Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce are the most veritable software products on the CRM solar system. MS Dynamics is backed by a multinational tech company, which is currently listed as the fourth most valuable company globally. On the other hand, Salesforce was recently voted as Fortune 100 best company to work for and has the bragging rights of being housed in one of the tallest buildings in San Francisco.
Both CRM vendors are famed for offering ‘legacy’ software products, with the first version of Microsoft Dynamics making its debut in 2001, while the latter got its start back in 1999.
According to a 2019 report by Statista, Salesforce commanded a market share of 18.4% of the CRM market, with Microsoft Dynamic 365 boasting of a 3.7% market share, placing it in the third position among all the major CRM vendors.
Aside from the differences in the market share, these two CRMS look fairly similar. For starters, they both offer a comprehensive suite with multiple work tools, have paid add-ons, and come with flexible pricing plans, allowing users to customize the platform’s functionality to meet their distinct business needs. For these reasons, it can be hard for business owners to determine the best platform between the two.
In the ultimate comparison of MS Dynamics CRM vs Salesforce, a key aspect to consider is the dynamics CRM implementation and Dynamics CRM customization process and how it aligns with your business requirements and infrastructure.
To help find you the perfect CRM for your business, we are going to compare Microsoft Dynamics CE and Salesforce. While at it, we are also going to dissect the benefits of each, as well as try and explain what works best for what.
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Dynamics 365 СE vs Salesforce
The two biggest differences between Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and Salesforce come in the form of how they are deployed and the Salesforce Microsoft Dynamics integration options. Salesforce is specifically designed and built for the cloud, while Dynamics 365 allows you to choose from three major deployment options including cloud, on-premise, and partner-hosted
There are other differences as highlighted in the table below:
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Features | Salesforce Features | |
| Pricing | Single Module – $80+ Sales for Enterprise-$115 ERP Only- $231All Modules-$255 | Essential plan – $25 per user, per month. Billed annually. Professional plan-$75per user, per month. Billed annually. Enterprise plan- $150 per user, per month. Billed annually. Unlimited plan- 300 per user, per month. Billed annually. |
| Hosting | Cloud On-premise Partner-hosted | Cloud |
| Ease of Use | 3.25 out of 5 average user ratings. | 4.1 out of 5 average user ratings. |
| User Accessibility | Microsoft Dynamics offers three major hosting options, including cloud, on-premise solutions, and partner-hosted, which gives it a wider scope of reach.UI is largely browser-based. Provide a search bar for more seamless navigation. | Strictly cloud-based making it easy to access with hand-held devices.Simple UI with separate links to click on for quick identification. |
| Customer Service | Microsoft Dynamics offers support in three major tiers. For the standard package, you get unlimited access to support groups, the MS Dynamic community, and technical resources on subscription. You can also pay a $9 monthly subscription fee for additional access to the professional experts. The third tier falls under the ‘Unified Support Plan’ and the plan’s pricing is sent to you upon request. | Salesforce also offers unlimited access to technical resources, support groups, direct interaction directly with other customers, guided online training, and self-service portals. The second plan offers 24-hour support, and available at an extra 20% of your net subscription cost.The last plan is the ‘Premier Plus,’ and is available at 30% of your net subscription cost. |
| Unique capabilities | Easily integrate with other Microsoft software.AI functionality enabled. | Hosts an app exchange marketplace, which improves its core functionality as well as makes it easier to locate third-party applications. Einstein AI functionality enabled, which helps predict the company’s selling habits and suggest improvements. |
| Integrations and elasticity | In the past few years, Microsoft AppSource has continued to heavily invest in the connectivity of apps and is slowly gaining ground in Salesforce’s market. The larger MS Dynamics 365 platform also comes with PowerApps and Microsoft Power BI, all of which allow you to turn your data and connections into customized apps. | Generally, Salesforce is seen to have an upper hand over Dynamics when it comes to building or customizing your CRM for use in specific sectors and industries. The platform features over 2,600 apps in the Salesforce AppExchange, making it one of the largest catalog. Salesforce also offers built-in connected platforms and partner programs, which helps your business and in-house development teams customize the CRM. |
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Dynamics CRM vs Salesforce: Advantages and Disadvantages
From the above features, it is easy to understand why Dynamics and Salesforce are the two most reputable CRM brands in the global software market. While Microsoft Dynamics is better-known for both consumer and business software, Salesforce is largely a CRM purist.
Indeed, Salesforce is synonymous with CRM software, and it has grown to become the leader in the CRM field. But, that doesn’t mean that Microsoft has been an also-ran. In reality, Dynamics has a few tricks up its sleeves that play to its advantage. For example, if you are already using other Microsoft tools, Microsoft Dynamics 365 easily integrates with other Microsoft-related software, which could end up saving you a lot.
Let’s take a look in a little more depth at the advantages and disadvantages of each of these two CRM providers.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
| Pros | Cons |
| Low Microsoft Dynamics CRM costs and flexible licensing model make it a cost-effective CRM that is accessible for small and medium enterprises. | Dynamics 365 for Sales offers limited marketing automation capabilities and lacks a full-blown purpose-built marketing model. |
| Dynamics 365 comes with a native LinkedIn integration, which makes it easier for your CRM to identify leads on the platform and build a personalized Microsoft Relationship Sales platform. | Dynamics 365 is still very new, having only been released in late 2016. Although it is growing in popularity, some businesses are still wary of investing in such a green product. |
| Dynamics 365 boasts of seamless integration with peripheral Microsoft products such as Outlook, Office 365, and Microsoft Power BI. The synchronization between all these platforms helps drive productivity, as well as improve the user experience. | Dynamics CE customization is excellent, although it has a steep learning curve, and companies may find adopting it a challenge. Salesforce also supports minimal third-party integrations, which may limit businesses in some areas as well as make Dynamics CE implementation a bit hectic. |
| Microsoft’s Service Level Agreement commits up to 99.9% uptime, translating to fewer disruptions. |
Salesforce CRM
| Pros | Cons |
Salesforce has one of the biggest catalogs of apps in its AppExchange, which is why it has grown to become the biggest B2B store in the CRM industry. As a result, businesses can squeeze out more benefits from the platform. | The purist CRM nature of Salesforce makes it hard to share data with third-party software. For this reason, you need to install supplementally connectors, which can ultimately rack up the cost. |
| Unlike Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions that require you to work with a Microsoft partner to get the right knowledge and training, Salesforce retains the customer orientation aspect in-house and has been lauded for the customer-centric attitude. | Salesforce spiking costs and a long string of contractual obligations may outprice some small and medium enterprises. |
| Salesforce has an excellent and seamless mobile CRM functionality, which allows businesses to conversely track opportunities in real-time using mobile devices. | Users have reported the inefficiencies of Salesforce’s Field Service Lightning module compared to Dynamics 365’s Field Service app. |
Unlike Dynamics 365 Marketing module, Salesforce’s Pardot services and Marketing Cloud are designed to plug and play, while eliminating the sleep learning curve. | Salesforce’s SLA is only available upon request and you must negotiate to get it. This may give the impression that the company isn’t fully committed to ensuring that the platform works without downtimes. |
| Salesforce offers a wide range of robust e-commerce facilities that are easily scalable to meet future demands. |
Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics – Which CRM Solution Should You Choose?
Clearly, neither of the two CRM tools is a bad choice to adopt is your business. This is because they are the leading CRM tools on the market. To answer the question as to which is best? The answer boils down to the specific business needs, size of the company, and the existing CRM setup. If your company is already using a dedicated Microsoft infrastructure, the Dynamics CRM architecture allows you to easily integrate it with existing Microsoft services.
On the other hand, if you are running a small startup that is strapped for resources, Salesforce is probably a good bet as it has a lower starting cost, especially for CRM-only teams of less than 5 members. The only downside of the cheaper Salesforce packages is that they aren’t highly customizable compared to the higher priced ones.
Both Salesforce and Dynamics CRM services offer comprehensive features that cater to diverse business requirements. But to ensure that your solution is a perfect fit for your complex workflows and specific business processes, the right decision is to engage the expertise of an experienced professional. An MS Dynamics CRM developer can significantly enhance the utility of Dynamics for businesses requiring deep integration and customization.
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“In this digital era, the role of a Consultants Engagement Manager is not just to oversee projects but to ensure that every engagement is a step forward in building a more connected and technologically advanced world.” – Ivan F, Consultants Engagement Manager at HireDynamicsDevelopers.com
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