By Jatin Modi, founder of Renaissance Group · Published 29 October 2026 · Updated 29 October 2026
Which Agentforce alternatives fit a mid-market company without a Salesforce admin?
We chose three CRMs that publish seat prices and agent features on their own pages, plus a managed service. Outbound prospecting agents such as 11x and Artisan have their own page: alternatives to 11x and Artisan. Prices are as listed on each vendor's page on the read date and change without notice.
| Option | What the vendor says it is | Published price | Suits better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce Agentforce (the baseline) | Agents that run inside Salesforce, drawing on CRM and Data 360 data, with guardrails and escalation to humans | Flex Credits $500 per 100,000; $2 per conversation; Sales add-on $125 per user per month (Salesforce, read 29 October 2026) | A team standardized on Salesforce with admin capacity to build and govern agents |
| HubSpot Breeze | Agent Hub included in all Starter, Professional and Enterprise editions; many agents run on HubSpot Credits | Sales Hub Professional $90 and $100 per seat per month with $1,500 required onboarding; Enterprise $150 with $3,500 (HubSpot, read 26 October 2026) | A team that already works in HubSpot CRM and has an owner for agent setup |
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales | Sales plans with Copilot in Dynamics 365 and four listed Sales agents | Professional $65, Enterprise $105, Premium $150 per user per month, paid yearly; Premium includes 1,000 Copilot Credits per user per month (Microsoft, read 29 October 2026) | A company built around Outlook and Teams, with Azure available for custom agents |
| Zoho CRM with Zia | Zia, which Zoho describes as AI agents that execute business tasks autonomously | Agents listed under the Professional edition; the page did not display seat prices when read (Zoho Zia; pricing, read 26 October 2026) | A cost-conscious team, or one that already runs on Zoho apps |
| Hastings (disclosed) | A managed service that runs sales, business development and marketing jobs and delivers finished work for a person to approve | Setup EUR 10,000 once; Workstreams EUR 6,000 a month on 12 months for up to 3 jobs (Hastings pricing, read 26 October 2026) | A team with no one to own agents that wants the work delivered |
What does Agentforce cost for a mid-market team?
Salesforce prices Agentforce three ways. Flex Credits cost $500 per 100,000 credits, and the page's worked example prices one action at 20 credits, or $0.10. Conversations cost $2 each. The Agentforce User License is $5 per user per month and requires Flex Credits, and the Sales, Service and Field Service add-ons are $125 per user per month. Flex Credits and Conversations cannot be used in the same org, and unused Flex Credits do not roll over into later subscription terms (Salesforce, read 29 October 2026).
| Scenario | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 agent actions | 10,000 x 20 credits (the page's example) = 200,000 credits; 200,000 / 100,000 x $500 | $1,000 |
| 1,000 conversations | 1,000 x $2 | $2,000 |
| Sales add-on for 25 users, per month | 25 x $125 | $3,125 |
| Sales add-on for 25 users, per year | $3,125 x 12 | $37,500 |
Salesforce says its usage examples are illustrative and exclude other costs such as Data 360 credits, so treat these sums as the visible part of the bill.
What do independent sources say about Agentforce and AI agents for sellers?
Gartner Peer Insights showed Agentforce at 4.3 out of 5 on 52 ratings when read on 22 October 2026. A Senior Manager at an IT services firm under $50 million gave 5.0 and titled the review "Fast automation within Salesforce, but advanced setup can be challenging" (15 June 2026). A Director of Quality Engineering at a bank over $30 billion gave 3.0 under "Salesforce Agentforce Offers Unique Features With Some Challenges in Customization" (13 May 2026). The page lists as a pro that Agentforce "lives natively inside the Salesforce ecosystem, so there's no need for external data syncs" (Gartner Peer Insights).
Gartner's July 2026 release predicts that by 2028 fewer than 40% of sellers will say AI agents improved their productivity, based on a survey of 210 chief sales officers and senior sales executives in January and February 2026 (Gartner, 28 July 2026). A June 2025 release predicts that over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027, citing rising costs, unclear business value and inadequate risk controls (Gartner, 25 June 2025). The reading for a buyer: Gartner names rising costs, unclear business value and weak risk controls, so choose the option whose cost, value measure and owner you can name today.
What should a team without a Salesforce admin ask before choosing?
| Question | A good answer shows |
|---|---|
| Who builds, tests and changes the agents? | A named person on your team, or a vendor role in the contract |
| What meters usage, and what happens at the limit? | A published unit price, an alert level and a hard cap you can set |
| What does onboarding cost, and who does it? | A listed fee or a statement that none applies, with the scope in writing |
| Which CRM records can an agent change? | A named list of objects and fields, with changes held for approval |
| Who approves what leaves the company? | A person on your team, before anything reaches a customer |
| What does year one cost at your volumes? | A sum built from the published prices and your own counts, as in the table above |
When does Agentforce fit better than the alternatives?
Agentforce fits a company that has standardized on Salesforce, has an admin or a partner to build and govern agents, and accepts paying by credit, conversation or seat. Its agents act inside the CRM that already holds the data, which a Gartner Peer Insights reviewer lists as a pro.
HubSpot Breeze fits a team that already sells from HubSpot CRM. Dynamics 365 Sales fits a company that lives in Outlook and Teams. Zoho CRM fits a team that watches cost or already uses Zoho apps. Each of these asks someone on your team to configure agents and watch usage.
How does Hastings fit, and what does it cost?
Hastings publishes this page and sells a managed service, so read this section as a vendor description. Hastings runs sales, business development and marketing jobs for companies of 50 to 1,000 people and delivers finished work that a person on your team approves. The description on its homepage says Hastings delivers the work finished in Outlook, Teams and Salesforce, so Salesforce can stay as your CRM (Hastings homepage).
Hastings charges a setup fee of EUR 10,000 once. The pilot costs EUR 4,500 a month for 90 days with two jobs and success measures agreed up front. Workstreams cost EUR 6,000 a month on a 12-month term for up to three jobs. Fees scale with the number of jobs (Hastings pricing, read 26 October 2026). The first year of Workstreams is EUR 10,000 + 12 x EUR 6,000 = EUR 82,000.
The Agentforce sum above ($37,500 a year for 25 users) covers seat add-ons for agents your team builds and runs. The Hastings sum covers up to three jobs that Hastings runs. The two figures measure different things, so compare them against the work you need done.
Related comparisons
Choosing a platform or tool: Hastings and Salesforce Agentforce, HubSpot AI alternatives, alternatives to 11x and Artisan and Hastings and ChatGPT Enterprise. Choosing who does the work: AI SDR tools or hired SDRs, managed AI services for sales teams compared and Hastings and an AI consultancy. Building it yourself: Hastings and an internal AI team.
Questions buyers ask
What is a good alternative to Salesforce Agentforce for a mid-market company?
It depends on who will own the agents. HubSpot Breeze, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales with Copilot agents and Zoho CRM with Zia put agents inside a different CRM, and a managed service such as Hastings runs the work for you. The table above compares them on published prices (read 26 and 29 October 2026).
How much does Salesforce Agentforce cost?
Salesforce lists Flex Credits at $500 per 100,000 credits with one action priced at 20 credits in the page's example, $2 per conversation, a $5 per user per month Agentforce User License that requires Flex Credits, and Sales add-ons at $125 per user per month (Salesforce, read 29 October 2026). The page excludes other costs such as Data 360 credits.
Can a company use Agentforce without a Salesforce admin?
Salesforce does not state the admin time that setup needs. A Gartner Peer Insights reviewer who gave 5.0 titled the review "Fast automation within Salesforce, but advanced setup can be challenging" (Gartner Peer Insights, read 22 October 2026). Ask for a scoped setup plan before you commit.
Is HubSpot Breeze an alternative to Agentforce?
It is the nearest CRM-native alternative for teams that use HubSpot. HubSpot says the Agent Hub is included in all Starter, Professional and Enterprise editions, and many agents run on HubSpot Credits (HubSpot, read 26 October 2026; pricing).
Does Dynamics 365 Sales include AI agents?
Microsoft lists Sales Qualification, Sales Opportunity, Sales Research and Sales Close agents (the last in preview) on its Sales plans, priced from $65 per user per month paid yearly. Agents built in Copilot Studio use Copilot Credits and need an Azure subscription (Microsoft, read 29 October 2026).
Can Hastings work with Salesforce?
The description on the Hastings homepage says its work is delivered finished in Outlook, Teams and Salesforce (Hastings homepage). Confirm which Salesforce actions your jobs need in a working session before you commit.
Sources
Salesforce, Agentforce pricing (read 29 October 2026).
HubSpot, Sales Hub pricing, AI products and knowledge base article on credits (read 26 October 2026).
Microsoft, Dynamics 365 Sales pricing (read 29 October 2026).
Zoho, Zia and CRM pricing (read 26 October 2026).
Gartner Peer Insights, Salesforce Agentforce reviews (read 22 October 2026).
Gartner, AI agents will outnumber sellers 10 to 1 by 2028 (28 July 2026) and over 40 percent of agentic AI projects will be canceled by end of 2027 (25 June 2025).
Hastings, pricing (read 26 October 2026).
Disclosure: Hastings publishes this page and sells a managed service that competes with parts of what Salesforce sells. Vendor names identify their products only. Prices change, so check each source before you buy. This page is rechecked each quarter against its research file.