Salesforce has a sleek, modern interface; Microsoft is tried, true and classic. Both come with a fair share of features and use cases, the choice between Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 will most likely come down to the specific use case your business may have.
Both offer comprehensive features designed to tackle any problem. Salesforce may be better for smaller and younger businesses but, for those business operators looking for a product to grow with their business, Microsoft Dynamics 365 may be the better choice.
Salesforce
4.2
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Starting price
$25
per user, per month
Lead management
Yes
Popular Integrations
Monday.com, Slack, Quickbooks
On Salesforce's Website
$25
per user, per month
Yes
Monday.com, Slack, Quickbooks
Why We Picked It
During the past decade, Salesforce has developed into an industry-leading CRM platform catering to several different sales automation needs across a wide range of industries. Generally, it will more likely be best suited for larger or scalable, previously established businesses requiring a highly customizable solution. With thousands of industry-leading integrations, 24/7 support, sales insights, lead scoring and management and advanced, extensive reporting, Salesforce is a great choice for businesses ready to seriously level up a sales team.
Pros & Cons
- Extensive customization options
- Integrates with thousands of other platforms
- Generates powerful and comprehensive reports
- Less affordable than other options
- Much more complicated for new users and old users alike
- Can be time-consuming to maintain
Pricing
Salesforce offers four distinct plans: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited. Salesforce also offers a long list of add-ons at a variety of price points as well as services to allow businesses to build their own custom apps within the Salesforce system.
The lowest priced Essentials plan, at $25 per month, per user, offers everything you need to manage the entire sales cycle from tracking leads and opportunities to managing accounts and contracts all in one place. The Essentials plan provides full case management—from creating the initial tickets to routing work to specific agents and empowering agents with all the information they need.
The Professional plan, at $75 per month, per user, adds pipeline and forecast management, registers and tracks new leads and scores leads according to user-defined rules. It also adds tracking and management of warranties, subscriptions and service contracts.
The Enterprise plan, at $150 per month, per user, adds full application programming interface (API) and automation control so that companies can automate workflow and approval systems and connect external systems to Salesforce using the API.
The Unlimited Plan, at $300 per month, per user, adds a suite of AI features offering sales insights and lead scoring as well as a centralized selling hub with strategic automation to connect all salespeople to the data needed to close. The Unlimited plan adds 24/7 support to get your business up and running quickly and solve problems anytime.
- Essentials:$25 per user, per month, billed annually, the Essentials plan offers account, contact, lead and opportunity management and integrates seamlessly with Gmail or Outlook
- Professional:$75 per user, per month, billed annually, the Professional plan offers the same as above but adds pipeline and forecast management
- Enterprise:$150 per user, per month, billed annually, the Enterprise plan offers the same as above but adds workflow and approval automation
- Unlimited:$300 per user, per month, billed annually, the Unlimited plan offers the same as above but also includes sales engagement, sales insight and 24/7 support
Microsoft Dynamics 365
4.3
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Starting price
$50 per month for Customer Service, $65 per month for Sales
Lead Management
Yes
Popular Integrations
OneDrive, Office365, Workato
Via partner site
$50 per month for Customer Service, $65 per month for Sales
Yes
OneDrive, Office365, Workato
Why We Picked It
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 product suite contains a comprehensive set of tools built to perform practically every aspect of business management. Based on Microsoft Azure, a cloud-computing ecosystem―although an on-premise solution is also available, if preferred―Dynamics 365 features 11 core “modules,” which cover everything from sales, customer service, automation and marketing to talent management, finance and operation, retail and AI. What sets Microsoft Dynamics 365 apart from the competition is the full integration with Microsoft’s extensive list of software including the classics we all know and love, like OneDrive, Excel and Outlook.
Pros & Cons
- Native integration with Microsoft Office suite
- Built-in AI
- Secure to use
- Steep and difficult learning curve
- Not cost-effective for smaller businesses
- Includes many pricey add-ons
- Additional cost for data storage
Pricing
Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers three main sales plans and two main customer service plans designed to cover a wide variety of business needs. On top of that, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has a whole host of add-ons for businesses with specific needs. Most of Microsoft Dynamics 365 plans are discounted to $20 per user, per month, if the user already has one Dynamics 365 product.
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 product tiers start with the Sales Professional at $65 per user, per month, billed annually. The Professional plan offers an extensive suite of sales executing services, full reporting and analysis with exports to Excel and some amount of customization.
The Sales Enterprise, at $95 per user, per month, adds knowledge management and gamification as well as a limited amount of contextual insights and AI.
The Sales Premium plan, at $135 per user, per month, offers the full package when it comes to sales acceleration, fully customizable solutions and more in-depth contextual insights and conversational intelligence.
For the customer service side of your business, Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a Professional plan at $50 per user, per month, which includes an unlimited number of named users, extensive case and knowledge management and includes service for mobile.
The Customer Service Enterprise plan, at $95 per user/per month adds more advanced capabilities like a unified service desk, embedded AI intelligence which gives context-driven suggestions and analytical reports.
All the Microsoft Dynamics 365 sales and customer service products are fully integrated with all Microsoft products, such as Outlook, Excel, OneNote and more:
- Sales Professional:$65 per user, per month, for a first-time user or $20 per user, per month, if the user already has Dynamics 365 products, billed annually, offers core sales force automation and Microsoft 365 automation
- Sales Enterprise:$95 per user, per month, for a first-time user or $20 per user, per month, if the user already has Dynamics 365 products, billed annually, offers industry-leading sales force automation with contextual insights and advanced customization options
- Sales Premium:$135 per user, per month, billed annually, adds prebuilt, customizable intelligence solutions designed for your businesses sellers and managers
- Customer Service Professional:$50 per user, per month, for a first-time user or $20 per user, per month, if the user already has Dynamics 365 products, billed annually, offers core customer service capabilities
- Customer Service Enterprise:$95 per user, per month, for a first-time user or $20 per user, per month, if the user already has Dynamics 365 products, billed annually, offers more advanced customer service capabilities
