Salesforce AI alternatives free

Let's be real: Salesforce AI is a beast. For enterprise teams, it can do some serious work, especially when it comes to customer service and digging through data. But for most of us, its enterprise-level cost and complexity are complete dealbreakers. The problem is simple: you want all that AI goodness without the hefty price tag or getting stuck in a single ecosystem.

That’s what sent me on a hunt for the best Salesforce AI alternatives free for 2025. This isn't just another roundup of tools; it's a hands-on guide to platforms you can actually set up and start using today. We'll look at options that can help you automate support, pull all your knowledge into one place, and give customers a better experience, all without needing a massive budget.

What is Salesforce AI?

Salesforce AI, which you might know as Einstein, is a bunch of AI tech built right into the Salesforce platform. You can think of it as a smart layer that sits over their CRM, sales, and service products.

For customer service teams, its main purpose is to help agents work faster. It can automatically sort incoming cases, suggest replies, and pull up relevant articles from the Salesforce Knowledge base. But its biggest advantage is also its greatest limitation: it’s tied completely to the Salesforce ecosystem. That's great if your entire company runs on Salesforce. But if you use other tools, it’s not just awkward, it’s a non-starter.

Why look for Salesforce AI alternatives free?

So, why would a team even bother looking for an alternative to such a well-known tool? After chatting with dozens of teams, I found it usually comes down to a few common reasons.

• Cost: This is the big one. Salesforce is built for large enterprises, and it has a price tag to match. Most businesses, especially if they're just dipping their toes into AI, need a more budget-friendly way in that doesn't involve a five-figure annual contract.

• Flexibility: Maybe your team relies on help desks like Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Intercom. You need an AI tool that works with your current setup, not one that forces you to move your entire support operation just to use it. Nobody wants to be locked in with one vendor.

• Simplicity and Speed: Let's face it, most of us don't have a dedicated team to manage a six-month setup project. We need tools we can get running ourselves in a few minutes, not months. Many of the best alternatives are designed to be self-serve, so you can see results right away.

• Specific Needs: You might not need a massive, CRM-integrated AI that predicts your sales funnel for the next quarter. Maybe you just need a great tool to handle 30% of your common support tickets or an AI assistant that can answer questions from your internal Confluence pages. Sometimes, a specialized tool does one job much better than a platform trying to do everything.

Our criteria for the best Salesforce AI alternatives free

To make this list genuinely helpful, I set a few ground rules. Every tool had to check these four boxes to even make the cut.

• A Real Free Plan: The platform had to offer a genuinely useful free tier or a full-featured trial. It needed to let you see actual results without asking for a credit card. No "free" plans that are really just a "contact sales" form.

• Core AI Functionality: It has to actually work. The tool should be able to automate tasks, answer questions from a knowledge base, or help manage information in a smart way.

• Easy Setup: It had to be self-serve. Anyone, even someone non-technical, should be able to sign up and get the tool working without a mandatory demo or a complicated onboarding process.

• Plays Well with Others: The tool must connect to the places your information and conversations already exist, like Slack, Google Docs, or your current help desk.

At a glance: Comparing the top Salesforce AI alternatives free

Here’s a quick rundown of the platforms that made the list.

Tool	Best For	Free Plan Highlights	Key AI Feature
eesel AI	Teams who want to add AI to their current help desk without ripping everything out.	Simulate AI on past tickets, build up to 3 bots, 1,000 AI interactions/mo on Team plan.	An AI agent that learns from all your company knowledge, wherever it is.
tawk.to	Startups and small businesses that need a completely free support setup.	Unlimited agents, chat history, ticketing, and knowledge base.	AI Assist (a paid add-on).
Crisp	Solopreneurs and tiny teams who need a free, basic shared inbox.	2 free seats, website chat widget, mobile apps.	AI features are on paid plans.
Guru	Teams focused on keeping their internal knowledge accurate and easy to find.	3 free users, browser extension, Slack integration.	AI-powered enterprise search.
Notion	Individuals and small teams building an internal wiki or knowledge base from scratch.	A generous free personal plan and a flexible block-based editor.	Notion AI (an add-on).

The 5 best Salesforce AI alternatives free for teams in 2025

1. eesel AI

eesel AI is perfect if you want to add a smart AI layer on top of the tools you already love. Instead of forcing you to switch platforms, it connects directly to your help desk and pulls together all your scattered knowledge, from past tickets, Confluence pages, Google Docs, and your help center, to power one intelligent AI agent.

It’s on this list because its quick setup and powerful simulation mode are the exact opposite of a stuffy enterprise rollout. You can connect your help desk, let the AI analyze thousands of your past tickets, and see precisely how it would have performed. You can do all of this before it ever interacts with a real customer.

Pros:

• You can get it up and running in minutes, not months.

• It brings together knowledge from all your different sources automatically.

• The simulation mode lets you test the AI's performance with zero risk.

• It works with your current help desk, so you don't have to move anything.

Cons:

• The platform is designed to show its value quickly, but you'll need to jump on a paid plan for full-scale use.

Pricing: eesel AI has a free trial for testing and simulation. Paid plans are clear and start at $239/month (billed annually) with no per-resolution fees, so you don't get any surprise bills.

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2. tawk.to

tawk.to is one of the most popular communication tools out there, mostly because its main software is completely free. That includes live chat, a ticketing system, and a knowledge base. For any business that needs the basic support tools without a budget, it's an amazing place to start.

It made the list because its "Free Forever" promise is a direct answer to anyone looking for Salesforce AI alternatives free. It gives you the core support tools that an AI would normally sit on top of, but for zero cost.

Pros:

• It's 100% free for live chat, ticketing, and a knowledge base.

• You can have as many agents as you want and access your full chat history.

• It’s incredibly simple and easy to get started with.

Cons:

• The actual AI features, which they call AI Assist, are a paid add-on. Getting rid of the tawk.to branding also costs extra.

• It doesn't have the advanced automation or integration options you'd get from a dedicated AI platform.

Pricing: The main platform is free. You can buy optional add-ons, like AI Assist, for an extra fee.

3. Crisp

Crisp gives you a shared inbox to pull all your customer conversations from different channels into one spot. It’s a clean, simple tool made for small, collaborative teams who just need to stay organized.

It’s here because its "Free Forever" plan for up to two users is a great, no-cost starting point for solopreneurs or tiny businesses. If you just need to get your customer chats and emails out of your personal inbox and into a shared space, Crisp does the job.

Pros:

• The free plan includes two seats, which is perfect for a pair.

• It comes with a website chat widget and mobile apps.

• The interface is clean and easy for managing conversations.

Cons:

• All the good stuff, like AI, automation, and the knowledge base, is only available on paid plans.

• The free plan is pretty limited; for instance, it only supports 100 customer profiles.

Pricing: Crisp is free for 2 seats. Paid plans with more features start at $45/month.

4. Guru

Guru is an internal wiki designed to capture, share, and, most importantly, verify your company's knowledge. Its browser extension is the star of the show, making information pop up right where your team is working, whether they're in a help desk or a CRM.

For small teams, Guru is a fantastic free alternative to Salesforce Knowledge. Its main selling point is its focus on content verification, which nudges experts to confirm that information is still correct. This tackles one of the biggest headaches of internal knowledge bases: outdated documents that nobody trusts.

Pros:

• The free plan is good for up to 3 users.

• The browser extension delivers knowledge right when you need it, which saves a ton of time.

• It's excellent for keeping internal information accurate.

Cons:

• It’s really built for internal use, not for customer-facing help centers.

• It’s a knowledge management tool first, not a full support automation platform.

Pricing: Guru is free for up to 3 users. Paid plans start at $5 per user, per month.

5. Notion

Notion is the Swiss Army knife of workspace tools. It’s an incredibly flexible platform that teams can use for just about anything, from internal wikis and project plans to complete knowledge bases.

Its generous free plan makes it a popular choice for building a knowledge hub from the ground up without spending any money. While it isn't an AI tool on its own, it can be the perfect, well-organized source of truth for an AI platform to connect to and learn from.

Pros:

• It's extremely flexible and can be molded to fit almost any workflow.

• The free plan is great for individuals and small teams.

• It pulls documents, databases, and project management into one place.

Cons:

• It's not a dedicated support tool, so it doesn't have native ticketing or live chat.

• The search can get a bit clunky once your knowledge base gets big and complicated.

• It takes real discipline from the team to keep it tidy.

Pricing: Notion is free for personal use. Team plans are available for a monthly per-user cost.

How to choose the right Salesforce AI alternatives free for your business

Picking the right tool can feel like a lot, but it gets much easier if you focus on a few key questions.

• First, what's the actual problem you're trying to solve? Are you trying to deflect common tickets, build an internal wiki, or just get a free live chat on your site? Choose a tool that's great at fixing your most pressing issue.

• Next, look at the tools you're already using. The best AI tool is one that gets along with your current software. A platform that makes you move your help desk or CRM is just creating more work. Look for something that integrates smoothly.

• Put it to the test with your real work. Don’t just read the marketing page. Sign up for the free trial and see how the platform handles your actual customer questions and internal documents.

• Think about what happens when you grow. Is the pricing clear and predictable? Try to avoid platforms with confusing usage-based fees that can lead to a nasty surprise on your monthly bill.

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This video provides a comprehensive guide to the top CRM software for small businesses, comparing both free and paid options to help you find the best fit.

Get powerful AI without the enterprise price tag

Salesforce AI is definitely a powerful tool, but it's far from the only game in town. There are plenty of capable, flexible, and affordable alternatives that can plug into your current workflow and start helping right away. The trick is to find a solution that fits what you actually need, whether that's a completely free chat tool for your startup or a scalable AI platform that can grow with your team.

For teams that want to add a truly smart automation layer over their existing support tools and knowledge sources, eesel AI offers the fastest and most flexible way to get there.

Ready to see how AI can work for you without a huge project? Simulate eesel AI on your real support tickets for free and see your potential automation rate in minutes.