AlternativesUpdated

Best Salesforce Alternatives in 2026

Salesforce Starter Suite is $25 per user a month, Pro Suite $100 billed yearly, and its Enterprise editions run from $195 to $550 per user a month. If your team is small, wants a free plan, or only needs a simple CRM in its own words, here are five alternatives and what each one does.

By the Fabricate teamWe make Fabricate6 min readPrices checked
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An app's database, form responses, keys and visitor accounts in Fabricate Cloud. Real Fabricate screens, shown with sample data.

Key takeaways

  • Salesforce Starter Suite is $25 per user a month; Pro Suite is $100 billed yearly; Enterprise editions run to $550.
  • Zoho CRM is free for up to 3 users; HubSpot's free CRM covers 2 users and 1,000 contacts.
  • Pipedrive starts at $14 per seat a month billed yearly; Less Annoying CRM is $15 per user a month.
  • Fabricate builds a CRM in your own stages and fields, with no price per person who signs in; sending email and inbox sync are not built in. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.

Why Are People Looking for Salesforce Alternatives?

  • Priced per User

    Starter Suite is $25 per user a month and Pro Suite $100, billed yearly, so the cost grows with each person.

  • Free for 3 Users

    Zoho CRM is free forever for up to 3 users.

    Fits: Zoho CRM

  • A Pipeline of Deals

    Pipedrive is built around a pipeline, from $14 per seat a month billed yearly.

    Fits: Pipedrive

  • Only What Your Team Uses

    A small team often wants its own stages and fields, without a suite's extra screens, and without paying for each person who signs in.

    Fits: Fabricate

Compare at a glance

Fabricate beside Salesforce, feature by feature.

  • Builds From a Description
    Fabricate
    Yes
    Salesforce
    No, a ready-made CRM
  • Free Plan
    Fabricate
    Build and preview
    Salesforce
    Free Suite
  • Price per Person
    Fabricate
    None for the people who sign in to a published app
    Salesforce
    From $25 per user a month
  • Your Own Stages and Fields
    Fabricate
    Yes
    Salesforce
    Yes
  • Marketing and Service Tools
    Fabricate
    Not built in
    Salesforce
    In the suites
  • Paid Plans From
    Fabricate
    $25 a month
    Salesforce
    $25 per user a month
Number 1

Fabricate

We make this

Best for: A simple CRM in your own words

Builds a CRM from your description: contacts and companies with your own fields, deals you drag through your own stages, notes on every call and meeting, and a list of follow-ups due today, behind a sign-in for your team. The people who sign in to a published app are not counted as seats. Sending email from the CRM, inbox and calendar sync, and call recording are not built in. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.

Checks before you publish

Fabricate's security check on an app: one problem to fix and two quality warnings, each with a Fix in chat button
Each finding comes with a Fix in chat button. A real Fabricate screen, shown with sample data.

What it does well

  • Your own stages and fields
  • No price per person who signs in
  • Contacts in from a CSV file
Paid plans from
$25 a month
350 credits a month on Pro
Free plan
60 credits
A month, to build and preview
A live app
Pro and Max
Publishing is on paid plans

See the plans

How to Move from Salesforce to Fabricate

  1. 1

    Export your contacts and deals

    Save your contacts, companies and deals from Salesforce as CSV files.

  2. 2

    Describe how you sell

    Your customers, the stages a deal goes through, the fields you need and who on your team signs in.

  3. 3

    Ask for an import page

    Ask for a page, behind your own sign-in, that adds the rows of your CSV files to the app's own database.

  4. 4

    Test it in the preview

    Sign up, save and edit data, and check who can see what, before anyone else does.

  5. 5

    Put it online

    On Pro, one press of Publish gives it its own address to share, after the same browser check.

Chat

Fabricate's chat on a phone: the owner asks for opening hours and a note about cardamom buns, and Fabricate says what it changed and that it used 5 credits

Your app

The same bakery app in Fabricate's Your app view on a phone, now showing Open today 7am - 3pm above its menu
Asking for a change in chat, then trying the app. Real Fabricate screens on a phone, shown with sample data.

The other Salesforce alternatives

What each one does well, and the kind of project it suits best.

  1. Number 2

    HubSpot

    Best for: Marketing and sales from one company

    A CRM with marketing, sales and service tools sold on top of it. The free plan covers up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts, with no credit card; paid plans are priced per seat.

    • Free for up to 2 users
    • Marketing, sales and service from one company
    • No credit card to start

    Where HubSpot beats Fabricate

    If you want your marketing, sales and service tools from one company, with a free CRM for 2 users to start, HubSpot is built for that.

    HubSpot alternatives

    Source: hubspot.com/pricing/crm (opens in a new tab), checked

  2. Number 3

    Pipedrive

    Best for: Sales teams working a pipeline

    A sales CRM built around a pipeline of deals. Lite is $14 per seat a month billed yearly, Growth $39, Premium $59 and Ultimate $79, after a 14-day free trial.

    • A pipeline of deals
    • A 14-day free trial
    • Four plans to grow into

    Where Pipedrive beats Fabricate

    If your team works a pipeline of deals all day and wants a sales CRM ready to use, Pipedrive is built around exactly that.

    From $14 per seat a month, billed yearlyPipedrive alternatives

    Source: pipedrive.com/en/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

  3. Number 4

    Zoho CRM

    Best for: A free CRM for up to 3 people

    Zoho's CRM, free forever for up to 3 users. Its paid plans add users and features.

    • Free for up to 3 users
    • From the company behind Zoho's other apps

    Where Zoho CRM beats Fabricate

    If up to three people need a CRM and nothing to pay for, Zoho CRM's free plan covers them.

    Source: Zoho CRM pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

  4. Number 5

    Less Annoying CRM

    Best for: A plain CRM at one price

    One simple CRM plan at $15 per user a month, with unlimited contacts and 25GB of storage per user, after a 30-day free trial with no card.

    • One plan, one price
    • Unlimited contacts
    • A 30-day trial with no card

    Where Less Annoying CRM beats Fabricate

    If you want a plain, ready-made CRM with one plan and one price, Less Annoying CRM is $15 per user a month with unlimited contacts.

    From $15 per user a month

    Source: lessannoyingcrm.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked

Salesforce and its alternatives: a CRM for every size, priced per user

Salesforce sells its CRM in editions, from a Free Suite and Starter Suite at $25 per user a month to Enterprise editions at $195, $395 and $550 per user a month, billed yearly. It is built to grow with a sales team of any size.

For a small team, the cost per user adds up quickly. Zoho CRM is free for up to 3 users and HubSpot for 2. Pipedrive is built around a pipeline of deals from $14 per seat billed yearly, and Less Annoying CRM has one plan at $15 per user a month.

Which one fits depends on how big the team will get. A sales team that will grow into hundreds of people, with service and marketing around it, is the one Salesforce is built for. A team of a few people that tracks contacts, deals and follow-ups needs much less.

A CRM built with Fabricate is your own web app. The backend is written into the app's own code: server routes in a Durable Object on Cloudflare Workers, with its own SQLite database. It has only the records, stages and fields you describe, your team signs in with an invite code, and the people who sign in are not counted as seats. Sending email from the CRM, email sequences, inbox and calendar sync, and call recording are not built in.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Salesforce cost?
Starter Suite is $25 per user a month, billed monthly or yearly, and Pro Suite $100 per user a month billed yearly. The Enterprise editions are $195, $395 and $550 per user a month, billed yearly. There is a Free Suite and a free trial.
What is the best Salesforce alternative for a small business?
For a free CRM for up to 3 people, Zoho CRM. For a free CRM with marketing tools from one company, HubSpot. For a team that works a pipeline of deals, Pipedrive. For one plain price, Less Annoying CRM, at $15 per user a month. For a CRM built around how you sell, with no price per person who signs in, Fabricate, which we make. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.
Can I build my own CRM?
Yes. Describe your customers, the stages a deal goes through and who on your team uses it, and Fabricate builds the CRM and shows it working in a preview. To change something, you ask in the chat. There is no code to write or read.
Can a CRM built with Fabricate send emails to my contacts?
No. The CRM keeps the record: you log the emails and calls you make from your own inbox and phone. Email campaigns and sequences, and inbox and calendar sync, are not built in.
Can I bring my contacts over?
Yes, if you ask for it: ask for an import page that reads a CSV file, such as an export from your current CRM, and adds each row as a contact. Try it in the preview with a few rows, then import everything into the live app once it is published, since publishing starts it with a fresh database.
When is Salesforce the better choice?
When your sales team is large or will be, and needs the CRM that big companies run on, with editions to move up through and many tools around it. A CRM built with Fabricate is smaller: the records, stages and screens you describe, which suits a small team that wants a simple pipeline it can change by asking.

Sources

The pages this guide quotes, each with the day it was read.

  1. salesforce.com/sales/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  2. hubspot.com/pricing/crm (opens in a new tab), checked
  3. pipedrive.com/en/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  4. Zoho CRM pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  5. lessannoyingcrm.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), checked
  6. fabricate.build/pricing, from our live plans

About this guide

Written by the Fabricate team. Fabricate is our product, so it is first on this page and marked "We make this". Where a reason to switch fits another tool better, the reason says which.

Each tool's card lists the pages we read about it and the day we read them. We compared the tools from their own pricing pages and documentation, not by signing up for them. Spotted something out of date? Write to info@fabricate.build.

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