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Salesforce Essentials vs Siebel CRM 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Salesforce Essentials
Ranking in CRM
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Siebel CRM
Ranking in CRM
9th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Local Government CRM (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Salesforce Essentials is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Siebel CRM is 6.0%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Srini-Dhanaraj - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
KalpanaSingh - PeerSpot reviewer
Customizable and flexible but user experience needs enhancement
Siebel is not user-friendly. There are so many tabs and different features that until it's explained to someone, they will not understand it. A user-friendly tool is supposed to be designed in a way where the user can log in and intuitively understand how to use it. People who use it regularly are still confused, and it requires a lot of clicks and is very difficult to navigate. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to reflect the correct information—even when it's updated, you have to refresh it again and again to see the right data.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Salesforce makes tracking every product and customer activity easy, enabling managers to monitor their products, such as key products and their peak performance."
"High availability is really important for us when getting our reports as a vendor."
"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."
"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."
"In terms of features, the cloud-based solution and easy deployment are standout elements that have made a difference."
"Salesforce Essentials is a reliable and powerful application."
"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."
"The combination of product and service are exceptional."
"One valuable feature is that certain views can be adjusted as per our requirements, which adds a level of customization that is appreciated."
"Siebel CRM is the number one CRM product in the world."
"Due to the many features that are built in from a CRM perspective, it is the best product we have."
"The best thing about the tool is its data model. The underlying data model refers to how the data is stored in databases. We can also experience the ease of developing anything with the tool. We can customize any functionality as per any business challenge."
"Siebel CRM's most beneficial aspects are the workflows. It has complete holistic workflows for a customer management system."
"The solution's order management pack is quite fantastic."
"The solution is scalable."
"The tool's complaint management feature is very good. We used a CRM before, which lacked the integrations, so complaints had to be handled manually. With Siebel CRM, we have better integrations and can resolve complaints with a few clicks. When you're in the service industry, tasks matter a lot, especially when you have to access multiple systems to address issues. Being a bank, we currently have around 17 operational systems. It's not feasible to expect users to access them individually to make the necessary changes."
 

Cons

"The cost of running Salesforce Essentials is significant. The licenses are expensive, and the operational costs are considerable, including the necessity to maintain a team of approximately 15 people to run the system."
"The solution's UI is not user-friendly."
"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."
"Improvements in connectivity issues, especially for the online version, would enhance the user experience for the product."
"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."
"Areas that could be improved or upgraded in the next release include analytics, automation capabilities, and stability."
"The product's reporting area has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Siebel is not user-friendly."
"Siebel is pricey compared to other CRM tools. That's the problem. Although it's a highly stable and functionally rich application, customers are not willing to pay that price for it. Customers can find CRM software that gives them similar functionality at a lower price. There are so many others on the market like Salesforce."
"The tool took a lot of time to deploy."
"Currently, Siebel CRM is not helping the agent provide faster feedback to the customer."
"Siebel CRM can improve as an ERP and for a few corporate business workloads."
"I want Oracle to improve the tool’s UI with a vanilla application. I would also like to see an insurance broking vertical in their future releases. There are thousands of brokers who look for an insurance broking solution."
"However, there are areas that this product has not evolved at par with global industry trends, including the UX/UI and cloud capabilities."
"Siebel CRM should improve its UI. Because it's all about the customer experience and how the customer experiences it, the internal customer is more important for CRM than the people handling the company. So, you get frustrated if you don't have a very good user interface and user experience."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is moderately priced."
"It's a perpetual license, and the subscription can be expensive."
"The pricing is on the higher side, especially with additional costs for professional services like consultants."
"We chose quarterly payments."
"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."
"I rate Salesforce Essentials' pricing an eight out of ten."
"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution."
"The pricing is a bit on the expensive side."
"The product is expensive."
"This solution is expensive compared to other solutions in the market. This makes it difficult to convince our customers to use it. The customers who are already using Siebel have thought about moving to Velocity or Salesforce."
"I think the tool’s pricing is exaggerated. Once you do the price sizing as per your business needs, you would find that the price of other solutions like Zoho CRM, HubSpot CRM, Salesforce CRM, etc. would be always the same."
"The price of Siebel CRM depends on the usage of the business requirement. For large enterprises the price it's very good but if you are using it for medium scale enterprises, the price is very expensive."
"Its licensing is yearly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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?
We use a limited number of automated workflows in Salesforce Essentials. The workflows we implement are designed to make sales teams' lives easier when executing certain tasks. Instead of requiring...
What do you like most about Siebel Sales?
Siebel CRM has enhanced customer engagement for our organization, particularly through its robust data model and flexible features. One specific scenario where Siebel CRM excelled was in addressing...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Siebel Sales?
I do not have any information on pricing, setup cost, or licensing.
What needs improvement with Siebel Sales?
Siebel is not user-friendly. There are so many tabs and different features that until it's explained to someone, they will not understand it. A user-friendly tool is supposed to be designed in a wa...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

No data available
Siebel Sales
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Hover Automotive India Pvt. Ltd., Lawn Tennis Association, Tªrk Telekom, Bouygues Telecom, City of Atlanta, IGEPA IT-SERVICE GmbH, ec4u expert consulting AG, Salud Responde, Sascar, Banca Transilvania, UL, Ingersoll Rand, The Royal Dutch Touring Club ANWB
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce Essentials vs. Siebel CRM and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.