Gold Vision CRM
Gold Vision CRM ships monthly releases on a consistent cadence — changelog details aren't surfaced in the feed.
Comparison · CRM
Salesmate vs Phorest
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Salesmate and Phorest — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Salesmate vs Phorest: at a glance
What is Salesmate?
Salesmate ships at a slow drumbeat with Sandy AI as its most directional move.
Salesmate's release cadence is sparse — roughly one update every couple of months — and most entries are small UX or workflow tweaks rather than platform changes. The most directionally significant move in the last year was Sandy AI, which folded an assistant for scheduling and summarization into the CRM. Recent work has tightened the existing surface: knowledge base consolidation, surveys, mobile navigation, name-field customization.
What is Phorest?
Phorest keeps handing salon owners the settings they used to phone support about
Phorest is salon and clinic management software shipping small, well-scoped changes every week or two, written in the voice of the front desk. The recent run is dominated by giving owners control they previously had to request: adding product brands without contacting Phorest, per-staff-per-service pricing, per-staff online booking visibility, and finer permissions on who may edit service versus retail prices. Around that sit operational tools like geofenced clock-in on the mobile app.
Salesmate vs Phorest: editorial side-by-side
Salesmate
0.0CRM
Salesmate ships at a slow drumbeat with Sandy AI as its most directional move.
◆ Current state
Salesmate's release cadence is sparse — roughly one update every couple of months — and most entries are small UX or workflow tweaks rather than platform changes. The most directionally significant move in the last year was Sandy AI, which folded an assistant for scheduling and summarization into the CRM. Recent work has tightened the existing surface: knowledge base consolidation, surveys, mobile navigation, name-field customization.
◆ Where it's heading
Salesmate is positioning as a quietly maturing all-in-one CRM rather than chasing a dominant trend. AI is being added narrowly (scheduling, summarization) rather than as a full agentic layer. Mobile and data-quality work suggest the priority is making the current product stickier for existing teams, not breaking into new categories.
◆ Prediction
Expect Sandy AI to expand further into deal-stage automation or pipeline summaries within the next two quarters, since that is the obvious next step from chat/email summarization. The slow cadence likely continues unless competitive pressure forces a step change.
Phorest
5.0CRM
Phorest keeps handing salon owners the settings they used to phone support about
◆ Current state
Phorest is salon and clinic management software shipping small, well-scoped changes every week or two, written in the voice of the front desk. The recent run is dominated by giving owners control they previously had to request: adding product brands without contacting Phorest, per-staff-per-service pricing, per-staff online booking visibility, and finer permissions on who may edit service versus retail prices. Around that sit operational tools like geofenced clock-in on the mobile app.
◆ Where it's heading
The through-line is decentralising configuration to the salon and making the booking model match how these businesses actually run. Nearly every recent release either removes a support ticket or lets one staff member be treated differently from another — different price, different online availability, different qualifications. The multi-service booking flow extends the same thinking to the client-facing side, where a visit involving two practitioners was previously modelled as an edge case.
◆ Prediction
Per-staff settings have now landed for price, online visibility and qualifications separately; the obvious next step is a single staff-level view that shows all three together, since the release notes already admit owners are hopping between screens to check them.
Alternatives to Salesmate and Phorest
Other CRM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Salesmate or Phorest.
Twenty
Twenty's sprint through v2.39-v2.40 stabilizes yarn pull and relicenses UI components as MIT.
Close CRM
Close is systematically expanding Chloe from Q&A into an operational CRM layer
Lime Connect
Lime Connect adds time-based workflow triggers and interactive UI elements for its AI Agent, deepening its bet on AI-augmented customer communication.
Easy!Appointments
Easy!Appointments 1.6 lands video conferencing, GDPR tools, and a serious security overhaul across its CalDAV and booking stack.
Streak
Streak wires automations to email and call activity, turning Gmail CRM into an event-driven workflow engine.
See all Salesmate alternatives → · See all Phorest alternatives →
Recent activity from Salesmate and Phorest
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 14d agoPhorestBooking multiple services with multiple staff? Now way easier to mix up who's doing what 💇
- 20d agoPhorestChoose which team members show up for online bookings — service by service
- 26d agoPhorestPermissions to change service / retail prices
- 29d agoPhorestAdd New Brands
- 29d agoPhorestPricing just got personal
- 1mo agoPhorestGeofencing Clock In/Out on Phorest Go
- 8mo agoSalesmateThe Knowledge Base is now consolidated into a single, streamlined view.
- 1y agoSalesmateIntegrated Surveys for in-CRM feedback collection
- 1y agoSalesmateMobile navigation reworked to cut clicks
- 1y agoSalesmateRequired first/last name fields configurable
- 1y agoSalesmateDuplicate management now on mobile
- 1y agoSalesmateWith Sandy AI, scheduling meetings has never been simpler. You can also quickly summarize chats, tickets, or email threads.Read More ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Salesmate and Phorest?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Phorest is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Salesmate better than Phorest?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Phorest is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other CRM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Salesmate?
Top Salesmate alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Salesmate alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/salesmate for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Phorest?
Top Phorest alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Phorest alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/phorest for the full list with editorial commentary on each.