Pipedrive vs. Salesforce: Which CRM Is Right for Your Business?

Pipedrive vs. Salesforce Compared

Who Do We Recommend Pipedrive For?

Pipedrive is our choice for businesses that need a cost-effective, sales-focused CRM. With five plans to choose from, you’re sure to find the features and functionality you need at the right price to manage customer relationships and improve sales. We love that you can create unlimited visual sales pipelines and get excellent standard features to understand every deal and optimize the entire sales process. 

However, while we appreciate Pipedrive’s sales tools, scalable plans and cost-effective add-ons, businesses that need a comprehensive CRM solution with features geared toward multiple departments will find Pipedrive’s platform limited.

Pipedrive empowers your sales team with the following features:

• Pipedrive’s visual sales pipeline will help you see the status of every deal.
• Pipedrive provides excellent sales features across all five service plans.
• The platform offers email tools and add-ons to help reach customers effectively.

Pipedrive’s visual pipeline helps you easily manage deals as they progress. Source: Pipedrive

Who Do We Recommend Salesforce For?

Salesforce is ideal for businesses of varying sizes that need a comprehensive, versatile CRM platform. This popular CRM vendor has a vast ecosystem of offerings; we’re focusing on its Sales Cloud CRM packages, which are popular small business solutions. 

While the entry-level Starter plan is an excellent, all-in-one solution for small businesses, Salesforce’s premium plans provide extensive, customizable CRM features geared toward sales, marketing, service and IT departments. These tiers are excellent options for established businesses with complex needs. Salesforce’s advanced automations and generative AI tools will help companies with big budgets collaborate across departments to drive sales efficiently.

Salesforce is a powerful, all-in-one solution because of the following features:

• Salesforce offers more plans and features than competitors do.
• Salesforce’s powerful generative AI tools stand out in the industry.
• Salesforce’s CRM provides excellent contact management features.

Salesforce’s easy-to-use dashboard includes visual reports and Einstein AI insights. Source: Salesforce

Pipedrive vs. Salesforce Comparison

Price and Plans

Pipedrive

• Pipedrive offers five reasonably priced service plans. 
• Unlimited seats, contacts and sales pipelines are standard in all tiers.
• Many Pipedrive features are available across plans but have limitations.

Pipedrive has five reasonably priced plans that include essential tools to boost sales. Most plans include Pipedrive’s best features, although some are limited. We love that the slight price difference between plans means you can scale with Pipedrive as your business grows. Plus, you can save up to 32 percent when paying annually.

We like that all plans have unlimited seats, contacts and sales pipelines and that you can try any plan with a 14-day free trial. We also appreciate that Pipedrive offers cost-effective add-ons, like Lead Booster and Campaigns, to expand your CRM capabilities affordably. However, we would have preferred to see less-restrictive automation limits. 

Salesforce

• Four primary Sales Cloud CRM plans aim to meet the needs of various businesses.
• The Starter plan includes essential features and has a 10-seat limit.
• The most valuable features require an expensive premium plan.
• All plans require an annual contract.

Salesforce offers four plans in its Sales Cloud CRM packages. In general, we found Salesforce to be on the expensive side. We appreciate the 30-day free trial for all plans but were disappointed that most features that make the platform so potent require a premium plan or add-ons.

The entry-level plan includes essential sales features such as lead management tools. However, the 10-seat limit means you must upgrade to a significantly more expensive plan as your business grows. The expansive tools in Salesforce’s premium plans are excellent for large businesses and enterprises. Still, the limited features and relatively high costs of lower-tier plans, as well as the required annual commitment, could be barriers for many small businesses.  

Artificial Intelligence

Pipedrive

We love that Pipedrive’s Sales Assistant, powered by AI and preprogrammed algorithms, is available with all plans. Using your sales data, the Sales Assistant can do the following: 

• Provide insights and advice to optimize your workflows and drive sales
• Tell you which CRM metrics you should track
• Determine which leads to engage 
• Advise on which activities to prioritize
• Send timely notifications and visual performance graphs

However, while the Sales Assistant can help your employees convert leads more efficiently, we would have liked to see Pipedrive’s AI functions extend to communications.

Salesforce

Salesforce offers multiple AI-powered tools, but Einstein GPT and Einstein Conversation Insights stand out.

• Einstein GPT: Einstein GPT can respond to customers via email or chat and summarize communications between contacts and your team. It can study your sales and customers to provide recommendations, like telling you the right time to reach out to close the deal. It can also study your teams and offer tips and automation suggestions to improve efficiency.
• Einstein Conversation Insights: Einstein Conversation Insights can record and analyze customer interactions and provide key insights in a searchable and shareable transcript. It can also track your business mentions across the internet and create visual trend reports so you can see where and how people are talking about your business.

Salesforce’s AI capabilities are state-of-the-art. However, we were disappointed that most functions are restricted to premium plans. In fact, the only standard feature is Einstein Activity Capture, which syncs data from your email and calendar accounts.

Sales Features

Pipedrive

Lead generation is a breeze thanks to Pipedrive’s visual pipeline and robust sales features. We like that all plans include most tools but with varying limits, so you get access to everything you need but only pay for the functionality that’s appropriate for your business size. 

• Visual sales pipeline: You get unlimited customizable pipelines, templates and helpful visual reports with all plans. We love the color-coded Kanban pipeline that shows the status of every deal at a glance.
• Deal rotting: The deal rotting feature, which highlights inactive deals in red so your team can take action, is especially useful. 
• Filters: Filters make the platform even better for managing deals and monitoring employees. 
• Add-ons: We appreciate that you can take your sales capabilities even further with cost-effective premium plans and add-ons such as Lead Booster. However, we were disappointed with the automation limits in all plans.

Salesforce

Salesforce combines the tools and information your sales team needs to manage leads, collaborate with other departments and close the deal.

• Basic sales features: We appreciate that all plans include basic features to capture leads, route them to the right reps and manage their journey down tailored sales pipelines.
• Customizable dashboards: Customizable CRM dashboards and performance reports come standard in all plans.
• Premium sales features: Premium plans have many more excellent sales features — like AI-powered lead scoring, sophisticated insights and advanced pipeline management tools — but most small businesses will be priced out of these benefits. 

We were disappointed that Salesforce’s most powerful features are available only with premium plans. We think all users would benefit from Salesforce’s accurate sales forecasting tools and time-saving workflow automations.  

Salesforce provides visual reports and helpful filters that let you stay on top of deals and monitor employees. Source: Salesforce

Winner: Tie

The best CRM for sales features depends on your business’s size and characteristics. Small and midsize businesses will find a better value in Pipedrive’s easy-to-use platform and the second-tier plan’s essential features and automations. However, large businesses with complex sales cycles and processes will likely be constrained by Pipedrive’s limitations, thus making Salesforce’s premium plans a better choice.  

Contact Management

Pipedrive

Pipedrive provides contact management and email marketing tools, including the following: 

• Unlimited contact database: From the unlimited contact database, your reps can see customer information and interaction history with a click.
• Centralized lead inbox: You get a centralized lead inbox for uniform communications and a tool to filter contacts by location. 
• Email features: We appreciate that all plans include two-way email syncing with over 25 email providers, customizable templates, email open-and-click tracking, mass emails, automations and email scheduling.
• Contacts Timeline: We especially like the Contacts Timeline, which shows a contact’s activities and interactions at a glance. However, this feature becomes available only with the Professional plan.

We were disappointed that some of the best features to reach customers and nurture leads aren’t available in Pipedrive’s Essentials plan. Still, you can augment your contact management with these value-priced add-ons: 

• Smart Docs: Smart Docs helps create, send and track important documents. 
• Campaigns: The Campaigns tool expands email functions and organizes marketing efforts. 

Salesforce

Salesforce has everything you need to manage contacts successfully.

• Contact management tools: Excellent contact management tools come with all plans. For example, you can get communication history at a glance, receive alerts, and reach out by email, chat or phone right from the customizable central platform. 
• Email tools: We love that essential email tools — like mass email, templates, email engagement tracking and campaign management — are included in all plans.
• Activity feed: The activity feed is a standout feature. It keeps you updated on customer interactions and alerts you when consumers want to engage.
• Customizable cadences: We found the customizable cadences feature especially useful. Cadences allow your team to follow a set path when communicating with leads. 
• Premium features: While most features come standard, upgrading to a premium plan enhances your contact management with AI-powered insights, recommendations, and communication transcripts and summaries. 

Salesforce’s cadences allow you to create custom paths for communicating with contacts. Source: Salesforce

Ease of Use

Pipedrive

Pipedrive’s simple visual interface and straightforward, sales-focused features make it a highly user-friendly platform.

• Visual features: Thanks to the handy templates and drag-and-drop menus, your sales pipelines will be up and running in no time. 
• Mobile CRM app: We appreciate that the mobile CRM app lets you work from anywhere. 
• Integrations: You can integrate with over 400 external apps so your teams can keep using the tools they love. 
• Online resources: Some advanced functions and add-ons are complex, but Pipedrive offers articles, training videos and other online resources to help you navigate the platform. 

Salesforce

Salesforce offers a more extensive list of features than most competitors, and you can complete almost any task right from the platform. The learning curve for such a complex solution can be steep, but we think that once you get the hang of things, Salesforce is easier than it seems.

• Tools and integrations: Salesforce has tools for almost every business area and allows thousands of must-have CRM integrations, so you’re guaranteed to have the functionality you need to succeed. 
• Mobile app: Salesforce’s excellent mobile app lets you connect from anywhere.
• Einstein AI: We especially love the time-saving benefits of Einstein AI, including automations and content generation.

Still, we were disappointed that many helpful features, like integrations and AI, don’t come standard across all plans. 

Customer Service

Pipedrive

• Online resources: We like that Pipedrive provides extensive online resources, including its Knowledge Base articles; Pipedrive Academy tutorials, courses and webinars; and Pipedrive Community forum. Anyone can learn how to use the platform and solve problems on their own.
• Live support: We were disappointed with Pipedrive’s live support. Most users only have access to 24/7 chat. 
• Phone support: For phone support, you must subscribe to a premium plan.

Salesforce

Salesforce offers three support tiers: 

• Standard Success: Standard Success is free with all plans and includes online learning tools, a help portal, community forums and online technical support through case submission. 
• Premier Success: Premier Success is included free with Unlimited Plans or for 30 percent of your license fees. It has all the features of Standard Success, plus 24/7 phone support, developer support, coaching and onboarding. 
• Signature Success: Signature Success includes expanded service, but you must speak to a sales rep for pricing.

We appreciate Salesforce’s online self-help resources and the ability to get a callback when you require additional support. Still, the wait time could be costly. We would have liked to see phone support included with all plans.

Pipedrive vs. Salesforce Recap

Choose Pipedrive if …

• You want a cost-effective CRM plan without sacrificing functionality.
• You need a visual interface to get information quickly.
• You’re looking for an easy-to-use, sales-focused CRM solution.

Choose Salesforce if …

• You want state-of-the-art generative AI tools.
• You need to integrate your CRM with the solutions you already use.
• You’re looking for a customizable platform with advanced features.