Top Tools at a Glance
Best for Fast, template-driven proposals | User Review "Streamlines Document Processes, Needs Pricing Flexibility"  RP Ravi P. Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) | ||
Best for All-in-one proposal + CPQ automation | User Review "Standardizes Quotes, Enhances Efficiency" RZ Rafael Z.
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Best for Interactive, web-style proposals | User Review "Seamless Proposal Management with Salesforce Integration" HB Hazel B.
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Best for High-volume RFP and questionnaire responses | User Review "Effortless RFI Management with Smooth setup" MR Matthew R. Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) | ||
Best for Services proposals with recurring pricing | User Review "Proposals in Under 60 Seconds, Backed by Fantastic Support" KB Kari B. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) | ||
Best for Centralized RFP content management | User Review "Streamlined Proposal Submissions with Loopio" ZK Zachary K.
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Best for Proposal delivery with sales engagement | User Review "GetAccept’s Helpful Features Make a Big Difference" JE julie e. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) | ||
Best for Automated document generation from CRM data | User Review "Automates Proposals Seamlessly, But Be Ready for Initial Complexity" FI Folake I. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) | ||
Best for Proposal-to-billing automation for service firms | User Review "Seamless AI-Powered Invoicing and Proposals" SK Sandra K. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) | ||
Best for Team-scaled proposal consistency | User Review "Proposify Streamlines Proposals with Templates, Automation, Tracking, and E-Signatures"  U Verified User Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) | ||
All-in-one proposal + CPQ automation
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High-volume RFP and questionnaire responses
Automated document generation from CRM data
Buyer's Guide: Proposal
Read Buyer Guide in Detail
All Proposal Tools
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of PandaDoc, with its user-friendly interface and convenient document management features.
Users value the ease of document management in PandaDoc, fostering efficiency and professionalism in their workflows.
Users love the user-friendly interface of PandaDoc, appreciating its ease of use and efficient document handling.
Users find the signature issues in PandaDoc confusing and face limitations affecting their overall document experience.
Users find the missing features in PandaDoc, such as limited integrations and formatting issues, quite frustrating.
Users find PandaDoc expensive, particularly for small teams needing budget-friendly options for integrations and form submissions.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users praise the incredible customer support of DealHub.io, noting responsiveness and thorough assistance throughout the onboarding process.
Users highlight the ease of use of DealHub.io, noting swift onboarding and simple system management post-implementation.
Users appreciate the efficiency of DealHub.io, which simplifies complex processes and significantly improves sales cycles.
Users find DealHub.io has a steep learning curve, necessitating workarounds and external utilities for optimal use.
Users note the limited customization in DealHub.io, often needing workarounds for advanced features and tailored configurations.
Users note the steep learning curve of DealHub.io, making it challenging for new team members to adapt quickly.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Qwilr to be incredibly easy to use, enhancing workflow efficiency and team productivity effortlessly.
Users praise Qwilr for its exceptional customer support, highlighting quick responses and helpful assistance throughout their experience.
Users love how Qwilr's intuitive design simplifies creating stunning proposals, enhancing client engagement and saving time.
Users note the limited customization options in Qwilr, wishing for more flexibility in templates and branding profiles.
Users express disappointment over limited features, specifically in formatting options and support for Arabic text rearrangement.
Users find Qwilr lacking dynamic features for the ROI calculator and advanced editing options, limiting overall flexibility.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users praise the ease of use of Responsive, highlighting its intuitive design and seamless collaboration features.
Users highlight the intuitive and powerful features of Responsive, significantly enhancing efficiency and collaboration in managing RFIs.
Users commend the remarkable efficiency of Responsive, significantly reducing response times and enhancing collaboration.
Users find the learning curve steep, requiring time to navigate features and adapt to UI changes effectively.
Users find the interface not intuitive, complicating navigation and making the overall experience frustrating.
Users feel the need for missing features, like more templates and customization options for bids and responses.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value how Anchor offers time-saving features, streamlining proposal creation and invoicing for increased efficiency.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Anchor, finding it simplifies proposal creation and payment processing significantly.
Users value the automation features of Anchor, enhancing efficiency and allowing effortless billing management every month.
Users face payment issues due to delayed processing and necessary payment method resets for existing clients.
Users experience processing delays in invoice approvals, although improvements have been noticed in deposit turnaround times.
Users find the missing features in Anchor, such as archiving rejected proposals and refund options, limiting their experience.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Loopio, thanks to its intuitive design and user-friendly search functionality.
Users value Loopio for its time-saving capabilities, streamlining response creation with helpful features like autofill and a content library.
Users commend Loopio for its efficiency, benefiting from user-friendly features that streamline content management for proposals.
Users face missing features in Loopio, such as limited file uploads, outdated content management, and immature AI responses.
Users face search limitations and challenges in importing responses, which can hinder efficient usage of Loopio.
Users express a desire for more flexibility in features and customization options within Loopio for better usability.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find GetAccept's platform extremely easy to use, facilitating streamlined deal management and effective communication.
Users appreciate the quick and top-notch customer support from GetAccept, enhancing their overall experience and integration.
Users commend GetAccept for its excellent customer support and intuitive features that enhance document handling and client engagement.
Users note missing features like limited contract customization and suboptimal content builder for document appearance.
Users find difficult editing a drawback, especially with unchangeable quotes and limited signature pad space.
Users find the limited customization options frustrating and desire more tools to manage unique deals effectively.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users praise the ease of use and integration of Conga Composer with Salesforce for efficient document generation.
Users value the sophisticated document generation capabilities of Conga Composer, enhancing efficiency and professionalism in their tasks.
Users value the time-saving capabilities of Conga Composer, enhancing document creation efficiency and reducing errors significantly.
Users find the learning curve steep, making it challenging to efficiently utilize Conga Composer's full potential.
Users find the steep learning curve of Conga Composer challenging, especially for infrequent users needing troubleshooting assistance.
Users find template customization challenging in Conga Composer, leading to frustration during document creation.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Ignition's ease of use remarkable, simplifying processes and enhancing overall efficiency for their startup.
Users commend the attentive customer support from Ignition, ensuring a smooth onboarding and implementation experience.
Users enjoy the easy setup of Ignition, enabling seamless client engagement and efficient automated workflows.
Users find Ignition expensive for small firms, especially if not utilizing all features, impacting overall value.
Users note a learning curve with Ignition, particularly during setup, though it becomes effective once configured.
Users desire more customization options in Ignition's Form templates to enhance functionality for client checklists.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Proposify intuitive and easy to use, streamlining proposal creation and enhancing client interactions effectively.
Users love the customizable templates in Proposify, enabling quick adjustments and an efficient proposal creation process.
Users love the ease of creation with Proposify, enjoying quick templates and a streamlined proposal process.
Users find the difficult editing process frustrating due to glitches and lack of intuitive features compared to other platforms.
Users find the editing difficulties frustrating, as the page builder is not user-friendly and lacks flexibility.
Users find limited customization options in Proposify challenging, especially for beginners looking for flexibility in design.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Oracle CPQ easy to use, simplifying complex sales processes while enhancing data management and accuracy.
Users value the sales efficiency of Oracle CPQ, which enhances accuracy and accelerates the quoting process significantly.
Users appreciate the time-saving capabilities of Oracle CPQ, enhancing efficiency in quoting and proposal processes.
Users find the complexity of configuration and customization in Oracle CPQ to be a significant challenge during implementation.
Users find the initial setup complex, requiring significant time and technical expertise for effective configuration.
Users note a steep learning curve with Oracle CPQ, making the initial setup and ongoing use challenging.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of DocSend, enhancing collaboration and document sharing seamlessly.
Users value DocSend for its robust document management and security features, ensuring safe and transparent document handling.
Users appreciate the customizable access and tracking features of DocSend, enhancing security and document management.
Users find DocSend expensive, particularly for those not utilizing all features or needing long-term access.
Users find the lack of features in DocSend limiting, particularly regarding file organization and advanced plan restrictions.
Users find that limited features on DocSend require costly upgrades for essential functionalities, affecting usability significantly.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users love the ease of use with Jotform Sign, simplifying their document management and signature collection effortlessly.
Users commend the easy setup of Jotform Sign, ensuring a smooth transition for managing documents and signatures.
Users highlight the intuitive interface of Jotform Sign, making document management and signing straightforward and efficient.
Users find the limited customization options frustrating when trying to meet specific needs in Jotform Sign.
Users are frustrated by complicated signature workflows that hamper efficiency and create confusion in the signing process.
Users experience form issues during setup and PDF saving, complicating their overall usage of Jotform Sign.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users praise the ease of use of RELAYTO AI, appreciating its intuitive interface and quick engagement capabilities.
Users love the intuitive interface and customizable features of RELAYTO AI, enhancing document creation effortlessly.
Users appreciate the high-quality design and ease of use with Relayto AI, enhancing their presentation experience significantly.
Users find the learning curve steep, as mastering the tools can be time-consuming and frustrating at first.
Users may experience a learning difficulty with RELAYTO due to its extensive features and need for adjustment.
Users experience a steep learning curve with RELAYTO AI, requiring time to fully understand its features.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Inventive.AI to be incredibly easy to use and manage, ensuring quick access to high-quality responses.
Users value the efficiency of Inventive.AI, experiencing reduced time on tasks and enhanced quality in outputs.
Users praise Inventive.AI for its best-in-class response quality and exceptional support, ensuring seamless integration and successful outcomes.
Users experience poor reporting with limited customization and integration options, impacting their data tracking capabilities.
Users desire customizable role permissions in Inventive.AI, noting gaps in workflows and reporting despite transparency from the team.
Users note that the insufficient analytics hinder their ability to track usage and metrics effectively.
Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings
Learn More About Proposal Software
What is Proposal Software?
Proposal software provides features that streamline the process of writing, managing, and sending business proposals. In terms of helping with proposal writing, proposal software offers simple document builder interfaces that make proposals visually appealing as well as easy to read and follow. Some businesses spend countless hours manually building proposals whereas proposal software cuts that time down by providing proposal templates as well as drag and drop features to add visually appealing pictures and content. Proposal software also comes with e-signature integrations which allow customers to promptly scan the document and find the areas where they need to sign.
In terms of helping manage proposals, proposal software generally provides analytics and notification features that can help users track how clients interact with a proposal. This allows users to see how many times a client opened, viewed, or commented on a proposal. Additionally, both the customer and the business that sends the proposal can comment in the proposal if there are any questions the client has. This allows for easy conversation to happen rather than back and forth emails.
What Types of Proposal Software Exist?
Cloud-based proposal software
Cloud products often operate under a SaaS model and are run over the internet (in the cloud). These are generally sold as a subscription and require a recurring payment, most often as monthly or yearly payments. Cloud-based proposal software offers the major advantage of real-time collaboration with the client. This way a company can share their proposal via the internet, then the client can comment in real time and the business can respond with answers. The alternative is downloading the proposal and that can require many back and forth conversations over email or a phone call
On-premise proposal software
An on-premise proposal software is often a one-time payment for a perpetual license. This type of solution is becoming less common across most software vendors as subscription models are taking over. However, for some businesses, an on-premises solution may make sense. For example, on-premises solutions give companies confidence that their servers are locked down and they don’t need to trust another company with their private data. This can make proposals more secure if the data is only being shared between the business sending and receiving the proposal.
What are the Common Features of Proposal Software?
The following are some core features within proposal software that can help users in various ways:
Document builder interface: Proposal software allows users to easily search and add features to a proposal with a document builder interface. This includes customizing the proposal with different templates, branding, and even media. This can be a huge factor in displaying a company’s value. For example, for a landscape or interior design firm, it will be extremely useful to provide videos and pictures displaying how effective their work is. This makes the proposal look clearer and more professional for other businesses.
Collaboration: Oftentimes, a proposal will need members across a variety of teams to jump in and provide expertise where it’s needed. Proposal software allows multiple users to work on the same document, which provides more visibility and support for each proposal. Users can also easily create, edit, and collaborate on supplemental documents, as well as track changes right within the proposal software.
Assembly and approval workflows: A huge benefit of proposal software is task and team management. This allows companies to automate workflows by routing documents to the correct individuals for adding content and approval.
Analytics: Proposal software provides companies with a variety of analytics tools. With engagement tracking features, teams can track who is looking at their proposal, how often, or for how long. Businesses can also use proposal effectiveness reporting. This allows users to see which pieces of content are performing the best and grants the user with custom reports and dashboards on proposal volume and acceptance. These analytics tools will help users craft more effective proposals in the future.
Other Features of Proposal Software: API Integrations, CPQ Integrations, Engagement Tracking Capabilities, Proposal Effectiveness Reporting Capabilities
What are the Benefits of Proposal Software?
Speeds up proposal time: Proposals are often a long, drawn-out process that can take months for businesses to complete. Proposal software reduces the time it takes to complete a proposal by automating plenty of repetitive tasks within the overall proposal process. This includes canned responses to familiar RFP questions, preexisting proposal templates, and automatic price quoting. These features, among others, allow businesses to spend less time on tedious tasks and focus on the overall quality of their proposal.
Improved collaboration: In addition to automation, proposal software aids in content management, team collaboration, and workflow management. With proposal software, employees can work on the document with their coworkers, assign tasks out to relevant teams, and track proposal deadlines.
Who Uses Proposal Software?
Sales teams: Sales teams are a huge part of the proposal process. They are often the ones who must effectively communicate the value of a company’s work, and in doing such, they must respond to RFPs with effective answers. Proposal software allows the sales team to collaborate in real time on a proposal, which allows everyone to add their expertise. Proposal software also allows sales teams to speed up the entire sales process by giving the requesting company the ability to sign the proposal online. Furthermore, proposal software integrates with CRM software, which houses all necessary contact information that must be included in the proposal. This helps identify key stakeholders to include in the proposal.
Marketing teams: A proposal is an important marketing tool for most businesses. Proposal software allows marketing teams to take control over branding and use customizable templates to present proposals with a clear and professional look. Proposal software offers a variety of templates that can be used to play to a company’s strengths. This includes templates that market a company’s SEO, social media, content marketing, video production, and much more.
Proposal managers: Proposal managers can use proposal software to lead team efforts during the proposal process. WIthin proposal software, proposal managers can use project management tools to assign tasks and track the progression of the proposal. This helps keep teams focused and aware of proposal completion deadlines.
What are the Alternatives to Proposal Software?
CPQ software: Configure, price, quote (CPQ) software helps companies automate the lifecycle of the quoting and proposal process, starting with the moment a customer supplies their needs in a company’s offering and ending with sending a detailed quote to the customer or prospect. This can be used as an alternative to proposal software as CPQ software offers many of the same features in addition to pricing features.
Software Related to Proposal Software
Related solutions that can be used together with proposal software include:
CRM software: Many proposal software solutions can integrate with CRM software. If a company uses a CRM, they can research proposal tools for potential integration with that CRM. Ensuring that proposal software integrates well with current systems or expanding the search to more complex systems that can manage proposals is key to choosing the right software.
CPQ software: Proposal software works hand in hand with CPQ software. When companies are crafting their proposals, they often need to send out detailed quotes in line with what they are offering. CPQ software helps companies pull accurate quotes and helps make the proposal process much smoother.
E-signature software: E-signature software gives users the ability to gather signatures on documents shared electronically, eliminating the need for physical documents to record signatures. This is a great tool to integrate with proposal software since most proposals require signatures from the requesting company
Challenges with Proposal Software
Shifting from legacy systems: Proposal software can store documents in their native format, such as Microsoft Word and Excel, PDF, or HTML. The way the existing systems of a company handle these file types, and their preferred document type, can be a potential roadblock when they transfer to using proposal software.
Which Companies Should Buy Proposal Software?
Virtually every business that has an enterprise sales team will, at one time or another, send out a proposal to another company. For this reason, proposal software can truly be utilized by businesses in nearly any industry that must tailor sales proposals to a client. While some proposal software are created for certain industries such as construction, education, healthcare, or financial services, most proposal software are industry agnostic and can be used across any industry that has an enterprise sales team.
How to Buy Proposal Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Proposal Software
Requirements gathering for proposal software is critical to ensure that the business is implementing a product that meets all of their needs. While some businesses are more focused on the aesthetic presentation of their proposals, other businesses might be more focused on the integration with e-signature software. Whatever a company’s requirements are it is always best to create a list of the must-have features that the business needs to consider purchasing proposal software.
Compare Proposal Software Products
Create a long list
Long lists are created by eliminating software options that do not provide critical functionality. To make a long list for proposal software, a buyer should look at the following functionalities and deem which products provide the necessary functionality:
- E-signature
- Template creation
- Media support for images, audio, and video
- Analytics
- Collaboration
- Quote management
- Contract management
- Payment integrations
- Assembly and approval workflows
Create a short list
Once a buyer has narrowed down their list from the above functionality, it’s important to prepare even more specific requirements. For example, if a company is in a certain industry, they should make sure that there is functionality that might help them create proposals for that industry. Likewise, if a company uses a certain CRM they should make sure that the proposal software integrates with that CRM.
Conduct demos
Demos are one of the most important stages in the buying journey. This allows a buyer to sit through an actual product demo and see if the product matches all of the requirements. To make sure the demo runs smoothly, users must ensure that the vendor has all of the requirements beforehand so they can showcase their features properly.
Selection of Proposal Software
Choose a selection team
The selection team for proposal software should include at least one member from the enterprise sales team, customer success team, and marketing team. These are plausibly the teams that will use proposal software most often, and as such, they should have the most input on desired features of the proposal software.
Negotiation
When negotiating during the purchasing stage, the selection team should always strive to have implementation and ongoing support fees included in the cost. This way if any ongoing support is needed then businesses can always contact their customer success or support representative.
Final decision
After the negotiation stage is conducted, the final decision requires buy-in from everyone on the selection team. It’s important to get everyone on the same page to ensure that all requirements are met and the final decision is supported by everyone involved.
What Does Proposal Software Cost?
As with any software purchase, the price of proposal software can fluctuate based on a lot of things. The first thing that will affect pricing is the number of licenses or seats that a business needs to purchase. This essentially means the number of users that have access to the software with their own logins. For proposal software, this can range anywhere from $19 per user per month up to $70 per user per month. The more seats a user wants to purchase, the more they’ll have to pay.
The reason for the wide range in pricing per seat can be based on a variety of factors. For example, some proposal software is run on a model where the user is charged based on the number of proposals they want to use per month. While the most basic plans allow users to have five active proposals at a time, the highest-priced plans generally allow users to send an unlimited number of proposals per month.
Another factor that contributes to the price of proposal software is the features included. The lowest tiered plans may include basic features such as e-signature and templated proposals, where the most expensive plans include integrations with other software, analytics, and client input forms.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Below is the breakdown of the estimated time to ROI according to the review data on G2 as of December 18, 2020:
- 55% of buyers see an ROI in 6 months or less
- 28% of buyers see an ROI in 7-12 months
- 10% of buyers see an ROI in 13-24 months
- 7% of all other buyers see an ROI from 24 months onwards
Implementation of Proposal Software
How is Proposal Software Implemented?
Implementing proposal software is generally a straightforward process. According to G2 review data as of December 18, 2020, 68% of users were able to implement and go live with proposal software in under a month. Generally, this process is broken down into a few key stages:
- Software installation
- Process review and needs analysis
- Design, configuration, and integrations
- Training
- Post-implementation support
During this process, some users may find a stall in implementation time when it comes to software integrations. Some users like to implement their proposal software with other products in their software stack including CRMs, content management systems, payment processing, and more. This can be a lengthy process so businesses must be prepared for longer implementation times if they go this route.
