What does Salesforce do?
- Stores leads, accounts, contacts and opportunities in a data model you can extend with custom objects and fields, queried with SOQL from integrations such as Clay.
- Sells Sales Cloud in tiers: Free Suite (up to 2 users), Starter Suite, Pro Suite, and since 3 September 2026 the Core, Advanced and Max editions, which Salesforce positions against the legacy Enterprise and Unlimited editions and Agentforce 1.
- Bundles Flex Credits for Agentforce AI in the new editions: 500,000 a year on Core, 1 million on Advanced and 2.75 million on Max, according to Salesforce's announcement.
- Allocates API calls per 24 hours by edition: Enterprise and Professional-with-API orgs get 100,000 plus 1,000 per Salesforce licence, and Unlimited and Performance orgs 100,000 plus 5,000 per licence.
- Returns an API_DISABLED_FOR_ORG error when an org has no API access, which Salesforce enables by default only in Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited and Developer editions; Professional needs a paid add-on.
Where does Salesforce fit in a GTM engineering stack?
Salesforce is the system of record in a GTM engineering stack: Clay reads accounts and reports out of it to decide who to target, then writes enriched leads, contacts and fields back so routing and reporting run on clean data.
- 1Clay imports a Salesforce report of closed-lost or untouched accounts, refreshed every 24 hours
- 2Clay enriches each account and finds buying-committee contacts through a provider waterfall
- 3Lookup Record via SOQL checks for existing contacts so Clay does not create duplicates
- 4Upsert Object writes new contacts and enriched fields back, where Salesforce assignment rules or flows can route them
- 5A Salesforce-synced sequencer such as Outreach or Salesloft works the new contacts
See how every layer connects in Clay integrations: how the GTM engineering stack fits together.
How do you use Salesforce?
Salesforce's official walkthrough, from the Salesforce YouTube channel.
How much does Salesforce cost?
Prices as shown on Salesforce's pricing page on 17 October 2026 (GBP). Free plan: Free Suite: the foundational CRM with sales, service and marketing tools for up to 2 users, plus built-in AI. Free trial: 30-day free trial of Sales Cloud, no credit card and no installation, per the pricing page.
Free Suite
£0
Not applicable
Up to 2 users.
Starter Suite
£20/user/month
Billed monthly or annually
Lead, account, contact and opportunity management, built-in sales flows and lead routing, email marketing.
Pro Suite
£80/user/month
Billed annually
More customisation and automation, quoting and forecasting, access to AgentExchange; Premier Support as an add-on.
Core
£156/user/month
Billed annually
Everything in Professional Edition plus Momentum and Premier Success, Slack Business+, Tableau Next.
Advanced
£316/user/month
Billed annually
Adds enhanced security (Backup & Recover, Archive, Data Detect, Security Centre), more AI, expanded data capacity, Sales Programmes.
Max
£440/user/month
Billed annually; contact sales
Agentforce for Sales, Salesforce Spiff, Sales Planning, Maps, Slack Enterprise+, 2.75M Flex Credits per org per year.
The US page lists the same tiers in USD: Free $0, Starter $25, Pro $100, Core $195, Advanced $395 and Max $550 per user a month. Salesforce says AI can be added to Core and above and that the page is subject to change. Existing customers on legacy editions keep their current pricing, per Salesforce's 3 September 2026 announcement.
Who is Salesforce best for?
A good fit if you
- Organisations that need a custom data model, granular permissions and complex routing, where Salesforce's objects, SOQL and permission sets do the work.
- GTM engineers inheriting an existing Salesforce org: Clay's nine Salesforce actions cover create, update, upsert, convert lead, SOQL lookups and report imports.
- Teams that already budget for admin capacity, since Salesforce's flexibility usually needs someone who owns configuration.
Look elsewhere if you
- Small teams that want a CRM working in a day without an admin; Starter Suite is simpler, but the flexible tiers assume configuration effort.
- Anyone planning heavy API or Clay sync on an edition without API access: Salesforce's documentation lists API access only on Enterprise-class editions by default, with Professional as an add-on.
- Budget-sensitive buyers comparing seat prices: Core starts at £156 per user a month billed annually, and Premier Success support is 30% of net licence fees where it is not bundled.
Does Salesforce integrate with Clay and your CRM?
- Clay
- Native Clay integration. Clay lists Salesforce as a Clay-built integration on Growth and above, with every action needing your own Salesforce account. Clay reads with Lookup Record, Lookup Record via SOQL, Count Records in a List View, Salesforce Records and Salesforce Reports (rolling report imports, synced every 24 hours by default), and writes with Create Record, Update Record, Upsert Object and Convert Lead. Clay's FAQ says Integration User and API Only licences cannot complete its OAuth approval, so connect with a full licence that has API Enabled, and that writes cannot be undone. (source)
- Integrations
- AgentExchange marketplace access from Pro Suite upward, Slack (Business+ on Core and Advanced, Enterprise+ on Max) and Tableau Next in the new editions, and REST and SOAP APIs on API-enabled editions. GTM tools such as Clay, Surfe and PhantomBuster list native Salesforce integrations, all of which rely on API access. (source)
- GDPR
- Salesforce's Data Transfer Mechanisms FAQ (April 2025) lists EU and UK Binding Corporate Rules for processors, the 2021 Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK addendum), certification to the EU-US, Swiss-US and UK extension Data Privacy Frameworks, and the APEC framework. Its DPIA guide (June 2025) says customers opting for the Hyperforce EU Operating Zone get support from within the EU and storage of customer data in the EU. (source)
What are the best Salesforce alternatives?
Other CRMs that do the same job in a GTM engineering stack, with their own trade-offs.
CRM platform with a free tier and per-seat paid plans covering sales, marketing and service, plus a large app marketplace.
- Pricing
- Free plan; paid from £7/seat/mo (annual)
- Free trial
- HubSpot's knowledge base describes 14-day free trials started from an account's Pricing & Features settings, with no automatic charge when the trial ends; some features may be restricted during a trial.
Flexible, data-model-first CRM with custom objects, workflows and a native Clay integration, priced per seat.
- Pricing
- Free; paid from £27/user/mo (annual)
- Free trial
- 14-day trial of the Pro plan.
Pipeline-first sales CRM built around visual deal stages, sold per seat in four plans with a token-based API budget.
- Pricing
- £14/seat/mo (annual)
- Free trial
- 14-day free trial with full access and no credit card; you can invite as many co-workers as you want to the trial.
Sales CRM with calling, SMS, email and workflows built in, plus Chloe, an AI agent that calls and qualifies leads on usage credits.
- Pricing
- $9/user/mo (annual)
- Free trial
- 14-day free trial with no credit card, including calling and AI credits. If you do not pick a plan the account pauses and data is kept for a limited time before deletion. Paid plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Which GTM stacks use Salesforce?
Salesforce FAQs
Which Salesforce editions include API access?
Salesforce's REST API documentation says API access is enabled by default in Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited and Developer Edition orgs, and Professional Edition can add it as a paid add-on. The page does not yet name Starter Suite, Pro Suite or the Core, Advanced and Max editions, so confirm API access in writing before you buy for an integration.
How many API calls does Salesforce allow per day?
Salesforce gives Enterprise orgs, and Professional orgs with API access, 100,000 calls per 24 hours plus 1,000 per Salesforce licence, so a 15-licence Enterprise org gets 115,000. Unlimited and Performance orgs get 5,000 per licence on top of the 100,000, and Developer Edition is fixed at 15,000.
What replaced Salesforce Enterprise and Unlimited editions?
On 3 September 2026 Salesforce introduced Core ($195), Advanced ($395) and Max ($550) per user a month, comparing Core with legacy Enterprise, Advanced with legacy Unlimited and Max with Agentforce 1. Customers already on legacy editions keep their existing pricing.
Can Clay write to custom objects in Salesforce?
Yes. Clay's Salesforce FAQ says you can update any object and field, and its SOQL generation works with standard objects, custom objects and complex relationships. By default Clay also blocks duplicate records unless you enable the Duplicate Rule Override option on Create Record.
Why does my Salesforce integration user fail to connect to Clay?
Clay's FAQ says Integration User and API Only licences cannot complete its UI-based OAuth approval. Use a full licence with API Enabled and Connected App Access, and if SSO hides the approval screen, authorise with a non-SSO account.
Compare and learn
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Sources
Checked on 17 October 2026.
- Salesforce Sales Cloud pricing (UK, GBP)
- Salesforce Sales Cloud pricing (US, USD)
- Salesforce Free CRM (Free Suite)
- Salesforce News: New Salesforce editions (3 September 2026)
- Salesforce REST API: supported editions and required permissions
- Salesforce: API request limits and allocations
- Salesforce Data Transfer Mechanisms FAQ (April 2025, PDF)
- Salesforce: DPIAs and Salesforce services (June 2025, PDF)
- Clay: Salesforce integration
- Clay University: Salesforce integration FAQs
Pricing, integrations and data policies are checked against Salesforce's own pages. How we research tools.