As you may know, Salesforce is a software as a service (SaaS) provider that is widely considered the top customer relationship management (CRM) software developer.
As of 2015, they had more than 150,000 customers and it’s likely that number has almost doubled in the past four years.
However, as with any other kind of software, there are competitors to consider, including but not limited to HubSpot, Zoho Office Suite, Freshsales, Pipedrive, Microsoft Dynamics, SuiteCRM, and the list goes on.
How do these alternatives stack up against Salesforce and are they even worth considering in a comparison?
HubSpot, Zoho, and Microsoft are the Leading Competitors
If you were to consider an alternative to Salesforce, you might want to start with HubSpot’s CRM. PieSync has a great comparison between the two that should help you decide which one would be right for your business.
Of course, Microsoft is known for providing great support and products all around, and their Dynamics CRM platform is quickly picking up steam and gaining new features with every update so you may want to keep an eye out for that as well.
While Zoho and the other aforementioned alternatives provide similar functionality to Salesforce, none of them have obtained the same level of popularity so one could argue that, yes, Salesforce is still the people’s choice.
Salesforce is Still the Most Customizable CRM
The ability to customize the way you manage your relationship with customers and leads is an area that Salesforce has always had a significant edge in over the competition.
Not only do many users and reviewers agree that Salesforce provides the most customization options, but the developers also claim that it’s the “easiest CRM to customize” and they’ve devoted a page on their site to show you how to get started with your own personalization of the software.
SalesForce Upfront Cost vs. Scaling with HubSpot Add-ons
At this point in your comparison, you might be willing to admit that it’s come down to a decision between Salesforce and HubSpot.
At first glance, HubSpot seems like an obvious choice for a novice small business owner because it’s free for an unlimited number of users as a base version.
However, you’ll quickly find that the free plan can’t hold a candle to the base plan provided by Salesforce, and eventually, you’ll find yourself using HubSpot add-ons and integrations to make up for the lack of functionality.
In this way, HubSpot can actually become more expensive in the long run, so Salesforce could still be considered the most cost-effective CRM software as well.
Try Two For Yourself
Since most CRMs provide roughly the same functionality in terms of the fundamentals, it’s unlikely that you’ll need to try more than two to find what you’re looking for.
However, it’s not wise to just go with the first one you’ve ever used either, so be sure to give at least one Salesforce alternative a go.
You might just find that you prefer the interface or plan pricing of another software after gaining some experience.
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