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Freshsales 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
6.2
Freshsales increases ROI through automation, efficient contact management, improved lead qualification, and enhanced customer interaction tracking.
Sentiment score
8.0
Salesforce Essentials offers good ROI with easy implementation, accelerating sales and benefits realized in about three years.
We have saved a good amount of money compared to other CRMs such as Salesforce and HubSpot, which have much higher costs.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
I have also increased my overall sales by about 25% after the introduction of Freshsales because I am having more qualified leads than before with the help of Freshsales.
Product Marketing Manager at Samsung
Fewer employees are required based on the automation that we created.
Associate Technology Consultant 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
5.9
Freshsales' customer service is praised for expertise and 24/7 availability, though some report slow responses in complex cases.
Sentiment score
6.3
Salesforce Essentials offers responsive service with minimal issues; users praise its reliability and effective customer support.
The customer support experience is wonderful, providing 24/7 availability with knowledgeable agents who can effectively address issues.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
They are very knowledgeable, very dedicated, and very prompt, which is something that I appreciate.
Product Marketing Manager at Samsung
Freshsales does not require any maintenance on my end, but the vendor provides maintenance.
Business Ai Enabled Services Lead at a government 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
7.4
Freshsales is highly scalable for startups, with easy user additions, though enterprise-level performance and process configuration can be challenging.
Sentiment score
6.9
Salesforce Essentials is highly scalable, supporting diverse teams from small to large, and is praised for easy user addition.
Freshsales offers excellent scalability for startups and mid-sized companies.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
I can multiply it multifold very quickly and very easily.
Business Ai Enabled Services Lead at a government with 11-50 employees
Freshsales is very easy to scale.
Product Marketing Manager at Samsung
It is one of the most scalable systems available.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Freshsales is praised for its stability, reliability, quick issue resolution, and 24/7 support, even handling large data loads efficiently.
Sentiment score
7.6
Salesforce Essentials is highly stable and available, with few bugs or downtimes, though occasional automation delays occur.
Being a cloud solution, I have not faced any downtime so far.
Product Marketing Manager at Samsung
Freshsales is stable, with no server crashes reported.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Freshsales stability is good.
Business Ai Enabled Services Lead at a government with 11-50 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

Freshsales needs better reporting, customization, support, and user-friendliness, with improvements in pricing, email features, and data management.
Salesforce Essentials struggles with integration, UI, and pricing, needing improvements in analytics, mobile interface, and automation features.
It takes at least a month or 45 days to set this up, process it properly, and check whether the automations and workflows are working.
Business Ai Enabled Services Lead at a government with 11-50 employees
Practical navigation for non-technical users could be enhanced, particularly regarding technical issues such as web form connections, which would benefit from immediate access to technical assistance.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
The support provided by the service team or fresh service team and the customer team of the company is very poor.
Solutions Architect at Locuz Enterprise Solutions Ltd
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

Freshsales provides flexible and affordable pricing with scalable options, offering cost-effective solutions compared to competitors, despite potential add-on costs.
Salesforce Essentials licensing is costly but valued for flexibility and add-ons, with some finding additional professional expenses burdensome.
the Indian team was clear in their communication and offered good discount packages, along with a pre-onboarding call that provided valuable insights into using the software.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
The setup cost is very good and within the budget.
Associate Technology Consultant 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

Freshsales provides automated workflows, AI insights, customizable CRM, and integrations, suiting diverse businesses with 24/7 support and scalability.
Salesforce Essentials offers robust features and user-friendly design but may be costly for some businesses.
The Sales Sequence feature significantly helps my workflow by enabling an account manager to contact a large list of customers quickly and efficiently, sending out emails with minimal manual effort, while also providing critical statistics about email engagement, which aids in improving outreach strategies.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
In a massive sales campaign, once it is sent, the next level of engagement can be tracked based on email tracking, such as how many were received or if they were opened multiple times.
Operations Manager at Cognitive Global
The Freddy AI feature in Freshsales helps me generate the email content easily, and there are also many built-in templates available.
Product Marketing Manager at Samsung
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

Freshsales
Ranking in CRM
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (7th), Opportunity Management (8th), Sales Force Automation (5th)
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 Freshsales is 1.1%, up from 1.1% 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 (%)
Freshsales1.1%
Salesforce Essentials0.6%
Other98.3%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Sumesh Gansar - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Marketing Manager at Samsung
Centralized CRM has given me a 360-degree view and helps me run smarter, AI-driven sales campaigns
One thing that Freshsales can improve is making it much easier because it is not quite easy for everybody to get a grasp of the entire CRM software. It is quite vast and quite complex. Perhaps more knowledge-based documents can be introduced. Apart from that, I do not have any major complaints. The integration in Freshsales is quite good because it is easily integratable with many other Freshworks software as well as with third-party solutions. The integration is quite good. Perhaps in the reporting feature, it takes some time to process the reports due to the amount of data that it handles. Apart from that, I do not have any major complaints with Freshsales so far.
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
16%
Comms Service Provider
16%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
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 Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Freshsales?
One thing that Freshsales can improve is making it much easier because it is not quite easy for everybody to get a grasp of the entire CRM software. It is quite vast and quite complex. Perhaps more...
What is your primary use case for Freshsales?
I primarily use Freshsales as a sales CRM software. It is very easy to use, and it provides me with all the information I need about a contact. That is, it gives me a 360-degree view of my accounts...
What advice do you have for others considering Freshsales?
One thing that made it stand out for me is the inbuilt templates that it has for email generation, and I get an AI-powered score for the contact. I call it contact scoring. It gives me a score for ...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Caratlane, Pykih, Buying Show, INTUO, WallyPark, Exploring Vacations, Raved, Forest, Ascendore, MagePlaza, Vacasa,
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Find out what your peers are saying about Freshsales vs. Salesforce Essentials and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.