Best Salesforce Alternatives 2026

Compare 14 top Salesforce alternatives across pricing, features, and use cases. 6 offer a free tier.

Updated:

14
Alternatives
6
Free Options
4.2
Avg Rating
$6
Lowest Price

The best Salesforce alternatives are Close, Pipedrive, Apollo.io, and 11 more. Each tool below covers core sales workflows with different strengths around pricing, features, and ease of use. Compare ratings, free tiers, and starting prices in the table to find the right fit for your team.

  • Top overall: Close - highest combined rating and review volume.
  • Best free pick: Apollo.io - free tier available.
  • Cheapest paid: Oracle HCM Cloud - starts at $13/month.
  • Strong runner-up: Pipedrive - comparable features at a different price point.
01

Top 3 Salesforce Alternatives

Our top picks based on features, pricing, and user reviews. These tools offer the best alternatives to Salesforce.

#1 Best Overall
Close
4.6 Rating
$19/mo Paid From
No Free Tier

Best for: Inside sales teams

View Review
#2 Strong Alternative
Pipedrive
4.4 Rating
$24/mo Paid From
No Free Tier

Best for: SMB sales teams (2-50 reps)

View Review
#3 Best Free Option
Apollo.io
4.3 Rating
$59/mo Paid From
Yes Free Tier

Best for: Budget-friendly all-in-one prospecting

View Review
02

Full Comparison

Side-by-side comparison of Salesforce vs all 14 alternatives.

Tool Rating Paid From Free Tier Best For
Salesforce Current
4.3
From $25 No Enterprise sales teams (200+ users)
Review Visit
#1 Close
4.6
From $19 No Inside sales teams
Review Visit
#2 Pipedrive
4.4
From $14 No SMB sales teams (2-50 reps)
Review Visit
#3 Apollo.io
4.3
From $59 ✓ Budget-friendly all-in-one prospecting
Review Visit
#4 Zoho CRM
4.2
From $20 ✓ Affordable, scalable CRM for SMBs
Review Visit
#5 Mailchimp
4.2
From $13 ✓ Small businesses needing simplicity
Review Visit
#6 Zendesk
4.1
From $19 No Enterprise omnichannel support teams
Review Visit
#7 Greenhouse
4.1
Contact sales No High-volume enterprise recruiting teams
Review Visit
#8 HubSpot
4.0
From $15 ✓ All-in-one CRM for growth teams
Review Visit
#9 Zoho One
4.1
From $37 No SMBs consolidating SaaS into one bill
Review Visit
#10 Customer.io
4.4
From $100 ✓ Marketing + dev teams at startups
Review Visit
#11 Revenue.io
4.4
Contact sales No Salesforce-native sales teams with CRM
Review Visit
#12 Proposify
4.2
From $29 No Sales teams closing deals with proposals
Review Visit
#13 Zoho Analytics
4.1
From $30 ✓ SMBs seeking affordable AI-powered BI
Review Visit
#14 Oracle HCM Cloud
3.9
Contact sales No Large global enterprises (1,000+ employees)
Review Visit
03

Detailed Reviews

In-depth look at each Salesforce alternative with pricing, features, and best use cases.

#1

Close

4.6 160,258 reviews

Customer Relationship Mastery

Contact for pricing

Consider Close for lower starting price, higher user ratings, specializes in inside sales teams.

Strengths
  • Calling and dialer included in every plan
  • AI notetaker and lead summaries out of the box
  • Built for speed - minimal setup required
Cons
  • No free tier available
  • Integration ecosystem is narrower than enterprise CRMs
Read Full Review Visit Website
#2

Pipedrive

4.4 20,792 reviews

The easy and effective CRM for closing deals

From $14/month

Consider Pipedrive for lower starting price, higher user ratings, specializes in smb sales teams (2-50 reps).

Strengths
  • Intuitive Visual Pipeline
  • Powerful AI Features (Premium+)
  • Excellent Mobile Experience
Cons
  • No Free Tier
  • Limited Marketing Features
Read Full Review Visit Website
#3

Apollo.io

4.3 11,726 reviews

Build pipeline smarter, close deals faster, and simplify your tech stack

Free tier available

Consider Apollo.io for free tier available, specializes in budget-friendly all-in-one prospecting.

Strengths
  • User-friendly interface and easy onboarding (9.0/10 ease of use)
  • Extensive contact database with 265M+ contacts including 212M outside US
  • New end-to-end GTM AI Assistant (beta) for plain-English multi-step workflows
Cons
  • Data accuracy can vary by industry and region - phone numbers especially
  • Customer support delays reported, especially for non-premium customers
Read Full Review Visit Website
#4

Zoho CRM

4.2 19,654 reviews

Teams that work together, win together

Free tier available

Consider Zoho CRM for free tier available, specializes in affordable, scalable crm for smbs.

Strengths
  • Unbeatable value proposition
  • Zia AI is genuinely intelligent
  • Blueprint automation is game-changing
Cons
  • UI feels dated compared to newer CRMs
  • Support response times vary
Read Full Review Visit Website
#5

Mailchimp

4.2 109,535 reviews

Turn emails and SMS into revenue

Free tier available

Consider Mailchimp for free tier available, specializes in small businesses needing simplicity.

Strengths
  • Best Onboarding Experience
  • AI Features That Actually Work
  • Genuinely Useful Free Tier
Cons
  • Pricing Scales Aggressively
  • Free Tier Lost Automation
Read Full Review Visit Website
#6

Zendesk

4.1 27,993 reviews

Champion customer experiences with Zendesk

From $19/month

Consider Zendesk for lower starting price, specializes in enterprise omnichannel support teams.

Strengths
  • Agentic AI Actually Delivers
  • Unmatched Integration Depth
  • Omnichannel Done Right
Cons
  • Pricing Is Prohibitively Complex
  • Steep Learning Curve
Read Full Review Visit Website
#7

Greenhouse

4.1 9,594 reviews

The only hiring platform you'll ever need

Contact for pricing

Consider Greenhouse for lower starting price, specializes in high-volume enterprise recruiting teams.

Strengths
  • User-friendly interface with excellent hiring team collaboration features
  • Seamless recruiter experience with easy-to-view scorecards for hiring decisions
  • Comprehensive integration ecosystem (500+ platforms) including LinkedIn and major job boards
Cons
  • Not intuitive UI for newcomers, requires significant training investment
  • High routine task overhead - lots of clicking required for common operations with many applicants
Read Full Review Visit Website
#8

HubSpot

4.0 35,709 reviews

Grow better with HubSpot

Free tier available

Consider HubSpot for free tier available, specializes in all-in-one crm for growth teams.

Strengths
  • Clean interface and strong contact management functionality
  • Easy integrations with Gmail, Outlook, and 500+ other tools
  • Powerful automation workflows and email sequences
Cons
  • Pricing can get expensive as you grow, especially with larger contact lists
  • Rigid pricing tiers with significant jumps between plans
Read Full Review Visit Website
#9

Zoho One

4.1 6,086 reviews

The operating system for business — 50+ apps, one license

From $37/month

Consider Zoho One for specializes in smbs consolidating saas into one bill.

Strengths
  • 50+ apps in one license
  • Significant cost savings
  • Unified Zia AI layer
Cons
  • All-or-nothing per-employee pricing
  • Depth varies by app
Read Full Review Visit Website
#10

Customer.io

4.4 847 reviews

Build better customer relationships with data-driven messaging

Free tier available

Consider Customer.io for free tier available, higher user ratings, specializes in marketing + dev teams at startups.

Strengths
  • Exceptional behavioral automation capabilities - can build flows requiring custom code in competitors
  • Intuitive onboarding and ease of setup (8.0 vs competitors' 7.5)
  • Real-time data processing and event-driven messaging
Cons
  • Essentials tier has slower support response times (email + community only)
  • Steep learning curve for non-technical marketers
Read Full Review Visit Website
#11

Revenue.io

4.4 651 reviews

Power every rep with the #1 Salesforce Dialer and AI agents

Contact for pricing

Consider Revenue.io for lower starting price, higher user ratings, specializes in salesforce-native sales teams with crm.

Strengths
  • Excellent Salesforce integration - seamless native integration with bidirectional sync and automatic activity logging
  • Advanced AI Sales Agents automate time-consuming tasks like call scoring, forecasting, and follow-up email writing
  • Powerful AI conversation intelligence with real-time coaching that provides live prompts during calls for objection handling
Cons
  • Dialer interface feels clunky - requires separate window that frequently requires re-login
  • Contact search lacks predictive auto-populate functionality unlike competitors (Salesloft, Outreach)
Read Full Review Visit Website
#12

Proposify

4.2 1,515 reviews

AI-enhanced proposal software that streamlines the sales document workflow

Contact for pricing

Consider Proposify for lower starting price, specializes in sales teams closing deals with proposals.

Strengths
  • Purpose-Built Proposal Workflow
  • Strong Proposal Analytics and Tracking
  • Professional Template System
Cons
  • No Free Plan Available
  • Basic Tier Send Limits Are Restrictive
Read Full Review Visit Website
#13

Zoho Analytics

4.1 1,128 reviews

AI-Powered Self-Service BI and Analytics Platform

Free tier available

Consider Zoho Analytics for free tier available, specializes in smbs seeking affordable ai-powered bi.

Strengths
  • Exceptional Affordability
  • 500+ Native Connectors
  • Ask Zia AI Assistant
Cons
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
  • Row Limits Can Be Restrictive
Read Full Review Visit Website
#14

Oracle HCM Cloud

3.9 965 reviews

Comprehensive cloud-based Human Capital Management platform ...

From $13/month

Consider Oracle HCM Cloud for lower starting price, specializes in large global enterprises (1,000+ employees).

Strengths
  • Comprehensive feature set covering core HR, talent management, payroll, and workforce management in one platform
  • Strong global capabilities with multi-currency, multi-language support and extensive localization (104 countries)
  • Excellent integration with other Oracle Cloud applications and third-party systems
Cons
  • Complex navigation and UI that can feel like 'a maze' - steep learning curve for new users
  • Employee self-service functionality is not intuitive, difficult for end-users to adopt
Read Full Review Visit Website
04

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best alternative to Salesforce?
Close is the best overall Salesforce alternative. It offers more affordable pricing compared to Salesforce, with strong ratings across the sales category. Other strong picks include Pipedrive and Apollo.io.
Is there anything better than Salesforce?
Yes - 14 credible Salesforce alternatives rank competitively in this comparison, led by Close and Pipedrive. Whether one is "better" depends on your priorities: pricing, specific features, or ease of use.
What is the best free alternative to Salesforce?
Apollo.io is the highest-ranked free Salesforce alternative on this list. 6 alternatives offer free tiers, so you can test core sales workflows before committing to a paid plan.
What is the cheapest alternative to Salesforce?
Oracle HCM Cloud is the cheapest paid Salesforce alternative at $6/month. If a free option works, Apollo.io costs nothing on its starter tier.
What are people using instead of Salesforce?
Close, Pipedrive, and the other 14 tools listed above are the most common Salesforce replacements. Common reasons cited by users include expensive for real value, pricing (starts at $25/month), and feature gaps that competing tools have closed.
How does Salesforce compare to Close?
Salesforce and Close are both sales tools targeting overlapping use cases. Salesforce is best for Enterprise sales teams (200+ users), while Close is best for Inside sales teams. See the detailed comparison table above for feature-by-feature differences.
Can I migrate my data from Salesforce to another tool?
Most Salesforce alternatives support data import via CSV, API, or dedicated migration tools. Migration effort varies by destination: check each tool's import documentation before committing to a switch.
Which Salesforce alternative is best for small businesses?
Apollo.io is the most small-business-friendly Salesforce alternative on this list, with a free tier and pricing that scales without enterprise complexity.
What CRM is better than Salesforce?
Close is the most commonly chosen Salesforce alternative. Whether it is "better" depends on your priorities - check the comparison table above for ratings, pricing, and feature trade-offs across all 14 options.
05

Related Comparisons

Head-to-head comparisons of Salesforce with the top alternatives above.

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