Any small business can become easily overwhelmed by the task of managing customer records.
Luckily, you can save time and effort by investing in an effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool.
CRMs make the brand-customer connection simpler while simultaneously empowering small businesses with the opportunity to increase sales and bolster customer loyalty.
As a small business expert, I’ve researched, tested, and reviewed nearly all of the most popular CRMs on the market today in order to compile this list of the best CRM for small business in 2023.
What Are the Top Small Business CRM Software Picks?
Before I get into my favorite CRM software for the new year, I figure some of you might be asking:
What is CRM software?
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a technology that allows you to manage your small business’s previous-buyer and potential-customer interactions and improve your relationships from there.
Think of CRM software as an all-in-one solution to staying engaged with your company’s customer relationships.
The CRM solutions I’ll discuss in this article all include an impressive suite of features to help your small business thrive.
However, for the sake of an introduction, here’s a quick overview of some main CRM features.
CRM can provide increased sales and help you prioritize top customers, improve customer communication through social media integration, help you craft marketing campaigns, and ensure your customer information is securely stored.
Among many other things, which I’ll cover throughout this list!
Without further ado, here are my picks for the best CRM for small business.
PipeDrive offers an excellent sales-focused CRM system to help smooth out the sales process on a unified platform.
Pipedrive’s sales CRM software truly stands out with its unbeatable value for money, straightforward interface, and ample features that are suited to any industry.
Custom reports make it easy to track progress so that you can stay on top of project management and reach your small business goals faster than ever before.
Their CRM platform is also available on a neatly packed, convenient, and seamless mobile app.
Key Features
- 14-day free trial
- Sophisticated-yet-intuitive interface
- Sales pipeline progress for each customer interaction
- Leads inbox
- Sales-improvement suggestions
- Efficient calendar and email sync
- Functional in any industry
- Insightful & clean reports with customizable metrics
Pricing
PipeDrive offers four different pricing packages for their CRM solutions: Essential ($19.90/month), Advanced ($34.90/month), Professional ($59.90/month), and Enterprise ( $119/month).
Opt for a plan that best fits the sales volume of your small business, as they’re scaled by active deals, custom fields, and reports.
Pros
- Easy and intuitive to use
- 24/7/365 email and chat
- Tons of apps and social media integrations
- Scalability
Cons
- Advanced security only available on the Enterprise plan
ClickUp offers fantastic resources for speeding up your sales process without losing your quality of communication.
With their next-level CRM features, it’s extremely easy to streamline customer onboarding, account management, and order tracking through an automated pipeline and super intuitive interface.
Their customizable CRM templates are relevant for hiring teams, healthcare, customer service, real estate, and more.
Key Features
- Sales pipeline
- Deal management
- List, Kanban board, or table organization
- 50+ widgets to organize customer data
- Clean dashboard
- Email integration
- Customizable customer database
- Industry-specific
Pricing
Clickup offers a variety of pricing packages, one of which is a free plan.
If you’re working on a small team, consider their unlimited plan at $5 per user each month.
For more advanced features, the Business plan at $12/month per user is also highly suitable for small businesses.
They also offer Business Plus plan for $19 per user a month and an Enterprise plan that has customized pricing for a personalized experience.
Pros
- Tons of app and social media integrations
- Free training & 24/7 support -- beginner friendly
- Great uptime
Cons
- Slightly costly
Bigin by Zoho CRM is known as a reliable solution for any business looking to achieve success, supplying all of the necessary tools needed to manage your sales and increase revenue.
Bigin makes it easier than ever for small businesses to transfer their customer data to a customer relationship management platform.
It is also integrated with Google Workspace, so you’ll be able to effortlessly transfer all your contact and calendar data, without any room for errors or manual uploading.
Key Features
- Mobile app
- Google integrations
- Stores all prospective customer information, including social media posts
- Easy web form deployment
- Easy-to-use dashboard
- Customizable sales pipelines
- High security
- Sleek data management solutions
Pricing
Bigin offers a free plan that comes with a single pipeline, 500 records, and three workflows.
If your small business is home to more products and traffic, try the Express package at $7/month per user or the Premier package at $12/month per user.
Pros
- Major affordability
- Great social media integration
- Good selection of add-ons
- Free trial
Cons
- Limited customer support on free plan
Vtiger is an ideal choice of CRM software for small businesses.
It offers a comprehensive range of tools and features to satisfy the needs of every small business owner.
Vtiger also boasts a super affordable price that becomes even more impressive when you consider the full scope of their CRM features.
Key Features
- Calendar reminders
- Email marketing tools
- Sales funnels
- Chat integration
- Lead analytics
- Marketing automation
- Intuitive use
- Per-industry CRM solutions
Pricing
Vtiger offers enterprise-grade or single-user CRM systems with prices ranging from $28/month per user to $58/month per user.
This CRM platform ranks in the top-5 systems on this list for the best value for small businesses.
Pros
- Extremely long feature list
- Affordable pricing
- 15-day free trial
Cons
- Unique interface might be confusing to some users
Monday is a cloud-based CRM software that’s great for small business sales teams in need of collaboration on one system.
The Monday platform offers a Kanban-style board view to help you and your team visualize tasks, track progress, set due dates, comment on projects and attach relevant files.
It’s the perfect way to collaborate all in one place.
Their pricing plans are also less expensive for multiple users than other CRM platforms on this list.
Key Features
- Email sync and tracking
- Email templates
- Performance tracking on custom dashboard
- Deal progress, sales figures, and team performance reports
- Goal organization
- Easy data imports
- Easy data cleanup
Pricing
Monday’s price packages begin with a free plan that includes unlimited contacts and pipelines.
If you need more features, you can choose your plan by filtering for how many team seats you’ll need.
Their most popular plan is the Standard plan at $10/month per user for a year.
However, if you’d prefer perks like sales forecasting, scale up to their Pro CRM plan for $16/seat/month.
Pros
- Free plan
- Sales forecasting
- Sales-teams-centered benefits
- Affordable pricing
Cons
- Not as easy to use as other CRM systems
Freshsales, previously known as Freshworks CRM, is a context-driven all-in-one CRM platform.
Freshsales is especially known for its lead management and generation tactics, which can easily take small businesses to the next level in terms of loyalty and traffic.
This software is cloud-based and geared toward sales teams.
Its affordability and its functional forever-free plan make it an excellent choice for your small business.
Key Features
- AI assistant to provide deal insights and action recommendations based on historical data
- All-in-one contact book with auto-enriched profiles
- Automated campaigns with personalized emails
- Built-in lead-capturing form
- 24/5 customer support (only available on weekdays)
- Free trial
Pricing
The Freshsales free plan comes with account and contact management functionalities, a mobile app, and built-in phone, email, and chat.
If you want extra help growing your small business’s sales, consider the Growth plan at $18/month. This plan comes with everything available for the free plan, as well as AI contact scoring, sales sequences, and a visual sales pipeline.
There is also a Pro plan ($47/month) and an Enterprise plan ($83/month).
Pros
- Affordability
- Great contact leads system
- Clean mobile app
- AI automation
Cons
- Not as many integrations as other CRMs
Insightly is best for small businesses that need to manage a variety of projects.
With its Gantt chart view, you can gain real-time insights into your sales pipeline and project progress.
You’ll also be able to monitor time and expenses with ease while creating custom fields, importing data from other applications, and setting up automatic notifications for follow-ups on leads.
Key Features
- Free trial
- Reliable customer support
- Lead management
- Automated emails
- Mobile app
- Real-time sales insights
Pricing
Insightly offers three price plans: Plus ($29/month), Professional ($49/month), and Enterprise ($99/month).
On a small business budget, I’d recommend the Plus plan.
Even though it’s their lowest tier, it still comes with a huge variety of features that makes the monthly price worth it.
Pros
- Milestone tracking
- Great app integration
- Easy lead management on any plan
Cons
- No scheduled emails on Plus plan
- Pricey
Salesforce is renowned as a top CRM and caters to companies of all sizes, including small businesses.
It’s been providing an extensive range of integrations, customizability, and a comprehensive approach to marketing software for two decades.
With its strong reputation in the industry and many features available, Salesforce’s Customer 360 CRM stands out from other competitors as a leader in CRM technology.
Key Features
- CRM for a variety of industries
- AI-powered
- Tons of customizations
- Team-oriented software
- “Solution Finder” software helps find the exact right version of their CRM for you
Pricing
Salesforces offers users four different pricing options.
On a small business budget, I’d recommend Salesforce’s Essentials package at $25/month per user.
This plan comes with lead management, real-time insights, team collaboration, and more.
However, they also offer the Professional ($75/month per user), Enterprise ($150/month per user), and Unlimited ($$300/month per user) plans to users who want more from the service.
Pros
- Highly accurate reports
- Super customizable
- Over 1k integrations with other reporting
Cons
- Interface can be complicated
Capsule is a CRM platform offering solutions for businesses with up to 1k employees.
It’s known for its ease of use, simple interface, and growing range of integrations with sites like QuickBooks, MailChimp, and Google G Suite.
If you’re looking for an affordable CRM with everything you could need for your small business, then Capsule is the perfect solution.
Key Features
- Contact management
- Tailorable sales pipeline
- Insightful sales analytics
- Sales Pipeline Dashboard
- Task management
- Outlook and Gmail integration
- Huge host of advanced add-ons
Pricing
Capsule offers Professional, Teams, and Enterprise plans that are most relevant for small business needs.
Respectively, at $18/month, $36/month, or $54/month you’ll gain access to everything in Capsule’s key features and a host of other features per plan.
If you run an especially-small business, I’d recommend their Professional plan to save money.
Pros
- Simple interface
- Great customer support
- Super crisp sales pipeline
- Free trial
Cons
- No consulting services
Free CRM Solutions
EngageBay is probably the best free CRM currently on the market.
If you want a highly-affordable all-in-one CRM, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one with a more robust set of features than EngageBay.
Key Features
- Free plan is available for up to 15 users
- All-in-one tool for sales and marketing teams to collaborate
- Contact management
- Robust pipeline details
- Easy meeting scheduling
- Task dashboard
- Automatic email, calls, notes, and lead tracking
- Lead scoring system
Pricing
EngageBay’s free CRM plan is forever free with no signup costs.
Pros
- Great customer support
- Huge host of features for free plan
- Intuitive interface
Cons
- Fewer integrations than other CRM software
HubSpot CRM’s cloud-based platform is a great tool for businesses of any size, regardless of their industry.
From retail and construction to accounting and real estate, this comprehensive software aids B2B and B2C companies alike in a variety of ways like outbound marketing, sales pipeline management, email tracking, lead nurturing, and contact management.
They offer rapid-speed metric analysis, a visual dashboard, and automatic interaction tracking across a variety of platforms including email, social media, live chat, and even phone calls.
Best of all, they offer a free CRM plan!
Key Features
- Fully-packed sales CRM
- Engagement tools
- Pipeline management
- CPQ functionality
- High-level reporting
- Integration with 1k+ tools in their app marketplace
Pricing
Hubspot’s free pricing plan comes with a robust set of tools that should be more than sufficient for any small business.
Pros
- Integrated payment processing
- Scalability
- Massive feature set
- Generous free plan
Cons
- Slightly complicated interface
How We Chose Our Small Business CRM Software List
Identify Your Business Needs
When you choose a CRM, make sure you adjust your feature expectations based on the needs of your business.
That way, you won’t overpay for CRM software that offers much more or less than you need.
Many platforms, such as Salesforce, offer consulting-type services to help you decide which package is correct.
Check Out All the Features and Tools
It is important to do extensive and proper research before deciding on your CRM.
Certain consistencies exist across these tools but some CRM platforms offer unique features that might appeal to you.
Compare Features and Quotes
You probably realize where I’m going with this: research is king.
Make sure to ensure you’re getting the best deal for your CRM by comparing its features and costs to other services.
Test the CRM With Your Team
You’ll have the most successful CRM experience if your entire team likes it.
Be sure to allow them to try different CRM services free trials to see if they have any insights, critiques, or things they love about the software to help you seal the deal on a CRM commitment.
Features to Look for in a CRM System
Lead Management
Acquiring leads can be a highly-lucrative sales strategy for growing companies.
Businesses use tactics such as advertising, direct outreach, web queries, emails, networking events, and even social media campaigns to identify potential customers or clients.
When executed correctly, these strategies entice quality leads that eventually become loyal customers.
Look primarily for CRM software that offers lead management tools.
These tools can help you avoid getting overwhelmed with open leads and not following up.
Contact Management
Contact management is part of the main basis for CRM software.
As contact management systems have evolved into an integral part of customer relationship management, organizations can leverage a vast array of data and optimize sales and service levels.
By tracking contacts’ details as well as their interactions with a business, these valuable tools allow companies to make informed decisions that foster growth.
Reporting Dashboards
These dashboards make it easy to understand your small business’s different metrics and sales reports.
Often, they include visual reports.
The best part of a dashboard is that you can organize and categorize your reports to make them easier for you and your team to understand.
Sales Analytics
With the help of CRM sales analytics, small businesses can now identify their most profitable customer base and target them accordingly.
This allows companies to prioritize their advertising, marketing, and sales efforts on those who promise higher returns on investment over time.
By utilizing customer segmentation insights from these analytics platforms, businesses have a clearer sense of where they should aim for maximum rewards.
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is a tool that can drastically revolutionize your marketing processes.
Your business strategy will become more efficient and impactful with marketing automation tools.
Not only will you be able to segment leads, generate new ones, and nurture relationships with existing customers through automated workflows. It also allows for customer retention activities and account-based marketing techniques.
Sales Data
By accessing comprehensive sales insights, businesses can make smarter decisions on operational alterations, resource distribution, and activity priority setting.
Having organized CRM data at your disposal will help you stay ahead of the game.
Forecasting
Employing a CRM platform with sales forecasting capabilities empowers your sales team to hone their selling strategy and precisely forecast future revenue growth based on existing deals in the pipeline.
Campaign Management
Campaign management is the key to strategic planning, executing, tracking, and assessing marketing initiatives.
Whether a product launch or an event promotion on a small scale, campaign management software can provide businesses with innovative solutions for successfully executing their campaigns.
Now You Decide on a Customer Relationship Management Software
As you can see, you have countless options for choosing CRM software for your small business.
Your chosen solution must offer the features and capabilities necessary for your business to thrive.
This list of effective small-business-oriented CRM gave you a great idea of where you’re heading next in your business growth journey.
Do you have any questions about the best CRM for small businesses? Let us know in the comments below!
FAQs about topic
The easiest small business CRM is Capsule. This platform is known for its accessibility. It’s also great for small businesses because of its free plan.
The easiest small business CRM is Capsule. This platform is known for its accessibility.
My top picks for CRMs are Capsule, Bigin by Zoho, and Pipedrive.
The best startup CRMs are Capsule and Hubspot because of their feature-laden free plans.
Small businesses can and should use CRMs for managing their business relationships!
There’s a whole slew of CRMs that offer pricing plans suitable for small businesses.
