Closing a B2B deal in 2024 rarely comes down to a single number on a single line. Modern SaaS pricing mixes seats, usage tiers, add-ons, discounts, and multi-year terms, and every one of those moving parts is a chance to slow a deal down or quote it wrong. That is the gap CPQ software fills. By turning a tangle of pricing rules into a fast, accurate, repeatable quote, the right tool shortens sales cycles and protects margins. This guide walks through what CPQ does, what to look for, and the platforms worth shortlisting this year.
What is CPQ software?
CPQ stands for configure, price, quote. It is the layer of your sales stack that lets a rep, or, increasingly, the buyer, assemble the right combination of products, apply the correct pricing and discounts, and generate a clean, professional quote without leaving the system or waiting on a spreadsheet.
For SaaS companies in particular, CPQ has become essential. Subscription and usage-based models introduce pricing complexity that traditional quoting tools were never built to handle: proration, ramped pricing, usage tiers, and renewals that all need to stay consistent from the first quote through to billing. Good CPQ software keeps that logic in one place, so quotes are accurate, on-brand, and quick to produce.
The payoff shows up in three places. Speed, because reps stop rebuilding spreadsheets for every deal. Accuracy, because pricing and discount rules are enforced rather than remembered. And consistency, because every quote that leaves the building reflects the same approved logic, no matter who sent it. As deal structures grow more intricate, those three benefits compound.
What to look for
No two sales teams price the same way, but a strong CPQ platform tends to cover the same core ground:
- Configuration. The ability to bundle products, enforce dependencies and rules, and prevent reps from quoting invalid combinations.
- Flexible and usage-based pricing. Support for tiered, volume, ramped, and consumption-based pricing, not just flat per-seat rates.
- Approval workflows. Guardrails that route non-standard discounts or terms to the right approver automatically.
- Quote-to-cash and billing. A clean handoff from accepted quote to invoice and subscription management, ideally without re-keying data.
- CRM integration. Tight, native connection to your CRM so opportunities, accounts, and quotes stay in sync.
- E-signature and payments. The ability to capture a signature and even payment inside the quote itself.
- Buyer-friendly checkout. A quoting and acceptance experience that feels easy for the customer, not just the rep.
- Reporting. Visibility into quote volume, discounting trends, win rates, and where deals stall.
With that checklist in mind, here are the platforms worth knowing in 2024.
Cacheflow
Cacheflow is built specifically for SaaS sales, with a focus on the path from quote to close. Its standout feature is a buyer-friendly digital checkout that lets customers review, accept, and pay for a subscription in one streamlined flow. It also handles subscription and billing logic natively, which removes much of the manual reconciliation that trips up growing SaaS teams, and it is designed for fast implementation rather than a months-long rollout.
Best for: SaaS companies that want a quick-to-deploy, buyer-centric quote-to-cash experience.
Salesforce CPQ
Salesforce CPQ is the enterprise-grade option, built natively on the Salesforce platform. Its strength is depth: extensive customization, sophisticated product and pricing rules, and a single source of truth for teams already invested in Salesforce CRM. That power comes with a steeper learning curve and a heavier configuration effort, so it tends to suit larger organizations with the resources to administer it.
Best for: Enterprises standardized on Salesforce that need deep customization.
HubSpot CPQ
HubSpot CPQ emphasizes ease of use and lives natively inside HubSpot’s Smart CRM. It is approachable for teams that want to generate quotes quickly without a long onboarding, and it supports e-signature and payment collection through a Stripe integration. For organizations already running their sales and marketing in HubSpot, it keeps quoting in the same familiar environment.
Best for: HubSpot CRM users who want simple, fast quoting.
DealHub CPQ
DealHub CPQ leans into guided selling, walking reps through configuration and pricing so quotes stay accurate and consistent. Its DealRoom feature gives buyers a shared, branded space to review proposals and engage with the deal, while real-time deal data helps sellers understand buyer interest and momentum.
Best for: Teams that want guided selling and an interactive buyer experience.
Conga CPQ
Conga CPQ, formerly known as Apttus, is aimed at complex product configurations and sophisticated pricing. Its configuration engine handles large catalogs and intricate rule sets, and its pricing capabilities suit businesses with elaborate discounting and quoting structures. It is a robust, established option for organizations whose products do not fit neat templates.
Best for: Companies with highly complex products and pricing logic.
PandaDoc CPQ
PandaDoc takes a document-centric approach to quoting, building on its roots in proposals and contracts. Reps assemble quotes from reusable templates and content blocks, which helps standardize output and shorten sales cycles. For teams whose quoting is closely tied to proposals and signed documents, that document-first workflow is a natural fit.
Best for: Teams that want template-driven, document-centric quoting.
Oracle CPQ
Oracle CPQ targets large enterprises with complex pricing and broad product portfolios. Its strength is handling scale and intricacy, and it integrates with Oracle’s wider ERP and back-office systems to keep quoting connected to fulfillment and finance. Like other enterprise platforms, it rewards organizations that have the resources to configure and maintain it.
Best for: Large enterprises that need ERP integration and complex pricing at scale.
How to choose
There is no universal winner here. The best CPQ tool is the one that fits how your business actually sells. Start with your CRM, staying native to Salesforce or HubSpot can save significant integration effort. Then weigh your pricing model: subscription and usage-based SaaS has very different needs from one-time enterprise hardware deals. Finally, consider your sales motion and deal complexity. A self-serve, buyer-led checkout suits some teams; a heavily configured, approval-gated process suits others.
Map those factors against the checklist above, shortlist two or three tools, and run them against a few real deals before committing. Pay attention to implementation time and the day-to-day experience for the rep, not just the feature list, a powerful tool nobody adopts is worse than a simpler one your team actually uses. The right choice is less about which platform is “best” in the abstract and more about which one closes your deals fastest with the least friction.
Originally published on Cacheflow ↗
