I used the Salesforce Platform as a CRM, or for customer relationship management.
Sales Director at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
Gives a wider view of your customers, enables you to manage opportunities more easily, and provides good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "What I like about the Salesforce Platform, in particular, its enterprise edition is that apart from its many features, you can have a wider view of the customers, a 360-degree view. I also enjoy managing opportunities in the Salesforce Platform a lot because it's easier and gives you a wider view, compared to HubSpot."
- "What could be improved in the Salesforce Platform is the price. The platform is too expensive. The implementation time for the platform is also longer than expected, so that's another area for improvement."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
What I like about the Salesforce Platform, in particular, its enterprise edition is that apart from its many features, you can have a wider view of the customers, a 360-degree view. I also enjoy managing opportunities in the Salesforce Platform a lot because it's easier and gives you a wider view, compared to HubSpot.
What needs improvement?
What could be improved in the Salesforce Platform is the price. The platform is too expensive. The implementation time for the platform is also longer than expected, so that's another area for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used the Salesforce Platform for nine years, and the last time I used it was about twelve months ago. I'm currently using HubSpot, and it's a platform I've used for a year.
Buyer's Guide
Salesforce Platform
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about Salesforce Platform. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,310 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The Salesforce Platform is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The Salesforce Platform is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support for the Salesforce Platform is pretty good.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up the Salesforce Platform requires a consulting partner who will implement the solution. If I compare the setup of HubSpot with how you set up the Salesforce Platform, HubSpot is easier to set up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing for the Salesforce Platform is too expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I used the Salesforce Platform in my previous company, then in my current company, I've been using HubSpot, and I prefer Salesforce over HubSpot because the Salesforce Platform gives you more control. It's easier to manage opportunities with the Salesforce Platform, even if you have a holding company with multiple companies, especially in the enterprise version as it gives you a more economic group view.
What other advice do I have?
I have experience with the enterprise edition of the Salesforce Platform. I also have experience with HubSpot.
I'm not aware of which version of the Salesforce Platform I used because I'm just a user, not a developer.
The advice I'd give to people who want to implement the Salesforce Platform is to look deeply and very carefully at the cost of implementation because it could be very high sometimes. On the other hand, the platform brings tremendous value proposition.
There's no additional feature I'd like added to the Salesforce Platform because at the moment it has all features that are important to me and the company. For example, it has the Marketing Cloud which helps align marketing and sales pretty easily and more globally. Salesforce has also acquired a lot of other platforms to make different processes easier, for example, it acquired Tableau, Slack, and other companies, so now the company has a larger portfolio than other CRMs. I firmly believe that Salesforce has a tremendous portfolio for enterprise companies, but for medium and small companies, I do not recommend the Salesforce Platform because it's too expensive.
My rating for the Salesforce Platform is nine out of ten.
My company has no partnership with Salesforce.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Digital transformation director at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Centralized information, highly customizable, and frequent updates
Pros and Cons
- "The Salesforce Platform's most valuable features are everything in one place, perfect reporting, highly customizable, and easy to receive information you need."
- "The general reports could be made easier in the Salesforce Platform. Generating needs extensive training to know the exact structure of the design. Whenever you search for something you need to know what are the exact fields that you need to view. It's not an easy process to learn."
What is our primary use case?
The Salesforce Platform is a massive-sized solution. It's a vast digital platform that you can place all your business processes on and you can make the best use of your data and your customer data all in one place. The large data that you can take out of it to base your decisions on, to know your customers better, to be more efficient, and grab all opportunities that are in place and have clear visibility.
How has it helped my organization?
The Salesforce Platform can help aid you in making the right decisions at the right time. It's easy to use because everything is in one place. It saves the time of the people working, using it in different processes.
What is most valuable?
The Salesforce Platform's most valuable features are everything in one place, perfect reporting, highly customizable, and easy to receive information you need.
Salesforce is very fast in acquiring new companies that are good in certain business processes or modules which they update their solutions.
What needs improvement?
The general reports could be made easier in the Salesforce Platform. Generating needs extensive training to know the exact structure of the design. Whenever you search for something you need to know what are the exact fields that you need to view. It's not an easy process to learn.
For how long have I used the solution?
We're in the implementation phase with the Salesforce Platform. We've launched one of the modules and we're working on the second one we will be working on the sales module later this year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the Salesforce Platform it's very good for what we have used it for. However, I didn't use it extensively yet. I need more time to use it or to see how people are using it to be able to judge and say more details.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Salesforce Platform is scalable.
We have approximately 100 users using this solution and we have plans to increase usage.
How are customer service and support?
I have a vendor on board, and whatever issues we might have they are my reference if I need something. I have not contacted Salesforce directly.
I'm pushing people in my team to get certified to be administrators. They go on the Salesforce training on their website and they are doing their own training online. This is the only direct contact between my team and Salesforce directly.
How was the initial setup?
Salesforce Platform has been easy to set up.
What about the implementation team?
We are having a vendor do the implementation of the Salesforce Platform. It is not taking too much time as other CRMs do.
If you have the people with the implementation knowledge they can do it internally, but I don't think this is the right approach. It's very costly to find somebody who's capable and I don't think you would need them as a full-time employee. Once you have your processes set up and ready, you might need only one administrator, you don't need developers or architects. You need only an administrator to sustain and maintain what is already there.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Salesforce Platform to others.
I rate Salesforce Platform an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Salesforce Platform
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about Salesforce Platform. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,310 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Premium Services Sales- CX Professional Services at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
User-friendly, easy to set up and has a good GUI
Pros and Cons
- "Checking out or extracting a report is just a click away."
- "Instead of creating our own template, if we had some nice templates that we could pick up - if there were some Microsoft Word templates or Microsoft Excel templates in a repository in Salesforce, that would be great."
What is our primary use case?
From lead management to reporting, everything happens in Salesforce.
It's used for lead management. We work on various accounts. Each of these accounts has various deals. Typically we concentrate on the upside deals. Converting these is a big task for us. That's where we leverage all these cloud platforms. Typically, it's for keeping track of the customer contacts, making an email campaign, or converting these leads.
What is most valuable?
Nowadays, we have the CPQ, right, the configured price and quoting feature, which actually gives us a lot of leverage when we want to submit a quote to the customer directly. It helps us a lot when the customers actually are on the CRM, so that's a platform-to-platform integration. It makes it a little easier for sales to actually have that conversation with the customer.
The best part is the cloud. Most of the updates do not take time with the cloud. We get a version of it on the fly.
Checking out or extracting a report is just a click away.
I really like the GUI.
The initial setup is easy.
It's user-friendly.
The solution is stable.
The scalability is great.
Salesforce as a platform gives a lot of freedom to have a customized view. Once we have more templates in place, that will be good.
What needs improvement?
Instead of creating our own template, if we had some nice templates that we could pick up - if there were some Microsoft Word templates or Microsoft Excel templates in a repository in Salesforce, that would be great.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for almost eight-plus years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is absolutely stable for us. We have never faced a problem. Drawing out reports or having that dashboard visibility or creating your custom dashboard views is simple for us. We have not faced any problems there.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is absolutely scalable.
I take care of a POC which has almost 20,000-plus service sellers. It can handle definitely more than 50,000-odd people even in a POC.
We don't have any big plans to increase usage.
How are customer service and support?
I've never contacted technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is straightforward. It's easy and not overly difficult.
Deployment is something that is taken care of by the backend team. However, we have never faced such an issue migrating from a different CRM platform, a home-grown CRM platform to Salesforce.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The backend team handles licensing. I can't speak to the exact costs.
What other advice do I have?
Many teams can use this solution, including marketing, sales, CRM, business development, and HR. Typically I would recommend users to start using it right from the prospect stage, talking about sales language. That said, you can pick it up at any time. The prospect stage is a great place to start leveraging Salesforce, however. It gives an immense capability to have an end-to-end view when you are in sales.
I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
COO - KSA at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Enhanced lead management through advanced analytics and automation
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Salesforce Platform are its analytics capabilities."
- "One area that could use improvement is the approval mechanism in the authenticator, which is unstable."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Salesforce Platform to manage our leads, proposals, and POs.
How has it helped my organization?
Salesforce helps manage our leads and the conversion of leads, perform analytics, generate sales reports, track what is converted, what is in the proposal phase, etc. It is also being used to manage discussions with clients by connecting with emails.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Salesforce Platform are its analytics capabilities. The automation and connection with emails allow us to track discussions with clients. Its dashboards are also very useful and provide detailed insights.
What needs improvement?
One area that could use improvement is the approval mechanism in the authenticator, which is unstable. It often stops working after two or three times and requires the use of codes.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Salesforce Platform for five years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Salesforce Platform is stable. Apart from the issue with the authenticator, everything else works fine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are using it for a couple of users, so I cannot comment on the scalability aspect.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using Odoo as an ERP before switching to Salesforce Platform. Odoo has a CRM module, but it is not as professional as Salesforce. Odoo requires more customization and coding.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup involves some customization and working on parameters. It normally takes one week to ten days to configure.
What about the implementation team?
We are integrating Salesforce with Jira, and we have experts to handle this, so there were no issues on our end.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Odoo. However, it is not as professional as the Salesforce Platform.
What other advice do I have?
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Consultant and Analyst - Product Engineering Services at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Has a user-friendly and intuitive interface and is easy to sale and navigate
Pros and Cons
- "The presentation is clear and easy to comprehend."
- "This platform is indeed on the expensive side."
What is our primary use case?
There are various modules available, and not all of them are fully utilized or engaged extensively. Some modules serve internal purposes, such as tracking employee efforts and utilization. This relates to our customer support services. When you input something, you need to adhere to your specified timelines.
What is most valuable?
I find the user interface to be excellently crafted. It's user-friendly, and intuitive, with a minimalistic design, making it straightforward to navigate. The presentation is clear and easy to comprehend. Overall, it's quite satisfactory.
What needs improvement?
Companies prioritize quality execution and user convenience over pricing concerns. Their primary focus is on the platform's effectiveness and the positive impact it can make, as well as the time-saving benefits it offers. It's essentially a blend of both factors, striking a balance between quality and cost.
This platform is indeed on the expensive side. One notable aspect is that it offers a comprehensive range of fields and even allows for customization, enabling users to tailor it to their specific tasks and requirements. This flexibility extends to creating customized labels and columns in the backend, making it a highly adaptable and tailored tool. Overall, I haven't encountered any significant challenges.
Pricing could potentially be a deciding factor, but I believe it's unlikely to be a major concern for the company behind this widely used CRM platform. Despite the higher pricing, it remains the most popular CRM tool globally due to its extensive features and capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Salesforce Platform for the past year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It offers high scalability and is easier to scale and navigate.
How was the initial setup?
I am not a part of the internal team. They are mainly responsible for the deployment.
What other advice do I have?
From a pricing perspective, I believe it's safe to say that this platform ranks as the top choice globally. It offers an incredibly user-friendly experience and provides efficient storage solutions, albeit at a relatively higher cost. Nevertheless, it's also the most widely adopted platform worldwide, owing to its comprehensive set of features and capabilities that cater to organizations of all sizes, particularly larger IT firms. Whether it's big IT companies or any other industry, this platform stands out as a CRM tool for internal purposes, mainly due to its cost-effectiveness.
I would rate it a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Head of IT at a non-profit with 201-500 employees
A flexible solution that can be used from anywhere while ensuring that it remains stable
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's stability is fine. There are no issues with Salesforce's stability."
- "The initial setup process was a complex thing to do because four different organizations were working together."
What is our primary use case?
We use it as a CRM for our client management. We use it as a rostering and scheduling tool for our main business, which is supporting people with disabilities. We also use it for our payroll system.
How has it helped my organization?
We have increased the visibility of our information and reporting with the tool. Also, I think we now have a more streamlined end-to-end process.
What is most valuable?
I like that everything is on a fairly easy platform, and you can learn the system by yourself. Also, it's very fairly flexible. It's a system that you can use anywhere. So, you can use a mobile phone. You can use it anywhere. So it doesn't tie you to the office.
What needs improvement?
There are a few functions that I would like to see improved. The solution's rostering and scheduling, and payroll functionality need to improve.
We're working with all our vendors on issues that need to be updated and addressed to meet the changing business needs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Salesforce Platform for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution's stability is fine. There are no issues with Salesforce's stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the solution has been fine. We have a year of data in the tool, and there are no differences in performance from when we started using it. Around 550 users in m company use the solution.
How are customer service and support?
Our third parties handle the technical support, and each one is different. Overall, they're all fairly good at what they do.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used a number of different solutions before going with Salesforce. We didn't switch because they weren't fit for purpose, and we wanted to get all our critical business systems onto one platform.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup process was a complex thing to do because four different organizations were working together. We get enhancements and improvements every quarter from our vendors. Also, we enhance the product ourselves. I am responsible for the maintenance of Salesforce platform.
What about the implementation team?
Third parties were involved in the implementation process. We had our in-house project team, but we also worked with a main external provider who organized the other third-party providers since four different organizations were working with us to do the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Price-wise, the solution is reasonable for what we're getting.
What other advice do I have?
I would tell those planning to use the solution to take more than eight months to implement and ensure they have work in their internal business cases before implementing. I rate the overall product a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Lightweight, easy to use, and flexible as it's on the cloud
Pros and Cons
- "I found the ease of use most valuable in the Salesforce Platform. I also found the platform pretty light."
- "I want more analytics in the platform and the addition of AI-based models, for example, predictive feedback. The Salesforce Platform needs to be more intelligent and intuitive to make it a great solution."
What is our primary use case?
I use the Salesforce Platform for customer relationship management. I use the solution for tracking and managing the customer lifecycle and the sales cycle.
What is most valuable?
I found the ease of use most valuable in the Salesforce Platform. I also found the platform pretty light.
What needs improvement?
The Salesforce team is building some intelligence into the Salesforce Platform, but it needs more automation. In particular, I want more analytics in the platform and the addition of AI-based models, for example, predictive feedback. The Salesforce Platform needs to be more intelligent and intuitive to make it a great solution.
What I want to add to the Salesforce Platform is the ability to organize and present information on the dashboards more intelligently, as that would be of great help.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the Salesforce Platform for about one year now.
How are customer service and support?
I've never contacted the Salesforce Platform technical support team because my company has a separate operations team in charge of getting support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for the Salesforce Platform was easy, so it's a nine out of ten in this area.
I have no idea how long the deployment took because I wasn't involved in the platform's deployment.
What other advice do I have?
I'm part of a product company in the synthetic data space rather than traditional TDM solutions. I head the global analysis team in my company.
For CRM, my company uses the Salesforce Platform. It also uses Amazon Web Services. I'm also a user of the Salesforce Platform.
The Salesforce Platform is on the cloud, so I always use the latest version.
At least thirty-five people use the Salesforce Platform in my company.
The Salesforce Platform is a solution I would recommend to others.
My rating for the platform is nine out of ten based on its usability. The most important driving factor to me is its ease of use. The Salesforce Platform also has excellent features and functionalities. It's also important to me that the Salesforce Platform is a lightweight solution and very flexible to use on the cloud.
My company is a Salesforce customer.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Vice President - Customer Success at a tech consulting company with 5,001-10,000 employees
User friendly, intuitive, with high scalability, and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "It is very user-friendly, and intuitive, it will lead you and take you to the next steps."
- "I would like to see the organizational details improved to make it less difficult to bring new clients on board."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is as an end user.
What is most valuable?
It is very user-friendly, and intuitive, it will lead you and take you to the next steps.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see the organizational details improved to make it less difficult to bring new clients on board.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Salesforce Platform for the past few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good and I would rank it an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is excellent with more than fifty thousand users.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team is called internal.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Salesforce Platform an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Salesforce Platform Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2025
Product Categories
PaaS Clouds Mobile Development Platforms Rapid Application Development Software Low-Code Development Platforms No-Code Development Platforms Business Orchestration and Automation TechnologiesPopular Comparisons
ServiceNow
Microsoft Azure
Amazon AWS
Red Hat OpenShift
Microsoft Power Apps
Pega Platform
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
Google Cloud
Oracle Application Express (APEX)
SAP Cloud Platform
OutSystems
Pivotal Cloud Foundry
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Salesforce Platform Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Do you build applications using low-code or pro-code builders on Salesforce Platform?
- Which edition of Salesforce Platform do you use, and it is worth the price?
- Who do you recommend Salesforce Platform to and why?
- Possible to move Salesforce to Cloud Foundry without refactoring?
- How would you choose between Microsoft PowerApps and Salesforce Platform?
- How does Salesforce Platform compare with Azure?
- Which solution has better workflow management, Salesforce Platform or Pega BPM?
- Looking for a cost comparison evaluation for PaaS platforms
- When evaluating a Platform as a Service (PaaS), what aspects do you think are the most important to look out for?
- Pros/cons of Rackspace vs. other leading vendors?
















