Pipedrive vs Salesforce Essentials comparison

Pipedrive and Salesforce are both solutions in the CRM category. Pipedrive is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.1, while Salesforce is ranked #17 with an average rating of 7.8. Pipedrive holds a 1.1% mindshare in CRM, compared to Salesforce’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 78% of Pipedrive users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Pipedrive

Read 13 Pipedrive reviews

692 Views
288 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

Salesforce Essentials

Read 13 Salesforce Essentials reviews

108 Views
55 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Pipedrive

Salesforce Essentials

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Pipedrive and Salesforce Essentials are strong contenders in the CRM market for small to medium businesses. Pipedrive is favored for its pricing and flexibility, while Salesforce Essentials is recognized for its advanced features and robust integration capabilities.

Features: Pipedrive provides valuable customization options, facilitating easy management of sales processes with a user-friendly interface. It supports defining custom data fields, applying automation, and delivering insightful reporting. Salesforce Essentials offers a comprehensive platform with Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, integrating finance and customer support seamlessly while leveraging AI for enhanced customer segmentation and management.

Room for Improvement: Pipedrive could enhance its integration capabilities and offer more comprehensive documentation, particularly for reporting. Its automation, especially in campaign management, could also be improved. Salesforce Essentials users point out a need for better integration with complex ERP systems, improved reporting features, and more flexible licensing options for small teams, along with a UI better suited for non-native English speakers.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Pipedrive offers deployment in Public and Private Cloud environments with generally positive user feedback on its technical support, despite some noted delays. Salesforce Essentials supports On-premises deployments and multiple cloud options, providing solid customer service, though response times can be inconsistent. Both platforms have effective customer engagement, although initial interactions via chatbots may be less satisfactory.

Pricing and ROI: Pipedrive is celebrated for its cost-effectiveness, presenting competitive features at a lower price, ideal for smaller companies. Salesforce Essentials is perceived as more expensive, offering extensive features that may justify the cost for larger teams. However, its pricing model, while reflective of premium features, may deter smaller businesses due to higher costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Pipedrive vs. Salesforce Essentials Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Pipedrive vs. Salesforce Essentials

April 2025

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Helped 849,963 peers since 2012

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

Pipedrive

Ranking in CRM

16th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Local Government CRM (5th), Opportunity Management (5th), Sales Force Automation (6th)

Salesforce Essentials

Ranking in CRM

17th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Pipedrive is 1.1%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Essentials is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CRM

Featured Reviews

Vykintas Arlauskas

CTO, Retal Group at RETAL

An easy- to- use and scalable cloud-based CRM tool for managing and tracking

I have noticed that Pipedrive is doing a lot in terms of web cybersecurity and integration with other tools, which is good. However, we haven't integrated it with our ERP system yet, so that might pose a challenge. We'll have to see how it goes. The Integration with artificial intelligence should be available in the next release. In future releases, I would like to have a highly intelligent integration service where you can easily connect PipeDrive with other tools, even if you are not a developer. Perhaps, in the future, this could be achieved through artificial intelligence.

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Srini-Dhanaraj

Founder & CEO at imfine.club

Manages service requests and dispatches engineers to resolve issues

I work from home for a heater manufacturing company. They wanted to move away from their current SAP CRM system to Salesforce. There is a fulfillment process, which involves taking an order, delivering it, and providing service. Salesforce is used to manage the order-taking process. Once an order is taken, the backend system, SAP ERP, handles product manufacturing, delivery, and installation. After installation, the Service Cloud in Salesforce takes over for ongoing service management. Once your order is confirmed, integration with the SAP ERP backend will be seamless. The system takes the sales order from Salesforce and starts processing it for procurement, starting with creating a production order, manufacturing, and then delivery. Once the product is delivered, this information is passed back to Salesforce Service Cloud. In the Service Cloud, a service engineer receives a notification indicating that a product needs to be delivered to a specific location for installation. The engineer then inspects and installs the product at the designated site. SAP ERP manages the product manufacturing and delivery processes. After the product is delivered to the customer, Salesforce Service Cloud takes over. It manages service requests and dispatches engineers to resolve issues reported by customers. Service Cloud captures the information and creates an incident record when a customer reports a product fault. Engineers receive this information and promptly visit the client site to fix the issue. The solution is easy to implement. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The biggest and the best feature is the view that you get when you log in. You have a board like Kanban when you log in, and you've got a column on the left and several other columns that move to the right, depending on where you are in a particular deal. If it's a prospect or someone who is just looking, you move it along the process, and it really helps you keep track of where you are."

"The solution is pretty easy to use and intuitive."

"Pipedrive makes it easy to understand who I'm talking to at a glance. It has all the activities, node features, opportunity interface, deal interface, and time drive deals.The sales process is extremely simple, which saves me time and energy. I can send the document for e-signature and make the most out of my deals. I can automatically send emails and phone calls. You need to do only a little API programming. It offers massive flexibility. You can run an entire enterprise on the platform. The ease of use facilitates huge adoption."

"Pipedrive's most valuable feature is reporting and insights. The CRM shows the database and lets the salespeople arrange their daily activities. The insights are essential from a management point of view because it helps the sales staff improve or adjust their whole sales cycle, activities, and quality."

"The most useful stuff for me is that it's very flexible with all the data structures...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"The usability of the solution is its valuable feature."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"It's very flexible and we can really fit it into our business model."

More Pipedrive pros

"The solution helps to track the performance of salespersons before closing deals."

"The product is stable."

"Salesforce makes tracking every product and customer activity easy, enabling managers to monitor their products, such as key products and their peak performance."

"I can download the data to Excel, create tables, and do whatever I want. I am very comfortable with the tool's mobile application. Its main benefit is transparency because I can share it with representatives."

"I've found the product's basic AI functionalities, such as predictive analytics and workflow automation useful for optimizing processes and improving productivity."

"High availability is really important for us when getting our reports as a vendor."

"The solution is very scalable and flexible. It can be customized as per the business need."

"The most important feature is how Salesforce Essentials brings together information from multiple channels. The nature of our complex custom product data has been challenging due to our manufacturing nature. Salesforce also allowed business processes like finance, credit lines, customer complaints, and quality issues to integrate seamlessly. I haven’t used the mobile app functionality, because we haven't fully utilized because of our preferance of more personal interactions over using mobile apps."

More Salesforce Essentials pros

Cons

"The platform could be even more robust."

"The integration possibilities with other systems could be better as well. We use it in connection with Octopus CRM, and there's room for improvement."

"Reporting capabilities of the solution could be improved."

"New features sometimes seem bolted on rather than being smooth."

"The product is expensive."

"We are using the lowest version of it. As we become more sophisticated, we might outgrow the tool, but there are features that are available in the higher-level versions, which I'm unfamiliar with, that might be able to meet the needs we would have in the future. They can maybe add some of the features to the basic version or make it more reasonably priced or free."

"The tool's APIs are challenging. It should also be compliant with HIPAA, FINRA and GLBA. The data centers should be within US so that they are compliant with regulations."

"The form builder works even though it has some shortcomings...Also, the forms don't have the ability to avoid or stop people from signing up if they don't have a corporate email."

More Pipedrive cons

"When we use mixed languages, it can be uncomfortable because there seems to be no consideration for right-to-left speakers. It feels like these tools were developed by people who only speak left-to-right languages and didn't consider other language types' needs."

"Integrating Salesforce with SAP, considering our business relies heavily on SAP for ERP, has been quite challenging due to the intricate product configurations. Unlike standard products like computers with a few options, our products have hundreds of configurable options, making the integration complex. If such integration were possible, it would have been easier to understand the unique nature of our industry and the limited number of customers who buy steel products, unlike consumer electronics."

"Less integration would be better. It should work independently."

"The primary area for improvement in Salesforce Essentials is its pricing. There are other competitors, like Zoho CRM, that offer similar features at a lower cost."

"Improvements in connectivity issues, especially for the online version, would enhance the user experience for the product."

"I have seen Salesforce evaluate a lot of AI and analytics into that. But as an end user, I don’t have that much input."

"The solution needs to be more user-friendly. It's difficult for a senior to track leads when a salesperson uploads leads. The solution should also improve its integration capabilities."

"The solution's UI is not user-friendly."

More Salesforce Essentials cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Pipedrive has been reasonable."

"As of now, the pricing and value are quite good."

"Pipedrive is the most cost-effective in terms of the balance between cost and features. I would take Pipedrive over HubSpot or Zoho CRM. It's well-positioned on the market."

"The solution is affordable."

"We pay $1000 a month for the tool."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price, two or three. For us, everything is expensive because this is a startup, but for a normal company, it should be peanuts."

"Pipedrive is relatively more affordable than other solutions."

"The solution's pricing is excellant. It costs 65 dollars a month for top tier plan."

More Pipedrive pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is on the higher side, especially with additional costs for professional services like consultants."

"Salesforce Essentials is quite expensive, almost 10 out of 10. I don't have the exact cost, but we found it to be very expensive based on our budget constraints."

"The tool is moderately priced."

"We chose quarterly payments."

"I rate Salesforce Essentials' pricing an eight out of ten."

"The pricing is a bit on the expensive side."

"It's a perpetual license, and the subscription can be expensive."

"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

57%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pipedrive?

The most valuable feature is the ability to create timelines and custom fields.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pipedrive?

The pricing is satisfactory.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pipedrive?

New features sometimes seem bolted on rather than being smooth.

See all answers

What do you like most about Salesforce Essentials?

Salesforce provides the best they have with the current version. Most of the features we need are already there, and it's very easy to use.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Essentials?

The costs associated with Salesforce Essentials are substantial, which is a drawback compared to competitors who offer similar services for less.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Salesforce Essentials?

The primary area for improvement in Salesforce Essentials is its pricing. There are other competitors, like Zoho CRM ( /products/zoho-crm-reviews ), that offer similar features at a lower cost. Sal...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pipedrive

April 2025

Download Pipedrive product report

Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Essentials

April 2025

Download Salesforce Essentials product report

Also Known As

PipelineDeals

No data available

Overview

Pipedrive CRM, a SOC 2 Certified Service Provider, is built around activity-based selling. It ensures total visibility through its Pipeline Management tool with a clear visual interface that prompts you to take action, remain organized and stay in control of a complex sales process, Sales Reporting that provides visual report, understands pipeline metrics, tracks and tests sales process and shows sales split by product. Pipedrive CRM boosts productivity, optimizes the Sales Process, It has an import/export feature that safeguards against human error. It is fully customizable, has multiple usage possibilities and can automatically creates contacts in your pipeline.

Pipedrive

Salesforce Essentials is a cloud-based CRM tool for businesses seeking flexible, scalable, and customizable solutions to enhance sales and customer support processes.

Designed for seamless integration across multiple channels, Salesforce Essentials includes Sales and Service Cloud to simplify sales tasks and customer management. It enhances finance, credit, and quality processes with user-friendly AI capabilities and predictive analytics. Despite its strengths, there is room for improvement in SAP integration, interface simplicity, and report generation. Cost-effectiveness and support for diverse languages are also potential upgrade areas. Businesses use this CRM solution for lead management, opportunity tracking, and automating sales workflows, transitioning from paper-based methods to digital efficiency.

What are the essential features of Salesforce Essentials?

Scalability and Flexibility: Accommodates growth and customization needs.
Multiple Channel Integration: Enhances finance and quality processes.
User-Friendly: Easy navigation with AI capabilities.
Cloud Deployment: Includes Sales and Service Cloud features.
Predictive Analytics: Improves productivity and tracking.
Mobile App Support: Facilitates on-the-go access and management.

What benefits or ROI can users expect from Salesforce Essentials?

Improved Productivity: Automation features save time and streamline tasks.
Enhanced Customer Management: Centralizes interaction and data handling.
Ease of Transition: From manual to automated workflows.
Performance Monitoring: Standardizes processes for better oversight.

In the retail industry, businesses employ Salesforce Essentials for customer data management and transparency in order processing. Healthcare providers use it for patient engagement and streamlined communication. Financial services utilize it for billing management and compliance, harnessing automation tools for efficient data handling.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Samsung, Amazon, SkyScanner, TDW, Vimeo, ReMax, Festo

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Pipedrive vs. Salesforce Essentials

April 2025

Free Report: Pipedrive vs. Salesforce Essentials

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