NEWJoin 1M+ SaaS Professionals|Get Weekly Insights, Trends & Expert PicksSubscribe Free →

Spotsaas logo

8.7

Spot Score

Salesforce Essentials - CRM Software

Salesforce Essentials Review: Is It The Right CRM Software For Your Team?

Best for SMB teams

Free Trial Available

Save to Favourites

Add to compare

Starts from $25 / User / Month when Billed Yearly

MashginMashgin

Trusted by many companies including Mashgin

Start Free Trial

What is Salesforce Essentials?

Salesforce Essentials includes a complete set of customer relationship management software, the industry’s leading customer service solution, Salesforce Chatter, and training to get you up and running quickly in the cloud. It’s designed for small to midsize companies that need to grow sales and scale customer relationships by improving customer service and collaboration.

Pricing

  • Starts from $25 / User / Month when Billed Yearly

  • Free Trial available

Best For

Best suited for small teams and solo users

Security & Compliance

  • Data residency:Global

Platform

  • Web + mobile app (iOS & Android)

Salesforce Essentials Software Demo

Salesforce Essentials was reviewed internally using user feedback, in-house testing, and market research to assess its performance, reliability, and user experience. Learn how we review products and our evaluation process.

Who should consider Salesforce Essentials

Team types
Small Business

Why teams choose Salesforce Essentials

  • Comprehensive feature set supports diverse business needs.

  • Strong customer service tools enhance client interactions.

  • Cloud-based access allows for remote collaboration.

Is Salesforce Essentials right for you?

What buyers should know before shortlisting Salesforce Essentials

Salesforce Sales Cloud continues to stand out as one of the premier customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, offering unmatched customizability and versatility. The platform excels in streamlining sales and marketing operations, enabling businesses to organize leads, enhance productivity, and gain valuable insights for data-driven decision-making.

Many users rave about the ease of implementation with its out-of-the-box functionality, which serves as a strong foundation that can be extended with advanced customization or integration of third-party apps. The intuitive Lightning UX and seamless integrations with tools like Google Calendar further enhance usability for both administrators and end-users.

The platform’s robust tools for automating workflows and standardizing processes make it ideal for businesses looking to scale efficiently. Salesforce’s frequent updates and rich training resources, like the Trailblazer platform, demonstrate its commitment to continual improvement.

Additionally, its centralized access to customer data and enhanced collaboration tools foster effective teamwork within sales departments. However, it’s worth noting that the user interface, while functional and feature-rich, is sometimes described as slightly overwhelming or less intuitive out of the box, especially for new users.

Fortunately, these learning curves are mitigated by accessible customer support and extensive documentation. Overall, Salesforce Sales Cloud is a powerful solution for businesses seeking a comprehensive, scalable, and customizable CRM platform.

Pros and cons

Salesforce Essentials pros and cons

  • Salesforce Essentials pros
  • Comprehensive feature set supports diverse business needs.

  • Strong customer service tools enhance client interactions.

  • Cloud-based access allows for remote collaboration.

  • Salesforce Essentials cons
  • Complexity may overwhelm new users.

  • Higher pricing could be a barrier for small businesses.

4.2/5 rating
38 verified reviews
Free trial available

Ready to try it?

Get started with Salesforce Essentials

Start your free trial — no credit card required.

Start Free Trial

Still comparing?

See how it stacks up

Compare Salesforce Essentials side-by-side with top CRM Software alternatives.

Bigin by Zoho CRM
ClickUp
Zoho CRM
+12 more
Compare CRM alternatives

What is the pricing of Salesforce Essentials?

Free TrialAvailableTry Now →
PricingStarts from $25 / User / Month when Billed Yearly
Pricing Model
Subscription

Salesforce Essentials reviews and ratings

Buyer sentiment

Buyer sentiment is positive across 38 reviews, with strong overall satisfaction.

What buyers like

  • Adapts to specific business needs through customizable fields, workflows, and a wide variety of third-party app integrations.
  • Interface works for both admins and end users, easing adoption and daily operations.
  • Out-of-the-box functionality enables quick implementation with minimal setup.

Common complaints

  • The breadth of customization options can overwhelm new users or small businesses without dedicated technical support.
  • The interface can feel clunky or hard to navigate, especially for first-time users and non-technical team members.
  • Documentation and tutorials are inconsistent and often lack localization, making advanced features harder to learn in some regions.

4.2

Very Good

Based on 963 ratings & 38 reviews

Rating Distribution

Excellent

(28)

Very Good

(10)

Good

(0)

Poor

(0)

Poor

(0)

What users are saying

ML

Melissa L

01/11/24

5 out of 5

"The sky is the limit on how Sales Cloud can enhance efficiencies for your business"

What do you like best about Salesforce Sales Cloud? Ability to implement quickly and easily with out of the box functionality, and from there the sky ...

Read more

ML

Melissa L

01/11/24

5 out of 5

"The sky is the limit on how Sales Cloud can enhance efficiencies for your business"

What do you like best about Salesforce Sales Cloud? Ability to implement quickly and easily with out of the box functionality, and from there the sky ...

Read more

ZP

Zak P

01/10/24

5 out of 5

"Salesforce Lover!"

What do you like best about Salesforce Sales Cloud? I love everything about Salesforce, it's such a great tool that is really customizable. I have ...

Read more

RP

Rosy P

01/10/24

5 out of 5

"Everything you need in one place"

What do you like best about Salesforce Sales Cloud? Everything I need is in one place, from capturing data to organizing it to seeing what we are ...

Read more

JG

Joel G

01/10/24

5 out of 5

"A set of powerful and customizable tools that allow for customization to your business processes"

What do you like best about Salesforce Sales Cloud? Salesforce has allowed us to tailor our implementation to our current business processes while ...

Read more

RP

Rosy P

01/10/24

5 out of 5

"Everything you need in one place"

What do you like best about Salesforce Sales Cloud? Everything I need is in one place, from capturing data to organizing it to seeing what we are ...

Read more

Spotsaas advisor
Get a custom demo of Salesforce Essentials
  • See if Salesforce Essentials fits your business
  • Real pricing — no sales pressure
  • A demo or quick answers, your call

Step 1 of 4

How big is your team?

We tailor recommendations to companies your size.

Trusted by teams at

What are the features of Salesforce Essentials?

29%

Feature coverage

8 of 28 tracked features

Call logging is the process of gathering, examination, and reporting technical and statistical data regarding phone calls. It excludes call…

Contact management refers to keeping, organizing, and managing information about your customers, prospects, and sales leads. In its most bas…

Customer support is a term used to describe services that assist customers in making the most cost-effective and proper usage of a product.…

Publishing data cards and boosting sales through promotional efforts are part of list management. Processing orders, organizing approvals wi…

Marketing automation is a technology used to assist marketing departments, and businesses promote more effectively across different internet…

A product catalog is a marketing tool that contains vital product information to assist buyers in making a purchasing choice. Product charac…

Project management is used to supervise a team's efforts to meet all project objectives while staying within budget. The information is desc…

A quote, also known as a proposal, is a document that establishes a contractual connection between two parties. A quote is a supplier's resp…

Security & Compliance

Salesforce Essentials security and data handling

Key compliance certifications and security features for IT and security teams evaluating Salesforce Essentials.

Certifications

HIPAA✗ Not certified

Developer & data

Data residency
🌐

Alternatives to Salesforce Essentials

Recommended

Streamline your sales and build ...

9.0

Excellent

Visit websiteCompare Salesforce Essentials vs Bigin by Zoho CRM

Effortlessly streamline your ...

9.8

Very Good

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs ClickUp

Efficiency at your fingertips.

9.8

Very Good

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs Zoho CRM

Streamline your sales process with ...

9.3

Excellent

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs Freshsales

Streamline your sales and marketing ...

9.1

Very Good

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs HubSpot CRM

Boost sales and build relationships ...

9.3

Excellent

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs Thryv

Boost sales and streamline ...

8.0

Very Good

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs SalesCRM

Streamline your business with ease.

8.2

Excellent

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs SimpleCRM

Boost sales and productivity with ...

8.7

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs Efficy CRM

Elevate your customer management game.

8.1

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs FreeCRM

Streamline client relationships and ...

7.9

Very Good

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs Client Book CRM

Unleash your team's potential for ...

8.5

Good

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs Second CRM

Maximizing customer relationships ...

8.4

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs Snapforce CRM

Boost your sales with integrated CRM.

8.2

Very Good

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs iEnterprise CRM

Streamline sales, close deals, ...

8.1

Very Good

Compare Salesforce Essentials vs SalesPro CRM

Salesforce Essentials Customers

Mashgin-logo

Mashgin

Help & Contact

Salesforce Essentials Support Options

Customer ServiceOnline
LocationSan Francisco, CA

Connect with Salesforce Essentials

Frequently Asked Questions About Salesforce Essentials

Common questions buyers ask before choosing Salesforce Essentials.

Salesforce Essentials is a CRM Software. Salesforce Essentials offers Quotes (Proposals), List Management, Customer Support, Marketing Automation, Project Management and many more functionalities.

Buyers commonly note the following limitations of Salesforce Essentials: Complexity may overwhelm new users.; Higher pricing could be a barrier for small businesses.; Customization may require additional resources..

Some top alternatives to Salesforce Essentials includes Bigin by Zoho CRM, ClickUp, Zoho CRM, Freshsales and SalesPro CRM.

Salesforce Essentials offers Free Trial, Subscription pricing models

We don't have information regarding integrations of the Salesforce Essentials as of now.

The starting price of Salesforce Essentials is $25/User/Month when Billed Yearly

Free buyer scorecard

Evaluate Salesforce Essentials with the CRM software buyer scorecard

A weighted CRM software scorecard to assess Salesforce Essentials objectively and compare it against the alternatives.

  • Weighted criteria you can edit
  • Score vendors side-by-side
  • Shareable with your buying committee

No file downloads on screen — we email it to you. One-click unsubscribe anytime.

Ready to try it?

Get started with Salesforce Essentials

Start your free trial — no credit card required.

About the reviewer

Rajat Gupta is the founder of Spotsaas. Over the past two years, he has reviewed 2,000+ tools across CRM, HR, AI, and finance — applying hands-on product research and a background in commerce and the CFA program to evaluate software through a business and ROI lens. His goal: help teams make software decisions they won't regret.

Disclaimer: This research has been collated from a variety of authoritative sources. We welcome your feedback at [email protected].

Grow your pipeline with buyers who are already looking for you

254,000+ buyers use Spotsaas every month to evaluate and shortlist software. Get in front of them — for free, or with a managed growth plan built around your category.