21 Best CRM Software of 2024 (Compared And Reviewed)

Are you ready to increase sales and nurture happier customers?

All you need is the right CRM software that will help you take care of everything — from managing contacts to following up with your customers and closing sales.

CRM solutions are no longer an afterthought. The demand is huge and companies consider it to be a critical consideration for achieving business success. It’s projected to reach a market size of $113.5 billion by 2027.

If you choose the best CRM software, you can maximize your revenue with less stress.

This is the ultimate guide to the best CRM platforms that are easy to use, integrate with 100s of your favorite platforms & apps, and templates to get you started.

The majority of these CRM software tools come with free trials and affordable plans. Pipedrive, Close CRM, Freshsales, Monday.com, and HubSpot CRM are great examples.

In this guide, you’ll discover:

• What the best CRM software platforms are
• What CRM software really is
• What to consider when choosing CRM software
• How to avoid wasting ‘money’ on CRM platforms that lack essential features
• The benefits of using CRM software to capture, engage, and grow your sales
• And lots more…

If you’re ready, let’s dive right in.

What Are The Best CRM Software?

Here are my top picks for the best CRM software of 2023:

Alright, let’s dive right in. Here’s a breakdown of the 21 best CRM software:

1. Pipedrive

Best CRM software overall

Pipedrive is an all-in-one CRM designed for salespeople. When you’re implementing marketing automation, you’ll want to ensure your data is as organized as possible.

It’s easy to fall behind in your efforts if you don’t have a way to organize your data.

A disorganized system can lead to lost leads and inadequate website optimization.

This can be especially frustrating if you have a limited budget. Thankfully, Pipedrive makes it easy to organize your data.

Key Features

• Lead and pipeline management
• Simple data import and easy customization
• Full email sync with templates and scheduling
• Workflow builder and triggered automation
• One-click calling and call tracking

Pros

• User-friendly and intuitive dashboard
• Easily track deals, values, and close sales
• Create designs with easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor
• Track recurring revenue with custom reports
• Identify and use insights from sales calls, emails, and demos
• Improve sales support with AI assistant

Cons

• Downloading leads is a little cumbersome. With limit support small accounts, it’s hard to get someone to help you.
• The reporting is limited (retention rates and other key metrics are not reported).

Pricing

Pipedrive has 4 plans with flexible pricing to meet your needs.

• Essential ($15/user/month): This Starter plan allows lead, deal, calendar, and pipeline management, 275+ integrations, data import, etc.
• Advanced ($29/user/month): Everything in Essential Plan, plus group emailing, workflow builder, full email sync, etc.
• Professional ($59/user/month): Everything in Advanced Plan, plus one-click calling and call tracking, eSign documents and contracts, revenue projections, and more.
• Enterprise ($119/user/month): Get unlimited user permission, security preferences, no feature usage limits, etc.

Note: You can save up to 17% when you pay annually. Pipderive also comes with a 14-day free trial to get you started at no upfront cost.

2. HubSpot CRM

Best free CRM Software

HubSpot CRM is a powerful sales and marketing tool to grow your business.

When properly integrated into your sales and customer management processes, HubSpot CRM makes it easy to create a custom customer record from the initial contact with your business till they convert.

This software helps you store and track your customer information and makes it accessible with a single click.

You can easily import existing databases to your new HubSpot CRM. You can add deals, contacts, and companies and map out their fields.

You can also manage 1-to-1 communications at a scale and use the conversations tool to follow up with customers.

Key Features

• View your sales pipeline in real-time
• A clean, visual dashboard
• Manage unlimited users, up to 1,000,000 contacts
• Integrate with 1,000+ apps
• Multi-touch revenue attribution

Pros

• Free CRM with essential features to manage your contacts with ease
• HubSpot CRM is easy-to-use and intuitive at best
• Track your sales pipeline in real-time, via a visual dashboard
• You can close more deals with less work
• Schedule meetings for free, set up a live chat, and use email templates for free.

Cons

• HubSpot CRM is not as ‘configurable’ as some CRM tools like Zoho CRM
• The free version has limited features for larger businesses and teams

Pricing

HubSpot CRM comes with 3 CRM Suite Packages and Pricing:

• Starter ($50/month or $45/month billed yearly): This plan gives you sales, customer service, operations software, CMS, and essential marketing tools. It’s limited to 2 paid users.
• Professional $1,780/month or $1,600/month billed yearly): Get advanced marketing, sales, CMS, customer service, and operations software, plus 5 paid users, and more.
• Enterprise ($5,000/month billed yearly): Everything in Professional plan, plus 10,000 contacts, 10 paid users, CMS hub enterprise, and more.

3. Freshsales (formerly Freshworks CRM)

Best sales CRM for businesses

Freshsales allows you to create and send automated email messages to your prospects.

It also offers a 2-way syncing with your email address. You can also create and forward leads directly from your sales email.

Unlike traditional CRM solutions, Freshsales allows you to automate several routine tasks.

Workflows are built into the software and can be configured to trigger certain actions based on conditions.  

Key Features

• Close deals faster with a 360-degree view of your customers
• Streamline your sales process to get better results
• Reduce IT complexity and cost
• Focus on the best leads with Predictive Contact Scoring
• Communicate better across channels – Phone, Email, Chat, and SMS

Pros

• Access complete customer information with 360-degree sales tools
• AI-powered lead scoring and lead management
• An intuitive mobile app to track and follow up with customers on the go
• Easily integrate with a wide array of third-party apps
• Intelligent predictive and real-time insights

Cons

• Larger businesses with huge contact lists will require higher packages that allow unlimited contacts
• Billing is based on the number of users, which means that the cost can add up for larger teams

Pricing

Here’s a breakdown of Freshsales’ pricing and plans:

• Free ($0/user/month): Get started with built-in chat, email, and phone, contact & account management, contact lifecycle stages, and more.
• Growth ($18/user/month or $15/user/month billed yearly): This plan is ideal for growing sales teams. Key features include visual sales pipeline, sales sequences, 2,000 Bot, and more.
• Pro ($47/user/month or $39/user/month billed yearly): Every feature in Growth, plus multiple sales pipelines, time-based workflows, 3,000 Bot, and more.
• Enterprise ($83/user/month or $69/user/month billed yearly): Everything in Pro, plus custom modules, audit logs, 5,000 Bot, and more.

4. ActiveCampaign CRM

Best sales CRM with automation

ActiveCampaign CRM combines email marketing automation and sales CRM to help you manage your customer list and grow sales.

This tool helps you create and manage customer relationships.

Its powerful customer data allows you to conduct detailed analytics and reporting.

You can also run complex multi-step marketing campaigns. It is also affordable, with one of the lowest monthly fees in the CRM industry.

Its easy-to-use interface makes it easy for any user to navigate and learn.

You can even send automated messages through the site or by email.

Key Features

• Automated contact management
• Track customer interaction at every stage of the sales cycle
• Lead scoring: Focus on leads with the potential to become customers
• Connect with Gmail, Outlook, and other email providers to track opens and replies
• Feed your CRM the most up-to-date customer data
• Create and manage tasks, make calls, update deals with CRM for iOS app

Pros

• An intutive drag-and-drop builder with powerful CRM tools
• Customization of fields is very user friendly and intuitive
• Manage your contacts in a central platform (stay organized)
• Easily keep track of leads from the initial contact to conversion
• Easily score leads and focus on leads with potentials to convert
• Notify your sales team with automated sequences

Cons

• The site can sometimes be quite slow
• Tasks cannot be automated outside of deals
• Tags seem to randomly malfunction when sending campaigns

Pricing

ActiveCampaign’s pricing is based on how many contacts you have. There are features for B2C, B2B, and Enterprise. This pricing breakdown (with B2B features) is based on 500 contacts:

• Lite ($15/month or $9/month paid yearly): Import leads from anywhere, sales emails, segmented outreach, lead capture forms, etc.
• Plus ($70/month or $49/month paid yearly): Sales automation, multiple pipelines in the CRM, customizable sales pipelines, lead scoring, plus everything in Lite plan.
• Professional ($187/month or $149/month paid yearly): Everything in Plus plan, plus sales engagement automation, win probability, conversion reporting, etc.
• Enterprise ($323/month or $259/month paid yearly): Everything in Professional plan, plus custom sales reporting, contact enrichment, and custom objects.

5. Monday.com

Best all-in-one sales CRM software

Monday CRM helps you to manage projects, leads, and budgets with ease. You can also track teams and automate follow-ups.

You can keep track of all client activity, including emails, calls, meetings, and demos.

This tool is easy to use and integrates with many other tools, including Gmail and Outlook.

You can assign leads to different departments automatically and create automation to assign and qualify leads.

Besides these, Monday CRM also lets you create custom forms and export them to your email client.

Key Features

• Stay organized with your leads and customers
• Customizable dashboards show an overview of your progress
• Build your workflow with Monday.com building blocks
• Manage your leads and close deals
• Post-sales management and customer support

Pros

• Access 360-degree customer information
• Easy to set up and user-friendly interface
• Excellent and responsive customer support
• Stay organized and get more done with project management tools
• Powerful integrations with your favorite tools (including ActiveCampaign)

Cons

• There’s no chat function for team members to interact with
• It requires a learning curve to create your own workflows (for the first time)
• The mobile version of Monday.com sometimes gets slow, which may cause the screen to freeze for a few seconds

Pricing

Monday.com uses 3 seats as the minimum benchmark for all its paid plans. Here’s a breakdown:

• Individual ($0/free forever): Getting started already? Use this free plan with unlimited plans, unlimited docs, and more. Up to 2 seats allowed.
• Basic ($6/seat/month billed annually): Manage all your teams’ work in one place, with unlimited items, unlimited free viewers, etc.
• Pro ($22/seat/month billed annually): It’s time to run your teams’ complex workflows, create private boards and docs, chart view, and more.
• Enterprise: You’re expected to contact the sales support to get a custom quote. This plan is ideal if your organization is seeking enterprise-grade features.

Note: You’re saving 18% with this annual payment. If you opt to pay monthly instead, expect to pay more.

6. ClickUp

Best CRM app for project management

ClickUp CRM is a software system that allows you to track, manage, and share information between all departments within your company.

It also helps you stay organized in projects, processes, meetings, and documentation.

ClickUp offers many features that can help you manage your customer relationships.

It provides tracking and data visualization, as well as email integration.

You can use it to communicate with colleagues, communicate with clients, and manage projects more efficiently.

Key Features

• Sales pipelines management
• Account and contact management
• Communication tools to streamline sales
• Work smarter with clients with real-time chat
• Centralize customer outreach: Every task from a single hub
• A robust and easy-to-understand dashboard

Pros

• Clean, intuitive user interface
• Clever project management features, functionality, and implementation
• Easily create spaces or folders to manage contacts and files
• You can integrate with 100s of apps
• Plan projects and execute tasks quickly

Cons

• Customizing the dashboard can be a little easier and more intuitive
• It requires a high learning curve. More hands-on demo videos will be great

Pricing

• Free ($0/free forever): 100MB storage, unlimited tasks, unlimited members, and more.
• Unlimited ($9/member/month): Best plan for small teams, unlimited storage, unlimited integrations, form view, etc.
• Business ($19/member/month): Mid-sized teams can benefit from this plan. Get Google SSO, unlimited teams, custom exporting, etc.
• Business Plus ($29/member/month): Multiple teams can use this plan for team sharing, subtasks in multiple lists, custom role creation, etc.
• Enterprise: Contact sales to get a custom quote. Get every feature that ClickUp has to offer.

Note: With ClickUp, you save 45% when you pay annually. Get started with the free-forever plan to test the software before upgrading.

7. Zoho CRM

Best top-rated sales CRM by customers

Zoho CRM is a sales automation tool that can increase efficiency.

Use it to automate email templates, call logging, activity tracking, and workflow alerts, and reduce learning time for new team members.

It can also help gather business intelligence from marketing campaigns and trace leads.

Zoho CRM can integrate with other apps. The integration with Mailchimp, Shopify, DocuSign, and 50+ third-party apps gives you a comprehensive view of your customer base.

Its centralized platform makes it easy to track sales and customer activity across channels and departments.

Key Features

• Automate routine sales, marketing, and support functions
• Create optimized workflows to reduce manual data entry
• Customize with ease using the Zoho CRM drag-and-drop editor
• Bring your offline sales processes into your CRM
• Get notified when someone interacts with your brand (via email, telephone, and social)

Pros

• It’s highly customizable
• The free plan accomodates 3 users (great for a small team)
• You can import and expert customer data with ease
• Omnichannel customer support via email, live chat, social media, and most importantly phone
• Get a complete picture of all deals in the pipeline
• Access accurate estimate of revenue projections on a monthly basis

Cons

• Dashboard could be cleaner and more user-friendly
• You can’t filter by unique record, this leads to duplicate fields
• The built-in telephony system can be more intuitive to use  

Pricing

Zoho CRM has 4 paid plans with a flexible pricing. Let’s take a look at the summary:

• STANDARD ($18/user/month): Scoring rules, workflows, multiple pipelines, mass email, etc.
• PROFESSIONAL ($30/user/month): Everything in Standard, plus SalesSignals, Blueprint, Web-to-Case forms, and more.
• ENTERPRISE ($45/user/month): Everything in Professional, plus Zia AI, CommandCenter, Multi-user Portals, Advanced Customization, etc.
• ULTIMATE ($55/user/month): Every feature in Enterprise, plus enhanced featured limits, 30-day trial, canvas, and advanced BI – bundled with Zoho analytics.

Note: Save up to 34% of the total cost when you pay yearly.

8. Gist

Best all-purpose CRM solution

Gist is an all-in-one CRM solution for creating and delivering personalized customer experiences.

It helps businesses qualify leads, convert visitors to customers, and retain them at scale.

As an integrated solution, Gist automatically adds contacts from ActiveCampaign to its database, and updates contact information when events occur.

Once integrated with ActiveCampaign, it offers a complete customer management experience.

Key Features

• Capture leads and drive sales consistently
• Turn visitors into leads with forms, chatbots, and meetings
• Engage your audience: Email marketing, marketing automation, event tracking
• Schedule sales meetings 24/7
• Send targeted emails to your leads

Pros

• The live chat is easy to use for lead generation (it also support many languages)
• An intuitive email marketing tool to follow-up with leads
• It’s easy to set up with WordPress
• Easy creation of opt-in forms to capture and grow your list
• Audience segmentation is easy with the CRM module with offers contact information

Cons

• The drag-and-drop editor could be more intuitive to use
• Knowledgebase could be refined and optimized for beginners to find exactly what they’re looking for
• Use of webhooks isn’t allowed on the free plan. You must upgrade to access it (which increases the cost)

Pricing

Gist offers a free-forever plan + 2 paid plans:

• Free Forever ($0/month): 2 support seats included, live chat, team inbox, etc.
• Professional ($29/month): 5 support seats included, inbound email, Facebook integration, Twitter integration, plus everything in the free plan.
• Premium ($99/month): Get unlimited support seats, work smarter with bots and automation, live view, automated meeting scheduling, and more.

9. Keap (formerly Infusionsoft)

Best CRM, sales, and marketing CRM

Keap is a sales, marketing, and customer service CRM platform. It comes with several features, including the tasks feature that allows marketers to visually design marketing campaigns.

When a prospect requests information, Keap sends out a series of emails. The system also allows users to create customized quotes, which will be sent to the prospects.

This is the most useful feature of Keap CRM. Its sales process is based on stages, and you can move leads through different stages.

For example, if you’re selling a service, you can set up a lead in Keap and share the link with your customers to book an appointment.

Key Features

• Capture and convert leads more efficiently
• Use pre-made templates to set up follow-up automation
• Connect payments with native WePay, Stripe, and PayPal integrations
• Consolidate your tools into one place. Stay organized
• Integrate with 2,500+ applications

Pros

• Manage all your contacts and clients in a single place
• Build campaigns and send emails with ease
• Easily automate weekly reminders
• Lead scoring helps salespeople know where to invest their time
• Integrates with 100s of email marketing tools, landing page builders, etc.

Cons

• The user interface seems outdated
• The shopping cart offers basic functionality than other CRM platforms
• The landing page builder is basic (compared to Zoho CRM)

Pricing

Here’s the breakdown of the pricing and plans that Keap offers. This is based on 500 contacts — pricing will vary based on how many contacts you have:

• Lite ($40/month): This price is for your first 2 months and includes 1 user. Add additional users at $30/each.
• Pro ($85/month): The Pro plan is ideal for growing businesses. This pricing is for the first 2 months, 1 user, 500 contacts, and $30/each for additional users.
• Max ($100/month): Established businesses and their teams can use this package to grow. It includes all the features in Pro, plus sales funnels, lead scoring, recurring upsells, and more.

10. Salesflare

Best sales CRM for automation

Salesflare is a simple yet powerful CRM for small businesses selling B2B.

Unlike many other CRM systems, Salesflare follows the natural flow of sales pipelines.

This tool is easy to use and integrates with a wide range of third-party applications.

The dashboard enables you to manage your pipeline with ease, and the user interface is easy to understand.  

And if you have a large database of leads, Salesflare allows you to automate and streamline the process of forwarding leads and customers.

Key Features

• Work together as a team, stay organized
• Follow on new leads at the right time
• Integrate with your favorite tools and systems
• Find anyone’s email address in a matter of seconds
• Automatic logging of meetings and phone calls

Pros

• Track emails, links, and website visits
• Access to smart pipeline with automated and efficient follow-up sequences
• A quick and simple setup process
• Gain deep insights into customer relationship strengths
• Access useful analytics and reporting features
• Full integrations with a wide range of marketing platforms and apps

Cons

• You can’t send workflows of multiple emails in the Growth Plan
• It’s expensive compared to some CRM platforms
• No data migration in the Growth & Pro plans (despite the cost)

Pricing

Salesflare comes with 3 plans with flexible pricing, take a look:

• Growth ($35/user/month or $29/user/month billed annually): Automate your CRM data input, send personalized email campaigns, 25 email finding credits, and more.
• Pro ($55/user/month or $49/user/month billed annually): All features on the Growth Plan, plus set user permissions, create custom dashboards, 500 email finding credits, and more.
• Enterprise ($99/user/month billed annually): Everything in the Pro plan, plus custom training, data migration done for you, dedicated account manager, and more.

11. Pipeline CRM (formerly Pipeline Deals)

Best CRM software designed for salespeople

Pipeline CRM is an essential tool for sales teams. Using Pipeline CRM to manage your sales process makes it easy for your team to keep track of each lead.

Instead of trying to remember where you left off with a particular lead, they can easily pick up where you left off.

Your team can also use Pipeline CRM to remember where each lead is in the sales process.  

Pipelines are basically workflows. As a company grows and its products and services grow, it needs to manage the various stages that lead to a closed deal.

Key Features

• Track all your email messages, opens, clicks, and downloads
• Integrate with QuickBooks, email providers, sales software, etc.
• Create custom fields that will appear on every deal page
• Sales forecasting to help you maximize your efforts
• Automate sales commissions to reduce cost

Pros

• It’s easy to create and manage multiple sales pipelines
• Get access to unlimited file storage
• Create intuitive and custom dashboards
• Collaborate better and close deals faster
• Send targeted, personalized email campaigns

Cons

• It’s pricy compared to some CRM tools
• The reminder system could be more intuitive and easier to use

Pricing

PipelineCRM has 3 plans, namely:

• START ($29/user/month or $25/user/month billed yearly): Smaller teams can get started with the basic features they need to manage leads effectively.
• DEVELOP ($39/user/month or $33/user/month billed yearly): When you’re ready to accelerate real growth, this is the perfect plan with hands-on customer relationship features and project management.
• GROW ($59/user/month or $49/user/month billed yearly): Access advanced analytics and email marketing solutions to grow every aspect of your business.

12. NetHunt CRM

Best easy-to-use CRM for Gmail

NetHunt CRM is a sales automation tool, which is used to manage leads, nurture customer interactions, and close more deals.

This software allows you to save critical communication history and transaction history.

This software is ideal for small and fast-growing businesses. If you’re looking to automate your marketing campaign, NetHunt CRM is a great option.

Its auto-form fill and one-click lead capture features allow you to easily convert leads into customers.

You can also move your data from another CRM to NetHunt CRM in a matter of minutes.

Key Features

• Organize your business data effectively
• Grow your sales with NetHunt
• Automate sales routine
• Integrated with Gmail and LinkedIn
• Send emails, follow up, and close more deals

Pros

• Simple set up and ease of use
• Easily manage multiple sales pipelines
• It integrates with Gmail to streamline your emails to clients
• It’s affordable compared to other CRM software solutions
• Get your questions answered by a professional and responsive support team
• Import and Export customer data with ease

Cons

• It’s expensive (starting at $30/user/month) compared to Pipeline CRM
• You may encounter bugs occasionally. This can be improved

Pricing

NetHunt CRM offers 3 pricing and plans to help you choose wisely:

• Basic ($30/user/month): NetHunt web app, contact management, leads management, and more.
• Business ($60/user/month): Everything in Basic plan, plus multiple pipelines, filters & views, tasks and reminders, etc.
• Advanced ($120/user/month): Everything in Business plan, and more. It’s ideal for teams that need to manage complex workflows with more automations.
• Early-stage startup: Get in touch with the sales team to apply for NetHunt CRM special startup plan.

Note: You can save 20% of the monthly cost when you pay annually on the first three plans.

13. Streak CRM for Gmail

Best CRM software for Gmail

Stream CRM for Gmail is an easy-to-use extension that will help you to connect with leads and manage your customer relationship processes better.

Streak is a process-based, workflow CRM system that uses columns and rows to store information about your contacts, applicants, customers, and other business contacts.

You can also set up stages or pipelines, which are steps in a business process. This helps you manage your customer database.

You can export your contacts into Excel spreadsheets for easy importation.

Key Features

• Keep track of leads and close deals
• Track projects and tasks properly
• Prioritize and manage support tickets
• Maintain your business relationships and partners

Pros

• Easily track your business process — from sales to hiring to dealflow, etc.
• Keep your entire team in the look with Shared Pipelines
• Quickly send the same email to multiple recipients with automatic follow-ups
• Track emails and see when recipients have opened and read them
• Seamless integrations with G Suite (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Sheets, Chat, etc.).

Cons

• You may experience technical issues and bugs during Gmail integration
• Limited CRM features when compared to Zoho CRM or Pipedrive

Pricing

Streak has a straightforward pricing structure. Here’s an overview:

• FREE ($0/user/month): This is perfect for individuals just getting started. It offers Basic CRM, Mail Merge, and Email tracking.
• SOLO ($19/user/month): Professionals looking for an all-purpose can benefit from Link tracking, email merge, and Basic CRM with more flexible privileges.
• PRO ($59/user/month): This is ideal for teams looking for a complete CRM solution. It comes with shared pipelines, advanced CRM, and everything in SOLO plan.
• ENTERPRISE ($159/user/month): When you need deep customization and data validation, this plan comes with priority support, custom permissions, and more.

Note: Pay yearly and save up to 20% of the total monthly cost.

14. Close CRM

Best all-in-one CRM for growing teams

Close CRM is built to make email, calling, and marketing easier. The app can manage up to 4,000 contacts and provides features for each of them.

The system can help you automate feedback gathering, create health scores, and trigger alerts based on those scores.

You can also use custom fields to streamline the sales process. It’s a comprehensive sales tool that can help you get more out of your contact list.

This software also integrates with other CRM tools like HubSpot and Salesforce.

Key Features

• Onboard your team in minutes
• Analyze workflows and KPIs
• Grow revenue quickly
• Integrate with 100s of other tools
• Free migrations from your existing CRM tool

Pros

• Close CRM is easy to use
• It’s easy to organize all contacts with potential for conversion’
• Send bulk emails to all recipients with set of defined attributes
• Reach your customers at the right time with built-in calling features
• A robust sales leaderboard for quick sales opportunities

Cons

• Setting up a workflow is a bit complicated (especially for new users)
• You may experience minor bugs when replying to an account
• It’s a bit expensive compared to some CRM software solutions

Pricing

Close CRM has 4 pricing and plans to suit your business’ needs:

• Starter ($29/user/month or $25/user/month billed yearly): This starter plan is ideal for 1 to 3-person teams.
• Basic ($69/user/month or $59/user/month billed yearly): Mid-size sales teams can benefit from interacting with more users, creating custom fields, and leaderboards.
• Professional ($99/user/month or $89/user/month billed yearly): With this plan, you can increase outreach, and utilize calling automation and sequences to get better results.
• Business ($149/user/month or $129/user/month billed yearly): Unlimited users, Predictive Dialer, call coaching, and all-round customization.

Note: All plans include a free migration from any CRM software or platform. You can get started with a 14-day free trial.

15. Agile CRM

Best sales CRM with better integrations

Agile CRM is an all-in-one sales and marketing software. In addition to CRM, Agile comes with marketing automation and web analytics features.

The user interface of Agile CRM makes it easy to navigate and configure.

In addition to customer relationship management, Agile also offers marketing automation and social media features.

This makes it a great choice for smaller businesses that are looking for an all-in-one sales and marketing solution.

Key Features

• Single-page contact management
• Automate your sales and marketing in one platform
• Easy implementation and integrations with third-party apps
• Cloud-based, mobile-ready, and simple to use
• One-click calling, call scripts, and voicemail automation

Pros

• Manage your contacts and companies in one place
• Lead scoring gives you the upper hand to focus on leads that will make a difference
• Easily schedule appointments with clients and team members
• Create and send emails faster with an intuitive email templates builder

Cons

• Poor email deliverability rate from campaigns
• Customer service is slow and unreliable
• Automations are little clunky and often fail in intervals

Pricing

Here’s a breakdown of Agile CRM’s 4 distinct pricing and plans

• FREE ($0): Useful for 10 users, up to 50,000 contacts & companies, lead scoring, etc.
• STARTER ($14.99/user/month): Ideal plan for marketing, email campaigns, form builder, social monitoring, and more.
• REGULAR ($49.99/user/month): Service-focused plan gives you Helpdesk, Groups, Labels, Canned Responses, Reports, and more.
• ENTERPRISE ($79.99/user/month): Integrates with 50+ plugins and apps, email & phone support, chrome extension, and more.

Note: You save up to 34% when you pay yearly and 40% off when you pay for a 2-year plan.

16. Salesforce

Best enterprise CRM software for large businesses

Salesforce is a cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California.

It offers enterprise applications and customer relationship management services for businesses.

It focuses on customer service, marketing automation, analytics, and application development.

Many features are available as modules, including Web to Lead, weeding out duplicate leads, email and campaign management, and Google Apps Integration.

Salesforce helps you stay organized and track all of your customers. It can help you adapt your time more efficiently to satisfy your clients.

Key Features

• Sell smarter in a single app
• Connect teams and close more deals
• Build and optimize campaigns
• Get rich insights via the visual analytics
• Manage customer support cases faster across all channels

Pros

• Capture, organize, and nurture your leads with ease
• Easy to use for pipeline plotting
• Registering calls, mails, and exchanges is easy
• You can easily set up graphs from incoming data
• Quick access on mobile or via your computer

Cons

• Custom fields can be a bit confusing and disorganized
• Customer support isn’t always responsive

Pricing

Ready to put the power of CRM to work? Here are the 4 pricing plans from Salesforce:

• Essentials ($25/user/month billed annually): Get all-in-one sales and support app for your business.
• Sales Professional ($75/user/month billed annually): This plan is ideal when you’re looking to create complete sales solution for your team.
• Service Professional ($75/user/month billed annually): No matter the size of your team, get all the tools and features to drive a complete customer service.
• Pardot Growth ($1,250/user/month billed annually): Get Suite of marketing automation tools for your team, regardless of the size.

17. EngageBay

Best marketing and sales support software

EngageBay simplifies marketing, sales, and support processes with easy-to-use features and tools.

With EngageBay, you can customize your customer profiles and dashboard. The system’s drag-and-drop interface makes creating a landing page a breeze.

You can also customize your content with SEO settings and other customization options.

You can easily track your leads through multiple channels and manage their activity.

The platform automates tasks and escalations and includes a reporting tool that helps users track the success of their campaigns.

The Auto Dialer feature lets users make and receive calls with one click, and group them into categories.

Key Features

• Contact & Account management
• Automate your marketing processes
• Create forms and landing pages
• Schedule an appointment with your team/customer
• Customize chat form and resolve queries faster

Pros

• It’s cheap (starting at $14.99) compared to HubSpot CRM Enterprise
• Robust and feature-rich free-forever plan
• Get all-in-one CRM solution, including live chat, forms, landing pages, etc.
• Access unmatched automation capabilities
• Powerful integrations with Gmail and Office 365 in the free plan

Cons

• The user interface isn’t as intuitive as Zoho CRM
• The onboarding process is a bit complex and confusing

Pricing

EngageBay offers an all-in-one pricing to help you collaborate with your team and nurture your contacts. Let’s explore these 4 plans:

• FREE ($0/user/user/month): Email marketing, lead grabbers, CRM, live chat, and more.
• BASIC ($14.99/user/month): Everything in FREE, plus email templates web pop-ups, lead scoring, etc.
• GROWTH ($49.99/user/month): Everything in BASIC, plus marketing automation, push notifications, site messages, custom domain, etc.
• PRO ($99.99/user/month): Everything in GROWTH, plus web analytics, proposal analytics, SSO, Goals, and more.

Note: You save 10% when you pay yearly and 20% when you choose the 2-year payment plan.

18. Nimble

Best top-rated CRM for small business

Nimble is a relationship-focused CRM for the entire team. This software integrates contact management, social media, and marketing automation into one platform.

It provides valuable insight into every relationship you have with your contacts and helps you build stronger relationships in the workplace.

The Nimble CRM platform allows you to manage your calendar, tasks, and sales opportunities with ease.

You can easily access the information you need from a single dashboard, without having to switch between different programs.

Key Features

• Organize contacts by tags and segments in one place
• Track your team’s activities
• Manage your sales processes
• Use email templates to send emails faster
• Set reminders to follow up with contacts weekly, monthly, etc.

Pros

• Easily import contacts into the CRM
• Lots of communication templates for your campaign
• Keep track of your marketing in real time
• User data consolidation across multiple platforms
• It has an intuitive email marketing tool
• It integrates well with a lot of SaaS apps

Cons

• There’s no multiple pipeline management interface
• Its dashboard needs to be more visual and presentable
• The pricing can be revisited (it’s higher than some CRM tools)

Pricing

Nimble CRM has one plan: Nimble Business. It costs $25/user/month billed monthly but you can save big when you pay annually starting at $19/user/month.

This plan coms with contact management, unified message inbox, email message syncing, custom fields, and more.

19. Salesmate

Best CRM for sales team and customers

Salesmate CRM is an intelligent sales CRM that helps you improve your sales and close more deals faster.

The platform helps you manage your sales pipeline and saves time, all while helping you to win new customers.

This CRM is a smart investment that will boost your business. It helps you increase your revenue and win new customers.  

One of the major benefits of Salesmate CRM is its integration with InvoiceBerry.

They are both powerful CRM systems that let you manage your finances and sales.

With these tools, you can automatically receive invoices from your inbox and send them to the right people with a few clicks.

Key Features

• Manage contacts and close deals faster
• Email sync, tracking & templates
• Multiple pipeline management
• Built-in calling & text
• Email reminders and scheduling

Pros

• It’s intuitive to use and easy to set up
• Tech support available via chat anytime
• Affordable pricing plans for startups or growing businesses
• Keep track of your team’s success with the Sales Activity Tracker
• Seamless push notifications to follow up with a warm or cold lead
• Email tracking to view who has opened your email or clicked a link

Cons

• Cost of calling is quite high
• Dashboards can be a little more customizable
• Email sequences aren’t the best for sales outreach

Pricing

Salesmate comes with 4 pricing packages:

• Starter ($15/user/month): Contacts, Companies, Deals, Email Sync, and more.
• Growth ($30/user/month): All Starter features, plus product management, goal management, email reminders & scheduling, and more.
• Boost ($50/user/month): All Growth features, plus team management, increased team inbox limits, smart activity queue, and more.
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team to get custom pricing. Get all the features of Salesmate, and priority support.

Note: Save 20% of the total monthly costs when you pay annually.

20. Act!

Best CRM software for everyday use

Act! CRM is an easy-to-use sales automation platform for small businesses. It helps you manage your pipeline and sales process.

This software includes the sales funnel view and a kanban board. It is also easy to customize to suit your company’s unique sales process.

All tiers feature the same functionality, but you can add your own features, too.  The software’s pricing is based on the number of users and the version purchased.

Key Features

• All-in-one customer management tools
• Build rewarding client relationships
• Marketing automation in one place
• Maximize revenue with follow up
• Create workflows and send emails right on time

Pros

• Organize contacts and follow up via emails
• Easily set reminders about appointments and actions
• You can preserve and retrieve contact history quickly
• Create custom dashboards that simplify what you’re trying to collect
• It’s easy to create useful contact documents

Cons

• Running reports is a bit complicated and confusing
• It’s a pain in the neck to delete duplicate contacts (you have to delete individually)
• It’s not an intuitive user interface (not the best experience for users)

Pricing

Here’s the breakdown of the 3 different plans and pricing on the Act! CRM cloud-based platform:

• Act! CRM Starter ($12/user/month billed yearly): You can opt to pay as you go each month at $18/month. Get basic CRM and eMarketing features, unlimited contacts, and more.
• Act! CRM Professional ($25/user/month billed yearly): Pay as you go at $35/month, and get all the features in Starter, plus capture leads and grow your sales.
• Act! CRM Expert ($50/user/month billed yearly): Get all the features in Professional, plus all the features you need to increase revenue and work more efficiently. Not comfortable with yearly billing? You can pay as you go at $65/user/month.

21. Bitrix24

Best CRM system for teams

Bitrix24 is a CRM system that you can use to manage all aspects of your business.

It allows you to manage all your team members, track your leads and funnels, and communicate with clients.

This CRM tool is useful in many ways, including extinguishing fires and relaying information.

It is easy to use and has an attractive interface. It comes with a demo version. To start using it, sign up for a free trial or a 30-day free trial.

Key Features

• Manage leads, deals, contacts, and companies
• Generate quotes and invoices
• Set up online payments
• Sales automation with templates to choose from
• Improve your marketing with handy tools

Pros

• Intuitive, simple, and user-friendly interface
• Easily monitor and visualize the entire sales flow of your company
• It’s an efficient project management tool
• Seamless integration with third-party apps
• Manage multiple pipelines in one place
• Provides the ability to create subtasks, tasks, and projects

Cons

• It’s Audio conferencing tool could use some improvement
• It’s hard to schedule automated notifications
• The mobile app functionality is limited for teams

Pricing

Here’s the breakdown of Bitrix24 pricing and plans:

• Free: This plan is 100% free for unlimited users, with 5GB storage, and more.
• Basic ($39/month billed yearly): 5 users, collaboration tools, sales management, and more.
• Standard ($79/month billed yearly): 50 users, and all the features in Basic.
• Professional ($159/month billed yearly): Get all the features in Standard, pls unlimited users, chat, HD video calls, and more.

Note: With this yearly billing, you’re saving 20% of the total monthly cost. Otherwise, you may have to pay more when you pay as you go each month.

What is CRM Software?

CRM software is a business tool that is used to manage every aspect of customer relationships.

It can help businesses track and organize customer details, construct company and contact profiles, and assign and track transactions.

CRM software allows you to keep a tab on all agents’ activities and offers numerous integrations.

It can help your business grow by allowing you to add new users and add advanced features.

You can even create a custom interface to integrate with third-party applications, such as email marketing software.

Essential CRM Software Features

What makes a great CRM software? And what are the essential features you should keep a close eye on when choosing CRM software?

Let’s take a look at some essential CRM software features:

1. Marketing tools

CRM solutions are essentially used to connect with customers and facilitate marketing. If a CRM tool lacks this key feature, you should look elsewhere.

Fortunately, a lot of these tools have marketing tools, social media integrations, and email pipelines to help you strengthen customer relationships.

2. Security

Your customer data needs to be secured and protected all the time. Choose a CRM tool that uses several layers of security benchmarks, privacy standards, and other third-party tools to keep your customers’ data in safe hands.

3. Collaboration tools

Most CRM tools come with collaboration tools. What you should look out for are an easy-to-use collaboration tool and features.

This is very important if you want to communicate with your team members beyond emails.

4. Sales and lead management

Tracking leads is crucial. That’s why CRM software that simplifies this process will win all the time.

Regardless of the environment or platform you’re using to capture your leads, you should be able to track this, including sales calls, email, inbound marketing, sign-ups, and so on.

5. Lead qualification

Modern CRM software tools use AI insights to tell you which leads are most likely to generate positive outcomes.

You should keep an eye on these tools because they will help you make smarter business decisions about your leads.

6. A simple interface

What’s the essence of a tool that’s difficult to use? It may have the best features, but a simple interface is what qualifies it as the best CRM software.

Your team members will enjoy collaborating with it, communicating with customers, and resolving every issue.

7. Integrations

You use a lot of marketing platforms and apps to run your business.

You should be able to connect or integrate with your favorite apps with a few clicks of the button.

While should you juggle with several tools when you can import and keep all of your customer information in one place, and generate easy-to-understand reports?

8. Analytics and reporting

Your ability to see your progress is important. Your sales and service efforts need to be rewarded, hence, you need CRM software that offers robust analytics and reporting.

9. Project management

Your project needs to be managed efficiently. Your task and project management workflows let you track how much impact your team is making and give you insights on how to improve efficiency.

10. Automation

CRM tools are fundamentally helpful for automating various marketing activities such as sending emails or setting reminders — so that you can follow up on a sales call or hop on a Skype chat.

Why Use a CRM? Benefits of Using CRM Software

Let’s dive into the benefits of using CRM software? Is it worth it?

1. Seamless communication

Regardless of size or industry, CRM software is an important component of any business. Its features make it easy to manage and communicate with your clients.

It can also help you predict their needs. In addition, it can be used for cross-selling, up-selling, and marketing campaigns.

With a CRM, you’ll be able to offer the right product or service to meet their needs, which is crucial in the customer relationship.

2. Improved client relationships

Building relationships with clients is crucial for long-term success. The easiest way to turn strangers into buyers is by connecting with them at a deeper level.

When you use CRM software, you’ll increase your odds of boosting revenue by up to 95%, according to Customer Think.

2. Builds your brand reputation

CRM software helps businesses to track customer interactions and build brand reputation.

The purpose of this software is to provide key information about a target audience. It helps businesses to develop strategies for attracting customers.

Keep in mind that consumers are increasingly interested in brands that meet their needs, not those that sell them a product or service.

3. Outsmart your competition

If you’re a small business, CRM software can help you outsmart your competition by helping you respond to customer requests more quickly.

In today’s instant-access world, you need to be quick to resolve customer issues. CRM tools help you to automate tasks.

4. New sales opportunities

CRM is an excellent way to streamline and automate many administrative tasks.

The majority of these tasks don’t directly impact revenue but can optimize sales reps’ time.

CRM software also helps your business to identify prospective upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

5. Improved collaboration

CRM software enables collaborative work across the company. It helps teams to keep track of customer interactions and business opportunities.

It also allows teams to share ideas and develop new products and services.

As a result, your team will work more effectively and efficiently.

How Does CRM Software Work?

CRM software helps businesses better manage their customers by consolidating information from different sources.

It can automate sales processes, reduce human error, and increase the profitability of a business. A CRM helps a business with marketing, sales, and customer support.

CRM software helps companies organize customer data, track customer behavior, and guide them through the sales funnel.

It sends triggered emails to alert sales representatives of interest or potential upsell. It organizes customer data and enables business owners to track and analyze it.

The benefits of a CRM solution are numerous. It can help your business with marketing automation, eCommerce, and help desk functions. Once set up, your CRM will work automatically to generate more sales and revenue.

Using CRM software helps you keep track of your prospects and contacts. You can set reminders for important tasks, schedule phone calls, and emails, and even schedule upcoming events.

It also helps you close deals and keeps track of potential customers. If you have a small business, CRM software can help you manage your customer database.

Besides automating sales processes, CRM can also help you monitor and improve your customer service.  

How To Choose The Best CRM Software?

Here are some questions to ask when choosing CRM software:

• Is this software easy to use and navigate?
• How easy can I communicate with my leads via this software
• What about the user seats? How many are provided and are there minimums
• Can I easily train my employees or team members to effectively use it?
• What are the setup fees and how much does it cost in total?
• Is this built for small businesses or enterprises?
• Does this software integrate with my favorite tools?
• What are the security features of the software?
• Is the API accessible for further development?

How To Use CRM Software

Getting started with CRM software is easy. It might be the best decision you’ll make in your business.

To get the best results, use your CRM tool across all levels of your organization.

Let’s briefly discuss some of the steps on how to use a CRM:

1. Collect data from your customers

To start a campaign, you need to collect data from your leads and customers. You can do so via surveys, websites, emails, or print materials.

Surveys are probably the easiest way to collect data and require little effort from you.

Next, the data is migrated or imported into your CRM system. From there, you can begin the process of customer relationship management.

2. Add Your Sales Team

Your salespeople should be added to your CRM software. This is an important step to take — since your sales team will be handling most of the routine tasks.

A CRM tool can help you increase your sales and revenue, but your team must be at the top of their game — by making sure that the software is fun to use and navigate.

That’s why you also need to ensure that they find it easy to use.

3. Segment Your Audience

Your business has a unique set of customers. Your audience might be different from another business down the street, so it’s important to segment your audience.

A good audience segment helps you to communicate effectively and deliver optimal value to your audience.

In your sales funnel, you can easily categorize your prospects into various stages such as “lead”, “opportunity”, and “customer”. This will represent where each prospect stands in the funnel.

4. Import Your Customer List

The rules are not set in stone as to the number of CRM tools your organization should use. However, it’s best to use one CRM to have every customer data in one place.

You have to import your contact list into your CRM and begin to follow up, send product recommendations, answer their questions, and help them navigate the complexities of finding the right products.

You can import CSV files from your email marketing provider onto your CRM tool. Most CRM solutions allow this.

5. Integrate With Third-Party Apps

When using CRM software, you want to be able to address your customer’s pain points across multiple channels.  

Therefore, choose a CRM software that allows you to integrate with third-party integrations (such as Facebook, Shopify, Hunter, ActiveCampaign, etc.).

CRM Software – FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions about CRM software.

What is CRM software?

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a tool designed to help businesses better organize and access customer data to improve sales.

What is the best CRM software?

Pipedrive is the best CRM software with modern features and tools to help you collect data, manage customer relationships, and deliver the best customer experiences.

What are some popular CRM software tools?

Pipedrive, HubSpot CRM, ClickUp, Freshsales, and Monday.com are popular CRM tools you can use for your business.

What is the easiest CRM?

Zoho CRM is quite easy to use, yet, it has both basic and advanced features to help you build relationships with customers to drive sales.

Is CRM software difficult to learn?

The best CRM software tools are not hard to use. They usually come with a clean and simple user interface. You’ll also find plenty of learning resources, tutorial videos, and guides on how to use a particular CRM tool.

Does Google have a CRM?

Yes, Google Workspace is the native sales and marketing CRM software from Google.

Is HubSpot really free?

You can get started with a basic version of the HubSpot CRM for free, which includes 5 email templates, 5 snippets, 5 documents, and one meeting scheduling link. These features can be limiting for larger teams and organizations.

When you need more features, the HubSpot Enterprise plan is yours. It comes with everything in the free version, plus Migrations, 1,000+ app integrations, enterprise-grade security, lead generation, marketing automation, multi-touch revenue attribution, and more.

What is the best sales CRM software?

Pipedrive is the best sales CRM software, with a user-friendly dashboard and modern sales and marketing tools.

What is the best free CRM software?

HubSpot CRM is CRM CRM software that offers all the basic features you’ll ever need to market and increase sales with your customers.

What is the best CRM software for small business?

Freshsales is the best CRM software for small business, equipped with features that small businesses can use to grow their leads and sales.

What is the best CRM software for law firms?

Act! CRM is a perfect CRM tool for law firms. You can also use Lawmatics, which is ideal for law firms. You may also use HubSpot CRM, which cuts across all industries including the legal field.

What is the best CRM software for sales?

Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Act! are the best CRM software to improve your sales and help your team identify patterns for growth.

What is the best CRM software for real estate?

Close CRM is ideal for real estate and realtors because of the wide range of features to help close deals much faster.

What is the best CRM for multi-channel communication?

Monday.com and Salesmate are powerful CRM software that can handle multi-channel communication for your team.

What is the best CRM for project management?

ClickUp is the best and most-recommended CRM for managing projects, collaborating with your team, and improving overall sales.

What is the best CRM for making sales fun?

Zoho CRM and NetHunt are the best CRM tools that will make your sales processes fun and rewarding.

What is the best CRM for custom prospecting?

AgileCRM and Salesforce the ideal CRM for custom prospecting and communicating with your prospects/customers.

What is the best easy-to-use CRM?

Act! CRM is easy to use and comes with an intuitive user interface.

What is the best CRM for sales management?

Zoho CRM and AgileCRM are the best CRM tools to manage your sales, from importing contact lists to following up on your prospects to getting the sales, use these tools.

What is the best CRM for managing a business?

Pipedrive CRM has all the essential tools and features to help you manage your business — from lead acquisition to turning repeat customers.

What is the best CRM for Gmail power users?

Streak CRM for Gmail is the most powerful CRM for Gmail users. It’ll streamline sales from within your Gmail account, and give you the flexibility to communicate with the right prospects.

What is the best Enterprise CRM software?

HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Freshworks CRM are the best enterprise CRM tools you can trust.

What is the best customizable CRM?

Zoho CRM is easy to use with a ton of customization options than most CRM solutions.

What is the best CRM software for nonprofits?

Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud and HubSpot CRM are most suitable for nonprofits.

What is the best CRM software for individuals?

Freshsales, Monday.com, and ActiveCampaign are the most suitable CRM software for personal use.

What is CRM software used for?

CRM software is used to initiate, nurture, and manage your relationships with leads and customers.

What are some CRM software examples?

Some examples of CRM software tools are Pipedrive, Freshsales, AgileCRM, Monday.com, ClickUp, ActiveCampaign CRM, and HubSpot CRM,

What are some CRM software types?

Some CRM software types are collaborative, analytical, and operational.

Why is CRM important? Why use a CRM?

CRM software is an all-important tool or system for managing your leads and customers, communicating with them, and building relationships for future sales. Everything is done from one single place.

What does CRM software stand for?

CRM is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management

CRM Software price: How much does CRM software cost?

There are free CRM tools you can get started with. The majority of the best CRM software tool also offer free trials or free versions.

However, paid CRM system costs an average of $12 to $49/month for small businesses. Enterprise packages for larger organizations cost anywhere from $50 to $150 per user, per month, while the most expensive CRM systems cost $300 to $500 per user, per month.

What is CRM maintenance?

CRM maintenance deals with the ongoing process of auditing your CRM data, identifying possible issues, and fixing those issues within your database.

What does a good CRM look like?

A good CRM simplifies the process of collecting and evaluating your customer data.

It should use a clean interface, giving you access to real-time analytics so that you can identify and fix issues quickly.

You should be able to use your CRM to customize reports, analyze past sales patterns, create campaigns that will succeed, and create a stronger strategy.

Best CRM Software – Summary

I hope you found this ultimate guide to the best CRM software beneficial? I wrote it to help you pick the perfect CRM tool.

The best CRM software should be easy to use and come with collaboration, marketing, and sales tools for your team?

You also want to be able to generate reports and follow up with your leads & customers from a single dashboard or with just a few mouse clicks.

Now I’d like to turn it over to you:

What is your favorite CRM software?

Did I forget to mention your favorite CRM software in this guide?

Leave a comment below. I’ll be sure to read and respond to you.

Further reading on navidm.com: To buy, sell, and collect NFTs, be sure to check out my complete guide to the best NFT marketplaces. You can also check out my guide to the best webinar software and even more in-depth online software reviews here.