Best CRM Software: Compared & Reviewed

What is CRM Software?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a cloud-based solution for managing, organizing, and storing current and prospective customer data. Essential CRM data includes customer contact information, consumer preferences, order and interaction history, sales data, marketing campaign and lead management, customer journey mapping, and more.

CRM software digitizes and automates the customer relationship management process, leveraging live and historical data to give businesses a deeper understanding of customer behavior, sentiment, and experience.

CRM tools help businesses provide a consistent, customer-centric buying experience by identifying and anticipating consumer needs–increasing sales, customer retention, and customer satisfaction rates in the process.

Customer information is updated in real-time across voice and digital channels, ensuring all support agents have access to the same accurate, up-to-date information.

This continuity ensures customers feel respected and valued, leading to longer partnerships, more opportunities for upselling and cross-selling, and even an increased Net Promoter Score (NPS.) CRM systems provide unparalleled insight into the customer journey and experience, meaning more accurate forecasting, decreased operating expenses, shorter buying cycles, and increased overall profitability.

 

Why Use CRM Software?

Cloud CRM systems help businesses improve everyday operations by providing personalized customer service and high-level insight into customer expectations and pain points. CRM tools provide several benefits including:

• Personalized Customer Communication: A CRM allows agents to bring up relevant information such as interaction history and geographic location in order to personalize every conversation
• Increased Customer Retention: Automatic follow ups ensure that nothing slips through the cracks leading to less customer churn and increased cost savings
• Higher CSAT and NPS scores: CRMs allow companies to implement self-service and reduce wait times for live agents, resulting in more satisfied customers
• Increased Upselling and Cross-Selling: With access to customer preferences and past purchase information during sales calls, agents can more naturally make recommendations and upsell
• A Single Source of Truth: CRMs provide a centralized repository for customer information that can be used to streamline business process management as well as reduce frustration for both customers and agents

 

CRM Software Essential Features

CRM software has expanded to support several business functions, such as team collaboration, sales forecasting, and campaign management. Many CRM providers use generative AI, workflow builders, and other automation features to streamline business processes and optimize customer journeys.

According to a recent study done by McKinsey, generative AI and similar technologies can automate 60% to 70% of employees’ work activities, saving businesses time and money while freeing up team members to focus on building relationships and making sales.

Below, we’ll cover the most important CRM functions and essential features to look for.

 

Customer Data and Contact Management

The ability to collect, organize and access customer data is vital to all types of CRM. This tool allows users to segment contacts into groups and improve marketing strategies when introducing new products. CRM unifies all customer and client data in one place, simplifying and centralizing everything a business needs to know about them.

 

Marketing Automation

Top CRM platforms allow organizations to automate parts of their marketing efforts. CRM marketing tools and functions include sending emails to customers in certain buying stages or company demographics. As a result, marketing teams can strategically reach target audiences with reduced effort. This helps a sales rep generate a higher number of sales leads in a shorter period of time by leveraging things like email marketing, dynamic pricing, and even social media outreach on sites like LinkedIn.

 

Customer Support

CRM systems integrate with existing help desk and contact center software to streamline customer interactions, phone calls, and support tickets. This continuity helps with customers who make multiple calls for support. It also helps ensure that information customers entered elsewhere, such as into an online form or with an AI chatbot, is available when speaking with customer service teams.

 

Lead Management

Part of the CRM benefit includes the ability to use analytics for lead generation. This can include metrics and scoring prospects to determine the best opportunities to follow up with based on their profile. By using available data on a customer’s needs, purchase history, and larger industry trends, salespeople can create marketing campaigns to better target those more likely to make a purchase. Along with improving efficiency, these processes can help improve the function of your sales team.

 

Accelerated Sales Funnels

Along with recording customer interactions, these products can improve overall sales enablement and operations. Sales force automation features include the ability to create quotes, process orders, update contact information, send and track emails, evaluate employee performance, and create a sales management protocol.

 

Examples of How a CRM System Works

Here are some common examples of how a CRM works to improve customer experience and increase sales:

• Implement Self Service Options: A CRM solution allows companies to offer self-service options like knowledge base articles, chatbots, online payments, and more. Some CRM providers include low-code or no-code studios for admins to build custom bots and self-service workflows, along with tracking, data capture, and analytics to ensure inefficiencies are addressed promptly
• Small Business Marketing: CRMs enable companies to harness data from across the organization—including sales, service engagements, and commerce events—and then use that data to trigger automated outreach via email or text. CRMs keep all contacts organized while giving businesses the ability to create segments for personalized communication
• Order Management: CRM solutions allow all businesses to create fulfillment workflows, view inventory in real-time, and centralize contextual data like order history, customer records, payment terms, and service tools under one pane of glass
• B2B Marketing: B2B companies use CRM tools to create landing pages for data capture and lead generation. AI-powered lead scoring tools enable B2B companies to identify the leads most likely to convert based on behavior and profiles of prospects who converted in the past
• Omnichannel Engagement: Many CRM providers include tools that enable companies to interact with customers and prospects via SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple Messages for Business, and more. Omnichannel routing sends incoming communication from any channel to the right agent based on skill set, availability, and capacity.

 

Free vs Paid CRM Software

As businesses look to implement CRM software, they may be overwhelmed by the volume of choices available. The CRM marketplace includes a wide variety of vendors from established players to start-ups looking to disrupt the market. One of the big questions technology executives face is whether to select one of the myriad of free CRM software on the marketplace as opposed to a paid option.

While a free option may seem best at first glance, most free offerings only include basic functionality. For small businesses just starting with CRM, this may be enough. For large and medium-sized companies, or for small businesses looking to quickly grow, these free platforms may fall short.

Here are some key differences between free and paid CRM software businesses should consider.

Free CRM Software

Paid CRM Software

Sets a cap on the number of users Offers basic functionality Limit on the number of customer records Limited native integrations and features Unable to use third-party features Limited email tracking Limited notifications and reminders No or minimal lead scoring and marketing functions. No or limited support No or limited reporting

Ability to easily add users as operations expand Provides businesses with additional features and functionality that can be added as needed No limit on the number of customer and client records Expanded native integrations to allow for simple adoption Able to add third-party features as needed Expanded email tracking and data collection from targeted email campaigns Robust automated notification system and task reminders to help ensure customer satisfaction Lead scoring and marketing ability that integrates with current collaboration platforms

How to Get Started with CRM Software

Let’s look at some things businesses must consider when choosing a CRM tool.

• Infrastructure Requirements - Cloud-based platforms do not require organizations to make any additions to their existing IT infrastructure, as they require only a working internet connection. This is opposed to on-premises solutions, which would require additional servers, expensive equipment, time-consuming on-site installation, and continued maintenance.
• Accessibility - With remote work becoming more popular, the need to access data anywhere has become that much more important. Cloud-based CRM software can be accessed anywhere from any device. This makes it simple for employees to access information promptly no matter where they work.
• Costs - Some CRM platforms offer their service for free. However, these free options typically only include a base level of service and come with continuous sales pitches to increase functionality. A free option can be a good place for businesses just starting out as they can test the core of a CRM system before making a financial decision.
• Customization - Customer management solutions offer a range of additional tools as add-ons that can be tailored to an organization’s specific needs. Businesses looking to implement a CRM should consider what customized solutions work best for their needs and which services would be nice to have. Determining these two factors will help in picking the best solution while keeping costs in line.
• Ease of Use and Integration - Like all software, the benefits of CRM software can only be realized if employees can integrate them into their daily work. Businesses want to ensure that any CRM system they select works with their existing systems.
• Security and Privacy - The security of company data and customer information should be a top priority. With cloud-based CRM software, the vendor bears responsibility for security and has likely invested heavily in keeping data secure.

 

Our Picks for the Best CRM Software

The marketplace includes dozens of leading products. Businesses may feel overwhelmed in deciding which one to use for their organization. Since picking a solution can greatly impact a business’s bottom line technology leaders must make the right choice. Let’s look at some of the best CRM tools currently on the market.

 

Monday.com

Monday.com is a CRM software and team collaboration platform that focuses on project management through spreadsheets that track tasks, assignees, the status of the tasks, due dates, and more. It is highly user-friendly with a simple UI and an aesthetically pleasing color scheme to make the quick sorting of tasks easier.

Monday.com does a good job of managing tasks for small businesses, though it still falls more heavily into the role of team and project management. The CRM side of the software is growing rapidly, and new features are regularly released for client management and sales tracking. This is a great option for its customizability and wide range of use.

 

Standout Features

• Generative AI: Users leverage artificial intelligence to quickly create emails, utilize smart templates, summarize call transcripts and meeting notes, and craft formulas for complex pipeline reporting
• Mass Emails: Enables users to send one mass email that results in multiple individual threads of conversation, one per recipient. The email does not indicate that there were multiple recipients.
• Sales Forecasting: Uses historical data to generate monthly/daily inventory and workforce forecasts, optimizes agent schedules across channels
• Lead Scoring: Enables users to assign each lead a numerical value based on several predefined parameters such as role, company, revenue, and the number of employees
• Whiteboard Collaboration: Digital whiteboard software that allows team members to freely sketch, add pictures, and collaborate in real-time

 

Why We Picked Monday

• Templates: Monday includes over 200 templates and 20+ column types in all pricing plans, allowing users to track and organize everything from contact databases to lead management and sales pipelines
• Features: Monday stands out due to its long list of features- specifically AI-powered features- such as content generation and rephrasing, natural language to code script writing, and forecasting
• User Interface: Monday’s no-code dashboards are some of the most intuitive in the CRM space. They include numerous widget options such as charts, time tracking, Gantt maps, workload/team progress overview, etc.

 

What we Like and Dislike about Monday:

 

Monday Pricing and Plans

Monday offers 4 pricing plans for its Sales CRM product:

• Basic CRM ($12 per seat/mo.): Includes unlimited boards, contacts and customizable pipelines
• Standard CRM ($17 per seat/mo.): Adds on AI email generator, quotes and invoices, 250 custom CRM automations per month
• Pro CRM ($28 per seat/mo.): Includes 25,000 custom CRM automations per month. Adds on sales forecasting, mass emails with tracking, and sales analytics
• Enterprise CRM: Adds on HIPAA compliance, multi-level permissions, lead scoring and advanced analytics

 

Who Monday Is Best For:

• Remote and Hybrid Teams: Monday offers team collaboration features such as whiteboard, real-time notifications, and document sharing to help remote teams stay on the same page
• Creative and Design Teams: Monday’s platform is colorful, visually appealing, and flexible– allowing creative teams to stay organized and inspired no matter what their workflows look like
• Value-focused SMBs: Monday offers affordable pricing compared to other CRMs and 24/7 live customer support–making it a good option for small and medium-sized companies on a budget

 

Freshsales

Freshsales is a user-friendly CRM software with a robust free plan to get started, and multiple additional features with each additional tier of the paid plans. Freshsales has evolved from the customer support-centric platform Freshdesk, with a primary focus placed on ease of use and approachability for small businesses.

Freshsales is an excellent choice for businesses looking to connect their call center with customers and potential clients and provides the tools needed to create detailed reporting on your call center and individual agent performance. There is even an integrated incentive system in the form of a sort of “game” that makes monotonous work feel more rewarding and enjoyable!

 

Standout Features

• Sandbox: Enables admins to test out new features and strategies in a controlled environment without impacting current accounts
• Kanban Boards: Represents each prospect as a card that shows the name, subject, short description, etc. Users drag and drop cards onto a column to change status, giving team members a bird’s eye view of the sales pipeline
• AI-powered Chatbots: Managers and admins can build bots to can answer customer questions, execute actions based on triggers, and auto-update customer information
• Workflows: Users build workflows to automatically create tasks, update records, or schedule email reminders. Advanced workflows include time-based triggers for recurring actions
• Freddy AI: Freshsales’ AI bot scores contacts based on demographic and behavior, generates personalized sales emails and follow-ups, and delivers insights such as whether a deal is likely to close, is at risk, or has gone cold

 

Why We Picked Freshsales

• Free Version: Freshsales offers a free version with email templates, social media campaigns, and 24/5 customer support that is good for small businesses that need 3 seats or less
• Scalability: Growing companies can easily scale to the Pro or Enterprise plan which offers advanced AI capabilities, or can integrate other Freshworks products for customer service ticketing, IT management, and e-commerce
• Multiple views: Freshsales empowers team members to visualize data in a way that makes sense to them through Kanban and table views, activity timelines, details section, and highlight cards

 

What we Like and Dislike about Freshsales:

 

Freshsales Pricing and Plans

Freshsales offers 4 different pricing plans starting at $0.00 per month for the Free plan:

• Free: Up to 3 users and 100 contacts includes Kanban view, email templates and mobile app
• Growth ($9 per seat/month): Adds on web forms, multichannel engagement, and curated reports
• Pro ($39 per seat/month): Adds on AI-powered contact scoring, advanced workflows, and custom reports
• Enterprise ($59 per seat month): Adds on field level permissions, sandbox, and dedicated account manager

 

Who Freshsales Is Best For:

• Companies using other Freshworks products: Freshsales integrates completely with other Freshworks such as Freshdesk, Freshservice, Freshmarketer, and Freshchat
• Omnichannel engagement: Freshsales supports a variety of digital channels including WhatsApp, Messenger, Zoom, email, and chat, with a single source of truth for every contact
• Entrepreneurs: Freshsales’s free version comes with built-in phone capabilities, task management and email templates and is perfect for entrepreneurs on a tight budget

 

Hubspot

Hubspot is another small business CRM with an intuitive dashboard and a free version. The base platform provides standard customer management with features like Facebook Messenger integration, live chat, and 1 ticket pipeline. Add-ons can be purchased to develop the platform into a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for customer relationship management.

The Hubspot CRM platform consists of five core products combined into one unified platform should the user choose. The five products, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, and Operations Hub, can be purchased individually at three price tiers, varying depending on the product, or as a complete bundle known as the CRM Suite. In this review, we'll be looking at the three pricing plans of the all-inclusive Customer Platform.

 

Standout Features

• Video Messaging: Users create help videos with a webcam or screen sharing tool and include them in emails, messages, etc. Videos can also be embedded into Hubspot knowledge base articles
• Canned snippets: Users can create a bank of reusable answers for frequently asked questions that can quickly be posted to live chats or emails
• Conversation Routing: Allows managers to set up automatic routing for incoming chats and emails based on preset rules and conditions
• Coaching Playlists: Supervisors save exemplary call recordings and build playlists for training purposes
• Smart Send Times: Hubspot leverages AI to provide suggestions for the best send time for each prospect. Users can schedule emails to be sent automatically at that time

 

Why We Picked Hubspot

• Personalized Email Sequences: This unique tool enables users to send a series of targeted, timed email templates to nurture contacts over time with automatic follow up reminders
• Integrations: HubSpot’s Customer Platform integrates with over 500 third party apps including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Gmail, Outlook, Zapier, Salesforce, and more
• Customizable: Hubspot includes many granular customizations such as allowing team members to access only the data necessary for their role, and configure deal pipelines, board views, index pages, and record pages exactly how they like

 

What we Like and Dislike about Hubspot:

 

Hubspot Pricing and Plans:

Hubspot offers one free plan and two paid plans for individuals and SMBs:

• Free Tools: Includes up to 3 dashboards with 10 reports per dashboard, and 1 email automation, along with live chat, landing page and blog– all with Hubspot branding
• Starter ($15 per month): Email automations increased to 10, Hubspot branding removed, adds on customer support, required fields, payments, and task calendar sync
• Professional ($1,080 per month): Includes 25 dashboards with 30 reports per dashboard. Adds on insights dashboard, custom reporting and analytics, forecasting, video messaging, Salesforce integration, and custom surveys

 

Who Hubspot Is Best For: 

• Business-to-Business Companies: HubSport is a great choice for B2B because it combines email, blogging, and SEO tools all under one pane of glass
• Companies Looking For A Sales Strategy Overhaul: Hubspot offers comprehensive training to teach users how to offer more comprehensive inbound retainers and deliver lead generation services to clients using top, middle, and bottom-of-the-funnel strategies
• Content Marketing: Hubspot enables companies to build landing pages and websites with easy-to-use drag/drop tools and then track visitors with detailed reporting showing how long each visitor spent on the site and what they viewed

 

Salesforce

Salesforce is a CRM software built on the SaaS (Software as a Service) model and has long been the platform of choice for businesses large and small. Not only has Salesforce continued to innovate in the space of CRM software with features like interoperability and AI, but their list of partners offers additional benefits and potentially game-changing tools for a business of any size.

Salesforce is the premier option for large enterprises that want a complete end-to-end CRM system and are not afraid of a high price tag to get what they want. It offers a wide array of integrations with innate capabilities to manage every facet of Customer Relationship Management, client databases, customer service, and more.

 

Standout Features

• Conversation Insights: Tracks customer calls, emails, and conversations for action items and keywords with automatic transcription and extraction
• To-Do List: Allows users to sort, organize, and view tasks in a customizable way with the ability to apply labels and prioritize tasks
• Case Management: Automatically collects, organizes, and routes customer interactions to the best available agent or team across all channels
• Swarming: An agent sends a swarm request to get help with a customer service issue. Team members use the “expert finder” to automatically route the invitations to the best available user with the specified skills, availability, and capacity or add people directly, by name
• Reporting and Analytics: Real-time configurable reports and dashboards with cross filters, joined reports, bucketing, and history tracking

 

Why We Picked Salesforce

• Cutting Edge Artificial Intelligence: Salesforce recently launched Einstein CoPilot, a generative AI assistant that creates personalized marketing campaigns makes product recommendations, creates lead close plans, and answers customer inquiries via natural language conversations
• Mobile App: The Salesforce mobile app for iPhone and Android is easy to use, included in all plans, and packed with features including dashboards, reports, meetings, tasks, notifications, approvals, and lead and deal statuses
• Real-Time Sales Pipeline: Salesforce users customize pipelines by creating pipeline views, and adding filters to view opportunities that meet predetermined criteria such as accounts, team, territory, record type, etc.

 

What we Like and Dislike about Salesforce:

 

Salesforce pricing and plans:

Salesforce offers a CRM for either Sales or Service, both with 5 pricing options, starting at $25.00 per month:

• Starter ($25 per user/month): Includes case and knowledge management (service) or lead, account, contact, and opportunity management (sales) with customizable reports and dashboards
• Professional ($80 per user/month): Adds on offline mobile functionality, advanced forecasting, and omnichannel routing
• Enterprise ($165 per user/month): Adds on help center functionality (service) and opportunity scoring (sales)
• Unlimited ($330 per user/month): Adds on service catalog (service), lead scoring, and email insights (sales), and Premier Success Plan (both)
• Einstein 1 Sales/Service ($500 per user/month): Adds on unified voice and messaging, Einstein CoPilot generative AI, and data cloud intelligence

 

Who Salesforce Is Best For: 

• Large Businesses and Enterprises: Salesforce’s platform can accommodate large numbers of seats and contacts, as well as limitless amounts of data with customizable dashboards and advanced analytics
• Healthcare Industry: Salesforce offers a healthcare-specific product called Health Cloud with out-of-the-box, customizable data models and the automatic collection of clinical and nonclinical data — medical, demographic, claims, social, behavioral, etc.
• Financial Services Industry: Salesforce was named a leader in The Forrester Wave: Financial Services CRM, Q3 2023 thanks to a range of prebuilt accelerators that connect financial, transaction, and CRM data

 

Zoho

Zoho is an all-in-one CRM solution with customizable dashboards and over 800 third-party integrations. Zoho offers their service at competitive prices, making it a great choice for small and large businesses alike.

Zoho is an excellent choice for businesses that require advanced analytics or want to take a heavier hand in the customization of their CRM. It sports a proprietary AI and advanced customization at higher price tiers, making it an excellent canvas for tech-savvy organizations to impose their needs on.

 

Standout Features

• Custom SalesSignals: Provides real-time notifications according to custom preset rules, for example, a notification is sent whenever a deal has been dormant in the sales pipeline for a particular period
• Assignment and Scoring Rules: Assignment rules automatically send communications of any form to the right agent or department, while scoring rules help team members prioritize the leads most likely to convert
• Reporting: Predefined reports and dashboards with an array of built-in tools are included in all plans. Advanced visualization tools, anomaly detectors, and web form analytics are available to Enterprise and Ultimate plan users
• Email intelligence: Email insights allow all users to track performance metrics such as open and click rates, while sentiment analysis, email summaries, and automatic scheduling are available to Enterprise and Ultimate plan users
• Auto-responders: Zoho users send automatic replies and email follow-ups by customizing templates or creating replies from scratch. Users can select follow-up dates, exclude certain contacts, set recurring autoresponders, etc.

 

Why We Picked Zoho

• Command Center: Zoho’s command center automates the entire customer journey by defining sequential steps and actions that will occur automatically. Admins have a bird's-eye view of the entire process to pinpoint bottlenecks, troubleshoot errors, and identify high churn risks
• Business Intelligence: Zoho’s advanced analytics suite enables users to converse with a generative AI assistant to automate insights, predict future trends, do cognitive and what-if analyses, set up smart alerts, and more. Only available in the Ultimate pricing plan
• Customizable Platform: Zoho users can customize their homepage, collect and associate any type of data, and create custom modules, buttons, and page layouts. A developer sandbox and developer hub are included in the Enterprise plan and up

 

What We Like and Dislike about Zoho:

 

Zoho Pricing and Plans:

Zoho offers a free plan and 4 paid plan options:

• Free: Up to 3 users and includes leads, accounts, contacts, deals, feeds, and document library
• Standard ($14 per user/mo): Includes 100 custom reports, 10 custom dashboards, and multiple pipelines
• Professional ($23 per user/mo): Includes unlimited custom reports, adds on Adds on Macros and assignment/validation rules
• Enterprise ($40 per user/mo): Adds on data encryption, and AI-powered sales forecasting and analytics
• Ultimate ($52 per user/mo): Adds on Zoho’s BI-powered advanced analytics suite

 

Who Zoho Is Best For: 

• Companies That Often Collaborate with Third Parties: Zoho offers a portal feature on Enterprise and Ultimate pricing plans that enables admins to grant relevant CRM access to customers, partners, vendors, and contractors. Enterprise customers can also add on “lite users” for $12 per user/month
• Businesses That Use Email Marketing: Zoho includes a a vast library of email templates along with several marketing tools such as mass email, email authentication, automated email summaries, and email parsing which captures lead information and automatically updates the CRM
• Startups: For businesses that need three user accounts or less, Zoho’s free forever plan provides a lot of value with contacts, deal management, tasks and reminders, and 10 custom email templates

 

Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer relationship management software with ​​ticketing, messaging, help center, and voice functionality.

Zendesk is a great option for businesses of all sizes looking for an easy-to-use CRM software that will work right out of the box. With a simple UI and clear features, this CRM will work without the headache of more complex options.

 

Standout Features

• Service Level Agreements: Users can ensure that customer contracts and business goals are met through defined response and resolution times via service level agreements (SLA)
• Queue size and wait time: Admins set a maximum queue size and wait time to determine how many incoming callers will be kept waiting for an available agent
• Sunshine Conversations: Users leverage a unified API to create custom conversational bots that can help customers browse products, make reservations, make payments directly in the conversation, and more
• Custom business rules: ​​Users create workflows that are triggered by ticket changes or time-based conditions. Zendesk includes pre-configured recommended business rules that can be used as a starting point, modified, or turned off completely
• Side conversations: When agents get stuck they can tag teammates on a ticket and receive a response via email or Slack with the whole conversation linked to the ticket

 

Why We Picked Zendesk

• Self-service tools: Zendesk enables companies to build self-service bots and even create a dedicated portal for customers to manage their support requests with community contributions
• HIPAA compliance: Zendesk is one of the few CRM providers to offer HIPAA compliance on features such as voice, live chat, and ticketing system functionality
• Out of the Box Platform: Zendesk is designed for fast onboarding, deployment, and scaling with an intuitive UI, ready-to-use automation, knowledge base templates, and customizable themes

 

What we Like and Dislike about Zendesk:

 

Zendesk Pricing and Plans:

Zendesk offers four pricing plans for its CRM product:

• Suite Team ($55 per agent/month): Includes standard bots, pre-built analytics dashboards, and custom business rules
• Suite Growth ($89 per agent/month): Adds on multiple ticket forms, light agents, and multi-lingual support and content
• Suite Professional ($115 per agent/month): Adds on skills based routing, HIPAA compliance, and custom live analytics
• Suite Enterprise ($169 per agent/month): Adds on sandbox, custom roles, and content blocks

 

Who Zendesk Is Best For: 

• Global Enterprises: Zendesk enables companies to provide support in over 40 languages. Users can select toll-free or local numbers from 75+ countries
• Building Help Centers: Zendesk helps companies reduce call volume and scale support with an integrated ticketing system and tools to create a searchable knowledge base, self-service bots, and customer portals
• Companies That Need A Secure Solution: Zendesk offers a high level of security with SSO, 2FA, and data encryption at rest and in motion included for all users. Advanced encryption and HIPAA compliance are included with upper-tier plans

 

Keap

Keap is a CRM solution tailored for entrepreneurs and business owners seeking long-term growth. Its platform combines efficiency and ease of use with marketing, sales automation, CRM, and payment functionality.

Keap is the perfect CRM software for entrepreneurs looking to maximize work-hour productivity by automating redundant, meticulous work tasks and streamlining operations.

 

Standout Features

• Lead Management: Source tracking allows users to segment leads based on where they came from while scoring allows users to prioritize the most valuable clients
• Multi-Page Sales Funnels: Enables users to create and connect multiple landing pages to attract prospects and then bring them through a sales funnel
• Forms: Enables users to create lead capture forms, customizable check-out forms, etc. that collect essential information and trigger automation when forms are completed
• Text Message Broadcasts: Allows users in the U.S. to send communication through text messages via a toll-free 1-800 number with several template options such as event reminder, special offer, business update, etc.
• Payments: Allows users to accept one-time or recurring payments with premium processors such as PayPal, Venmo, and Stripe

 

Why We Picked Keap

• Campaign Building: Keap offers one of the most advanced campaign builders in the industry to automate any sales and marketing process, and it is included in all pricing plans
• Customer Support: Keap includes a customer success manager, phone support, and 24/7 live chat support for all users
• Easy Automation: ​​Intuitive “when/then” builder allows users to set up simple automation in just a few minutes

 

What We Like and Dislike about Keap:

 

Keap Pricing and Plans:

Keap offers three pricing options starting at $159.00/month for 2 users:

• Pro plan ($159 per month): 1500 contacts and 2 users, includes a dedicated phone line, tasks, landing pages, and sales pipeline
• Max plan ($229 per month): 2500 contacts and 3 users, Adds on multi-page sales funnels
• Ultimate plan ($279 per month): 2500 contacts and 3 users Adds on sales round robin and shopping cart

 

Who Keap Is Best For: 

• Ecommerce Companies: Keap offers a native shopping cart and payments tool as well as landing page functionality to help businesses sell more products online
• Service Teams: Keap’s appointment tool makes it easy for users to create custom booking links that customers can use to self-schedule appointments on the company’s Google or Outlook calendar with automatic appointment reminders
• Mobile Teams: Keap’s mobile app is available for Android and iOS and is quite robust with contact management, invoices, task management, and more. Users can also access the web version of Keap from a mobile device. Users with an iOS device that supports Force Touch/3D Touch can use quick actions

 

Capsule CRM

Capsule CRM is a software solution with a focus on helping companies build better relationships with customers and clients. It provides a litany of filters and data tags, integrations with popular software, and security through multi-factor authentication to make customer relationship building a simple and easy process.

Capsule CRM presents an excellent option for small businesses with its low cost, user-friendly interface, and free price tier. It is simple to set up and use, and a great starting point for many looking for a base CRM solution.

 

Standout Features

• Sales Pipelines: Users customize sales pipelines with milestones, tracking, and team member assignments. Up to 100 sales pipelines are included depending on the plan
• Reporting and Analytics: Displays activities completed by each user, specific activity types, won/lost opportunities, pipeline growth, and average time to win. Connects to Google Looker Studio to combine multiple data sources and create interactive dashboards
• AI Content Assist: Generative AI helps users create compelling emails quickly and easily. Limited to 10 uses in the Free and Starter plans and 1,000 for all other plans
• Email templates: Users create custom email templates to use over and over. The number of templates is limited to 5, 50, 500, or 1,000 depending on the plan
• Kanban view: Users view all your opportunities in one pipeline with the ability to drag and drop to each stage as they progress

 

Why We Picked Capsule CRM

• Task and Project Management: Capsule CRM includes several innovative tools for task and project management such as tracks (sequential tasks), multiple project boards, and daily task reminder emails
• API Access: Developers and IT administrators can use Capsule’s API to build custom integrations with any third-party application
• User Interface: Capsule CRM has a clean and clear interface making it perfect for teams that don’t have a full-time developer and don’t require a lot of advanced features

 

What we Like and Dislike about Capsule CRM: 

 

Capsule CRM Pricing and Plans:

Capsule CRM offers a free plan and 4 paid plans:

• Free: Includes contact history, task management and 1 sales pipeline for up to 2 users and 250 contacts
• Starter ($18 per user/month): Includes 30,000 contacts, 5 email templates and Kanban visual pipeline
• Growth ($36 per user/month): Adds on activity and sales reporting, assignment email notifications
• Advanced ($54 per user/month): Includes 500 email templates and 50 multiple project boards
• Ultimate ($72 per user/month): Adds on import assistance and dedicated customer success manager

 

Who Capsule CRM Is Best For: 

• Companies with a High Volume of Contacts: Capsule has a robust contact management system that allows for custom list generation, tagging, and filters
• Companies that Want Consistent Customer Service as a Priority: Capsule is consistently commended for responsive customer service agents
• Businesses that Want a Straightforward, Affordable Solution: Capsule does not include as many integrations, customizations, and features as other CRM providers, but it has a solid tool stack, forgiving learning curve, and some of the lowest prices in the industry

 

How to Choose a CRM System

The global CRM market is expected to grow to 157.53 billion by 2030. This growth comes alongside the rising demand for automated engagement with customers as businesses continue to see the value CRM brings to operations.

Selecting the right CRM for your business is a big decision and there are many options out there. Before narrowing down providers, you will want to consider how your company will use the CRM and what the goals of the business are.

Here is a step-by-step mini guide to the CRM selection process:

1. Budget: There are CRMs available for any budget and there are even several free CRMs available. However, a free CRM may not meet the needs of your business, so it’s best to set a maximum monthly budget ahead of time. As most providers charge per user, you will also want to determine how many accounts you need. Ask about exclusive use and volume discounts, as well as any early termination fees associated with the service contract.
2. Integrations: Take note of what software and applications you are already using and ensure your CRM provider will integrate with it. This should include your email and VoIP service, and any social media platforms your company is active on.
3. Available features: Consider what features are essential for your team and which features you would like to have if they are available and fall within your budget. For example, mass email functionality might be a must-have feature if your company does a lot of email marketing, but a self-service bot creator might be a non-essential wishlist feature.
4. Scalability and Ease of Use: If you are planning to scale up your CRM system in the future, take note of which companies you can easily grow with. Also consider how user friendly the platform is–because complicated systems will take longer for onboarding and may frustrate employees. The best way to discern whether the platform will work for your team is to read reviews and take advantage of free trials and demos. Before committing to a platform, collect employee feedback and review onboarding and training materials from the provider.
5. Support Options: Finally, you will want to look into the customer service quality for your list of potential CRM providers, especially if you don’t have a full-time IT specialist on staff. Take note of the ways to reach customer service (email, phone, etc.) and hours. It’s also invaluable to read user reviews as they often mention how quickly issues are resolved.

Whatever your business decides, most providers offer a free trial so that you can determine whether the platform will work for both your team members and customers.