Currently, I am researching various billing and CPQ (Configure-Price-Quote) tools on the market for a subscription and usage-based billing business model. Our company uses Salesforce as our CRM system and has customized it to handle invoicing directly through Salesforce. However, the current approach has shown bottlenecks in business expansion, so I plan to introduce a new set of tools to replace the existing solution while advancing the Salesforce "reconstruction".

Frankly speaking, the range of vendors on the market is quite broad, which makes me feel somewhat overwhelmed during the selection process. Therefore, I would greatly appreciate recommendations from actual users. So far, I have had initial contact with Zuora, but my overall impression is quite mixed, and I have not yet formed a clear preference.

Here, I would like to ask friends in the community with relevant experience: has any team actually used Apptus, Track, or Steelbrick (now Salesforce CPQ)? If convenient, could you share your experiences from the following aspects:

  • Cost: including licensing fees, implementation costs, and ongoing maintenance costs, etc.;
  • Feature set: whether it fully supports core needs such as subscription billing, usage-based billing, discounts, and price adjustments;
  • Implementation complexity: the difficulty of integration with Salesforce, configuration workload, and the impact on existing customizations during migration;
  • Customer service: the vendor's support response speed, problem-solving efficiency, and overall service experience.

Thank you in advance for your valuable suggestions and experience sharing!