Every small business is unique and therefore each wants its own software, which is the advantage of Crm software UK. Therefore, as a manager or business owner you should consider some factors to determine which product will be the best for your needs. We have provided you with a few important points to consider before purchasing a new software for your enterprise.
Although, hubspot is seen as the best in CRM, but there are contenders out there. This re view features these contenders.
HubSpot
Best small business CRM for marketing automation. Ideal for creating and executing email campaigns. Free plan.
Known for its powerful (albeit expensive) marketing automation tools, HubSpot offsets its large price tag with top-notch customer support and generous data and contact limits. Add in discounts for startups, an extensive knowledge base, and the option to pay absolutely nothing with a free forever plan, and HubSpot more than merits its lofty position on our list.Expert Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★Try HubSpot for Free
| Function | Starting price | Highest price |
|---|---|---|
| Sales/Service | £33.60 per user, per month (free version available) | £990 per user, per month (minimum of 10 users required) |
| Marketing | £33.60 per user, per month | £2,624 per month (for up to 10,000 contacts) |
| Customer support: Live chat, phone, email, knowledge centre | ||
| Data storage limit: 1,000 documents to no limit (dependent on plan) | ||
| Contact limit: Most HubSpot products have no limits, though its marketing offering restricts you to between 1,000 and 10,000 contacts (dependent on plan) | ||
| Integrations: HubSpot integrates with over 300 applications via the HubSpot App Marketplace. | ||
| Is your business a startup? You might be eligible for 90% off, with HubSpot’s ‘HubSpot for Startups’ program. |
Case study: TopLine Comms
We spoke to Luke Budka, head of digital PR and SEO at small B2B agency TopLine Comms, to learn more about how they use HubSpot.
Q: How easy do you find HubSpot to use?
“HubSpot has probably the best user interface (pictured) of any piece of small business software I’ve ever used – a grand statement I know, but they’ve really put a lot of time and effort into making it intuitive.”
Q: What feature of HubSpot do you find most useful?
“The CRM ties closely together with HubSpot’s included marketing solutions: primarily its email, list-building, and workflow functionalities. It also tracks contacts if they’ve opted into your marketing cookies. This means a contact’s CRM record contains information on the pages they’ve visited on your website, the emails, CTAs and social posts they’ve engaged with, and the workflows they’re a part of.
“This is super powerful, because it means you can easily auto-enrol contacts from the CRM into workflows. For example, if a contact engages with a particular social post or a certain email – or visits a specific page on your site – then they can be auto-enrolled into a series of sales emails.
“The beauty here is in the simplicity, because it doesn’t require specialist knowledge to set up. And, if you do get stuck, the knowledge bank is excellent – as is the speed with which HubSpot’s support team responds.”
Q: What thing about HubSpot would you change?
“Inevitably something this slick doesn’t come cheap! The ‘Marketing Pro’ setup costs £7,860, and includes 1,000 contacts. If you have more than that, then you can expect them to start bumping up the price – though deals can always be done!
“HubSpot will also charge a one-off £2,450 onboarding fee. You can negate this by onboarding via a certified HubSpot partner, though.”
✔ Pros:
- Fantastic customer approval ratings
- Extensive knowledge base
- Slick user interface
X Cons:
- Among the more expensive CRM systems you’ll find – particularly its marketing automation module
- Onboarding fees apply
HubSpot for small businesses: The verdict
HubSpot’s not cheap, and we can certainly see why this CRM’s price tag will dissuade some of the more thrifty small business owners out there.
Investment here, though – which you can make from £33.60 per month, or stick with a free plan – scores you the finest marketing CRM features around… full stop!
Small business teams looking to graduate from MailChimp and engineer email marketing campaigns with more serious firepower should look no further. Likewise, if you want your small businesses to do more with data, and reach customers across new channels – social media, for instance, or via chatbots – you’ll find plenty to love about HubSpot.
Monday.com
Best for: Customisation
4.3out of 5
- Ease of use4.5
- Features4.5
- Integrations4.0
Monday.com might be primarily known as a project management tool, but you can easily customise the app for CRM thanks to its intuitive interface and huge number of creative features. The app is organised around a simple traffic-light system that categorises your workflow as either green (it’s completed), orange (I’m working on it), or red (I’m stuck), helping you to design a system that personnalises the status of every customer relationship.
What type of small business is Monday.com best suited for?
The platform has a generous inventory of features, many of which allow for innovative customer relationship management. We think Monday.com works best for creative industries and businesses with unique client needs, such as design or estate agencies.
Whether you’re looking to track and organise your marketing activities, deals, client onboarding, or projects, Monday.com hosts lots of customisable elements, including:
- Custom fields
- 200+ dashboard templates
- Full mobile CRM
- Document management
- Custom apps
- Unlimited contacts
- Unlimited users
Pricing
Monday.com has a distinctive payment structure which is based on a set number of seats. For more information, read our monday.com pricing guide.
| Individual | Basic | Standard | Pro | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per month (billed annually) | Free | £7 seat/month | £9 seat/month | £14 seat/month | Contact sales |
| Price per month (billed monthly) | Free | £12 seat/month | £27 seat/month | £42 seat/month | Contact sales |
| Users | Up to two | Minimum of three | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage | 500MB | 5GB | 20GB | 100GB | 1000GB |
Verdict
Despite being best known for project management, Monday.com is a surprisingly good CRM tool. The platform has excellent customisability to give a personal touch to your CRM needs – we’d recommend it for creative teams in design or marketing.
Zendesk
Best for: Business support
4.1out of 5
- Ease of use4
- Features3.5
- Integrations5
According to a survey by Microsoft, 96% of consumers across the globe say that customer service is an important factor in their choice of brand loyalty. In other words, being able to assist your clients in their time of need can be a key influencer in their decision to purchase your product or service.
Zendesk is a powerful name in the business software market. Every one of its products boasts a fantastic array of integrations across a huge range of categories including analytics and reporting, e-commerce, email and social media, IT and project management, plus tons more.
The brand offers two main CRM products: Zendesk for sales and Zendesk for service. The former takes a powerful approach to sales monitoring and generation, but it’s the latter that really impresses us. It provides an all-in-one customer helpdesk solution with truly intelligent support elements designed not just to monitor client bugs, but also to analyse your performance when fixing them and identify the areas to improve.
As you can imagine, Zendesk also performs well for user support tools. Members at any payment tier can utilise a vast library of handy materials including onboarding and adoption resources, guided learning paths, and on-demand training courses. But it doesn’t stop at setup – if you do encounter a problem further down the line, you can also contact the platform for advice via email, phone and online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
What type of small business is Zendesk for service best suited for?
If your business provides a specialist service, such as software development, and you get lots of phone calls from confused customers, then Zendesk service is the smart way to manage tickets and requests in one handy database.
The platform’s ticketing system allows users to record, organise, and track all your customers’ issues in one dashboard that’s accessible to your entire team, so you can keep a clear and up to date ticket pipeline.
Other features include:
- Triggers and automations
- Staff management
- Pre-built analytics dashboards
- Google Analytics for help centres
- Data exports
Pricing
Below, we’ve outlined the pricing information for both of Zendesk’s products. Both also have a 30-day free trial available if you want to try before you buy.
Zendesk for service:
The difference between Zendesk’s two lowest-tiered plans is minimal, however the Suite Growth plan, which costs around £26 more per month than Suite Team, does offer more workflow capabilities including multiple ticket forms and conditional ticket fields – ensuring you can provide a more bespoke service when it comes to support requests.
We think if you’re looking to grow your customer list then Suite Growth is the best plan to purchase.
| Suite Team | Suite Growth | Suite Professional | Suite Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ per month (billed annually) | £39 per user | £65 per user | £79 per user | £120 per user |
| £ per month (billed monthly) | £45 per user | £79 per user | £99 per user | £159 per user |
Zendesk for sales:
Sell Team and Sell Professional are the two tiers designed for small businesses. Sell Team is only suitable for three users, and works better as an organisational software for sales. You’ll find more opportunity-based tools with Sell Professional, which boasts integrations with email marketing software, as well as more powerful reporting tools.
| Sell Team | Sell Professional | Sell Enterprise | Sell Elite | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ per month (billed annually) | £19 per user | £45 per user | £79 per user | £159 per user |
| £ per month (billed monthly) | £21 per user | £49 per user | £99 per user | £199 per user |
Verdict
Customer support is an important service for any business to offer, however SMEs dealing with a long list of requests, such as software developers, should use Zendesk for a service, as a full-featured management tool with a large number of integrations.
Salesforce CRM
Best for: Scaling businesses
3.7out of 5
- Ease of use3
- Features3
- Integrations5
Salesforce was founded in 1999, and is one of the most popular CRM systems on this list thanks to its varied range of software products. From speciality sales functions to marketing features, Salesforce can truly serve as a one-stop-shop for small to large businesses looking to improve their operations, making it an excellent choice for scaling businesses.
Naturally, more sophisticated capabilities equals a longer setup time. Plus, due to its hefty performance requirements, some users have reported that Salesforce can lag when used with bad broadband connections.
What type of small business is Salesforce best suited for?
SMEs that are looking to expand their company will want a system that can develop alongside them.
Salesforce comes in three cloud-based editions. The idea is that you can pick and choose which features you want in your plan based on the area you’d most like to prioritise growth in, whether that’s the Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, or Marketing Cloud.
For each of these options, Salesforce Essentials is the most basic paid-for tier, and is an excellent choice for small businesses with under 10 users. This is due to its simpler setup and scaled back list of features, with the main focus being on helping you to grow customer demand. For example, the Sales Cloud Essentials package gives you:
- Account and contact management
- Opportunity tracking
- Lead management
- Task and event tracking
- Customizable reports and dashboards
- Mobile access
- Email integration
Salesforce Professional is designed for once you have outgrown this tier. It offers more complex reporting tools to aid with decision making, plus added security.
Pricing
At £20 per user, per month when billed annually, Salesforce is a splurge when compared to more budget-friendly CRM systems like Bigin. However, as we pointed out earlier, you can purchase extra features as an add-on at any point in your plan, which means that Salesforce can be excellent value for money if used wisely.
| Essentials | Professional | Enterprise | Unlimited | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per month (billed annually) | £20 per user | £60 per user | £120 per user | £240 per user |
| Users | Up to 10 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Contacts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage limit | 1GB per user | 1GB per user | 1GB per user | 1GB per user |
Verdict
Salesforce has a very steep learning curve. However, if you’re willing to invest the time, it makes for an excellent CRM system that can develop alongside your expanding business – starting with teams smaller than 10.
Nimble
Best for: Generating new leads
3.5out of 5
- Ease of use3.5
- Features3
- Integrations4
Nimble’s USP is that it offers excellent integrations with B2B social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. These give users opportunities to connect with new contacts and leads, using organic engagement ideas like upcoming birthdays, new hires, and relevant news stories.
On the downside, because Nimble’s interface is centered around marketing outreach, it lacks a lot of the more complex organisational features, such as custom fields. However, Nimble is also available as an integration for Salesforce and HubSpot, meaning you can always double-up if you’re looking for a way to get sales insights and new leads.
What type of small business is Nimble best suited for?
We know that social media is a popular tool for finding new leads thanks to its low cost and easy outreach tools. Digital marketing firms in particular will rate Nimble’s excellent network integrations highly.
Nimble’s features are largely focused on contact lists, and it therefore boasts a lot of communication and interaction tools. In terms of storage, its single-tiered plan offers only 2GB per user, but there is an option to purchase more data if needed.
- Call logging
- Group messaging
- Task reminders
- Contact management
- Social profile match
- Social media signals
- Calendar and email message syncing
- Two way sync with 160+ integrations
Pricing
Nimble’s only paid-for plan is Nimble Business, which is mid-range on the cost spectrum at £13.70 per month when billed annually. This allows for only 25,000 contacts, which means Nimble will lose value in the long-term for growing teams.
| Nimble Business | |
|---|---|
| Price per month (billed annually) | £13.70 |
| Price per month (billed monthly) | £18.03 |
| Users | Unlimited |
| Contacts | 25,000 |
| Storage | 2GB per user |
Verdict
Like Less Annoying CRM, Nimble’s single-tiered payment option doesn’t give much room for scaling up. However, startups or small businesses at the beginning of their growth plan will find Nimble unparalleled for generating organic and valuable leads.
HubSpot CRM vs. Zoho CRM vs. EngageBay:
HubSpot’s CRM platform offers all the features you would want from a top-tier CRM at no cost at all. Their free CRM software is used to lure customers in, after which they are likely to pay for additional products from the HubSpot suite, including their Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and Growth Suite. In sum, while you don’t pay for their CRM, you might end up paying for use of any of their additional products.
Zoho CRM and EngageBay have limited free plans alongside paid versions. Naturally, HubSpot CRM dwarfs Zoho CRM and EngageBay for features and power, so it is more useful to pit their rivals against each other.
Zoho CRM and EngageBay have similar feature ranges. They both offer lead and contact management, custom lists (Zoho CRM offers 5 and EngageBay 2), basic reporting functions, email templates, and more. Zoho CRM offers customer support during business hours only, while EngageBay only offers support via email.
There are features unique to Zoho CRM, such as page customization and team collaboration and communication tools including a calendar, status updates, direct messages, and file attachments; features missing from EngageBay.
Conversely, EngageBay offers some features absent from Zoho CRM’s free plan, including integrations with Gmail, Outlook, and Office 365. Zoho CRM’s free plan does, however, include website visitor tracking through its Zoho SalesIQ integration.
Zoho CRM is capped at 3 users, while the number of users for EngageBay is unspecified.
HubSpot CRM vs. Zoho CRM vs. EngageBay Comparison:
| Offer | HubSpot CRM | Zoho CRM | EngageBay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Users | Unlimited | 3 | Unspecified |
| Reporting and Analytics | Yes | Standard | Standard |
| Social Media Integrations | Yes | No | Yes |
| Email Cap | 2,000 per month. | 150 emails per day | 1,000 branded emails per month |
| Lead and Contact Management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google Apps Integration | Yes | No | Gmail |
| Teamwork and Collaboration | Yes | Yes | No |
| Customer Support | 24/7 | Business Hours | Email Only |
| Customizations | Yes | No | No |
FAQs:
What is the best free CRM for small business?
Is there a free CRM?
Yes, there are several free CRMs that even allow for unlimited usage, including HubSpot.
Conclusion
Best CRM package for small businesses in the UK? There are so many to choose from – Business Essentials, Mailchimp, AgoraPulse, Zoho – the list goes on! But…What about for SME’s? Everyone has heard of salesforce.com but what about the other options out there.