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Updated Oct 16, 2024

The Best CRM Software of 2024

Salesforce may be the best-known CRM software brand, but Pipedrive, Freshworks and others are worthy competitors.

Mark Fairlie
Written By: Mark FairlieSenior Analyst & Expert on Business Ownership
Verified CheckEditor Verified:
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A business.com editor verified this analysis to ensure it meets our standards for accuracy, expertise and integrity.
Chad Brooks
Managing Editor & Expert on Business Ownership
Business.com earns commissions from some listed providers. Editorial Guidelines.

We’ve conducted countless hours of research and testing over the years to help you find the best CRM software on the market today, so you can grow your business with confidence. Our best picks below provide all the features you need to drive more leads, closer more deals, and improve customer satisfaction.

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HubSpot CRM
Best for Sales and Marketing Integrations
Image related to the service.
Visit Site
Links to HubSpot CRM
  • Starts at $30 per month (2 users)
  • Free plan or 14-day free trial
  • Email/app support, phone costs more
Zoho CRM
Best for Growing Businesses
Zoho CRM logo
Visit Site
Links to Zoho CRM
  • Starts at $14 per user per month
  • 15-day free trial
  • 24/5 phone and email support
HoneyBook
Best All-In-One Option
HoneyBook logo
Visit Site
Links to HoneyBook
  • Starts at $16 per user per month
  • 7-day free trial
  • 24/7 phone and email support
Creatio
Best for Customer Lifecycle Management
Creatio logo
  • Starts at $25 per user per month
  • 14-day free trial
  • 9/7 email (24/7 phone/email extra)
Freshworks CRM
Best for Sales Managers
Image related to the service.
  • Starts at $15 per user per month
  • 21-day free trial
  • 24/5 phone, email, chat support
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Table of Contents

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At business.com, our team of technology experts has analyzed hundreds of tools and services designed to improve essential business operations, from POS systems to GPS fleet management services to remote PC access software, and we use these experiences to provide business owners with actionable guides and industry insights. Every playbook and explainer is infused with advice from real IT consultants, implementation experts, security specialists, software developers and more.

Our rigorous product review process involves in-depth industry research, vendor interviews, hands-on testing and service comparisons. Each analysis — whether for a business phone system, CRM platform, call center software or website builder — is independently verified by a business.com editor to ensure our recommendations are free of bias and errors. Learn more about our editorial process.

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How We Decided

When evaluating the best CRM software, we looked closely at each system’s features, such as lead generation tools, marketing capabilities and analytics. We considered whether the CRM’s dashboards and various functions were user-friendly and if the platform could be...

MoreMore

When evaluating the best CRM software, we looked closely at each system’s features, such as lead generation tools, marketing capabilities and analytics. We considered whether the CRM’s dashboards and various functions were user-friendly and if the platform could be customized. We compared plans and subscription costs to see which CRM vendor would provide the best value at the most affordable price. We also took into account each product’s limitations and the quality of customer service provided.

65

evaluated

13

researched

10

chosen

When evaluating the best CRM software, we looked closely at each system’s features, such as lead generation tools, marketing capabilities and analytics. We considered whether the CRM’s dashboards and various functions were user-friendly and if the platform could be customized. We compared plans and subscription costs to see which CRM vendor would provide the best value at the most affordable price. We also took into account each product’s limitations and the quality of customer service provided.

65

evaluated

13

researched

10

chosen

For your sales team to operate at its best and close as many deals as possible, they need to be able to keep track of interactions with leads and prospects as they nurture them along the sales funnel. Marketers need to devise targeted, personalized campaigns that resonate with your target audience. And your customer service team needs to be able to promptly address customer inquiries and complaints effectively in order to maintain customer satisfaction.

Enter customer relationship management (CRM) software. These platforms have become indispensable to sales, marketing and support teams, helping them understand more about the people they’re communicating with to better meet their needs and achieve business objectives.

Compare Our Best Picks

BDC Ribbon
Our Top Picks for 2024
HubSpot CRM
Zoho CRM
HoneyBook
Creatio
Freshworks CRM
Salesforce CRM
Pipedrive CRM
Oracle NetSuite CRM
monday Sales CRM
Zendesk
Rating (Out of 10)9.59.48.58.99.39.59.49.29.59.5
Best for

Sales and Marketing Integrations

Growing Businesses

All-In-One

Customer Lifecycle Management

Sales Managers

Customization

Automation

ERP Capabilities

SMBs

Cross-Departmental Collaboration

Starting prices

$30 per month (2 users)

$14 per month per user

$16 per month per user

$25 per month per user + module costs

$15 per month, per user

$25 per month, per user

$14 per month, per user

Custom quote

$30 per month, per user

$19 per month, per user

Free trial

Free plan or 14-day trial

15 days

7 days

14 days

21 days

14 days

14 days

No

14 days

14 days

Email features

Scheduling, templates, tracking, analytics

Mass email sends, custom links, AI tools

Proposals and contracts, templates, automations

No-code/low-code process builder, AI and ML integration, workflows and automations

Automation, templates, analytics

Bulk sending, personalization, segmentation, template designs, tracking

Bulk send, scheduling, tracking, templates

Automation, target lists, personalization

Templates, native integration, templates, tracking

Bulk send, templates, insights, priority notifications

Cloud Document Storage

No

Up to 5 GB on Ultimate

No

1Gb to unlimited

From 2GB per user on Growth plan

10GB

Up to 50MB per spreadsheet size

Files up to 2GB for paid accounts

500MB on Free plan, 5GB-1000GB on paid plans

Up to 200MB (data) and 10MB (file) storage per agent

Support

Yes but depends on plan chosen

24/5 phone and email support

24/7 phone and email support

9/7 Basic (email), 9/7 Business (email/phone), 24/7 Premium (email/phone)

24/5 phone, email, chat support

24/7 web + premium option available

24/7 live chat support. Phone support for Power/Enterprise users

24/7 ticketing plus self-service

24/7 support (email, phone, chat)

24/7 via help centre and dashboard

Integrations

1,000

900

7 (plus Zapier integration)

400

500

2,000

400

2,300

150

1,200

Review Link
Scroll Table

Our Reviews

Editor's Rating: 9.5/10
Visit Site
Links to HubSpot CRM

Hubspot’s omnichannel functionality allows seamless one-on-one and mass communication with customers and prospects. Every interaction is recorded, enriching each customer profile and allowing marketing and sales teams to identify and address weak points in the sales funnel, ultimately improving future results. We love how easy it is to streamline complex sales and marketing processes and pipelines thanks to its visually appealing drag-and-drop tool. Additionally, HubSpot’s advanced analytics and reporting tools offer deep insights into how well both teams are doing so you have the data you need to constantly refine their strategies and approaches for greater success. This is why HubSpot stands out as the platform you should choose to integrate your teams, maximize their efficiency, and improve their performance.

Hubspot campaigns

Run campaigns on various advertising networks from within HubSpot. Source: HubSpot

HubSpot offers a branded-free service that allows you to send 2,000 emails a month and install a live chat bot on your website. Below are the charges for the main paid tiers from the CRM suite which includes elements of the five HubSpot iterations – operations, CMS, sales, marketing, and customer service.

PlanPriceFeatures
StarterFrom $30 per month for two users (each additional user costs $25)Everything in the free tier plus:
  • No HubSpot branding
  • 1,000 properties per record
  • 10 dashboards with 10 reports each
  • 25 active lists and 1,000 static lists
  • Payment processing
  • Form automation
  • Email retargeting tools
  • Two deal pipelines
  • Document storage
  • Sales content analytics
  • Sales automation
ProfessionalFrom $1,600 per month for five users (each additional user costs $100 a month)Everything in Starter plus:
  • Customer reporting
  • Contact center attribution
  • Deal and company scoring
  • Dynamic personalization
  • A/B testing
  • SEO analytics
EnterpriseFrom $5,000 per month for 10 usersEverything in the Professional package plus:
  • 10,000 marketing contacts
  • Additional tools

There are additional charges you may have to pay. For example, subscription to the Professional plan requires payment of a one-off $3,000 onboarding fee. While you can pay monthly for the Starter plan, all other subscriptions require an upfront annual payment. As your usage increases, you may pay more for WhatsApp conversations, API calls, dedicated IPs, transactional emails and more.

  • HubSpot’s use of customizable shared dashboards introduces transparency and collaboration opportunities across your sales and marketing teams.
  • The platform allows you to communicate one-on-one and market en masse to customers, recording all interactions which, over time, create comprehensive, up-to-date customer and prospect histories.
  • We love how easy it is to create automated workflows on HubSpot thanks to its intuitive, no-code drag-and-drop interface.
  • HubSpot rivals Salesforce for its superb functionality but, like Salesforce, locks much of it away behind premium plans.
  • Telephone support is still important to many customers but it’s not available to HubSpot’s Free and Starter plan customers.
  • For very heavy users of the platform, additional fees relating to API calls and transactional emails could add up quickly.

HubSpot is one of the most popular CRMs on the market and that’s reflected in its online reviews from customers. On G2, it scores 4.4 out of 5 and on Software Advice, 4.5 out of 5. Customers prize not only its ease of use but also its content creation, email marketing functionality and marketing management features. One SaaS product manager commented that “we’ve been able to track the conversion rate and optimize for better conversion rate. It’s super easy to use and it integrates seamlessly with various other tools in our stack. We really like it.”

Zoho CRM logo
Editor's Rating: 9.4/10
Visit Site
Links to Zoho CRM

Growing a business is challenging. When it becomes too much for one person to manage, even with employee help, it’s time to consider a CRM. We recommend Zoho as the best platform for managing expansion while maintaining the high standards your customers have come to expect.

Zoho impressed us with its scalability, vital for any company intent on expansion. Its intuitive user interface is very well executed that helps to reduce the learning curve for you and your team during implementation. We really liked how the platform managed omnichannel communications so that you could stay in touch with clients and prospects by email, phone, SMS, social media and more.

So your staff stays as productive as possible, we were impressed by the extensive customization options the platform offers so you could adapt it to fit your company’s unique workflows. Efficiency is further improved by Zoho’s built-in AI which powers a range of functions including contact and deal management. We also loved Zoho’s extensive app marketplace and its large selection of popular tools you can plug the CRM, great for productivity.

Zoho CRM dashboard

Zoho’s dashboard allows you to view all client interactions in one central location. Source: Zoho

PlanPriceFeatures
Standard$14 per user per month
  • 250 emails daily
  • lead scoring
  • automation workflows
  • multiple pipelines
  • mass email
  • sales forecasting
  • custom fields and reports
  • classic support level
  • 1 GB of free file storage
Professional$23 per user per monthEverything in the Standard plan plus: 
  • 500 mass emails daily
  • custom links
  • unlimited custom list views
  • workflow blueprints
  • Google Ads integration
Enterprise$40 per user per monthEverything in the Professional plan plus: 
  • 1,000 mass emails daily
  • custom signals
  • custom modules and buttons
  • page layouts
  • AI tools
  • advanced analytics
Ultimate$52 per user per monthEverything in the Enterprise plan plus: 
  • 2,000 mass emails daily
  • enhanced storage and feature limits
  • advanced support
  • 5 GB of free file storage
  • extended 30-day free trial

  • Zoho CRM offers a robust suite of features for sales, marketing, and customer service, making it a comprehensive solution for businesses.
  • The platform's AI capabilities are impressive, streamlining workflows, analyzing data, and uncovering valuable insights.
  • Zoho Marketplace provides a wide range of integrations, allowing you to customize your CRM with additional tools and functionalities.
  • While the standard plan is affordable, it may lack certain essential features, particularly in the realm of marketing automation.
  • Advanced customization options, such as custom buttons, modules, and page layouts, are typically available only in higher-tier plans.
  • Some users have reported connectivity issues during peak usage times.

Zoho CRM scores a respectable 8.3 out of 10 on TrustRadius. Users praised Zoho for its organizational ability, custom functions, and integration with other Zoho products. One user wrote that “I’ve used other CRMs in the past and definitely feel that Zoho has it down to a functional app. What I love most is the use of merge letters and emails as we use those many many times on a daily basis.”

HoneyBook logo
Editor's Rating: 8.5/10
Visit Site
Links to HoneyBook

HoneyBook is an all-in-one business management platform primarily targeted at freelancers, small business owners and those in the creative sector. Honeybook manages everything from lead generation and client management to invoicing and payment processing. The AI-powered automation built into HoneyBook, like Creatio Studio, requires no coding knowledge, allowing users to create their own automations and customizations.

When we tested it, we loved the simplicity of the dashboard and the ability to quickly add the information and metrics most important to you. You can choose to display your calendar on the dashboard to stay up to date with upcoming tasks and meetings so you stay organized and on top of your workload. Larger businesses may require more functionality, but for small businesses seeking a user-friendly and affordable solution, HoneyBook’s free trial is worth trying.

Honeybook dashboard

With Honeybook, you can view all client communications on one user-friendly dashboard. Source: Honeybook

PlanPrice per UserFeatures
Starter$16/mo
  • Unlimited clients and projects
  • Stay organized with dedicated workspaces for clients and projects.
  • Invoices and payments
  • Proposals and contracts
  • Calendar
  • All professional templates
  • Client portal
  • Basic reports
Essentials$32/moIncludes all Starter features, plus:
  • Scheduler
  • Set your availability and clients can book free/paid sessions
  • Automations
  • QuickBooks integration
  • Up to 2 team members
  • Expense management
  • Profit and loss
Premium$66/moIncludes all Essentials features, plus:
  • Unlimited team members
  • Priority support
  • Multiple companies
  • Onboarding specialist
  • Advanced reports

Honeybook Advantages

  • HoneyBook offers a wide range of features, from client management and project tracking to payments and scheduling, making it a great all-in-one choice for freelancers and small businesses.
  • Honeybook is easy to navigate and use, even for those without extensive technical knowledge.
  • The CRM software integrates seamlessly with popular business tools like Google Calendar, Gmail and QuickBooks.

  • HoneyBook offers a wide range of features, from client management and project tracking to payments and scheduling, making it a great all-in-one choice for freelancers and small businesses.
  • Honeybook is easy to navigate and use, even for those without extensive technical knowledge.
  • The CRM software integrates seamlessly with popular business tools like Google Calendar, Gmail and QuickBooks.
  • While HoneyBook provides some customization options, it may not be as flexible as other CRM platforms, particularly for businesses with highly specific needs.
  • New users may find it challenging to fully leverage all of HoneyBook's features, especially creating complex workflows.
  • Honeybook does not offer a free version of its software, only a limited free trial.

Honeybook’s solid 8.7 out of 10 score on TrustRadius is a testament to the software’s customer satisfaction. Users liked the ability to send contracts and questionnaires, as well as manage client details. One reviewer stated that “We use Honeybook to facilitate all of our contract and project agreements. Every contract we send to our employees and clients is executed via Honeybook. It helps us to keep all our important agreements in one place and the executive team has shared access to create, sign and send contracts. The templates help us save time and keep us organized and consistent.”

Creatio logo
Editor's Rating: 8.9/10

We found Creatio excels at supporting the complete customer lifecycle, connecting the marketing, sales, and customer service team to strengthen your sales funnel. We liked how customizable workflows and automations made it easy to coordinate across departments. Marketing teams can leverage Creatio to improve outreach to your target audience and generate more leads. From there, the sales team can take the baton and nurture those leads, which are funneled into their queue seamlessly. Finally, once those leads become customers, your customer service team can take over, using Creatio to deliver personalized support that drives customer satisfaction and repeat business.

Creatio dashboard

Absolutely everything about Creatio is customizable from complex granular automations to the configuration of individual users’ dashboards (Source: Creatio)

PlanPrice per UserFeatures
Growth$25/mo
  • No-code UI designer
  • No-code workflow designer
  • Desktop, web, mobile apps
  • Customization through scripts
  • 5 users
  • Unlimited applications, workflows, and records
  • 50k executed process elements per month
  • 1Gb database storage and attachment space per user
  • 10k API calls per user per day
  • 2 environments
  • Cloud hosting only
Enterprise$55/moIncludes all Growth features, plus:
  • Custom UI branding
  • Unlimited executed process elements per month
  • 2Gb database storage and attachment space per user
  • Unlimited API calls per user per day
  • 3 environments
  • Cloud and on-premises hosting
Unlimited$85/moIncludes all Enterprise features, plus:
  • Unlimited database storage and attachment space per user
  • Unlimited environments

Subscribers at all levels get access to basic support, a customer success manager and access to an online academy and community. Enhanced support is available at 10 percent of the overall cost of your subscription and premium support at 20 percent.

The following three products unlock specific functionalities and tools that you can then customize on your version of Creatio:

  • Sales ($15/mo per user): The “Sales” module is bottom-of-funnel, focusing on revenue generation. It is designed to manage customer data, automate lead and opportunity workflows, forecast sales, handle contracts and documents, and promote collaboration across your sales team.
  • Marketing ($15/mo per user): The “Marketing” module is aimed at generating new leads and nurturing prospects with the aim of progressing them to the sales team. Key functionality includes segmenting client and prospect databases to improve campaign responsiveness and launching and analyzing marketing campaigns.
  • Service ($15/mo per user): The “Service” module is intended to increase the chance of sales from existing customers and reduce client churn. It allows for omnichannel case management, knowledge sharing and productivity enhancement across teams, and general request and case management.

You can add further users to the system

  • Limited Internal User ($12/mo per user): This permits access to Creatio and one product (like Sales, Marketing or Service), but locks users out of other features.
  • Mobile-Only User ($12/mo per user): This offers full access to Creatio and all services, but only from a mobile device.
  • External B2B Portal User ($12/mo per user): This is an option to allow access to people not working for your business like contractors or partners to access specific records and sections on the platform.

  • The Marketing, Sales and Service plans provide specific support to each of those teams, but also seamless integration with one another so company’s can build a holistic lead/sale/service funnel that helps these individual departments contribute to a whole operation that is greater than the sum of its parts.
  • Splitting the main functionality into three different areas - Marketing, Sales and Service - allows companies to focus on specific areas of improvement they want to make rather than renting a whole system with redundant functionality.
  • We appreciate that the Marketplace has 16 business categories (like banking, insurance and telecoms) and eight use categories (like sales, marketing and customer journey) to make apps easy to find.
  • Some of the more useful features are only available to customers on higher subscription levels, like HIPAA compliance and offline app support for Enterprise clients and on-premises installation support for Unlimited clients.
  • There will be a learning curve to using the system, especially for those building automations and customizations but it's likely to be a lot less steep than other complex systems like Salesforce and NetSuite.
  • Enhanced customer service extra. If you don’t pay for support, it’s 9/7, email only, with a high-priority case response time of 4 hours.

Customer enthusiasm for Creatio remains long after the initial implementation, according to reviewers’ opinion on TrustRadius where the platform scored 9.2 out of 10. The most popular features of the platform were its drag-and-drop interfaces, its scalability and its high level of security. One reviewer stated that “I think the biggest strength of Creatio is no-code technology. It’s incredible how easy every department can tailor the system capabilities to their particular needs.”

Editor's Rating: 9.3/10

Sales management is complex, especially now that customers expect to be able to communicate with you over multiple platforms. Freshworks’ comprehensive range of features helps managers deal with an omnichannel environment and take control of lead generation and deal management to boost revenue. We really like how the platform seamlessly supports phone, email, and social media communication with clients. Every interaction is recorded, helping to build detailed individual customer profiles, ideal for sales staff to personalize their approaches.

Freshworks sales pipeline

Sales managers see a broad overview of the sales pipeline including deals won and lost. Source: Freshworks

Marketers can use the wider database to create buyer personas for more targeted campaigns. Managers can also create customized automations to save their sales staff time and help them more effectively handle their workloads as well as target the most lucrative potential clients. We were very impressed by the analytics on the platform too and how the insights contained in the customizable reports managers can create will help them drive better team and individual performance.

Freshworks offers a free plan which includes contact and account management, lifecycle stages, deal management, a built-in chatbot, iInbound Caller ID, phone and email integrations and the platform’s mobile app. Its paid plans are:

PlanPrice Features
Growth$15 per month, per userEverything in the Free plan, plus: 
  • Visual sales pipeline
  • AI-powered contact scoring
  • Sales sequences
  • Up to 2,000 bot sessions
  • Five sales sequences
  • 250 personalized bulk emails per day
  • WhatsApp Business
  • Activity dashboard
  • 20 workflows
  • 2GB of storage per user
  • Two-way email sync
  • Call recording
  • Messaging integrations
  • Custom fields
  • Automated workflows
  • Product catalog
  • Custom reports and dashboards
  • File storage of 2GB per user
Pro (most popular)$39 per month, per userEverything in the Growth plan plus: 
  • Multiple sales pipelines
  • Time-based workflows
  • 10 sales sequences
  • 1,000 personalized bulk emails per day
  • AI-powered deal insights
  • Up to 3,000 bot sessions
  • Territory management
  • Offline access
  • 50 workflows
  • 5GB of storage per user
  • Advanced call queues
  • Lead-gen bot
  • Answer bot
  • Custom sales activities
  • Auto-assignment for contacts, accounts and deals
  • Sales forecasting
Enterprise$69 per month, per userEverything in the Pro plan plus: 
  • Custom modules
  • AI-based forecasting
  • Audit logs
  • Up to 5,000 chatbot sessions
  • Dedicated account manager
  • Customer profile enrichment
  • 100GB of storage per user
  • 25 sales sequences
  • 5,000 personalized bulk emails per day
  • Holiday call routing
  • Website tracking
  • Automatic profile enrichment
  • Sales and marketing dashboard
  • Deal teams
  • Advanced sales metrics

In addition to third-party app charges, the following Freshwork features attract a fee and are not part of a subscription package – CPQ module, phone credits, bot sessions, extra workflows, and more.

  • Every inbound or outbound contact with customers is recorded and logged so that sales reps can better personalize closing on individual deals.
  • Sales managers can run email, telephone and SMS marketing campaigns to generate more leads for their teams.
  • Control who gets leads on your team based upon factors you choose including recent performance and subject matter expertise.
  • Many useful features like certain VOIP functionality and API access are only available on higher plans. Usage caps on other system tools seem quite low in many instances, too.
  • For new CRM users, the sheer volume of features may require a longer onboarding procedure for teams, even though the system is intuitive and relatively easy-to-use.
  • Customer service is only available on weekdays, even to subscribers to the most expensive plans.

Freshworks scores an impressive 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2 with 71% of reviewers giving the platform 5 stars. One user commented that “Freshsales is a perfect CRM tool for small to mid-sized organizations for both daily sales-related activities to monthly and quarterly planning. It is easy to operate. All my leads, prospects, clients are categorized and managed properly… FS is easy to integrate, at least to me. I had tried a couple of CRM tools including Leadsquared but FS is unbeatable.”

Editor's Rating: 9.5/10

For companies that want maximum control over their business processes, it’s hard to find a platform that competes with Salesforce. It offers the extreme flexibility of Oracle NetSuite but, unlike NetSuite, Salesforce can work as a standalone platform. We were very impressed by how easily you can create custom workflows for your marketing, sales, and customer service teams with Salesforce, introducing real operational efficiency to your company. We also liked that you can build on this with the vast array of apps available in the system’s well-stocked marketplace. This has only improved with the introduction of AI to the platform, which helps reps close deals, service teams resolve customer issues, suggest workflows, and improve decision-making. The initial set-up will take time and there is a learning curve, but once fully implemented, Salesforce will unlock the latent potential in your business.

Salesforce Datorama

Datorama is a new extension to the Salesforce marketplace allowing users to create apps for deep marketing insights. Source: Salesforce

PlanPriceFeatures
Essentials$25 per user per month; available for up to 10 users
  • Account, Contact, Lead, Task and Opportunity management
  • Lead auto-assignment
  • Duplicate prevention
  • Automatic capture of a lead’s available web information
  • Mass email
  • Marketing campaigns
  • Customizable reports and dashboards
  • Email integration with Gmail and Outlook
  • Salesforce mobile app
Professional$75 per user per monthEverything in the Essentials plan plus: 
  • Pipeline management
  • Lead registration
  • Rules-based lead scoring
  • Collaborative forecasting
  • Forecasting mobile app
  • Quote and order management
  • Roles and permissions
  • Developer sandbox
Enterprise$150 per user per monthEverything in the Professional plan plus: 
  • Workflow and approval automation
  • Sales teams and territories
  • Opportunity scoring
  • Advanced reporting
Unlimited$300 per user per monthEverything in the Enterprise plan plus: 
  • Sales engagement hub
  • AI-powered sales insights with Einstein
  • Sales cadences
  • 24/7 support

A number of useful features aren’t available in the subscription packages and must be purchased separately like CPQ & Billing at $75 per user per month.

  • Salesforce, like Oracle NetSuite, offers incredible customization options. Unlike Netsuite, it can operate as a standalone solution.
  • For companies with complex operational needs, having sales, marketing and customer service teams using the same database and platform will greatly improve efficiency and collaboration as well as drive improvement.
  • The implementation of artificial intelligence on the platform is best in class and will assist everyone from customer service reps right up to C-suite decision makers.
  • he sheer level of choice Salesforce offers means that, if you don’t start out with a minimal viable product in mind, implementing the platform might be eternally delayed as you add further features.
  • Customer service could be a lot better and paying an extra 30% on top of your fees for their ultimate support package feels overpriced.
  • Although the platform is introducing more drag-and-drop and no-code interfaces, you still need to know CSS, HTML and other programming languages to customize certain Salesforce processes and elements.

Salesforce, launched in 1999, was arguably the first popular CRM package and it’s used the time since its launch well to build on its platform. This has not gone unnoticed by customers who award it 8.4 out of 10 on TrustRadius. The most popular features among its user base include its customer data and contact management tools, opportunity management functionality, customizable reports and workflow management. One user wrote that their B2B business “really appreciates having this full funnel visibility at all times, so all teams can tap in and understand the wider company”.

Pipedrive logo
Editor's Rating: 9.4/10

We found Pipedrive to be an intuitive platform that allows teams to automate multiple sales pipelines for different types of products and services. Bringing in this level of organization will help sales reps manage their day more effectively, stay on top of each lead and remind them when deals need working on or progressing to the next stage. Managers can use the platform’s smart visual sales pipeline to track the progress of every deal in progress and the forecasting tool will be a real help in determining which leads to prioritize. We really like the range of add-ons that help reps close deals (like the Ring.io power dialler and prospector database) and marketers bring in new leads through email marketing. If you have a talented sales team that’s underperforming, Pipedrive might be the answer.

Pipedrive workflows

Building automations is straightforward in Pipedrive to improve your workflows. Source: Pipedrive

PlanPrice (billed annually)Features
Essential$14 per month, per user
  • Lead and deal management
  • Customizable pipelines
  • Data import and export
  • Email inbox
  • Sales Assistant AI tool
  • Deal reports
  • Company and user goals
  • Visual dashboards
  • Deal rotting
  • 24/7 live chat support
  • 400+ integrations
  • Single sign-on
  • Two-factor authentication
  • Mobile apps
  • Calendar syncing
  • Automatic call logging
  • 3,000 live deals
  • 30 custom fields per lead
  • One insights dashboard
Advanced$29 per month, per userEverything in Essential plus:
  • Email open and click tracking
  • Meeting scheduler
  • Automations
  • Smart contact data
  • Web-to-mobile calls
  • Recurring revenue reports
  • 30 active automations per user
  • Two-way email syncing
  • Custom email templates
  • Bulk email
  • 10,000 live deals
  • 100 custom fields per lead
Professional (most popular)$49 per month, per userEverything in Advanced plus:
  • Pipeline-specific deals
  • Deal card customization
  • Contacts timeline
  • Automated lead assignment
  • Team management
  • Smart Docs add-on
  • Required fields
  • Revenue forecast reports
  • Team goals
  • 60 active automations per user
  • 100,000 live deals
  • 300 custom fields per lead
  • Unlimited dashboards
Power$64 per month, per userEverything in Professional plus:
  • Phone support
  • Access to an implementation program
  • Free project add-ons
  • Custom onboarding services
  • 90 active automations per user
  • 200,000 live deals
  • 500 custom fields per lead
Enterprise$99 per month, per userEverything in Power plus: 
  • Security alerts and rules
  • Unlimited reports and customizations
  • Unlimited live deals
  • Unlimited custom fields per lead,
  • 180 active automations per user
  • Unlimited dashboards

There are the following four add-ons you can purchase from Pipedrive on top of your subscription:

  • Web Visitors (from $49 per month): Reports on who has visited your website by IP address.
  • Projects ($29 per month): Add Kanban boards to your Pipedrive.
  • Campaigns ($16 per month): This gives you access to the in-built email marketing platform.
  • Smart Docs ($9.90 per user per month): Document signing service that autofills contracts with data from Pipedrive.

  • Pipedrive's set of features and customizable automations are ideal for any company that relies on sales teams to close deals.
  • We appreciate the features on Pipedrive that help generate new leads like the email marketing campaign platform to chatbots and web capture forms.
  • This intuitive platform offers prospecting data which will append live, verified data to your customer and lead database for greater client knowledge.
  • Pipedrive is very focused on its use case - sales and marketing improvement - and its functionality outside that is limited in comparison to other platforms.
  • Some of the limits applied to useful features like open deals and active automations are low on more entry-level subscriptions.
  • Telephone support is 14/7 and limited only to Power and Enterprise clients.

Pipedrive scores well on TrustRadius with a score of 7.9 out of 10 which reflects its focus on general business and sales automation. Users rate most highly the platform’s marketing automation and project/workflow management features. A front-end developer in an IT services business commented that Pipedrive “helps our sales team stay accountable and organize customer data so much that we use it as our CRM.”

NetSuite logo
Editor's Rating: 9.2/10

If you’re already using Oracle’s software ecosystem and want to add CRM functionality, Oracle NetSuite CRM is a logical choice thanks to the seamless integration it offers. Not only will this give you end-to-end management of the customer journey but it will also enhance operational efficiency across your entire business.

We like how Oracle Netsuite offers an impressive range of tools to improve the productivity of your sales teams and your ability to accurately predict future performance thanks to its automations and smart tools like CPQ and sales forecasting. The Oracle app marketplace is vast and offers opportunities for further customization and specialization. A stand-out feature we also really appreciate is the e-commerce add-on module that allows firms to optimize everything from inventory control to same-day shipping.

Oracle NetSuite CPQ tool

The CPQ tool in Netsuite CRM is excellent for complex quotes with variable input costs. Source: Oracle

Pricing for NetSuite CRM is tailored according to use cases and user numbers so finding ballpark pricing is difficult. However, our research indicates that the minimum monthly price is around $1,000 per company with a charge of $100 per user on top.

  • Oracle NetSuite CRM integrates seamlessly with its wide-ranging ERP platform, giving you the option to build a software solution you can run your entire business from.
  • There is a great range of sales aids including CPQ for complex quotes, upselling and cross-selling recommendations, and partner management programs for third-party sales.
  • Thanks to its wide range of third-party apps and API platform, you can build out this CRM to meet your exact marketing, sales and customer support specifications.
  • While the sheer level of customization options is a strong selling point, the system is complex and staff using it will have to traverse a steep learning curve.
  • Oracle NetSuite CRM can not operate as a standalone system and it will require subscription to Oracle’s wider business app suite.
  • Prices uncovered during research for this article suggests that pricing is towards the more expensive end of the market.

Gartner users score Oracle NetSuite CRM 4.4 out of 5 across over 150 ratings. Users note the complexity of initial set up but express happiness and satisfaction with the end result. One reviewer commented that Netsuite was a “great scalable CRM we use for most of our business processes” and another “truly exceptional… because of the sheer breadth of features and capabilities”.

Editor's Rating: 9.5/10

In our review of monday.com Sales CRM, we found the platform provides a comprehensive set of tools to overcome these problems. We liked that managers can streamline their team members’ workloads quickly by building customized workflow automations with the platform’s easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. This leaves more time to focus on core administrative, marketing, sales, and service responsibilities. We also liked how marketing teams can use the platform to plan, launch and track campaigns to customers, getting instant performance information on the customizable real-time dashboard. Better still, the built-in communications platform records all external interactions whether by email, SMS, phone or other channels, building up each client’s history in the shared database.

monday CRM workflows

monday Sales CRM allows SMBs to automate workflows precisely to improve efficiency and manage customers up to and beyond the sale . Source: monday.com

PlanPriceFeatures
Basic$30 per month, per user
  • Unlimited read-only viewers
  • Contacts and customizable pipelines
  • 5GB file storage
Standard$42 per month, per userEverything in Basic plus:
  • Two-way email syncing with Gmail and Outlook
  • Quotes and invoices
  • Gantt, timeline, and calendar data views
  • Guest access
  • Up to 250 automations and 250 integrations per month
  • 20GB file storage
Pro$72 per month, per userEverything in Standard plus:
  • Private boards
  • Sales forecasting and CRM metrics
  • Time tracking
  • Chart and workload views
  • Email tracking
  • Up to 25,000 automations and 25,000 integrations per month
  • 100GB file storage
EnterpriseCall for quoteEverything in Pro plus:
  • Enterprise-grade security
  • Advanced CRM reporting
  • Lead scoring
  • Team quotas
  • Up to 250,000 automations and 250,000 integrations per month
  • TB file storage

Unlike other providers, monday.com has set amounts of seats you must purchase each month. The minimum is three which increases to five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 , 100 or 200+ users. This means you might have to subscribe to more seats than you need or limit access to certain employees, depending on the subscription level you choose.

  • There are near limitless customization options on the platform ranging from lead scores and labels to pipelines and dashboards.
  • You can program in workflows to automate repetitive, necessary, but unproductive tasks like changing contact statuses and sending notification alerts.
  • monday.com offers a large number of integrations out of the box which you can further expand up using Zapier, Make and the API function.
  • To be able to customize workflows, you require knowledge of Excel--type formulas in some instances.
  • There are limits to the number of automations and integrations depending on subscription levels.
  • The requirement to purchase in seat increments is arbitrary and inflexible. Would you want to pay for 100 users if you only had 70 members of staff?

Users on TrustRadius think highly of monday.com Sales CRM, rating it 8.6 out of 10. Customers are impressed by the platform’s flexibility in particular as well as its intuitive user interface, team collaboration options and advanced reporting.

Editor's Rating: 9.5/10

Zendesk’s centralized database integrates seamlessly with its omnichannel communications platform so everyone sees the same information when speaking with a customer, helping them provide a more personalized service. Tools like “side conversations” and “light agents” enable employees to collaborate across teams to resolve issues efficiently. Managers can use customizable dashboards to monitor performance and identify training opportunities. We were impressed by Zendesk’s AI, which supports training by providing prompts to representatives during calls. For these reasons and more, Zendesk is our top choice for improving cross-departmental collaboration.

Zendesk Light Agent

Colleagues can bring in other coworkers to customer-facing conversations to effect quicker resolutions using the “Light Agent” feature. Source: Zendesk

There are two Zendesk products that compliment each other excellently. Zendesk Suite focuses on customer support post-purchase and Zendesk Sell on marketing and sales.

The subscription levels for Zendesk Sell are:

PlanPriceFeatures
Sell Team$19 per month, per user
  • Two sales pipelines
  • 2GB storage per user
  • Email and calendar integrations
  • Tasks
  • Appointment setting
  • Text messaging
  • Call tracking and recording
  • Prebuilt sales dashboards
Sell Growth$49 per month, per userAll of Sell Team’s features plus: 
  • 10 pipelines
  • 5GB storage per user
  • Advanced and customizable sales reports
  • Sales forecasting
  • Goal tracking
Sell Professional$99 per month, per userAll the Sell Growth’s features plus: 
  • Lead scoring
  • Deal scoring
  • 10GB storage per user
  • Task automation
Sell EnterpriseCall for a quoteThe Sell Enterprise plan offers a customized service level with unlimited sequences and pipelines.

The subscription levels of Zendesk Suite are:

PlanPriceFeatures
Suite Team$55 per month, per user
  • Ticketing system
  • Help center
  • Standard bots
  • Integrations
  • Omnichannel communications
  • Online support
  • Digital onboarding
Suite Growth$89 per month, per userAll of Suite Team’s features plus: 
  • Multiple tickets
  • Light agents
  • Service-level agreements
  • Customer satisfaction ratings
  • Self-service customer portal
  • Ability to set business hours
Suite Professional$115 per month, per userAll the Suite Growth’s features plus: 
  • Customized analytics
  • Live conversations
  • Skills-based routing
  • Access to Sunshine conversations
  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance
Suite Enterprise$150 per month, per userAll the Professional level’s features plus:
  • Sandbox for developers
  • AI-powered content cues
  • Content blocks
  • Contextual workspaces
  • Customized agent roles

  • The customer database on Zendesk is perfectly integrated with the communications platform so everyone will be working from the same information.
  • The ability to involve colleagues and Zendesk’s AI when an employee is dealing with customers should ensure much higher first resolution rates.
  • Zendek’s reporting and analytics are in depth and it’s easy for managers to create customized dashboards to monitor team and individual KPIs in real time.
  • The platform's functionality is excellent, but cheaper alternatives exist. You could recreate many features with customizations and integrations on other CRMs, though this would require time and effort.
  • The customer service team is only contactable via a ticketing system who will get back in touch with you in their own time.
  • There is a limit to the number of API calls you can make each month. If you exceed them, you’ll be charged extra.

Zendesk Sell scores highly on online review sites, achieving a rating of 4.2 on G2 and 4.3 on Capterra. One commenter, a software engineer, noted how Zendesk’s collaborative tools have “made teamwork smoother than ever, ensuring everyone is on the same page.” Another stated that Zendesk had helped his “sales team effectively follow up with leads… (and helped) us close deals more efficiently.”

What Is CRM Software?

CRM software is a type of software businesses use to manage their sales and marketing interactions with current and potential customers. CRM stands for customer relationship management, so another way to think of CRM software is as a platform that helps companies manage their customer relationships throughout the customer lifecycle — from lead to renewal. With the help of a CRM system, you can generate leads, manage your deal pipeline, close sales, collect and store customer data, execute marketing campaigns, analyze business data and even automate workflows.

Any business engaged in sales can make excellent use of a CRM. For example, a clothing store may want to use a CRM to house customer data and identify its most loyal shoppers. A timeshare company can use a CRM to assist with lead management and ensure they are engaging their ideal prospects. An enterprise that wants to better coordinate between its sales and marketing teams will find CRM software gives it the tools to do so. However, a CRM system doesn’t make sense for certain types of businesses. For example, a fast-food restaurant is unlikely to use a CRM, and so is a doctor’s office. However, each may use other technology, such as a POS system and medical software, that contains applicable CRM functions.

What Are the Benefits of a CRM?

There are many benefits to using CRM software in your business, but these four stand out over all others.

  1. You’ll understand your customers better. The sales funnel data generated by CRM software helps you gain a better understanding of what your customers want. Over time, you get to know what keeps prospective new clients in the funnel long enough to make an inquiry or purchase and then you can tailor your sales strategies accordingly. Also, by understanding your customers better, you can strengthen and retain client relationships.
  2. You can monitor employee performance. Without centralized information on prospecting and conversion rates, it’s difficult to know who on your sales team is not getting in touch with enough new people and who’s not closing enough deals. But with a CRM, you get to see which team members are performing better than others. CRM systems allow you to identify training opportunities for those struggling and make sure the top sellers get the best leads.
  3. Your staff will save time. CRM software automates repetitive, dull and unproductive but necessary tasks, increasing efficiency. Since CRMs improve communication between sales, marketing, customer service and other teams, you also reduce redundancies and confusion. By streamlining business operations with a CRM, your employees will waste less time and can focus more on revenue-generating activities.
  4. You’ll get game-changing business insights. The best CRMs track analytics on everything from revenue to churn rates. With this data, you can identify patterns across the performances of your sales, marketing and customer service teams, as well as in your customers’ behavior. These metrics and insights are invaluable for improving your processes, forecasting future sales and refining your company’s budget.

How Many Types of CRM Software Are There?

There are five kinds of CRM software. Here are the key points that define each type.

  • Operational CRMs help you market to your audience based on the data you collect from the software.
  • Analytical CRMs provide business foresight through customer data.
  • Collaborative CRMs allow you to share customer information interdepartmentally (e.g., between your customer service department and your sales team) based on customer interactions.
  • Campaign management CRMs are often described as both analytical and operational systems. These solutions are ideal for assisting with sales and marketing campaigns based on collected client data.
  • Strategic CRMs integrate with other apps, such as Mailchimp, to run marketing campaigns. These systems use collected customer data to inform business decisions about how to execute marketing campaigns.

It’s important to understand that even if you purchase, for instance, an analytical CRM, it doesn’t mean you won’t have access to features commonly found in campaign management or strategic CRMs. The best CRM software on the market usually has a standard set of core features regardless of type, and then you can customize the system either by upgrading to a higher plan with greater functionality or adding on services. With CRMs that boast open APIs, the possibilities are really limitless; you just need a developer who can build the platform into whatever you want it to be.

So even if you choose, say, a collaborative CRM because your top objective is to foster interdepartmental collaboration, you can still reap a lot of the use cases and benefits more closely associated with other CRM types thanks to overlapping features. The size of your business can also influence which type of CRM you choose to purchase. Generally speaking, the larger the company, the more complex your CRM software needs are likely to be, necessitating a fully featured solution. There are also industry-specific CRMs on the market.

How Much Would CRM Software Cost?

How much CRM software would cost your business depends on a variety of factors, from the number of users to the specific feature set. There are free and inexpensive CRMs, which are best for small teams and microbusinesses. These platforms come with integration options if extra functionality is needed. There are also heavy-duty CRM platforms that cost a substantial amount and have a much greater number of features (both native and plug-in). These CRMs offer better flexibility and scalability.

Here’s the general price range of CRM software.

  • Inexpensive cloud-based CRM systems often have a free version for up to 10 or so team members. Usually, entry-level paid subscriptions begin at around $15 per user per month.
  • Midrange cloud CRM subscriptions tend to run from $20 to $40 per user per month. These systems generally meet most small business needs. If the inexpensive but ultralight solutions aren’t working for you, you’ll likely find a better solution at this price level.
  • Enterprise-level cloud CRMs are available for about $50 to $150 per user per month. These systems often offer higher levels of customization, more features and personalized customer support or training services.
  • High-end cloud CRM subscriptions can cost upward of $250 per user per month, but most small and midsize businesses will not need the wide range of features they offer.
  • On-premises CRM software can cost well over $900 per user per month. In contrast to a cloud-based solution, these client-hosted systems offer a business more control but also require a significant upfront investment, as well as extensive technical knowledge and skill to maintain them.

Most cloud-based CRM providers offer the option of monthly or annual billing, with the possibility of up to a 20 percent discount for paying for the year upfront. Vendors selling on-premises CRMs, where the system is hosted on your computer network, typically charge a flat, one-time, per-user fee.

Complicating matters further are add-on products and services, storage upgrades, implementation fees and automatic upgrades. One CRM software’s per-user price might be cheaper at first glance, but when you calculate the add-ons you need to achieve the functionality you want, it may end up costing you more.

When deciding how much you’re going to spend on CRM software, try to strike the right balance between understanding your current business needs, anticipating future needs and what your business can afford. Ensure you fully understand the pricing structure of any CRM product before you decide on a platform. Specifically ask about automatic upgrades, storage caps and user limits before signing a service agreement.

TipBottom line
Consider how many of your team members will need access to the CRM software. The fewer users you need to onboard, the less expensive and easier the CRM will be to implement.

What Kind of Data Will a CRM Provide My Business?

Pipedrive metrics dashboard

Reporting dashboards, like this one from Pipedrive, allow sales managers to see multiple metrics on one screen. (Source: Pipedrive)

The specific kind of data a CRM will provide your business depends on the reporting and analytics module included in your CRM software. Generally speaking, however, you should seek a CRM solution that includes business performance metrics, user adoption metrics and customer perception metrics.

Business performance metrics refer to data related to sales, revenue, profit, etc. — they shed light on how your business is performing. User adoption metrics provide data on how your employees are using the software. Customer perception metrics monitor customer interactions with your business and client sentiment. With this intelligence, you can optimize how your company operates to better achieve its objectives.

Some specific CRM data points you may want to track include the following.

  • Cost per lead / customer acquisition cost: This dollar figure tells you how much your business is spending in its marketing efforts to acquire each new lead.
  • Sales conversion rate / close rate: This percentage indicates how many of your leads and prospects become customers.
  • Renewal rate: This number shows the percentage of your existing customers who renew their purchases or buy from you again.
  • Customer lifetime value: This figure estimates the revenue you can expect to generate from a customer over the length of your relationship.

The specific data your business tracks through its CRM should relate to your company’s goals or key performance indicators (KPIs). If your chosen CRM software isn’t capable of delivering the granular data you’re after, you may be able to upgrade to a package with advanced analytics or integrate the platform with a third-party data application.

How to Choose CRM Software

To choose CRM software, you should start by identifying your company’s needs. What do you want to accomplish via your CRM and, therefore, what features do you need it to contain? Next, you should determine your budget. How much can you afford to spend on a recurring monthly subscription for cloud-based software or upfront for an on-premises solution? After nailing down your desired features and budget, you should conduct research via buying guides like this one to identify which CRM systems offer the functionality you want at a price you can afford.

There are, however, some other factors to keep in mind. Business.com spoke to dozens of business owners and leaders about the criteria they prioritized when deciding which CRM to purchase for the first time or when switching CRMs.

Usability

Robert Resz, owner of Rad Bronco Parts, told us “ease of use” was one of his top priorities when looking for a CRM that would “streamline our sales processes without disrupting daily operations.” He ultimately found a system that enabled his “small team to work smarter, not harder.”

Tumble co-founder Zach Dannett confessed that he and his team “rushed into picking a CRM without fully understanding our needs” and “ended up with a system that was too complex for our small team.”

“We picked a CRM with all the advanced features, but our team found it too complicated to use effectively,” Dannett said. “We didn’t really need those extra features for our use. In the end, we switched to a simpler system that was compatible with our needs and that our team enjoyed using.”

Integrations

“When evaluating CRMs, integrations with tools we already used like ConnectWise Manage and Office 365 were key,” said Cyber Command CEO Reade Taylor. When shopping for CRM software, he urged, “Look for one that integrates with tools you already rely on. The more connected your tech stack, the better the experience you can provide customers.”

For Brad Smith, owner of Omni Home Ideas, “integration capabilities” were also top of mind. He sought a CRM system that would “seamlessly integrate with our existing software stack, particularly our project management and accounting tools.”

Scalability

Smith’s other concern was scalability, leading him to choose a “CRM that could grow with us.” He recommended, “Don’t just think about what your business needs now. Consider where you want to be in five years and choose a CRM that is capable of scaling and evolving as your business grows.”

RevOppAI owner Angela Green Urbaczewski named “ability to scale with the business” as her top factor, pointing out, “Free options can be a good starting point, but will the paid system best meet future needs?”

Customer Support & Training

Noting that “a lot of setup is self-serve,” Urbaczewski strongly advised considering implementation assistance and customer support.

“If it’s your first CRM setup, or you’re not an expert in this part of your business, investing in solid setup support can accelerate your business growth much faster than unfocused paid ads or marketing,” she said.

Though satisfied with his CRM platform, Resz admitted the “learning curve was steeper than anticipated” and expressed regret over not using the vendor’s support resources “sooner to leverage more features from day one.”

He recommended new buyers “take advantage of implementation resources and free training to get the most from your investment. A CRM is only as good as how well you can use it, so invest in your team to build the skills and workflows to maximize its impact.”

Smith had a similar experience. “If I were to go through the process again, I would place even more emphasis on user training and adoption from the outset to ensure all team members were fully onboard and maximizing the CRM’s capabilities from day one,” he said.

What Are Features to Look for in a CRM?

CRM features run the gamut, with lightweight services intended for quick and easy lead and customer relationship management to powerhouse functions that enable e-commerce and advanced analytics. Below are some of the most important features to look for.

Sales Tools

Your CRM should be capable of lead management and deal management, allowing you to monitor your pipeline and move prospects through the sales funnel. You should be able to score and qualify leads, contact prospects via phone and email, and close deals with the assistance of your CRM software. Additionally, there should be features that allow you to execute, monitor and evaluate sales campaigns. These tools are vital for optimizing the sales process.

Contact Management Tools

Hubspot customizable database

A customizable customer database like HubSpot’s allows you to create custom fields for whatever client information you want to record. (Source: HubSpot)

Your CRM platform should be able to automatically or manually collect data about your prospects and customers, whether by pulling in information from outline sources or via an employee who enters in the details. The contact management tools should let you create a record for each prospective or existing client, one that tracks every interaction with your business. Furthermore, you should be able to segment your customers into different groups for specific targeting and monitoring. [Learn more about customer tracking.]

Marketing Tools

Modern CRMs are equipped with tools to create, execute and track marketing campaigns. They may natively allow email messaging and other communication methods, or let you integrate the system with a third-party service. It’s common today for CRM software to have social media functions, such as the ability to set up social listening to monitor mentions of your brand on Instagram. Built-in marketing tools are important for aligning marketing efforts with sales objectives.

Customer Service Tools

Since one of the core objectives of CRM software is customer relationship management, your CRM should allow you to communicate with clients and address any support inquiries. Your customer service team can use the CRM to respond to tickets, monitor open cases, track customer satisfaction and coordinate with other departments as issues arise. To help nurture your client relationships, you could even set up your CRM to remind you of a customer’s anniversary with your business and automatically send an email thanking them for their continued partnership.

Reporting Tools

CRM reports can indicate how well your sales and marketing campaigns are performing, how many prospects or sales you get within a certain time frame, the point at which leads drop off, how many outbound calls each sales representative has made in a given period, etc. These reports help you make informed decisions about your business, which is why robust analytics is a critical CRM feature to look for.

Automation

Zendesk drag-and-drop automation building tools

Some CRMs have drag-and-drop automation building tools while others, like Zendesk’s platform, use a step-by-step approach. (Source: Zendesk)

The best CRM programs automatically execute actions based on workflows you establish. For example, when a customer fills out a form, you can set up your CRM to automatically send a notification to the appropriate sales representative. Workflow automation minimizes or eliminates much of the time-consuming, nonproductive work involved in data entry and sharing. It gives your staff more time to make sales and reduces the chance a lead or customer complaint may be overlooked or lost in the system.

Bottom LineBottom line
To determine the features you need in a CRM, list what you want to do with it. Make sure you know exactly how you would use each feature and determine its potential value to you before investing in it. If you can’t see a clear use case for a feature, look for a solution or package that excludes it. You don’t want to pay for what you don’t need.

How Do I Implement a CRM Within My Business?

How you implement a CRM within your business will be determined based on whether you purchase an on-premises CRM system or cloud-hosted platform. With an on-premises setup, the software is installed on your servers instead of being hosted by the vendor. This option will be more time-consuming to manage, but installing a client-hosted CRM isn’t as complex as implementing other on-premises software, such as call center systems.

With cloud-based CRMs, installation is usually a matter of simply signing up for an online account and using a web browser or downloading a desktop application to access the sofware. The complete implementation process, however, does require more time and effort than that. You’ll need to set up user accounts for your employees, configure security settings, import any existing customer data, establish your preferred workflows and communications channels, create your sales and marketing campaigns, etc. The more you want to customize your CRM with prebuilt integrations or custom development, the longer implementation will take. As a result, it could be days or weeks — and, in some cases, months — before your CRM is fully ready to use.

Fortunately, the best CRM vendors offer a range of assistance options, from onboarding checklists and tutorials to setup wizards to dedicated, hands-on implementation support. Additionally, to ensure your team is ready to use the CRM once it’s set up, you should urge employees to take advantage of any training guides and videos, community forums or knowledge base the vendor offers. Some providers even have training webinars and workshops so users can better learn the system.

When your CRM software has been live for a few weeks, revisit how it’s operating to make sure it meets all of your needs and that your employees are comfortable with it. Then, address any trouble spots to optimize the system.

What Are Some Alternatives to CRM Software?

There are dozens of CRM software vendors, each with their own platform and value proposition. If our top picks don’t meet your needs, other systems we investigated that are worth considering for your business include the following.

Keap

Keap is a powerful contact management-driven CRM designed to help companies manage customers at each point of the sales cycle. It does this thanks to its highly flexible workflow automations that users can build with the platform’s user-friendly drag-and-drop builder and customizable out-of-the-box templates. You can streamline customer management and declutter your team’s workday with automations for chase-ups of unpaid invoices and following up with unhappy customers.

Keap is highly effective not just in improving deal conversion rates but also in helping companies generate more sales leads. We really like the integrated email platform that’s built into the software, which allows for the easy creation of email designs, precise segmentation of customers for better targeting and powerful analytics tools to measure engagement. We were further impressed by the high volume of integrations, though you can also create your own integrations via Zapier. See a plan breakdown in our in-depth review of Keap.

Insightly

Repeat business is easier to find and more profitable than constantly searching for new customers to replace those that have churned. Selling again and again to the same customers has been the foundation of some of the world’s biggest businesses in the past two decades. If you want to build strong client relationships that go beyond winning the deal, Insightly is a CRM you should consider for managing the customer journey effectively and efficiently.

Customer knowledge is key to repeat business, so we were impressed by how Insightly enriches customer records with social data, identifies relationships between contacts and detects duplicates, ensuring you’re working from accurate data. You can stay in touch with your contacts by sending out between 2,500 and 10,000 marketing emails a day and track campaigns to determine which perform best. We also loved the powerful automation on Insightly, which we found key to creating workflows that prevent follow-ups from being forgotten and keep sales teams and managers up to date with the progress of each deal.

LessAnnoying

We really liked the Less Annoying CRM system when we first reviewed it and still do. This is a “what you see is what you get” CRM, priced at $15 per user for all features. It’s aimed squarely at microbusinesses with 10 or fewer employees. Although workplace automation is limited, the platform excels in several areas, including contract management, pipeline management, reminder settings, custom fields (to personalize your client database), and reporting and analytics. The drag-and-drop functionality is among the smartest and most intuitive we’ve seen on any CRM. You’ll pick up using the software in no time, and that’s one of the many reasons the Less Annoying CRM is ideal for beginners.

Methodology

To determine the best CRM software on the market, our team of sales experts and software analysts evaluated an initial list of 65 platforms. We then whittled our selections to 13 systems to investigate further before choosing 10 CRM programs as our top recommendations.

To help us narrow down the options at each phase and identify our eventual top picks, we interviewed vendors and participated in product demos, in addition to testing the software ourselves. We examined plan options and feature sets while also considering customization options and add-on services, such as whether email marketing tools were included in the core system or only available as an extra. We also took the time to research independent user reviews, looking for real-life testimonials to weigh against our own experience using each CRM.

Ultimately, our experts and analysts studied each solution’s functionality and judged the products on more than 30 factors. These factors were weighted differently in our overall conclusion. The weights were determined based on how much business owners prioritize these criteria when shopping for business software and services and making purchasing decisions.

  • Pricing (30%): Our experts and analysts compared and contrasted each vendor’s plans, judging which packages offered the best bang for your buck. We took into account monthly subscription rates, per-user fees, costs for cloud-based versus on-premises systems, implementation fees and add-on expenses.
  • Features (25%): We looked for standard CRM system functions like lead, contact and campaign management, automated workflows, revenue tracking and forecasting tools, and reports. We also assessed the available integrations and awarded extra points for advanced services, like omnichannel communications, no-code customization, AI-powered features and customer self-service abilities.
  • Ease of Use (25%): We tested the software ourselves, gauging each solution’s learning curve, user-friendliness and customization options. We also considered whether the program had easy-to-use marketing capabilities and if the vendor offered a fully featured mobile app for managing customer relationship and sales-related tasks on the go.
  • Customer Service (15%): We evaluated the range of each provider’s customer service options, including whether phone assistance was included with all package tiers. We also examined each vendor’s online resources for businesses interested in self-guided help.

Based on these criteria, we not only determined which CRM systems our readers could trust but also the ways in which each solution could best serve different business needs. Some platforms were better at certain tasks than others or more suited to a particular type of company. These takeaways informed the “Best for” use cases you see on this page.

To learn more about our methodology, see our full editorial process.

FAQs

No, Google Analytics is not a CRM. GA4 is a web analytics tool that helps businesses assess the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and understand their customers’ behavior. It provides data associated with consumers’ online activity and interaction with your brand, product or service. However, a CRM can use the information gathered from Google Analytics to assist your company’s marketing efforts. The best CRM software will integrate with GA4 so the two programs can work together to aid your business.

The difference between marketing automation and a CRM platform is that marketing automation is a software function that allows users to automate and schedule marketing campaigns like email campaigns and outbound telemarketing campaigns. In contrast, a CRM platform is a software program that hosts a database containing information on your prospects and customers and facilitates many sales, marketing and customer service tasks. The best CRM platforms today include marketing automation functionality; in other words, while a CRM platform refers to an entire system, marketing automation is a tool your CRM may enable.

Free CRM platforms can be good depending on the size of your company and your customer relationship management needs. If you have a microbusiness, for example, and only need CRM access for one or two users, a free solution can likely suffice. Companies with entire teams or multiple teams that require access will probably exceed the usage caps common with free plans. Additionally, the more features or advanced functionality you need, the less likely a free CRM will be suitable. Free solutions are typically limited in ability.

Yes, CRM software can be integrated with other software your business uses or wants to start using. CRM platforms are most commonly integrated with POS systems since both programs deal with sales and customer data. You may also want to integrate your CRM with your customer service or call center software, ensuring your customer service representatives have access to customer records stored in the CRM. If you already use a separate email marketing service or your chosen CRM doesn’t have built-in email tools, integrating your email marketing solution with your CRM software would streamline your marketing efforts.

Leading CRMs also integrate with social media platforms, business phone systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, web analytics tools, communications platforms like Slack and accounting programs. Some can even connect to HR software, while CRM systems with an open API allow you to develop your own custom integrations.

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Mark Fairlie
Written By: Mark FairlieSenior Analyst & Expert on Business Ownership
Mark Fairlie brings decades of expertise in telecommunications and telemarketing to the forefront as the former business owner of a direct marketing company. Also well-versed in a variety of other B2B topics, such as taxation, investments and cybersecurity, he now advises fellow entrepreneurs on the best business practices. At business.com, Fairlie covers a range of technology solutions, including CRM software, email and text message marketing services, fleet management services, call center software and more. With a background in advertising and sales, Fairlie made his mark as the former co-owner of Meridian Delta, which saw a successful transition of ownership in 2015. Through this journey, Fairlie gained invaluable hands-on experience in everything from founding a business to expanding and selling it. Since then, Fairlie has embarked on new ventures, launching a second marketing company and establishing a thriving sole proprietorship.
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