In this blog post I will compare Microsoft Dynamics with the market leader in the field: Salesforce.

Why is this important?

• If you consult within Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, it’s crucial to understand the CRM market to best assist your customers.
• If you’re considering purchasing one of the platforms, you must know exactly what you’re buying (and paying for!).

Blog Part 1: Overview of the platforms
– History
– Product comparison
– Other parameters to compare
– User interface
– Conclusion

Blog Part 2: Price comparison
– Licensing
– Pricing

History

Salesforce was founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff, among others, as one of the first SaaS-companies in the world. The founder remains active in the company today. Its logotype, a blue cloud, symbolizes the pioneering cloud-based CRM. In contrast, Microsoft Dynamics was not founded as a standalone company; it has evolved as a product line within Microsoft. In 2016, Microsoft announced the launch of Dynamics 365, which unified ERP and CRM solutions into a single cloud-based platform.

Salesforce is the market leader in the field, holding 20-25% market share. Source: Salesforce, 2023

Product catalog

Salesforce and Dynamics 365 could be described as two parallel universes when it comes to their product catalogs. Both present their offerings in a circle, which reflects that their services are designed to cover all aspects. Salesforce 360 represent the degree of a circle, and Dynamics 365 represent the number of days in a year.

Salesforce presents its material in a more intuitive way, with more animals, more playfulness,  and often more colors in its learning materials. A detail I’ve noticed in these product overviews is that Salesforce places the customer at the center, whereas Microsoft does not. Could this be a reason why Salesforce is the market leader (by far)? Does Salesforce customer-centric approach lead to more deals?

Other parameters to compare

There is a lot more to compare between the systems.

Explore more about Microsoft Datacenters: Microsoft Datacenters. 

More about Salesforce Datacenters: Salesforce Datacenters.

Education and learning

One important parameter to compare is the way Salesforce and Microsoft educate the users and developers. Both platforms offer solid education through Salesforce Trailhead and Microsoft Learn. You can choose from many different  learning modules, covering both technical and business-related topics. Again, Salesforce differentiates itself slightly with its colorful design and somewhat more “easy-to-read” texts.

I have earned certificates on both platforms, so I have spent many hours reading…

From a learning perspective, I appreciate the functionality in Trailhead that allows for the easy creation of an environment to use as a playground. This process is far more complicated in the world of Microsoft.

User Interface

Deciding which UI is the most beautiful and user-friendly is almost impossible. Do like an apple or a pear the most? As mentioned, Salesforce uses more colors and incorporates more gamification effects. On the other hand, if you prefer Microsoft products like Outlook, SharePoint or Teams, you will probably find the look and feel of Dynamics more to your liking.

Account page

Opportunity page

Conclusion

Are you choosing between the two platforms? Here are some questions to consider:

• What does your organization’s IT system look like today? Which products exist?
• What competencies do you have in-house?
• What are your needs?
• What is your budget?

Which to choose?

Both platforms are similar in terms of functionality, customization, scalability, mobility, support and security. I have tried to summarize some parameters where the two platforms differ.