When you run a business, there comes a time when the scale exceeds the efficiency that human intervention can provide. Your business grows, and so does the target for sales. Too much data is pouring in from all channels, and organizing that data can become a huge task.
How do you manage all of this while also managing other demands of a growing business?
This is where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software can make all the difference. I have reviewed and recommended the best 19 CRM software tools in this guide.
What is CRM software?
CRM software is an end-to-end solution that can help you manage, organize and track customer and lead information. The software enables you to get a bird's eye view of where you are and what you can do to develop stronger relationships and grow your business faster.
Moreover, CRM software allows you to create workflows and assign tasks and ensure everyone is on the same page. CRM software also integrates with other business tools you may be using and delivers more efficiency.
Why are CRM tools essential for a business?
Here are the benefits your business will witness after using CRM tools.
- Better customer service as the employees can access customer information in real-time.
- An increase in sales as CRM software allows you to create and establish a sales process. You can analyze customer activity, identify leads and build your future strategy.
- Advanced analytics to identify actionable items, see trends and measure your metrics.
- Dashboards help your team achieve higher productivity.
- A centralized database that anyone can access at any point in time.
- Automated sales reports let your employees view their goals and targets.
How to choose the best CRM tools?
The first step in choosing the best CRM tools is to define your goals. Evaluate your problem to understand if you need help organizing business operations, tracking leads, enhancing closing rates, managing relationships or generating customized dashboards.
Once you have identified your needs, the next step is to evaluate the CRM software tools available in the market. There are so many options that this step can become overwhelming. We have reviewed the top CRM tools available in the market and shared their pricing so you can make an informed decision.
1. Monday
Monday CRM offers multiple customizable features, like a dashboard with almost 50 columns for you to choose from, to focus on what your business needs to grow. It can integrate with several third-party products to ensure your team can access a central database and collaborate on a single platform.
Pros
- It has a Workload board, which is a colored dashboard to assign and track each employee's assignments.
- A calendar feature lets you plan the projects and extend timelines so everyone is on the same page.
- Analytical reports let you be on top of everything sales-related.
Cons
- The free version is fairly limited, and you will quickly run out of free features.
- The customer service is tough to reach on phone calls.
- It can be expensive for smaller teams.
Product Updates
The latest product update includes WorkForms for making insights actionable, a native payment platform and exporting dashboard widgets to PDF.
Pricing
Here is a breakdown of the various pricing packages offered by Monday.
2. Freshsales
Freshsales is a CRM tool part of a bigger suite called Freshworks. It offers a forever-free plan which provides several useful capabilities and features. The paid version is also competitively priced compared to other CRM software.
It offers AI-powered contact and deal-scoring features to enhance your team's efficiency. An AI chatbot system allows you to have live chats with your leads and capture their information.
Pros
- Contact leads via chat, email and phone.
- AI-powered lead scoring so your team can focus on the most important leads.
- Automation and customization of dashboards and reports.
- AI-powered sales insights.
Cons
- The integrations are limited.
- Customer support is available only on weekdays.
- The free version does not offer reports.
Product Updates
The last product update included a Shopify integration. The upcoming updates will contain lots of in-app features and better email optimization.
Pricing
Although the free version offers several features, the paid versions help you use the tool to its maximum potential.
3. Salesloft
Salesloft is a CRM software that can drastically enhance the performance of your sales team if you are not currently using any other CRM tool. Integrating with other third-party systems is easy to transfer contacts and information.
The tool has three key modules - cadence, deals and conversations.
Pros
- It helps in organizing outreach efforts for better efficiency.
- Easy prospect tracking for better sales results.
- Create massive and personalized campaigns.
- Allows the integration of several communication channels.
Cons
- Importing and re-importing contacts are not seamless.
- Sometimes, the systems can become unresponsive.
- There can be a better way to assign roles.
Product Updates
The latest product updates include forecasting, out-of-office detection and multi-language support in conversations.
Pricing
The pricing of Salesloft varies as per the package you select for your business. There are four pricing packages - Prospect, Sell, Engage, and Enterprise.
- Prospect – ideal for teams that want to focus on generating leads.
- Sell – for closing deals.
- Engage - to give a better post-sales experience.
- Enterprise - includes everything.
4. Insightly
Insightly is a CRM software that purely focuses on small and mid-sized businesses. It is easy to use, and the process of transferring data and contacts is simple. The tool allows you to distinguish between leads and contacts to focus on what is more important.
The reporting dashboards are customizable; you can add or delete items from them in real-time. Apart from that, you can create dashboards for different teams.
Pros
- All the products are integrated seamlessly.
- Lots of existing dashboards give you what you want.
- Easy to use, the information you want in your dashboards is also easy to link.
- Highly customizable
- Competitively priced
Cons
- The email templates are basic.
- You will need to pay extra for email marketing.
- The tool does not allow you to create your report format.
Product Updates
The latest product update is AppConnect which is an integrated automation platform. It enables Insightly to connect to all your other software applications.
Pricing
The pricing of Insightly starts at $29 per month to $99 per month.
5. Keap
Keap is a CRM software useful for small businesses starting their e-commerce platform and would like to automate sales and marketing solutions. Setting it up is simple with a dedicated customer service manager, and you can start immediately.
The platform has useful videos to explain each feature to enable you to use it to its full potential.
Pros
- It is an easy-to-use platform that allows you to integrate sales and marketing automation.
- The customer support is good and is available throughout the day and night.
- It allows you to collect and score leads.
Cons
- There is a monthly fee for several integrations.
- You can only migrate ten contacts and one landing page in the free version.
- There is a contact-based pricing model, which means the fee increases when your business grows.
Product Updates
A priority at Keap this year is to help small business owners manage their email strategies, considering the privacy protection feature announced by Apple last year.
Pricing
There are two packages of Keap that you can subscribe to - Pro at $129/month and Max at $199/month.
6. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a CRM software that works well for any industry. It is particularly beneficial for marketing agencies or marketing and sales teams looking to enhance their performance. It offers visual pipeline management to help you track and convert potential leads.
The best part is that a sales assistant shares tips and feature recommendations depending on what your team uses. When someone makes any change to the settings, everyone gets a notification.
Pros
- Create workflows with a simple drag-and-drop interface.
- Complete campaign management with options like web forms, live chat widgets, and chatbots to capture leads.
- Smart contact data gathers information from the online activities of your contacts.
- Customizable reports like deal tracking, lead reporting, and revenue forecasting.
- Create and share live dashboards with your team.
Cons
- The pages may be slow to load.
- Does not offer social media channel integrations.
- Customer support is only through chat and not phone calls.
Product Updates
The latest product updates at Pipedrive include analysis functionality, a chatbot, lead-management features and in-app campaign notifications.
Pricing
The pricing of Pipedrive ranges from $9 per month to $59 per month for enterprises.
7. Agile CRM
We live in a time where customers appreciate a human touch instead of the age-old sales approach. To offer this, teams must act fluidly and adapt to the environment. Agile CRM enables this and allows your teams to respond swiftly to the demands of the customers.
Agile offers an effective contact management system that helps you engage your customers. There is a feature of automated lead scoring that allows the team to focus on the most important leads.
Pros
- It is easy to set up automated campaigns.
- The tool can take some time to get used to.
- Agile CRM helps in organizing and publishing schedules.
- The Email Marketing feature allows lots of customization.
Cons
- The previous customers have not been very happy with the customer support.
- There are no modules only for sales, marketing or service.
- The lower-priced packages miss some key features.
- The free and starter packages have very few integrations.
Product Updates
Agile CRM's latest product updates enable you to manage your entire business from one place.
Pricing
Agile CRM offers different packages, from a free package for small businesses to packages designed for enterprises that want more support.
8. Salesforce
Salesforce is one of the most trusted CRM software used worldwide as it offers solutions that exclusively cater to the industry and company type. It is particularly useful for businesses expecting growth as you get the flexibility to scale the software as your business grows. It offers several features to manage complex relationship dynamics, and you can pick and choose as per the stage of your business.
Salesforce allows you to customize and automate business processes through a user-friendly interface. You can use it to create workflows and auto-assign tasks for deals to go through smoothly.
Pros
- A plethora of options for personalization and customization.
- Several advanced features like automation and 24/7 customer support.
- Advanced account and contact management.
- Seamless third-party integrations and easy collaboration.
Cons
- Expensive for smaller set-ups.
- Too many features for smaller companies.
- The installation is complex and time-consuming.
Product Updates
The latest product updates include subscription management, resolving cases faster through cross-functional experts and intelligent recommendations to reduce emissions.
Pricing
The price packages start at $25 and go up to $300 for different features.
9. Hubspot
Hubspot is perhaps the most powerful name in CRM software. It comes with special modules for sales, marketing and customer service. The best part is that its free version is exhaustive and lets users test all the features.
It is particularly useful for inbound marketing as it enables you to manage all digital activities. For instance, the tool allows you to publish blogs, enables better searches, and tracks and manages ads and social media channels.
Hubspot facilitates stronger customer relationships with email templates, tracking, and call recording.
Pros
- Comprehensive free version with several free features.
- Flexible pricing to select the features you want.
- Easily scalable to manage the growth of your business.
- Intuitive and user-friendly platform with easily-accessible features.
- Simplifies content creation through drag and drop features.
- Good customer support.
Cons
- The pricing can get confusing when you want more features.
- The free plan does not come with any customer support.
Product Updates
The latest product update includes customer service and ticket resolution, and native payment processing.
Pricing
The pricing for Hubspot starts at $45 per month to $3200 per month.
10. Dynamics CRM
Dynamics CRM is a tool by Microsoft with powerful features to make contact with your customers and sustain a long relationship with them. This CRM software is more suitable for large organizations with multiple features like real-time analytics, performance metric tracking, and AI-based customer recommendations.
Pros
- The tool allows your teams to gather data for decision-making.
- Your marketing team can run multi-channel campaigns to approach the customers through their preferred channels.
- View sales figures and key performance metrics in real-time.
- The tool is scalable to meet your future needs.
Cons
- It is significantly pricier than other CRM tools.
- It takes time to onboard all the teams due to the platform's complex capabilities.
- Users require some practice to get used to it.
Product Updates
The latest product updates under Project Operations give business leaders better insights and help the sales team win more deals.
Pricing
Since Microsoft Dynamics has several different modules for different teams, the pricing is different too. Here are a few examples of pricing to give you an idea.
11. NetSuite
NetSuite is an integrated cloud business suite by Oracle. It has tools for CRM, ERP, and accounting. The enterprise-level CRM module offers multiple features to manage all things sales and marketing. The best part is that it allows you to support the entire life cycle of a customer.
The availability of other modules enables you to create a central database with exhaustive workflows.
Pros
- Easy integration with other modules.
- Allows you to build B2C and B2B e-commerce sites.
- Built-in customer service management tools.
- Create workflows to assign and manage customer escalations via phone, email and web.
- A searchable knowledge center with resources to answer common questions.
Cons
- You will have to take the annual license for other NetSuite products even if you only want to use the CRM tool.
- The initial NetSuite setup comes at a cost.
- Sometimes the speed can be slow.
Product Updates
The latest updates include new CRM Dashboards, Roles and Reports.
Pricing
The pricing is not available online. Interested buyers have to call for it.
12. Zoho CRM
Zoho is one of the most popular CRM applications available in the market that has had a high focus on small and mid-sized organizations. It is ideal for startups and supports lead conversion and customer engagement to grow and scale.
As the business grows, this CRM tool provides multiple features to support your growth in a short time. It is highly versatile and works for most companies in most industries.
Pros
- The installation and setup are easy and quick.
- Simple design that allows you to access what you need easily.
- Flexibility and a lot of customization options to increase your sales and manage your finances.
Cons
- The customer service wait time can run into several minutes.
- The free and lower-paid versions do not offer much.
- Integration of different verticals can be difficult.
Pricing
The different packages of Zoho CRM are priced at $12, $20, $35 and $45 per user per month.
13. SugarCRM
SugarCRM is a good product for businesses that want to customize the home page and focus on what matters. You can get an overview of what is happening with each and every customer and also get to see your leads.
This CRM has too many features that confuse a new user or a small business. However, they offer plenty of support and training to resolve any issues.
Pros
- It allows you to self-host the website and bring down the costs.
- The customer service is good and can go out of their way to deliver what you want.
- The UI is clean and, despite having all the bells and whistles, doesn't overwhelm.
Cons
- The speed can be slow sometimes.
- Too many features can perplex a new user.
- The integration process can get complicated.
Product Updates
The latest update at Sugar CRM focuses on the improvements in the deployment, administration and UX improvement.
Pricing
The pricing range is quite wide at Sugar CRM. You can take a look at them here.
Recommentation
SugarCRM is a fantastic option for small-business owners who want to keep the costs down and need only a few functionalities. The price point is affordable for such users. It is also useful for marketing and advertising agencies who want to create custom workflows.
14. SageCRM
SageCRM is one of the best CRM software for small and mid-sized companies looking to cut costs, optimize performance and grow faster. It is an affordable, easy solution to onboard and manages your sales and marketing.
Pros
- Offers other modules to integrate your HR, finance and ERP on one platform.
- Frequent product updates are given to match the new products in the market.
- Easy to create, file, and manage contracts for a more efficient contact management system. You can also sync it with Google contacts.
- You can customize workflows and create new processes to solve your unique problems.
- The reporting and forecasting allow you to prepare for the future.
- SageCRM allows you to source quotes and receives shipment and delivery updates for better customer service.
- You can customize it in-house as well.
Cons
- It is not compatible with several other applications.
- The customer support is not very efficient.
- Each different module costs money.
Product Updates
The latest updates are mainly focused on improvements in Deployment, Administration and UX improvement.
Pricing
SageCRM does not list pricing details on a public platform. You have to connect with their sales team to get a quote.
15. Zendesk CRM
Zendesk started with a help desk and released a CRM tool later. It is a good option for small and mid-sized businesses and contains most features you may need. They also offer advanced analytics to get more insights.
Pros
- Once you understand all the bells and whistles, the platform is easy-to-use and efficient.
- The Reach feature gives you access to an elaborate pool of contacts to create business opportunities.
- The Zendesk Sell module has several default widgets you can add to the home screen.
- You can integrate it with Zendesk's own help desk to deliver better customer service.
Cons
- The reports have limited options to customize.
- It has limitations if you are not looking for help desk support.
- You cannot share custom views with other users.
Product Updates
The latest product updates at Zendesk include new chat dashboard redirect links, trial intent questions, and some new features in the ticketing system.
Pricing
There are three packages offered by Zendesk, and their details are as mentioned below.
16. SalesMate
SalesMate is a CRM software that can help you create a useful and simple sales process for your team to achieve their targets.
Pros
- Easy to set up and onboard.
- Clean and simple UI that is easy to use.
- The customer support is good.
- Helps you make targeted calls for more conversions.
- Offers several advanced reports like sales forecasting and sales reports for better insights.
Cons
- It is not the best option for data sharing.
- Customers have shared issues with emails through the platform.
- Customer service can keep you waiting for a long time to resolve your queries.
Product Updates
The last update at SalesMate includes Drag & Drop Email Template Builder and Editor.
Pricing
There are four packages for SalesMate - Starter at $12, Growth at $24, and Boost at $40 per user per month, respectively.
17. Shape
Shape is a CRM software dedicated to mortgage lenders and offers a multitude of features useful for them. It provides an end-to-end solution to fulfill all your needs from pre-loan through post-close.
Pros
- Intelligent automation, like creating workflows, enables you to meet your business needs.
- The graphs are organized to allow you to read the information more easily.
- The customer service is quick in giving a response.
- You can work with the team at Shape to customize your needs.
Cons
- You have to pay for several additional features.
- The customer service support is not great.
- It does not offer a free trial.
Product Updates
The latest product updates include enhancement of features for customer point of sale, digital advertising and lead scoring.
Pricing
You can connect with the sales team at Shape for the pricing of Lead Scoring and Digital Advertising features. For Customer Point of Sale, the charges are $59 per user per month.
18. Copper
Copper CRM is a fantastic tool for businesses that use Google products like Google Workspace, Gmail, and Google Calendar.
Pros
- Integrates directly with Gmail, so you don't have to leave it.
- Allows you to automate workflows and tasks.
- A clean design makes searching and tracking relatively easy.
- Has a robust lead management system.
- The onboarding is fairly simple.
- Has great security measures to protect your data.
Cons
- The entry-level plan does not contain several features like workflow automation, integrations and customized reporting. You will need to pay extra to use them.
- It may not work well for you if your business does not use Google Workspace.
- Does not contain several features as the focus is more on simplicity.
Product Updates
The team at Copper is working to give customers the ability to apply advanced text filters for better record identification.
Pricing
The pricing at Copper CRM ranges from $29 per user per month for the Basic plan to $119 per user per month for the Business plan.
19. Nimble
Nimble is a simple CRM most useful for small businesses. It helps in tasks such as organizing contact lists, tracking timesheets and scheduling, which can vastly help your business grow.
Pros
- It is easy to set up and use, even for first-time users.
- It can get automatically integrated with Gmail and social media.
- The layout is clean and thus has a faster learning curve.
Cons
- The email templates are dated and can be improved.
Product Updates
The last update at Nimble was a two-way sync with Microsoft 365 contacts.
Pricing
The pricing of Nimble is simple and costs $19 per user per month.
Conclusion
Finding the right CRM software is essential. It can take your complete business to the next level. When your marketing team can widen their reach and the sales team can target potential customers, your business will begin to grow exponentially. It is advisable to identify your needs and conduct market research to select the right CRM software for greater success.
FAQ
What is CRM software?
Customer relationship management, or CRM, is a software program that helps business owners to track all interactions and develop relationships with their prospects and customers. A CRM takes the place of the numerous spreadsheets, databases, and apps many businesses have created to manage client information.
What are the benefits of CRM tools?
Maintains a centralized database across your sales org. Manage all communication and interactions with prospects. Automate data entry. Gives reminders to follow up with prospects. Organize contact data. Segment customers. Create sales reports. Automate forecasting for your sales performance. Scale your sales processes over time. Ensure team communication is facilitated.
What is a CRM tool for marketing?
With the help of a CRM tool, you can manage marketing campaigns, track service issues, identify sales opportunities, and store customer and prospect contact information in one convenient location. You can also make this data about every customer interaction accessible to anyone in CRM at your company who might need it.
What are the types of CRM software?
Analytical CRM that allows for data visualization, better customer insights, and their interactions with your business. Collaborative CRM allows interaction with your vendors and distributors based on shared customer information. Campaign management is a combination of analytical and operational CRM used to run sales and marketing campaigns using the contact data gathered in the system. Strategic CRM that puts customers first allows you to use information about customers and market trends to make informed business decisions.
Recommendation
Monday CRM is a great option for small businesses that have fewer options. Moreover, it is affordable as compared to the bigger names. It is an easy-to-use tool with several customizable options to get what you need.