End of sale vs end of life: what each means, and which one Salesforce CPQ is
End of sale means the vendor no longer sells the product to new customers; existing customers keep it. End of life means the product is no longer supported or maintained. Salesforce CPQ is end of sale (since March 2025) and explicitly not end of life: existing customers can renew, add users, and receive support, and no end-of-life date has been announced. The two terms are often swapped; the difference decides your timeline.
The definitions, from Salesforce
| End of sale | End of life | |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce’s wording | “Salesforce is no longer selling new Salesforce CPQ licenses to new customers. Existing customers keep their licenses, add new users and can continue to renew.” | “A product is no longer supported or maintained. That has not happened with Salesforce CPQ.” |
| New customers | Cannot buy. | Cannot buy. |
| Existing customers | Keep licenses, renew, add users. | Typically must migrate by a date. |
| Support | Continues (maintenance phase: support and critical fixes). | Ends. |
| New features | None. | None. |
| Announced date | March 2025 (Salesforce CPQ). | None announced for Salesforce CPQ. |
Source: Salesforce, “Product End of Sale (Not End of Life)”, July 10, 2026. Salesforce’s general approach to retirements is in its product and feature retirement philosophy.
What end of sale changes in practice
- Your contract: nothing. Salesforce: “It doesn’t. You can continue using CPQ, renew licenses, add users, and receive support under your existing contract terms. There is no forced migration.”
- The product: frozen. Maintenance phase, no new features; investment goes to Revenue Cloud Advanced.
- Documentation: reduced. Online CPQ help was retired in July 2026 in favor of a single PDF (KB 005388761).
- The ecosystem: shrinking. Fewer new admins learn SBQQ; partner attention moves to the successor.
- Your leverage: declining slowly. Each renewal is negotiated for a product the vendor would prefer you left.
What end of life would change
If Salesforce ever announced an end-of-life date for CPQ, support would end on that date and existing customers would need to be off the product by then. That has not happened. Salesforce’s retirement philosophy commits to notice before retirements; the practical planning assumption is that the constraints above tighten before any date is set. Timeline of what has and has not happened: Salesforce CPQ end-of-sale timeline.
Why the wording matters
Vendors and partners sometimes describe CPQ as “end of life” or “retired” to create urgency. On Salesforce’s own definition that is false, and treating it as true leads to rushed migrations. The accurate framing is calmer and more useful: you have time, the product will not improve, and every renewal is a decision. Use the time to compare the successor and the alternatives properly — Salesforce CPQ vs Revenue Cloud Advanced, the migration hub, and the calculator.
No. Salesforce says it is end of sale, not end of life: no longer sold to new customers, but supported, renewable, and expandable for existing customers. No end-of-life date has been announced (Salesforce).
End of sale stops new sales; support continues. End of support (a component of end of life) stops support. Salesforce CPQ is end of sale with support continuing in a maintenance phase (Salesforce).
Yes. Salesforce says existing customers can renew licenses, add users, and receive support under existing contract terms (Salesforce).
Not necessarily. There is no deadline. The reasons to plan a move are practical: no new features, reduced documentation, and a shrinking admin pool. Compare the successor and the alternatives before your next renewal rather than after — start at the migration hub.
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Published licence prices, a fixed implementation fee, and typical timelines by source platform.