There are so many great CRMs out there – picking one should be a breeze!
Let’s narrow it down to four of the best – Zoho One vs Salesforce vs Hubspot vs Dynamics CRM.
This should be a walk in the park!
Okay, so you’ve heard that Dynamics can be easy for teams that already use Microsoft…but isn’t Hubspot great for marketers? That’s solid…
Oh, right! Salesforce was called the world’s best or something – maybe go with that one?
And Brian mentioned Zoho One in our last meeting!
Maybe this isn’t a walk in the park after all.
Choosing a CRM can easily become a long and winding journey that absolutely drives you mad. Even narrowing it down to four big names leaves you frustrated and confused. Is Salesforce good for mid-market businesses? What integrations does Hubspot have?
What are the details and advantages of these CRMs? And which one will meet your company’s needs?
This blog is going to answer all those questions so you can make your decision without relying on little bits of information scattered here and there. You’ll be able to observe the facts and find out which CRM is suitable, and which one is just definitely for someone else.
Zoho One vs Salesforce vs Hubspot vs Dynamics CRM at One Glance
Before we dig into the juicy stuff, let’s get an overview of the highlights of Zoho One vs Salesforce vs Hubspot vs Dynamics CRM.
| Zoho One | Salesforce | Hubspot | Dynamics CRM | |
| Best for | Start-ups, new ventures, and small businesses with a lower budget | Medium and large-sized businesses that are well-established and looking to join the tech world | Mid-market businesses looking for a good cost-performance ratio | Businesses that are already cosy with their Microsoft products and are ready to adopt a CRM |
| Not for | Businesses where only a portion of the employees need a CRM licence | Very small businesses, start-ups, and nonprofits | Companies without a dedicated marketing team | Very large teams, as it’ll get pricey pretty fast |
| Best features | 40+ included apps All apps at Enterprise level | Advanced forecasting Highly customisable dashboards | Easy to use marketing tools Simple analytics reporting | Microsoft interoperability Easy learning curve if your team uses Microsoft |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Pricing accurate as of May 2022 | Starts at AU$ 60.5 per user/month | Starts at AU$ 35 / per user/month | Starts at AU$ 75 per month for two users | A complex web of numbers that doesn’t fit cosily into a table 😉 Skip to Dynamics CRM pricing |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Key integrations | Salesforce Tableau RingCentral Google Workspace | ActiveCampaign Tableau Terminus Clearbit | Zapier WordPress Google Search Console | LinkedIn Sales Navigator Outlook365 PandaDoc RingCentral |
| Implementation time | Varies | 3-4 weeks on average | 1 week initially Fully integrated in 12 weeks average | 3-6 months1-2 months for smaller companies |
But that’s just a quick scan.
Here are the details for each CRM on features, integrations, pricing packages, and more.
The Contenders
Zoho One vs Salesforce vs Hubspot vs Dynamics CRM.
ding ding
Let’s pit these fine contestants against each other, comparing pricing, key features, integrations, and ease of implementation.
By the end of it all, you’ll finally have a clear idea of what your business needs.
Zoho One
Zoho One is one of the best offerings from Zoho – and no, it’s not Zoho CRM or Zoho CRM Plus.
Scratching your head, yet?
- Zoho CRM is one of the amazing apps that Zoho offers in their software bundles
- Zoho CRM Plus is a software bundle containing 9 essential Zoho apps at Enterprise level
- Zoho One is Zoho’s exhaustive bundle, containing over 40 apps, all at Enterprise level
And over 40,000 businesses use it.
Rain For Rent is one of these businesses.
This organisation replaced Dynamics CRM with Zoho One and saw a 610% ROI and increased sales productivity by AU$1 million. They were also able to reduce the amount of time a salesperson searched for customer information by almost half – 18 minutes to a mere 10.
ZMR, a security and investigation solution company, also had some hefty praise to give Zoho One, such as increased business efficiency due to time saved and overall effort reduced.
ZMR also had this to say: “Zoho has successfully managed to maintain the highest standard and security using the latest authentication technology.”
And that’s pretty high praise coming from a security company.
So now that we’ve sufficiently hyped up Zoho One, let’s discuss the details.
What are Zoho One’s best features?
Honestly, we’ve already mentioned one of Zoho One’s best features, but it really bears repeating.
Zoho One contains 40+ Zoho apps, all at their Enterprise package level.
That includes web, mobile, and installed versions of the apps, as well as browser extensions.
Here are a few more great features:
- Single set of credentials for the entire site
- Native mobile version
- High customisation
- Reminders
- Inventory tracking
We’ve written a blog on some of Zoho One’s best features if you’d like to check it out.
What are Zoho One’s key integrations?
Zoho One has a tonne of useful integrations, but here are a handful of notable ones:
- Salesforce – CRM
- Atlassian – Development and collaboration
- Tableau – Analytics
- Dropbox – File hosting
- RingCentral – VoIP phone and communication
- Google Workspace – Collaboration and productivity
- GoToMeeting – Virtual meeting and conferences
Yes, we said Salesforce. They may technically be competitors, but they integrate (and complement each other) seamlessly.
Who is Zoho One best tailored for?
Short answer: Start-ups and small businesses.
Long answer: Smaller businesses will benefit more from Zoho One because you get an amazing price if you licence every employee within your organisation.
If all or most of your company is customer-facing, then Zoho One is for you.
Who is Zoho One definitely not for?
The reverse of the above – if your business has employees that can’t utilise any of the apps (factory floor workers, for example) you won’t be getting the best deal.
Then it may be in your best interests to look elsewhere.
How much does Zoho One cost?
Zoho One has two pricing packages.
| All Employee Pricing | Flexible User Pricing | |
| Annual billing | AU$ 60.5 per employee/month | AU$ 135.5 per employee/month |
| Monthly billing | AU$ 71.5 per employee/month | AU$ 159.5 per employee/month |
| Required number of users | Must purchase a licence for all employees on payroll | Purchase licence for any number of users |
Pricing accurate as of May 2022
How long does it take to implement Zoho One?
It’s hard to pin down any set amount of time for implementation, as it’s different for every business.
Segregating and documenting your business processes will vary, identifying the right use for each app takes time (there are over 40, remember), and getting each team member up to speed with the new programs can take patience.
But here at Human Pixel, we believe that your Zoho One setup should be a personal experience. Not everything’s copy-paste and we understand that.
We aim to align your implementation with your company.
Salesforce
Salesforce has been called the world’s #1 CRM and is one of the biggest, most popular, and most used CRMs on the market, adopted by over 150,000 companies.
One of those companies is Herman Miller.
After signing on, they saw a 313% increase in annual e-commerce sales. This is kind of par for the course for Salesforce, as companies generally see at least a 25% revenue increase after adopting it.
Another business that benefited greatly from Salesforce is Alcon, a MedTech company.
Alcon was already using Salesforce, but decided to dive into Salesforce’s CPQ software (configure, price, quote). After implementation, Alcon saw:
Blimey.
We’d best be getting to the details.
Shall we?
What are Salesforce’s best features?
Salesforce is a CRM giant that’s been in the software game for a while, so its features are detailed and advanced, such as its highly customisable dashboards and advanced sales forecasting.
Other top features of the Salesforce CRM include its instant messaging service Chatter, email templates and syncing, mobile app, advanced marketing automation, and built-in technology that allows businesses to create custom apps.
Read a little bit more in our blog 5 Features That Salesforce Implementation Companies Love.
You’ll love the article almost as much as companies love Salesforce!
It’s alright, you can groan at that one.
What are Salesforce’s key integrations?
Salesforce has over 2,500 integrations as of 2022 – so “key” is the keyword here.
Let’s go over some of Salesforce’s best sales and marketing integrations.
| Category | Analytics | Campaign management | Marketing automation | Lead generation |
| Integrations and apps | Tableau Brainshark Analytics Ruler Analytics | Terminus Allocadia Genesys Cloud | ActiveCampaign PFL Tactile Marketing Automation Mailchimp | Clearbit Cognism Pardot |
Who is Salesforce best tailored for?
A broad audience, as Salesforce had a 20% share of the overall CRM market in 2020, and the numbers are only going up.
But if we’re being particular (and that’s what this blog is for), we’d recommend Salesforce to well-established large or mid-size businesses.
Especially ones that are looking for a great way to take that first big leap into the future.
Who is Salesforce definitely not for?
Very small businesses, start-ups, and nonprofits can quickly find themselves overwhelmed by the behemoth that is Salesforce.
It runs best with an in-house programmer which many small companies lack, and its hugely detailed campaigns may take far too long for nonprofits to organise and execute.
Salesforce includes so many features and packs so much power that small businesses may find themselves in too deep.
How much does Salesforce cost?
Salesforce has four different packages:
| Essentials | Professional | Enterprise | Unlimited | |
| Pricing | AU$ 35 per user/month | AU$ 105 per user/month | AU$ 210 per user/month | AU$ 420 per user/month |
| Description | All-in-one sales and support app | Complete CRM for any size team | Deeply customisable sales CRM for your business | Unlimited CRM power and support |
Pricing accurate as of May 2022
All packages have a free trial and are billed annually.
How long does it take to implement Salesforce?
It does indeed vary from business to business, but a quick average of Salesforce’s implementation time is 3-4 weeks.
But that’s just a rough estimation and each project is different.
And we like it that way. We aren’t identical robots, are we?
Projects are different. Companies are different. Humans are different.
Hubspot CRM
Used by over 100,000 companies, Hubspot’s a big name in the CRM industry and you likely hear it constantly when talking about software around the office.
Still a nice general CRM, it’s worth noting that Hubspot’s specialty is marketing. Take financial information company AES, for example.
Their marketing department was struggling with minimal staff and getting enough high-quality leads. They decided to partner with Hubspot and –
The picture says it all, really. We certainly don’t want to flog a dead horse.
Though we don’t mind mentioning that they also saw a 100% increase in profits and a 10X increase in web traffic (the picture doesn’t say that, does it?).
Enterprise company ResellerRatings decided to make the switch from Salesforce to Hubspot CRM as they wanted more detailed pipeline management. Hubspot also allowed them to specify products and their individual costs as line items.
As a result, they saw a 30% increase in contract value, a 76% decrease in customer churn, and their sales team saved 50 hours of time each month.
They also reaped some other benefits:
- 86% increase in new deals
- 156% increase in sales activities
- 60% increase in completed sales tasks
Let’s get into the details.
What are Hubspot’s best features?
Hubspot’s strength is definitely marketing, with features like:
- Email automation for newsletters, thank you emails, and client-specific follow up
- Easy reporting with all your analytics in one cosy little spot
- Approachable marketing tools with a simple learning curve
It’s also worth noting that Hubspot’s interface is sleek, easy to use, and easy to learn.
For a whole blog post on the topic of Hubspot’s top features, read Hubspot Features to Grow Your Business.
What are Hubspot’s key integrations?
Salesforce. Yes, that’s right – another one of the contenders on this list integrates with Salesforce?
Although really they aren’t enemies. In fact, they work great together, and a lot of companies benefit from having both.
A few more top Hubspot integrations are:
- Google Ads
- Zapier
- Outfunnel
- WordPress
- Google Search Console
- PandaDoc
- Typeform
- Gmail
And a whole lot more.
Who is Hubspot best tailored for?
Hubspot CRM primarily targets small to mid-market businesses with a focused marketing team. That way, you can take full advantage of its marketing capabilities.
If you aren’t bored by graphs, we’ve got a couple of nice ones:
Additionally, you can’t ignore the success seen by the staffing/recruiting industry, the consumer products industry, and the financial industry after adopting Hubspot.
Who is Hubspot definitely not for?
Companies without a dedicated marketing team won’t get the most out of Hubspot, as it’s mainly a marketing platform with CRM capabilities.
It works great for converting leads through inbound marketing tactics like marketing automation, SEO, and social media – but if you can’t properly leverage these tools, they won’t do you much good.
If you’re a small business with few marketing resources, you’d be better off with a smaller, more focused CRM.
How much does Hubspot cost?
Hubspot CRM has three pricing packages, all with different features. Although we think the most important point is the amount of “Contacts” in each bundle.
This is basically the number of customers/leads you can manage.
So which Hubspot price package suits your business?
Let’s take a look:
| Starter | Professional | Enterprise | |
| Pricing | AU$ 75 per month | AU$ 2,561 per month | AU$ 7,205 per month |
| Contacts included | 1,000 | 2,000 | 10,000 |
| Users | Starts at: 2 paid users2 service users | Starts at: 5 paid users5 service users | Starts at: 10 paid users10 service users |
Pricing accurate as of May 2022
Hubspot does have a free package, although this is really only suitable for very small businesses that don’t mind less automation and more manual work.
How long does it take to implement Hubspot?
On the technical side of things, only about one week. To completely customise, configure, and integrate into your business – somewhere around 12 weeks.
But once again – and we know at this point we’re repeating ourselves like our parents – this is an average estimation.
Your project will be specially created around your business, so implementation time will vary.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Dynamics CRM is customer relationship management software developed by Big Daddy Microsoft themselves. It’s used by over 40,000 companies – which translates to 4.4 million users.
And there are heaps of success stories amongst those 40,000, we can tell you. Like government agency New Zealand Trade & Enterprise. They started using Dynamics CRM and boosted customer engagement by 400%.
Or how about the UK’s Nationwide Building Society? They switched over to Dynamics CRM after it became apparent that they couldn’t keep managing contacts through Microsoft Excel.
Customer management is now much easier – checking in with customers, keeping them informed, and pulling up necessary information in a moment.
They also utilise Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s integration with LinkedIn Sales Navigator for their sales prospecting. It gives great insights like how big an opportunity is, which targets are a priority, and even recommends icebreakers.
We’re simply itching to tell you the details.
What are Dynamics’s best features?
Let’s get the biggest one out of the way: it’s Microsoft. So if your team already uses Microsoft, the learning curve will be more shallow.
And it has interoperability with other Microsoft programs, too.
Now that that’s out of the way, here are some more great features:
- Sales insights
- Mobile access
- Customer service dashboard
- Secure activity log
- Smart search
That last one is an AI-powered search to help your team find customer records, templates, and more.
What are Dynamics’s key integrations?
Microsoft Dynamics CRM integrates with other Microsoft programs like Outlook 365, Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Finance, and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.
But if you’re wondering about non-Microsoft integration, here are some prominent ones:
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- PandaDoc
- RingCentral
- Power BI
Who is Dynamics best tailored for?
Have you guessed it yet?
Teams already using Microsoft products and programs will be able to smoothly integrate Dynamics CRM into their workspace and it’ll make the ideal CRM.
Additionally, they’ll have easy access to apps and systems they’re accustomed to using.
Who is Dynamics definitely not for?
Very large businesses may want to look for another CRM as it’s fairly costly per user. So the more employees, the higher that price tag will get.
It’s also a little less advanced feature-wise for a CRM (especially its mobile app), so it may not be a great fit for teams that require very deep, detailed features.
How much does Dynamics cost?
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a sprawling series of programs covering HR to Commerce to Finance.
But to avoid dumping two tonnes of information on your head, we’ve brought along the eight most relevant pricing packages:
| Sales Professional | Sales Enterprise | Sales Premium | Microsoft Relationship Sales |
| AU$ 89.20 per user/month | AU$ 130.40 per user/month | AU$ 185.40 per user/month | AU$ 181.15 per user/month |
| Business Central Essentials | Business Central Premium | Customer Service Professional | Marketing |
| AU$ 96.10 per user/month | AU$ 137.30 per user/month | AU$ 68.70 per user/month | AU$ 2,059.50 per tenant/month |
Pricing accurate as of May 2022
How long does it take to implement Dynamics?
Quick answer: 3-6 months. Smaller companies may only need 1-2 months.
But thanks to years of experience as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Consultant Developer in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, we have to caveat this and say:
It really depends.
We know you’re rolling your eyes right now, but trust us – each project is different due to business size, amount of employees, and personal needs. And we have to respect that.
So Which CRM Is Best?
There isn’t one clear answer and it depends on your business and needs. It isn’t helpful – but it’s the hard truth.
Let’s recall two case studies from above…
Rain For Rent switched from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to Zoho One.
ResellerRatings switched from Salesforce to Hubspot.
It goes to show that there is no objective “best” CRM. If there were, there would only be one CRM for sale.
Even in a world of 1s and 0s, choices aren’t a clear-cut binary. 😉
There are choices because we’re human. Every human (and business) is different with varied needs and wants.
So how do you make this confusing choice easier?
Pick the Right Implementation Partner
Picking the right implementation partner is like finding a guide to lead you on this journey. Someone with experience. They’ve seen this hill. They’ve crossed that river.
Turn to people that have implemented dozens and dozens of CRMs for a rainbow of companies in many different industries. They’ll know the pros and cons, they’ll be able to recommend a solid, sealed solution that suits your business to a T.
So, how to pick your implementation partner?
Here are some things to look for:
- A history with different industries, companies, and business sizes
- Case studies and testimonials
- Experience implementing various CRMs
- Willingness to help and share information
- Great support and contact system
- They’re eager to listen to you and ask great questions
- They prioritise your business’ success and work to achieve the results that you need
All of that will separate the proven agencies from snake oil salesmen.
Conclusion: Let’s Have a Chat About CRMs
Four great pieces of software – Zoho One vs Salesforce vs Hubspot vs Dynamics CRM.
And now you know way more about them than you did 10 minutes ago:
| Zoho One | Salesforce | Hubspot | Dynamics | |
| Best for | Small businesses and start-ups | Medium and large-sized businesses | Mid-market businesses with a focus on marketing | Microsoft-loving teams |
| Not for | Companies that only need a few CRM licences | Small businesses and nonprofits | Companies lacking a dedicated marketing team | Very large teams, as licencing will get expensive fast |
If you’re keen to get in touch, let’s have a commitment-free chat about your business, your requirements, and what we can do for you.
We haven’t forgotten that we told you to be choosy about who to trust – so here’s some proof of our expertise:
We really know what we’re talking about, too. We think about CRMs pretty much every day (we’re a little obsessed).
If you’re interested in more info on CRMs, read our blogs on How To Use Zoho CRM For Sales and the 7 Life-Changing Benefits of Implementing a CRM.
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