Industries CPQ vs Salesforce CPQ: Understanding the Difference

Industries CPQ vs Salesforce CPQ: Key Differences Explained

Salesforce provides two CPQ solutions Industries CPQ (formerly Vlocity CPQ) and Salesforce CPQ (formerly SteelBrick) each built for distinct business needs. While both support pricing and quoting, they serve very different sales complexity levels.

Origins at a Glance

Industries CPQ (Vlocity CPQ) was founded in 2014 to deliver industry-specific CRM solutions for highly complex sectors like telecom, insurance, healthcare, energy, and utilities. Salesforce acquired Vlocity in 2020 and rebranded it as Salesforce Industries, making it a core part of its vertical cloud strategy.

Salesforce CPQ (SteelBrick) was founded in 2009 with a focus on simplifying the CPQ process for sales teams. Salesforce acquired it in 2015/2016 and positioned it as a Sales Cloud add-on for faster and more accurate quoting.

Core Focus

Industries CPQ is designed for complex, industry-driven sales models. It supports deep product hierarchies, complex rules, long order lifecycles, and industry-specific data models. It is part of an end-to-end industry solution, not just a quoting tool.

Salesforce CPQ targets standard sales organizations, helping teams create quotes faster with accurate pricing, discounts, and configurations. It excels in improving sales efficiency for typical B2B use cases.

Functional Scope

Industries CPQ includes advanced capabilities such as MACDs, Order Management, Contract Lifecycle Management, OmniStudio, document generation, and rich APIs—making it ideal for regulated and complex industries.

Salesforce CPQ focuses on core CPQ features like product configuration, contract amendments, document generation, and basic APIs, prioritizing speed and simplicity.

Integration Approach

Industries CPQ is deeply integrated into Salesforce as part of Salesforce Industries, providing vertical-specific data models and guided processes.

Salesforce CPQ integrates seamlessly with Sales Cloud, working with standard Salesforce objects without significantly altering the core data model.

Choosing the Right CPQ

Choose Industries CPQ if you deal with complex products, long lifecycles, and industry-specific processes.

Choose Salesforce CPQ if your goal is quick implementation, standard quoting, and improved sales productivity.