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IBM MobileFirst vs Salesforce Platform comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM MobileFirst
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Mobile App Platforms (5th)
Salesforce Platform
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
97
Ranking in other categories
PaaS Clouds (10th), Rapid Application Development Software (11th), Low-Code Development Platforms (9th), No-Code Development Platforms (5th), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Mobile Development Platforms category, the mindshare of IBM MobileFirst is 5.0%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Platform is 6.9%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mobile Development Platforms Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Salesforce Platform6.9%
IBM MobileFirst5.0%
Other88.1%
Mobile Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

MT
Senior Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Streamlines development of hybrid applications, and has ability to integrate device-native code
It was a cakewalk for us to develop mobile apps for three different platforms using IBM MobileFirst. Since it was a consumer application built for large-scale events, it was very crucial for us to manage application compatibility with all sort of devices. With MobielFirst, we could actually achieve this with very little trouble. With help of this product, we have been able to develop mobile applications without having complete knowledge of each mobile OS's native programming. App development, delivery, and code management have been very efficient using this product.
Sunny Nair - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect And Senior Consultant at Keysight Technologies
Automated weekly analytics have improved case tracking and boosted research productivity
In terms of customization and requesting features that need to be enabled, the process is longer than ideal. As a user, I have very limited access rights to Salesforce Platform, which limits my capability. If a user were granted access to consume more features from Salesforce Platform and the system could show exactly who needs to grant that particular access, that would be a very good improvement. If I need to gain access to a specific feature within Salesforce Platform, it should point me to who in my organization manages it. If the system is able to tell me who exactly is managing it, I can get in touch with that particular user to understand whether I can gain access. This particular feature seems to be lacking, not only in Salesforce Platform, but in any CRM application.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"IBM MobileFirst has one of the most feature-rich admin panels."
"We use it as a secure proxy server for a mobile app using public internet as well as for its mobile app support features."
"With help of this product, we have been able to develop mobile applications without having complete knowledge of each mobile OS's native programming technology, and app development, delivery, and code management have been very efficient using this product."
"One of the most valuable features is that we are using the IBM MobileFirst, which is actually providing a gateway to all the mobile resources either for the employees or for the consumers."
"I like Its capability for developing hybrid applications, with an ability to integrate device-native code as well"
"he solution has improved over the years and the inputting of opportunity information is done a lot better and the GUI is good. The ability to customize dashboards and other elements was useful, we were able to move things around, for example, the forecasts. Most of the cells and input places were set, but we can customize the view and what we were looking at, such as on a daily, or weekly basis."
"What we like the most about it is the fact that it helps us track the record of our projects. It keeps everything on one interface, facilitating the operations and planning."
"What I like about the Salesforce Platform, in particular, its enterprise edition is that apart from its many features, you can have a wider view of the customers, a 360-degree view. I also enjoy managing opportunities in the Salesforce Platform a lot because it's easier and gives you a wider view, compared to HubSpot."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"The low-code approach to Salesforce Platform is highly valuable."
"Salesforce offers control over the opportunities to see where we are and gives me high-level dashboards on each opportunity stage."
"The solution scales extremely well."
"Salesforce is great and without any doubt, I would say one should definitely go for Salesforce as it does a lot of sales and marketing in the CRM that would help you if you work on productivity."
 

Cons

"There are issues with push notifications, especially for Windows mobile apps. JSONStore also crashes abruptly at times."
"I would like to see improved support for native device functions."
"This platform is indeed on the expensive side."
"Sometimes it would be a little bit slow, however, it's manageable."
"An expensive solution requiring a lot of configuration."
"When it switched to lightning, it threw me for a loop. When they changed the look and feel, I had a hard time finding things and doing what I used to do."
"The initial setup is rather complex."
"I would like Salesforce to recommend related opportunities within the organization that have been taken to closure, so we can fast track new opportunities based on past experiences."
"Reporting tools are not great and you usually have to use a 3rd party reporting tool for any complex report or reports which also need to source data from outside your CRM (which many of ours do), and to get any historical data analysis (e.g. need data warehouse)."
"I have found it takes an exceedingly long time to put opportunities or clients in the system."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cost depends upon various factors. Size of the overall application and product usage matter a lot. For an enterprise-grade application, this certainly comes out as an economical solution. However, for small-scale applications, it can turn out to be on the higher side."
"The cost is reasonable for the corporations I work for. I would say an average would be around $100 per month per user."
"I haven't had to buy Salesforce, however, I have heard it's $1500 a user."
"Pricing for the Salesforce Platform is too expensive."
"Pricing and license differ and depend on how much license you are purchasing from them."
"The price of Salesforce Platform is very expensive. There are other solutions that are similar that cost a quarter of what Salesforce Platform does, such as HubSpot."
"I rate this solution a six out of ten for pricing. Though the solution is on the pricier side, it still offers good value for money."
"It is expensive."
"I don't know anything about its cost, but I'm sure it has got a nice little price tag that goes along with it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business40
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise44
 

Questions from the Community

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Do you build applications using low-code or pro-code builders on Salesforce Platform?
At my organization, we have only used Salesforce Platform's low-code builder. The reason for this is not because we do not like the pro-code option, but because we do not see the need of using it, ...
 

Also Known As

MobileFirst, Worklight
Salesforce1, Force.com, Salesforce App Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions, Gruppo Unipol, Raymond James Financial, Toshiba GCS, CST, ABK-Systeme GmbH, BNP Paribas
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Find out what your peers are saying about IBM MobileFirst vs. Salesforce Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.