GTM AI Index
Index › Revenue operations › CPQ › Small business › September 2026 Edition

CPQ for small business buyers

Asked as “CPQ software”, and as “configure, price, quote tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 52 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
PandaDoc
Clear leader
54% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 73 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessPandaDoc54%Clear leaderThis pageMid-marketDealHub62%ConsensusStanding →EnterpriseSalesforce CPQ31%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01PandaDoc54%0%64endorsed leader
02QuoteWerks13%0%47accepted challenger
03DealHub10%9%33accepted challenger
04HubSpot Commerce Hub6%0%39accepted challenger
05Proposify2%0%21accepted challenger
06Kickflip2%7%14accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Oracle CPQ0%93%27criticized challenger
08SAP CPQ0%88%17criticized challenger
10Salesforce CPQ0%84%45criticized challenger
07Conga CPQ0%60%10criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
DealHub vs PandaDocDealHub vs QuoteWerksPandaDoc vs QuoteWerks

One product takes 54% of first choices here, so the chart would put nine markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Four products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash and GLM 4.7 FlashX changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Salesforce CPQ
84%
38 of 45 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 22 hard negative
“Salesforce CPQ runs 6+ weeks with a certified implementation partner and usually adds five figures to the total cost ... a small team rarely has the admin hours to keep it running.” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Oracle CPQ
93%
25 of 27 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 18 hard negative
“**Why to avoid:** ... For an SMB using lightweight tools like QuickBooks, Xero, or HubSpot, Oracle CPQ is absolute overkill.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
SAP CPQ
88%
15 of 17 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 12 hard negative
“**Why to avoid:** **Implementation Gridlock:** Implementation is a massive undertaking that requires specialized SAP consultants.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Conga CPQ
60%
6 of 10 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“the biggest trap you can fall into is buying an enterprise-grade CPQ (like Salesforce CPQ, SAP, or Conga)” Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

22 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 191 links across 76 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

pandadoc.com
vendor site · PandaDoc9 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
gokickflip.com
9 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow8 answers · 11 citations · 2 models
g2.com
7 answers · 12 citations · 3 models
salesbricks.com
vendor site · Salesbricks7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
cincom.com
vendor site · Cincom6 answers · 11 citations · 2 models
monday.com
vendor site · Monday.com6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
salesforce.com
vendor site · Salesforce5 answers · 7 citations · 1 model
gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
mobileappdaily.com
4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
qobra.co
vendor site · Qobra4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
softwareadvice.com
4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

gokickflip.com/blog/best-cpq-software-for-small-business
9 answers · 2 models
guideflow.com/blog/best-cpq-software
8 answers · 2 models
g2.com/categories/cpq/small-business
7 answers · 3 models
pandadoc.com/blog/cpq-for-small-business
7 answers · 2 models
salesbricks.com/blog/best-cpq-software-for-small-business
7 answers · 2 models
cincom.com/blog/cpq/best-cpq-tools
5 answers · 2 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/configure-price-quote-applications
5 answers · 2 models
monday.com/blog/crm-and-sales/cpq-software
5 answers · 2 models
mobileappdaily.com/products/best-cpq-software
4 answers · 1 model
qobra.co/blog/cpq-software
4 answers · 2 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best CPQ software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which configure, price, quote tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top CPQ tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best CPQ software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a CPQ software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which CPQ tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5QuoteWerks
Three alternativesDealHub, HubSpot Commerce Hub, PandaDoc
Kickflip, PandaDocChanged
One alternativeDealHub
against: Salesforce CPQPandaDoc
Three alternativesCincom CPQ, HubSpot Commerce Hub, QuoteWerks
PandaDoc, QuoteWerks
Two alternativesKickflip, Odoo
no first choiceagainst: Salesforce CPQ
GPT-5.4 miniPandaDoc
Two alternativesQuoteWerks, Salesforce CPQ / Revenue Management
HubSpot CPQ / Commerce HubChanged
Two alternativesSalesforce CPQ, Salesforce Revenue Cloud
HubSpot Commerce Hub
Three alternativesPandaDoc, QuoteWerks, Salesforce CPQ
against: DealHubPandaDoc, QuoteWerks
Two alternativesMobileforce CPQ, Qwoty
against: Salesforce CPQno first choiceagainst: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQ
Gemini 3.5 FlashHubSpot Connected CPQ & Commerce Hub
Five alternativesDealHub, Kickflip, PandaDoc, QuoteWerks, Salesbricks
against: Conga CPQ, Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQHubSpot Commerce HubChanged
Three alternativesDealHub, PandaDoc, Salesbricks
against: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce Revenue CloudHubSpot Commerce Hub
Four alternativesKickflip CPQ, PandaDoc, QuoteWerks, Salesbricks
against: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQZoho CRM
Three alternativesHubSpot Revenue / Commerce Hub, PandaDoc, QuoteWerks
against: Conga CPQ, Salesforce CPQDealHub
Five alternativesHubSpot Commerce Hub, Hyperline, PandaDoc, Qwilr, Salesbricks
against: Conga CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQagainst: Cincom CPQ, Conga CPQ, Oracle CPQ, PROS Smart CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQ
Perplexity SonarPandaDoc
Three alternativesDealHub, HubSpot Commerce Hub, QuoteWerks
PandaDocHeld
Two alternativesDealHub, Proposify
PandaDoc
Four alternativesHubSpot Commerce Hub, Proposify, QuoteWerks, Zoho Quotes
against: Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce Revenue CloudPandaDoc, Zoho CRM
One alternativeQuoteWerks
no first choiceagainst: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQ
Grok 4.1 FastPandaDoc
Two alternativesProposify, QuoteWerks
against: Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQPandaDocHeld
Two alternativesHubSpot Commerce Hub, QuoteWerks
against: DealHub, Salesforce CPQPandaDoc
Four alternativesDock, HubSpot Commerce Hub, Proposify, QuoteWerks
against: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQPandaDoc, QuoteWerks
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Proposify
against: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQDealHub
Four alternativesHubSpot Commerce Hub, Monday Sales CRM, PandaDoc, Zoho CPQ
against: Salesforce CPQagainst: Cincom CPQ, Conga CPQ, Infor CPQ, Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQ, Vendavo, Zuora CPQ
Mistral SmallPandaDoc
Two alternativesDock, QuoteWerks
against: SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQPandaDocHeld
Four alternativesDealHub, HubSpot Commerce Hub, QuoteWerks, Salesforce CPQ
PandaDoc, QuoteWerks
Four alternativesDealHub, HubSpot Commerce Hub, Journeybee CPQ, monday CRM
PandaDoc
Six alternativesBitrix24, DealHub, HubSpot Commerce Hub, Proposify, QuoteWerks, monday CRM
no first choice
Three alternativesDealHub, PandaDoc, QuoteWerks
against: Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQagainst: DealHub, Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQ, Salesforce Revenue Cloud
DeepSeek V4 FlashProposify
Four alternativesDealHub, HubSpot's built-in quoting, PandaDoc, QuoteWerks
against: Conga CPQ, Salesforce CPQHubSpot Commerce Hub, PandaDocChanged
Two alternativesDealHub, QuoteWerks
against: Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQHubSpot Commerce Hub
Four alternativesDock, Kickflip, PandaDoc, QuoteWerks
against: Salesforce CPQHubSpot Sales Hub / Commerce Hub, PandaDoc
Three alternativesDock, Proposify, QuoteWerks
against: Kickflip, Salesforce CPQno first choice
Seven alternativesConga CPQ, DealHub, Experlogix, HubSpot Commerce Hub, Oracle CPQ, PandaDoc, monday CRM
against: Salesforce CPQagainst: Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQ
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
One alternativePandaDoc
no first choiceHeldPandaDoc
Two alternativesProposify, QuoteWerks
PandaDocno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashPandaDoc, QuoteWerks
Two alternativesDealHub, Proposify
PandaDocChanged
Four alternativesHubSpot Proposals, Proposify, QuoteWerks, Zoho QuoteBuilder
against: Salesforce CPQPandaDoc
Three alternativesDripquote, HubSpot Commerce Hub, QuoteWerks
against: Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQPandaDoc, QuoteWerks
Two alternativesProposify, Zoho One
against: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQno first choiceagainst: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQagainst: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQ
Kimi K2PandaDoc
Three alternativesDealHub, HubSpot Commerce Hub, QuoteWerks
against: Salesforce CPQPandaDocHeld
Three alternativesDealHub, HubSpot Commerce Hub, QuoteWerks
PandaDoc
Four alternativesHubSpot Commerce Hub, QuoteWerks, Quotient, monday CRM
Bitrix24
Three alternativesHubSpot CRM, PandaDoc, QuoteWerks
against: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQDealHub
Four alternativesEverstage, PandaDoc, QuoteWerks, Salesforce CPQ
against: IBM Sterling, Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQagainst: IBM Sterling CPQ, Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQ
GLM 4.7 FlashXPandaDoc, QuoteWerks
Five alternativesConnectWise CPQ, DealHub, Dock, Kickflip, monday CRM
against: Salesforce CPQPandaDocChanged
One alternativeHubSpot Commerce Hub
against: Salesforce CPQPandaDoc
Six alternativesConnectWise CPQ, Dock, HubSpot Commerce Hub, Kickflip, Proposify, QuoteWerks
against: Salesforce CPQPandaDoc
Four alternativesBitrix24, HubSpot Commerce Hub, Proposify, QuoteWerks
DealHub
Three alternativesHubSpot Commerce Hub, PandaDoc, QuoteWerks
against: Oracle CPQ, PROS, SAP CPQ, Salesforce CPQ
MiniMax M2.5PandaDoc
Four alternativesDealHub, Monday.com CPQ, Proposify, Quotient
PandaDocHeld
Three alternativesDubsado, HoneyBook, Proposify
QuoteWerks
Two alternativesHubSpot Commerce Hub, PandaDoc
PandaDoc
Three alternativesOdoo, Proposify, QuoteWerks
against: Oracle CPQ, Salesforce CPQBetterCommerce CPQ, DealHub, HubSpot Commerce Hub, PandaDocagainst: Apttus, Oracle CPQ, SAP CPQ, SteelBrick
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:37yes96 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:53yes44 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:26yes1421 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:13yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:04yes07 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:55yes07 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:39yes019 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:00yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:09yes030 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:13yes039 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:27yes026 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:53yes011 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:24yes77 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:40yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:25yes2523 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:05yes2017 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:50yes08 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:01yes06 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 22:54yes016 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:02yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:31no040 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:07yes022 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:24yes0101 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:33yes019 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:58yes1210 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:22yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:14yes2626 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:16yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:42yes05 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:54yes010 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:13yes039 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:42yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:49yes021 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:00yes044 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:09yes027 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:24yes011 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:46yes78 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:03yes36 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:33yes1723 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:40yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:16yes06 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:14yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:30yes012 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:22yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:47yes019 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:06yes022 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:32yes016 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:49yes010 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:46no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 22:55no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:25yes1125 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:47yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:45yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:51no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:08yes016 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:12yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:29no050 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:30yes031 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:35yes025 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:28yes014 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:38yes167 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:26yes64 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:53yes1119 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:39yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:32yes05 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:49yes08 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:37yes019 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:07yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:05yes024 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:35yes052 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:17yes087 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 22:55yes021 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Conga read as Conga CPQ
Oracle read as Oracle CPQ
SAP read as SAP CPQ
Salesforce read as Salesforce CPQ
Unresolved, counted raw
BetterCommerce CPQ
Conga One
ConnectWise
Dripquote
HubSpot CPQ / Commerce Hub
HubSpot Connected CPQ & Commerce Hub
HubSpot Revenue / Commerce Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub / Commerce Hub
HubSpot's built-in quoting
IBM Sterling
IBM Sterling CPQ
Journeybee CPQ
Kickflip CPQ
Mobileforce CPQ
Salesforce CPQ / Revenue Management
Shopify/HubSpot extensions
SteelBrick (Salesforce CPQ)
Zoho CRM Quoting
Zoho QuoteBuilder
Zoho Quotes
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in revenue operations

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
← CLMCRM →