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Salesforce and Zendesk Sell are two leading CRM platforms for small businesses. Here's how they compare.
In the best-run businesses, team members work from the same database. They understand their goals and receive ample support from management to help them succeed. Without this centralized structure, companies tend to be less efficient and organized, causing them to miss out on opportunities. Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a crucial element of efficient organizations. It helps team members get — and stay — on the same page with enhanced communication and collaboration. However, achieving CRM success with the right solution can be challenging. Many platforms are available with varying features, pricing, services and specialties.
We’ll examine Salesforce and Zendesk Sell, two high-end CRM options, in-depth to help you determine if either platform is right for your business.
Salesforce and Zendesk Sell are among the best CRM software platforms. Here’s an overview of how they compare.
Criteria | Salesforce | Zendesk Sell |
|---|---|---|
Starting prices | $25 per user, per month | $19 per user, per month |
Free trial for paid plans | Yes (30 days) | Yes (14 days) |
Marketing and sales |
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Omnichannel communications |
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Workflows and automations |
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Reporting and analytics |
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Apps and integrations |
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Salesforce is an ideal CRM solution for businesses that want to generate more sales leads and enjoy more successful lead conversions. Salesforce gives companies comprehensive control over how their marketing and sales teams operate. The platform combines a powerful and intuitive marketing suite, an omnichannel communications tool, a companywide database and first-class analytics tools and reporting capabilities. It’s highly flexible, with customizable workflows that improve staff efficiency and effectiveness.
A massive selection of apps and plug-ins also help tailor Salesforce to your precise business needs. Visit our complete review of Salesforce CRM for a more detailed overview of the platform’s features.
Salesforce’s vast product ecosystem includes specialized platforms that integrate. To learn more, check out our Salesforce Agentforce Marketing review (enterprise-level marketing) and Salesforce Agentforce Service review (post-sale customer service and support).
Zendesk Sell is an excellent option for companies that need to improve their sales, marketing and customer service performance through team collaboration. The platform addresses the challenges of communicating in hybrid and remote work environments by providing a suite of robust collaboration tools to help teams share information. This highly capable and user-friendly CRM also features a powerful multichannel marketing suite, an omnichannel marketing platform, advanced data analytics and flexible workflow automation possibilities.
Our detailed review of Zendesk CRM explains how its features can help organizations unlock higher revenues through improved collaboration.
Salesforce and Zendesk Sell provide essential CRM features businesses need to improve sales, collaboration and overall efficiency. Here’s how they compare.
Salesforce and Zendesk Sell are market-leading CRMs at the higher end of the price scale. Here’s how they compare.
Salesforce
Salesforce’s Starter Suite plan offers a month-to-month subscription option, while all other plans require an annual contract. Given Salesforce’s extensive range of products, the pricing below focuses specifically on the Salesforce Sales Cloud solution.
Plan | Price | Features |
|---|---|---|
Starter Suite | $25 per user, per month (billed monthly or annually) |
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Pro Suite | $100 per user, per month (billed annually) | All Starter Suite features, plus:
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Enterprise | $165 per user, per month (billed annually) | All Pro Suite features, plus:
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Unlimited | $330 per user, per month (billed annually) | All Enterprise features, plus:
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Einstein 1 Sales | $500 per user, per month (billed annually) | All Unlimited features, plus:
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Beyond the Starter Suite, Salesforce is one of the most expensive CRMs around. Still, its flexibility and customizability make it a market leader.
Note that the costs listed above can increase significantly as you add plug-ins and additional features. Determining your actual costs may require some research and calls. We appreciate that Salesforce offers a free 30-day trial, allowing you to test the system before committing thoroughly.
Zendesk Sell
Pricing for Zendesk Sell is as follows:
Plan | Price | Features |
|---|---|---|
Sell Team | $19 per user, per month (billed annually) $25 per user, per month (monthly subscription) |
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Sell Growth | $55 per user, per month (billed annually) $69 per user, per month (monthly subscription) | All Sell Team features, plus:
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Sell Professional | $115 per user, per month (billed annually) $149 per user, per month (monthly subscription) | All Sell Growth features, plus:
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Sell Enterprise | $169 per user, per month (billed annually) $219 per user, per month (monthly subscription) | All Sell Professional features, plus:
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Zendesk Sell is a midtier CRM in terms of pricing. When bundled at the higher tiers, it’s similar in cost to Salesforce. Zendesk offers a 14-day free trial, allowing users to test the product before committing. At all subscription levels, you can pay annually or monthly.
Zendesk Sell integrates with Zendesk Support, a comprehensive customer service platform that requires an additional subscription. Support plans (Support Team, Support Professional and Support Enterprise) range from $19 to $115 per user, per month.
Zendesk also offers an AI-powered customer experience solution called Customer Service Suite, with plans ranging from $55 per user, per month (Suite Team) to $115 per user, per month (Suite Professional), with Suite Enterprise available at custom pricing.
Zendesk Sell wins for its flexible billing options across all tiers. Salesforce increased prices on its higher-tier plans and introduced the $500 Einstein 1 Sales plan. As a result, both the Einstein 1 Sales and Unlimited plans are significantly more expensive than bundling Zendesk Sell with one of Zendesk’s Customer Service Suite or Zendesk Support plans.
Salesforce and Zendesk Sell excel at helping companies generate more leads from their marketing campaigns and close more deals. Here are some highlights.
Salesforce
The Einstein AI customer segmentation tool makes it easy to send targeted email campaigns. Source: Salesforce
Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell has some great features, particularly its data enrichment tools and Smart Lists. However, Salesforce offers businesses a broader reach across more marketing channels. Additionally, many of Zendesk’s standout features are also available on Salesforce through the right plug-ins.
Your CRM allows you to contact customers by phone, email and more; it logs all interactions to help you provide better service.
Salesforce
Zendesk Sell
The Zendesk email client makes email tracking effortless. Source: Zendesk
Salesforce wins this category because it is less reliant on third-party apps for omnichannel communications. Its built-in features are generally easier to manage and less prone to technical issues than third-party integrations.
Businesses that use Zendesk Sell alongside Zendesk Support can leverage a VoIP platform called Talk for call routing, IVR and call monitoring.
Automate repetitive tasks to boost productivity and save staff time.
Salesforce
Salesforce’s Flow tool helps you organize and create custom workflows. Source: Salesforce
Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell’s Activity Feed gives sales managers visibility into team activities and progress. Source: Zendesk
Salesforce wins this round. Its Flow automation tool and Einstein AI integration help businesses create advanced, customizable automations with ease. However, Zendesk Sell’s workflow automations tools are also impressive — the platform is catching up.
Sales reps appreciate how CRMs help them manage customers and leads and increase sales. Check out our review of Pipedrive CRM or our Salesforce vs. Pipedrive comparison to learn more about a platform specifically aimed at sales teams.
CRM data analysis and reporting tools help identify top-performing marketing channels, sales reps, clients and more.
Salesforce
Zendesk Sell
Salesforce and Zendesk Sell can both analyze performance data and produce easy-to-digest reports across all areas of sales and marketing. However, Salesforce’s reporting and analytics functions are more comprehensive, so it wins this round. Still, we love Zendesk’s team management and information-sharing features.
Get your CRM to do more by downloading plug-ins or connecting directly to its API.
Salesforce
Zendesk Sell
Salesforce wins this round because of the sheer quality and quantity of apps and other plug-ins it offers; the Flow Builder is particularly impressive. Still, Zendesk’s store is notable — it’s one of the biggest CRM plug-in marketplaces in the industry.
While Salesforce can be adapted to almost any business, Zendesk Sell’s features are perfect for improving internal collaboration.
Salesforce boasts a unified and extendable multichannel marketing suite, omnichannel communications hub and superior reporting and analytics. If you want more, its flexible workflow automations will save your sales and marketing staff time they can spend on more productive and creative tasks. You can adapt the platform to your business even further with apps, the Salesforce Flow tool and API integrations. Salesforce gives you a clear view of your sales process and marketing performance and provides the tools to boost performance further.
When sales and marketing teams collaborate, productivity soars and results improve. With the rise of hybrid and remote teams, strong collaboration and communication tools are more critical than ever. Zendesk’s collaboration tools are excellent and integral to this highly capable, user-friendly powerhouse CRM. Your teams can create, launch and monitor campaigns, track performance and use Zendesk Sell to set and achieve sales goals — all within a highly capable, user-friendly CRM.
Zendesk makes it easy for sales, marketing and customer service teams to work more effectively together. You can adapt Salesforce to do the same with its wide range of apps and plug-ins.
Salesforce is the market-leading CRM; thanks to its built-in features and wide range of plug-ins, it offers maximum flexibility to clients. Zendesk is also a very capable platform but has less functionality than Salesforce. However, many businesses don’t need a CRM as powerful as Salesforce.
Choose Salesforce over Zendesk if you want the highest level of control possible over your sales and marketing teams. Choose Zendesk if you don’t need Salesforce’s power and prefer to focus on excellence across your sales and marketing teams.
Salesforce does not use Zendesk, but you can link your Zendesk platform to Salesforce. This could be a great solution for companies running on Salesforce products that want to access Zendesk’s excellent sales, marketing and customer service functionality.
