Elentaria vs Elfsquad: CPQ or the whole cycle?

Elfsquad is for a manufacturer of complex, configurable equipment that needs its product rules in one place, so every salesperson, engineer and dealer can configure, price and quote a valid machine without asking engineering. Elentaria is for a manufacturer whose quotes are not the real bottleneck, because the time goes into everything around them: the RFQ that arrives by email, the approval on a special discount, the customer PO that does not match the quote, the delivery date, the invoice and the reorder. If the problem is getting the configuration right, Elfsquad is built for it. If the problem is the work before and after the quote, that is the case for Elentaria.

Elfsquad vs Elentaria at a glance

	Elfsquad	Elentaria
What it automates	Configure, price, quote and order for complex products: a rules engine, automatic pricing, BOM generation, 2D and 3D visual configuration, quote documents, approval routing and dealer pricing	The commercial work across connected stages: RFQ intake and qualifying, quotes prepared from the company's rules, approvals on non-standard terms, customer POs checked against the quote, order and delivery coordination, invoicing and payment follow-up, reorders
Where the automation stops	At the configured, priced, approved quote and the order handed to the ERP or CRM. Fulfilment, invoicing and collections are handled in the ERP	At judgment. Elentaria prepares quotes, orders and invoices for a person to approve and routes anything above a threshold or outside standard terms to the responsible person. It does not configure products
Who it is built for	Manufacturers of complex, customer-specific equipment: agriculture and construction machinery, packaging and processing machines, lifts, pumps, valves and drives. "200+ Manufacturers", logos include Handtmann, Cibes Lift Group, Damen and Zarges	Businesses where commercial work is heavy and repetitive, in manufacturing, wholesale and distribution, B2B software, consulting and agencies
Deployment	Cloud. Named integrations with Dynamics 365, Salesforce, Power Automate, Odoo, Exact Online, ECI Ridder iQ and Windchill. Elfsquad states a first go-live within 30 days	Configured per company around its own rules, terminology and approvals, working inside the ERP, CRM, email and documents already in place. Nothing is migrated
Pricing model	Not published. One plan, unlimited users, no per-user fees, one price for implementation and license. Add-ons for showroom, dealer management, testing environment and advanced visualisation	Not published. Scoped on a live demo, matched to the workflows in scope
Best when	The quote is slow or wrong because the product is complex and the rules live in a few engineers' heads	The configurator, or the spreadsheet, is fine, and the cost is the chasing, checking and re-keying around each quote and order

What Elfsquad does well

Elfsquad was founded in 2016 in Drachten, in the Netherlands, and opened a second development hub in Gdansk, Poland, in July 2025, according to its own announcement. It calls itself "the world's first business-led CPQ solution" on elfsquad.io, and the phrase is the product's main idea.

The first strength is who owns the rules. The CPQ page puts it simply: "Model product logic, variants, and rules once, and use them everywhere." The rules engine validates each configuration as it is built and catches conflicts before a quote reaches a customer. Pricing, discounts and margins follow from the configuration rather than from a separate price sheet. For a machine builder whose configuration knowledge sits with two senior engineers, getting that logic into a system the business can maintain is the real win.

The second is depth for engineered products. Visual configuration in 2D and 3D with CAD integration, a project configurator for complete systems rather than single machines, BOM generation, branded quote documents, and approval routing by value, region or product type. The industries it names, packaging machinery, construction equipment, lifts, pumps and valves, are exactly the companies where a wrong option combination becomes a production problem.

The third is licensing. The pricing page offers "One clear plan. No hidden tiers, no per-user fees, no surprises", with unlimited users and one price covering implementation and license. Per-seat CPQ pricing tends to keep service staff, engineers and dealers off the system. Elfsquad's model removes that reason.

Its implementation page describes Elfsquad modelling the products from the customer's drawings, price lists and specs, with "Real use within 30 days" for the first go-live. On Capterra it holds 4.5 out of 5 from 13 reviews, with customer service rated 4.7, and reviewers praise that "you can make everything yourself" and the short support reaction times. Its own published results include "7x Faster Error-Free Quotes Created" and "75% Less Faulty Production", vendor figures rather than audited ones.

Where teams start to hit limits with Elfsquad

None of these are about whether the configurator works. They are about where a configurator's job ends.

The first is the work before the configurator opens. In many manufacturers, a request arrives as an email with a drawing, a spec sheet or a forwarded tender. Someone has to read it, decide whether it is worth quoting, find the customer's terms, and only then start configuring. Elfsquad's pages describe what happens once a salesperson or dealer is in the configurator. They do not describe reading inbound requests.

The second is the work after the order. Elfsquad's pricing page describes its scope as "all steps from configuration to order". After that, the order lives in the ERP. The customer PO that arrives with a different quantity or price than the quote, the confirmed delivery date that slips, the invoice that has to match what was agreed, the payment that is late and the spare-parts reorder that nobody chased are all outside the product, by design.

The third is effort. Capterra reviewers mention a learning curve, a system that can become "too complex" because of how much it can do, and ERP integration that takes technical work. One reviewer writes that "the implementation gets left to the user", while Elfsquad's own implementation page describes its team modelling the products. Ask for a reference customer on your ERP before you sign.

The biggest difference

Elfsquad is a product model. It holds what can be built, how the options depend on each other and what each combination costs, and it makes sure every quote that leaves the building describes a machine that can actually be made. The bet is that if the product logic is right, quoting becomes fast and production errors disappear.

Elentaria is a commercial operations layer. It does not hold a product model and does not decide whether a configuration is valid. It reads the RFQ that came in by email, checks it against the customer's terms and the company's pricing rules and approval limits, prepares the quote or the next step for the person who signs off, and carries the same piece of work forward: the customer's PO compared with the quote, the sales order prepared in the ERP, the delivery confirmation followed up, the invoice created from what was agreed, the reorder noticed when it is due. Anything above a threshold or outside standard terms goes to the responsible person rather than being actioned.

That mechanism decides the fit. If your quotes are wrong because nobody can keep track of which options work together, you need a product model, and Elfsquad is a serious one. If your quotes are right but take a week because of everything around them, a better product model will not touch that week. We walked through those stages in the B2B commercial operations process from quote to cash.

When Elfsquad is the better choice

Pick Elfsquad if your products have many options and dependencies and a wrong combination costs money on the shop floor. Configuration logic is specialist work, and Elentaria is not a configurator.

Pick Elfsquad if you need 3D or CAD-linked visual configuration, BOMs generated from the quote, or a dealer channel that configures and prices on its own within your rules.

Pick Elfsquad if many people need access, from engineers to dealers, and you want one plan without counting seats. And pick it if you run Dynamics 365, Business Central, Ridder iQ or Salesforce, which it names as integrations on its own site.

When Elentaria is the better choice

Choose Elentaria when quoting is not mainly a configuration problem. When RFQs arrive by email and wait days before anyone qualifies them, when special prices and terms are agreed in threads and the approval cannot be found later, when customer POs are re-keyed by hand and checked against the quote by eye, and when delivery updates, invoices and reorders depend on someone remembering.

Choose Elentaria when you want that work run by your own rules and approvals, inside the ERP, CRM and inbox you already use, without migrating anything.

Watch out for the obvious: Elentaria is not a replacement for Elfsquad. It has no rules engine for product options, no 3D configuration and no BOM generation. If you run a configurator, keep it as the place where products are configured and priced, and let Elentaria work on the requests, approvals, orders and invoices around it. For the wider field of tools, see best quote-to-cash automation tools for manufacturers in 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is Elfsquad?

Elfsquad is a CPQ, configure price quote, platform for manufacturers of complex, customer-specific products. It was founded in 2016 in Drachten, the Netherlands, reports more than 200 manufacturers as customers, and names Handtmann, Cibes Lift Group, Damen and Zarges among them. It covers product, visual and project configuration, pricing, quote documents, BOMs, approvals and dealer management.

How much does Elfsquad cost?

Elfsquad does not publish prices. It sells one plan with unlimited users, no per-user fees and one price for implementation and license, so the honest answer is pricing on request. Add-ons for an online showroom, dealer management, a testing environment and advanced visualisation are priced on top.

Is Elentaria an alternative to Elfsquad?

Not for product configuration. If you need a rules engine that makes sure every quote describes a buildable machine, look at Elfsquad and other configurators. Elentaria covers a different layer: the commercial work before the configurator opens and after the order leaves it, set up around your own rules and approvals.

Can Elentaria and Elfsquad work together?

Yes, and for a manufacturer that already runs a configurator that is the realistic setup. Elfsquad stays the place where products are configured, priced and quoted. Elentaria handles the inbound RFQs, the approvals on non-standard terms, the customer PO checked against the quote, and the order, delivery, invoicing and reorder work around it, preparing each step for a person to approve.

Which one fits a mid-sized machine builder?

Count where the days go. If they go into working out which options fit together and getting engineering to check every quote, a configurator like Elfsquad is the fix. If the quote itself is quick and the days go into qualifying requests, chasing approvals, re-keying orders and following up deliveries and invoices, that work sits outside any configurator.

If you want this written for manufacturers rather than in the abstract, start with manufacturing.