Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

SAP CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 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

Salesforce Sales Cloud
Ranking in CRM
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
114
Ranking in other categories
Opportunity Management (1st), Sales Force Automation (1st), Conversation Intelligence Software (2nd)
SAP CRM
Ranking in CRM
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Local Government CRM (2nd), Marketing Management (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Salesforce Sales Cloud is 9.0%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP CRM is 11.1%, up from 10.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM
 

Q&A Highlights

it_user735081 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 03, 2017
 

Featured Reviews

Richard Mottershead - PeerSpot reviewer
Infinitely customizable, good end-to-end sales and customer management processes but lacks good documentation
Essentially, it's the CRM solution for managing customers and leads. The features that had the most significant impact on our sales efficiency include flexibility, regular updates, and very good end-to-end sales and customer management processes. AI and machine learning are on the agenda for next year. Initially, it will be very silo-based, but eventually, we'll be integrating MIBI data into our solution. Sales Cloud's reporting and analytics capabilities influenced our sales strategy quite a lot. We can build every report as a dashboard, and there are various sorts of things. We are using Tableau as our MIBI analytic solution, which is also owned by Salesforce these days.
GodfreyNoel - PeerSpot reviewer
Excellent user experience with ease of use and reliable technical support
When SAP CRM does the maintenance, it can take a long time, which can impact business continuity because we have to wait for the maintenance team to finish their work. Maybe if SAP could establish how you can access the tool using a cloud-based environment that would be virtualization, that would be better.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The development cost, maintenance cost, everything will be drastically reduced - unlike traditional infrastructure where we maintain everything on our own."
"The solution has the ability to run reports on the pipeline and understand the likelihood of the sales. The analytics tools are very good."
"I have found Salesforce Sales Cloud to be stable."
"It is a very good tool. There are a lot of interesting features. It is one of the best solutions."
"Salesforce is a very powerful tool which helps us to build that through tools like Process Builder or Flows, or even write code to achieve these scenarios."
"The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are code hub management and sale opportunity management."
"Salesforce is very user-friendly, which makes it effortless to track business management reports."
"Salesforce helps up keep track of candidates."
"The most valuable feature is real-time data. You don't have to go to the finance team for information. On one screen, you can see if stock is available and check the customer's outstanding balance, and then you can process the order. SAP CRM's integration with other applications is easier."
"SAP CRM integrates well with SAP ERP which is useful."
"We use SAP CRM for customer service improvement. The main idea is to make sure our team has the right information when talking to customers. This helps them process things like price approvals for quotes faster. The goal is to make the product more efficient, and faster, and, in the end, provide better customer service."
"The solution is stable."
"The stability is good."
"The solution's contract management and product hierarchy features of SAP CRM are the most beneficial for our business operations."
"SAP is very easy to use."
"We like that this solution has made our whole accounting function paperless."
 

Cons

"Salesforce must build some connectors and features to make integrations easier."
"Salesforce Sales Cloud could improve by allowing some customization of the processes with coding to avoid the problem of memory. When we use only flows in the process, which can become large flows, they are more complicated to debug and also for maintenance. It's better to invoke some Apex classes to make the process better."
"The solution could improve the partner management and communities. For the enterprise licenses, we have the help, but it should also be extended with the features to the partner community."
"Auto clean for duplicate leads, accounts, and contacts needs improving."
"It could have a more user-friendly interface."
"Applications that can help with migrating data over from the sandbox to production would make it easier because sometimes change sets can be bulky and they're not always as effective. This can be frustrating when you make a lot of changes and try to put those changes into production."
"The developer console might be enhanced."
"It would be nice if they had an ERP offering or a firm strategic partnership with a best-in-class ERP. So rather than say they're just ERP agnostic, you would pick whichever ERP you want, which is very generic. I think it would have a lot of merit if they partnered strategically with a best-in-class trusted ERP platform or acquired an ERP platform."
"They could improve the product's analytics and reporting capabilities. Additionally, they could enhance its web interface speed."
"When features do get added, we would like the product to notify us in a timely way."
"SAP CRM should create a more user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI)."
"It was not very stable. It was not a network problem because we were using tools that were not SAP. They were working well. But when I'm running the SAP, it's not working for us."
"The navigation must be improved."
"The product's pricing could be better."
"The implementation and integrations could be better. After we went into the production environment, we had some issues. Most of them were with the ERP integration. Many other issues were around the client's integrations between the ERP and CRM platforms. It could be more user-friendly. It wasn't very user-friendly initially, but now it's easier for them to use. Now, the users can use that platform better than at the beginning. We would like to see reports with more analytic features and artificial intelligence in the next release. For example, show more metrics and KPIs and more dynamic dashboards. Because the platform has some models, but it's not easy to use. It's a little complex."
"The tool's installation on the cloud takes time, but it should be easier. One transaction takes around one to one and a half hours."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is a premium product, so it is not the cheapest solution. I think if it's implemented well, and you're getting the soft cost benefits, the efficiencies, it's justified. But not if you're looking at just apples for apples as a subscription, without the complexity that you can achieve. It can deal with complex business requirements. Some other CRMs can't. But you certainly pay, so it's a premium-charged solution. It's one of the more expensive ones."
"The overall price of Salesforce Sales Cloud could be better, it is more expensive than other competitors. There is an annual license for Salesforce Sales Cloud."
"In terms of investment value and return of the investment, Salesforce right now is pretty good on the Western markets where the price of the employees is pretty high."
"I've seen the prices for Salesforce Sales Cloud, but I haven't been the one to handle the money. As someone who's only visually looked at the price, I would imagine it's on the pricier side, but they do have a ton of leverage, and seeing that everyone I've worked for has always been dedicated to continuing Salesforce. I've never worked for anyone who has threatened to leave. Everyone has accepted the pricing for what they offer."
"I have found Salesforce Sales Cloud to be expensive. However, it is the number one CRM solution in the world. It is worth the money."
"It's expensive, storage being the most costly aspect."
"The main thing is it is costly. Salesforce it is not cheap, it's costly. Some of our customers say it is a costly solution. So, we have lost some sale opportunities regarding the high price. This is the main thing that we are facing. It is sales per user and the user price is about $150 per month, per user for the Enterprise Edition. The other edition is less than this, but it is costly. A company that has 70 or 80 users would pay more than $8,000 USD yearly because it is cloud based."
"The main issue is the price. Because it's SaaS, you will have to pay on a monthly or yearly basis."
"They should reduce the price to target small businesses."
"The product is costly."
"The solution is expensive."
"We have to pay a yearly licensing fee for SAP CRM, which is expensive."
"The licensing model for SAP CRM is customer-based."
"SAP CRM is an expensive product."
"SAP CRM is an expensive solution and is the most challenging aspect of the solution."
"SAP CRM is not suitable for smaller businesses because it is expensive. The larger businesses would be able to handle the cost."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which CRM solutions are best for your needs.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Answers from the Community

it_user735081 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 3, 2017
Oct 3, 2017
My advice is to compare the full investment of the CRM implementation - software, cloud and services - as from a general perspective, all top level "costs" are generally comparable. It is the cost-to-value ratio that you will want to focus upon. Also, you’ll want to assess whether you will be looking to deploy AI or not, as some vendors’ offerings are not quite as real and ready-to-deploy as ot...
See 2 answers
it_user70698 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 3, 2017
Hi thanks for your request. Each of the ERP CRM listed above has certain functionalities in common and comparing the cost between them will completely depends upon the need. Overall Salesforce and SAP CRM has CRM functionality and it is Tier 1 CRM product. Pega is not a CRM product and it specializes in BPM ( Business Process Management). Please email me and I can discuss over the phone with you for further details.
it_user747921 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 3, 2017
My advice is to compare the full investment of the CRM implementation - software, cloud and services - as from a general perspective, all top level "costs" are generally comparable. It is the cost-to-value ratio that you will want to focus upon. Also, you’ll want to assess whether you will be looking to deploy AI or not, as some vendors’ offerings are not quite as real and ready-to-deploy as others. Note that I am biased, as I am with Pega, running their CRM practice. With this said -- in terms of unbiased independent reviews, Gartner's latest Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center for 2017, cites “Reference customers gave Pegasystems' overall package the best cost-to-value rating of any solution assessed for vendors in the Leaders quadrant.” A free copy of Gartner's report may be downloaded here: https://www.pega.com/gartner-crm-cec-2017 Best of luck in your research. Just let me know if I can be of any further assistance. Regards, Jeff Nicholson
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
77%
Computer Software Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
3%
Manufacturing Company
2%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Salesforce Sales Cloud?
The features of Sales Cloud most useful for testing and running email campaigns are highly valuable.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Sales Cloud?
Improving system performance and processing speed would enhance productivity and allow for even smoother workflows according to my view. Additionally, introducing faster data retrieval and real-tim...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Sales Cloud?
My primary use case for Salesforce is to streamline sales strategies, define key sales parameters, and manage focus areas effectively. I leverage Salesforce to record, track, and optimize our sales...
What do you like most about SAP CRM?
Getting the right information at the right time across different programs is important. These programs lack interaction between them. IPA is a good option to bring them together.
What needs improvement with SAP CRM?
One area for improvement is the security model, especially regarding records management retention and the audit and legal holds. Since we're in the middle of a cloud digital transformation, it's es...
 

Also Known As

Sales Cloud, SFDC, Salesforce
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Coca-Cola Enterprises, Kuoni Global Travel Services, Financial Times, Just Eat, Jobsite, H.R. Owen, PlayerLayer, O2, DMGT, Philips, Xtreme.ie, Business Stream, Remote Asset Management, Dialogue Group
Brau Union Osterreich AG, Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., AOK Bundesverband, RAK Ceramics, NHS 24, Wholesale Sports Outdoor Outfitters, FC Bayern Munchen AG, Tumi, The Kellogg Company, MVV Energie AG, Anglian Water Services, German Football Association (DFB), Nebraska Book Company Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP CRM vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.