6 Best Salesforce Alternatives & Competitors 2022

Take a look at our independent editorial review of the top Salesforce alternatives and competitors, along with the primary use case for each.

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 mix of features, pricing, and usability (free starting price)
  • HubSpot CRM: Best free Salesforce CRM alternative with paid tier options (free starting price)
  • Pipedrive: Easy-to-use Salesforce alternative with a-la-carte upgrades (14-day free trial)
  • Zoho CRM: Best alternative for digital marketing features & customization (free starting price)
  • Dynamics 365 Sales: Best Salesforce alternative for enterprise companies (30-day free trial)
  • Insightly CRM: Best Salesforce alternative for project management & 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 below for a breakdown of the top alternatives and which one is best for you.

How We Evaluated the Best Salesforce Alternatives & Competitors

Salesforce is a top CRM tool with advanced sales features such as superb filtering, reporting and task management. But despite all its capability, 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 our specific evaluation criteria below:

Evaluation Criteria

We looked for the best Salesforce alternatives that scored highly on pipeline management functions, core features offered, integrations, and price. We also looked for options easier to use compared to Salesforce.

Pricing:
25%
General Features:
25%
Ease of Use:
20%
Advanced Features:
15%
Customization:
10%
Customer Service:
5%

Note: All per-user prices are with a one-year commitment unless noted.

An overall winner clearly emerged across all criteria, shining in several categories. Freshsales scored the highest for levels of customer service provided and tied with others in advanced features and ease of use. Freshsales also scored highly in general features. Read on for how well Freshsales and all the evaluated CRMs fared as competitors to Salesforce.

Freshsales: Best Overall Salesforce Alternative

Freshsales offer the best alternative mix of sales features, price, and overall usability.

Price Range: Free to $69 per user, per month (21-day free trial)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full General Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Advanced Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customization star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customer Service star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full

Pros:

  • Easy to customize
  • Advanced AI features
  • Free tools for 3 users

Cons:

  • Growth tier is limited
  • Missing some marketing features
  • Limited lead generation capabilities

Freshsales is a top-rated CRM offering a free tier as well as paid tiers with advanced sales, lead generation, and collaboration features. Its free tier includes basic contact management as well as live chat and a built-in phone dialer. Upgrade into one of its premium options for advanced sales and collaboration features such as robust reporting dashboards and an AI-assistant that helps with sales forecasting, auto-reminders, and lead engagement.

Although Freshsales is rated as our top Salesforce alternative, it's missing some marketing features and it only includes three free users. If you need a more robust free option, try HubSpot CRM, and for robust marketing features check out Zoho CRM.

Freshsales Pricing

  • Growth: $15 per user, per month (free for 3 users)
  • Pro: $39 per user, per month
  • Enterprise: $69 per user, per month
  • Free Trial: 21 days
  • Integrates with Freshworks' help desk platform

Freshsales Key Features

  • AI Assistant: Compiles insights on customers and prospects for targeted engagement.
  • Free Phone Dialer: Communicate with via a built-in business phone.
  • Free Chat and Facebook Messenger: Engage customers where they spend their time.
  • Web Forms: Build customized forms to embed on your website and capture more leads.
  • Journey Builder: Automatically manage your customers through the sales process.

freshsales dashboard example

Visit Freshsales

HubSpot CRM: Best Free Salesforce Alternative

Competitive free sales tool helping salespeople manage leads, contact data, and tasks with the ability to add more functions.

Price Range: Free to $1,200 per month (Sales Hub)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full General Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Advanced Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customization star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customer Service star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full

Pros:

  • Robust free plan
  • Simple to get started
  • Good task management

Cons:

  • Higher tiers are pricey
  • Lead scoring is an upgrade
  • Live support is an add-on

HubSpot CRM offers a free CRM with a visual pipeline and basic sales tools as well as seamless integration with the free tiers of HubSpot's marketing and service platforms. With their free tier you can store up to one million contacts for an unlimited number of users, track deals, build forms to capture leads, and more. Upgrade to paid tiers for access to customized reporting, conversation routing, and other advanced features.

HubSpot's free tier may be robust, but its paid tiers can be pricey for small teams and are missing some marketing features. If you need a better-priced advanced option, try Freshsales for sales features or Zoho CRM for a mix of marketing and sales.

HubSpot CRM Pricing

  • Free-for-Life: Supports unlimited users
  • Sales Hub Starter: Starts at $45 for up to 2 paid users
  • Sales Hub Professional: Starts at $450 for up to 5 paid users
  • Sales Hub Enterprise: Starts at $1,200 for up to 10 paid users
  • Integrates with HubSpot's marketing and service platforms

HubSpot CRM Key Features

  • Custom Dashboard: Shows where deals sit in the pipeline.
  • Free Plan: Unlimited free plan supports unlimited users, with no credit card necessary.
  • Email Sync and Templates: Integrates with Gmail and Outlook.
  • Automations: Sales activity and deals are logged automatically.
  • Notifications: Get company insights and track email opens and other prospect activity.

Hubspot free crm dashboard

Visit Hubspot CRM

Pipedrive: Best for Add-On Upgrades

Pipedrive offers an intuitive pipeline tool with core sales features as well as add-on upgrades like LeadBooster.

Price Range: $14.90 to $99 per user, per month (14-day free trial)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full General Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Advanced Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customization star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Customer Service star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full

Pros:

  • Easy-to-use interface
  • A-la-carte upgrades
  • Advanced mobile app

Cons:

  • Missing some marketing features
  • No free tier available
  • Can create duplicate contacts

Pipedrive is a well-known CRM with a highly visual pipeline offering core sales features. Its defining feature-set, however, are its add-on upgrades you can purchase a-la-carte allowing you to choose the features you want. These upgrades include things like LeadBooster, which helps with lead generation, Web Visitor, which tracks prospect interactions with your website, and Smart Docs, which helps with contract and document management.

While Pipedrive is great if you need a visual tool with add-on upgrades, it's missing some core features in its standard tiers and doesn't offer a free option. For more out-of-the-box sales features, try Freshsales, and for a robust free option check out HubSpot CRM.

Pipedrive Pricing

  • Essential: $14.90 per user, per month
  • Advanced: $24.90 per user, per month
  • Professional: $49.90 per user, per month
  • Enterprise: $99 per user, per month
  • Free Trial: 14 days

Pipedrive Key Features

  • A-la-carte upgrades: Only pay for the features you need.
  • Visual Pipeline: Offers an intuitive and easy-to-use pipeline tool.
  • Live Chat: Ability to use live chat or chatbot to source leads from conversations.
  • Task Sync: Schedule emails, calls, and more remotely.
  • Web Forms: Online form builder to capture leads from web traffic.

Pipedrive Reporting & Dashboards

Visit Pipedrive

Zoho CRM: Best for Digital Marketing Features

Zoho CRM offers robust digital marketing features as well as core pipeline features with advanced customizations.

Price Range: Free to $52 per user, per month (15+ day free trial)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full General Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-full star-fullstar-full Advanced Features star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Customization star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customer Service star-fullstar-full star-fullstar-full

Pros:

  • Generous free plan
  • Highly customizable
  • Good value for small businesses

Cons:

  • Steep learning curve
  • Limited AI support
  • Limited third-party apps

Zoho CRM is a customizable, feature-rich CRM offering advanced digital marketing features like social media management. Its free tier is basic yet offers a visual pipeline, and its paid options offers customizable pipeline fields, advanced data filters, invoicing and price quotes, as well as an AI-powered sales assistant. This makes Zoho CRM a great salesforce alternative for those generating leads online or those needing a customizable pipeline.

Zoho CRM is an advanced alternative with marketing and sales features, but its interface can be hard to use. If you're looking for a robust yet easy-to-use alternative, check out Freshsales, and for a more robust free option, try HubSpot CRM.

Zoho CRM Pricing

  • Free Forever: Supports up to 3 users
  • Standard: $14 per user, per month
  • Professional: $23 per user, per month
  • Enterprise: $40 per user, per month
  • Ultimate: $52 per user, per month
  • Free Trial: 15 days; 30 days for Ultimate tier

Zoho CRM Key Features

  • Lead Management: Identifies qualified leads and scores them.
  • Customization: Layouts can be modified to capture essential information.
  • Automation: Segments and assigns leads and creates workflows to convert.
  • Collaboration Tools: Connects team members and streamlines communication.
  • Mobile App: Connect from the road and scan business cards for instant lead gen.

Dashboard in Zoho CRM

Visit Zoho CRM

Dynamics 365 Sales: Best for Enterprise

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales offers an enterprise-level feature-set with attractive pricing compared to Salesforce.

Price Range: $65 to $162 per user, per month (30-day free trial)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full General Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Advanced Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customization star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customer Service star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full

Pros:

  • Business card scanner
  • Integrates with Microsoft Office
  • Can include LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Cons:

  • Doesn't integrate with G Suite
  • Missing some marketing features
  • Entry tier is basic

Dynamics 365 Sales is the enterprise-level CRM solution offered by Microsoft. While it doesn't integrate with G Suite, it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Office and offers advanced sales features such as predictive lead scoring, relationship analytics, call transcriptions, pipeline analysis, and more. Its highest tier even offers embedded LinkedIn Sales Navigator directly within the CRM, syncing activities, contacts, and leads between the two systems.

Dynamics 365 Sales is a solid enterprise alternative to Salesforce, but it can be pricey for some and only integrates with Microsoft Office. If you need a powerful option that is more affordable and integrates with G Suite and others, visit Freshsales.

Dynamics 365 Sales Pricing

  • Professional: $65 per user, per month
  • Enterprise: $95 per user, per month
  • Premium: $135 per user, per month
  • Relationship Sales: $162 per user, per month
  • Free Trial: 30 days

Dynamics 365 Sales Key Features

  • Microsoft Office Integration: Seamlessly integrate with the Microsoft Suite.
  • Contextual Insights: Predictive forecasting, scoring, and sales intelligence.
  • Call Transcriptions: Transcribe calls and analyze based on keywords and more.
  • Embedded Phone Dialer: Connect with contacts via phone or email.
  • Workflow Automation: Set up tasks to create automatic sales activities.

microsoft dynamics 365 dashboard

Visit Dynamics 365 Sales

Insightly: Best for Project Management

Insightly offers CRM and project management software best for small businesses with ongoing client projects.

Price Range: Free to $99 per user, per month

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full General Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-full star-fullstar-full Advanced Features star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Customization star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Customer Service star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full

Pros:

  • Intuitively designed
  • Project management tools
  • Wide variety of integrations

Cons:

  • Can be pricey
  • Customer support costs extra
  • Free plan is limited

Insightly CRM offers a CRM with project management tools so organizations can manage post-sales customer relationships. Its interface clearly shows tasks, emails, meetings, calls, and more to ensure goals are met and deliverables are timely. Manage marketing campaigns through automation, too, with the CRM’s data-driven insights. This makes this option great for service-based businesses with long-term customer relationships.

Insightly may be great for project management, but there are better options for sales and marketing features. For a better sales-centric option, check out Freshsales, and for a better mix of sales and marketing try Zoho CRM.

Insightly Pricing

  • Free Forever: Supports up to 2 users
  • Plus: $29 per user, per month
  • Professional: $49 per user, per month
  • Enterprise: $99 per user, per month

Insightly Key Features

  • Marketing Tools: Uses data to create marketing automations.
  • Integrated Project Management: Streamlines and tracks tasks and pipeline progress.
  • Email Management: Create campaigns, send bulk emails and track delivery and opens.
  • Lead Management: Leads are automatically analyzed and assigned.
  • Workflow Automations: Automatically assign tasks, alerts, update records, and more.

Insightly CRM dashboard

Visit Insightly CRM

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. But there are many high performing options available to fit every budget. Take some time to figure out a list of needs along with a few wish items, then use our list to find the best solution for you.

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