Salesforce

Salesforce is one of the best-known names in business software and an early pioneer of software as a service: its own timeline dates the company to 1999. Its core product for sales teams, Sales Cloud, is a customer relationship management system that tracks leads, accounts, contacts and deals and turns them into pipelines, forecasts and reports.

Around that CRM, Salesforce has built a broad platform that includes Slack, which it acquired in 2021, Tableau analytics and a family of AI agents and assistants sold under the Agentforce name. Small businesses can start on a free or entry-level suite, while large companies run heavily customised deployments with partners and in-house developers.

Key features

• Lead, account, contact and opportunity management. The core CRM records, available from the entry suites up.
• Sales flows and lead routing. Built-in automation that assigns leads and guides reps through each stage.
• Email and activity capture. AI that syncs emails, events and contacts, plus integrations for Gmail and Outlook.
• Quoting and forecasting. Sales quotes and pipeline forecasts from Pro Suite.
• Slack and Tableau. Slack Business+ and Tableau Next are included in the Core edition and above.
• Agentforce. AI agents for sales, included in Max and sold as an add-on for other editions.
• Platform and marketplace. Developer tools and APIs, plus AgentExchange for partner apps and agents.

Who it is for

Salesforce suits sales-led companies that expect to grow into a large, customised CRM, from small teams on Starter Suite to enterprises that need advanced security, data capacity and AI. It is also common among agencies and consultancies that implement and maintain Salesforce for clients.

Pricing at a glance

• Free Suite: $0 per user per month.
• Starter Suite: $25 per user per month, billed monthly or annually.
• Pro Suite: $100 per user per month, billed annually.
• Core: $195 per user per month, billed annually, adding Slack Business+ and Tableau Next.
• Advanced: $395 per user per month, billed annually, with enhanced security, more AI and data capacity.
• Max: $550 per user per month, billed annually, with Agentforce for Sales; arranged through sales.
• Agentforce for Sales add-on: from $125 per user per month.

Prices as checked on 10 October 2026 in US dollars; confirm on the vendor's pricing page.

Things to consider

• Most editions are billed annually, so a monthly commitment is only possible on Starter Suite.
• Costs climb steeply between editions, and AI features are largely paid add-ons below Max.
• Larger deployments usually need an administrator or an implementation partner.
• The pricing page does not describe the limits of the Free Suite, so check them before relying on it.

Getting started

1. Start the 30-day free trial or the Free Suite.
2. Import leads and accounts and connect Gmail or Outlook.
3. Configure your sales stages and lead routing.
4. Install the iOS or Android app for your team.
5. Compare editions on the pricing page before committing to an annual contract.