5 best alternatives to Salesforce

When it comes to managing customer relationships, the right CRM can make all the difference. But what happens when your current platform no longer fits your needs? Whether it’s due to limited features, high costs, or compatibility issues, it might be time to explore other options. In this blog post, we'll explore the best CRM alternatives for businesses seeking a better alternative to Salesforce. Salesforce is a popular CRM, but with its steep prices and complex workflows, it can be challenging to use. Let’s explore why you might consider switching and what alternatives you should consider.

Why look for alternatives to Salesforce

While Salesforce has its strengths, it may fall short in certain areas. Here are some reasons businesses search for alternatives to Salesforce.

• Cost concerns: Pricing can escalate as teams grow or as advanced features are needed.
• Limited customization: Some businesses require more flexibility to tailor the CRM to their workflows.
• Scalability issues: Growing businesses might outpace the platform’s capabilities.
• Integration gaps: The need for seamless connectivity with tools like email, analytics, or project management.

Key features to look for in a Salesforce alternative

Before diving into the options, it’s essential to know what makes a great CRM. Here are the key features to prioritize when searching for the best CRM alternatives:

1. Customizability: Ensure the CRM can adapt to your unique processes.
2. Pricing flexibility: Look for solutions that cater to small teams and enterprises alike.
3. Integration capabilities: You shouldn’t need to pay an additional cost to integrate with third party tools.
4. Customer support: Reliable assistance can be a game-changer when onboarding or troubleshooting.
5. Flexibility: Does the CRM system only support sales? What about marketing, recruitment, and other areas of the business?

Top alternatives to Salesforce

1. Close CRM 

Best for: Fast-paced sales teams focusing on call tracking, email automation, and pipeline management.

Close CRM is a sales-focused platform designed to eliminate the complexity of traditional CRMs, offering a streamlined and user-friendly experience tailored for small businesses with ambitious growth goals. Known for its intuitive design, Close provides robust features like automation to reduce manual work, built-in communication tools for faster follow-ups, and powerful integrations to fit seamlessly into any tech stack. Whether you’re managing leads, collaborating with a team, or scaling sales efforts, Close is built to save time and help small businesses succeed.

Key features of Close CRM

• Fast setup: Simple and quick to implement, allowing teams to start using the platform without delay.
• Intuitive interface: Easy-to-navigate dashboard tailored for speed and productivity.
• Built-in communication: Integrated calling, email, and SMS tools for seamless interaction with leads and clients.
• Automation tools: Includes workflows, smart views, and task automation to streamline repetitive tasks.
• Powerful reporting: Customizable sales and activity reporting for actionable insights into team performance and revenue trends.
• Team collaboration: Features like shared inboxes and task assignments to keep teams aligned and efficient.
• Secure and scalable: Designed with robust security and scalability for growing businesses.
• Integrations: Offers over 100 native integrations and Zapier compatibility to sync seamlessly with existing tools.

2. Capsule CRM

Best for: Small teams seeking a straightforward CRM for contact and task management.

Capsule CRM is a user-friendly customer relationship management platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers a clean, intuitive interface that helps users manage customer relationships, track sales pipelines, and organize tasks and communications efficiently.

Key features of Capsule CRM

• Sales pipeline management: Capsule CRM allows users to track opportunities through a customizable sales pipeline, helping businesses monitor the progress of deals.
• Key integrations: Capsule integrates with tools like Google Workspace, Mailchimp, and Xero, allowing users to streamline workflows and manage data across platforms.
• Task management: Users can create and assign tasks related to deals or contacts, ensuring follow-ups and key actions are completed on time.
• Task reminders: Capsule provides task reminders to keep users on top of deadlines and important activities linked to customer relationships or sales opportunities.
• Workflow automation: The platform includes basic automation tools to handle repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails or updating contact records, reducing manual workload.

Capsule CRM’s price and plans

Capsule's annual subscription plans are as follows.

• Starter plan: Starts from $18 per user, per month.
• Growth plan: Starts from $36 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $54 per user, per month.
• Ultimate plan: Starts from $72 per user, per month.

3. folk

Best for: Teams that need an all-in-one CRM that requires a short implementation time.

folk is a multi-award-winning CRM platform celebrated for its simple, plug-and-play setup. Highly versatile and customizable, folk supports teams across sales, marketing, recruitment, and more. Designed to grow with your business, it’s ideal for solopreneurs, small to mid-size teams, and even large enterprises

Key features

1. Contact management: Seamlessly centralize all your contacts from social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and X, as well as multiple inboxes including Gmail and Outlook.
2. Notes and reminders: Attach notes directly to a contact's profile in Folk for easy access, and set reminders to ensure timely follow-ups.
3. Sales pipeline dashboard: Manage your entire sales cycle and leads using a customizable sales pipeline dashboard, available in both Kanban board and list views.
4. Ease of use and customization: Customize pipelines, dashboards, automations, and email sequences to suit your sales cycle, pipeline management, or other business functions like recruitment and marketing.
5. Social media integration: Import contacts and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, and X with a single click using Folk’s Google Chrome extension.
6. Contact sync from Gmail and Outlook: Sync emails in full, allowing you to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
7. Contact enrichment: Automatically fill in missing contact details such as email addresses and social profiles using integrations with Apollo and Dropcontact.
8. Email sequences: Send personalized email sequences with follow-up reminders for leads who don’t respond. Includes AI integration to scale personalization efforts.

folk’s price and plans

folk offers a 14-day free trial, after which you can choose from affordable monthly or annual subscription plans. The annual pricing options are as follows:

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starting at $80 per user, per month.

4. ActiveCampaign

Best for: Businesses combining CRM with advanced marketing automation and multi-channel campaigns.

Active Campaign is a marketing automation platform designed to help businesses of all sizes manage customer interactions and drive growth through personalized and automated communication.

Key features of ActiveCampaign

• Email marketing: Create personalized email campaigns with drag-and-drop templates, advanced segmentation, and automated sequences to engage your audience effectively.
• Marketing automation: Automate workflows for email, SMS, and site messages, based on user behavior and custom triggers, enhancing customer engagement and retention.
• Sales automation: Integrates a CRM with automation tools to streamline the sales process, track leads, manage deals, and automate follow-ups.
• CRM feature: Sales focused CRM to track and manage processes using automation.

ActiveCampaign’s price and plans

ActiveCampaign's price plans are based on the number of contacts you have. The following plan  is based on 1,000 contacts.

• Starter: Starting from $15/month.
• Plus: Starting from $49/month.
• Pro: Starting from $79/month.
• Enterprise: Starting from $145/month.

5. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a web-based CRM for small businesses, offering lead management, automation, email integration, and customizable pipelines to optimize sales.

Key features of Pipedrive

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage customer data, interactions, and sales pipelines, helping teams act quickly on opportunities.
• Sales automation: Workflow automation to handle repetitive tasks, such as lead routing, follow-ups, and email sequences, allowing sales teams to focus on closing deals.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Real-time data analytics and custom reporting tools to track sales performance, forecast revenue, and gain actionable insights.
• Customization and security: Options to customize pipelines, fields, and user permissions, with robust security measures to protect data.

Pipedrive’s price and plans

Pipedrive offers a few price plans for you to choose from depending on the features and automations you’re after. 

• Essential plan: Starts from $24 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $44 per user, per month.
• Professional plan: Starts from $64 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $79 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

Conclusion

When considering alternatives to Salesforce, platforms like Close CRM, Capsule CRM, ActiveCampaign, Pipedrive, and folk each offer distinct advantages tailored to different business needs. Close CRM excels in sales automation, Capsule CRM offers simplicity for small teams, ActiveCampaign combines CRM with marketing automation, and Pipedrive focuses on intuitive sales pipeline management. However, folk stands out as the best alternative, offering a user-friendly, customizable CRM that scales with your business. Its versatility makes it ideal for teams of any size, delivering powerful features without the complexity of traditional CRMs. Try folk today, free.

Frequently Asked Questions about Salesforce alternatives

Why consider switching from Salesforce to an alternative?

Many businesses seek alternatives due to Salesforce's complexity and cost. folk offers a simpler, more affordable solution with customizable workflows and a user-friendly interface. With prices starting from $20/user/month. 

What should I look for in a Salesforce alternative?

Look for a CRM that aligns with your business size, offers scalable features, and provides essential tools like contact management, pipeline tracking, and automation. 

How does folk compare to Salesforce in terms of pricing?

folk offers transparent, affordable pricing plans starting at $20 per user, per month, making it a cost-effective alternative to Salesforce's often higher-tiered pricing.

Does folk integrate with tools I already use?

folk integrates seamlessly with platforms like Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, and Apollo, ensuring compatibility with your existing workflow.

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