10 Best CRM for Startups in 2024

Quick Summary

Quick: what’s the most valuable deal in your pipeline right now?

For startups, answering that question quickly is crucial—because a big deal can make or break your quarter, year, or even the business itself.

That’s where CRM software comes into play, helping streamline sales processes, manage leads and opportunities, and accelerate deals.

But with all the CRM providers out there, how do you know which one is the best option for your startup? Below, we share our picks for the top 10 best CRM for startups based on our own in-depth testing.

What is CRM for Startups?

CRM refers to the suite of software products designed to help companies manage customer data, track sales deals and pipelines, keep records of interactions with potential customers, automate sales activities, and gain insight into sales performance via analytics and metrics.

For startups and other companies with lengthy, complex, or high-volume sales cycles, a CRM platform is crucial for keeping track of data and business processes.

Best CRM Software for Startups Comparison Chart (Top 10 CRM Tools for Startups)

Navigating the startup world requires the right tools. Our table of the top 10 best CRMs for startups lets you compare the apps in terms of what they're best for and pricing. Find the perfect match to support your business's unique needs and budget.

Here's the top 10 CRM software for startups: 

What is the Best CRM for Startups? Here's Our Top 10 List:

While many CRM systems on the market focus on enterprise companies, there are also a number of startup-focused CRMs tailored to the needs of young, small, and/or rapidly growing businesses. These solutions provide an intuitive, user-friendly customer experience, scalable pricing, and core CRM features needed to grow customer bases and improve customer relationships and retention.

To help you find the right option for your team, we conducted in-depth testing of the best CRMs for startups. After getting a feel for the user interface, testing key features, and looking into pricing, we landed on the top 10 list you see here.

HubSpot CRM (Overall best CRM for startups)

Why we chose it:

HubSpot CRM is our top choice for your average startup, and there are many reasons. For one, HubSpot CRM includes broad, advanced features—yet it’s incredibly user-friendly. Core features include:

• Lead generation and capture

• Contact management and storage

• Email, social media, and phone communication

• Deal management

• Workflow automation

• Reporting

Beyond sales, HubSpot also offers software catered to marketing and customer service teams, making it a great one-stop shop for the whole team.

HubSpot CRM‘s free plan is among the most generous on the market, making it an excellent choice for cash-strapped startups. Plus, it’s eminently scalable. Costs increase as you grow, but HubSpot’s software can handle businesses of all sizes—so you won’t have to switch to a new tool as your business and customer base expand.

You can customize HubSpot software, too, adding custom fields and properties, building custom dashboards, and creating customized email templates and other content. With over 1,000 app integrations available, HubSpot CRM fits neatly into evolving sales or marketing stacks.

Learn more about our best CRM software for startups pick by reading the full HubSpot CRM review.

Pros:

• Generous free plan

• Great ease of use

• Over 1,000 pre-built integrations

• Supremely customizable

• Top-notch customer support

• Startup-friendly pricing

Cons:

• It can get pricey as you scale

• An all-in-one CRM solution may be more than your startup needs

Pricing:

• Free: unlimited users and up to 1M contacts

• CRM Suite Starter: $20/month (billed annually)

• CRM Suite Professional: $1,600/month (billed annually)

   

Visit site
^{Go to HubSpot CRM's official website}

Close CRM (Excellent for CRM and task management features)

Why we chose it:

Close CRM is built for sales teams. The software’s unique inbox feature brings together emails, calls, SMS, and tasks, streamlining day-to-day communication and keeping sales reps on top of daily activities. It’s like a CRM married to a task management app.

When it comes to lead management, Close CRM makes it easy to prioritize activities with Smart Views automatically: a set of automatic, pre-built filters that highlight:

• Untouched leads

• Leads to call

• Leads never emailed

• Email opened this week

• No contact for more than 30 days

• Opportunity follow-up

Unlike some providers, Close won’t complicate your life. Once you’ve used the CRM, the user interface quickly becomes super intuitive, helping to cut down on implementation time and boost productivity.

Close CRM’s Workflows feature also helps reduce repetitive tasks by automatically triggering actions like sending emails, creating tasks, assigning users, assigning calls, and notifying assignees. So you can significantly reduce manual effort and ensure timely follow-ups.

Check out our full Close CRM review for a more in-depth look at these features..

Pros:

• Sales-focused tools for lead and contact management

• Sales pipeline management features

• Multichannel inbox for centralized communication

• Approachable starting price

• Useful productivity-boosting features

Cons:

• No free plan

• Limited support options

• No built-in solution for lead capture

• Fewer app integrations than most CRM tools

• It may not be ideal for cross-departmental use

Pricing:

• Starter: $49/month (billed annually)

• Professional: $299/month (billed annually)

• Enterprise: $699/month (billed annually)

Visit site
^{Go to Close CRM's official website}

Salesforce (Best sales CRM for SaaS startups)

Why we chose it:

“Salesforce” is practically synonymous with “CRM,” and that’s for good reason. Salesforce offers just about every advanced feature organizations of any size may need. The tailored Starter Suite includes essential versions of these features—for up to 10 users—at a startup-friendly price.

The full CRM is as robust and feature-rich as any on the market. While that may come with a learning curve up front, it ensures you’ll never outgrow the platform. Plus, Salesforce provides a ton of user support and training to get you started.

The well-designed dashboard puts all your data front and center. Flexible pipeline features cater to different working methodologies, while intelligent alerts help you stay on top of everything.

Salesforce also comes with many native integrations, plus the App Exchange, home to thousands of third-party apps.

Check out our full Salesforce review to learn more.

Pros:

• Einstein Activity Capture eliminates manual data input

• Robust user support and training

• Extensive App Exchange and integrations

• Sales-focused tools for lead and contact management

• Offers features like organizing customer data and tracking sales

Cons:

• Complex interface and feature-rich CRM comes with a learning curve

• Starter Suite limited to 10 users

• No free plan

• Potentially high upgrade costs

Pricing:

• Starter Suite: $25/user/month

• Pro Suite: $100/user/month (billed annually)

• Enterprise: $165/user/month (billed annually)

• Unlimited: $330/user/month (billed annually)

• Einstein 1 Sales: $500/user/month (billed annually)

Visit site
^{Go to Salesforce's official website}

Agile CRM (Great CRM for all your customer-facing teams)

Why we chose it:

Agile CRM is a super-comprehensive CRM solution built for small and medium-sized businesses. The cloud-based platform includes features from which salespeople, customer service, and marketing teams can benefit, creating one centralized hub for customer-focused teams.

That includes advanced CRM functionalities (like sales automation, lead generation, and integrated email marketing tools) that you’d be hard-pressed to find in more basic CRM solutions. The platform also supports a ton of customization, including:

• Contact and deal information fields

• Automation workflows

• Email templates

• Dashboards

• Tags and segments

• Landing pages and lead capture forms

Agile CRM offers a generous free plan for up to 10 users, 1,000 contacts, and a pared-down set of features. Once you’re ready to upgrade, pricing plans are built with SMEs in mind—scalable and affordable.

To see if Agile is the right CRM for your startup, check out our full Agile CRM review.

Pros:

• A centralized hub for sales, marketing, and customer service

• Generous free plan

• Startup-friendly pricing plans

Cons:

• Fewer than 50 native integrations

• Subpar onboarding and training

• All-in-one features may be more than your business needs

Pricing:

• Free: up to 10 users and 1k contacts
• Starter: $9.99/user/month (billed annually)
• Regular: $39.99/user/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise: $64.99/user/month (billed annually)

Visit site
^{Go to Agile CRM's official website}

Copper CRM (Great CRM for Google Workspace users)

Why we chose it:

If your startup runs on Google Suite, Copper CRM is a no-brainer. It’s the only CRM designed explicitly for Google Workspace and integrates seamlessly with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Sheets.

The Copper UI even resembles familiar Google tools, making it super easy to pick up for existing Google users. All features can be found in the left sidebar (it’s easy to recognize from the icons, which is which), and a search bar is even included to help you find files, contacts, and opportunities more quickly.

Another strength of Copper CRM is its customizability. You can add your own record fields, build custom sales pipelines to match your sales funnel, set up automated workflows, build email templates—and even customize user roles and permissions.

Check out our full Copper CRM review for more details about this tool.

Pros:

• Built for Google Workspace

• Affordable plans

• Intuitive, user-friendly design

• Tons of customization

• Extensive integrations

Cons:

• Less advanced than leading CRMs

• Rigid pricing structure

• Lack of flexibility outside Google Workspace

• No free plan

Pricing:

• Basic: $23/user/month (billed annually)

• Professional: $59/user/month (billed annually)

• Business: $99/user/month (billed annually)

Visit site
^{Go to Copper CRM's official website}

Zoho CRM (Best CRM for startups on a budget)

Why we chose it:

For small startup teams, Zoho CRM is one of the best options on the market, offering the most affordable and flexible plans. While it may not have every advanced feature that higher-end CRMs offer, it brings a comprehensive set of tools that meet the needs of most startups at a much lower cost.

The lead management tool is a great way to store data for all your contacts, with filters on the left side to sort them quickly. You can choose between predefined filters or filter by fields like company, city, annual revenue, and more.

The adaptable, user-friendly platform is super customizable, making it easy to tailor to your workflows, reports, and data management processes. You can even customize the layout of CRM pages, enabling you to build fully custom layouts.

Zoho CRM is part of a huge suite of complementary products that work seamlessly together. An icon in the top right-hand corner opens the app marketplace, showing all integrations along the left sidebar and allowing you to quickly set up other Zoho apps like Projects, Campaigns, and more.

Learn more about this tool by reading our full Zoho CRM review.

Pros:

• Affordable, scalable paid plans

• Well-designed mobile apps

• Robust marketing automation and AI tools

• Tons of integrations

• Supremely customizable interface

Cons:

• Less in-depth feature-set

• Free plan limited to 3 users

• The design is somewhat outdated

Pricing:

• Free: up to 3 users and essential features

• Standard: $14/user/month (billed annually)

• Professional: $23/user/month (billed annually)

• Enterprise: $40/user/month (billed annually)

• Ultimate: $52/user/month (billed annually)

Visit site
^{Go to Zoho CRM's official website}

Pipedrive (Best startup CRM for pipeline management)

Why we chose it:

Pipedrive is the best CRM for startups looking to drive more sales and accelerate the pipeline.

It’s designed to help control complex sales processes and apply activity-based sales methodology to focus squarely on the activities that lead to closed deals. For example, Pipedrive’s deal rotting feature alerts you if a deal has gone idle, while features like automated workflows and AI-driven sales assistance help you do something about it.

Pipedrive CRM allows you to organize and manage leads in a way that helps you close more deals through customizable visual pipelines and other features designed to kick stagnation to the curb. You can create multiple custom pipelines, too—one pipeline for direct sales, for example—with stages for “initial contact,” “demo scheduled,” “proposal sent,” and “negotiation”—and another pipeline to manage channel sales.

The clean, intuitive interface, well-organized dashboard, and 24/7 support make getting your team up and running easy.

Read our Pipedrive review for more information.

Pros:

• Activity-focused methodology

• Great for managing pipeline

• Scalable plans and add-ons

• Easy to use

• Integrated calling, chatbot, and live chat

• Email automation and tracking

Cons:

• No free plan

• Limited features for customer service

• Less robust feature-set

Pricing:

• Essential: $14/user/month (billed annually)

• Advanced: $34/user/month (billed annually)

• Professional: $49/user/month (billed annually)

• Power: $64/user/month (billed annually)

• Enterprise: $99/user/month (billed annually)

Visit site
^{Go to Pipedrive's official website}

Less Annoying CRM (Our pick for a simple, intuitive CRM)

Why we chose it:

Startups looking for a no-nonsense CRM tool will love Less Annoying CRM. As the name implies, it’s an uncomplicated, affordable tool ideal for startups who can’t afford to let a complicated CRM slow them down. It’s a great option if you just need basic CRM functions without the bloat of all-in-one features like automation and marketing.

When you create an account, you’re greeted by a simplistic, if somewhat outdated-looking, interface and a helpful beginner’s guide. You can customize the main My Workspace view by choosing from four widgets, but this tool is undoubtedly designed to simplify and help team members focus on their tasks, reports, and agenda.

Less Annoying CRM’s pricing is similarly simplistic: one plan for $15/user/month, which includes all features and unlimited everything.

Find more details about this tool in our full Less Annoying CRM review.

Pros:

• Affordable, straightforward pricing

• Simple, uncomplicated software

• Features to manage contacts, tasks, leads, and pipelines

Cons:

• Some system lag with more than 50k contacts during our testing

• No marketing, customer service, or automation features

Pricing:

• $15/user/month

Visit site
^{Go to LACRM's official website}

Salesflare (Top CRM for B2B startups)

Why we chose it:

Salesflare excels at automating startup CRM data management, automatically logging customer interactions like meetings and calls, and freeing up sales teams to focus on engaging customers. Salesflare provides a detailed overview of your sales opportunities, real-time engagement alerts and automated to-do lists.

Starting with Salesflare is easy: new users are greeted with instructional guides and a comprehensive tour of the tool's capabilities upon login. Plus, Salesflare's dashboard and reporting tools make it easy to track performance and activities, ensuring your team is as productive and efficient as possible.

We love how the contact management feature is divided into contacts and customers. Not all your contacts have to be your customers, after all. Select the contact(s) and click the “Create Account” button in the right-hand sidebar to turn a contact into a new customer.

For more details, reference our comprehensive Salesflare review.

Pros:

• Intuitive drag-and-drop visual pipeline

• Unique two-part content management

• Helpful onboarding

• Useful automation

Cons:

• No free plan

• Limited customization

Pricing:

• Growth: $29/user/month (billed annually)

• Pro: $49/user/month (billed annually)

• Enterprise: $99/user/month (billed annually)

Visit site
^{Go to Salesflare's official website}

Streak CRM (CRM that lives inside your Gmail)

Why we chose it:

Streak CRM is a top CRM for startups that want to work seamlessly within Google Workspace. Unlike most CRMs offering a separate web or desktop app, Streak exists entirely within Gmail, effectively turning your inbox into a CRM. This allows Streak to leverage the familiarity of Gmail to build a capable CRM with almost no learning curve.

In the left-hand folder menu, Streak adds folders for “recently viewed,” “all tracked emails,” and “awaiting reply.” You can also access your pipelines, mail merge, and chat from the left sidebar. Pipelines can be customized to your sales cycle—create as many pipelines as you need and share them across the team. They can also be used as project management tools to track support tickets.

Automation, along with features like Streak’s “Magic Columns,” cuts down on repetitive tasks and ensures pipelines are always up to date.

Check out our comprehensive Streak CRM review to learn more.

Pros:

• Scalable pricing plans

• Lives within Google Workspace

• Customizable, shareable pipelines

• Powerful email tools

Cons:

• Limited free plan

• Few native integrations beyond Google Workspace

• No phone support

• On the pricier side

Pricing:

• Free: basic CRM features and email tracking

• Pro: $49/user/month (billed annually)

• Pro+: $69/user/month (billed annually)

• Enterprise: $129/user/month (billed annually)

Visit site
^{Go to Streak's official website}

What Features to Look for in CRM for Startups?

The best CRM for you may vary based on your industry, company stage, and unique business needs. That said, most startups will benefit from features like:

• Contact management and storage

• Lead generation and capture

• Sales automation

• Sales pipelines

• Deal tracking

• Forecasting and analytics

• Collaboration tools

• Integrations with tools like Zapier, Slack, Microsoft, Google, and more

AI-Driven Automation

In 2024, AI-driven automation has emerged as a crucial feature for CRM systems, especially for startups looking to scale efficiently. AI can enhance traditional CRM functions by automating repetitive tasks, providing predictive analytics, and personalizing customer interactions based on real-time data.

Here’s why AI-driven automation is a game-changer for startups:

• Predictive Analytics: AI algorithms can analyze historical data to forecast customer behavior, helping startups anticipate needs and tailor their strategies accordingly.
• Task Automation: From automating follow-ups to generating reports, AI can handle a variety of tasks, freeing up time for your team to focus on high-impact activities.
• Personalized Interactions: AI can tailor communication and content delivery to individual customers based on their preferences and past interactions, improving engagement and conversion rates.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: AI-driven CRMs can offer proactive customer service by predicting issues before they arise, thus increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

For instance, platforms like HubSpot CRM utilize AI to automate tasks like lead scoring and email workflows, while providing insights through predictive analytics that help startups make data-driven decisions.

Salesforce, with its Einstein AI, and Zoho CRM with Zia, offer personalized recommendations and workflow automation, making it easier for startups to optimize customer interactions and improve overall efficiency.

Why Startups Need CRM Software?

Wondering if your startup even needs a CRM yet? We hear that question a lot from early-stage companies.

When you’re just getting started, the idea of needing a system to manage all your deals and potential customers feels like a high-class problem.

But here’s the thing: when your startup begins to grow, you need to be ready—with the suitable systems to support growth and manage scale. That’s why we recommend getting set up with the right CRM for your business needs as early as possible.

So when that Series A hits, or your first customer recommends you to all their friends, you can harness that momentum and hit the ground running.

What are the Benefits of CRM for Startups?

As your startup scales, you need an efficient system that helps streamline your sales, marketing, and customer support operations, enabling you to spur growth while providing a high-quality customer experience—that’s what the right CRM can do.

Benefits of a good CRM include…

• Improved customer service

• Increased sales

• Boosted customer retention

• Better insight into performance and activities

• More efficiency

• Better collaboration and shared knowledge

• Improved transparency

An oft-overlooked benefit of implementing a CRM is that it gets you and your team out of spreadsheets and into a more professional, streamlined, and repeatable system.

How to Choose the Best CRM for Your Startup?

Our top ten list above is a great place to start when choosing the right CRM for your startup. By now, you should have a sense of one or a few CRMs that may fit the bill.

From here, explore those options in more depth by:

• Reading our more comprehensive review of each CRM

• Connecting with the CRM’s sales team to ask questions or get a demo

• Where available, test out free plans or trials

Which of these CRM for startups is right for me? Key takeaways

Ultimately, our top pick for a CRM for startups is HubSpot.

But that’s our pick—your choice needs to reflect your team’s unique needs, industry, and budget.

Streak CRM may be the better option if you need a low-touch solution within Google Workspace, for example, or Salesforce if you primarily need sales-focused CRM features.

Whatever the case, with our list of best CRM for startups in hand and the action plan outlined above, you have everything you need to explore your options and land the best choice for you and your team.

Best CRM for Startups FAQs

What's the best CRM for startups?

We voted HubSpot the best CRM for startups because it’s affordable, user-friendly, and offers comprehensive features. HubSpot offers a free version of its CRM with essential tools and scalable plans for startups of all sizes and stages.

That said, the best CRM for you depends on your unique needs. That’s why we also recommend several other good CRMs above, including:

• Zoho CRM for its affordability and versatility

• Salesforce for in-depth sales features and scalability

• Agile CRM and Pipedrive for user-friendly interfaces and pipeline management features

Do startups need a CRM?

A good CRM helps you organize customer data, streamline and track interactions, and automate sales and marketing processes. It’ll give you a serious upper hand in establishing stronger customer relationships and boosting efficiency in your sales workflow.

So, while a CRM isn’t necessarily a must-have for brand-new startups, we do recommend making it a priority to implement one.

What is the best CRM for a small business?

To find the best CRM for a small business, you can check out our full breakdown of the best CRM for small business. We recommend looking into the best personal CRM options for very small companies or startups.

What is the best free or cheap CRM for a startup?

Our top pick above, HubSpot CRM, offers a free CRM plan with basic features and an approachable starter suite once you’re ready to upgrade.

While there’s no free plan, Less Annoying CRM offers a straightforward and transparent plan for just $15/user/month. Agile CRM provides one of the most generous free plans on the market, while Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, and Copper CRM all offer super scalable plans.