Alium Research

Top complaints about CRM platforms

CRM platforms — Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics 365 — draw a long list of complaints from the teams who run them: complexity that needs admins, cost, a dated interface, messy data and limited reporting, integrations that take a build, and outgrowing a simpler CRM. And almost nobody leaves. Six complaints, which platform draws which, and why the CRM stays.

By Roy Dungo, Operations · Alium Research From hundreds of verified buyer interviews Interviews through October 2026 Updated October 22, 2026

Based on verified interviews with the sales and marketing operations leaders who run these systems, at DTC and enterprise brands. Buyers are anonymized before publication; vendor names and views are reported as given. No vendor paid to appear or could edit this page.

Ask buyers what frustrates them about their CRM and the list is long, but the behaviour is not: they stay. Salesforce's users — most of the CRM buyers in these interviews — raise nearly every complaint at a similar rate: it needs admins and consultants, it is expensive, the interface is dated, the data needs constant cleaning and the reports are hard to work with, and integrations take a build. HubSpot's users raise one complaint above the others: outgrowing it as the business gets more complex. What sets CRM apart is how rarely any of this leads to a switch; buyers staff, clean, build and work around rather than replace the system their business runs on. For the ratings and the pre-purchase view, see what CRM buyers wish they'd known; for why they stay, the CRM nobody leaves.

7.1/10
Salesforce's buyer rating — the most-rated CRM here, whose users raise almost every complaint at a similar rate.
7.4/10
HubSpot's rating — praised for ease and price, with one complaint leading: outgrowing it.
One
Completed CRM switch for a stated complaint in these interviews — Salesforce to Microsoft Dynamics 365, on cost.
Which CRM platform earns which complaint A qualitative map from the interview corpus. A filled dot marks a complaint commonly raised by a platform's own users; a hollow dot marks one raised less often; a dash marks one its users did not raise. Salesforce's users commonly raise every complaint except outgrowing it. HubSpot's users commonly raise complexity and outgrowing it, and raise the rest less often. Microsoft Dynamics 365 rests on few buyers: complexity, cost and the interface are commonly raised, and integrations are not raised. Salesforce HubSpot Dynamics 365 Complexity: needs admins Cost and licences Dated, hard-to-use interface Data quality and reporting Integrations take a build Outgrown or too rigid commonly raisedraised less oftennot raised
Where each platform's own users raise each complaint — a qualitative read, not a score; a complaint counts as common when roughly a fifth or more of that platform's complaining users raise it. Salesforce's column is full and flat; HubSpot's is defined by one row. Salesforce rests on far more buyers than the others, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 on only a handful, so read its column as directional. Zoho, Pipedrive, ActiveCampaign and SugarCRM have too few complaining users here to chart.
You've read the average. How healthy is your stack?A free, peer-powered physical for your tech stack, with a shortlist and your next steps.
Book my stack physical →

The six complaints — graded

Each complaint is classified by how buyers in these interviews typically respond: tolerating the issue, working around it, or reconsidering the contract. These are observed responses, not fixed severity ratings; the same limitation may be manageable for one company and unacceptable for another. Every CRM here draws complaints, and the question is which of them matter for your business.

Complaint 01 Often addressed internally — with admins

It takes admins and consultants to run

The most common complaint. “The complexity is a strength and it's also its biggest weakness,” says one Salesforce user; another notes “We have about four administrators and a manager, so you can see that it requires a lot.” Others describe a system that “usually needs a dedicated admin or consultants, and customizations can become messy over time.” HubSpot draws a milder version — “you kind of need an admin and it's not as bad as Salesforce, but it seems like it's getting a little cumbersome.” Buyers answer it by staffing it, and some rebuild rather than leave: one company is migrating to a fresh Salesforce environment because years of customization made the old one hard to manage.

Named for this: Salesforce · HubSpot · Microsoft Dynamics 365 · Zoho · SugarCRM

Complaint 02 Puts the contract in play — occasionally

Cost and licences

The complaint behind the one completed switch here. “Salesforce CRM specifically is incredibly expensive,” says one user, and another that it is “expensive, so not everybody can have access to it” — seat cost decides who gets a login. A few describe Salesforce using its position on price: “Salesforce often leans on that position in the market to charge exceptionally high fees.” Most live with it — “It doesn't really cause me a huge amount of pain or my team,” one says — but it is the complaint that puts a CRM back on the table, from the company that moved to Microsoft Dynamics 365 to reduce cost to one whose buyer says “As the price keeps going up, it's just really not worth it.” For the cost mechanics, see what buyers actually pay for a CRM.

Named for this: Salesforce · Microsoft Dynamics 365 · HubSpot

Complaint 03 Often tolerated

The interface feels dated and difficult to use

The complaint about day-to-day usability. Buyers describe interfaces that feel outdated, reporting screens that are hard to navigate and workflows less intuitive than they would like. “Salesforce has a bad UI/UX. It feels really outdated in terms of usability,” says one buyer; asked whether it is pleasant to use, another answers “Is it particularly delightful to use? No.” A long-time user admits “I've used it off and on for 10 plus years and I still struggle with the reporting interface,” and a HubSpot user calls its interface “quite outdated.” It is tolerated, because the same buyers point to how hard the CRM is to leave: “it's very sticky, and we're not able to switch.”

Named for this: Salesforce · HubSpot · Microsoft Dynamics 365

Complaint 04 Often addressed internally — tools and governance

Data quality problems and reporting limitations

Two related complaints, about what goes in and what comes out. Data entry and duplicates come first: Salesforce “does a very poor job of identifying duplicates, and that's the bane of our existence,” one user says; for another it is simply “Hygiene. There's a lot of deduping.” Poor-quality records can undermine the reliability of the reports built on them. Separately, buyers criticize the reporting tools themselves: one Salesforce user says “where I get annoyed with Salesforce is reporting because reports are constrained to different types,” and another that “the reporting and visualization elements in it are pretty weak.” Buyers answer with deduplication tools, data loaders and rules for reps, and report elsewhere: “which is why we use Looker for a lot of dashboards.” Many put part of it on themselves: “if my reps are not doing what they are supposed to do, the data just becomes poor.” HubSpot users raise this less, and some praise its reporting.

Named for this: Salesforce · HubSpot · SugarCRM

Complaint 05 Often addressed internally — with custom builds

Integrations take a build

The CRM sits at the centre of the stack, and buyers describe joins that need work. “Things just aren't plug and play with Salesforce. Everything requires a lift, it feels like,” one says, and another that “if your data does not live within Salesforce, then it is hard to build integrations.” HubSpot users describe gaps from the other side: “Quite often, connectors with other technology within the tech stack do not exist.” Teams build what is missing, with developers or partners, rather than change CRM.

Named for this: Salesforce · HubSpot · Zoho · SugarCRM

Complaint 06 Puts the contract in play — on HubSpot

Outgrowing a simpler CRM

HubSpot's defining complaint. One user says “it's built for medium-sized companies, and once you become a large-sized company, it definitely takes more customization”; another finds that “the moment the complexity and interconnection of the workflows increases, then it's not giving you enough,” and a third that “customization is very limited.” An ActiveCampaign user names the same limit: “I think the only downside with ActiveCampaign is scalability.” This complaint appears in evaluations of Salesforce and other enterprise CRMs by companies that have outgrown a simpler system. One company that had previously moved from HubSpot to Salesforce recalls how, on HubSpot, “we many times felt like we were working around the tool trying to make it work for us,” although the interview does not establish those limits as the reason for its switch.

Named for this: HubSpot · ActiveCampaign · Salesforce

Due for a stack physical?

Book mine →

The stories behind the complaints

A large multinational is the one company here that changed CRM over a complaint, and it went the less-travelled way. The buyer says “for us it was the better move to switch to Microsoft Dynamics compared to Salesforce.” “We were able to reduce costs and have a stronger solution with more people able to work with the tool.” The buyer is candid about the price of moving — “you shouldn't underestimate the implementation” — and about what did not go away: “we need continuous maintenance on the data.” Marketing leader · large multinational
A large B2B company built partly through acquisitions describes customization compounding into debt. Its CRM “can sort of become a Frankenstein's monster over time,” with “a number of fields that seemingly mean the same thing.” Small changes queue behind IT: “minor things like a field name update or an addition of a value to a field picklist, it can take quite a bit of time.” What the team wants is the reverse: “We can do things like that within minutes rather than weeks or months.” Senior marketing operations leader · large B2B company
A consumer-facing business is putting its CRM back on the table over cost. “Salesforce CRM specifically is incredibly expensive,” the buyer says, and it takes people too: “We have a large team to work on any kind of modification with Salesforce and vendors.” The verdict: “we're going to start looking at a different CRM.” Marketing and customer experience executive · consumer-facing business

The counter-current: why the CRM stays

The same buyers who list Salesforce's faults list the reasons it stays. New hires arrive knowing it — “Most reps that we hire already know how to use it” — and the rest of the stack is built around it: “all the tools that we purchase already integrate with it.” Some say it is simply too embedded: “It is so ingrained and embedded in our company's data infrastructure.” HubSpot draws praise for the things Salesforce is faulted for — ease of use, a lower price and its reporting, which one user calls “exceptional.” Many buyers put the problem on their own setup: “it's less the limitations in Salesforce and more the limitations of our specific implementation of Salesforce.” And some complaints are almost absent — uptime, security and whether the vendor will be around. Before you conclude the CRM is the problem, separate what the vendor controls — price, product limits — from what depends on your data, your admins and years of customization; the second is often fixable without a switch.

What this means — whether you run one or you're buying one

If you already run a CRM, the common complaints are mostly worked around: buyers staff the complexity, clean the data with tools and rules, report through BI, and build the integrations they need. Cost and outgrowing a simpler CRM are the complaints that put a CRM back on the table, and even then the move is rare — buyers here more often rebuild the CRM they have than replace it. If you're evaluating one, our recommendations — not practices buyers describe — are to count the admin and consultant time the CRM will need alongside the licence, to decide early which fields and objects you will maintain so customization does not compound, and, on a simpler CRM, to test it against the workflows you expect in two or three years rather than today's. For how buyers price it, see what buyers actually pay for a CRM; for leaving the leader, Salesforce CRM alternatives.

Common questions

What are the most common complaints about CRM software?

Six recur across Salesforce, HubSpot and Microsoft Dynamics 365. The most common is complexity: a CRM that needs admins, consultants or IT to run and change. Next come cost and licences, a dated interface that is hard to use, data that is hard to keep clean and reporting that is hard to work with, integrations that take a build, and — mainly for HubSpot — outgrowing a simpler CRM as the business gets more complex. Most buyers live with these complaints; very few change CRM over them.

What are the biggest complaints about Salesforce CRM?

Salesforce users in these interviews raise a broad set of complaints at similar rates: complexity that needs dedicated admins or consultants, high licence cost, a dated interface, duplicate and hard-to-maintain data, reporting that is hard to work with, and integrations that take a build. Most stay, citing how embedded it is, how many reps already know it, and how many tools integrate with it.

What are the biggest complaints about HubSpot CRM?

HubSpot users in these interviews most often say they outgrow it: customization becomes limited and workflows strain as the business and its processes get more complex, and admin work grows with scale. HubSpot is also praised for being easy to use, less expensive than Salesforce, and for its reporting.

Why do companies switch CRMs?

Rarely, in these interviews. One company completed a switch for a stated complaint, moving from Salesforce to Microsoft Dynamics 365 to reduce cost. Others are evaluating a move because the price keeps rising or because they have outgrown HubSpot, and some rebuild their existing CRM rather than replace it. Many buyers say the CRM is too embedded, or migration too costly, to change.

Are these complaints reasons to switch CRMs?

Mostly not, in how existing customers respond. Buyers staff complexity with admins, clean data with tools and governance, report through BI tools, and build integrations themselves. Cost and outgrowing a simpler CRM are the complaints that put a CRM back on the table. That is how current customers behave, not a judgment that these limitations are acceptable for a new buyer.

A physical for your tech stack

Peer-powered: built from hundreds of verified buyer interviews, and fitted to the tools you already run. You get a shortlist for your stack and your next steps.

Book my stack physical

Free · no password · your answers are anonymized before they inform research like this.

Want to come back to this?We'll email you a link to this page, so it's easy to find later or forward to your team.
Methodology. Alium conducts verified interviews with software buyers — the marketing, sales operations, customer experience and technology leaders who select and run these platforms. This page aggregates what users of CRM platforms say about the CRM they run, in interviews conducted through October 2026, focusing on the complaints they raise in answer to questions about a named CRM and what they did about them. Only complaints about the CRM itself are counted; answers about a vendor's marketing, commerce or service products are excluded, as are prospects, vendor employees and commentary about previous employers. Complaints are counted by company and coded by theme; they are editorial codings of interview content, not survey scores. Ratings are averages of verified buyer ratings; the full table is on the CRM lessons page. Buyer identities are verified at interview time and anonymized before publication; vendor names are reported as given. No vendor paid to appear or was able to edit this page.