Salesforce is one of the most popular customer relationship management (CRM) systems for small businesses because of its robust sales tools, analytics, and lead management functionalities. However, its lack of a free plan, expensive customer support, and steep learning curve make it a secondary option for some. To find the best Salesforce alternative, we analyzed several top providers and considered the critical attributes small businesses need.
Here are the top six Salesforce alternatives for small businesses:
- Freshsales (formerly Freshworks CRM): Best overall Salesforce alternative that provides users with an end-to-end view of customer interactions
- Zoho CRM: Recommended for users who want a Salesforce alternative with robust reporting and analytics tools
- Pipedrive: Ideal for users who want visual representations of their accounts and deal stages
- Bitrix24: Great for users who need free CRM with comprehensive sales, marketing, project management, and ecommerce tools
- Apptivo: Excellent choice for teams looking for a Salesforce alternative and want a more affordable all-in-one CRM with industry-specific solutions
- Copper: Best for businesses that use Google Workspace apps
If you are looking for something more specific, here are other Salesforce alternatives to consider:
- Check out our list of the top CRM solutions for small businesses.
- If you need a CRM with engagement tracking and social listening capabilities, read our guide to the top social media CRM platforms.
- If you’re looking for industry-specific CRM solutions, learn how to find a specialized CRM for your industry.
How We Evaluated the Best Salesforce Alternatives for Small Businesses
The best CRM alternative to Salesforce should have a robust set of features, particularly lead management, sales forecasting, and analytics. It must have excellent customer support and mobile accessibility and should be user-friendly.
We found that Freshsales is the best overall Salesforce alternative because it offers users a 360° view of all their leads and customers, essential CRM features, ease of use, and affordable pricing options.
The tabs below offer more insight into our evaluation process for selecting the best Salesforce alternative:
40% of Overall Score
Total costs and various pricing options are typically the most important criteria for any small business decision, so it was the most heavily weighed when reviewing the best CRM alternatives for Salesforce. We considered the availability of a free plan, varying subscription options, and whether or not there are monthly billing plans available.
20% of Overall Score
The purpose of any CRM is to provide functional solutions associated with sales, marketing, customer service, and project management. Since Salesforce is best known for lead management, analytics, and automation features, we looked for similar features among its alternatives.
15% of Overall Score
User-friendliness and intuitiveness are two of our key considerations when looking into a software’s ease of use. We evaluated whether the software is beginner-friendly or requires some level of experience to get users up to speed with using the system.
15% of Overall Score
Support is a critical part of running a CRM system, especially for small businesses that don’t have in-house technical support. We analyzed the types of support offered by these providers through live chat, email, and phone.
10% of Overall Score
We looked through existing customer reviews on credible sites to measure the level of satisfaction current users have and any problems they typically encounter. We also added our thoughts and expert opinion on key features, value for money, and popularity.
Freshsales: Best Overall Salesforce Alternative With Comprehensive Customer Insights
Freshsales
What We Like
- Provides extensive customer communication channels, including mobile and social messaging
- Feature-rich, in-app cloud telephony
- Offers a 360-degree view of customer profiles, including lead score, pipeline stage, and recent conversations
What's Missing
- Free plan has limited functionalities
- Per-user limit on file storage
- No offline data access
How It Compares to Salesforce
- Salesforce doesn’t have a free plan, but Freshsales does, and it supports unlimited users
- Generally offers more affordable pricing plans with the entry-level option costing $15 per user, per month
- Provides more extensive lead management features that offer users all pertinent information for each contact
- Provides broader customer communication channels, including WhatsApp, Apple Chat, Line, Facebook Messenger, mobile, and web app
Salesforce offers customer management capabilities that let you manage customer and contact details, including activity history, communications, and internal account discussions. Meanwhile, Freshsales provides more comprehensive customer information, including communication logs, deals (open or closed, won or lost), touchpoints with the company, and the tasks and appointments related to each customer or contact.
While Freshsales is the overall best Salesforce alternative, its free plan lacks essential functionalities and is mostly limited to contact management and emails. Users who want a free, feature-rich CRM should consider Bitrix24.
Freshsales Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Supports unlimited users
- Growth: $15 per user, per month
- Pro: $39 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $69 per user, per month
- Free trial: 21 days
*Based on annual billing. Monthly subscriptions are also available at slightly higher rates.
Freshsales Lead Management With 360° Customer View
Customer profile shows current and historical data, allowing sales agents to offer a more personalized selling approach. (Source: Freshsales)
Freshsales’ lead management feature gives a complete view of customers’ activities, including how they’ve interacted with your website and product. It can rank leads based on their profile and engagement level, allowing you to identify your sales-ready leads and increase your chance of making a sale. It also enriches leads, contacts, and account profiles with publicly listed information, such as social profiles, company details, and photos.
Check out our Freshsales review to explore other features that this platform offers.
Zoho CRM: Best Salesforce Alternative With Extensive Analytics Tools
Zoho CRM
What We Like
- Robust analytics and predictive tools
- Simple and intuitive interface
- Offers omnichannel platform communication, including email, phone, live chat, and social media
What's Missing
- Free plan is limited to three users
- 24/7 support is only available upon purchase of an Enterprise support plan
- Minimal storage capacity and requires add-on for additional monthly storage
How It Compares to Salesforce
- Offers a free plan for up to three users
- Highest-priced plan is only at $52 per user, per month compared to Salesforce’s $300 per user, per month
- Has only 50+ third-party integrations versus Salesforce’s 100+ integrations
- Has a more beginner-friendly and simpler user interface
- Offers broader analytics tools that go beyond sales forecasting, including customer behavior and spending analysis
Salesforce offers users a pool of advanced analytics tools, such as sales forecasting, lead scoring, and sales agent opportunity matching. On the other hand, Zoho CRM offers the same robust analytics features and more—for significantly lower price points. Zoho CRM’s analytics features include identifying high-quality leads that can bring in more revenue, analyzing sales funnels, and measuring advertising and marketing return on investment (ROI).
One thing to note is that Zoho’s free plan has limited user allocation. It also has limited file storage. Users who want CRMs with unlimited users in its free plan can consider Freshsales or Bitrix24, while users who want bigger storage space allocation can consider Apptivo.
Zoho CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to three users
- Standard: $14 per user, per month
- Professional: $23 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $40 per user, per month
- Ultimate: $52 per user, per month
- Free trial: 15 days
*Based on annual billing. Monthly subscriptions are also available at slightly higher rates.
Zoho CRM Analytics Tools
Zoho CRM’s dashboard displays the power of its analytics tools—from analyzing sales status versus targets to monitoring lead conversion rate. (Source: Zoho CRM)
Zoho CRM provides intelligent analytics tools for accurate sales figures visualization, helping teams make data-driven actions. It provides real-time reports with insights into a variety of metrics, such as sales trends, marketing campaigns, and team performance. It also has tools to evaluate consumer behavior that includes identifying top customers and spenders, most frequently purchased products, and channels most interacted with.
Check out our Zoho CRM review to explore other features this platform offers.
Pipedrive: Best Salesforce Alternative With Visual Sales Pipelines
Pipedrive CRM
What We Like
- Excellent visual representation tools that help users easily understand their overall pipeline status
- Offers revenue forecast reports
- 24/7 customer support via live chat and email
What's Missing
- No free plan
- In-app caller functionality is limited to the two most expensive plans
How It Compares to Salesforce
- Lower starting price at only $12.50 per user, per month
- Has 150+ third-party integrations versus Salesforce’s 100+ integrations
- Has a simpler interface that’s easy to understand versus Salesforce’s highly complex dashboard
- Offers 24/7 support for all plans, while Salesforce only offers this upon purchase of premium customer support plan
Salesforce provides users opportunity management features that let them track key details about every deal, such as stage, quotes, and products. Pipedrive offers all these in a simple, highly visual format. It lets you visualize your sales process and move deals along stages with customizable pipelines in Kanban view. It also shows you which accounts to prioritize while simultaneously making sure no leads are overlooked.
Pipedrive doesn’t have a free plan and offers limited in-app calling access. Users who don’t have a budget for a paid plan can consider free versions of Bitrix24, Zoho CRM, or Apptivo. Meanwhile, users who want an in-app caller even on entry-level plans should consider Freshsales.
Pipedrive Pricing at a Glance*
- Essential: $12.50 per user, per month
- Advanced: $24.90 per user, per month
- Professional: $49.90 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $99 per user, per month
- Free trial: 14 days
Add-ons:
- Lead Booster: $32 per month
- Web Visitor Analytics: $41 per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly subscriptions are also available except for the Enterprise plan.
Pipedrive Visual Pipeline Management
Pipedrive’s pipelines in Kanban view show a simple, but highly informative representation of users’ sales stages. (Source: Pipedrive)
Pipedrive’s sales pipeline management offers a clear visual interface, providing sales agents easy-to-comprehend action points. Its deals are categorized by sales stage, showing the status of the pipeline and which stages need attention. It also lets you apply filters to access in-depth and more specific analysis of pipelines, as well as customize and add as many sales stages to it to fit your unique sales processes.
Check out our Pipedrive review to explore other features that this platform offers.
Bitrix24: Best Free Alternative With Lead & Project Management Tools
Bitrix24
What We Like
- Free plan offers unlimited leads, deals, contacts, and companies
- Includes a breadth of features that cover project management, marketing, and sales automation
- Extensive contact channels within the CRM, including phone, social network messaging apps, and live chat
What's Missing
- Paid plans have a limit on the number of users
- New users will experience a steep learning curve because its interface is complex
- Limited online storage capacity
How It Compares to Salesforce
- Offers a free plan that can accommodate unlimited users
- Most affordable plan starts at $19 per month for two users
- Paid plans offer advanced lead management and analytics, as well as sales and marketing automation tools that can rival Salesforce’s, but for a more affordable price
- Offers users extensive project management tools, such as time tracking, task performance rating, and employee workload management
Salesforce offers users robust lead management and analytics tools, such as lead scoring and collaborative forecasting, at a cost higher than many of its competitors. Meanwhile, Bitrix24 offers a range of robust lead management capabilities, including automatic lead assignment and lead qualification analysis for free. It also offers task and project management tools, a calendar scheduler, and email marketing in its free plan.
Bitrix24 has a complex dashboard, and most of its paid plans have a user cap. Teams who want more intuitive CRMs can consider Zoho CRM, Freshsales, and Copper. Those who want unlimited user allocation should consider Zoho CRM or Pipedrive.
Bitrix24 Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Supports unlimited users
- Start+: $19 per month for two users
- CRM+: $55 per month for six users
- Project+: $55 per month for 24 users
- Standard: $79 per month for 50 users
- Professional: $159 per month for unlimited users
- Free trial of paid plans: 15 days
*Pricing plans above are for Bitrix24’s cloud-hosted plans, billed annually. Monthly subscriptions are also available at slightly higher rates.
Bitrix24 Lead & Project Management Tools
Bitrix24’s lead management tools allow users to see the status of all their existing leads in a single glance. (Source: Bitrix24)
Its project management tool displays tasks and subtasks that can be viewed in a Gantt chart with status, responsible person, and chronological relationships. (Source: Bitrix24)
Bitrix24 provides users with extensive lead and project management tools that include unlimited leads and deals, automatic lead assignment, and a lead qualification function that enables users to monitor lead status, score leads, and remove prospects that didn’t convert.
Meanwhile, its project management features cover task planning, checklists, reminders, workflows, and time tracking. It also includes task viewing and rating from sales managers, and allows users to view projects using Kanban and Gantt chart formats. Users can share tasks and collaborate with external users.
Check out our Bitrix24 review to explore other features that this platform offers.
Apptivo: Best Salesforce Alternative With Specialized Business Tools
Apptivo
What We Like
- Custom reports and views
- Offers specialized business tools, including contract management and e-signatures
- Requires minimal technical skill to set up and operate
What's Missing
- Free plan limited to one user
- Customer support available during office hours only
- Dashboard interface looks outdated
How It Compares to Salesforce
- Offers a free plan that can accommodate one user
- Most affordable plan starts at $8 per user, per month, and its highest-priced plan starts at only $20 per user, per month
- Only has 40+ third-party integrations versus Salesforce’s 100+ integrations
- Offers live chat, email, and phone support in all its plans without an additional charge
Both Salesforce and Apptivo offer a wide range of essential CRM tools that include lead and deal management as well as sales and marketing automation. However, Apptivo goes beyond common CRM functions, offering specialized business tools such as field service management, procurement, expense management, invoicing, and ecommerce.
Apptivo’s free plan is limited to one user and its dashboard looks outdated. Growing teams that need unlimited user allocation for a free plan can consider Bitrix24, while users who prefer a sleeker dashboard interface can consider Pipedrive, Freshsales, and Copper.
Apptivo Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Supports one user
- Lite: $8 per user, per month
- Premium: $12 per user, per month
- Ultimate: $20 per user, per month
- Enterprise: Customized
- Free trial of paid plans: 30 days
*Based on annual billing. Monthly subscriptions are also available at slightly higher rates.
Apptivo’s Specialized Business Tools
Apptivo’s expense management tool lets users record and monitor expenses from various sources, including activity-related expenses, suppliers, customers, and employees. (Source: Apptivo)
It also allows users to create quotes and estimates based on existing deals and leads. (Source: Apptivo)
Apptivo also provides an e-sign function, making it easy for users and customers to close deals as well as finalize contracts. (Source: Apptivo)
Apptivo offers a range of helpful business tools, enabling you to perform various functions on one platform. This includes contract management that lets you create agreements directly from the app and an e-signature app to help you finalize contracts digitally. It also provides ecommerce management tools to assist you in managing your online store, as well as an expense management tool that gives accurate visibility on the spending of your team members.
Copper: Best Salesforce Alternative With Google Workspace Integration
Copper
What We Like
- Intuitive, simple interface that looks like Google Workspace
- Simple system setup via integration through Chrome Extension or Google Workspace add-on
- Able to track all emails, calls, meetings, tasks, and calendar events in a centralized activity feed
What's Missing
- No free plan
- The Basic plan is limited to three users
- Lacks some useful reporting features, such as marketing campaign reports and sales rep performance reports
How It Compares to Salesforce
- Both Copper and Salesforce’s lowest-priced plan are at $25 per user, per month; however, Copper is limited to three users
- Offers 24/7 live chat customer support in all its plans, which Salesforce doesn’t have; Copper also offers email support similar to Salesforce
- Beginner-friendly with Google-like interface as opposed to Salesforce’s complex and advanced dashboard
Both Salesforce and Copper let users integrate their Google apps with their CRM accounts.
Salesforce allows users to stay in sync with their Google Workspace productivity apps, including Gmail, Calendar, Sheets, and Slides. However, Copper takes this a step further by offering users an interface that looks and feels like Google. It integrates with other Google apps like Contacts, Calendar, Drive, Hangouts Chat, Data Enrichment, and Data Studio.
Copper doesn’t have a free plan, and its reporting capabilities are basic and mostly limited to sales forecasting, activity reporting, and sales insights. Users who need CRMs with a free plan can consider Zoho CRM or Bitrix24. Meanwhile, users who want more advanced reporting functionalities can consider Zoho CRM or Pipedrive.
Copper Pricing at a Glance*
- Basic: $25 per user, per month (maximum of three seats)
- Professional: $59 per user, per month
- Business: $119 per user, per month
- Free trial of paid plans: 14 days
*Based on annual billing. Monthly subscriptions are also available at slightly higher rates.
Copper Gmail Integration
Copper’s integration with Gmail allows users to relate an email to any Copper record with an activity log and match it with the correct lead. (Source: Copper)
Copper is specifically designed for Google Workspace users and can be integrated through their Chrome extension or Google Workspace add-on. Copper syncs with Google Calendar and auto-populates meetings and tasks related to a lead or customer. It also turns raw data into insights with its Custom Report Builder that connects directly to Google Sheets, allowing users to export datasets from Copper and create reports and charts.
