Big, small, and midsized businesses increasingly rely on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to enhance customer interactions and fuel growth. Over nine out of ten companies report that CRM helped them reach their income goals. Looking ahead, the CRM industry is poised to reach a whopping $57 billion by 2025.
That said, not every CRM is cut from the same cloth. Some systems are just too confusing to use or have questionable data security, while others not only keep customer relationships strong and businesses productive but are delightfully easy to integrate and scale with your team.
With the CRM landscape being as vast as it is, how do you know the best options for your business? This guide will walk you through some of the best CRM solutions. Whether you’re a well-established enterprise or a small team just starting to dip your toes into the CRM waters, you’ll likely find what you need here.
Looking for recruitment CRM instead? Out of dozens of candidate relationship management tools we’ve tested, these are the best ones.
The Best CRMs for Small Businesses
Here, we’ve shortlisted some great CRM options that would cost your business $24 monthly or less.
- Flowlu: A solid CRM tool with excellent invoicing and finance features. It's also very affordable, starting at just $29 per month for eight users, and there is even a free plan you can easily opt for on the vendor’s website.
- Freshsales: A perfect CRM for those already using other Freshworks products. Its price starts at $9 per user per month, and a no-cost plan is also available.
- Vtiger: An all-in-one CRM with great customization options, with a monthly price starting at just $12 per user. You can also test the waters by opting for its 15-day free trial.
- Kommo: For $12.5 per user per month (the longer the commitment term, the greater the discount), you'll get multiple configurable pipelines—perfect for teams looking for multi-channel sales.
- Zoho CRM: Known for its scalability, this CRM system is perfect for fast-growing small businesses. The monthly price starts at $14 per user.
- HubSpot: A popular choice for small and medium businesses, especially if you're into robust content marketing workflows. HubSpot CRM charges $15 per seat per month for its Starter subscription, but we highly recommend you start with its feature-rich free plan and upgrade when it makes sense.
- Capsule: Project teams will appreciate the high visibility it provides over tasks, and the price starting at $18 per user per month is pretty reasonable for most small businesses.
- Zapier: What sets Zapier apart is its automation-first mindset, which enables users to build their own CRM. Plus, there's a free option available, and paid options start at just $19.99 per month.
- folk: If you're all about simplicity and authenticity, this one's for you. Its base plan costs $20 per user per month.
- Salesmate: This CRM has top-notch screen layouts and fully customized features. The built-in phone and SMS outreach are also really well done. The monthly entry price is $23 per user.
- NetHunt: This CRM’s specialty lies in its seamless integration with Google Workspace products and multiple-channel chat support. Subscription fees start at $24 per month per user.
The Best Free CRM Software
Some of the CRM tools we mentioned earlier have free plans, and here is a closer look at what each of them offers in their free plans.
- Bitrix24 offers a timeless free plan that allows you to have unlimited users and contacts.
- Capsule's free plan is perfect for small project teams that are fine with two users, 250 contacts, and 50MB of storage per account.
- EngageBay is free for 250 contacts and includes sales, marketing, customer support, and chat features.
- eWay-CRM, designed for Outlook users, provides 200 MB of cloud storage for documents and emails in its free plan, with no limits on users or contacts.
- Flowlu lets you enjoy limitless projects, tasks, and contacts at no cost, provided that your team is restricted to a maximum of 2 users and your storage needs do not exceed 1GB.
- Freshsales is free for up to 3 users and includes a Kanban view for records, tasks, appointments, and notes, as well as some basic CRM customization.
- Hubspot CRM offers a range of good foundational tools, from marketing and sales to operations and content, all for free for up to 5 users.
- Snov.io is great for email prospecting and cold outreach. Its free plan includes 50 credits and 100 recipients.
- Streak seamlessly integrates with Gmail and, in its free plan, allows 500 items and 50 mail merge emails per day.
- Vtiger's One Pilot plan is free for ten users, 3,000 records, 1,000 email sends per month, and 3GB of storage.
- Zapier Interfaces offers 2,500 records and the highest level of customization for building your own CRM for free.
- Zoho CRM is free for three users and has 5,000 records. It has one of the most extensive app ecosystems in the space, many of which are free to use.
The Best CRM for Enterprises
When your business reaches this size (congrats!), it’s crucial to have a CRM that's a great ally to all your sales activities. Here are some awesome enterprise CRM brands to check out:
- Zoho CRM: You could begin with its free plan, then upgrade as you grow with this highly scalable CRM. It's also reasonably priced, and its AI offers clever data analysis and predictive insights.
- HubSpot: Hubspot CRM is so versatile and intuitive that it's hard not to love it. Plus, this option ensures all user data sync is two-way.
- Nutshell: It is excellent for territory-based sales management and intuitive reporting and is the perfect fit for those with many contacts to add to CRM. Its Foundation plan is priced at $16 per user per month for unlimited data, people, and storage.
- Pipedrive: Created by salespeople, its user experience is super smooth. We also love its pricing structure—easy to start from $14 per user per month, with add-ons available for more advanced features.
- Salesmate: A ridiculously customizable and comfortable CRM to work with. Its base plan is $23 per user per month.
- Ontraport: Check this out if you have a high volume of sales assets and sequences to manage. This CRM’s native online transaction automation is great, while pricing is very reasonable—starting at $24 per month for one user.
- NetHunt: Perfect for Google Workplace and Gmail power users, with seamless integration and workflow automation and the same starting price as Ontraport—$24 per user per month.
- Salesforce: A powerhouse for intelligent automation built-in and doesn’t cost a fortune to start—from $25 per user per month.
- Nimble: The Nimble Browser extensions are fantastic for lead generation and data enrichment. The monthly subscription starts at $29.90 per user.
- Close: It might have a slightly higher starting price (from $49 per user per month), but its lead processing is lightning-fast.
- Membrain: This CRM's attention to detail is top-notch when tracking multi-step B2B sales flows. Its price is also higher—starting from $49 per user per month.
How to Choose a CRM
When selecting a CRM system, several key factors need to be considered:
- Consider the total cost of ownership, not just the subscription fees. This can include anything from startup costs to ongoing maintenance.
- Use your required features and functionality list to narrow your selections to ensure consistent and focused vetting processes.
- Attend vendor demos, read quality online reviews, and, if possible, spend time testing the tools and chatting with the vendors’ customers. These moves will help you gain some good insights into how CRM solutions work in real life.
- Evaluate the CRM vendor's level of support, including training and customer assistance.
- Calculate the financial benefits of CRM implementation to understand the potential return on investment.
- Involve all stakeholders in your software evaluations and decision-making.
Related Read: How to Buy HR Software – A Step-by-Step Guide Complete with Best Practices
How to Use a CRM
Once you've got your CRM all set up and ready to go, it's time to learn how to make the most of the software. Below is a basic manual you can adjust to better suit your business needs.
- Gather, store, and maintain customer data, including contact details, purchase history, and preferences.
- Utilize built-in tools to analyze collected data and gain insights into customer behavior, opportunities, and trends.
- Categorize customers into groups based on demographics, preferences, and behaviors to enable targeted marketing and customized services.
- Leverage supported technologies to automate repetitive sales tasks and gain deeper customer insights.
- Execute marketing campaigns and monitor their effectiveness based on CRM-derived customer insights.
- Meticulously record all customer interactions to provide personalized services and strengthen customer relationships.
- Track and monitor customer inquiries to ensure prompt responses and build long-lasting relationships.
- Continuously refine sales and marketing strategies based on gained data-driven insights from the CRM system.
FAQs
What is CRM?
CRM stands for customer relationship management. This system allows companies to manage their interactions with current and future customers to enhance relationships, streamline operations, and increase profits.
What does a CRM do?
CRM can serve various business purposes. The following outlines how this system is applied within sales, marketing, and customer support.
- Sales: Manage sales pipelines, nurture leads, identify opportunities, and close deals more efficiently.
- Marketing: Generate crucial information to create compelling marketing campaigns that captivate audiences.
- Customer Service: Handle inquiries, address concerns, and build long-term customer relationships with minimal time and effort.
Who uses CRM?
Candidate relationship management systems are used across various industries, including retail, eCommerce, healthcare, real estate, financial services, and hospitality, to make the most of their business data. Departments like sales, marketing, customer support, HR, and supply chain are the primary users of CRM software.
Others Also Read
- The Difference between CEM and CRM Software Solutions
- 11 Effective Customer Engagement Strategies to Boost Customer Loyalty and Profits
- Five Strategies to Build and Increase Customer Loyalty
- The Ultimate Toolkit for Designing Your Customer Success Strategy
- Benefits of Customer Communications Management Software
