Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs Salesforce Service Cloud vs Zendesk 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
6.5
Salesforce Service Cloud achieves 135% ROI by enhancing efficiency, productivity, and service business, despite implementation costs.
Sentiment score
6.7
Zendesk enhances organizational efficiency and productivity, reducing costs despite licensing fees, with varied but significant financial benefits.
Salesforce Service Cloud requires significant maintenance effort to see ROI.
 

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
5.6
Salesforce Service Cloud is praised for helpful support and community, despite some critiques on initial response and proactiveness.
Sentiment score
6.3
Zendesk excels in responsiveness and issue resolution, though reliance on documentation may delay human support replies.
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.
Salesforce directly does not give you the support, and it is through the partner that you have to go, leading to some time delays.
Unless you have premium support, assistance is restricted.
Their support team from Zendesk is excellent, similar to what you have in Freshdesk.
The technical support provided by Zendesk has been very satisfactory.
 

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
8.1
Salesforce Service Cloud offers exceptional scalability for enterprise growth, handling increased users and transactions seamlessly across industries.
Sentiment score
7.4
Zendesk scales well for various team sizes; praised for customization, integration, though challenges include data backup and departmental customization.
I would give it a ten out of ten for scalability.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is highly scalable, rated at ten, even fifteen out of ten.
Salesforce Service Cloud is the most advanced in scalability, rating around nine to ten.
Nobody can compete with Salesforce Service Cloud's scalability.
Zendesk can scale from very small companies to very large ones.
The scalability of Zendesk is still in the same range as Freshdesk.
 

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
7.9
Salesforce Service Cloud is highly stable, reliable, quickly resolves issues, and is positively rated across industries for dependability.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zendesk is stable and reliable, despite occasional outages, making it ideal for small businesses and startups globally.
I would rate it ten out of ten.
We rarely encounter stability issues with Salesforce Service Cloud, although when they occur, they cause significant disruption.
The stability has been quite reliable.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Dynamics CRM requires enhancements in usability, customization, integration, cost-effectiveness, automation, and support for small businesses.
Salesforce Service Cloud requires improvements in email integration, UI/UX, reporting, analytics, and cost efficiency for better user experience.
Zendesk users face challenges with interface clumsiness, slow performance, customization, integration, and pricing, affecting overall usability and efficiency.
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.
Salesforce Service Cloud should focus on simplification.
Configuring Flows in Salesforce Service Cloud is very difficult.
The pricing of Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive compared to other solutions like our current SAP CRM, which is much cheaper.
There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is costly yet valued for comprehensive features, with prices influenced by users, licensing, and deployment type.
Salesforce Service Cloud is seen as costly but negotiable, with user-based pricing offering potential ROI through strategic use.
Zendesk pricing varies, perceived as high, but offers value and flexibility; negotiation advised for larger teams to optimize costs.
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.
The approximate licensing costs for Salesforce Service Cloud are around three hundred dollars a year per user.
Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive.
It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers easy customization, integration, and features for enhanced business processes, valued for scalability and cost-effectiveness.
Salesforce Service Cloud is praised for customization, integration, automation, user-friendliness, scalability, and features enhancing productivity and visibility.
Zendesk offers user-friendly integration, robust features, and valuable tools, enhancing efficiency and streamlining customer support processes effectively.
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.
I can also create fields and customize them according to my needs.
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.
Salesforce Service Cloud offers pre-built packages that are best in class.
Salesforce Service Cloud improved our organization with its mobile capabilities.
Clients gain productivity and save time with Salesforce Service Cloud.
It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.
The benefits I have seen from using Zendesk include faster response times.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the CRM Customer Engagement Centers category, the mindshare of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is 19.1%, down from 25.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Service Cloud is 13.7%, down from 17.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 6.9%, down from 7.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Customer Engagement Centers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Salesforce Service Cloud13.7%
Microsoft Dynamics CRM19.1%
Zendesk6.9%
Other60.300000000000004%
CRM Customer Engagement Centers
 

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.
MARIA PILAR CANDA - PeerSpot reviewer
Improved customer service and post-sales support saves time
The solution could be more affordable as it's quite expensive for some organizations, particularly middle-sized companies. Additionally, finding technical talent for improving the solution is challenging. Configuring Flows in Salesforce Service Cloud is very difficult. There are very few technical people in the market capable of implementing all the flows that clients need at this moment. It's primarily a matter of talent limitation, and flow is the technical mechanism of Salesforce Service Cloud for process automation. In general, while they have the knowledge and help solve problems, finding the right person to address specific issues is very challenging.
JohanSkibdahl - PeerSpot reviewer
Automating customer support with advanced AI capabilities and seamless communication
Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls. It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities. This intelligent tool can manage complex queries before users even realize they are interacting with a non-human. Additionally, we have integrated Zendesk with Datto and Klaviyo, enhancing our workflows.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which CRM Customer Engagement Centers solutions are best for your needs.
867,836 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Performing Arts
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Computer Software Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Performing Arts
6%
Educational Organization
6%
 

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 Business19
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise11
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Service Cloud?
The approximate licensing costs for Salesforce Service Cloud are around three hundred dollars a year per user.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Service Cloud?
The solution could be more affordable as it's quite expensive for some organizations, particularly middle-sized compa...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Service Cloud?
We have many clients with Salesforce Service Cloud and numerous use cases. The main use is in the sales area rather t...
What do you like most about Zendesk Support?
I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?
Zendesk's pricing is reasonable. It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for mo...
What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?
I'm going to piggyback on what I said regarding Freshdesk concerning what could be better in Zendesk: incorporate mor...
 

Also Known As

Dynamics CRM, MS Dynamics CRM
Service Cloud
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Metro Bank, Nissan, Pandora, Delta, Haynes International, City of London, Trek and many more market leaders.
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
Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce, Microsoft, ServiceNow and others in CRM Customer Engagement Centers. Updated: September 2025.
867,836 professionals have used our research since 2012.