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Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud vs Zoho CRM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.2
Users report substantial ROI from Microsoft Dynamics CRM through better sales, customer retention, and enhanced operational efficiency.
Sentiment score
6.7
Salesforce Sales Cloud boosts data visibility, efficiency, team collaboration, and productivity, enhancing nonprofits' fundraising and grant competitiveness.
Sentiment score
5.3
Zoho CRM increases sales by 10-15%, improves productivity, saves time, and boosts ROI by automating processes and tasks.
Salesforce Sales Cloud is a fantastic tool but requires disciplined data entry by sales personnel and operations teams to maintain data quality.
We are not just implementing Salesforce Sales Cloud; we need to understand what the customer wants to achieve in 5 to 10 years.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.5
Microsoft Dynamics CRM support experiences vary, with praise for responsiveness but concerns about contact difficulty and expertise in complex cases.
Sentiment score
7.0
Salesforce Sales Cloud's support is efficient and helpful when paid, but free support is slow and basic.
Sentiment score
6.7
Zoho CRM feedback varies, with satisfaction hinging on responsiveness, availability, and expertise, prompting desires for improved service.
I would rate customer support as ten out of ten.
While the support operates within their standard SLA, it can be difficult to speak directly with someone over the phone.
Sometimes the technical support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not qualified enough, and in some situations, we know the tool better than they do.
Support requires a subscription and when taken, the service is pretty nice.
Sometimes, they don't understand what my actual needs are.
The 1.5 deduction from 10 is due to cultural communication differences based on where we're getting the support, as sometimes it takes a couple of times to communicate clearly enough for them to understand the issue.
There are multiple blogs and articles available online for self-help.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is scalable, integrates widely, adapts to changing needs, but may face integration challenges and cost considerations.
Sentiment score
7.7
Salesforce Sales Cloud is scalable and adaptable across organizations but faces challenges with performance and licensing impact on scalability.
Sentiment score
7.8
Zoho CRM is scalable, integrates easily, and is favored by growing businesses despite potential limitations for larger companies.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is highly scalable, rated at ten, even fifteen out of ten.
I would give it a ten out of ten for scalability.
Salesforce is highly scalable and operates efficiently.
Salesforce Sales Cloud is totally cloud native, requiring no additional effort for scalability.
The system is easy to understand, implement coding, and conduct training.
Zoho CRM is quite scalable; I have worked with clients who started with ten companies and have scaled up to managing 500 employees effectively within Zoho CRM.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is stable, reliable, and well-rated, with minor issues addressed through updates, suiting medium to large businesses.
Sentiment score
8.1
Salesforce Sales Cloud is stable and reliable, with high ratings, minor issues from configuration, and occasional performance slowdowns with large datasets.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zoho CRM is stable and reliable, favored by small to mid-scale enterprises, despite rare instances of downtime.
I would rate it ten out of ten.
Salesforce Sales Cloud is very stable.
I have not experienced any degradation in Salesforce's performance.
I find Zoho CRM to be 100% stable and reliable as far as I know.
I would rate the stability of Zoho CRM as a nine.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Dynamics CRM requires enhancements in usability, customization, integration, cost-effectiveness, automation, and support for small businesses.
Salesforce Sales Cloud is complex and expensive, with user interface, integration, scalability, and customization challenges impacting usability.
Zoho CRM needs improvements in customization, integration, scalability, and support, with enhanced automation and AI features to boost user experience.
More use-case-oriented material should be provided to help users and implementers learn how to do more, faster.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM needs improvement in simplifying the setup and configuration process, which can be relatively complex when we want all features to work properly.
Compared to AWS, it is slower, which could be a hindrance.
With today's generative AI capabilities like ChatGPT, it should be possible to directly communicate with the software rather than navigating through the entire system manually.
The platform does not save code versions similar to GitHub, where you can compare new versions with previous ones.
Some organizations may prefer not to have their data on the internet since Zoho CRM runs as a cloud service.
The main improvement needed for Zoho CRM is introducing SQL code for reports, similar to what's in Zoho Analytics.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is costly yet valued for comprehensive features, with prices influenced by users, licensing, and deployment type.
Salesforce Sales Cloud is costly but valued for ROI, with pricing varying by edition and negotiable for discounts.
Zoho CRM provides flexible pricing options, starting at $20 per user, with advanced and comprehensive plan packages available.
The pricing of Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be complex due to Microsoft's complicated licensing model.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM costs about $110 to $115 per user per month, following a recent price increase.
Without negotiation, costs can become expensive.
This happened for the first time because of the new CEO, Arundhati, who revolutionized pricing strategies, allowing discounts of 60-70% for Salesforce Sales Cloud in India.
I would rate the price for Salesforce Sales Cloud as a three, where one is a high price.
Zoho CRM and all of Zoho's software are quite affordable because they are specifically designed for small and medium businesses.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers easy customization, integration, and features for enhanced business processes, valued for scalability and cost-effectiveness.
Salesforce Sales Cloud enhances sales efficiency with customization, integration, automation, and analytics, appealing to organizations seeking seamless processes.
Zoho CRM offers flexibility, integration, customization, and analytics, enhancing lead management, collaboration, and automation for diverse business needs.
The backend storage integrates seamlessly with OneDrive, and the solution offers robust security features, including Azure integration, two-factor authentication (2FA), and comprehensive audit trails.
The CRM is very fast, which is the most important aspect, and it's very handy.
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is its integration with Outlook and other Microsoft products like Microsoft 365, which includes emails, Teams, and SharePoint.
Its easy-to-navigate interface aids in delivering clear vision and organization, especially for sales and business management.
The Einstein Analytics and the inbuilt reporting are very useful for keeping track of pipeline movement.
The biggest benefit of the Salesforce Sales Cloud is a centralized point, a centralized source of truth for customer-related information; you centralize all the information in a single database, and that's the biggest benefit.
The most valuable aspect of CRMs, including Zoho CRM, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics, is automation capabilities.
You can customize everything—what you sell, be it products, services, or projects.
The most valuable features of Zoho CRM so far include Deluge script, which are custom functions, workflows which are mostly used while creating flows, and custom layouts which are used when adding extra fields or validations.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is 9.9%, down from 13.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Sales Cloud is 8.1%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho CRM is 3.1%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.9%
Salesforce Sales Cloud8.1%
Zoho CRM3.1%
Other78.9%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Pawel-Gawronski - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlining resource management and improving project insights with helpful support
The deployment of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is easy because it's a software as a service, which eliminates the need to deploy anything in our data center. It has improved the verification of value streams by mapping projects to products and demonstrating the total cost of ownership. This automation significantly impacts daily operations by reducing the time spent on manual tasks and improving the quality and delivery time.
Kamal Deep - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience exceptional project enhancements and seamless automation integration
Salesforce Sales Cloud itself is a wonderful solution, and there are two different versions: Lightning and classic. The Lightning version is a new generation version compatible with any mobile device, whether it's a phone, iPad, or any size of screen. The reporting and analytics functionalities, especially with the Einstein feature, are wonderful because it allows for analysis of data regarding your opportunity pipeline, giving insight into how long it will take to close deals. This gives a great understanding of running different levels of campaigns and defining smart workflows, where if one task is done, the other task can automatically get created and assigned to different team members. This flexibility is a key benefit of Salesforce Sales Cloud. Lead management is a great feature in Salesforce Sales Cloud because if you go for enterprise and above licenses, you can define different record types. For example, if one company is into two different businesses such as real estate and car reselling, both being opposite, this can be defined in Salesforce Sales Cloud, allowing for different workflows, fields, and mechanisms that do not affect each other's operations. The predictive insight feature known as forecasting is a very old feature of Salesforce Sales Cloud, giving predictions based on your pipeline and previous opportunity closings. The new Einstein analytics feature is more advanced and is enabled with AI, providing better forecasting based on your current pipeline. Salesforce Sales Cloud is working smartly with AI to help close more deals based on opportunity stages, trends, and industries, advising on the steps to take next. Lead generation is the most important thing because every sale starts from the lead. At the lead level, different stages and resources can be defined. You can capture leads from various resources, with Salesforce Sales Cloud offering a web-to-lead feature and integrations with LinkedIn to fetch data. Once a lead is qualified and converted into opportunities, there are stages with percentages, and workflows can help in easily closing deals.
Romani Labib - PeerSpot reviewer
Customization options empower workflow management, though support understanding can be enhanced
Currently, I am still working with Azure and I use the Azure products for my current work. I use Azure Active Directory. I don't use products like App Service from Azure or Azure Logic Apps, Front Door, but I think it's very straightforward. Once I take the first step to use Azure, I can track myself to use another application, program, or module in Azure. I use Office 365 because we actually have Exchange mail server 2019 on premises. In the last few months, I upgraded from Exchange on premise to use Office 365, which is faster, easier to troubleshoot, and more secure. I use Remote Desktop Services (RDS) as the best solution because I make a private server in my data center room. I have many users that need to access the internet, so I don't join the server to my domain because if I have any malware or other attacks, I can resolve it easily without any damage to my internal network. Microsoft RDS is more user-friendly and easier to use compared to RDS from Azure Microsoft or another provider. I purchase Microsoft Remote Desktop Services directly from Microsoft. I have had an MCSE and Microsoft account for 15 years. I work with SharePoint and Exchange, which are famous applications through Microsoft and Office 365. For daily tasks, I use Microsoft tools and Linux tools because I have applications like CRM, ERP, and HRM running over CentOS, an operating system by Linux. Regarding CentOS, in Egypt, we have issues paying for things from the internet, especially due to the large margin between US dollars and Egyptian pounds. CentOS is totally free from the internet, so I create ISO and install it on the server to use all features, policies, and security modules. Currently, I use 3CX as voice solutions, and Asterisk is the Linux platform I use, along with firewalls by Linux called pfSense. All data centers in my company have products between Microsoft and Linux systems. For DNS, I use deDNS to make remote access or subdomains from deDNS organization. Sometimes, I pay for a main domain from HostGator and re-route the domain to my data centers. Based on other competitors, I would rate Zoho CRM's price as a five, as it has a middle-range price compared to others. Overall, I rate Zoho CRM a seven out of ten.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
6%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business40
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business54
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise40
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Dynamics CRM?
The most valuable features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM are all the filters and possible reports.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Dynamics CRM?
Microsoft Dynamics CRM needs to be improved in the visibility of add-on costs for end users, which can sometimes be t...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Dynamics CRM?
I use Microsoft Dynamics CRM in my day-to-day customer management tasks. Our usual use cases for Microsoft Dynamics C...
What do you like most about Salesforce Sales Cloud?
The features of Sales Cloud most useful for testing and running email campaigns are highly valuable.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Sales Cloud?
With today's generative AI capabilities like ChatGPT ( /products/chatgpt-reviews ), it should be possible to directly...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Sales Cloud?
I generally use Salesforce Sales Cloud ( /products/salesforce-sales-cloud-reviews ) for our sales process, setting up...
What do you like most about Zoho CRM?
Zoho CRM integrates easily with customer service workflows.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoho CRM?
I rate the pricing as a five out of ten, as it offers good value for money.
What needs improvement with Zoho CRM?
The UX for the product in general is probably below standard compared to some of the other CRMs.
 

Also Known As

Dynamics CRM, MS Dynamics CRM
Sales Cloud, SFDC, Salesforce
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Metro Bank, Nissan, Pandora, Delta, Haynes International, City of London, Trek and many more market leaders.
Coca-Cola Enterprises, Kuoni Global Travel Services, Financial Times, Just Eat, Jobsite, H.R. Owen, PlayerLayer, O2, DMGT, Philips, Xtreme.ie, Business Stream, Remote Asset Management, Dialogue Group
JetHub, Anderson Sales Advantage, ActionCoach, Milagro Advisory Group, TECO Pneumatic, Proteomics Consult
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and others in CRM. Updated: August 2025.
865,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.