The quick version
Salesforce is the biggest CRM in the world. It can do essentially anything — if you have the budget, the admin resources, and the patience. Vigdis is a small, focused CRM for teams that want to manage contacts and deals without hiring a Salesforce consultant.
This comparison might seem unfair. Salesforce is an enterprise platform used by Fortune 500 companies. But we keep hearing from small teams who signed up for Salesforce because it's the "safe choice" and ended up drowning in complexity they didn't need. This page is for those teams.
Pricing
Salesforce's pricing is straightforward on paper, expensive in practice:
| Salesforce Starter | Salesforce Pro | Salesforce Enterprise | Vigdis | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $25/user/mo | $100/user/mo | $165/user/mo | Free (early access) |
| Max users | 325 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Contract | Annual | Annual | Annual | Monthly (planned) |
Those numbers look clean, but they don't tell the whole story. Most teams outgrow Starter quickly because it lacks automation, custom objects, and API access. So you jump to Pro at $100/user/month. A five-person team on Pro Suite: $500/month, billed annually. That's $6,000/year committed upfront.
Enterprise at $165/user is where Salesforce gets its full API access, advanced automation, and the customization people actually want. Five seats on Enterprise: $9,900/year.
And that's before implementation costs. Salesforce consultants charge $150–$300/hour. A basic implementation for a small team can easily run $5,000–$15,000. Plus ongoing admin time — Salesforce needs someone who knows what they're doing to maintain it.
Vigdis is free during early access. Paid plans will be simple per-seat pricing with no annual lock-in and no implementation fees. You'll set it up yourself in an afternoon.
Features
Contacts and companies
Salesforce's data model is incredibly powerful — accounts, contacts, leads, custom objects, record types, junction objects, lookup relationships. You can model nearly any business process. Vigdis has contacts, companies, custom fields, and saved views. Less flexible, but you'll have it configured in ten minutes instead of ten days. For most small teams, our data model covers what you need without the abstraction overhead.
Deals and pipeline
Salesforce calls them "opportunities." You get pipeline stages, forecasting, products and price books, quotes, and approval processes. The pipeline management is deep but requires setup. Vigdis has kanban-style deal tracking with pipeline stats. Drag deals between stages, see your numbers, move on with your day. No opportunity record types, no price books, no approval workflows. Just a pipeline that works.
Customization
This is Salesforce's superpower. Custom objects, custom fields, page layouts, record types, validation rules, formula fields, workflow rules, Process Builder, Flow Builder — you can build almost anything on the Salesforce platform. Vigdis has custom fields and configurable entity types. Enough to adapt to your workflow, not enough to build a custom ERP. We're not trying to be a platform you build on. We're trying to be a CRM you use.
Reporting
Salesforce's reporting and dashboards are powerful. Custom report types, cross-object reporting, joined reports, historical trending. Einstein Analytics adds AI-powered insights on higher tiers. Vigdis has built-in stats and analytics dashboards. They cover pipeline health, activity tracking, and team performance. It's not a BI tool, and that's intentional.
Automation
Salesforce has Flow Builder, Process Builder (legacy), Apex triggers, and now Agentforce for AI-powered automation. You can automate nearly any business process — if you know how to build flows or write Apex. Vigdis doesn't have workflow automation yet. When we add it, it'll be the kind you can set up in two minutes, not the kind that requires a certified developer.
Integrations
Salesforce's AppExchange has thousands of apps and integrations. It connects to everything. Most enterprise software is built to integrate with Salesforce first. Vigdis has an API. We're building integrations. We're not in the same universe as AppExchange, and we won't pretend otherwise.
Where Salesforce wins
- Power. Salesforce can do virtually anything. If you have complex business processes, multiple sales teams, approval chains, territory management, or CPQ needs, Salesforce handles it.
- Ecosystem. Thousands of integrations, consultants, and third-party apps. The ecosystem is unmatched.
- Scale. Salesforce works for teams of 5 and teams of 50,000. It grows with you in a way few products can.
- Reporting. Deep, cross-object reporting with historical trending and AI-powered analytics.
- Trust. Nobody got fired for choosing Salesforce. It's the safe enterprise choice, and for good reason — the product delivers at scale.
Where Vigdis wins
- Total cost of ownership. Salesforce's sticker price is just the start. Add implementation, consulting, admin time, AppExchange subscriptions, and data storage overages — the real cost is 2–3x the license fee. Vigdis is the license fee. That's it.
- Time to value. Sign up, invite your team, start using it. No implementation project. No consultant. No three-month onboarding timeline.
- Simplicity. Salesforce is powerful because it's complex. Vigdis is useful because it's simple. These are different design philosophies, and for small teams, simplicity usually wins.
- Speed. Salesforce's UI has improved, but it's still a heavy web app. Vigdis is fast — keyboard shortcuts, instant navigation, no page reloads.
- No admin overhead. You don't need a dedicated Salesforce admin to keep Vigdis running. The settings are straightforward. The permissions make sense. Nobody needs a certification.
- Pricing honesty. Per seat, no annual lock-in, no surprise overages.
The bottom line
Pick Salesforce if you have complex sales processes, need enterprise-grade customization, or your organization requires deep integrations with other enterprise software. If you have the budget for implementation and ongoing admin, Salesforce delivers.
Pick Vigdis if you're a small team that tried (or considered) Salesforce and thought, "This is way more than we need." You want contacts, deals, tasks, and a pipeline — not a platform that requires a consultant to configure. You'd rather spend your budget on growing your business than on CRM administration.
Salesforce is the most powerful CRM on the planet. We're not here to compete with that. We're here for the teams that don't need a planet-sized CRM.