10 Best CRM Software in 2024
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is an important tool if you want to meaningfully interact with customers or potential customers. It helps you organize these interactions, store and share important data and grow your business. But not all software is created equal, and — depending on the type of business you do and the customers you have — you’ll find that different platforms offer specific benefits and drawbacks.
We’ve reviewed the biggest and best CRM software providers on the market, looking at each platform’s features, support and plan pricing to make our top ten list of best CRM software in 2024. Read on to find out which platform is best for your business.
Featured CRM software offers
Best CRM software
Why trust our small business experts
Our team of experts evaluates hundreds of business products and analyzes thousands of data points to help you find the best product for your situation. We use a data-driven methodology to determine each rating. Advertisers do not influence our editorial content. You can read more about our methodology below.
- 51 companies reviewed.
- 5,312 data points analyzed.
- 100+ hours of research.
Featured CRM software offers
Best CRM software comparison
We extensively research the key competitors within an industry to determine the best products and services for your business. Our experts identify the factors that matter most to business owners, including pricing, features and customer support, to ensure that our recommendations offer well-rounded products that will meet the needs of various small businesses.
We collect extensive data to narrow our best list to reputable, easy-to-use products with stand-out features at a reasonable price point. And we look at user reviews to ensure that business owners like you are satisfied with our top picks’ services. We use the same rubric to assess companies within a particular space so you can confidently follow our blueprint to the [name of best list] of 2024.
Expert score (10%): Our expert score takes into account the entire picture we have of the provider, including its features, value for money, popularity and ease of use. Each factor is weighted equally to ensure a balanced view of each CRM software provider.
Pricing and value (28%): When we assess the value of a CRM software platform, it’s important to think about several factors involving the cost alone. We also factor how it’s affected by the terms of payment, whether it’s annual or monthly, as well as how many users are supported for the cost, and if there’s a free trial available before committing. Additionally, the final score accounts for any money-back guarantees offered, and whether the pricing information is transparent and publicly available.
Features (52%): Our experts examine each CRM platform’s general and additional features and consider this factor to be the most important when assessing providers. The features available with each provider are what ultimately decide who will benefit most from the different software we review. Some of the most important features we look for include pipeline management, analytics and reporting and third-party integrations.
Service and support (10%): Finally, it’s crucial to consider what customer support options are available with each CRM software provider to ensure you’ll have help when you need it. We factor in methods of contact as well as hours of availability and publicly accessible information – with particular importance placed on 24/7 support and how easy it is to contact a live human.
What is CRM software, and how does it work?
A CRM is a database that holds contact information for prospects, leads and customers. Companies use it to identify potential customers and nurture them with personalized messages. The CRM system has tools to measure the relationship’s progress (and the lead’s engagement level), allowing sales and marketing employees to choose activities strategically.
For instance, if a person opts out of an email sequence, the CRM will note their disinterest. However, if the lead opens, reads and clicks on a link to a product page, a robust, integrated CRM system will send a follow-up email with a promotion related to the specific item.
Benefits of CRM software
CRM software can offer a number of benefits for small businesses, depending on the type of business you run and the way you use your software. For example, it can help:
- Increase sales: By streamlining your sales process and improving organization, CRM software can help your business and sales team sell more.
- Improve customer relationships: Many CRM software providers offer features like sentiment analysis, automated support and behavior tracking that can help improve customer relationships and retention.
- Provide detailed insights: CRM software can collect and break down customer data into useful metrics and actions that can help you assess your team’s success.
- Improve productivity: With many providers offering automation and even AI assistance, CRM tools help teams increase productivity.
Who needs CRM software?
CRM software can be a fundamental tool for businesses of all sizes, but it’s particularly useful for marketing and sales teams, as it can help generate and track leads, understand audiences and create personalized campaigns.
Customer support teams also benefit from CRM software to streamline customer interactions and improve resolution times for issues and complaints. These factors make CRM software a useful solution for all businesses that can benefit from better customer relationships and operational efficiency.
How to choose the best CRM software
Companies use CRM platforms to manage relationships. Therefore, service, sales and marketing departments leverage the software. Some systems, like Agile CRM, centralize all activities, whereas others, such as Zendesk, have separate products (Zendesk Service and Zendesk Sell).
Follow these steps to pick the best CRM service for your team.
1. Assess your business goals and needs
To choose the right tools, it’s important to understand your budget and how you will use the software. Also, how scalable you need it to be. For instance, a growing business may want to set up sales territories and support staff who speak different languages.
Consider the following questions:
- Which parts of the customer journey will your CRM cover?
- How many marketing, service and sales reps need access to the CRM?
- Do you expect your contacts or users to grow rapidly over the next few years?
- Will sales directors, managers or administrators use the CRM?
- Do you expect to expand globally?
2. Consider must-have CRM features
CRMs can have hundreds of features. But many also have limits, depending on the subscription. The key is to find software with the right tools for your sales process that doesn’t require months of training.
Look for ways a CRM can save your organization time and improve workflows by asking the following questions:
- How many pipelines do you need?
- Will you track email through your CRM or use a separate tool?
- Do your sales teams accept card payments when finalizing deals?
- How important are automation and AI features?
- Do you need sales forecasting and lead scoring tools?
- Will the CRM serve as a central file storage system?
- Do you send estimates, quotes or contracts to clients?
- Will you integrate your e-commerce platform or business phone system?
- Do you need task management features?
Key features to look for
When looking for the right CRM software for your business, you might want to keep an eye out for the following features:
- Lead and contact management: To organize data and contact details of customers and prospects.
- Pipeline management: To visualize the entire sales process from start to finish – with multiple pipelines ideally available.
- Automated marketing: Tools to allow efficient campaign and email marketing.
- Reporting: To gain insights into performance of marketing campaigns.
- 24/7 support: To ensure you’ll have access to help when you need it.
3. Compare CRM services
Develop a list of top-rated systems by reviewing guides and asking your professional network. Remember to check mobile app store ratings and user reviews. Look for CRM services that meet your minimum requirements, then narrow your list by considering additional capabilities, such as automations or integrations.
For instance, some CRMs only work with certain credit card processing companies. So if you want to invoice or collect payment from your CRM, you must sign up for a new merchant service or find a CRM that works with your payment processor.
4. Trial CRM systems
Most CRMs offer free trials or have a free version. Use the free version and encourage your staff to complete various sales and marketing tasks to get a feel for the systems. Survey individuals after the trials end and ask for feedback. Sales managers should offer insights about sales forecasting, task management and progress reporting features. Marketing and sales employees can discuss ways the software improved their ability to generate leads, personalize messaging or remember to follow up.
How much does CRM software cost?
*Monday.com requires a minimum of three users.
**Salesforce pricing reflects annual billing.
Aside from HubSpot, which charges by marketing contacts, not users, most CRM services have a per-user fee. This cost for base subscriptions ranges from $0.00 to $29.90 per user monthly. Many providers offer a discount if you pay annually, ranging from 10% to 34% off the monthly price.
CRM vendors typically use a tiered pricing model. The entry-level tier has fewer features and lower usage limits than more expensive plans. Add-ons vary by provider and may include premium support, pay-per-use calling and texting, advanced analytics and automation tools.
What we don’t recommend
It’s useful to know what to watch out for when comparing CRM software, as there are some red, or at least slightly red, flags to be aware of:
- Long commitments: Some providers hide affordable costs in long-term commitments while the true monthly cost is often a fair amount higher.
- Complex interfaces: Sometimes too many features and capabilities can be overwhelming so ensure you find a platform with an interface you’re comfortable with.
- Lack of support: 24/7 support is ideal, especially if your own business works around the clock – so beware of platforms that have limited support availability.
- Extra charges: Some CRM providers will charge extra for certain features, like around-the-clock support or extra storage.
Featured CRM software offers
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
When looking for the best CRM for beginners, HubSpot is a good start. It has a free toolkit and easy-to-use interface that can help introduce a more structured approach to customer relationship management. It doesn’t have as many features as some of the other providers on our list, but this might be good for beginners as to not cause confusion.
There is definitely enough when it comes to basic functionality, and it won’t feel as overwhelming as some other platforms. But, if you want a more comprehensive platform, you might need some of the features on the higher-tier plans. These plans can be expensive when compared to other companies.
Yes, there are plenty of options when it comes to free CRM software. However, most free plans will always be limited in the features they offer. Agile CRM has a free plan that allows up to 10 users, but this plan does lack some sales features, like post-call automation, call recording and automated voicemails.
HubSpot also has a free plan, but it only allows up to five users and is limited to five documents per account. If a company doesn’t have a free plan, it more than likely has a free trial where you can test out some of its features and its platform for a certain period of time.
Before you choose a free CRM software plan, you need to think about the features that are most essential to running your business.
There are many reasons your business should start using a CRM. Using CRM software can help increase your business’ sales by helping streamline your processes. Not only that, it can improve the relationship between your business and your customers. There are features, such as automated support and behavior tracking, that can help you improve your customer retention rate.
If you are wanting reports on customer data, CRM software can collect that for you and break it down in a helpful and easy-to-understand way. This will help you learn how successful your business really is. Another reason is that a lot of CRM software is now using automation tools and AI to help increase productivity.
A CRM database stores prospect, lead and customer or company information. It is customizable according to a company’s requirements.
CRM databases may store four types of data:
- Identity information, such as contact details.
- Descriptive data, like job titles or hobbies.
- Qualitative data, including sentiment analysis results and surveys.
- Quantitative CRM data, such as customers’ average purchase amounts.
Collaborative, analytical and operational CRMs have different business purposes. Companies use collaborative CRMs to improve communication for seamless customer experiences. Analytical CRMs gather and analyze data to support decision-making. Operational CRMs facilitate the end-to-end sales process, from lead generation to sales.
CRM integration is when you connect your CRM software to other helpful tools, like Slack or Facebook Messenger. Depending on your business, the CRM integrations you choose can differ. If you have an e-commerce business, for example, you might want to integrate your CRM platform with Shopify or Square. This will help everything stay synced and organized when it comes to the products in your store and the orders customers make.
Another way to use CRM integrations is for customer service purposes. This can help your organization keep better track of things like customer support tickets that users have submitted. Some companies are better at these integrations than others. For example, Nimble CRM is the best CRM for social media integration.
CRM software helps with marketing, sales and advertising. The main purpose of CRM software is to catalogue how your customers are interacting with your business. This will then help your business streamline different processes, so you as the business owner can focus on other aspects of your business.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is used mainly for managing accounting, supply chains and HR teams. It is mainly used for things like general ledgers, account payables and receivables and the reporting of finances. It can also be used to help with inventory and order management, as well as HR-related processes.
