Best Salesforce Alternatives Shortlist
I looked at a wide-variety of CRMs to find the very best ones available. After weighing the pros and cons, I narrowed the list down to these top Salesforce alternatives:
- HubSpot - Best all-in-on sales management solution
- Zoho CRM - Best for predictive intelligence
- Pipedrive - Best for pipeline visibility
- NetSuite CRM - Best for enterprise businesses
- Microsoft Dynamics - Best for collaboration in large organizations
- Freshsales - Best for automated outreach
- Pipeliner - Best for beginners
- monday.com - Best for quick setup
- Zendesk Sell - Best for service-driven organizations
- SugarCRM - Best for complex sales organizations
- Salesflare - Best for organizing prospect data
- ClickUp - Best for project management
For many businesses, Salesforce might not be the right CRM to use.
By looking at each CRM individually and evaluating their features and functionality, I compiled a list of the best Salesforce alternatives to consider for your business.
Why Look For An Alternative to Salesforce?
Salesforce is one of the most well-known CRM brands on the market. However, for many businesses, Salesforce might not be the right fit. Some cons associated with it include its complexity, cost, and clunky user interface.
You may be looking to migrate your current CRM from Salesforce or even starting from scratch and know you don’t want to use Salesforce. Either way, you’re in the right place to learn about the Salesforce alternatives on the market and find the right one for you.
Overview of the 12 Best Salesforce Alternatives
I’ve documented my research below and compiled some of the best platforms to consider as you begin to migrate to (or set up) a new CRM.
While it would be impossible to cover every single CRM available, I have tried to focus on the core Salesforce alternatives that can meet the needs of almost any business and use case.
1. HubSpot - Best all-in-one sales management solution
HubSpot is a CRM that offers a full-suite of sales, marketing, and customer service functionality.
The platform goes beyond the standard CRM. By offering content management and marketing functionality, it can be a useful tool for multiple departments within your company.
Why I picked HubSpot: I chose HubSpot because of its versatility. HubSpot’s ability to serve multiple departments at once on a single platform makes it stand out from competitors. It’s not uncommon to have data in multiple silos. With HubSpot, all your data can be collected and activated in one space. This makes it super easy to have visibility over your entire sales process.
HubSpot Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include all the core features such as sales reports and automated predictive lead scoring, but I felt like the ‘extras’ really made this tool great, like the cool business card scanner that makes it easy to add new contacts. I also enjoyed the meeting scheduler and live chat, marketing campaign planning matrix, drag-and-drop website builder, conversation intelligence (with voice tracking) and deal pipeline visibility.
Integrations include Gmail, Google Calendar, WordPress, Zapier, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Outlook, Zoom, MailChimp, Eventbrite, Aircall, Crossbeam, and hundreds more.
Pricing One-Liner: From $800/user/mo
Free Trial One-Liner: Free plan available
Pros
- Cross-department functionality available
- Provides complete view of customer actions
- App Marketplace provides access to 1,000s of integrations
Cons
- Moderately pricey for small businesses
- Too many features leads to unnecessary complexity
2. Zoho CRM - Best for predictive intelligence
Zoho is a CRM that will help you understand more about your customers — and the actions that they may take next. The platform is more customizable than Salesforce and more cost-effective than Salesforce and HubSpot making it a viable option to consider for your business.
Why I picked Zoho: I picked Zoho because I found it to be an accessible CRM for businesses of all sizes that still offers a wide-range of functionality. One of Zoho’s key features is its predictive intelligence, which will help you understand metrics and make decisions about prospects that may likely convert.
Plus, Zoho’s focus on security stood out to me. Zoho has an entire page on their site devoted to the security practices that are in place. They are serious about earning the trust of their customers and highlight a variety of safeguards in place including logging, intrusion detection, and diverse data centers to protect user data.
Zoho Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include sales process builder, PathFinder customer journey discovery, customer portals for self-service decisions, role-based access control, and gamification for sales teams. And what I loved most about these tools is that everything is built around a predictive intelligence algorithm that helps target leads at the right time.
Integrations include Google Apps, Microsoft Outlook, Mailchimp, SurveyMonkey, DocuSign, Xero, Zoom, Slack, Salesforce, Constant Contact, Facebook and more.
Pricing One-Liner: From $20/user/mo
Free Trial One-Liner: 15-day free trial
Pros
- Affordable plans for beginners and early-stage companies
- Emphasis and focus on security
- Mobile app makes it easy to access
Cons
- Tough to scale if your business grows rapidly
- Limited knowledge resources for training and help
- Reports aren’t as customizable as other platforms
3. Pipedrive - Best for pipeline visibility
Pipedrive is a popular CRM that many businesses use to track leads through every step of the sales process. It is not an intimidating platform and provides you with just enough information about your prospects and their current spot in the sales cycle without being overwhelming.
Why I picked Pipedrive: I picked Pipedrive due to its simple and clean interface. This really impressed me compared to what I was used to with Salesforce. Sales teams can easily open the platform and see which deals need more nurturing and which are about to close.
In addition, you can schedule specific activities (calls, meetings, follow-ups) directly in Pipedrive, making your life easier and all your actions contained to one platform. The platform even offers sales insights. These identify key trends within your data, enabling you to understand what is working and what may need to be adjusted.
Pipedrive Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include multiple pipeline visibility (useful for different product lines), enriched contact data, stalled deal alerts, built-in lead scoring, and custom revenue/activity reports. What really stood out to me was how clean the UI was and how easy it was to navigate multiple pipelines.
Integrations include Calendly, ClickFunnels, HubSpot, Intercom, Mailchimp, Quickbooks, Shopify, Slack, Trello, Xero, Zendesk, Zoom and more.
Pricing One-Liner: From $19.90/user/month
Free Trial One-Liner: 14-day free trial
Pros
- Fun, easy-to-use interface
- Visualization of entire pipeline and sales process
- Collaborative tool for teams
Cons
- No predictive capability or built-in AI tool
- Not as many integrations as other platforms
- Limited customization beyond basic fields
4. NetSuite CRM - Best for enterprise businesses
NetSuite CRM is owned by Oracle and is the ideal platform for large-scale businesses that need a scalable solution for their enterprise businesses. The platform has been on the market for a while with many new features added over the years.
Why I picked NetSuite CRM: NetSuite CRM is the perfect CRM if you are already using some of Oracle’s other products including Eloqua and Oracle CX.
The platform can easily integrate with those platforms and others in the Oracle family, and since Oracle is such a powerhouse on the market, this is a direct competitor to Salesforce—and one of the most similar products on this list.
Because of its vast capabilities—including quote management, fulfillment, sales performance reporting and visibility over the entire sales lifecycle—NetSuite CRM is perfect for large, matrixed, enterprise businesses. However, it can be challenging to use for smaller organizations.
NetSuite CRM Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include transaction categorization, probability-based forecasting, actual sales and recurring revenue projections, buying pattern recommendation, automated shipping/tax calculations, support case tracking, and visibility into recently browsed products. I find it has one of the steeper learning curves of all the tools on the list, but if you’re willing to put in the time to wrap your head around how everything works together and integrates with other Oracle tools, I feel like this is one of the most powerful tools on the market.
Integrations include Amazon Web Services, Box, Concur, DocuSign, Expensify, Google Analytics, Magento, Oracle, Salesforce, Shopify, SurveyMonkey, Trello, Zoom and more.
Pricing One-Liner: Pricing available upon request
Free Trial One-Liner: Free demo available
Pros
- Real-time visibility into all lead interactions
- Very detailed and customizable reporting
- Multiple support offerings (phone, resource library, web)
Cons
- Challenging interface that isn’t for beginners
- So many features can make the platform confusing
- Very expensive compared to others
5. Microsoft Dynamics 365 - Best for collaboration in large organizations
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a CRM that both sales and marketing teams can use to “get increased visibility into their customer needs.” This makes it the perfect option for cross-department collaboration at large organizations.
Why I picked Microsoft Dynamics 365: I picked Microsoft Dynamics 365 because it is a commonly-used CRM for large businesses and enterprise companies. For organizations that are spread across multiple offices with multiple, expansive departments, this is a great solution.
It can keep marketing and sales teams closely aligned and integrate directly with businesses already using Outlook or other Microsoft products. Their offering focuses on collaboration, AI-driven insights, and real-time coaching and results. This is because data can be quickly analyzed, surfaced, and then shared via another Microsoft product (Outlook or Teams).
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include AI-driven buyer behavior insights, knowledge base creation and hosting, real-time analytics dashboard, and territory management for large teams. And, for me, the real-time communication integrations with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams make this an easy tool to integrate into the workflow of companies that already use the Microsoft ecosystem.
Integrations include Adobe Sign, ClickDimensions, DocuSign, Excel, LinkedIn, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Teams, Office 365, Outlook, Skype, Zendesk, Zoho and more.
Pricing One-Liner: From $65/user/month
Free Trial One-Liner: Free demo available
Pros
- Integration with Microsoft products
- AI-driven insights easy to act upon
- Built-in integrations facilitate collaboration
Cons
- Complicated features make simple tasks hard
- Requires a bit of a learning curve
6. Freshsales - Best for automated outreach
Freshsales is Freshworks’ flagship platform that can equip you with everything you need to track your leads and reach out to them on a systematic basis.
Why I picked Freshsales: I picked Freshsales because it feels like a platform that was designed by former sales representatives that know exactly what sales teams need. There are just enough unique features and functionalities for you to personalize and execute outreach without the platform feeling cumbersome and overwhelming.
The platform uses AI to score contacts, source deal insights, suggest the next best action, forecast sales, and even power the built-in chatbot. Plus, the platform is engaging and fun to use without being intimidating for beginners.
Freshsales Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include multiple activity timeline views, profile enrichment, IntelliAssign (routes conversations to right rep), weighted pipelines, price quote configuration, content scoring, and audit logs. What I really like about this tool is the way they fit so many useful features while still making it feel minimalist and straightforward to use.
Integrations include DocuSign, Gmail, Outlook, PandaDoc, PayPal, Quickbooks, Slack, Xero, and Zapier and more.
Pricing One-Liner: From $18/user/month
Free Trial One-Liner: Free plan available
Pros
- Easy-to-use interface
- Affordable for the functionality you get
- Scales with company as it grows
Cons
- Not as many integrations as other CRMs
- Limited customer support
- Some functions don’t work on mobile app
7. Pipeliner - Best for beginners
Pipeliner is a CRM with a variety of features that beginners can use to supercharge their sales efforts. Although it lacks in design aesthetics, the simplified navigation menus make it easy for you to get what you need in only a few clicks.
Why I picked Pipeliner: I picked Pipeliner because of how simple it was to learn. Pipeliner relies on visuals to show how prospects are moving through the sales process. This helps you understand where prospects are getting stuck and can provide a birds-eye view of your pipeline and entire process.
Segmenting prospects is easy with Pipeliner’s dynamic targeted segmentation feature. You can use a variety of targeting parameters to create one segment based on behavior, geographics, and psychographics.
Pipeliner Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include a visual sales pipeline, mobile app, dynamic segmentation, gamification for sales teams, customizable triggers and workflows, and visibility over all sales activity and pipeline. While this may not be the best tool for enterprise sales departments, I think it is a fantastic tool for growing organizations looking to start formalizing their sales processes.
Integrations include DocuSign, Google Apps, HubSpot, MailChimp, Microsoft Office 365, Quickbooks, Salesforce, Slack, and Zapier
Pricing One-Liner: From $65/user/month
Free Trial One-Liner: 14-day free trial
Pros
- A lot of visuals and graphics for a CRM
- Advanced segmentation that can be easily done
Cons
- Doesn’t seem as modern as other CRMs
- Feels somewhat mechanical and glitchy
8. monday.com - Best for quick setup
monday.com started as a project management tool and has evolved into so much more. It’s a simple and easy-to-setup CRM that'll store and surface the data you need.
Why I picked monday.com: monday.com is user-friendly and surprised me with its balance between overarching simplicity and unique features. It doesn’t have a million options like other CRMs, and instead, focuses on collecting and storing your leads in one place. You can easily use the drag-and-drop functionality to build dashboards, reports, and customize your pipeline.
monday.com Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include unifying leads in one place, lead scoring, customizable pipeline with no code needed, automatic lead assignments, automated reminders, and 1-click deal overview. As someone who loves tracking stats and trends, using monday’s customizable dashboard builder was a real treat.
Integrations include DocuSign, Google Apps, HubSpot, MailChimp, Microsoft Office 365, Quickbooks, Salesforce, Slack, and Zapier.
Pricing One-Liner: From $10/user/month
Free Trial One-Liner: Free plan available
Pros
- Many integrations available with top products
- Quick setup in just a few steps
- Scales easily with your business
Cons
- No AI functionality
- Not solely focused on sales operations
- Limited automation capabilities compared to others
9. Zendesk Sell - Best for service-driven organizations
Zendesk is known mostly for its customer service platform. However, Zendesk Sell is a unique CRM that can also be useful if you’re looking to link your sales and service offering more closely together.
Why I picked Zendesk Sell: Zendesk Sell’s interface reminds me of the familiarity of Slack. It uses excess white space to project an organized, clean view. With your menu on the left side, you can navigate through different views, making it easy to find what you’re looking for without getting overwhelmed.
Plus, since it is a Zendesk product, support seems like it was built at the forefront of the product. You can track multiple ways you interact with your customers: email, phone, chat, and social media.
Zendesk Sell Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include team collaboration, trigger automation, omnichannel tracking, call logging, rich deal insights, AI-powered lead prioritization, enhanced customer support (phone, email, and chat), and bot tracking. I’ve worked with Zendesk tools a lot over the years, and it was great seeing the same level of attention to user experience and support in this tool.
Integrations include ActiveCampaign, Dropbox, Google Drive, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Slack, Stripe, and Zapier.
Pricing One-Liner: From $19/user/month (billed annually)
Free Trial One-Liner: 14-day free trial
Pros
- Collaboration and service at the focus
- Tracking across multiple channels
- Great customer support
Cons
- Limited email features
- Customization lacking compared to other platforms
- Doesn’t scale efficiently with your business
10. SugarCRM - Best for complex sales organizations
SugarCRM is made for complex sales organizations with a long, multi-step sales process. The platform can easily be configured to track prospects that are participating in multi-step campaigns over a long sales cycle.
Why I picked SugarCRM: SugarCRM surprised me with how much customization the platform offers. You can have custom fields, custom modules, custom workflows, custom dashboards, and even custom themes.
The information presented in the dashboard looks distilled down, so that only the key data points are highlighted. Plus, the interface feels familiar with the correct information hierarchy.
SugarCRM Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include workflow automation toolset, knowledge management, multilingual support, GDPR compliance, offline mode, form data sync, offline event management, survey collection, and more.
Integrations include DocuSign, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Apps, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, Shopify and Zendesk.
Pricing One-Liner: From $49/user/month (billed annually)
Free Trial One-Liner: Free demo offered
Pros
- Allows you to take control and customize
- Can operate online and off-line
- Compliant with regulations (GDPR)
Cons
- More expensive for what you get
- Limited customer support
- Mobile app not as useful as it could be
11. Salesflare - Best for organizing prospect data
Salesflare has a simple interface that surfaces the most important elements of a CRM: accounts, contacts, opportunities, and insights. Unlike Salesforce, Salesflare is a software that you can quickly grasp after initially logging in and begin to customize it and make it your own.
Why I picked Salesflare: Salesflare made it easy for me to make sense of my own prospect data. I liked how Salesflare stored the prospect information with individual “Wish Lists” templates you can add for notes about each prospect.
In addition, it was interesting that the platform offered the ability to locate any prospect’s business email, even if you only had their name and company. This is a less-common CRM, but it is still useful for small businesses looking to add more organization and systems to their sales process.
SugarCRM Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include automatic logging of calls, business email locator, prospect “wish lists,” automated data entry, and a mobile app.
Integrations include ActiveCampaign, Asana, Calendy, Drift, HubSpot, Intercom, LinkedIn, Mailchimp, Pipedrive, Quickbooks, and Zapier.
Pricing One-Liner: From $29/user/month (billed annually)
Free Trial One-Liner: 30-day free trial
Pros
- Simple interface for beginners
- Only offers the basic functionality you need
- Simple, predictable pricing
Cons
- Not as advanced as other CRMs
- Needs a visual and tech update
- Requires email credits for sending emails
12. ClickUp - Best for project management
Many organizations use ClickUp for project management, editorial calendars, and collaborative projects. Now, you can use it as your CRM too. Since the platform may already be used by various departments around your organization, ClickUp is a worthy contender for your Salesforce alternative.
Why I picked ClickUp: ClickUp is not always thought of as a true CRM, but if you need a basic CRM dashboard that stores your prospects and tracks them — ClickUp might be for you.
With ClickUp, you can automate your sales processes, track prospects on a List/Board/Table view, and see real-time reporting.
ClickUp Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include multiple dashboard views, automatic team updates, account visualization, real-time analytics, lead statuses triggered automatically, and automatic lead assignments.
Integrations include Adobe Creative Cloud, Airtable, Asana, Box, Calendly, Evernote, Google Drive, HubSpot, Jira, Microsoft Teams, monday.com, Slack, Trello, and Zoom.
Pricing One-Liner: From $9/user/month
Free Trial One-Liner: Free plan available
Pros
- Can be used for more than CRM
- Simple interface to easily see your sales pipeline
- Basic automations can save you time
Cons
- Limited email and communication functionality
- No AI-powered insights
- Lacking lead scoring functionality
Other Options
There are so many more CRMs on the market that didn’t make the top 12, but that can still be valuable tools. The following Salesforce alternatives are worth checking out to see if they fit your needs:
- Scoro - Best for medium-sized businesses
- Accelo - Best for service-based businesses
- Insightly - Best for early-stage startups
- Copper - Best for companies using G Suite
- Keap - Best for ecommerce companies
Selection Criteria for Salesforce Alternatives
You might be thinking, “There are many Salesforce alternatives on the market. What made you pick these as the very best?”
I mixed my own experience using Salesforce and a near-decade of marketing experience to find alternatives that excel in the areas where Salesforce lacks. Eventually, after reviewing dozens of potential Salesforce alternatives, I narrowed them down to the best ones based on my selection criteria below.
Here’s what I evaluated:
Core Functionality
Some of the challenges I faced with Salesforce included its complexity, a lack of customer support, and challenges with easily surfacing insights.
In looking for alternatives, I kept these challenges in mind while looking for basic functionality including:
- Ability to manage, store, and segment contacts, leads, opportunities, deals
- Full visibility over sales process and pipeline
- Simple, easy-to-use interface
Key Features
The following features are ones that I actively searched for in order to assess whether the platform could fully execute the core functionality listed above.
- Lead Segmentation and Scoring: Sales professionals need to know which prospects to focus on. The ability to easily segment and score leads is an essential feature that the CRM should offer.
- Tracking across multiple channels: An effective CRM should be able to provide visibility over prospects’ actions within your marketing campaigns. I looked for visibility of prospects’ actions across the web, app, email, and social platforms.
- Sales & marketing campaigns: It should be easy to set up sales and marketing email nurture campaigns directly in the platform.
- Custom reporting: The platform should offer automated custom reporting that can be set up and triggered after specific events or on a set cadence.
Usability
It was important for me to only highlight platforms that are easy-to-use. A platform with every feature available may not be useful if it is too complicated to use. I asked myself the following questions when evaluating usability: How easy is the platform to use? Is setup difficult? What level of customer support is provided?
Integrations
I focused mostly on evaluating platforms with marketing integrations and ecommerce integrations. It’s important to see how prospects are engaging with your marketing campaigns and whether they convert.
Price
There is a wide range of CRM prices on the market. Salesforce alternatives can range in price from a few dollars per user to hundreds of dollars per user.
I was expecting an average monthly subscription cost of $50/mo/user for basic functionality including lead segmentation and custom reporting.
For CRMs with more advanced features like scoring, event tracking, and integrations, I would expect to pay closer to $100/mo/user.
People Also Ask
Still thinking about Salesforce alternatives? Here are some of the common questions people are asking before making the jump.
Are Salesforce alternatives any good?
How do I pick the right Salesforce alternative?
What’s next after Salesforce?
I hope that this list has provided you with the direction you need to pick the right Salesforce alternative for your business.
There are so many platforms to choose from with different offerings for every type of business.
Whether you’re migrating your data from Salesforce or shopping around for your first CRM, this is the perfect opportunity to set your company and sales team up for success.
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