Salesforce vs. Close: A data-backed comparison

Explore Salesforce and Close’s features, pricing, adoption trends, and ideal use cases to help you determine which CRM platform best fits your sales team.

Salesforce vs. Close at a glance

Salesforce is a CRM platform designed for enterprises requiring extensive customization, automation, and integration capabilities across sales, marketing, and service teams.

Close focuses on inside sales teams with a streamlined, call-centric CRM designed to accelerate outreach, track communications, and boost sales productivity.

While Salesforce caters to large, complex organizations, Close offers simplicity and speed for smaller, high-velocity sales teams.

Salesforce overview

Salesforce is a scalable CRM platform focused on enterprise sales, marketing, and support. It offers deep customization, AI analytics, and broad integrations for complex workflows and data needs. Salesforce is a good fit for organizations with multiple teams that require tailored processes and in-depth analytics.

Salesforce key features

Features

Description

Customer Relationship Management

Centralizes sales, marketing, and service data to provide a unified customer view and streamline workflows.

Sales Automation

Automates lead scoring, task management, and opportunity tracking to improve sales team productivity.

Marketing Cloud

Supports targeted, multichannel campaigns with audience segmentation and personalized content delivery.

Service Cloud

Manages customer support tickets, live chat, and self-service portals to enhance customer experience.

Analytics and AI

Offers dashboards, predictive insights, and AI recommendations to help optimize business decisions.

AppExchange Marketplace

Provides access to thousands of apps and integrations to extend Salesforce capabilities without custom coding.

Close overview

Close is a CRM focused on inside sales teams, featuring integrated calling, email automation, and activity tracking within a simple, user-friendly interface. Its design emphasizes fast communication workflows and pipeline visibility to help sales representatives close deals more efficiently. Close suits small to mid-sized sales organizations looking for an efficient tool to manage outreach and conversions.

Close key features

Features

Description

Built-in Calling and SMS

Integrated phone and text communication with automated logging and messaging.

Email Automation

Personalized email sequences with tracking and analytics for lead nurturing.

Visual Sales Pipeline

Drag-and-drop deal management to monitor sales stages and progress.

Activity Tracking and Reporting

Comprehensive logging of communications and sales activities with performance insights.

AI-Powered Insights

Machine learning-driven recommendations to prioritize leads and forecast deals.

Integrations and API

Connectivity with popular apps and custom workflows via API support.

Pros and cons

Tool

Pros

Cons

Salesforce

  • Scalable CRM with extensive customization options.
  • Powerful sales automation and AI capabilities.
  • Wide range of third-party integrations via AppExchange.
  • Powerful security and compliance features.
  • Comprehensive analytics and reporting.
  • Higher cost compared to simpler CRM solutions.
  • Steep learning curve for new users.
  • It can be complex to configure and maintain.
  • Smaller teams may find some features unnecessary.
  • Requires ongoing training and administrative effort.

Close

  • Built-in calling and SMS with logging and automation.
  • Visual sales pipeline for deal tracking.
  • Automated personalized email sequences.
  • AI-powered lead prioritization and next step suggestions.
  • Activity tracking and detailed reporting.
  • Limited marketing automation features.
  • Lacks customer support and service modules.
  • May not scale well for enterprise-level customization.
  • Pricing can be high for small teams with multiple users.

Which tool is better?

Salesforce excels in enterprise environments where deep pipeline management, workflow automation, and integrated team communication are priorities. Close is a better fit for smaller, inside sales teams focused on maximizing outbound calling efficiency and managing pipelines with minimal complexity.

When Salesforce is the better choice

  • Your team needs complex sales process automation and customization.
  • Your team needs to manage multiple teams across sales, marketing, and support.
  • Your team needs robust analytics and AI-driven sales forecasting.
  • Your team needs cross-departmental collaboration tools for unified customer management.

When Close is the better choice

  • Your team needs to heavily rely on outbound calls and email outreach.
  • Your team needs a simple, fast CRM with integrated communication tools.
  • Your team needs rapid onboarding and ease of use.
  • Your team needs built-in call tracking and recording to optimize outbound sales efforts.

Time is money. Save both.