Salesforce is the default enterprise CRM, and for a small team or indie project it is almost always more than you need. It brings objects, layouts, permission sets, and an API that assumes a full CRM data model, just to store some contacts.
Too much when…
- You don't have a sales team working leads through stages.
- You want to store contacts from a product, not manage a pipeline.
- The per-seat cost and admin overhead outweigh the value.
Lighter options
- ContactAPI: contacts as a simple API, no CRM to administer.
- HubSpot free tier: if you want a CRM UI but not the Salesforce weight.
- A spreadsheet or Airtable: genuinely fine at very small scale.
Keep Salesforce when you have real sales operations to run. If you're mainly collecting and reading contacts, an API or a light CRM will cost less and move faster.
Where ContactAPI fits
ContactAPI is an open-source REST API for saving and managing contacts. You POST an email plus any JSON fields, get simple CRUD back, and can reach the same data from an AI client over its MCP server. No CRM, no pipeline stages, no lock-in.