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Affinity vs Salesforce Essentials comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Affinity
Ranking in CRM
37th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Salesforce Essentials
Ranking in CRM
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Affinity is 0.9%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Essentials is 0.6%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Salesforce Essentials0.6%
Affinity0.9%
Other98.5%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Marcus Quinn - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Information Officer at Business Growth & Software Development Consultancy
Open source, stable and capable of working with existing Adobe files
Affinity Photo needs to work more. They need to align as much as possible with the shortcuts and keystrokes of Adobe. It's just because when you learn a tool as a professional, you tend to learn all the shortcuts and keystrokes. And if they're not the same as the same type of products that you migrated from, you lose productivity because you forget how to do things. You don't know where things are on the menu. You don't know the icon for it because you just know it as, "Oh, if I press this key, I get that." You forget the user interface. You just remember the keystrokes and the shortcuts. So, if that could align as much as possible with what I'm used to from Adobe, that would be good. And there's another product I use called Pixelmator Pro. And as much as I wish Affinity Photos did everything that Photoshop did, I actually ended up using this other product, Pixelmator, more for image editing because I just find it faster and more in line with what I remember from Photoshop. So, they are good. They've designed a good product. It's just the shortcuts and keystrokes need to match what people are used to, especially coming from Adobe because, let's say, it didn't exist. Affinity is a newer product.
AA
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
Has provided a reliable service with responsive support and offers valuable features, though pricing could be more affordable
We are a large organization with 14,000 people. As a user, Salesforce Essentials is extremely easy to use. The complete rollout from minimum viable product to final acceptable product took two years for our global deployment. The business operations for our 14,000 people are managed by approximately 10 people on the business side. These business admins are responsible for sales operations, troubleshooting, training, and driving features and requirements from the sales and marketing organizations. Additionally, we work with product owners on the IT side and a team of programmers. Daily operations require about five people for IT work, security programming, system connections, and development execution. For day-to-day user support, we need eight to ten people in the business. We operate on Microsoft Azure private cloud infrastructure. On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate Salesforce Essentials a 9 out of 10.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I like that it's completely automated. It's a very robust system. You are not going to have faults in it."
"For me, the most valuable feature is the fact that they work with existing Adobe files. And open and edit PDFs and web-optimized exports. It's been very good."
"The most valuable features of Affinity are the connection features it provides because you have a large database of startups. The people who worked in the companies and founded them are displayed in Affinity. It can show if they are using some special intelligence feature and that you may know this person, of your connections. For example, if they know the person. It works similar to the way LinkedIn does when you seek a connection. Additionally, Affinity shows how close this person is and how often they contact each other."
"We are using Affinity as a very robust contact list."
"The most valuable features of Affinity are the connection features it provides because you have a large database of startups."
"In terms of features, the cloud-based solution and easy deployment are standout elements that have made a difference."
"Their reporting and analytics features have a very significant impact on my company's operational efficiency."
"We use Salesforce Essentials for everything we do on the sales side."
"I can download the data to Excel, create tables, and do whatever I want. I am very comfortable with the tool's mobile application. Its main benefit is transparency because I can share it with representatives."
"The product is stable."
"The CRM system has SAP Sales, SAP Service, and SAP Billing, with everything integrated into an on-premise SAP CRM system. Salesforce Essentials replaced this on-premise system, bringing all functionalities onto the cloud platform."
"Salesforce makes tracking every product and customer activity easy, enabling managers to monitor their products, such as key products and their peak performance."
"The solution is very scalable and flexible. It can be customized as per the business need."
 

Cons

"It would be better if it were pay-per-user instead of pay-per-account."
"Affinity could improve by adding more features."
"To get people to migrate, Affinity needs to somehow give them an incentive to change. The key is to make it as similar as possible. Shortcuts and keystrokes would be my biggest learning curve. So, to scale, you're going to have to convince people to relearn their workflow, and everybody's too busy to do that. Scalability is kind of mid because you face adoption resistance if you're pushing out to a studio or staff that are used to Adobe. Many products don't think beyond Microsoft and Adobe. If it's not Microsoft, then they don't understand. So, scalability is a challenge."
"It would be better if it were "pay-per-user" instead of "pay-per-account." For example, I'm Siddharth Mallya, and I have two email accounts. Each of those accounts is a separate payable account for me. For instance, I have created a network using my personal email ID, and now I have moved to my company email ID. It'll choose any one of those accounts, and that will become my paid account. For example, if I put in my personal email ID, then that's the account that I pay for. But I'm no longer using it, and it's not going to get updated. If I put in my work email ID, then that's an entirely separate account that I have to pay for."
"Affinity could improve by adding more features. It has been a while since I have used it, but when I did, the features could improve."
"The solution could be cheaper."
"The cost of running Salesforce Essentials is significant. The licenses are expensive, and the operational costs are considerable, including the necessity to maintain a team of approximately 15 people to run the system."
"The product's reporting area has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Less integration would be better. It should work independently."
"I have seen Salesforce evaluate a lot of AI and analytics into that. But as an end user, I don’t have that much input."
"The solution needs to be more user-friendly. It's difficult for a senior to track leads when a salesperson uploads leads. The solution should also improve its integration capabilities."
"When we use mixed languages, it can be uncomfortable because there seems to be no consideration for right-to-left speakers. It feels like these tools were developed by people who only speak left-to-right languages and didn't consider other language types' needs."
"Salesforce should encourage new users by offering smaller license packages, such as packages for three or two users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Affinity follows a pay-per-account model, and I think there will be a monthly or a yearly paid subscription. I have heard that it was expensive."
"Affinity is an expensive solution. However, they over a free version trial. The solution is expensive but the people that have used it say it is worth the money."
"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution."
"We chose quarterly payments."
"I rate Salesforce Essentials' pricing an eight out of ten."
"Salesforce Essentials is quite expensive, almost 10 out of 10. I don't have the exact cost, but we found it to be very expensive based on our budget constraints."
"The pricing is on the higher side, especially with additional costs for professional services like consultants."
"The pricing is a bit on the expensive side."
"It's a perpetual license, and the subscription can be expensive."
"The tool is moderately priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
15%
University
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
24%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Retailer
8%
Transportation Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Salesforce Essentials?
Salesforce provides the best they have with the current version. Most of the features we need are already there, and it's very easy to use.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Essentials?
Salesforce Essentials is very expensive, but it delivers exceptional value. It is a good platform to have if you can afford it because it has numerous add-ons and modules. Anything that Salesforce ...
What needs improvement with Salesforce Essentials?
The mobile access can be improved in several ways. Salesforce Essentials operates in a table format where the entire user interface is based on tables, more specifically pivot tables. This is not v...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

T3 Advisors, Cushman & Wakefield,
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Affinity vs. Salesforce Essentials and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.