Avoid Costly Mistakes & Set Your Team Up for Long-Term Success
Choosing a CRM isn’t just a tech decision; it’s a business strategy. With Salesforce, the world’s #1 CRM platform, you have access to powerful tools that can supercharge your sales, marketing, and service teams. Now the challenge of picking the right Salesforce Edition for your unique business needs.
This guide is designed to help executives, business owners, and decision-makers make informed, confident decisions that align with budget, scale, and strategic goals.
What Every Business Should Consider Before Choosing a Salesforce Edition:
Before diving into editions and pricing, step back and consider:
✅ How many users do we need to support?
✅ What core problems do we want the CRM to solve?
✅ Do we need automation, forecasting, or marketing tools?
✅ How complex are our processes, and will they evolve?
✅ Will we need integrations with other software platforms?
✅ Do we have internal Salesforce expertise or need implementation support?
These answers will shape the edition that’s right for your organization.
Salesforce Starter Suite (formerly Essentials)
Best for: Very small teams (under 10 users) that need a simple, affordable CRM for basic sales tracking.
💲 Pricing: $25/user/month
Key Features:
✅ Lead Management
✅ Account & Contact Management
✅ Opportunity Tracking
✅ Products & Price books
✅ Case Management
✅ Campaign Management
✅ Task & Activity Management
✅ Email Integration (Gmail, Outlook)
✅ Custom Reports & Dashboards
✅ Mass Emailing
✅ Mobile App Access
Limitations:
⚠️ Max 10 users
⚠️ No automation or approval workflows
⚠️ No API access for integrations
⚠️ No custom objects
Salesforce Pro Suite
Best for: Small to mid-sized businesses ready to level up with better forecasting, reporting, and basic automation.
💲 Pricing: $100/user/month
Key Features:
✅ All Starter Features, plus:
✅ Person Accounts
✅ Sales Forecasting & Quotas
✅ Quoting & Contracts
✅ Orders
✅ Automation (5)
✅ Mobile Offline
Limitations:
⚠️ 5 flows/processes per org
⚠️ 3 record types per object
⚠️ 2 Custom Profiles
⚠️ No API access (available as paid add-on)
⚠️ No Sandboxes for testing
Salesforce Enterprise
Best for: Mid-to-large businesses with complex operations, automation needs, integrations, and advanced reporting requirements.
💲 Pricing: $165/user/month
Key Features:
✅ All Professional Features, plus:
✅ Unlimited Workflow & Automation
✅ Agentforce
✅ Full API Access for Integrations
✅ Advanced Reporting
✅ Up to 1500 Profiles & Advance Roles, and Permission Sets
✅ 1 Partial Sandbox included for testing
Limitations: ⚠️ Higher cost—but provides robust scalability and customization for future-proofing
Unlimited
Best for: Enterprises companies with more complexity in your business, requiring 24/7 support, extensive dev/test environments, and top-tier scalability and service.
💲 Pricing: $330/user/month
Key Features:
✅ All Enterprise Features, plus:
✅ Unlimited Support (Premier Success Plan)
✅ Full Sandbox Suite (Dev, Partial, and Full sandboxes)
✅ Advanced Dev Tools & Configuration
✅ 24/7 Toll-Free Support
Limitations: ⚠️ Higher cost but highly robust operating system.
Salesforce Sales Cloud Pricing – All agreements are annual
Use this checklist to determine which edition best fits your needs:
| Question | Ideal Edition |
| Do we need fewer than 10 users with basic CRM functionality? | Starter Suite |
| Do we need quoting or some automation from our CRM? | Pro Starter |
| Do we need automation or integration? | Enterprise |
| Do we need API access and sandbox environments, or complex security/access models? | Enterprise or Unlimited |
| Do we need 24/7 support and enterprise dev tools? | Unlimited |
| Are we looking to scale quickly and need flexibility? | Enterprise |
Why Work with Focus CRM?
Choosing the right edition is only half the battle. Setting it up for success? That’s where we come in. At Focus CRM, we are a Salesforce Partner in Toronto with over 20 years’ experience:
✅ Match your business to the right Salesforce edition
✅ Handle implementation, data migration, and automation setup
✅ Customize your CRM to reflect your processes
✅ Train your team for fast, confident adoption
✅ Provide ongoing support, optimization, and system audits
Let’s take the guesswork out of your CRM journey. Book a discovery call today with a Focus CRM Salesforce Consultant and get an assessment of what your company requires for your CRM and/ or Salesforce Implementation.