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Our research found that Zoho CRM is the best CRM for small businesses, offering access to a wide range of advanced features on its low-cost plans, making it an accessible option for teams with a smaller budget. Plus, it offers a free forever plan, which can get you started before you make a financial commitment.
As a small business, CRM software can make a big difference when it comes to productivity. Whether your team is split between home and the office, or just has a lot of information to keep track of, CRMs for sales, marketing, and customer service are designed to make life easier through organization and automation.
But not all CRM systems are equal – and choosing the right provider isn’t always easy. So, we’ve analyzed and tested some the best CRM for small businesses to help you find the right fit.
Best CRM for Small Business Overview
- Zoho CRM — best for small businesses, thanks to low-cost plans; top value.
- Freshsales Suite — great for dedicated sales teams.
- monday.com —the most customizable platform.
- HubSpot — a surprisingly robust freemium solution.
Use the links above to see the latest deals directly, or the button below to get CRM price quotes for your team’s specific needs. If you want to find out more about how we ranked these CRM systems, head to the methodology section.
Generate Custom CRM Quotes ⚡
If you’re already a bit overwhelmed at the choices provided, we don’t blame you. The industry is filled with a lot of great options, each one of which has a bunch of features, add-ons, and integrations that you may or may not need. For a simple overview of the key features offered by the top providers, just read on!
In This Guide:
- Top Small Business CRM Software
- Benefits of CRM Software for Small Businesses
- How We Rate CRM Software
- Verdict: What Is the Best CRM for Small Business?
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| Plan | Price Billed annually | Free Trial | Users | Storage | Rating Based on usability, customization, functionality, pricing, and help and support | Try it | |||
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| Salesforce Sales Cloud | Zoho CRM | HubSpot | Freshsales Suite | monday.com | Zoho Bigin | Zendesk | Pipedrive | Less Annoying CRM | Act! |
| Starter Suite | Professional | Free | Growth | Pro | Express | Sell Team | Advanced | Less Annoying CRM | Cloud |
| $25/user/month | $23/user/month | Free | $9/user/month | $28/user/month(min 3 users) | $7/user/month | $19/user/month | $29/user/month | $15/user/month | $30/user/month |
| 30 days | 15 days | 21 days | 14 days | 15 days | 14 days | 30 days | 14 days | ||
| 325 max. | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| File storage: 1GB | User: 20MB | Unlimited | 2 GB | 100 GB | 1 GB | 2GB per user | Unlimited | 10 GB per user | 6GB |
| 3.8 | 4.6 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.2 |
| Try Salesforce | Try Zoho CRM | Get started free | Try Freshsales | Try monday.com | Try Zoho Bigin | Try Zendesk | Try Pipedrive | Try LACRM | Try Act! CRM |
The best CRM for small business includes Zoho CRM, Freshsales Suite, and monday.com. Each has their own merits which may (or may not) make them suitable for your small business.
Good CRM software will allow you to ramp up your ability to convert leads while simultaneously cutting down on churn. It can help support teams to deliver solutions to customers, or it can help marketing teams to engage with new and existing customers. All of the above can be crucial for a small business looking to scale up.
Below, we list the best CRM software providers in our research. Each one has tiered plans that can help a small business scale and grow, so you can find affordable packages that may help you to start small.
- Zoho CRM – Best all-in-one for Sales, Marketing & Customer Service
- Freshsales Suite – Best combined Sales and Marketing CRM
- monday.com – Best forcustomization
- Zoho Bigin – Best entry-level CRM
- HubSpot Free – Best free option
- Zendesk Sell – Best for fast-loading reports
- Pipedrive – Best security options
- Salesforce Starter Suite – Best for growing businesses
- Less Annoying CRM – Best for simple interface
- Act! – Best for contact information
As you can see, there are plenty of options out there for small businesses, each with its own set of features, price points, and support options that can fit a small company.
Here’s our closer look at the pros, cons, and unique abilities of the best CRM software vendors available today.
Test Summary (2024)
One of the primary reasons that Zoho CRM was able to nab the top spot on this list of the best CRM for small business was value. Our research found that the CRM not only provided users with more overall features than other providers on the list, but it also offered them across most of its paid plans, even the more affordable ones.
That’s not to say there weren’t some worthy competitors. Freshsales Suite fell just short of the mark due to its limited sales and customer service features compared to Zoho CRM, but its marketing features and low price proved a formidable comparison. HubSpot is also noteworthy, as it offers comparative functionality at no cost, so small businesses can get started without a hit to their budget.
All that to say, cost was a big factor in deciding the best CRM for small businesses, as that status often comes with fewer resources. Luckily, most of these platforms are equipped to scale with you, so if you go from a small business to a medium-sized — or even large — business, you’ll be all set.
Conor Cawley Lead Writer & CRM Specialist
Zoho CRM
Best all-in-one Sales, Marketing, Customer Service CRM
This is Zoho’s main CRM platform, and our top-rated option for small businesses, according to our research. It’s affordable and provides a lot of features covering Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service. During testing, we found this platform to be quick and easy to set up and use, even for beginners, so your smaller team should have no problem finding their footing. In fact, in our usability research, it scored higher than any other CRM, except for Freshsales Suite, which had a slightly faster setup process.
Zoho CRM is also very customizable, to the extent that you can create new object types, allowing you to store any type of information that’s relevant to your business. All-in-all, this results in a very comprehensive CRM package, offering the best sales management features available.
Zoho CRM
The best CRM available for small businesses
4.6
In Short
Pros
- 15-day free trial
- Highly customizable dashboard and interface
- Includes sales, marketing, and service functions
Cons
- No spam prevention on web forms
- Onboarding assistance costs extra
- Limited storage space
Gallery Click to expand
Try Zoho CRM
It is difficult to label where Zoho CRM could even be improved honestly. It’s not the cheapest, but the additional investment can be justified thanks to the massive set of features and overall functionality of the platform. Simply put, this is the best CRM example for small businesses – you won’t find value like this elsewhere.
Truly, the only downside to Zoho CRM is that it isn’t exactly suited to the smallest of small businesses, given its larger feature catalog. If you need something a bit more budget-friendly that won’t be full of features you don’t need, Zoho Bigin is a great option for entry-level CRM use, and it’s our fourth top-rated option overall.
The “add user” page in Zoho CRM allowed us to add team members to the platform easily.
Image: Tech.co testing
Zoho CRM pricing for small businesses
Zoho CRM offers four different pricing plans, in addition to its free plan. The Standard plan costs $14 per user, per month, the Professional plan costs $23 per user, per month, the Enterprise plan costs $40 per user, per month, and the Ultimate plan costs $52 per user, per month. This is considerably cheaper than industry-leader Salesforce, although the features aren’t as advanced.
Our research shows that the Professional plan is the best option for small businesses. The Professional plan comes in at $23 per user, per month. Compared to the less expensive plans featured in this article, it has a wider range of functionality, without too much of a price jump. From sales features like macros and SalesSignals to the added automation functionality, this plan gives small businesses the power to really dig into their strategy without costing a fortune.
Another true benefit of this plan is that it unlocks a wide range of social media features which can greatly improve your overall experience. It includes data on Twitter and Facebook, as well as automated lead generation through your favorite platforms.
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| Free | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | Ultimate | Plus | ||||
| Free | $14/user/month | $23/user/month | $40/user/month | $52/user/month | $57/user/month | ||||
| 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||
| User: n/a | User: n/a | User: 20MB | User: 50MB | User: 100mb | User: 1GB | ||||
| Basic | Standard | Live chat, phone, email | Standard | 24/7 live | 24/7 live | ||||
| Max 100 | |||||||||
Try Zoho CRM for free today Try Zoho CRM
Freshsales Suite
Best combined Sales and Marketing CRM
Freshsales Suite is Freshwork’s all-in-one sales and marketing product for small businesses. This platform has been found to have one of the best offerings because it provides a great level of functionality within a straightforward, easy-to-use package. It’s our highest-ranking CRM for ease of use, making it a great CRM for startups, although it suffers substantially when it comes to features, offering virtually no customer service functionality, unlike our top choice Zoho CRM.
Freshsales Suite
Best combined Sales and Marketing CRM
4.7
In Short
Pros
- 21-day free trial
- Fast data imports
- Extensive reporting functionality
- Time tracking
Cons
- Fewer customization options than competitors
- Limited social media integrations
- Capped at 1,000 marketing actions
Gallery Click to expand
Try Freshsales Suite
On top of all that, Freshsales Suite provides good customer service options across all its plans, so if you’re smaller team is struggling, you can get help quickly and effectively. Plus, you’ll find it has comprehensive reporting tools, so you can plan for future scaling efforts.
Freshsales Suite even provides a lead scoring algorithm that automatically scores your leads based on data from previous sales and information you can input yourself. This makes it easy to understand which leads you’ll have the best chance of converting into customers.
The contacts page on Freshsales Suite provides all the information we needed about customers and clients.
Image: Tech.co testing
Freshsales Suite pricing for small businesses
Freshsales Suite comes in three different pricing plans, as well as a free plan. The Growth plan costs $9 per user, per month, the Pro plan costs $39 per user, per month, and the Enterprise plan costs $59 per user, per month.
According to our research, the Pro plan is the best option for small businesses. The Pro plan from Freshsales Suite costs $39 per user, per month.
At a reasonable price point, this plan still offers a whole lot of functionality, including workflows, custom reports, and a visual sales pipeline, so you can understand how your customers interact with your business. The next most expensive plan comes in at a whopping $59 per user, per month, which is why this option is the best bet for small businesses.
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| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||
| None | 2 GB | 5 GB per user | 100 GB per user | |||||
| 20 | 50 | 100 |
See what Freshsales can offer your team today Try Freshsales
monday.com
Best forcustomization
As a complete and fully functional sales CRM, monday.com provides some unmatched customizability when it comes to CRM. While that may sound intimidating to first-time users, monday.com combines this platform flexibility with some seriously intuitive design, so you won’t be bogged down by complicated customizations. When we reviewed monday.com CRM, we found it to be an easy-to-use platform with impressive flexibility.
monday.com CRM
Vast amount of customization options
4.5
In Short
Pros
- 14-day free trial
- Simple and modern layout
- Custom fields on all plans
- Many reports: deals, activity, recurring revenue, and more.
Cons
- Workflow automations are capped monthly
- No centralized inbox
- No phone support on any plan
Gallery Click to expand
Try monday.com
For one, you can edit almost anything – allowing you to fully tailor the platform to your business. There are also several dedicated CRM features available with monday.com, like the ability to create web forms, create invoices, and send emails.
Even better, monday.com provides this at a very competitive price – making it a genuinely attractive option for businesses. Starting at $10 per user, per month, it is more affordable than Zoho CRM ($14 per user, per month) and most other options on this list, with only Zoho Bigin ($7 per user, per month) and Freshsales ($9 per user, per month) offering a lower starting price.
The only real downside to monday.com is help and support. Those having issues with the platform are forced to rely on email, forums, and help articles, which isn’t always ideal, but hopefully, the general ease of use should suffice.
We found monday.com very customizable, with plenty of templates to choose from.
Source: Tech.co testing
monday.com pricing for small businesses
monday.com pricing offers four different pricing plans, as well as a free plan. The Basic plan costs $10 per user per month, the Standard plan costs $14 per user, per month, the Pro plan costs $24 per user per month, and the Enterprise plan does not provide publicly available pricing.
For small businesses, we recommend investing in the Pro plan for your CRM needs. The Pro plan from monday.com comes in at $24 per user, per month.
Given that monday.com is one of the more affordable options on this list, the higher-tier plans make more sense, as they won’t cut into your budget and still offer a lot. You’ll get up to 25,000 automations and integrations, along with a dashboard that can combine multiple boards. Plus, with time tracking enabled, you can really turn monday.com into a full-on CRM with this plan.
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| 5GB | 20GB | 100GB | 1000GB | ||||
| 250 actions/month | 25,000 actions/month | 25,000 actions/month | |||||
| 1 week | 6 months | 1 year | 5 years |
Try monday.com for yourself today Try monday.com
Zoho Bigin
Best entry-level CRM
This is Zoho’s dedicated small-business CRM platform. Zoho have aimed this product at users taking their first steps from spreadsheet to CRM. As such, it is very low cost, but still provides a good level of functionality. It was also found to be one of the more customizable platforms, allowing users to fill in custom fields and create custom reports. All-in-all, this results in a very convincing small business CRM package.
Zoho Bigin
Best entry-level CRM
In Short
Pros
- 15-day free trial
- Very low-cost platform w/ free plan
- Fully customizable dashboard
- Unique social media integrations
Cons
- No live help or support
- Limited marketing and lead gen features
- No invoicing or quoting functionality
Gallery Click to expand
Get Quotes
Where Bigin can be improved is with aspects of usability. Most notably, the onboarding process had one of the more complicated data imports on the list. It also lacks any form of “live” help and support, unlike the full-on Zoho CRM, leaving users to rely on email, forums, and help articles when they have a problem.
The Zoho Bigin was a good stripped-down version, which we found perfect for smaller teams.
Source: Zoho Bigin
Zoho Bigin pricing for small businesses
Zoho Bigin pricing is pretty basic. It offers two pricing plans, in addition to its free plan. The Express plan costs $7 per user, per month and the Premier plan costs $12 per user, per month.
For your small business, we recommend you opt for the paid plan, which is dubbed Express. As one of the more affordable options on the list, Zoho Bigin is definitely an option for those just graduating from spreadsheets. It offers basic functionality that’ll get you by.
You can test Bigin out with the free plan, but for business purposes, we highly recommend opting for the paid plan, as the free plan really lacks the functionality necessary to conduct business in a meaningful way. For example, you can only use the email features in the paid plan, which is vital to the success of any growing business.
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| Free | $7 per user per month | $12 per user per month | |||
| 15 days | 15 days | 15 days | |||
| 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||
| 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB |
Compare quotes for free from top CRM providers Get Quotes
HubSpot Free
Best free option
This is HubSpot’s free platform, an all-in-one product providing sales, marketing, and customer service functionality. Rather than a dedicated small business platform, it acts as the “starting tier” of their paid products which specialize in one of those aforementioned areas. HubSpot is not the only option on the list with a free plan, with Zoho CRM offering one as well, but you can’t beat the HubSpot free plan when it comes to functionality for sales, marketing, and customer service.
In fact, HubSpot actually provides a pretty comprehensive package that competes with the paid products listed here in terms of functionality. It scored well in usability due to its thorough onboarding process and tidy interface. This makes it a no-brainer for small businesses with virtually no budget to work with, as it can handle a respectable number of contacts, deals, and requests, without costing a dime.
Hubspot CRM
Best for growing businesses that need a scalable solution
4.4
In Short
Pros
- Sales and marketing features for growing businesses are included on all plans
- Tidy, easy-to-navigate interface for simple setup
- Shared team inbox makes chasing leads and support tickets way less complex
- Feature-rich free plan with lots of tools, perfect for small teams on a tight budget
- Easy-to-use AI and automation tools for streamlining processes
Cons
- Virtually no customer support on the free plan, so it's tough if you get stuck
- Free plan file storage limit of 5 documents, so you'll have to use other apps
- Hefty onboarding fees will put some businesses off the priciest plans
Gallery Click to expand
Get Hubspot CRM Free
Key points of improvement for HubSpot Free would be the limited customization it provides users, which is to be expected with a free plan. It also has basically no customer support options aside from forums and help articles. Understandably, both of these are locked behind a paywall – encouraging users to pay for very expensive premium platforms which will be beyond the price range of most small businesses.
The contacts page on HubSpot free is just as functional as many paid plans on this list.
Image: Tech.co testing
HubSpot pricing for small businesses
There’s a wide range of HubSpot pricing options for sales, marketing, and customer service teams. The Starter plans cost $15 per user, per month, the Professional plans cost $90 per user, per month, and the Enterprise plans cost between $130-150 per user, per month.
All that is pretty expensive, so we only recommend the Free plan for small businesses. As you can imagine, the Free plan from HubSpot costs nothing forever, so you can start organizing your business without cutting into your budget.
For a free plan, it’s surprisingly robust, allowing for contact and ad management, live support chat, email scheduling, and ticketing. The only problem is that you’ll have to pay a lot to upgrade, so make sure this is all you need in the long term.
Learn more in our HubSpot vs Zoho CRM comparison guide
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| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||
| 5 documents | 5000 documents | 5000 documents | 5000 documents | |||||
| Predictive scoring | ||||||||
Check out HubSpot for your business today Try HubSpot
Zendesk Sell
Best for fast-loading reports
Zendesk Sell is the sales-focused CRM by Zendesk, one of our top-rated providers when it comes to CRM. Our research shows that this option has a few strengths, including its notable ease of use, even for beginners, its customizability, which is key for growing businesses, and its prices, which are reasonably competitive in the field.
Zendesk Sell
Solid feature set and team management infrastructure, but there are better options out there
In Short
Pros
- 14-day free trial
- Provides great security options
- Offers good customizability
- Lots of infrastructure to manage teams
Cons
- Very few digital selling tools
- No quotes or proposal features
- No onboarding support for team members
Pricing
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Team: $19/user/month
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Growth: $49/user/month -
Professional: $99/user/month
Gallery Click to expand
Compare CRM
Try Zendesk
Still, it has some weak spots too, with help and support leading the pack. With virtual no options for contacting the team, including no email, phone, or live chat, you’re left to check out the knowledge base and community forum for all your issues. The security is also pretty weak, lacking features that Zoho CRM has, like user permissions and multi-factor authentication. To be clear, though, Zendesk offers lots of integrations so you can fix that for a price.
Overall, we can really only recommend Zendesk Sell to actual sales teams that need a customizable option at a lower price. If you work in marketing or customer service, we highly recommend you stay away.
Zendesk Sell even lets us manage returns, as well as a wide range of other categories.
Image: Tech.co testing
Zendesk Sell pricing for small businesses
Zendesk Sell offers four different pricing plans for a wide range of business needs. The Team plan costs $19 per user, per month, the Growth plan costs $49 per user, per month, the Professional plan costs $99 per user, per month, and the Enterprise plan costs $150 per user, per month.
The best Zendesk Sell plan for small businesses is the Team plan, which costs $19 per user, per month and provides a wide range of sales features to help your business. From extensive sales reports to live chat and forum support, you’ll have a good idea of how your team is doing while saving some time. This plan also comes with 2GB of storage per users, which isn’t much, but should be more than enough for small businesses.
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| $19/user/month | $55/user/month | $115/user/month | $169/user/month | |||
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||
| 2GB per user | 5GB per user | 10GB per user | 25GB per user | |||
Check out Zendesk for yourself right now Try Zendesk
Pipedrive
Best for security options
Pipedrive is a dedicated small business CRM platform aimed primarily at Sales teams as a solution for tracking business deals. Pipedrive isn’t a particularly competitive platform compared to others on this list. It provides an average level of functionality whilst being one of the more expensive options.
Pipedrive
Excellent security and customer support options
4.6
In Short
Pros
- 14-day free trial
- Unlimited contact database
- Great security tools include user permissions & MFA
- 24/7 live support
Cons
- Feature add-on costs can add up fast
- Can't create custom task types
- Web form creation is a paid add-on
Gallery Click to expand
Try Pipedrive
While it is a bit expensive, you could classify Pipedrive as the premium option where you get both a competitive level of functionality and a good user-experience. Yes, the starting price is competitive at $14 per user, per month, which is comparable to Freshsales Suite ($9 per user, per month) but the high tier plans get as high as $99 per user, per month, and for this level of functionality, that’s a bit much.
With Pipedrive, tasks can be completed quite quickly within the platform, and its chatbot and web form functionality are the most straight-forward to use, especially when compared to Freshsales Suite and HubSpot.
Pipedrive provides us with a step-by-step guide to getting started.
Source: Tech.co testing
Pipedrive pricing for small business
Pipedrive pricing comes in four different plans. The Essentials plan costs $14 per user, per month, the Advanced plan costs $29 per user, per month, the Professional plan costs $49 per user, per month, the Power plan costs $64 per user, per month, and the Enterprise plan costs $99 per user, per month.
For small businesses, we recommend the Advanced plan. The Advanced plan costs $29 per user, per month and offers core CRM functionality, along with API access, contacts maps, and a basic meeting scheduler. You’ll be allowed up to 10,000 deals, which is more than triple the amount in the less expensive plan, so you don’t have to worry about a harder limit. Plus, this plan unlocks a lot more automation and communication tools, which are integral to the effectiveness of a CRM.
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| $14/user/month | $29/user/month | $49/user/month | $64/user/month | $99/user/month | |||
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||
| 30 | 60 | 90 | 180 |
Check out Pipedrive for your team now Try Pipedrive
Salesforce Starter Suite
Best for growing businesses
This is Salesforce’s starting tier for its Sales and Customer Service products. As such, it provides all-in-one Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service functionality. Salesforce markets the Starter Suite plan as its product for small businesses but — like HubSpot Free — this works more like a stripped back version of their enterprise products. With that being said, in the context of small business CRM, it provides a competitive level of functionality.
Salesforce CRM
Best for growing businesses
3.8
In Short
Pros
- 30-day free trial
- Lots of analytics and data provided
- Excellent customer support
- Plenty of scalability
Cons
- More expensive than industry average
- 24/7 support costs extra
- Lacks lead capture and communication features
Pricing
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Essentials: $25/user/month -
Professional: $80/user/month -
Enterprise: $165/user/month -
Unlimited: $330/user/month -
Unlimited+: $500/user/month -
30-day free trial
Gallery Click to expand
See your custom price quote
Where the Salesforce Starter Suite plan is lacking is mainly on usability and price. While it did well overall in the usability testing, it would’ve scored significantly better had it not been for a poor user onboarding experience. It’s also more expensive than other platforms, which are just as good for functionality and usability.
The main page of Salesforce provides helpful information across your business.
Source: Tech.co testing
Salesforce pricing for small business
Much like HubSpot, Salesforce offers a wide range of pricing options depending on what you’re looking for. For small businesses, though, Salesforce recently narrowed the options down to two pricing plans. The Starter Suite plan costs $25 per user, per month and the Pro Suite plan costs $100 per user, per month.
With the Starter Suite plan at $25 per user, per month, it sits right at the top end of the spectrum for small business pricing. You’ll get access to sales, marketing and service functionality, which is quite impressive for the price.
Additionally, there’s an advanced version of the Starter Suite, called Pro Suite, that costs $100 per user, per month, which adds real-time chat to stay in touch with customers and greater customization to make the platform work for you.
Check out our Salesforce pricing page for more information on other products
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Check out Salesforce Sales Cloud for your business now Try Salesforce
Less Annoying CRM
Best for simple interface
If you’re looking for basic, Less Annoying CRM is as basic as it comes for this kind of software. No bells, no whistles, no complicated interfaces. Less Annoying CRM is aimed at providing a simple, uncomplex software that will help your small business run effectively.
To be clear though, Less Annoying CRM is missing some key features. There’s no lead scoring, no API access, and limited support, so you’ll want to be sure this bare-bones option still fits your particular needs. If you love low prices and easy-to-use platforms though, this is definitely an option, although there are other CRM providers at $15 per user, per month that could offer more, like Zoho CRM’s Standard plan, for example.
Less Annoying CRM
Great value choice
4.4
In Short
Pros
- Very simple, fast onboarding process
- Phone support provided
- Notably low cost option
Cons
- Low level of customization
- Incredibly stripped back feature list
- Limited email functionality
Pricing
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$15 per user per month -
30-day free trial -
One plan, no hidden fees
Gallery Click to expand
Try for Free
Less Annoying CRM pricing for small business
The price for Less Annoying CRM is also pretty basic, as there’s only one plan to choose from. No need to do your research, you’ll get the same across the board for a mere $15 per user, per month and you can test out the platform before you make that commitment with a 30-day free trial, which is pretty generous compared to the average two-week offering from other competitors.
The Less Annoying CRM is very basic, making it easy to use for beginners.
Source: Tech.co testing
Act!
Best for contact information
Obviously, a lesser-known CRM compared to some options on this list, Act! CRM is a solid option for small businesses, depending on what you need it for. The platform is primarily aimed at marketing businesses, as it offers some good email options that can get you started on your next campaign. It is pretty average overall though, as it doesn’t offer any social, paid, or content marketing functionality, but for email, it gets the job done.
Act! CRM
Best for contact information
In Short
Pros
- 14-day free trial
- Robust contact information
- Responsive email campaign building tool
- Comprehensive chart builder
Cons
- Pretty basic functionality
- Few automation features
- Restrictive campaign options
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Try Act! CRM
The support is pretty good too, offering email, phone, and live chat responses, although you won’t get them 24/7 unfortunately which you can find with options like Pipedrive. If you’re a customer service business looking for a CRM, we highly recommend looking elsewhere, as Act! doesn’t have much to take care of your customers in that way.
The Act! CRM home page is a bit outdated, but the simple design makes it easy to use.
Source: Tech.co testing
Act! pricing for small businesses
Act! used to offer different pricing plans with different feature sets, but now you have the choice between a cloud-based system and an on-premises system. We’d recommend going with the cloud-based, but if you think you can handle the responsibility of an on-premises system, go for it!
The Act! Premium Cloud pricing plan will cost you $30 per user, per month and allows for easy automatic updates, disaster recovery, and up to 6GB of cloud storage. Conversely, the Act! Premium Desktop plan costs $37.50 per user, per month, allowing for networked and offline access and complete control of updates. You will have to manage your own security and upkeep of the offline system, but hey, if you want to go that route, Act! offers it.
The Benefits of CRM Software for Small Businesses
If you’re looking for the best CRM system, it’s safe to assume that you’d like to know how CRM actually benefits your business. Suffice it to say, these providers aim to generally improve your sales, service, or marketing efforts, and they do so in a wide range of different ways.
Improve productivity
Whether you need a CRM platform for sales, service, marketing, or all three, the right provider will be able to improve productivity across the board through organization, automation, and collaboration.
It could be by increasing sales through more qualified leads and streamlining your sales funnel. It could be by saving service contacts and speeding up customer requests. It could even be by automating your marketing efforts, so you’re gaining and retaining customers more often.
Plus, every growing organization will reach a tipping point where their customer data will grow too difficult to manage. At this point, relying on shared spreadsheets, sticky notes, or simply keeping everything in your head will likely lead to a loss of information which can be detrimental.
Simply put, CRM software is designed to improve productivity across your business by making life a bit easier when it comes to the smaller details, so you can focus on the big picture. Plus, with the average CRM providing $8.71 return on investment for every dollar, it’s safe to say it’s a no-brainer.
Robust analytics
When it comes to business, it’s hard to know what’s working and what isn’t. However, in addition to providing all these streamlining features, CRM software typically comes with reporting and analytical tools that can help you understand exactly how to improve your business.
The numbers back up the importance of analytics as well. In fact, one study found that businesses that utilize some form of reporting tools see an 8% increase in revenue and a 10% reduction in costs. In so many words, you need to start analyzing your data and CRM software is a great place to start.
Streamlined communications
Keeping in touch with your team and your customers is arguably one of the more important aspects of running a business, and CRM software provides it in spades. Whether it be in-platform messaging or simply an effective email marketing tool, CRM can make communication easier on everyone involved.
Considering well-connected teams are 20-25% more productive, according to one study, it’s safe to assume that getting on the same page with your team via CRM software can do wonders for your bottom line. And if you aren’t trying to improve that, then what are you doing in business?
How We Rate CRM Software
We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we're giving you the clearest, most useful recommendations.
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, we put 13 CRM systems to the test across 84 areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we've established a CRM testing methodology that scores each product in six main categories of investigation and 13 subcategories; this covers everything from the available features and scalability capacity to the product's value for money, and much more.
Our main testing categories for CRM systems are:
Features: the functionalities and capabilities provided by the CRM software, such as contact management, lead and opportunity tracking, and task and activity management.
Help and Support: the resources and assistance available to users when they encounter issues or require guidance while using the CRM software.
Customisation: the ability to tailor the CRM software to suit the specific needs and processes of the organization, e.g. customizing fields, layouts, and workflows.
Scalability: the ability of the CRM software to accommodate the growth and changing needs of the organization, such as the capacity to handle a growing customer database.
Price: the cost associated with using the CRM software. It includes factors such as licensing fees, subscription plans, and additional charges for add-on modules or features.
Team Structure – Sales CRM: determining if a platform makes it easier to manage large sales teams, including team dashboards, team hierarchies, and team inboxes.
Usability – Small Business CRM: assessing the simplicity of the interface, the ease of navigating through menus and options, and the overall user experience.
When it comes to calculating a product's final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others, which are merely "nice to have." After hundreds of hours, our process is complete, and the results should ensure you can find the best solution for your needs.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full time in-house researchers, who re-run this testing process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day
Learn more about our research.
Verdict: What is the best CRM software for small business?
According to our research, Zoho CRM is the best option for small businesses, because it offers a lot of functionality for sales, marketing, and customer service companies, and it’s easy and quick to use for beginners. It is a bit on the expensive side, but it offers low-cost starter plans that will allow you to scale your small business with the platform.
Other great options include Freshsales Suite — for its reasonable pricing and ease of use — and monday.com — for its modern, intuitive design and flexibility of usage for businesses.
If you want to get started with a CRM platform, we don’t blame you. All these great tools represent the best of the best in the market, so take your pick and make productivity a priority at your small business today!
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