Product configurator software
Product configurator software: choose it around the decisions it must make.
A product configurator helps a buyer or salesperson choose a valid product. The right approach depends on how your products vary, where your rules live, and what must happen after a selection.
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A selector finds an existing item
If each sellable product already has a fixed SKU, a searchable catalog or selector may be enough. A salesperson filters by size, material, or rating and picks a stocked item. Before buying a configuration engine, check whether the real problem is finding the right existing product. Good search and clean product attributes may resolve that narrower need.
A price book defines valid choices and prices
Many manufacturers already publish the rules: a size grid per series, adders with units, and footnotes about limits and minimums. A price-book configurator applies those directly instead of enumerating every combination. ReadyVariant imports them with reviewed conversions and cites the source cell for every price. Try the door and frame demo to see a size grid, adders and a fire-label rule working together.
A configuration engine applies relationships
Some products cannot be described economically by listing every combination. Choices may depend on dimensions, engineering constraints, or assemblies within assemblies. Before choosing software, write down examples of both valid and invalid combinations and ask each vendor to demonstrate how they are modeled. ReadyVariant applies the rules in your rule sheets and confirmed footnotes (allow, forbid, require, limits and review) and combines door, frame and prep components into one opening, but it does not offer a general-purpose constraint solver or arbitrary workbook logic.
A visual configurator explains appearance
Images or interactive 3D can help when customers must understand shape, finish, or placement. Treat visualization as a separate requirement from validity and pricing: an attractive model does not establish that the configuration can be manufactured. ReadyVariant’s public door, window, louver and grille samples demonstrate options, reasons and prices; the customer preview does not generate 3D models, shop drawings or CAD.
A configurator on your website
Some buyers want to configure before they call. A website configurator should offer only valid choices, explain why an option is unavailable, and send the request to sales without exposing the price book. In ReadyVariant, a website link embeds one published catalog version, with or without prices, and each request arrives as a draft project. Try the live window, louver and grille samples to see the reasons and fixes a buyer would see.
Decide what the output must contain
List the information needed by the next person: selected options, quantities, customer details, a price, or perhaps a manufacturing bill of materials. ReadyVariant produces branded project quotes, line by line, as a PDF and a private link the customer can accept online, followed by an order acknowledgment and a production CSV without prices. If your next step requires CAD, production routings, or ERP order creation, evaluate those capabilities explicitly rather than assuming every configurator includes them.
Common questions
What is product configuration software?
Software that lets a salesperson, dealer or buyer choose a valid combination of options for a configurable product and, usually, see its price. It is also called a product configurator, or CPQ when it produces the quote as well.
What is the difference between a product configurator and CPQ?
A configurator decides which options can go together. CPQ (configure, price, quote) adds the pricing and the quote document, with customers, terms, revisions and acceptance.
Can a product configurator run from our existing price book?
If your products are priced from a published book with size grids, adders and rules, yes. ReadyVariant imports those sheets directly; products that need engineering calculations or CAD need a different kind of configurator.
See it with your own data.
Start with one spreadsheet and a result you already know.