Best CRM Software

Customers are the lifeblood of any business. That’s why customer relationship management (CRM) tools have become so popular.

CRM software improves sales log communication, lead management, and even helps with marketing campaigns.

Historically, CRM software was only used by large businesses and enterprises. But today, CRM has evolved to fit the needs of all organizations, regardless of size or industry.

Finding the right CRM platform for your business can be difficult if you don’t know what to look for. That’s what inspired me to create this guide.

The 7 Best CRM Software Solutions of 2020

After researching and testing dozens of different CRM software, I’ve determined that these are the top seven options on the market today:

• HubSpot
• Zoho CRM
• Salesforce
• Freshsales
• Insightly
• Apptivo
• Pipedrive

We’ll take a closer look at the features, benefits, and pricing of each software in the reviews below. Use this guide to help you find the best CRM software for your business.

Best CRM Software Reviews

HubSpot

HubSpot is another well-recognized name in the business world. Their blog is one of the best resources for content related to sales, marketing, and services.

HubSpot is unique because they offer free CRM software. They also have CRM for multiple roles within an organization, like:

• CRM for sales leaders
• CRM for salespeople
• CRM for business owners
• CRM for operations managers
• CRM for customer service representatives
• CRM for marketers

Some CRM providers offer a free trial or free plan with basic features. But HubSpot’s goes above and beyond what you’d normally get for free.

These are some of the top features for the free sales CRM:

• Contact management
• Deal management
• Task management
• Email tracking and notifications
• Email templates and scheduling
• Document sharing
• Meeting scheduling
• Email integration (Gmail and Outlook)
• Live chat

As for the paid software, prices vary based on the type of CRM you’re looking for and the number of contacts you have.

The Marketing CRM, Sales CRM, and Service CRM all have plans starting at $50 per month. Enterprise plans for Service and Sales start at $1,200 per month, and the Marketing Enterprise begins at $3,200 per month.

For those of you who want CRM solutions for multiple departments and uses, you can buy a bundle from HubSpot as well. Growth Suites (include Sales, Marketing, Service) starts at $112.50 per month.

You can also create your own bundle based on the specific tools that you’re looking for.

Zoho CRM

Zoho is a global leader in business SaaS. More than 50 million users across the world use their solutions. In fact, Zoho Books made our list of the best business accounting software, and Zoho Inventory is on our list of the best inventory management software.

Above all, Zoho CRM is arguably the best solution offered by this provider. It’s used by 150,000+ businesses in 180+ countries.

You can use Zoho CRM to convert leads, engage with customers, and grow your company’s revenue.

Big brands like Bose, Netflix, Amazon, Ducati, and Suzuki all use Zoho CRM for customer relationship management.

Here’s a brief overview of the plans and pricing for Zoho CRM:

Standard — $18 per user per month

• Scoring rules
• Email insights
• Workflow conversion
• Web forms
• Unique and custom fields
• Custom reporting and customized dashboards
• Groups and tagging
• 100,000 records

Professional — $30 per user per month

• Real-time notifications
• Process management
• Email integration across multiple devices
• Web-to-case forms
• Inventory management
• Google Ads integration
• Validation rules
• 2.5 million records

Enterprise — $45 per user per month

• On-demand sales analytics
• Pipeline view for emails
• Customize your visual CRM record display
• Built-in analytics
• Multi-user portals
• Custom buttons and modules
• Mobile SDK and app
• Territory management
• 5 million records

All of the prices are for month-to-month plans. You can save 20% with an annual contract.

Zoho offers an Ultimate plan that’s only available yearly. It has features like advanced customization, enhanced storage, email sentiment, and automation suggestions. But you’ll need to contact the Zoho sales team for a custom quote.

Additionally, there’s a free version of Zoho CRM—although it’s extremely limited and only realistic for a small home-based business.

Salesforce

With more than 150,000 businesses using Salesforce CRM, this is another one of the most popular customer relationship management solutions on the market today.

Salesforce has an extensive suite of CRM products for you to choose from. They offer solutions based on business type, role, need, and industry. Examples include:

• Small business
• Service
• Sales
• Sales and service
• Marketing
• Commerce

Salesforce offers advisory services, success plans, productivity tools, integrations, and detailed analytics. It’s one of the most extensive CRM product offerings that you’ll find on the market today.

For the purpose of this review, I’m going to focus on the Sales CRM from Salesforce. In my opinion, this is the best one that they offer. Here’s an overview of the Sales plans:

Essentials — $25 per user per month

• All-in-one sales and support
• Account management
• Lead management
• Contact management
• Opportunity management
• Email integration
• Salesforce mobile app

Professional — $75 per user per month

• All Essentials features
• Best for teams of all sizes
• Lead registration
• Lead scoring
• Collaborative forecasting

Enterprise — $150 per user per month

• Customizable CRM
• All Professional features
• Workflow automation
• Approval automation

Unlimited — $300 per user per month

• Best power and support of all plans
• For large businesses
• All Enterprise features
• 24/7 support and configuration services

Even the Essentials and Professional plans will be more than enough for most businesses. You can try Salesforce for free with a 30-day trial.

Freshsales

As the name implies, Freshsales is a CRM software that’s designed for sales teams.

It’s not quite as popular as some of the other solutions on our list. But Freshsales CRM is still used by more than 15,000 businesses. A couple of recognizable brands include Best Western and Dyson.

Freshsales will help your team find and manage the best sales leads. You’ll be able to have relevant conversations with prospects and improve your sales pipeline.

Let’s take a closer look at the prices and top features associated with each Freshsales subscription plan:

Blossom — $19 per month per user ($12 with annual contract)

• Lead, account, contact, and deal management
• Visual sales pipeline
• Lead scoring
• SMS integration
• Access to marketplace apps
• API access

Garden — $35 per month per user ($25 with annual contract)

• 1,000 free contacts
• 250 bulk emails per user per day
• 5 sales sequences per user
• 10 teams
• 10 workflow automations
• Lead assignments and territories
• Advanced reports

Estate — $65 per month per user ($49 with annual contract)

• Advanced CRM customization
• Auto profile enrichment (with social media information)
• Reporting dashboard
• Event tracking
• Multi-currency support
• Sales goals

Forest — $79 per month (billed annually)

• EEA data center
• IP whitelisting
• Audit logs
• Dedicated account manager

You can try out any of these plans for free with a 21-day trial. Freshsales also has a free forever startup plan with basic features.

I like Freshsales because it’s affordable and perfect for a growing sales team. You can easily upgrade to a higher tier as your company grows.

Insightly

More than 25,000 companies use Insightly for CRM software. This includes big names like Bosch, AT&T, and Bloomberg.

Insightly is a bit unique compared to some of the other options we’ve reviewed so far. In addition to sales and marketing, Insightly CRM puts a strong focus on project management. You’ll get all of these feature sets in a single solution.

Some of the benefits of Insightly CRM include:

• Dataset management
• Create and deploy custom apps
• Customize dashboards for metric tracking
• Lead routing
• Workflow automation
• Send, track, and manage emails
• Relationship linking

Insightly has an exceptional mobile app that allows you to work from anywhere. You can scan business cards, update your tasks in real-time, and create new opportunities on-site at a client’s location.

Popular tools like G Suite, Gmail, QuickBooks, Google Drive, Mail Chimp, Slack, and Dropbox all integrate with Insightly.

All Insightly CRM plans are billed on an annual basis. Here’s a look at those rates:

• Plus — $29 per user per month
• Professional — $49 per user per month
• Enterprise —  $99 per user per month

You can request a demo and try it out for free. Insightly has a free forever plan with basic features for two users.

Apptivo

Apptivo is another top choice for CRM software. It’s used by 200,000+ organizations in roughly 200 countries. The Apptivo CRM is unique because it combines multiple apps into a single solution.

In addition to CRM, Apptivo also offers:

• Online invoicing
• Web help desk
• Project management
• Expense reports
• Field service tools
• Email marketing
• Procurement for supply chain management

So for those of you who are in the market for these additional services, you can manage everything in the same place with Apptivo CRM. This is much simpler than juggling multiple apps for different uses.

The CRM apps for Apptivo fall into the following categories:

• Contracts
• Sales planning
• Territory management
• Competitors
• Work orders
• Customers
• Contacts
• Opportunities
• Cases
• Leads

Apptivo integrates tools like Slack, Office 365, G Suite, and more.

Here’s a brief overview of the plans and prices for Apptivo CRM:

Starter — $0

• Up to 3 users
• 500 MB
• Basic contact sharing
• Standard reports
• Standard support

Premium — $10 per month per user ($8 with annual contract)

• 3 GB per user
• 1,000 mass emails per user
• 2,000 API calls
• Standard support

Ultimate — $25 per month ($20 with annual contract)

• 10 GB per user
• 3,000 emails per user
• 20,000 API calls
• Priority support

Enterprise — Custom pricing

• 5,000 emails per user
• White labeling
• Custom integrations
• SLA support and dedicated account manager

You can save 20% if you sign up for yearly billing instead of month-to-month.

Apptivo is commonly used for businesses in real estate, travel and hospitality, retail, wholesale, manufacturing, utilities, and energy industries.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive CRM is designed to simplify your sales process.

More than 90,000 businesses use Pipedrive CRM. It’s a straightforward platform that’s easy for anyone to figure out.

This CRM was created to generate more leads and sort your sales in a single location. It helps eliminate administrative tasks that are unproductive. It’s designed to drive more sales with less legwork on your end.

Some of the top features and benefits of Pipedrive CRM include:

• Lead management
• Deal management
• Communication tracking
• Automation
• Deep insights and reports
• Privacy and security for business data
• Mobile app access
• 150+ third-party integrations

More than $24 billion in sales have been closed using Pipedrive. On average, businesses increase their close rate by 28% after the first year using this CRM.

These are the plans and prices for Pipedrive CRM:

Essential — $17 per month per user ($12.50 with annual contract)

• Custom pipelines
• Custom fields
• AI sales assistance
• User and company goal setting
• Custom dashboard

Advanced — $31 per month per user ($24.90 with annual contract)

• Sales task automation
• Email integration
• Email templates and email automation
• Products catalog

Professional — $59 per month per user ($49.50 with annual contract)

• Call tracking
• Click-to-call
• Unlimited meeting scheduling
• Batch emails
• Team management
• Multi-dashboard support
• Revenue forecasts
• Custom user and admin permissions

Essential — $99 per month per user (billed annually)

• Minimum 10 users
• Dedicated account manager
• Phone support
• Data import
• Enhanced security
• Additional user permissions for full control

Pipedrive also has a “Leadbooster” add-on for $39 per month ($32.50 with annual contract). This tool is billed per company, not per user. It’s designed to turn more web visitors into leads. Leadbooster is basically a chatbot. It engages with customers with instant responses and makes it easy for them to schedule a meeting.

Try Pipedrive CRM free with a 14-day trial.

How to Choose the CRM Software For Your Business

CRM software can be a complicated subject. With so many options to choose from, finding the best solution for your business might be overwhelming.

This is the methodology that we recommend here at Quick Sprout to help narrow your search. I’ll explain each element in greater detail so you can make a decision based on your needs.

Team Size

The size of your business and team will have a significant impact on the CRM you choose. Some solutions are better for small businesses, while other options specialize in enterprise software.

You can even find CRM tools for small teams of just one or two people.

Capabilities

Customer relationship management software is so diverse. It’s such a broad term, and it’s used across multiple departments and for various reasons.

Common CRM categories include:

• Sales
• Marketing
• Project management

There are even other solutions for things like customer service. Some companies offer all CRM capabilities into a single platform. Others specialize in one category over another.

There are CRM solutions offered as an all-in-one solution. But other times, you’ll have to buy the software separately or bundle it into a single package.

Integrations

You should look for CRM software that integrates with popular tools that you’re already using. This will allow you and your team to manage everything from a single dashboard.

If you constantly have to bounce back and forth between multiple platforms to manage your leads and customers, it defeats the purpose of using CRM to streamline your process.

Price

As always, price will be a significant factor in which CRM you choose.

In most cases, pricing is based on the number of users you have. Depending on the platform, pricing can also be based on the number of contacts or storage you’ll need as well.

Make sure to find something in your price range. The pricing for CRM software ranges from $0 to $300+ per user.

Conclusion

What’s the best CRM software? The answer varies depending on your business type and what you’re looking for. Here’s a quick recap of the top seven options on our list:

• HubSpot — Best free CRM and product bundles for sales, service, and marketing.
• Zoho CRM — Best overall CRM software.
• Salesforce — Best sales CRM for large businesses and enterprises.
• Freshsales — Best CRM for growing sales teams.
• Insightly — Best CRM software for project management.
• Apptivo — Best CRM for managing multiple apps in a single platform.
• Pipedrive — Best CRM to improve sales productivity and efficiency.

From startups to enterprises, and sales to marketing and project management, I’m confident that you can find the best CRM software for your company on this list.