I was in charge of a team for our Salesforce CRM integration project at our company. The team was of 40 sales people, so we had quite a bunch of use cases and complexities at hand. We first tried to integrate with the Salesforce API but after 1 month of system design and late-night reads on the API documentation, we realized that it was a too complex task for our budget, also considering the limited available resources for system maintenance over time. Our goal was to get a working integration that would have little to no maintenance.

Then, we looked at Heroku connect with the two-way integration between Salesforce and Postgres database. At first sight, it would massively simplify our system design! However, after a dozen emails with sales and some calls with engineering, we realized that not only the pricing was insanely prohibitive for our use case, but we would also have to work our way with messy logics to set up real-time triggers (such as for sending a welcome email when a  new account is created).

Finally, we found Stacksync. Stacksync is a better, cheaper and more enterprise-ready “Heroku Connect” with so many more connectors. Here is a deep dive into why we chose to go with Stacksync for our Salesforce integration.

In my opinion, Stacksync is a much better alternative to Heroku Connect for companies looking for a Salesforce-Postgres synchronization solution. Stacksync provides a seamless, bi-directional synchronization between Salesforce and Postgres, just like Heroku Connect. However, the key difference is that Stacksync is much more affordable, making it accessible to small and medium-sized businesses that might find Heroku Connect too expensive.

Easy Setup with No-code

Stacksync is very easy to set up and use, all done in no-code, we did it in minutes! You don't need any specialized knowledge or skills to get started, and there is no need to hire expensive Salesforce consultants. Stacksync provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to configure the synchronization settings and monitor the data flow between Salesforce and Postgres.

Custom filters and Sync Rules

Stacksync also offers a range of advanced features that can help you optimize your Salesforce-Postgres synchronization process. For example, you can set up custom filters and rules to control which records are synchronized and how they are transformed. You can also use Stacksync's real-time monitoring tools to track changes and updates in real-time and ensure that your data is always up-to-date.

Triggers

Another advantage of Stacksync is that it provides a no-code trigger editor that can notify any HTTP REST endpoint of your choice when some events happen in your data. It is like a more powerful and real-time Change Data Capture (CDC) on your database, salesforce, or both at the same time! So you can now trigger your services when a certain event (e.g. a new lead is created) in Postgres or in Salesforce, no matter when the data manipulation is made. You can also add any complex filters of your choice to the event. For instance, you can trigger an event only when a new Lead is created or updated, and the country is US and the amount of potential contract larger than 1000 USD. There are no limits to the scenarios you can create, all in no-code! This works for data creation, update and deletion on any connector. This feature was a game changer for our workflow since we could connect Stacksync to trigger any Zapier/Make or our Lambda functions. 

Transparent and Scalable Pricing

Stacksync's pricing model is much more transparent and flexible than Heroku Connect's. You only pay for the number of records that you want to synchronize, which means that you can start small and scale up as your business grows. Only monthly active rows are counted, so even if you have a massive database with a lot of archive data, this does not get your billing heavier. There are no hidden costs or fees, and you can choose between a monthly or annual subscription plan.

‍

Overall, I believe that Stacksync is a great alternative to Heroku Connect for companies looking for a reliable, affordable, and easy-to-use Salesforce-Postgres synchronization solution. If you're interested in learning more about Stacksync, you can visit their website and sign up for a free trial.

‍