We compared Highrise vs Salesforce with our AR Appraisal Rankings® method
Our Choice: Highrise
1. Highrise
2. Salesforce
Why?: Highrise is our number one choice because of Price, Usability, Tasks
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CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software offers powerful benefits for your business. It enables you to manage all of your contacts, all of your notes and ensures that you are able to enjoy the best lead generation and management possible as well. However, as the need for this type of software has grown, more and more options have sprung up on the scene. Two of the top contenders are Highrise and Salesforce. Both offer fully functional CRM capabilities, but they are vastly different products. What’s the difference?
Actually, you will find quite a few differences with these products. Each is aimed at a different type of business. For instance, Highrise is geared more for small to medium sized businesses, while Salesforce is the ideal option for enterprise level businesses. That said, you should know what each program offers, before you make a decision on CRM software.
37Signal's Highrise
Highrise makes no bones about being designed primarily for small and medium businesses. Highrise attempts to differentiate itself from other CRMs by “not doing too much.” In other words, Highrise tries to be easier to use. However, larger companies might just find a few benefits from the software as well. As an application, Highrise comes in between baseline options like MS Outlook and higher end apps with much higher price tags. Feature-wise, it offers some pretty decent functionality when compared against any product on the market.
The program features six different plans:
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Max - $149/month
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Premium - $99/month
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Plus - $49/month
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Basic - $24/month
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Solo - $29/month
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Free Plan - $0 (no time limit)
The higher plans all make use of shared group storage. Upgrades and downgrades can be accomplished any time you want, as well.
One of the vast strengths of Highrise is the ability to group disparate types of information together in a single place. You can add notes, contact information, emails and more to a single entry in the system, which ensures that you are able to see all the information you need with a single glance. The tab system is also a nice addition, giving you the ability to flip through entries with ease. Finally, Highrise gives you the ability to tag contacts by keyword, which is incredibly useful for looking up contacts whose names or other information you might not recall clearly.
Pros:
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Flexible pricing
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Integrates well with email programs
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Offers tremendously flexible CRM functions
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Simple and easy to use
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More users with each plan
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30 Day Free Trial
Cons:
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Lowest price tier is little more than a free trial
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No graphical calendar feature
What do others think about Highrise?
CNet.com – “It's a Webware solution for people who don't want to install CRM software or manage a huge database, and who need a tool that can be accessed on the go.”
ParticleWave.com – “I may have found a solution that does about 99% of what I expect and need it to do, and does it elegantly and affordably.”
AppAppeal.com – “Highrise is simple and intuitive and gives better performance as compared to other comparable applications.”
Salesforce
Salesforce is a much larger, much more comprehensive CRM program. It is also considerably more expensive, as their pricing is set up per user versus per company. Salesforce is also available in both an online and offline configuration, allowing you to make use of the solution no matter where you might be. Wireless options are also available, enabling you to make use of Salesforce on email and web-based devices.
Salesforce is a powerful tool, enabling you to choose which contacts you want to carry with you in the offline version, as well as providing you with SSL encryption for all areas of the program. Like Highrise, Salesforce integrates with almost any email program and its Outlook integration is flawless. The portable version of Salesforce can hold up to 500 accounts, but there is no such limitation on the offline version, as it stores everything on the hard drive of the host computer, within an SQL database.
Salesforce pricing and editions is available in the following plans:
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Contact Manager: $5 per user per month.
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Up to 5 users allowed
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Store contacts, track customers, run activity reports, manage tasks and meetings, 99.9% availability and works with Outlook and Gmail.
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- Group: $17 per user per month
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Up to 5 users allowed
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Includes everything in Contact manager plus capture website leads, track sales opportunities, run sales reports, Real-time dashboard, 12x5 phone support and allows Google AdWords Tracking
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- Professional: $65 per user per month
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No user limit
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Includes everything in Group plus run reports and analytics, custom dashboards, support case tracking, mass emails, sales forecasting, privacy controls, campaign management and mobile lite.
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- Enterprise: $125 per user per month
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No user limit
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Includes everything in Professional plus you can manage workflow and approvals, use API for application integration, sales territory management, offline access, advanced security, content library, develop sandbox for custom applications.
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- Unlimited: $250 per user per month
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No user limit
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Includes everything in Enterprise plus 24x7 premiere support, dedicated administrator, full sandbox environment for training and testing, full mobile access, unlimited customization, unlimited development and increased storage limits.
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However, while this program is immensely popular and incredibly functional, the price will be a barrier to large teams, unless they can afford it. In addition the Enterprise and Unlimited editions, of the program might just be a bit of overkill for small businesses who do not need all of the features.
Pros:
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Simple to install and use
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Offers multiple versions for offline and mobile use
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SSL encryption
Cons:
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Price
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Might be too much program for small businesses
What do others think about Salesforce?
PCMag.com – “In its default configuration, Salesforce is easy to learn and use while still delivering the functions you need on the road.”
CNet.com – “Without a doubt the most prevalent hosted customer relationship management (CRM) package, Salesforce.com boasts more than 9,500 customers--and for good reason.”
AppAppeal.com – “Salesforce is a pioneer in web based online on demand CRM solutions.”
Choosing the Winner: Highrise
Why?: Price, Usability, Tasks
If you have team of multiple users and need to save money then choose Highrise. If you represent a small to medium sized business, the tools offered by Salesforce might be tempting, but you certainly might be paying for features you will never use. However, Highrise offers almost anything that a small business might need for managing their contacts and leads. And from what I've read, several people have switched to Highrise because it's much easier to use.
If you are a small team, and each member needs to manage contacts then chose Highrise. Highrise's $49 plan includes email capabilities for up to 15 users. The email enabled version of Salesforce, the Professional edition, costs $65 per user, and if you have 15 people using it, that's $975 per month. If collaboration is important within contact and lead management, then you'll most likely need more than one login, which can get costly with Salesforce. Furthermore, Highrise's Max plan at $149/month has unlimited users, but Salesforce, has no such plan. In addition, the task management in Salesforce is much more complicated than the task management in Highrise. Many companies have found Highrise to be their software of choice due to this simple reason.
Popular Alternatives:
Sugar CRM: Sugar CRM is utilized by many top businesses including H&R Block, Avis, Coca-Cola and Men’s Warehouse. Two versions are available including Sugar Professional and Sugar Enterprise. Sugar handles everything from sales trends and customer profiles to email marketing, lead management and mobile solutions for collaboration.
Aplicor: Aplicor is a web-based CRM, ERP and accounting software designed for midmarket and enterprise organizations. The system is unique in that it allows you to adapt the software to your client’s business models instead of adapting them to your software.