Salesforce CPQ has been an exciting product of the cloud company ever since the $360M acquisition of Steelbrick at the tail end of 2015.
But rumors and speculation have been swirling in the ecosystem as to the future of the product, mostly down to a lack of new features and upgrades.
End of Sale
After speaking with a Salesforce spokesperson, Salesforce Ben can reveal that Salesforce CPQ will be entering an “End of Sale” (EOS) phase. It’s important to note that this is not the same as “End of Life” (EOL); it simply means that Salesforce will stop selling the CPQ product.
Current customers of Salesforce CPQ will still be able to use the product with the same level of support from Salesforce. They will also be able to renew their subscription. However, Salesforce will not be selling the product to any new customers.
This has confirmed the suspicions of many in the Salesforce ecosystem, who have long suspected that – due to the lack of updates, as well as a focus on products such as Revenue Cloud – CPQ would, at some point, be put out to pasture. However, the product still has a very large customer base, as well as evangelists within the Salesforce community.
Towards the end of last year, Javier Ramirez investigated the rumors in an opinion post called “Is Salesforce CPQ Really Dying?”. Whilst we can now say with confidence that Salesforce’s CPQ offering is certainly shifting, as the CPQ managed package customer base is still large, Javier was right in his sentiments that it is not obsolete.
A Salesforce spokesperson shared their official stance on the matter:
“Salesforce is evolving its CPQ & Billing offerings. Current Salesforce CPQ & Salesforce Billing customers will continue to receive full access – including customer support – and can renew and add additional licenses. For new customers and existing CPQ and Billing customers who are looking to update their products, we now offer Revenue Cloud Advanced and Revenue Cloud Billing.
“Both products are built on Salesforce’s core platform, giving customers access to a host of capabilities, like a dynamic product catalog, flexible pricing engine, product configurator, contract life cycle management, and a billing engine. This agent-first revenue platform is integrated, API-first composable, and supports any channel and revenue model.”
Revenue Cloud Advanced and Revenue Cloud Billing
Revenue Cloud Advanced is fully built on the core Salesforce platform and can help customers support the end-to-end Quote to Cash lifecycle, encompassing the CPQ and Advanced Approvals functionality, and even CLM.
By transitioning from the managed packages to a native API-first approach for the products, Revenue Cloud can support even the most complex processes and integrations, regardless of a customer’s revenue model. This could be for one-time purchases or consumption-based pricing, for direct sales or other channels, all in one place and ready to be enriched with Agentforce-powered agents across all areas.
As of Spring ‘25, Revenue Cloud Billing complements Revenue Cloud Advanced to create a comprehensive experience in a single revenue platform, which can also fast-track cash flow. From invoice generation to built-in financial accounting capabilities, seamless payment processing, and more, customers are able to maintain a billing strategy that is as flexible as they need it to be.
Source: Salesforce
Final Thoughts
Configure, Price, and Quote solutions are still top of mind for companies of all sizes and across a range of industries. Even with Salesforce CPQ transitioning into its End of Sale state, Salesforce has been heavily investing to ensure that all current functionality (and more) is available in the new Revenue Cloud offerings.
While customers can retain their CPQ implementations and receive full support, as well as renew as they could before (confirmed by Salesforce), Revenue Cloud Advanced and Revenue Cloud Billing propose a robust, on-core alternative that’s ready for scale. This comes without the complexity of heavy custom development and the limitations of managed packages – historically, a real pain-point for a large number of CPQ customers.
What are your thoughts on this matter? Let us know in the comments below!
The Author
Ben McCarthy
Ben is the Founder of Salesforce Ben. He also works as a Non-Exec Director & Advisor for various companies within the Salesforce Ecosystem.
Honestly, with "End of Sale" I would expect a few enterprising folks wanting to get in on this. As long as Salesforce continue to support, there will need to be experts. In fact as long as it is installed, there will need to be experts. Just like the world needs Cobol programmers even today, there may be years that Salesforce customers still need CPQ implementers. And with dwindling resources, those who still have the chops will be able to command a premium.
There is a hefty price difference between the basic CPQ and the new Revenue Cloud models. For smaller companies just wanting the CPQ, and not the rest of Revenue Cloud, it seems like they may be out of options. Or should they get in early, before it disappears off the price book?
Good point. It would be worthwhile for this post to mention this cloud vertical, which has recently seemed to be the focus of sales and professional services. From my experience, I see Industries CPQ being used much more than Salesforce CPQ itself in both new and existing implementations.
Salesforce is not the platform for CPQ or billing. Do yourself a favor and find a proper solution for each that isn’t saddled with a 20+ year old platform limitations.
Ben Thank you for posting this and educating the community. As I mentioned on the original Linkedin post covering this topic, we at Kugamon are having our best day of inbound leads ever. Now we know why business has picked up big time for Kugamon. With Salesforce CPQ (ex Steelbrick) not sold to net new customers, that leaves the Salesforce native CPQ market cleanly segmented: - Kugamon CPQ for SMB / Mid-Market (starts at $50/user month)
- Salesforce RLM / RCA for the Enterprise (starts at $200/user month)
Wondering if the SF spokesperson indicated when they will actually trust their CPQ/RCA enough to use it themselves? Customers & prospects should know they don't use either of their CPQ or RCA products and never have.
Comments: