RFQ software for request for quotation and quote management

Most RFQ software does not put RFQ in the entry plan

The price on the first card of a procurement pricing page is usually not the price of running an RFQ. Precoro publishes Core from $499 a month billed annually and Automation from $999 a month billed annually, and the vendor collaboration block with the supplier portal and RFPs, which is how Precoro runs a price quote across several suppliers, appears only from Automation. Tradogram publishes Essentials at $99 a month, or $950.40 a year, and its own compare table marks sourcing RFx, RFQ and RFP event management as an add-on on Essentials and included on Premium, which is a custom quote for 20 or more users.

Some well known procurement tools do not sell RFQ at all. Procurify's own help center says, in so many words, that Procurify is not designed to create a quote request, and offers a workaround that relabels a purchase order. ProcureDesk ($830 a month for 10 users, billed annually), Spendwise ($9 and $19 per user a month) and ProcurementExpress ($415 to $2,550 a month) publish clear prices, but none of them lists RFQ among its plan features. They are purchasing and approval tools. That is useful, and it is a different job.

At the other end, a few tools put RFQ in the base plan and publish it. AuraVMS lists unlimited RFQs with anonymous bidding and side by side quote comparison on its $4.99 per user a month plan, billed annually. RFQBeast publishes $83, $333 and $750 a month, billed annually, with all features on every plan and the limits set by components and suppliers contacted per month. Market Dojo sells Quick Quotes from GBP 100 per user a month and a single eSourcing event from GBP 1,000. Suppliers includes RFQ outreach on every plan, starting with Starter at $99 a month or $588 billed annually. So before you compare prices, ask each vendor one question: which plan is the cheapest one that sends an RFQ?

Most RFQ tools expect you to bring the supplier list

An RFQ is only as good as the suppliers who receive it, and this is where the category splits. Most buyer side tools invite suppliers you already have. Precoro's help center describes adding a supplier that already exists in your database or typing a new one in yourself. AuraVMS tells you to select the suppliers you already work with and send each a private link. Tradogram says it supports supplier discovery, but every workflow it describes is an invitation. Vendorful lets you open an event to the public, and states no supplier network.

A second group states, on its own site, that it finds new suppliers. Fairmarkit says its AI scans more than 500,000 suppliers globally and invites new ones automatically, and it sells to large enterprises. Coupa lets buyers browse thousands of pre-rated suppliers. Market Dojo connects to Veridion's supplier database. RFQBeast invites you to find and contact new suppliers by talking to its AI, with a stated focus on direct materials and bills of materials. RFQmatch runs a marketplace where buyers post RFQs free and suppliers pay credits to respond.

If you are a small team buying something new, that difference decides the whole project. Building the bidder list by hand is the slow part of an RFQ, and it is where a trading company gets mistaken for a factory. Suppliers is built around that step: the brief goes in, a vetted and ranked shortlist comes out, and the request for quote goes to that list. If you already have the list and need approvals and purchase orders, a purchasing tool from the first group may serve you better, and our purchase order software page covers that side.

Three kinds of software share the name RFQ software

Search for RFQ software and the results mix three products. The first is buyer side: you send requests to suppliers and compare what comes back. Precoro, Coupa, SAP Ariba Sourcing, Fairmarkit, Market Dojo, AuraVMS and Suppliers are in this group. The second is seller side: a machine shop or distributor uses it to quote the RFQs it receives. Paperless Parts builds quoting software for job shops of 5 to 500 people, and MFGCal's RFQ tracker follows quotations a manufacturer has been sent. The third is RFP response software, which helps sales teams answer security questionnaires and proposals.

All three rank for the same words, and several of the best of lists that come up first are written by a vendor that ranks itself first. That is not a scandal, it is how the category markets, but it means the list you read may not even separate buyer tools from seller tools. Check which side of the RFQ a product sits on before you look at its price. If you receive RFQs and want to answer them faster, you want the seller side group, and nothing on this page is built for that.

RFQ, RFP, and RFI are three different requests

Buyers use the three terms loosely and then wonder why the responses are impossible to compare. A request for information is exploratory: you are learning what is available and who can do the work, and you expect capability descriptions rather than prices. A request for proposal is used when you know the problem but not the solution, so suppliers propose an approach and you weigh method, team, and price together. A request for quotation is the narrow one: you already know exactly what you want, down to the spec and the quantity, and you are asking for a price against it.

That distinction decides how you evaluate. An RFQ is comparable on numbers because every supplier answered the same fixed spec, which is why price carries most of the weight. An RFP is not, because two suppliers can propose genuinely different solutions. If you find yourself explaining the requirement differently to each vendor, or scoring answers on approach rather than cost, you are running an RFP and calling it an RFQ, and the quote comparison at the end will not mean what you think it means.

What belongs in a request for quotation

A quote is only as precise as the request behind it. At minimum, an RFQ should carry the exact specification or drawing, the quantity and any volume tiers you want priced, the required delivery date, the delivery location and Incoterms if the supplier is overseas, packaging requirements, any certifications or test data the product must carry, your payment terms, and the deadline for responses.

The two lines buyers most often leave out cost them the most. The first is volume tiers: asking for a price at 500, 2,000, and 5,000 units in the same request shows you where the price actually breaks, and costs nothing to ask. The second is Incoterms. A quote at EXW factory gate and a quote delivered to your warehouse are not the same number, and comparing them straight is how a cheap-looking supplier turns expensive after freight, duty, and customs clearance.

How many suppliers should get the request

Three is the common floor and it exists for a reason: with fewer, you have no idea whether the price you were quoted is normal. Most buyers land between three and six for a routine part or product. Beyond that you are mostly adding admin, because every extra bidder means another set of clarifying questions to answer and another quote to normalize.

What matters more than the count is that every bidder is genuinely capable of the work. An RFQ sent to ten vendors where six cannot actually run your spec produces six polite declines, or worse, six optimistic quotes from trading companies who will subcontract it. Qualifying the list before the request goes out is what makes a small, tight bidder pool beat a large, unvetted one.

Comparing quotes on more than the unit price

The lowest unit price wins far less often than it appears to. Normalize each quote to a landed cost per unit for the quantity you will actually order: unit price at your real volume, tooling or setup fees amortized over the run, packaging, freight, duty, and any inspection or testing cost. A supplier who is a few cents higher per unit but charges no tooling can be cheaper on a first run and only lose on the second.

Then weigh the terms that are not money. Lead time decides whether you can hit a season. Payment terms decide how much cash is tied up before you have sold anything. Minimum order quantity decides whether you are buying a year of inventory to get the price. Keep those columns next to price in the comparison, so the decision reflects the whole cost of working with that supplier rather than one line of it.

Listicle prices often do not match the vendor's own page

Two numbers we saw in search results while researching this page did not survive a visit to the vendor. A ranking page stated that Precoro costs $19 per user per month; Precoro's own pricing page says Core starts at $499 a month billed annually. Another stated a GEP SMART starter price of $36,000 a year; GEP publishes no price on its own site. Both claims may once have been true, or may come from a quote someone received. Neither is what the vendor puts in writing today.

The same rule applies to everything on this page, including our table. Prices change, plans get renamed, and add-ons move between tiers. We read every figure below on the vendor's own site in September 2026. Before you sign, open the pricing page yourself and ask for the RFQ module by name in writing.

Contract length, onboarding and fees nobody puts on the first card

The subscription is rarely the whole cost. SAP Ariba Sourcing lists its price upon request, priced per user per year, with a contract of 1 to 5 years and auto renewal. Prokuria answers its own FAQ about implementation fees with "in most cases, yes", and puts simple setups at 2 to 4 weeks and complex ones at 5 to 10. Precoro says onboarding typically takes 4 to 6 weeks and that you can cancel with 30 days' notice. Kissflow sells fixed annual agreements.

Some vendors state an exit. ProcureDesk offers a 30 day money back guarantee and no contracts on monthly plans. AuraVMS offers a full refund within the first 7 days. Market Dojo sells a month of unlimited eSourcing with no long term commitment, or a single event, which suits a buyer who runs two big tenders a year. Tradogram gives a 20% discount for annual billing.

For a small team the practical test is simple. Add the subscription for the cheapest plan that includes RFQ, any implementation fee, the minimum contract length and the seats you need, and compare that total over twelve months. Suppliers is month to month with no contract on the monthly price, and the annual price is exactly half the monthly price times twelve.

Which RFQ software fits which buyer

If you run a large sourcing department with categories worth millions, reverse auctions and a contract lifecycle to feed, the enterprise suites are built for you: Coupa, SAP Ariba, GEP, Jaggaer and Ivalua all sell RFQ inside a wider source to contract platform, and none publishes a price. Fairmarkit fits an enterprise that wants tail spend quoted automatically. Market Dojo fits a team that wants e-sourcing events without a multi year contract. If you need approvals and purchase orders more than competitive bids, Precoro, Tradogram, ProcureDesk or Procurify are purchasing tools first.

If you are a founder, an operations lead or a small procurement team that needs to find the right manufacturer and get comparable quotes this month, the useful questions are whether the tool finds suppliers and whether RFQ is in the plan you can afford. That is the case Suppliers is built for. Start with a brief, read the shortlist with its evidence, and send the request. Our guide on how to write an RFQ covers what the request should contain, the supplier discovery page covers how the shortlist is built, and a ranked comparison of the tools with their published prices is in the best RFQ software for manufacturers and small buyers.