How to choose CSRD reporting software: a buyer’s guide
What CSRD and ESRS reporting software should do, the questions to ask vendors, typical costs and red flags, and a shortlist of tools ranked by verified reviews.
CSRD reporting software helps you collect sustainability data from across the business, run your double materiality assessment, and publish a report that follows the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and can be assured. The market is crowded and many tools look alike in a demo, so this guide focuses on the things that actually separate them.
Do you need dedicated CSRD software?
After the 2025–26 simplification, CSRD applies to EU groups with more than 1,000 employees and over €450 million turnover, and to large non-EU groups with significant EU business. If that is you, a spreadsheet can work for a first year, but it gets hard to defend once an assurance provider starts asking where each number came from. Dedicated software earns its cost when you have:
- many sites, subsidiaries or countries feeding data
- Scope 3 emissions or supply chain data to collect from others
- an assurance provider who needs an audit trail for each data point
- a requirement to file a digitally tagged (XBRL) report
If you are below the thresholds but your customers ask for ESG data, a lighter tool built around the voluntary VSME standard may be enough.
What good CSRD software does
Double materiality assessment
ESRS asks you to judge both how your business affects people and the environment (impact materiality) and how sustainability issues affect your finances (financial materiality). Good tools guide you through the long list of topics, let you score impacts, risks and opportunities with your own scales, record stakeholder input, and keep the reasoning behind every decision. That record matters: it is one of the first things an assurer reviews.
Data collection with an audit trail
Look for structured data requests to named owners, deadlines and reminders, file attachments as evidence, approval steps, and a full history of who changed what. Ask how the tool handles estimates and how it flags them in the final report.
ESRS coverage and updates
The ESRS are being revised to cut the number of data points. Ask each vendor how quickly they update their data model when the standards change, and whether updates are included in your licence.
Calculations and carbon accounting
Many CSRD tools include greenhouse gas calculations; others integrate with a separate carbon accounting platform. Either can work. What matters is that emissions factors are sourced and versioned, and that Scope 1, 2 and 3 figures flow into the report without re-keying.
Report output and digital tagging
Your sustainability statement sits in the management report and must eventually be tagged in XBRL using the ESRS taxonomy. Check whether the tool produces tagged output itself or hands off to a separate tagging tool.
Questions to ask in every demo
- Show me how an assurer would trace one reported number back to its source evidence.
- How do you handle a group with subsidiaries that report on different timelines?
- Which ESRS updates have you shipped in the last 12 months, and how long did each take?
- Can we reuse the same data for ISSB, GRI or CDP reporting?
- Where is our data hosted, and who can access it?
- What does implementation involve, how long does it take, and what will our team need to do?
- What exactly is included in the price, and what costs extra (users, entities, modules, support)?
What it costs
Pricing is usually an annual subscription based on company size, number of entities or users, and modules. Expect a separate implementation fee for anything beyond a small, single-entity setup. Many providers on ESGListings show a starting price on their profile; for the rest, ask for a written quote that lists every module and user you will need.
Red flags
- The vendor cannot explain how their materiality module records the reasoning behind each decision.
- Emissions factors are a black box with no source or version.
- Every ESRS update is sold as a paid upgrade.
- References are all from pilots, not completed reporting cycles.
CSRD and ESRS reporting software on ESGListings
Code Gaia
AI-assisted ESG data collection and carbon accounting, with links to accounting systems.
EFRAG
Brussels-based body that advises the European Commission on accounting standards and drafts the European Sustainability Reporting Standards.
Carbon Maps
Sustainability platform for food-sector companies covering carbon footprints, life cycle assessments and supplier engagement.
SmartTrackers
Dutch ESG software for setting sustainability goals, tracking footprint data and KPIs, and producing reports and audits.
Carbon Trail
Sustainability software for fashion and retail covering carbon accounting, product LCA and digital product passports.
Tanso
Sustainability software for industrial companies combining carbon accounting with ESG compliance reporting.
Ordered by verified reviews and relevance. Listings are never ranked by payment. See all 33 providers
Software, consultants or both?
Most companies in their first reporting cycle use software and outside help together: a consultant or CSRD readiness adviser to run the double materiality assessment and design the process, and software to collect data and produce the report year after year. If you already use a consultancy, ask which tools they have implemented before; a team that knows the software shortens the project.
Next steps
- Confirm the rules that apply to you with the rules checker.
- Shortlist three or four tools from the CSRD software category and use the compare button to see them side by side.
- Run scripted demos using the questions above, and score each vendor against the same list.
This guide is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Rules change; check the official sources and talk to an adviser before you rely on it.
Related guides
What assurance providers ask for in a sustainability report
The evidence, documentation and controls an assurance provider typically expects to see when reviewing a sustainability report, and how to prepare before they arrive.
How-to guideHow to prepare your first VSME sustainability report
A practical walkthrough for small and mid-sized companies answering customer and bank requests with a VSME-style report: which module, what data, who owns what, and how to avoid over-reporting.
How-to guideDouble materiality assessment: a step-by-step process
A working process for running a double materiality assessment, from scoping and stakeholder input to scoring, sign-off and documentation, with the evidence an auditor will want to see.