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The best Salesforce alternative is HubSpot, offering a similarly scalable platform with lots of features and impressive analytics. In fact, our research found that HubSpot is one of the best CRMs for small businesses thanks to its robust free plan, something Salesforce does not have.
Salesforce is the most popular CRM in the world by a staggering margin, accounting for one third of CRM market share around the world. The platform is well known for its in-depth reporting dashboards and helpful tools for sales, marketing, and customer service organizations. It’s not perfect, though, with a high price tag, no free plan, and a complicated interface, which is why we’ve collected some alternatives to Salesforce for you to choose from.
In this guide, we’ll examine the merits of all the best Salesforce alternatives, helping you to decide which is the right CRM solution for your business, whether it be for marketing, sales, or customer service. Here are our top picks:
Best Salesforce Alternatives Overview
- HubSpot is a far better choice for marketing than any other CRM including Salesforce.
- SugarCRM offers a great budget option, although it seriously lacks when it comes to customer service.
- Freshworks CRM has a genuinely good free tier (something Salesforce can’t offer).
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a pretty expensive option but offers great integration with other Microsoft products.
- Zoho CRM is the best CRM for small businesses, offering low-cost plans and a free plan to get started fast.
Click the links above to get started, or use the button below to generate custom price quotes for Salesforce and its alternatives today.
Top Alternatives to Salesforce
Choosing a CRM platform is all about finding the right fit – something that offers the features you need, and the customizability every business requires. Our advice is to always seek out a personalized quote for the needs and scale of your business – and you can do this using our simple, free CRM quote finding tool. That way, you can make sure you’re investing in a CRM solution that’s fit for your purposes and budget.
So, with all these great Salesforce competitors on the market, would we ward you off choosing Salesforce entirely? No chance – Salesforce is a market leader for good reason, and between best-in-class features and some surprisingly competitive tailored pricing plans there are plenty of reasons to opt for Salesforce.
Check out our in-depth Salesforce review for more information
| Best for | Starting price | Most expensive plan | Free plan | Free trial | Verdict | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPONSORED  |  |  |  |  |  | ||
| SugarCRM | Microsoft Dynamics 365 | ||||||
| In-depth analytics | Scalability | Customizability | Free plan | Microsoft users | Small businesses | ||
| $50/user/month | |||||||
| $1,000/month | $1,500/user/month | ||||||
| | | | | | | ||
| 30 days | | 7 days | 21 days | 30 days | 30 days | ||
| An incredibly popular and customizable CRM for all businesses, with excellent communication tools | An easy-to-use and highly scalable platform ideal for growing businesses, with a very cheap first paid plan. | A great all-round CRM with a great, easy to understand dashboard | A highly intuitive CRM that is packed with plenty of features and even has a free plan option | A robust CRM platform that embeds brilliantly with Microsoft products | An attractive option, with lots of features for a low price |
HubSpot CRM
The key appeal of HubSpot is also its biggest differentiation from Salesforce: it starts by offering the basic HubSpot CRM for free, with virtually no limits on users or features for the basic CRM for following up on leads, opportunities, and tracking your customer database.
On top of that, our team found that the HubSpot interface is decidedly easy to use, while still offering robust functionality, including a dashboard with an at-a-glance view for all ongoing deals. It also integrates with Gmail and Outlook to easily pull in email data, for better visibility of customer interactions within your organization.
HubSpot Features
For any business that needs to go beyond the basic CRM, HubSpot offers additional CRM-related platforms called “hubs” for one-to-one marketing, sales, and customer service. All of these hubs have free tiers; however, the added features that most businesses would want requires a monthly subscription.
Even better, our researchers noted that the platform has a laser focus on customer engagement and was clearly designed by experts that know exactly what kind of data you need and what kind of tasks it can help with.
| Starting price | Most expensive plan | Free plan | Free trial | Verdict | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | ||||
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | Hubspot Service Hub | |||||
| $130/user/month | ||||||
| | | | ||||
| | | | ||||
| A scalable tool that’s perfect for managing contracts and payments | The best option for businesses looking to scale | A solid option with good functionality, but others do it cheaper |
HubSpot Pricing
HubSpot pricing varies pretty dramatically based on which hubs you’re interested in taking advantage of, with each adhering to three pricing plans: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. If you’re interested in marketing, sales, and service hubs, the price is going to be pretty hefty, particularly for the enterprise-level plans. That’s the benefit of HubSpot, though: you can mix and match depending on your needs to save a bit of money.
Check out our guide HubSpot pricing for more information
The reporting dashboard on HubSpot
Image: Tech.co testing
Why HubSpot Is a Good Salesforce Alternative
HubSpot is a better alternative to Salesforce because of the marketing features available. In fact, HubSpot is the best CRM for marketing features, according to our research. HubSpot’s marketing hub offers ad management and retargeting, conversational chatbots, and landing pages, and that’s all found in the Starter plan. Simply put, if you’re looking for a CRM with marketing capabilities, HubSpot is your absolute best bet.
Additionally, we’ve found the intro walkthrough in HubSpot to be super intuitive and helpful, making it perfect for anyone that has no experience with CRM software. The only drawback is that, during our testing, the software lagged, and we lost the intro walkthrough, which made the experience much more difficult.
Still, the biggest improvement is that HubSpot offers a free plan, which Salesforce doesn’t. Even better, HubSpot offers a better free plan than other free plans on this list, like Zoho CRM. It offers significantly more functionality across sales, marketing, and customer service, with Zoho CRM offering the most basic options compared to HubSpot’s surprisingly advanced free offerings.
See our full HubSpot vs Salesforce guide here
Pros
- Sales and marketing features for growing businesses are included on all plans
- Tidy, easy-to-navigate interface, which makes setting up easy
- Shared team inbox makes chasing leads and support tickets way less complex
- Feature-rich free plan with lots of tools, perfect for small teams on a tight budget
- Easy-to-use AI and automation tools for streamlining processes
Cons
- Virtually no customer support on the free plan, so it's tough if you get stuck
- Free plan file storage limit to 5 documents, so you'll have to use other apps
- Hefty onboarding fees will put some businesses off the priciest plans
Freshworks CRM
Freshworks is the umbrella under which Freshsales, Freshmarketer, and Freshdesk operate under. These offerings are typically a bit more affordable than your average CRM and offers enough features to get you through. Our researchers found the UI to be highly intuitive, with a powerful feature set including AI-based lead scoring, which can help you decide which customers are prime for a sale and which ones need a bit more massaging to get to conversion.
Freshworks CRM Features
At these prices, it’s understandable that Freshworks doesn’t have all the features of a Salesforce or a HubSpot, particularly when it comes to data visualization and analytics. However, at this price, it offers quite a lot of features, especially those that are used to engage new customers online. Simply put, if you’re trying to save a bit of money without sacrificing a lot, Freshworks is a great place to start.
Our researchers found that Freshworks was particularly good for email marketing, offering a quick and easy setup process that makes scheduling campaigns easy. You do have to make your own templates, but once they’re created, you can send out emails in a flash.
| Starting price | Most expensive plan | Free plan | Free trial | Verdict | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  | ||||
| Freshmarketer | ||||||
| $299 per month | ||||||
| | | | ||||
| 21 days | 21 days | 21 days | ||||
| A low-cost option that’s great for engaging potential customers online | A good option for email, but not great for scalability | A practical option with lots of channels but no survey functionality |
Freshworks CRM Pricing
Freshworks CRM offers three different pricing plans across its many offerings: Growth, Pro and Enterprise. You’ll also get access to a free plan across the board, allowing you unlimited users with obviously stripped-down functionality compared to the paid plans. Still, it’s a great way to test out the software before making a financial commitment.
Check out our guide to Freshdesk pricing for more information
The Freshworks automation builder in action
Image: Tech.co testing
Why Freshworks CRM is a Good Salesforce Alternative
It’s got to be the price on this one. Freshworks is infinitely less expensive than Salesforce, as well as other options on this list like HubSpot, even when it comes to infamously expensive marketing plans. In fact, on average Freshworks plans are nearly ten times less expensive than their Salesforce counterparts, making it a good to budget option that doesn’t sacrifice too much.
Pros
- Packed with a great catalog of features
- Highly intuitive user interface, easy for beginners
- Free tier available
Cons
- Reporting tools are a bit limited
- Some key features exclusive to expensive plans
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft’s newest mission is to bring its software to every platform with seamless integration between its various products, and the company’s CRM, Microsoft Dynamics, is no exception. If your company already lives and breathes the Microsoft platform, with products such as Office 365 and Outlook for email, then the Dynamics CRM can make a lot of sense. Dynamics is also a good platform if you’ve been wanting to try out Microsoft HoloLens as a business tool, since it integrates with that as well. According to our researchers, Dynamics feels very much like a tool that is ideal for large enterprises and active medium-sized businesses but may be overkill for smaller companies.
Microsoft Dynamics Features
Microsoft offers some unique tools that go beyond the CRM within the Dynamics umbrella of services. These include platforms for finance, operations, and talent recruiting, as well as services we’ve seen elsewhere, such as customer service and marketing platforms. It’s incredibly robust as far as features are concerned, which is why it’s such a great option.
| Starting price | Most expensive plan | Free plan | Free trial | Verdict | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  | ||||
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service | ||||
| $65/user/month | $50/user/month | |||||
| $162/user/month | $1,500 per month | $95/user/month | ||||
| | | | ||||
| 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | ||||
| An expensive, robust tool for analytics that’s better suited to current Microsoft users | A bit too expensive for most, but great for managing teams closely | A great, customizable platform aimed at larger businesses |
Microsoft Dynamics Pricing
The Microsoft Dynamics pricing scheme is certainly different than what you might be used to. Like HubSpot, it offers a wide range of specific options, so that you can mix and match exactly what you’re looking for. It can get pretty expensive if you’re looking to add every piece of it, which includes field service, customer service, marketing, sales, finances, operations, commerce, and human resources, but hopefully you’re only looking for a few of these.
The interactive home dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics
Image: Tech.co testing
Why Microsoft Dynamics Is a Good Salesforce Alternative
Microsoft Dynamics is similarly robust when it comes to comparisons with Salesforce, but the biggest edge it has over everyone’s favorite CRM is that it’s from Microsoft. This means that it integrates flawlessly with Office, Outlook, and many other Microsoft systems. So if your company is already set up with Microsoft, then the Dynamics platform is the way to go.
Along with all that, Microsoft Dynamics allows for seamless integration with other Microsoft services like Teams and Outlook. And while options like Zoho CRM and Pipedrive offer similar integrations through third-party services, you really can’t beat the original when it comes to functionality.
Interested in Microsoft Dynamics? Head to our Microsoft Dynamics review
Pros
- Integrates with Microsoft products
- Features on par with Salesforce catalog
- Robust, 24/5 support options
Cons
- Decidedly expensive
- Limited API
- No free plan
SugarCRM
SugarCRM isn’t the biggest name in the business, but it prides itself on being able to hang with the big boys. Our researchers found it to be a simple, easy to understand interface, with deep customization options — making it incredibly flexible and adaptable. Sugar also has no hidden fees, offering three standard pricing plans ranging from $40 to $150 per user, per month, each providing a different service: Sugar Sell, Sugar Market, and Sugar Serve.
SugarCRM Features
SugarCRM has a range of tools to facilitate collaboration between different business functions and works seamlessly across mobiles and tablets making it great for mobile workers. SugarCRM is easy to integrate with your existing IT infrastructure, offering SaaS and on-premises installations.
| Starting price | Free plan | Free trial | Verdict | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  | |||
| Sugar Sell | Sugar Market | Sugar Serve | |||
| $19/user/month | $1,000/month | $80/user/month | |||
| | | | |||
| 7 days | | | |||
| A reasonably priced platform offering solid customization options | A good budget option for covering multiple marketing channels | A weak offering with few native service channels available |
SugarCRM Pricing
SugarCRM’s pricing model is similar to that of HubSpot, with different options for service, marketing, and sales. Additionally, you can combine all of them in two different plans, Professional and Enterprise, which cater to small and large companies depending on your needs.
Check out our guide to SugarCRM pricing for more information
The SugarCRM home dashboard
Image: SugarCRM
Why SugarCRM Is a Good Salesforce Alternative
Customizability is the name of the game when it comes to SugarCRM. With a widely flexible platform designed for particular needs, this platform can be molded to suit whatever metrics and functionality you need. Plus, with a stylish, easy to use interface, you can’t go wrong with SugarCRM when it comes to customizability.
Additionally, the starting price may seem a bit higher than average, but you get a lot, which makes it actually more affordable than Salesforce and HubSpot when it comes to lead conversion features at nearly half the price of both.
Pros
- Incredibly customizable for specific needs
- On-premise installations available
- No hidden fees
Cons
- No free plan available
- A bit expensive compared to the rest of the industry
- Less well-known brand
Zoho CRM
To be clear, Zoho CRM isn’t exactly a good alternative to Salesforce specifically, as it doesn’t offer a good solution for enterprise-level businesses. However, if you’re a smaller business that needs a high-powered CRM to handle your sales, marketing, or customer service needs, Zoho CRM is the best option out there, according to our research. It has low-cost plans, including a free forever version, more than enough features to handle your needs as a small business, and a very easy to use platform, even for beginners.
Zoho CRM features
Lower prices doesn’t mean Zoho CRM skimps on features. Even at the Standard plan, you’ll get access to tools like sales forecasting, custom reports, and workflow automation. The problem with Zoho CRM in comparison to Salesforce is that its enterprise plan has a lot of limitations, which could pose a problem for larger businesses. Overall, though, small businesses can’t do much better than Zoho CRM on features.
| Plan | Price Billed annually | Users | Storage | Support | Lead scoring | API | Custom reports | Custom automation builder | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TRY FOR FREE  | | BEST FOR SMB | | | | ||||
| Free | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | Ultimate | Plus | ||||
| 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||
| User: n/a | User: n/a | User: 20MB | User: 50MB | User: 100mb | User: 1GB | ||||
| Basic | Standard | Live chat, phone, email | Standard | 24/7 live | 24/7 live | ||||
| | | | | | | ||||
| | | | | | | ||||
| | Max 100 | | | | | ||||
| | | | | | |
Zoho CRM pricing
Zoho CRM pricing is pretty low, but it offers a lot of different pricing plans along the way. The CRM offers five different pricing plans, including a free forever plan that can get you started. You’ll also be able to take advantage of a 30-day free trial for all paid plans, so you can really test it out before you buy. It’s worth noting, also that Zoho CRM’s most expensive plan is less expensive than Salesforce’s second cheapest plan.
Check out our guide to Zoho CRM pricing for more information
The admin panel in Zoho CRM
Image: Tech.co testing
Why Zoho CRM Is a Good Salesforce Alternative
Zoho CRM is one of the better Salesforce alternatives for small businesses, because it offers low-cost pricing plans and a robust free plan to get you started. On top of that, you don’t miss out on features with these low-cost plans, but our researchers found that there are limits on certain actions, so enterprise-level businesses in need of an alternative to Salesforce at scale could run into some issues. Honestly, if you’re looking for an enterprise-level replacement for Salesforce, options like HubSpot are much better suited than Zoho CRM.
Pros
- 15-day free trial
- Fully customizable dashboard and interface
- Includes sales, marketing, and service functionality
Cons
- Small amount of storage
- No spam prevention on web forms
- Onboarding assistance costs extra
Free Salesforce Alternatives
Many CRM platforms offer free versions, but there are downsides to be aware of. Most are limited by the number of users or require you to pay for upgrades beyond the core service. One of our top-choice Salesforce alternatives, Freshworks CRM, has a genuinely impressive free CRM tier. However, to unlock the very best of Freshworks, it’s likely you’ll need to upgrade to the premium plans.
A free taster is still a great option for testing the various features and interfaces of multiple CRM platforms or experimenting with a platform to see if it’s right for you.
The reality, however, is that a free option is not a long-term solution. Free CRM software, even from reputable companies, can be open to changes and downgrades, and offer far fewer options for customization and added features.
Check out our full guide to Salesforce pricing for more
Salesforce Alternatives for Sales
As the name might suggest, Salesforce is one of the best CRMs for sales. However, it can be a bit intimidating to smaller teams that don’t need all those features and data visualizations, which opens the door to some of the alternatives below. Whether it be lead capture or the ability to accept payments, these providers offer a lot when it comes to sales. Take a look at some of our top picks below:
| Starting price | Free plan | Free trial | Verdict | Data cap in basic plan | Lead capture | Accept payments | Onboarding | Get started Click to get started and compare prices for your business | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPONSORED | | | | | |  | ||||
| Sugar Sell | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales | Keap | ||||||||
| $19/user/month | $65/user/month | |||||||||
| | | | | | | | ||||
| 30 days | 30 days | | 7 days | 21 days | 30 days | |||||
| A scalable, highly customizable platform that’s great for managing teams | An attractive option, with lots of features for a low price | A scalable tool that’s perfect for managing contracts and payments | A reasonably priced platform offering solid customization options | A low-cost option that’s great for engaging potential customers online | An expensive, robust tool for analytics that’s better suited to current Microsoft users | A suitable all-in-one platform for sales and marketing but a bit expensive | ||||
| File storage: 1GB | 200MB | 5 documents | 60GB | 2GB per user | Database: 10GB | Unlimited | ||||
| Web forms only | | | Web forms only | | | Web forms only | ||||
| | | Stripe integration | | | | | ||||
| | | | | | | | ||||
| Try Salesforce | Try Zoho CRM | Try HubSpot | Get Quotes | Try Freshsales | Get Quotes | Try Keap |
Salesforce Alternatives for Marketing
We mentioned earlier that HubSpot is easily the top option for marketing, but there are plenty of other options out there that do a great job. Like Salesforce, HubSpot is geared towards larger businesses, so if you’re looking for something a bit less intense, these alternatives should get the job done without too much of a hit to your budget. And don’t forget to check out our best CRM for marketing guide for a more in-depth look at these providers:
| Starting price | Free plan | Free trial | Verdict | Email marketing | Social marketing | Content marketing | Paid marketing | Omnichannel features | Get started Click to get started and compare prices for your business | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPONSORED | | | | | | ||||||
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | Freshmarketer | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing | Sugar Market | Keap | |||||||
| $1,000/month | |||||||||||
| | | | | | | ||||||
| | | 21 days | 30 days | | |||||||
| A very expensive option that provides robust email and omnichannel features | The best option for businesses looking to scale | A good option for email, but not great for scalability | A bit too expensive for most, but great for managing teams closely | A good budget option for covering multiple marketing channels | A suitable all-in-one platform for sales and marketing but a bit expensive | ||||||
| | | | | | | ||||||
| | | | | | | ||||||
| | | | | | | ||||||
| | | | | | | ||||||
| | | | | | | ||||||
| Try Salesforce | Try Hubspot | Get Quotes | Get Quotes | Get Quotes | Try Keap |
Salesforce Alternatives for Customer Service
The importance of customer service cannot be overstated when it comes to business, and a good CRM can help a lot. Salesforce does a fine job of this, but there are plenty of other options that are specifically geared towards helping customers that might be a better fit. Take a look at some of the options below to get a better idea of what kind of CRM are aimed at customer service:
| Starting price | Free plan | Free trial | Verdict | Email Comms Channel | Phone Comms Channel | Website Live Chat Comms Channel | Get started Click to get started and compare prices for your business | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPONSORED | BEST OVERALL  | |  | |  | | |||
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service | Sugar Serve | ||||||||
| $50/user/month | $80/user/month | ||||||||
| | | | | | | | |||
| 30 days | 30 days | 21 days | 15 days | 30 days | 30 days | | |||
| An fully-featured yet pricey CRM solution with excellent team management tools. | A robust platform aimed at businesses looking to scale | A practical option with lots of channels but no survey functionality | An affordable option with plenty of features for smaller businesses | A great, customizable platform aimed at larger businesses | A solid budget option with low costs and few features | A weak offering with few native service channels available | |||
| | | | | | | | |||
| Requires Telephony integration/Voice add-on on all plans | Requires Telephony integration on Support plans, available on Suite plans | Available with Omnichannel plans | | Available with Enterprise plan | | | |||
| Limited to 1 license (Essentials), unavailable (Pro), additional cost (Enterprise) | | Available with Omnichannel plans | Available with Enterprise plan | | | | |||
| Try Salesforce | Try Zendesk | Try Freshdesk | Try Zoho Desk | Get Quotes | Try ManageEngine | Get Quotes |
Best Salesforce Alternatives for Small Businesses
While Salesforce is considered one of the top CRM around the world, it’s not exactly suited to small businesses. Between the extensive feature catalog and the high price, smaller teams can take a larger hit to their budget than they need, for a lot of functionality they might not need. Plus, given the robust nature of Salesforce, your small team could get bogged down by complicated dashboards, which is never helpful.
Fortunately, our research and testing have highlight these solution as the best small business alternatives to Salesforce.
| Plan | Price Billed annually | Free Trial | Users | Storage | Rating Based on usability, customization, functionality, pricing, and help and support | Try it | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPONSORED | BEST OVERALL | BEST VALUE |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| HubSpot | |||||||||
| Starter Suite | Professional | Free | Growth | Pro | Express | Sell Team | Advanced | Less Annoying CRM | Cloud |
| 30 days | 15 days | | 21 days | 14 days | 15 days | | 14 days | 30 days | 14 days |
| 325 max. | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| File storage: 1GB | User: 20MB | Unlimited | 2 GB | 100 GB | 1 GB | 2GB per user | Unlimited | 10 GB per user | 6GB |
| 3.8 | 4.6 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.2 |
| Try Salesforce | Try Zoho CRM | Get started free | Try Freshsales | Try monday.com | Try Zoho Bigin | Try Zendesk | Try Pipedrive | Try LACRM | Try Act! CRM |
What to Look for in a Great Salesforce Alternative
Not all Salesforce competitors are created equal, which is why having a keen eye for features is key to picking the right one. The following are a few key features to look out for when deciding on a Salesforce alternative.
Reporting
One of the major benefits of any CRM software is its ability to provide analytics on a wide range of metrics within your business. From conversion rates to customer attrition, a good CRM platform will have reporting tools designed to let you know exactly what’s working for your business, and more importantly, what isn’t.
Customization
If you’re looking for CRM software that can do exactly what you want it to do, customizability is going to a big consideration for you. Salesforce has a robust feature offering, but doesn’t offer features like an open API or a wide range of flexible options. Basically, if you’ve got niche CRM needs, make sure to take a look at customizability.
Automation
The whole point of CRM software is to save you a little time, which is why automation features are so necessary in a good provider. After all, what’s the point of installing business software if it isn’t going to take care of the small projects for you? Finding the right software means discovering exactly what each provider can do for your automation needs, so make sure not to overlook that.
What’s more, automation allows you to expedite leads through your sales pipeline based on pre-programmed criteria, making it easier for your business to generate sales.
Ease of Use
Whether you’re an expert or a beginner, having an easy to use platform can make a huge difference when it comes to improvements in productivity. Salesforce, in particular, is quite complicated for beginners due to its robust feature catalogue and reporting tools. If you’re giving CRM software a go for the first time, ease of use needs to be at the top of your list.
Support
Speaking of beginners, having a little help from an expert support team can go a long way when adapting to new software, which is why noting the customer service options is invaluable to understanding a provider. From 24/7 service to sporadic ticket systems, providers run the gamut as far as customer support goes, so if you’re just starting out, it’s certainly worth noting.
Pricing
Let’s be honest of course you’re looking at price when it comes to CRM software. From pricing plans to providers, there are hundreds of different price points to consider. Fortunately, compared to Salesforce, most CRM software is markedly more affordable, but the range is still pretty substantial. Not that we have to say it, but seriously: take a look at your pricing options before pulling the trigger on your new CRM software.
We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we're giving you the clearest, most useful recommendations.
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, we put 13 CRM systems to the test across 84 areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we've established a CRM testing methodology that scores each product in six main categories of investigation and 13 subcategories; this covers everything from the available features and scalability capacity to the product's value for money, and much more.
Our main testing categories for CRM systems are:
Features: the functionalities and capabilities provided by the CRM software, such as contact management, lead and opportunity tracking, and task and activity management.
Help and Support: the resources and assistance available to users when they encounter issues or require guidance while using the CRM software.
Customisation: the ability to tailor the CRM software to suit the specific needs and processes of the organization, e.g. customizing fields, layouts, and workflows.
Scalability: the ability of the CRM software to accommodate the growth and changing needs of the organization, such as the capacity to handle a growing customer database.
Price: the cost associated with using the CRM software. It includes factors such as licensing fees, subscription plans, and additional charges for add-on modules or features.
Team Structure – Sales CRM: determining if a platform makes it easier to manage large sales teams, including team dashboards, team hierarchies, and team inboxes.
Usability – Small Business CRM: assessing the simplicity of the interface, the ease of navigating through menus and options, and the overall user experience.
When it comes to calculating a product's final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others, which are merely "nice to have." After hundreds of hours, our process is complete, and the results should ensure you can find the best solution for your needs.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full time in-house researchers, who re-run this testing process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day
Verdict: What Is the Best Salesforce Alternative?
Our research found that HubSpot is the best alternative to Salesforce, because of its serious scalability for growing and enterprise-level businesses, along with its large feature catalog and robust analytics.
Still, Salesforce is the most popular CRM in the world for a good reason – it’s a genuinely great CRM software that warrants all recommendations for this or any other website. But it is geared to larger businesses with no free plan, which means there might be a better option out there for your particular business, especially with so many attractive pricing bundles you can seek quotes for.
Remember, if you’re a small business, Salesforce isn’t ideal, as it can get a bit expensive and overwhelming with all those features. Our top-rated CRM for small business is Zoho CRM, so give that a try if you’re still growing.
A great way to find the CRM that’s right for you is to use our helpful form to get a customized quote from multiple CRM platforms. This process takes into account your business’ needs, and lets you compare the different services first.
If you click on, sign up to a service through, or make a purchase through the links on our site, or use our quotes tool to receive custom pricing for your business needs, we may earn a referral fee from the supplier(s) of the technology you’re interested in. This helps Tech.co to provide free information and reviews, and carries no additional cost to you. Most importantly, it doesn’t affect our editorial impartiality. Ratings and rankings on Tech.co cannot be bought. Our reviews are based on objective research analysis. Rare exceptions to this will be marked clearly as a ‘sponsored’ table column, or explained by a full advertising disclosure on the page, in place of this one. Click to return to top of page