There is no single right CRM for every business size, which is why so many great CRM platforms are geared especially for the small business. In fact, there are too many. So what is the best CRM for small business? That is, having the right features and functionalities but also at the right price?
Well, you’ve come to the right place to learn about the best CRM software for small businesses and startups.
What is the importance of customer relationship management for small business?
There are many important reasons to start using customer relationship management for small business. Perhaps the most important is this: No small business aims to remain a small business forever. Isn’t the point of any business to grow?
Well, the best CRM systems for small businesses will help you do just that. Since CRM is primarily about customer relationships, CRMs help you make more contacts, turn them into customers or clients, develop loyal relationships with them, and expand your network. If you’re not familiar with the basics, make sure to check out our article that explains in detail what is CRM and how it can benefit your business.
Ultimately, the result is that your business expands in tandem with your network, helping you grow from an SME to a large business, enterprise, global mega corporation and beyond.
Why we need CRMs for small business efficiency
There are many kinds of customer relationship management platforms. In the past, CRM software was targeted at enterprise-level companies. That's no longer the case.
Small businesses are now able to implement a CRM platform without breaking their brains or budgets. That's great news because implementing a CRM solution can increase sales by double-digit percentage points.
The ability to streamline workflow within a single app makes everyday work lighter, freeing up resources for growth. CRM provides a clearly defined set of processes to close more deals, get tasks done on time, and reduce miscommunications.
Lead management and sales funnel features help you build a better sales process. Building a sales pipeline lets you streamline your workflow. Opportunity management tools identify possible future sales, while customer support tools make your customer experience better, helping you understand your public and reduce churn so your company can scale.
What are the benefits of CRM for small business owners?
Organize your contacts
Contact management helps you centralize information on customers, suppliers, and everyone else. CRMs allow you to aggregate multichannel contact information, from social media, emails, LinkedIn, business cards, and more.
Find out who your customers are
Harness customer data to do customer segmentation, identify customer profiles, find out where they live, and which demographic provides the greatest opportunities. Plus, personalize your customer experience.
Generate reports
With marketing, campaign, sales, and customer reporting, you can monitor information, identify problems, show behavioral patterns, and find out how your overall return on investment is really doing. A sales CRM can create reports on sales activity, and sales trends let you monitor all the information coming in, identify problems, and improve your sales processes.
Save time
CRM chops down the number of hours spent weekly on pesky admin tasks like manual data entry, letting you concentrate on relationship-building and fine-tuning your operations.
Make more money
Being able to closely track sales activities, manage sales teams, and improve customer support to reduce churn will allow you to sell more and increase your bottom line. It's a fact.
Things to look for in any good CRM software for small business
Usability
If you’re running a small business, taking time out to learn a new, complex platform is not a thrilling idea. Ease of use and simplicity should be deciding factors. A platform that requires minimal training is best, something that feels intuitive that offers easy access and interpretation of information.
Customization
As a small business, you’re probably doing things your own way, rather than following a guidebook. Keeping that in mind, we suggest looking for customization features so you can tailor CRM software to your specific business needs. Being able to modify contact and opportunity fields, among other elements, is especially helpful if you’re working in uncharted territory. What’s more, CRMs with a good API make it easier for devs to add more custom features.
Automation
Automating repetitive tasks saves you a lot of time to focus on real brain-engaging work. You should be looking for automation features for data entry, customer emails and follow-ups, and information field updating.
Vendor customer support
You probably don’t have your own IT department. That means you’ll want to make sure the CRM you choose is backed by a great customer support team, one who will be on hand to ease the product's learning curve, answer any nagging questions, and resolve technical issues quickly
Affordable pricing
Price is an obvious make-or-break for SMBs seeking CRM tools for small business use. When you don’t have a lot of hands-on-deck, you want to make sure every dollar spent counts. If you’re on a lean budget or on-the-fence about the usefulness of this kind of software, you may well want to start out with a free CRM software.
Bonus: Social media tools
Being able to scan multiple social media channels gives you full visibility on what people are saying about your business, your competitors, and overall industry trends. Engage people one-on-one on the platforms where they spend most of their time, and demonstrate transparency by resolving issues out in the open, all to broaden your brand awareness and win more customers.
Best small business CRM comparison chart (top 10 highest rated SMB CRM systems)
Before we rush into the mega list of the best 23 small business CRM software, take a quick gander at this table with our very top 10 best customer relationship management software for small business. This will help give you a baseline when doing your small business CRM comparison.
System | Best for | Pricing | Website |
Less Annoying CRM | Best CRM for small business overall | $15 per user/month, billed monthly | |
Freshsales by Freshworks CRM | Top sales CRM for small business | $15 per user/month, billed annually | |
Keap | Great small business CRM for lead generation | $56 per user/month, billed monthly | |
Salesmate.io | Good SMB CRM software for analytics and reporting | $12 per user/month, billed annually | |
InfoFlo | Great small business CRM for Microsoft Outlook | $30 per user/month | |
Really Simple Systems CRM | Most simple CRM for small business | $14 per user/month, billed annually | |
Bigin by Zoho CRM | Top free CRM for small companies | $7 per user/month, billed annually | |
Method CRM | Good small business CRM for Quickbooks integration | $25 per user/month, billed annually | |
Daylite | Great CRM for small business for Mac and iOS | $24 per user/month, billed annually | |
BenchmarkONE | Top SMB CRM for marketing automation | $62.10 for 2 users per month |
What is the best CRM for small business 2023? Here’s our top 23 list:
Let’s turn now to the ultimate list of the best CRM software for small business. This list has the top customer relationship management systems for different departments and niches, as well as many other good CRMs which your small business might find is the best one.
1. Less Annoying CRM (Best CRM for small business overall)
Less Annoying CRM (aka LACRM) is designed specifically for small businesses. They offer an all-inclusive, single price package for task management, keeping tabs on contacts, tracking leads, and making sure follow-ups are sent out.
Pros:
LACRM’s lean but nimble toolkit has got you covered when it comes to managing all your customers and other contacts, tracking your leads through pipelines and staying on top of events and tasks in easy-to-use calendar and agenda forms.
Emails written and received outside a CRM platform can be logged inside LACRM, which provides every user with a unique email logging address for which you create a contact with whatever email provider you use.
Cons:
There aren’t any app integrations, which might be a significant limitation, depending on your needs. The app sends out notifications by SMS or email, but not in-app.
Pricing:
$15 per user per month, billed monthly
LACRM offers a risk-free, 30-day free trial for its only pricing plan
Visit Less Annoying CRM
2. Freshsales by Freshworks CRM (Top sales CRM for small business)
Freshsales is a full-fledged sales force automation solution for sales teams. It provides everything a salesperson needs to attract quality leads, engage in contextual conversations, drive deals with AI-powered insights, and nurture customer relationships.
Pros:
This is among the top sales CRM systems out there. With built-in email, phone, chat, and telephony, Freshsales empowers sales teams with more time for selling by automating the sales process and increases efficiency and productivity in their daily activities. With Freddy AI, salespeople can get insights into the best deals to go after and what actions to take and predict revenue with sales forecasting. Businesses can take the next step forward towards powerful pipeline management with Freshsales. Also, the option to use native CPQ makes generating and sharing quotes and other vital sales assets hassle-free.
Cons:
Like many vendors, some of the better features are reserved for premium packages. Among these for Freshworks CRM are time-based workflows, some chatbot tools and advanced metric reporting. But overall, the free and basic plans are a decent place to start, and you can always upgrade.
Pricing:
There is a Free plan
Growth plan is $15 per user per month, billed annually
Pro plan is $39 per user per month, billed annually
Enterprise plan is $69 per user per month, billed annually
Visit Freshsales
3. Keap (Great small business CRM for lead generation)
Keap is a contact management and sales pipeline platform seriously geared towards helping small, self-employed, and even home-run businesses and e-commerce operations.
Pros:
It all begins with populating a great leads database and keeping it organized. Gathering contact info is done by importing contact lists from other CRMs, scanning business cards, converting messy spreadsheets, simple manual entry, or setting up a custom form on your page. You can also add your own custom fields to the contact info.
For Keap, after getting the job done, and getting paid, it all stops and restarts with “staying connected.” This is their commitment to converting leads into satisfied customers who will not only come back, but spread the love through referrals.
Cons:
There’s a lot of features, which can make Keap appear daunting at first, and you may not end up using a lot of them. Integrations are limited. The price-point can be a stumbling block for individuals on a small budget.
Pricing:
Lite plan is $56 per user per month, billed monthly
Pro plan is $105 per user per month, billed monthly
Max plan is $140 per user per month, billed monthly
A free trial is available for the Lite and Pro plans
Visit Keap
4. Salesmate.io (Good SMB CRM software for analytics and reporting)
Salesmate is a CRM system for salespeople who want to spend more time selling and less time learning to use new apps. It’s one of the best CRM for startups and small businesses, but it can also be used for real estate and construction industries.
Pros:
This platform is always improving itself. It’s given its analytics and reporting a significant upgrade, with a more customizable and interactive dashboard. Salesmate has also added new tools for phone calling and deal management, as well as new mobile app improvements. Newer features include live chat and DocuSign integrations.
Cons:
Some of the customization features can be a bit lacking, especially when trying to create custom data fields. Also, you’ll need the pricier version for essential tools like email analytics.
Pricing:
Starter version is $12 per user per month, billed annually
Growth version is $24 per user per month, billed annually
Boost version is $40 per user per month, billed annually
Salesmate.io offers a 15-day free trial on all of their plans
Visit Salesmate
5. InfoFlo CRM (Great small business CRM for Microsoft Outlook)
InfoFlo is a CRM that goes the extra mile for Microsoft Outlook integrations.
Pros:
It has highly-detailed customer management with custom fields, for more 360-degree contact views. There is a great set of telephony tools including SMS integration and full VoIP. With InfoFlo, you can choose whether it runs on the cloud or on-premise for added data security. Lastly, there is very competitive pricing if you go for the desktop version.
Cons:
InfoFlo does have a ton of useful tools. One drawback, though, is you should be prepared to put in the time mastering them all.
Pricing:
Cloud Starter is $30 per user per month
Cloud Advanced is $35 per user per month
On Premise is $99 per user
Visit InfoFlo CRM
6. Really Simple Systems CRM (Most simple CRM for small business)
Really Simple CRM used to be that: simple. But the software has developed over the past few years and now is packed a range of sophisticated CRM tools.
Pros:
Within Really Simple Systems, you'll find a range of features tailored to three key departments: marketing, sales, and customer service. For marketing, you'll have access to lead management, campaign management, email marketing, and automation tools. In the sales department, you can benefit from contact and pipeline management, as well as task management, calendar functions, and sales forecasting capabilities. Meanwhile, the customer service department offers case management, SLAs (Service Level Agreements), and comprehensive case reporting.
Cons:
To put it “simply” this CRM solution’s main disadvantage is that it might be too simple for some business needs, especially if you need a robust SaaS that does more than the average basic CRM.
Pricing:
Really Simple Systems has a free plan
Premium plans start at $14 per user per month, billed annually
Visit Really Simple Systems
7. Bigin by Zoho CRM (Top free CRM for small companies)
Bigin is a pipeline-centric CRM from Zoho that is built specifically for small and micro businesses. At $7/user/month, Bigin is the most affordable CRM system in the market.
Pros:
Bigin's makers consciously cut down on features that most small businesses will never actually use. Owing to which, Bigin stays minimal and intuitive throughout. Having said that, Bigin does offer all the essential features such as built-in telephony and email, multiple pipelines, workflow automation, activity management, and a fully-customizable dashboard to track key business metrics.
The multiple pipelines in Bigin let you customize each stage in your pipeline for different business operations. With a clear pipeline view, you can always keep track of open deals by stage and easily filter contact and company information. Bigin also carries the same pipeline view to their mobile apps, something the competition heavily lacks.
Bigin integrates with Google Workspace (Formerly G Suite), Microsoft Office 365, Mailchimp, Zapier and a host of other popular Zoho apps including Zoho Desk, Zoho Campaigns, and Zoho Forms. The mobile apps for iOS and Android are rated well and their macOS app was recently featured by Apple on the AppStore.
Cons:
As businesses grow, their requirements become more complex, which might force them to look at higher editions of Zoho CRM (Starting at $12/user/month), which offers a fully-featured CRM that is customizable for businesses of all sizes and types.
Pricing:
There is a free version of Bigin by Zoho CRM
Express plan is $7 per user per month, billed annually
Bigin offers a 15-day free trial for new users
Visit Bigin by Zoho
8. Method:CRM (Good small business CRM for Quickbooks integration)
If you use QuickBooks and need a CRM that you can tailor to your needs, MethodCRM is a good option.
Pros:
Method:CRM offers two-way, real-time sync with QuickBooks to eliminate double data entry. This is a great tool for managing your customers as it lets you view their estimates, invoices, and payments in one place.
Method:CRM works well for small businesses and is especially powerful for verticals such as construction, field service, manufacturing, and accounting. Finally, it’s very useful for online customer payment processing and syncing data back to QuickBooks.
Cons:
To get any of the sales pipeline management tools you need the Pro edition. For now, this isn’t an ideal CRM system if you don’t use QuickBooks.
Pricing:
Basic contact management is $25 per user per month, billed annually
CRM Pro is $44 per user per month, billed annually
CRM Enterprise is $44 per user per month, billed annually
You can try out Method:CRM for 30 days for free
Visit Method CRM
9. Daylite (Great CRM for small business for Mac and iOS)
Daylite is a CRM designed specifically for Mac, iPhone and iPad users. It’s a pretty good platform for small businesses of up to 100 people looking to expand their client list and projects so they can scale.
Pros:
The Daylite set of tools are divided into CRM features and project management tools. The idea here was to break down the old division between customer-facing tasks and internal ones. It isn’t just for sales and marketing. All departments can use it to stay informed of what’s going on with a project for a client.
Other great assets are the Daylite Mail Assistant, which integrates directly with Apple Mail, something very few platforms do. Daylite offers loads of customization options. These include a variety of ways to categorize and tag contacts, tasks, projects, and deals. It allows you to create custom and flexible reports, as well as administrative team and user permissions. Finally, as a Mac tool, it works with other Apple apps like Calendar, Contacts and even Siri.
Cons:
Daylite CRM only has one plan. This means there’s less flexibility in pricing and packages. Another limitation here is that it’s only meant to be a CRM and Project Management app for Apple users.
Pricing:
Daylite is $24 per user per month, billed annually
Daylite offers a 30-day free trial
Visit Daylite CRM
10. BenchmarkONE (Top SMB CRM for marketing automation)
BenchmarkONE is a very comprehensive CRM system for sales and marketing. It’s also great for email marketing automation to gather and qualify prospects.
Pros:
The sales automation features manage your pipeline and help win more successful conversions. It’s great for small to medium businesses like agencies, private practices and consultants. It also offers very detailed analytics and reporting.
Cons:
Teams with more than 5 people will need to take a more expensive plan. There are no customer support tools, so it’s not a truly all-in-one CRM.
Pricing:
Free version is good just for 1 user
Core plan is $62.10 for 2 users per month
Enterprise plan is $161.10 for unlimited users per month
Visit BenchmarkONE
11. EngageBay
EngageBay bills itself as a HubSpot alternative, and sells three business process-orientated suites: Marketing Automation, Live Chat & Helpdesk, and CRM & Sales Bay. The last of these, CRM & Sales Bay, provides contact management tools designed for simplicity and company growth.
Pros:
The platform provides multi-channel listening, aggregating contact info from across all your customer touchpoints. Track contact activity, web activity, email response, open and click rates, and more.
Integrates with Gmail, Office 365 or any other IMAP service, with two-way sync capabilities. Zapier, SendGrid, Mailgun, Xero, and Mandrill integrations allow you to connect your CRM with your other business processes and further streamline your operations.
Cons:
Could use more native integrations with third-party apps. Email template options are limited in number and simplistic in style.
Pricing:
A free plan is available
Basic plan is $12.99 per user per month, billed annually
Growth plan is 40.99 per user per month, billed annually
Pro plan is $65.99 per user per month, billed annually
Visit Engage Bay
12. Copper
Copper integrates with G Suite, which is great if you use Gmail all day every day. The platform installs in about five minutes. Once it’s up and running, you can look forward to features like automated data entry, smart identification, lead and customer tracking, plus optimization of sales contacts and opportunities.
Pros:
The CRM offers an eye-pleasing sales pipeline for managing leads through the qualification process. Communications are improved with easy access to contacts via email, voice, and text, and the ability to use accurate voice transcription to log notes in-app.
You can improve management of teams and workflows with weekly pipeline progression reports using drag-and-drop functionality, custom filters, and alerts when deals might be going stale.
Cons:
Copper is made out to be very user-friendly, and it is, but there is a bit of a learning curve. Be warned you’ll need to set aside some time to meaningfully implement it within your business.
Sometimes there are issues with importing data from Excel, meaning you’ll be required to manually enter that information into Copper. Also, you currently can’t attach files to emails sent directly within Copper, requiring you to flip over to Gmail to send your message instead.
Pricing:
Basic plan is $25 per user per month, billed annually
Professional plan is $59 per user per month, billed annually
Business plan is $119 per user per month, billed annually
Copper offers a 14-day free trial for all plans
Visit Copper
13. Nutshell
Nutshell is a powerful CRM known for its simple and intuitive interface that offers a lot of value. No IT department required. Sales and marketing tools allow you to build and access customer conversation histories, use lead form integration to turn website visitors into contacts, and segment leads and customers in sophisticated ways, including industry, lifetime value, and location.
Pros:
Nutshell features a map view, in-app phone dialing and recording, a sales automation suite, and fully customizable reporting tools.
Nutshell’s Gmail Chrome extension is the perfect CRM sidekick. With the extension, you can save emails to Nutshell, sync Google Calendar activities, create tasks, track communication timelines, write notes, and view which emails have been shared with teammates in Nutshell.
Cons:
Users cite a lack of automated integrations and customizability, but depending on your situation Nutshell’s easy-to-setup interface and third-party integrations through Zapier may make up for that.
Pricing:
Starter plan is $19 per user per month billed annually
Pro plan is $35 per user per month, billed annually
Nutshell offers a 14-day free trial for both its Starter and Pro plans
Visit Nutshell
14. Insightly
Insightly is available on web and mobile versions for both Android and iOS. It also integrates with G Suite and Microsoft Office 365.
Pros:
The platform has a rep for its smooth pipeline integration between CRM features, like managing contacts and customer data, tracking opportunities (aka sales leads), and assigning tasks to team members with handy to-do lists.
Business intelligence (BI) features are powered by Microsoft Power BI. These can be very useful to your small business. BI aggregates historical and real-time data within your CRM platform, allowing you to make more informed decisions from observable trends and metrics. Insightly builds it into its various dashboards in a visual, legible way without the learning curve.
The Insightly Sidebar runs as a handy Chrome extension, letting you save Gmail messages directly to your CRM so you can easily cross-reference contact information.
Cons:
It should be noted Insightly’s free version does not include a data backup system, contains daily caps for mass emailing, and limits the number of custom fields that can be added to each record.
Two-way sync for Google Calendar can be a bit wonky at times, with events not displaying for other team members on Insightly. There’s a cap on custom fields for contacts (25), which you may potentially find limiting. Although completely functional, some users feel the CRM’s UI is a bit dated as well, which can be an obstacle for full team adoption.
Pricing:
Plus plan is $29 per user per month, billed annually
Professional plan is $49 per user per month, billed annually
Enterprise plan is $99 per user per month, billed annually
A 14-day free trial is available for the Plus and Professional plans
Visit Insightly
15. Nimble
Nimble is a simple CRM tailored for social media, with smart social search and powerful tools for market segmentation. It integrates with Office 365 and G Suite, so you can quickly import and organize contacts from the platform you’re already using.
Pros:
This CRM has all the classic features you’d expect from this type of software, with a distinctly contemporary user interface and agile, dare I say nimble, ease of use.
Useful for simplifying your operations across social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, Nimble aggregates posts in one place so you’ll have instant, real-time visibility on how people are interacting with your brand. Part and parcel to this is Nimble’s Contact Record feature, which has the ability to combine cross-channel contact and lead information into a single unified profile.
Social listening and engagement tools help you find and generate new leads. Data organization, sales pipeline, and reporting features keep your operations on the right track.
Cons:
A lot of users have mentioned that Nimble’s Android app isn’t up to par with the iOS one. Another thing to note: Keeping track of closed deals can be a bit of a pain, as can deleting messages which you have to do one page at a time.
Pricing:
Nimble is $19 per user per month, billed annually
You can try a 14-day free trial without a credit card
Visit Nimble
16. Salesflare
Salesflare is a CRM for sales mainly geared at the B2B industry. This means it’s great for small businesses that have other companies for customers instead of end-user consumers. It’s simple to use, and leverages a lot of automation so that sales reps spend less time on admin.
Pros:
When getting started with Salesflare, it does a lot of the legwork of importing your data to the platform. Every interaction with your contacts, whether by email, phone or chat, gets automatically logged. Leads and deals in progress get great bird’s eye visibility. Intelligent tools show reps which opportunities should take top priority. Reminders and follow-ups help cut down on forgotten customers.
Salesflare is also a useful tool for sharing data and team collaboration. It can also work directly inside your Outlook or Gmail accounts.
Cons:
At its base price, Salesflare is a bit on the pricier side compared to other CRMs for small businesses. Another potential drawback is the limited number of integrations, although with Zapier you can still find plenty of useful ones.
Overall, many past complaints regarding bugs or missing features do get addressed by the Salesflare team, and subsequently improved.
Pricing:
Growth plan is $23.30 per user per month, billed annually
Pro plan is $34.30 per user per month, billed annually
Enterprise plan is $49.50 per user per month, billed annually
Salesflare offers a free trial
Visit Salesflare
17. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot is a big name app that offers a free version with basic features.
Pros:
The free HubSpot CRM has full-fledged inbound marketing tools, helping you guide blog posts towards search engine hits and offers decent email marketing. It also does a good job of managing workflows for improved project management. You’ll be able to effectively assign and track leads, keep an eye on the sales process, and record customer interactions across channels.
HubSpot is designed to work with both G Suite and Microsoft Office, so whichever platform your business favors, it runs without headaches. Zapier integration makes it easy to share information across apps (Google Sheets, Slack, Facebook Lead Ads, etc.) and streamline tasks. HubSpot also allows you to find out if clients ever opened your emails. The paid add-on packages for HubSpot pile on features like reporting, AI, and advanced automation.
Cons:
Customization options are limited, which can be frustrating depending on your line of business. The free version’s features are many, but basic, and you may eventually need to buy Sales Hub or one of HubSpot’s other add-on packages to boost the CRM’s capabilities.
Pricing:
HubSpot CRM is free, and the number of users is unlimited
Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub add-on packages are $45 each per user per month,
Visit HubSpot
18. Pipedrive
Pipedrive, in keeping with its name, is highly focused on driving the sales process and tracking contacts. The CRM has a simple, highly visual and straightforward user interface, designed to help move the customer down the sales pipeline and clinch that almighty closed deal.
Pros:
The platform is useful for picking up leads, pipeline management, managing contacts, and keeping you on top of deals. It helps you prioritize key sales activities, sync information across channels, and consolidate your workflow in one place. That chops down the amount of time spent on admin tasks, letting you concentrate on relationship-building and fine-tuning the sales process.
You can construct multiple sales pipelines with customizable, unique stages appropriate to a specific product or service’s context. Reminders, notifications, and follow-up alerts automatically keep your head at where it needs to be. A mobile app for both Android and iOS gives you further mileage. Full email sync ensures you can view messages from whatever email service you use in-app. Gmail integration, in the form of a handy sidebar app, lets you add contacts from your fave email platform, make notes, and schedule sales activities.
Cons:
There’s no internal emailing platform, so you’ll have to use Mailchimp integration for that. Then there’s the Pipedrive Dealbot integration with Slack. It gives you a heads up in Slack when a deal is identified, won, or lost, but the notification can sometimes get lost in the flood of chat. If you want more attention-getting, explicit deal notifications you’ll have to use Pipedrive’s Zapier integration, which has been described by users as somewhat complicated to set up.
Pricing:
The Essential plan is $12.50 per user per month, billed annually
The Advanced plan is $24.90 per user per month, billed annually
The Professional plan is $49.90 per user per month, billed annually
The Enterprise plan is $99 per user per month, billed annually
Visit Pipedrive
19. Capsule
Capsule works to bump not just your customer relationships, but all your business relationships, to the next level. And this it does ever so simply, with a clean user interface and zero learning curve.
Pros:
Rather than piling on extended features, Capsule quite simply hones in on being really good at managing daily work. You can instantly find out what’s going on with your sales pipeline (bids, lead generation, proposals, customer data, etc.) and what your team needs to do and when.
It also makes it easy to find key information. Contact lists can be imported from Gmail, Outlook, and your CSV spreadsheet and database files.
If you run a business solo or with a partner, you can get by with Capsule’s free version. The cap is two users. The Professional version features Zapier, G Suite, Zendesk, Twitter, and Mailchimp integration, helping you collect information and capture leads from across your apps.
Cons:
The free plan is capped at 250 contacts, so you may find yourself suddenly hitting a glass ceiling and having to commit to a paid plan. To keep using the product you’ve invested in for your day-to-day business, you may go from paying nothing to dishing out $18/month or more. Apart from that, in order to track and auto-generate contacts from email, you’ll have to remember to BCC them to your Dropbox, which is quite easy to forget.
Pricing:
Free, basic version of Capsule is available for up to 2 users
Pro plan is $18 per user/ per month
Teams plan is $36 per user/per month
Enterprise plan is $54 per user/per month
A 30-day free trial is available for Professional and Teams.
Visit Capsule CRM
20. Streak
Email is a big part of our working lives, and Streak is built around this essential fact. The app is essentially a collection of email power tools that graft CRM features onto your inbox.
Pros:
Built directly into Gmail, Streak has desktop and mobile apps with all the Google App integrations included, so you can access your work inbox and other tools you need at all times. Just download the Google Chrome extension and/or the mobile app and go. The platform’s email integration automatically captures data from your contacts and emails while receiving notifications during each stage of your pipeline’s progress.
Streak helps you make sure you respond to inquiries in a timely manner, update customers and contacts, track customer relationships, and create and save effective, aesthetically appealing email templates.
Cons:
Streak runs as a Chrome Extension, so if you change devices you’ll have to download and install it again. This can be annoying if you use loaner computers at work. Paid versions are priced at a level equivalent to more full-featured CRMs, which might be a dealbreaker for some.
Pricing:
Streak offers a free version
Solo plan is $15 per user per month, billed annually
Pro plan is $49 per user per month, billed annually
Enterprise plan is $129 per user per month, billed annually
The Professional tier is available as a 14-day free trial
Visit Streak
21. Bitrix 24
Bitrix24 is a well-rounded, comprehensive CRM that handles sales management and marketing campaigns, and helps your team collaborate effectively.
Pros:
Create unlimited work groups and user groups, set up an HR help desk, and make internal communication seamless with a private social intranet. Centralize the storage of documents and make phone calls to any landline or mobile in-app. Click on an email to turn it into a task, calendar event, or discussion topic.
You can also use Bitrix 24 to build free websites, landing pages, and online stores that are automatically integrated with its CRM features.
Cons:
Bitrix24 can run pretty slowly from time to time. The UI is also somewhat "maximalist," which can hinder app navigation. The app's learning curve and app customization limitations may be issues for some small businesses.
Pricing:
Bitrix24 offers a free version
Basic plan for up to 5 users is $39 per month, billed annually
Standard plan for up to 50 users is $79 per month, billed annually
Professional plan for unlimited users is $159 per month, billed annually
The prices above are for the cloud-based version
Visit Bitrix24
22. Agile CRM
Agile CRM is a decent overall CRM platform with many great uses for individuals, small businesses, and even medium-sized businesses.
Pros:
Agile CRM gives you an unlimited amount of deals, tasks, and documents even with the free version. The marketing suite of tools is pretty worthwhile, especially for planning email campaigns. You also get a nice set of sales engagement tools to really make sure your leads move down the sales funnel and become loyal customers.
Cons:
At times, the mobile app has been known to give its users a few tiny problems here and there, but nothing too serious. It is also possible you will need to do regular updates to weed out the bugs.
Pricing:
Agile CRM has a free version for 10 users
Starter plan is $9.99 per user month, billed annually
Regular plan is $39.99 per user month, billed annually
Enterprise plan is $64.99 per user month, billed annually
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23. Salesforce
What kind of customer relationship management list would this be without one of the oldest and most popular CRMs out there? That’s right: Salesforce.
Pros:
Perhaps most people do not think of Salesforce as one of the best small business CRMs, as this platform is normally thought to be quite heavy duty and big league. But Salesforce has many great options and pricing plans which does make this a decent choice when thinking of CRM for small businesses. One of its many advantages are, of course, the sales funnel features, as this SaaS is all about selling.
Cons:
Typical drawbacks for Salesforce include the feature overload, although this might seem more overwhelming than it really is. It can also be difficult to get the quickest and best support when using Salesforce.
Pricing:
Essentials plan is $39 per month, billed annually
Sales Professional plan is $75 per user per month, billed annually
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What is the best CRM small business software on the market? Our conclusion
Crazy as it sounds, this list of 23 CRM solutions for small business could have even been longer. That’s because the customer relationship management software scene is so rich and abundant with great apps.
As it stands, LACRM takes the overall crown, but it was no easy decision. Zoho, Pipedrive and Insightly deserve another shout-out here, and how can we forget names like HubSpot and Salesforce?
In the end, we hope you’ve learned a thing or two and have a better idea of which small business CRM system is right for you. Now, go get that small business growing!
P.S. If the software on this list is expensive for you, make sure to check out open source CRM which is free of charge!