Microsoft Dynamics vs Salesforce
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: Salesforce is cheaper — $25/user/mo vs $65/user/mo.
- How to start: Microsoft Dynamics is from $65/user/mo, Salesforce is from $25/user/mo billed monthly.
- Where they differ: on what we checked they match — both offer public api.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Microsoft Dynamics is
Dynamics 365 is Microsoft's family of business applications — Sales, Customer Service, Finance, Field Service and more — sold as separate apps rather than one product. That structure is the thing to understand before budgeting: you licence each app per user, and the price you see quoted is usually for the first app a person gets. It fits organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365 and Azure, where the identity, Teams and Excel integration removes work that would otherwise be an integration project.
What Salesforce is
Salesforce Sales Cloud is the reference CRM, and its edition ladder spans a twenty-two-fold price range for what is nominally the same product. The two cheapest editions are the Starter and Pro suites, sold as small-business bundles covering sales, service, marketing and commerce; from Core upward the price reflects platform capability rather than extra apps, bringing Slack, Tableau and the Agentforce AI agents into the licence. The AI allowance is itself metered, published as Flex Credits per organisation per year, and the vendor states explicitly that the page is informational and that detailed pricing comes from a sales representative.
Side by side
| Microsoft Dynamics | Salesforce | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | CRM | CRM |
| How to start | $65/user/moverified | $25/user/moverified |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | not checked | Yes |
| Open source / self-hostable | not checked | No |
| SSO (SAML) | not checked | Yes |
| Visit | Microsoft Dynamics ↗ | Salesforce ↗ |
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What Microsoft Dynamics is built to do
- Sold as separate apps
- Sales, Customer Service, Finance and others are licensed individually, per user.
- Tiered Sales licensing
- Sales Professional at $65/user/mo, Sales Enterprise at $95/user/mo.
- Attach pricing for extra apps
- Additional apps for an already-licensed user are cheaper than the first app.
- Microsoft ecosystem integration
- Shares identity, Teams, Excel and Power Platform with the rest of Microsoft 365.
What Salesforce is built to do
- Lead and opportunity management
- Accounts, contacts, leads and opportunities with built-in flows and routing.
- Agentforce AI
- AI agents for prospecting, pipeline and sales email, metered in Flex Credits.
- Forecasting and quoting
- Sales quoting and forecasting from Pro Suite, predictive forecasting higher up.
Choose Microsoft Dynamics if
- Organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365, where identity and Teams integration comes free
- Teams that need CRM and ERP from one vendor rather than stitching two together
- Companies with an admin or partner who can configure it properly
Skip Microsoft Dynamics if
- You want one flat price — cost depends on which apps each person needs, starting at $65/user/mo for Sales Professional
- You have no Microsoft footprint; the main advantage disappears
- You need to be running next week — Dynamics deployments assume a configuration project
Choose Salesforce if
- Small teams wanting a bundled suite: Starter Suite is $25 per user per month and includes service, marketing and commerce alongside sales
- Growing businesses needing quoting and forecasting, which begin on Pro Suite at $100 per user per month billed annually
- Companies standardising on Slack and Tableau, since both enter the licence at Core, $195 per user per month
- Organisations committing to AI agents, where Max at $550 per user per month carries the full Agentforce suite and 2.75M Flex Credits a year
Skip Salesforce if
- You are comparing on the $25 headline: the same product line runs to $550 per user per month, a twenty-two-fold spread
- You want a firm quote from the website — the vendor states the page is informational and routes you to a sales representative
- You need AI on a cheap edition; the vendor states AI can be added to Core and above
- You are storing a lot per user: the lower editions allocate 10GB per org rather than per user
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Microsoft Dynamics
Official sources reviewed · reviewed 2026-09-07
Salesforce
Vendor pricing page verified · reviewed 2026-09-10
Microsoft Dynamics: pros & cons
- Deep Microsoft 365 and Power Platform integration
- Covers CRM and ERP in one family
- Enterprise governance and compliance
- Module licensing is complex and expensive
- Implementation is a project
- Overkill for small teams
Salesforce: pros & cons
- Published per-user prices across five editions
- AI usage allowance stated as Flex Credits per org
- Starter and Pro suites bundle service, marketing and commerce
- Top edition is 22 times the entry price
- Vendor states the page is informational only
- Pro Suite and above are annual billing
Our verdict on Microsoft Dynamics
Natural for Microsoft shops. Getting the licensing right is half the work.
Our verdict on Salesforce
Pick the edition by platform needs, not feature lists — the jump from Pro to Core is where you start paying for Slack, Tableau and AI agents. Treat every figure as a starting point for a sales conversation.
Published plans, side by side
Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page and is shown with the sentence it came from. Where a vendor publishes no plan prices, we say so rather than guess.
Microsoft Dynamics
- Sales Professional$65/user/mo
Sales Professional $65 per user per month
- Sales Enterprise$95/user/mo
Sales Enterprise $95 per user per month
Salesforce
- Starter Suite$25/user/mo billed monthly
Starter Suite $25 USD per user per month, billed monthly or annually: lead, account, contact and opportunity management, built-in sales flows and lead routing, AI email, event and contact sync, dynamic email marketing and analytics
- Pro Suite$100/user/mo billed annually
Pro Suite $100 USD per user per month, billed annually: everything in Starter plus greater customisation and automation, sales quoting and forecasting, access to AgentExchange, Premier Support as an add-on
- Core$195/user/mo
Core $195 USD per user per month: everything in Professional Edition plus Momentum and Premier Success, Slack Business+ and Tableau Next
- Advanced$395/user/mo
Advanced $395 USD per user per month: everything in Core plus enhanced security, more AI and expanded data capacity, Sales Programs, Backup & Recover, Archive, Data Detect and Security Center
- Max$550/user/mo billed annually
Max $550 USD per user per month: everything in Advanced plus the full AI suite, Agentforce for Sales and Agentforce Coworker, Salesforce Spiff, Sales Planning, Sales Programs, Salesforce Maps, Tableau Next and Slack Enterprise+, and 2.75M Flex Credits per org per year
Cost at team size
Each tool's cheapest paid plan, multiplied by seats. Flat plans do not scale with headcount; per-seat plans do. No plan means no row.
| Team size | Microsoft Dynamics | Salesforce | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 seats | $65.00 | $25.00 | $40.00 cheaper: Salesforce |
| 5 seats | $325.00 | $125.00 | $200.00 cheaper: Salesforce |
| 25 seats | $1,625.00 | $625.00 | $1,000.00 cheaper: Salesforce |
Microsoft Dynamics vs Salesforce: common questions
- Is Microsoft Dynamics cheaper than Salesforce?
- Salesforce is the cheaper entry point at $25/user/mo billed monthly, against $65/user/mo for Microsoft Dynamics. Both figures come from the vendors' own pricing pages.
- Does Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce have a free plan?
- Microsoft Dynamics has no free plan listed, while Salesforce has no free plan listed.
- Which is cheaper once you start paying, Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce?
- Salesforce has the cheaper first paid step: Starter Suite at $25/user/mo billed monthly, against Sales Professional at $65/user/mo for Microsoft Dynamics. Both figures come from the vendors' own pricing pages.
- What is the difference between Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce?
- On the criteria we check, on what we checked they match — both offer public api. The table above lists every criterion side by side.