Top 12 Leading Salesforce Alternatives Reviewed (Features & Pricing for 2024)

Salesforce has established itself as a titan in the CRM industry, offering robust functionality and scalability.

While Salesforce excels in many areas, it's not without its challenges. 

The platform's complexity can be daunting, often requiring significant time and resources. Additionally, as companies scale, the costs may rise faster than anticipated.

So, we've analyzed different CRM tools, studied hundreds of user reviews, and curated a list of the top 12 Salesforce alternatives, each offering unique strengths to address different business needs.

This article examines the core features, pricing structures, strengths, and drawbacks of various alternatives.

Let's dive into these Salesforce alternatives 👇

Why Do Users Look for Salesforce Alternatives?

Salesforce has long been a leader in the CRM space, offering powerful features like extensive integrations, highly customizable options, and integrated marketing tools for advanced automation.

These strengths have made it a go-to solution for many businesses.

However, enterprise-level pricing plans and complex feature-packs make small and medium-sized businesses sell alternatives.

Reason 1: Limited and slow reporting capabilities

While Salesforce offers reporting functions, many users find them to be limited and sometimes slow, especially when dealing with large datasets. This can be frustrating for businesses that rely heavily on data-driven decision-making.

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Reason 2: Unitive interface with limited integrations

Salesforce's broad feature set, while powerful, can be overwhelming for new users. The platform's complexity often results in significant time investment for team members to become proficient and increased training costs.

Users have also complained about the lack of native tools, making them rely on third-party integrations, making Salesforce only a standalone database of leads.

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Reason 3: Pricing catches up with you

While Salesforce's pricing may seem competitive initially, many users find the pricing structure confusing. 

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Along with that, the costs can escalate quickly as your business needs grow. This is often due to the additional fees for essential features or upgrading to more expensive tiers to access advanced functionalities.

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So, users who want a budget-friendly CRM with advanced customization and automation features look for alternatives.

What Are the Best Alternatives to Salesforce?

Based on our research and user reviews, these are the best Salesforce alternatives:

#1. SmartSuite

SmartSuite is a workflow management software that lets you manage your sales processes—lead generation, outreach, qualification, and communication, in a centralized platform with built-in automation, a communication center, and robust task management. 

Full disclosure: Even though SmartSuite is our own product, we aim to provide an honest perspective on why SmartSuite is the top Salesforce alternative available for companies who want to combine their CRM system for task management and automation across the entire organization.

SmartSuite ranked higher in the list due to ease of use and feature-packed pricing, including CRM automation, sales forecasting, and lead management.

The platform is not a traditional CRM per se but offers a modern alternative with hundreds of templates for sales processes. It also allows users to centralize task management and process automation for all functions in one platform.

Here are three key features that make SmartSuite a stronger modern contender against Salesforce.

Feature 1: Project management for sales and marketing

SmartSuite’s dynamic project management feature lets you build a custom campaign tracker or CRM tool to manage and track your workflows.

• Campaign management

Plan, build, and manage multiple campaigns in a dedicated dashboard—social media campaigns, product launches, content planners, and more.

You get access to 7+ task views including Gantt charts and Kanban board and get a deeper look into the campaign's performance.

• Project reporting and testing

Generate a detailed dashboard to review performance across various projects. Run A/B test campaigns to make data-driven decisions to improve project’s and team’s performance.

• Lead tracking

Convert more leads into buyers by tracking every aspect of their journey. By building a lead tracking dashboard, you can add as many properties as you need to get a granular view of the incoming database. To keep your team involved, you can share updates within the dashboard to facilitate quick and real-time communication.

• Pipeline & forecast reports

Convert your sales pipeline into visual graphs and charts to make forecasts and identify potential sales opportunities.

Feature 2: Workflow automation

SmartSuite offers a robust workflow automation suitable for the sales and marketing team to accomplish various tasks ranging from lead generation to deal closing. The no-code builder makes it easier for anyone in the team to build simple to complex workflows for various use cases.

Here are some of the use cases of SmartSuite’s workflow automation:

• Centralized marketing hub: Centralize all your marketing processes in a single platform from ideation to execution.
• Campaign management: Manage outreach campaigns by setting up automation such as updating target leads status based on predefined criteria.
• Managing sales pipelines: Update and maintain sales databases and spreadsheets, export leads to specific product or marketing lists, and organize tasks into actionable steps.
• Lead management: Set up notification triggers to send timely alerts to the right team members when new leads enter the sales funnel. This ensures that no lead is overlooked and that follow-up actions are timely.

Feature 3: CRM template library

SmartSuite offers a library of CRM templates to help you cut down on building one from scratch. Each template is designed by industry experts and contains essential properties such as accounts, lead type, qualification stage, and more.

For example, the Sales CRM template comes with accounts, contacts, opportunities, and sales resources tables, which serve as a central repository for each type of item. Each template also has pre-built views to get a more granular view of your processes.

Some common use cases of these templates include:

• Track estimated value of sales opportunities: Track the estimated and actual contract values of sales opportunities associated with an account.

• Sales asset management: Track all your sales and marketing material in a dedicated space to facilitate smooth collaboration and faster decision-making.

• Rollup fields to calculate the total contract value: With the Sales CRM solution, multiple records of sales opportunities can be paired with a single account to generate a total contract value. Each opportunity's actual contract value is recorded, and the overall contract value is totaled in the Rollup field of the account table.

How Does SmartSuite Compare to Salesforce?

If you’re looking for a pure-bread CRM platform, Salesforce is your best option. 

However, SmartSuite has so much more to offer. It is a great workflow management platform for handling sales and marketing processes. 

More Salesforce customers switch to SmartSuite because of its feature-packed and transparent pricing plans, which include rule-based automated assignments, lead management, and advanced reporting capabilities.

Salesforce is a great pick for small—to medium-sized businesses that need an integrated set of tools for various sales processes. However, the setup is often time-consuming and effort-heavy.

SmartSuite, on the other hand, is much more intuitive and offers a unified work management solution.

Its key advantage is the ability to build custom solutions tailored to specific business needs without extensive coding knowledge. This makes it particularly appealing for small to medium-sized businesses that want to centralize processes across the organization without the complexity and cost associated with Salesforce or the dependency on integrations between solutions.

SmartSuite Pros and Cons

✅ Generous free plan with access to advanced features

✅ 200+ sales CRM templates for different use cases

✅ Flexible and advanced reporting such as pipeline and sales forecast reports

✅ Intuitive no-code automation to streamline sales workflows

❌ Only 25+ integrations

#2. HubSpot

Best for: Easy-to-use, all-in-one CRM solution with strong marketing automation capabilities.

Similar to: Zoho CRM and Pipedrive

HubSpot is a marketing automation software that offers a lot of CRM functionality such as lead management and sales forecasting. 

It wins over Salesforce due to its user-friendly interface and accessible pricing plans along with a free CRM plan.

Who Is It For?

Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), startups, especially marketing and sales teams.

HubSpot’s Top Features

• Prospecting workspace: A dedicated space to empower sales teams to have the relevant context to create more authentic and engaging buyer experiences.
• Email tracking: Monitor your email’s performance and send personalized timely emails based on the insights.
• Sales analytics and reporting: Build custom reporting dashboards and gain insights into your pipeline, team performance, deal status, prospecting touches and conversions, and more.

HubSpot’s Pricing

HubSpot offers a free plan for up to five users. You can also get a 14-day free trial for its three pricing tiers.

• Starter: $20 per user/month, including Stripe integration, 1 email inbox, and up to 3 dashboards, each with 10 reports per dashboard.
• Professional: $100 per user/month, and a one-time required Professional Onboarding for $1,500.
• Enterprise: $150 per user/month, and a one-time required Enterprise Onboarding at a price of $3,500.

As compared to Salesforce, HubSpot has a free plan and a low monthly entry price of $20 for small and medium-sized businesses.

HubSpot’s Pros and Cons

✅ Intuitive user interface

✅ 2-way data sync with other apps available

❌ Expensive pricing due to add-ons

❌ Limited CRM-focused tool and more emphasis on inbound efforts

#3. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Best for: Integrated solution that combines CRM and ERP functionalities.

Similar to: SAP CRM and Oracle NetSuite

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is an integrated suite of business applications that combines CRM and ERP capabilities.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 stands out due to its seamless integration with other Microsoft products like Office 365 and Power BI. This makes it a strong choice for organizations already using Microsoft tools over Salesforce.

Who is it For?

Medium to large enterprises who need a scalable CRM or businesses using Microsoft products.

Microsoft Dynamics 365’s Key Features

• Marketing and sales integration: Connect various sales and marketing processes through email marketing, lead scoring, marketing pages, and social posting.
• Pipeline management: Track your pipeline and progress toward key performance indicators (KPIs) using embedded charts and dashboards.
• Unified contact management: Keep track of your accounts and contacts, nurture your sales from lead to order, and create sales collateral.

Microsoft Dynamics 365’s Pricing

There are three pricing plans available:

• Dynamics 365 Sales Professional: Starting at $65 per user/month, includes core sales automation features.
• Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise: Starting at $95 per user/month, offers advanced sales and customer relationship management features.
• Dynamics 365 Customer Service: Starting at $50 per user/month, provides comprehensive customer service capabilities.

You can try out the tool with a 30-day free trial.

Microsoft Dynamics 365’s Pros and Cons

✅ Integrates with Microsoft products such as Teams, Excel, and PowerBI

✅ Combines CRM and ERP capabilities

❌ Can be complex to implement and manage, especially for non-Microsoft users

❌ Cost increases with add-ons and custom solutions

#4. Pipedrive

Best for: End-to-end management of sales processes.

Similar to: Zoho CRM and Salesforce

Pipelive is an easy-to-use CRM tool that helps sales reps organize, manage, and track lead databases with advanced automation, reporting, and native communication tools.

Pipedrive is a great Salesforce alternative for sales teams as all the features are laser-focused on enhancing sales processes, including pipeline management, at budget-friendly pricing.

Who Is It For?

Small to medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups.

Pipedrive’s Top Features

• Insights and reporting: Get actionable insights through visual reports, pipeline metrics, and custom dashboards.
• Automation workflows: Automate administrative and repetitive tasks such as sales call scheduling, lead assignment, and follow-up emails.
• Communication and email tracking: Assign chat requests to sales reps, compose and send outreach emails, and get real-time alerts for prospect’s email engagement.

Pipedrive’s Pricing

Pipedrive offers five pricing plans with a 14-day free trial for each one of them:

• Essential: Starts at $24 per user/month, including customizable pipeline, 15 reports per user, and leads inbox.
• Advanced: Starts at $44 per user/month, including 30 active automation per user, two-way email sync, and email open & click tracking.
• Professional: Starts at $64 per user/month, including contract timeline, advanced automation, and revenue forecast reports.
• Power: Starts at $79 per user/month, including project add-on, 15 teams per company, and custom fields.
• Enterprise: Starts at $129 per user/month including unlimited reports and advanced customizations.

Pipedrive's pricing plans are more scalable than Salesforce, as there isn't much price variation between tiers.

Pipedrive’s Pros and Cons

✅ 400+ integrations

✅ Affordable, feature-packed pricing especially for teams with small budget

✅ Excellent add-ons for marketing & lead generation

❌ Limited workflow customization

❌ Add-ons can be expensive 

#5. Zoho

Best for: Managing and tracking leads in a dedicated space with highly tailored dashboards and reports.

Similar to: Salesforce and Pipedrive

Zoho CRM is a solid and budget-friendly CRM solution that offers extensive customization and integration capabilities. Compared to Salesforce, it offers a more cost-effective solution for small to medium-sized businesses while still providing a wide range of features.

Who Is It For?

Small and medium-sized businesses with low budgets and enterprise teams looking to scale their CRM efforts.

Zoho’s Top Features

• Sales automation: Automates routine sales tasks, including sales appointment schedules, follow-up emails, contact tracking and lead scoring.
• Omnichannel communication: Connect with your customer through multiple channels—email, phone, social media, and live chat to have more contextually rich conversations.
• Process management: Build scalable sales process including lead scoring, approvals, lead assignment rules, and reviews.

Zoho’s Pricing

Zoho offers a free plan for up to 34 users access and limited access to features including lead tracking, management, and basic reporting.

To explore what all Zoho has to offer, you can try its 15-day free trial for its four pricing tiers:

• Standard: Starts at $20 per user/month with access to sales forecasting tools, 100 custom reports, and 5 forms/modules.
• Professional: Starts at $20 per user/month with access to SalesSignals and unlimited customer reports and dashboard creation.
• Enterprise: Starts at $20 per user/month with access to Zoho AI and marketing attribution.
• Ultimate: Starts at $20 per user/month with access to 25 cohort analyses and access to advanced integration.

Zoho also wins over Salesforce in terms of pricing with a free plan and low-entry point starting plans.

Zoho’s Pros and Cons

✅ Cost-effective pricing plans

✅ Preset reports and custom reporting capabilities

❌ AI assistance only available on Enterprise and Ultimate tiers

#6. Freshsales

Best for: Sales teams focused on automating workflows and enhancing productivity.

Similar to: Pipedrive and Zoho CRM

Freshsales is the CRM tool offered by Freshworks, focused on growing the sales pipeline with powerful AI assistance.

Freshsales stands out with its built-in phone & email, allowing sales teams to communicate with leads directly from the CRM. Its AI-powered lead scoring also gives it a competitive edge over Salesforce.

Who Is It For?

Startups and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that need a cost-effective CRM solution.

Freshsales’s Top Features

• Multi-channel communication: Engage with prospects at the right time in the right contextual setting across email, chat, phone, zoom, and SMSs.
• Workflow automation: Build custom workflows and sales sequences by segmenting and prioritizing prospects based on rules and key identifiers.
• Sales intelligence: Enhance sales processes through AI-powered contact scoring, sales forecasting, and future action steps.

Freshsales’s Pricing

Freshsales CRM offers a free plan for up to 3 users with basic CRM customizations, data import & export, and a built-in phone dialer. To get more advanced features, select from three pricing tiers:

• Growth: Starts at $11 per user/month, including 20 basic workflows, a visual sales pipeline, and Slack collaboration.
• Pro: Starts at $47 per user/month, including custom sales activities, 50 advanced automated workflows, and sales forecasting.
• Enterprise: Starts at $71 per user/month including a suite of advanced features to manage your leads and deals.

Freshsales’s Pros and Cons

✅ Affordable pricing tiers

✅ Highly customizable

✅ Integrates with Freshdesk, Freshteam, Freshmarketer, and Freshservice

❌ Integration marketplace not available for a free user

#7. Oracle NetSuite

Best for: Comprehensive cloud-based ERP solution with integrated CRM capabilities

Similar to: SAP and Microsoft Dynamics

NetSuite CRM is part of a full enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution offered by Oracle. It provides a complete flow of information across the entire customer lifecycle—from lead generation to renewal, upsell, cross-sell, and support.

Netsuite CRM stands out as a strong Salesforce alternative because while Salesforce is a standalone CRM software, Netsuite is an ERP that offers a standalone CRM tool.

Who Is It For?

Enterprise-level businesses need a scalable solution and operate in complex industries such as manufacturing and distribution.

Oracle NetSuite’s Top Features

• Automation: Build integrated sales processes from lead management, upsell and quote management, sales forecasting, order management, and commissions.
• Reporting and analytics: Built-in reporting and role-based dashboard allowing marketing, sales, and customer services, to monitor the performance across various areas.
• Case management: Create and automate case management processes so that customers can submit cases online, review the status, and reply with follow-up communications.

Oracle NetSuite’s Pricing

Netsuite CRM is included with the Netsuite platform. It means you need to subscribe to the platform for an annual license fee to access the CRM. This license consists of a core platform, optional modules, and several users.

To implement the platform, there is a one-time fee as well for the initial setup.

Oracle NetSuite’s Pros and Cons

✅ Combines ERP and CRM in one solution

✅ Offers robust reporting and data visualization tools

✅ Gives a 360-degree view of the customer’s life cycle across all stages

❌ Significant upfront investment for implementation and customization

#8. SAP

Best for: Comprehensive business management with heavy reliance on ERP integrations.

Similar to: Oracle NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365

SAP offers a comprehensive CRM and ERP solutions suite for large enterprises with complex, industry-specific needs such as manufacturing, distribution, and packaging.

SAP stands out as a Salesforce alternative due to its integration across SAP solutions, offering a unified view of business operations.

Who Is It For?

Large enterprises, especially those already within the SAP ecosystem.

SAP’s Top Features

• Sales automation: Automate manual tasks and ensure efficiency across various systems and processes.
• Sales analytics: Understand customer needs and improve sales outcomes with dashboards that provide actionable campaign insights.
• Omnichannel experience: Supports consistent customer interactions across multiple channels.

SAP’s Pricing

There is no free plan or trial available and pricing for paid plans is available only on request.

SAP’s Pros and Cons

✅ Large number of third-party integrations

✅ Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities

❌ Initial setup is often complex and time-consuming

#9. Keap

Best for: Marketing automation solution that is affordable and easy to implement.

Similar to: Attio and Monday.com CRM

Keap is a user-friendly CRM designed for small businesses, offering a simpler and more cost-effective alternative to Salesforce.

Keap's powerful set of integration with email marketing and e-commerce tools makes it a suitable alternative to Salesforce, particularly for online businesses.

Who Is It For?

Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and service-based businesses

Keap’s Key Features

• Analytics: Manage your sales pipeline performance through various reports including deal conversions by stage, average deal duration, the average time in the stage, and deal revenue forecasting.
• Automation builder: Drag-and-drop automation builder to eliminate repetitive tasks such as sending text or email follow-ups at the right time or assigning leads to the right sales rep.
• Invoicing and payments: Built-in tools for quotes, invoicing, and payment processing.

Keap’s Pricing

Keap offers a 14-day free trial for its fixed pricing plans.

Unlike Salesforce, Keap offers flat-fee pricing with a minimum of 2 user seats and 1500 contacts starting at $299/month. In this flat fee, you get access to all the features—Automation, CRM, email & text, pipeline, landing pages, payments, appointments, and reporting.

Keap’s Pros and Cons

✅ User-friendly dashboards and navigation

✅ Built-in payment and invoicing tool

❌ Contact based pricing increases the total cost

#10. Monday.com CRM

Best for: Building appealing and customizable databases to manage all sales processes.

Similar to: Folk and Attio

Monday.com CRM is part of Monday.com’s worksuite which helps sales teams build configurable pipelines dashboards. The tool stands out as it integrates with Monday.com’s work management software facilitating better collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Compared to Salesforce, Monday.com CRM stands out as a highly visual, customizable workflow management approach.

Who Is It For?

Medium and large-size businesses who want a dynamic CRM tool or team who already uses Monday.com’s work management tool.

Monday.com CRM’s Top Features

• Dynamic dashboards: Build custom dashboards by using custom fields and widgets to visualize reports like sales forecasting, deals progress, and activity tracking.
• Centralized client communication: Compose and track of sent emails, and email engagement, and set up personalized email templates for email outreach on scale.
• Automation: Automates repetitive tasks such as lead assignments, email notifications, and activity reminders.

Monday.com’s CRM Pricing

Monday.com offers a 14-day free trial and a free plan for up to 2 users. Their paid plans need at least 3 users and come in four tiers:

• Basic: Starts at $21 per user/month, including unlimited customizable pipeline, Whiteboard collaboration, and two-factor authentication.
• Standard: Starts at $28 per user/month, including Gmail and Outlook integration, 250 actions/month, and deal management.
• Pro: Starts at $48 per user/month, including private boards and docs, Google authentication,. Sales forecasting, and 100GB file storage.
• Enterprise: Salesforce integration, lead scoring, advanced analytics, and post-sales management. Contact sales for a quote.

Monday.com’s CRM beats Salesforce pricing with pricing as low as $21/month making it a suitable choice for smaller team size.

Monday.com CRM Pros and Cons

✅ Dynamic boards with multi-dashboard views

✅ Advanced and flexible automated workflows

❌ Requires a minimum team size to buy or upgrade plan

❌ Basic plan offers limited features

#11. Attio

Best for: Customizable CRM dashboard with data enrichment capabilities.

Similar to: Monday.com CRM and Pipedrive

Attio is a low-investment CRM software that helps you track and optimize your business relationships with individuals and organizations.

Attio differentiates itself from other CRMs by offering powerful data modeling capabilities and real-time collaboration features.

Who Is It For?

Small to mid-sized businesses, startups, freelancers, and solopreneurs that need a lightweight, customizable CRM solution.

Attio’s Top Features

• Flexible reporting: Transform data points into custom advanced reports to visualize progress and make data-driven decisions.
• Unified collaboration: Tag your teammates, leave contextual comments, sync Calendar, and share notes for quick communication and real-time update sharing.
• Data syncing and automation: Use custom fields to configure CRM, create associations between different fields, and automate your decisions.

Attio’s Pricing

Attio’s free plan offers 3 seats, 100 workflow credits, and a limited email send limit/month. The paid plans come in three tiers with a 14-day free trial:

• Plus: Starts at $34 per user/month, including 20 reports, and 200 credits to enrich contacts from LinkedIn and standard data sources.
• Pro: Starts at $69 per user/month, including unlimited emails, 2500 workflow credits, and up top 100 advanced reporting.
• Enterprise: Starts at $119 per user/month, including unlimited custom objects and 100+ reports.

Attio offers lower pricing plans and a free plan, which Salesforce does not offer.

Attio’s Pros and Cons

✅ Automatic data enrichment

✅ Clean and blazingly fast UI

❌ Limited integrations

❌ Lack of native features such as email sequencing, lead scoring and call tracking

#12. Folk

Best for: Unifying contact management through dynamic pipelines and native email tools.

Similar to: Pipedrive and Attio

Folk CRM is a relationship management software that helps teams manage their pipeline, communicate, and close deals in a user-friendly platform.

Compared to Salesforce, Folk offers a modern, sleek alternative with emphasis on relationship management and simplicity.

Who Is It For?

Startups, solopreneurs, and businesses with small team sizes.

Folk’s Top Features

• Pipeline management: Define your deal stages, track deals, and identify your highly qualified leads, all in a customizable dashboard.
• Native emailing tool: Write, plan, and send ultra-personalized emails and set up follow-up sequences within Folk CRM and send in bulk using your domain.
• Unified contact management: Integrates with Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more channels letting track conversation and outreach in a dedicated space.

Folk’s Pricing

Folk offers a 14-day free trial for its three pricing plans:

• Standard: Start at $25 per user/month, including pipeline management, 1/member email account sync, and integration with Zapier.
• Premium: Start at $50 per user/month, including custom objects, automation sequences, and migration services.
• Custom: Start at $100 per user/month for custom features. Contact sales for a quote.

Folk's pricing is consistent across plans, while Salesforce pricing often increases substantially at higher tiers.

Folk’s Pros and Cons

✅ Adaptable and easy-to-navigate interface

✅ Chrome extension that works on every platform

✅ Native emailing and social listening tools

❌ Basic reporting and analytics capabilities

Beyond Salesforce: Choosing Your Ideal CRM Solution

The alternatives we've discussed cater to various business sizes and needs.

If you are an enterprise-level organization and want integrated capabilities such as with an ERP, go for SAP, Oracle Netsuite, or Microsoft Dynamics. For smaller businesses or startups looking for cost-effective, feature-packed solutions, Pipedrive, Attio, or Folk can be the go-to choices.

But, if you're seeking an adaptable, all-in-one work management platform that offers a balance of powerful features, user-friendliness, and value for money, SmartSuite could be your best bet.

With SmartSuite, you get to:

• Automate workflow with dynamic automation
• Manage your contacts and leads in an intuitive interface
• Improve team collaboration with native communication tools
• Predict sales closing and revenue through advanced analytics 

Ready to explore further? Take SmartSuite for a spin or schedule a demo to talk to our sales team.