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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software help companies maintain relationships with their clients and prospects through distribution pipelines and other operational tools.
We compared lots of products to find the top 10 CRMs software for small businesses in terms of pricing, functionality, integrations, and reporting, finding the best overall solution depending on your small business needs.
Top 10 CRM Software List
How We Ranked the Best CRM for Small Businesses
The best small business CRM software should be relatively affordable and have an excellent way of managing and monitoring clients and prospects.
Upgrade plans can allow businesses to overgrow and provide features such as process automation, system integration, email marketing, customization, and advanced reporting.
These are the parameters that we used to determine the right CRM for small businesses:
- Price: Monthly usage costs can offer several pricing points to facilitate a range of budgets, and we considered the total price features to evaluate the best value. We have looked at services offering free plans and trials to get started.
- Ease of use: No Specialized technical skills are needed for daily use. As a result, we compared how simple it is to set up and use and featured CRM.
- Contact management: Creating, updating, and searching for contacts should be comfortable and integrated with email, phone calls, and other activities.
- Deal and opportunity management: Contract and pipeline development should be customizable, visualized, and simple to manage.
- Automation of the workflow: These tools automate processes, such as the sales phase, follow-up activities, and other reminders.
- Reporting software: Reporting software tracks data such as sales, representative activities, and forecasts.
- System integrations: A Strong CRM can integrate with other applications, such as accounting, e-commerce, and marketing.
- Customization: Customization of products such as contact fields, opportunity fields, sales pipelines, and distribution processes is usually standard for high-level plans.
- Customer satisfaction: Good user feedback from CRM vendors and multi-channel customer support feature measures of satisfactory customer experience.
Top 10 CRMs for Small Business 2023
| Best CRM for Small Businesses | Best for |
| Freshsales | Best for all B2B businesses that want flexible, stable, and competitively priced CRM with a built-in phone. |
| Zoho CRM | Organizations that choose a comprehensive CRM system with social network integration and order management software |
| Pipedrive | Teams who use a user-friendly, responsive pipeline to manage sales |
| HubSpot | Businesses who want a simple, no-frills CRM with essential features and unlimited users |
| Salesforce Essentials | Small companies that want CRM with business-class sales and support features |
| Zendesk Sell | Businesses aiming for a powerful CRM with a high-quality mobile app |
| Really Simple Systems | Small firms that need a CRM with combined marketing and service desk capability |
| Bitrix24 | Organizations that require a low-cost, all-in-one CRM |
| Insightly | Businesses that use a CRM for project management and integration with G Suite |
| Streak | Individuals businesses and startup companies who want a simple CRM to operate directly in their Gmail inbox. |
Based on these parameters, we found that Freshsales is the perfect custom CRM software for small businesses because it is a fully-featured and cost-efficient software that is simple to use and fully customizable.
Freshsales also has excellent lead management capabilities and a built-in phone system, making it especially suitable for field sales teams or consultancy companies with longer sales cycles.
Freshsales is a fully featured and customizable CRM software providing communication and lead tracking for businesses with long sales cycles.
It offers a basic free plan, and the other three paid plans range from $12 to $49 per user per month.
You can also make calls or send emails without leaving the app, and it is perfect for business-to-business (B2B) teams who want highly customized CRM software or have remote users.
Price of Freshsales
Freshsales provides a free-forever plan for unlimited users with essential contact management and a built-in phone system.
Additional features, including contract management, bulk emailing, advanced analytics, and third-party software integration, are included in its paid plans, ranging from $12 to $49 per user per month.
Automate Freshsales with Freshsales's Zapier Integrations.
Freshsales Tiered Features
| Sprout | Blossom | Garden | Estate | |
| Pricing | Free for unlimited users | $12/user per month | $25/user per month | $49/user per month |
| Contact and Task Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Deal Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lead Scoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Apps for Android and iOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Phone Dialer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Web-to-Lead Capture | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email Tracking | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lead Routing | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple Sales Pipelines | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Reports | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes |
| Teams | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Sales Activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Time-based Workflows | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Website Visitor Tracking | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
Sprout
The Sprout Plan is a free entry-level plan for Freshsales; it offers basic sales management functions such as lead, deal, and communication management.
It also provides rules-based scoring that helps you effectively prioritize lead follow-up (not always seen in the other free plans we compared) and web-to-lead capturing forms that can help speed up the data entry process.
Its mobile version demonstrates calendar appointments at a glance and will also dial Uber for you.
Missing are the reporting and email marketing functions found with Bitrix24 ‘s Free Plans and tiered packages from Very Basic Programs.
Although there is no limit on the number of users, the Sprout Package is ideally fit for teams looking for an inexpensive platform.
The platform can manage their contact information, assignments, and schedules but does not include more extensive marketing, opportunity monitoring, or reporting features.
Blossom
The Blossom package costs $12 per customer per month, which is in line with the other entry-level paying plans we have compared.
In addition to the ability to monitor connexions and interactions, this package includes resource management, bulk prototype communications, and email monitoring.
The Blossom package does not have custom reporting features such as those found in Zoho CRM and Bitrix24 at comparable prices.
Therefore, the Blossom plan is ideally suited to people or highly independent sales staff who wish to track their calls or send mass emails.
Garden
The Garden Plan offers the team management functionality that the Blossom Plan lacks with a monthly price of $ 25 per device.
It also helps to enhance the lead process by automating lead assignment; a function provided only by Insightly and Zoho CRM.
However, the Garden Plan does not facilitate the creation of custom sales tasks as it does with the Estate Plan, nor does it include time-based workflows, nor does it provide a dashboard.
Still, the Garden Strategy provides several sales pipelines, configurable dashboards, and lead assignment rules.
Therefore, it is advisable that small companies with separate departments ( e.g. within, outside, renewal) manage multiple leads and can track sales productivity and make data-driven decisions.
Estate
The Estate Plan is $49 per account per month and provides a dashboard as one of its reporting features.
By expanding the customer relationship management platform and leading score functionality, teams gain the opportunity to monitor and assign leads based on communication experiences on the website.
Estate plan users may also customize their sales activities, making them the right choice for sales teams who choose a platform that more accurately matches their sales processes.
All these things are fantastic; the plan can be costly for small teams. Teams with a CRM that represents a custom sales process and wants a highly visual experience should also recommend Pipedrive.
What is Missing Freshsales
Freshsales cannot generate quotations, manage orders, and invoice directly in the application.
Nor does it provide pricing manuals, which are given by Zoho CRM, or product statistics such as Pipedrive.
For this reason, Freshsales may not be the best choice for companies managing inventories (such as retail or distribution) or offering catalog-style prices for products or services.
What Users Think About Freshsales
Freshsales customers enjoy the deal page and how Freshsales shows all this sales process.
They appreciate the technical support of the customer service and how convenient it is to configure the CRM.
However, they offer the application lower marks for the quality of the standard reports and have reported that the app can be slow depending on internet access.
You will read more in-depth reviews on the Freshsales Review page.
Zoho CRM is an all-in-one small business CRM with sales management and a robust social media suite.
It helps you to integrate social media into your relationship management, track interactions, and publish on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
A free plan and a payment plan is starting at $12 per user per month.
The platform makes it ideal for sales teams who want an easy way to get in touch with social media sites.
Zoho CRM Pricing
Zoho CRM provides a free plan for up to three users, including contact and opportunity management and social media connectivity.
Additional sales and social functionality and customizations are available by paid plans ranging from $12 to $20 per user per month, bringing them in line with other offerings we have compared.
Automate Zoho CRM with Zoho CRM's Zapier Integrations.
Zoho CRM Tiered Features
| Free | Standard | Professional | |
| Pricing | $0 | $12/user, per month | $20/user, per month |
| Storage | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Contact and Task Management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email Tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Phone Dialer | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Call Logging | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Social Integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Web-to-Lead Capture | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Opportunity Management | Yes | NA | Yes |
| Custom Fields | NA | NA | NA |
| Configurable Dashboards & Reports | NA | Yes | Yes |
| Sales Forecasting | NA | Yes | Yes |
| Zoho Social Lite | NA | Yes | Yes |
| Product, Price Book & Order Management | NA | NA | Yes |
| Action Follow-up Rules | NA | NA | NA |
Free Plan
Zoho CRM’s Free plan allows up to three users and provides lead and contact management as well as the other CRM services we have compared.
It also has a unique activity tracking feature, website user tracking, which is not included in many other free plans.
However, Zoho CRM’s Free Plan cannot handle email marketing campaigns, unlike Bitrix24 ‘s Free Plans.
As a result, the free plan has ideally designed for teams of three or fewer who need little customization but want to track their website engagements.
It is also suitable for teams who manage their quotes and orders using a different accounting tool.
Standard Plan
The Standard Package is $12 per user per month, which allows users to add custom fields that generate custom reports that can then schedule and distributed to users.
It comes with Social Lite, a social media management system that allows unlimited posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
This plan also enables teams to forecast sales, which is an exceptional benefit at this price.
Email analytics include real-time tracking of email deliveries, bounces, and opens.
The Standard Package is also better tailored to sales teams who want better insight into the behavior of the owner as well as the ability to track emails, social media, and visitor tracking.
Professional Plan
The Professional Plan provides the features of inventory management, such as Pipedrive, but also includes purchasing orders and invoice control.
It costs $20 per user per month, bringing it in line with comparable third-party product pricing.
The Technical package also provides access to Zoho CRM’s proprietary SalesSignals features, which automate lead scoring, lets you properly manage lead monitoring, and enables you to add up to 150 custom fields per section.
Its custom field service and conditional follow-up rules that can connect to CRM field updates make it ideal for teams looking for either a platform with a high degree of customization capacity or process automation.
The Professional Plan is also ideally suited to those who wish to collect leads directly from social media.
What the CRM Zoho is Missing
Zoho CRM’s included space of 1 GB per user is black. Also, you can add additional space at a cost; it will add up instantly.
Pipedrive, on the other hand, provides unlimited storage on all their accounts. Although users have the option to customize contact and opportunity fields.
It is not as easy to customize the sales pipeline procedure, nor does it provide the project management features of Zoho alternatives such as Insightly.
What Users Think About Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM customers reported that the software makes it easy to customize, track prospects and set up future tasks.
They claim the data is easy to import from current CRM software, making the transition less complicated. They may, though, state that technological support must be improved.
Fixes and new features are slow to carry out, and the user interface can be easier to use.
You may visit our Zoho CRM review page for further customer feedback.
Pipedrive is a small business CRM created to simplify the process of the sales pipeline.
Its highly intuitive and easy-to-use pipeline management tool allows you to see what is in the sales pipeline at a glance while helping you track the sales of standardized products and services.
Starting at a per-user price of $12.50 a month, Pipedrive is most suited to teams looking for a CRM with unique pipeline views that help representatives quickly determine the next stage.
Pipedrive Pricing
Pipedrive provides three-tiered plans ranging from $12.50 to $49.90 per user per month.
It makes Pipedrive moderately more expensive than the other products we have compared, and there is no free-for-all plan.
Pipedrive does offer a free trial, enabling you to try it before you buy it.
Automate Pipedrive CRM with Pipedrive CRM's Zapier Integrations.
Pipedrive Tiered Features
| Essential | Advanced | Professional | |
| Pricing | $12.50/user per month | $24.90/user per month | $49.90/user per month |
| Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Advanced User Permissions | Two sets | Two sets | Three sets |
| Live Dashboard (s) | 1 | 1 | Unlimited |
| Workflow Automation | 0 | 30 | 60 |
| Automatic Call Logging | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| BCC Email Inbox | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Contact, Deal, and Task Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Contact and Calendar Sync with Google and Microsoft | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Native Mobile Apps for Android and iOS | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sales and Activity Reports | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Email Open and Click Tracking | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Contact Data Enrichment | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Products Catalog | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Two-Way Email Sync | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Cumulative Revenue Forecast | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
| Team Management | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
| Team Reports and Goals | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
| Security Dashboard | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Essential
The Essential Package costs $12.50 per user per month, which includes the Pipedrive Visual interface, contact management capabilities, and reporting configuration.
Like Freshsales, Pipedrive is simple to configure, even in its entry-level plan, allowing users the option of creating a specific process that fits their business needs.
It also allows limitless storage and limitless pipelines, a combination not found in any of the other CRM applications we have tested.
There is, however, no lead score, as seen in the Freshsales and Zoho CRM entry-level programs.
As a result, the essential plan is most fit for businesses looking for a way to manage their leads and contacts properly but does not require lead scoring.
It’s suitable for those who want a software system personalized, instead of being expected to match their workflow to the tool.
Advanced
The Advanced kit provides email tracking capability to Pipedrive ‘s contact management software, as well as contact data enrichment (not included in the Critical Plan).
The plan offers account insights that will help employees properly target their follow-up activities on the leads that are almost ready to purchase.
Unlike any of the CRMs, we have compared, unique points in your products, such as sales spreads and average discounts, helping you find the top performers.
At $24.90 per user per month, the Advanced Plan is best suited to teams who wish to take advantage of Pipedrive ‘s visual pipeline and additional analytics.
It is also useful for those who want a web-based platform to validate information about current contact records.
Professional
The professional plan provides the same features as the advanced plan but offers annual sales estimates and advanced reporting features for $49.90 per account per month.
Technical also involves role-specific access, allowing teams greater power over which people can communicate with what content or sites and how.
Its main advantages over the less costly plans are extra research, role-based permissions, and support.
It makes the Professional package the right choice for corporate teams and for those who have genuinely unique sales management requirements.
What Pipedrive Is Missing
Pipedrive lacks lead assignment and lead-based routing, rendering it a less competitive alternative to account-based transactions with multiple touchpoints.
Although leads can be prioritized based on time after the last contact, they do not have lead scores such as those seen in Pipedrive alternatives Freshsales and Zoho CRM, or project management as provided by Insightly.
Pipedrive also lacks a mass email feature like the ones found in the other tools we have compared.
What Users Think Of The Pipedrive
Although Pipedrive might not be as rich in functionality as some of the others, what it does is a good thing.
Users of apps such as the user-friendly interface, available integrations with other third-party tools, and a quick learning curve.
You will learn more about Pipedrive and what other users think on our Pipedrive review page.
HubSpot is a free lead management platform with features including smart lead capture, chat widget, and customer support ticketing, as well as email tracking and deal management.
Additional automation functions can also integrate with the Sales and Marketing Hubs.
It makes it an excellent option for budget-conscious businesses of any size that need free contact and lead management CRM software.
HubSpot Pricing
HubSpot is one of the greatest free CRMs and allows an unlimited number of users.
If the company expands, you can add additional sales and marketing functions through the sales and marketing Hub, ranging from $50 per month to $800 per month based on the different features included.
Automate HubSpot with HubSpot's Zapier Integrations.
Features of HubSpot
The best feature of HubSpot CRM is its simple user interface, making it easy to understand and learn.
For tiny businesses or first-time CRM users, the HubSpot Free Plan is an excellent start to simple CRM features such as contact management and lead or deal tracking.
Live chat and bots are excellent customer service and lead-generation tools.
And with over 200 integration options, it has one of the largest app ecosystems we have analyzed.
The main features of HubSpot include:
Lead Capture Based on Form
HubSpot CRM provides the ability to embed forms on your website or to capture data entered in existing website forms using a tracking code.
Although this feature can be found in other CRMs, most do not offer it in their free versions.
Contacts captured as leads can then be inserted into automated marketing campaigns, making HubSpot an economical solution for companies using landing pages to generate leads.
Contact Management
HubSpot CRM offers the opportunity to arrange company contacts and provides insights, such as the news arrived of a contact’s recent website activity.
As a cloud-based CRM, HubSpot often auto-enriches profiles based on the information it takes from social media profiles and details it knows about companies.
HubSpot also scores leads based on both profile information and website activity, which is something that other free alternatives provide only in a limited manner.
Lead and Task Management
HubSpot CRM gives you the ability to schedule activities for eventual follow-up and helps you to create workflows to manage daily marketing tasks.
These platforms are more intuitive in moving leads through the sales process compared to other free plans available from the options on this list.
HubSpot also provides a free embeddable chat tool that allows you to use conversational bots to pre-qualify leads that interact on your website, similar to the Freshchat feature.
Integration of the System
HubSpot CRM integrates with Gmail and Outlook, making it simple to add CRM contacts.
It even automatically updates your social media contacts.
However, it does not automatically log your social media interactions like Zoho CRM unless you pay $200 a month to the Marketing Hub’s basic plan.
The Chrome email extension automatically retrieves business, address, and activity data for contacts.
HubSpot CRM also integrates with tons of other third-party apps such as Mailchimp, UberConference, and Slack.
These integrations will significantly improve HubSpot’s functionality without companies upgrading their Sales, Marketing, or Service Hub plans.
These integrations increasing, however, require additional paid subscriptions.
Customer Service and Ease of Use
HubSpot provides an extensive online knowledge base, including a broad tutorial library named “HubSpot Academy,” as well as an active user community.
It provides help and answers to people’s questions.
It should remember, however, that email, live chat, and phone support are only accessible to users with a paid subscription.
If you use their free plan, support is limited to self-service solutions.
What HubSpot is Missing
The critical drawbacks of HubSpot CRM are that certain features you get with other HubSpot alternatives, such as workflow management and customer support, are only available if you subscribe to one of their paid plans.
Also, if you wish to upgrade to your advanced plan, the price starts at $50 per user per month. It positions it within the context of more advanced CRMs with built-in marketing, project management, and other business applications.
What Users Think of HubSpot
HubSpot CRM users are highly complementary to its ease of use but would like the platform to have more reports and workflow automation.
Some users complain that it doesn’t sync with Google and Outlook calendars, and it’s a valid issue if HubSpot is working.
You can read more on the HubSpot CRM review page.
Salesforce Essentials is a popular small business CRM with features such as contact management, sales opportunities, mass emails, and customer support ticketing beginning at $25 per user per month.
The Salesforce ecosystem provides a wide range of tools, including support, marketing automation, e-commerce, and analytics applications.
It is specifically tailored to small businesses that need advanced functionality such as land-based lead assignment and reporting.
Salesforce Essentials Pricing
Salesforce Essentials is $25 per user per month for up to 25 users and provides sales and service modules.
Salesforce also provides a premium version of $75 per user per month, which includes advanced features such as lead ratings, forecasting tools, and campaigns.
Automate Salesforce Essentials CRM with Salesforce Essentials CRM's Zapier Integrations.
Salesforce Essentials Tiered Features
| Essentials | Professional | |
| Price | $25/month per user (max 25 users) | $75/month per user |
| Contact Management | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mass Email | ✔ | ✔ |
| Lead Capture | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mobile App | ✔ | ✔ |
| Customer Support Cases | ✔ | ✔ |
| Customizable Sales Process | ✔ | ✔ |
| Lead Scoring | N/A | ✔ |
| Collaborative Forecasting | N/A | ✔ |
| Lead Registration | N/A | ✔ |
| Permissions and Roles | N/A | ✔ |
Essentials
Salesforce Essentials is $25 per user per month and provides contact management, sales pipelines, deal management, and mass email features for up to 25 users.
It is based on the Salesforce Lightning Platform, which is a far more intuitive and user-friendly interface than the Classic version.
The plan also provides case management, helping small businesses to manage both the sales process and customer support.
Salesforce’s entry-level plan is more expensive than other alternatives on the list but provides a robust suite of advanced CRM features, including territory management and automatic lead assignment.
Although Salesforce does not provide a free plan, Essentials is suitable for companies that need a comprehensive set of CRM features to manage sales leads across various geographic areas or industries.
Professional
Salesforce Professional is $75 per user per month, provides more advanced software as a service (SaaS) for Salesforce associates, and is a SaaS CRM platform.
It is used by organizations more than any other option. Its advanced features include lead scoring, sales forecasting, and advanced reporting and permission features.
This plan provides more features than most of the other plans we have reviewed, but it is also the most expensive choice we have considered.
As a result, the Professional plan is ideally suited for larger sales teams, especially those with regional or industry-specific sales representatives, or existing B2B sales teams that oversee high-level market opportunities and need a stable cloud-based application.
What is Lacking from Salesforce Essentials
The Salesforce Essentials plan does not allow more than 25 users to upgrade as small teams grow.
Plus, rule-based lead scoring, as well as invoicing, can be found in other featured tools like Zoho CRM at lower prices than the usual Salesforce upgrades.
What Users Think About the Salesforce Essentials
Users offer Essentials and the Lightning platform high marks for their user interface, claiming it is much more intuitive than the legacy interface, and rate it highly for advanced features and customization options.
However, users notice that Salesforce also requires comprehensive setup and training, making it less available to teams without dedicated technical or administrative support.
Visit our complete Salesforce review page for more user feedback.
Zendesk Sell is a fully integrated CRM that includes contact and deal management features, as well as a decent mobile app with built-in call functionality with plans starting at a per-user price of $19 a month.
Zendesk Sell is also part of Zendesk ‘s overall suite, which includes a help desk, chat, analytics, and IT management.
The mobile app makes it an ideal choice for field sales teams who need built-in mobile phone calls and call records.
Zendesk Sell Prices
Zendesk Sell plans begin at a comparable $19 per user per month, which also consists of contact management, promotions, and mobile CRM applications including click-to-dial call and call recording.
Plans that provide tools such as bulk email, sales forecasting, and lead scoring are available at $49 and $99 per user per month.
Automate Zendesk Sell CRM with Zendesk Sell CRM's Zapier Integrations.
Zendesk Sell Tiered Features
| Team | Professional | Enterprise | |
| Price | $19/month per user | $49/month per user | $99/month per user |
| Contact Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Deals | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mobile CRM | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Client Project Workspace | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Products and Order Invoicing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Email Integration | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Call Recording | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Bulk Emails and Templates | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sales Goals and Forecasting | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Multiple Sales Pipelines | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
| Unlimited Activity Reports | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
| Advanced Permissions | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
| Lead Scoring | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Team
The Team plan costs $19 a month (up to three users) and includes contact management, deals, and one of the best mobile CRM applications in all of the options we’ve been looking for.
The package offers a built-in call and call recording of voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP).
Most click-to-call mobile applications use the phone’s dialer and carrier networks, while Zendesk Sale uses its VoIP service.
Zendesk Sell is also an integral part of Zendesk’s entire application ecosystem includes a help desk, chat, knowledge base, and CRM.
It allows users to integrate their sales and contacts into a robust variety of apps that help users to manage all these customer relationships.
The team plan is especially suitable for small teams such as consultants or service-based companies.
Professional
The Professional Plan offers a monthly price of $49 per user.
It has advanced features such as sales forecasting, sales goals, and advanced analytics.
It also provides unlimited email templates and masses emailing.
Although the Professional Plan is an expensive choice for this list, it makes it much more intuitive, up-to-date, and more comfortable to configure dashboards and reporting than many of its competitors.
Zendesk Sell is mainly designed to target larger corporate customers who compete directly with both Salesforce and Zoho, with an entire SaaS service.
For large teams who want a powerful and well-designed mobile application for their field sales representatives, professional planning is the right choice, and would like to integrate their entire customer relationship within one software ecosystem.
Enterprise
The Enterprise plan offers customers the opportunity to allow additional sales pipelines, a product catalog, and lead and deal scoring at $99 a month an account.
It also allows sales representatives to create custom call scripts to communicate with prospects and leads.
The Enterprise Plan provides some of the best CRM solutions we have reviewed and is more affordable than other CRMs on this list to Salesforce Professional.
Field sales teams will find that the calling and call scripts of mobile apps are useful resources to connect with many prospects.
Together with Zendesk, the integration makes this perfect for medium and more massive business-to-business sales teams, mainly as Zendesk software is used for other aspects of customer experience management currently.
What is Missing from Zendesk?
Zengesk Sell has no free forever plan, and features such as bookkeeping, social media management, marketing automation, and productivity apps included in alternative solutions such as Zoho are not available.
It also lacks some of the more powerful automation tools that include third-party solutions, including ongoing email campaigns.
What are Zendesk's Users Worried about?
Customers of Zendesk Sell give high praise for their easy-to-use a mobile app and intuitive interface, particularly for their call and call recording features.
Users like extremely intuitive reporting functionality and sales pipeline features.
Some users thus make an opposing view because the software is not modified as easily as any other alternative with new features.
For more detail, see our Zendesk Sell user reviews page.
Really Simple Systems is a CRM platform with built-in marketing and service desk tools such as case management and service level agreements ( SLAs).
It offers small business CRM, marketing, and all-in-one service capabilities.
Besides a free plan, monthly payments start at $14 per user and make Really Simple Systems suitable for small companies looking to have an affordable CRM to manage entire customer journeys.
Really Simple Systems Pricing
Really Simple Systems provides a free model and three paid plans depending on its core operating functionality.
The annual entry-level plan customer agreements begin at $14 per user, every month, and the two upgraded plans’ annual agreements are available at $30 per user and on an annual level cost $46 per month.
Automate Really Simple Systems CRM with Really Simple Systems CRM's Zapier Integrations.
Really Simple Systems Tiered Features
| Free | Starter | Professional | Enterprise | |
| Pricing | Free for two users | $14/user per month | $30/user per month | $46/user per month |
| Contact and Pipeline Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Forecast Reports | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sales Weightings & Probability | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Automated Marketing Campaigns | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Custom Dashboards | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Lead Management | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Response Tracking | N/A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Case Level Ranking and Management | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Custom Cases, SLAs, and Case Levels | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Quotations | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Service Desk Email Integration | N/A | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Advanced Reporting | N/A | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
| Account Manager | N/A | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
| Team Training | N/A | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Free Plan
Really Simple Systems provides a free plan that allows up to two users to manage their contacts and deals.
In addition to pipeline management, with the introduction of product lines, teams can access entire product catalogs and quickly check related information such as price and availability.
The plan doesn’t have any service desk tools; however, so teams looking for that functionality will consider HubSpot CRM.
The free plan also provides users with access to email and chat support, as well as custom fields, custom dashboards, and custom pages.
It is recommended for startups and independent entrepreneurs who need to maintain pipelines but do not need marketing, service, or advanced reporting usability.
Starter
The Real Simple Systems Starter Plan costs $14 per user per month.
It helps build on the features included in its base model by adding lead management and the ability to segment accounts, and contacts, and operate specific properties such as geographical location.
Not only can users monitor and manage new relationships, but administrators can easily delegate leads to appropriate representatives.
Teams can also use the Starter plan to build, manage and automate email drip campaigns.
They can also record the responses and sometimes even ROI with the built-in tracker.
Although the level lacks case management capabilities, the marketing function of this package is reliable, and we suggest the Starter Plan for teams that just want a simple CRM tool that can help focus on improving demand generation.
Professional
The Real Simple Systems Professional package offers a range of help desk features for a monthly price of $30 per user.
It includes case management, case-level ranking, service desk email integration, and personalized service level agreements ( SLAs), equipping teams with tools to provide after-sales customer support.
Professional plan users can now access quotes and create personalized pricing for potential customers, even though it lacks detailed reporting for an improved plan.
For this reason, the Professional from Really Simple Systems is our choice for small businesses that want to manage customer journeys, including quotes, but don’t need granular reporting capabilities.
Enterprise
Really Simple Systems Enterprise Plan is $46 per user per month and builds on the pre-plan feature set.
Business plan customers have access to the account manager and onboard trainer, which can go a long way in ensuring that small business users have contact points for questions or additional requirements and training.
The Enterprise Plan from Really Simple Systems is the only featured plan to provide this amount of new customer service at such an affordable price.
That’s why it’s our option for small businesses looking for a robust CRM that provides advanced service capabilities.
What Really Simple Systems Is Missing
Unlike other featured CRMs, Really Simple Systems does not currently offer mobile applications to Android and iOS users.
Nor does the software provide the ability to automate workflows.
Teams seeking CRM with marketing and support capabilities, as well as mobile functionality, should suggest Zendesk Sell, Salesforce, or Zoho CRM.
What Users Think About Really Simple Systems
Our readers say that Real Simple Systems is easy to use, even for people without advanced technical skills.
Others, however, state that they are looking forward to mobile apps and improved email integration.
Bitrix24 is a free-tier CRM that offers all the basic features required to drive a small business, including contact and project management, billing, support desk, telephone, and live chat.
Paid pricing starts at $55.20 a month, with many additional features such as email and text marketing, CRM automation, and unlimited pipelines.
It is, therefore, best for small businesses that want a low-cost, all-in-one. It is, therefore, best for small businesses that want a low-cost, all-in-one CRM.
Bitrix24 Pricing Plan
All three Bitrix24 plans offer unlimited contacts, telephony, live chat, and social integration.
Teams up to 12 can avail of a free plan.
The CRM Plus plan is for teams of six or more at $55.20 per month, and the Standard Plan costs $79.20 per month for a minimum of 50 users, including personalization and automation features.
Bitrix24 Tiered Features
| Free | CRM Plus | Standard | |
| Pricing | Free | $55.20/month | $79.20/month |
| Users Accommodated | Up to 12 | Minimum of 6 | Minimum of 50 |
| Online Storage | 5GB | 50GB | 100GB |
| Pipelines | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Unlimited Contacts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Contact Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Custom Deal Stages | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Website Live Chat | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Telephony | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Project Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Report-Builder | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Email and SMS Marketing | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sales and Marketing Workflow Rules | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Call Tracking | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
| Sales Intelligence Report Builder | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Free Plan
This plan is free for 12 users and includes contact management, an integrated phone system, live chat, project management, and invoicing.
Although the plan missing contact data enrichment provided with Zoho CRM’s paid plans, its social media feature links to Facebook, Instagram, and Slack, among others, allow you to manage all of your social interactions from a single dashboard.
You can build an online store with 100 products and process unlimited orders, a feature not included in any of the other free plans offered.
Although live chat communication, can be programmed to send automated responses, this version is losing the email marketing found in their paid plans and with other CRMs such as Really Simple Systems.
It makes it ideal for small businesses that want free chat CRM but don’t need built-in email marketing.
CRM Plus Plan
The CRM Plus plan covers six users, at the cost of $55.20 a month, and provides CRM automation with triggers, bulk emails, SMS and text messages, unlimited call recording, and voice recording, enabling you to send pre-recorded phone messages with an auto-dialer.
This feature is not included in any of the other CRMs that we reviewed.
There is a document builder that helps you to create and share documents with your staff, prospects, and clients.
Its low price point makes this plan one of the lowest-priced per-user, all-in-one CRMs we’ve reviewed.
This also makes it ideal for tiny teams or solo entrepreneurs to perform multiple business activities within their CRM.
Standard Plan
The Standard Plan costs $79.20 a month for 50 or more users, making it by far the least costly CRM user we reviewed.
Many of the key features included in the other two plans have been bundled up.
For example, you can set up ten online stores with up to 5,000 products and send 50,000 monthly marketing emails.
In addition to tracking calls, the Standard plan provides a report builder, enabling teams to understand better the activities that are driving sales and which are inefficient or unnecessary.
These various operations make this a robust but inexpensive plan, particularly for large teams that want to track call productivity.
What is Missing from Bitrix24
The free plan for email marketing features found in Really Simple Systems is missing.
The user interface — though nothing is missing — can feel busy (if not overwhelming) due to its various business functions.
As a result, it doesn’t feel as organized and user-friendly as most other CRMs.
What Users Think of Bitrix24
Users like the platform’s many business app usage, citing the free version as a better place to start because it provides many of the same features as paid plans.
Some, however, complained about the user interface, saying that the app uses a steep learning curve.
You can also learn more about the customer’s thoughts on our Bitrix24 review page.
Insightly is a competitively priced small business CRM with efficient project management and sales pipeline customization capabilities.
Monthly plans start at $29 per month, and there’s a free starter plan.
It also provides software to help you monitor vendors, prospects, and clients, and offers a wide variety of custom multiple features.
Insightly is, therefore, an ideal solution for businesses looking for CRM software for free that can help them manage both sales and projects.
Insightly Price
The core features of Insightly, including project management, pipeline monitoring, custom CRM fields, and contact management, are free for up to two users.
Monthly paid plans costs between $29 (Plus) and $49 (Professional) per user and provide lead assignment routing, email tracking, and customizable sales processes.
Both paid plans also have detailed, personalized reporting options.
Automate Insightly CRM with Insightly CRM's Zapier Integrations.
Insightly Tiered Features
| Free | Plus | Professional | |
| Pricing | Free for two users | $29/user per month | $49/user per month |
| Contact and Task Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Activity Feed | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sales Pipeline Tracking | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Project Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Web-to-Lead Capture | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Custom CRM Fields | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Bulk Email Campaigns | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Email Tracking | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Lead Assignment Routing | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Customized Sales Processes | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Calendar Sync | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dashboards and Configurable Reports | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
| Custom Object Creation | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Free Plan
Insightly ‘s Free plan provides two users with access to critical features such as contact records, activities, and opportunities.
It also provides them with integrated project management, a feature not found in most of the CRMs we have compared.
Offers relationship monitoring, voice notes, and bulk email campaigns, a functionality not included in the free Freshsales, Zoho CRM, and HubSpot plans.
However, unlike the free Bitrix24 and HubSpot plans, this package does not include email monitoring that provides email notifications that are opened and clicked.
The Free Plan is, therefore, best suited for independent entrepreneurs or teams of two who oversee all projects and sales.
It is also suitable for those who want to use the calendar tools of another application to manage their appointments.
Plus Plan
At $29 per user per month, Insightly’s Plus plan allows users to manage contact relationships after the deal is closed by linking contact with any of the multiple, customizable project pipelines.
In addition, users can add and manage 100,000 records and send 2,500 bulk emails every month.
Like Freshsales, the leads resulting from these contacts and marketing messages are then tracked and managed through a sales pipeline process.
The Plus package doesn’t include marketing automation and social media management, such as those found in similar-priced Freshsales, Zoho CRM, Very Easy Programs, and Bitrix24 plans.
It also doesn’t have lead scores like those found in Freshsales, Zoho CRM, and Salesforce.
That’s why it’s great for single entrepreneurs, highly independent sales representatives, and those who don’t need built-in marketing automation.
Professional Plan
The Professional Plan start available at $49 per user per month.
It allows you to customize your Dashboard, a feature that is not provided by many of the CRM software that we’ve compared.
But its several customizable reporting options are where they really stand out from the others.
Reporting options include tasks, leads, opportunities, organization, and others.
Each of these has customizable fields to be cut as precisely as you want to go.
The dashboards can be created for categories such as lead sources, tasks, forecast dates, pipelines, and phases, with several other ways to present and share data using a variety of visual options.
However, there is a lack of marketing automation, lead scoring, and social management in other top CRMs such as Salesforce, Freshsales, and Zoho CRM.
This plan is best suited to teams that want the Dashboard and report customization for sales and projects.
What Is Missing in Insightly
While you can manage a project with Insightly, Insightly and Pipedrive, for example, offer different user experiences.
Although Pipedrive’s user experience is highly visual, the experience of Insightly is not.
Insightly also keeps failing to provide quotes and order management, such as Zoho CRM, without moving to an enterprise-level plan.
What Users Think About Insightly
Insightly users appreciate the simplicity in which contacts can be added to the database directly from a native email client, as well as the ability to manage projects in the pipeline.
Other users appreciate the ease with which fields can be added, and reports can be generated.
However, using the tool needs more clicks to navigate to particular record information than other CRMs. You can learn more about Insightly on our review page.
Streak CRM resides in the inbox of your Gmail account, where you can build and manage contacts, deals, pipelines, and communications.
There is a free plan and monthly payment plans starting at $49 per user.
Because of these features, this platform is ideally suited to independent entrepreneurs or small businesses who want to manage contacts and deal directly from Gmail.
Streak Pricing Plan
Streak’s free plan is combined with G Suite and has unlimited pipelines.
It also provides email scheduling and tracking, a mobile app, and tasks.
The Skilled monthly package costs $49 per user and includes permissions, call logs, email filtering, and reporting.
Automate Streak with Streak's Zapier Integrations.
Streak Tiered Features
| Personal | Professional | |
| Pricing | Free for up to 2 users | $49/user per month |
| G Suite Integration | ✔ | ✔ |
| Unlimited Pipelines | ✔ | ✔ |
| Task & Reminders | ✔ | ✔ |
| Snippets | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mail Merge | ✔ | ✔ |
| Email Scheduling | ✔ | ✔ |
| Import & Export | ✔ | ✔ |
| Email Tracking | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mobile App | ✔ | ✔ |
| Reporting | N/A | ✔ |
| Call Logs | N/A | ✔ |
| Support | N/A | ✔ |
| API | N/A | ✔ |
| Permissions | N/A | ✔ |
Personal Plan
Streak integrates with Gmail as an extension that populates the side navigation list of your inbox, in which all pipelines and leads are found.
Settings, updates, and integrations can be found in the top-right drop-down menu.
Visually, the pipelines are color-coded by pipeline or project phase.
This is the only free version that lets unlimited pipelines.
There are templates for ticket support, job applications, event bookings, project management, and other business uses within pipelines.
After all, unlike the free plans of Zoho CRM, Bitrix24, and HubSpot, this plan doesn’t provide reporting.
Therefore, the free plan is suitable for individuals who really want to perform exclusively from their Gmail and do not need the ability to create reports.
Professional Plan
The professional plan would cost $49 per user per month and adds integration, reporting, and email support features.
Other features include call logs, source leads, and meeting notes that can be efficiently timed and followed.
Integrations are limited to Google Sheets and Hangouts plus a variety of options through Zapier.
This puts it at a disadvantage compared to all the other CRMs at this price that offer thousands of integrations.
Pipeline reporting is entirely customizable with filters that can obtain a variety of data, such as deal amounts, close rates, interactions, time at each phase, and others.
While you can send mass emails, there is no marketing automation feature, unlike Freshsales, Zoho CRM, and Bitrix24.
Therefore, this plan is for teams who need multiple pipeline management with a truly customized feature but do not need marketing functions built-in.
What a Streak Missing
Since Streak lives in Gmail, there are no marketing automation features offered by Freshsales, Zoho CRM, and Really Simple Systems.
There is also no inbound or outbound call feature option that can also be found in these CRMs.
What Users Think About Streak
Users like their CRM live in Gmail, particularly sales reps who spend a lot of time working out their emails.
Multiple pipeline features are also admired by users.
However, a few users find the import and export feature to be “unintuitive.”
Visit our Streak user reviews page to read in-depth feedback.
Conclusion
Small business CRM software is most helpful for building contacts and improving the sales process.
Yet many vendors also include other business applications such as marketing, project management, and service features in their plans.
The best CRM software for your small business will depend mainly on the number of users, the needs for use, and the budget.
We recommend Freshsales as the best CRM for small businesses overall due to its affordability and features such as 360-degree customer insights, activity monitoring, and appointment and lead management capabilities.
Its suite of additional business applications also makes it attractive as a do-it-all platform for growing businesses.
Visit Freshsales and sign up for a risk-free 21-day free trial.
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