8 Best Salesforce Alternatives for Small Business in 2023
This article is part of a larger series on CRM.
Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) cloud is one of the most popular products in the CRM market. It has thousands of third-party integration options, a powerful mobile app, and excellent lead management and artificial intelligence (AI) features. Despite the capabilities, it lacks certain attributes, like a free-forever plan, intuitive interface, and low-cost automation—prompting users to seek Salesforce alternatives. We evaluated many CRMs to see which compare in function or fill some product gaps. Based on our evaluation, the eight best Salesforce competitors include:
- Best Salesforce alternative (overall): HubSpot
- Best multi-channel engagement: Freshsales
- Best intelligent sales features: Pipedrive
- Best Google Workspace CRM: Copper CRM
- Best alternative for integration capabilities: Zoho CRM
- Best alternative with project management tools: Bitrix24
- Best referral tracking tool: Apptivo
- Best simple CRM alternative: Really Simple Systems
Best Salesforce Competitors Compared
Provider | Our CRM Rating | Starting Price* | Key Features | Our Product Review |
---|---|---|---|---|
4.85/5 | Free to $18 per month (up to 2 users) | Free sales, marketing, and content management features | ||
4.79/5 | Free to $15 per user, per month | Multi-channel engagement | ||
4.51/5 | $14.90 per user, monthly | Sales Assistant tools plus Smart Docs and Smart Contacts | ||
4.44/5 | $23 per user, monthly | Google Workspace integrations plus Chrome Extension | ||
4.43/5 | Free to $14 per user, per month | Over 1,000 third-party and native integration options | ||
4.43/5 | Free to $14 per user, per month | 1,000+ third-party and native integrations | ||
4.41/5 | $8 per user, per month | Referral tracking and partner management | ||
4.40/5 | Free to $14 per user, per month | Simple contact, company, and pipeline management features | ||
*Based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for slightly higher rates.
Take our quiz to find out which Salesforce alternative software works best for you.
Which Salesforce alternative software is best for you?
Pro tip: Did you know many Salesforce alternatives are also great for startups, freelancers, and smaller operations? Find out which made the list in our guide on the best CRMs for small businesses.
HubSpot CRM: Best Salesforce Alternative (Overall)
Pros
- Free plan for unlimited users compared to Salesforce, which offers no free option
- User-friendly interface for navigating and operating the features
- Free plan provides email marketing, ads, segmentation, a blog, contact and deal management, and user access controls
- Service management with ticketing, customer meeting scheduling, and ticket pipelines available for free
Cons
- Expensive automated lead assignment and rotation features compared to Salesforce
- Deal and lead scoring requires the expensive Professional plan
- Sales teams management requires Enterprise plan
While there are other free Salesforce alternatives on this list, none do it better than HubSpot. Sales teams can store contact, lead, and deal data, schedule meetings, create quotes, manage documents, and view prospect website visitors for free. Additionally, the free CRM lets marketing teams design and deploy email campaigns with up to one automated action, manage a blog, engage web visitors through live chat, and create digital ads and web forms. Finally, there are free customer support ticketing features and user access management.
HubSpot CRM and Salesforce are both popular CRM systems with robust integration options. HubSpot primarily fills in the Salesforce product gaps of free plan availability and a simple-to-use product. While each offers many of the same features, such as lead and deal management, customer case tracking, and campaign deployment, Salesforce offers slightly more cost-friendly automated lead assignment, lead scoring, and sales team management features.
Neither Salesforce nor HubSpot are ideal for paid plan scalability. HubSpot’s starting paid plan begins at $45 per month and Salesforce starts at $25 per user, per month, then jumps to $75 per user monthly. For teams needing a solid CRM that can grow in data storage, user, and feature capacity as the business scales, we recommend Zoho CRM and Freshsales as the best options.
HubSpot CRM Monthly Pricing*
- Free: Unlimited users
- Starter Sales Hub**: $18 for two users
- Professional Sales Hub**: $450 (up to five users)
- Enterprise Sales Hub**: $1,200 (up to 10 users)
- Free trial: 14 days
*Pricing based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
**Pricing is based on individual Sales Hub products. Users can also purchase the CRM Suite bundle, which includes sales, marketing, customer service, content management system (CMS), and operations software for higher prices.
HubSpot free ads management (Source: HubSpot)
Like what you see? Learn more about the full scope of what HubSpot offers your small business in our HubSpot CRM review.
Freshsales: Best Multi-channel Engagement Features
Pros
- Offers a free plan and scalable paid plans more cost-friendly than Salesforce
- Compared to Salesforce, the interface and features are more intuitive to learn and use
- Built-in phone system, account management, and live chat engagement all on Growth plan
- Contact records include activity timelines, lifecycle stages, tasks, and appointments
Cons
- Mobile app is limited mostly to record management and notes while Salesforce mobile has extensive capabilities
- Does not have built-in case management features while Salesforce does
- Expensive lead auto-assignment capabilities compared to Salesforce
Freshsales is the best overall Salesforce alternative, particularly for businesses seeking a solid account management CRM system. The platform has a predesigned account management module for users to store point-of-contact data, activity and communications history, and tasks associated with a specific account. The higher-cost plans allow for automated data enrichment on those profiles. Freshsales is also solid for account and contact engagement—providing a built-in phone system, email, and live chat channels.
Many of the pros of Freshsales compared to Salesforce involve pricing and ease of use. Overall, the free-forever plan and low-cost paid plans of Freshsales are better than Salesforce. Users also agree that Freshsales is far more intuitive to operate than Salesforce. Plus, specific features, such as account management, phone communications, sales team management, workflow automation, live chat, and email, are less expensive with Freshsales.
Freshsales and Salesforce provide a wide range of data management modules, including accounts, contacts, deals, and opportunities. Each provider also offers a solid mobile application, automated lead assignment, and plenty of third-party and native integrations. Salesforce, however, provides a stronger mobile application compared to Freshsales, lower-priced lead assignment automation, and a broader range of integrations that extend to industry-specific products.
Automated profile and data enrichment features are useful for keeping contact records clean and up-to-date. Unfortunately, both Salesforce and Freshsales have expensive profile enrichment features. Pipedrive offers its Smart Contact Data tool for automated enrichment and insights from LinkedIn and online sources starting at $24.90 per user monthly.
Freshsales Monthly Pricing (per User)*
- Growth: $15
- Pro: $39
- Enterprise: $69
- Free trial: 21 days
Add-ons
- Configure, Price, Quote: $19 per user, per month for quote document templates, invoicing, and document activity tracking
- Additional Bot Sessions: $75 for 1,000 bot sessions per month for automated customer or lead support
*Pricing based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
Freshsales account contact list (Source: Freshsales)
Freshsales stands out for its built-in phone, live chat engagement, account management, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Explore all the features of this CRM platform to determine if it’s the right solution for your team in our comprehensive Freshsales review.
Pipedrive: Best for Intelligent Sales Features
Pros
- Cost-friendly artificial intelligence (AI) features
- Built-in meeting and video call scheduling tools
- Excellent lead management capabilities
- Includes Smart Docs and Smart Contact Data for auto-filling documents with contact data and auto-populating insights on contacts
Cons
- No free plan
- Does not have built-in account or case management modules, while Salesforce does
- Doesn’t include social media campaign or monitoring features
Salesforce is known for its advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and automation features. That said, Pipedrive is the most comparable competitor, particularly for its intelligent sales tools for insights and data management. The AI Sales Assistant gives teams suggestions on opportunities and tasks to prioritize and on how to improve performance. There’s also deal rotting detection, Smart Docs to auto-fill business proposals and quotes for faster document generation, and Smart Contact Data that pulls LinkedIn information for profiles.
Similar to Salesforce, Pipedrive does not offer a free-forever option. However, it has more cost-friendly paid plans and lower-priced AI, automation, email, product catalog, and lead management tools. On the other hand, built-in features for account, customer case, and social media management are some of the Salesforce capabilities not found in Pipedrive. Salesforce has a wider range of third-party and native integration options.
Neither Salesforce nor Pipedrive offer a built-in project management module for sales teams to collaborate and track work outside the scope of the usual operation, such as content development, data migration, or client gift delivery projects. Bitrix24 is the best alternative to both products, and offers free project management tools in the CRM.
Pipedrive Monthly Pricing (per User)*
- Essential: $14.90
- Advanced: $27.90
- Professional: $49.90
- Power: $64.90
- Enterprise: $99
- Free trial: 14 days
*Pricing based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
Pipedrive contact record with smart contact data (Source: Pipedrive)
Pipedrive offers excellent features for lead management, deal tracking, and customer engagement. Find out how it can help your organization thrive in our in-depth Pipedrive review.
Copper: Best Google Workspace CRM
Pros
- Intuitive interface and features with a similar feel to Google Workspace applications
- Unique Google Chrome extension feature for using Copper’s CRM and accessing records while in Gmail or Calendar apps
- Includes project and task management features
- Excellent collaboration tools such as task assignment, user tagging, comments and mentions, and notes storage
Cons
- No free plan
- Minimal integration options outside of Google products
- More expensive lead scoring features and integrations with LinkedIn, WordPress, and Facebook compared to Salesforce
Copper CRM is a great alternative to Salesforce for small businesses that have adopted Google Workspace apps in their operation. All plan tiers let teams integrate the CRM software with Gmail, Google Contacts, Calendar, Drive, and Sheets. There’s a Chrome extension that lets users access Copper to view lead or contact records, pull CRM documents, and monitor sales tasks while in Gmail or Calendar apps. Plus, Copper also comes with excellent project management, bulk email, and automated campaign features.
Copper has comparable pricing to Salesforce, and neither provider offers a free plan. Alternatively, Copper is better in the usability category than Salesforce, particularly for data and lead management. This is because Copper is designed to be a Google CRM with a familiar interface and feel to Google apps. Salesforce offers more integration options and analytics capabilities than Copper. Salesforce also has lower-priced features for lead scoring and email campaign deployment.
Neither Copper nor Salesforce are ideal for generating and tracking sales documents to send to leads, like product books, quotes, proposals, contracts, or invoices. Copper does not offer any sort of quoting or invoicing capabilities and Salesforce requires either an add-on or subscription to the Professional cloud for $75 per user, per month. Zoho CRM is the best alternative for those functions—offering them in the inventory management module starting at $23 per user monthly.
Copper Monthly Pricing (per User)*
- Basic: $23
- Professional: $49
- Business: $99
- Free trial: 14 days
*Pricing based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
Copper Chrome extension in Gmail (Source: Copper)
Copper comes equipped with Google integrations, project management features, and a simplified interface for lead and deal management. Find out if it’s right for your business in our full Copper CRM review.
Zoho CRM: Best for Integration Options
Pros
- Free plan and scalable paid plans compared to Salesforce
- Thousands of external and native app integration capabilities
- Low-cost workflow and task automation features
- Includes built-in sales gamification features
Cons
- Platform requires some technical skill to set up and operate
- Expensive auto-response email features
- Case and inventory management modules require Professional plan
Though Salesforce has an unbeatable number of integration options, Zoho CRM is the next-best and much cheaper alternative to Salesforce, with a comparable range of third-party and native connections. With thousands of options, teams can connect popular apps to Zoho, like LinkedIn, Slack, Google, and monday.com, to keep data synchronized in multiple systems and get more functionality from their tools. There are many native apps for Zoho for integration, including the Finance Suite, Writer Add-on, Zoho Desk, and Projects.
Zoho and Salesforce are both powerhouses in their own regard—Zoho is just the cheaper option. Each provides extensive CRM automation capabilities, AI analytics tools, customer case tracking, and inventory management with quotes and invoicing tools. They both offer modules specific for lead, contact, deal, and accounts management and have sales forecasting features. On the negative side, neither stands out for product simplicity.
In addition to being somewhat difficult CRMs to set up and operate, there’s another problem with Zoho and Salesforce. While they have project management integrations available on a third-party or native connection, neither offer the module built into the CRM. Bitrix24 is the best alternative with free, built-in project management.
Zoho CRM Monthly Pricing (per User)*
- Free: Up to three users
- Standard: $14
- Professional: $23
- Enterprise: $40
- Ultimate: $52
- Free trial: 15 days
Additional Monthly Plans (per User)
- Bigin: $7 for basic sales pipeline management
- Zoho CRM Plus: $57 for added help desk, email and social media marketing, survey, and analytics functions
*Pricing based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
Zoho CRM LinkedIn sales navigator integration (Source: Zoho CRM)
Learn more about this comprehensive sales, marketing, and customer support platform in our detailed Zoho CRM review.
Bitrix24: Best for Project Management
Pros
- Free plan for unlimited users
- Built-in project management tool available for free
- Includes invoice and quote features on the main CRM plan, while Salesforce requires add-ons or a higher-cost plan
- Offers module specific for ecommerce business to manage online storefront, inventory, and orders
Cons
- Poor usability ratings for setting up the CRM platform, operating the features, and navigating the interface
- Expensive access, role-based, and user permission management compared to Salesforce
- Lead records storage not available until Standard plan
Salesforce does not offer a project management system within its CRM—requiring users to integrate with its native Project Management app or a third party. Bitrix24 fills in that product attribute with its built-in project management module, including project template storage, task management, and multi-view capabilities on Kanban, Gantt, and list views. Additionally, the CRM solution stands out for its wide range of use cases, including lead, deal, and contact management, human resources tools, an ecommerce CRM module, and a contact center.
Each product offers tons of data management capabilities for storing and tracking lead, contact, and deal data, as well as quotes and invoices. Additionally, each has various communication options with customers and contacts through phone integrations, email, chat, and social media channels. Bitrix24 separates itself from Salesforce by having a free plan for unlimited users, built-in ecommerce capabilities, and human resource management tools.
Both Bitrix24 and Salesforce score poorly in the product usability category—requiring a solid level of skill to learn and operate the interface. HubSpot, Freshsales, and Really Simple Systems, depending on your specific feature requirements, all have excellent reviews for platform intuitiveness.
Bitrix24 Monthly Pricing*
- Free: Unlimited users
- Basic: $49 (up to five users)
- Standard: $99 (up to 50 users)
- Professional: $199 (up to 100 users)
- Enterprise: $399 (up to 250 users)
- Free trial: 30 days
*Pricing based on annual billing; monthly and quarterly billing are also available for a higher cost.
Bitrix24 project planner (Source: Bitrix24)
Learn more about this platform’s full feature set in our comprehensive Bitrix24 review.
Apptivo: Best for Referral & Partner Management
Pros
- Inexpensive CRM, regardless of which plan
- Includes unique, built-in referral tracking tools
- Offers project and inventory management in the product
- Low-cost contract, proposal, and quote features
Cons
- No free plan
- Minimal third-party integration options, especially compared to Salesforce
- Lacks social media marketing or monitoring capabilities
Businesses that conduct referral marketing for lead generation should look to Apptivo. Unlike Salesforce and many other products on this list, Apptivo has a specific tool meant for referral tracking. Within lead or contact records, teams can add data for where the person, company, or opportunity came from a lead source or “referred by” field. They can then generate reports to see which partners or customers generate the best sales leads.
Neither product offers a free-forever plan nor are either well-acclaimed for product ease of use. Apptivo, however, is one of the best cheap Salesforce competitors and has built-in project management with the CRM system. On the other hand, Salesforce dominates in third-party integration options, sophisticated AI analytics features, automation capabilities, and social media management functionality.
Freelance, startup, and small businesses find it valuable to adopt a free-forever CRM plan to try out the features risk-free until they’re ready for an upgrade. Unfortunately, Apptivo and Salesforce do not offer a free option (other than a trial). HubSpot CRM is the best free CRM on this list, with free sales, marketing, service, and content management features.
Apptivo Monthly Pricing (per User)*
- Lite: $8
- Premium: $12
- Ultimate: $20
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
- Free trial: 30 days
*Pricing based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
Apptivo lead record with referred by field (Source: Apptivo)
Interested in learning more about this all-in-one CRM and project management software? Head over to our comprehensive Apptivo review.
Really Simple Systems: Best for Product Simplicity
Pros
- Free option and scalable paid plans
- Highly acclaimed for product simplicity and usability, especially compared to Salesforce
- Robust product customization for data fields, tables, lists, pages, and dashboards to tailor a CRM to any operational need
- Full contact views on data, tasks, events, activity timelines, and linked accounts to other records
Cons
- Marketing features require paid add-on while Salesforce includes them in main plans
- Case management capabilities get expensive through add-on costs for the Service Desk software
- Most of the reporting and workflow automation features aren’t available until Enterprise plan
Really Simple Systems is the best Salesforce alternative for those looking for a basic tool to use as a contact or customer database. The system is intuitive to set up for customizing the pages, data fields, and tables for any sales operation. Its minimal menu buttons and clean color palettes make the CRM easy to navigate—especially for newer users. Finally, each data management, communications, and reporting tool is simple to operate and yields an excellent user experience.
The comparison comes down to whether you want a simple CRM for basic data management or an advanced platform for sophisticated automation and analytics. Really Simple Systems is cost-friendly and easy to operate, but is mostly limited to data storage with some communication tools. Some capabilities, like automation and case management, however, are more expensive on Really Simple Systems. Salesforce’s Lightning automation builder and customer case tools are on the Essentials plan for $25 per user monthly, while Really Simple Systems requires the Professional plan or an add-on.
Neither product is suitable for automating workflows and sales processes. Really Simple Systems requires the Professional plan starting at $30 per user, per month, and Salesforce requires the Essentials plan for $25 per user monthly for basic process automation. Zoho CRM is the best alternative with free workflow automation features.
Really Simple Systems Monthly Pricing (per User)*
- Free: Up to two users
- Starter: $14
- Professional: $30
- Enterprise: $46
- Free trial: 14 days
Add-ons (per Month)
- Simple Marketing**: $22
- Advanced Marketing: $46
- Service Desk**: $46
*Pricing based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for a higher cost.
**Module is included in the Enterprise plan.
Moving a contact record on the dashboard (Source: Really Simple Systems)
Really Simple Systems offers a simple solution to small business sales, marketing, and support management. Find out if it’s right for your business in our Really Simple Systems review.
How We Evaluated the Best Salesforce Competitors
To determine the best Salesforce alternatives for small businesses, we evaluated various product aspects of popular CRM competitors to Salesforce. We looked at attributes missing in Salesforce, such as a free-forever plan and simple interface, as well as features Salesforce is well known for, like data analytics and lead management capabilities. The purpose was to find alternative CRM solutions that could either match or replace Salesforce, depending on a feature or product criteria a company was seeking.
The tabs below offer insight into our evaluation process of the best Salesforce alternative providers:
30% of Overall Score
We looked at overall features crucial to any CRM system, particularly ones Salesforce is well-known for. For example, Salesforce’s mobile application is notorious for being nearly identical in functionality to the web app. Therefore, the mobile app of each Salesforce competitor was evaluated, as well as other critical product solutions like system customization, CRM integrations, and reporting and analytics tools.
25% of Overall Score
We evaluated advanced features that aren’t required but ideal for software like Salesforce. Stored email templates, social media management, and task tracking, for instance, aren’t guaranteed in CRM software, but are nice to have. We also looked at data management system controls like role-based permission management, a security feature Salesforce users particularly like.
15% of Overall Score
Salesforce is relatively expensive for small businesses and doesn’t have a free plan option. Therefore, for each CRM app like Salesforce, we considered free plan availability and various scalable pricing options businesses could afford as they grow. We also looked at the availability for a subscriber to either pay monthly or save by paying annually.
15% of Overall Score
We evaluated the help and support of each CRM compared to Salesforce, which offer tier-based support with some 24/7 options. This was evaluated in terms of customer service hours and the availability of support via phone, live chat, and email. We also looked at self-service and help center resources users can access, such as tutorials, forums, and training modules.
15% of Overall Score
In addition to firsthand experience with Salesforce and its respective competitors, we evaluated what actual users say about each product according to reviews. These criteria consider how customers feel to gain insight into value for the price paid, platform ease of use when operating and navigating the CRM, and how users feel about the CRM’s features.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the best alternative to Salesforce?
HubSpot CRM is our pick for the best alternative to Salesforce overall. It fills in many product gaps of Salesforce, such as free plan availability and an easy-to-use interface. Other good options like Freshsales offer some of Salesforce’s key features, like AI analytics, sales task automation, and multi-channel engagement. However, if there’s a particular attribute you’re looking for to replace Salesforce, like project management, referral tracking, or a wide selection of integrations, other CRMs on this list could be a better fit.
Which Salesforce alternatives are free?
Most of the CRMs on this list offer free alternatives to Salesforce. Zoho CRM and Really Simple Systems offer a free-forever for up to three and two users, respectively. Better yet, providers like Freshsales, HubSpot, and Bitrix24 support an unlimited number of users on their free plans—making them all top-notch Salesforce CRM competitors.
Bottom Line
While Salesforce is a popular CRM tool for managing leads, obtaining analytics, and engaging with customers, you may be looking for other CRMs that fill in something Salesforce lacks, such as interface simplicity or free and low-priced plans. Or, you may want an alternative that matches something you like about Salesforce, like its extensive integration options or intelligent sales features. Each of these Salesforce competitors, depending on your budget and product needs, can fulfill those demands.