Salesforce prints $25 and $100 per user on its small business page, and a team of five can end up well past either number. The bill changes the day your team wants a forecast, a few automations or a link to the tools your leads come from.
Salesforce costs $0 for 2 users on Free Suite, $25 per user a month on Starter Suite, $100 on Pro Suite and $195 to $550 on Core, Advanced and Max, billed annually above Starter. A team needing API access pays $125 per user on Pro Suite. Fluid CRM is one plan at $16 per seat per month.
Salesforce Pricing Plans, With API Access and Flow Limits
Salesforce sells six plans. The first three are its small business suites, and Core, Advanced and Max are the Sales Cloud editions built for bigger sales teams.
| Plan | Price per user per month | Billing | API access | Flow automation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Suite | $0 | Free, 2 user licenses | No | No |
| Starter Suite | $25 | Monthly or annually | No | Built-in sales flows only |
| Pro Suite | $100 | Annually, contract required | Extra $25 per user per month | 5 flows per org |
| Core | $195 | Annually | Included | Included |
| Advanced | $395 | Annually | Included | Included |
| Max | $550 | Annually, through sales | Included | Included |
Free Suite comes with two user licenses and stays free as long as someone logs in at least once every 60 days. It also caps email at 100 sends a month, and a third seller needs a paid plan.
Starter Suite has no user maximum on Salesforce’s own pricing page, so a team can add an eleventh seller without changing plan.
Forecasting is where the plans split. Sales Forecast Management and quotes start on Pro Suite, while advanced forecast and pipeline management, opportunity splits and sales territories start on Core. If you want to see how Salesforce’s seat prices compare with 20 other tools, we priced them all in how much a CRM costs.
Which Salesforce Plan Includes API Access
The API is how other software reads and writes your Salesforce data. Salesforce calls it the Web Services API, and its own comparison table lists it as not included on Free Suite or Starter Suite, an extra $25 per user per month on Pro Suite and included from Core.
So the real Pro Suite price for a team that connects anything is $125 per user per month. On five seats that is $7,500 a year, where the pricing card suggests $6,000.
Not every lead source needs it. Salesforce’s own Web-to-Lead forms are included on every plan, Free Suite too, so a form built inside Salesforce can create leads without the add-on.
The API matters for tools that connect from outside, such as an automation platform or the sync from a cold email tool. A booking page, a form builder and a spreadsheet of event leads also have to get their contacts into the CRM somehow.
When they can’t connect, someone copies the leads in by hand, and the ones nobody copies sit outside the pipeline with no owner and no next step. That is where leads die. We wrote up the three questions to ask any vendor about this in CRM with API.
What 5 Flows Cover on Salesforce Pro Suite
Flow is Salesforce’s automation builder. Starter Suite comes with built-in sales flows and lead routing but no Flow Builder, Pro Suite allows 5 flows per org and Core removes the limit.
Five sounds like plenty until a team writes its list down. Here is an example of what a five-seller B2B team might ask for in its first month on Pro Suite.
- Create a follow-up task when a deal moves to the proposal stage
- Alert the deal owner when a deal has sat in one stage for 14 days
- Create an onboarding task for the account manager when a deal is won
- Post won deals to the team’s Slack channel
- Ask for a lost reason when a deal is marked lost
- Send the founder a summary of deals closing this month
The sixth request is where Pro Suite stops. From there the choices are to combine flows into bigger ones, which someone has to build and test, or to move to Core at $195 per user.
Look at that list again for a moment. How many of those six would your team actually miss if they were gone next week?
If the honest answer is two or three, five flows is enough and the limit never comes up. We split the automations worth building from the ones worth refusing in CRM automation.
What a Connected Salesforce Costs a Team of 3, 5 and 10
Here is year one at list price for the setups a small team would weigh. Every row is per user, multiplied by 12 months, with no discount assumed.
| Setup | Per user per month | 3 sellers, year one | 5 sellers, year one | 10 sellers, year one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter Suite | $25 | $900 | $1,500 | $3,000 |
| Pro Suite | $100 | $3,600 | $6,000 | $12,000 |
| Pro Suite with the API add-on | $125 | $4,500 | $7,500 | $15,000 |
| Core | $195 | $7,020 | $11,700 | $23,400 |
| Core with Agentforce for Sales | From $320 | From $11,520 | From $19,200 | From $38,400 |
The jump that catches small teams is the second step. Starter to Pro with the API is five times the seat price, and it comes with an annual contract instead of a monthly bill.
That contract point is worth planning around. Starter Suite is the only paid Salesforce plan you can pay month to month, so a team that wants to test Salesforce for a quarter can only do it on Starter.
Salesforce labels the Starter and Pro prices as starting prices, with transaction fees applying. The rows above are the seat cost and nothing else.
If HubSpot is your other option, we compared both bills step by step in HubSpot vs Salesforce. If it’s a sales-only tool, Pipedrive vs Salesforce prices five seats on each.
Salesforce Add-Ons and Where Each One Attaches
Salesforce’s add-ons are not open to every plan. Some only attach to Pro Suite, and the AI ones only attach from Core up.
| Add-on | Starting price | Which plans |
|---|---|---|
| Web Services API | $25 per user per month | Pro Suite (included from Core) |
| Premier Support | Add-on | Pro Suite (Premier Success included from Core) |
| Agentforce for Sales | From $125 per user per month | Core and above |
| Marketing email sends | Add-on | Starter and Pro Suite |
| Account Engagement Growth | $1,250 a month for up to 10,000 contacts, billed annually | Separate product |
| Sales Programs | From $100 per user per month | Separate add-on |
| Revenue Intelligence | From $220 per user per month | Separate add-on |
Two of those are realistic for a team of five. The API add-on is the one most connected teams need, and Premier Support is the one to ask about if nobody on the team has run Salesforce before.
Agentforce is Salesforce’s AI product, and it is not for sale on Starter or Pro. Salesforce’s page says AI can be added to Core and above, so the cheapest seat with Agentforce for Sales starts at $195 plus $125.
The rest are built for bigger sales teams. Account Engagement is Salesforce’s marketing automation product, and Sales Programs and Revenue Intelligence are planning and analytics tools for sales managers with a team to measure.
Pro Suite and Core are also built to be shaped around your process, with custom objects, sandboxes and AppExchange apps. Somebody on the team has to own that work.
A Small Team Whose Leads Arrive From Other Tools
Some teams pricing Salesforce don’t need a forecast module or a custom object. They need every lead from the forms, cold email tool and booking page to land in one pipeline with an owner and a next step.
Fluid CRM is built for that team. The API, 16 webhooks and an MCP connector for Claude and ChatGPT come with every seat, so a form, a cold email tool or an AI assistant can write deals in without a plan change or a per-user add-on.
We built it as one plan, at $16 per seat per month or $144 per seat per year. Lead capture forms, 8 in-app automations, revenue forecasting and reminders are in that plan too, and there is no next step to buy.
At annual billing that is $432 a year for 3 seats, $720 for 5 and $1,440 for 10.
A verified customer who coordinates a European coaching network uses the Fluid CRM API to automate his reporting. In his review he called “a complete REST API on every account, with no paywall” exceptional for a tool in this price range.
Kon T., a CEO who runs several small projects, wrote on G2 that Fluid CRM keeps his leads, deals and follow-ups organized “without the overhead of a larger CRM.”
Fluid CRM is a sales CRM only, so it has no support cases and sends no marketing email. If you want sales, service and email campaigns in one system, Fluid CRM covers only the first of the three.
For a wider set of lighter options, see the Salesforce alternatives for small business.
Salesforce Pricing FAQ for Small Teams
Salesforce Starter Suite costs $25 per user per month, Pro Suite $100, Core $195, Advanced $395 and Max $550. Every plan above Starter is billed annually. Pro Suite with the Web Services API add-on comes to $125 per user per month.
No. Free Suite comes with two user licenses, so a third seller needs a paid plan. It also stays free only while someone logs in at least once every 60 days, and it sends up to 100 emails a month.
No. Salesforce’s comparison table lists the Web Services API as not included on Starter Suite. It is an extra $25 per user per month on Pro Suite and included from Core.
Pro Suite allows 5 flows per org in Flow Builder. Starter Suite has built-in sales flows and lead routing but no Flow Builder, and Core and the plans above it have no flow limit.
Not on Starter Suite or Pro Suite. Agentforce for Sales starts at $125 per user per month and can be added to Core and above, and it comes included only in Max.
Which Salesforce Plan Fits What Your Team Connects
Pick the plan by what your team needs Salesforce to connect to and automate, then price the year rather than the month.
- Starter Suite if leads come in through Salesforce’s own forms and by hand, and you don’t need a forecast. Budget $300 per seller a year.
- Pro Suite with the API if you need a forecast or quotes and a cold email tool or automation platform has to write into Salesforce. Budget $1,500 per seller a year, on a contract.
- Core if you need more than five flows, approval processes or Agentforce. Budget $2,340 per seller a year before any AI.
If the first bullet already sounded like more than your team needs, a simpler tool may fit better. Fluid CRM gives you the API, webhooks and every feature in one plan, so there is no step to climb when you connect your next tool.
Start your 7-day free trial here, no credit card required.