Ten Credible Alternatives to Salesforce

Salesforce is the leading CRM solution for good reason

Functionally, it’s one of the most advanced solutions in the commercial CRM segment.

The Salesforce ecosystem is clearly one of the richest, in terms ofintegrators, applications with theAppExchange, and training.

So if you’re looking for an alternative to Salesforce, it’s either that you’re looking for a lighter solution that costs less in time, money, and training, or you’re looking for a roughly equivalent alternative that doesn’t charge like a market leader

We’ve divided this article in 2 parts:

• The first part is for those looking for a lighter and cheaper alternative to Salesforce,
• And the second part is for those looking for an alternative to Salesforce with a similar functional scope.

Case 1: Salesforce is too big for you

Salesforce has become somewhat synonymous with CRM. But the solution is far too complex and expensive for the vast majority of its customers, and many lighter, modular, and easy-to-install alternatives are now very established.

For fairly basic CRM use – email tracking, sales pipeline & performance projections, creating sales proposals and sales documents, managing a shared calendar – the Salesforce Essentials plan will be a bit light.

You will soon find yourself on the Professional plan at $75 per user per month. If it is clearly very complete, it is very expensive, especially since you commit to a number of users over the year – and you will probably not use half of the features.

Our shortlist of Salesforce alternatives for (very) small businesses

Unlike Salesforce, most SMB CRM software vendors offer subscriptions with no annual commitment (monthly only, you can cancel whenever you want). More importantly, you can upgrade or downgrade much faster, and add or remove seats without having to pay for them for a whole year.

The rates we show here are monthly, all publishers offer significant discounts if you commit to a year.

Solution	Details	Rates
Pipedrive	A comprehensive, deal-centric CRM ideal for those managing large flows of prospects	175/month for 5 workstations on an equivalent Hubspot Starter version (Advanced plan)
Hubspot	At least as complete as Salesforce but much simpler, with additional marketing, help desk and CMS tools.	Free plan available 46/month for 5 workstations on the Starter version 460 / month for 5 workstations on the Pro version (very advanced)
Zoho	A solid CRM at the heart of a comprehensive software suite. Affordable and comprehensive	100/month for 5 positions on a roughly equivalent plan (Standard plan) Zoho also offers an ultra-light version (Bigin) at €9/month/user.
Monday	A new-generation project management tool with a comprehensive CRM suite, ideal for those who manage complex projects with their customers (consulting, MAO, etc.).	Free map available. For use comparable to Hubspot’s Starter, count €150 / month (Pro plan).
Agile	One of the most complete tools on the market at an unbeatable price, but rather cumbersome to set up.	Free plan available for up to 10 users – sufficient for use comparable to Hubspot Starter. For use comparable to Pro, count $30 / station / month

Among the alternatives to Salesforce, Hubspot’s Starter plan is a real challenger: at least as complete, but simpler, with a highly advanced marketing automation suite – marketing tools, help desk and CMS – enough to make Pardot blush.

There is a free plan, but you should expect to pay 46 euros/month for the Starter version, which is the closest to Salesforce. For that price, you get 5 users, 8 hours of calls, unlimited email tracking.

But also 1000 email templates, 1000 personal and team meeting links, 10 dashboards and 2 transaction pipelines. That’s a lot. Dashboards are a real bonus of Hubspot to track all the data related to your traffic.

The strong point? Hubspot is still much easier to set up and use for small businesses.

Zoho is a solid CRM at the heart of a comprehensive software suite.

It is one of the most affordable CRM for the number of features offered: count 100€ / month for 5 posts on a roughly equivalent plan. But Zoho also offers an ultra-light version, Bigin, at 9€ / month / user, focused on pipelines for VSEs.

The Standard Plan, which is the equivalent of Salesforce, includes all the automation, analysis anddata enrichment features. A very comprehensive plan, with extensive internal collaboration and customization features.

The advantage of Zoho is access to Canvas by Zoho, a no-code customization tool for your CRM that makes the user experience much more enjoyable.

Monday is primarily a next-generation project management tool, but it offers a comprehensive CRM suite, ideal for those who manage complex projects with their clients (consulting, MAO, etc.).

There’s a free plan, but for use comparable to Hubspot’s Starter, opt for the Pro plan, which costs around €150/month.

Although Monday is not as rich as Hubspot and Salesforce in terms of functionality, it is still quite complete: numerous integrations (Slack, Mailchimp, etc.), reporting, unlimited storage and number of guests, etc. Monday’s customer support is also known for its responsiveness.

Monday’s strength is its customization: the tool can be adapted to any sales process, which is ideal if you are a small team but manage long and complex sales cycles.

Agile is an ultra-complete tool with an unbeatable quality-price ratio but quite heavy to set up.

In terms of pricing, the free plan is available for up to 10 users and is sufficient for usage comparable to Hubspot’s Starter. For a use comparable to Pro, count $30 / station / month.

It is an ultra powerful software to manage a lot of communication flows with a lot of automation. It is therefore ideal for small and medium-sized businesses that want to manage marketing, customer service and business processes in one place.

In short, a tool with multiple functionalities that can therefore be a little too complex for companies that only have simple operations to manage.

Case 2: You are looking for alternatives with equivalent functional depth

Salesforce is fully committed to its leadership position, for better or worse, especially in terms of pricing and customer service.

Another drawback: the hosting and security of customer data entrusted to its CRM also raises many questions in recent years.

Our shortlist of alternatives to Salesforce for medium and mid-sized companies

Solution	Details	Rates
Hubspot	A real challenger to Salesforce in this segment too, thanks in particular to an ultra-complete marketing automation suite.	The Professional plan costs €910/month for 10 workstations, and the Enterprise plan, which is even more comprehensive, costs €1,100/month for 10 workstations but with an annual commitment.
Dynamics 365	Benefit from native integrations with the entire Microsoft universe, from Excel and MS Teams to the brand’s advanced logistics tools	From $65 / user / month if this is your first Dynamics 365 application – and only $20 / user / month otherwise. Viva Sales (highly recommended) is only included with the Enterprise plan ($95 / user / month – or $20)
Oracle CX	The CRM tool in the Adobe suite. It is obviously very complete, and very complex. It only corresponds to very advanced projects, and the arbitration is done on a case-by-case basis. But be careful: you’re buying the Adobe ecosystem, not a CRM.	Take a look at our article (and simulator) on the full cost of implementing CRM software.
SAP Sales Cloud	The ERP giant’s CRM tool – A rather “old school” vision of the software, but one that continues to convince	Take a look at our article (and simulator) on the full cost of implementing CRM software.
Odoo	Odoo is an open-source software suite that goes a long way. It’s also a very rich ecosystem with excellent service providers	Take a look at our article (and simulator) on the full cost of implementing CRM software.

We’re kind of forced to talk about Hubspot again in this segment because it’s one of the most serious competitors to the Salesforce hegemony.

These are two very established and solid solutions, but their approach is significantly different.

The biggest difference is in the ecosystem: Salesforce has a lot of control over the appexchange, while Hubspot has a much more open vision. Salesforce seeks to remain somewhat exclusive (much like Apple) while Hubspot works with whomever it wants (much like Microsoft). Coincidence or not, Apple is losing ground to Microsoft, and we have a similar feeling for Salesforce to Hubspot.

It’s a little bit the same with training, which is very much under Salesforce’s control. Hubspot, on the other hand, offers a free plan, and has been the subject of much, much discussion. On the other hand, SFDC is a bit of a downer after the completely failed acquisitions of Slack and Tableau.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is an ultra-complete suite of applications and native integrations with the entire Microsoft universe, from Excel and MS Teams to the brand’s advanced logistics tools.

It’s a very strong competitor to Salesforce, especially for large enterprises.

Dynamics offers classic CRM functionality – a total customer experience management tool that gives you a 360-degree view of all your contact information.

Added to this are marketing tools that enable the creation of customizable customer journeys with a high degree of workflow automation. You can also integrate LinkedIn Sales Navigator with Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement.

But where Dynamics is very strong is that you can automate and evaluate sales with Microsoft’s powerful AI, comparable to Salesfore’s Einstein tool.

Pricing-wise, Dynamics is also comparable to Salesforce: from $65 / user / month if it’s your first Dynamics 365 application – but only $20 / user / month otherwise.

Note that Viva Sales, Microsoft’s highly recommended AI tool, is only included with the Enterprise plan ($95 / user / month – or $20).

Oracle Netsuite is the CRM tool in the Adobe suite. This means you are buying the Adobe ecosystem, not just a CRM.

It’s obviously very complete, and very complex. This only applies to very advanced projects, and decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.

NetSuite is ideal for large sales organizations, especially with its collaborative features that make data accessible to all teams. The CRM offers quite powerful sales forecasting tools, which work perfectly with the NetSuite ERP.

For pricing, visit the Oracle NetSuite page.

SAP Sales Cloud is the ERP giant’s CRM tool, with a rather “old school” vision of the software that continues to convince.

The focus here is on CX suite, a suite of customer-focused solutions, which includes the full CRM functionality of SAP Sales Cloud – but SAP offers a wide range of enterprise software, from ERP to logistics management.

Like Salesforce’s former Tableau CRM tool, SAP offers some pretty powerful data analysis using AI. You get advanced predictive models that are also easy to visualize thanks to the SAP interface.

The added bonus is that you can integrate SAP CX with SAP Analytics Cloud to compile and analyze data from various departments.

Like Salesforce, the SAP CX suite benefits from the SAP ecosystem and offers 2,500 integrations that enable real-time data analysis using API-based integration with external data sources.

In terms of pricing, the SAP suite can be more expensive than the simple purchase of specific modules, but it is also this functional richness that makes its strength.

Odoo is an open-source software suite that goes a long way. It’s also a very rich ecosystem with excellent service providers.

Because of its open-source configuration, Odoo is one of the most modular and complete software: in terms of integration, it is unbeatable, and it is also one of the most advanced tools in terms of customization.

There are 3 Odoo plans:

• A free plan, which only gives access to one application but which can be a good starting point to familiarize yourself with the tool
• A standard plan, starting at 24.90 euros/month, also hosted on the cloud
• A customized plan at 37.40 euros/month, where the software is hosted locally.

Here’s a comparison by Odoo partner Cybrosys Technologies.