Salesforce costs EUR 750 per user per year minimum — that is XOF 5 million for a 10-agent team. At that price no Senegalese agency can keep up. Yet 90% of Dakar agencies still run on Excel plus WhatsApp, lose 30% of leads in the noise and have zero automated follow-up. The 2026 real estate CRM market offers alternatives 10 times cheaper, built for the trade.
TL;DR
- Salesforce not viable in Senegal: EUR 750/user/year = XOF 492,000/user/year
- Apimo: EUR 45/month (XOF 29,500), 100% real estate French CRM
- Netty: EUR 89/month (XOF 58,400), CRM plus website included
- Pipedrive: EUR 39/month (XOF 25,600), generalist very flexible
- Hubspot Starter: EUR 18/month, marketing plus lite CRM, scalable
Why a generic CRM does not cut it in real estate
Real estate agency work has specifics that Pipedrive or Hubspot do not cover natively: automatic buyer/property matching, multi-portal feed (SeLoger, Le Bon Coin, Logic-Immo), mandate and exclusivity management, co-brokerage commission split, digital files with IDs and contracts. A dedicated real estate CRM saves 5 to 10 hours per agent per week.
The 5 critical functions of a real estate CRM
- Automated piging: scrape new private listings on portals and alert
- Buyer/property matching: auto-push new properties to qualified buyers
- Multi-portal distribution: push a listing in 1 click to 5 to 15 portals at once
- Mandate pipeline: track valuation to mandate to listing to contract to signature
- Commissions: auto-compute and split between agent, agency and referrers
Detailed 2026 comparison
| CRM | Price/month | Specialization | Portal feed | Kolonell rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce Cloud | EUR 750/user/year | Enterprise generalist | Via Apimo | 4/10 (too pricey) |
| Apimo | EUR 45 | Pure real estate | Included | 9/10 |
| Netty | EUR 89 | RE plus website | Included | 8/10 |
| Pipedrive | EUR 39 | Generic pipeline | Via Zapier | 7/10 |
| Hubspot Starter | EUR 18 | Marketing plus CRM | Non-native | 6/10 |
| Zoho CRM | EUR 14 | Low-cost generalist | Via API | 5/10 |
The Apimo case, silent leader in French-speaking markets
Apimo powers 12,000+ agencies worldwide including half in Morocco, Algeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast. The French product inherited from RealAdvisor offers a 100% French interface, native integration with 80+ portals, and an included website module. Downside: somewhat dated ergonomics compared to Pipedrive.
Netty vs Apimo: French-on-French duel
Netty includes a modular showcase website — handy if you have no site yet. But that site is locked into the Netty ecosystem: impossible to leave without redoing everything. Apimo plugs into any external site via API. Our recommendation: Netty if you start from scratch and want a turnkey CRM+site combo, Apimo if you already have a Kolonell site or other.
Pipedrive and Hubspot: when to step outside pure RE
- Agency over 5 agents: Pipedrive offers real multi-user collaboration
- Inbound acquisition: Hubspot is unbeatable for blog + email marketing + landing pages
- Need fine reporting: Pipedrive offers far more powerful dashboards than Apimo
- Tech stack integration: Hubspot and Pipedrive have 800+ native integrations, Apimo has 30
Recommended hybrid stack for ambitious Dakar agency
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The combo that works best in 2026 for a 3-to-10-agent Dakar agency:
| Tool | Role | Monthly price |
|---|---|---|
| Apimo | Property records source of truth + portal feed | EUR 45 |
| Pipedrive | Mandates + buyers commercial pipeline | EUR 39 |
| Hubspot Free | Blog + landing pages + email marketing | EUR 0 |
| Zapier or Make | Apimo ↔ Pipedrive sync | EUR 20 |
| Matterport Starter | 3D tours | EUR 39 |
Total: about EUR 143/month or XOF 94,000 — less than a single Salesforce user.
FAQ
Q: Which CRM should a solo Dakar agency starting out pick?
A: Apimo alone (EUR 45/month). Best feature-to-price ratio for a solo agent. No need to add Pipedrive while you are alone.
Q: Can the CRM be in French but also Wolof or English?
A: Apimo and Netty are French-only. Pipedrive and Hubspot offer native English. No major CRM offers Wolof — but agents only use French professionally.
Q: Do I need a developer to plug Apimo into the Kolonell site?
A: No, Apimo exposes a standardized XML feed. Kolonell integrates this feed in 2 to 4 hours of dev — included in the Pro plan at XOF 1.8M.
Q: What if I am stuck on Excel with 800 contacts?
A: Apimo and Netty offer native CSV import. Plan 1 to 2 days to clean the base, map columns and import. Kolonell can do it for XOF 350,000.
Conclusion
Real estate CRM is not a luxury in 2026 — it is the condition to scale beyond 3 agents without leaving 30% of leads rotting in WhatsApp. Apimo remains the best fit for the Senegalese market, complemented by Pipedrive if size warrants it. Kolonell integrates these stacks for real estate agency clients. Request a free quote or message WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.