15 Best CRM Software For Your Business in 2023 (Ranked and Reviewed)

Best CRM Software

Whether you are just starting, already have a business, or are already managing a huge enterprise, if you’re not using a CRM software, or customer relationship manager yet, then chances are your competitors are already miles ahead of you.

Choosing the best CRM software is both a challenging and easy task. It’s easy because you simply pick the best one out there that is compatible with your business needs. It’s challenging because there are a lot of promising ones that offer a wide variety of features (which you may or may not need) and picking just one can be a complicated task.

In this article, we’ve gathered the best names out there in the field of customer relationship management. Some of these names have been around for quite a while and have already established a name for themselves. We wanted to come up with a list to help you narrow down your search and make picking one a relatively easy task.

What is Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) Software?

Before we discuss the meat of this article, let’s briefly talk about a Customer Relationship Manager, or CRM, software.

A CRM software automates and manages the customer life cycle of an organization. Life cycle refers to the journey of a customer from being just a “lead” until they “buy”.

You can liken a CRM to an oracle. It stores all records about the client, your interactions with them, what you talked about, and so on, and then these data are turned into actionable analytics to give you a clear picture of who your clients are.

It is usually utilized by sales teams, sales agents, and other related industries to maintain contact with customers and to quickly respond to their needs.

What is the Best CRM Software?

To make an objective comparison among the CRM software in this list, we considered the following criteria: features, integrations, sales capabilities, presence of marketing tools, pricing, and degree of support.

Here are our picks for the best CRM software to try:

1. Monday.com

Best CRM for Start-Ups

If you’re a startup with employees who have to juggle multiple roles, then Monday.com is perfect for you. This platform offers the necessary flexibility to let users jump from one role to another quickly and at a low cost.

Monday CRM

Important Features:

  • Clean User Interface – Monday.com is reminiscent of our favorite spreadsheet but is more feature-rich and more intuitive.
  • Templates – Users can immediately get to work by using templates to set up their workflows imbued with automation.
  • Workload Feature – Manage your resources effectively and see how other members of your team are faring with their tasks through this feature.
  • Apps Marketplace – Monday.com allows access and integration with familiar tools to make you highly efficient.

Pros:

  • Offers 24/7 support
  • Easy to set up, and your workflow can be started right away
  • Enterprise bundle subscribers are assigned a dedicated customer success manager

Cons:

  • Many of the useful integrations and automations in other CRM software are not available
  • Although support is available 24/7, phone support is not

Pricing:

Free for two users; paid services start at $8 per seat, per month

2. Salesflare

A simple yet powerful modern-day CRM for small businesses

Salesflare is an affordable and simple CRM that brings together sales, and support. Their goal is to allow you to stop worrying about managing your data and start managing your customers. With automatic logging of meetings and phone calls and an automatic organization of documents and other files that you and your team exchange with customers, you can reduce time spent on data entry by more than 70%.

Salesflare CRM

Important Features:

  • Track when and how your customers are engaging with you with email tracking, link tracking, and website tracking.
  • Integrations – Salesflare easily integrates with G Suite and personal Google accounts, or Office365, synchronizing emails, meetings, email signatures, email tracking, and more. Additionally use Zapier or Salesflare’s suite of other integrations to bring together your entire toolset.

Pros:

  • Access the full functionality of Salesflare from your phone via mobile app
  • Quick personalized support through chat and email regardless of plan

Cons:

  • No free option; only a limited time trial
  • Marketing capabilities are limited

Pricing:

  • Growth: $35 per user, per month ($29 per month if billed annually)
  • Pro: $55 per user, per month ($49 per month if billed annually)
  • Enterprise: $99 per user, per month

3. Pipedrive

Top CRM System for Pipeline Management

Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM that fully takes advantage of the benefits of AI to manage repetitive tasks; thus, your leads and sales performance are managed well. Pipedrive is responsible for overseeing $24 billion worth of deals within their platform and is serving more than 90,000 customers worldwide.

Pipedrive CRM

Important Features:

  • Lead Management – It allows users to track leads from different kinds of channels and platforms, whether they’re from forms or chatbots, on a round-the-clock basis.
  • Visual Sales Pipelines – Data are best represented when they are organized in an understandable way. This feature gives users the power to organize their sales pipeline and to focus their effort on those that are “hot”.
  • Easily Retrieved Communications – Having trouble recalling your last interaction with a client? Pipedrive can help you with that. This software stores your full contact information and interactions, thereby making recall fast and convenient.
  • Mobile Apps – This feature is perfect for a team that is always on the move. You can easily access Pipedrive’s wealth of features with just a few clicks on your mobile device.

Pros:

  • Easily add sales forecasts, deals, and values
  • Highly customizable customer information field to store all sorts of information about your client
  • Allows users to come up with informative revenue data and reports

Cons:

  • Campaign planning is still being worked on
  • Lacks behavior and return on investment tracking

Pricing:

Starts at $12.50 per month

4. Freshworks

Align sales and marketing strategies with Freshworks CRM

Freshworks CRM, formerly known as Freshsales, acts as a single source of truth for your business combining sales, customer support, and marketing automation. Their platform focuses on the customer journey – from attracting, nurturing, and managing leads to converting leads into paying customers.

Freshworks CRM

Important Features:

  • Marketing – Create web forms, develop marketing lists, and design email in a visual drag-and-drop builder, and craft your own customer marketing journey.
  • Sales – Manage sales through pipelines, goals, forecasting and point out deals that are not converting.
  • AI – Enhance your productivity with the power of artificial intelligence with lead generation bots, find publicly listed social and contact information automatically, predictive contact scoring, and proactive deduplication.

Pros:

  • Utilize AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, activity capture, and more
  • An easy to use drag-and-drop user interface
  • Highly-rated customer support
  • Mobile apps for iOS and Android to keep your sales on the go
  • Paid plans offer a 21-day free trial

Cons:

  • The Free plan is limited in contacts, and technical support

Pricing:

  • Free: Available for an unlimited number of users
  • Growth: $35 per user, per month ($29 per month if billed annually)
  • Pro: $85 per user, per month ($69 per month if billed annually)
  • Enterprise: $149 per user, per month ($125 per month if billed annually)

5. Agile CRM

Simple All-In-One CRM Software for Sales, Marketing, and & Customer Service

Agile CRM is another effective and popular customer relationship manager that many businesses use to automate their sales, marketing, and customer service all in one place. Trusted by more than 15,000 customers, Agile CRM is affordable, mobile-ready, fast, and most importantly simple to use.

Agile CRM

Important Features:

  • Sales – Make sales easy through contact management, appointment scheduling, telephone integrations and more.
  • Marketing – Utilize marketing automation workflows with email marketing features, landing page builders, social integration, and mobile SMS marketing.
  • Customer Service – Simplify and personalize customer service helpdesk support through ticketing, knowledge base articles, and more.
  • Integrations with many popular platforms including social media, and call tracking platforms

Pros:

  • Free for 10 users; no credit card required
  • Fast and efficient technical support
  • Easy to use platform compared to competitors

Cons:

  • Email capabilities can be buggy
  • Reporting features are lacking
  • Only one integration feature is available on the Starter package

Pricing:

  • Free for up to 15 users
  • Starter: $14.99 per user, per month (save 34% by paying yearly or 40% for 2 years)
  • Regular: $49.99 per user, per month (save 20% by paying yearly or 40% for 2 years)
  • Enterprise: $79.99 per user, per month (save 20% by paying yearly or 40% for 2 years)

6. EngageBay

All-In-One CRM Software for Marketing, Sales, and & Customer Support

EngageBay is another leading provider in CRM software, trusted by more than 28,000 customers across the world to simplify marketing, sales, and support all within one platform. Because marketing, sales, and support are all included within EngageBay, pricing is very affordable for those just starting out, or those looking to grow.

EngageBay CRM

Important Features:

  • CRM Software – Store an unlimited number of contacts and build stronger relationships with your customers by keeping track of all details in one platform
  • Marketing Automation – Save valuable time by automating marketing processes and sending personalized messages to your target audience
  • Helpdesk Software – Resolve customer issues quickly and deliver exceptional customer support
  • Live Chat software – Offer instant help when your customers reach out

Pros:

  • 15 users for free; no credit card required
  • Ability to select just the software pieces you need; or get the entire suite with All-In-One
  • Free migration service from any other CRM software
  • Integrate and connect with dozens of apps in seconds

Cons:

  • Does not offer Enterprise service plans
  • There is a learning curve; training documentation could be difficult to follow

Pricing:

Free for up to 15 users; paid plans start at $14.99 per user, per month for All-In-One

7. Nimble

Best Simple CRM

Nimble is a great, no-nonsense CRM software tool that allows users to work within either G Suite inbox or Office 365. It allows you to manage your leads, access company and customer-related reports and analysis, and monitor current and existing deals within your workflow with ease.

Nimble CRM

Important Features:

  • Integration – Nimble allows you to combine and put together in one application your social media connections, communications, inboxes, and calendar appointments. This feature saves you time from having to access each of the individual apps.
  • Contact Management – It allows users to access contact information along with the recent communications these users had with their leads and customers. Nimble also allows users to organize their contacts depending on which criteria to help create a suitable plan of action.
  • Reminder Feature – You can also use Nimble as an alternative to your preferred calendar or reminder app.
  • Pipeline Management – This feature helps users stay on top of the customer’s sales journey by giving them an idea about pipeline status.

Pros:

  • 14-day free trial
  • Compatible with mobile phones
  • Highly scalable and customizable
  • Extensive third-party integration

Cons:

  • Only a single plan is available
  • Limited free trial period
  • User experience is not so seamless (especially with sync function)

Pricing:

Starts at $19 per month (for annual plan) or $25 per month if billed monthly

8. Salesforce

Best CRM System for Businesses

Salesforce is a ubiquitous name when we talk about CRS systems. They have more than a million users around the globe. Based on the cloud, Salesforce is compatible with all business departments, whether they pertain to sales, customer service, marketing, analytics, or customer experience.

Salesforce Customer360

Important Features:

  • Opportunity Management – This feature highlights certain circumstances that may be perceived as a selling point (immediate need of a client) and may help increase your chances of closing the deal.
  • Contact Management – It includes a full suite of management systems that enable users to access contact and communication history as well as social media mentions.
  • Sales Performance Management – This feature lets users set sales targets and monitor sales performance of teams or individuals.
  • Visual Workflow – You can stay in control of your workflow by using this feature. You can easily drag, drop, and share files across members of your team for increased collaboration.

Pros:

  • 30-day trial period
  • 24/7 standby customer support available
  • Compatible with most, if not all, operating systems including Linus, Mac, Windows, and Android
  • Highly customizable depending on your business requirement

Cons:

  • There are limitations to on-premise deployment
  • Live chat support is still being worked on

Pricing:

Starts at $25 per month

9. Zoho CRM

A Reliable CRM System for Small Businesses

Zoho CRM allows you to have a comprehensive view of your business, monitor sales numbers and marketing insights, and eventually increase your conversion rates. With thousands of customers located all over the world, Zoho CRM is among the top CRM software choice for business owners.

Zoho CRM

Important Features:

  • Powerful CRM Analytics – This feature provides you with valuable insights, thereby creating a lot of opportunities.
  • AI-Powered Sales Assistant – Zoho helps you make decisions quickly and effectively. The AI-powered sales assistant helps you detect what your customers need and gives suggestions on the best course of action to take to close a sale.
  • Performance Management – It gives you a clear picture of how your business is performing. It allows users to generate reports, forecasts, and suggestions regarding territory management.

Pros:

  • Free up to 10 users
  • Industry leading feature set
  • Robust reporting and analysis capabilities
  • Intuitive email marketing tools

Cons:

  • Workflow automation is limited to premium package
  • Voice assistant needs to be improved

Pricing:

Standard plan starts at $12 per month

10. SugarCRM

Reliable CRM System Provider for Enterprises

SugarCRM is one of the leading names in CRM systems, with more than 50,000 companies engaged in sales and marketing tasks. The platform, which is available in nine different languages, has been downloaded millions of times.

Probably the best feature of SugarCRM is it being open-sourced. This feature technically allows you to create a product of your own, or you can just simply tweak a few of its existing features to your benefit.

SugarCRM

Important Features:

  • Sugar Market – It enables users to increase their reach while being able to track results along the way. This feature can be described as a marketing tool, and SugarCRM’s embedded marketing tools help in advertisement and social media postings.
  • Sugar Sell – This feature is a contact management tool and a calendar rolled into one. It allows users to access everything they need to know about a person including insights and social and business data. It also includes Gmail integration so your Google calendar can be synced with Sugar.
  • Sugar Serve – This feature provides customers a quick way to submit their inquiries. Everything can be found in easy-to-read dashboards.

Pros:

  • Great customer service tools
  • Can easily implement marketing campaigns
  • Offers in-person training, along with plenty of support

Cons:

  • Not ideal for small enterprises and startups in terms of cost
  • Stiff learning curve
  • Complicated integration process

Pricing:

Offers a 7-day free trial; paid service starts at $52 per user per month

11. Copper

Best for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Tired of using clunky, highly expensive, and complicated CRM software? Copper might be a good alternative. Copper allows users to form multiple pipelines and to create integrations to G Suite. Boasting an improved user experience and G Suite integration, Copper seeks to be the CRM of choice for small- and medium-sized businesses who seek to manage leads and foster customer relationships.

Copper CRM

Important Features:

  • Integration – This feature allows users to seamlessly sync and connect G Suite applications for efficiency and convenience.
  • Multiple Pipeline Capabilities – Some free software only offer limited options as far as pipeline management is concerned. This scenario is not a problem for Copper users.
  • Automated Data Entry – Pre-populates contact data, thereby lessening the time needed when adding new leads. Doing so would simply involve a simple point-and-click action.

Pros:

  • Automated data entry
  • Integrates well with G Suite
  • Streamlined user interface and lightweight

Cons:

  • User interface could be improved to include only relevant data
  • Needs improvement on integration with email automation software

Pricing:

Starts at $25 per month

12. Insightly

Top CRM System for Furnishing Crucial Analysis and Reports

Insightly is one of the relatively new CRM platforms but make no mistake, this platform can still help you build a long and strong partnership with your clients.

Insightly CRM

Important Features:

  • Lead Routing – This feature highlights the most relevant and recurring information with each lead regardless of the marketing campaign source, thereby giving the users an opportunity to have an advantage, and the probability of closing a sale is increased.
  • Extensive Third-Party Integrations – This feature allows access to apps such as Gmail, Mailchimp, Dropbox, Outlook, and more from within Insightly. This convenient feature will save you a lot of time from having to access different apps to do a certain task.
  • Pipeline Management – It allows you to monitor the performance of each team and to track the progress of each project relative to the sales pipeline.

Pros:

  • Compatible with mobile devices (both Android and iOS)
  • Provides an intuitive dashboard to track important metrics
  • 14-day free trial

Cons:

  • Does not have live chat support
  • Only supports English for now

Pricing:

Starts at $29 per month; free plan accommodates two users

13. Hubspot CRM

Best CRM overall

Hubspot CRM is a feature-packed marketing suite. HubSpot CRM is perfect for those who are in sales because of its amazing features and time-saving tools. It’s also an attractive option for marketing teams whose aim is to capture, monitor, and increase the number of leads in their database.

What’s great is that this software is offered for free with the option to pay for additional premium features. The software is already great in itself, and the add-ons are for those who would like to have a comprehensive experience of Hubspot CRM.

Hubspot CRM

Important Features:

  • Email and Lead Integrations – Hubspot allows you to nurture your leads by sending them personalized emails. You can also track your progress (as far as customer interactions are concerned) through intuitive reports and analysis.
  • Contact Organization and Management – You can save time from having to access different applications for your email alone. This feature allows you to sync your email in one application and access them from within the app.
  • More than 300 Integrations – For ease and convenience, Hubspot allows you to easily connect with other platforms to get superior functionality out of the tools you’re already paying for.
  • Live Chat and Chatbots – This feature allows your customers to contact you with ease, whether they have inquiries or they’re reaching out for technical issues.
  • Sales Pipeline Data – Leaders can stay on top of their team’s performance by having a bird’s-eye view of the team and individual performance.

Pros:

  • Has a reliable free version
  • Can easily navigate through its user interface
  • Has built-in email integrations

Cons:

  • Pricing can add up once premium services are added

Pricing:

Starts at $40/month

14. Hubspot Sales Hub Enterprise

Best CRM for Sales Teams

Accelerate your sales process and improve your chances of closing deals with Sales Hub Enterprise, a comprehensive yet easy-to-use CRM that has built-in sales engagement tools, price–quote functionality, and sales analytics for growing teams.

Hubspot Sales Hub Enterprise

Important Features:

  • Integration – Similar with Hubspot CRM, Sales Hub also features a seamless integration for email and allows you to track the progress of your communication with a client.
  • Source-of-Truth for Increased Sales Efficiency – Users of this platform can get rich insights, warm leads, and materials that are relevant to help them work efficiently.
  • Hubspot Suite – You can take advantage of Hubspot’s expansive ecosystem of applications and business software to improve customer experience and customer relations.

Pros:

  • Automation is supported for repetitive tasks
  • Highly customizable depending on your requirement
  • Offers various sales and marketing features as well as a robust analytics feature

Cons:

  • Needs time for users to get accustomed to the interface
  • Premium version will cost you a significant amount of money

Pricing:

Starts at $50 per month for paid services; the free version is workable and does not expire

15. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Intelligent business applications that empower your organization

Dynamics365 is a powerful CRM system and business application software suite developed by Microsoft to develop an all-in-one solution for all areas of your business including sales, marketing, service, finance, operations, commerce, and HR. Dynamics365 is trusted by global businesses big and small – including many Fortunate 500 organizations.

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Important Features:

  • Sales – Find and build stronger relationships and improve productivity and performance by getting a single view of your customers.
  • Marketing – Find and nurture the right leads and create connected customer experiences.
  • Service – Deliver positive customer experiences—faster, and optimize resources and help technicians be more efficient.
  • Operations – Move from reactive to predictive operations by automating and simplify your manufacturing and supply chain management.
  • Commerce – Unify your physical and digital commerce and build brand loyalty through personal engagement.
  • HR – Make workforce administration less work by optimizing HR processes and programs and offer self-service experiences for your employees.

Pros:

  • Bring your entire organization’s IT infrastructure and applications into a single platform making it easier to connect and integrate every department.
  • Siloed applications allow you to purchase only what you need so you are not paying for features you aren’t using.

Cons:

  • Very steep learning curve
  • Many business features and applications are priced a-la-carte which can be expensive
  • Licensing agreements can be difficult to understand

Pricing:

For a complete list of pricing visit Dynamics 365 Pricing.

What Features Should You Look For in a CRM Software?

Sales and Lead Management

A great CRM tool should be able to help you generate leads from various pipeline activities, such as inbound calls, sales calls, email sign-ups, and so on. Furthermore, you should be able to configure such a tool so that it will take less time for you to follow up your leads.

Your nurture should also be able to help you improve your relationship with your leads throughout the whole sales process: from being just a lead to closure of the sale.

Built-In Marketing Tools

A smart CRM system should also have built-in marketing tools to have a well-streamlined sales process. Embedded email pipelines, databases for contacts management, and social media integrations are handy tools that can make the task of marketing and sales fully aligned and seamless.

Integrations

CRM systems that allow integrations for other crucial business software such as marketing automation tools, advertising software, data visualization tools, and more are preferable.

Analytics and Reporting

Nowadays, data is king. However, all those data can sometimes be overwhelming and useless if they’re not arranged in an order where they can tell a story. Pick a CRM system that has reporting capabilities (most of them already have one anyway). If your system can allow you to come up with live and dynamic reports, then that’s much better.

Multi-Device Compatibility

A robust CRM system would be a letdown if its use is restricted to desktops or laptops. Your team is after all often on the move, so a CRM system that can be accessed across multiple devices, such as iPads or even mobile phones, would be a huge advantage in terms of efficiency and convenience.

Security

Although having all the data you need for your business is important to attain success, guarding these data with your life is equally important. File storage and platform security are paramount when selecting a CRM system.

Appropriate User Experience

Most of the CRM systems nowadays offer the same type of features in their packages. Nevertheless, what’s important is the influence of these features on your user experience. How convenient is this CRM system to use your current system? Are its features made available so that you can fully take advantage of it? Can you see your team use the same CRM system in a long-term scenario?

What are the Benefits of a CRM Software?

A great CRM software allows you to do the following:

Get to Know Your Customers Well

Your CRM system should be able to help you streamline customer information in such a way that it helps you generate valuable insights. Ideally, with your CRM’s help, you should be able to get to know your customers in a deep level.

Help You Cross or Upsell

Given that you are in a position to know what your customers need (before they probably know it themselves), an opportunity is established for you to either introduce your other products or offer a better package (if one’s available) that suits their needs well.

Facilitate Collaboration

Having a CRM system in large organizations allows multiple departments to work together to give their customers the best experience. It allows these departments to come up with ingenious, holistic solutions in such a way that their customers will feel that they have been really taken cared of.

Improve Efficiency

The heart of any CRM system is really to reduce wastage both in terms of time and opportunity. A great CRM system will make everything seamless to reduce the guesswork in each customer interaction and to take everything into account. There’s less room for manually doing things, thereby lessening the chances of human error.

Save Cost in the Long Haul

Spending on a CRM system might cost you in a short-term scenario, but its benefits carry on for a long time. Not only it will lessen your overall workload but also you can ideally see improvements both in customer interaction and experience.

Empower Employees

With an access to data, your employees should feel empowered to work with a goal in mind. Gone are the days when they have to do a lot of trial and error to know what their customers like. With a CRM system in place, all they have to do is take ownership. They already have the data in front of them, all they need to do is to make use of these data to their advantage.

CRM Software Summary

Dozens of CRM systems are out in the market today, and each of them are as powerful, comprehensive, and feature-rich as the next one.

What’s more important for you as a business owner is not what they offer but whether what they offer fits what your business needs. You see, each of these featured CRMs has a key feature that fits well with the kind of business that you have.

Do not sacrifice functionality just because you are attracted to a CRM that’s budget friendly. That will defeat your purpose of getting a CRM software in the first place. Similarly, don’t get the most expensive one when the simple, even a free one, will suffice.


Last updated on by Joshua Holdeman

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About the author

Joshua Holdeman is a DevOps Engineer, Sr. Software Engineer, and Digital Marketing Consultant. With over 12 years in the industry and backed by hundreds of digital marketing projects and websites developed under his direction, he brings experience and knowledge allowing for the recommendation of high-impact business software, tools, and programs to help non-profit organizations, small businesses, and entrepreneurs to launch or grow their business. Before starting this blog, Josh was the Sr. Software Engineer for a world leader in a marketing and graphic communications franchise system.
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