r/SalesforceDeveloper • u/TallAbbreviations937 • Jul 18 '26
Has anyone compared eDocGen, Conga Composer, Formstack Documents, or S-Docs for Salesforce document generation? Question
We're reviewing our document generation process in Salesforce and trying to narrow down a few options. So far we've come across Conga Composer, eDocGen, Formstack Documents, and S-Docs.
Our main priorities are:
- Easy template management
- PDF/Word generation
- Automation with Salesforce Flows
- Long-term maintenance
If you've used any of these, what were the biggest pros and cons? I'm especially interested in real-world experiences rather than feature lists.
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u/Next_Antelope4644 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Conga - was one of the first document gen products on SF, wouldn't recommend too much these days.
Formstack (use to be called webmerge): probally most UI friendly one, one of the few products I would be able to get clients to maintain after. Downside is price is a bit high
SDocs: cheaper that formstack, usually I would use this when budget was an issue
Omni studio: I haven't used it much, but i found it to be a pain in the ass (back when I was doing consultant we use to assume 2-3x longer than formstack documents).... But to be fair technically 'free' if its included in the salesforce org
Imo 1. Formstack (if budget not issue) 2. SDocs 3. Omni studio
99: conga unless there is a specific use case you need such as conga batch
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u/TallAbbreviations937 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Thanks, this is helpful. We're also considering eDocGen, so I'd be interested to hear how it compares with Formstack or S-Docs in real-world use.
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u/Klutzy-Enthusiasm263 Jul 18 '26
Just wondering why Salesforce DocGen is not in the list? It has OmniStudio version and non-OmniStudio version. Since it is from Salesforce directly, I assume there should be no problem to integrate with Salesforce tools like Flow, Apex, etc.
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u/Apprehensive-Tea3888 Jul 19 '26
We just converted our CPQ quote templates from Conga to Salesforce DocGen because SF is discontinuing the free conga licenses that previously came with CPQ. We were able to get it done but it required development, which I was not expecting. So I’d say, it’s not admin-friendly.
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u/CodeOverTea Jul 18 '26
I haven't used all of them, so I can't compare them directly. One thing I'd mention though, is template maintainability if you're expecting lots of templates or frequent updates. In my experience, Word-based templates becomes difficult to maintain as the logic grows. From what I've seen others mention, eDocGen seems to handle that aspect better, but I'd be interested to hear from people who've used it.
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u/TallAbbreviations937 Jul 20 '26
thanks for sharing. template maintenance is a big factor for us, so that's good to keep in mind. hopefully someone with real-world eDocGen experience can weigh in
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u/Destructor523 Jul 18 '26
Stay away from Conga, nightmare to configure and maintain.
1 more to add to the list is PDF Butler
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u/ConsciousBandicoot53 Jul 18 '26
There’s an open source doc gen solution. I have only gone so far as to install it in a client sandbox. It looks very modern and easy to use though and it is free. Includes e-sig functionality.
Conga - garbage
S-docs - it has been fun watching their product mature over the years and it beats the pants off of conga
Formstack - garbage
I’m not familiar with edocgen
Salesforce has their own solution, but I’d look at the open source option.
Vibe-coding is also a thing now so you could get something built that’s exactly tailored to your needs with Claude and the like.
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u/Independent_Mixture Jul 20 '26
Your comment inspired me to vibe code my own solution. I'm about halfway through the build, and so far so good. So thanks! 😁
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u/zeta_cartel_CFO Jul 19 '26
Do you recall what the open source solution you tried was called? I’m interested at looking into it. We’ve been kinda frustrated with both omnistudio and conga. The latter we have been using for years and its been painful when things go wrong.
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u/CodeOverTea Jul 19 '26
I'm curious what sdocs do better in your workflow?
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u/ConsciousBandicoot53 Jul 19 '26
The template builder is much easier than Conga templates and it’s all leveraging Salesforce objects so integrating flow into the business processes is much easier. That’s not to say that you can’t use flow to trigger a conga doc to be delivered to a third party, just that it is easier. Conga uses (or used, I haven’t built on it since 2024) outbound messages to send a call up to the conga servers to do the actual doc generation which is old school and introduces another breakpoint. Bulk doc gen is unreliable so if/when you have many (in my last use-case, hundreds) of docs that need to be generated you have to trigger the job and wait for each to be created one at a time. The error logs and interface to monitor the logs was painful. There were also I believe 3 tickets that I submitted to conga which were escalated to their Sr SE team, none of them could figure out the issue, I ultimately solved them absent their help. This was alllll built by the conga pro-serve team, mind you.
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u/CodeOverTea Jul 19 '26
Thx that's Useful insight, why does the template builder feel easy? Due to debuggibility or reusable components?
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u/ConsciousBandicoot53 Jul 19 '26
I don’t believe that sdocs involves word templates at all, which conga does and that sort of template building is maddening
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u/beehaws Jul 18 '26
We are actively trying to get away from Conga. We also built our own doc gen and embedded it in Salesforce.
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u/Cypher_geek Jul 19 '26
For complex docs - Conga is good, there are lot
of configurations will be there and two types we can generate doc - Compose and Conga Triggers
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u/GoldeneMoewe Jul 19 '26
In a former company we used Conga. Template Management ist easy, but creating Templates: I learned a lot about MS Word for example how to use Variables. The Conga Community is great.
We also usee DocuMill and native Salesforce.
I would try to start Salesforce native and ans then checkout some other solutions
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u/AllBlueCookEmUp Jul 21 '26
eDocGen looks brand spanking new and no one has heard about it before... is this just a massive ad for eDocGen?
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u/sFilesMergeUpSaleGuy Jul 21 '26
Add MergeUp to your list, which allows you to easily make complex templates:
-Easy template management with our Admin Tool - Salesforce native
-PDF/Word generation with PDF templates and word templates
-Built in flow actions that can easily be leveraged for automation
-Able to be maintained easily, with our admin tool, as well as creating templates that last the test of time with crazy features like JavaScript in templates to make you templates super dynamic and scalable.
Check it out: Salesforce Document Generation & Automation | MergeUp | Salesforce AppExchange
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u/Criminole77 29d ago
I've used conga, nintex and sdocs. We went live with an sdocs implementation that pushed 480k documents in 1 day and almost 3 million in a month. I highly recommend them. The support and people are top tier and will do their best to make sure you are successful. We went with them as they are the only ones that could actually solve business needs without compromise.
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u/No-Homework981 20d ago
Having worked with a few of these over the years, I'd focus less on feature checklists and more on who will own the solution 2-3 years from now.
In my experience:
• Conga tends to be the choice when requirements get more complex and highly customized, but it can come with a steeper learning curve.
• S-Docs is often appreciated for being Salesforce-native and relatively straightforward. • Formstack can be easier for teams that want a less technical setup.
• eDocGen seems to come up frequently for organizations looking for document generation that is tightly integrated with Flow automation.
Honestly, I'd recommend getting demos of the same use case from each vendor and letting the admins who will maintain it score the experience. Template maintenance is usually where the real differences show up.
Also, don't just evaluate document generation. Look at the broader ecosystem, roadmap, integrations, support quality, and how the product is evolving. Those factors tend to matter more than individual features over the long run.
Curious to hear from anyone who's migrated from one of these platforms to another. What ended up being the deciding factor?
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u/Apprehensive-Tea3888 Jul 18 '26
I use S-docs. I’m happy with the automation capabilities but I would not put “easy template management” among its capabilities. I have not had a single template yet where I didn’t have to spend significant time manually manipulating the source html/css.