6 Best Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Software

PRM software is a type of B2B business tool that helps companies manage and optimize their partner relationships. The best PRM software usually features partner management, lead distribution and management, deal registration, and incentives and rewards management features for optimal outcomes. In this guide, we’ve reviewed the best PRM software solutions to make it easier for you to choose the right tool for your business.

Here are the six best PRM software options for managed service providers (MSPs):

• Impartner: Best overall PRM platform for features and integrations
• Salesforce PRM: Best PRM software for extensive customization
• Allbound: Best PRM software option for robust partner portals
• Channeltivity: Best tool for pricing flexibility and transparency
• PartnerStack: Best PRM platform for a user-friendly interface
• ZiftONE: Best PRM optoin for channel marketing automations

Some PRM tools posted great scores across multiple categories, but our choice for the best overall PRM software is Impartner. Impartner received the highest total across all our criteria, particularly excelling in its core features, integration capabilities, and overall compatibility. Continue reading to see what each option offers across primary use cases, pricing, and features, or jump down to see how we evaluated each platform.

Note: All per-user prices are based on a one-year commitment unless otherwise noted.

Top PRM software comparison

Here’s a comparison of the top six PRM solutions across features likely to matter most to users, including content management, deal registration, collaboration tools, channel marketing, and pricing.

Product	Content Management	Deal Registration	Collaboration Tools	Channel Marketing	Pricing
Impartner PRM	✔	✔	✔	✔	Custom
Salesforce PRM	✔	✔	✔	✔	$25/user/month
Allbound	✔	✔	—	✔	Custom
Channeltivity	✔	✔	—	✔	$1,199/month
PartnerStack	✔	✔	—	✔	Custom
Zift Solutions	✔	✔	—	✔	Custom

✔=Yes —= Limited

Impartner

Best overall for features and integrations

Overall rating: 4.3/5

• Core features: 5/5
• Cost: 2.7/5
• Integration & compatibility: 5/5
• Ease of use: 3.6/5
• Customer support: 4.7/5
• Customization: 4.9/5

Impartner, our choice for the best overall PRM software, is a feature-rich solution for helping you optimize your channel’s performance through onboarding, training, rewards management, deal registration, content management, and more. The platform is highly integrable and compatible with CRMs, offers APIs, and can be deployed on multiple platforms. It also offers highly-rated customer support through a range of methods like live chat, phone, and email.

Pros	Cons
Feature-rich software	No public pricing information
Easy onboarding	Not the easiest to use or set up
Automated rewards program	Has some additional hidden costs

Impartner pricing

• Contact for quote: Emerge, Ignite, Pro, and Enterprise plans available
• Free demo: Available

Impartner key features

• Pipeline management: Sync data to your CRM to resolve channel conflicts.
• Training and certification management: Digitally train and empower your partners.
• Asset library: Easily provide all sales and marketing materials for your partners.
• Co-branded collateral: Empower partners to market your content with their logo.

Although Impartner is our top pick, it’s not the easiest tool to set up on this list. Should you want a tool with a hassle-free setup process, consider PartnerStack.

Salesforce PRM

Best for extensive customization

Overall rating: 4.2/5

• Core features: 4.8/5
• Cost: 3.8/5
• Integration & compatibility: 4.2/5
• Ease of use: 3.6/5
• Customer support: 4.2/5
• Customization: 5/5

Salesforce PRM is a scalable and customizable platform that enables businesses to tailor their channel partner programs, manage their entire partner lifecycle, and boost channel productivity and visibility. This customizability allows you to set up the platform to your specific partner management needs. With features like Experience Builder and Channel Analytics, you can create personalized experiences for your partners and track ROI in real time. 

Pros	Cons
Highly scalable	Pricey plans
Strong reporting & analytics	Complex to use
Extensive third-party integrations	Various additional hidden costs

Salesforce PRM pricing

• Partner relationship management: $10 per login or $25 per user, per month; available for Sales Cloud users of Enterprise plan and above
• External apps: $35 per user, per month
• ECI & sales engagement: $75 per user, per month
• Free trial: Contact for length
• Free demo: Available

Salesforce PRM key features

• Experience builder: Swiftly create highly personalized partner portals for your partners.
• Marketing automation: Drive partners’ demand with prebuilt solutions like journeys.
• Sales automation: Automate workflows like lead distribution and deal registration.
• Channel analytics: Keep track of partner performance and channel ROI in real time.

However, the platform can be on the expensive side and may not be the simplest PRM software to use. If you find it to be too complex, consider ZiftONE for not only its ease of use but also its customizability.

Allbound

Best for robust partner portals

Overall rating: 4.1/5

• Core features: 4.4/5
• Cost: 3.2/5
• Integration & compatibility: 4.5/5
• Ease of use: 4.4/5
• Customer support: 3.5/5
• Customization: 4.7/5

Allbound is a platform that streamlines your whole partner lifecycle, from onboarding to deal registration, through its reliable and expansive partner portals. Its wide-ranging portals include features like in-portal messaging, multi-step learning tracks to direct learning, and gamification modules that incentivize partner engagement. Allbound also features automated reminders to direct partners to content and portal features based on their history, tiers, and groupings.

Pros	Cons
Robust partner portals	Limited third-party integrations
Intuitive design	No public pricing information
Uses gamification features	No 24/7 live chat

Allbound pricing

• Contact for quote: No extra charge for standard integrations
• Free demo: Available

Allbound key features

• Robust partner portals: Offer sophisticated portals to empower your partners.
• Incentives dashboard: Show partner incentives on an easy-to-use dashboard.
• Automation: Automate interactions with partners without much manual involvement.
• Co-branding: Provide partners with access to pre-approved co-branded materials.

However, Allbound offers rather basic customer support. If customer support is crucial to your PRM selection process, consider Impartner, which offers 24/7 technical support.

Channeltivity

Best for pricing flexibility & transparency

Overall rating: 4/5

• Core features: 4.4/5
• Cost: 3.9/5
• Integration & compatibility: 3.3/5
• Ease of use: 4.3/5
• Customer support: 3.5/5
• Customization: 4.8/5

Channeltivity is a modular PRM solution that simplifies channel management for tech companies by allowing organizations to select features based on their specific needs, making it easy to launch and scale quickly. Its pricing shows this flexibility, as the company lists its main modules and a variety of add-ons with its prices. This modularity allows organizations to pay for what they need and customize their PRM software according to their channel program requirements.

Pros	Cons
Extensive resource library	Basic workflow automation
Transparent pricing	Simple reporting features
Highly customizable dashboards	Limited third-party integrations

Channeltivity pricing

• Standard Edition: $1,599 per month
• HubSpot Edition: $1,899 per month
• Salesforce Edition: $1,899 per month
• To-Partner Email Marketing: $499 per month
• Training and Certification: $499 per month
• Distributor Management: $499 per month
• MDF Management: $399 per month
• Joint Business Planning: $199 per month
• Multi-Language and Automatic Translation: $299 per month
• Free demo: Available

Channeltivity key features

• Plug & play integrations: Integrate your PRM with existing systems like HubSpot.
• Deal registration: Manage and automate the deal registration approval process.
• MDF management: Streamline the allocation of marketing funds to your partners.
• Training & certification: Use training modules to train and certify your partners.

Even though Channeltivity is transparently priced, it only offers a demo and no free trial option. Should you fancy a free trial before you commit to a tool but still crave transparent pricing information, consider Salesforce PRM.

PartnerStack

Best for a user-friendly interface

Overall rating: 3.9/5

• Core features: 4.4/5
• Cost: 3.2/5
• Integration & compatibility: 4/5
• Ease of use: 4.6/5
• Customer support: 4.2/5
• Customization: 2.7/5

PartnerStack is a PRM platform with a goal to increase revenue in half the time and cost by automating and scaling entire partner ecosystems. It does this through a user-friendly interface that makes it easier to discover and invite partners. Its two-way sync with your existing CRM reduces manual data entry and the chances of making errors. You can also run multiple partner programs simultaneously without having to switch between different modules or platforms.

Pros	Cons
Intuitive interface	Limited customization options
Detailed reporting & analytics	Only cloud-based
Highly scalable	Limited CRM integrations

PartnerStack pricing

• Contact for quote: Several pricing plans available
• Free demo: Available

PartnerStack key features

• Automated onboarding: Create custom onboarding journeys for different partners.
• Reporting & analytics: Access robust reporting on revenue, rewards, and more.
• Deal registration: Register deals that qualify directly in your dashboard.
• Partner recruitment: Promote your program to thousands of active partners.

However, PartnerStack’s customization capabilities are insufficient for many business use cases and requirements. You should keep Channeltivity in mind if customizability is a priority for your team.

ZiftONE

Best for channel marketing automations

Overall rating: 3.8/5

• Core features: 4.5/5
• Cost: 2.7/5
• Integration & compatibility: 3.3/5
• Ease of use: 4.4/5
• Customer support: 3.4/5
• Customization: 4.8/5

ZiftONE is a comprehensive platform designed to streamline channel marketing activities by consolidating all your channel data in one centralized pipeline. Users don’t have to toggle between multiple systems to gather data or execute campaigns since ZiftONE brings it all under one roof. This approach makes it easy to set up automated marketing campaigns that can be syndicated across various channels with a few clicks, ultimately simplifying channel operations.

Pros	Cons
Strong data protection focus	3-year pricing plan option
Robust marketing automations	Limited CRM integrations
Highly customizable partner portal	Limited collaboration features

ZiftONE pricing

• Contact for quote: Four different pricing plans available, plus three-year fixed pricing
• Free demo: Available

ZiftONE key features

• Marketing automation: Automate all your marketing materials in one place.
• Deal Lifecycle management: Use tools to effectively manage the lifecycle of deals.
• Learning management: Built-in system to help partners gain product familiarity.
• Co-branded content: Leverage co-branded content for your marketing activities.

Despite its advantages, ZiftONE’s integration and compatibility features have room to improve. For a more integrable option that provides channel marketing tools and automates the whole partner journey, check out Impartner.

Top 4 PRM software features

The top PRM software tools for MSPs include key features like the following:

• Partner management: Get a complete view of all partner activities, including sales, marketing, and performance metrics, all from a single dashboard.
• Lead distribution & management: Automate lead allocation to your partners based on predefined criteria and provide tracking tools to monitor lead conversion rates.
• Deal registration: Allow your partners to register new deals and prevent channel conflict. This also allows you to improve visibility into the sales pipeline.
• Incentive & rewards management: Manage and automate incentive programs, including commissions and rebates, to encourage partners to perform better.

How we evaluated the best PRM software

To identify the best PRM software, we evaluated ten software options against six weighted scoring categories, where each category could earn a total of five points. The tool that received the highest score out of five became the winner in the category. We then determined primary use cases for the six top-scoring software out of the ten evaluated. Our top pick was the tool that earned the highest average score across the six categories.

Evaluation criteria

The core features of a PRM software solution heavily determine its effectiveness for both general and specific business use cases, so we gave core features the greatest weight in our scoring system. Since software should be cost-effective to make it possible for teams of all sizes to benefit, cost was next on our list, tied with the integration and compatibility criterion. To complete our evaluation, we also examined ease of use, customer support, and customization.

• Core features (25%): We evaluated each software solution’s core PRM features, including content management, channel marketing, and performance tracking and analytics.
  • Criterion winner: Impartner
• Cost (20%): Here we compared whether the tools offered free trials and demos, whether they had additional costs or hidden fees, and whether their pricing was transparently listed.
  • Criterion winner: Channeltivity
• Integration & compatibility (20%): We assessed the variety and ease of integration opportunities as well as each platform’s compatibility with relevant third-party platforms, plus how/if the tools allow users to create partner portals.
  • Criterion winner: Impartner
• Ease of use (15%): We mainly gauged each tool’s reception from verified users through their ratings on TrustRadius, Capterra, and G2.
  • Criterion winner: PartnerStack
• Customer support (10%): Our evaluation in this category was based on the support options each platform offered, availability, and how support was rated on G2 and Capterra.
  • Criterion winner: Impartner
• Customization (10%): Finally, we looked at how customizable each software solution was across portals, reporting, dashboards, UI, and role and access.
  • Criterion winner: Salesforce PRM

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What is partner relationship management (PRM) software & why is it important?

PRM software is a specialized platform that helps companies manage and optimize their relationships with channel partners. It simplifies many aspects of the partner lifecycle, including onboarding, training, deal registration, performance tracking, and collaboration. It’s crucial for organizations that rely on a network of partners for sales, distribution, or service delivery, as it enables them to scale their operations efficiently and maintain strong, profitable relationships.

What benefits can organizations gain from using PRM software?

Organizations can reap better communication, streamlined workflows, and enhanced partner engagement from PRM platforms. The software provides tools for content management, deal registration, collaboration, analytics, and more. This leads to better alignment between the organization and its partners, more efficient processes, and the potential for increased revenue through the channel.

Can PRM software handle complex partner networks & diverse collaboration needs?

Modern PRM software is designed to handle complex partner ecosystems and diverse collaboration needs. With features like customizable branding, role-based access, and multi-platform compatibility, PRM software is adaptable to many business models and partnership structures. This makes it flexible for organizations looking to manage multiple types of partnerships.

Bottom Line: Best PRM software

The right PRM software will improve your MSP’s ability to manage and grow its channel partnerships. We’ve highlighted how each tool performs across various criteria to make your choice that much easier and show that whether you prioritize core features, cost, or customization, there’s an option for your needs. For more on PRM, check out our PRM definition article, or read our top MSP software article if you need broader MSP software capabilities.