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November 4, 2022 Business Technologies

Who is Salesforce’s biggest competitor?

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By Brian Anderson

While Salesforce has become an industry standard in the CRM world, it’s not right for every business. CRM systems may be universal, but the needs of many companies are so specific that a different kind of fit is often necessary.  

Fortunately, there are plenty of choices. Multiple products are available in the CRM marketplace, and these offer specific advantages to meet any number of unique, specific needs. 

BrainSell has watched and assessed the CRM marketplace for more than two decades. We have a wealth of knowledge we love to share with growing businesses looking into their options. With that in mind, let’s review some of the CRM options on the market. 

In this blog, we’ll mention many of Salesforce’s major competitors—even if some of that competition isn’t in our product portfolio— and analyze what they provide and what specific needs they can fulfill. 

SugarCRM

In the CRM world, the Sugar name is almost as well-known as Salesforce, and for good reason. It’s a solution that lends itself to all kinds of development possibilities, so if you want to go beyond simple options like organizers and calendars, the sky’s the limit with SugarCRM. The automation capabilities are especially impressive, and you can pull customer info from a wide array of sources.

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot is a great alternative to Salesforce because it’s ideal for large teams. It also has an extensive feature set, plus easy to use and onboard. The reporting tools are powerful, which makes it easy to identify any necessary improvements you need to make in your sales funnel

Finally, the dashboards are clean and easy to read, and stats are updated in real-time, which is another advantage for companies looking to integrate their CRM with a large team.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a versatile system that includes over a dozen apps and add-ons. CRM apps, also known as the Customer Engagement Plan, are designed to help businesses improve their sales and customer service processes while increasing employee productivity.

Zendesk

Zendesk has an excellent reputation for improving overall CRM performance, and its two primary benefits are ease of use and adding efficiency. The benefits also include easier networking, a robust ticketing system and real-time communication, and it’s a popular choice for those who want to significantly improve their overall customer experience.

Sage CRM

Sage CRM is a cloud-based application designed to help small- and medium-sized businesses grow their customer base while maintaining existing customers and improving the overall customer experience. It also provides excellent training resources to bring your team up to speed, and the company is especially solid in adding updates and providing various business solutions that can be applied to accounting, invoicing, budgeting, and inventory and supply chain management.

Pipedrive

Salesforce can have a fairly steep learning curve for some companies. That learning curve is especially important if gathering, manipulating, and analyzing a large amount of data is a priority, along with using it across multiple departments. 

Pipedrive is the answer to this problem for many companies. It has a reputation as a simple, clean platform that can be implemented with a minimum amount of training and ancillary issues. 

Pipedrive also offers 24/7 support, which isn’t always the case for some basic platforms, and it includes all the basic functions like lead generation, email marketing, and data analysis. 

Insightly

Some companies just want a CRM with an all-around great rating, and if that fits your situation, Insightly should definitely be on your evaluation list. 

Insightly’s strength is that it organizes leads and sales in one place, then offer analysis that makes it easy to specify specific insights. 

It also has an excellent lead routing feature that makes tracking easier, and it can pinpoint the right person on your sales team to do whatever follow-up is required. 

Agile CRM

Agile is both highly rated and inexpensive, which is an ideal combination for smaller companies that are just starting to figure out what they want from their CRM system. 

There’s a free version for up to ten users that allows up to ten contacts and companies, beyond that, and it also provides custom data fields, tracking, appointment scheduling, and more. 

The free version is obviously a great lure, and from there the pricing structure goes to $8.99 a month and then $29.99 a month per user, which is still a great deal in the world of CRM products. 

Lastly, suppose you’re looking for an unusual offering. In that case, there’s a gaming-style feature that can be used to encourage both competition and collaboration, which is rare even among the more expensive CRM packages. 

Bitrix24

Are your company’s products tech-based? Do you have the software savvy to handle an open-source platform with a steeper-than-usual learning curve? 

If your answer to these questions is yes, you should check out Bitrix24. It’s a powerful package, to the point where you can even use it as a social networking tool within your company. 

Moreover, everything is centralized through the software’s Contact Center, which makes it surprisingly easy to use, given the power of the Bitrix24 CRM system. 

Close

There are plenty of open-source options available in the CRM world, and Close is one of the best because of its powerful automation tools. You can automate your entire sales process and use built-in functions that will do follow-up emails with no prompting. 

There’s also a Pipeline view with a drag-and-drop feature that will be familiar to Salesforce users. Close can also be customized to provide insights about your revenue, and the forecasting feature part of it is surprisingly accurate. 

Redtail CRM 

If your company is web-based, Redtail is probably an excellent fit. It’s easy to load the dashboard onto your browser, and you get an impressive array of contact-oriented features for your salespeople to use. 

Beyond that, Redtail is a little light on features compared to the other products listed here. Still, the array of reports is impressive, and you can use them throughout your organization for a variety of functions. 

Vtiger Sales CRM

Are you one of those sole proprietors who have to deal with the possibility of getting eaten alive in a dog-eat-dog business climate?  

If so, fear not—Vtiger’s got you covered. It will help you organize and streamline your sales operation, and it’s got a solid array of automation features to help you out as you grow. It’s also very affordable, so it won’t stretch your budget too far. 

Zoho CRM 

Like a couple of other options described earlier, Zoho is designed for small businesses, but with a difference—customization. 

You can pick and choose what you customize to fit your business model, and the tech part of Zoho is easy to master, too. Best of all, there’s a free version; cost-wise, it checks in less than Salesforce.  

How to Choose Between Salesforce CRM Competitors

If you need help selecting the right CRM for your business, you’re in the right place. We’ve got the knowledge and experience to help you select the perfect CRM system to help you grow your business, so connect with us to learn more about how the selection process works.

 

Want a Side-By-Side Comparison?

Check out this comparison guide to see how Salesforce stacks up against a notable market rival – HubSpot!

 

Learn More >>

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Author Bio

Brian Anderson

Brian Anderson joined BrainSell as the content marketing manager but unknowingly became our in-house troubadour as well. Brian’s ability to generate high-quality content and continue to develop the BrainSell voice is unmatched.

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