Pricefx vs Vistex? – Make the Best Software Choice for You

Not since the 1970s has inflation been such a central issue for companies the world over. Consequently, rediscovering the lost art of finding creative ways to mitigate margin erosion will be key to updating the skill set of many organizations moving forward. Pricing software is a key tool that more companies worldwide are turning to as a modern data-informed method to help them keep up with the unprecedented rates of change. While checking out the options for pricing software for your business, you’ve whittled down your search to Pricefx vs Vistex. Both options have their stronger and weaker points in a head-to-head comparison, so how do you choose the best software for your organization?  

For more than a decade now, the team here at Pricefx have been assisting business get exactly the right pricing software to suit their unique set of business objectives. To help you choose what suits your company best, we have compiled this direct head-to-head comparison article for Pricefx vs Vistex. 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. 
• The “Vistex” trademark is owned by Vistex, not Pricefx, and nothing in this article is intended to suggest any affiliation with or endorsement by Vistex. Similarly, the “G2” trademark is owned by G2, and references to G2 are not intended to suggest affiliation with or endorsement by G2. 
• For this article we have teamed up with our industry partners at SAP who know the Vistex system intimately as the Vistex system in many ways operates as a native SAP back office administrative system. 

Without further ado, let’s jump right into seeing how the two pricing software providers – Pricefx vs Vistex – stack-up and what each can offer to make your business objectives reality. 

Pricefx vs Vistex? – The Top 8 Comparison Features 

The two pricing software companies exhibit different functionality and their stronger or weaker points. 

Where possible, we will give you what we consider to be the clear winner in each of the Top 8 comparison categories which are as follows; 

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

Would you prefer to read a review from an independent peer-to-peer review site? 

Check out this review from G2 on Pricefx vs Vistex head-to-head and/or read on if you would like our unbiased take on how Pricefx and Vistex stack up.

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

Winner – Pricefx 

For those companies that are looking for a pricing software option that you can run easily and manage with your own staff, Pricefx is clearly the winner in this first category over Vistex. 

With Pricefx, having your own staff trained by the Pricefx Team to independently use your pricing software is a highlight. Pricing strategies can be switched easily at the flick of a button in the Pricefx system due to the native-cloud architecture allowing for simple user interface configurations. What’s more, being able to change strategies yourself without heading back to your pricing vendor for assistance enables you as an end-user to react faster to market shifts. 

With Vistex, if you are looking to have ‘Do It Yourself’ (DIY) pricing strategies, it will be possible, but it may come at an extra cost. For example, consider the Vistex Data Maintenance Planning (DMP) tool. Certainly, you will be able to perform your elementary price setting with it. However, any changes to rules governing your price setting may require the input of customer support and, with that, extra costs. 

With the Pricefx pricing software solution, price setting changes can be made simply in-house by your people and results seen and acted upon quickly.

 

For example, being able to swivel pricing strategies quickly is a strong functionality for those businesses that require immediate reactivity to fluctuating raw material costs and speedy pricing modifications.

2. Who best solves multiple top line problems?

Tie – Vistex/Pricefx 

Of course, your experience may be different as it really depends on what top line problems you want to solve. Let’s sum up that qualifying statement by saying Pricefx and Vistex both solve different top line problems very well. 

For Trade Promotions and Rebate Management in particular, Vistex can link financial reporting into rebate management and view all results in one central location to feed into a price waterfall. 

With Pricefx, the same thing is possible but requires multiple recalculations and further inputs of information. So, any top line problems relating to the relationship between financial reporting and price setting are a win for Vistex even considering Pricefx’s Channel and Rebate Management functionality. It’s worthwhile to note however, while Pricefx goes through more jumps to get to the same result, Pricefx will supply a more flexible price strategy to work with moving forward into the future. 

On the other hand, Pricefx provides a big win for clients looking to solve the top-line issue of benchmarking their performance against their competitors over time. It is not only a win over Vistex, Pricefx is the sole pricing software provider to offer this benchmarking capability. 

With the Plasma Tool, Pricefx allows for B2B enterprise companies that are looking to establish strategic insights on their pricing strategies and performance, a direct comparison on their pricing blueprint with similar organizations in terms of scope and industry. 

These are only two examples of the top-line problem solutions that both Pricefx and Vistex are known for. It really is a best ‘horses for courses’ approach that you need to consider.  

Suffice to say that most modern pricing software companies will solve most top line problems well, or they would not be in the game. 

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

Winner – Pricefx 

The calculations of Return on Investment (ROI) times are made by the initial outlay of your software (annual subscription costs and the total operating costs (TOC) of your choice of pricing software being counterweighted by the value (i.e., the financial benefits the software delivers to your business) over time. 

Therefore, time to ROI will frequently depend on the needs your company requires and the outputs achieved. In other words, ROI will be different for each company, regardless of which pricing software vendor used. Generally, however, first-generation pricing software products (of which, Vistex are one) are currently slower to ROI than native-cloud next-generation pricing solutions like Pricefx. 

An independent 2021 ROI study for the pricing software industry by peer-to-peer review site, G2, found that 56% of Pricefx pricing software users achieved ROI in 12 months or less, while 30% made it to ROI in less than 6 months.  

G2 found in their study that as a native cloud-based option, the Pricefx ROI was deemed independently quicker than the three leading first-generation pricing software vendors, PROS, Zilliant and Vendavo (see results directly below);

If you would like to learn more about the ROI time of pricing software, we invite you to view our recent blog articles on “What ROI can I expect from Pricing Software?” and “Does Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Matter in Pricing Software.”  

To tie it up, if you would like to discover more about the costs of pricing software, please check out the article link directly below; 

4. Which integrates best with my existing system?

Winner – Pricefx 

This is another category which boils down to an ‘apples vs oranges’ comparison between Pricefx and Vistex.

 

It will, of course, depend entirely on what your existing system is.

For example, Pricefx is arguably the more diverse of the two tools to flexibly integrate with almost any system. In fact, Pricefx will be your most flexible pricing software tool to integrate with if you’re currently using multiple systems regardless of your customer bases, markets, and large product lists. Pricefx will potentially integrate with your system regardless of its type such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems like SAP, Oracle, MS Dynamics, IBM AS/400 (or any combination of those and/or other systems). If you are looking for greater agility, ease, and range of implementations across several systems, Pricefx will suit your needs nicely. Not only this but as SAP moves to a cloud-based infrastructure with SAP S/4 HANA, our decade long experience as a cloud-native solution makes integration with SAP even easier. After all, cloud is the future of software. 

Vistex, of course, will be a strong consideration if you are looking to solely integrate with SAP as it is embedded natively into many SAP on-premise functions (such as in the financial integration benefits we discussed earlier). Of course, it will also depend on what you want to do with the integration of Vistex once you have it (read more below in the ‘best data science’ and’ best AI’ for further details). 

An interesting point to note when it comes to integrations, is that despite its close relationship with SAP, Vistex is oddly NOT a part of the SAP Endorsed App program as Pricefx is.  

5. Who has the best data science? 

Winner – Pricefx 

For more than a decade now, Pricefx has become extremely well-known across the pricing software industry for its strong price optimization capabilities and expertise built around the strength of its data science. Between Pricefx and Vistex, if it is purely price optimization delivered by innovative data science that you are looking for, it is an extremely easy decision to make for Pricefx. 

 Vistex has some data science capabilities but it would seem that their main focus is on providing value and service as an SAP back-office administration. Whilst standardized price segmentation and negotiated price guidance is possible with Vistex, price optimization across all points of the pricing waterfall is not possible. 

When it comes to data science, Pricefx takes the approach that data science should inform pricing software to be simultaneously optimizing prices, maintaining prices, and calculating prices to ensure a businesses’ profitability in real time.  

6. Who has the best AI (Artificial Intelligence) capabilities? 

Winner – Pricefx 

The Vistex focus tends to be on SAP integrations and their excellent trade and rebate management systems rather than progressing onwards and upwards with AI price management and further innovations.  

That said, there is some functionality in the Vistex price optimization model (such as one segment price guidance providing a floor and target and stretch price) but it is not driven by what is known as ‘real-world’ AI. 

What real world AI allows for in the Pricefx pricing software system is to enable your data to be analyzed across multiple constraints through a single interface (no further analysis required through soiled systems or by data scientists). That level of business agility can easily adapt to changing market conditions that may shift even up to multiple times per day (such as raw material indices like oil or gold etc.) 

Furthermore, the Pricefx Next Gen pricing software technology allows for a ‘clear box’ approach. The AI allows for open, transparent, and accessible price setting with full reasoning for price shifts along all points of the waterfall clearly provided for end users. 

No interpretation of a deep analytical dive from a pricing scientist is required. DIY. 

7. Which provides a comprehensive solution based on innovation?  

Winner – Pricefx 

We believe we have answered this question above in the previous two categories.  

To keep you moving on and gathering the information you need ASAP, please see the information provided in section 5 – ‘Which has the best data science – Pricefx or Vistex?’ and section 6 – ‘Who has the best AI (Artificial Intelligence) capabilities – Pricefx or Vistex?’. 

We have a complete 360-Degree solution that allows users to manage most aspects of their pricing strategy. 

8. Which Solution Works Best for my industry? 

Tie – Vistex/Pricefx – Totally dependent on your company’s industry

Your specific industry may align directly with the industry specialties of one of the two compared pricing software companies, which may assist you in deciding between Pricefx and Vistex (depending on the functionality you require of course). 

Vistex are best known for working with the following industries; 

• Automotive 
• Life Sciences 
• Media
• High Tech
• Telecommunications 

While for Pricefx, they specialize on their recognized ‘Big 6’ key vertical industry sectors: 

• Retail 
• Ecommerce
• Discrete Manufacturing
• Chemical and Process Industry
• Distribution
• Food and Beverage 

The Pricefx industry focus areas are continuing to evolve. New industry focus areas have already been added such as Ticket Sales while the Airline Industry is on the company radar.  

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

Now you’re armed with all the facts, you may have decided which is the best pricing software for your company – Pricefx or Vistex – or even another pricing software vendor. 

Vistex might be the pricing software choice for your business if you’re exclusively an SAP user and heavily involved in trade and rebate management, rights, royalties, and chargebacks. 

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a more overall price management tool, costing less to install, driven by real-world AI capable of multi-agent price decision-making and be self-sufficient in its use with a proven faster time to ROI, Pricefx could be your pricing software of choice. 

As both Pricefx and Vistex are high quality and reliable options, they each offer different functionality advantages for different companies. Consequently, it is understandable if you are yet to make up your mind on a choice. 

At Pricefx, we have spent more than a decade assisting large, small, and medium-sized businesses decide how to choose the pricing software best for them. One of the major points we hear from many companies is the uncertainty about whether they have the resources and infrastructure to implement pricing software. Which is precisely why we prepared this article below: 

However, if you’re ready to consider Pricefx as the pricing software that your company needs; 

*About Francisco Verdesoto and Cognitus

Cognitus is a Services and Technology global firm, a gold partner with SAP and Valued Added Reseller with cross industry recognized expertise. Francisco Verdesoto has been with Cognitus for over 5 years after spending long tenures with various known software companies such as SAP® and Vistex®, etc.  Francisco is responsible for the Global Delivery of Cognitus Gallop Pricing Cloud suite of products, which includes both services and software solutions helping customers across the world solve complicated Pricing and after the fact Order To Cash processes.