Salesforce CRM is a time-tested sales pipeline and customer management software solution with a ton of advanced features. However, the system can be hard to set up and use, and many companies don’t need or want to pay for Salesforce’s full suite of capabilities. Luckily, there are easier-to-use options with similar features for a lower price. To help, we looked at the main Salesforce competitors and determined the top alternatives, including an overall winner.
Here are the six best Salesforce alternatives for salespeople:
- Freshsales: Best overall alternative for sales features and usability (free starting price)
- Zoho CRM: Best alternative for digital marketing and customization (free starting price)
- Pipedrive: Best Salesforce alternative option with a la carte upgrades (14-day free trial)
- HubSpot CRM: Best free alternative software with paid tier options (free starting price)
- Dynamics 365 Sales: Best alternative for advanced sales features (30-day free trial)
- EngageBay: Best Salesforce alternative for contact activity tracking (free starting price)
- Insightly CRM: Best alternative for project management and sales (free starting price)
If you're still unsure whether or not Salesforce is right for you, check out our independent Salesforce CRM review. Otherwise, continue reading for a breakdown of the top Salesforce alternatives, which revealed Freshsales as the overall winner and the best for ease of use. Below, see how we assessed each CRM, including their use cases, pricing, and key features.
Note: All per-user prices are with a one-year commitment unless noted.
Top 4 Salesforce Alternatives Features
The best alternative CRM for Salesforce offer these tools:
Take data from your key CRM metrics, turn them into actionable resources, and visualize them through numbers, charts, or graphs with standard reporting tools and dashboards.
How We Evaluated Zoho CRM Alternatives & Competitors
Salesforce is a top CRM software with advanced sales tools and superb reporting capabilities. But despite these features, such a weighty system may not be worth the price tag or complexity for smaller businesses. To help identify the best Salesforce alternatives for you, we used six weighted scoring categories to assign each top option a quantitative score out of five, including primary use cases for each. Check out specific evaluation criteria below:
Evaluation Criteria
In our assessment of the best Salesforce alternatives, we placed the most weight on cost, core features, level of customization, and advanced features. We also looked into each CRM’s ease of use and available customer support.
We evaluated the subscription plans for each CRM's professional and enterprise levels, free trial length, billing options, and/or free version available.
We examined each CRM’s core offerings, like reports and dashboards, contact management, and sales pipelines.
What is the CRM’s capacity for scaling, customizing reports and dashboards, and integrating with existing software?
Does the CRM provide analytics, artificial intelligence, and forecasting management tools, and to what extent?
We considered how simple it is to set up and use each CRM, including the accessibility of their knowledge bases and certification courses. Then, we looked into real user reviews on sites like Capterra, G2, and TrustRadius.
Here, we evaluated the types of customer support, including phone, live chat, and email. We also looked into reviews from verified users on Capterra and G2.
Bottom Line: Best Salesforce Alternatives & Competitors
Salesforce is often thought of as the standard of CRM software, but it won’t fully serve every type and size of business. It doesn’t make financial sense to pay for features you can’t use, and customizing every detail is daunting for many offices. Take some time to figure out a checklist of needs and a few wish items, then use our list to find the best solution for you. Otherwise, read our independent review of the top CRMs for salespeople and teams to expand your options.
