Demand · CRM
HubSpot and Salesforce alternatives people are asking for
People shopping for a CRM rarely start from a category page. They start by telling their timeline that the current one is too heavy.
What people are posting right now
These are real public posts on X, found by scanning for the phrasings below. Each one is somebody describing the problem in their own words — not a mention of a brand name.
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Brief state of the CRM market from a regular ass guy who’s currently a super admin on ~10 accounts and in Hubspot (well more often using it through Claude) on the regular. Been a @HubSpot user for 20 years, with a few years of salesforce sprinkled in. There’s a new crop of “AI-first” CRM’s that promise the moon so checking them out w|/ 4 mos until our HS renewal, This is the first year where I’ve been legitimately looking at alternate solutions. Tired of all the nickel and diming for literally everything, even on enterprise subs seems like they find a way to squeeze another dollar out of you. Some other gripes: hate having to pay extra for a data studio, should be included, marketing enterprise at $5k/mo is a joke, etc…like what even is this “journeys” thing they rolled out? Is anyone using it and finding success? So far I’ve demo’d (and actually used @attio a bit with a live account) and only demoed @MonacoGTM. Needless to say if you’re in this space you’ve been plastered by marketing from these 2. What I’ve found has been interesting and it’s obvious where this market is headed, (GTM, revops) but I’m not sure you could support the full customer lifecycle on any of the alternatives that I’ve seen. They’re almost like glorified versions of clay and everything post sale is still being figured out. For example when we spoke to Monaco we mentioned that we have a workflow that connects to platform usage that triggers automatic emails based on isage or lack of it. Power user? Here are 3 things you can do that you may not have known about. When asked if Monaco could support this type of workflow met with blank stares. I was impressed by Monaco‘s GTM first approach and the fact what they embed what they’re calling a dedicated “forward deployed account executive” with each client which is a major bonus to have someone who can help build out the right workflows and minimize time to value for clients. Smart move, ridiculous name I mean almost have to make i
comparing two options Super-admin on HubSpot, 4 months to renewal, actively demoing alternatives over price and bloat.
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We love Hubspot and are building our future stack around it, but that means also leaving modules we’ve always paid for but never used. As a result we’re getting hit with 150% cost increases on what we want to keep which just leaves a really bad taste and a poor renewal experience.
frustrated with the current tool Founder describing a real HubSpot renewal hit for unused modules—the exact replace-the-suite pain.
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Its almost a year and our startup still does not pay for a CRM, a task management tool or a meeting notes All three are Notion tables, and two of them run themselves Customers get chased on a date we set once Calls transcribe while I talk The whole workspace answers questions now that Claude is plugged into it I wrote up exactly how each one is built, and the startup program that makes it free:
frustrated with the current tool Technical founder still on Notion as CRM after a year—classic small-team replacement of HubSpot/Salesforce.
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Can guarantee mines worse. I still have a quarter left on my CRM contract until I can vibecode my way to freedom. Which CRM do you have?
leaving a competitor Stuck in a CRM contract and hunting a way out—switching intent, even if DIY.
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Everyone hates Salesforce, yet every company that scales past 100 people inevitably ends up buying it. The legacy CRM model is just an expensive, manual database that reps despise updating. Rebuilding CRM as a native agentic world model, where autonomous software actually does the execution instead of demanding human data entry, is the only way anyone finally unseats the incumbent.
frustrated with the current tool Names the Salesforce hate plus data-entry pain small teams try to avoid with a simpler CRM.
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Depends how linear your deal flow is. Pipedrive forces everything through one pipeline object, Attio lets you model companies/deals/custom objects separately so multi-threaded B2B sales don't get bent to fit a single stage list. Migration from Pipedrive is usually the easy part,
comparing two options On-topic Pipedrive vs lighter/flexible CRM modeling; people leaving Pipedrive is the brief.
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🫡 I still like having a CRM. I feel like the vibe coded CRMs work but just more of a pain in the ass to set up and GHL and hubspot really aren’t that expensive to me for how much maintenance crap they spare you but maybe that’s cope Did have a vibe coded CRM for outside sales reps for a while that was ok
comparing two options Sales operator weighing HubSpot vs DIY CRM setup cost—the product’s core claim.
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My sales assistant bot manage my own crm (google spreadsheet) and now I have the best tracker / reminders systems increasing my efficiency 10x easily.
asking for a recommendation Founder still using a Google Sheet as CRM plus follow-up reminders—exact replace-spreadsheet buyer shape.
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Turn off your CRM demo call and read this first. A CRM replaces your sticky notes and spreadsheet, not your sales process. It won't call the lead back for you. If you have under 20 active leads a month, a shared spreadsheet beats a $200/mo CRM every time.
comparing two options Public take on spreadsheet vs paid CRM for small volume—category language buyers use.
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Unpopular opinion: you don't need Salesforce. You need a CRM that works out of the box, costs less than your coffee budget, and doesn't require a consultant to set up.
frustrated with the current tool Exact category phrasing from the brief (Salesforce too heavy, no setup cost), even though the author is building.
Posts are public and linked to their author. This page is refreshed monthly, so anything deleted at the source drops off at the next refresh.
What demand looks like in CRM
Price and setup effort dominate. Almost every switcher names the tool they are leaving, which makes them easy to find and easy to answer.
Demand on X in this window is less “recommend a SaaS this week” and more renewal pain: HubSpot nickel-and-diming, Salesforce as bloated lock-in, and small teams still running pipeline in Notion or Sheets. Operators with real seats are comparing Attio/Monaco-style tools 3–4 months before renewal, while founders brag that they still refuse to pay for a CRM. The opening is peer talk about follow-ups, setup cost, and module pricing—not brand PR.
The phrases buyers actually type
Searching your category name returns vendor marketing. Searching the sentences below returns people. These are the ones that work in CRM:
leaving HubSpotSalesforce is too expensivesimple CRM for a small teamCRM that isn't bloatedmoving off Pipedrivewhat CRM are you using
Combine them with -filter:retweets and a recent date window. The full method is in the guide to finding buyers on X.
What they are leaving
Buyers in this category are usually moving away from something specific: HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, a spreadsheet, Notion. Naming the tool they are leaving is the fastest way to find switchers, because they almost always write it down.
Who buys
Founders, sales managers, RevOps, agency owners. If a post comes from a brand account, a newsletter or an aggregator rather than one of those, it is a mention and not a buyer — the difference matters more than it sounds.
See this for your own product
This page is one scan. Askline runs the same thing on your offer, scores who is actually in the market, and drafts a reply you approve before it goes out.
Start freeHow people try to catch these conversations
Everyone on this page described a need without naming a single brand. That is why a mention alert never surfaces them: there is no mention to catch. These are the tools people reach for instead, and where each one stops.
- Brand24 alternatives: mentions are not buyers
- Mention alternatives: from brand mentions to buying intent
- Awario alternatives: monitoring vs finding new customers
- Brandwatch alternatives for teams without a PR budget