6 Best Salesforce Alternatives for 2018

Salesforce is one of the best-known customer relationship management (CRM) programs out in the field today. However, it is expensive and isn’t designed for flexible sales processes. When looking for Salesforce alternatives, we compared 20 programs in terms of contact and deal management, customization, technical support and user reviews as well as their overall affordability in order to determine the best six overall for small business.

Top 6 Alternatives to Salesforce 2018

How We Evaluated Salesforce Alternatives

Salesforce is a full-featured CRM with lots of integration capability, but its cost makes it uneconomical for many small business owners. What’s more, it can also be difficult to implement and includes features that are often beyond a small business sales team’s needs. Therefore, small business teams may see a greater benefit by implementing another tool with more targeted functionality for a competitive price.

The criteria we, therefore, used to evaluate the best alternatives include:

• Price: We compared each program’s monthly per-user fee as well as any add-on costs that resulted in additional functionality
• Contact management: We compared how easy it is to create, edit or and search for contacts as well as how each tool worked with email, phones calls and other tasks
• Deal and opportunity management: We looked into how each tool tracked a deal’s pipeline stage, what data related to the deal was viewable and how each tool helped prioritize follow-up activities
• Workflow automation: We reviewed each tool’s methodology regarding sales processes, follow-up tasks and other reminders
• Reporting tools: We examined what data is available to help sales managers better monitor their teams as well as their sales pipelines
• System integrations: In order to conduct the fairest apples-to-apples study on core product features, we did not compare enterprise-level plans; however, we did a review to see how each tool integrates with cloud-based third-party programs
• Customization: We reviewed how each program handles customizations like contact fields, opportunity fields and sales processes
• Customer satisfaction: We read through extensive product reviews and compared technical support offerings

Based on these criteria, we have determined that Freshsales is the best alternative to Salesforce for small business. Freshsales was given this distinction as it offers the most direct one-to-one comparable features while providing additional customization capability at a more affordable price point.

“The challenge that we ran into is that it was not easy to customize the software to our current sales structure. Salesforce expects the user to implement the majority of changes required. Not having someone who had a degree of proficiency with setting up CRM software, we struggled to use it and ended up canceling our subscription.” — Kent Lowe, Owner, Integrity Heating & Cooling

Best Overall Salesforce Alternative: Freshsales

Freshsales is a fully featured CRM that offers contact management as well as flexible lead and opportunity tracking, letting you customize it to your needs. Because it is easier to use and offered as a lower price point compared to Salesforce with many of the same robust features, we recommend it as the best overall alternative. If you like Salesforce’s flexibility and features but not its complexity or its price point, Freshsales is a great alternative.

Freshsales’ Pricing

Freshsales offers a free forever plan known as its Sprout plan which gives unlimited users contact management capability. Additional functionality including deal management as well as advanced analytics are available in its paid plans, which range from $12 per user per month to $49 per user per month, which are a savings compared to Salesforce.

Freshsales’ Tiered Features

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Sprout

The Sprout plan is Freshsales’ free entry-level plan and provides the basic contact management functionality you would expect in a CRM. It also offers rules-based scoring to help you better prioritize lead follow-up as is found in Salesforce’s Professional plan and web-to-lead capture forms that can help speed up the data entry process.

However, the Sprout plan lacks many of the more robust opportunity management features and email tools found in the paid plans. For this reason, the Sprout plan is best for businesses that are looking for an affordable tool for managing their contact relationship details and little else.

Blossom

The Blossom plan costs $12 per user per month, which is still half the cost of Salesforce’s Essentials plan. In addition to helping you manage your contact relationships, the Blossom plan offers opportunity management, bulk emails with templates and email tracking. It also lets you dial contacts and log your phone call activities without leaving the tool, which is a feature not found in Salesforce unless you pay an additional fee for an upgrade.

The Blossom plan does not include team management functionality as is found in the next tiers of plans. Therefore, the Blossom plan is best for individuals or highly independent sales teams that want to track their calls or send mass emails.

Garden

The Garden plan provides the team management functionality the Blossom plan lacks for $25 per user per month. The Garden plan also automates the lead process by allowing lead assignment and routing similar to what Salesforce offers in its Professional plan. The Garden plan does not, however, allow you to create custom sales activities as you can do with the Estate plan, nor does it provide time-based workflows or include a dashboard.

For this reason, the Garden plan is best for sales teams who do not need advanced customization. It is also best for those who are disciplined when it comes to setting manual workflow reminders.

Estate

The Estate plan includes dashboards as part of its reporting features, but extends the tool’s contact relationship management and lead scoring functionality to include a contact’s activities on your website. This is a feature not found in any of Freshsales’ lower-tiered plans.

The Estate plan costs $49 per user per month, which is still more affordable than Salesforce’s Professional plan. This makes it a good fit for sales teams who want to better utilize their website as part of their lead prioritization strategy.

What Freshsales Is Missing

Unlike Salesforce, Freshsales lacks the ability to issue quotes, manage orders and invoicing directly in the tool. Nor does it include pricing books, which is a feature Zoho CRM provides, or product statistics like Pipedrive does. For this reason, Freshsales may not be the best choice for businesses that manage inventory such as retail or distribution.

What Users Think About Freshsales

Freshsales users like the deals page and how Freshsales displays the entire sales process. They praise the customer service for technical support and how easy it is to customize the CRM. However, they give the tool lower marks for the quality of the standard reports and have complained the service can slow depending on internet connection. You can read more in-depth reviews on our Freshsales Review page.

Where to Find Freshsales

Freshsales is a great alternative to Salesforce based on functionality and cost. It can also help you manage your relationships with very little setup time and without the need to employ someone with an advanced degree in CRM. While Freshsales offers a free forever plan, you can also give the professional features a try by signing up for its free trial.

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Best Salesforce Alternative for Pipeline Management: Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a lead management tool and CRM that’s designed around simplifying the sales pipeline process. Pipedrive’s gives you the ability to see what is in your sales pipeline and lets you drag-and-drop prospects and clients from stage-to-stage. Pipedrive’s visual pipeline tool makes it easier to track, understand and manage your sales pipeline, making it best for individuals or organizations looking to manage contacts through a sales funnel.

Pipedrive’s Pricing

Pipedrive offers three plans which range between $12.50 per user and $62.50 per user. This pricing makes the product more affordable than Salesforce, although not as economical as Freshsales. Pipedrive does, however, offer a free trial, giving you the opportunity to test it out before you buy.

Pipedrive’s Tiered Features

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Silver

The Silver plan costs $12.50 per month per users and includes Pipedrive’s signature visual pipeline homepage as well as contact management and configurable report. Unlike Salesforce, Pipedrive is easy to customize, even in its entry-level plan, giving you the option of creating a unique pipeline process to fit the need for your business. However, the Silver plan lacks the built-in scheduler and email template functionality found in its higher-tiered plans.

As a result, the Silver plan is best for businesses that are looking for a way to better manage their leads as well as their contacts. It is also best for those who want a software program that is tailored to their individual processes rather than being forced to adapt their process to the tool.

Gold

The Gold plan adds email tracking capability to Pipedrive’s contact management platform as well as the meeting and task scheduler not found in the Silver plan. The Gold plan also provides account insights which can help you better focus your follow-up efforts on the leads that are most ready to buy. Like Salesforce, it also provides insights into your products, such as sales splits and average discount.

At $24.20 per user per month, the Gold plan is best for teams that want to take advantage of Pipedrive’s visual pipeline requiring additional analytics. It is also best for those who want to better manage their sales tasks and efforts with its built-in scheduling tool.

Platinum

The Platinum plan offers the same features as the Gold plan but includes additional sales forecasting functionality and advanced reporting features for $62.50 per user per month. Like Salesforce’s Professional plan, The Platinum plan lets you set specific permissions based on roles, giving you more control over what your team needs to do or see. The plan also gives you access to live phone support and your data is hosted in a dedicated private environment.

As the Platinum’s chief benefit over the less expensive plans is its additional analytics, role-based permissions and support, it is best for hierarchical teams. It is also best for teams that have truly unique requirements for sales management.

What Pipedrive Is Missing

Pipedrive lacks Salesforce’s lead assignment and lead-based routing functionality, which makes it a less viable alternative to Salesforce for account-based sales requiring multiple points of contacts. While leads can be prioritized based on time since the last contact, the software’s lead scoring rules are also not as robust as what is found in Salesforce. Pipedrive also lacks a mass marketing email feature like those found in Salesforce and Freshsales.

What Users Think About Pipedrive

While Pipedrive may not be as feature rich as Salesforce, what it does, it does well. Users of the software praise its user-friendly interface, its available integrations with other third-party tools and its short learning curve. However, they have reported that the tool could be improved with additional customer filtering functionality based on past sales and more robust webhooks. You can read more about Pipedrive and what other users are saying on our Pipedrive Review page.

Where to Find Pipedrive

Pipedrive simplifies the sales process while giving you a means of managing your contact relationships. While other tools require several clicks to navigate deals and locate specific customer activities, Pipedrive organizes in easy to digest visual homepages. You and additional team members can try out Pipedrive’s visual pipeline risk-free by taking advantage of its free trial.

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Best Salesforce Alternative for Project Management: Insightly

Insightly is a robust, competitively priced CRM that includes project management functionality, something that Salesforce lacks without additional integrations with third-party apps. This enables you to not only manage your prospects, deals and projects milestones but also your vendor contacts too. Therefore, it is a great solution for those looking for a Salesforce alternative with more complete contact relationship and project management.

Insightly’s Pricing

Insightly has two tiers of pricing plans which range between $29 per user per month to $49 per user per month. This pricing puts Insightly on par with Salesforce’s entry-level Lightning Essentials Plan but remains a cost saving when compared to Salesforce’s Lighting Professionals plan. As a bonus, if you will only have 1-2 users, Insightly offers a completely free option. Click here to try it out.

Insightly’s Tiered Pricing & Features

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Plus

At $29 per user per month, Insightly’s Plus plan gives users the ability to continue to manage contact relationships after the deal is closed with its project management functionality. They can add and manage 100,000 records and send 2,500 bulk emails a month. Like Salesforce, leads resulting from those contacts and marketing messages are then tracked and managed through a sales pipeline process customized for your business needs.

The Plus plan, however, does not include any of the lead assignment rules, shareable account insights cards, dashboards or workflow automation found in the Professional plan. For this reason, it is best for soloprenuers, highly independent sales representatives or those with a sales process that cannot be automated.

Professional

The Professional plan increases the number of records you can manage to 250,000 and doubles the amount of bulk email that can be sent out each month per user while costing $49 per user per month. The Professional plan lets you customize your dashboard. It also gives you the ability to assign role-based permissions and automate workflow tasks like Salesforce’s Lightning Professional plan does, but at a lower price point.

The Professional plan then is best for teams of more than one individual who want to send more marketing messages or tailor the dashboard data to fit their unique business needs. It is also a good fit for sales managers who would like to limit what their teams can do or see based on roles.

What Insightly Is Missing

While you can manage your projects within Insightly, the tool does not offer product pricing books and does not include a means for managing quotes and order. This puts the tool at a disadvantage when compared to Salesforce for businesses that conduct a lot of retail or product sales transactions.

What Users Think About Insightly

We use Insightly ourselves and appreciate the ease in which contacts can be added to the database directly from a native email client as well as its ability to manage the projects in our pipeline. Other users appreciate the ease in which fields can be added and reports can be created. However, use of the tool does require many clicks to navigate to specific record information. You can read more about Insightly on our Insightly Review page.

Where to Find Insightly

You can use Insightly to coordinate internal tasks and vendor relationships as well as the activities needed to close a sale. Insightly knows that relationships continue well beyond a deal’s close, which is why its project management functionality is such a benefit. Even better, it gives you a chance to try out its Professional plan for free for 14 days. Give it a try today.

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Best Salesforce Alternative with Social Media Management: Zoho

Zoho has most of the same features you’ll see in Salesforce that is relevant to small business yet at a fraction of the cost. Zoho also allows you to incorporate social media into your relationship management because it includes additional sales channels connections like Facebook and Twitter hooks, which you won’t find in Salesforce’s sales CRM. This makes it ideal for sales teams who prospect on social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook.

Zoho’s Pricing

Zoho offers a free plan for up to three users, which includes contact and opportunity management like Salesforce and social media connections. Additional functionality and customization are offered through its paid plans which range between $12 per user per month and $20 per user per month, which is a cost savings compared to Salesforce. Click here for a free trial.

Zoho’s Tiered Features

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Free

Zoho’s Free plan supports up to three users and includes lead and contact management. It also has more unique activity tracking features like phone logging and social media connections, which are not found in Salesforce without incurring additional add-on fees. The Free plan, however, lacks the ability to route leads to specific users, manage orders or customize the interface.

Therefore, the Free plan is best for teams of three or less who require little customization. It is also best for teams who manage their quotes and orders through another accounting tool.

Standard

The Standard plan costs $12 per user per month and allows users to add up to 10 custom fields and create up to 100 custom reports, which can then be scheduled and delivered to users daily. Like the Free plan and, unlike Salesforce, the Standard plan integrates with Twitter, Facebook and Google+. It also allows you to send bulk emails, tracks website visitor interactions and provides sales forecasting and email insights.

The Standard plan is, therefore, best for sales teams who want more insights into a lead’s behavior as well as being able to track multichannel communications. The Standard plan is also a good fit for groups of more than three sales team members.

Professional

The Professional plan offers similar price book and order management functionality as found in Salesforce but costs only $20 per user per month, making it a much more affordable alternative. The Professional plan includes access to Zoho’s proprietary SalesSignals functionality, which automates lead scoring and helps you better prioritize lead follow-up. It also lets you add up to 150 custom fields per module.

Its custom field offering and conditional follow-up rules that can be tied to CRM field updates makes it a great alternative for teams looking for either a tool with a high degree of customization potential or workflow automation. The Professional plan is also best for those who would like to capture leads directly from social media.

What Zoho Is Missing

The only major feature that Zoho is missing when compared to Salesforce is the ability to register leads with partners. As a person coming from a manufacturer’s representative environment, I know how important it can be to have a mechanism, which ensures you will still be given sales credit when the end-customer may be dealing with your partner directly.

What Users Think About Zoho

Zoho users report the tool makes it easy to customize, track prospects and set future tasks. They say data is easy to import from existing CRMs making the switch over less painful. However, they do say that technical support could be improved. Fixes and new features are slow to roll out and the user interface could be easier to navigate. For more user reviews, you can visit our Zoho Review page.

Where to Find Zoho

Zoho allows you to engage with your contacts on whatever channel works best for them. Zoho’s customization and extended integration make it a great solution for teams that depend on being able to adapt their sales processes to match the next social media trend. Best of all, you can give Zoho a try for free as long as you would like.

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Best Salesforce Alternative with A La Carte Pricing: Really Simple Systems

Really Simple Systems has three tiers that range from free to $30 per user per month as well as email marketing upgrades between $22 and $46 per month. With Salesforce, many of these email marketing upgrades like bulk email campaigns are included in the tiered pricing. This makes Really Simple Systems ideal for price- and feature-conscious businesses that only want to pay for the things they intend to use regularly.

Really Simple System’s Pricing

Really Simple Systems offers a free plan for up to two users which includes contact management, product and pricing book and up to 100MB of storage. Additional storage or users can be added by upgrading to one of its two paid plans ranging between $14 and $30 per user per month. Marketing upgrades cost a flat $22 to $46 per month.

Really Simple Systems’ Tiered Features

Free

The major difference between Really Simple Systems’ Free plan and its paid plans is available file storage and the ability to add on one of its two optional email marketing feature upgrades. With the free plan, you can import and export contacts, similar to Salesforce, and track the status of leads as they progress through your pipeline. You can also manage your product’s price books. However, the free plan is limited to two users.

For this reason, Really Simple Systems is a great alternative for cost-sensitive solopreneurs who do not need email marketing tools. It is a CRM tool that lives up to its name by offering really simple contact relationship management.

Starter

For $14 per user per month, the Starter plan has the offers all of the same features as the free plan but also logs emails without having to purchase either of the email marketing upgrades. The marketing upgrades cost between $22 per month and $46 per month and provide features like found in Salesforce including email tracking, templates and bulk email, but unlike the Salesforce, those prices are not tied to the number of users.

The Starter plan is best for teams that don’t need a lot of bonus features like built-in phone dialers, web-to-lead capture forms or widgets that work in the background. It is designed for businesses wanting to manage their contact relationships and only pay for the features they intend to use.

Professional

The Professional plan includes all the same features as the Starter plan including the option to add on email marketing upgrades, while also letting you manage quotes. For $30 per month, data storage is increased to 5 GB and the Professional plan lets you assign role-based permissions similar to those found in Salesforce’s Lightning Professional plan.

In addition to more storage and user permission, the Professional plan gives users access to technical support via phone and through online training. This makes it a better plan for businesses needing more immediate assistance or those that intend to attach large files to their contacts or sales related activities.

What Really Simple Systems Is Missing

Really Simple System is designed to give small businesses only the tools they intend to use. Therefore, what it lacks in comparison to Salesforce will depend on what an individual is willing to pay for. That being said, even with the optional upgrades, Really Simple Systems lacks Salesforce’s collaboration and team management tools.

What Users Think About Really Simple Systems

Really Simple Systems users report that it is a great CRM for start-ups due to the low cost and the number of instructional videos available online. They said it is easy to use and navigate. It speeds up workflow but starts to get pricey as you need more storage. We have a Really Simple Systems Review page where you can find out more about what other users are saying.

Where to Find Really Simple Systems

Really Simple Systems’ goal is to have users up and running in minutes so that you can spend less time trying to understand your CRM and more time growing your business. You can take advantage of the Free plan or sign-up for a free trial of the Professional plan on its website.

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Easiest to Use Salesforce Alternative: Less Annoying CRM

Less Annoying has been designed with simplicity of use in mind. Its CRM includes basic contact management and activity tracking but does not include Salesforce’s more complex features like web forms, email templates, opportunity insights or sales analytics. Even its pricing is simple, with no subscription tiers, making it best for those who need a no-frills Salesforce alternative with basic functionality.

Less Annoying CRM’s Pricing

Less Annoying CRM costs $10 per user per month, and there is no additional pricing tiers or optional upgrades to worry about. There are no upfront payment, and you can add or remove users at any time.

Less Annoying CRM’s Features

Less Annoying CRM’s low cost does come at the expense of features. Therefore, it cannot be considered a drop-in replacement for Salesforce but does still include many features to help you better manage your contact relationships.

These features include:

Contact Management

Just like Salesforce, Less Annoying CRM’s allows users to store notes, files and tasks associated with a contact in a single user interface. Contacts are easy to import into the database and are searchable giving you the ability to find the information you need to push the lead through the sales process.

Calendar and Tasks

Unlike Salesforce, a salesperson’s calendar is built right into Less Annoying CRM, which keeps you from having to exit the tool. The calendars can also be shared with other users and can sync with Google Calendar.

Leads and Pipelines

Less Annoying CRM shows the status of leads in a color-coded activity feed along with the deals estimated value and who it was assigned too. This helps you identify what contacts need additional follow-up better and what leads are progressing through your pipeline. While it is easier to identify a lead status in a tool like Freshsales or Pipedrive, Less Annoying CRM’s display is still easy to navigate and manage.

Team Collaboration

Less Annoying CRM lets sales managers specify what data can be seen by specific roles or specific individuals within the company without having to pay more for the added protection. You can allow them to share leads and collaborate sales efforts or limit their access to only their own data. All users are granted their individual login, so you don’t have to worry about changing passwords constantly each time there is a staffing change in your organization.

Customization

Less Annoying CRM gives users the ability to create custom sales processes as well as assign custom fields to contacts. All of these customizations can be done with a few clicks by an average user rather than force you to find someone with a background in information technology to do it for you at the database level.

What Less Annoying CRM Is Missing

Less Annoying CRM lacks features such as web-to-lead capture found in many of the other Salesforce alternatives we considered; however, contacts can be imported easily via a spreadsheet. Less Annoying CRM also lacks the ability to send bulk emails or manage email campaign performance within your CRM nor does it give you the ability to manage quotes directly in the system.

What Users Think About Less Annoying CRM

Users love the daily summary that helps them manage their tasks for the day and its simple search feature. They report that data is easy to share with other members on their teams. They do say the tool could be improved if it synced with calendars other than Google or allow you to set a reminder for a task, but have reported there are workarounds for both complaints. You can read more about what other users are saying on our Less Annoying CRM Review page.

Where to Find Less Annoying CRM

Less Annoying CRM is a budget-friendly alternative specifically designed for small businesses due to its short setup time, ease of use and simple pricing structure. You can give Less Annoying CRM a try for free for 30-days by visiting its website.

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Free Alternatives to Salesforce

The Bottom Line

Salesforce is the granddaddy of sales CRM for large enterprises and is likely to continue being so for years to come. However, a number of sales CRMs specifically designed for small businesses are on the increase that are more suitable and better priced for small business needs.

I personally recommend Freshsales as the best all-around Salesforce alternatives because it’s easy to set up and use, sales reps love working with it, it provides all the sales analytics you need to drive improvements to sales performance and it’s a great value for money. Before you consider buying, you can test it out for free.

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