Due to the growing complexity of sales incentive programs, 97% of revenue leaders admitted to challenges with their sales compensation plans, including:
- 19% doesn’t motivate reps
- 19% contains unrealistic expectations
- 18% are too hard to execute
- 17% too complicated to understand
Traditional compensation management tools require heavy onboarding periods and aren’t the time-savers they’re supposed to be. Heck, they even make it difficult for admins to adjust plans in the platform by requiring tickets with support and long wait times for the simplest plan changes.
Complex incentive compensation plans require more advanced solutions to streamline sales compensation management processes. Sales commission software platforms like Performio, QuotaPath, CaptivateIQ, Spiff, and Xactly address traditional compensation management software challenges to lighten admins’ loads.
This blog compares Peformio competitors such as QuotaPath, CaptivateIQ, Spiff, and Xactly.
We’ll look at each platform’s key features and benefits and discuss how to select the best sales commission software to meet your organization’s needs.
Streamline commissions for your RevOps, Finance, and Sales teams
Design, track, and manage variable incentives with QuotaPath. Give your RevOps, finance, and sales teams transparency into sales compensation.
Talk to SalesAlternatives and Competitors Summary
Before diving into the details, let’s start with a brief overview of the Performio alternatives.
# | Name | Description |
1 | QuotaPath | QuotaPath is a commission tracking and sales compensation management software that automates and streamlines compensation processes across RevOps, finance, and sales teams. It offers a user-friendly interface, integration with CRM and finance systems, and resources like Compensation Hub for compensation plan design and implementation, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes and complexities. |
2 | CaptivateIQ | CaptivateIQ is a flexible commission management solution that combines the familiarity of spreadsheets with advanced automation tools, enabling companies to design, calculate, and manage complex incentive compensation programs efficiently. It empowers teams to adapt quickly, reduce errors, and gain real-time insights, ensuring alignment with evolving business goals. |
3 | Spiff | Spiff is a software that combines the ease of spreadsheets with powerful commission automation, allowing finance and sales operations teams to easily manage complex incentive compensation plans. It enhances organizational trust, motivates sales teams, and provides visibility into performance, for various size organizations. |
4 | Xactly | Xactly is a software solution that automates the design and management of incentive compensation plans, helping companies align seller behavior with revenue goals while reducing administrative time, improving quota attainment, and increasing payout accuracy. Through seamless integrations with CRM, ERP, and other systems, it provides a holistic view of program effectiveness and supports strategic decision-making. |
Criteria for Choosing Sales Compensation Tools
Consider these elements as you evaluate sales compensation solutions for your organization.
Consider these elements as you evaluate sales compensation solutions for your organization.
Critical Features | QuotaPath | CaptivateIQ | Spiff | Xactly |
Reliable commission tracking | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |
Best Performance Attainment Summarization | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |
Friendly User Interface | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ |
Integrations | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |
Automation Capability | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ |
Implementation Support | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐ |
Buyers Guide
Transparent pricing and the opportunity to try sales commission software before you commit are essential. Here’s where each of the Performio alternatives stand.
Performio Alternatives | FreeTrial Available | Additional plans fees | Pricing plans |
QuotaPath | Yes (14 days) | No | Essential ($25/seat) Growth Plan ($35/month; + Platform Fee) Premium Plan ($45/month; + Platform Fee) |
CaptivateIQ | No | Yes | Not available on CaptivateIQ website or review pages |
Spiff | No | Yes | Not available on Spiff website. According to review pages, pricing starts at $75 per month per user billed annually. |
Xactly | No | Yes | Not available on Xactly website or review pages. |
Check Out Real Reviews
Doing thorough research before you buy means reading reviews by actual customers who have experienced the sales compensation solutions you are considering for a more informed selection.
QuotaPath
G2: “Best choice in commission software”
What do you like best about QuotaPath?
When evaluating software I look at a few factors.
1. Ease of use
2. Ease of Integration and Implementation
3. Ongoing customer support and experience
The team at QuotaPath is very knowledgeable in this space and it shows that they understand the pains of commission management and payout with how easy their software is to set up and use.
Also, have had the best experience onboarding and feel confident that we have the right structure in place for our sales team.
Capterra: “Great tool to scale revenue “
Pros: Excellent tool that took a 9-16 hour process and eliminated it from our sales ops and accounting teams. Favorite functions- Integrations with our CRM, Clean UI, not over-featured, and the ability to handle complex commissions. But most of all customer support is top-notch.
HubSpot App Marketplace: Great for tracking complicated and fluctuating commissions
So far QP is fantastic for tracking many different plans for sales commissions. It automatically notifies you when a commission changes in our portal. This is very helpful when knowing all the money that you have paid, overpaid and underpaid. The integration with HS is almost as if it were another section of HubSpot. It automates commissions at specific deal stages and dates. We love it.
TrustRadius: Outstanding Solution and a Great Company to Partner With
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We used another product before Quotapath that somehow lost all of our commission data. This left us in a difficult position, and as a result, we reverted to manual commission reports on Excel. With more than 20 commissioned salespeople and growing, this became time-consuming and prone to error. It also provided no real-time visibility by our salespeople into their current standings. Quotapath made commission reporting almost effortless through its direct integration with SalesForce.com while providing the insight our commissioned staff requires.
CaptivateIQ
G2: “Easy to understand ICM solution”
What do you like best about CaptivateIQ?
If you are familiar with basic data structure, SQL concepts and Excel tables you can quickly pick-up and understand CaptivateIQ.
The solution checks off several key boxes you would expect from an ICM:
– Commission Calculators and Statements
– Data import automation from Salesforce and Workato integrations many solutions
– Hierarchy Management
– Commission Approval templates (employee/manager review)
– Plan document distribution with DocuSign
The key positives with CaptivateIQ:
1) Workato Integrations are not charged with a monthly fee like with other solutions
2) Ability to solve a lot of data source complexity with Union and Join functionality in a visual relationship solution which includes the ability to trace measures to source data for troubleshooting.
What do you dislike about CaptivateIQ?
CaptivateIQ had a couple of key issues that caused us to stumble.
1) Failed integrations – When we originally scoped the solution, we thought the integration of data from our Microsoft Dynamics FO solution would have been easy. It was anything but. That forced us to do manual data imports which did not support the value of an automated ICM solution
2) Difficult Reporting – The reporting solution integrated in CaptivateIQ isn’t very intuitive and it’s difficult to share reporting to users outside of the system like with other ICM solutions.
3) Plan Management solution (where we send plan docs and get them signed) requires the use DocuSign. When my company switched to AdobeSign to save money it caused issues using this solution
Capterra: “A great tool that has found the sweet spot between functionality and simplicity”
Overall: We use CaptivateIQ to automate variable compensation calculations, along with sales performance tracking against quota. Time spent every month performing calculations is reduced by more than 90%, while calculation accuracy has increased. Payees no longer need to wait 1-2 weeks after month close before seeing expected payment amounts. They now have the option of previewing updated pay statements in real time as deals close.
Pros: Easy for a single individual to administer the entire application. Successfully and intuitively mirrors Excel functionality. Ease of integration with Salesforce CRM. Relatively easy to configure plans and troubleshoot any errors in calculation logic. The wealth of help articles and plan examples made available to customers in the product knowledge base. Pace and consistency in which the application receives updates.
Cons: Building custom reports is relatively convoluted compared to the rest of the application. Pay statement formatting and customization is functional, but a little basic.
HubSpot App Marketplace:
No listing
TrustRadius: CIQ Very user friendly & great support
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use CIQ to calculate sales reps’ commission payouts, the main business problem is the automation and streamlined process that the CIQ solution provides, it eliminates human error
Pros and Cons
- calculates the commission accurately
- Reporting
- Cloning existing plans
- Creating plans from scratch without support
- The test environment isn’t 100% replicated from production
- More reporting functionalities
Spiff
G2: “Comprehensive CRM Solution with Robust Feaures and Excellent Support.”
What do you like best about Salesforce Spiff?
In my use of Salesforce Spiff is intuitive once you get used to it, though the extensive features can be overwhelming initially.
Implementation requires careful planning and execution. It’s complex but manageable with proper resources.
Salesforce provides good customer support and detailed assistance but in some cases, complex issues take more time to be fixed. I am used daily for managing customer relationships, tracking sales, and generating reports. Salesforce integrates smoothly with other tools.
What do you dislike about Salesforce Spiff?
In my opinion, the initial setup and configuration are pretty complex. It took us a lot of time and effort to get everything right. I think it’s expensive, which can be a challenge for smaller businesses or startups. Customer support is good but in some cases needing their help frequently for complex issues can slow us down.
Capterra: “A different company under Salesforce”
Overall: Unfortunate timing for us with the acquisition … of Spiff.com under Salesforce. ..thus the lost talent is going to be a major issue. We’ve been pushed to move on to the latest platform of Spiff.com which has been positioned to us as “not really ready” and they’ll be moving forward with it prematurely, fixing on the fly and/or rolling back until it’s stable.
It’s worth stating the obvious here but this is commission software that, when errors occur, greatly impacts the revenue operations team and eventually the general morale of the sales team. You could argue that one month of errors is somewhat acceptable but a second month with the same errors is simply unacceptable and a third month was enough for us to have to take our business elsewhere.
Despite Spiff acknowledging these issues, they simply pointed to the 2-year contract with the expectation of us continuing to partner with them. We have pivoted to Dealhub in this area for that reason. Our move to CaptivateIQ is a breath of fresh air and what required days/weeks of internal discussions at Spiff.com is something we are simply able to manage ourselves. The sales team are happy again and our rev ops team is no longer consumed by a single application. Glad we pulled the plug when we did before we realised churn in our organisation was attributable to Spiff.com
Happy to speak to anyone privately before you decide on a commission tool for your business given how in-depth our knowledge is in this area. For example, on the surface, Spiff.com and CaptivateIQ appear to be very similar but the sync time from SFDC to Spiff.com is ~2 hours so an AE is unable to see wins in real-time.
Pros: A decent set of folks trying to do the right thing if they had the bandwidth.
Cons: Terrible customer support which they admitted was a symptom of the acquisition. The same issues month in and month out impacted the morale of our sales org significantly. Our rev ops team has since implemented CaptivateIQ and the difference in the quality of the product and service is night and day.
HubSpot App Marketplace:
No listing
TrustRadius: Salesforce Spiff – all you need for commission Calculation.
Overall Satisfaction with Salesforce Spiff
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Salesforce Spiff is a great tool that helps in commission calculations. I have saved a large amount of hours previously invested in Excel data from different sources. Now it all gets clear and sales reps have full access to their monthly numbers, making everyone happy and avoiding unnecessary calls to evaluate how much is the correct amount.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Dashboard
- Communication
- Calculation
- Reporting
- Navigation Friendly
Cons
- Reporting needs a bit of improvement
- The customized reporting tool is not the best
- Sometimes support is a bit slow in replying to tickets
Xactly
G2: “Comp Administration made easy by Xactly”
What do you like best about Xactly Incent?
Xactly is a user-friendly tool that really helps manage processing and reporting commissions. Incent is only one aspect of this tool, which is the key part. You can easily manage individual team member data, quotas, TI and revenue individually or in a batch. The processing time is overall pretty fast compared to other applications out there. The UI is great and constantly changing to accommodate additional needs, requirements and enhancements; although those changes are not so drastic and often beneficial and enable the user to be more efficient.
What do you dislike about Xactly Incent?
The only thing I dislike is when having to make drastic mid-year plan changes, where rules and formulas also need to change. This can sometimes become a little frustrating, but Xactly support is always available and quick to lend a helping hand.
Capterra: “Xactly – a Worthwhile investment”
Overall: We are able to process quarterly incentives accurately and quickly. This is saving us from having to make multiple adjusting payments after the fact. More importantly, it plays a role in reducing employee turnover as our sales force trusts their commission calculations and does not think they are being cheated by poor execution on the quarterly calculations.
Pros: Xactly is able to handle extremely complicated incentive calculations, utilizing data from multiple sources. It is flexible enough to accommodate rapidly changing organizations. From my perspective the best aspect of Xactly is the excellent customer support that comes with a license. The Xactly team is very responsive to address issues quickly, which is essential when trying to calculate incentive payouts in time for payroll deadlines.
Cons: Xactly does require significant investment to learn how to operate. It is a sophisticated program that has its own rules and processes. However, as a compensation professional, I have found it worthwhile to invest time to learn how to use Xactly. I used spreadsheets for years, but our profession is moving more and more towards full automation.
HubSpot App Marketplace:
No profile
TrustRadius:
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use the system as our source of truth for all commissions. Our reps are able to track their sales and commission payments using the system. Prior to implementing it exactly, we used an Excel spreadsheet to calculate commission. Then, I uploaded them to an outdated system; the reps had no visibility of their commission or how we came up with the numbers. Now that they can see it, they can inquire if items are missing or incorrect, and we can make it right, so they trust the process.
Pros
- Lay out of statements are easy for the reps.
- Reports are easy to pull.
- Auditing tools help.
Cons
- Non hierarchy-based reporting tools.
- No historical views of data.
- New views are hard to use.
Try QuotaPath for free
Try the most collaborative solution to manage, track and payout variable compensation. Calculate commissions and pay your team accurately, and on time.
Start Trial#1 QuotaPath
Top QuotaPath features:
- Performance Plan Modeling and Forecasting
- HubSpot and Salesforce visibility directly in those apps
- Multi-level payout approvals
- Mapping Manager
- Dynamic Teams
QuotaPath Pricing:
Ranges from $25 – $45 per person per month
What customers say:
QuotaPath is praised for its cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and ability to improve commission visibility and confidence among sales teams, with strong customer support and seamless integration with other tech stack tools.
#2 CaptivateIQ
Top CaptivateIQ features:
- SmartGrid™: ELT & Calculation Engine
- Assist: AI-Powered Intelligence
- Enterprise Workflow Automation
CaptivateIQ Pricing:
Not available on CaptivateIQ website or review pages
What customers say:
Users find CaptivateIQ highly customizable, user-friendly, and effective for clear reporting and commission calculation transparency, supported by a strong customer service team. However, some users note issues with navigation, the need for manual data exports, and limitations in filtering or sorting fields within the platform.
#3 Spiff
Top Spiff features:
- Advanced Reporting & Analytics
- Advanced Team Management
- Powerful Testing Capabilities
Spiff Pricing:
Not available on Spiff website. According to review pages, pricing starts at $75 per month per user billed annually.
What customers say:
Users appreciate Spiff for its visibility into commissions, ease of use, and intuitive navigation, comparing it favorably to other tools like Xactly. However, some users mention limitations in filtering by date, challenges in getting detailed deal breakdowns, and difficulties with managing clawbacks within the platform.
#4 Xactly
Top Xactly features:
- Compensation configurator
- Customized incentive statements
- Real-time reporting and dashboards
Xactly Pricing:
Not available on Xactly website or on review pages.
What customers say:
Users appreciate Xactly for its excellent customer support, ease of configuration, and accurate commission calculations, making it suitable for small companies. However, some users experience challenges with complex logic, difficult reporting, and problematic implementation processes.
Streamline commissions for your RevOps, Finance, and Sales teams
Design, track, and manage variable incentives with QuotaPath. Give your RevOps, finance, and sales teams transparency into sales compensation.
Talk to SalesWhat Is Best For The Sales Team?
As you weigh your sales commission software options, it’s essential to consider the direct benefits to sales reps when using each platform. These tools can not only help simplify compensation plan design and offer time-saving workflow automation, but they also provide reps with real-time reporting through customizable dashboards.
The right program offers reps transparency, boosts their understanding of earning commissions, increases plan buy-in, and motivates activities that drive quota and organizational objective achievement. When salespeople receive these benefits, team morale and retention are also bolstered.
Use the following checklist to help you evaluate solutions for your sales reps.
- Ease of Use and User Interface: How intuitive is the platform for sales reps?
- Real-time Insights and Data Accessibility: How does the platform provide sales reps with the information they need to perform their jobs effectively?
- Mobile Optimization: Can sales reps access and utilize the platform on their mobile devices?
- Integration with Existing Tools: How well does the platform integrate with other tools sales reps use daily (CRM, email, etc.)?
- Customer Support and Training: What resources are available to help sales reps learn and utilize the platform effectively?
- Gamification and Motivation: Does the platform offer features to motivate sales reps and foster a competitive spirit?
Sales commission software can address the challenges revenue leaders experience as they design and implement increasingly complex sales incentive programs. However, not all solutions are created equal, so it’s crucial to do thorough research.
Taking steps like looking at review site ratings, checking pricing, trying apps with a free trial, and reading actual user reviews can inform your selection.Learn more about QuotaPath’s user-friendly platform. Start a free trial or schedule time with a team member.