A few months ago a good friend and collaborator asked me about the differences between SalesforceTM and coreBOS. A few days ago the same question came up in the forum. Let's see what I think about it.
For me, there are three main differences.
1.- Resources
The money and people availability that both projects have is totally different. They have the resources to invest in things that we can only put on our to-do list and wait to get to. This means that they have more functionality than we do for sure.
2.- Influence in the roadmap
Related to the resources is the accessibility to the team. In coreBOS you can actually contact the people that are directing the product. That gives you the power to influence it and push it in the direction that is beneficial to you. Besides the fact that coreBOS strives to be a flexible platform that you can adapt to your business instead of a functionality-packed on-demand product, the fact is that YOU can mark, to some extent, the pace of the project. I doubt you can do that with Salesforce.
3.- OpenSource
You have full control of your data and project. For good and bad 
Comparison
As you can see, what I find fundamental and important is probably not what you were expecting when you started reading the article. At this point, we all do to many things, it doesn't matter if you choose Salesforce, [put your favorite software here], or coreBOS, they all have more functionality than you are going to use or need. What is important is how flexible the software is to adapt to YOUR needs, what it can do for YOU.
Anyway, I did prepare a more detailed comparison that I will share next. Be warned, this is a very opinionated comparison basedon this feature list from Salesforce.
| Salesforce Feature | State in coreBOS |
|---|---|
| Customize home with components | WIP. Currently implementing a POC with Reports home page. If it works we will do home, substitute Dashboard and implement on module home page |
| Customize record home with components | WIP. Currently implementing a POC with Reports home page. If it works we will do home, substitute Dashboard and implement on module home page |
| Keyboard Shortcuts | In many places but inconsistent and not maintained |
| Navigate to a Record Directly from an Action Success Message | Quick create takes you to record directly, no option to otherwise unless in selection popup screen in which case it selects the created record |
| Favorites | not supported |
| Personalized Navigation | yes, to some extent, role based not user based |
| Lightning Apps | in coreBOS we don’t impose any design system. We natively support LDS and you can use any LDS styling in your custom widgets but you are free to include and use others |
| Lightning Console Apps | - |
| Utility Icons for Lightning Apps | - |
| Global actions | no similar concept |
| App Launcher | since we don’t have a market place and all modules look the same we don’t have an App Launcher with Apps but we do use the App Launcher construct in our integrations page |
| User Switcher | no similar concept |
| Record Detail tab never forgets | we have some sticky sections controlled by global variables but it isn’t a full-blown memory of the state you choose, and even when we do save it, it is usually in the session, so it’s lost at logout |
| Troubleshoot Record Errors Quickly and Easily | there is some control but it could be a lot better |
| More specific dialog titles when creating records | we don’t have record “types” but you can customize the header as you like with global variables and expression language |
| Launch a Lightning Component from an Action | we can launch actions through the Business Actions module, so it is similar |
| Quick View Hovers | equivalent |
| Utility Bar | no similar concept |
| Highlights Panel | no similar concept inside the application but we do export this type of information for external apps |
| Help Menu | not really, we link to the wiki, but there is a lot of documentation to be done. Just to be clear: there is a LOT of documentation, but there is also a lot of functionality not covered |
| Page layout per app | no similar concept . On our roadmap |
| Sync all collapsible sections | no similar concept |
| Lists in App Builder | not yet, soon to be added |
| Create Custom Tab Sets on Record Pages | equivalent |
| Create Custom Lightning Experience Record Pages | no similar concept |
| Assign filters to report chart components | equivalent |
| Assign custom record page | - |
| App Page templates | - |
| New Records highlight panel | - |
| Read-Only Lightning Pages | - |
| Dynamic Report Chart Components | equivalent |
| Embed Wave | no similar concept |
| Flow Component | external install: Process Flow Perspective |
| Assign Record Pages by App, Record Type, and Profile | no similar concept |
| Customize Person Account Pages | We have contacts=person but it is just a normal module like all the others, customizable like any other |
| Customize Your Console App Record Pages | - |
| Clone Salesforce Default Lightning Pages | - |
| Component - Related Record | this could easily be done and included as a widget: VERY easily done |
| Component - Related List | not yet, soon to be added |
| Component - Flow | external install: Process Flow Perspective |
| Component - Accordion | no similar concept |
| Einstein Recommendations | no similar concept |
| Dynamic Lightning Pages | equivalent |
| Pinned Workspace Regions | no similar concept |
| Sorting Results | we permit sorting alphabetically. We don’t have a “sort by relevance” feature. This could be done as we have a native integration with elastic search. Our biggest hurdle here is to have enough data to understand what “relevance” means for each company |
| More searchable objects | we search all our modules |
| Create a custom object item from within a lookup | supported |
| Instant results | no similar concept |
| Narrow search results to a specific object | no similar concept |
| Global Search in Setup | no similar concept |
| Know When Spell Correction Is Applied to Your Term | no similar concept |
| Personalize the way search results display | no similar concept |
| Top Results | each user has a global variable where they can set which are their top results modules |
| Advanced lookups powered by a full search engine | no similar concept |
| List view charts | no similar concept yet, this is on our roadmap |
| Delete Charts from List Views | |
| Search for a list view on the fly | no similar concept |
| Kanban | WIP. Currently implementing an external app for this |
| Continuous scrolling | no similar concept |
| Create and edit list views from the same page | no similar concept |
| Snapshot of list view details | equivalent |
| List View Column Widths Dynamically Adjust to Content | not yet but we are almost ready to change the whole list view and the new data table does have this sort of functionality |
| Set Custom Column Widths on More List Views | not yet but we are almost ready to change the whole list view and the new data table does have this sort of functionality |
| Smart Column Widths | not yet but we are almost ready to change the whole list view and the new data table does have this sort of functionality |
| Reset Custom List View Column Widths | not yet but we are almost ready to change the whole list view and the new data table does have this sort of functionality |
| Wrap Text in List Views | not yet but we are almost ready to change the whole list view and the new data table does have this sort of functionality |
| Update Record Owners from list views | you can update any field from a list view |
| Mass Inline Editing | you can update any field from a list view and with no theoretical limit |
| Programmatic Lists Component | - |
| Filters in List view | supported |
| Related List Drill-in | the same as normal list views, we use the same approach |
| setup | we have reduced considerably our setup options in favor of normal modules that do the work, so you can add buttons and configure many options from normal modules |
| setup | besides that we have a central setup screen for application settings and another screen for integrations |
| Development Capabilities | we are a very developer friendly platform, with all sorts of components to make it easy to customize your coreBOS |
| Dynamic Picklists | supported |
| User Interface API | we are not good in this area, we stick to what we have: consistency |
| Base Lightning Components | not a rich library but a modest one |
| Lightning Locker Service | no similar concept |
| Lightning Testing Service | no similar concept |
| Lightning Component Framework | no similar concept |
| Salesforce Lightning Inspector Chrome Developer Tool | normal developer console |
| Lightning Out | full support for external applications |
| Lightning Container Components | we have developer widgets which won’t be as powerful but it is a similar concept |
| Lightning Experience Stylesheets for Visualforce | no similar concept |
| Salesforce Lightning Design System | supported |
| Custom Lightning Page Templates | no similar concept |
| Themes & Branding | very limited |
| Assistant | similar concept although ours is obsolete and in urgent need of an update |
| Key Deals | supported |
| Performance Chart | supported |
| Einstein Opportunity Insights | no similar concept |
| Einstein Account Insights | no similar concept |
| Task Filter Options from the Home page | supported |
| News | we support RSS, maybe could be done |
| Path | this could be done by enhancing the BPM Process Flow Perspective, now it hand-holds you through the process, but it doesn’t tell you why, we could add a help message on each step |
| All Activity History | activities are easy to list, all of them, what would be more interesting would be an activity timeline including emails, messages, and other modules as required. This has been on our todo list for a long time |
| Account Logos | we don’t look for them but you can add images to any module and creating an integration to pull them in which shouldn’t be difficult, maybe even possible using integromat (or similar) if the information is publically available |
| Automated Account Fields | no similar concept |
| Forecasts | external install: Sales Forecast (not as complete) |
| Take actions from Activity Timeline | no activity timeline (yet) |
| Account Hierarchy | limited |
| Campaign Hierarchy | not supported |
| Lead Convert | similar concept although without so many options |
| Accounts to Leads Matching | not supported |
| Convert Lead to an Existing Opportunity | not supported |
| Specify Contact and Opportunity Record Type | not supported |
| Hide Create Opportunity section in Lead Convert modal | supported |
| Navigate to Account, Contact, Opportunity | supported |
| Add Members to Campaigns from Accounts | not supported |
| Email Quote PDFs with One Click | not supported , requires two clicks if configured correctly |
| Add Activities for Quotes and Contracts | supported |
| Opportunity Workspace | no similar concept |
| Reply to and Forward Emails | supported |
| Send through Gmail and Office365 | supported |
| Microsoft Exchange | not supported |
| email templates | supported |
| List Email | supported |
| Send List Emails to Campaigns from the Campaign record | supported |
| Send List Email from your regular list views | supported |
| Send Error-Free Emails by Predefining Fields | supported |
| When sending email, choose among multiple emails addresses in the from field | supported |
| Send email from anywhere | could be added … |
| Merge Fields When Emailing | supported |
| Previews for Email Attachments | not supported |
| Templates can be created when Emailing | not supported |
| Activity timeline | not supported |
| Activity Composer | no similar concept |
| Lightning Dialer | only asterisk and rather obsolete design |
| Custom voicemail Greeting | not supported |
| Notes Homepage | no similar concept . We have documents which can contain notes, comments and conversations |
| Private Notes | supported |
| Calendar | only one calendar |
| Create More Record Associations with the Related To Lookup Field | supported |
| Pop-out Email Composer | supported |
| See and Edit Your Email Signature as You Write | not supported |
| Share and add notes to records | supported as comments |
| Review List Emails before they’re sent | not supported |
| Email Template Object Home | supported |
| Email Templates - Handlebars merge field syntax | we have our own syntax based on the workflow expression language |
| Email Templates -Preview email | not supported but on our todo list, we want to integrate GrapeJS |
| Task Notifications | supported |
| Task list view | supported |
| Duplicate Management | supported |
| Einstein | no similar concept |
| View All Contact Fields on Case Pages | limited support |
| Snap-In Chat | we support natively Mattermost and Mibew |
| Lightning Service Console | not sure |
| Lightning Knowledge | not sure |
| Knowledge record types | not supported |
| Preview Case Details with Case Hovers | supported |
| Compact Case Feed | not supported |
| Filter case feeds | not sure |
| View, Create, Edit, and Delete Case Comments | supported |
| See Email Attachments | supported |
| Reply to Social Posts in the Case Feed | not supported |
| Route Work to Agents | not supported |
| Twitter Actions in Case Feed | not supported |
| Search by Attached Files to Find Articles Faster | not supported |
| Macros | not supported |
| Reports & Dashboards | we recommend using external tools |
| Present and Share information | supported |
| Customizable dashboard components | limited |
| Dashboard editor | wip |
| Hide totals and subgroups from report view | supported |
| Interactive filters when viewing reports | supported |
| Keyboard Shortcuts for dashboards | not supported |
| Dashboard Component | not supported |
| Sort Data in Dashboard Component Charts and Tables | not supported |
| Edit, Clone, and Delete Dynamic Dashboards | not supported |
| charts | only limitted charts |
| Subscribe Other People to Reports | not supported |
| Interactive chart filtering | not supported |
| Formatted Exports | limited |
| Dynamic Filtering with URL Parameters | not supported |
| Subfolders | not supported |
| Last Run Date displayed for reports | not supported |
| Report Builder | similar concept |
| Tables in Dashboards | limited |
| Subscriptions | not supported |
| Themes and color | limited |
| Dashboard component | limited |
| Edit Filters in view mode | not supported |
| Omit totals from report | supported |
| Undo/redo when editing dashboards | not supported |
| Role hierarchy by person | supported |
| File Preview Player | not supported |
| File sharing | on the road map |
| Add Salesforce Files to a Record from the Related List | supported |
| Customize the Files Detail Page | supported |
| Drag Files onto Files and Attachments Related Lists | not supported on related lists |
| Authenticate Effortlessly to External File Sources | not supported . Note there is an old third party extension for this but I would prefer to use MinIO or Nextcloud |
| Chatter | Achievable with Mattermost integration? WIP |
| New filters in “what I follow” feed | third party extension |
| Create a Report on the Top 100 Feed Item Views | not supported |
| Identify External Users at a Glance | Achievable with Mattermost integration? WIP |
| Live Comments | Mattermost |
| Mute | Mattermost |
| See who likes your comment | Mattermost |
| Edit feed post and comments in multiple places | Mattermost |
| Rich Content and Inline Images in more places | supported |
| Add and Remove files when editing post | not supported |
| Use a Record’s Follow Action to Add It to a Stream | not supported |
| Sort Feed Global Search Results by Relevance | not supported |
| Out of the Office feature | not supported |
| Multiple attachments on posts | not supported |
| Chatter streams | not supported |
| Post Pinning | Mattermost |
| Consolidated Publisher | not supported |
| Question Publisher | not supported |
| Feed recommendations | not supported |
| Feed refresh | not supported |
| In-app notifications | can be accomplished with our mattermost integration |
| Share a Post with a Group | Achievable with Mattermost integration? WIP |
| Group and Profile banners | Achievable with Mattermost integration? WIP |
| Manage Members with Ease | Achievable with Mattermost integration? WIP |
| Filter Groups to Show Unread Posts | Achievable with Mattermost integration? WIP |
| Filter a Profile to See a User’s Posts | Achievable with Mattermost integration? WIP |
| See Group Email Notifications on the Group Page | Achievable with Mattermost integration? WIP |
| Get Group Info (and Even Join) in the Tile View | Achievable with Mattermost integration? WIP |
| Group setup | Achievable with Mattermost integration? WIP |
| Account and Contact Management | supported |
| Opportunity Management | supported |
| Lead Management | supported |
| Sales Data | supported |
| Mobile | supported. Limited |
| Workflow and Approvals | supported |
| Files Sync and Share | not supported |
| Reports and Dashboards | limited. We recommend external tools, metabase, superset, redash or similar |
| Sales Forecasting | supported |