What is CRM
CRM software is used in multiple areas such as sales, customer service, business development, recruiting, marketing, or any other line of business. Assuming your business will endure, you realize that you want a strategy for what’s to come. You have to focus on deals, business goals, and productivity. However, getting state-of-the-art, solid data on your advancement can be interesting. How would you interpret the many surges of information rolling in from deals, client support, promoting, and online media checking into helpful business data? CRM software can provide you with a reasonable overview of your clients.
32 CRM software recommendations from 60 industry experts
| Hubspot | Salesforce | Zoho CRM | Pipedrive |
| Bitrix24 | Nimble | Pipedrive | Zendesk |
| Ontraport | Nutshell | Apptivo | Close |
| Freshsales | Drip | Mailchimp | Infusionsoft |
| Active Campaign | Keap | ClickUp | Oracle NetSuite |
| Mautic | Freshworks | Salesmate | Whiz-Sales |
| GetResponse | Agorapulse | ActiveCampaign | Drupal |
| crm.com | Basecamp | Monday CRM | CompanyHub |
Let’s check out the feedback of industry experts regarding the CRM software.
Gian Moore partner at Mellowpine
Based on my experience in leading MellowPine and paying close attention to my customers, I’d like to list out a few CRM software:
Zoho CRM – for scaling a business
Salesforce Sales Cloud- for customizability
Bitrix24 – for multi-channel communication
Pipedrive – for being easy-to-use
Ontraport – for automating online transactions
Nimble – for customer prospecting
Nutshell – for managing a sales team
Apptivo – for business management
Close – for inside sales teams
Aaron Masterson, Innovative marketing manager at Local Furniture Outlet
The Pipedrive software is a sales-centered CRM that we use at Local Furniture Outlet to manage lead generation and sales while automating repetitive tasks. Pipedrive has a good track record of excellence from its consumer base of just over 100,000. Pipedrive has features that help optimize business processes when it comes to customer relationships. These features include lead management which is useful in helping track leads by using forms and chatbots on a daily basis, a visual sales pipeline that creates personalized stages, communication tracking through calls, chats, and emails.
In terms of pricing, Pipedrive has four plans that offer different features at different rates. The plans include the Essential, Advanced, Professional, and Enterprise plans. You can get a plan for as low as $12 and as high as $99, depending on your business needs and the quality of delivery you seek. Pipedrive has been a fundamental addition to our business when it comes to customer relationship management, as it optimizes our processes and is strategic to our customer retention and conversion.
Jared Bauman, Co-Founder, and CEO of 201 Creative
Salesforce:
Salesforce CRM is a software application that allows you to keep track of all customer information and interactions in one place, allowing you to follow up on more leads more effectively. There are tools for lead management and marketing automation that can assist you in increasing conversions. You can have a more versatile customer relationship management system because of its robust interfaces with other prominent business apps..
Justin Caldwell, Co-Founder of All Home Robotics
Hubspot:
There is a free version of Hubspot CRM that includes some basic CRM features. It’s important to know that the free plan comes with many extra features that you’ll have to pay for if you want to use them. In order to scale your sales and marketing activities, features like the maximum number of contacts are restricted.
However, this is to be anticipated from a tool of this magnitude and scope. Hubspot is a sales and marketing machine that will eventually pay for itself if used correctly and with solid business procedures, but you have to be of the attitude that yes, you can test out most of Hubspot for free at a lesser price point.
Fahad Jamal, Chief Financial Officer at Puretuber
Freshsales:
Freshsales is a user-friendly software suite that is meant to make it easier for you to manage both your employee and client connections. In total, there are a number of different tools in the Freshworks ecosystem, including Freshdesk, which is used for omnichannel customer support, fresh chat, which is used for chatbots and AI self-help, and even the Freshcaller cloud-calling system.
Freshsales claims to be able to create up to ten times the number of qualified leads by providing a 360-degree picture of your sales tactics and pipelines. Freshsales CRM is equipped with artificial intelligence-powered contact scoring, real-time forecasting, and predictive analytics, all of which can assist you in accelerating your revenue growth initiatives.
Gerrid Smith, CEO & Founder of Criminal Defense
Pipedrive:
There are several CRM software systems out there, but I can say Pipedrive is one of the most straightforward options. CRM software with AI-enhanced features is designed to help organizations better understand their deals and business opportunities. Pipedrive has an appealing user interface that makes it incredibly simple to use. Custom tags can be created for leads based on where they are in the buying cycle, making it easy to track deals through each stage. Each of your initiatives may be monitored through extensive reporting, which includes tracking emails, chats, and phone calls. It’s possible to use Pipedrive on a mobile device as well. For organizations of all sizes, Pipedrive makes it simple to monitor sales opportunities wherever they arise. providing you with The user interface is simple and easy to understand. Customer information can be collected in an infinite number of ways. Keeping track of trades, valuations, and winning chances has never been easier. Track recurring revenue with a variety of custom reports. Analyze each conversation, email, and demo in detail. Find out where leads come from by accessing source data reports. AI-powered sales assistance is available.
Raviv Ziv, CEO and Founder of Daily Cookie
We at Daily Cookie render email services to retails and agencies. We use Drip, Mailchimp, Infusionsoft and Active Campaign as our CRM. We are also partners with Active Campaign which we use for our top-tier clients as it allows us to create complex automation while giving our clients configured access to manage their clients without interfering with our processes.
We use Mailchimp for building our list via viral email marketing, all thanks to the referral integration feature and the email schedular on the plan we are on. Oh, and the reports from those campaigns give us a more detailed insight into our activities than we’ve experienced with Drip or Infusion. Finally, Drip and Infusion are dedicated to our low-tier clients and employee onboarding process.
Admir Salcinovic, Co-founder/Marketing Manager of PriceListo
At PriceListo, we use the Zoho software as a comprehensive solution to our CRM needs. It does not feature extra modules to examine for different departments. It is software that is easily adaptable and convenient for all our employees. We chose Zoho exactly for this reason because the quality of CRM depends on the quality of inputted information. Employees do not need any special, cost-incurring training to leverage the features offered by the software. A feature we enjoy when using Zoho is the ability to modify its features to suit the needs of our business while keeping customers in mind. We customize unique dashboards for different teams or projects we execute, allowing us to match the respective customer journeys and gain insights into customer experiences.
What also makes Zoho such a great software for CRM is the affordability… You can opt for different pricing plans starting from $14/month to a maximum of $52 per month.
Hanah Alexander, Editor-in-Chief at TodayTesting.com
The CRM I currently use is Nimble, and I couldn’t be more pleased with it. It handles all my contact management needs at an extremely attractive price point – only $29.95 a month.
I use Nimble mainly for reporter outreach. I have hundreds of contacts sorted by their beats and topics covered, which I use to reach out for coverage of various reports we put out on our site. Nimble allows me to track email and social interactions, which helps me know who I contacted, and when it’s time to contact them again.
The group messaging feature is extremely useful, allowing me to bulk email contacts while looking like each email is individually sent. Again, all at a really attractive price point. I see myself using Nimble far into the future.
Megan Arkis, Co-founder and CTO of ICRFQ
I’ve been using Keap (formally known as Infusionsoft) for more than 8 years now as my go-to CRM software.
Let me explain:
Keap has all of the features one business can hope for from managing contacts to making sales funnels. The one-click upsell mechanism in the software works like a charm and saves a huge hassle. Plus the analysis and insights dashboards let you quickly find out the key points of your campaigns. It makes the customer relationship management process of my business more streamlined and manageable. My team uses it every day and I don’t think we are switching to anything else anytime soon!!!
Laura Jimenez, Owner of Ishine365
Hubspot CRM:
Why did I opt for Hubspot CRM? The obvious answer is it is a free application. Second, it is linked to multiple places where most sales processes occur such as phone calls, emails, websites, social media, and others. Finally, the system easily integrates into our process and we don’t have to make any changes. My team has learned to use the app quickly and effectively, and focus on selling and other important tasks.
Liz Hutz, Co-Owner of Cash Home Buyers NC
I have used multiple CRM software, but currently, one particular software has worked wonders for me. While all CRM is good at presenting sales information, PipeDrive has unique features that make it one of the best investments in the field.
As a user, you get a complete and detailed overview of how each deal progresses. Often it has proven to be an exceptional feature for my team and me. The drag and drop interface makes it convenient for us to perform even the most complex tasks with flowing ease.
One of my favorite aspects is that Pipedrive uses chatbots to collect leads which can then be used to create web-based interactions. Furthermore, customizable pipelines and active workflow systems allow us to access old information or tap into present informational structures.
Kai Bader, Founder & Owner of Kai Bader
As a fast-growing startup, it is a particular challenge for me to keep customer contact information up to date, quickly keep track of the current status of customer interactions, and effectively manage accounts. In my search for an all-in-one software package that would allow me to manage both internal and customer projects while meeting my CRM needs, I came across ClickUp about two years ago. ClickUp is more than just a CRM; it does a variety of things for me. However, it is also great for managing and maintaining customer relationships, not least because of the variety of integrations (e.g., Zapier). What is more, you can choose between different ways of looking at your customer relationships. Do you prefer a table view? Boards? Or a simple list? No matter what view you prefer, ClickUp has them all. ClickUp is extremely flexible and therefore suitable for both internal uses as well as project-based communication. For example, you can create custom fields, which can also be searched and sorted by. Additionally, ClickUp can be used for onboarding new clients or reporting purposes. Due to the wide range of possible use cases, ClickUp helps me to improve customer relations day by day and to increase customer lifetime value in the long term – and at the same time to have the cool-headed certainty that all information is available for me at any time, at any place.
Jean Gregoire, Founder and CEO of Lovebox
We love HubSpot. Not only is it a great CRM software, but it’s also a marketing, sales, and service platform that allows us to connect with our customers. Businesses can choose between both free and paid services based on their individual needs. No matter what option you choose, you receive support for your sales, service, and marketing divisions.
It also has neat features such as contact management, email marketing with list segmentation, landing pages with custom forms, and a reporting dashboard. Lastly, it has an easy-to-use interface. HubSpot has allowed us to not only grow our customer base but retain our current customers as well.
Richard Burner, President of Goals Marketing
I’m a big fan of HubSpot’s CRM software. I’ve been using it for about 6 years now and it’s really helped me to keep all of my marketing and sales activity in one place. HubSpot not only holds all of my contacts and past communication with them together in one place, but it also helps me track my leads through the entire sales process so that I never lose track of a potential customer.
Overall, I’ve been really happy with HubSpot’s CRM software and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for an easy-to-use and comprehensive CRM solution.
Shane McEvoy, Managing director of Flycast Media
Having tried multiple CRM platforms, I can honestly say that the one provided by Hubspot is the best and the most intuitive to use. The free version is really feature-rich and the paid version is only $50 a month which gives you a lot more functionality such as logic-based sequences et cetera.
I’ve been through ZOHO, Sharpring, and Streak (which is pretty good and plugs directly into your Gmail platform) but I found the overall user experience of Hubspot’s CRM so much better than the others. On top of that, the learning curve is pretty easy and I would recommend it every time.
Harriet Chan, the co-founder, and marketing director of CocoFinder
In CocoFinder, we use Zoho CRM professional edition to meet our needs precisely. It is set with stellar features and can be connected with 10 users for free. You can find email marketing tools to enhance workflow and communication optimally. Easy to use and gives you accurate results without any compromises.
Highly recommended software for improving customer relationships to assist in business growth.
Cindy Corpis, CEO of SearchPeopleFree
Zendesk Sell
This CRM is suitable for small firms that offer exceptional customer service as part of their product or service. You’ll need a CRM system that can handle your customer experience plan if it extends beyond sales. Zendesk Sell is a popular tool used by sales, marketing, and support teams to centralize data from multiple customer touchpoints and avoid duplication of effort or embarrassing miscommunications. It includes traditional CRM features such as a customizable sales pipeline, basic reports, and a team document repository. As an admin, you can designate certain team members to pipeline opportunities, and any changes or action items will be sent to anyone outside of the sales team.
Oracle NetSuite CRM
Whether your customers shop with you online or in-person, you obtain detailed information on their behavior. Sales order shipping and taxes are calculated automatically by the software, decreasing the risk of billing errors. This CRM is extremely sophisticated and feature-heavy for solitary business owners because it is part of a larger business suit rather than a standalone solution.
Matt Johnson, CEO & Co-founder at Taskable
For context, my experience has largely been in startups or smaller organizations. But my top two recommendations are HubSpot or Pipedrive.
HubSpot is great because the CRM is free, and it generally does the trick for all CRM needs. I generally start here with HubSpot when working on a new project before we know what our needs will be because it doesn’t cost anything, and it gives us time to figure out if we need something more powerful CRM-wise. In addition, the CRM is only a small part of HubSpot’s offering, and you can add on all kinds of other marketing and sales tools, like calendar booking, email marketing, social media, and much more… However, I find HubSpot’s pricing way too high once you start adding all these other plans, so I generally use other products for this.
Pipedrive isn’t free, and it’s generally the CRM I graduate to once HubSpot becomes too limited. I find Pipedrive to be the most intuitive, and their visual kanban style board view was the initial reason I fell in love with Pipedrive. You can also set up automation, and even bots and lead collection forms with Pipedrive. It’s always hard to get everyone on the team using a CRM, but I find Pipedrive is the easiest to get everyone up to speed and using quickly.
Nick Edwards, Director at Snow Finders
Mautic (Open Source CRM is an intriguing option)
Do you live and breathe open source, or do you want to shield yourself against vendor lock-in and growing prices? Mautic, which was acquired by Acquia, may be an interesting option for you, especially if your website is built on Drupal or you want to conduct a Drupal CRM integration. Unless your organization has a DIY and technological culture, it may not be the greatest pick right out of the box.
The user experience won’t be as sleek as Hubspot’s, and we’re not sure what Acquia’s acquisition means for Mautic yet, but it may be worth a look for certain firms looking for an open-source CRM, I’m convinced.
William Westerlund, Co-Founder at Almvest
Pipedrive:
Pipedrive is one of the most straightforward customer relationship management (CRM) software packages available today, making it an excellent choice for businesses seeking greater visibility into their sales strategy. This CRM software is equipped with artificial intelligence-enhanced capability, which is intended to provide organizations with targeted insights into their deals and opportunities. Pipedrive has an intuitive UI that makes it extremely simple to use.
In addition to making it easier to follow prospects through various phases, the visual sales pipeline also allows you to define unique tags for leads based on where they are in the buying cycle. You can see how effectively each of your initiatives is performing with extensive reporting, and communication tracking is available for emails, chats, and phone calls. In addition, users can access Pipedrive using their mobile devices.
Ben Zellner, Chief Executive Officer at 3000MileMyth
Zoho:
Zoho CRM has a wide set of features for the price. In terms of simplicity of use, it is less intuitive than other CRM products. Complex sales and marketing workflows may be built with it, as email marketing, forecasting, and lead creation and scoring. It’s a complete marketing toolkit, no doubt about it. You can try their free plan for up to three users if you’re looking for a completely free CRM.
Ryan Hsu Founder of CareMax
CRM software-recommendation in 2022:
When it comes to CRM software, there are many different options on the market. It can be challenging to decide which one is right for your business. In 2022, I would recommend Salesforce CRM.
Salesforce CRM is a well-known CRM software that has been around for a while. It has a lot of features that can help your business grow. For example, it allows you to track leads and sales opportunities and manage customer relationships.
Another advantage of using Salesforce CRM is that it integrates with other applications. This means that you can connect it with your email and phone system, as well as other popular applications like Google Apps and QuickBooks. This makes it easy to work from one system instead of using multiple systems.
Salesforce CRM is intuitive and easy to use, so it will allow your employees to quickly get used to using it without the help of someone that already knows how to use Salesforce for their business.
Most importantly, Salesforce CRM has a great community. Many people already use it, and many resources can help you learn more about getting the most out of Salesforce…
To sum it up, in 2022, I would recommend Salesforce CRM.
Burak Ozdemir, Founder of Alarm Journal
A media outlet created for time enthusiasts. In business, customers are the king. If there are no customers, definitely there will be no business that’ll exist. Therefore forging a rock-solid customer relationship is a must for a business to thrive. As an entrepreneur, I know that the role of CRM software in keeping and enhancing the business relationship with customers is very crucial. Here’s one CRM software that I would recommend to anyone.
Freshworks CRM. For startups and newly launched businesses, Freshworks CRM should be your best choice. Not only that it is very user-friendly but it can also scale up with you as your business grows. I’ve used several CRMs but none of them can come near to Freshworks when it comes to simplicity and ease of access. It’s not very complex or messy and you can easily navigate it. Unlike other CRMs that’ll take weeks to onboard you completely, Freshworks’s onboarding will just last for about a week.
The bottom line, every business should take advantage of using a CRM regardless of size and industry. Without it, you can never fine-tune the way you communicate and interact with your customers. With a CRM in place, increased customer satisfaction will always be your takeaway. And the best part, you’ll never face any issues in retaining your customers and can easily turn them into your most loyal ones.
Viktoriya Maya, CEO at CustomersFirst Academy
HelpScout:
HelpScout is a great option for businesses that are just starting out or already booming! Their software is easy to learn, even for beginners. Their team is dedicated to customer happiness, so they strive to provide top-notch support. It was voted “Best ROI” by Customers on G2. Plus, their suite of support tools and automation features is built to scale your business.
CJ Xia, VP of Marketing & Sales at Boster Biological Technology
Pipedrive is the best CRM for 2022
We are currently using Pipedrive, a sales-focused CRM, and we love using it. Pipedrive has a simple yet powerful design that is easy to use and is organized with the data you want. It is a user-friendly CRM, especially for small businesses, which allows to build an unlimited number of custom deal pipelines and moves deals through them by drag and drop.
Pipedrive is also easy to integrate offers highly customizable reports, email integration, and automated workflows to streamline the sales process. It is easy to manage deals with Pipedrive, and it provides a default deal pipeline that should work for most businesses. We also find leads from it. Pipedrive new suite of tools known as Leadbooster helps find new leads.
Juan Carlos Barrera, Founder and CEO of Our Property Team
Salesmate has been the software we have been using since day 1. Even though Salesmate is such a young CRM, they have an impressive amount of features and they keep adding more and more frequently. It offers incredibly competitive pricing and is perfect for entrepreneurs or start-ups since it is incredibly easy to use. However, if you want to go deeper, and want your CRM to do more complicated tasks, they offer 24/7 support chat (My personal favorite feature). They are always there to help you with anything you need and answer any questions you may have. And they reply in seconds or minutes. Unlike most big CRM’S out there that take a day or two to respond. The best part is, they will work on your requests themselves if you are incapable of doing it yourself. Salesmate has been with us since the very beginning and we are not planning on changing CRM anytime soon.
Ravi Parikh, CEO of RoverPass
HubSpot is my absolute favorite CRM software. It’s specifically designed with small businesses in mind, meaning it’s easy to use in the way that we need it.
HubSpot also provides a number of integrations that allow us to personalize the software and adapt it to our business’s unique needs. The interface is intuitive and easy to use for all users, and the free version is more than workable.
Daivat Dholakia, VP of Operations, Essenvia
My favorite CRM software overall is Salesforce. This platform allows for all-in-one functionality and advanced customization, meaning you can make the software work for you and the unique needs of your company.
It also has an extremely user-friendly design, which allows all of our employees to use the software effectively and efficiently with little to no learning curve. The Salesforce Sales Cloud is intuitive and focuses on converting leads in a way that is manageable and digestible for users.
Jack Kanefield, founder & CEO of the ONNO T-Shirt Compan
For a small business CRM, I would still go with Zendesk in 2022, hands-down. I’ve been using it for years now and no other platform is as intuitive and robust as Zendesk in my opinion When you integrate it with other apps such as Gmail, LiveChat and other apps, Zendesk can become a powerful customer service suite.
In a nutshell, Zendesk works by creating a support ticket every time a client contacts your company with any issue. From the support ticket, you can then choose to reply by email or call the number back directly to resolve the issue. You can also browse previous support requests by the same customer to see if it’s a new or recurring issue. So it makes it very easy to quickly address issues via the integration with Gmail since you will get alerts every time a support ticket comes in.
Nitin Kingaonkar, CEO & Founder of e-Whiz Global
What makes E-Whiz’s solution a great experience for customers?
Today’s business environment is very competitive. Customers expect their sales representatives to be smart, collaborative & hyperresponsive. Whiz-Sales CRM enables sales teams with cloud-based mobile solutions with real-time information. Contacts & leads are on tip of your fingers with 24×7 availability. Automated audio alerts ensure all leads are responded to and taken care of in a timely manner. Today’s job market is also very dynamic with constant staff movement. With Whiz-Sales, our customers are assured of the security & safety of their leads and contacts and are better equipped to bring newer resources up to speed.
How does it help improve the function of their business?
Most Small & Mid-size businesses operate with skeletal inside & field sales teams. To succeed in this competitive market, It’s imperative that their team members are in-sync with market demand and equipped with cloud-based collaborative tools. Most leads are lost because of insufficient follow-up. Whiz-Sales audio and follow-up notifications ensure your sales team is always engaged with prospects in real-time. With built-in Google integrations, your back office is always aware of your field sales team and their location. Our geolocation-based notifications provide instant visibility to leads & customers around you on your phone. Whiz-Sales improves the productivity of your sales team and acts as an equalizer, allowing your sales team to be effective and agile against the bigger competitors. Here are the top
10 ways in which Whiz-Sales improves the productivity of your team.
- Collaborative Features
- Follow-up notifications
- Leads & Contacts Management
- Sales Target and performance analysis
- Products & Price lists
- Quotes & Customer Orders
- Tasks & Appointments
- Dashboards & Analytics
- Geo-Location based attendance
- Timesheets
- iOS & Android Mobile Apps
Malte Scholz, CEO and CPO of Airfocus
We have been using Bitrix24 for a little over a year. We need software that facilitates remote communication and collaboration. Luckily, Bitrix24 offers plenty of features for us to use, such as creating departments, workgroups, VoIP and many more. It is a complex tool, although it’s quite intuitive. It helped us a lot during the pandemic when everyone was isolated at home and we had no in-person contact. The fact that it has so many features allowed us to stay connected and organize our work in different channels.
Imoro Abdulrahim Founder, Editor, and Content Creator at imoroonlinemarketing
My Best CRM software-recommendation in 2022 is GetResponse
GetResponse is an all-in-one marketing platform that, as well as email marketing, offers landing pages, a CRM, advanced automation including hosting of webinars, and also there has been a new SMS feature added to it recently. we have been using GetResponse for a long time and we will gladly recommend it to every entrepreneur or anyone starting up a business.
Edward Mellett, Founder of Wikijob.uk
HubSpot:
HubSpot is primarily known as a software solution for marketing, sales, and customer relations, which is why I enjoy it. The HubSpot “hub” economy is a full-fledged technology stack that can help with everything from email marketing to lead generation. The HubSpot CRM is simply one of the technologies in the HubSpot portfolio that you may use for free.
The HubSpot CRM provides salespeople with a comprehensive environment in which they may gain real-time data into their sales funnel via an intuitive interface. Users can browse through deals that have been won and lost, make appointments, track contracts, and even set performance goals. Because the service is completely free, businesses of any size may get started right away. HubSpot CRM includes lead and email nurturing capabilities, contact management and organization, over 300 digital tool integrations, live chat capability, and sales pipeline reporting, among other features.
Pros:
- This plan is ideal for beginners because it is completely free.
- Additional sales and marketing suites are available.
- Chatbots and live chat features are available.
- Access to lead capture information and the creation of forms
- To align discussions, use the team email and conversations inbox.
- List segmentation and email marketing are both free.
- Facebook, Google, Instagram, and LinkedIn ad management tools ROI
Cons:
- When combined with other HubSpot “hubs,” it can be quite costly.
- Only novices should use the free version.
- Please find Edward’s details below for credit as required and thank you for your time.
Roger Huang, Director of Growth Operations for Springboard
We have been using Salesforce for a few years now and I love it because it doesn’t require me to own much in the way of hardware, it just requires a web browser.
Salesforce does have mobile CRM apps, but they are limited in what you can do with them because you cant create or edit records. The only thing I have found that limits Salesforce is the limit on how many custom objects you can have. This has not been a problem for us, but theoretically, it could be if I need to grow my company.
Salvador Ordorica founder and CEO of The Spanish Group LLC
Salesforce Sales Cloud is a good alternative for companies that need a lot of customization possibilities in their CRM platform. The possibilities for constructing a customized platform are practically unlimited because its customization features its internal ecosystem and third-party AppExchange.Flow Builder, which allows us to develop bespoke process management automation, is one of my favorite features.
In Settings, go to Flows and choose the type of flow you wish to make. A record-triggered flow, for example, allows you to specify what happens after a particular record (such as a contact) is generated. You can then add conditions using the visual builder—for example, contacts created exclusively during a specific date range will receive a follow-up email.
With Salesforce’s Zapier connectors, I could expand my organization’s possibilities even further. Get new opportunity notifications on Slack, add leads from form submissions, and do everything more you may think of.
The Pricing starts from $25/month/user.
Sam Shepler, CEO of TestimonialHero
I would recommend Hubspot, which is what we have been using for years. We decided to go with Hubspot since it’s intuitive and easy to use, but most importantly, automates repetitive business tasks and gets the job done. It serves primarily as a CRM, but you can use it to automate sales emails and improve your business’s efficiency.
So it’s ideal for small businesses that don’t have the manpower to respond and follow up to every client email. With Hubspot, you can intelligently place tags on your customers and categorize them based on detailed insight provided by the platform to autopilot your email marketing. This saves you time and lets you optimize your emails for faster response times and improved conversion rates.
Sharon van Donkelaar, CMO and Head of Growth at Expandi
My favorite all-in-one CRM and social media marketing tool for content management and planning is, without a doubt, Agorapulse; I’ve been using it for over a year now, and I’ve had an amazing experience with it. This fantastic CRM suite is extremely easy to use and has so many great and useful features that I couldn’t picture my life without it.
Agorapulse allows me to easily manage all the incoming social media messages, comments, and reviews in one single place, saving me lots of time and effort in the process. I can plan and schedule content, and even collaborate in real-time with my team before actually posting. Besides, the very same software has the ability to detect what content performs best in certain platforms and at certain times. All in all, a great tool that I recommend to every content marketer out there to try if they haven’t already.
Glen Carroll, managing director for clicksmarketing.com.au
Salesforce is one of the best CRM software apps due to its ability to perform multiple aspects for your business including, marketing, sales, and even the IT department!
It operates on a cloud-based system which means that you can access it anywhere.
It is a one-stop destination that fulfills business needs beyond CRM.
Kevin Michael Gray, CEO of ApproveMe.com
When it comes to CRM software, ActiveCampaign has been an incredible tool for us. In fact, it helped us to generate 1,600% more profit!
Here are some of the ways we used Active Campaign during the launch phase, after the launch phase, while implementing behavioral tracking and while improving our customer support.
During the Launch Phase
We optimized our first website to attract people looking for an alternative to our competitors.
ActiveCampaign sent these users a survey email about the features they liked and disliked from similar services. We thanked this pre-launch group for their feedback by offering them a discount.
By the end of this phase, we knew exactly what our audience wanted. Plus, we had over 1,000 eager contacts who couldn’t wait for it to launch.
After the Launch Phase
To keep the momentum going after we launched, we offered a demo on our website. Then, we plugged those who signed up into ActiveCampaign automation. We tagged anyone who had signed the demo contract with a “Tried Demo” tag.
This highlighted our hottest leads, so we could send emails to them depending on lead status.
If they hadn’t tried the demo, we sent emails prompting them to try it.
If they had, we sent emails encouraging them to try the full version.
Active Campaign Site Tracking
Using Active Campaign, we sent users different emails depending on how they interacted with our website. By using this site tracking feature alone, we were able to boost our sales by 110%.
Improving Customer Support:
We realized that every refund request was an opportunity to learn how to improve our product. So, we used ActiveCampaign to automate an email to anyone who requested a refund. As a result, about 80% of customers provide us with helpful feedback.
We also created a “Getting Started” video, which we send to new clients. It helps reduce our customer service requests by 7%!
By combining this ActiveCampaign CRM automation, we boosted our profit by 1,600%. We also get feedback on our products AND handle customer support better than our competitors.
David Farkas, Founder & CEO of The Upper Ranks
Zoho:
Zoho CRM is a popular CRM for small enterprises. With Zoho CRM, you can plan sales meetings and presentations with your team, host webinars, and even convert attendance into new prospects. This is a CRM solution that your entire team may utilize. That’s vital because a CRM is only as good as the data it receives. Your staff won’t require extensive training to start using Zoho CRM’s various capabilities straight immediately. With Zoho CRM, you can track important marketing and sales opportunities, enhance conversion rates, and more. Comprehensive visual reporting capabilities let you track your progress toward your goals, and you can access analytics from the Zoho mobile app. Customers will love the 360-degree perspective for every encounter. Site visits, sales, social, assistance cases, emails, meetings, and campaigns are all included in a contact’s record. Zoho now includes an AI-powered sales assistant built-in to help you make better client decisions. Sales enablement services such as price quotations and sales scripts are also available.
Hubspot:
HubSpot is a marketing, sales, and customer service software company. The HubSpot economy is a full technological stack that helps with email marketing and lead generation. The HubSpot CRM is one of the free solutions in the HubSpot portfolio. HubSpot offers free marketing, sales, and customer support capabilities, and customers may manage up to one million contacts without time limitations or expiration dates. Paid memberships start at $45 per month, invoiced yearly. Inbound and outbound marketing consultancy are great add-ons. It includes a consultant to assist you to expand your business. The HubSpot CRM provides sales professionals with a complete environment where they can monitor their sales funnel in real-time. Users may classify deals won and lost, arrange meetings, manage contracts, and even create performance goals. The solution’s free version allows businesses of all sizes to get started right away. HubSpot offers a global group of experts ready to help. There is 24/7 help via email and phone, as well as in-app choices.
Seb Dean, Founder of Imaginaire
CRMs are an easy way to track your progress, ensure that the right people have access to customer details and simply keep all the required information in one secure place. We’ve used a number of different platforms in order to find the right CRM for us. Some are great but lack specific features while others just didn’t fulfill basic functionality. During our startup phase, we used Hubspot’s CRM platform which we found to be useful. Their free version gave us just enough functionality so that it wasn’t over complicated and didn’t really require a lot of training.
We could add custom elements and keep track of communication as and when we needed to. After trailing a few other options, we decided that we’d utilize our in-house development team and create our own CRM.
While this project required time investment, it paid off in the end. We managed to create a platform that covers everything that we needed and meant that any custom features that we might want in the future can be added easily without any pushback.
Abe Breuer CEO and owner of VIP To Go and John To Go
Do you live and breathe open source, or do you want to avoid vendor lock-in and growing prices? Mautic, which was acquired by Acquia, might be a good fit for you if your website is built on Drupal or you want to conduct a Drupal CRM integration.
Unless you have a DIY and technological culture in your organization, it might not be the greatest pick right out of the box. The user experience won’t be as sleek as Hubspot’s, and we’re still not clear what Acquia’s acquisition of Mautic means for the company, but it might be worth a look for certain firms looking for an open-source CRM.
Scott Steward, CEO and Founder of Hi Collectors
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are key enablers for digital transformation, as they provide companies with powerful tools that enable the creation of customer-centric processes and workflows.
Currently, I am using a CRM software called crm.com formerly known as Salesforce which is essential for my organization, crm.com or salesforce offers a solution that offers scalability, robustness, performance, and user interfaces flexibility.
Salesforce has a hosted service which makes maintenance costs manageable and gives ease of deployment. This is better rather than buying hardware to run your own installation. First, it has a managed-service pricing model where you subscribe to a monthly fee to keep up with updates and fixes, but the vendor does that for you instead of having to spend time and resources doing so yourself. With a traditional solution, on the other hand, if security vulnerabilities were discovered in your code, you’d have to deal with making repairs. This means spending time updating your codebase, training your staff and testing everything again. Secondly, since you don’t need to worry about licensing, deploying, or troubleshooting software issues, you can get right to work without worrying about the tedious bits of running a server.
Keith Sant, Owner of Kind House Buyers
We’re using HubSpot CRM at our company and have been doing so for quite some time. We’ve had a great experience with Hubspot, which is why I always recommend the product.
Hubspot CRM is a very robust CRM software with powerful features. Even its free version outshines many other paid CRMs in the market. Since it builds on Hubspot, their main product, it can easily integrate with other platforms. The interface is easy to use and very simple, which makes digital adoption a walk in the park for our new hires.
The best thing about Hubspot CRM is that it is very scalable. Originally designed for small businesses, it can be scaled to meet your growing needs, which was a big plus for us.
Khamis Maiouf, CEO of Book of Barbering
I use Salesforce CRM for my business and it’s great! I needed a solution that would allow me to manage leads, opportunities, sales, marketing campaigns, appointments, and more. With SalesForce I can do all of this and more.
Salesforce also provides a great user interface, allowing me to easily add, modify and view data within my database. I also like that Salesforce offers an intuitive mobile app for managing important data on the go. The Salesforce platform is designed to integrate seamlessly with other tools I use frequently, such as Gmail and Google Docs. Other customizable features include the ability to create custom fields and tabs, along with a variety of pre-built reports that help me track sales leads.
Ann Young, CEO of Fix The Photo
Salesforce:
I would recommend using Salesforce CRM for your business because it is a great CRM that is easy to use and fully integrated with Google apps. I am very satisfied with this CRM. It has all the features of a high-quality and effective CRM, like lead generation, lead tracking, contact management, quotes, invoicing, and opportunity scheduling. In addition to that, it allows you to create any custom fields that you may need.
Salesforce is also very easy to use, which makes training new employees much more efficient. When new people start working with our company, they can easily get up and running with the help of our CRM software.
Angus Chang, Founder of iupilon
Zoho is the best CRM for all size businesses
Based on my experience with eCommerce businesses, I recommend Zoho CRM as the best CRM. For remote teams and sales professionals who spend a lot of time on the field, Zoho CRM is a great choice. We prefer using Zoho because it integrates with third-party apps and collaborative tools. Different app integration with Zoho CRM saves our business time as employees won’t have to perform tasks manually.
Zoho CRM mobile app lets us access and edits CRM offline. Zoho is also helpful for log calls, customer visits, attaching voice notes, files for later retrieval and references. Zoho CRM is the best choice for small businesses looking to implement their first unified CRM software. Zoho is suitable for all-size businesses; however, it is not recommended for businesses with little limited technical knowledge.
Steven Walker, CEO of Spylix
Every company has different choices for CRM software as they have preferences according to their needs in their system. But, I would recommend every business to try Zoho CRM software at least once before they choose one for themselves. I have been using this software for more than two years, and its pro effects outweigh the very few demerits.
It is definitely among the top CRM software for small and medium-sized businesses. It is one of the best tools to establish good customer relationships in an organization. It has easy-to-use installation features, making it much easier for small businesses that do not need to hire someone to set things up. The easiness does not stop with the setup because it is much easier to use. One can access this with little to no training as the software is very flexible, includes video guides, contains a mobile application, etc.
Some features to be developed are very few options in free versions and extended customer service wait times.
Richard Lubicky, Customer service executive and the founder of RealPeopleSearch
Zoho:
Description – Zoho offers users a free version of their flagship CRM platform. Since we have a small team of customer service departments, this software’s free plan works best for us. The dashboard of Zoho can be simply customized to your needs.
Zoho also offers one of the smoothest sales pipelines UI making it extremely simple to manage sales stages and organize specific follow-up actions. However, I’d advise you to invest in their upgraded paid version in order to make the most of this complete platform.
Nancy Belcher, CEO and Co-Founder of Winona
I don’t think my business will ever stop using Salesforce.
It is the world’s leading CRM, and its robust features are unmatched. Salesforce enables businesses of all sizes to find customers, win their business and retain their loyalty.
We also connect Salesforce to our e-commerce platform, which offers its own set of time- and money-saving benefits.
Stephen Curry, CEO of CocoSign
I recommend three CRM software providers:
HubSpot: very easy to use, good for clients and companies, competitive pricing.
SalesForce: difficult to use, customizable to the user’s needs for client retention and sales. A proprietary platform is tough on competition.
Pipedrive: easy to use interface with a lot of integrations so it can grow with the company as they have fewer tech resources available than the other two listed.
These three CRM providers are what I and the majority of other small to medium-size businesses use for their customer relationship management. Whilst there may be some who prefer other vendors in certain areas, these companies are all dependable and good to work with.
Randy VanderVaate, CEO and Founder Funeral Funds of America
Zoho CRM is a comprehensive CRM solution that helps our business grow by automating our sales, marketing, and customer support processes. It offers a wide range of features that helps us manage our customer relationships. Plus, it is easy to use and customizable to fit our business needs.
Zoho CRM is currently one of the best CRM’s on the market. Zoho offers a wide range of features that are easy to use, and it’s very affordable. Zoho CRM is routinely updated with new features, so it’s sure to remain a top choice for businesses well into 2022.
Zoho CRM has been voted as the best CRM for 2022 by Capterra. It has also received 5-stars from users on G2 Crowd and TrustRadius. And it is the only CRM to be awarded Editors’ Choice by PCMag.
Kyle MacDonald, Director of Operations of Force by Mojio
We are currently using HubSpot and my only complaint is the pricing. Once we started adding more premium functions, the price went up pretty significantly.
However, the software has really helped our business a lot, so I think we probably are getting our money’s worth out of it. What I like most about HubSpot is how user-friendly it is.
When we first got it, it was really easy to learn and get the hang of, so we never worry about having to train new hires to use it.
Daniel Veiga, Founder of Danny Veiga Marketing
My CRM software recommendation for 2022 is Basecamp.
It’s a great CRM for small businesses because it’s affordable, easy to use, and versatile. Plus, it integrates with other apps and services you may be using, making it a convenient option.
Basecamp is a tool that lets you manage all your work in one place. You can keep track of deadlines, tasks, and files while also communicating with other people on the project! It’s perfect for teams who need an easy way to collaborate without having too many meetings or emails cluttering up their inboxes. You may also add your clients in Basecamp to allow them to see the progress of a project.
David Reid, Sales Director at VEM Tooling
Following are some of the useful CRM tools that I am aware of:
Monday CRM: Its simplistic design philosophy enables us to concentrate on our clients instead of dealing with the complexity of the software. Its UI is similar to a spreadsheet, but it offers considerably more features. Custom dashboards keep the essential data close at hand, while eight data visualization choices, including Gantt charts and Kanban boards, help us understand our task more effectively. Additionally, it quickly adapts to multiple project techniques, from sprints to Agile to Waterfall planning.
Pipedrive: Its transparent sales funnel differentiates it from other CRMs. It allows us to add contacts or move deals between stages using a drag-and-drop interface. It can take leads from chatbots and online forms, customizable pipelines and fields, enabling us to use the current or develop new workflows. Pipedrive’s functions include reporting, process automation, and communication tracking. With the help of artificial intelligence, this integrated tool helps us evaluate our company’s success and recommends strategies to increase the benefits of our sales efforts.
Zendesk Sell: Sales methods function best when everyone is on the same page. It works as a collaboration tool for keeping remote and onsite workers on the same page, regardless of location. It has standard CRM features, including a sales funnel, reporting, and a team document library. It allows admins to designate certain team members to pipeline deals, notifying non-sales staff of changes or actions.
Netsuite CRM: It helps us to understand our consumers better. In addition to providing all the features of a full-featured CRM, it also has capabilities for tracking customer interactions in-store, online, and over the phone. Its improved customer profiles organize data from many touchpoints to forecast future buying behavior. The system keeps track of things added to a wish list or cart. It also records returns, marketing campaign reactions, and corporate communications. When we turn quotations into sales orders, the program automatically calculates tax and shipping and makes clever upsell suggestions.
Amit Raj, Founder of The Links Guy
We all know how hard it is to find the right CRM system to suit your business. Organizing and maintaining relationships with clients and maintaining an excellent customer relationship management system is extremely important for small businesses.
A CRM system, in the shape of top CRM software, helps users organize, categorize, and prioritize contacts, as well as monitor relationships with previous, current, and prospective clients and customers.
I’d recommend using a very robust project management system. We use Bitrix24 and find that the multitude of tools and functions it offers, helps me run my business easier and more efficiently. We have also improved our internal communications, especially with the teammates that work in separate locations around the world, we are all updated with our tasks, resulting in a more streamlined workflow, enhanced collaboration, and improved productivity.
Lynda Fairly, Co-founder of Numlooker
I would recommend a CRM software company that can help you save time and increase productivity and Salesforce is just the software that is making my decision easy.
For a business to be successful, they need to be able to estimate and track sales and leads, analyze the workforce, take action based on trends in data.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud for small businesses helps them see their entire funnel with lead management. If you’re new to CRM software or looking for a more focused system tailored for your business needs, Salesforce CRM offers an affordable solution that comes equipped with all the tools you need right out of the box.
Gergo Vari, CEO and founder at Lensa
Hubspot:
This is our second year with Hubspot, and while I don’t mind it, I’ve found that editing records are difficult because of the way they are organized. For example, you can’t edit records in Hubspot like you can in Salesforce.
The only way to edit a record is to click into that record, and then it brings up the form where you have to change your information. It takes more steps to update something than it should.
Beau Pent, Sales Manager at GoCo
CompanyHub:
I only have good things to say about CompanyHub. I love the design, and I can edit records right from the main screen. If there was one thing that Hubspot does better than CompanyHub, it would be how they separate a company’s contacts from a project’s contacts.
In CompanyHub, you have to search through your entire contact list to find that project contact, but in Hubspot, you just click the project name and you go straight to that contact. That is one small detail where I think Hubspot beats CompanyHub.
