Alternatives
Salesforce alternatives for B2B SaaS sales teams
For most B2B SaaS sales teams leaving Salesforce for a smaller stack, Close is the first alternative to shortlist. Its Essentials plan is listed at $35 per user per month billed annually ($49 billed monthly) and includes unlimited contacts and leads, calling, email, SMS and a centralized inbox in one plan, so a team of ten does not have to assemble a CRM, dialer and sequencer from separate purchases.
This guide is written for B2B SaaS companies whose revenue team works across account executives, sales development, customer success and renewals, and who are looking at Salesforce Sales Cloud or the wider Salesforce suite and wondering whether a lighter tool would do the job. It covers the tools that usually reach a shortlist, what each one lists at team sizes you can check, where each one falls short, how to choose between them, and how to move data without losing the automation and reporting that run your pipeline.
Prices on this page are list prices as shown on each vendor’s pricing page on 7 October 2026. They exclude taxes, usage charges, onboarding fees, implementation work and add-ons unless a row says otherwise. Where a vendor does not publish a price we could read, the page says “pricing on request”. Confirm current figures on the linked pricing page before you sign anything.
What you are actually replacing
Salesforce is not one product. It is a family of clouds and editions: Sales Cloud for pipeline and forecasting, Service Cloud for support cases, Marketing Cloud for campaigns and journeys, and a platform layer for custom objects, flows and reports. Many teams that say they want to leave Salesforce really want to leave one part of it, usually the part that has grown too heavy for the people who use it every day.
Before you compare vendors, write down the Salesforce capabilities your team really uses. Five questions usually settle most of the decision:
- Which objects do you rely on? Accounts, contacts, opportunities and activities are standard. Custom objects for subscriptions, renewals, usage or partner records are where migrations get expensive.
- Which automations run without a person touching them? Lead routing, stage-based tasks, approval steps and renewal reminders are the ones that break silently when a tool changes.
- Who administers the system? If one operations person maintains everything, a simpler tool may suit you. If you have a dedicated admin team building flows, the breadth of Salesforce may still be justified.
- Which other systems must connect? Billing, product analytics, marketing forms, support desks and Slack are the common ones for B2B SaaS.
- What reporting does leadership depend on? Forecast categories, stage-conversion reports and cohort views are often the hardest to rebuild.
A migration plan should preserve data relationships, permissions, automation and reporting definitions, not only contact records. A list of 40,000 contacts with no opportunity history, no owner rules and no forecast logic is not a working CRM.
Comparison at a glance
The table below shows the tools most often considered as Salesforce alternatives for B2B SaaS sales work. Starting prices are the lowest paid plan that suits a sales team, with the plan and billing view stated.
| Tool | Best for | Starting price (plan, billing) | Key limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | Small and mid-sized sales teams that call, text and email prospects from the CRM | Essentials: $35 per user per month, billed annually ($49 billed monthly) | No ongoing free plan (14-day trial). Calling and SMS usage is passed through at cost, so heavy dialing needs a usage estimate |
| HubSpot Sales Hub | Teams that want sales tools next to HubSpot marketing or service products and a free start for small groups | Free for up to 2 users; Starter: $7 per seat per month; Professional: $90 per seat per month | Professional and Enterprise carry a required one-time onboarding fee, and seat costs add up quickly |
| Pipedrive | Pipeline-first sales teams with clear stages and a need for email sync and sequences | Lite: $14 per seat per month, billed annually | Email sync with tracking and nurturing sequences are listed from the Growth plan, not Lite |
| Salesforce | Organizations with complex approvals, custom objects and a dedicated admin team | Starter Suite: $25 per user per month; Sales Cloud Core: $195 per user per month, billed annually | Costs rise steeply by edition, and the administrative load grows with the configuration |
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 | Companies standardized on Microsoft 365, Teams and Dynamics ERP | Pricing on request | Licensing combinations and implementation scope make the final cost depend on the quote |
| Zoho CRM | Teams that want a wide module set from one vendor and are willing to configure it themselves | Pricing on request | Many modules and editions to configure, so the feature list on the pricing page needs a careful read |
Close: the strongest single-tool option for calling and email
Close is built around the daily work of an outbound or inbound sales team: calling, texting, emailing and logging activity without switching windows. For a B2B SaaS team with a small number of account executives and sales development reps, that single-surface design is the main reason to shortlist it. The Essentials plan lists unlimited contacts and leads, team collaboration, built-in forms, email, calling and SMS, and a centralized inbox and task list. Growth adds automated workflows, a power dialer, custom activities and bulk email. Scale adds role-based access and permissions, lead visibility rules, a predictive dialer, unlimited call recording retention and live call coaching.
Close is priced per user, so the bill moves with headcount. Monthly list prices are Solo at $19, Essentials at $49, Growth at $109 and Scale at $149 per user; annual billing lowers these to $9, $35, $99 and $139 per user per month. The Solo plan is aimed at a single operator and is not a substitute for a shared team workspace.
Where it falls short: there is no ongoing free plan. The pricing page lists a 14-day free trial that needs no credit card, and then paid plans. Calling and SMS usage is passed through at cost, so a team that dials heavily should estimate minutes and texts per rep before choosing a plan. Each plan also lists a set number of AI credits per user per month, which you should check against how your reps will use them.
For B2B SaaS, Close suits a team where the sales motion is mostly human-led outreach to trial users, expansion accounts and inbound demo requests. It is less natural if your main work is data-heavy account mapping across many objects, or if your forecasting depends on a complex multi-stage structure that needs a platform-level admin. Pricing details: close.com/pricing.
HubSpot Sales Hub and Service Hub
HubSpot is attractive when the sales team sits next to marketing and customer support and the company wants one vendor across the funnel. Sales Hub has a free tier for up to 2 users with no credit card needed. Starter is listed at $7 per seat per month and includes entry-level sales tools with 500 HubSpot Credits. Professional is listed at $90 per seat per month and adds forecasting, conversation intelligence and sequences, up to 300 customizable workflows and 3,000 HubSpot Credits. Enterprise is listed at $150 per seat per month and adds deal splits, deal journey analytics, Lead Form Routing, pipeline approvals for deals, a standard sandbox and up to 1,000 workflows that can trigger sequences.
Service Hub is relevant if your customer success or support team needs a help desk, knowledge base and customer portal next to the sales data. Its free tier covers up to 2 users. Professional is listed at $100 per seat per month billed monthly, or $90 billed annually, and includes the help desk, customer success workspace, knowledge base, customer portal and customer feedback surveys. Enterprise is listed at $150 per seat per month billed annually and adds conditional SLAs, customer journey analytics and skill-based routing. Both paid Service Hub tiers carry the required one-time onboarding fee noted on the pricing page.
Where it falls short: the per-seat model means the bill rises with every person who needs access, including people who only view deals. Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise also carry a required one-time onboarding fee, so add it to the first-year total. Pricing details: hubspot.com/pricing/sales and hubspot.com/pricing/service.
Pipedrive: pipeline first
Pipedrive is organized around the deal pipeline. Teams that think in stages, want a visual board and need a clear view of what moves each week tend to adapt to it quickly. Lite is listed at $14 per seat per month billed annually and includes lead, calendar and pipeline management, AI-powered report creation and more than 500 integrations. Growth is listed at $39 per seat per month billed annually and adds full email sync with tracking, automations and nurturing sequences, subscriptions and forecast reports. Premium is listed at $59 per seat per month billed annually and adds lead generation and routing, custom scoring, contracts and e-signatures. Ultimate is listed at $79 per seat per month billed annually and adds account security rules and alerts, a sandbox testing account and extended phone support.
Where it falls short: the pricing page lists a 14-day free trial with no credit card and no ongoing free plan. Email sync with tracking and sequences are not in the Lite plan, so a team that wants them should price Growth from the start. Pricing is listed per seat and billed annually, so a team that wants to pay month to month should read the pricing page for current terms. Pipedrive is strong for standard pipeline work; teams with many custom objects and deep approval chains may find it more limiting than Salesforce. Pricing details: pipedrive.com/en/pricing.
Salesforce: staying, or using it for a narrower job
Salesforce is still the right answer for some B2B SaaS companies. It is the strongest option if you need custom objects with complex relationships, detailed approval processes, a large partner ecosystem or a platform that the admin team can extend. The price list is broad. The Starter Suite is listed at $25 per user per month and spans sales, service, marketing and commerce. Pro Suite is listed at $100 per user per month billed annually and adds more automation and customization. Sales Cloud Core is listed at $195 per user per month billed annually and includes built-in AI, advanced pipeline management and forecasting, opportunity scoring and APIs. Advanced is listed at $395 and Max at $550 per user per month billed annually, with the full AI suite and Agentforce for Sales in the higher tier.
The pricing page also lists a Free Suite column at $0 per user per month, and Sales Cloud editions carry a free 30-day trial. Read the feature list in that column before you rely on it for a sales team, because the free tier is not the same as the paid editions. The main limitation of Salesforce is not only the license. It is the administrative effort: each new edition, add-on and custom flow adds maintenance that someone must own. Many teams that leave Salesforce cite that workload rather than a missing feature.
A middle path some B2B SaaS companies choose is to keep Salesforce for finance-linked or enterprise accounts and move the high-volume SMB or self-serve pipeline to a lighter CRM. That split adds integration work, so it only makes sense if the two data sets have clear ownership rules. Pricing details: salesforce.com/sales/pricing.
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Dynamics 365 suits companies that already run Microsoft 365, Teams, Power Platform and Dynamics ERP. Its strength is the connection to that stack: documents, calendars, approvals and finance data can sit inside the same identity and administration model. For a B2B SaaS team that already uses those products, the integration argument can outweigh the feature comparison.
Pricing on request. Final cost depends on the modules, user types, licensing combinations and implementation scope, and implementation is often delivered with a partner. Ask for a line-by-line quote that names each module and user type, and ask how the quote changes if you add or remove a module after go-live. Product details: microsoft.com/dynamics-365.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM covers a wide set of modules from one vendor, which makes it attractive to teams that want sales, marketing and support features under one login and are prepared to configure them. Its strength is breadth. Its limitation is the same as any broad platform: the feature list covers many editions, so you need to map each feature you rely on to a specific edition before comparing it with a narrower tool. Pricing on request. Product details: zoho.com/crm.
What it costs at realistic team sizes
Per-seat list prices are easier to compare when you multiply them by a realistic headcount. The table uses three team sizes: 5 seats (a small founding sales team), 15 seats (a growing SaaS team with account executives and sales development reps) and 40 seats (a mid-sized revenue organization). Each cell is the monthly total at list price, calculated as price per seat × seats. For annual billing, multiply the monthly total by 12. For example, Close Essentials at 15 seats on annual billing is $35 × 15 = $525 a month, or $525 × 12 = $6,300 a year. On month-to-month billing the same 15 seats are $49 × 15 = $735 a month.
| Plan (billing) | Price per seat per month | 5 seats (monthly total) | 15 seats (monthly total) | 40 seats (monthly total) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close Essentials (billed annually) | $35 | $175 | $525 | $1,400 |
| Close Essentials (billed monthly) | $49 | $245 | $735 | $1,960 |
| Close Growth (billed annually) | $99 | $495 | $1,485 | $3,960 |
| Pipedrive Growth (billed annually) | $39 | $195 | $585 | $1,560 |
| Pipedrive Premium (billed annually) | $59 | $295 | $885 | $2,360 |
| HubSpot Sales Hub Professional (monthly) | $90 | $450 | $1,350 | $3,600 |
| Salesforce Pro Suite (billed annually) | $100 | $500 | $1,500 | $4,000 |
| Salesforce Sales Cloud Core (billed annually) | $195 | $975 | $2,925 | $7,800 |
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 | Pricing on request | Pricing on request | Pricing on request | Pricing on request |
| Zoho CRM | Pricing on request | Pricing on request | Pricing on request | Pricing on request |
Three things the table does not show. First, usage charges: Close passes calling and SMS usage through at cost, so a heavy dialing team pays more than the seat total. Second, one-time fees: HubSpot Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise carry a required onboarding fee. Third, add-ons: Salesforce editions and modules are often combined, and the monthly total for a real configuration can exceed the edition price. Treat the table as a floor for comparing tools, not a budget.
The Salesforce Starter Suite, listed at $25 per user per month, is a suite across sales, service, marketing and commerce, not a sales-only plan. At 15 seats it would be $25 × 15 = $375 a month, but it is a different product from the Sales Cloud editions in the table and should be compared on the modules you need, not on the price alone.
Decision table: which tool fits which need
Use the table below to narrow the shortlist. Each row names a common requirement for a B2B SaaS sales team, the tool that fits it best in this comparison and the reason.
| If you need | Pick | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Calling, email and SMS in one CRM for a small team | Close Essentials | Unlimited contacts and leads with calling, email, SMS and a shared inbox in one plan |
| Power dialing with automated workflows | Close Growth, or Scale for predictive dialing | Growth adds a power dialer and workflows; Scale adds a predictive dialer and live call coaching |
| A simple, visual pipeline with email sync and sequences | Pipedrive Growth | Email sync with tracking, automations and nurturing sequences are listed from Growth |
| Sales, service and marketing tools under one vendor, with a free start | HubSpot Sales Hub, plus Service Hub if support is in scope | Free tiers for up to 2 users; Professional adds forecasting, conversation intelligence and sequences |
| Custom objects, complex approvals and a dedicated admin team | Salesforce Sales Cloud Core or higher | Advanced pipeline management, forecasting, opportunity scoring and APIs are part of the edition |
| Deep integration with Microsoft 365 and Dynamics ERP | Microsoft Dynamics 365 | The shared identity and administration model is the main reason to choose it; get a module-specific quote |
| A broad module set from one vendor and in-house configuration | Zoho CRM | Many modules are available from one vendor; you will need to map features to editions |
How to choose for a B2B SaaS team
Start with the workflow that breaks most often, not the feature list. For most SaaS companies that is the handoff between a trial, a paid conversion and an expansion or renewal. A trial user who signs up, a product-qualified lead who is routed to an account executive and a renewal that needs a reminder ninety days before the contract ends all depend on automation rules that the new tool must replicate.
Next, decide where product and billing data should live. If your product sends usage events or your billing system holds subscription status, check how each candidate receives that data: through its API, a native integration or a middleware tool. Salesforce Sales Cloud Core includes APIs in its edition, and Pipedrive lists more than 500 integrations. Close and HubSpot connect to many common tools as well; check the specific connector you need on the vendor’s integration page before you assume it exists.
Then count the people who will need access, and separate editors from viewers. Per-seat pricing becomes expensive when every executive needs a full seat just to read a dashboard. If that describes your team, check whether the vendor offers a cheaper view-only access level, and price the mix of seats rather than one number.
Finally, decide who owns the system after launch. A tool with a simple configuration can be owned by one operations person. A platform with custom objects, flows and permission sets needs a named owner, a change process and time for maintenance. Choosing the simpler tool is often the right call even when the richer one is capable, because the richer one will only deliver its value if someone maintains it.
Migrating off Salesforce: a practical sequence
A migration from Salesforce to a lighter CRM works best as a staged project. Teams that try to switch everything in one weekend usually lose history, duplicate contacts and break a forecast that leadership relies on. The steps below are a sequence that works for most B2B SaaS sales teams.
- Inventory the system. List every object, report, dashboard, flow, approval, integration and permission set. Mark which ones are used weekly and which ones nobody has opened in a year. Retiring unused automation is one of the biggest savings a migration can produce.
- Pick a pilot slice. Move one team or one region for two to four weeks. Choose a group with clear pipeline stages and a manager who will report problems quickly.
- Map fields and stages. Build a spreadsheet that maps each Salesforce field and stage to the new tool. Decide which custom fields become native fields, which become tags and which are dropped.
- Clean the data first. Merge duplicate accounts and contacts, fix owner assignments and close out stale opportunities. Moving bad data into a new tool produces bad reports there too.
- Import in layers. Import accounts and contacts, then opportunities linked to them, then activity history. Check parent-child relationships after each layer, not only at the end.
- Rebuild automation and test it. Recreate assignment rules, sequences and approvals one at a time, with a test account for each permission level.
- Run both systems in parallel. For one reporting cycle, compare forecast totals and stage counts from both systems. Differences usually come from stage definitions or currency rules, and they are easier to fix before cutover.
- Cut over and freeze. Set a date after which new work happens only in the new tool. Keep the old system in read-only mode.
- Archive before cancelling. Export the full history from Salesforce, store it in a location your finance and legal teams approve, and confirm your contract end date and data export rights before you stop paying for the old system.
Migration checklist
| Area | What to move | Check before cutover |
|---|---|---|
| Data model | Accounts, contacts, opportunities, custom fields and their relationships | Duplicates merged; parent-child links intact on a sample of at least 50 accounts |
| Activity history | Emails, calls, meetings, notes and tasks | Decide which history imports and which stays in an archive; confirm timestamps and owners |
| Pipeline | Stages, probabilities and forecast categories | Stage definitions match the sales playbook; forecast totals agree across two closed weeks |
| Automation | Assignment rules, sequences, approvals and reminders | Each rule tested with a test record and a test user; failures alert someone |
| Integrations | Billing, product usage, marketing forms, support desk and Slack | Each connection tested end to end; error notifications go to a named owner |
| Permissions | Roles, territories, field access and report visibility | Least-privilege test accounts can see only the records they should |
| Reporting | Dashboards, forecast views and exports used by leadership | Side-by-side comparison for one full quarter agrees within an agreed tolerance |
Common mistakes to avoid
Teams that have moved off Salesforce tend to repeat the same few errors. The first is copying every field. Most custom fields were added for a report that nobody uses any more, and moving them makes the new system as cluttered as the old one. The second is ignoring permissions. A new tool with open access can expose pricing, compensation or renewal data to people who should not see it, and that problem often surfaces only after launch. The third is setting the cutover date before the forecast has been compared. Leadership will judge the migration by whether the forecast still looks right, so that comparison should happen before anyone switches off the old system.
The fourth mistake is treating the migration as an IT project rather than a revenue project. Account executives and managers should own the stage definitions, the handoff rules and the test cases. The people who will use the tool every day know which automations matter, and they will catch problems that an administrator working alone will miss.
Related reading: choosing a B2B CRM, data integration tools, and alternatives hub.
Frequently asked questions
Is Close cheaper than Salesforce for a 15-person B2B SaaS sales team?
At list prices on annual billing, 15 seats come to $525 a month on Close Essentials, $1,500 a month on Salesforce Pro Suite and $2,925 a month on Sales Cloud Core. The plans include different features, so compare the modules your team uses, and remember that Close passes calling and SMS usage through at cost.
Does Salesforce have a free option for a small sales team?
The Salesforce pricing page lists a Free Suite column at $0 per user per month, and Sales Cloud editions include a free 30-day trial. Read what the free column includes before relying on it for a sales team, because it is not the same as the paid Sales Cloud editions.
Does HubSpot’s free tier cover a team of five?
The free Sales Hub and Service Hub tiers cover up to 2 users, so a team of five needs paid seats for the other users. Sales Hub Professional is listed at $90 per seat per month, so five seats on that plan come to $450 a month before any onboarding fee.
Which tool is best for power dialing?
Close Growth includes a power dialer, and Close Scale adds a predictive dialer and live call coaching. Both are priced per user, and calling usage is passed through at cost, so estimate minutes per rep before you choose a plan. Pipedrive and HubSpot can connect to calling tools, but check the specific integration you need.
Do I need an implementation partner to move off Salesforce?
It depends on the size of your configuration. A simple pipeline with standard objects and a handful of automations can often be rebuilt in-house. Large Salesforce builds with custom objects, complex approvals and many integrations often benefit from a partner, and Dynamics 365 deployments frequently involve one. Ask each vendor what onboarding is included and what is billed separately.
Are the prices on this page final?
No. They are list prices as shown on each vendor’s pricing page on 7 October 2026. They exclude taxes, usage charges, one-time onboarding fees, implementation work and add-ons. Check the linked pricing page for current terms before you sign a contract, and ask for a written quote that names every module and user type you need.