Salesforce is the biggest CRM provider in the world, according to 2025 IDC data. Its closest rival? Microsoft.
That said, there’s still quite a gap between the two vendors in CRM revenues. Last year, Salesforce raked in $21.6BN. Meanwhile, Microsoft earned $5.45BN.
Nevertheless, Microsoft did achieve higher CRM revenue growth in 2024, up 11.5 percent year-over-year (YoY). Comparatively, Salesforce’s CRM earnings rose by 9.5 percent.
There are several reasons a business may choose Microsoft for CRM. For starters, consider its familiar UI, multiple deployment options, and broader, interconnected Dynamics 365 portfolio.
That portfolio includes an ERP, enabling converged, first-party workflows that run across the two crucial data systems. Salesforce can’t offer that.
However, Salesforce brings a lot of its own differentiators to the table. For instance, it’s the most comprehensive CRM platform on the market, connects seamlessly with Slack, Tableau, and MuleSoft, and has a vision for a more predictive, prescriptive CRM category.
Against that backdrop, here’s a closer look at how Microsoft and Salesforce really stack up.
Microsoft vs. Salesforce: A Quick Overview
Most CRM market reports frame Microsoft and Salesforce as CRM leaders, not just in their revenue, but in their portfolio depth, vision, and worldwide support services.
For instance, both earned the position of “Leader” in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrants focusing on CRMs for marketing, sales, and customer service.
The tech giants were also named at the forefront of Forrester’s 2025 Wave for CRM software.
Generally, these reports praise Microsoft’s CRM solutions for their deep integrations with the broader Dynamics 365 portfolio, in addition to Microsoft Teams, Power, and Copilot Studio.
Plus, Microsoft’s tools are user-friendly and relatively cost-effective compared to those offered by Salesforce, especially after its latest price hikes.
That said, Salesforce has significant advantages in platform depth, scalability, and ecosystem.
Microsoft vs. Salesforce: Customer Service CRMs
A customer service CRM manages cases, stores data, and powers workflows for smoother customer support and agent journeys.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Salesforce Service Cloud are the vendors’ respective CRM solutions in this category.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service: Strengths and Cautions
Microsoft’s take on customer service is a little more understated, at first glance. But Microsoft is innovating quickly, attempting to catch up.
For instance, companies can now access native AI agents, design their own AI agents with Copilot Studio, and leverage a native Copilot to draft customer emails, automate post-contact summaries, and more.
Plus, the new Dynamics 365 Contact Center aligns closely with the CRM, enabling Microsoft to own more of the service stack than its competitors, including Salesforce.
Beyond that, Microsoft’s tools benefit from deep integrations with Office 365, Teams, Outlook, and Azure. For any organization already heavily in the Microsoft ecosystem, that’s a huge plus. It’s also appealing for IT leaders managing everything on Azure.
In its industry studies, Gartner notes that Microsoft is especially strong in unified agent experiences and “cohesive cloud infrastructure”.
Finally, Microsoft has developed a smooth onboarding process for Dynamics 365, which aligns well with its strengths in intuitivity.
However, its marketplace and features lack the depth of Salesforce, while its reporting and workflow automation tools are clunkier.
Salesforce Service Cloud: Strengths and Cautions
Salesforce Service Cloud is still the go-to customer support CRM for enterprises wanting deep customization and advanced capabilities.
Indeed, the platform is about much more than routing tickets and managing cases. Instead, it brings in AI, automation, and integrations from its vast AppExchange to create seriously capable end-to-end fulfillment workflows.
Salesforce is also pushing to use its Service Cloud technology to solve not just customer cases, but also employee cases, as evident in the recent release of an Employee Service module within the CRM.
The company also offers access to extensive deployment resources (a huge partner network), industry-specific offerings, and advanced analytics tools, boosted by its adjacent Tableau product.
However, the number one differentiator is its platform depth, which is boosted by Service Cloud’s unique product discovery tool: My Service Journey. This supports service teams in plotting out a roadmap while unlocking the most relevant tools for their operation.
However, on G2, Salesforce Service Cloud scores 4.4 out of five stars (as of July 2025), slightly lower than Microsoft Dynamics Customer Service’s rating of 4.5 stars.
Part of the reason for this is the complexity of Salesforce’s tools. Onboarding can be complex, especially for smaller teams, and costs can climb fast,…
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