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IBM Public Cloud vs Salesforce Platform comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

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 Public Cloud
Ranking in PaaS Clouds
15th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
IoT Platforms (1st)
Salesforce Platform
Ranking in PaaS Clouds
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
97
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Development Platforms (3rd), Rapid Application Development Software (5th), Low-Code Development Platforms (4th), No-Code Development Platforms (2nd), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of IBM Public Cloud is 3.6%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Platform is 3.8%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
PaaS Clouds Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Salesforce Platform3.8%
IBM Public Cloud3.6%
Other92.6%
PaaS Clouds
 

Featured Reviews

Premnath Jaganathan - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at Uop Ipl
Affordability and security improve our cloud experience while learning new systems
I'm not working with any AI features in IBM Public Cloud, but they are in the process of building it.I am very satisfied with the security that IBM Public Cloud provides. I would rate IBM Public Cloud eight out of ten, where one is worst and ten is the best.
Sharmila-K - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Transformations and Infrastructure Delivery Manager at a university with 10,001+ employees
Integration processes improve but scripting requires effort
The updates, pricing part, and upgrades to the products are some of the most valuable features with the Salesforce Platform.With the Salesforce Platform, I have minimal experience of approximately one and a half years. I get minimal exposure, once every three or two months, especially during holidays. The Salesforce Platform is connected to the cloud, which is beneficial. When it is integrated with different tools such as Microsoft BI Analytics, it helps us analyze much better. Currently, the integration itself is tricky as we have to use extensive scripting. It should be more of a plug-in and use solution. That is the only issue I see, but otherwise, I appreciate it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Overall, I would say that IBM Cloud is stable, straightforward, and is a good service."
"This product is very good because it is accessible in remote locations, and anyone can deploy from any place."
"Regarding advice, I would recommend others choose IBM Public Cloud because it's straightforward, has a good environment, and is cost-effective."
"We deploy all of our developments and production environments for deploying microservices and APIs on the IBM Public Cloud."
"The platform has everything that I need - or 99% of the requirements we need."
"I've found the stability to be excellent. The performance is good."
"There is no installation for this product because it is a cloud product."
"In terms of performance, resiliency, and availability, it is second to none."
"Automation of process steps have saved us millions of dollars by removing manual steps and activities."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"Salesforce Platform is very good at what it does."
"It was pretty easy to deploy."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution is the unit coordination between sales and marketing when it comes to lead management."
"Salesforce is a phenomenal application. It's very diverse."
"The Salesforce Platform is a massive-sized solution; it's a vast digital platform that you can place all your business processes on and you can make the best use of your data and your customer data all in one place."
"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."
 

Cons

"They could improve on customizing reporting capabilities."
"An area for improvement in IBM Public Cloud is getting up-to-date information on how to set up everything. It's hard to find new documentation."
"The initial setup and the pricing are areas that need improvement."
"It will be challenging to implement if you do not have any experience."
"The product should offer more computing, similar to Amazon."
"This solution can be very slow, which was a big problem for us."
"Normally, for any cloud, we get a lot of information on the web, but that is missing in the case of IBM Public Cloud. We need some technical support documents. That is the only thing missing in IBM Public Cloud."
"There is not a lot of support for this solution, which is something that needs to be improved."
"If you have resellers or distributors, you just need to figure out a way to set up the system in the backend. Since every company is different, it takes a little bit of time to figure that out."
"There needs to be more documentation."
"It is on the expensive side, unfortunately."
"A company needs to carefully consider how they set up Salesforce in order to ensure it benefits them."
"When we're documenting information such as notes, and so forth, if we were to go back to the same case all notes go missing."
"It is very expensive. Its licensing is on a monthly basis."
"Salesforce needs to be re-platformed, or re-architected, making it lighter."
"It could have a lot more customization options in terms of fonts and reports."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is not as fair as Amazon or Azure."
"IBM Public Cloud is pretty cheap. They have an ongoing free tier that basically won't expire, so as long as your solution is small enough, you can have a test set that you can use for demos, which will cost you almost nothing."
"We are using the trial version of this solution, so we have not paid anything."
"In order to be competitive, you have to commit to a contract for at least one year, but you pay a fixed monthly fee."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."
"The licensing fees are straightforward and predictable."
"IBM has a lesser price compared to other cloud service providers like Azure and AWS."
"It pretty much has a standard price. There is no hidden price with IBM Public Cloud."
"Salesforce does a user capacity analysis on a regular basis. For example, if you're not using certain areas, you may lose access. If you don't go in and quote and edit quotes, all of a sudden you may lose your rights to quote."
"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."
"I have heard that it is fairly priced. It offers ROI."
"It is expensive. Licensing is on an annual basis."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"It is a fair price for what it's offering, in comparison with other solutions that are available on the market."
"Pricing for the Salesforce Platform is too expensive."
"It is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business40
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise44
 

Questions from the Community

Which is preferable - IBM Public Cloud or Microsoft Azure?
IBM Public Cloud is IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service. It aims to provide organizations with a secure cloud environment to manage data and applications. One of the features we like is the cloud activity ...
What needs improvement with IBM Public Cloud?
The connectivity and speed of IBM Public Cloud are much lower compared to the competition.
What is your primary use case for IBM Public Cloud?
Working with cloud solutions in general, specifically AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) and Azure ( /products/microsoft-azure-reviews ).I am completely new to IBM Public Cloud, so it is a learni...
How would you choose between Microsoft PowerApps and Salesforce Platform?
I think it depends on your use case. If your organization uses Microsoft Enterprise products, PowerApps will work better in your environment. Similarly, if you have a Salesforce integration in pla...
How does Salesforce Platform compare with Azure?
Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform is not easy or intuitive to deploy. The difficulty will be impacted by the type of application that you are trying to use the platform to build. Organizations tha...
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

IBM Bluemix
Salesforce1, Force.com, Salesforce App Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Uvionics Tech, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Alpha Modus, Inventive, Web Business Consulting, FindBrok, SilverHook Powerboats, United Way of Allegheny County
ADP
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Public Cloud vs. Salesforce Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.