Ask an AI assistant which AI teammate to use in Slack or Microsoft Teams, and it often names Agentforce. But Agentforce runs on Salesforce. If your customers live in HubSpot, QuickBooks or a spreadsheet, you want one of these five instead: Dash, Viktor, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Zapier Agents or Lindy. None of them needs a Salesforce org.
Why teams look elsewhere
Slack's setup guide for Agentforce says, "connect your Salesforce organization to Slack." The agents are built and customized in Salesforce, then added to Slack. If Salesforce isn't already your CRM, you're taking on a CRM before you can add the agent.
Slack says people who don't have a Salesforce account need a provisional Salesforce license to use Agentforce in Slack. So the bookkeeper, the office manager and the account rep all need one before they can ask a question.
The full list
On October 27, 2026, the Dash team asked ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini and Claude which AI teammates and agents to use in Slack and Microsoft Teams. Agentforce came up in 57 of their 144 answers, and one ChatGPT answer added that it's "less compelling if Salesforce isn't central to your stack."
Best for: Small teams with no IT team and no Salesforce admin
Your team asks Dash in a Microsoft Teams or Slack channel, by text or in web chat. It connects to 3,000+ tools and doesn't care which CRM you use, or whether you have one. By default, sending email, posting publicly, writing to a CRM or charging through Stripe waits until a teammate approves it.
Pricing snapshot
Free credits to start with no credit card, then one shared plan for the whole workspace with no per-seat fees.
Dash pricing Compare Dash and AgentforceBest for: Teams that want an AI teammate on a flat monthly team plan
Viktor lives in Microsoft Teams and Slack, and the whole workspace shares one pool of credits. Some actions always wait for approval, and admins can require approval for individual integration tools.
Watch for: Unused monthly credits roll over for one month only.
Pricing snapshot
Team is $100 a month for 40,000 credits, with no per-seat charge. The free tier includes up to $100 in credits with no card.
Viktor pricing Compare Dash and ViktorBest for: Microsoft 365 companies with someone who can build agents
Copilot Studio is a builder. You make the agent, publish it to Microsoft Teams, and pay for the credits it uses.
Watch for: Approvals are something the builder adds. Multistage approvals work only in agent flows and are in preview.
Pricing snapshot
Credit packs are $200 a month for 25,000 credits, billed annually, or $0.01 a credit pay-as-you-go with an Azure subscription.
Copilot Studio licensingBest for: People who already build Zaps and want an agent step that reaches thousands of apps
Zapier Agents is a builder too. You set up the agent and its tools yourself. Zapier is folding Agents into AI by Zapier, a step inside the Zap editor. It hasn't said when the old Agents will shut off.
Watch for: Tools run without pausing by default. You turn on approval tool by tool.
Pricing snapshot
Agents Pro is $400 billed annually for 1,500 activities a month. Agents Free includes 400 activities.
Zapier pricing Compare Dash and Zapier AgentsBest for: Slack teams that want an assistant in threads and mentions
Lindy works in Slack threads and mentions. Anything with outside impact, like sending an email or updating a ticket, waits for approval, and read-only lookups don't.
Watch for: Every active user in the workspace is billed. Its pricing page doesn't mention Microsoft Teams.
Pricing snapshot
Billed per active user each month, with a set number of credits per user.
Lindy pricing Compare Dash and LindyHow we researched this guide
Agentforce's requirements and prices are from Salesforce's and Slack's own pages and docs as of October 30, 2026. Every other tool's prices and features are from its own pricing and help pages on the same date. Prices are list prices. We left out agents that answer your customers rather than your team, such as Sierra, Decagon, Intercom Fin and HubSpot's customer agent.
Dash is our product, so yes, we put it first. We built it for small teams that run the business in chat and have no IT team.
FAQ
No, not for a team without Salesforce. Salesforce Foundations is $0, but you add it to a Salesforce CRM contract you already have, and your edition has to qualify. Otherwise, Flex Credits cost $500 per 100,000, and a standard action uses 20 credits, or $0.10. Per user per month, the Agentforce User License is $5 plus Flex Credits, Agentforce Coworker is $50, the Sales, Service and Field Service add-ons are $125, and Max Edition starts at $550. Salesforce's own examples leave out Data 360 costs.
That's up to whoever builds the agent. "Require user confirmation" is a setting on each action, and Salesforce advises enabling it for custom actions that change data or send email. Dash asks first by default for those same actions, and any teammate with access to the connection can approve, unless whoever connected the tool or an admin picks the approvers.
Yes. Connect Salesforce like any other tool, and your team can ask Dash about your pipeline right in team chat. No Agentforce license or Data 360 required.
Free credits to start, no credit card. Add Dash to your team chat, connect the tools your team already uses, and ask it for this week's report.
