Salesforce Essentials vs Bigin - The ultimate small business CRM showdown
Salesforce Sales Cloud Essentials was released as an affordable alternative to its enterprise counterpart. But, how affordable is it really? Does it solve the needs of small and micro businesses? How is Bigin better than Salesforce Essentials? Discover the answers to these questions here.
Access BiginSign Up For FreeSalesforce Essentials:
Not ready for small business
Everyone would agree that Salesforce brought a revolution in the cloud software space when they launched their famous "The end of software" campaign. However, 20 years later, things have not remained the same. The initial promise of making CRM software more easy and accessible to businesses hasn't been kept alive. This is the reason we have seen thousands of businesses switch their CRM to Zoho purely based on the complexity and the frequent price increases associated with Salesforce's products. When it comes to the small business CRM market, it's a different story altogether.
Salesforce Essentials is marketed as a lightweight CRM for growing companies. Step inside the product, and you will be surprised to see that it still has the same level of complexity that Salesforce is [in]famous for. Forget usability, the Essentials edition even lacks some core CRM functionalities, such as built-in telephony, workflow automation, and basic customization of roles and profiles inside your CRM account. You also have to be ready to pay additional prices if you need live phone support from Salesforce. Is this an affordable solution for small businesses? Not really!
Bigin by Zoho CRM: Everything you need to
get started instantly
Unlike Salesforce Essentials (previously known as SalesforceIQ, an updated and rebranded version of RelateIQ, which Salesforce acquired in 2014), Bigin was built from the ground up within the same Zoho CRM platform that serves more than 150,000 customers worldwide. It was created with the needs of small and micro businesses in mind—rather than a hurriedly put together version of an acquired product. The features that you see in Bigin are the actual essential features that every successful small business needs and uses on a day-to-day basis.
With Bigin, there is no steep learning curve or forced add-ons necessary to manage your opportunities to the fullest. Just import your contact spreadsheets and start selling from day one with our built-in email, phone, and Twitter integrations. You can also create multiple pipelines based on your business processes, and follow up with leads more easily through activity reminders and mass emails.
Bigin Express vs Salesforce Essentials
Pricing
BIGIN EXPRESS$7/ user/ month / billed annuallySave 70%
SALESFORCE ESSENTIALS$25/ user/ month / billed annually
Contact, Companies and Deal Management
iPhone and Android Apps
Google Workspace, Office 365, Zapier Integrations
Standard dashboards
Multiple Pipelines
Workflows
Twitter Integration
Customizable dashboards
Inbuilt Telephony
Tags
Custom fields
Roles/Profiles
Products
Phone and technical support
Free
Paid
We're thinking beyond just today. We're here for the long haul.
When it comes to scalability, Zoho's platform has seen millions of small businesses grow from scratch since its inception. The virtue of being built on the same Zoho CRM platform is that Bigin lets you seamlessly upgrade to a higher CRM plan of your choice when you feel your needs have outgrown it. And before you ask, you don't have to worry—our sales executives will never pester you to upgrade to a higher level of Zoho CRM.
Trusted by 20,000+ small businesses globally
We were so impressed by Bigin’s ‘perfect fit’ for small organizations and we have now consolidated all information about our clients and projects in Bigin. It's impressive to see that such an affordable product helps in managing duplication of records, customizing fields specific to our processes, providing dashboards to manage the performance of emails, and even linking up with the Twitter accounts of our clients. Read the full case study
I am super impressed with Bigin. I was looking for a simpler lead management and automation tool and I have finally arrived at the right platform after trying multiple tools in the last few years. It has completely transformed the sales process and I regularly recommend Bigin to my contacts.
I want to sincerely thank the entire Bigin Team for developing this excellent platform for SMBs who are quite keen on getting rid of excel datasheets. My primary requirement was exactly the same, and Bigin has offered so much more. This has increased the overall productivity of my sales team, and I have already recommended Bigin to friends in different sectors.
I found Bigin extremely easy to learn and utilise. I was bit scared if my assistants will able to learn it quickly. But to my surprise they have started using fully within 2 weeks of time. Mobile apps and its connectivity with server is superb and quick.
Ditch dead-end small business software today
Why pay extra for Salesforce Essentials when you have a better alternative? Say no to the expensive and bloated CRM software for your small business. Get started with our free 15-day trial and see your sales skyrocket. Plus, you'll actually have a human to speak to whenever you need any help.
Access Bigin Sign Up For Free See Our PricingNo forced contracts. No credit card for sign up. It's our promise.