Salesforce CPQ End of Life: What VARs and MSPs Should Do Next

Salesforce’s decision to retire CPQ has left many Value-Added Resellers (VARs) and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) reassessing their quoting strategy. For years, CPQ has been central to how channel organizations automate pricing and approvals. It's deeply embedded in Salesforce and customized around complex partner workflows.

The product’s end-of-sale has been announced, and end-of-support is not far behind. Now the real question it’s how to protect what already works while preparing for what comes next. At StrataVAR, we’re frequently asked what this change means in practice. Some VARs are being encouraged to migrate to Revenue Cloud, while others are exploring third-party CPQs.

Plus, many are still trying to understand the operational risk of choosing the wrong path. The right approach depends on your setup, timeline, and how heavily your business relies on Salesforce CPQ. Below, we examine what’s changing and what’s at stake. Additionally, we'll look at three practical paths that help VARs and MSPs maintain continuity without starting from scratch.

Why Salesforce CPQ End of Life Matters to the Channel

For direct-sales organizations, replacing CPQ is an IT project. For VARs and MSPs, it’s a business continuity challenge. We often hear from operations leaders who spent years tailoring CPQ to handle distributor data, vendor programs, and deal-based pricing, only to realize those investments may not survive the transition. CPQ was never designed for the full complexity of the channel, and its retirement exposes those limitations.

When Salesforce CPQ is discontinued, the risk extends far beyond licensing. It disrupts quoting workflows that connect multiple distributors, thousands of SKUs, and millions in pipeline value. Many resellers already see these cracks today: manual import of supplier quotes, manual pricing updates, and renewals tracked outside the system. Over time, automation becomes a semi-manual process that drains efficiency and margin.

Revenue Cloud offers long-term potential for full Salesforce modernization, but it’s not a simple replacement. The migration requires extensive reimplementation, time, and cost, a level of disruption many VARs and MSPs can’t afford.

The Case for Continuity

Replacing a quoting engine is never as simple as turning one off and switching another on. What makes this transition complex is the amount of business logic already embedded inside Salesforce, especially in pricing approvals, reporting, and ERP integrations. Losing that foundation means months of reimplementation, retraining, and potential downtime.

Continuity provides a better path forward. Instead of rebuilding everything at once, VARs and MSPs can maintain their Salesforce environment. They can do this while adding modern, purpose-built quoting tools designed for the channel. This continuity model aligns with many Salesforce CPQ replacement options businesses are exploring in 2025.

This approach keeps data, workflows, and teams operational while new capabilities are introduced incrementally. Continuity allows organizations to protect what works, reduce risk, and transition at their own pace. With the right continuity layer, quoting doesn’t stop; it simply evolves.

The Hidden Cost of Starting Over 

The biggest misconception we encounter is that switching from Salesforce CPQ to another platform automatically means improvement. In reality, most generic CPQ systems were built for direct sales, not for the channel. They assume fixed costs, single-vendor catalogs, and linear pricing models, conditions that don’t exist for resellers who quote across multiple distributors, regions, and currencies. 

When VARs attempt to retrofit these systems, the result is predictable. Integrations break when distributors update their APIs. Multi-source BOMs fail to parse correctly. And when pricing rules don’t reflect the real cost of a deal, sales teams revert to Excel, the universal backup plan that automation was supposed to eliminate. This “manual creep” is what erodes the business case for every CPQ transition. Automation without accuracy is just rework in disguise. 

Three Scenarios: How to Navigate the Transition 

Every VAR or MSP we speak with falls into one of three categories. Understanding which one describes your situation can help you make a rational, risk-aware decision. 

1. You’re required to shift 

Some companies are under immediate pressure to act. Their Salesforce CPQ licenses are expiring, or their internal IT teams are warning of unsupported environments. For these organizations, the top priority is continuity. In these cases, we often recommend implementing a quoting platform that restores full functionality within months, not years. 

With a tool like StrataVAR Quoting Workspace (PQW), teams can maintain their Salesforce data and approval flows.  Plus, they can maintain reporting structures while regaining quoting stability. Renewal management can continue through PRW, keeping recurring revenue and customer communication uninterrupted. 

Once continuity is restored, additional capabilities such as Revenue Cloud for billing or contract management can be layered later. It can be done when timelines and budgets allow. The outcome is a smooth transition that protects both operations and revenue flow. It provides a clear Salesforce CPQ upgrade path for the future.

2. You’re satisfied with CPQ but heavily customized 

Some VARs and MSPs have invested heavily in Salesforce CPQ, building custom logic, extensions, and integrations that support their unique channel workflows. For these teams, a full reimplementation would mean rebuilding years of development work and retraining every user. 

A more practical option is to use PQW as a continuity layer. This approach preserves everything that works: your Salesforce model, your governance, and your reporting, while adding quoting functionality purpose-built for the channel. Over time, existing customizations can be migrated or replaced incrementally, without major disruption. 

We often hear from operations leaders who say, “We finally got CPQ working the way we need it. Why start over?” The continuity approach answers that directly: you don’t have to. Instead of rebuilding, you evolve. 

While rebuilding from scratch may sound like a fresh start, in practice, it means reconstructing years of logic, integrations, and user adoption from the ground up. Custom workflows, approval paths, and pricing rules would all need to be re-engineered and re-tested. Even small changes in distributor data or supplier APIs can add weeks to a project timeline. Rebuilding costs more in development hours; it also disrupts the teams who rely on quoting every day. 

PQW doesn’t remove the need for customization, but it makes it much easier. Its data model and features were designed specifically for VAR and MSP complexity: multi-source quoting, vendor programs, distributor integrations, and rebate management are built in, not bolted on. That means your existing workflows can be configured faster, with fewer workarounds. It can be scaled more easily as your business evolves. 

3. You’ve already decided to leave Salesforce CPQ 

For some organizations, the decision has already been made. They’ve evaluated the options and know that CPQ’s limitations no longer justify the effort. For these companies, the key challenge is choosing a replacement that won’t recreate the same gaps in a new form. 

Generic CPQs tend to simplify pricing to one cost per SKU and overlook the layered complexity of the channel. That’s why they fail VARs and MSPs. The same SKU might have three different costs: one per distributor, vendor program, or customer context. When systems can’t reflect that nuance, teams default back to spreadsheets. 

Purpose-built platforms like StrataVAR’s PQW address this head-on. They support multi-source quoting (API and Excel) and dynamic cost and margin recalculations. Plus, it also supports large-scale quotes with thousands of line items.

Renewals run through PRW with end-of-service tracking. However, Portfolio Management ensures pricing compliance and auditability across sell-side portfolios. All of this operates natively inside Salesforce, ensuring that moving from Salesforce CPQ to Revenue Cloud or other modern quoting systems happens seamlessly. Eventually, this means your data stays in place, your reporting remains consistent, and your transition risk stays low. 

Conclusion 

Regardless of which scenario fits your organization, the principles remain the same. First, continuity comes before transformation. Keep quoting live and accurate before expanding functionality. Second, channel specialization matters.

Systems built for direct sales will always struggle with distributor integrations, rebates, and non-linear pricing. And third, future readiness is about flexibility. It's the ability to integrate new systems like Revenue Cloud later, without reimplementation. 

We often remind our customers that this isn’t a choice between staying or leaving Salesforce. The Salesforce CPQ retirement is not the end of automation for VARs and MSPs. It’s about maintaining control over your operations. 

It’s a chance to reset priorities, to move from large, generic systems to purpose-built solutions that fit the channel’s complexity. Replacing CPQ should not mean starting over. It should mean building smarter continuity: quoting that reflects how your business actually sells. And most importantly, renewals that never fall through the cracks and systems that evolve at your pace.