The all-in-one Salesforce alternative — flat price, never per seat
Nanobox is an all-in-one suite (CRM, finance, HR, support) at one flat price, unlimited users, never per seat — run it in the cloud and we host it, or self-host and own the source. Salesforce is the most powerful CRM on the market and the most expensive way to run a sales team. If you don't need an org-wide platform with hundreds of seats and an AppExchange habit, you're paying enterprise rent for a contact database.
Salesforce vs. Spodus CRM
5-year cost
Salesforce: Per-seat subscription that compounds every year; a small team easily clears five figures, a mid-market org clears six
Spodus CRM: Flat $29/mo (~$1,740 over five years) hosted, unlimited users — or a one-time $399 (or $1,999 agency) to self-host. That's the five-year cost, and the ten-year cost
Per-seat pricing
Salesforce: Billed per user per month (annual contracts); every new hire raises the bill
Spodus CRM: None on either plan. License the suite once, or subscribe flat, and add as many users as you need
Data ownership
Salesforce: Your data lives in Salesforce's multi-tenant cloud under their terms and storage limits
Spodus CRM: Your data either way, hosted by us or on infrastructure you control if you self-host. Export, back up, or migrate any time
Source access
Salesforce: Closed platform; you customize within Apex, Flows, and the limits of your edition
Spodus CRM: Full app included on Nanobox Cloud; full source ships if you self-host. Read it, fork it, change anything
AI markup
Salesforce: Agentforce and Einstein tiers carry a steep premium per user
Spodus CRM: No AI features and no AI surcharge, deliberately cheaper and more predictable on either plan
Hosting
Salesforce: Cloud only. You cannot run it on your own servers
Spodus CRM: Cloud (we run it) for a flat monthly price, or self-host on a $5 VPS or your own metal
Lock-in
Salesforce: Annual contracts, migration friction, and per-seat pricing make leaving expensive
Spodus CRM: Cancel Nanobox Cloud and export your data anytime; self-host and you hold the code and the data outright
Scope
Salesforce: A CRM platform; finance, HR, and support run on separate Salesforce Clouds, each its own contract
Spodus CRM: One suite, one price, covering CRM, finance, HR, and support together
Ecosystem & integrations
Salesforce: Genuinely unmatched: AppExchange, a deep partner network, and pre-built connectors for nearly everything
Spodus CRM: Lean by design; you integrate via the API and your own code, which is more work
Why teams switch
- One flat price covers CRM, finance, HR, and support together, with unlimited users, never per seat.
- Run it in the cloud from $29/mo, or self-host and own the source from $399 (or $1,999 agency) one-time.
- No AI tier, no edition upsell, no "talk to sales." The price on the page is the price you pay.
- Whichever way you run it, your customer data is never hostage to a vendor decision.
The real Salesforce math
Salesforce pricing is per user, per month, billed annually, and that structure is the whole story. The sticker number for a single rep looks reasonable; the problem is that it multiplies by every seat and then renews, forever, and it's just the CRM Cloud, before finance, HR, or support tools are added as separate contracts. A ten-person team on a mid-tier edition is signing up for a recurring expense that, over five years, dwarfs what most companies expect to spend running their back office. Add the Agentforce and Einstein AI tiers, sandbox costs, premium support, and the implementation partner you'll probably need, and the "platform" framing starts to make sense from their side of the table.
Nanobox is a different deal entirely: one suite — CRM, finance, HR, and support — at one flat price, unlimited users, never per seat. The default is Nanobox Cloud, sign up and we host it for a flat $29 a month, no annual renewal games, no seat count. If you'd rather own the infrastructure and the source outright, self-hosting with Docker starts at a one-time $399 (or $1,999 for the agency license). There's no AI surcharge either way, because there are deliberately no AI features.
Where Salesforce genuinely wins
We'd be lying if we said Nanobox replaces Salesforce for everyone. Salesforce's ecosystem is the deepest in the industry: the AppExchange, the partner network, the pre-built connectors, the certified consultants. If your operation depends on that breadth, or you need heavy CPQ, territory management, and multi-cloud orchestration, Salesforce earns its price. Nanobox is for the much larger group of teams who bought a platform (or several point tools) and use a fraction of it: people who want one flat-priced system, hosted for them or self-hosted, that they understand and control. If that's you, owning the flat price beats renting the platform.
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Spodus CRM
Run your whole company in one workspace, CRM, finance, HR, and support, at one flat price.
from $399 · one-time
See Spodus CRMBuy a licenseQuestions, answered.
- Both. Nanobox Cloud is the default — a flat $29/mo (or $290/yr), unlimited users, we host, update, and back it up. If you'd rather own the infrastructure, a self-host license starts at $399 one-time (or $1,999 for the agency license), full source included.
- No, and we won't pretend it is. Salesforce is a configurable enterprise platform with an enormous ecosystem. Nanobox is a flat-priced suite (CRM, finance, HR, support) for teams that want to run their whole back office in one place instead of renting a platform they use 10% of.
- On Nanobox Cloud, capacity is on us. Self-hosted, it runs on hardware you scale yourself, so capacity is a server question, not a license question, and there are no seat caps either way. Very large orgs with complex territory, CPQ, and partner-portal needs are still better served by Salesforce.
- Export your objects from Salesforce as CSV and import them into Nanobox, or script it against the API. If you self-host, you own the Nanobox database directly, so there's no proprietary format to fight on the way in.
- This is Salesforce's real advantage. Nanobox ships an API and you wire up integrations yourself or with our done-for-you launch. If your business depends on dozens of pre-built AppExchange connectors, be honest with yourself about that before switching.