So, you’re looking for a CRM system, but aren’t sure which one to choose. Want to know which platform is best suited to meet your business’s needs?
I suggest you take a look at this article – we review and compare three popular CRMs – Zoho, Nimbuss and HubSpot – and give you the information you need to make an informed decision on which CRM platform is best suited to your business…
Zoho CRM (Web, iOS, Android) Best free CRM software for scaling your business
As your business grows, your technology needs usually change with it. And the company best equipped to handle this growth is Zoho. Starting with their free CRM, Zoho provides affordable, incremental upgrade paths, plus access to their other suite of business apps. There’s very little an organization would need—marketing, eCommerce, finance, HR—that Zoho doesn’t provide an app for.
The CRM includes deal management, tasks, and room for 5,000 records, which they define as contacts, accounts, deals, campaigns, and several other “modules.” The records used can be easily monitored and managed from Setup, then Data Administration and Storage,where recommendations are made for deleting untouched records. But note that you must upgrade to a paid plan to increase the modules limit.
Unfortunately, the free version now only integrates with one app: SalesIQ. This app provides live chat functionality and website visitor tracking by installing a code snippet in your website’s source code. It’s a nice tool to have in the box for sales, as it lets you answer initial visitor questions and ask qualifying questions. Then, if there’s enough interest, you can schedule a call from the chat. SalesIQ will score leads, track a chat visitor’s activity on your site, and send notifications when the contact revisits.
If you’re a solo operator, consider Zoho’s little CRM sibling, Bigin. It’s free for one user and can integrate with a handful of other Zoho products, Zoom, Gmail, and Zapier. If you need to upgrade from Bigin to any of Zoho CRM’s paid plans in the future to expand capabilities, it takes just a few clicks. See this comparison page to better understand Zoho’s and Bigin’s features and limitations.
By connecting Zoho or Bigin to Zapier, you’ll be able to add new contacts to your CRM whenever you have a new lead from an ad, a form, an order, or anywhere else, or get a notification whenever you have a new deal. Create contacts on Zoho CRM from new leads from Facebook Lead AdsUse this ZapCreate Zoho CRM modules from new WooCommerce ordersUse this ZapSend Slack channel messages for new deals in BiginUse this ZapSee more Zoho CRM integrations powered by
Zoho CRM Price: Free for 3 users; paid plans from $14/month/user
Streak
Streak represents another easy-to-use CRM, and its appeal is in its simplicity. It’s basically a browser plugin that works as an extension of Gmail and ‘lives’ in it.
There are four different plans: Free, Solo, Pro and eEnterprise. The Free and Solo plans are basic CRMs with limited, email tracking, mail merge, snippets, unlimited pipelines and more. If you get a premium plan, you’ll also get reporting, email support, and permissions. There’s no marketing automation in either plans, but bulk messaging is enabled.
The free plan allows up to 2 users, which makes it perfect for individuals who rely heavily on Gmail in their work. They’ll find their way around easily, as they’re working on a platform they know very well. Still, if you want more than that you’ll need a professional plan that costs $49 per user, per month. Even with the professional plan, you’ll still have no call or automation features, with integrations limited to Google’s apps.
Price
- Free Version: Yes
- Starter: from AU$15 per user/month
- Professional: from AU$49 per user/month
- Enterprise: from AU$129 per user/month
Features
- Google Integration
- Contact Management
- Pipeline Management
- Email Tracking
Insightly (Web, iOS, Android) Best free CRM software for managing projects
I’ve used Insightly in two different roles over the years: sales and project management. For both, the platform performed well, and I knew I was just chipping the surface of what it could do. And that’s true even with their free plan, which allows two users. So if you and a partner need to manage both relationships and projects, Insightly provides lots of potential to start and to grow.
To get a handle on how Insightly is organized, start with the items on the left-side navigation bar. These—contacts, leads, opportunities, emails, and others—are called objects and comprise the records you can create. A record lives in an object with fields to be filled out, such as name, phone, email, or any data you want to track. And you can create new fields, make them required, and customize the layout of fields on the page.
Once a record is created, you can perform actions for, say, a contact, such as changing them to a lead or adding a task, project, or activity set. An activity set is a group of automated tasks and events. For example, if you have a standard process for starting projects, you can create tasks for your colleague to email a new client within three days of closing the sale, another to set up a first meeting in five days, and so on. Activity sets can also be triggered during the different stages of a project.
If you provide services, you can create pipelines and the accompanying stages to manage each one as a separate project and link it to a company, contact(s), and other projects. All of these relationships show up in the various records, so you always have a complete picture of what’s going on. So if I’m talking to a client about another project, I can easily see the progress of their other outstanding projects.
One feature of Insightly that’s not found in a lot of CRMs, especially free plans, is the ability to track your leads using a Kanban board. Similar to creating opportunities and project pipelines, you can create all the steps in your qualification process (e.g., “first call attempt,” “contacted,” and “disqualified”), and move them along the board by dragging and dropping into the next status. Leads can be created from any screen with the quick add button, from contacts, and by importing them.
Something to keep in mind is the 2,500-record limit with the free plan (records include contacts, leads, orgs, projects, tasks, emails, notes, reports, and comments). If you have a lot of moving pieces for sales and projects, this can add up quickly. You can check your records usage in the billing and account section under your profile image.
To get the most out of Insightly, you can connect it to Zapier, which can automatically add or update records based on form submissions, calendar events, or other triggers in your favorite apps.
Insightly Price: Free for 2 users; paid plan from $29/user/month
Capsule (Web, iOS, Android) Best free CRM software for ease of use
Most CRMs do more than just managing contacts and deals, adding major functions such as marketing and helpdesk to their platforms. So far, Capsule has mostly resisted this trend, which is nice if you want to keep relationship management straightforward.
Using Capsule is a breath of fresh air if you’ve ever worked in anything more involved than an email inbox. The user interface is uncomplicated and, in fact, provides little in the way of customization—you can change the color scheme and add a logo, but that’s it. Six small icons on the left provide access to the main features with account settings on the far right. On every screen is a dropdown to add people, organizations, opportunities, and cases. This means lots of white space in between.
Capsule provides customization options for the fields for people, organizations, and opportunities, which is handy to tailor data capture to your business. In several minutes, I created a decision-maker checkbox field and a dropdown menu for customer types such as vendor, supplier, VAR, and end-user for people and opportunities.
Another nice feature is called Tracks. This lets you create a repeatable set of activity reminders for opportunities. For example, a standard process for a new inbound lead might have five steps for follow-up, spread over two weeks, using a combination of emails and calls. Tracks applied to these leads automatically populate the opportunity record as a list of to-dos to be checked off.
If you’re a Gmail or Outlook user, be sure to download Capsule’s email add-on. This lets you add contacts, opportunities, and tasks right from your inbox with a few clicks. It will also automatically save (unless you disable) all ongoing email threads into that contact’s record. Missing, however, is the ability to send emails directly from a contact’s record. This is a feature available in all of the other free CRMs reviewed here.
Finally, if you’re coming into Capsule with hundreds of contacts, you’ll either need to do some scrubbing (usually a good idea) or look elsewhere because the free plan only allows 250. Upgrading to the first paid tier ($18/mo/user) bumps the contact limit to 50,000.
HubSpot
HubSpot is a great tool for those looking to automate their sales and marketing processes. For instance, it can automatically track and sort customer interactions across multiple channels. It will also automatically update customer and lead info with the data pulled from social profiles, which can save you a lot of your precious time.
Furthermore, one of the big advantages of HubSpot is its user-friendliness. Unlike Salesforce that has a reputation for its steep learning curve, HubSpot is very convenient and easy to use. Clean dashboard and a handy timeline view ensure you have a clear overview of the entire sales funnel and all interactions with particular leads. In general, HubSpot is often recommended to those with little experience with CRM software.
Because HubSpot’s free programme includes an unlimited number of users, it’s excellent for fast-growing companies. Moreover, you can start with the free version and then add more advanced features when you need them, making sure that the growth of your business is being smoothly mirrored in a more comprehensive CRM system.
As for the downsides, it should be mentioned that the free plan doesn’t include some of the important functionalities, such as 24-hour customer support and workflow management. This means that you’re likely to need to upgrade sooner than you might want and this is where it gets expensive. The CRM Starter plan checks in at A$68 per month. Also, their reporting tools have often been under scrutiny.
Price
- Free Version: Yes
- Starter: from AU$68 per month for 2 users
- Professional: from AU$648 per month for 5 users
- Enterprise: from AU$1730 per user/month
Features
- Contact Management
- Pipeline Management
- Integrated Marketing Tool
- Custom Settings
- Easy to use
Nimble
One of the most important benefits of using CRM software is better and easier contact management. And very few CRM systems are better at this than Nimble.
It provides some truly terrific contact management solutions. It can help you not just store and organise your contacts but also find new ones. Thanks to its ‘rules engine’ it can predict and discover leads and other relevant contacts based on user behaviour.
It also makes communication with customers easier in numerous ways, with email templates, unified message inbox, personalised group messages, and follow-up reminders, to name just a few.
Furthermore, Nimble does the other things usually expected of a CRM system, such as deal pipeline management or sales forecasts and reports. The downside is that there is only one plan, so you can’t pick just the functionalities that you feel your company needs at a certain stage. The price of Nimble is $19 per user, per month, and is a definite recommendation for businesses that struggle with handling contacts and communication.
Price
- Free Version: No
- Standard: from $19 per user/month
Features
- Contact Management
- Pipeline Management
- Online customer support
- Social media integration
Conclusion
Going above and beyond to deliver the best possible service is what you should expect of any company providing CRM software for small business. This means not only ensuring your technology works for you, but also that their staff are assigned to walking with you on your business journey. This is a good reason why you need a CRM software.