Salesforce is hired to hold customer records, track the pipeline and report on it. Companies often feel stuck inside it, and for many the right first move is to trim seats and plans rather than replace it. Below: the published plans, the realistic paths, and the order of work if you do move.
Years of customer history, custom fields, reports and approvals sit inside it, and people have built habits and sometimes jobs around them. It is the system of record, and replacing a system of record is not casual.
Contracts are usually annual and seat-based. Seats for people who left, and plans bought for features no one opens, stay on the invoice until someone looks.
The honest answer is often partial: trim first, then decide if a smaller system could carry the job. Replacing it entirely is a choice for companies that can name exactly what they use.
Only alternatives we have checked. An open-source project is listed with the license its repository reports, on the date shown; one whose license could not be read as a single standard id is not offered as open source. Read the license guide before running any of them.
| Alternative | Kind | License | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| EspoCRM | Open source | AGPL-3.0 | EspoCRM repositoryChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| A small custom CRM for the fields the team actually uses | Custom build | — | Written for the one job |
Each feature below is what the product's own page or README says, linked to where we read it on the date shown. Pros and cons are limited to what those pages state and to what the path itself changes. We do not rank products on quality.
| Plan | Price as published | Includes | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce Starter Suite | $25 per user per month | Billed monthly or annually | Salesforce sales pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Salesforce Pro Suite | $100 per user per month | Billed annually; Premier Support is an add-on | Salesforce sales pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Salesforce Core | $195 per user per month | Billed annually; AI features can be added | Salesforce sales pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Salesforce Advanced | $395 per user per month | Billed annually; AI features can be added | Salesforce sales pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Salesforce Max | $550 per user per month | Billed annually; the page directs buyers to a sales representative | Salesforce sales pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
List prices as printed on the vendor's page on the checked date, in US dollars per user per month and excluding tax. The page said it was provided for information purposes only and subject to change, and that Max requires contacting sales. Prices may differ at checkout.
Of everything in this section, a CRM at this scale is the most likely to be wired into how the company works. We rate it as hard on purpose: moving it is a project with an owner, a pilot and a dated cutover.
The most valuable first step is the usage audit. Seats for people who left, and plans bought for features no one opens, are cheaper to trim than to replace.
Samples are made up and are not Salesforce's prices. Type in the figures from your own invoice or order form.
Build a small tool or keep paying for one: the cost of each over your horizon and the month the build breaks even.
Paid seats against seats in use: what the idle ones cost a year, and what you save by right-sizing at renewal.
Arithmetic only, not tax, accounting or legal advice. Check the figures against your own order form.
Start with a usage audit, then pilot on a copy, run in parallel and cut over on a dated plan.
List seats by last login, the objects and fields in use, the reports opened in the past quarter and every integration or automation attached.
Trim what the audit shows is unused: seats for people who left and plans for features no one opens. Check the contract before changing anything mid-term.
Decide the path: stay on a smaller plan, move to a CRM you run, or build a small tool for the narrow job.
Export a copy of each object with its relationships. Import into the new system on a test instance and compare record counts per object and a sample of deals end to end.
Rebuild only the reports and automations that are used weekly. Point forms and integrations at the new system.
Run both briefly with one team on the new system, then freeze edits in the old one, take a final export and cut over on a date everyone knows.
After a quiet period, keep a final export, end the subscription inside the notice window and keep the confirmation.
A custom replacement is written from scratch for the narrow job your team uses. It does not copy another product's code, screens, wording or branding, and it does not reproduce a vendor's data model by scraping or reverse-engineering it.
Build only when you can name the fields and views, because the cost of a CRM is in the details. If you cannot yet, run a smaller plan or EspoCRM first and let the real usage tell you what to build.
Treat the build as a system that holds customer personal data: access control, backups, and a plan for who maintains it when the builder is gone.
Run the vendor report for QuickBooks Online or Xero, then open the free audit.
General information, not legal advice. See cancelling without penalties. Last reviewed Oct 25, 2026. Product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify them.
Send us the export and see which lines are worth a second look. A connected version is planned. Salesforce is one of the lines worth a look.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
| Year | Buy, cumulative | Build, cumulative |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9,000.00 | 8,040.00 |
| 2 | 18,000.00 | 10,080.00 |
| 3 | 27,000.00 | 12,120.00 |
Undiscounted, and it leaves out the vendor's price rises and your own overruns. A tool built for one job is not the whole product: list what you would lose before you count the saving.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
“In use” is your call: last sign-in in the past 30 or 90 days from the vendor's admin report. A seat for someone on leave is not idle.