Salesforce is the largest CRM in the world, and for a large company with a dedicated administrator it is hard to beat. For a team of five to fifty people it is often more platform than the business needs. Since September 2026 its full Sales Cloud editions start at $195 a user per month.
This guide compares eight Salesforce competitors on what a team actually pays. Prices were last checked on October 7, 2026.
A note on bias. We make BaseCloud CRM, one of the eight. To keep this useful, the other seven are listed alphabetically and not ranked, BaseCloud is covered separately at the end, and the cost tables show the team sizes where it is not the cheapest option.
The short answer
| If you want | Look at | Starting price |
|---|---|---|
| A CRM built around calling | Close | $35 a seat for teams |
| Built-in phone, email and chat at a low price | Freshsales | Free for 3 users, then $9 a user |
| Sales and marketing in one familiar platform | HubSpot | Free for 2 users, then about $20 a seat |
| A CRM that lives inside Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales | $65 a user |
| A CRM on top of project boards | monday CRM | $12 a seat, 3-seat minimum |
| A simple, visual sales pipeline | Pipedrive | $14 a seat |
| Deep customization at a low price | Zoho CRM | Free for 3 users, then $14 a user |
| Phone, texting, WhatsApp, quotes and automation in one subscription | BaseCloud CRM (ours) | $699 a month for 5 users |
Prices are per month on annual billing unless stated, in US dollars.
How we compared them
- Prices come from each vendor’s public pricing page, checked on October 7, 2026. Where a vendor’s page would not show us US dollar prices, we used recently published pricing guides. The sources are listed at the end.
- We compared total cost for a defined team, not seat price, because seat prices hide the plan you actually need and the tools you add beside it.
- We have not run a hands-on test of every product. Feature notes are taken from each vendor’s published plan details. BaseCloud figures come from our own price list.
What Salesforce costs in 2026
Salesforce changed its Sales Cloud line-up on September 3, 2026. The Enterprise, Unlimited and Agentforce 1 editions were replaced by Core, Advanced and Max.
| Edition | Per user per month | 10 users, per year |
|---|---|---|
| Free Suite | $0 | $0 |
| Starter Suite | $25 | $3,000 |
| Pro Suite | $100 | $12,000 |
| Core | $195 | $23,400 |
| Advanced | $395 | $47,400 |
| Max | $550 | $66,000 |
Pro Suite and the three Sales Cloud editions are billed annually. Customers on existing contracts keep their old packages until renewal, and the new packaging applies to new purchases.
Why teams look for Salesforce alternatives
The license is the smaller part of the bill. Published estimates for a small-business Salesforce implementation range from about $5,000 to $25,000. A full-time Salesforce administrator in the US earns about $90,000 a year.
It needs configuring. Salesforce is a platform. Out of the box it is a starting point, and the value comes from building objects, flows and reports around your process. That is a strength for a large company and a burden for a small one.
Everyday channels are extra. Published pricing guides put Salesforce’s Sales Engagement add-on at $50 a user per month and Digital Engagement, which covers texting and WhatsApp, at $75 a user per month, before message charges.
The gap between suites and editions is wide. Moving from Pro Suite at $100 to Core at $195 nearly doubles the price. For ten users that is an extra $11,400 a year.
Salesforce remains the right choice for complex, multi-team sales organizations. Its customization, partner ecosystem and industry-specific products have no equal among the options below.
The alternatives, in alphabetical order
Close
Best for: inside sales teams that make a lot of calls.
Price: team plans are $35 (Essentials), $99 (Growth) and $139 (Scale) a seat per month on annual billing. Calling costs about $0.02 a minute.
Better than Salesforce at: calling, texting and email are native, with power and predictive dialers on the higher plans.
Watch out for: workflows start on Growth, and customization is limited next to Salesforce.
Freshsales
Best for: small teams that want a built-in dialer at a low per-user price.
Price: $9 (Growth), $39 (Pro) and $59 (Enterprise) a user per month on annual billing, with a free plan for up to three users.
Better than Salesforce at: phone, email and chat are built in, and even the Enterprise plan costs less than Salesforce Pro Suite.
Watch out for: custom modules, sandbox and audit logs are on the Enterprise plan only, and call minutes are billed separately.
HubSpot
Best for: businesses where marketing and sales work closely together.
Price: free tools for up to two users. Sales Hub Starter lists at $20 a seat per month. Sales Hub Professional is $90 a seat on annual billing plus a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee, and Enterprise is $150 a seat plus $3,500 onboarding.
Better than Salesforce at: it is easier to learn, and the marketing tools are part of the same platform.
Watch out for: texting and WhatsApp need Marketing Hub Professional, at about $800 a month. We compare the options in HubSpot alternatives.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales
Best for: companies already standardized on Microsoft 365, Teams and Power BI.
Price: Sales Professional is $65 a user per month, Enterprise is $105 and Premium is $150, all paid yearly.
Better than Salesforce at: price at the enterprise tier, and tight links to Outlook, Teams and Excel.
Watch out for: like Salesforce, it is a platform that needs a partner or an in-house specialist to set up well.
monday CRM
Best for: teams that want sales and delivery work on the same boards.
Price: $12 (Basic), $17 (Standard) and $28 (Pro) a seat per month on annual billing, with a three-seat minimum.
Better than Salesforce at: flexible, visual and inexpensive, with an easy handover from sales to operations.
Watch out for: contact and automation limits on the lower plans, and no native phone system.
Pipedrive
Best for: small sales teams that need a deal pipeline and no more.
Price: $14 (Lite), $39 (Growth), $59 (Premium) and $79 (Ultimate) a seat per month on annual billing.
Better than Salesforce at: it takes an afternoon to set up, and salespeople use it without being asked.
Watch out for: it is a sales tool only. Email sync and automations start on the Growth plan. More in Pipedrive alternatives.
Zoho CRM
Best for: teams that want Salesforce-style customization at a small-business price.
Price: free for up to three users. Paid editions are $14, $23, $40 and $52 a user per month on annual billing. The Enterprise edition at $40 includes custom functions, portals, territory management and a sandbox.
Better than Salesforce at: ten users on Zoho Enterprise cost $400 a month, against $1,950 on Salesforce Core.
Watch out for: the learning curve is real, and calling needs Zoho Voice (from $34 a user) or another provider. See our Zoho CRM pricing guide.
Free Salesforce alternatives
| Product | Free plan | Main limits |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce (for reference) | Yes, Free Suite | Basic lead, contact and opportunity management |
| Zoho CRM | Yes, up to 3 users | 5,000 records, no custom fields, no mass email |
| HubSpot | Yes, up to 2 users | Limited automation and reporting |
| Freshsales | Yes, up to 3 users | Basic contact and deal management |
| Pipedrive, Close, monday CRM, Dynamics 365 | No | Free trials only |
Salesforce alternatives for small businesses
- One to three people: a free plan. Zoho CRM’s is the most generous.
- Three to ten people who mainly need a pipeline: Pipedrive Growth, Freshsales Pro or Zoho CRM Professional all cost under $40 a user.
- Five people or more who call, text and quote customers every day: price a complete system. The phone, texting and e-signature tools you add beside a CRM often cost more than the CRM.
What it really costs, like for like
A per-user price tells you very little, because the channels a sales team uses every day are usually sold separately. This table prices the same thing on every row: a team that calls and texts customers from the CRM, runs automations, and sends documents for signature.
Where a product does not include one of those, we added a typical tool for it:
- Phone and texting: $25 a user per month. Business phone services run from about $15 to $35 a user.
- E-signature: $30 a user per month for five people who send documents, about the price of DocuSign Standard.
Figures are monthly, on annual billing. Call minutes, texts, implementation and one-time fees are left out for every product.
| Product and plan | Added to match | 5 users | 15 users | 25 users | 40 users | 60 users | 100 users |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce Core | Phone and texting, e-signature | $1,250 | $3,450 | $5,650 | $8,950 | $13,350 | $22,150 |
| Salesforce Pro Suite | Phone and texting, e-signature | $775 | $2,025 | $3,275 | $5,150 | $7,650 | $12,650 |
| Close Growth | E-signature | $645 | $1,635 | $2,625 | $4,110 | $6,090 | $10,050 |
| Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise | Phone and texting, e-signature | $800 | $2,100 | $3,400 | $5,350 | $7,950 | $13,150 |
| Freshsales Pro | E-signature | $345 | $735 | $1,125 | $1,710 | $2,490 | $4,050 |
| HubSpot Sales Hub Professional | Marketing Hub Professional, SMS add-on | $1,325 | $2,225 | $3,125 | $4,475 | $6,275 | $9,875 |
| monday CRM Pro | Phone and texting, e-signature | $415 | $945 | $1,475 | $2,270 | $3,330 | $5,450 |
| Pipedrive Premium | Phone and texting | $420 | $1,260 | $2,100 | $3,360 | $5,040 | $8,400 |
| Zoho CRM Enterprise | Zoho Voice, Zoho Sign | $420 | $1,160 | $1,900 | $3,010 | $4,490 | $7,450 |
| BaseCloud CRM (ours) | Nothing | $583 | $1,083 | $2,499 | $2,499 | $2,499 | $2,499 |
What the table shows:
- Freshsales, monday CRM, Pipedrive and Zoho CRM cost less than Salesforce Pro Suite at every team size, and far less than Core.
- Freshsales and monday CRM are the cheapest for most team sizes. They also include the least: neither has WhatsApp, invoicing or a full phone system with IVR menus and ring groups.
- BaseCloud costs less than Salesforce Pro Suite at every size: about half at 15 users and about a fifth at 100. Against Core it is less than a third at 15 users.
- BaseCloud is not the cheapest option for teams under ten, or at around 25 users, where Pipedrive and Zoho cost less. Above 60 users it is the cheapest row in the table, because its top plan has no user limit.
Where BaseCloud CRM fits
BaseCloud is our product, so read this section as the vendor’s view.
BaseCloud CRM has one subscription with every feature on every plan, and no editions to upgrade through. That includes a built-in phone system with IVR menus and ring groups, call recording and AI summaries, business texting with US 10DLC registration handled for you, a WhatsApp shared inbox, Gmail and Microsoft 365 sync, quotes and invoices, e-signature, custom fields and custom tables, and a workflow builder with 15 triggers, 49 actions and JavaScript and Python code steps.
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Users | Cost per user on yearly billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundation | $699 | $6,990 | 5 | $117 |
| Growth | $1,299 | $12,990 | 15 | $72 |
| Dominate | $2,999 | $29,990 | Unlimited | $62 at 40 users, $25 at 100 |
Usage is billed separately at published rates: $0.14 a minute for calls, including recording and transcription, $0.02 a text and $10 a month per phone number. Onboarding is a one-time $1,500, waived on a two-year commitment.
Choose it over Salesforce if you have 5 to 100 or more users, nobody on the team wants to be a CRM administrator, and your salespeople work by phone, text and WhatsApp.
Choose something else if you need territory planning, a large partner ecosystem or industry-specific products, or you are one or two people.
Our direct BaseCloud vs Salesforce comparison goes feature by feature.
How to choose
- Be honest about administration. If nobody on your team will own configuration, avoid platforms that depend on it.
- Count the tools around the CRM. Phone system, texting, e-signature and invoicing each carry a contract. Add them to the license before you compare.
- List what you actually use in Salesforce. Most small teams use accounts, contacts, opportunities, tasks, email and a handful of reports. That list is your real requirement.
- Check your renewal date. Salesforce contracts are annual, so start evaluating at least three months before renewal.
- Run a real deal through the trial. From first call to signed quote, with the people who will use it every day.
Switching from Salesforce: a short checklist
- Export accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, activities and notes.
- List your custom objects and fields, and mark the ones people actually fill in.
- List every active flow, validation rule and approval process.
- Save your email templates and report definitions.
- Note every connected app, and who owns it.
- Run both systems side by side for at least two weeks before the renewal date.
Sources
Prices were checked on October 7, 2026 against these pages:
- Salesforce Sales pricing
- HubSpot pricing and HubSpot’s WhatsApp requirements
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales pricing
- monday CRM pricing
- Close pricing
- Freshsales pricing
- Zoho CRM edition comparison
Pipedrive, Zoho’s US dollar prices, Salesforce’s add-on prices, the implementation and salary estimates and the Freshsales free plan are taken from guides and salary surveys published in 2026. Check the vendor’s page before you buy.
Update log: first published October 7, 2026.
