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Dynamics 365 Sales 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.2
Dynamics 365 Sales improved productivity, achieved ROI in 18 months, and enhanced reporting and forecasting capabilities with proper usage.
Sentiment score
8.0
Salesforce Essentials offers good ROI with easy implementation, accelerating sales and benefits realized in about three years.
Our company reached the return on investment in just one and a half years after implementation, with improvements in productivity, efficiency, and overall outcomes.
VP Sales at Zelite Solution
Every solution claims to save time, money, and provide productivity savings.
Senior Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The ROI was always in a positive direction.
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Dynamics 365 Sales support is praised for response speed but faces criticism for ticket creation and timely assistance issues.
Sentiment score
6.3
Salesforce Essentials offers responsive service with minimal issues; users praise its reliability and effective customer support.
They prioritize serious issues and try to resolve them as quickly as possible.
VP Sales at Zelite Solution
The overall technical support of Microsoft deserves a rating of 10 out of 10.
Sr. Manager, Tmt Business Consulting (Focused On B2 B Tech Product Cos.) at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
Their service and uptime is phenomenal.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
Salesforce Essentials has excellent customer service.
Senior Learning Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
I would evaluate their support and customer service with Salesforce Essentials as pretty decent, diligent, and to the point.
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Dynamics 365 Sales scales efficiently for various user bases, though large data movements face API-related throughput challenges.
Sentiment score
6.9
Salesforce Essentials is highly scalable, supporting diverse teams from small to large, and is praised for easy user addition.
Dynamics 365 Sales is highly scalable, with a rating of ten out of ten.
VP Sales at Zelite Solution
Because of the API limits, the throughput is not good.
Senior Achitect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We have a global deployment across our organization in approximately 180 countries through Microsoft Azure cloud.
Sr. Manager, Tmt Business Consulting (Focused On B2 B Tech Product Cos.) at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
It is one of the most scalable systems available.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Dynamics 365 Sales is praised for stability and reliability, with users noting minimal issues and efficient critical information access.
Sentiment score
7.6
Salesforce Essentials is highly stable and available, with few bugs or downtimes, though occasional automation delays occur.
I usually do not face any bugs and would give it a high rating.
Digital Transformation Advisor at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Its stability rate is 99.9998%, which is crucial as any instability could disrupt access to vital information.
VP Sales at Zelite Solution
It is definitely stable and scalable.
Senior Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Salesforce Essentials has proven stable, with no downtime that affects my work.
Senior Learning Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Dynamics 365 Sales struggles with usability and integration, needing enhancements in AI, tutorials, and streamlined features for better performance.
Salesforce Essentials struggles with integration, UI, and pricing, needing improvements in analytics, mobile interface, and automation features.
If Microsoft could provide direct integration, it would better support customers, especially in the Indian market.
VP Sales at Zelite Solution
They advise about using Power Automate, but it is not suitable for large scale operations.
Senior Achitect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The biggest challenge that people had was the simplicity that something like Salesforce offers, which Dynamics 365 Sales didn't really have.
Senior Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Instead of requiring users to think about system navigation and clicking procedures, they can simply follow a workflow that guides them through the process.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
There are other competitors, like Zoho CRM, that offer similar features at a lower cost.
Senior Learning Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Salesforce Essentials operates in a table format where the entire user interface is based on tables, more specifically pivot tables.
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Dynamics 365 Sales offers robust features, generally priced at $150 monthly, with discounts, preferred by SMEs despite regional cost challenges.
Salesforce Essentials licensing is costly but valued for flexibility and add-ons, with some finding additional professional expenses burdensome.
The list price is $150 per user per month, though my company pays $105 per user per month for 20 users.
VP Sales at Zelite Solution
It is affordable, and what I've seen is a lot of SME customers, small and medium enterprises, tend to go with Dynamics 365 Sales over anything else, which indicates that it's more affordable than some other solutions in the market.
Senior Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The cost of running Salesforce Essentials is significant.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
The costs associated with Salesforce Essentials are substantial, which is a drawback compared to competitors who offer similar services for less.
Senior Learning Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Dynamics 365 Sales offers robust lead management, Microsoft integration, automation, AI insights, customization, and enhances productivity with third-party flexibility.
Salesforce Essentials offers robust features and user-friendly design but may be costly for some businesses.
This CRM system is more scalable than Salesforce, and its stability rate is 99.9998%.
VP Sales at Zelite Solution
In SAP, filling 20 fields required visiting 10 different pages sequentially, whereas now everything can be done on a single page.
Sr. Manager, Tmt Business Consulting (Focused On B2 B Tech Product Cos.) at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
It is well-connected, with integration capabilities that work well with other systems.
Digital Transformation Advisor at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Their reporting and analytics features have a very significant impact on my company's operational efficiency.
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Salesforce Essentials is excellent because it is one of the most flexible CRMs available.
Senior Learning Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
It is very customizable to specific needs.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
 

Categories and Ranking

Dynamics 365 Sales
Ranking in CRM
15th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Salesforce Essentials
Ranking in CRM
25th
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 August 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Dynamics 365 Sales is 0.5%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Essentials is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dynamics 365 Sales0.5%
Salesforce Essentials0.6%
Other98.9%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2245296 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Manager, Tmt Business Consulting (Focused On B2 B Tech Product Cos.) at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees
Efficient and intuitive experience facilitates global sales collaboration and optimizes user engagement
Beyond what Dynamics 365 Sales currently provides, any improvement would require a combination of processes, changes, and user behavior modifications on our side coupled with the product. The product has launched numerous features, including AI capabilities, though I haven't found use for many of them. Reducing feature bloat would be beneficial, especially considering different organizational needs. In a federated B2B company, CRM usage is limited to fundamental fields. Performance improvements, such as reducing field loading time from three seconds to one second, don't significantly impact average users. In our B2B organization, which consists of numerous companies each generating several million dollars in revenue, teams only need 5-10 strong features. Additional features are primarily useful for central sales revenue operations teams handling reports and analysis. For average users in a B2B services organization, the current feature set is sufficient. Over the last few months, we have received many AI features and co-pilot integration into Teams. However, additional CRM features are not necessary for our usage.
SB
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Creates efficient integrations and boosts operational efficiency through comprehensive dashboards
I have experience with products such as Acronis and Huntress, though Salesforce Essentials serves a different purpose. I have had experience with Huntress for the last few months as we are an MSSP and offer Huntress to our clients. I have used Odoo and HubSpot recently, though not extensively. The main differences between Salesforce Essentials and HubSpot or Odoo is the market presence. It is comparable to the Windows versus Linux situation because both have a huge presence. They have deeper pockets so they can spend money on collecting insights and developing features. Integration and good partnerships with major companies make Salesforce Essentials better than the others.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
24%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Dynamics 365 Sales?
Beyond what Dynamics 365 Sales currently provides, any improvement would require a combination of processes, changes, and user behavior modifications on our side coupled with the product. The produ...
What is your primary use case for Dynamics 365 Sales?
Our organization uses Dynamics 365 Sales for global sales collaboration. Previously, CRM was being treated as Outlook, with everyone in the organization receiving it by default regardless of necess...
What advice do you have for others considering Dynamics 365 Sales?
As a user, five essential features are sufficient rather than having 50 different options. In our business model, where individual businesses handle 10-20 high-value accounts, simplicity is key. Th...
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...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Essentials?
I have experience with Salesforce Essentials' Tableau and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, but not extensively. I was more focused on their CRM platform, specifically the core CRM and sales basics. My e...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Dynamics 365 Sales vs. Salesforce Essentials and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.