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Pipedrive 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Pipedrive is 1.2%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Sales Cloud is 8.1%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho CRM is 3.0%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Willem Lambrechts - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers the ability to create multiple pipelines and the flexibility in filtering and reporting
We do a lot of analytics and reporting ourselves. We don't necessarily use all the features that Pipedrive provides, but it's very helpful at least. It has streamlined our deal-closing process. We use it for everything. When we create a lead, we put it into Pipedrive. That lead can be converted into an opportunity, which we manage through our whole pipeline. This includes having all data related to the opportunity in one place. Once the deal is closed, we use Pipedrive to follow up on the invoices until they are paid. We also manage sales commissions and payments to our salespeople through Pipedrive.
Greg-Lythe - PeerSpot reviewer
A feature-rich platform that helps to track sales and gather customer information
My age-old complaint with Salesforce Sales Cloud is that it has to be refreshed because it's a cloud-based system. If you make any updates, you have to refresh and save because you're fundamentally looking at what's running in the cloud. It can be slow since you constantly refresh and save the screen. If you were running a local application, like a local CRM system, as you input anything, it would be more seamless. It's like using Excel—you don't have to save every single time you enter new details into a cell because it knows it's a local copy. With a cloud-based system like the tool, changing requires refreshing and saving, which can be tedious.
AmerKhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Diverse integrations assist in seamlessly aligning marketing efforts with sales tracking
Zoho CRM is flexible due to its integrations, like with Zoho Campaign, helping integrate marketing efforts with CRM processes. It offers a no-cost entry with the ability for three users to use it at no charge, which is beneficial for startups to explore the platform without financial strain. This enables me to start using the platform, handle opportunities, and get a feel before committing financially.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup is straightforward."
"It is a stable platform."
"It's very flexible and we can really fit it into our business model."
"The solution is very stable."
"The usability of the solution is its valuable feature."
"The most useful thing is the ability to create multiple pipelines and the flexibility in filtering and reporting."
"Pipedrive's most valuable features are that you can keep the whole information that's related to managing your sales process and you can customize it easily. The person that we have who is customizing Pipedrive is very junior in means of software development or process development. He can easily use it, anyone can use the solution. It has a very easy user interface to customize your processes and apply them to the Pipedrive process."
"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."
"I find the forecasting the most valuable feature. It's valuable because there are two types of forecasting, customizable and collaborative forecasting."
"It is a very stable solution."
"The ability to work on it from anywhere is most valuable. All you need is a computer, a browser, and an internet connection to access your instance. It can be accessed from anywhere, which is pretty cool and user-friendly."
"The reporting features are useful."
"You can adapt Salesforce for all customer needs."
"Salesforce helps up keep track of candidates."
"Salesforce is such a widespread software in terms of what it can do and its scope. Theoretically, you can run a whole company off of it. There are many valuable features, such as reporting and analytics. You can customize almost the whole environment is what appeals to so many companies the most."
"Salesforce is very user-friendly, which makes it effortless to track business management reports."
"Zoho CRM has a location-based feature where if I'm visiting certain customers in a day, it can indicate to me the most efficient route. However, this is if the location of all the offices or places is updated, it saves my time. The calendar in Zoho CRM is synchronized with Google Calander which is very useful for me."
"The user interface, especially the dashboard, offers good navigation."
"Zoho CRM's best feature is its reporting."
"We use the solution for different projects. We use it to patch lead details from clients' sources."
"Its initial setup process for the cloud-based version is straightforward."
"What I like most about Zoho CRM is its configurability. We can adapt it to our needs in terms of the sales process. It has automation capabilities, but we mostly use it as a static system, except for sending emails and information about updated products."
"One of the most important features is that it's a cloud base and, it's also quite cheaper when compared to other solutions. Zoho CRM is customizable as per your requirement and, the Zoho team is able to help you to customize the CRM based on your requirements, and you can integrate to any third-party solution."
"I like Zoho CRM's automatic lead assignment and automated workflows."
 

Cons

"New features sometimes seem bolted on rather than being smooth."
"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."
"The platform could be even more robust."
"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."
"Pipedrive has some weaknesses against Salesforce. The documentation of Pipedrive could improve. They need more qualified documentation because I had to fix my colleague's work to correct the reports because they did not find how they can do it, or develop reports. There are some misunderstandings about how to do reporting."
"Reporting capabilities of the solution could be improved."
"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."
"The automation process is challenging."
"The areas revolving around archiving and backup in Salesforce Sales Cloud are not as advanced as some of the other solutions in the market."
"It might be easier if there were better integration with other sales systems or clouds that are not powered by Salesforce. For example, when we work with partners, such as Amazon or any other major tech company, sometimes we collaborate to develop a sales lead."
"The user interface could be more intuitive. I had some challenges with how to convert from a lead to an opportunity."
"Sometimes, it is difficult to integrate it with my emails. I've had trouble integrating it with my emails. There were a couple of things I did try as well, but I wasn't able to do so. I've had difficulty in other areas too with integration. It was related to syncing my calendars. I want the tasks that I put in to automatically sync to my calendars and update my calendars, but I couldn't figure out how to do it."
"There are also certain restrictions on the reports in terms of the number of records. Ideally, that should be removed."
"I don't like the way parent-child relationships work in transactions between records in Salesforce Sales Cloud. NetSuite is a little bit more user-friendly in that sense. Salesforce Sales Cloud requires that you build everything from scratch. I don't like that. It leaves a lot of thinking and solutions to the consultants and the process is more prone to errors."
"One consistent comment about the product internally is that it has a steep learning curve, especially for some sales executives. Simplifying the interface would be a big leap forward. Like a chatbot, fewer clicks and more direct AI interaction could help. A simplified interface with AI support would make things much easier. We need an AI feature like ChatGPT that helps us to hold conversations."
"The solution's customer support is not so good."
"They should provide an option to customize modules."
"The MCR capabilities have some limitations."
"There are at least two big pieces. One is just the ability to reorganize the data and clean it up to eliminate duplicates and things like that. It is very manual at the moment. It only gives us certain fields that we can check on. Because of our particular database, it creates a problem. We deal with hospitals, and there are 50 hospitals. It is tough to figure out which one is which. Is it this one or the other one? So, trying to clean things up is very difficult. I'd like to have more ability to share data fields. The data is structured into different buckets, and I frequently have to create the same field in two different buckets. It would be nice if I could just do a view-only field in another bucket. In my contact bucket, I would like to be able to have just a view-only of the account information so that I don't need to enter it again, which is what I have to do currently."
"Sometimes, there are technical glitches. When we add product details, the information disappears. It can be improved from this aspect. Some of the bugs also need to be resolved."
"Adding a new contract to the solution is quite complicated."
"There was a challenge while deploying Zoho when we brought an API code. Because integrations "aren't perfect" for every organization."
"I'm not sure that there is scalability potential for enterprises."
"It is hard to modify information around a customer. You need to pay for the features and the tool needs to improve it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay $1000 a month for the tool."
"Pipedrive is relatively more affordable than other solutions."
"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 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 price of Pipedrive has been reasonable."
"The solution is affordable."
"As of now, the pricing and value are quite good."
"The product is expensive but provides valuable services."
"The main thing is it is costly. Salesforce it is not cheap, it's costly. Some of our customers say it is a costly solution. So, we have lost some sale opportunities regarding the high price. This is the main thing that we are facing. It is sales per user and the user price is about $150 per month, per user for the Enterprise Edition. The other edition is less than this, but it is costly. A company that has 70 or 80 users would pay more than $8,000 USD yearly because it is cloud based."
"It is a premium product, so it is not the cheapest solution. I think if it's implemented well, and you're getting the soft cost benefits, the efficiencies, it's justified. But not if you're looking at just apples for apples as a subscription, without the complexity that you can achieve. It can deal with complex business requirements. Some other CRMs can't. But you certainly pay, so it's a premium-charged solution. It's one of the more expensive ones."
"It is alright for now because we ended up getting a discount off the base price. So, for now, it is okay. We may have to renegotiate when we get more users, and I don't know if the price would stay the same or increase. It has just a standard licensing fee. If you end up hiring a consultant for implementation, you will have to pay for the implementation. Other than that, there are no additional fees."
"Implementation and add-ons may be additional costs."
"You need to pay for the license per user per month. For example, you need to pay $100 per user. If you have 200 users using your Salesforce, that would be multiplied by a hundred, that's $20,000 per month and a quarter million per year."
"We must pay for the licenses."
"The price of the product is very high. I rate the product price a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one means low price, and ten means expensive."
"I've seen the prices for Salesforce Sales Cloud, but I haven't been the one to handle the money. As someone who's only visually looked at the price, I would imagine it's on the pricier side, but they do have a ton of leverage, and seeing that everyone I've worked for has always been dedicated to continuing Salesforce. I've never worked for anyone who has threatened to leave. Everyone has accepted the pricing for what they offer."
"Zoho CRM is an expensive tool."
"The solution is cost-effective."
"I rate the product a four out of ten. The cost for Zoho CRM is not fixed; different editions are available, and the features depend on the edition chosen. Some capabilities, such as integrating with workflows, might incur additional costs, but these are well-documented and not hidden."
"We consider it a good value and found it to be cost-effective."
"The licensing is the subscription, where we pay $50 per month per user."
"Its price is lower than the other software."
"Zoho CRM has a subscription-based license, which is not too expensive."
"There is an annual license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
20%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
31%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
39%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
4%
 

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.
What needs improvement with Pipedrive?
New features sometimes seem bolted on rather than being smooth.
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?
For improving Zoho CRM, I think some organizations may prefer not to have their data on the internet since Zoho CRM r...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Sales Cloud, SFDC, Salesforce
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Samsung, Amazon, SkyScanner, TDW, Vimeo, ReMax, Festo
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: June 2025.
860,745 professionals have used our research since 2012.