Less Annoying CRM Review | PCMag

Less Annoying CRM isn’t a name that rolls off the tongue, but it gets its point across. This customer relationship management (CRM) software stands out from the competition by being an affordable, turnkey platform with a simple interface. It appeals to small businesses and sole proprietors who are ready to graduate from spreadsheets but don’t need complex features. That said, Less Annoying CRM’s simplicity may be lost on businesses that need ample reporting and more customization options. For those businesses, Salesforce Starter is a worthy introduction to the industry-leading Salesforce ecosystem, while our Editors’ Choice winners Apptivo and Zoho CRM are flush with basic and advanced features.

How Much Does Less Annoying CRM Cost?

Instead of a tiered pricing structure, Less Annoying CRM offers a single plan for $15 per user per month with no annual contracts. There’s technically no limit to the number of users you can add to your plan, but if you want more than 10, you must consult with a company representative about an “enterprise” plan. The $15 flat rate includes product updates, new features, access to all customer service channels, and optional data migration assistance. Prospective adopters can assess the CRM’s capabilities by trying a full demo with preloaded dummy data or by signing up for a 30-day trial with all features unlocked.

Relative to most of its rivals, Less Annoying CRM offers excellent value. Free and low-cost CRM software tends to be bare-bones, and pricey for small organizations that need to upscale. Less Annoying CRM doesn’t lock advanced features behind a paywall; it scales on its own through free (and frequent) product updates that are available to all subscribers.

A $15 monthly per-user rate is suitable for a small business, but companies with no budget at all should check out HubSpot CRM’s free offering. It offers unlimited seats, a vast library of app integrations, and a robust set of sales, marketing, and help desk tools. HubSpot’s paid plans start at $18 per month for two users plus $9 for each additional user. Although that’s less per-user than Less Annoying CRM, HubSpot may be overkill for companies that only need sales tools.

Less Annoying CRM offers a comprehensive beginner’s guide to get you up to speed. (Credit: Less Annoying CRM)

How to Set Up Less Annoying CRM

Less Annoying CRM understands that small business owners and solopreneurs lack the time or resources to allocate to a complex onboarding process. The setup is quick and painless, letting you dive in with minimal tweaks required. 

You can register for Less Annoying CRM with an email address or by connecting your Google account. The latter option is ideal if Google is central to your business, as it supports Google two-way sync. Choosing an industry from the dropdown menu customizes the CRM; otherwise, you’ll have access to the standard, industry-agnostic version.

Once signed in, you’re immediately directed to the beginner’s guide, a series of instructional videos within the CRM. Navigating the guide is optional, but it’s a handy introduction to the software’s key features. If you want personal assistance with onboarding, scheduling a free session with a CRM Coach is just a Calendly booking away.

Less Annoying CRM relies on Zapier to integrate with other apps, such as email marketing systems. (Credit: Less Annoying CRM)

Closing the beginner’s guide takes you to Workspace, which features a calendar, tasks list, pipelines, and activity reports by default. You can rearrange these widgets to suit your workflow and tailor them to display specific data related to their respective categories. However, those four categories are the only ones you’re able to display.

Less Annoying CRM has a small suite of native integrations: Google, Mailchimp, Microsoft Outlook, select VoIP systems, and email clients. There are more than a dozen third-party integrations, such as LeadsBridge and Writtenly, but if you’re keen to build an extensive tech stack, you can connect the CRM to more than 5,000 apps via Zapier. (Note that this could add to your budget, depending on your needs.) There’s also support for APIs and webhooks if you or someone on your team is code-savvy.

You can give the CRM a personal touch by uploading your company logo and selecting one of nine color schemes. This minimalist approach to UI customization aligns with the brand’s reputation for being “Less Annoying” than its rivals. 

Less Annoying CRM can import data from spreadsheets or directly from other CRMs. (Credit: Less Annoying CRM)

Data Transfer and Syncing Options 

With Less Annoying CRM, you can either manually enter contact information or import data from Outlook, LinkedIn, your Mac (using a vCard), another CRM, or a spreadsheet. For a more streamlined approach, use your Google account to sign in to the CRM and sync your contact data. You also have the option to do a one-time import from Google. Alternatively, you can automate the data transfer process via API or Zapier.

For business owners who don’t want to fuss with bulk data entry, a Less Annoying CRM rep can handle your data import at no cost—just send over a spreadsheet. Meanwhile, imports with a higher volume of complex data require migration services through Import2, which adds a one-time fee of $180, paid over one year at $15 per month.

Less Annoying CRM has two record types: companies and contacts. (Credit: Less Annoying CRM)

Managing Relationships With Less Annoying CRM

Less Annoying CRM has two core record types: individual contacts and companies. Users can sort these records into custom groups for targeted outreach, and linking several contacts to a single company record creates a hub of all associated interactions and status updates. Adding a star to their contact records prominently features them in your general Contacts tab for quick information access. It’s a useful tool for highlighting VIP clients and prospects.

You must tag an existing contact or company to add leads. Note that all leads are contacts, but not all contacts are leads. Tagging a contact as a lead automatically updates your sales pipeline, which is helpful from a data entry standpoint. However, Less Annoying CRM could benefit from a mass-tagging feature for companies that often source a high volume of leads. There’s also no way to view lead data outside of a pipeline, although filtering contacts to only display “active leads” is one workaround.

For marketing and outreach, you need to look beyond Less Annoying CRM’s sales-focused feature set. Fortunately, Zapier integration opens the door to a much broader range of functionalities, including lead generation, email marketing, and customer service. As mentioned, there’s also native Mailchimp integration, which ports your contacts and highlights campaign insights on individual contact pages within the CRM.

Viewing leads in Less Annoying CRM. (Credit: Less Annoying CRM)

A Simple Approach to Tracking Sales Metrics

Less Annoying CRM has three report types: leads (your sales pipeline), tasks (your team’s to-do list), and activities (a feed of all CRM activity). You can filter data within these categories, but the reporting prowess isn’t on the level of HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zoho CRM. Visualization options are also limited, with only a basic bar graph available for pipelines.

Speaking of pipelines, you can add as many as you want and tailor them to your sales needs with custom fields and stages. However, you must venture to the Settings tab in the sidebar to do this. A dedicated Pipeline tab with direct access to customization would be a more user-friendly approach, but it’s considered a report and thus categorized as such in the CRM.

Data-loving teams will find Less Annoying CRM’s reporting anemic. Still, given that the target demo is small business owners and solo entrepreneurs who generally don’t require complex data tools, it suffices. That said, you can connect to Keap, Zoho Analytics, and other reporting tools via Zapier.

Less Annoying CRM uses a reactive web UI, rather than a dedicated app. (Credit: Less Annoying CRM)

Is There A Less Annoying CRM Mobile App?

Less Annoying CRM doesn’t have a dedicated mobile app. Instead, you can open the CRM in your phone‘s web browser and pin the website to the home screen. While this may not sound as accommodating as a downloadable mobile app, Less Annoying’s minimalist interface is well-suited for smaller screens. Its mobile web-based approach ensures you’ll maintain access to all core features. Plus, you won’t have to wait for new data to sync between devices. Although its simple design looks sparse (or even boring) on a desktop or laptop, it’s fitting for a smaller device.

Is Less Annoying CRM Easy to Use?

True to its name, Less Annoying CRM is simple to learn and use. The beginner’s guide is a great place to start, but if you’re inclined to tinker with software on your own, you’ll find this platform has a minimal learning curve. However, if your setup is more complex than the average small business, a CRM Coach will assist with setup and onboarding for free. 

There are some basic customization options, namely the Workspace and the interface’s color scheme. You can also add integrations via Zapier or API key, which will add time to the setup process. But if you’re only focused on using Less Annoying CRM’s core features, you should be up and running almost immediately.

Everything you need is on the Sidebar, with individual functions nested under larger categories. Nifty keyboard shortcuts let you navigate across tabs, add new contact data, and view your calendar.

Less Annoying CRM Customer Service

Should you need help with your Less Annoying CRM account, you can either send a contact form via email or call customer support during standard business hours. Otherwise, you can refer to the Beginner’s Guide or browse the Help Center for relevant articles. These support channels are available to all Less Annoying CRM customers.

In addition to employing a dedicated team of CRM Coaches, Less Annoying CRM requires every employee to spend at least one hour per week fielding customer questions. This lets every team member gain insight into how the CRM operates in real-world scenarios. It also keeps the company closely connected to the evolving needs of Less Annoying CRM users.

A Truly Less Annoying CRM for Small Businesses

Less Annoying CRM is committed to providing small business owners and solopreneurs with a no-fuss platform that offers the essentials for an effective sales strategy. An affordable per-user rate, accessible customer support, and a simple interface tick the right boxes for managers and teams that want a CRM they can use out of the box with minimal oversight.

For midsize to large businesses, Less Annoying CRM likely won’t be enough. You can integrate thousands of apps via Zapier, but overloading the CRM with outside tools defeats its purpose. Freshsales and Pipedrive are sound alternatives if you want more robust features without compromising ease of use, while Editors’ Choice winners Apptivo and Zoho CRM have superior reporting and customization options. Otherwise, Less Annoying CRM will help make those transitions less bumpy for new small business owners who have never used sales software.