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Espressive Barista vs Salesforce Service Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 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

Espressive Barista
Ranking in Help Desk Software
33rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
AI-Powered Chatbots (8th), AI-Agents for HR (3rd)
Salesforce Service Cloud
Ranking in Help Desk Software
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (2nd), Knowledge Management Software (4th), IT Alerting and Incident Management (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Espressive Barista is 0.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Service Cloud is 2.0%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Salesforce Service Cloud2.0%
Espressive Barista0.8%
Other97.2%
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

Jim Lobao - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager for End User Support Services at Five9
Has helped enhance our support ability, reduced our resolution time, and reduced our service desk costs
Espressive Barista's natural language processing and conventional AI still have room for improvement. We haven't yet found anything that resembles true AI that can learn autonomously without human intervention. However, Barista does help us identify and address some of these areas, allowing my team to step in and create intents and responses to questions. When a user asks a question that Barista doesn't immediately understand, we can recognize the pattern, capture it, and link it to a common intent. This is highly beneficial for acquiring such data, but it's a reactive approach and still requires curation. Natural language processing still has some way to go. One of our challenges is that our internal employees haven't yet adopted a natural way of interacting with Barista. Getting people to be concise and to the point, rather than being verbose as if they were interacting with a human, has been an ongoing challenge. While they may feel comfortable being conversational in Slack, expecting a human-like response, Barista is a different entity. Barista isn't interested in their recent vacation; it just wants to know they're locked out of their account. So, some users may assume Barista understands their intent when they say, "I'm back from vacation and locked out of my account." Barista, however, may interpret this as a request for the holiday schedule. Therefore, we're gradually educating our users to adapt their communication style for better success with Barista. Conversely, we desire Barista to adapt its behavior based on the interaction, the language used, and the way people communicate. I wholeheartedly desire an AI that can continuously learn and adapt to our organization's evolving needs. This is the most challenging aspect, as it involves understanding our organization's terminology, procedures, and toolsets. We've made significant progress in this area. However, from an NLP standpoint, we still face challenges with our nearly 3,000 Slack channel users, each with their unique communication styles. People ask questions in various ways, and sometimes there are misunderstandings. They want to interact with us naturally. However, we still struggle with natural language processing. People don't always realize that the bot is a virtual agent designed to be concise and efficient. Sometimes, less is more. It's been a difficult transition for people to grasp that they're conversing with a virtual agent, not a human. They still expect human-like interactions, such as discussing their weekend or holidays or simply pasting screenshots of errors. However, the bot can't interpret screenshots. If they provide the error code and some context about the application, the bot can better understand the issue. So, the key challenge is bridging the gap between human expectations and the bot's capabilities in terms of natural interaction.
reviewer2688993 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Leverage top-tier automation capabilities while streamlining complex naming conventions
Salesforce Service Cloud offers pre-built packages that are best in class. The automation capabilities have evolved over time, consolidating previous features into Salesforce flows. However, these work best when everything is within Salesforce Service Cloud and everyone has a license. Without an enterprise MuleSoft license, external interactions complicate automation significantly.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is its scalability."
"We have the ability to alter phrases, create new phrases, or enhance phrases, or change paths. From the dashboard, we are able to get a lot of information we need about what people are asking, where they are dropping off from conversations, and where they do not get the information they need."
"When it comes to neutral language processing and conversational AI, it's very good, very solid... We all have different ways of speaking or writing in English and the application does a very solid job of recognizing what's being asked regardless of how it's being asked."
"Its ability to recognize phrases has gotten smarter over time."
"I like Expressive Barista's integration with Microsoft Teams."
"With respect to its natural language processing capabilities, it recognizes things that you wouldn't think it would recognize. Even in cases where it doesn't, it's pretty easy to go in and make the adjustments that are needed."
"Our developers have used the Barista Control Center to extend the platform by adding content, and they've found it fairly easy to do and manage"
"The solution is available to support us instantly as required."
"The plug-ins that work with other standard systems have made the product industry-ready."
"The three major pillars of Salesforce Service Cloud are the SSL, Chatter, and the Dispatcher Console, which routes calls to the technicians."
"The interface is quite user-friendly."
"The main benefit of Salesforce Service Cloud is that everything is in the cloud. We can track the entire customer journey from lead to account or opportunity. The CRM is in the cloud, while the financial transactions are in NetSuite. By integrating these applications, we get a complete view of the business. Some integrations are event-driven, while others are batch integrations that run at scheduled times. We also build reports using our in-house analytics tool to help leadership make decisions."
"The strength lies in its ability to work cohesively with other systems, creating a centralized hub that enhances efficiency and collaboration across various functionalities within our organization."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the traceability of actions."
"Nobody can compete with Salesforce Service Cloud's scalability."
"The most valuable feature of Salesforce Service Cloud is its very good workflow engine, and customization is quite easy; you can add your own tools and your own extensions of Salesforce, making it very end-user friendly from a technology point of view, even for technical developers who can implement it easily."
 

Cons

"I would like to see the continued expansion of all of the automation capabilities."
"Expressive Barista could improve by adding native integration with WhatsApp, one of the top communication channels in South Africa. When we're trying to sell Barista to customers, we have to tell them that the solution doesn't have out-of-the-box support for WhatsApp. We can develop it, but then we need to have a conversation about how much that will cost."
"My only comment would be if they wanted to use this as an IT service management tool, maybe they could think about Barista making tickets and having change management and problem management capabilities."
"Espressive Barista's natural language processing and conventional AI still have room for improvement."
"Although they've done some work on their metrics dashboard, there is some fine-tuning to do for people that just want to go in there at a glance and see their metrics."
"The reports provided by the solution are not customizable."
"I would like to see improvement to the out-of-the-box verbiage, with the questions going to the right place."
"The knowledge management could definitely be improved."
"One minor drawback is that its implementation requires some preparation. It's not something you can implement instantly; it takes time. The only issue I've encountered is that you need to ensure the implementation is done properly, which can be time-consuming. So, it requires some time and attention."
"Reporting could be improved."
"The pricing for what Salesforce Service Cloud offers is not great."
"Salesforce Service Cloud's report functionality could be improved."
"Salesforce should include maps as a default offering so that, as a customer, I can view where the technician is on the geographical map."
"The integrations with other solutions can be improved."
"The solution's integration with the main ERP is a little cumbersome."
"I would like to add some bot features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is affordable."
"The pricing isn't overly burdensome. It's going to be interesting to see how new models come in with new capabilities but, as it is, as a base system, it's pretty good."
"User-based licensing has been working well for us, and we believe we are deriving significant value from it."
"It is expensive. It's not a cheap thing."
"The price for the licensing is fair."
"The solution is priced at 50 dollars a month per user."
"Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive. I worked with ExactTarget over five years ago, and it was quite pricey then. Not everyone could afford it. Salesforce has different tiers for different kinds of users. It's expensive considering their features and services, but they offer best-in-class solutions."
"The price of the solution depends on how many users need access to it"
"The price is too expensive."
"Salesforce Service Cloud is a highly expensive solution"
"We pay a yearly licensing fee for Salesforce Service Cloud, which is expensive."
"Only enterprise businesses can afford the solution, and small companies cannot afford it."
"Salesforce is very cost-effective."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
26%
Retailer
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
University
9%
Performing Arts
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Service Cloud?
I do not have any knowledge of the cost regarding Salesforce Service Cloud.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Service Cloud?
I face challenges with Salesforce Service Cloud because it requires and is difficult to customize. It could be better in areas such as media; it does not handle media effectively, particularly with...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Service Cloud?
I am not a user, partner, reseller, or implementer as we implemented it ourselves. We do SLA management through Salesforce Service Cloud, which is the role of Service Analytics.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Service Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Stanley Black & Decker, Coca-Cola, Activision, Wells Fargo, Spotify, Aldo, Philips, The Red Cross, Blue Shield of California, Sprouts Farmers Market, Direct Energy Solar, Inspirato, Kiva
Find out what your peers are saying about Espressive Barista vs. Salesforce Service Cloud and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.