Pricefx vs PROS? – Choose the Best Pricing Software for You 

You already know that you need to streamline and optimize your pricing strategy and that you need a sophisticated yet easy-to-use pricing platform that will move you forward in your pricing transformation journey. 

But you’re stuck trying to work out the similarities and differences between Pricefx and PROS price optimization software. You need an honest comparison of the two solutions to help you work out which one will be a better fit for your company and your specific pricing scenarios. 

Both vendors are considered industry leaders. So, now it’s time to drill down into the specifics to ensure you’re getting a solution that will deliver the pricing and organizational outcomes you’re looking for. 

At Pricefx, we have spent the last decade learning about the pricing software needs of our customers and what is most important to them when choosing one. So, we wanted to put together a list of the top criteria you’ll want to consider when making your final decision choosing between PROS and Pricefx.  

However, before going further, please note that;  

• This comparison article is based upon information available to the general public, including information gathered from publicly available reviews, rankings, and testimonials.  
• We suggest you also undertake your own research in order in combination with the information supplied below to reach your own decision.  
• Please also note that the “PROS” trademark is owned by PROS, not Pricefx, and nothing in this article is intended to suggest any affiliation with or endorsement by PROS.  

Ready? Let’s dive in: 

Pricefx vs PROS? – The Top 8 Decision Criteria

Your pricing software should enable you to easily define and implement pricing strategies that take you toward your pricing goals. And while both PROS and Pricefx both offer an excellent range of tools to upgrade your pricing processes and outcomes, they each have their strengths and weaknesses. What you need to do is work out which of their individual strengths are more important to you.  

To determine which of the two price optimization software solutions is a best fit for your business, let’s consider the following key criteria:  

1. Self-sufficiency/Training/Ease of Use – Who comes out on top?  
2. Who best solves multiple top line problems? 
3. Shortest time to ROI (Return On Investment)?  
4. Which integrates best with my existing system?  
5. Who has the best data science capabilities?  
6. Who has the best AI capabilities?  
7. Which provides a comprehensive solution based on innovation?  
8. Which solution works best for my industry?   

So, let’s dig in.   

1. Self-sufficiency/Training/Ease of Use – Who Comes Out on Top?

Winner – Pricefx  

According to an independent peer-to-peer review site, G2’s User Satisfaction Ratings, Pricefx comes well ahead of PROS in terms of how easy our software is to use. We scored 74% for ease of setup (compared to PROS’ 42%) and 74% for ease of admin (to PROS’ 51%). We beat PROS by 13% for ease of use (with a whopping 80%), and our configuration ease of admin did well, too, 23% higher than PROS. 

Pricefx has been designed with ease of use and self-sufficiency in mind. It is our goal that, once your solution is up and running, your team can take full ownership. With flexibility at our core, our solution allows you to make changes on the fly and view results by dragging and dropping attributes back and forth. We also provide extensive training that will empower your staff to spend more time working pricing magic and less time on the phone to customer support. 

2. Who Best Solves Multiple Top Line Problems?

Winner – Depends on your requirements 

If you’re only looking for a solution that delivers great price optimization  tools, then consider PROS, because of its sophisticated segmentation engine and ability to create meaningful predictive segments. PROS also has a CPQ tool to support the sales process. 

If you’re in need of a more comprehensive solution that can help you not just manage and optimize prices, but also bring together powerful analytics, CPQ capabilities, strong multi-agent AI-driven price optimization, and excellent rebate and channel management tools, then only Pricefx will deliver. In addition to this, if you need to frequently update your segmentation, or have a dynamic business environment, Pricefx’s superior optimization management tools may be for you. 

3. Shortest Time to Return on Investment (ROI)?

Winner – Pricefx  

According to G2, Pricefx comes out on top when it comes to ROI, with customers seeing return on investment on average within 16 months of implementation. That average is 23 months with PROS.  

30% of our customers see ROI within just 6 months. That compares to 0% for PROS and just 36% in 12 months (against our 56% inside a year). 

Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that we get customers live and kicking on average two months sooner that PROS can. 5% of our customers are live in under a day, and 10% within a month. The earliest you’ll be live with PROS is 1-3 months with an average of 8 months. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Pricefx’s stance on ROI, check out our recent article, What Return on Investment (ROI) Can I Expect on Pricing Optimization Software? 

4. Which Integrates Best with My Existing System?

Winner – Pricefx/PROS – Tie  

The PROS Integrate offer delivers over 100 pre-built connectors for the most common data sources and formats and aggregates data into a consistent format to ensure integration with its solutions. It claims that its Integrate customers cut integration costs by 50% and integration timelines by 75%. 

Pricefx software is designed to seamlessly integrate with any of your systems, like your ERP, SAP, Oracle, MS Dynamics, IBM AS/400 and more… or any combination of them. So, if you’re leveraging multiple business systems across many markets with diverse customer bases and large product lists, then the integration capabilities of Pricefx are exactly what you need.  

Additionally, Pricefx can easily and quickly import widely disparate data sets and incorporate them into your pricing. With a 360° view of your pricing environment (customer, competitor, market) and more data such as such as competitive pricing or customer sentiment data from social media at your disposal, you’re in a better position to make smart pricing decisions.   

5. Who Has Better Data Science Capabilities?

Winner – PROS 

PROS takes the lead in gen-one science capabilities as they have a more sophisticated segmentation engine (science algorithm). Their gen-one approach enables them to combine attributes and the partitions between those attributes to create very meaningful predictive segments. They also have a better way of calculating guidance values (e.g. stretch, target, and floor).  

Our lack of focus at Pricefx on gen-one science has to do with our all-out passion for gen-two science… 

6. Who Has Better AI Capabilities?

Winner – Pricefx  

PROS says they offer AI price recommendation capabilities, with a focus on helping you to assess the magnitude of your price optimization, gain visibility of your attribute and peer groups for each price recommendation and visualize what is going on behind the scenes.  

While gen-one data science optimizes each of your elements in isolation, gen-two price optimization is able to bring all of those elements into clear focus at the same time.  

Pricefx uses a multi-agent-AI approach to price optimization which takes the entire waterfall into account to make more holistically intelligent recommendations. It can look at all elements of your waterfall (price, discount, promotion, rebate, or a combination) and optimize each of them simultaneously based on your KPIs (revenue, volume, margin, or a combination). It can also recommend nuanced price changes that take customer willingness to pay into account. 

Our Bijou 7.0 Market Simulation offering elevates your pricing from the tactical to the strategic with a sandbox inside which you can test out WHAT IF scenarios to truly understand the impact a price or pricing strategy will have on your business (including estimated competitive reaction), without the fallout. So, you can basically use science to guess your customers’ reaction to a price before it ever enters the market. 

Pricefx is the only pricing solution on the market with a ready-to go AI price optimization offering, so we sweep the board with this one. 

If you’re interested in being able to test your pricing strategies in a sandbox for accurate market, customer, and competitor predictions, you can learn more in our article Pricing in Alignment with Key Business Objectives Using Market Simulation. 

7. Which provides a comprehensive solution based on innovation?

Winner – Pricefx 

Pricefx is a true SaaS next-gen 360° solution comprising a suite of fully integrated tools built as one platform that enables you to price better at every stage of the pricing process.  

• Our Plan package brings insights into your customer and sales data, increases transparency across the entire price waterfall and accelerates your time to pricing excellence. 

• The Price package leverages AI-powered price optimization and helps you eliminate margin leakage by gaining oversight of your contract management and promotion campaigns. 

• And our Profit package helps you quickly create quotes and maximize profitability; to define, calculate and execute rebates with ease; and automate ship & debit processes. 

PROS offers a range of tools designed to meet the needs of pricing, sales, and e-commerce teams. As its capabilities were purchased and combined (rather than built as one platform) it is not what we might consider true SaaS, but the integrated solutions it offers include:  

• Sales Opportunity Insights 
• Product and Service Configurations 
• Streamlined Sales Agreements 
• Robust Product Catalogs 
• Omnichannel Price Management
• Performance Quoting
• Customer Specific Price Optimization
• Real-time Price Delivery 

So, while PROS places its focus on price optimization & management and CPQ, Pricefx offers solutions for every aspect of the pricing process – from analytics and CPQ to rebate and channel management.  

8. Which Solution Works Best for My Industry?

Winner – Depends on your industry

PROS places a strong focus on the Airline and Travel industry, but also often works with companies in the Automotive, Consumer Goods, Distribution, Energy & Chemicals, Food & Consumables, Insurance, Manufacturing, Medical Devices & Healthcare, Services, Technology Hardware & Software, and Transportation & Logistics industries. 

Pricefx places its industry focus on Discrete Manufacturing, Chemical and Process Industry, Distribution, Food and Beverage, and Retail, with Airline soon to be added to the mix. While we produce content that speaks specifically to audiences in these industries, it is our firm belief that our pricing software is industry agnostic. It was designed to be. That’s how we can offer such flexibility and superb configuration.  

In fact, our Plasma™ offering (the pricing industry’s first big data insights machine) gives you access to reliable quantitative industry benchmarks against which to compare your performance and to identify market trends, no matter your industry. 

I Now Know the Difference Between Pricefx & PROS – What’s Next?

The most important thing to consider when choosing between PROS and Pricefx is: which solution gets you to your specific goals?  

Which solution offers you the right set of tools to achieve your goals? Which helps you solve your top-line problems? How important is ROI? Is integration key to your success? Are you in a position to leverage next-gen data science? How important is self-sufficiency?  

Your decision should not be based on how many bells and whistles the solution has, but should really focus on your specific problems and which solution best helps you solve them.   

If you’re interested in comparing Pricefx with other solutions, check out our article Pricefx vs. Zilliant? – Choose the Best Pricing Software for You or G2’s comparison chart across all main competitors in the space. 

If you’d like to explore other important factors to consider when choosing pricing software for your business, then check out our article:

Full disclosure: Please note that this direct Pricefx vs. PROS comparison article is based upon independently collated peer-to-peer reviews and publicly open content published on the Pricefx and PROS websites. We highly recommend that you do your own research to reach a decision about which pricing software is best for your company.