Salesforce Experience Cloud is the best customer portal software for a company that already runs Salesforce, because customers see and update the same records your staff work in. A custom customer portal built by Black Badger ranks second, and it is the better choice when the orders, projects and invoices your customers want live in systems no portal vendor owns.
The ranking, entry by entry
1 Salesforce Experience Cloud
Best for companies whose customer records already live in Salesforce
Salesforce Experience Cloud is first because it shows customers the same data your staff use, so there is no second copy to update. External users are licensed two ways. A member license is assigned to a named user, and a login license is bought as a number of monthly logins. The pricing page lists the plan under the name Service Portal.
Watch for. Object permissions on community license profiles start restricted, so plan the access model before launch. Prices for the other community license types are not shown on the page.
- How it charges
- Per login or per named member, monthly
- Main limit
- Priced per login or per named member, and object access starts restricted
2 Custom build by Black Badger
Best for companies whose customer data sits in an ERP and other systems
Black Badger publishes this guide and builds custom portals, so read this entry with that in mind. It ranks second because it suits a company that wants its portal to show data from its own systems. A customer logs in and sees open orders from the ERP, invoices from accounting and documents from the project. A portal product shows what lives in that product. We build the portal on your systems, and there is no fee per customer login.
Watch for. There is nothing to sign up for. A build starts with discovery and a written scope, and it suits companies of 50 or more employees with data worth showing.
- How it charges
- One-time build scoped in writing, then running costs such as hosting
- Main limit
- Needs a scoping call first, and suits companies of 50 or more employees
What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one
3 Zoho Creator
Best for companies with staff who can build and maintain their own portal
Zoho Creator ranks third. It is a platform for building a portal with your own data model and workflows, so what customers see is up to you. Staff licenses are billed per user, yearly, starting with Standard. Customers are portal users, sold as an add-on in tiers from 250 up to 100,000. It ranks below a custom build because you supply the builder and you stay on per-user and per-tier pricing.
Watch for. Zoho does not publish the portal user add-on prices, so get them before you design anything. Standard allows one application and 10 portal permission sets per app.
- How it charges
- Per user, plus a paid add-on for portal users
- Main limit
- Portal users are a paid add-on, and Standard allows one application
4 Zendesk
Best for support teams that want a help center and ticket tracker
Zendesk is fourth. If the portal you need is mainly a place for customers to find answers and follow their tickets, it is the product on this list built for that purpose. Pricing is per support agent, so the bill follows the size of your support team and not the number of customers who log in. The customer portal appears in the Suite Professional column.
Watch for. It is not made for showing orders, projects or invoices from your own systems. Widget unbranding is not included on any of the three listed plans.
- How it charges
- Per agent, billed yearly or monthly
- Main limit
- Customer portal starts on Suite Professional, priced per support agent
5 HubSpot Service Hub
Best for hubSpot customers who want ticket tracking for their clients
HubSpot Service Hub ranks fifth. For a company already on HubSpot it adds a portal where customers track tickets, reply to updates and search the knowledge base. HubSpot says the portal is for Professional and Enterprise customers only, and Professional is billed per seat, yearly. It ranks below Zendesk because the page lists no portal functions beyond those three.
Watch for. Customers see only tickets linked to conversations. Professional and Enterprise each carry a required one-time onboarding fee, and the Enterprise fee is the larger.
- How it charges
- Per seat, billed yearly, plus a one-time onboarding fee
- Main limit
- Portal needs a Professional or Enterprise seat and tickets linked to chats
6 Moxo
Best for onboarding and approvals run as guided steps with customers
Moxo is sixth. It handles a different job from the rest. It runs a process with a customer, such as onboarding or an approval, as a sequence of guided steps. Moxo says external participants act through a magic link with no account to create. Pricing is tied to flows a year and an AI allowance, and the number of people who take part does not change it. The Team plan includes unlimited seats.
Watch for. The pricing page itself shows no prices, and Scale and Enterprise are custom quotes. It is not a persistent account area with order history.
- How it charges
- By flows a year and AI use, larger plans quoted
- Main limit
- Priced by flows a year and AI use, not by people who log in
7 Clinked
Best for A defined group of clients who need a branded file space
Clinked ranks seventh. It is a branded file-sharing and collaboration space, priced by member allowance. Standard covers 100 members with 1 TB of storage, and Premium covers 250 members on the plan card, each billed monthly. It ranks lower on a general list because a company with hundreds or thousands of customers reaches those allowances quickly, and Enterprise for 1,000 or more members is quoted.
Watch for. The page does not explain whether customers count toward the member allowance. The plan card and the comparison section of the same page show different prices for Premium, so confirm the price.
- How it charges
- Monthly by member allowance, Enterprise quoted
- Main limit
- Member allowance per plan, 100 on Standard and 250 on Premium
8 Softr
Best for companies with records in a table tool and a modest customer count
Softr is eighth. It is a quick way to put a portal on top of records a company already keeps in a table tool. Client users are capped by plan. Each plan is a flat monthly price, with a fee per extra client user. Pro includes 50 and can add up to 250, and Business includes 100 and can add up to 500. Beyond that you need the custom Enterprise plan, which is why it ranks low for this reader.
Watch for. Users with free email domains such as Gmail count as client users. Extra custom domains are charged per domain, billed yearly.
- How it charges
- Flat monthly price by plan, plus a fee per extra client user
- Main limit
- Client users are capped, at 250 on Pro and 500 on Business
9 SuiteDash
Best for services firms that want clients, files and invoices in one tool
SuiteDash is ninth. It is one flat-priced tool for clients, files, invoices and projects, and the page states unlimited clients and staff on every plan, from Start to Pinnacle. It is last on this list because it fits a smaller services company best. It is not for a company that needs its portal to read live data from its own ERP or order system.
Watch for. Plans differ mainly by storage, from 100GB on Start to 2TB on Pinnacle. The pricing page does not list custom domains by plan.
- How it charges
- Flat price per account, monthly or yearly, not per user
- Main limit
- Plans differ mainly by storage, 100GB on Start to 2TB on Pinnacle
How this list was ranked
This list is ranked for a company of 50 or more employees with hundreds or thousands of customers who need to log in. We asked three things of each option, which were what a customer can see once logged in, how the customer login is priced and where the data comes from.
How each product charges, its plan names and its limits were read from each vendor's own site on the date shown in each entry. Black Badger publishes this guide and builds custom portals, which is why the custom route is on the list. It is second here, behind a product.