Compare vendors side by side

What it is

The Compare modal puts up to four vendors in columns, side by side, so you can read the same facts about each one in a single view instead of clicking between four separate vendor cards. It is the tool for the moment you are deciding whether to keep a vendor, replace it, or add a new one to a gap in your stack.

Verinode does not tell you which column to pick. It lays out the cost, the score, the ratings, and the contract facts it already has on file, and you decide. If you want a human hand on the sourcing side, the modal also hands the comparison straight to Verinode Advisory.

Comparing vendors from different categories works mechanically (nothing stops you from putting a claims-software vendor next to a drying-equipment rental company), but the score and benchmark rows are only meaningful when you are comparing vendors inside the same category. Use it across categories only to eyeball relative spend, not to judge one as "better" than the other.

Where to find it

There is no separate Comparisons page in the sidebar. Compare lives inside Vendors (iq.verinode.ai/vendors), reached from the Operations group in the sidebar. If you type /comparisons directly, Verinode redirects you straight to Vendors, because comparing is a capability embedded in Vendors (and, the same way, in Jobs and Carriers), not a standalone destination.

There are two ways to open it, and they seed the modal differently.

1. 1From the Stack tab. Open Vendors, land on the Stack tab (the tab showing your full vendor list, cards or table view). Check the small square checkbox on up to four vendor cards or table rows. A pill reading "Compare N · max 4" appears pinned near the bottom of the screen, with a Clear button beside it. Click the pill to open the modal seeded with exactly the vendors you checked.
2. 2From a single vendor's detail card. Click into any vendor from the Stack tab to open its detail card, then click Compare in the row of actions at the top (next to Export PDF and Archive). This opens the modal already seeded with that one vendor, plus up to two catalog alternatives Verinode's research has already surfaced for its category.

The comparison grid

Once at least one vendor is in the comparison, the modal shows a grid with a narrow label column on the left and one column per vendor on the right, up to four. The header reads "Compare" with an "N of 4" counter in the top right once at least one column is filled.

Each vendor's column header shows:

• A 44px logo, centered.
• A small eyebrow pill above the name: Your stack in copper if the vendor came from your own relationships, or Alternative in gray if it is a catalog vendor you do not yet have a relationship with.
• The vendor name.
• A small X in the corner to remove that column from the comparison. Removing a column does not delete anything from your stack, it only takes it out of this view.

The metric stack

Below the header row, eight metric rows run down every column. A dash in any cell means Verinode does not have that fact for that vendor yet, not that the value is zero.

| Row | What it shows | |---|---| | Category | The vendor's category (Title Case, e.g. "Water Mitigation"). Catalog alternative columns show a dash here, since the catalog record does not carry its own category label. It is implicitly the same category as the vendor you are comparing it against. | | Verinode Score | The 1 to 10 research score, to one decimal, with its label (Strong, Solid, Mixed, or Weak) beside it. This is Verinode's independent research read on the vendor, drawn from the same research database that scores every vendor in the category, not your satisfaction rating and not a rating from other operators. | | Monthly cost | For a vendor in your stack, your own current monthly amount. For a catalog alternative, this is the peer median: what other operators using that vendor typically pay, not a quoted list price. Treat it as a ballpark, not a quote. | | Cost / seat | Monthly cost divided by seat count, only shown when both numbers are on file. Catalog alternatives always show a dash here, because Verinode does not have a seat count for a vendor you have no relationship with. | | My rating | Your own star rating for that vendor, out of 5. Only populated for vendors in your stack; always a dash for catalog alternatives. | | Team rating | The average satisfaction score from your own team's survey responses on that vendor, out of 5, to one decimal. This is your team's collective take, gathered through Verinode's QuickSurvey invites, not a rating from other operators. Catalog alternatives always show a dash. | | Renewal | The contract renewal date, formatted like "Aug 15, '26." Only shown for vendors in your stack. | | Switchability | Your own assessment of how locked in you are: Locked, Constrained, Sticky, or Flexible. Only shown for vendors in your stack; catalog alternatives always show a dash, since switchability describes a relationship you have, not a vendor you are considering. |

Adding and removing columns

If you open Compare with nothing seeded (or you remove every column), the modal shows a picker instead of the grid, split into up to two groups:

• From your stack. Vendors from your active relationships that are not already in the comparison. Only active vendors are offered, and only up to twelve show as chips at a time.
• Catalog alternatives. Vendors from the research catalog that are not already in the comparison, again up to twelve chips.

Click any chip, logo and name, to add that vendor as a new column. As covered above, which group is populated depends on which entry point you opened Compare from: the Stack tab only ever hands you "From your stack" candidates, the vendor detail card only ever hands you "Catalog alternatives" candidates for that vendor's category.

Once you have at least one column and are under the four-column cap, a collapsed row reading "+ Add another vendor to compare" sits below the grid. Click it to expand the same picker inline and keep adding. Once you hit four columns, that row disappears entirely, since there is no fifth column to fill.

To remove a vendor, click the X in the top-right corner of its column header. There is no bulk multi-select from inside the modal itself, columns come in one at a time (the Stack tab's checkbox multi-select is the way to seed several at once before you open the modal).

Empty states

• Nothing to compare yet, and nothing available to add. If you open the picker and both "From your stack" and "Catalog alternatives" are empty, it reads: "Nothing available to compare yet."
• Comparison full. At four columns, the "+ Add another vendor to compare" row is gone. Remove a column first to make room for another.

Hand it to Verinode Advisory

Once you have at least one vendor in the comparison, a callout appears below the grid:

Verinode Advisory Source new vendors for me. Hand the comparison to Verinode Advisory. We'll shortlist three to five vendors against your stack profile, run the outreach, and bring quotes back with peer-grounded negotiation notes.

Clicking Get quotes via Advisory → opens a short in-app request form pre-filled with the names of every vendor currently in your comparison. Submitting it creates a support ticket inside Verinode and notifies the Advisory team, so you stay in the product instead of jumping out to a separate site. This is a human-team handoff, not an automated agent action, and it does not spend any of your IU balance.

When to use it

• Renewal is coming up and you want a clean side-by-side before you decide. Check the vendor plus whatever else is competing for the same job, open Compare, and read cost, score, and switchability in one place instead of tab-hopping.
• You are eyeing a gap in your stack. Open the vendor in that category with the strongest Verinode Score, click Compare, and its top catalog alternatives are already sitting in the columns next to it.
• A teammate flags a vendor as expensive or underperforming. Pull it up next to two or three others in the same category and let the cost-per-seat and Team rating rows do the talking.
• You are ready to negotiate or source something new and would rather not run the outreach yourself. Build the comparison, then hand it to Advisory.

Compare is a reading tool, not a decision-maker. It surfaces what Verinode already knows about each vendor so the call, keep, replace, or add, is yours.

Related reading

• How benchmarks work
• Reading a benchmark
• Benchmarks overview
• Connecting your data
• Understanding your margin

Data sources