If your partner program’s foundation is your strategy, its framework is partner relationship management (PRM) software. Getting your PRM right can make the difference in efficiency, effectiveness, and, ultimately, the success of your program.
In the past, partnerships professionals relied on CRMs built for sales teams, duct taped together for their use case. But now there are dozens of PRMs built specifically for partnerships teams – and there’s likely to be one that’s perfect for your program.
With dozens of options out there, how do you get started choosing the right one for you? Well, you’re in luck. We did our research and found the top 12 best PRM tools available on the market today. Depending on your partner program’s needs, you’re likely to find one here that’s right for you.
In this post, we’ll provide an overview of each solution, including their main features and functionalities, and highlight the areas in which they excel.
This blog aims to offer an insight into the landscape of partner relationship technology and assist you in determining the most suitable PRM software for your partner program.
But first…
What is Partner Relationship Management (PRM) software?
Partner Relationship Management (PRM) software is a tool used to create and manage relationships with external partners, like affiliates, resellers, distributors, and other business partners. The aim of PRM is to enhance communication, collaboration, and coordination between your company and its partners.
PRM software provides a platform that enables companies to share resources, information, and benefits with their partners.
Although each platform differs in some way, most include features like partner onboarding, deal registration, lead management, training and certification, co-branding and marketing support, performance metrics and reporting, automated pay-outs, and communication tools.
By effectively managing and enhancing partner relationships, PRM software can help companies extend their reach, tap into new markets, and increase sales, all while ensuring that partners are aligned with the company's goals and objectives.
The 12 best PRM tools for your partner program
Note: These PRMs are in no particular order. We’ve highlighted what each does best to help you identify the best solution for your partner program’s individual needs.
Download the PRM comparison guide.
Jump ahead to a PRM
- PartnerStack
- PartnerPortal.io
- Allbound
- Impartner
- Magentrix
- Zinfi
- Salesforce PRM
- Zift
- Kiflo
- Channext
- Channeltivity
- Bridge by Mindmatrix
Best for
PartnerStack is a feature-rich ecosystem platform designed to orchestrate and scale entire partner ecosystems across B2B SaaS companies. It’s a particularly good option if you’re looking to source new partners and grow results from your program.
Features
With PartnerStack you can recruit all kinds of partners. Whether you’re looking for agencies, resellers, influencers, affiliates, or tech partners, you can promote your program to their existing 80,000+ active partners and grow your ecosystem faster.
The best part? Your partners only have to log into their PartnerStack portal once for all of their partnerships (as long as the other SaaS companies also use PartnerStack). So being “in the PartnerStack network” means your partners can login and engage with your program regularly.
Other notable PartnerStack features include custom onboarding; a dedicated partner portal and integrated learning management system (LMS) to engage your partners; automatic tracking and rewards for referrals; and built-in real-time reporting to optimize your program.
Pricing
Pricing for PartnerStack depends on your business. There is a base price based on your business size, with the option to “modularize” certain features of the PartnerStack platform – aka only pay for the features that you need.
Integrations
Notable integrations include Hubspot, Salesforce, Zapier and Reveal. See their marketplace for a full list.
PartnerStack also has an integration with Partner Fleet, so you can sync partners and partner data from your PRM to your marketplace.
The customization, coupled with the robust functionality make it a great PRM for any B2B SaaS partner program that’s looking to grow partners, personalize the partner experience, and save time with automated processes.
Best for
PartnerPortal.io is a simple, easy-to-use PRM solution for small teams looking to automate and manage their processes quickly and affordably.
The PartnerPortal.io interface is intuitive and easy to navigate. It’s designed to help you easily launch and grow a partner program for your business. So whether you’re a partner team of one or a legacy team looking to get your processes out of Excel, this is a great tool.
Features
For partner teams looking for a simple solution to manage and automate partner payments (with no payment fees), offer a resource center, and track the results of their partner program, PartnerPortal.io is the way to go.
Pricing
PartnerPortal.io is also the only PRM on this list with a free plan that allows you to get started for $0. Their paid plans range from $599 to $1,199 per month, and they offer a discount for startups.
Integrations
If you use HubSpot, Salesforce, Crossbeam, Stripe, or PayPal, they offer integrations so you can sync your systems. PartnerPortal.io is currently the only PRM with a Crossbeam integration.
Best for
Allbound is a fantastic PRM option for mid-market and enterprise companies with an established partner program. If you’re looking to scale your partner program and to offer co-marketing and co-selling materials to 100s of partners (or more), Allbound makes it easy.
Features
Using the tool, you can manage partner onboarding, sales enablement through playbooks, marketing collaboration, deal registration, attribution tracking, and more.
Allbound is known for robust partner co-marketing (with the ability to co-brand), partner co-selling, and reporting features – all the critical components needed to run a successful partner program.
If you’re working with mature partners that expect top tier support, Allbound could be a great fit for you.
Pricing
Allbound pricing is catered to your program’s needs and objectives. They don’t scale your pricing by number of partners or charge for integrations.
Note: If you plan to use Allbound, you’ll need an additional tool to run an affiliate program.
Best for
Impartner is another robust PRM platform, best suited for mid-market and enterprise partner programs looking to scale and grow revenue from channel partners.
The Impartner PRM platform focuses on partner marketing, with partner incentives and channel marketing automation capabilities. This can help you drive demand for your partner program and get better engagement and results from your existing partners.
Features
Impartner enables you to map your channel partner journey from end-to-end, and automate processes – from recruitment, enrollment, and onboarding to marketing, sales enablement, optimization, and tracking.
With the right team you can set up a thorough partner ops process and optimize to drive more revenue at scale.
Pricing
Impartner’s pricing starts at $2000/month billed annually with add-ons and modules available.
For established partner programs looking to scale through partner marketing, Impartner is worth checking out.
Best for
Magentrix is a truly multilateral tool. It goes beyond partners inputting data, and enables collaboration via chat, mutual content creation, mutual action plans, shared calendars and mutually integrated systems. With Magentrix you can track and report on performance down to the attribution level on shared dashboards.
It’s highly configurable, like Salesforce, but makes it easier for teams to self-serve.
Features
Their popular out-of-the-box features include deal registration, pipeline viewing, quoting, resource delivery, and learning management. Magentrix also offers rewards programs, pop-up campaigns, and sales enablement resources to encourage channel partners to increase lead generation. Plus, they offer support products to streamline partner FAQ.
Magentrix’s comprehensive tool includes features for every department. Everything from mutual product development and robust co-marketing capabilities to contract management for legal teams and referral/reseller payout management for finance teams. If you’re looking to build out an ecosystem business model company-wide, Magentrix could be right for you.
Magentrix is also the first PRM to jump on the artificial intelligence train, with two AI features to date:
- AI-based deal registration automation – partners simply email deal details and their deal is automatically registered.
- AI-based smart search capability – AI reads user searches and helps provide highly refined and targeted results.
For partner teams who like hands-on assistance, Magentrix’s support team is very well reviewed as well.
Integrations
Notable integrations include Salesforce, HubSpot, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Zapier, ChatGPT, and Reveal.
Best for
Zinfi is a PRM solution for established and complex channel sales structures in industries outside of B2B SaaS.
Features
Their features include partner recruitment, onboarding, training, enablement, and management to run your channel program.
Zinfi also stands out with a native learning management system (LMS). It allows you to add content in the form of videos, PDFs, slides, and more to build courses and enable and train your partners.
They also offer an affiliate marketing management solution.
Pricing
Although Zinfi doesn’t publish their pricing, we know that they are on the higher end of the market – more suited to mid-market and enterprise companies – and charge an implementation cost.
Industries
Zinfi is not necessarily the right PRM for a B2B SaaS company. They best serve companies in the automotive industry, communications, financial services, franchises, high technology, insurance, life sciences, manufacturing, and retail.
Best for
Salesforce PRM (also known as Sales Cloud PRM) is best for mid-market and enterprise companies with fairly simple partner programs who are looking to manage partners inside their existing Salesforce CRM. It offers a streamlined way to manage tech partners, resellers, VARS, and more.
Salesforce PRM is available only as an add-on to Sales Cloud Enterprise and Unlimited plans. However, it’s not the only option if you use Salesforce as your CRM. Most PRMs have an integration with Salesforce – so take that into consideration when making your choice.
Features
Salesforce PRM includes partner onboarding and custom lifecycle stage experiences, co-branding & content syndication, sales & marketing automation workflows, and detailed analytics.
Salesforce PRM does not include an affiliate network if you want to scale out your affiliate channel.
Pricing
Salesforce PRM starts at $25 per month per user and includes a free trial. However, since your plan is based on your needs, you’ll have to request a quote to get started.
Integrations
Notable integrations include HubSpot, WordPress, Zapier, and Reveal.
Best for
From Oracle to Canon, some big names use Zift as a PRM. Which makes sense as it’s a very comprehensive platform, equipped with marketing, enablement, and sales capabilities.
Features
But it’s the partner experience where Zift thrives. In addition to a suite of PRM features, they manage the flow from marketing and lead generation to sales and your partners get a personalized portal based on what they need.
Pricing
Zift doesn’t publish their prices publicly, but they do mention that their plans start at 25 partners per year.
Industries
Zift mainly serves businesses in the cybersecurity, industrial, HVAC, technology, telecom, manufacturing, and business process management industries
For partner teams looking to elevate their overall partner management and provide an exceptional partner experience, Zift is a good choice.
Best for
Kiflo has built their PRM specifically for small and medium-sized businesses who want to grow their program.
Features
With features like partner portal, asset management, deal registration, and partner onboarding and KPIs, Kiflo is great for solo or small partner teams who need an affordable option without too much complexity.
You can scale out your partner program to referral, reseller, and affiliate channels with Kiflo, but they lack co-branded marketing assets and an LMS.
Pricing
Their pricing starts at $249/month for 5 partners, and scales to $799 for unlimited partners.
Industries
Kiflo is best for self-service SaaS companies and distributors looking to manage resellers.
Best for
Channext is the odd one out in this list, as they dont formally refer to themselves as a PRM solution, instead they call their software a partner success platform. If your main goal is partner adoption, Channext could be right for you.
Features
Channext is hyper-focused on partner adoption. Their messaging and features are built to encourage partners to log into the portal, which is often a struggle for partner teams using PRMs.
One of the key differentiators of the Channext platform is the ability for partners to launch marketing campaigns including social posts from inside the platform, meaning less work for your partner marketers, and more overall engagement from the campaigns you launch.
Pricing
There is no public information about Channext pricing.
Best for
Channeltivity is known for being a highly customizable PRM solution. This tool’s price point is high for startups and SMBs. But it’s great for mid-market and enterprise companies that want a feature-rich platform to integrate, launch, and scale referral, reseller, and distributor partnership programs.
Features
What rich features, you say? Partner recruitment and training, partner portal, deal registration, lead distribution, MDF management, co-branded marketing assets, email marketing, and more.
Users of Channeltivity also tout their fantastic, responsive support team. They’re available to book calls any time to help you make better use of the platform.
Pricing
Channeltivity has plans catered specifically to your CRM integration – Salesforce or Hubspot. The integration is thorough enough to warrant its own pricing. All other pricing comes a-la-cart for the features you need.
If you’re looking for a feature-rich tool for your enterprise partnerships team, Channeltivity is one of the best options.
Best for
Bridge, from Mindmatrix, is a unified platform built to engage and enable your channel partners, alliances, and internal teams. Bridge can simplify your sales ecosystem with PRM, partner marketing, and partner and direct sales enablement offered in a single user interface.
It's best for partner programs that need a full-functioned PRM and/or marketing automation platform that is highly customizable and integrated into their other technology to produce a single-pane of glass view of their partner ecosystem.
Features
Bridge is a fully featured PRM and partner marketing automation platform.
PRM features include, but are not limited to, partner recruitment and training, lead routing, incentives & rewards, co-branded assets, LMS, and persona-based partner portal. They have over a dozen partner marketing features including webinar integration, email, social media, lead gen and management, and more. Plus a dozen more sales enablement features.
According to the Forrester’s Wave, Mindmatrix was one of only three PRMs that had the entire list of features they were evaluating.
Pricing
Mindmatrix's pricing is based on active partners with an unlimited user model and is built to scale for any size partner program. Pricing typically starts around $1500 per month. Keep in mind, their features are built in modules so you can take on modules as needed to avoid paying for things you won’t use or don’t need. They offer a free proof of concept (POC).
How does Partner Fleet fit with your PRM?
Whether you use your PRM to generate partner sourced leads, automate partner onboarding and payouts, and/or increase the performance of your partners, it’s largely a partner management and enablement tool.
Partner Fleet is a marketplace tool. With your own marketplace built using Partner Fleet, you can generate leads from your partnerships, drive customers to solutions partners, increase integration adoption (and therefore customer stickiness), and have a powerful co-marketing resource.
We recommend using a PRM alongside a marketplace tool like Partner Fleet to complete your partner tech stack and drive the most revenue possible.
Take the next step
Although Partner Fleet isn’t a PRM, our team has decades of experience working in partnerships. We are happy to get on a consultation to help you build the right partner tech stack for your business. Book a consultation now.
Prefer reading to talking? Learn more from our blog post PRM, Account Mapping, or Marketplace? How to decide where to start with partnership tech.
