If you’ve been evaluating Salesforce CPQ for your growing business, you may have noticed something: Salesforce really doesn’t want to sell it to you anymore.
CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) is being phased out in favor of Revenue Cloud—Salesforce’s more comprehensive (and significantly more expensive) solution for quote-to-cash operations. For enterprise companies with complex billing needs and deep pockets, Revenue Cloud might make sense.
For growth-stage startups? It’s often overkill. And now that the “simpler” option is going away, a lot of companies are stuck wondering what to do.
Here’s the honest breakdown.
What’s Actually Happening
Salesforce has been steering customers toward Revenue Cloud for a while now. CPQ isn’t disappearing overnight—existing customers can keep using it—but new implementations are increasingly being pushed toward the bigger platform. The message is clear: CPQ’s days are numbered.
Revenue Cloud combines CPQ functionality with subscription management, billing, and revenue recognition into one (expensive) package. If you’re a large enterprise with complex multi-year contracts, usage-based billing, and ASC 606 compliance requirements, it’s genuinely powerful.
If you’re a $10M startup that just needs to get accurate quotes out the door faster? You’re now paying for a cruise ship when you needed a speedboat.
The Real Question: Did You Need CPQ in the First Place?
Here’s what I’ve learned from years of helping growth-stage companies with their quoting processes: most of them didn’t need CPQ to begin with.
CPQ solves specific problems:
- Highly complex product configurations with dependencies
- Pricing rules that vary by hundreds of factors
- Approval workflows with many layers
- Bundles with intricate component relationships
If that’s you, then yes—you need a robust CPQ solution (and Revenue Cloud might be worth evaluating despite the cost).
But most growing companies have simpler needs:
- A handful of products or packages
- Straightforward pricing with occasional discounts
- Basic approval for deals above a certain threshold
- Professional-looking quotes that don’t require copying and pasting from spreadsheets
For that? You have options.
Your Options Now
Option 1: Native Salesforce Functionality + Smart Automation
Salesforce’s standard Quote and Quote Line Item objects, combined with Flow automation, can handle more than most people realize. You can:
- Auto-populate quotes from Opportunities
- Apply pricing rules and discount logic
- Route approvals based on deal size or discount percentage
- Generate professional PDF quotes
I’ve built quote-to-cash processes for clients that handle complex promotional logic, loyalty credits, and multi-tier approvals—all without CPQ licensing. The key is good data architecture and thoughtful automation design.
Best for: Companies with moderate complexity who want to avoid per-user licensing costs
Option 2: Industry-Specific or Third-Party CPQ Tools
Depending on your industry, there may be purpose-built tools that handle quoting better than Salesforce’s native options—at a fraction of Revenue Cloud’s cost.
For example, I’ve helped telecom resellers implement industry-specific packages that understand their unique pricing models (one-time + recurring, partner margins, etc.) without forcing them into a generic enterprise solution.
Best for: Companies in industries with specialized quoting needs (telecom, manufacturing, distribution)
Option 3: AI-Assisted Custom Development
This is the option that didn’t exist two years ago—and it’s changing the math for a lot of companies.
With AI-assisted development tools (including Salesforce’s own Agentforce capabilities), building custom quoting interfaces and logic has become dramatically faster and cheaper. I recently helped a company replace an expensive external tool with a custom-built solution in about two weeks—something that would have taken months and cost six figures with traditional development.
The result? A quoting system that does exactly what they need, integrates perfectly with their Salesforce data model, and costs nothing beyond the initial build.
Best for: Companies with specific requirements that don’t fit neatly into packaged solutions
Option 4: Revenue Cloud (Yes, Sometimes It’s the Right Call)
If you have genuine enterprise complexity—usage-based billing, revenue recognition requirements, multi-element arrangements, complex subscription modifications—Revenue Cloud might be worth the investment.
But go in with eyes open:
- Licensing costs are substantial (and per-user)
- Implementation is complex and time-consuming
- You’ll need ongoing expertise to maintain it
- The ROI calculation needs to account for what you’re actually using
Best for: Companies with genuine enterprise billing complexity and budget to match
How to Decide
Ask yourself these questions:
- How complex is your product catalog, really? If you have fewer than 50 SKUs and straightforward pricing, you probably don’t need enterprise CPQ.
- What’s actually slowing down your quoting process? Is it the technology, or is it unclear pricing decisions and slow approvals? (Technology can’t fix a process problem.)
- What’s your total cost of ownership tolerance? Factor in licensing, implementation, training, and ongoing administration. Sometimes the “expensive” custom solution is cheaper over three years.
- How fast are your needs evolving? If your pricing model changes quarterly, you want something flexible. Heavily configured packaged solutions can become rigid.
The Bottom Line
Salesforce discontinuing CPQ is pushing a lot of companies toward Revenue Cloud—and many of them don’t need it. Before you sign up for an enterprise solution (and enterprise pricing), take a hard look at whether your actual needs match the tool’s capabilities.
Sometimes the best CPQ is no CPQ at all. Just smart architecture, thoughtful automation, and a system designed around how your business actually works.