Ontraport vs Salesforce: Selling Online or to Accounts

The short answer: a course business with three staff and 5,000 contacts pays Ontraport $352 a month on Pro, billed annually, for CRM, email, checkout and members area in one database; Salesforce Starter Suite charges the same three people $75 a month, then $10 for every 1,000 marketing emails beyond the 2,000 it includes, plus fees on the card payments it takes. Those figures come from Ontraport's pricing calculator and Salesforce's Starter Suite page, both checked on 26 October 2026. Choose Ontraport to sell and deliver your own products online. Choose Salesforce to run a pipeline of business buyers with a team that will grow.

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Three numbers before either trial:

1. Price your list and your sends, not only the seats. For example, three users and 5,000 contacts on Ontraport Pro show $352 a month on the calculator, billed annually, checked on 26 October 2026. On Salesforce Starter Suite, 3 x $25 = $75; four weekly emails to 5,000 people are 4 x 5,000 = 20,000 sends a month, of which 2,000 are included, so (20,000 - 2,000) / 1,000 = 18 bundles x $10 = $180, and the total is $255 a month before payment fees, from the Starter page.
2. Write down what you run today. Form builder, email tool, checkout, members area: put each monthly bill on one line. Ontraport replaces all four only if you cancel all four.
3. Take one baseline before you move. For example, the share of new leads who buy within 30 days, read from your current checkout. Measure the same number in the new system after a quarter.

Salesforce changes what the bill follows. Ontraport's price rises with the size of your contact list; Salesforce's rises with the number of people who log in, and meters email and payments on top. For a business with a large list and a small team, that difference decides most of this comparison.

Job by job

All rows read on 26 October 2026.

Where an online seller and a sales team want different things

What the invoice follows

On Ontraport's calculator, Pro with one user rises from $124 a month at 500 contacts to $270 at 5,000 and $393 at 10,000, billed annually, and each added user is listed at $49 a month (calculator read on 26 October 2026 on the pricing page). Salesforce Starter Suite stays at $25 per user however large the list, per its pricing page, and charges for email volume instead. Headcount drives one bill; list size drives the other.

Who each system was built around

Ontraport describes itself on its homepage as CRM, marketing automation, payments and a website on one database, for established small businesses. Salesforce Starter Suite leads with lead, account, contact and opportunity management, sales flows and lead routing, per the Starter page. One is shaped around a buyer who checks out alone at night; the other around a buying committee and a sales stage.

Where the money moves

Ontraport keeps order forms, subscriptions, coupon codes and order bumps on the contact record; coupons and one-click upsells start on Pro, per its pricing page. Salesforce sells commerce inside Starter Suite on pay-as-you-go transaction fees that vary by region and payment method, quoting a US card payment at 2.9% + $0.30 as its own example on the Starter page, checked on 26 October 2026.

Money, checked on 26 October 2026

Ontraport's starting prices on its pricing page, checked on 26 October 2026: Plus at $99 a month, or $990 a year billed annually; Pro at $149, or $1,490 a year; Enterprise at $299, or $2,990 a year. The calculator raises each with contacts and users; optional Done-With-You onboarding is a single $897 payment.

Salesforce, from the sales pricing page as it read on 26 October 2026: a Starter Suite seat is $25 a month, the email bundle adds $10 per 1,000 sends according to the Starter page, and a Pro Suite seat is $100 a month, bought for a year at a time. A Free Suite with two user licences costs nothing, per the Free Suite page.

One AI step, kept on a short leash

Ontraport's MCP server lets an AI client such as Claude sign in over OAuth and work on your records. Ask the agent which webinar registrants opened none of your last three broadcasts. It answers from a bounded set of records, and Ontraport's guide warns that it will not say when records were left out, so treat the answer as a sample for judgment. A person reviews the segment, and the bulk action, such as moving those contacts to a re-engagement sequence, runs through the API or a workflow tool like n8n, Zapier or Make, which the same guide recommends for whole-database jobs. Switch off the delete tools in the AI client before the first conversation.

Choose Ontraport if your job is

• Selling and delivering courses, memberships or coaching from one database.
• Running a partner or affiliate programme on the same records, which starts on Pro.
• Keeping checkout, email and CRM history together for a small team.

Choose Salesforce if your job is

• Working business buyers through stages, with routing between reps.
• Putting sales and service on one record for a team that keeps hiring.
• Keeping room to move into forecasting and quoting on Pro Suite.

Before you pay either

Both trials cost nothing and ask for no card: 14 days on Ontraport, 30 on Salesforce. Before either, fill in the line-by-line list of today's tools and bills from step 2 above; that sheet alone often settles it. In the trial, rebuild one funnel end to end, form to purchase, and send yourself through it. Starter Suite's 2,000 included emails cover a 2,000-person list once a month, so the $25 seat on the Starter page, checked on 26 October 2026, is priced for a business that emails rarely, and every weekly newsletter beyond that is bought back in $10 bundles.

If the tool list runs past four and nobody owns the connections between them, the stack may be the problem rather than the CRM. The Startup Fixer, my own one-week stack review, is built for that case, and it comes after the free sheet, not instead of it.

FAQ

Does Ontraport charge per user?

Partly. Plans are priced by contact count, and the calculator on the pricing page adds users at $49 a month each, checked on 26 October 2026. Salesforce prices the seat and meters email and payments separately.

Is there a free version of either?

Only Salesforce has one: its Free Suite covers two users at $0, checked on 26 October 2026. Ontraport offers a 14-day trial instead of a free plan.

Where do I start with Ontraport?

How to use Ontraport follows one lead magnet from form to first sale.