Small Business CRM Software Reviews
In today’s digital age, companies have a small window in which to reach and secure customers. This is where customer relationship management (CRM) systems come in. They help streamline your company’s communications and enable you to make the most of your time with your contacts.
All the CRM software companies we review in our list are well-known in their industry and offer a range of desired features that help businesses manage their customer contact and data across multiple channels. Read our full methodology for more information about how we selected selected these top picks.

Salesforce Sales Cloud – Best CRM Software for Growing Businesses
Salesforce Sales Cloud is one of the most popular CRM tools in the industry. It offers AI-powered software to insights, helps automate sales processes and workflows, and gives your representatives time to build relationships, boosting customer interactions and increasing sales. The service is tailored to several specific industries, including nonprofits through Salesforce.org and the healthcare industry with its innovative Health Cloud.
Salesforce Sales Cloud offers several key features, add-on options, and five pricing options. Users agree that Salesforce Sales Cloud is an extremely agile CRM software that allows them to track and plan all customer activity.
- Lead and opportunity management included
- Easy to automate and save time
- Many add-ons to choose from
- Uses AI tools
- Higher-level customer support costs extra
- Annual contract required for some plans
Visit Site Visit Salesforce’s website.
Salesforce Sales Cloud features
- Customization – Salesforce Sales Cloud allows companies to customize their sales processes, paths, milestones, report configurations, dashboards, user profiles, page layouts, custom fields, and other key data points within the platform.
- Customer management – Companies can track all customer information and activity across channels and easily manage leads and opportunities.
- Workflow automation – Salesforce Sales Cloud uses a visual workflow with drag-and-drop simplicity to automate processes easily and save you time.
- Integrations – Third-party integrations include Gmail, Outlook, and Google apps. Beyond that, if you don’t have built-in integrations, you need to purchase a license for MuleSoft, work with their integration partners, and use apps on AppExchange.
- Reporting – Real-time, customizable reports and dashboards are available on all payment plans. Advanced reporting tools, like cross filters, joined reports, bucketing, and history tracking, are available on the two higher-priced plans.
How Salesforce Sales Cloud pricing works
Salesforce plans start at $25 per user per month. The company offers four payment options: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited. Below is the breakdown of each:
- Essentials: $25 per month per user
- Professional: $75 per month per user
- Enterprise: $150 per month per user
- Unlimited: $300 per month per user
Each plan includes account, contact, lead & opportunity management, and email integration. The higher plans include pipeline and forecast management, and the two highest plans offer access to workflow automation, sales engagement and insights, and a higher level of customer support.
What markets does Salesforce Sales Cloud serve?
Salesforce Sales Cloud is designed for mid-sized to enterprise businesses and provides features that appeal to a wide range of industries. It is also one of the best CRM software for the healthcare industry with its specific Health Cloud that creates a scalable customer-first health experience and provides process automation specific to the healthcare industry. It’s also great for nonprofits, offering fundraising tools, email marketing, engagement, program management, grantmaking, and operations.
Read our full Salesforce Sales Cloud Review.

Less Annoying CRM – Best for Startups
Less Annoying CRM is great for small teams with up to ten users because it offers a comprehensive solution without downsizing features. Less Annoying CRM offers centralized customer data management, a team calendar, customizations, a clear lead pipeline dashboard, web-based accessibility, and popular integrations.
Notably, the standout feature is its customer service, characterized by human interaction instead of automated responses. With a single, straightforward pricing plan that encompasses unlimited features and users, alongside free updates, ample storage, and mobile access, Less Annoying CRM simplifies operations and enhances user satisfaction.
- Exceptional customer support that’s not AI
- Feature-rich with affordable pricing
- Easy to set up and navigate
- Reporting could be more in-depth
- Support hours limited to daytime/weekday hours
Get Started Visit Less Annoying CRM’s website.
Less Annoying CRM features
- Customization – Customized pipelines and unlimited custom fields.
- Customer Management – Organize and store an unlimited number of company contacts.
- Workflow Automation – Create workflows that work for you.
- Integrations – Numerous integrations so you can work with tools you already have.
- Reporting – Several built-in reports and dashboards to see your activity and track leads.
How Less Annoying CRM pricing works
Less Annoying CRM pricing starts at $15 per month per user. It offers one plan that allows unlimited users. With Less Annoying CRM, you can store and manage unlimited company contacts, operate off a centralized calendar, manage unlimited pipelines, create unlimited custom fields, manage tasks, and get free feature upgrades as they happen.
What markets does Less Annoying CRM serve?
Less Annoying CRM is ideal for small businesses. The company finds it annoying that small businesses are often offered a “lite” version of CRM buried in buzzwords, long contracts, and confusing plans, because they are smaller. Instead, Less Annoying CRM offers all the features in one low-price plan, making it possible for small businesses and startups to reach their goals and succeed without paying enterprise-level prices.
Read our full Less Annoying CRM Review.
Pipedrive – Best CRM Sales Software
Designed specifically for sales teams, Pipedrive is one of the top sales CRM software solutions available today. It offers features that automate the sales process, encourage team collaboration, and make forecasting the sales cycles accurate. On the customer-facing side, it enhances the customer journey through the sales pipeline, generates new leads, and boosts the bottom line while cutting costs and simplifying business processes.
Pipedrive offers four competitive pricing plans, marketing automation, and 24/7 customer support, and it integrates with over 300 business programs. Additionally, it has an open API, meaning you can create any features or integrations you need if they aren’t already available.
Overall, users appreciate the lead generation and management tools. They also find incredible value in team members being able to collaborate to close deals.
- Designed for closing sales deals
- Optimizes sales processes
- Provides 24/7 customer service
- No free version
- Does not integrate with social media
Visit Site Visit Pipedrive’s website.
Pipedrive features
- Customization – Numerous customizations are available, including the creation of custom processes and stages within the sales pipeline, custom fields, and an open API for custom integrations and features.
- Customer Management – Tools and analytics to track every customer’s journey through your sales pipeline.
- Workflow Automation – Automates repetitive tasks and administrative chores as well as the steps in the sales process to keep you working efficiently towards your sales goals.
- Integrations – Integrates with 300 business programs, and if one is unavailable, the open API allows you to create custom integrations as needed.
- Reporting – Real-time metrics on a visual dashboard and customizable reports reveal insightful patterns that create actionable tasks and goals.
How Pipedrive pricing works
Pipedrive plans start at $24 per seat per month, when billed monthly. It has five pricing options detailed below.
- Essential: $24 per seat per month
- Advanced: $49 per seat per month
- Professional: $69 per seat per month
- Power: $79 per seat per month
- Enterprise: $129 per seat per month
Each plan includes a set number of active deals, custom fields, and reports. Limits increase progressively as you move up in price, until you reach the Enterprise level, which is unlimited.
What markets does Pipedrive serve?
Pipedrive is designed to help businesses of all sizes, from startups to big companies. Business owners looking for a CRM that will help their sales teams close deals quickly and efficiently will find Pipedrive a great solution, especially with its centralized, customizable, and automated program.
Read our full Pipedrive Review.

Monday.com – Best for Streamlined Collaboration
Monday.com is ideal for businesses that prioritize collaborative workflow and customization. It allows teams to manage customer relationships, track sales, and automate tasks. It stands out due to its integration with tools like Slack, Zoom, and Gmail, which helps teams stay aligned throughout the sales cycle, making it a great fit for small to mid-sized businesses with growing sales teams.
- Customizable channels
- Visual dashboards for clear tracking of sales
- Integration with third-party apps
- Advanced reporting features require higher-tier plans
- Lacks depth for large enterprises
Get Started Visit Monday.com’s website.
Monday.com features
- Customization – Allows you to easily tailor the CRM to meet your needs. You can edit deal stages, add columns, manage multiple pipelines at once, and more.
- Customer Management – Lets you easily centralize, automate, and track communication with your customers through emails and activity tracking.
- Workflow Automation – Allows you to automatically assign leads to your reps, set reminders, receive specific notifications, and more.
- Integrations – Integrates with existing tools, allowing you to easily capture leads.
- Reporting – Tracks customer information and allows you to stay on top of client projects, collection tracking, and more, all from one place.
How Monday.com pricing works
Monday.com plans start at $9 per month per seat. It has five pricing options, listed below.
- Free: Starts at $0/month; 2 seats
- Basic: Starts at $9/month/seat; Unlimited seats
- Standard: Starts at $12/month/seat; Unlimited seats
- Pro: Starts at $19/month/seat; Unlimited seats
- Enterprise: Request a quote; Unlimited seats
What markets does Monday.com serve?
Monday.com is designed to serve businesses of all sizes, but it is particularly well-suited for small to mid-sized teams that thrive on collaboration. Its customizable workflows allow businesses in various industries to tailor the CRM to their specific sales processes.
Read our full Monday.com review

Zoho CRM – Best for Remote and Hybrid Teams
Zoho CRM is part of the Zoho family of products, which includes tools for sales, marketing, commerce, POS, finance, and much more. Its CRM product offers streamlined services for your remote and hybrid teams. It enables you to build unique, collaborative spaces for your teams, with some AI assistance.
It offers robust automation, comprehensive analytics, and customized solutions. Top features include AI automation, sales force automation, lead management, process management, customization, business intelligence, and more. Zoho CRM integrates with over 500 programs through the Zoho Marketplace.
Zoho CRM offers a free version and four paid tiers that offer many desired features, including customizations, automation, real-time analytics, and more. In addition, Zoho Workplace offers features that allow you to host online meetings, manage group audio and video calls, and streamline communications across your team, regardless of their location.
- Specific features for hybrid and remote teams
- Omnichannel customer communication
- Free trial and free version available
- Only super admin can setup customizations
- Priority support and onboarding is an add-on
Visit Site Visit Zoho’s website.
Zoho CRM features
- Customization – Zoho CRM allows you to customize many things within the program, including layouts, fields, filters, information collection, data display, and even language and currency.
- Customer Management – Manage your customer contacts, leads, and deals all in one place.
- Workflow Automation – Automate your sales routines and chain together multiple rules within processes. Test and view analytics to see how your automation is working.
- Integrations – ntegrates with over 1,000 programs through the Zoho Marketplace.
- Reporting – Monitor every aspect of your sales cycle with analytics on leads, deals, activity, email, and KPIs. Get customized reports and make data-driven business decisions.
How Zoho CRM pricing works
Zoho CRM plans start at $14 per month per user. It offers five pricing options, which are detailed below. Prices are based on annual billing (monthly billing will be a little more).
- Free: Free for up to 3 users
- Standard: Starts at $14/month/user
- Professional: Starts at $23/month/user
- Enterprise: Starts at $40/month/user
- Ultimate: Starts at $52/month/user
Zoho offers a 15-day free trial, no credit card needed, allowing you to try its services and find the best plan for your business.
What markets does Zoho CRM serve?
Zoho CRM appeals to the remote and hybrid workforce with features that enable teams to collaborate globally. Its robust suite of tools allows businesses across all industries to create a CRM software that meets all their needs. Additionally, language and currency customizations are available to further accommodate worldwide collaboration.
Read our full Zoho CRM Review.

HubSpot CRM – Best Free CRM Software
HubSpot CRM helps you close more deals, create lasting professional relationships, and manage your pipeline more effectively. With features such as sales engagement, reporting and analytics, and pipeline management, you have everything you need in one centralized location that integrates with over 1,160 tools.
HubSpot CRM offers a robust free version, followed by three paid plans. HubSpot is known for providing exceptional online training, educational tools, and courses with certifications for its programs, and its CRM is no exception. The HubSpot knowledge base is brimming with helpful information.
On the higher-priced plans, a quick onboarding process will have you up and running in no time. Other notable features include document and conversation tracking, sales automation, relationship building, a meeting scheduler, pipeline management, and deep insights with accurate forecasting.
- Robust free version available
- Over 1,160 integrations
- Large knowledge base and even educational opportunities
- Limited to 1,000 contacts on Starter plan
- No phone support with the cheapest plan
Compare Quotes Visit Expert Market’s website.
HubSpot CRM features
- Customization – Custom reporting is available at the Professional level, and many more customizations are available at the Enterprise level.
- Customer Management – You can create detailed customer records, track communications, and more from the HubSpot free CRM level.
- Workflow Automation – Automation starts at the Starter level, where you can create sequences such as emails and follow-up tasks for each prospect.
- Integrations – HubSpot CRM integrates with over 1,160 programs.
- Reporting – A reporting dashboard brings all your data into one visual place. Custom reporting is available at the Professional and Enterprise levels.
How HubSpot CRM pricing works
HubSpot CRM is made up of several premium products, including Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, Content Hub, Operations Hub, and Commerce Hub. Each of these services has its own pricing plans, which are divided by “business and enterprise” and “individuals and small teams.”
As an example, we’ll look at the Marketing Hub.
- Free: $0/month (for up to 2 users)
- Starter: $15/month/seat (includes 1,000 marketing contacts)
- Professional: $890/month (includes 3 core seats and 2,000 marketing contacts)
- Enterprise: $3,600/month (includes 5 core seats and 10,000 marketing contacts)
What markets does HubSpot CRM serve?
HubSpot CRM is the best free CRM on the market. With its robust features, unlimited users and data, and 1,000,000 stored contacts, it operates just as well as paid options on the market. With plenty of add-ons and upgrades, it is also an excellent tool for growing businesses that need a program that scales and grows with them.
Read our full HubSpot CRM Review.

Freshsales – Best CRM Software for Small Businesses
Freshsales is an engaging CRM focused on helping small to mid-size businesses accelerate revenue and context-driven sales. Utilizing personalized engagement helps companies improve client interactions, deepen customer relationships, streamline lead management, shorten the sales cycle, and grow business at an affordable rate that small and mid-sized businesses can afford.
Freshsales offers rich features and many customizations even in its lower-priced plans. You’ll get automation, several contact management views, robust reporting, and extras like AI-powered chatbots that engage customers on your website in real-time and lead them to customized forms that capture the exact information you need.
In user reviews, Freshsales customer support is highly rated, with all users finding it professional, fast, and helpful. Some reviewers said that even though it’s not as flashy as some of the more prominent providers, it has all the CRM features they need at a reasonable price point.
- Free version available
- Engages customers on multiple channels
- Many customizations
- Plans limited to 1,000 marketing emails/mo
- Fewer bells and whistles than other options
Compare Quotes Visit Expert Market’s website.
Freshsales features
- Customization – Customizations begin at the free level, and users can expect the ability to set unique sale activities for your team to track, create custom fields, and create custom roles and permissions for your team. It also offers multi-currency and multi-language.
- Customer Management – Freshsales tracks detailed customer information and logs activity. Each customer is broken down into a detailed section and highlight reel to help reps get the information they need quickly.
- Workflow Automation – Many automations are available. Create sequences, web forms, and auto-assign leads as they come in. Automate workflows, emails, and contact chats.
- Integrations – Freshsales has a marketplace of integrations that include popular tools like QuickBooks, DocuSign, Zapier, and PandaDoc. It also gives API access for further integration.
- Reporting – Choose from pre-built reporting or custom created by you.
How Freshsales pricing works
Freshsales plans start at $9 per month per user. It offers four pricing plans for you to choose from.
- Free: $0 per month (up to 3 users)
- Growth: $9/month/user (unlimited users)
- Pro: $39/month/user (unlimited users)
- Enterprise: $59/month/user (unlimited users)
Freshsales offers a 21-day free trial, and all plans include customer data management, Kanban boards, email templates, phone, live chat, and 24/5 customer support.
What markets does Freshsales serve?
Freshsales is the best CRM software for small to mid-size businesses. With its low price points and robust client-facing features, it’s helpful for small sales teams to increase sales and revenue, shorten the sales cycle, and manage their leads effectively.
Read our full Freshsales Review.

Steer CRM – Best for Auto Repair Shops
Steer CRM is a CRM designed uniquely for auto repair shops. It combines auto repair software features like vehicle histories, scheduling, and appointment reminders, with powerful customer data management, marketing tools, and reputation management that helps auto shops grow.
- Integrates with most auto shop management software
- Customer and vehicle data management
- Marketing analysis
- No free trial
- Limited user reviews
Compare Quotes Visit Expert Market’s website.
Steer CRM features
- Customization – Offers customizable tools to help you schedule appointments and more.
- Customer Management – Send alerts and reminders to customers and track customers to easily see if they are new or returning.
- Workflow Automation – Streamline operations with online scheduling software; offers time management services specifically for auto repair shops, allowing you to arrange your schedule around services, technician availability, bays, and more.
- Integrations – Steer integrates with 45+ shop management systems in the auto repair industry.
- Reporting – Offers custom reporting features, including email collection for performance tracking, and provides you with accurate, up-to-date insights.
How Steer CRM pricing works
Steer CRM has two pricing plans: Contact and Engage. The Contact plan starts at $349 per month, plus a $199 onboarding & integration fee. The Engage plan starts at $479 per month, plus a $199 onboarding & integration fee.
Each plan includes unlimited 2-way direct text & email messaging, unlimited email campaign sends, reputation management, shop, customer & vehicle analytics, automated appointment reminders, personalized customer vehicle web pages, shop management system integration, and much more.
What markets does Steer CRM serve?
Steer CRM is designed specifically for auto repair shops to help them maintain their current customers and increase growth with new customers through clear customer communications, reputation management, and marketing tools.
Read our full Steer CRM Review.
Compare CRM Software Quotes and Save
Compare the best CRM software side-by-side
Software Name | Why we picked It | Starting price for cheapest plan | Highlights |
---|---|---|---|
Salesforce | Best for Growing Businesses | $25 / user / month | Voted by many as the best overall CRM software, it offers a mix of customization and automation that drives efficient growth. |
Less Annoying CRM | Best for Startups | $15 / user / month | Clear-cut, affordable pricing with rich feature set and excellent customer support. |
Pipedrive | Best CRM Sales Software | $24 / user / month | Designed as a sales CRM many customizations, automations, and integrations are available to help teams collaborate and close deals. |
Monday.com | Best for Streamlined Collaboration | $9 / user / month | Integration with tools like Slack, Zoom, and Gmail |
Zoho CRM | Best for Remote and Hybrid Teams | $14 / user / month | Created with remote and hybrid teams in mind, it offers tools that make remote work and collaboration easier and more efficient so everyone is on the same page in the sales cycle. |
HubSpot CRM | Best Free CRM Software | $15 / month / 2 users | Robust free CRM that offers everything you need in a CRM for free plus over 1,160 integrations. |
Freshsales | Best for Small Business | $9 / user / month | Utilizes customer-facing tools to interact and personalize the customer journey, while internal tools streamline and automate processes. |
Steer CRM | Best for Auto Repair Shops | $349 / month | Marketing campaigns, online scheduling, schedule reminders, and maintenance alerts. Integrates with most shop management software. |

Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash
What is CRM Software for Small Business?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software helps businesses organize, track, and manage relationships and communication with current and potential customers. CRM software helps companies of all sizes and industries, but there are vendors that offer CRM solutions specifically for sectors like real estate, healthcare, construction, and others. CRM software centralizes customer information and equips all your employees with the streamlined data needed to close deals and meet your customers’ needs.
CRM software can include tools that help you collect customer data and send automated sales and marketing messages based on events like:
- Email sign ups
- Purchases
- Website visits
- Cart abandonment
The best CRM software will help you centralize this information and streamline your sales, marketing, and customer service processes by consolidating all parts of the customer journey into a single platform.
What does a CRM do?
Along with saving time and staying organized, there are many CRM features and benefits to love. Above all, the most important CRM feature is that it allows companies to collect and store important customer data. Additionally, CRM software can boost revenue by up to 245%, according to our latest research.
The primary way a CRM benefits an organization is through its ability to centralize customer information into one system that can be used across teams and departments, creating a more consistent customer experience across all channels.
Companies use CRMs to streamline processes all the way from lead acquisition to sales, onboarding, and customer success. HubSpot CRM, for example, is great for marketing teams, while Pipedrive aims to help sales teams automate and close deals. As part of the biggest name in the CRM space, Salesforce Sales Cloud CRM software is designed to help marketing and sales teams automate processes and work more efficiently.
CRM software is similar to Help Desk software in that they both focus on customer support. However, where Help Desk software automates ticket management and combines communication channels, CRM software increases productivity and efficiency. It manages communications with customers and leads and provides detailed analytics on your customers and their activity, helping you determine what processes and communications are best.
What makes a good CRM?
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the options when you’re comparing CRM software vendors. In general, a good CRM should include these five features:
- Customer management – Tools that allow companies to track and store current customer information, leads, and opportunities.
- Customization – A good CRM software should seamlessly integrate with your company and its unique needs. To do this, the CRM software must be easily customized so you can take the reins and control what it manages.
- Workflow automation – The ability to automate processes is another feature to look for in the best CRM software. For example, tracking customer activity on your website and guiding them through your sales funnel is one process that can be automated to achieve higher results.
- Integrations – Like with most business software, you want your CRM to integrate with other internal systems. Many CRM vendors, such as Zoho CRM, also offer other business tools and products, so it’s easy to add in services as you grow. It’s also helpful if your CRM software integrates with third-party programs you already use or offers an API for endless integrations you might need.
- Reporting – Finally, you want your CRM software to provide detailed reports and analytics. A good CRM software allows you to customize what you track and how it is reported to you. It should break it down into easy-to-understand parts that help you analyze and create actionable tasks and forecasting.
Types of CRM Platforms
There are four general types of CRM software. Starting with the right CRM will help you accomplish your goals faster and save time and stress.
The main types of CRM software include:
- Operational CRM: Focuses on increasing efficiency in marketing, sales, and customer service. It automates tasks, manages customer data, and helps streamline customer interactions. Small businesses often start with this type of CRM software.
- Analytical CRM: This type of CRM helps teams analyze and act on customer data. It goes beyond basic CRM functions to help businesses understand customer behavior, preferences, and needs, allowing them to make data-informed decisions.
- Collaborative CRM: Collaborative features are normally a standard of the best CRM software. It helps enhance customer relations by integrating multichannel communication and data sharing. Basically, it creates a centralized view of customer data, making it much easier to work with and assist them.
- Strategic CRM: Strategic CRM software allows organizations to monitor the lifetime value of their customers. It provides data-driven insights over time and helps you manage your customers to increase overall profit.
Understanding the different CRM tools available will help you make informed purchasing decisions. By choosing a CRM that fits with your business goals, you can provide your customers with personalized offers and run campaigns smoothly that boost retention and increase revenue.
How to Choose a CRM
Not only does CRM software help you manage customers and stay organized, but it can also help with project management and revenue growth. That’s why it’s important to choose a CRM that meets your business’s unique needs and aids your sales team.
Below are some tips on how to choose a CRM for your business:
- Define your business goals—Knowing your business goals will help narrow your search to providers that offer features to aid you in achieving them.
- Identify areas of improvement—Analyze your workflows and processes. Find any bottlenecks and areas that need improvement. Then look for CRM providers that offer solutions to these problems.
- Consider your budget—Staying within budget is important. Clearly define how much you’re willing to spend on a CRM and any potential add-ons, then stick within that budget.
- Research and compare providers—Now that you know exactly what you need, research various providers, compare their features, pricing, customer service, and more to narrow your list down to the ones you’d like to test out.
- Consider scalability and integrations—With a good CRM software provider, you can expect business growth. Make sure the CRM software can scale with your business and that it can easily integrate with existing tools.
- Weigh the value of additional features—Some providers offer features on top of the basic CRM ones. Consider whether these features would be useful for your operations and whether they are worth paying extra for.
- Test the CRM before purchasing—Testing a product before committing to it ensures your teams and business will actually benefit from its implementation. It gives you hands-on experience, helping you determine if it’s a good fit for your company.
Whether you’re looking for complex or simple CRM software, ensuring it meets your business’s needs is most important. The companies on our list are great fits for businesses across all industries; however, we recommend always reaching out to the companies, trying their demos and free trials before purchasing to ensure they are the right fit for you.
How much does CRM software cost?
CRM software typically costs around $14 to $15 per month per user when billed annually. This low entry price point includes Zoho CRM and Freshsales. The most expensive is Pipedrive, starting at $24 per month. If you opt to pay monthly, the price is a few dollars more per month per user.
Several vendors like HubSpot CRM, Freshsales, and Zoho CRM offer a free CRM service. HubSpot CRM stands out here for the most features at the free level. Beyond the free level, the basic level from our vendors typically includes contact management, limited customizations, some workflow automation ability, reporting, and integrations. The more you pay, the more extensive these features become. Different levels of customer service are also included and increase as you move up in priced plans.
The most expensive on our list is the Enterprise level that all our top picks offer. The highest price is Salesforce Sales Cloud at $300 per user per month. HubSpot CRM’s Enterprise plan costs a bit extra. For $3,600 per month, you get five core seats.
CRM software FAQ
Which CRM software is best?
The best CRM software is one that aligns with your business. There are many types of CRM software, and it’s important to define your unique needs to decide what will be best for you. In our research, we found that Freshsales is the best CRM for small businesses, while HubSpot CRM is the best free CRM software.
If you’re a startup or have a remote/hybrid workforce, Zoho CRM is a great option. Pipedrive is known for its ease of use and is a great sales CRM software, while Salesforce Sales Cloud is one of the best CRM software for the healthcare industry, nonprofits, sales, and marketing.
What is CRM software used for?
CRM software has many uses. It first and foremost manages your customers, leads, and opportunities, showing each account’s activity and relationship with the company in one centralized location. This provides everyone in a company with the information they need to contact a customer, close a deal, and increase brand loyalty.
Beyond that, a CRM helps companies automate processes to save time and reach customers more efficiently. It also provides useful data and analytics that help companies make smart decisions that impact the bottom line.
Which is the best free CRM for startups?
Several companies offer free CRM software. After studying 85 well-known CRM software, we found that HubSpot CRM is the best free CRM software, making it a great option for startups. It offers robust features such as contact management, reporting dashboards, and over 1,160 integrations. If a company is growing, it can easily upgrade or add on items.
The only downside is that HubSpot’s free plan has a limited number of users. Startups that need an unlimited number of users should consider Less Annoying CRM. Although it doesn’t offer a free plan, we believe it’s one of the best companies for startups and small businesses.
What features should I look for in a CRM for my small business?
Small businesses should look for a CRM that provides core features, like contact and lead management, sales pipeline management, customer support, and sales and marketing automation. Small businesses should also consider a product’s ease of use, whether there’s a mobile app, customization, scalability, how steep the learning curve might be, integrations, and what advanced features it might offer.
How we chose the best CRM software
We curated a long list of 85 CRM software vendors and identified 16 of the most popular ones to narrow our focus. From there, we chose five top picks based on features offered, brand reputation, and customer service.
We collect information from vendors and verify it through:
- Customer reviews
- Expert reviews
- Vendor and parent company websites
To determine which companies deserved to be on our final list, we scored each of them on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) across the following criteria:
- Variety of features: We sought services that offered customer, lead, and opportunity management, customization, automation, integrations, and reporting capabilities. A company scores higher when it offers all these features because it means better account management, improved customer service, increased bottom line, and more efficient processes.
- Customer support: We looked for companies that offer multiple ways to access customer support and learn the program, including a resource library, an FAQ or forum, a chat feature, email, and a dedicated customer service line. Services that included all these features scored highest in this section.
- Brand reputation: We studied what customers said about each CRM software company. Reviews and ratings from trustworthy third-party review sites were compiled into a percentage rating to gauge each vendor’s reputation among its customers.
- Pricing and transparency: We not only compare actual pricing and plans for each vendor but also judge companies on whether or not this information is easily available online, or if you have to go through a demo to get it.
- Onboarding and support: We look for companies that offer multiple types of ongoing customer support, as well as whether one-on-one onboarding is included or only available as an add-on service.