Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has publicly criticized Salesforce over what he described as a pricing tactic aimed at winning customers with steep discounts before raising prices later. The remarks came after Salesforce ran an ad claiming “40% off” to beat Zoho, according to posts and coverage published this week.
In a post on X, Vembu said Salesforce was “running an ad claiming 40% off to beat Zoho” and argued that the company has “watched this playbook for years”. Moneycontrol reported that he warned buyers to be careful and said customers should ask for standardized multi-year pricing before switching platforms.
Vembu also repeated a sharper criticism of Salesforce’s product strategy, describing it as “a garbage bin of acquired enterprise software… held together with bubble gum and duct tape”. The comments underscore a rivalry that has played out publicly for years between Zoho and Salesforce in the enterprise software market.
Salesforce is running an ad claiming 40% off to beat Zoho. We have watched this playbook for years where they give deep discounts to get you in, followed by aggressive escalation once you're locked-in.
Before you switch anything, ask them to show you standardised multi-year… pic.twitter.com/WgKH1NsGxU
— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) June 9, 2026
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