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What is Palette?
Cloud-based sales commission automation software designed for usage-based pricing and product-led growth (PLG) businesses. Automates commission calculations, provides real-time visibility to sales teams and finance, and enables scenario planning for commission structures. Founded December 2020, raised $6M Series A (Bain Capital Ventures lead) in May 2022.
Key features
Real-time commission calculation
Automatically calculates commissions based on custom rules; centralized single source of truth for commission data with audit trail and history logs
Sales team dashboards
Personalized performance dashboards updated in real-time showing commission accruals, payouts, quota progress, and deal tracking by rep
Commission plan designer
Low-code interface to set up complex commission logic, define payout schedules, and manage compensation rules
Scenario & simulation
A/B test compensation plans, run what-if analyses, and forecast cash flow impact before rolling out new commission structures
20+ native integrations
CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Close, Sellsy, Outreach, Pipedrive), billing systems (Stripe, Chargebee, QuickBooks, Xero, Pennylane, SaaSOptics), payroll platforms (Gusto, Rippling, Payfit, ADP), and raw SQL databases
Reconciliation
Reconciles invoice payments and customer data across CRM and billing systems; can trigger commission payouts based on invoice collection, usage thresholds, or product consumption
Multi-level management
Supports roll-up plans, manager plans, clawbacks, ramps, draws, and multi-currency for complex sales org structures
Sales challenges (Palette Challenges)
Run spiffs, contests, and short-term incentive programs alongside core commission plans
Palette pricing
Pay-as-you-go monthly billing available; 20% discount on annual billing. Flexible implementation fees. Admin seats are free across all plans.
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $790/month (or $590/month if billed annually) for up to 15 seats | Real-time commission calculation, personalized dashboards, unlimited admin seats, quota management, commission plan designer, payroll reports, 20+ native integrations, statement approval workflows, advanced payout schedules, data overriding, history logs, team management, Palette Challenges |
| Scale | $1,110/month for up to 30 seats (price decreases based on seat count: 20 seats available option) | All Starter features plus: advanced role-based access control, data transformation tool, commission release on invoice payments, multi-currency support, clawbacks, ramps and draws, commission data history backup, live chat support |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | All Scale features plus: single sign-on (SSO), dedicated customer success manager, dedicated Slack channel for support, custom data integrations |
Pros & cons
Pros
- + Built specifically for usage-based and consumption-based pricing — not a retrofit of traditional commission software
- + Comprehensive integration ecosystem reduces data silos across CRM, billing, and payroll systems
- + Real-time visibility reduces reliance on manual Excel-based shadow accounting
- + Scenario planning and A/B testing helps optimize compensation ROI before deployment
- + Reduces commission calculation errors and admin time (Pagefreezer case study: 50% reduction in admin time)
- + Supports modern go-to-market models with vested commission and consumption-based sales performance metrics
Cons
- − Pricing starts at $590-$790/month, which may be high for very small teams or bootstrapped startups
- − Requires integration setup and data reconciliation — not a plug-and-play solution
- − Limited information on customization ease for highly nonstandard commission logic outside the designer's capabilities
Who is Palette best for?
- • SaaS and software companies with usage-based pricing models
- • Product-led growth (PLG) businesses transitioning from traditional sales models
- • Companies with complex commission structures (multiple tiers, add-ons, consumption-based)
- • Mid-market organizations (targeting 100-1,000 employees) looking to reduce commission administration overhead
- • Finance and sales operations teams needing real-time commission visibility and forecasting
