7 Best CRMs for Small Business (2024)

Maximizing customer engagement: top CRM tools for growing businesses in 2024 7 Best CRMs for Small Business (2024) Any company that’s used spreadsheets to track their customers’ contact information, communication or sales activities knows how frustrating and limited they can be. Customer relationship management (CRM) software gives you insight into each customer interaction at every point of their life cycle. The best CRM for small business keeps your clients engaged from prospecting to purchase and makes the process visible across your organization. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to find the right provider. The MarketWatch Guides team analyzed more than a dozen providers, comparing CRM features, ease of use and price. One CRM might be best for startups focused on their sales pipeline while another manages it all for larger enterprises: sales, customer service and marketing. What Is CRM Software? CRMs are typically cloud-based platforms that manage your relationships with current and future customers. It’s a central place accessible to multiple people within your organization for tracking customer data, interactions and notes. Without one, your company might miss out on growth opportunities and potential revenue. The right CRM: Replaces spreadsheets, databases and apps used to track client data. Tracks communication from current and prospective clients including form fills, calls, meetings, emails and texts. Provides a unified view of each client so it’s visible across your sales, customer service and marketing teams. Anticipates customer needs to plan future marketing opportunities. Tracks sales activities, metrics and project management. Though each provider is a little different, most CRMs are capable of features like lead management, analytics and communication logging. CRMs are so powerful, adding one to your organization, big or small, can organize and connect your operation. The flipside: you’ll need to prioritize what’s most important for your organization, decide on a budget and plan employee training. Is it worth it? For every dollar a business invests in a CRM, it receives $3.10 in return, according to Nucleus Research, a research firm dedicated to delivering ROI, benefits and cost data associated with various technology solutions. Use the research below to select the best CRM for your small business. The Best CRM Software for Small Businesses In our thorough evaluation of CRM software for small businesses, we considered factors such as monthly and annual costs, features and resources to help companies set up and customize their CRMs. The average monthly cost for an entry-level tier is about $16.50 per user and $73 for the highest tier with enterprise plans running even higher. Several providers on this list offer free plans, which could be a good introduction for new CRM users. Service Award Overall Rating Monthly Cost Zoho CRM Best for Beginners 4.6 stars $0-$65 Monday.com (monday sales CRM) Best Visual Pipeline 4.4 stars $10-$30 Freshworks (Freshsales) Best for the Full Sales Cycle 4.35 $0-$83 Salesforce Best for Larger Organizations 4.2 $25-$80+ Hubspot CRM (CRM Suite) Most Versatile 4.2 $0-$1,781 Zendesk Best for Mobile 4.15 $19-$149 (Zendesk Sell) Pipedrive Best Pipeline Customization 4.1 $14.90-$119 Insightly Best Customizations for the Price 3.5 $29-$99 Less Annoying CRM Best for Small Teams 3 $15 Zoho CRM: Best for Beginners Under the Zoho umbrella are products for email, bookkeeping, online meetings, recruiting, cyber security, password management and more. With its many products, Zoho is spread thin, which may explain some of the customer service complaints from users, but it also means small businesses new to customer relationship management software can try multiple features for a lower price than many competitors, even for free. Pros of Zoho CRM Automations available on all plans, even free plans Money-back guarantee Easy to use Cons of Zoho CRM No AI features for free plans Users complain of long customer service wait times. No chat or phone support for free users — paying customers who want premium support pay an additional fee The free plan offers basic sales and email marketing automations and data storage. Sole proprietors or microbusinesses with just a few workers should also check out Bigin, Zoho’s spinoff CRM product, with plans starting at $7. If you want to choose from all of Zoho’s many integrations, opt for the Ultimate tier which also comes with analytics, inventory management, customer support forms, unlimited email templates and more. Keep in mind these plans are aimed at sales teams, but CRM Plus starts at $57 a month and unifies sales, customer service and marketing. Starting Price : Free; $14/user per month (billed annually) or $20/user per month (billed monthly)  Free Trial : 15 days Monday Sales CRM: Best Visual Pipeline If your small business needs help managing company-wide tasks and customers, monday sales CRM might be a no-brainer piece of software. As a full CRM, monday sales CRM is good at presenting information in a visually pleasing way on what it calls “boards.” Anyone who has used Trello, Clickup or similar software has seen the Kanban-style digital whiteboards that mimic physical cork boards with columns of sticky notes or “cards.” The brand also boasts its best features to be the automations to save time, ease-of-use and adoption and its AI assistant. Companies looking for a user-friendly CRM might find a good fit with monday sales CRM, but those that want in-depth analytics for sales forecasting and lead tracking, might want to look at one of the many other sales-focused CRMs on this list. Pros of Monday Sales CRM Pros of Monday Sales CRM

AI assistant Unlimited boards for all plans 24/7 customer support for all plans (chat, email) Cons of Monday Sales CRM Three-seat minimum Phone support is for billing questions only Some customers complain about a poor app experience Monday sales CRM’s pricing structure may be a disadvantage for solopreneurs or microbusinesses — because of its three-seat or three-user minimum, you’ll pay at least $30 a month, which is more expensive than many competitors that allow you to start with one seat and work your way up. Starting Price : $12/user per month (billed annually) or $15/user per month (billed monthly)  Free Trial : 14 days Freshsales: Best for the Full Sales Cycle Freshsales is the CRM platform for Freshworks, which offers a suite of business tools for marketing, customer service and IT service. Other CRMs leverage AI to automate tasks or forecast trends and behavior patterns, but Freshsales kicks it up a notch: determining if a deal has gone cold or is likely to close, suggesting the next course of action in your sales pipeline and determining if a deal is worthy of being added to your sales forecast. It will even score prospects on their likelihood of closing for the lowest-paid plan. Pros of Freshsales Solid free plan with chatbot, calling within the CRM and unlimited support Generous free trial Powerful AI tools Cons of Freshsales File storage limits for paid plans and non-existent for the free plan No weekend support Freshsales by Freshworks may be a good fit for small businesses with some CRM experience that are looking to professionalize their sales teams. Pricing can be a little confusing, particularly if your company needs a full-bodied marketing platform or one of Freshworks’s other products. Compare prices and features between Freshsales and Freshmarketer to see which one is right for your organization. Starting Price : Free; $15/month (billed annually) or $18/month (billed monthly) Free Trial: 21 days Salesforce: Best for Larger Organizations Salesforce is one of the least flexible providers on this list in terms of pricing and customer support. You’ll have to pay for a year’s hefty subscription cost upfront — there’s no monthly billing option — and chat and phone support will tack on another fee. But as the saying goes, you get what you pay for: a powerful CRM that offers sophisticated customization and analytics. That level of insights and customization may be unnecessary for smaller employers, but you won’t have to piece together separate marketing and analytics tools like other providers. That said, there are plenty of add-ons to choose from, including the price-quote tool CPQ (configure, price and quote) and one of several Success customer service plans that start at 30% of your net license fees. Pros of Salesforce Comprehensive and reliable CRM Multiple plans to choose from Extensive training opportunities, including in-person classes Cons of Salesforce Steep learning curve Annual contract required No free plan Salesforce is the oldest player in the game. It pioneered cloud-based CRMs when it opened in 1999 and continues to innovate with its Lightning platform, which Salesforce intends to be more intuitive and incorporate more of its Einstein AI tool. Starting Price: $25/month  Free Trial: 30 days HubSpot: Most Versatile If marketing and sales pipelines are equal priorities for your small business, HubSpot may be a smart choice. Where some competitors focus on one or the other, the HubSpot platform integrates both, along with tools for customer service, content management and operations. Unlike Salesforce, its chief rival as a simple CRM, HubSpot has a free plan, making it easier for SMBs to test the waters without a large upfront commitment. Paid plans start at $20 to Salesforce’s $25, and monthly installments are an option. HubSpot can quickly scale in cost, too, with a Professional plan running as much as $1,781 a month, not including onboarding costs. Pros of HubSpot Comprehensive CRM Free plan Easier to use than some competitors Cons of HubSpot No customer support for free plan; phone support is only for Professional and Enterprise accounts Onboarding fees for Professional and Enterprise plans Only one email per contact/lead It’s possible to pay for HubSpot’s sales, customer service, CMS, operations and commerce products a la carte, but if you need a CRM, you’ll get all of those tools in one place at a price that’s lower than Salesforce. Salesforce offers more robust versions, but many small businesses won’t need them. If you do, carefully compare Hubspot’s Professional and Enterprise plans with Salesforce’s Sales Cloud and add-ons. Starting Price : Free; $20/month (billed annually) or $30 (billed monthly) Free Trial : 14 days Zendesk: Best for Mobile All CRMs on this list offer a mobile app, but users say Zendesk Sell helps on-the-go sales teams better than most, making it easy to reach a contact by email, text and phone. They like the built-in phone dialer with call recording and a geolocation feature that makes it easy to organize any in-person client visits, available starting at the lowest-tier plan. Customer information is stored in what Zendesk calls “smart lists” with saved views of your data without having to start over each time with your preferred filters. Reports of poor customer experiences are a downside to Zendesk Sell, with some customers complaining of slow response times. Chat support is available 24/7, but there’s no customer support phone. Zendesk charges extra for Premier Support, which offers faster response times. Pros of Zendesk User-friendly interface Discounted plan for startups Integration with Zendesk’s help desk software Cons of Zendesk No free plan Fewer advanced reporting and marketing tools than competitors Must pay for advanced customer support Starting Price: $19/month (billed annually) or $25/month (billed monthly) Free Trial : 14 days Pipedrive: Best Pipeline Customization If you want a straightforward, sales-focused CRM, consider Pipedrive. It’s relatively easy to get started with the help of live webinars, Kanban-style boards and, unlike some other providers on this list, 24/7 support (email and chat) for all plan holders. Simple may sound refreshing to CRM beginners or those overwhelmed by the features of Salesforce or Hubspot. You can even share certain reports with colleagues or stakeholders outside your organization, though this feature is only available to those with a Professional or higher-tier plan. Pros of Pipedrive Beginner-friendly 24/7 email and chat support Cons of Pipedrive No free plan Phone support only available for enterprise plans Starting Price: $14.90/month (billed annually) or $21.90/month (billed monthly) Free Trial: 14 days Insightly: Best Customizations for the Price Insightly has the highest starting price of any provider on this list, but don’t let that turn you off. Providers like Zendesk and Salesforce start low but raise rates dramatically for their upper-tier and enterprise plans. Insightly tops out at $99 a month per enterprise user. If you want to combine its CRM with more robust marketing and service software, you’ll pay $2,599 a month for Insightly All-in-One. That’s less than what HubSpot charges for its all-in-one software at $5,164 per month. We recommend the Professional plan for mid-size companies looking for a comprehensive CRM. Professional gives you flexibility for creating and organizing dashboards with what Insightly calls “cards,” charts and tables with real-time information about how your company is pacing toward its goals. You’ll get 100 cards with Professional and unlimited cards with Enterprise. Pros of Insightly Free plan, though it is more limited than some rivals Easy integration with third-party apps Cons of Insightly No customer support by chat Phone dialer is an extra charge of $35/month Insightly may be best for experienced CRM users because its customer support is more limited than competitors, a big reason why the company earned lower scores during our testing. All customers, even free plan users, get email and phone support during business hours, but you’ll have to pay for Premier support for 24-hour support on weekdays. Premier support costs $3,500 annually or 20% of your total contract. Starting Price: Free; $29/month (billed annually) Free Trial: 14 days Less Annoying CRM: Best for Small Teams If the confusing pricing tiers, add-ons and bundles of other CRM software drive you crazy, Less Annoying CRM will live up to its name. LACRM has a single tier and no add-ons, though you might pay a fee when integrating a third-party app. Simplicity is the word, with many users saying they can begin using the software immediately. It also holds the highest customer review score of all providers tested. However, LACRM holds the lowest overall score among providers on this list. That’s because it has no mobile app (there is a web app), lacks customer support by chat and offers phone and email support during business hours only. These factors should not dissuade you, especially if your small team wants an easy-to-use CRM with simple pricing. Pros of Less Annoying CRM User-friendly Daily agenda email for events and tasks that day Cons of Less Annoying CRM No mobile app No free plan Starting Price : Single price tier at $15/month (billed monthly) Free Trial : 30 days When Does Your Company Need a CRM? Your small business might need customer relationship management software if your organization wants to improve customer service and client retention, increase sales, track data for your company’s sales, finances and marketing efforts and boost efficiency. If you’re struggling to establish clear communication among employees, understand customer trends and keep client information in multiple spreadsheets or apps, it might be time to research the different types of CRMs. Benefits of CRM Software If you’re nodding yes to all of the above, the advantages of a CRM are clear, but we’ll take a closer look at some of the top benefits of a CRM below. Organized client information: CRMs not only store client contact information in one place, but they generally track all communication: form fills, calls, emails, text messages, meetings and any notes taken by your sales or customer service teams. Some of those features are available within the software itself. Streamlined business processes : Different departments in your organization might present information in different ways and in different places. Most CRMs offer centralized dashboards that track the entire customer lifecycle. Some providers have templates, while others allow greater customization. Greater visibility : Because CRMs collect so much data, you can begin to see patterns of customer preferences and pain points. This information may be used for improving products and services, which customer segments are most likely to convert and when and where to focus future sales or marketing campaigns. Drawbacks of CRM Software The downside to these broad capabilities is that it can be hard to parse long lists of features and confusing pricing plans. We’ll help you navigate them. Confusing and expensive plans : Even the most affordable and generous CRMs will probably reserve their complete list of features for their highest pricing tier. A free trial or, even better, a CRM with a starter or free plan lets you try a CRM to see what makes sense for your team’s workflows. A free plan might not be the best testing ground if you know there are certain premium features your company will need. Time to train and onboard : There’s no avoiding the learning curve with almost any CRM. If you’re a beginner, start with a user-friendly platform you can grow into. It’s inconvenient to switch CRMs once you have more experience, but better than paying for a CRM no one in your organization wants or knows how to use. How To Select the Best CRM Software for Your Business Follow these steps to set your company up for success with a new CRM. Step 1: Identify Your Company’s Needs Now that you understand a CRM’s capabilities, draw up a list of your company’s priorities. Will you use a CRM system for sales, marketing, internal communications or all of the above? List problems within your business that you want to solve with CRM software, which should help determine who within your organization will use it most. Consult with those people to understand their needs and previous experience with CRM software. Step 2: List Must-Have Features It’s tempting to draw up a list of every CRM feature you can think of, but check your list of features against your priorities and budget. These are the primary buckets of features to consider: Analytics and reporting

Sales activity and performance Lead generation Marketing campaign performance Sales forecasts Sales activity and performance Lead generation Marketing campaign performance Sales forecasts Customization and pipeline management

Sales funnel, including custom stages Contacts and leads, including custom contact fields Sales funnel, including custom stages Contacts and leads, including custom contact fields Contact management

Email, text and call logs Email, text and call logs Document storage Mobile app Onboarding resources and customer support Integrations Step 3: Set a Budget Zoho, Freshworks and HubSpot are the three providers on this list with free plans, but there are others: EngageBay, Insightly, Agile CRM and Bitrix24. Monthly paid plans start around $15 to $20 and run up into the hundreds, even thousands, but a yearly upfront payment will almost always be less expensive overall. Pricing is by the seat — a single user might be $15 a month, for example, but add another seat, and it’s $30 a month and so on. The lowest tiers offer the fewest features. Compare your list of must-have features against each tier and look for the vendor that offers the functionality you need at the price you can afford. Ideally, the tier you want is available for a free trial. Step 4: Research Vendors The best CRM solutions for small businesses offer demos, webinars and helpful training aids to help you train and onboard your team. They also offer: 24/7 customer support by email, chat and phone Active and helpful user forums that are easy to navigate In-depth help articles with screenshots or other visual examples when you can’t or don’t want to reach out to customer support Some vendors offer one-on-one virtual training or, in the case of Salesforce, in-person classes. The Bottom Line The right CRM for your small business will depend on what business and customer management features matter most to you and your team. The best way to know if a CRM is the right fit is to sign up for a free trial and test it out. The sign-up process is pretty simple and usually only requires your email address and basic company information. Don’t sign up for more than one free trial at a time, as this won’t give you and your team ample time to explore and use each platform you’re trying. Frequently Asked Questions About CRMs for Small Business The right CRM for your business will depend on what sales and customer management pain points you’d like it to solve. Do you want a more automated sales process? Are you trying to keep up with leads coming from multiple channels like social media, on-site forms and email? Are you looking for more accurate sales forecast reports? Let the features that matter most to you guide your search for the best CRM for your business. Yes. CRM software can be a huge resource for your business by helping you expand your resources and build better customer relationships. It also allows you to automate repetitive tasks, streamline lead and customer interactions, run in-depth performance reports and more. It depends. Most free CRMs are missing crucial features and act as basic contact management tools. HubSpot CRM is a free option with intuitive sales and marketing tools that are considered premium by competitor CRM platforms, but most other free plans won’t offer this higher level of features. Business users should factor in the value of their time when they think about the “hidden costs” of missing features with free software – if your time is worth $50 or $100 per hour, doing extra work because you lack important features may cost more than selecting a paid CRM. Methodology: Our System for Ranking the Best CRM for Small Businesses Our team spent more than 100 hours testing more than 15 CRMs. Each business owner is looking for something unique to support their business needs and growth trajectory. Plus, each CRM has a different array of features, which makes comparing them like comparing apples to oranges. Some CRM products focus on data collection and reporting, while others push project and task management for teams. Our top five picks for small businesses scored highest across all criteria including user experience, features, value, customer support and reputation. But the best CRM software for you may come down to just one of these categories. Take a closer look at our testing criteria, then dive into all of the CRM providers we’ve reviewed. Our weighted rating system takes into account five broad categories. Here’s a brief breakdown of each one. Primary Categories: User experience: User experience is crucial for small businesses choosing a CRM, as it directly affects team efficiency and productivity. We gauge how users are interacting with each provider’s tools by evaluating tutorials, explainer videos, step-by-step instructions and the ability to start a sales campaign immediately. Additionally, our reviewers have first-hand experience working with CRM software. Value: Cost impacts the company’s budget and ROI, potentially dictating whether the business can afford to invest in other essential areas to drive growth. To rank value, we measure the number of features a user has access to at the lowest price tier, how long the provider offers a free trial and if the provider offers a money-back guarantee. Secondary Categories: Features: Streamlining tasks, organizing workload efficiently and enhancing productivity is pivotal for ensuring timely and effective customer interaction and service delivery. We analyze multiple features, including document and sharing storage, pipeline management, integrations and analytics. Tertiary Category: Customer Support: Small business owners need to ensure quick resolution of issues and uninterrupted service, which is crucial for maintaining optimal business operations and customer relationships. We evaluate live chat functionality, phone support and user forums. Reputation and Credibility: Trust and reliability is vital for a business to count on consistent performance and security to maintain seamless customer relations and business operations. We conduct a comprehensive review of app store and Capterra ratings, and we consider how long each provider has been in business and how many individuals they employ. This rating system is intended to give readers a comprehensive overview of each CRM provider. However, our top providers may not be the best fit for all businesses. Learn more by reading each individual provider’s CRM review.