18 tools · 18 publish a price
Best Web Hosting in 2026
A web host runs the servers your site lives on and takes responsibility for keeping them online, patched and reachable.
#1 Krystal · also covers Hetzner, Hostinger, Kinsta
14 tools · 11 publish a price
Best Backup Software in 2026
Backup software copies data and systems to a second location on a schedule, and restores them when the first location is gone, corrupted or encrypted.
#1 Rewind · also covers restic, Proxmox Backup Server, Backblaze
14 tools · 11 publish a price
Best Knowledge Base Software in 2026
Knowledge base software stores articles and documentation in a searchable structure, publishes them to staff or customers, and reports on what people looked for and did not find.
#1 KnowledgeOwl · also covers Outline, XWiki, Nuclino
15 tools · 7 publish a price
Best AI Customer Service Software in 2026
AI customer service software answers incoming customer questions automatically across chat, email and voice, resolving what it can and passing the rest to a human agent with context.
#1 Rasa · also covers boost.ai, moinAI, Fin
18 tools · 17 publish a price
Best Business Email Hosting in 2026
Business email hosting runs the mailboxes on your own domain name, handling sending, receiving, spam filtering, storage, and the calendars and contacts that come with them.
#1 Migadu · also covers Rackspace Email, Purelymail, Fastmail
12 tools · 2 publish a price
Best Data Loss Prevention Software in 2026
Data loss prevention inspects files, messages and uploads for sensitive content, then logs, warns or blocks when that content moves to an unapproved destination.
#1 Safetica · also covers Endpoint Protector by Netwrix, DriveLock, Nightfall AI
16 tools · 6 publish a price
Best Document Management Software in 2026
Document management software stores files with metadata and version history, controls who may see or change them, applies retention rules, and records every access for audit.
#1 Folderit · also covers Revver, OpenKM, M-Files
12 tools · 7 publish a price
Best IT Asset Management Software in 2026
IT asset management records every device, licence and contract the organisation owns, tracks who holds each one, and follows it from purchase through to disposal.
#1 Setyl · also covers EZO AssetSonar, InvGate Asset Management, Snipe-IT
14 tools · 9 publish a price
Best Mobile Device Management Software in 2026
Mobile device management enrols company phones, tablets and laptops into a central console that pushes settings, applications and security policy, and can lock or wipe a device remotely.
#1 Relution · also covers Cortado MDM, Applivery, Hexnode UEM
13 tools · 5 publish a price
Best RPA Software in 2026
Robotic process automation runs software robots that operate existing applications through their user interface or API, repeating a rule-based task without changing the underlying systems.
#1 OpenRPA · also covers ElectroNeek, Tungsten Automation, n8n
13 tools · 7 publish a price
Best Web Application Firewall in 2026
A web application firewall filters incoming HTTP requests against rules for injection, scripting and abuse, blocking or logging the ones that match before the application sees them.
#1 BunkerWeb · also covers Gcore WAAP, Indusface AppTrana, Link11 WAAP
12 tools · 3 publish a price
Best Compliance Management Software in 2026
Compliance management software tracks the controls an organisation must satisfy, collects the evidence that they are working, and shows an auditor or regulator that record.
#1 Cyberday · also covers Conformio, GAN Integrity, ISMS.online
14 tools · 5 publish a price
Best Laboratory Information Management System in 2026
A laboratory information management system tracks samples, tests, instruments and results through the lab, and records who did what to each sample and when.
#1 LabCollector · also covers Autoscribe Matrix Gemini, SENAITE, QBench
16 tools · 8 publish a price
Best Virtual Data Room in 2026
A virtual data room is a controlled document space where outside parties read files under per-user permissions, with every view recorded for later evidence.
#1 netfiles · also covers Virtual Vaults, Firmex, Drooms
15 tools · 15 publish a price
Best Application Performance Monitoring Software in 2026
Application performance monitoring collects traces, metrics and logs from running software so an engineer can see which request, release or dependency made the application slow or fail.
#1 Dash0 · also covers AppSignal, Raygun, Grafana Cloud
13 tools · 13 publish a price
Best Incident Management Software in 2026
Incident management software routes alerts to the engineer on call, escalates when nobody acknowledges, coordinates the response, and keeps the timeline that the postmortem is written from.
#1 ilert · also covers All Quiet, Xurrent IMR (formerly Zenduty), incident.io
14 tools · 8 publish a price
Best Integration Platform in 2026
An integration platform connects applications and data sources, transforms the records passing between them, and runs those flows on a schedule or in response to events.
#1 Windmill · also covers Alumio, elastic.io, Make
16 tools · 12 publish a price
Best Low-Code Platform in 2026
A low-code platform builds business applications from visual models, forms and data tables, with code written only where the visual tools stop, and hosts what it builds.
#1 WEBCON · also covers Simplifier, Neptune Software, Budibase
14 tools · 4 publish a price
Best Print Management Software in 2026
Print management software authenticates users at the device, holds jobs until they are released, meters pages per user or department, and manages printer drivers and queues across a fleet.
#1 ezeep · also covers Printix, Gespage, PaperCut MF
15 tools · 3 publish a price
Best Risk Management Software in 2026
Risk management software records an organisation's risks with an owner, a likelihood, an impact and a mitigation, and tracks how those assessments change over time.
#1 Symbiant · also covers Protecht, Corporater, Decision Focus
16 tools · 9 publish a price
Best Document Generation Software in 2026
Document generation software builds finished documents by merging structured data into a template, applying conditional clauses and formatting, and producing PDF or Word files at volume.
#1 Carbone · also covers Docmosis, Docupilot, Formstack Documents
12 tools · 9 publish a price
Best ETL Tools in 2026
ETL and data integration software extracts records from source systems, reshapes them into a common structure, and loads them into a warehouse, database or other application.
#1 Keboola · also covers Dataddo, Weld, Airbyte
15 tools · 13 publish a price
Best Generative AI Platform for Business in 2026
A generative AI platform gives an organisation hosted access to language and image models through an API, with the contracts, logging and access controls a business needs around them.
#1 Scaleway Generative APIs · also covers OVHcloud AI Endpoints, Heabsy, Mistral AI
18 tools · 7 publish a price
Best Identity Verification Software in 2026
Identity verification software checks an identity document, matches it to a live face, or queries an authoritative database or national eID scheme, and returns a decision with evidence.
#1 Signicat ReadID (formerly Inverid) · also covers Idura (formerly Criipto), Fourthline, Veriff
15 tools · 13 publish a price
Best Network Monitoring Software in 2026
Network monitoring software polls devices, collects traffic records and raises alerts when links, interfaces or services stop behaving the way they normally do.
#1 ntopng · also covers Obkio, Domotz, Zabbix
14 tools · 9 publish a price
Best OCR Software in 2026
OCR and capture software reads scanned or photographed documents, recognises the text, and extracts named fields such as totals, dates and references into structured data.
#1 Mindee · also covers Konfuzio, Doxis AI.dp (formerly Klippa), Cradl AI
12 tools · 11 publish a price
Best Transcription Software in 2026
Transcription software converts recorded speech into text, labels who spoke when, and returns a timed, searchable document that you can correct, caption, translate or export elsewhere.
#1 Amberscript · also covers Trint, Happy Scribe, Speechmatics
20 tools · 10 publish a price
Best Vulnerability Scanner in 2026
A vulnerability scanner checks systems, applications and dependencies against a feed of known flaws, then reports which ones your environment appears to have.
#1 ProjectDiscovery · also covers Holm Security, AppCheck, Greenbone
11 tools · 11 publish a price
Best Version Control Software in 2026
Version control software records every change made to a codebase over time, lets multiple people work on the same code without overwriting each other, and provides the pull or merge request workflow most teams use to review changes before they ship.
#1 Beanstalk · also covers Gitoro, Perforce P4 (formerly Helix Core), GitLab
13 tools · 9 publish a price
Best Video Hosting Software in 2026
Video hosting software stores, encodes and delivers video for a business rather than a public audience, with the playback controls, privacy settings and analytics a public platform like YouTube does not offer, and often a REST API to upload and publish video from another product entirely.
#1 Bunny Stream · also covers api.video, Dacast, Vimeo
11 tools · 4 publish a price
Best Whistleblowing Software in 2026
Whistleblowing software gives employees, contractors and outside parties a confidential or anonymous channel to report misconduct, and gives a compliance team the case-management workflow to acknowledge, investigate and close that report within the deadlines set by law.
#1 Whistleblower Software · also covers Whistlelink, LegalTegrity, EQS Group
11 tools · 4 publish a price
Best Data Privacy Management Software in 2026
Data privacy management software (also called privacy operations or GDPR compliance software) centralises the documentation and workflows a data protection officer needs to run a privacy programme: a Records of Processing Activities register under GDPR Article 30, Data Protection Impact Assessment workflows, Data Subject Access Request handling, vendor and processor risk management with DPA tracking, and breach and incident management under Articles 33–34. It is distinct from consent management software, which handles cookie and tracking consent on a website rather than the underlying compliance programme.
#1 PrivacyPerfect · also covers PrivacyEngine, GDPR Register, DataGuard
11 tools · 9 publish a price
Best Observability & Log Management Software in 2026
Observability and log management software collects logs, metrics and distributed traces from running systems into a searchable store, so an engineer or analyst can correlate an error, a slow request and a resource spike back to one cause. For the SIEM-capable tools in this category, it also retains and queries security-relevant events for compliance and threat detection.
#1 Guardsix (formerly Logpoint) · also covers Coralogix, LogicMonitor, Dynatrace
11 tools · 3 publish a price
Best Third-Party Risk Management Software in 2026
Third-party risk management (TPRM) software tracks the vendors and suppliers an organisation depends on, runs security, ESG or operational questionnaires against them, scores the risk each one carries, and keeps that assessment current rather than a one-time snapshot filed away after onboarding.
#1 Prewave · also covers IntegrityNext, osapiens, OneTrust
12 tools · 1 publish a price
Best Email Security Software in 2026
Email security software, also called a secure email gateway or anti-phishing platform, inspects inbound and sometimes outbound email for spam, malware, phishing links and business email compromise before a message reaches its recipient. Most products in this category deploy either as an inline gateway sitting between the internet and the mail server, or via API alongside Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and price per mailbox rather than per user.
#1 Cisco Secure Email · also covers Libraesva, NoSpamProxy, Proofpoint
11 tools · 4 publish a price
Best Data Catalog Software in 2026
Data catalog software inventories an organization's data assets, tables, dashboards, files and models, and records what each one means, who owns it and where it came from. Data governance software layers policy on top of that inventory: access rules, stewardship workflows and an audit trail, and increasingly, the governed context an AI agent reads before it answers a question about the business.
#1 eccenca Corporate Memory · also covers OpenMetadata, Secoda, Atlan
16 tools · 9 publish a price
Best API Management Tools in 2026
API management software puts a gateway in front of the APIs a company exposes, so it can authenticate calls, enforce rate limits and policies, and monitor traffic, while giving internal or external developers a portal to discover and subscribe to what's available.
#1 Tyk · also covers Sensedia, Akana, Kong
13 tools · 13 publish a price
Best Uptime Monitoring Software in 2026
Uptime monitoring software runs scheduled checks, typically every 30 seconds to five minutes, against a website, API, port or certificate from multiple locations on the public internet, alerts a team the moment a check fails, and often publishes a public status page so customers see the same incident the team is already working.
#1 Uptime.com · also covers Hyperping, StatusPal, UptimeRobot
13 tools · 13 publish a price
Best AI Coding Assistants in 2026
AI coding assistants use large language models to complete, write, edit and review source code inside an editor, an IDE extension or a terminal, increasingly as agents running multi-step tasks.
#1 Zed · also covers Cline, Amp, Kilo Code
15 tools · 13 publish a price
Best PDF Editors in 2026
PDF editor software changes the text, images and pages of an existing PDF file, and usually also converts, redacts, signs and runs text recognition on scanned documents.
#1 Master PDF Editor · also covers Sejda, Power PDF, PDF-XChange Editor
13 tools · 10 publish a price
Best AI Agent Platforms in 2026
AI agent platforms provide the tooling to connect language models to company data and business apps, define what an agent may do, and run, monitor and govern those agents in production.
#1 Langdock · also covers StackAI, Relevance AI, Dust
12 tools · 10 publish a price
Best Operating Systems for Business in 2026
An operating system manages a computer's hardware and runs its applications; the alternatives here are Linux distributions for desktops and servers, and Android-based phone systems without Google's services.
#1 Zorin OS · also covers Manjaro, elementary OS, Linux Mint
12 tools · 11 publish a price
Best LLM API Providers in 2026
An LLM API provider hosts large language models behind an HTTP interface, so applications send prompts and receive completions, billed by tokens, time or subscription, without the buyer running GPUs.
#1 Berget AI · also covers GreenPT, Vercel AI Gateway, OpenRouter
13 tools · 12 publish a price
Best CI/CD Tools in 2026
A CI/CD tool automatically builds, tests and releases software whenever code changes, running the work on machines it hosts or on build agents that you operate yourself.
#1 Semaphore · also covers Woodpecker CI, Codemagic, Buildkite
12 tools · 10 publish a price
Best Graph Databases in 2026
A graph database stores records as nodes and the relationships between them as edges, so queries can follow connections across many hops without the table joins a relational database needs.
#1 Memgraph · also covers FalkorDB, TypeDB, Neo4j
12 tools · 10 publish a price
Best Load Testing Software in 2026
Load testing software generates simulated traffic against a website, API or application and records response times and errors, so teams can find the point where the system slows or fails.
#1 Artillery · also covers OctoPerf, Locust, Gatling
13 tools · 11 publish a price
Best Remote Desktop Software in 2026
Remote desktop software shows and controls another computer's screen over a network, either on demand during a support call or through an agent installed for unattended access.
#1 Getscreen · also covers Supremo, Apache Guacamole, RustDesk
13 tools · 10 publish a price
Best Screen Recording Software in 2026
Screen recording software captures what is shown on a computer display, usually with microphone and webcam, and saves it as a video file or uploads it as a shareable link.
#1 Cap · also covers Screen Studio, Bandicam, Tella
13 tools · 6 publish a price
Best Static Code Analysis Tools in 2026
Static code analysis tools scan source code without executing it, flagging bugs, security vulnerabilities and maintainability problems, usually inside pull requests, editors and build pipelines before code ships.
#1 PVS-Studio · also covers Qodana, Mend SAST, Semgrep
12 tools · 8 publish a price
Best Penetration Testing Tools in 2026
Penetration testing tools help security testers find and prove weaknesses in networks, applications and cloud systems, either as software a person operates or as a service that delivers the test.
#1 ZAP · also covers NodeZero, Astra Pentest, Burp Suite Professional
12 tools · 8 publish a price
Best Secrets Management Tools in 2026
Secrets management tools store credentials such as API keys and certificates encrypted, release them to authenticated applications on demand, record every access, and rotate or expire them on a schedule.
#1 Phase · also covers OpenBao, SOPS, Infisical
What currently ranks first
55 categories| Ranked #1 | Category | Country | Pricing | Right for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightdash | Business intelligence | United Kingdom | Free open source to self-host; Cloud Pro $3,000 a month flat with unlimited users, published | An analytics team already running dbt that wants one metric layer |
| Psono | Password managers | Germany | Free self-hosted community edition; hosted plans published | An organisation whose policy forbids third-party credential storage |
| WithSecure Elements | Endpoint security | Finland | Per endpoint per year, quoted | An organisation with a hard EU data-residency requirement |
| Filen | Cloud storage | Germany | Free plan; monthly or annual plans by storage size, stackable, published | An individual or tiny team that wants encrypted EU storage cheaply |
| Krystal | Web hosting | United Kingdom | Per month by plan, published | A UK business that wants ethical hosting and real support |
| Rewind | Backup software | Canada | Per app per month, often per user, published; free plan only for small Klaviyo and Mailchimp accounts | A business whose critical data lives in SaaS accounts |
| KnowledgeOwl | Knowledge base | United States | Per month by plan, published; extra authors and knowledge bases added per unit | Support teams publishing a customer help centre with a few writers |
| Rasa | AI customer service | United States | Free developer edition; enterprise licence quoted | Engineering-led companies that keep transcripts and models on their own infrastructure |
| Migadu | Business email hosting | Switzerland | Flat plan per account by message volume, published | Agencies and holding companies running many domains and shared addresses |
| Safetica | Data loss prevention | Czechia | Per user per year, published | Companies under a thousand staff with no dedicated security analyst |
| Folderit | Document management | Estonia | Per month by plan, published: Mini EUR 45 for 5 users, Medium EUR 85 for 10 users, Tailor from EUR 113 | Small organisations that want document control without hiring a consultant |
| Setyl | IT asset management | United Kingdom | From $300 a month, quoted by plan and headcount; trial available | Distributed companies where devices and subscriptions both need owners |
| Relution | Mobile device management | Germany | Free up to five devices; paid plans price on request, cloud or on-premise | German schools, municipalities and privacy-sensitive public bodies |
| OpenRPA | Robotic process automation | Denmark | Free and open source; paid hosting and support available | Technical teams automating internal Windows tasks without a licence budget |
| BunkerWeb | Web application firewall | France | Free and open source; PRO plans from 49 euros a month and a managed cloud from 639 euros a month, published | Self-hosted stacks that must keep traffic inside their own network |
| Cyberday | Compliance management | Finland | Per organisation by employee band, published, from 2,500 EUR a year; 14-day trial only | European SMEs doing ISO 27001 or NIS2 without a security team |
| LabCollector | LIMS | France | Per module, published; cloud subscription or on-premise licence | Labs that want published prices and the option to self-host |
| netfiles | Virtual data room | Germany | Monthly subscription by storage tier, published | European mid-sized companies wanting published prices and German hosting |
| Dash0 | Application performance monitoring | Germany | Usage-based per million spans, log records and metric data points, published; 14-day trial | European teams that instrument with OpenTelemetry and want the price legible |
| ilert | Incident management | Germany | Free plan up to 5 users; paid per user per month, published | European teams that want on-call and status pages under EU jurisdiction |
| Windmill | Integration platform | United States | Open source self-hosted; cloud per seat and per compute, published | Engineering teams that want orchestration without giving up their code |
| WEBCON | Low-code platform | Poland | Per user tier (Lite, Core, Premium) plus a server licence, subscription or perpetual, quoted; 30-day trial | Polish process-first platform for real-time business workflow applications |
| ezeep | Print management | Germany | Per user per month, published; free plan for up to 10 users | Hybrid offices where guests and unmanaged laptops must print |
| Symbiant | Risk management | United Kingdom | Per module per month plus user seats, published; 30-day rolling contract and a one-off setup fee | Smaller organisations needing a credible register without a project |
| Carbone | Document generation | France | Free cloud plan; paid cloud and on-premise plans by document volume, published; free Community Edition | Product teams generating documents from an application they already build |
| Keboola | ETL and data integration | Czechia | Free plan with 60 processing minutes a month; top-ups at $0.14 a minute, published; enterprise quoted | Small European teams wanting extraction and orchestration in one place |
| Scaleway Generative APIs | Generative AI platform | France | Per token, published; free tier on the first million tokens; no minimum commitment | Teams wanting open-model inference from a rate card with no procurement conversation |
| Signicat ReadID (formerly Inverid) | Identity verification | Netherlands | Quoted by Signicat; per-method rates shown in its dashboard after signup | High-assurance onboarding where a forged document is unacceptable |
| ntopng | Network monitoring | Italy | Free community edition; per-system commercial licence, published | Engineers who need to see which host is consuming the bandwidth |
| Mindee | OCR and document capture | France | Per-page credits, published; 14-day trial with 200 pages | Development teams adding extraction to a product they already own |
| Amberscript | Transcription | Netherlands | Monthly plans from 19 euros with capped hours, or pay-as-you-go credit at 10 euros an audio hour, published; human transcription from 1.85 euros a minute | European organisations transcribing regulated or multilingual recordings under European rules |
| ProjectDiscovery | Vulnerability scanning | United States | Free open-source engine and a limited free platform plan; 200 to 800 dollars per seat per month, published; enterprise quoted | Security engineers who want scriptable external and web scanning they control |
| Beanstalk | Version control software | United States | Free account for 1 user and 1 repository; paid plans from $15 per month for 5 users and 10 repositories, published, rising to $200 per month for 200 users | Hosted Git and Subversion with built-in deployment to your own servers |
| Bunny Stream | Video hosting software | Slovenia | Storage from $0.01 per GB; delivery from $0.005 per GB; encoding at no charge; $1 monthly minimum, published; 14-day trial | Pay-as-you-go video hosting and delivery on Bunny's own CDN, from a Slovenian company |
| Whistleblower Software | Whistleblowing Software | Denmark | Core from €99/month (0-49 employees) to €349 (500-999), 1,000+ quoted; Advanced €149-€529/month, published, billed annually | Danish-built reporting channel with the most transparent published pricing in the category |
| PrivacyPerfect | Data privacy management software | Netherlands | Forever Free €0 (processing inventory); SME €290/month; Pro €625/month; Enterprise custom | Dutch privacy-ops platform with a genuine forever-free tier and published pricing up to €625/month |
| Guardsix (formerly Logpoint) | Observability & Log Management | Denmark | Four packages (Govern, Detect, Defend, Respond) priced by nodes, devices or entities, quoted on request | Danish SIEM and security-log management with node-based licensing and an EU-sovereignty focus |
| Prewave | Third-party risk management | Austria | Not published, demo-based quote | Manufacturers who must prove they watch their supply chain continuously |
| Cisco Secure Email | Email security software | United States | Quoted per user on 1, 3 or 5-year terms; no published pricing; free trial of Threat Defense | Cisco's cloud-scale gateway, deployable inline or via API, with FedRAMP High certification |
| eccenca Corporate Memory | data catalog software | Germany | Quote-only, no published tiers; a free community edition sandbox (eccenca.my) lets you try it before a demo | Leipzig-built enterprise knowledge graph for governed, machine-readable metadata |
| Tyk | API management | United Kingdom | Open-source gateway free; Core plan usage-based, Professional plan flat-rate with unlimited requests, prices not published; Enterprise quoted; 48-hour cloud trial | An API-first engineering team that wants open-source flexibility with a flat-rate ceiling on cost as traffic grows |
| Uptime.com | Uptime monitoring | United States | No free plan; 30-day money-back guarantee rather than an advertised trial; Website Monitoring from $9/month billed yearly | US specialist with a large global probe network and no free plan |
| Zed | AI coding assistants | United States | Free Personal plan; Pro and Business per seat per month, published | Teams that want one open editor and freedom to swap models and agents |
| Master PDF Editor | PDF editors | Hong Kong | Perpetual licence per seat with volume tiers, published | Mixed Windows, Mac and Linux teams that prefer owning a licence |
| Langdock | AI agent platforms | Germany | Per seat per month, published; 7-day trial; Enterprise quoted | Companies that want a per-seat AI workspace with deployment choices |
| Zorin OS | Operating systems | Ireland | Core edition free; Pro is a one-time purchase per computer | Small offices moving ageing Windows desktops to Linux without retraining staff |
| Berget AI | LLM API providers | Sweden | Prepaid monthly token plans, published; trial credit on signup | Teams that want predictable monthly spend and a stated zero-retention policy |
| Semaphore | CI/CD tools | Serbia | Pay-as-you-go per machine-minute, published; monthly free credit included | Teams wanting published per-minute rates and the option to self-host the platform |
| Memgraph | Graph databases | United Kingdom | Free Community Edition; Enterprise priced by memory capacity, quoted; 30-day Enterprise trial on request | Teams running real-time Cypher workloads who want a single, memory-based price |
| Artillery | Load Testing Software | United States | Free plan; Team and Business plans per month, published; enterprise add-ons | Small engineering teams that want hosted distributed tests and browser load from one tool |
| Getscreen | Remote desktop software | Cyprus | Free version; one-time Personal Lifetime licence; business subscription; self-hosted licence | Small teams that want to try a free version before buying business seats |
| Cap | Screen recording software | United States | Free for personal use; one-off or yearly desktop licence; per-user monthly Pro, published | Teams that want Loom-style links with the option to host them themselves |
| PVS-Studio | Static Code Analysis Tools | Kazakhstan | Quoted per licence; licences for public projects, students and Microsoft MVPs on application; trial available | C and C++ teams who want deep diagnostics from a specialist vendor |
| ZAP | Penetration testing tools | Not stated by the vendor | Free, open source under Apache 2.0 | Teams wanting a free web scanner they can script in CI |
| Phase | Secrets management tools | Not stated by the vendor | Per human user per month, published; free tier; 14-day trial on paid plans | Small teams with many service accounts and few human users |
Position one is the tool we would shortlist first for the buyer each guide is written for. It is not a score, and it is not the same as the best fit for you — every guide says who each product is wrong for as well.
How to choose in this area
- 01
Start with the category, not the product
A shortlist assembled before the category is settled is the most common way procurement wastes a month. The 55 guides below define what each category actually covers, which is usually enough to rule two of them out immediately.
- 02
Check who publishes a price
497 of the 749 products across this area publish what they cost. The rest quote per organisation, which means a sales conversation before you can compare. That split tells you who each product is sold to more reliably than any feature list.
- 03
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
The 749 vendors across this area are established in 49 countries and 6 regions (North America 380, Europe 283, Asia-Pacific 43, Elsewhere 33, Middle East 8, Latin America 2).
Where a company is established decides whose courts and whose disclosure laws reach the data it holds, which is a different question from where the servers stand. For most buyers that is a factor; for some it is the whole decision.
- 04
Work out what happens at renewal
In this part of the stack the second-year price is where the surprises live: introductory terms expire, modules get added, and per-seat counts grow. Ask for the renewal price in writing before you sign the first one.
- 05
Use the free tiers as a test, not a plan
235 of these products have a free tier or a free self-hosted edition, which makes a genuine trial cheap. Read what the free tier excludes before you build a process on top of it.
The categories compared
A product counts as publishing a price when a buyer can read what it costs without giving a vendor their details. Countries counts the head offices behind the products in each guide, which is the number that decides whose government can compel access.
Frequently asked questions
5 answersWhat software counts as data & IT software?
The business intelligence, password managers, endpoint security, cloud storage, web hosting, backup software, knowledge base, AI customer service, business email hosting, data loss prevention, document management, IT asset management, mobile device management, robotic process automation, web application firewall, compliance management, LIMS, virtual data room, application performance monitoring, incident management, integration platform, low-code platform, print management, risk management, document generation, ETL and data integration, generative AI platform, identity verification, network monitoring, OCR and document capture, transcription, vulnerability scanning, version control software, video hosting software, whistleblowing software, data privacy management software, observability & log management, third-party risk management, email security software, data catalog software, API management, uptime monitoring, AI coding assistants, PDF editors, AI agent platforms, operating systems, LLM API providers, CI/CD tools, graph databases, load testing software, remote desktop software, screen recording software, static code analysis tools, penetration testing tools and secrets management tools categories, covering 749 products in total.
Each guide defines its own scope at the top of the page, because the boundaries between these categories are where most buying mistakes start.
Which data & IT tools do you rank first?
Lightdash in business intelligence, Psono in password managers, WithSecure Elements in endpoint security, Filen in cloud storage, Krystal in web hosting, Rewind in backup software, KnowledgeOwl in knowledge base, Rasa in AI customer service, Migadu in business email hosting, Safetica in data loss prevention, Folderit in document management, Setyl in IT asset management, Relution in mobile device management, OpenRPA in robotic process automation, BunkerWeb in web application firewall, Cyberday in compliance management, LabCollector in LIMS, netfiles in virtual data room, Dash0 in application performance monitoring, ilert in incident management, Windmill in integration platform, WEBCON in low-code platform, ezeep in print management, Symbiant in risk management, Carbone in document generation, Keboola in ETL and data integration, Scaleway Generative APIs in generative AI platform, Signicat ReadID (formerly Inverid) in identity verification, ntopng in network monitoring, Mindee in OCR and document capture, Amberscript in transcription, ProjectDiscovery in vulnerability scanning, Beanstalk in version control software, Bunny Stream in video hosting software, Whistleblower Software in whistleblowing software, PrivacyPerfect in data privacy management software, Guardsix (formerly Logpoint) in observability & log management, Prewave in third-party risk management, Cisco Secure Email in email security software, eccenca Corporate Memory in data catalog software, Tyk in API management, Uptime.com in uptime monitoring, Zed in AI coding assistants, Master PDF Editor in PDF editors, Langdock in AI agent platforms, Zorin OS in operating systems, Berget AI in LLM API providers, Semaphore in CI/CD tools, Memgraph in graph databases, Artillery in load testing software, Getscreen in remote desktop software, Cap in screen recording software, PVS-Studio in static code analysis tools, ZAP in penetration testing tools, Phase in secrets management tools.
Each one is ranked on setup effort, what the price becomes in practice, how the data comes back out and who the product is genuinely for, and places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them.
How many of these products publish a price?
497 of 749. The other 252 quote per organisation. Published pricing usually means the product is sold to the person who will use it; a quote usually means it is sold to a committee.
Where are the vendors in these categories established?
Across 49 countries and 6 regions: North America 380, Europe 283, Asia-Pacific 43, Elsewhere 33, Middle East 8, Latin America 2.
89 of the products are also open source, which means you can host them yourself and the question of jurisdiction moves to your own infrastructure. Each guide states the country of establishment for every product.
How often are these guides updated?
Whenever the facts move: a price change, an acquisition, a product that stops being maintained. Every guide carries a published and a last-reviewed date, and a review means someone went back to the vendor documentation.