--- title: "Attio vs Salesforce: which one, and why" description: "Attio API and Salesforce compared on unit cost, billing model, data returned, license and MCP support. Verified pricing, October 2026." url: https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare/attio-vs-salesforce updated: 2026-10-25 --- Head to head · Verified 8 Oct 2026 # Attio vs *Salesforce* ## Attio API Best API-first CRM $44/user/mo vs ## Salesforce Best CRM API for enterprise integration US$125/seat/mo Short answer Attio vs Salesforce is the clearest version of the build-versus-inherit choice in this directory. Both let you define custom objects and both treat them as first class, but Attio ships the API, the SDK and an MCP server as one developer platform on a free plan, and charges $44 a user when you outgrow it. Salesforce charges $125 a seat before you can call the API at all. That is the real line: Attio is better if you are designing the data model now, Salesforce is better if the data model is already a shared asset that twenty people and six integrations depend on. Side by side ## Where they actually differ Every value comes from the same record that drives the [CRM and sync APIs](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/crm-apis) listing, so this table cannot disagree with the cards. Accented tags are data one provider returns and the other does not. | Compare | [Attio API](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/crm-apis/attio-api-review) | [Salesforce](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/crm-apis/salesforce-api-review) | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | A CRM whose data model you define in code | The only CRM here that sells API access separately | | Entry price | $44/user/mo | US$125/seat/mo | | Unit cost | Not sold by the unit | Not sold by the unit | | Billing model | Per seat Subscription Free tier | Per seat Subscription | | Free tier | Free plan with full API access, 100 seat credits a month | No free tier with API access. Developer Edition is free and gets 15,000 calls a day. | | GTM motion covered | Sync | Sync Engage | | Data returned | CRM records Work email Firmographics | CRM records Work email Firmographics | | MCP server | Yes Part of the Attio developer platform | Yes Hosted MCP servers, plus a DX server in beta | | Interfaces | REST API MCP server Webhooks n8n node | REST API MCP server Webhooks Bulk or async n8n node | | Auth | Bearer token or OAuth 2.0 | OAuth 2.0. SOAP login() with a username and password retires in Summer 27 | | Rate limits | 100 requests/s for reads, 25/s for writes, across the whole API | Daily org budget: 100,000 plus 1,000 per Enterprise license. 25 concurrent calls over 20s. | | Coverage | Global | Global | | Compliance | GDPR DPA SOC 2 Type II | SOC 1 ISO 27001 ISO 42001 | | Best for | Best API-first CRM | Best CRM API for enterprise integration | The decision ## Pick each one when ### Attio API - You are choosing a CRM now and want the schema to be yours. - A free plan with full API access matters more than enterprise tooling. - Per-second limits fit the way your sync actually runs. ### Salesforce - The schema is already load-bearing across teams and environments. - You need the Metadata API to deploy changes rather than make them by hand. - Salesforce is the system of record and that is not up for discussion. The test that settles it There is no match rate to test here, so the bake-off is about shape and headroom. Build the object you actually sell on in each of them, using one free tier and one trial, write a thousand records through the API, and watch which one needs a custom object and which one needs a plan upgrade to take the write rate. An afternoon, and it surfaces the data-modeling work before it is in production rather than after. Plan by plan ## What each one costs, tier by tier Both publish a full rate card, so this comparison runs on numbers rather than on adjectives. Attio API lists 4 tiers and Salesforce lists 5. Every figure is read off the vendor's own pricing page, and the pages they came from are listed at the foot of this one. | The short version | Attio API | Salesforce | | --- | --- | --- | | Cheapest paid plan | Plus, $44 | Starter Suite, US$25 | | Tiers published | 4 | 5 | | Free tier | Free plan with full API access, 100 seat credits a month | No free tier with API access. Developer Edition is free and gets 15,000 calls a day. | | Unit cost at entry | Not sold by the unit | Not sold by the unit | The cheapest paid plan is rarely the plan you end up on, because what moves you up a tier is usually volume rather than a feature. The two rate cards below are what you are choosing between. ### Attio API Attio API publishes 4 tiers, one of them free, and the paid ladder runs from $44 to Custom. #### Free $0 per user/month - Full REST API access - 100 seat credits a month - 250 workspace credits a month #### Plus $44 /user/mo, $35 annual - 500 seat credits a month - 1,500 workspace credits a month - Billed monthly or annually #### Pro $99 /user/mo, $79 annual - 1,000 seat credits a month - 10,000 workspace credits a month - The tier Attio marks as popular #### Enterprise Custom billed annually - 2,500 seat credits a month - Custom workspace credits ### Salesforce Salesforce publishes 5 tiers, none of them free, and the paid ladder runs from US$25 to US$550. #### Starter Suite US$25 /user/mo - Sales, service, marketing and commerce in one - Slack included at no extra cost - Not listed on the API rate-limit table #### Pro Suite US$100 /user/mo - Web Services API available for an extra $25/user/mo - So US$125/user/mo all in, the cheapest API access here - 5 flows per org #### Core US$195 /user/mo - APIs included, no add-on - Forecasting, opportunity scoring, conversation intelligence - Agentforce with the free Salesforce Foundations add-on #### Advanced US$395 /user/mo - APIs included - 1 Full Sandbox included per org - Everything in Core plus advanced automation #### Max US$550 /user/mo - APIs included - Slack Enterprise+ included - The complete suite Cost model ## What Attio and Salesforce cost at your volume Put your own volume in. The model picks the cheapest published plan that covers it on each side, which is the question a rate card cannot answer and the one that decides the bill. ### Attio API Priced per seat, so the bill moves with headcount rather than with volume. Cheapest seat with the API **Plus** Per seat **$44 a month** Monthly **$132 for 3 seats** Twelve months **$1,584** ### Salesforce Priced per seat, so the bill moves with headcount rather than with volume. Cheapest seat with the API **Pro Suite** Per seat **$125 a month, including the $25 API add-on** Monthly **$375 for 3 seats** Twelve months **$4,500** API gate **costs you $100 a seat over Starter Suite** Plans are read from each vendor's own pricing page and the model picks the cheapest one that covers you, so these are list prices before any discount you negotiate and before annual billing, which most of these vendors discount. Twelve months ## What a year costs at three volumes The same plan-fit arithmetic as the model above, run out to a year, because an annual number is what a budget actually asks for. Attio API and Salesforce are priced per seat, so those columns do not move with volume. The figure shown is 3 seats for a year. | A year at | Attio API | Salesforce | | --- | --- | --- | | 1,000 a month | $1,584 Plus | $4,500 Pro Suite | | 10,000 a month | $1,584 Plus | $4,500 Pro Suite | | 50,000 a month | $1,584 Plus | $4,500 Pro Suite | 2 of the 2 providers here publish enough to be put in this table. These are list prices on the published plan that covers each volume, so they are the number before you negotiate and before annual billing, which most of these vendors discount by between a fifth and a half. In practice ## How this plays out once it is running What the [Salesforce](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/crm-apis/salesforce-api-review) premium buys is the Metadata and Tooling APIs, which is how a large org promotes a schema change between environments rather than clicking it twice. If nobody on your team has ever needed that, you are paying for it anyway. The rate limits say the same thing from the other end. [Attio](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/crm-apis/attio-api-review) gives 100 reads and 25 writes a second, which is a per-second budget you can reason about inside one integration. Salesforce gives a daily org pool shared across every integration you own, so your headroom depends on what the rest of the company built. Strengths ## What each one is genuinely good at Not a feature list. These are the things that make somebody keep paying after the novelty has worn off, which is a different question from what the marketing page leads with. ### Attio API #### The whole developer platform is on a free plan REST API, SDK and MCP server, with 100 seat credits and 250 workspace credits a month. You can design the schema, write the integration and demonstrate it working before anyone approves a budget. Salesforce's nearest equivalent is a Developer Edition org at 15,000 calls a day, which is real and is a sandbox rather than something you can quietly grow into. #### A limit you can hold in your head A hundred requests a second for reads, 25 for writes, across the whole API. Salesforce gives you a daily org budget of 100,000 calls plus 1,000 per Enterprise license, shared across every integration, with 25 concurrent calls over 20 seconds. One of those you can design against on a whiteboard. #### Schema changes do not need a release process Objects and attributes are created through the API directly. On Salesforce the equivalent is the Metadata API, a sandbox and a deployment, which is the right amount of ceremony for an org of two hundred and a great deal of ceremony for a team of eight. ### Salesforce #### More than a dozen APIs, each shaped for a different job REST, SOAP, Bulk 2.0, GraphQL, Metadata, Tooling and Pub/Sub. The nightly million-row load goes through Bulk 2.0, the event stream through Pub/Sub, the deployment through Metadata. Attio has one REST API and an SDK, which is the right surface for most teams and not for this one. #### The ceiling grows with the business A hundred thousand calls a day plus 1,000 for every Enterprise license. An org with 200 licensed reps starts at 300,000 a day without asking anyone, where Attio's per-second rate is the same whether you are four people or four hundred. #### The schema is a shared asset with tooling to match Metadata and Tooling let a schema change be versioned, reviewed and promoted between environments. Once twenty people and six integrations depend on the model, that stops being overhead and starts being the thing that lets you change it at all. Limits ## Where each one falls down Every provider on this site has a case it handles badly, and the people who find out are the ones who bought it for that case. These are the ones worth knowing before you sign rather than after. ### Attio API #### No deployment story for the schema Defining objects through the API is fast and there is no sandbox-to-production path with it. For a team of eight that is freedom; for an org where a schema change breaks six integrations, the absence of a promotion process is the thing you will miss first. #### A smaller ecosystem than the comparison suggests Fewer prebuilt connectors, fewer consultants, fewer people who have already solved your problem. That does not show on a feature table and it shows up in week three of a migration. ### Salesforce #### You buy the API on purpose, and it is the only CRM here you do US$25 per user per month on top of Pro Suite's US$100, included only from Core at US$195. US$125 a seat is the real floor for anything programmatic, which is nearly three times Attio's $44 and infinitely more than its free plan. #### Throughput is bought with licenses The daily budget rises by 1,000 per Enterprise license and by nothing else that is published. An integration that needs more calls and no more people has no published lever to pull. #### An authentication deadline you did not choose SOAP login() with a username and password retires in Summer 27. An inherited integration that uses it has to move to OAuth 2.0 before then, and the date is not negotiable. Both ## Using Attio and Salesforce together A two-way comparison assumes the answer is one of them. On this pairing it often is not, and the arrangement below is what teams actually end up running. These overlap almost completely, so running both is a transition rather than a design. Where it does happen deliberately, it is usually a growth team on Attio alongside a corporate Salesforce that finance and support depend on, and the split survives only because nobody tries to sync the two models. If you are in that state, do not map the schemas. The whole reason to have Attio is that its objects are not Salesforce's, and a sync that forces them into correspondence throws away the thing you were paying for. Report across both from a warehouse instead: reads are cheap on both sides and write conflicts are what actually costs money. Decide ## Attio or Salesforce, for you Four questions, answered from the same records as the rest of this page. Nothing is sent anywhere and there is no result to email yourself. Do you need to test on your own list before paying? Are you buying one step or the whole motion? Do you need GDPR DPA published up front? Is there budget approved for this yet? Answer the questions above Each answer leans one way. The recommendation appears here once you have picked at least two. A tool like this can only weigh what is on the page. It does not know your segment, and the one test that does is the bake-off further down: real rows, cheapest entry on each side, spend divided by survivors. Where an answer leans on a certification or an integration, it means that vendor publishes it on the pages this directory read, which is not the same as the other one lacking it. The sources are listed at the foot of the page. Provenance ## Where the data comes from, and what you may do with it The question that arrives late and expensively is not how good the data is, it is who is allowed to hold it. These are the fields each one returns, the coverage it claims and the compliance it publishes. | Provider | Fields returned | Coverage | Compliance | Redistribution | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Attio API](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/crm-apis/attio-api-review) | CRM records, Work email, Firmographics | Global | GDPR DPA SOC 2 Type II | Not stated | | [Salesforce](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/crm-apis/salesforce-api-review) | CRM records, Work email, Firmographics | Global | SOC 1 ISO 27001 ISO 42001 | Not stated | None of these states a redistribution position on its pricing or docs pages. Internally that never matters. Put the rows in something your customers can see and it becomes the question your legal team asks first. Two practical notes that apply to every provider on this page. A compliance badge describes the vendor, not your use of it, so a GDPR DPA does not give you a lawful basis for the outreach you send. And every one of these vendors runs its own opt-out, which means a person who asks you to delete their record has to be removed from your copy as well as from theirs. Migration ## Moving between Attio and Salesforce Most readers of this page are already on one of these two. A swap is four hours of code and a month of watching, and the order below is the one that catches the expensive mistakes while they are still free. 01 ### Measure the thing you are about to lose Run 500 rows you already have through Attio API and record the match rate, the fields that came back populated and the cost. Without that number a migration cannot be judged, because every provider looks cheaper per unit than the one you are paying for today. 02 ### Check the fields, not the field count Salesforce returns every field Attio API does, so nothing downstream has to change shape. Confirm the values rather than the keys: two providers can both return a mobile number and disagree about which one it is. 03 ### Rewrite the auth and the limits, in that order Attio API authenticates with bearer token or OAuth 2.0. Salesforce uses OAuth 2.0. SOAP login() with a username and password retires in Summer 27. The limits are the part that bites later. Attio API rate: 100 requests/s for reads, 25/s for writes, across the whole API. Salesforce rate: Daily org budget: 100,000 plus 1,000 per Enterprise license. 25 concurrent calls over 20s. A loop tuned to the first will either crawl or get throttled on the second. 04 ### Run both for one billing cycle Keep the old key live and route a slice of real traffic to the new one. A month is the shortest honest test, because credit expiry, rollover and the overage rate only show up at renewal and those are where the surprises live. 05 ### Cancel on the renewal date, not before Credits on most of these plans do not survive a downgrade. Check what happens to the balance you have already paid for, and time the switch so you are not buying the same records twice. The step people skip is the first one, and it is the only one that cannot be done after the fact. Once the old key is off you have nothing to compare the new match rate against, so a provider that is quietly worse on your segment looks like a provider that is fine. What practitioners say ## What practitioners say about Salesforce The one part of this page that is not a vendor claim. Quotes are transcribed as written, linked to the thread, and nothing here is the only source for a figure in the tables above. ### Paying per seat for integrations is what pushed teams into sharing credentials > \[...\] I've seen SO much horrible security practise and API user sharing at small/mid size companies who just can't afford a proper full user license for each dedicated integration. Can't wait to share this news tomorrow to my boss. [r/salesforce](https://www.reddit.com/r/salesforce/comments/11mycpz/api_only_licences_finally/) · March 2023 · 11 points Written when API-only licenses arrived, and it is the clearest practitioner account of what this page's pricing section describes. When a license costs US$125 a seat with the API add-on, a company with six integrations is being asked for six seats for software rather than people, and the thing that gives way is the credential. The security consequence is the part a rate card does not show. One shared integration user across six systems means no way to tell which of them made a call, revoked access for one revokes it for all, and the daily org budget drains with no attribution. Price the integration users before you commit, not after. ### The list price is a starting position, and practitioners treat it that way > They will fight you tooth and nail to maintain ACV. The trick is to figure out how to get leverage on them. \[...\] My standard approach: 1.Start renewals 6+ months out 2.Assess SF's current capability and how it aligns to your business goals (is it enabling you or holding you back) 3.Evaluate alternative vendors and position them to salesforce 4+ months out from renewal This playbook regularly knocks 15-30% out of a contract in a flat renewal. [r/salesforce](https://www.reddit.com/r/salesforce/comments/1pibypq/ama_salesforce_pricing_how_much_should_you_be/) · December 2025 · 9 points Every figure in the cost model above is a list price, and this is the practitioner version of that caveat. A discount in this range would move three Core seats from US$585 a month to somewhere between US$410 and US$497, which changes the answer against a cheaper CRM at the margin and does not change it at the floor. Treat the percentages as a signal rather than a number you can plan on: they are one person's experience of their own renewals, not a published rate. What is worth copying is the timing, because leverage is a function of how long you left yourself and that part costs nothing. 14 threads read on 13 October 2026, searched by vendor name. Scores and dates are the comment's own. Nothing here is the only source for a price or a limit on this site: every figure in the tables above comes from a vendor's own page. In a stack ## Where each one sits in a working pipeline Neither of these is bought in isolation. These are the [worked stacks](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/stacks) on this site that use one or both, with the cost run end to end. [Agent-driven account research $0.09 Point an AI client at two MCP servers and have it write a researched account brief straight into the CRM. → → See the arithmetic →](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/stacks/agent-research) If neither fits ## The wider field for both A two-way comparison assumes the answer is one of these two. Often it is not, and the reason you are comparing them at all points somewhere else entirely: [Attio alternatives](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/alternatives/attio-alternatives) and [Salesforce alternatives](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/alternatives/salesforce-alternatives) both start from the reason people leave. [Attio API alternatives 4 A CRM for people who want to define the schema themselves. Not everybody does. See the alternatives →](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/alternatives/attio-alternatives) [Salesforce alternatives 4 Almost nobody leaves Salesforce because the API is bad. They leave because reaching it costs $125 a seat. See the alternatives →](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/alternatives/salesforce-alternatives) [Everything in Sync 6 The full category these two sit in, filtered by data returned, billing model and entry price. Browse the category →](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/crm-apis) Keep comparing ## Related comparisons The 26 providers behind every pairing here are in the [main listing](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis). Pairings that share a side with this one: [Attio vs Twenty](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare/attio-vs-twenty), [Salesforce vs Zoho CRM](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare/salesforce-vs-zoho-crm) and [Attio vs folk](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare/attio-vs-folk). And: [Pipedrive vs Salesforce](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare/pipedrive-vs-salesforce) and [Attio vs Close](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare/attio-vs-close). Every comparison in the directory is on the [compare hub](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare). [vs HubSpot API vs Attio API A free CRM API against a CRM whose data model you define in code. Compare them →](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare/hubspot-vs-attio) [vs HubSpot API vs Salesforce A CRM that gives the API away against one that sells it by the seat. Compare them →](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare/hubspot-vs-salesforce) [vs Pipedrive vs Salesforce US$14 a seat with the API included against US$125 a seat before the first call. Compare them →](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare/pipedrive-vs-salesforce) [See all 67 comparisons](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/compare) ## Comparison pages end at the rate card. *Your list does not.* We run the bake-off on your actual data, pick the provider order, and build the pipeline behind it: waterfall routing, credit ceilings and the write-back that puts a verified contact in front of a rep the same day. [Book a call](https://book.frontal.so) [See the stacks](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis/stacks) Worked with 300+ companies. A senior operator runs your account. FAQ ## Attio and Salesforce, answered Read from the same records that drive the table above. **Is Attio or Salesforce cheaper?** On the entry plan it is Attio, $44/user/mo against Salesforce at US$125/seat/mo. The entry price is the comparable figure, because they do not meter the same thing. **Can I try Attio and Salesforce for free?** Attio: Free plan with full API access, 100 seat credits a month. Salesforce: No free tier with API access. Developer Edition is free and gets 15,000 calls a day. **What are the rate limits on Attio and Salesforce?** Attio: 100 requests/s for reads, 25/s for writes, across the whole API. Salesforce: Daily org budget: 100,000 plus 1,000 per Enterprise license. 25 concurrent calls over 20s. **Do Attio and Salesforce both have MCP servers?** Both do. Attio: Part of the Attio developer platform. Salesforce: Hosted MCP servers, plus a DX server in beta. **Which is better, Attio or Salesforce?** Attio vs Salesforce is the clearest version of the build-versus-inherit choice in this directory. Both let you define custom objects and both treat them as first class, but Attio ships the API, the SDK and an MCP server as one developer platform on a free plan, and charges $44 a user when you outgrow it. **What are the downsides of Attio and Salesforce?** Measured against each other rather than in general. Attio: none of the structural gaps in this answer; the limits section carries its operational ones. Salesforce: there is no free tier, so you cannot measure your own match rate before paying. **Can you use Attio and Salesforce together?** These overlap almost completely, so running both is a transition rather than a design. Where it does happen deliberately, it is usually a growth team on Attio alongside a corporate Salesforce that finance and support depend on, and the split survives only because nobody tries to sync the two models. **Can I migrate from Attio to Salesforce without losing data?** The fields survive: Salesforce returns everything Attio does. What changes is the auth and the limits. Either way, measure your match rate on 500 rows before you switch, because that number is the one you cannot recover afterwards. Published by ## [Frontal](https://frontal.so/) Frontal is the go-to-market partner for B2B tech companies past product-market fit. It publishes this directory. Every price, tier requirement and rate limit on this page was read from the vendor's own pricing page, developer documentation or knowledge base on the date below. Nothing on it is restated from a press release or a third-party listing. Frontal is a Salesforce Partner. Where a vendor publishes no public figure, this page says so rather than estimating. [How we checked](https://frontal.so/gtm-apis#method). Reviewed by [Kenny Damian](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenny-damian-90aba221a/) Co-founder & Head of GTM, Frontal **Verified** 8 Oct 2026 **Sources** 5 vendor documents Read from - [attio.com/pricing](https://attio.com/pricing) - [developers.attio.com/docs](https://developers.attio.com/docs/rate-limiting-and-timeouts) - [developers.attio.com](https://developers.attio.com/) - [salesforce.com/sales](https://www.salesforce.com/sales/pricing/) - [developer.salesforce.com/docs](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api_rest.meta/api_rest/intro_what_is_rest_api.htm)