The best CRM software helps any business in boosting sales and overall productivity. When you’re running a small business, you require an effective CRM tool that can help you organize all your customer data and help you to upgrade your sales process. Attracting new customers & retaining the existing ones is critical to your business growth either it is about an eCommerce store or a brick-and-mortar establishment. A good CRM software should be able to make you more organized & productive through streamlined daily tasks like contact management with prospects, scheduling appointments, generating quotes etc.
Here are the the biggest CRM softwares in the year 2022.
Agile CRM: Best Simple CRM for Increasing User Engagement
Overall Score: 3.96 OUT OF 5 i
What We Like
- Marketing automation available in paid plans
- Includes gamification and social monitoring tools
- Paid plans feature email and phone support
What’s Missing
- Free plan has no integration features
- Limited reports and analytics capabilities
- Telephony available only in Enterprise plan
Agile CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to 10 users
- Starter: $9.99 per user, per month
- Regular: $39.99 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $64.99 per user, per month
*Based on annual pricing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates, while two-year contracts are offered at slightly lower rates.
Agile CRM offers sales, marketing, and service automation tools in one platform. It also features email and phone support in all of its paid tiers. This CRM helps improve user engagement and motivates sales teams to deliver results using gamification tools, friendly competition, and team collaboration. There are custom leaderboards that show the performance and ranking of each rep.
However, Agile CRM lacks the robust integration options and reporting capabilities of Pipedrive. Its telephony feature is also available only for Enterprise subscribers, while Freshsales incorporates this tool into all of its plans. Moreover, all but its Enterprise plan caps the number of contacts you can store. If you are looking for a free CRM that supports unlimited contacts, try Really Simple Systems.
Agile CRM Features
The leaderboard shows the performance of each rep and their real-time statistics
(Source: Agile CRM)
- Supports unlimited contacts, companies, tasks, deals, and documents
- Sales tools include contact management, lead scoring, appointment scheduling, custom deal milestones, custom data fields, email tracking, project management, and gamification
- Offers marketing tools, such as email marketing, newsletters, email tracking, multichannel campaigns, form builder, landing page builder, social monitoring, and web-to-lead forms
- Service tools include help desk, groups, labels, canned responses, knowledge base, service level agreements (SLAs), and live chat
- Telephony features include two-way calling, post-call automation, call recording, automated voice calls, call scripts, and audio conferencing
- Reporting and analytics tools include custom reports, scheduled reports, growth reports, funnel and cohorts analysis, customer behavior, website performance, and team performance
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android
- Access to setup guides, training workshops, onboarding coach, and dedicated account manager (Enterprise)
- Customer support via email (24/5) and phone (Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time)
To explore if it is the right CRM solution for you, read about its features and benefits in our Agile CRM review.
HubSpot CRM: Best Simple, Free CRM for Unlimited Users
Overall Score: 4.14 OUT OF 5 i
What We Like
- Free plan offers useful email marketing tools, such as email templates and reply tracking
- Unlimited users and contacts
- Can integrate multiple social media accounts
What’s Missing
- Free plan lacks direct customer support
- Limited reporting and analytics capabilities
- Plan upgrades and additional integrations are expensive
HubSpot CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Supports an unlimited number of users
- HubSpot for Startups: Ranges from $40 to $89 per month
- Marketing Hub: Starts at $45 per month
- Sales Hub: Starts at $45 per month
- Service Hub: Starts at $45 per month
- CMS Hub: Starts at $23 per month
- Operations Hub: Free plan for data-syncing HubSpot with third-party apps; paid plans start at $45 per month
- CRM Suite: Starts at $45 per month
- Free trial for paid plans: 14 days
*Based on annual pricing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
HubSpot CRM is our pick as the best free CRM for unlimited users because it offers many of the features typically included with paid solutions. Some of its free tools include pipeline management, email integration, marketing automation, reporting dashboards, email tracking, ticketing, and ad management. This platform also has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for reps to manage their customers.
Unlike Really Simple Systems and Freshsales, HubSpot CRM’s free plan only offers self-help resources like community support and a knowledge base. Another setback for this CRM is its limited reporting and analytics capabilities, which generally cover team activity and performance. In comparison, although Pipedrive does not offer a free tier, it provides insights on deals, individual and group goals, revenues, and forecasts.
HubSpot CRM Features
Deal stage pipeline
(Source: HubSpot CRM)
- CRM tools include contact management, contact website activity, companies, deals, tasks, activities, and company insights
- Marketing tools include forms, email marketing, ad management, landing pages, shared inbox, and list segmentation
- Service tools include ticketing, email scheduling, and ticket closed reports
- Integrations include Gmail, Outlook, Messenger, and App Marketplace
- Reporting dashboard for activity and performance metrics
- Email tools include shared inbox, email tracking, email templates, and canned snippets
- Sales documents
- In-app calling via voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP)
- Access to community support, knowledge base, and HubSpot Academy
Read our HubSpot CRM review for in-depth knowledge of what this solution can do for your business.
Runner Ups
Zoho CRM Professional Edition
Sales leaders looking for an easy-to-use, full-featured CRM product at a competitive price point will find that Zoho CRM fits the bill. It boasts a wide range of features including lead management, mail integration, social media CRM, workflow automation, and analytics.
It even enables you to make selling fun with gamification options, wherein sales targets are set and winning teams earn badges and trophies. Another benefit is that it integrates seamlessly with Zoho’s ecosystem of products, such as Zoho Projects or Zoho Books.
Zoho CRM has a free version, wherein up to 3 employees get to use the CRM without any payment, whereas the professional version costs $30 per user per month (billed annually).
Freshsales CRM
The Freshsales CRM offers a lightweight and simple solution for SMBs that want to get their sales automation technology up and running quickly. Some of its star advanced features include AI assistant, auto-renew, and contract-renewal reminders.
Freshsales offers a lifetime free basic plan with account & contact management, contact lifecycle stages, and chat/email marketing/phone features. We recommend that you go for the Growth plan, priced at $15 per month (per user) on the annual plan. This version of the solution supports salespeople with AI-powered predictive contact scoring, sales sequences, and custom reports and dashboards.
Zendesk Sell
Looking for an advanced sales automation and pipeline visibility solution? Try Zendesk Sell. Apart from its ease of use and lead management, it has the potential to act as an end-to-end customer engagement platform thanks to its interoperability with other software in the Zendesk ecosystem – especially Zendesk Support.
This CRM also integrates seamlessly with productivity and business tools such as Dropbox, MailChimp, HubSpot CRM, and Intuit QuickBooks to enable selling within your existing workflow.
Zendesk Sell offers a 14-day free trial to sample the Team tier ($19 per seat per month) or the Professional plan ($49 per seat per month).
Less Annoying CRM
Every penny counts for bootstrapped startups. Built for SMBs, Less Annoying CRM has only one plan priced at $15 per user per month (billed annually) – and at this low price point, it provides incredible value for your sales team in terms of flexibility and performance.
Features offered include contact management, lead management, and access to reports. At the same time, it offers superior mobile website implementation and free support for clients.
Their simple, straightforward, and affordable plan makes Less Annoying CRM easily accessible to all SMBs.
Here’s the best part: you can trial the full software for 30 days, without having to enter your payment details!
Apptivo CRM
At just $8 per month per user (billed annually) for the Premium tier solution, Apptivo CRM is a steal. This customizable solution is easy to use and offers excellent mobile platform support.
Salespeople can enjoy a wide range of features such as company branding, IMAP email, reports, message templates, invoicing, and third-party integrations.
To see if Apptivo is a good fit for your company, you can test-drive any plan with the 30-day trial, or sign up for the free starter plan.
Insightly CRM
Larger SMBs will derive lots of value from Insightly, which offers CRM, project management, and lead management functionalities. This visually attractive and intuitive CRM also features a wide range of integrations, including Google G-Suite and Google Docs.
The Plus tier costs $29 per user per month (billed annually). Even though Insights CRM is quite intuitive and user-friendly, SMBs with a large employee base might benefit from Insightly’s product support plans, which start at $1,500 per year.
To try before buying, you can check out this mid-market CRM’s 14-day free subscription, without having to enter any billing details.
Pipedrive CRM
Pipedrive is a deal-driven and sales pipeline CRM app that offers features such as a customizable lead generation chatbot for websites, in-depth reporting, call and email synchronization, and intuitive mobile apps. It also integrates with productivity tools such as Google G Suite, Google Maps, and MailChimp.
Pipedrive’s Essential tier is priced at $12.50 per user per month (billed annually), and you can sign-up for the 14-day free trial to experience the tool before investing in it.
Sage CRM
Sage’s fully integrated CRM (with Sales, Marketing, and Service modules) ensures that you have access to the actionable insights you need to help make intelligent business decisions. According to the G2 website, its pricing starts at $39 per month per user.
Sage CRM can automate your sales workflows, from creating quotes and proposals to forecasting sales and converting sales leads into opportunities. It promises to deliver a 25% hike in sales and 60% productivity gains.
Conclusion
A CRM system is a software application designed to help you manage your company’s interactions with your customers. As the saying goes, the only thing constant in business is change. A good CRM will evolve to meet your needs rather than force you into its mold.