IBM Cloud Functions vs. Salesforce Lightning Platform

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Cloud Functions
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
IBM Cloud Functions is a PaaS platform based on Apache OpenWhisk. With it, developers write code (“actions”) that respond to external events. Actions are hosted, executed, and scaled on demand based on the number of events coming in. No servers or infrastructure to provision and manage.
$0
per second of execution
Salesforce Lightning Platform
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Salesforce Platform is designed for building and deploying scalable cloud applications with managed hardware provisioning and app stacks. It provides out-of-the-box tools and services to automate business processes, integrate with external apps, and provide responsive layouts and more.
$25
Per User Per Month
Pricing
IBM Cloud FunctionsSalesforce Lightning Platform
Editions & Modules
Basic Cloud Functions Rate
$0.00017
per second of execution
API Gateway Rate
Free
Starter
$25.00
Per User Per Month
Plus
$100.00
Per User Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM Cloud FunctionsSalesforce Lightning Platform
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM Cloud FunctionsSalesforce Lightning Platform
Considered Both Products
IBM Cloud Functions
Chose IBM Cloud Functions
AWS Lambda is 100 times more robust than IBM cloud functions. They essentially do the same thing, but AWS works. AWS is stable. we have had epic failures with cloud functions. Support was horrible. We literally had an open ticket with them for 2 months and it literally went …
Chose IBM Cloud Functions
IBM Cloud Functions are native to IBM Cloud and are easy to integrate into other IBM Cloud applications.
Chose IBM Cloud Functions
  • ICF is a lightweight service and does not require runtime configurations
  • Scalable on demand and hence there is no need to pay for runtime costs
Chose IBM Cloud Functions
AWS Lambda might be more suited for larger scaled companies looking to consistently access similar features at a higher volume/frequency, but for smaller teams with a limited budget, IBM's Cloud Functions are a competitive choice
Salesforce Lightning Platform
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
Salesforce Lightning Platform provides a more sales-focused CRM. It allows the sales force of an organization to be able to stay organized and can pull necessary reports to get a better understanding on how the business is performing regarding sales and customer activity. …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
I have only used Salesforce Lightning Platform for crm purposes
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
Salesforce stands out purely for its enterprise pedigree. No other competitor out there knows Enterprise business as well as Salesforce does. It is levels about the rest of the competition in terms of managing heavy processing requirements of a large enterprise. I did not have …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
Compared to Sage CRM, Salesforce Lightning Platform is leaps and bounds ahead. Sage CRM feels outdated and very slow compared to Salesforce Lightning Platform. There is a lot more ability to integrate Salesforce Lightning Platform with other APIs and systems. There is more of …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
I have been using Salesforce for two years now. Ans I have not used any other platform before similar on this. I find Salesforce very easy to use and this really makes your job much easier and faster. Its features are easy to understand and use and I am glad I have learned …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
We have always been a Salesforce shop, but have grown with the App Cloud platform as it's evolved. We eventually moved to lightning based on the streamlined interface and increased ease of use for our employees. So far we are happy with the results. Would definitely recommend …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
Salesforce, while more expensive, provides faster support, higher scalability options, and an increased opportunity to change any details whether it's about user permissions management, custom field or object creation, or an integration of another application. What really sets …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
Salesforce has more functionality as a CRM platform. The major disadvantage is the ability to integrate with Microsoft products. Ability to integrate with Microsoft is the best part about 356 given that it is a Microsoft product. Even though the price is more expensive, it …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
We were previously using an older version prior to it becoming Salesforce Lightning Platform so we were well adverse on the advantages of using a CRM, to begin with. It made sense to convert to Salesforce Lightning Platform after we were given a free trial of the platform. …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
It offers way more functionalities and the interface/design can be fully customized to best support your companies needs.
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
NA - I've only used [Salesforce Lightning Platform (formerly Salesforce App Cloud)] in my tenure as a CSM
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
I think Salesforce has the most powerful developer engine - I have yet to need a module that I couldn't create (maybe with help). I probably could have made the others work but Salesforce, in my opinion, made it the easiest. Salesforce is reliable and established as well so …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
I would love to switch back to Service Cloud as it was much, much more intuitive and fast. I would even take Salesforce Classic over Lightning. It at least wasn't this slow.
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
I used a program formerly known as "CP." I considered it somewhat outdated, and it does not have any of the modern features that the Salesforce Lightning Platform (formerly Salesforce App Cloud) has. I consider the Salesforce Lightning Platform (formerly Salesforce App Cloud) …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
I use both. SF is the constant through the organization and I receive leads into SF and pass on opportunities through SF.
SL is better for internal processes within business dev.
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
Salesforce is the premeire product. Period. The others are cheaper and less capable, they may fulfill your organisation's needs but you will always be looking at Salesforce with wishful eyes. If you are a company that needs to bootstrap then spend the time to evaluate your …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
Microsoft is pretty limited in functionality compared to Salesforce. Most folks coming into your organization are going to have some level of Salesforce experience but will most likely not have experience with Dynamics. Dynamics doesn't connect as well to other platforms.
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
I believe the only reason we didn't choose Monday.com is because we're just a bit bigger (company size- 75 people) than what Monday.com handles. We also are in San Francisco, and Salesforce pretty much owns this entire city. I was also not part of the selection process of the …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
There is a reason why the Salesforce Lightning Platform is the market leader for all things related to customer relationship management. While Close is somewhat user-friendly, it pales in comparison to all the features, bells, and whistles that the Salesforce Lightning Platform …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
We originally used spreadsheets when we first started. That worked fine until we started growing by over 100% year over year. We were able to upload all of our previous accounts in Salesforce Classic once it was called for. However, Salesforce Classic soon became redundant and …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
We needed a product that would allow for easy and dynamic reports for potential and new clients. Account Managers use other products as well to monitor the client's success and Salesforce allows for seamless integration to other platforms. This serves as a one-stop-shop for all …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
We currently use the two together, along with Hubspot sales. Salesforce is our primary CRM and where we track and manage account and contact information.
Salesforce is much more flexible and intuitive - everything is where you would expect it to be.
Hubspot reporting is …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
I think that the Lightning platform is not as clean and doesn't integrate that well. Whenever I was logged out, it was such a treck to have to log back in and I never actually knew if my activity was being saved or actually being tracked. Personally, Lightning is not my …
Chose Salesforce Lightning Platform
Close and Salesforce are two very different beasts. Close is much more user friendly but lacks the ability to serve complex infrastructures and hierarchies provided by Salesforce. Close is much simpler and faster--great for high volume but will not provide you with rich, …
Features
IBM Cloud FunctionsSalesforce Lightning Platform
Platform-as-a-Service
Comparison of Platform-as-a-Service features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cloud Functions
-
Ratings
Salesforce Lightning Platform
7.5
Ratings
6% below category average
Ease of building user interfaces00 Ratings5.90 Ratings
Scalability00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Platform management overhead00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Workflow engine capability00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Platform access control00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Services-enabled integration00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Development environment creation00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Development environment replication00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Issue monitoring and notification00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Issue recovery00 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Upgrades and platform fixes00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM Cloud FunctionsSalesforce Lightning Platform
Small Businesses
AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda
Score 8.6 out of 10
AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.3 out of 10
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.3 out of 10
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM Cloud FunctionsSalesforce Lightning Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
3.0
(0 ratings)
6.7
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM Cloud FunctionsSalesforce Lightning Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM Cloud Functions [is] not the worse product on the IBM cloud. I decided to write this review as I thought it would be balanced. I would still use functions to set up a serverless architecture where execution time is pretty quick and the code is relatively simple. I wouldn't use IBM Cloud Functions for async calls obviously, as costs could be higher. The functions documentation is lacking in terms of CI/CD, and there are unexplainable errors occurring - like the network connection that I mentioned. So I wouldn't just rely on IBM Cloud Functions too much for the entire system, but make sure it's diversified.
Read full review
We use Salesforce Lightning Platform in everyday business as sales coordinators. By using this tool, we are able to send new requests to clients and communicate regarding pending proposals in real-time. This also tool holds many of our client accounts where we are able to monitor their sales and revenue.
Read full review
Pros
  • Validate raw data files - check the validity of raw data input to the system, to make sure we analyze only the relevant data. The raw data stream rate is hard to be predicted, since it depends on real world activities.
  • Analyze raw data - analyzing of valid raw data, described above.
  • Insert data to LOCAL data base.
Read full review
  • Reporting and Dashboards are thorough and can show a wealth of important data to inform and scale processes. It's helpful in a high volume sales cycle to be able to quickly identify weak points in performance and productivity so that adjustments can be made.
  • Highly customizable. We are able to customize just about everything which allows us to track very specific things and in theory create better efficiency.
  • Parent/Child account hierarchy exists which is helpful.
  • Contact records can be associated with multiple accounts and opportunities. This, in theory, should minimize duplicates and mismanagement of contacts.
  • Console helps a lot with data nesting. Having a fairly comprehensive look at an account without searching through various tabs and sections speeds up an otherwise cumbersome platform.
Read full review
Cons
  • Billing can be a hassle, not the most responsive customer service/support team
  • Handles & executes most functionalities, but other platforms offer more scalability if you're seeking consistent and stable growth
Read full review
  • Can be cumbersome: takes multiple clicks to get where you need to go
  • Lightning is slower than original Salesforce, and it is very noticeable
  • The UI change means sometimes I can't find what I need, so I have to switch back to the Classic version to find it
Read full review
Usability
No answers on this topic
UI can be quite complex, but the more that is required will bring more complexity. Can handle complexity and variety very well, but makes ground-level views harder when not knowing full extent of functionality. Finding new functionalities can be difficult to pinpoint on some pages
Read full review
Support Rating
No answers on this topic
Salesforce's support is top-notch. They have subject-matter experts that are accessible at all times to address needs as they come up. They let you know in advance when there are system updates and enhancements so that you are prepared for upcoming changes. I've never had an issue that wasn't addressed immediately when reaching out for support.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
AWS Lambda is 100 times more robust than IBM cloud functions. They essentially do the same thing, but AWS works. AWS is stable. we have had epic failures with cloud functions. Support was horrible. We literally had an open ticket with them for 2 months and it literally went nowhere. They said it could do 100 calls a minute. We proved over and over that we couldn't get above 20 without getting failures. They had NO explanation whatsoever. The ticket got closed because we were tired of asking them questions and getting no understandable or usable response.
Read full review
We were previously using an older version prior to it becoming Salesforce Lightning Platform so we were well adverse on the advantages of using a CRM, to begin with. It made sense to convert to Salesforce Lightning Platform after we were given a free trial of the platform. Certain reps were chosen to experiment with it and from there a decision was made to move forward. We've been customers ever since.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Definitely has positive impact due to the pay only when used feature
  • Lightweight cloud services help with scaling without high investment in infrastructure
Read full review
  • Better visibility of Accounts and Contacts interactions makes it easier to maintain during employee transitions.
  • Tracking of current jobs and relating them to past jobs is very useful.
  • More efficient use of Sales Reps time.
  • Sales Managers have good visibility into how their people are working.
Read full review
ScreenShots