Discover the Best Salesforce Alternatives for Your Business
There’s no denying that Salesforce is an established leader in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions space. Over 150,000 companies worldwide use it to drive growth. It enables businesses to leverage omnichannel marketing, simplified customer management, workflow automation, and more for simplified sales processes. However, it’s not always the right fit, which is where the best Salesforce alternatives come into the picture.
You can find many sales CRM alternatives to Salesforce, but which should you choose? Let’s dive deep into the best options and understand their pricing, core features, and business advantages to find the one that meets your business requirements.
Disclaimer: In this article, we are exploring leading alternatives to Salesforce for sales CRM solutions, considering the variety of choices that exist within the market.
Why Consider Salesforce Alternatives?
The most common issue IT professionals, Salesforce Administrators, Sales Leaders, and other users report is the high cost. Here’s how much you have to pay for the Salesforce Sales solution:
- Starter Suite: $25 per user per month
- Pro Suite: $100 per user per month
- Enterprise Suite: $165 per user per month
- Unlimited: $330 per user per month
- Einstein 1 Sales: $500 per user per month
Although $25 per user per month might not seem high, it’s for the Starter Suite, which includes the most basic features. This basic plan is designed for very small teams.
However, if you go for the advanced features available with Einstein 1 Sales, you have to pay a whopping $500 per user per month, and that too only for licensing. When you consider other costs like implementation, customization, developer, etc., and other solutions like Education Cloud, Data Cloud, Service Cloud, and others, the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) can go pretty high as the system becomes more complicated.
Thus, if you plan to use the most advanced features Salesforce can offer, you must pay a whopping $500 per user per month.
The first annual SF Ben Developer Survey shows that around 53% of Salesforce developers agree it is becoming too complicated to work with. Some 34% were neutral on this, and only 13% disagreed with it. This indicates the second biggest problem with Salesforce: its complexity, which leads to a steep learning curve.
Moreover, its configuration can be clunky, as indicated in a Trustpilot testimonial. You must invest a lot of time training or hiring an engineer to use Salesforce efficiently. Some companies also complain about poor customer service.
Key Factors to Evaluate CRM Alternative
Focusing on factors that meet your business goals is important when looking for alternatives to Salesforce CRM. Here are some key things to consider during the evaluation:
- Functionality: Ensure the CRM tool offers all the solutions your business needs. This can include customer management, marketing automation, workflow automation, pipeline management, omnichannel marketing, and more.
- Pricing: The first thing to consider is the initial license cost against the features you are getting. You should also check for any additional features you might not use but are included in the bundle. Overpaying for functions you don’t need is impractical. Besides the initial costs, find out if there are any ongoing or hidden costs associated with the tool.
- Ease of Use: This factor is important if you seek the best Salesforce alternative due to its steep learning curve. Many CRM solutions offer free trials. You can use the trial period to get acquainted with the platform and see if it is easy and user-friendly. This will allow even non-IT professionals to use the CRM tool.
- Customization: You should be able to customize workflows, fields, reports, etc., based on what your team needs.
- Integration with Other Tools: Check if the CRM easily connects with third-party apps you already use in your IT infrastructure. This will allow for exchanging data seamlessly across all the apps for better workflow management.
- Scalability: Free Salesforce alternatives or basic CRM solutions with limited features might be ideal for a startup or a small team. However, the solution you choose should be able to scale along with your sales team. Without a scalable CRM, you must migrate to a new one when your team grows, which can cause disruptions. One of the best ways to ensure this is by relying on a cloud-based solution. As IBM states, one of the key benefits of cloud computing is unlimited scalability.
- Reporting: Advanced reporting enables managers and other decision-makers to monitor sales performance and make strategic changes to improve it. If your team focuses on reporting, look for a CRM solution that lets you generate customized reports quickly.
- Post-Sales Services: Although many CRM solution providers have a knowledge bank, you may need to contact customer service for specific issues. Therefore, it is important to determine if the solution provider has a team for that and how responsive they are. You can do this by reading reviews about their customer service.
Top 10 Salesforce Alternatives to Choose From in 2025
Hundreds of Salesforce alternatives are available, but comparing them can be time-consuming and overwhelming. Therefore, we have curated a list of the top alternatives to Salesforce to help you get started.
1. LeadSquared
LeadSquared is one of the fastest-growing sales CRM and marketing automation suites used by over 2,000 companies worldwide. This easy-to-use CRM can automate all sales workflows, including lead management, email campaigns, onboarding, scheduling, etc., saving your team time to focus on customer experience and engagement.
In fact, Tandem Care, California increased responsiveness by 40% with LeadSquared’s automation. Bree Castillo, their Operating Officer, says that LeadSquared’s implementation has completely transformed their operations. With the increased responsiveness, they were able to handle 2X leads compared to earlier. She also praised the tool’s end-to-end sales pipeline visibility.
Another great thing about LeadSquared is that it is GDPR, SOC-II, and HIPAA-compliant. Thus, you don’t have to worry about the consequences of not complying with data security and use.
With its lead management feature, you can capture leads from all sources. The system automatically qualifies leads based on predefined rules and ensures that you connect with easy-to-convert leads.
LeadSquared also offers a comprehensive sales management platform. You can automate the entire process with the help of a drag-and-drop workflow builder. Besides online sales management, you can also track and manage field sales on the same platform.
Key Features:
- Lead management
- Sales process automation
- Sales management
- Opportunity management
- Process automation
- Mobile app
- Out-of-box third-party integrations
- Marketing automation
- Advanced Reporting
Pricing:
LeadSquared Sales CRM is available in two premium plans:
- Sales Pro: $25 per user per month
- Sales Super: $50 per user per month
Testimonials:
- 5/5 stars on G2 Reviews
Testimonial: “LeadSquared Sales + Mobile CRM excels in its intuitive interface and seamless integration, enabling teams to manage leads, track activities, and boost productivity effortlessly on the go.”
- 5/5 stars on Capterra
Testimonial: “Software integrates the company’s work process per its own requirement. Hassle-free CRM software.”
- 4/5 stars on Gartner Peer Insights
Testimonial: “Overall, the product is good, gives us meaningful classification of the lead stages, and allows us to choose the next best action to be done for the leads in play.“
2. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is an easy-to-use sales CRM that allows you to visualize the entire sales pipeline. It lets you optimize leads, manage deals, and automate the sales process. Thus, you can free your staff to focus on what they are good at: selling.
Trusted by over 100,000 companies in 179 countries, this alternative to Salesforce includes features for automating various sales and marketing tasks. For instance, you can use AI-powered prompts to focus on the right leads.
Additionally, unlike Salesforce, it offers a simple interface to customize the tool to your needs. While sharing her experience, Franziska Palumbo-Seidel, the CEO and Founder at Key Search, says that Pipedrive adapted well to their needs. It does not simply make users conform to what it has to offer.
Another advanced function of Pipedrive is custom report generation. You can create reports with custom data fields and templates to generate the right insights. Refer to this video to learn how you can use Pipedrive Insights: Video Link
The solution is easily scalable, making it an ideal alternative to Salesforce for small businesses. Thanks to its diverse add-ons, it is also affordable compared to Salesforce. This allows you to enhance your plan without any complications. For instance, you can add the Campaigns add-on for additional email marketing functions like engagement tracking.
However, this is also a limitation of the platform. In a Gartner Peer Insight review, an IT manager writes that access to some features requires additional costs. This can quickly add to costs, considering it primarily focuses on sales and lacks marketing customization features.
Key Features:
- Centralized system
- Workflow automation
- Advanced reporting
- Pipeline view
- Customization
- Integrations
- AI Copilot
- Chatbots
Pricing:
Pipedrive offers five different CRM plans to cater to teams of varied sizes and requirements. Here’s the pricing for each plan:
- Essential: $14 per user per month
- Advanced: $24 per user per month
- Professional: $49 per user per month
- Power: $59 per user per month
- Enterprise: $79 per user per month
Testimonials:
- 5/ 5 stars rating on Trustpilot
Testimonial: “Excellent customer service”
- 4.5/5 stars on G2 Reviews
Testimonial: “It helps me stay on top of my workload, with numerous features and organization tools that make my job easier.”
- 4/ 5 stars via Capterra
Testimonial: “The support team via the chat service has been of great assistance.“
3. Zoho CRM
Recognized as a visionary in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant, Zoho CRM offers features for managing sales, marketing, and support functions. It outshines Salesforce when it comes to the learning curve. The company boasts that you can implement it in 50% less time. This lets you get started in no time.
Zoho CRM offers extensive capabilities, ranging from marketing segmentation to journey orchestration. You can convert potential leads to customers by leveraging Zoho’s Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) features. In fact, it is one of the best Salesforce CPQ alternatives in the market. Like Salesforce CPQ, this solution also lets you create invoices, view order contents, compare periodic expenses, browse records of transactions, and more.
You can leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities to drive sales and increase Returns on Investment (ROI). Brigade Plus, a personalized home design services provider, achieved 4x ROI within two years. The company used Zoho’s 360-degree view to offer enhanced customer experiences and drive a 1:4 cost-to-benefit ratio.
Features:
- AI-driven insights
- Advanced analytics
- Easy customization
- Workflow automation
- Pre-built and customized dashboards
- 360-degree customer view
- AI features (lead and deal prediction, anomaly detection, voice assistant, churn prediction, etc.)
- Omnichannel marketing
Pricing:
The four different plans available for Zoho CRM are priced as follows:
- Standard: ₹800 per user per month
- Professional: ₹1,400 per user per month
- Enterprise: ₹2,400 per user per month
- Ultimate: ₹2,600 per user per month
Testimonials:
- 5/ 5 stars rating on Capterra
Testimonial: “Zoho CRM has been a game-changer for us at MEDOC. ”
- 5/ 5 stars on G2 Reviews
Testimonial: “Best, diverse, and cuztomizeable CRM I’ve used.”
- 5/ 5 stars via Trustpilot
Testimonial: “It has saved me work hours each week and helped me streamline my content strategy for clients. “
4. HubSpot CRM
If you are looking for free Salesforce alternatives, you can choose HubSpot CRM. HubSpot was primarily designed for marketing automation but expanded to become a sales hub, too. It offers many cloud-based tools that simplify lead capturing, workflow automation, deal closure, and more.
Like Pipedrive, HubSpot CRM also centralizes customer data. This allows you to track customer interactions across the journey and visualize the sales pipeline.
The biggest benefit of HubSpot is its simplicity. A user shared their experience on G2.com, praising its ease of use and its ability to be used by someone who is not super tech-savvy.
Like any other CRM solution, it offers various helpful features, such as email tracking. This lets you know the status of an email and when the customer opens it. You will also receive a notification, allowing you to take prompt action. Moreover, you can add up to 1,000 contacts in the free version, without any time limit or expiration date.
Features:
- AI chatbots
- Workflow automation
- AI-powered quality assurance
- Advanced reporting and analytics
- 360-degree customer view
- Sales automation
- Email template builder
- Pipeline management
Pricing:
HubSpot CRM is free and has limited features, such as a meeting scheduler, AI email writer, email template builder, live chat software, deal pipeline, company insights, reporting, and pipeline management. Two premium plans are available for advanced features for comprehensive sales and marketing processes.
- Marketing Hub Professional: $800 per month for three seats
- Marketing Hub Enterprise: $3,600 per month for five seats
Testimonials:
- 5/ 5 stars rating on G2 Reviews
Testimonial: “HubSpot’s Marketing Hub is super easy to use because of the advanced functionality it provides.”
- 5/ 5 stars on Trustpilot
Testimonial: “Great service and on time”
- 5/ 5 stars via Capterra
Testimonial: “Great all-in-one CRM, but setting up can take some work”
5. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a suite like Zoho and offers marketing, sales, customer service, and other solutions. It offers an AI-powered CRM solution to empower your sales team. Moreover, it provides AI features like Copilot integration to ask queries for insight generation. For instance, you can query Copilot to review open sales tasks, new assignments, and pipeline updates.
You can also use its AI capabilities to score different tasks for prioritizing purposes. Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential for monitoring and improving the sales process. You can do so with custom reports.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 lets you determine the best time to connect with your customers based on past activities. This enables you to take the best action and improve interactions to convert leads into ongoing customers. Infosys used Microsoft Dynamics 365’s built-in intelligent features to boost conversion rates and improve sales productivity. This even helped the company overcome the obstacles the COVID-19 pandemic brought upon them.
Features:
- AI chatbots
- Copilot
- Workflow automation
- Customization
- Microsoft 365 interoperation
- Reporting and dashboards
- Conversation intelligence
- Sales engagement
Pricing:
While it is not very affordable compared to Salesforce, the amount spent here is worth it because of all the Microsoft integrations you get. Here are the pricing details for different Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales plans:
- Dynamics 365 Sales Professional: $65 per user per month
- Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise Edition: $105 per user per month
- Dynamics 365 Sales Premium: $150 per user per month
- Microsoft Relationship Sales: Variable
Testimonials:
- 5/ 5 stars rating via Gartner Peer Insights
Testimonial: “After a rigorous research, we were introduced to Dynamic 365 Sales, which has really helped us a lot in automating our sales function within the organization with a clearview of each lead.“
Testimonial: “Microsoft Dynamics 365 It integrates with other Microsoft tools like Teams, Outlook.”
- 5/ 5 stars via Capterra
Testimonial: “It is a great app provided by Microsoft to run any business. Being a part of the Microsoft is a huge advantage that will help you to achieve your goals effectively and efficiently”
6. Freshsales
Freshsales is a part of Freshworks’s cloud-based suite, including other tools like Freshmarketer, Freshdesk, and Freshchat. This platform lets you make CRM-integrated sales calls. Therefore, you can call your customers directly from your CRM. The call is logged automatically into the interactions section and synced with your team’s interactions with the customer. The Freshsales mobile app also lets you send emails quickly and get notified about their status.
Although primarily focused on phone calls, it does offer many advanced features like pipeline management or reporting with Freshsales Suite. However, they offer a 360-degree view and AI capabilities with Freddy AI. You can use this tool’s 360-degree view to understand customer preferences and connect with them on their preferred channel.
Some users have expressed complaints about poor customer service experiences with their team. A user wrote in a review on Capterra that they had never experienced such terrible customer service in their life. Support tickets are left open for weeks without any response.
Features:
- AI capabilities
- Customization
- Workflow automation
- 360-degree customer view
- Marketing automation
- Pipeline Management
- Analytics
Pricing:
Freshsales offers three different plans, which are priced based on the number of features they offer:
- Growth: $9.00 per user per month
- Pro: $39.00 per user per month
- Enterprise: $59.00 per user per month.
Testimonials:
- 5/5 star rating by a Truspilot reviewer
Testimonial: “It’s amazing Lead management system where I can update my contacts with all the given activity.”
- 4/5 star in a G2 review
Testimonial: “UI and simplicity. I love that it is so simple and easy to use.”
- 5/5 star rating in a Gartner Peer Insights review
Testimonial: “It shows a proper timeline on the most recent customer interactions, including upcoming meetings, and it allows us to set up automated emails as we shuffle them through stages.”
7. Insightly
Insightly, again, offers a suite of multiple solutions for sales, marketing, operations, etc. It allows you to manage contacts and sales opportunities across all customer touchpoints with its 360-degree view. Besides customization, workflow automation, and a sales pipeline view that almost all sales CRM offer, Insightly also offers strict permission policies.
You can create users and assign them roles while managing their accessibility thoroughly. This prevents unauthorized access to sensitive customer data and helps minimize the possibility of data breaches. You can also add validation rules to any field and object to collect the most accurate information about your customers.
The sales pipeline and lead management features enable you to capture new leads from various sources, prioritize them based on conversion potential, and distribute them according to the criteria you set. Once you have distributed and prioritized leads, you can monitor each deal through the platform’s dashboard. Ian Pund, Senior Vice President of Sales, Noble BioMaterials, says that his team was able to close deals much faster due to this feature.
Features:
- Pipeline tracking
- Workflow automation
- Validation rules
- Price books & quotes
- Email management
- Advanced Reporting
- AI
- Project management
- Third-party integrations
Pricing:
Insightly CRM comes in three plans:
- Plus: $29 per user per month
- Professional: $49 per user per month
- Enterprise: $99 per user per month
Testimonials:
- 4/5 star given by a Capterra reviewer
Testimonial: “Insightly is a reasonable CRM with decent functions.”
- 5/5 star rating in a G2 review
Testimonial: “Very flexible CRM to cater to a variety of requirements.”
- 4/5 stars scored in a Gartner Peer Insights review
Testimonial: “I love the customization of reports which helps me to generate reports as per my needs. The learning phase is a bit difficult for advanced features.”
8. Salesmate
Something that most small and medium-sized businesses would look for in a CRM is how easy it is to use. Salesmate excels at this by enabling your team to start in minutes. Your sales team can tailor workflows, automate tasks, and optimize processes very easily. Pointing down at this simplicity, Kickstart’s Head of IT said that the onboarding process was seamless and that their staff could quickly adapt to the platform.
It also complies with various data safety protocols, including GDPR, AICPA SOC, and ISO 27001:2013. All the usual features in a decent sales CRM alternative to Salesforce are present. You can unify sales management with streamlined pipelines and automated workflows. Solitex IBS reduced manual tasks by 30% and boosted lead conversion by 15% with this tool.
Besides sales, this tool also allows marketing automation. You can leverage MQL scoring, AB testing, segmentation, etc., to create marketing campaigns that connect with your customers. Whether it’s sales or customer service, AI agents can simplify tasks such as call transcriptions, email composition, and knowledge management.
Features:
- Lead scoring
- Deal management
- Bulk emails
- Dashboard and reporting
- Chatbot
- AI
- Integration with popular third-party apps
- Ticket management
- Social media support
Pricing:
- Basic: $23 per user per month
- Pro: $39 per user per month
- Business: $63 per user per month
Testimonials:
- 4.5/5 stars in a G2 review
Testimonial: “Really love the fact how easy it is to design a customer journey and set the right permissions for my organization. The seamless integration with softwares such as Mailchimp are also an added bonus.”
- 5/5 stars by a Trustpilot reviewer
Testimonial: “Very nice format easy to navigate. Customer support service goes above and ensures questions are answered promptly and completely.”
- 5/5 stars given by a Capterra reviewer
Testimonial: “Love it. Before this we were logging things manually and doing SO MUCH copying and pasting. It’s just fantastic.”
9. Monday.com
Monday.com was initially designed as a project management platform that lets you handle different projects and monitor their progress. However, now it also offers a dedicated sales CRM, used by 245,000+ customers worldwide. You and your team can easily customize it to track and manage leads and sales processes. Moreover, you also get lead management, contact management, sales pipeline, and other features available with standard CRM solutions.
This tool has one of the simplest interfaces, which reduces complexity and the learning curve. One of the key standouts with Monday.com CRM is its AI capabilities. It can be used for call & timeline summaries, email composition, SDR assistant and autofill fields, PDF data extraction, and sentiment analysis.
One of the companies using Monday.com CRM is RayWhite. Department Manager – Operations of Ray White, Kyle Dorman, shared his story of using the tool. “We were able to customize the CRM on top of the monday.com Work OS to fit the needs of our day-to-day activities,” said Kyle.
Features:
- Email tracking
- Performance tracking
- Advanced Reporting
- Sales pipeline
- No-code automation
- Lead management
- Contact management
- Deal management
- Advanced AI features
Pricing:
Monday.com offers four plans, starting from Basic up to Enterprise.
- Basic: $12 per user per month
- Standard: $17 per user per month
- Pro: $28 per user per month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Testimonials:
- 5/5 stars in a TrustRadius review
Testimonial: “monday CRM is great for tracking your lead gen.”
- 4/5 stars by a reviewer on Capterra
Testimonial: “This is my second company using Monday.com and the first time utilizing the CRM. The automations are great!”
- 4.5/5 stars given by a G2 reviewer
Testimonial: “Highly flexible, adaptable, customizable work management & CRM platform”
10. Nimble
Nimble is a CRM that is not only for your sales representatives, but for your entire organization. From sales to marketing and customer service to backend, all your teams can easily learn to use this tool and leverage it to increase revenue. It enables your team to capture more leads from various sources on the internet with the Nimble Prospector. You can also streamline contact management by synchronizing contacts, calendars, and emails.
Manage repeatable processes and automate them to reduce manual tasks. For instance, DLA Ignite was facing challenges with CRM adoption. With Nimble’s simple implementation, it could adopt a sales CRM and reduce manual data entry time by 95% with its Nimble Prospector.
Slesforce’s beginning plan is more affordable than Nimble’s package. However, this tool offers far more features than Salesforce’s basic plans. It offers up to 25,000 contact records and 1,000 custom fields.
Features:
- Sales pipeline
- Reporting
- Workflow automation
- Group and email sequencing
- Segmentation
- Web forms
- Integrations
Pricing:
Unlike many other Salesforce CRM alternatives that offer multiple plans, Nimble has only one.
- Single plan: $24.9 per user per month
Testimonials:
- 5/5 stars by a reviewer on Gartner Peer Insights
Testimonial: “Very straightforward to track the progress of sales opportunities within the CRM and proactively manage leads to closure.”
- 4.5/5 stars in a G2 review
Testimonial: “I love the way it integrates with Google, generally. This is also encouraging that they will continue to make improvements, especially with automation. With the Gmail widget, I use it pretty much every day, even if I’m not in the actual app.”
- 3/5 stars given in a Capterra review
Testimonial: Mixed results. Flawed, but still the best match for us.
Comparing the Top Salesforce CRM Alternatives
The table below compares the top Salesforce alternatives:
Salesforce Alternative | CRM Features | Pricing Comparison |
LeadSquared | Lead management, Sales process automation, Sales management, Opportunity management, Process automation, Mobile app, Out-of-box third-party integrations, Marketing automation, Advanced Reporting | $25 to $50 per user per month |
Pipedrive | Centralized system, Workflow automation, Advanced reporting, Pipeline view, Customization, Integrations, AI Copilot, Chatbots | $14 to $79 per user per month |
Zoho CRM | AI-driven insights, Advanced analytics, Easy customization, Workflow automation, Pre-built and customized dashboards, 360-degree customer view, AI features (lead and deal prediction, anomaly detection, voice assistant, churn prediction, etc.), Omnichannel marketing, Sales enablement, Journey orchestration, CPQ, Kiosk Studio | $23 to $52 per user per month A free version is also available |
HubSpot CRM | AI chatbots, Workflow automation, AI-powered quality assurance, Advanced reporting and analytics, 360-degree customer view, Sales automation, Email template builder, Pipeline management | $800 to $3,600 per month A free CRM is also available |
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales | AI chatbots, Copilot, Workflow automation, Customization, Microsoft 365 interoperation, Reporting and dashboards, Conversation intelligence, Sales engagement | $65 to $150 per user per month |
Freshsales | AI capabilities, Customization, Workflow automation, 360-degree customer view, Marketing automation, Pipeline Management, Analytics | $9 to $59 per user per month |
Insightly CRM | Pipeline tracking, Workflow automation, Validation rules, Price books & quotes, Email management, Advanced reporting, AI, Project management, Third-party integrations | $29 to $99 per user per month |
Salesmate | Lead scoring, Deal management, Bulk emails, Dashboard and reporting, Chatbot, AI, Integration with popular third-party apps, Ticket management, Social media support | $23 to $63 per user per month |
Monday.com | Email tracking, Performance tracking, Advanced reporting, Sales pipeline, No-code automation, Lead management, Contact management, Deal management, Advanced AI features | $12 to $28 per user per month |
Nimble | Sales pipeline, Reporting, Workflow automation, Group and email sequencing, Segmentation, Web forms, Integrations | $24.9 per user per month |
Steps to Choose a Salesforce Alternative
Now that we have looked at some of the best Salesforce alternatives for small businesses and larger enterprises, it’s time to determine how to choose the right one for your business:
1. Assess Your Requirements
Start by determining what you want from the CRM. Whether you want to manage leads, track deals, visualize sales pipelines, or something else, create a list of what you want to do with the CRM before looking for options. This will help you find the right features to address your needs.
2. Consider Your Team Size
Some platforms like Pipedrive and Zoho CRM are ideal for any size. However, others like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales are better suited for larger teams. If you have a small team and opt for a CRM designed for larger companies, you might be paying extra money. On the other hand, if your team is large but the CRM cannot handle it, you will face technical issues. Therefore, checking which platforms are designed for your team’s size is ideal. You should also determine the ease of use of the CRM you are willing to choose and how quickly your team can learn to use it.
3. Check What Features You Will Be Using
Many CRM solutions come with bundled features. However, not every feature bundled in the CRM solution might be helpful to you. Therefore, opt for CRMs with a list of features you will use. A few extra features are okay, but most of them should be something you use daily. Additionally, you should consider how these features integrate with other functionalities you are already using.
4. Think About Scalability
You should have goals for scaling your business. Clear goals will help you understand what new features you want as your team grows.
5. Stick to a Budget
You should have a budget for CRM, and it is important to stick to it. You don’t necessarily have to be very rigid with the budget, but working in a well-planned range is essential. Instead of just the initial licensing plan, consider the TCO, which may include implementation, consulting, developer, and customization costs.
6. Don’t Compromise On Value
While you need to stick to a budget, you should not compromise the value you get. There are many alternatives to Salesforce CRM, such as Zoho CRM, which offers comprehensive features at affordable pricing.
7. Test Before You Commit
Most CRM solutions offer a free trial for a short period. Use this time to get acquainted with the CRM you plan to purchase. Check how the system feels and get feedback from your team before you commit.
Which Businesses Might Find These CRM Tools a Good Fit
Although which Salesforce alternative is best suited for a company depends on their specific needs, here’s what the best ones are most suited for:
- LeadSquared: Best for High-Velocity Sales
LeadSquared is an ideal choice for B2C organizations of all sizes and sales requirements. It is most suited for businesses that heavily rely on lead generation; think industries like education, healthcare, and financial services. Its focus on high-velocity sales campaigns makes it appealing to teams with customized outreach programs.
- Pipedrive: Ideal for B2B Businesses
It caters best to small and mid-sized B2B companies looking for an easy-to-understand and use visual sales pipeline setup. It primarily focuses on sales productivity, making it great for those who already have a great marketing automation tool but want to simplify sales.
- Zoho CRM: Best for Flexibility
Zoho CRM is known for its flexibility. It’s often chosen by small and medium-sized companies looking for easy and quick implementation. This CRM works best for teams who want a full-featured tool along with a free plan.
- HubSpot CRM: Best Free Tool
Popular among very small teams who are just starting and want a free CRM tool with basic features to begin with. It is also an ideal option for marketing-led teams and companies who want a mix of sales and marketing features in a single place.
- Microsoft Dynamics 365: Best for Larger Organizations
This is best suited for larger organizations, especially those that are already using many Microsoft tools. When it comes to enterprise-level functionalities, Microsoft Dynamics 365’s advanced reporting and sales CRM features make it the right choice.
- Freshsales: Best for Outreaching
This tool largely focuses on outgoing calls via CRM. Therefore, it is most suited for teams who prefer reaching out to clients on calls. It is user-friendly yet powerful, and it fits well with small and medium-sized businesses.
- Insightly: Best for Data Validation and Access Control
The key advantage that Insightly has over some basic CRM tools is its data validation and access control features. Therefore, it makes complete sense for small businesses from industries where data safety is non-negligible. Think of companies operating in the healthcare and financial sectors.
- Salesmate: Ideal for Customization and Simplicity
It is a good tool for small-sized companies that are looking for an easy-to-implement and use sales CRM. Businesses can easily learn to use the tool and customize it to make Salesmate perfect for them.
- Monday.com: Best for New Teams
Monday.com has a very simple interface and is easily customizable. This makes it an ideal solution for a new team or a team comprising mostly of freshers. Additionally, it is also very cost-effective compared to Salesforce and many other sales CRM tools. So, a startup with a limited budget might choose it for that reason.
- Nimble: Best for Small Teams
Nimble is easy to implement and use, but with limited features. For instance, the storage is capped at 2 GB per user. Similarly, group messages are limited to 1,000 per month. Therefore, it is not ideal for a larger team. However, smaller teams of 10-25 employees can use this tool and its amazing features, all in a single package.
Choosing the Right CRM: How Can Leadsquared Help?
Choosing the right CRM that aligns with your business needs is essential. Although Salesforce has been an industry leader in this space, it might not be ideal for you. You can choose from many Salesforce alternatives after comparing their features, pricing, benefits, and limitations. Try to do as much research as possible before finalizing a CRM.
You can sign up for free trials of the CRM solutions to see how they can benefit your company. You can also contact CRM providers to get personalized demos explicitly catered to your business requirements. Choose the right CRM solution to facilitate sales productivity and drive growth in your company.
At Leadsquared, you can enable effective sales conversions and produce high-end marketing outputs. The perfect lead management system, Leadsquared bridges the gap between marketing and sales teams instantly. You can contact our team to get a personalized demo and check how LeadSquared features and services can address your company’s unique needs.
FAQs
What are the main drawbacks of using Salesforce?
The main drawbacks of using Salesforce are high pricing, complexity, and a steep learning curve. You can find alternatives to help overcome these drawbacks and align well with your business needs.
How do CRM alternatives compare in terms of pricing?
Most CRM alternatives come with affordable pricing starting at $0. However, some advanced CRM systems, like Microsoft Dynamics 365, offer similar pricing.
Which CRM is best for small businesses?
There’s no definite answer to this question. Every small business is different and will have different requirements. Thus, the right CRM will depend on these needs. A CRM that offers features and benefits that can help small companies address their requirements is the best for them.
Can I migrate data easily from Salesforce to another platform?
Most CRM solutions come with built-in import-export migration support. However, creating a backup of your data is still a good idea before migrating to a Salesforce alternative.
