- Best CRM with an intuitive interface: Pipedrive
- Best free CRM offering premium upgrades: HubSpot
- Best CRM for managing projects and tasks: monday CRM
- Best CRM offering advanced omnichannel marketing: Zoho CRM
- Best CRM offering post-sales and opportunity management: Netsuite CRM
- Best CRM offering no-code automation: Creatio
- Best CRM for construction or infield projects: Jobber
- Best CRM offering basic features for small businesses: Less Annoying CRM
- Best CRM for processing and tracking invoices: HoneyBook
- Best CRM with a mix of advanced features and affordability: Freshsales
The best CRM software is generalized sales tools that allow businesses of all sizes to manage and track customer interactions and streamline processes. The software offers a mix of core and advanced features, affordability, intuitive UX, and customization for businesses to adapt the tool to fit their unique needs.
While the providers below offer general marketing and sales solutions, they also have in-market specializations that allow niche sectors to implement a tool with industry-specific features.
What is CRM software?
Customer relationship management software is a sales-based tool that organizes and manages data about leads, clients, and business workflows. CRM tools can be used by sales and marketing departments, administrators, managers, and others to ensure transparency around sales strategies. CRM software is meant to integrate with other sales, marketing, and operational technologies for seamless data sharing.
To get started using CRM software, import all existing client data from spreadsheets or other digital warehouses. Then, integrate necessary external sales tools and start building out your CRM cycle. Training and customization will depend on your workflows, so I recommend testing automations and gathering feedback to see what works best for your team.
Top CRM software comparison
Even though there are different types of CRM systems, the best general providers still offer core functionalities such as integrations, internal and external omnichannel communication, and advanced reporting and analytics. Below, I explore popular CRM providers to see how they compare and identify unique use cases for each.
Pipedrive: Best CRM with an intuitive interface
Pipedrive is an easy and effective CRM for managing end-to-end sales. Users can create and track sales pipelines, manage leads, and automate entire sales processes in one place. As sales software, Pipedrive offers custom fields, a drag-and-drop interface, and an intuitive design that allows users of all technical expertise levels to easily navigate.
Why I chose Pipedrive
While Pipedrive is a top generalized CRM provider, its scalability and industry specialization make it a standout CRM platform. It offers features and functions for startups, SMBs, and enterprises. Some of the industries that Pipedrive can be adapted to serve automotive sales, banking, B2B organizations, higher education, healthcare, and hospitality.
For another general CRM provider focusing on intuitiveness, I suggest looking into Creatio or Less Annoying CRM. Both options are easy to implement and set up but might lack some of the advanced features you receive with Pipedrive.
For more information on this CRM provider, read our full Pipedrive review.
Pricing
- Essential: $14 per user per month, billed annually, or $24 per user when billed monthly. It includes people and organization management, product catalog, sales assistant, and more.
- Advanced: $34 per user per month, billed annually, or $44 per user when billed monthly. It offers all Essential features plus automation, two-way email sync, group emailing, and more.
- Professional: $49 per user per month, billed annually, or $64 per user when billed monthly. It supports all Advanced features and contacts timeline, free Smart Docs add-on, automatic assignment, and more.
- Power: $64 per user per month, billed annually, or $79 per user when billed monthly. It includes all Professional plan offerings, phone support, 500 custom fields, and more.
- Enterprise: $99 per user per month, billed annually, or $129 per user when billed monthly. It offers all previously mentioned features plus up to 180 active automation, unlimited teams, and unlimited custom permissions.
Features
- Multilingual and multi-currency: Supports multiple currencies and 22 languages and allows users to create their own custom currency.
- Permissions: Customize which users can do what with variable user permission sets that can create multiple levels of user access.
- Sales pipeline stages: Rename, create, delete, or record pipeline stages, as well as make multiple ones that reflect your unique sales process and flow.
Pros and cons
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Features
- Email templates: Use pre-built sales email templates that can be personalized to your business’s brand to share with sales reps.
- Call tracking: Make, record, and automatically log all calls directly from within the software.
- HubSpot AI: Innovate copy, summarize content, create brand voice, or build out entire support chatbots with easy-to-use AI tools.
Pros and cons
| 14-day free trial. 24/7 email and chat support. Users report an intuitive user interface. |
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monday CRM: Best CRM for managing projects and tasks
Users of monday CRM can manage all client and internal communication and workflows in one place. At a glance, they can understand task and project progress, making it easy to identify and stop inefficiency. Utilizing monday sales CRM’s customizable, drag-and-drop project trackers and sorting makes it easy for any permitted user to know detailed status updates about all leads, projects, and deals.
Why I chose monday CRM
monday CRM is an intuitive and easy-to-implement CRM with project management capabilities. Its dashboard makes it easy for teams to collaborate on projects and deals while keeping track of important documentation and workflows. monday AI is also in beta testing for automated task generation and email composition tools, making it a dedicated and evolving sales CRM platform.
For a similar CRM provider with a range of industry specializations, AI tools, and pricing, I recommend looking into Pipedrive.
Read our monday CRM review for more information.
Pricing
- Free version: Basic CRM offerings are only available for students and nonprofit organizations after applying.
- Basic CRM: $12 per user per month when billed annually, or $15 when billed monthly. This tier offers unlimited pipelines, boards and contacts, and templates for lead, contact, and deal management.
- Standard CRM: $17 per user per month when billed annually, or $20 when billed monthly. This includes advanced account, contact, and deal management; two-way email integration with Gmail and Outlook; and an AI email generator.
- Pro CRM: $28 per user per month when billed annually, or $33 when billed monthly. This tier includes sales forecasting, email templates with custom parameters, mass emails, and added integrations.
- Enterprise CRM: Contact monday.com for a quote. This level of support offers lead scoring, team goals, and advanced analytics.
Features
- Merge duplicate data: Import data and information and edit or merge any duplicated contacts for increased data hygiene.
- Team goals: Manage your team’s goals and quota attainment over time while also tracking the wins of specific reps or the entire team.
- Mass emails: Send personalized emails to leads in bulk to make lead outreach and engagement more efficient.
Pros and cons
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Zoho CRM: Best CRM offering advanced omnichannel marketing
Zoho CRM offers many features supporting omnichannel customer engagement. These tools house all customer-facing communication channels within the CRM dashboard, including telephone, social media, email, and chat rooms. Businesses can create multichannel and multi-step campaigns to engage with ideal customers. This tool unifies customer signals, such as real-time updates across teams and interfaces.
Why I chose Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a top-scoring and leading CRM system known for its marketing automation and sales intelligence tools. Zoho CRM is also affordable, which can be appealing for small to midsize businesses. The mobile app is highly praised for its interface and accessibility, allowing sales reps to access key information while on the go.
Zoho CRM is comparable to other general CRM providers on this list, such as Pipedrive, Freshsales, and monday sales CRM. Pipedrive and monday sales CRM both offer in-market expertise in niche industries, while Freshsales offers a comparable free CRM platform and premium pricing structure.
Check out our independent Zoho CRM review for more insight.
Pricing
- Free CRM: Free for up to three users and comes with lead and document management and a mobile app.
- Standard: $14 per user per month, billed annually, or $20 per user when billed monthly. Users can access email insights, sales forecasting, and multiple currencies.
- Professional: $23 per user per month, billed annually, or $35 per user when billed monthly. This tier includes all Standard features, plus assignment rules and unlimited custom reports and dashboards.
- Enterprise: $40 per user per month, billed annually, or $50 per user when billed monthly. It introduces AI-powered tools, plus email segmentation, auto-response, and more.
- Ultimate: $52 per user per month, billed annually, or $65 per user when billed monthly. It grants access to all previously mentioned features plus access to Zoho Analytics.
Features
- Social integration: See what users and potential customers say, search, and engage with about your brand or solution online.
- Finance suite: Generate and share quotes, invoices, and purchase orders with access to inventory and shipping information and sales history.
- Blueprint editor: Create a step-by-step sales process within the software for each sales rep to follow.
Pros and cons
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Netsuite CRM: Best CRM offering post-sales and opportunity management
With Netsuite CRM, organizations can improve overall sales performance with visibility into sales pipelines and forecasts and a fully unified quote-to-order, cash, and fulfillment solution. Beyond campaign management, support teams can access customer information anytime, anywhere to drive customer satisfaction and retention. This way, customers experience support that can influence referrals and new opportunities.
Why I chose Netsuite CRM
NetSuite CRM is a product of Oracle that provides a flow of information across a business’s customer lifecycle, from lead generation through opportunity, order, fulfillment, renewal, upsell, cross-sell, and support. Users can generate a single view of prospects, customers, partners, and vendors and give sales, marketing, and support teams real-time data to deliver top-level customer experiences and drive sales.
Netsuite CRM offers basic sales and support features but lacks many additional tech features compared to others on this list. If AI-powered tools or more advanced lead generation and reporting capabilities are a priority, I suggest considering HubSpot, Zoho CRM, or Freshsales.
Pricing
- Contact for quote: Users subscribe to NetSuite for an annual license fee based on the core platform, optional modules, and the number of expected users.
Features
- Landing pages: Build native web-to-lead forms to generate leads by capturing information like name, job title, and contact information.
- Campaign management: Create and track targeted, personalized marketing campaigns based on your ideal customer’s demographics, purchase trends, response patterns, and more.
- Customer service management: Provide elite customer service with case and knowledge management tools, plus enable an online self-service tool with interactive communication.
Pros and cons
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Creatio: Best CRM offering no-code automation
Creatio is a CRM provider that can be customized without any code. This allows businesses to automate workflows and build out their ideal sales process without needing advanced technical knowledge. This is ideal for businesses that want a CRM system that can be customized to their specific marketing, sales, and service processes.
Why I chose Creatio
Creatio is a CRM provider that embraces the freedom to create custom automation and workflows. It is straightforward and can be adapted to multiple industries like banking, insurance, telecommunications, and more. With robust support, courses, videos, and playbooks, Creatio gives users the resources they need to implement and customize the software.
If you want an even more affordable solution with Google Workspace integrations, I recommend Freshsales as an alternative.
Want to know more? Head over to my review of Creatio.
Pricing
- Sales Product: $15 per user per month. It offers a sales management platform.
- Marketing Product: $15 per user per month. It offers a multichannel marketing platform.
- Service Product: $15 per user per month. It includes an intelligent, full-cycle service management platform.
- Growth Platform: $25 per user per month. It includes basic automation for small to midsize businesses.
- Enterprise Platform: $55 per user per month. It offers a full sales automation platform for corporate or enterprise needs.
- Unlimited Platform: $85 per user per month. It allows users to deliver unlimited automation for advanced enterprise organizations.
Features
- Order and contract management: Create product catalogs, contract and documentation trackers to approve orders, as well as omnichannel order processing and history tracking.
- Sales forecasting: Review collaborative and flexible forecasts of different categories, sales performance planning, prediction and inspection, sales dashboards, and more.
- Customer 360: Gain complete visibility over customer data captures, customer insights, full history tracking, customer engagement scoring, and seamless communication.
Pros and cons
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Jobber: Best CRM for construction or infield projects
Jobber is a field service CRM that keeps all client information updated and centralized so users can easily access key information while on the go. With Jobber, they can manage incoming requests, create quotes, schedule jobs and projects, send invoices, and accept payment in person or online. This makes it a great CRM provider for small businesses that offer labor services.
Why I chose Jobber
Jobber’s mobile software helps users quote, schedule, invoice, and get paid. Niche industries and services that benefit from Jobber include landscaping, plumbing, electrical contracting, pest control, and cleaning services.
Jobber’s features make it a great tool for general contractors, but it can be pricey. If you want a similar tool that can offer the same business benefits and more scalability, I recommend considering Pipedrive for its construction industry specialization.
Pricing
- Free Trial: New users can try Jobber for free for 14 days. No credit card is needed.
- Core: $29 per month, billed annually, or $39 per month, billed monthly. This grants one user access to a 24/7 self-service hub, job management, and quoting tools.
- Connect: $129 per month, billed annually, or $169 per month, billed monthly. This supports up to five users, as well as digital payments and automated invoice reminders.
- Grow: $219 per month, billed annually, or $349 per month, billed monthly. This tier supports up to 15 users, two-way messages, QuickBooks online, job costing, and more.
Features
- Time tracking: Monitor team members clocking in and out of jobs plus any expenses from anywhere so payroll administrators are always in the know.
- GPS tracking: Install FleetSharp tracking inside company vehicles to track team members and equipment as they complete actions in real-time.
- Credit card processor: Provide fast, convenient, and simple payment process and options for clients to pay directly, including automatic billing and instant payouts.
Pros and cons
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Less Annoying CRM: Best CRM offering basic features for small businesses
Less Annoying CRM is a self-funded CRM provider that serves small businesses. Its pricing is affordable and flat monthly. It offers free customer support, and customers can sign up and cancel whenever they want. Basic features offered by Less Annoying CRM include contact management, embedded calendars and integrations, task management, and collaboration tools.
Why I chose Less Annoying CRM
Less Annoying CRM is easy to set up and use, even by organizations with limited technical expertise. With 256-bit encryption, constant backups, and free updates, the software is secure while keeping a straightforward UI and maintenance. This makes it a great option for startups or small businesses needing a basic marketing automation and sales operations tool.
Since Less Annoying CRM caters to small businesses that need core CRM features, some organizations might find it limiting. If you want a similar product, check out Creatio for its affordability.
Read my Less Annoying CRM review here for more.
Pricing
- Less Annoying CRM: $15 per user per month. This single basic plan includes unlimited contacts and companies, unlimited sales pipelines, task management, mobile access, and all Less Annoying CRM features and free upgrades.
- Custom quote: Free personalized quote if your business expects to have more than 10 users on the CRM.
Features
- Agenda summary: Receive an email every morning showing all meetings scheduled with event and task overviews.
- Mobile: Access all sales and client information with cloud access, cross-device, and no installation required.
- Email logging: Track BCC’s email conversations in the CRM, and the email history will be attached to the lead’s contact page within the platform.
Pros and cons
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HoneyBook: Best CRM for processing and tracking invoices
HoneyBook prioritizes professional and secure payment processing for its users. Processing more than $8 billion in transactions, users of HoneyBook can easily create and send branded voices that get paid on time through simple digital processing directly through its platform. Businesses can create an intuitive customer payment experience that ensures cash flow with instant deposits.
Why I chose HoneyBook
HoneyBook is an all-in-one client flow management platform that helps businesses create uniform client experiences from lead generation to purchasing. Users can create interactive websites and intake forms that make it easy for clients to select services, sign contracts electronically, and send payments.
If you want similar management software that offers more project management tools and can be scalable for bigger teams and businesses, I suggest looking into monday sales CRM for its customizable workflows and expense tracking.
Pricing
- Starter: $16 per month for the first year when billed yearly or $19 per month when billed monthly. It includes unlimited clients and projects, proposals and contracts, basic reports, and more.
- Essentials: $32 per month for the first year when billed yearly or $39 per month when billed monthly. Get everything in the Starter tier plus scheduler, QuickBooks integration, up to two team members, and standard reports.
- Premium: $66 per month for the first year when billed yearly or $79 per month when billed monthly. It offers all Essentials features, unlimited team members, priority support, onboarding specialists, and more.
Features
- Automation: Customize step-by-step sequences for emails, tasks, and more to save time on mundane tasks.
- Scheduling: Share meeting links with clients to book time with you directly with branded calendars with confirmation and reminder notifications.
- Contract management: Create, customize, and electronically sign contracts with online contract templates, views, and management tools.
Pros and cons
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Freshsales: Best CRM with a mix of advanced features and affordability
Freshsales is a robust general CRM system that offers all the core features a business would expect from a CRM tool, in addition to advanced technical features for lead management and engagement. Not only does Freshsales allow you to import and manage leads, but it also scores contacts as high-intent based on their position in their organization and their engagement with your brand.
Why I chose Freshsales
Freshsales is a top CRM provider for small businesses, especially due to its affordability. The platform offers a free version that only allows up to three users, which would be productive for a startup or small business. However, SMBs with more users would likely be more interested in premium plans that provide access to advanced features.
If you’re considering another CRM tool with more free features and capabilities, look into HubSpot, particularly for its additional scalability.
Head over to our detailed Freshsales review for more information on this CRM provider.
Pricing
- Free CRM: Free for up to three users and offers email templates, a sales dashboard, and more. Users access basic contact and account management, tasks, data import and export, email templates, and more.
- Growth: $9 per user per month, billed annually, or $11 per user when billed monthly. This tier includes everything on the free level: two-way email sync, parallel calling, SMS integration, and more.
- Pro: $39 per user per month, billed annually, or $47 per user when billed monthly. Users get everything in the Growth level plus Freddy AI insights, 50 custom roles, territory management and more.
- Enterprise: $59 per user per month, billed annually, or $71 per user when billed monthly. It includes all available features, including those mentioned, audit logs, extract APIs, and a dedicated account manager.
Features
- Territory management: Segment and prioritize leads based on preset rules and identify key territories with built-in metrics.
- Audit logs: Track and filter activity such as edits, deletions, or configuration changes in chronological order for ultimate data governance.
- Chat campaigns: Deliver personalized messages with trigger-based campaigns that can generate and qualify leads.
Pros and cons
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Benefits of CRM software for business
There are many benefits any business in any market can gain from the implementation of customer relationship management software. No matter what industry or size of your company, a CRM solution can bring workflow optimization, data integrity, and more audience targeting. This way, users can supercharge their support strategies, communicate clearly and effectively, ultimately leading to quicker deal closing and increased customer satisfaction.
Features to look for in a CRM system
The features you need in a customer relationship management system can depend on your business needs, but there are some core functionalities every business should look for. Since CRMs are built for prioritizing customer relationships, features that make communication, organization, and reporting on activities are principal.
Some standout features to look for in a CRM system are:
- Email management: Use templates or generative AI to quickly send, track, and get notified when emails are opened.
- Pipeline management: Build out pipelines that match your sales process exactly to know where each account or client is in the deal-closing stage.
- Activity tracking: Monitor and automate client activities such as emails, meetings, documents, and more.
- Sales forecasting: Strategize insights and projections based on historical data around teams, territories, opportunities, and more.
- Integrations: Sync your CRM system with all other exciting technologies in your stack for seamless data and knowledge management.
CRM pricing considerations
CRM system pricing is typically based on two factors—the features you want and the number of users you plan to have. Pipeline management, email syncing and templates, and basic reports are considered core features that are typically offered even in the lower costing plans. AI-powered tools, advanced analytics, and more integrations are sometimes hidden behind higher paywalls. I also want to note that the cost is dependent on a monthly or annual billing cycle, with the annual one generally being heavily discounted.
How do I choose the best CRM software for my business?
This list I’ve created presents the top general CRM providers in the market, but now you need to narrow them down to find the software for you. I suggest your next step be requesting quotes or demos from the providers that pique your interest or signing up for their free versions or trials. This way, you can communicate directly with the provider’s sales team and implement the software into your existing sales and marketing process.
Below are sample questions or points of consideration I suggest when selecting CRM software:
- What is the total in-market expertise for your industry?
- Is the CRM scalable and detailed enough to fit your business size?
- How does the CRM pricing work for this provider?
- Are their services within your budget? Do you want a free CRM first?
- Does the CRM offer the advanced features you need, such as list segmentation or an AI assistant?
- Does the CRM software integrate with tools you already have in your tech stack?
Methodology
I scored and reviewed each of these general CRM providers against an in-house rubric created by our team. This rubric is outlined with criteria and subcategories of standard CRM features and functionalities. Next, I identified an ideal use case for each provider that summarizes the product’s best offerings to help guide you to a provider that best fits your needs.
Here’s the exact breakdown of the scoring criteria I followed when reviewing the best CRM software:
- Cost: Weighted 25% of the total score.
- Core features: Weighted 25% of the total score.
- Customizations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
- Integrations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
- Ease of use: Weighted 10% of the total score.
- Customer support: Weighted 10% of the total score.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Which is the best CRM software?
The best general CRM software includes HubSpot, Pipedrive, Freshsales, Zoho CRM, Creatio, and more. A business can benefit from any CRM provider on this list. But since each offers a unique ideal use case, one might fit your needs better than another. I suggest first considering your budget, specific needs, industry specialization, and number of users. From there, this guide can help steer you in the right direction toward the best CRM for you.
What is the easiest CRM tool to use?
Since users will have a staff of different technical skill sets, choosing an easy-to-use CRM is understandable. While this can be subjective, easy-to-use CRMs typically offer no-code customizations, straightforward setups, and an intuitive user interface. In this guide of the best CRMs, Freshsales, Creatio, Less Annoying CRM, and Pipedrive all have received positive, real user feedback regarding ease of use.
Is there a fully free CRM tool?
Some CRM providers offer fully free versions of their software. Typically, these free CRMs are limited variants of their expansive platforms that only offer basic features such as contact management, capped integrations, and email templates. These free CRMs also have a capped number of users, averaging between two and five users. If you subscribe to a fully free CRM and run into roadblocks with how stripped the platform is, upgrades and add-ons are available.
What are the 4 types of CRM?
There are four types of customer relationship management systems: analytical, operational, collaborative, and marketing. Every CRM provider falls into at least one of these categories based on the prioritized features and specific solutions the software aims to provide. Analytical CRM includes a lot of data mining and reporting; operational CRM helps with project and pipeline management; collaborative CRM helps promote internal and external communication, and marketing CRM helps with lead generation and client engagement.
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