Businesses are mostly associated with solutions for Customer Relationship Management which is Salesforce. It was first established in 1999, while all kinds of organizations took up sales-force to improve themselves to utilize the service provided across and by sales force and customers through their interaction of needs in managing marketing and other businesses.
This will help you get through the 12 best salesforce alternatives. It does this by determining what makes each alternative unique and what a person should look for while settling on a CRM which can fit his or her business needs.
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management tool through which companies can relate to customers, prospects, and leads. It may track interactions, analyze data on customers, automate workflows, and promote cooperation between sales, marketing, and service teams. It is well known to be quite scalable, flexible and appropriate for large enterprises with complicated workflows.
Salesforce comes in with a lot of capability. That however, might become too much for many businesses, overwhelming them in pricing structures and steep learning curves in addition to the compulsion of its customization. Hence, one must see what are the alternatives to Salesforce. There, necessity comes in different terms and budgets.
Why Consider Alternatives to Salesforce?
1. Pricing
The only reason serious criticisms go toward the cost structure of Salesforce is that it tends to have relatively high prices especially toward a business whose budget size could best fit small or mid-size firms. Increasing this into higher features really leads it up to higher priced costing once your business develops more scale.
2. Complex
It is powerful but is a little bit complex. Sometimes its interface confuses, especially those who are not utilizing all the tools from Salesforce. For small businesses or start-ups, it would be good to just pick some simple CRM solution.
3. Customization Requirements
It is customizable however, organizations need IT support or some specialty knowledge to make it compliant to their needs. While if a CRM can do all the job well even without much setting right from the box then maybe this will be another alternative good enough for your needs.
4. Limited Features for Niche
There are myriads, and in some niches, one can find some kind of scarcity from the specialized niche or of small groups. Or maybe CRMs that’d just fit the bill and be perhaps better than Salesforce as well suited for specific business needs or workflow.
5. Lockin for Vendors
Companies grow up into the shape of Salesforce, and changing things later becomes almost impossible. If you want the open flexibility, you surely will find better options.
What To Look For in Your Best Salesforce Alternatives?
When on the look for some alternatives you would like to consider addressing some of the following pressing concerns:
1. Ease of Use
Find a CRM that has an easy-to-use interface that does not demand extensive training. A simple interface will make it easy for your team to get on board and be productive.
2.The price
Your budget together with the prices that CRM proposes. Many are offered for flexible, tiered or all-inclusive packs so as they grow appropriately.
3. Feature Set
Identify the fundamental CRM needs, such as lead management, automation, reporting, and third-party integrations. Most of the options now provide a basic CRM feature set along with other complementary tools or modules tailored specifically to meet the distinct needs of certain companies.
4. Customization
If your business requires a customizable CRM product to its workflow, assess how easily each alternative can be tweaked to fit your business-specific customization needs.
5. Integration
Make sure the CRM can be integrated with other software tools you may be using as well. It might be marketing platforms, accounting software, or even some communication tools that will make things flow cohesively.
Best 12 Salesforce Alternatives to Choose in 2024
This in-depth guide to the top 12 Best Salesforce alternatives looks at features, best use cases, and pricing models to help guide you to the best choice for your business’s needs.
1. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a business application that goes above and beyond simple CRM and offers advanced automation capabilities as well as multi-channel customer engagement tools and smooth integration with the entire Zoho platform. It also boasts of a fantastic AI assistant named Zia, offering intelligent insights and predictions on its platform. Its customizable workflow and rich analytics will allow businesses to easily ease their entire sales processes.
This mobile-first approach means that team members are able to function even in areas where productivity levels may dip as they’re likely to go out more – which also works well for companies that deploy field sales groups and people working from places outside office areas.
Key Features
- Zia AI Power Sales Assistant
- Advanced analytics and custom report
- Customer Multi-Channel Contact
- Mobilefirst approach
- Integrate with 500+ apps
Best for
- Small to medium-sized business that wants full-fledged CRM with heavy automation
Pricing
- Standard: $14 user/ Month
- Professional: $23 user/ Month
- Enterprise: $40 user /month
- Ultimate: $52 user / month
Website
www.zoho.com/crm
2. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM is one of the best, most user-friendly tools flexible and broad in feature scope, making it a perfect alternative to Salesforce. It is one of the best salesforce alternatives, its free version is also available aside from its paid marketing, sales, and customer service tools. HubSpot is also easy to use and intuitive with awesome integration with many third-party with powerful reporting and automated workflows, marketing tools, too, in easy accessibility, the Hubspot CRM makes for small to medium sized businesses all in one.
Key Features
- Alerts for emails
- Schedule appointments
- Live chat
- Marketing automation
- Dashboard comes with rich reports
Best For
- Scaling companies requiring an elastic solution with a rich marketing suite
Pricing
- Free: $0 (users are unlimited)
- Starter: $45/month
- Pro: $890/month
- Enterprise: $3,600/month
Website
www.hubspot.com
3. Freshsales
A highly popular AI-powered CRM named Freshsales offers little setup to enhance productivity for teams. It is basically concentrating on lead scoring, workflow automation, and email marketing which allows teams to effectively get to their sales process. For small teams, there are free plans available where advanced features such as contact management, predictive scoring, and robust analytics are made available in paid versions. Its user-friendly design makes it ideal for teams with a need for a very easy-to-use, adaptable, and customizable CRM.
Key Features
- Inbuilt phone and email
- AI-driven Lead scoring
- Visual sales pipeline
- Activity capture
- Custom reports and dashboards
- Mobile app with offline capabilities
Best For
- Businesses that require an integrated solution for sales and marketing as well as great communication.
Pricing
- Growth: $15/user/month
- Pro: $39/user/month
- Enterprise: $69/user/month
Website
https://www.freshworks.com/crm/
4. ClickUp
ClickUp is quite an amazing approach towards the view of CRM since it covers under one umbrella two features namely project management and customer relationship management. It’s one of the very few apps that give versatility for all choices regarding the view when it comes to one’s sales pipeline management and will give options from list to boards, calendar to Gantt charts. Further on, the feature it will offer would be to change the workflows with various available options to help users work with an even lesser possibility of messing things up; however, automation keeps things eased but on top of keeping track of customers.
Key Features
- Offered view options
- Field and status customization
- Hour tracking
- Collaborative documents
- Automated workflow
- In-depth reporting
Best for
- For teams that would wish to integrate project management concurrently with the CRM
Pricing
- Unlimited: US $7/user/month
- Business: US $12/user/month
- Enterprise: quote
Website
www.clickup.com
5. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is strong with its focus on sales-centric approach. It provides an excellent view of the pipeline that has helped teams well in visualizing and managing the sales process pretty effectively. It is also one of the best salesforce alternatives. On the simple usability and friendliness in the center lies all those powerful features necessary for sales automation and tracking within it. There is an AI-powered assistant that provides real-time values and helps them ease repetitive processes so that time can be given to making relationships work and closing a deal instead.
Key Features
- Visual pipeline management
- Email tracking and templates
- AI sales assistant
- Mobile apps with offline mode
- Revenue forecasting
- Customizable reports
Best For
- Sales-oriented teams who want a very straightforward, pipeline-based CRM
Pricing
- Essential: $14.90/user/month
- Advanced: $24.90/user/month
- Professional: $49.90/user/month
- Enterprise: $99/user/month
Website
www.pipedrive.com
6. ActiveCampaign
Its biggest strength is the combining of deep marketing automation with CRM functions, making it great for companies that are mainly focused on email marketing and customers. It can deliver sophisticated automation workflows, predictive sending, dynamic content capabilities, and also help in delivering personalized experiences to hundreds of thousands of customers.
Machine learning capabilities go deep into what customer behavior is, so businesses can optimize campaigns for better results.
Key Features
- Advanced email marketing automation
- Predictive sending
- Testing abilities
- Website tracking and event tracking
- Lead scoring and segmentation
Best For
- Businesses looking for extensive marketing automation capabilities and integration with their CRM.
Pricing
- Lite $29/month
- Plus: $49/month
- Professional: $149/month
- Enterprise: Custom Pricing
Website
www.activecampaign.com
7. Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the full CRM and ERP solution for businesses with complex needs. Dynamics 365 is very flexible, integrating into all of Microsoft’s suite, including Outlook and Teams, for tools in marketing, sales, customer service, and finance management. The solution it offers is scalable, with AI-driven insights, customizable workflows, and real-time analytics. It fits large organizations that require a strong and flexible CRM and integrate very well with other Microsoft products.
Key Features
- Deep within the Microsoft Ecosystem
- Insight by AI
- Advance Security
- Unified Customer Data Platform
- Role-based workspaces
- Mixed reality capabilities
Best For
- Enterprise organizations deeply invested in the Microsoft Ecosystem
Pricing
- Sales Professional: $65 per user/month
- Sales Enterprise: $95 per user/month
- Sales Premium: $135 per user /month
- Custom solutions available
Website
https://dynamics.microsoft.com
8. SAP Sales Cloud
SAP Sales Cloud is a full-force, enterprise-level CRM with sophisticated analytics and AI-powered insights. It is strong on configuration capabilities, advanced territory management, and strong integration capabilities that support other SAP products. The solution offers the complete suite of sales performance management tools, designed to help organizations simplify complicated, complicated sales processes throughout global teams.
Key Features
- Advanced Territory Management
- Configure Price Quote (CPQ)
- AIPowered Sales Intelligence
- Sales Performance Management
- Complex Workflow Automation
- Global Compliance Features
Best For
- Enterprise businesses with complex sales capabilities and solid integration to an ERP system
Pricing
- Professional Edition: Quote only
- Enterprise Edition: Quote only
- Get more about SAP
Website
www.sap.com/products/salescloud.html
9. Insightly
The tool provides an out-of-the-box CRM balance and solid project management functionality integrated in. Insightly also leads in linking up relations because it lets a company draw complex contacts to organization, opportunity connections on one place. This software offers an easy way of creating customized dashboards with the use of the modern interface so teams can see where everything stands and managing the relationship of customers can be managed.
Key Features
- Project Management that is Intuitive
- Relationship Linking
- Personalizable Dashboard
- Integrating via email
- CRM mobile applications
- Automation of workflows
- Organizations needing a CRM and a project management capability in the same environment
Pricing
- Plus: $29/user/month
- Professional: $49/user/month
- Enterprise: $99/user/month
Website
www.insightly.com
10. Monday.com
Monday.com is a completely visual work management platform which can be turned into a CRM, thus suitable for teams that require flexible workflow. This includes task tracking, collaborative boards, automations, and timeline views that would help in managing the relationships with customers and projects. The interface of Monday.com is customizable such that teams can build up workflows which will be able to fit their sales and specific customer support processes. This is great for creative teams or businesses that need a flexible CRM like solutions.
Key Features
- Graphical interface
- Customized workflow
- Timeline and Gantt view
- Automation recipes
- Team collaboration tools
- Integration capabilities
Pricing
- Basic: $8/user/month
- Standard: $10/user/month
- Pro: $16/user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Website
www.monday.com
11. Airtable
Airtable is a combination of a spreadsheet and a database, complete with customisable templates for CRM, project management and other things. This tool allows users to track and control and organize their customer data using its spreadsheet like interface that can be customized. It can easily integrate with applications like Slack, Gmail and Google Workspace to create collaborative functionalities between departments. Besides this, it is very cheap for the management of information from clients. While for small start-ups or enterprises.
Key Features
- Dynamo database
- Viewing of Multi-options
- Field type creation
- Automation Features
- Large attachable fields
- Huge template library
Best For
- Organizations that want a most customizable and collaboration-oriented CRM system
Pricing
- Free- $0
- Plus- $10/users/month
- Pro- $20/users/month
- Enterprise- Custom Price
Website
www.airtable.com
12. Bitrix24
This is one of those feature-rich CRM tools boasting all-in-one project management, collaboration, and even customer relation tools. It presents excellent features in terms of team chat, task management, document sharing, contact management, etc. It does not cost any money. Commercial plans include marketing automation and advanced analytics. Bitrix24 is an ideal alternative for companies looking to directly integrate CRM and project management tools in virtue of its integrated approach and the wide set of functionalities available.
Key Features
- Complete business suite
- Contact center integration
- Website builder
- Task and project management
- Document management
- Time Tracking
Best For
- Small to Medium Sized Businesses Needing One Complete Business Management Solution
Pricing
- Free
- Basic $49/month
- Standard $99/month
- Professional $199 per month
Website
www.bitrix24.com
Trends in Salesforce Alternatives
1. Simplification in Design
Such a simple-look CRM as HubSpot or Pipedrive may still provide a way to find where to track your leads and contacts, or even perform more complicated automation tasks without having to retrain considerably.
2. Low-cost price elasticity
Generally, Zoho CRM and Freshsales are more cost-effective compared with Salesforce’s competitors, which provide free or low budget versions for even companies of the smallest budget without charging very highly on the monthly subscription fees, hence being more welcoming to small newly established businesses and start-ups.
3. Better Integration Ability
The company needs many sorts of software packages. Various CRMs, such as Copper and Insightly allow the integration of nearly every popular system like Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, Slack, etc.
4. AI-Driven Insights
Most of the firms in the contemporary era have their CRMs and this helps them make it possible to predict the behaviors of the customers, follow them and even lead those customers with AI and automation in a better manner. This is in this respect now being done to save time and bring improvements into the whole selling process.
5. Industry-specific solutions
Industry-specific CRMs that were the most sought-for evolved too. There’s Apptivo, that is one designed especially for the small business owners and there’s Salesflare, especially specializing with B2B firms. These CRMs will be built according to the need in an industry; thus, the appropriate tools will come up to bring relief into the workflow of said industries.
Conclusion
There indeed has been a demand for low-price, simple, and configurable CRMs in the search, which are selling force alternatives. Many CRM solutions exist-ranging from small new startups looking for something extremely simple up to big companies that seek scalability today. Take the time and dive into what is latest for getting to know your needs, the best Salesforce alternatives to success.
FAQs
1. What are the best Salesforce alternatives?
The most popular substitutes are HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Freshsales, and Pipedrive.
2. Are the alternatives to Salesforce inexpensive?
Yes, all of them have low-budget and even free plans and that would make them relatively budget-friendly
3. Do I use these alternative tools with my tools, which I already have installed?
Yes; most of the alternatives can support integration with applications that include Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, and Slack.
4. Does the alternative option use automation?
Most of them use automation tools to make work easier and much more efficient.