Vibe coding is powerful technology – there’s no denying that. It opens up the world of software development to professionals who perhaps aren’t the most comfortable with traditional coding languages. In the world of Salesforce, it’s an extension of the platform’s longstanding “low code” motto, allowing virtually anyone to put together tools and processes in no time at all.
However, can you really build entire custom business solutions using vibe coding? Better question: is it a good idea? Well, according to some small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), the answer is yes – especially if it can save them money and time spent on working with increasingly complex traditional CRMs.
Why Would You Step Away From Salesforce?
When you work with a product like Salesforce, the possibilities in terms of what you can build and configure seem endless. The professionals that build on the platform think this way too, with one person stating that “almost anything is possible on the platform” and another saying “anything is possible with enough time or money”.
This, however, does come with constraints. A big one is complexity, especially as, according to our latest Salesforce Admin survey, 58.6% of admins said Salesforce itself is becoming increasingly complex to work with.
Cost is another considerable constraint. Combine rising licence costs, a constant stream of new add-ons, and Salesforce’s ever-expanding AI catalogue of tools, owning a Salesforce org is expensive. If it’s worth the cost to the business, then the business can effectively handle every part of its operations with Salesforce. If it isn’t, it’s natural for them to start looking elsewhere.
Firms Save 40-80% On Software Costs With AI Solutions
This is already happening, particularly amongst SMBs. According to The Information, numerous smaller firms have already begun turning their backs on SaaS providers like Salesforce, ServiceNow, and HubSpot in favor of vibe-coded solutions using AI tools including Claude.
For some firms, the change has been so effective that it has lowered software costs by 40% to 80%.
David Codrea, a partner at Greenleaf Management, which historically used Salesforce, said that the company had saved around $100,000 by switching from Salesforce to a custom AI application using Replit and Claude Code. It also allowed them to tackle the complexity issues.
“Salesforce is super complex,” he said. “They provide a lot of value, but…[we were] only using a little piece of it.”
Alexander Calfee, the Co-Founder of job pipeline tool Oplign, shared that his company had dropped HubSpot for an open-source CRM. “[It has] about 90% of the feature set and costs less than 5% monthly of the HubSpot sub to host on our cloud and maintain,” he commented under the post. “This was done over a weekend and made possible via Claude.”
French biopharmaceutical firm Sanofi also claimed to have “saved millions of dollars this year” by cutting its use of ServiceNow.
Is This Sustainable?
Although vibe coding and relying on AI tools to build custom solutions instead of using traditional CRMs may have benefits, it does not necessarily mean that it is sustainable. As SF Ben Technical Author Tim Combridge said to Salesforce Admins: “I love vibe coding, but it is dangerous – and you probably shouldn’t be doing it.”
Not only that, but there are many aspects to consider when stepping away from a traditional SaaS product. Software like Salesforce is notoriously sticky, and extracting all of your data from it can be a process that is both expensive and time-consuming.
The Information reported that the “true cost of ownership” for enterprise software is typically up to four times higher than the advertised price, but even with that in mind, “ripping them out is still a last resort,” as Bobby Mukherjee, CEO of IT consulting firm Loka, said.
“The smarter play is usually building on top of them: Nobody serious is predicting the death of HubSpot or Salesforce,” he told The Information.
What Does This Mean for Salesforce?
Salesforce has been trying to position itself as the best CRM tool for SMBs, offering more features on a freemium basis and tailoring some of its licensing offerings to reflect a lower level of complexity. However, has it done enough?
The stakes are certainly high. In a financial meeting earlier this year, OpenAI leaders reportedly said they expected the company’s future products and agents targeted at businesses to replace software from tech firms including Salesforce, Workday, Adobe, Slack and Atlassian. Palantir continues to size up Salesforce as a govtech competitor. SF Ben has even suggested a scenario where Anthropic could acquire Salesforce.
And now a selection of SMBs are turning away from the platform despite Salesforce’s best efforts to include them in its strategy. You could argue that this is just business, and when a cheaper, less complex alternative comes along, some companies will naturally gravitate towards that.
This is true, but it also feeds into the persistent ‘SaaSpocalypse’ concerns that continue to plague the sector. Because Salesforce could survive and even thrive with solely enterprise customers, but is that what it wants?
Final Thoughts
Salesforce can never be the solution for every business, but any company that willingly abandons such sticky software will have significant reasons as to why.
Does this mean that Salesforce has failed its SMB strategy? No, not at all. But this is likely not the last instance of businesses choosing vibe-coded solutions over traditional CRMs.
