Best Salesforce Alternatives: 10 Salesforce CRM Competitors

Every dog has its day, and today we bring out one of the biggest pups in the CRM playground: Salesforce. This article brings you a great list of the best Salesforce alternatives. It’s a roundup of the best CRMs from Salesforce competitors which ranges from the simple and nimble to enterprise heavyweights. Ready? Let’s do this!

Top 10 Salesforce competitors with similar products

Here are the software companies like Salesforce that we think are the best Salesforce alternatives. Although they are all fairly similar, some Salesforce competitors will be better suited to your circumstances than others so read more about each Salesforce CRM alternative in the sections below. 

Of course, if you are not already familiar with everything a CRM solution can do for your business, perhaps you ought to educate yourself a bit further with some of our other resources on the best CRM platforms. Otherwise… Without further ado, let's take a look at the Salesforce competitor list.

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Here’s our full list of the best Salesforce alternatives 2022:

This best Salesforce alternatives summary has been compiled with an open mind sharpened with a critical edge to bring you what we think are the top CRMs like Salesforce. 

Not that we discourage anyone from checking out our Salesforce review, and thinking about the platform’s great AI and BI and many other tools. In the meantime, here are 10 good alternatives to Salesforce: 

1. HubSpot (best Salesforce alternative overall)

When it comes to customer relationship management, Salesforce vs HubSpot is considered a battle of titans. But the question of whether HubSpot CRM is truly better than Salesforce is not one that could be answered too easily. HubSpot is the brainchild of a couple of MIT eggheads who launched the company in 2005. 

The HubSpot platform began with inbound marketing, which they helped pioneer. This means instead of pushing ads on people to buy products, you offer people useful, interesting or entertaining content to pull people into your brand. It makes for better loyalty, which since HubSpot’s rise in popularity, other CRM platforms like Salesforce have also taken up inbound marketing as part of their offering of functionalities.

HubSpot CRM is best for:

• Startups

• Small businesses

• Medium-sized businesses

• Ecommerce businesses

• Inbound marketing

• Salesforce competitor

• Free CRM tools

Features

HubSpot’s platform is divided into marketing, sales, service, CMS (content management) and operations management. The CRM Suite encompasses many of the tools from these basic modules. Marketing gets you web forms, email marketing, ad management for social media and other venues, and a landing page builder. Sales process tools offer live chat, basic bots, quotes and invoicing templates, phone calls and email meeting scheduling, and deal pipeline management, among other tools.

For customer support, you can use many of the communication tools from marketing and sales. You also have ticketing, canned snippet responses, and real-time reporting on support rep productivity or ticket to resolution data. HubSpot adds automation to many of the features.

Pricing

• HubSpot CRM has a free version

• CRM Suite Starter starts at $45 per month billed annually

• CRM Suite Professional starts at $1,600 per month billed annually

• CRM Suite Enterprise starts at $4,000 per month billed annually

• Sales Hub starts at $45 for 2 users per month billed annually

• Marketing Hub starts at $45 per month billed annually

• Service Hub starts at $45 for 2 users per month billed annually 

HubSpot review

Visit HubSpot

2. Zoho CRM (best free Salesforce alternative)

There are quite a few free Salesforce alternatives on the market, as mentioned above, HubSpot CRM has a free version which is a decent substitute for Salesforce. However, the best free Salesforce alternative goes to Zoho CRM.

While the company behind Zoho goes back into the pre-dot.com boom days of the 90s, the brand Zoho was launched as a CRM solution in 2005. Ever since then, Zoho has been constantly bringing new business SaaS products to the market, covering everything from sales and marketing, to finance tools, to HR or IT platforms, business intelligence functionality, and beyond. 

If you’d like to find out more details about the differences between Zoho CRM vs Salesforce, check out our detailed comparison article.

Zoho CRM is best for:

• Startups 

• SMBs

• HR departments

• IT departments

• Finance industry

• Ecommerce

• Free Salesforce competition

Features

One good place to start with to describe Zoho CRM’s power is their sales force automation. This brings lead management and deal management to the table, all powered by easy to set up automated workflows. You also get sales forecasting and sales analytics. Omnichannel communication is another key set of tools. It lets reps unify their communication dashboard bringing together phone calls, social media messaging, live chats, emails and web forms.

Marketing automation with Zoho is replete with tools for email marketing campaigns including email templates, customer segmentation and lead nurturing. Finally, the CRM free plan from Zoho has lead and document management, contact management, and you get it all on their great CRM mobile app.

Pricing

• Zoho CRM Free Edition is good for 3 users

• Standard plan is $14 per user per month billed annually

• Professional plan is $23 per user per month billed annually

• Enterprise plan is $40 per user per month billed annually

• Ultimate plan is $52 per user per month billed annually

Zoho CRM review

Visit Zoho CRM

3. Microsoft Dynamics 365 (most similar to Salesforce)

To not know the name Microsoft means one’s had their head under a massive rock for decades. But fewer are aware that Microsoft does more than Office, Outlook and Xbox. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is their total suite of business applications above and beyond documents, slides and spreadsheets. 

What you get here is a CRM like Salesforce, albeit one perhaps more geared to larger companies and enterprises. The Salesforce vs Microsoft Dynamics debate is a hot one, which is why we name it most similar to Salesforce.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is best for:

• Large companies

• Enterprise level operations

• Government institutions

• Academic institutions

• Supply chain management

• Commercial organizations

• Similar to Salesforce

• ERP compatibility

Features

Dynamics begins with typical CRM system functionality, with a total customer experience management tool that gives you 360-degree views on all your contact information, among other CRM features. It helps single out higher value opportunities, improve retention and customer loyalty, get more cross-selling and upsells, cut back on churn, and slash the cost of sales conversions. There are marketing tools for creating customizable customer journeys with nice workflow automation, and these help streamline the work of sales teams to get leads through the sales pipeline more smoothly.

Other sales management tools do lead routing and lead scoring and a range of sales automation with Microsoft’s powerful AI, which is comparable to the Einstein AI tool that Salesforce has. It's easy to integrate LinkedIn Sales Navigator with Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement. One thing about Microsoft Dynamics is that it might not be as user friendly as Salesforce. 

Pricing

• Dynamics Sales Professional is $65 per user month

• Dynamics Sales Enterprise is $95 per user month

• Dynamics Sales premium is $135 per user month

• Dynamics 365 Marketing starts at $1,500 per month

• Dynamics 365 Customer Insights starts at $1,500 per month

Microsoft Dynamics 365 review

Visit Microsoft Dynamics 365

4. Pipedrive (cheaper alternative to Salesforce if you’re on a budget)

Pipedrive was first launched in 2010, so it’s not that old nor that new as an alternative CRM software. The platform was conceived by a couple of sales reps who wanted a CRM solution that put the business needs of salespeople first and foremost.

Now, Pipedrive is a solid sales CRM as well as a cheaper alternative to Salesforce, which is great for startups who need to operate on a lean budget. You can learn more about the differences and similarities between these two in our detailed Pipedrive vs Salesforce comparison.

With offices in Europe, the UK, and the USA, Pipedrive is also well known for great customer support for their users.

Pipedrive is best for:

• Small teams

• Startups 

• Companies on a budget

• Salespeople

• Sales managers

• Cheap Salesforce alternative

Features

Pipedrive is divided into three major modules. The first is all about selling. You get lead generation and deal management to make sure you streamline your sales cycle activity and never miss an opportunity to nudge a lead further down the funnel, or to ensure you don’t neglect an opportunity and have it drop out. All Pipedrive sales cycle data gets good analytics and real-time reporting too. Another huge part of Pipedrive is their buffet of email features.

You can create great looking email marketing campaigns with templates that are also highly customizable. There is smart contact filtering and segmenting, as well as campaign engagement reports. What’s more, Pipedrive is a great business software provider for their range of integrations, including, but not limited to, Pipedrive for Gmail which boosts both task and project management.

Pricing

• Essential plan is $14.90 per user per month billed annually

• Advanced plan is $27.90 per user per month billed annually

• Professional plan is $49.90 per user per month billed annually

• Power plan is $64.90 per user per month billed annually

• Enterprise is $99 per user per month billed annually

Pipedrive review

Visit Pipedrive

5. Freshsales (great Salesforce alternative if you want ease of use)

Freshsales is the sales package made by Freshworks. The Freshworks CRM tools are mostly nowadays found in the Freshsales package, but there also exist other Freshworks products like Freshdesk, Freshmarketer, Freshservice and Freshteam. That’s why you don’t really find anything called Freshworks CRM, as contact management forms one of the foundations of most of these other more specific SaaS products. Freshsales is a great Salesforce alternative for ease of use.

Freshsales is best for:

• Startups

• Small businesses

• Medium-sized businesses

• Sales teams

• Sales force automation features

• Ecommerce management

• Real estate companies

• Hospitality companies

Features

Freshsales by Freshworks hopes to be an aid to sales reps by giving them what it calls context-driven sales tools. This means you get deeper insights into your contacts, their networks, and overall sales trends. Automation features run throughout this sales platform to take over time-wasting work from sales agents. Web forms capture new customer data, and AI chatbots keep them engaged from the ge- go. Predictive tools do lead scoring to show you where your best ROI is or which contacts might be a challenge to convert into customers.

You also get a neat product catalog feature which is great for ecommerce operations. Freshsales gets extra points for an intuitive user interface, speedy onboarding, and overall ease of use, which makes this ideal for many industry verticals like real estate, hospitality, insurance, retail, education and more.

Pricing

• Freshsales offers a free plan

• Growth plan is $15 per user per month billed annually

• Pro plan is $39 per user per month billed annually

• Enterprise plan is $69 per user per month billed annually

• Marketing Contacts add-on starts at $100 for 5,000 contacts

Freshsales review

Visit Freshsales

6. SugarCRM (good Salesforce alternative if you need customer service)

Despite the sweet-sounding name, SugarCRM is more branded as an executive-style business app. The website wastes little space on cute company culture or brand ethos and gets down to the business of marketing, selling and giving support.

The helpdesk and other tools make SugarCRM a good Salesforce alternative if you need customer service. The website also has great resources like webinars and guides. You can learn more about the differences and similarities between these two tools in our SugarCRM vs Salesforce comparison.

Sugar CRM is best for:

• SMBs

• Sales teams

• Marketing agencies

• Customer service departments

Features

Your CRM network will grow with SugarCRM’s tools to automate the capture of data and sort it so that it’s searchable by customizable metrics. Sugar Market is powered by automation for speedier campaign work. You got your predictive lead scoring to help focus marketing efforts, as well as multichannel marketing that uses AI to streamline campaigns via email and social media. You can set up complex automated sales processes quite easily.

Finally, with customer support tools you can manage all issues and tickets from a powerful dashboard. There is great customer sentiment analysis which also monitors your support agents to ensure the best customer service experience.

Pricing

• Sugar Market starts at $1,000 per month billed annually

• Sugar Sell starts at $80 per user per month billed annually

• Sugar Serve starts at $80 per user per month billed annually

• Sugar Enterprise starts at $85 per user per month billed annually

• Sugar Pro starts at $52 per user per month billed annually

Visit SugarCRM

7. Zendesk (top Salesforce alternative for using API)

Zendesk has its origins squarely in the helpdesk and customer support arena, and once upon a time it would have been the best substitute for Salesforce if you wanted customer support. But right now, we’d say that their sales tool Zendesk Sell is the top Salesforce alternative for developers who like a robust API.

Read our Zendesk vs Salesforce Service Cloud comparison article to see how these two tools stack up.

Zendesk is best for:

• Startups 

• Small businesses

• Customer support

• Developers

• Ecommerce

• Services industry

Features

Zendesk Sell features email tools like email tracking, notifications and email automation. You can also access your email features with their mobile CRM app. There are also telephony features. Pipeline management and forecasting is on offer here. Support features let you reach out with live chat, messaging, social media, email, and voice. AI powered helpbots can deliver personalized customer experiences to customers in need of help.

There are many useful integrations that are a snap to set up. Then you get the set of SDKs and APIs so your developers can better integrate the tools your business needs with your full stack.  

Pricing

• Zendesk Sell starts at $19 per user per month billed annually

• Zendesk Support starts at $19 per user per month billed annually

• Zendesk Suite starts at $49 per user per month billed annually

Zendesk review

Visit Zendesk

8. Oracle NetSuite CRM (good Salesforce alternative for large businesses and enterprises)

Oracle is a behemoth for business software solutions. They do cloud infrastructure, on-premise applications, database software and many other widely used apps. Among those is NetSuite, which has a CRM and also enterprise solutions, making it a good Salesforce alternative for larger businesses. NetSuite also has suites for human capital management, professional services automation and accounting software.

Oracle NetSuite CRM is best for:

• SMEs

• Large businesses

• Enterprises

• Sales force automation

• Seamless ERP functionality

Features

NetSuite is ideal for large sales teams especially for team collaboration. Sales, accounting, credit, purchasing data is accessible by all. There are some pretty powerful sales trend watching and forecasting abilities here. Sales agents get tools to help speedily set up quotes and prices in a professional manner. This works perfectly with NetSuite ERP for those who use that software.

With marketing automation features there are lead generation, sales engagement management, lead qualification and conversion tracking. Marketing campaigns can be targeted at segmented audiences, and there are good real-time metrics on your marketing ROI.

Pricing

• For prices, visit the Oracle NetSuite page

Visit Oracle NetSuite CRM

9. Apptivo (top Salesforce alternative for small businesses)

Apptivo the company came into existence in 2009. The main focus of this SaaS was for smaller companies, especially ones who wanted to grow. Many people think this is a top Salesforce alternative for small businesses and startups, mostly because of its very competitive price tag. The Apptivo brand is quite straight-to-business, which means there’s a real salesperson’s beating heart at the center of this platform.

Apptivo is best for:

• Startups

• Small businesses

• Medium-sized businesses

• Retail, wholesale and ecommerce businesses

• NGOs

• Non-profits

Features

Lead generation starts with tools like web-to-lead forms and lead capturing with emails. You get a range of contact data management tools and can access them from one simple user interface. The Apptivo CRM has expansive G Suite integration. Other amazing customer relationship management features for sales are contracts, territory management, work orders, invoices, expense reports, estimates and sales receipts… and that’s not the half of them. Apptivo also offers project management tools like time tracking and project billing, which can be done by flat rate, milestones or time. 

Pricing

• Lite plan is $8 per user per month billed annually

• Premium plan is $12 per user per month billed annually

• Ultimate plan is $20 per user per month billed annually

• For Enterprise plan prices, contact the Apptivo

Apptivo review

Visit Apptivo

10. Nimble CRM (great Salesforce alternative if you like CRM email extensions)

One of the refreshing things about Nimble is its pricing plan. There is only one package, so users never have to feel like perhaps there are better, more premium features waiting for them if only they’d shell out more cash per month. This doesn’t mean that Nimble is an overly simple CRM, sales and marketing platform, however, as its toolkit is pretty thorough. You can even use it as a browser extension with Microsoft Office 365 and Outlook or Google apps like Gmail, or use the mobile app for iOS and Android. That's why this is a great Salesforce alternative if you like CRM email extensions or CRM mobile apps.

Nimble CRM is best for:

• Startups

• Small businesses

• Large businesses

• Gmail users

• Outlook users

• Email marketing

• Email sales

• Mobile CRM users

Features

Nimble really focuses on letting its users work anywhere, meaning both in physical spaces with great mobile apps, or inside your web browser or Microsoft and Google apps. Nimble prospector lets you track CRM actions inside your email or social media profiles like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. As a CRM, it has in-depth contact profiles, and applies data enrichment to your network for cleaner insights. Marketing tools let you create nice email marketing campaigns with templates.

You can do audience segmentation to target your campaigns more accurately. There is email tracking to monitor things like open and click-through rates. When it comes to sales, you got your basic deal management which helps optimize the sales process as leads move through the pipeline toward conversion.

Pricing

• Nimble CRM is $19 per user per month billed annually

Nimble CRM review

Visit Nimble

Which of the alternatives to Salesforce is a good choice for you?

That about does it for the best CRMs which are Salesforce.com alternatives. Have you figured out which is the best for you? Whether you’re looking for a Salesforce substitute or a Salesforce replacement, we know it’s no easy decision to decide between Salesforce vs other CRMs. But perhaps now that you’ve read this, the choice is easier. 

FAQs on the Salesforce CRM alternatives 

Who are Salesforce biggest competitors?

The list of competitors to Salesforce is long and growing all the time. But in terms of deep-pocketed rivals with similar platforms, Salesforce’s main competitors are probably HubSpot and Microsoft Dynamics 365. HubSpot competes for clients targeting inbound marketing, while Microsoft Dynamics competes for larger business and enterprise clients. 

Is the company called Salesforce or Sales Force? 

The company which was started in 1999 by Marc Benioff is called Salesforce, spelled as one word. Sales Force, with two words both capitalized, does not exist. Sales force automation simply refers to any tool or software that helps sales reps streamline their workloads and focus on selling.

What is Salesforce market share?

According to a 2021 study, Salesforce has a market share of 23.9% of the CRM market. This is up from a CRM market share of 19.8% in 2020. Other major market share players include Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle NetSuite CRM, SAP CRM and Adobe Experience Cloud.

Resources

• https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/salesforce-ranked-1-in-crm-market-share-for-eighth-consecutive-year/

• https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/salesforce-is-1-in-global-crm-market-share/