You had sales to manage. Leads coming in, prospects in conversation, clients you were trying to close. You needed to know who was at what stage, what had been said, and who needed a call this week. A spreadsheet was getting messy. You needed something proper.

Someone said Salesforce. Or a consultant set it up. Or the industry you work in just uses it. You got access, entered your contacts, built out a pipeline, and started working.

The contacts worked. The pipeline worked. The notes worked. Then came the configuration requests. Custom objects. Field dependencies. Workflow rules. Permission sets. A dashboard nobody reads. An admin who spent three weeks building something you open once a month.

The Four Things Your Business Actually Opens

A contacts list. A deal pipeline showing which stage each opportunity is at. Notes from the last call or meeting. A reminder to follow up.

That is the job most small businesses hired Salesforce to do. And Salesforce does all four.

It also does territory management, complex forecasting hierarchies, Apex code customisation, AppExchange integrations, Einstein AI scoring, campaign management, CPQ quoting, and an admin console that requires a certified professional to navigate. You pay for all of it. Most small businesses open four things.

What your Salesforce subscription pays for
  • Complex sales forecasting and reporting
  • Apex code customisation
  • AppExchange integrations
  • Territory management
  • Einstein AI lead and opportunity scoring
  • Extensive Merebase reporting suite
  • Admin configuration overhead
  • Enterprise-grade permission management
What most small businesses actually open
  • Contacts list
  • Deal and opportunity pipeline
  • Notes and call log per contact
  • Activity reminders and follow-ups

Who Salesforce Is Actually Built For

Salesforce is a serious tool for enterprise sales organisations. Dedicated CRM administrators who configure and maintain the platform. Sales operations teams managing territory assignments and quota tracking at scale. Businesses running complex multi-stage deal processes with forecasting rolled up through management hierarchies.

If you run a services firm, a small trades business, a consultancy, or a professional practice with a regular client base, Salesforce is built for a different customer. You are using a fraction of the platform and paying for the rest every single month. The configuration overhead alone takes time and budget that could go elsewhere.

The Cost of the Platform You Do Not Use

Salesforce Essentials and Starter plans run around A$35 to A$75 per user per month. That is the entry point. Per-seat pricing means every person who needs to see the contacts list adds to the monthly bill.

Picture a small services firm with three people who need access. They use the contacts list, the pipeline, and the call notes. They have never opened the forecasting module. They have never touched territory management. They have never written a line of Apex. At A$50 per user per month, that is A$150 a month for three years.

Salesforce over 3 years (3 users)
A$5,400
A$150/mo. Recurring. Forever.
Merebase Merebase contact and deal tracker
A$499
Once. No monthly fee after that.

What a Merebase contact and deal tracker Includes

A Merebase contact and deal tracker is built for the job your business actually has. You describe the fields your contacts need, the stages in your pipeline, the notes format your team uses, and the follow-up logic that fits your work. The app is built to do exactly that.

What a Merebase contact and deal tracker includes:

Contacts list with custom fields. Deal and opportunity pipeline with stage tracking. Notes and call logs per contact. Follow-up reminders. Search and filter by any field. Full data export at any time. Unlimited users. A$499 once. You bring your own hosting. A basic plan runs A$5 to A$20 a month.

There is no territory management tool you will never configure. No Apex console. No AppExchange panel. The app does the job. Nothing else clutters the screen.

Your Data Is Already in Salesforce

This is the most common reason people stay. Their contact and deal history is in Salesforce and moving it feels difficult.

Salesforce lets you export your contacts and opportunities as CSV files. The data is yours and always has been. A custom Merebase app can import those files and continue from where Salesforce left off. Your contact history and deal records come with you.

Once the data is in your own app, it stays there. No platform can reprice it, restrict access to it, or hold it if you decide to leave.

Common questions
Is there a cheaper alternative to Salesforce for small businesses?
Yes. A Merebase contact and deal tracker built by Merebase does what most small businesses actually use Salesforce for: contacts, deal pipeline, notes, and follow-up reminders. A$499 once. No subscription fee. No per-seat pricing. You bring your own hosting.
Can I migrate my Salesforce contacts to a Merebase app?
Yes. Salesforce lets you export your contacts and opportunities as CSV files. A custom Merebase app can import those files and continue from where Salesforce left off. You keep your contact and deal history. The scope for how your data migrates is agreed in writing before any payment.
What does a Merebase contact and deal tracker include?
A Merebase contact and deal tracker from Merebase includes a contacts list with custom fields, a deal pipeline with stage tracking, notes and call logs per contact, follow-up reminders, search and filter, and data export. Unlimited users. Your data lives on your own hosting. A$499 once, agreed in writing before payment.
Will a Merebase app scale as my team grows?
Yes. A Merebase app includes unlimited users. There is no per-seat pricing. Adding a new team member does not change what you pay. Additional features can be added as separate builds, each scoped and priced in writing before any payment.