In our independent editorial review of retail CRM solutions, learn about the top options along with their primary use cases.
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:
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.
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:
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 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)
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.
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)
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.
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)
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.
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)
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.
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)
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.
Insightly offers CRM and project management software best for small businesses with ongoing client projects.
Price Range: Free to $99 per user, per month
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.
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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