Salesforce is the enterprise standard — and priced like it. Here's what a growing B2B team actually pays, and what Kola replaces it with.
Salesforce is the most powerful and most customizable CRM on this list — and the most expensive, with pricing that scales fastest as you add seats and AI usage. A 10-person team on Salesforce's Starter Suite runs roughly $3,600/year before any AI costs; Kola Professional is $297, once, with AI included.
| Feature | Kola Professional | Salesforce |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Price model | One-time purchase | $25–165/user/month depending on tier |
| 10-user, Year 1 cost (Starter Suite) | $297 | ~$3,600 |
| 10-user, Year 3 cost (Starter Suite) | $297 | ~$10,800 |
| 25-user, Enterprise tier | $497 (Business, unlimited users) | ~$49,500/year |
| Per-seat billing | No — flat tiers | Yes, every tier |
| Pricing transparency | Three prices, listed | Usually requires a sales call to quote |
| AI | ||
| Built-in AI assistant | ✓ All tiers (BYOK) | Agentforce — priced separately |
| AI cost to you | ~$2/year (your own key) | $2 per conversation, on top of licensing |
| Your AI queries stay under your own account | ✓ | ✗ — routed through Salesforce's Agentforce infrastructure |
| Data & Ownership | ||
| Data lives on your server | ✓ | ✗ — Salesforce's cloud |
| No vendor lock-in | ✓ | ✗ — migrating off Salesforce typically needs a consultant |
| Multi-entity contacts (Customer/Supplier/Sub/Partner) | ✓ Native | Possible via custom objects — needs admin/developer work |
| Flexibility | ||
| Cancel and keep using the software | ✓ Always | ✗ — access revoked |
No per-conversation AI billing. Salesforce's Agentforce charges $2 per AI conversation on top of your licensing — a 50-user Enterprise deployment can run $7,500/month in licensing before Agentforce even starts. Kola's AI runs on your own API key at roughly $1–3/year.
No sales call required to know the price. Salesforce pricing typically requires talking to sales before you know your real cost. Kola has three listed prices — no negotiation, no surprise implementation fees.
Nothing to migrate off later. Salesforce implementations are notoriously hard to leave once your data and workflows are built in. Kola's data lives on your own server from day one, so there's no lock-in to escape.
Three tiers, one payment each. No seat count to negotiate, no sales call required.