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salesforce Best Competitors & Alternatives updated November 2026

salesforce Best Competitors & Alternatives updated November 2026

Top Salesforce Alternatives & Competitors based on 2265 Reviews

Reviews collected from capterra.com trustpilot.com trustradius.com sitejabber.com gartner.com reviews.io .

Brand Pricing
salesforce.com favicon Salesforce
activecampaign.com favicon ActiveCampaign
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
3.2
close.com favicon Close.io
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
4.4
Plans are priced per user/month, with annual billing starting at about $9 for Solo, $35 for Essentials, $99 for Growth, and $139 for Scale. Monthly billing generally costs more; plan features and limits vary.
hubspot.com favicon HubSpot
★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
1.9
keap.com favicon Keap
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
2.9
Keap’s pricing is based on the subscription, contact volume, and users. Plans have been listed from about $249/month with annual billing (around $299 month-to-month); confirm the current offer and included limits on the pricing page.
marketo.com favicon Marketo
pipedrive.com favicon Pipedrive
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
4
zendesk.com favicon Zendesk
★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
1.7
zoho.com favicon Zoho
★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
2.3

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Why should you be looking for a Salesforce alternative?

Businesses may seek a Salesforce alternative for specialized features, a simpler interface, lower costs, or more responsive support. Top options include ActiveCampaign, Close.io, HubSpot, Keap, Marketo, Pipedrive, Zendesk, and Zoho. The comparison explores each tool’s features, pricing, and ideal users.

Quick Overview of Top Salesforce Competitors

  • ActiveCampaign — Best Salesforce Alternative for marketing automation: Combines email marketing, marketing automation, and sales CRM features, with visual automation workflows and customer-segmentation tools.
  • Close.io — Best Salesforce Alternative for sales calling: Focuses on sales teams, with built-in calling, SMS, email, and activity tracking alongside pipeline management.
  • HubSpot — Best all-in-one Salesforce Alternative: Brings sales, marketing, and customer service tools together; its CRM has a free tier, and teams can add paid hubs as their needs grow.
  • Keap — Best Salesforce Alternative for small-business automation: Combines CRM, email marketing, and sales automation, with features aimed at small businesses and service-based businesses.
  • Marketo — Best Salesforce Competitor for enterprise marketing automation: Marketo Engage specializes in marketing automation, lead management, and campaign measurement; it can connect with CRM systems, including Salesforce.
  • Pipedrive — Best Salesforce Alternative for visual pipeline management: Centers on sales pipelines, with a visual interface, deal tracking, and workflow automation for sales teams.
  • Zendesk — Best Salesforce Alternative for customer service: Offers customer-support tools such as ticketing, messaging, and a help center, with CRM capabilities focused on managing customer interactions.
  • Zoho — Best budget-friendly Salesforce Alternative: Offers a broad suite of business apps, including Zoho CRM, with sales automation, reporting, and integrations across Zoho’s products.

Salesforce Alternatives: Feature by Feature Comparison

Platform and source Key features How it compares with Salesforce Distinctive or stronger fit for users
ActiveCampaign Email marketing and campaign automation; customer segmentation; automated journeys triggered by customer actions; sales CRM and pipeline tools; sales task and follow-up automation. Capabilities vary by plan. Salesforce can support comparable marketing and sales workflows through products such as Marketing Cloud, Account Engagement, and Sales Cloud, but those capabilities may involve separate products and more configuration. A strong fit for teams that want email marketing and behavioral automation closely connected to sales follow-up. Its customer-journey automation is a practical advantage for small and midsize businesses that want to build targeted follow-ups without implementing a larger Salesforce setup.
Close (formerly Close.io) Sales CRM with calling, SMS, email, activity tracking, pipelines, reporting, and sales sequences. Higher-tier or plan-dependent capabilities may include power dialing and call recording. Salesforce offers extensive CRM customization and can connect sales engagement and telephony tools, but that may require additional products or integrations. Close centers the workflow on sales communication and keeps calls, texts, emails, and deal activity together. Best suited to inside-sales teams that spend much of the day contacting prospects. Built-in calling and messaging make it easier to log interactions and move from prospecting to follow-up without switching between as many tools.
HubSpot Connected products for CRM, sales, marketing, customer service, content management, operations, and commerce. Features include contact and deal records, forms, email campaigns, automation, tickets, and reporting; availability depends on product and tier. Salesforce has a deeper enterprise customization ecosystem and a broad portfolio of products. HubSpot’s advantage is the way its hubs are organized around a shared CRM, which can make it easier for teams to connect customer and sales activity without assembling as many separate tools. A good fit for businesses seeking an integrated platform with a relatively approachable starting point. Teams can coordinate marketing, sales, and service around shared customer records, then add capabilities as their needs grow.
Keap Small-business CRM, contact management, email and text marketing, sales pipelines, automated follow-up, forms and landing pages, appointment scheduling, and tools for quotes, invoices, and payments. Exact options depend on plan. Salesforce can be configured for many of the same processes, but Keap is aimed more directly at small businesses that need marketing follow-up and day-to-day business administration in one system. Useful for owner-operated businesses and small service firms that want to automate lead follow-up, booking, and payment-related tasks without building a larger CRM implementation. Its combination of marketing automation and business-management features is a more focused fit than Salesforce for many small teams.
Adobe Marketo Engage B2B marketing automation; lead capture, scoring, and nurturing; email and campaign management; account-based marketing; personalization; and campaign performance measurement. Integrations connect marketing activity with CRM and other Adobe products. Salesforce offers marketing products that can serve similar needs, alongside its CRM. Marketo is particularly focused on marketing-led lead lifecycle management and B2B nurture and account-based programs. The right choice depends on the team’s existing CRM, marketing stack, and implementation resources. A strong fit for B2B marketing teams running complex, long buying cycles. Lead scoring, nurture programs, and account-based marketing help coordinate engagement across buying groups and hand more qualified activity to sales.
Pipedrive Visual sales pipelines; lead and deal management; activity and task tracking; email synchronization; sales automation; scheduling; reporting; and mobile access. Lead capture and other capabilities may be available through add-ons or plan-dependent features. Salesforce supports highly tailored pipelines and workflows, but can take more configuration to adapt. Pipedrive’s core interface is built around progressing deals and completing sales activities, making it a simpler option for teams that mainly need a clear sales process. A particularly good fit for small and midsize sales teams that want visibility into deal progress. The visual pipeline and activity-based approach make it easy for reps and managers to see next steps and identify stalled opportunities.
Zendesk Customer-service tools centered on ticket management, routing and automation, customer messaging, self-service help centers, and support reporting. Channel availability and AI or advanced capabilities can depend on product and plan. Salesforce Service Cloud provides case management as part of a broader CRM platform and can connect service with sales and other Salesforce products. Zendesk is more service-focused; it may suit support teams that prioritize agent workflows and customer issue resolution over a single, deeply customized CRM platform. A strong fit for customer-support organizations that need an agent-centered service workspace. Its focus on tickets, self-service, and support workflows can help teams organize incoming requests and give customers more ways to find answers. It is not a like-for-like replacement for Salesforce’s full sales CRM.
Zoho A broad suite of business applications, including CRM, service, marketing, finance, collaboration, and analytics products. Zoho CRM includes sales and contact management, workflow automation, and customization options; features depend on the app and plan. Salesforce also has a broad product ecosystem and extensive customization options. Zoho’s differentiator is the breadth of apps available from one vendor, which can be appealing to businesses looking to connect CRM with other business functions. A practical option for businesses that want to assemble more of their software stack within one ecosystem. The range of Zoho applications can reduce the need to source every function from a different vendor, while CRM automation and customization support varied sales processes.

Comparisons are about product focus, not a claim that one platform is universally better. Salesforce and the alternatives can offer overlapping features, but availability, integrations, and implementation effort depend on the products and plans selected.

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Integration Capabilities for each Salesforce competitor

Alternative Supported Integrations Compatibility Notes
ActiveCampaign Salesforce, Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier Offers a Salesforce integration for syncing CRM and marketing data. Its wider app selection is smaller than Salesforce’s AppExchange; check plan and sync requirements.
Close Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Zoom, Aircall, Zapier, Make Connects with many sales and communications tools. Salesforce connections are generally handled through automation or third-party connectors rather than a comparable native CRM sync.
HubSpot Salesforce, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Shopify, Zoom, Stripe, Zapier Provides a dedicated Salesforce integration with data-sync options. HubSpot’s marketplace is broad, though Salesforce’s AppExchange offers a larger, Salesforce-specific app ecosystem.
Keap QuickBooks, Shopify, WordPress, Gmail, Outlook, PayPal, Stripe, Zapier Supports common small-business tools. For Salesforce interoperability, confirm the connector and sync behavior; a third-party automation service may be needed.
Marketo Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Adobe Experience Cloud, LinkedIn, Google, SAP Marketo is primarily a marketing-automation platform. It offers CRM synchronization options, including Salesforce integration, but its integration needs are typically centered on marketing data and workflows.
Pipedrive Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Zoom, QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier, Make Integrates with popular sales and productivity tools. Salesforce data exchange may require a third-party connector; verify whether it supports ongoing sync or only automation/import workflows.
Zendesk Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Jira, Shopify, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace Offers a Salesforce integration for connecting customer-support and CRM workflows. AppExchange is broader for Salesforce-specific extensions; Zendesk’s marketplace focuses on support use cases.
Zoho CRM Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Mailchimp, QuickBooks, Shopify, Zoom, Zapier Connects with common business apps and Zoho’s own suite. Salesforce connections may rely on third-party connectors or automation, so check record mapping and sync direction.

Integrations listed are representative, not exhaustive. Availability, features, and whether a connection is native or provided by a partner can vary by plan and region.

Pros and Cons of each Salesforce Alternative

The trade-offs below reflect typical use cases; capabilities vary by product tier, add-ons, and implementation. Salesforce is the broad CRM benchmark here, with extensive customization, integrations, and support for complex sales and service operations.

Alternative Pros Cons
ActiveCampaign Strong email marketing and automation for small and midsize businesses; combines campaigns with basic sales-pipeline tools; can suit teams that want marketing automation without building a large CRM setup. CRM capabilities are less suited to complex sales structures, such as intricate territories, permissions, and forecasting; less flexible for organization-wide data models and custom applications than Salesforce.
Close.io (Close) Built for sales teams that manage frequent calls and emails; calling, SMS, email, and sales activity tracking are closely integrated; useful for outbound-focused teams seeking a focused sales workflow. Narrower scope than Salesforce for service operations, marketing, and custom business processes; less suited to organizations needing extensive platform customization or a large enterprise app ecosystem.
HubSpot Combines CRM with marketing, sales, and service tools; supports inbound marketing and lead management; can be simpler to adopt for teams seeking an integrated suite. Advanced requirements—such as complex data models, access controls, or highly customized workflows—may be harder to accommodate; costs and product complexity can increase as teams add advanced features and hubs.
Keap Combines small-business CRM, marketing automation, appointment and payment workflows; useful for service businesses that want to automate lead follow-up and routine customer communications in one system. Less suited to large sales teams, complex account structures, and enterprise reporting; fewer options for extensive customization and broad cross-functional CRM deployments than Salesforce.
Marketo (Adobe Marketo Engage) Strong for B2B marketing automation, lead nurturing, campaign management, and lead scoring; useful for marketing teams running sophisticated programs across long sales cycles. Primarily a marketing-automation platform, not a full CRM replacement; usually needs a separate CRM and careful data synchronization; implementation and administration can require specialized expertise.
Pipedrive Sales-pipeline and activity tracking are central to the product; provides a focused setup for teams managing deals through defined stages; can reduce the configuration needed for straightforward sales processes. Less comprehensive for marketing automation, customer service, and complex enterprise-wide workflows; offers less depth than Salesforce for highly customized reporting, data structures, and multi-team governance.
Zendesk Strong for customer support, including ticket handling, agent workflows, and support-channel management; suits organizations prioritizing service operations and customer issue resolution. Support-focused rather than a broad sales-and-marketing CRM; may require other products or integrations for advanced pipeline management, marketing automation, and enterprise CRM customization.
Zoho Offers a broad suite of business applications alongside CRM; supports workflow automation and customization; can suit organizations seeking connected tools across sales, marketing, and operations. The breadth of products can make setup and administration more involved; coordinating data and workflows across apps may require care; Salesforce generally offers a larger ecosystem of third-party apps and implementation partners.

Salesforce vs Competitors: Traffic & Marketing Comparison

Traffic Comparison (≈470 characters):
Among brands with traffic data, Zendesk leads on the latest available figure: 21.15M in October 2026. Zoho follows at 19.13M, but its latest figure is from March 2026, so the comparison is not date-matched. HubSpot recorded 7.55M and ActiveCampaign 0.92M in October 2026; Keap was lowest at about 20K. Keap’s traffic fell sharply from earlier figures. Salesforce, Close.io, Marketo, and Pipedrive have no traffic data here, so they cannot be ranked.

Top Performing Keywords (≈465 characters):
The supplied keyword lists show broad #1 coverage, though they do not provide traffic per keyword. ActiveCampaign and Marketo focus heavily on email marketing and automation; ActiveCampaign is #6 for “email campaign.” HubSpot spans CRM, email, and marketing automation, but is #9 for “performance marketing software.” Salesforce ranks #1 across CRM, customer data, support, and business terms. Zendesk owns service/help-desk themes, while Zoho emphasizes software, cloud, and SaaS. Close.io, Keap, and Pipedrive show broad CRM/email overlap.

Visibility and Reach (≈460 characters):
By recorded organic traffic, Zendesk has the strongest measured visibility, with Zoho also exceptionally high, though its latest data is older. HubSpot combines substantial traffic with broad CRM and marketing keyword coverage. ActiveCampaign and Marketo stand out in email marketing and automation; Salesforce has strong listed rankings across business and CRM topics, but no traffic figure to confirm reach. Zendesk’s clear niche strength is customer service and help-desk software. Missing traffic data for four brands limits a complete comparison.

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Other “Salesforce” Alternatives & Competitors that you can find for free

Salesforce competitor Key features Trends Value proposition
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Lead and opportunity management, forecasting, workflow automation, Power BI and Microsoft 365 integration Generative AI and Copilot features; tighter links between CRM, productivity tools and customer data A strong fit for organizations already using Microsoft, with CRM and analytics connected to familiar tools
Oracle Sales Sales-force automation, account and territory management, forecasting, configure-price-quote tools, Oracle ecosystem integration AI-assisted selling, predictive insights and unified customer data across Oracle applications Suits larger organizations seeking CRM alongside Oracle’s ERP, marketing and service products
SAP Sales Cloud Sales automation, customer and account management, forecasting, guided selling and SAP integration AI-enabled workflows and closer integration between sales, service and back-office operations A natural option for businesses running SAP that want sales processes connected to ERP and operational data
Freshsales (Freshworks) Contact and deal management, built-in phone and email, sales sequences, workflow automation and Freddy AI Greater use of AI for lead scoring, summaries and sales assistance; focus on simplifying sales workflows Offers an approachable CRM with sales communication tools built in, often appealing to small and midsize teams
SugarCRM Sales automation, account management, forecasting, workflow customization and customer-data tools AI-driven insights and more connected sales, marketing and service processes Provides flexible CRM options for organizations that want customization and visibility across the customer lifecycle

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Salesforce, and what is it used for?

Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Businesses use it to manage customer and sales data, track leads and opportunities, support customer service, and automate marketing and business workflows.

Who are Salesforce’s main competitors?

Major Salesforce competitors include Microsoft Dynamics 365, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Oracle CX, and SAP Sales Cloud. The best fit depends on a company’s size, budget, existing software, and CRM requirements.

How much does Salesforce cost?

Salesforce pricing depends on the product, edition, number of users, and contract terms. Some products have published per-user prices, while larger or more specialized deployments may require a custom quote. Check Salesforce’s current pricing for the specific product you need.

How does Salesforce compare with HubSpot?

Salesforce is often chosen for its extensive customization, broad product ecosystem, and support for complex business processes. HubSpot is often valued for its accessible interface and connected marketing, sales, and service tools. Compare the features, implementation needs, and total cost for your use case.

Which Salesforce alternative is best for a small business?

There is no single best choice for every small business. HubSpot and Zoho CRM are commonly considered for their approachable tools and range of plans; Microsoft Dynamics 365 may suit businesses already using Microsoft products. Evaluate ease of use, essential features, support, and total cost.

Can Salesforce integrate with other business software?

Yes. Salesforce connects with many business applications through built-in integrations, the Salesforce AppExchange, APIs, and third-party integration tools. Before choosing a solution, confirm that it supports the specific systems and data workflows your business relies on.

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