Best Salesforce alternatives for cold calling
People look for a Salesforce alternative for plain reasons. Only the cheapest plan can be billed monthly, the pages we read do not describe a dialer, and the top plan is listed as contact us. If one of those is your sticking point, this page lists five other tools and says what each vendor publishes about price, trials and calling, so you can see what changes if you move.
Common reasons to switch
Category
5 alternatives to Salesforce
Hover a card for the details. Not affiliated with any tool listed.
- Featured
Will This Person Answer
Know who’ll answer before you callNot a replacement for Salesforce. Use it alongside whichever tool you choose: send the list and every contact comes back High chance, Low chance or Bad data.Pricing
Free to startKey features
- Checks every contact before you dial
- Works in Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor
- REST API and CSV upload
Try on 250 contacts for freeBest for
StartupsSMBsMid-market Close
A sales CRM built around calling, email and SMS, with a built-in power dialer and, on its top plan, a predictive dialer.Close is a CRM for sales teams that make a lot of calls. Calls, texts and email happen inside the lead record, and a call list is a saved Smart View that the dialer works through in order.You want a sales CRM built around calling, with a built-in power dialer on Growth, a $9 Solo plan, and a 14-day trial with no card.Pricing
Per seatKey features
- Power dialer
- Predictive dialer
- Smart Views
View CloseBest for
SMBsMid-marketApollo
A go-to-market platform that combines a B2B contact database, enrichment, outreach sequences and a parallel dialer.Apollo is a prospecting platform where a rep finds people in its B2B contact and company database, enriches the records, and then works them through outreach and calling from the same workspace. Its site lists the Apollo Workspace for prospecting, outreach and dialing, plus AI agents that research accounts and prioritize leads.You want a contact database with outreach sequences and a parallel dialer, with a free plan that has no time limit.Pricing
FreemiumKey features
- B2B contact and company database
- Waterfall enrichment
- Parallel dialer
View ApolloBest for
StartupsSMBsHubSpot
A CRM-centered customer platform whose Sales Hub adds in-browser calling, call recording and email sequences.HubSpot describes itself as an agentic customer platform that puts marketing, sales and customer service software, AI and customer data in one place. Sales Hub is the part reps use day to day, and it sits on top of the HubSpot CRM, which has a free version.You want a CRM with in-browser calling, call recording and sequences, priced from $20 per seat per month and billed monthly, with a 14-day free trial.Pricing
$20 per seat per monthKey features
- Calling from the CRM
- Recorded and logged calls
- Email sequences and tracking
View HubSpotBest for
StartupsSMBsEnterpriseOutreach
An AI platform for revenue teams that covers prospecting, deal management, forecasting and coaching, sold per user with AI credits.Outreach is an AI platform for revenue teams. Its site describes one place for prospecting, deal management, forecasting, coaching and account expansion, and it runs AI agents that surface prospects, research accounts and flag deals at risk.You want an AI platform for prospecting, deal management and coaching, sold per user with AI credits and priced by quote.Pricing
Custom quoteView OutreachKey features
- AI agents
- Conversation intelligence
- Forecasting
Salesloft
A revenue platform for sales teams that combines cadences, conversation intelligence, deal management and forecasting.Salesloft sells software for account teams and revenue operations. Its account-team products are Cadence for sales engagement, Conversation Intelligence, Deals and Rhythm, a workflow prioritization tool.You want a revenue platform built on cadences, conversation intelligence and forecasting, sold by quote.Pricing
Custom quoteView SalesloftKey features
- Cadence
- Conversation Intelligence
- Deals and Rhythm
Salesforce and its alternatives, side by side
| TOOL | STARTING PRICE | FREE PLAN | BEST FOR | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SalesforceCurrent | $25 per user per month | Yes | Sales teams, Small teams that need a CRM, Large sales organizations | |
| HubSpot | $20 per seat per month | Yes | Teams that want calling and the CRM in one tool, Small and growing sales teams, Companies already running HubSpot for marketing | Compare → |
| Close | Per seat | Yes | Small and mid-size outbound sales teams, Agencies and search firms calling lists every day, Teams that want one tool for CRM and dialing | Compare → |
| Apollo | Freemium | - | SDR teams, Founders doing their own outbound, Small sales teams | |
| Salesloft | Custom quote | - | Sales teams, RevOps teams | |
| Outreach | Custom quote | - | Revenue teams, RevOps teams, Sales managers |
Frequently asked questions
The reasons on Salesforce's own pages are practical. Only Starter Suite is billed monthly, the Sales Cloud pages do not describe a dialer, and the Max plan is listed as contact us. None of that makes it a weak CRM, it just may not fit every team.
This directory lists HubSpot, Close, Apollo, Salesloft and Outreach. HubSpot and Close are CRMs with calling built in. Apollo mixes a contact database with outreach and a dialer. Salesloft and Outreach are revenue platforms built around cadences and deal tracking.
On published prices, yes. HubSpot Sales Hub starts at $20 per seat per month and Close lists a $9 Solo plan, against $25 for Starter Suite. Apollo has a free plan. Salesloft and Outreach show no prices, so compare quotes for the same headcount.
Close lists Solo at $9 and Essentials at $35 per user per month, and HubSpot starts at $20 per seat. Apollo's free plan has no time limit. Salesforce's own Starter Suite is aimed at small teams too, so price the same seat count in each.
Close gives 14 days with no credit card, and HubSpot lists a 14-day trial of its sales tools. Apollo has a free plan with no time limit instead of a trial. Salesloft and Outreach show no trial on the pages we read, so ask about a pilot.
HubSpot is the nearest match in this list. It is a CRM-centered platform with tiered per-seat plans, and its Sales Hub adds calling, recording and sequences. Close is also a CRM but is narrower and built around calling. The others are not CRMs in the same sense.
Start with your records. Run a report of the leads, accounts and contacts you want to keep and export it as a CSV, then import a small batch into the new tool first. Ask the new vendor what it can carry over beyond contact fields.
Check each one. Salesloft lists Salesforce among its integrations, Close lists HubSpot, Calendly, Zoom and Zapier, and HubSpot lists Gmail, Zoom and Zapier. Confirm your exact stack on each vendor's integrations page before you commit.
Close lists a power dialer on Growth and a predictive dialer on Scale. HubSpot Sales Hub adds in-browser calling and recording, though it notes limits on countries, minutes and numbers. Apollo describes a parallel dialer. The Salesloft and Outreach pages we read do not describe one.
Run the exported contacts through Will This Person Answer first. It reads US numbers only and labels each contact High chance, Low chance or Bad data, with 250 contacts free. Import the High chance group to the new tool and leave Bad data behind.
Know who’ll answer
before you call.
Ask your AI tool who on your list will pick up. Every contact comes back High chance, Low chance or Bad data, with the best way to reach them.
No card required. US phone numbers only.