While Salesforce has long been a go-to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Customer Data Platform (CDP) solution, many organizations question whether it's still the right fit for their dynamic requirements. Because of Salesforce's complexity, high costs and rigid customization options, companies are looking for alternatives that offer more flexibility, integration and ease of use.

If this sounds like you, read on to explore the options.

Best Salesforce competitors

Here are the eight top Salesforce competitors that are elevating CRM and CDP, offering enterprises flexibility and innovation.

Loadstone

‍Loadstone competes directly with Salesforce CRM capabilities, but its capabilities extend beyond simple customer relationship management. It provides a unified view of the customer journey – from acquisition and engagement to loyalty and retention – on a single platform.

Loadstone’s CRM and communications suite is more than just a contact management tool. It integrates omnichannel communications across email, SMS, web, mobile apps and offline touchpoints, ensuring that every customer interaction is personalized in real time.

Salesforce has a Customer Data Platform (CDP) as part of its suite, but it requires additional third-party tools for real-time insights and segmentation. Loadstone’s embedded CDP is built into its ecosystem, ensuring real-time customer data flows across every tool: CRM, loyalty, recommendations and promotions. It enables instant, actionable information for every interaction, automating marketing and sales processes.

The Loadstone ecosystem evolves with your business. You can choose to adopt individual products like the AI-powered recommender system, CRM and Communications, loyalty management, promotion marketing and retail media on their own or implement them as an integrated, unified system. Choose any combination you need to pay only for what you need. This flexibility lets businesses add or scale features as their needs grow without the limitations of rigid, monolithic systems.

Key features

• Omnichannel communication: Engage with your customers across all major communication channels, including email, SMS, mobile push notifications, web-browser alerts, messenger apps and offline touchpoints such as in-store POS systems.
• Real-time, personalized messaging: Deliver hyper-personalized, real-time communications and marketing based on customer behavior, preferences and purchase history. Key features include triggered messages, transactional messaging and mass messaging.
• No-code campaign creation: Loadstone's no-code interface lets marketing teams create and execute campaigns without needing technical expertise or IT intervention. The platform includes a WYSIWYG editor, A/B testing tools and campaign automation.

A major differentiator of Loadstone’s CRM system is its embedded CDP. Unlike many CRM solutions that require separate CDPs or third-party integrations, Loadstone’s CDP is seamlessly integrated. Here’s how the CRM and CDP work together to provide a single, comprehensive solution:

• Data centralization: Our CDP consolidates customer data from multiple channels into one place, enabling effective communication personalization and campaign automation.
• Near-real-time segmentation: Create dynamic customer segments based on instant behavioral data, ensuring that communications are always targeted and relevant and increasing customer satisfaction.
• Enhanced personalization: With CDP data, Loadstone delivers hyper-personalized experiences across all channels.
• Cross-channel orchestration: The CDP ensures consistent messaging across email, SMS, push notifications and other channels.
• Insights for optimization: Our CDP offers actionable analytics to optimize communication strategies by tailoring content to customer preferences.

In addition to its CRM and CDP, Loadstone also offers AI-powered recommender systems, loyalty management, promotion marketing and e-commerce search – features that Salesforce lacks. 

Talk to an expert to see how Loadstone can transform your business.

Integrations

Loadstone has an open API that lets you connect it to pretty much any tool you need. We also offer webhooks for easy, customized integration.

User ratings

Loadstone is rated 4.3/5 on G2.

Here's a user review from Marketing Manager Marcel D.:

Loadstone helps to get the best out of your (online) business. They come with custom-made solutions and help you implement them.

SAP Customer Experience

SAP Customer Experience (SAP CX) is a suite of solutions that enhance customer engagement and business processes across various touchpoints. It integrates Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Customer Data Platforms (CDP) functionalities, offering a unified approach to understanding and interacting with customers.

While offline POS integration for SAP CRM requires additional customization or third-party solutions, Loadstone ensures unified experiences across physical and digital touchpoints.

Key features

The feature set depends on the SAP product you choose:

• SAP Marketing Cloud: Facilitates customer engagement through targeted marketing campaigns. Uses customer insights to evaluate campaign effectiveness and optimize strategies for audience connection.
• SAP Commerce Cloud: Supports e-commerce operations by providing tools for managing product catalogs, pricing and promotions.
• SAP Sales Cloud: Simplifies sales processes with tools for managing leads, opportunities and customer interactions
• SAP Service Cloud: Offers features like ticket management, knowledge base access and mobile service capabilities to improve customer support.
• SAP Customer Data Cloud: Centralizes customer data management while ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.

Integrations

SAP Customer Experience integrates with different systems, including:

• Social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook to track customer engagement across multiple channels
• Email marketing tools like Mailchimp for managing email campaigns and customer communications (see also: Mailchimp alternatives)
• Payment gateways like PayPal or Stripe to process transactions within e-commerce solutions

User ratings

SAP Customer Experience is rated 4.3 on Capterra.

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 has extensive customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem. The platform includes advanced analytics features powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide actionable insights.

The marketing automation capabilities in Dynamics 365 enable organizations to create personalized, multichannel campaigns, manage leads and customer journeys and analyze campaign performance to maximize return on investment.

While Microsoft Dynamics 365 incorporates AI through tools like Dynamics 365 AI for sales insights and marketing predictions, Loadstone extends the offering. It features AI-driven personalization with proprietary machine-learning algorithms for recommendations, loyalty and promotions.

Key features

• Modular structure: The platform operates on a modular framework – organizations can select applications that meet their needs. Implementing only necessary functionalities lets businesses optimize costs.
• Customer insights: Dynamics 365 aggregates data from multiple sources, such as emails and social media, providing deep analytics on customer behavior.
• Sales automation: The tool automates sales processes, including lead management and opportunity tracking.
• Marketing automation: Businesses can create targeted campaigns, automate email and social media marketing and track engagement metrics.
• Customer service management: Dynamics 365 includes options for setting up cases, recording interactions, creating knowledge bases and scheduling services.

Integrations

Microsoft Dynamics 365 integrates with productivity and communication tools like Slack, Zoom and DocuSign to improve collaboration and simplify contract management. It also connects with financial and ERP tools like QuickBooks and SAP to provide a unified view of financial and operational data. Integrations with customer engagement and marketing tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Mailchimp ensure more targeted campaigns and improved lead management.

User ratings

The tool is rated 3.9/5 on G2.

Oracle CX Suite

Oracle CX Suite is a CRM and CDP solution with tools for sales, marketing and customer service, supported by Oracle's AI and cloud infrastructure.

The platform has real-time data sharing and analytics options, enabling a customer customer-centric approach to business operations. Machine-learning sales recommendations help sales teams prioritize leads.

Oracle is a good tool for enterprise-grade sales automation and customer service, but Loadstone has more extensive features, particularly with regard to marketing automation. Its real-time capabilities extend to offline POS, kiosks and other physical touchpoints. Plus, the collected customer data serves as a valuable base for targeted product recommendations and loyalty management.

Key features

• Customer data management: Organizations can create dynamic profiles for each customer and integrate data from various sources to provide a 360-degree view.
• Oracle CX Marketing: This tool helps create targeted digital marketing campaigns using automation and analytics to segment audiences and deliver personalized content.
• E-commerce capabilities: The suite includes tools for building and managing e-commerce platforms that support B2B and B2C transactions.
• Oracle CX Sales: This module improves sales performance through tools for customer data management, sales forecasting and performance analytics. It also includes Sales Force Automation (SFA) to automate repetitive tasks.
• Oracle Fusion Service: This tool provides tools for multichannel customer service management. It lets organizations track incidents, manage resolutions and enable self-service options for customers.

See also: Oracle competitors

Integrations

Oracle CX Suite connects with:

• ERP systems to align customer data for a cohesive operational strategy
• Marketing platforms like Marketo to provide consistent customer journeys and personalized engagement across all channels
• Analytics tools like Tableau or Power BI to offer deeper insights and customizable analytics dashboards

User ratings

Oracle is rated 3.9/5 on G2.

HubSpot

HubSpot is an enterprise-level customer relationship management (CRM) platform that helps businesses manage and scale their operations. It offers a suite of tools with a strong emphasis on marketing automation, letting organizations optimize their campaigns and nurture leads.

The platform also provides several customer engagement tools, including a ticketing system, behavioral tracking and community-building features like integrated forms and feedback collection.

While HubSpot focuses on CRM, automation and customer service, Loadstone goes a step further and provides advanced AI-driven personalization and retail media.

Key features

• Predictive lead scoring: This feature automates the lead qualification process by prioritizing leads based on their likelihood to convert using machine learning.
• Custom objects: Users can create custom data structures tailored to their needs. They can manage unique data types relevant to their operations.
• Conversation intelligence: This feature captures and analyzes sales calls, providing insights into customer interactions. It automatically transcribes conversations and identifies key topics, helping sales teams refine their strategies.
• Advanced permissions: Sales Hub offers detailed control over user roles and data access, protecting sensitive information while allowing efficient collaboration among team members.
• Sales sequences: Teams can automate follow-up emails and tasks in a sequential manner. This feature helps scale personalized communication, ensuring that leads receive timely follow-ups without overwhelming the sales team.

See also: HubSpot alternatives

Integrations

HubSpot integrates with marketing tools like Mailchimp and Google Ads to automate email campaigns and ad-targeting workflows. It also connects with sales tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to simplify lead qualification and tracking. Integrations with customer support and service tools like Zendesk and Intercom automate ticket creation and resolution tracking.

User ratings

HubSpot is rated 4.4/5 on G2.

Adobe Experience Cloud

Adobe Experience Cloud includes a Customer Data Platform (CDP) that unifies customer data from various sources to create a comprehensive view of each customer. It includes advanced analytics capabilities, providing actionable insights.

The platform has marketing automation tools that simplify campaign management, optimize workflows and ensure consistent messaging across channels.

While Adobe Experience Cloud provides analytics and AI-driven insights, it may not update immediately across all tools, especially when integrating different modules. Loadstone ensures near-real-time data insights, enabling instant segmentation, personalization and omnichannel execution.

Key features

• Adobe Experience Manager: A content manager system that lets marketers create and manage personalized content across multiple channels.
• Customer data platform: Centralizes customer data from various sources into unified profiles.
• Adobe Sensei: An AI machine learning engine that automates tasks and provides insights for personalization.
• Journey optimizer: Manages real-time customer journeys, helping businesses to engage customers across their lifecycle.
• GenStuidio for performance marketing: A generative AI application that helps marketing teams create and optimize on-brand emails and advertisements for global campaigns

Integrations

Adobe Experience Cloud integrates with various tools to provide comprehensive solutions for customer experience management, including:

• Content management systems like WordPress and Sitecore to manage and deliver content across websites, apps and other digital platforms and ensure consistent, personalized experiences
• Analytics and data platforms like Google Analytics or Snowflake to provide real-time insights into customer behavior, unify data sources and improve reporting and visualization

User ratings

Adobe Experience Cloud is rated 4.1/5 on G2.

Zoho CRM Plus

Zoho CRM Plus is a customer experience platform for small to medium-sized businesses. It optimizes their sales, marketing, project management and customer support operations. The platform combines customer relationship management features, advanced marketing automation tools and multichannel communication capabilities, helping businesses manage customer interactions across various touchpoints.

The platform focuses on standard CRM and marketing solution features, such as lead management, sales tracking and email campaigns. On the other hand, Loadstone is specifically designed for e-commerce, with tools like AI-powered personalization, advanced e-commerce search for large product catalogues and integrated retail media for traffic monetization and advertising.

Key features

• Workflow rules: This feature automates repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails based on specific conditions.
• Customization: Users can create tailored modules and fields to capture specific data relevant to their business needs.
• Advanced analytics: Provides insights through visual reports such as pie charts and heat maps. The AI-powered anomaly detector helps identify trends in sales performance.
• Revenue forecasting: This helps teams predict revenue based on historical data and set targets accordingly, tracking performance by salesperson or territory.
• Blueprint technology: Guides users through the sales process stages, ensuring consistency in actions across the team.

Integrations

Here are key types of tools that Zoho CRM Plus integrates with:

• Marketing platforms like Zoho Campaigns, Google Ads and Mailchimp – these integrations help businesses track leads, customer engagement and ROI directly from the CRM
• Communication software like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Gmail to simplify communication and collaboration with real-time updates and chat integrations
• Productivity tools like Zoho Projects, Google Workspace and Trello that let users create documents, edit and share directly within CRM workflows

User ratings

Zoho CRM Plus is rated 4.4/5 on Capterra.

Zendesk

The main features Zendesk has to offer include a sales and customer service software platform known with unified CRM solutions and omnichannel communication tools. With this toolset, businesses can deliver unified, personalized customer experiences. It’s easy to integrate support, sales and messaging into a single, cohesive platform.

Zendesk users will confirm that they can efficiently manage customer interactions across email, chat, phone, social media and service channels. The interface is quite user-friendly. You will also find some solid analytics capabilities.

The platform specializes in customer support tools such as ticketing systems and live chat, but it lacks tools for marketing and AI-driven personalization. In comparison, Loadstone offers end-to-end marketing, sales and loyalty workflows, eliminating the need for multiple tools.

Key features

• Ticketing system: Support teams can manage customer inquiries from multiple channels using one interface.
• Automation and workflows: Zendesk automates routine tasks such as ticket assignments and follow-ups, letting agents focus on more complex issues.
• Live chat and messaging: Agents can engage with customers instantly through a real-time chat, providing immediate assistance.
• Reporting and analytics: Zendesk offers analytics that give insights into customer interactions and support performance.
• Community forums: The platform supports community forums where users can share experiences and solutions, allowing peer-to-peer support and reducing the burden on support teams.

Integrations

Zendesk integrates with tools across different categories, including:

• Communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams to let users engage with customers through preferred channels (chat, phone, social media, video)
• E-commerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce to provide support teams with order details, purchase histories and customer profiles directly within Zendesk

User ratings

Zendesk is rated 4.2/5 on G2.

Best Salesforce alternatives: Comparison table

Pick the right Salesforce competitor for your needs

Various CRM and CDP solutions cater to different aspects of customer engagement – from personalization and real-time data segmentation to omnichannel communication and seamless integrations.

When choosing a Salesforce competitor for your business, assess its unique requirements – maybe you need something that is easy to use, offers advanced customization or integrates well with existing systems. Consider factors like your business size, customer journey complexity and long-term scalability.

For businesses seeking a truly integrated, unified solution, Loadstone stands out as an ideal choice. The system is conveniently unified and scales to fit your particular needs as your business evolves. It provides powerful CRM, embedded CDP, AI-driven recommender systems and comprehensive communication tools. It’s particularly well-suited for enterprise-level commerce businesses looking to optimize every aspect of their customer journey, both online and offline. 

Curious to try Loadstone for yourself? Sign up here.

FAQs

What is replacing Salesforce?

For businesses seeking to simplify operations, reduce costs and employ advanced tools for customer engagement, Loadstone is a good Salesforce replacement, especially for those in the e-commerce, hybrid and offline commerce sectors. Its integrated approach sets a new standard for scalable, customer-centric growth.

Who is Salesforce's biggest customer?

Salesforce’s biggest customers are typically large enterprises across various industries, with a particular concentration in the following sectors.

Who is Microsoft's competitor of Salesforce?

Microsoft’s main competitor to Salesforce is Microsoft Dynamics 365, a suite of business applications that combines CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) capabilities.

Is Salesforce the #1 CRM?

While Salesforce is a good CRM software, it requires multiple third-party integrations for companies seeking a unified martech system. Its alternative, Loadstone, integrates CRM, CDP, AI recommendations, e-commerce search, retail media and loyalty management into a unified platform.

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