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Ensuring your client has an excellent customer experience is essential for business success. As a result, an increasing number of companies are implementing CRM systems to help keep their customer’s data organized and ready to access at a moment’s notice.

In the past, CRM systems were nothing more than small contact management tools. Today, they can be hosted in the cloud, offer reporting features, reminders, marketing automation, and more.

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In fact, the best CRM systems can incorporate other business processes and systems to give the user a 360-degree view of their business. Also, there are a few major CRM players on the market such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

In this article,  we will focus on a price comparison between Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365. They are both solid options, but there are a few differences. We’ll be giving an overview of those differences, then move on to pricing. Keep reading to learn more.

 

Salesforce CRM

Salesforce has a large CRM market share since they focus on providing the forward-thinking features their customers and prospects want. You get standard features such as:

  • Contact management
  • Lead scoring
  • Workflows
  • Cloud-based functions
  • Lead tracking

Salesforce also comes with the Chatter social platform that lets users easily communicate with clients and prospects. You also get sales automation. Salesforce makes it easy to integrate with other systems.

For remote or traveling employees, both the native Android and iOS mobile apps offer almost full functionality. As a result, users don’t need to be at their desktops to retrieve and input customer data.

Moreover, you can extend Salesforce functionality with a wide variety of third-party applications. As a result, you can customize your Salesforce CRM system to fit your unique business needs.

And, the interface is quite user-friendly. The only caveat? All those features come at a hefty price compared to other CRM systems. We’ll list pricing further below, but let’s discuss Microsoft Dynamics 365.

 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Another popular CRM choice is Microsoft Dynamics 365. It easily integrates with Microsoft products, so it makes sense that it features other compatible Microsoft products. Dynamics 365 offers many similar features as Salesforce, but it really stands out with its detailed reporting.

The platform comes with built-in analytics that utilizes AI for truly advanced business intelligence. Plus, you get one of the best workflows on the market today.

Furthermore, Skype is integrated so that you can conveniently make video and phone calls. You also have Outlook for email and SharePoint for storage.

If you already have an Office 365 subscription, it couldn’t be easier. You also get the option for a self-hosted version.

Learn more on how to manage your business with Dynamics 365

 

Customization

If you want to create a CRM system relevant to your specialized business needs, Dynamics 365 uses universal web standards such as HTML, .Net, and Java. As a result, you can further customize your system.

This isn’t the case with Salesforce, which lives in a multi-client cloud environment. Moreover, Salesforce owns its proprietary programming language called Apex. As a result, there is limited flexibility since all CRM modifications can only be made in Apex. Now, let’s move on to pricing.

Pricing for small businesses

Let’s face it, CRM systems give small businesses an edge when competing on both a local and global scale. The good news is you don’t have to be an Enterprise to access advanced CRM features. To put it bluntly, Microsoft is the less expensive choice in this regard. Salesforce has two options:

  • SalesforceIQ CRM Starter – Limits access to five users, with bare-bones functionality at $25/user/month. Also, you are required to sign up for an annual subscription.
  • Sales Cloud Lightning Professional – Offers a bit more functionality than CRM starter, can handle more users, and is $75/user/month.

With Dynamics 365, you have a more cost-effective option through the Dynamics 365 Sales Professional Edition. You get features such as:

  • Sales/CRM
  • Marketing automation
  • Customer service management
  • Field and operations management

This choice is also comparable to Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional, but it only costs $65/user/month. Not to mention, you can use it easily with your Microsoft products.

While Dynamics 365 Sales Professional offers a $10 savings per user, per month, you get a seamless fit with your other business apps if you already utilize Office 365.

Sales Professional is comparable to the features found in the Salesforce Enterprise edition. For instance, Sales Professional offers not only sales force automation, but it also includes marketing, customer service, and case management.

Pricing as a bundle

If you’re interested in getting a bigger bang for your buck, then it makes sense to look at a bundled option. Still, regarding price and available features, Microsoft Dynamics 365 comes out as the winner here.

For instance, you can get Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Plan for $115/user/month. In comparison, Salesforce offers the Salesforce Sales + Service option at $175/user/month. Here’s the kicker: The Dynamics 365 bundle comes with four modules:

  • Sales
  • Field service
  • Project service
  • Customer service

On the other hand, the Salesforce bundle only comes with Sales and Service.

Pricing for specific modules

If you want to break down the pricing and options even further, then you might look at starting with a Customer Service module. Salesforce starts their version at $150/user/month, while Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a Customer Service module for $95/user/month. This is an additional Dynamics 365 add-on module that allows you to share up to 10k social posts per month, offers offline mobile access, and comes with an interactive services hub.

In general, it appears that Microsoft Dynamics 365 is around 35% lower in price compared to Salesforce with the same features, and then some. If you want to add other Microsoft modules, the pricing can range between $40 to $170/user/month for these choices:

  • Retail
  • Talent
  • Field service
  • PowerApps
  • Sales
  • Project service automation
  • Customer service
  • Marketing
  • Microsoft relationship sales

For every Microsoft plan, you get:

  • Phone and web support
  • Office 365 integration
  • Security
  • 99.5% uptime

Another module is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Relationship Sales that starts at $135/user/month. You get embedded intelligence from sources such as Office 365 and data synchronization from Dynamics 365 for Sales and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Salesforce does not have a comparable option.

Salesforce also offers the Lightning Unlimited Plan at $300/user/month with all features and capabilities, but that is quite a steep price only affordable to Enterprise businesses.

For both options, there will be additional fees for customizations, integrations, training, or any other specialization.

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In conclusion

As you can see, both CRM systems have robust offerings. But Microsoft Dynamics 365 appears to be much more cost-effective for the same (if not more) advanced reporting features and similar services. And, Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers much more flexibility for customizations—something many businesses appreciate as they strive to set themselves apart from their competition.

Written by The Sherweb Team Collaborators @ Sherweb