Bonfire Rating: 4.4/5
Funnel is designed for small businesses who value simplicity above all else!
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Let’s face it, choosing the perfect CRM can be a complex process.
Finding one that fits like a glove for your business can be challenging with so many options.
I’m AJ—here to take the guesswork out of the equation. I’ve used tons of customer relationship tools over the last decade while growing my business.
After negotiating a successful seven-figure exit with my company, I started Small Business Bonfire (SBB) to share some of that experience with fellow entrepreneurs.
After using Funnel for so long, we decided to take a crack at writing an in-depth review to give you the inside scoop!
Let’s dig in!
Also, check out this list of the best CRMs for small businesses once you’re done reading!
You Can Trust Small Business Bonfire
Since 2009 Small Business Bonfire has been testing and rating thousands of business software to help you (our small business owners) start & scale your organizations. If you want to know more about how we test, please read this article here.
What is Funnel CRM?
Funnel is a no-nonsense cloud-based sales customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed for simplicity and affordability.
The platform has all the essential features of a CRM with none of the complexity.
Some features offered by the CRM software include:
- Email template creation
- Deal management tools
- Lead form creation
- Task management capabilities
- Contact management
It’s easily one of the most cost-effective CRMs on the market, making it perfect for startups and small businesses.
Plus, the Pro plan allows you to add new users to help scale your business alongside the platform.
Pros and Cons of the Funnel CRM
It’s important to talk about the benefits and the downsides of any platform. Let’s get into the pros and cons of Funnel CRM.
Funnel CRM Pros
- Very user friendly
- Affordable pricing
- Easy-to-create contact forms
- Email templates are easy to create and send
Funnel CRM Cons
- No mobile app
- Deal management has a learning curve
- Lacks automation capabilities
- Customer support was always down
Who is Funnel CRM Best Suited For?
Funnel CRM is a great choice for the following businesses:
- Startups – Funnel’s pricing and scalability make it the perfect choice for those just starting. Plus, it’s incredibly easy to hit the ground running with (especially for anyone new to CRM).
- Small businesses – With its cost-effective pricing, comprehensive lead capture, and customer tracking features, Funnel is a great option for small business owners looking to streamline their sales process without breaking the bank.
Who is Funnel CRM Not Suited For?
Not every CRM is a one-size-fits-all solution.
Here’s who Funnel isn’t ideal for:
- Large enterprises – Funnel CRM is designed with small businesses in mind, so it may not have the advanced features and automation capabilities that larger enterprises require.
- Large marketing teams – Funnel CRM has some basic marketing features such as email template creation, but it lacks advanced marketing capabilities (that marketing-focused teams will definitely miss).
Funnel CRM Software Pricing
Funnel once again keeps it simple with just two pricing plans.
They are the following:
- Standard – $10/Month
- Pro – $39/Month
How Does Funnel CRM Pricing Compare?
Funnel CRM is a very affordable platform compared to the rest of the competition.
Here’s how Funnel CRM stacks up to the competition in terms of basic plans:
- Monday.com – $10/Month
- Less Annoying CRM – $15/Month
- Funnel CRM – $10/month
- Copper CRM – $29/Month
As you can see, Funnel CRM easily holds its own amongst the competition.
In terms of advanced plans, Copper CRM charges $59/month for its Professional plan. Compared to Funnel CRM’s pro plan, Funnel is easily the more affordable option.
Essentially, if you’re looking for a platform that’s cheaper than the average CRM with some great features, Funnel CRM might be your best bet.
Funnel CRM Pricing Tips
Funnel CRM Core Features
It's important to be able to embed contact forms directly into your website to make sure potential deals don't fall through the cracks.
Funnel CRM allows you to do just that with its excellent tool for creating lead capture forms.
We started by creating a web form designed for clients wanting to start a potential affiliate marketing partnership with Small Business Bonfire.
Like every aspect of Funnel CRM, they keep it as straightforward as possible.
Here's an example of the creation process (shown below).
We simply added the fields we wanted, used the drag-and-drop functionality to order them to our liking, and then named each one. The process took less than 10 minutes, which we thought was awesome.
Here's what we came up with.
Deal management is one of the most essential features of a good CRM. In the case of Funnel, it's a little different than your typical deal management.
Instead of creating deals using the CRM's fields, Funnel converts custom web form submissions into deals.
This adds an extra level of sales funnel customization that we thought was great, allowing you to choose exactly which information to input (and how it's organized).
Here's what our interface looked like during testing using the custom "Affiliate Marketing" form we created.
However, we ultimately felt somewhat limited in adding and managing deals. There were several instances where data didn't save, or we had errors uploading deals.
Despite the simplicity of Funnel, many technical issues stopped us from getting the most from the platform.
Funnel CRM sticks to its guns with a bare-bones contact management system that is incredibly easy to use.
We navigated to the contacts tab and were able to create new contacts or import our existing customer database.
For the purposes of our testing, we tried both. We could not connect our Gmail account throughout our testing (due to an error on the app developer's end). Luckily, we were able to upload contacts from an Excel document.
Creating a new contact was as easy as a few clicks and filling out a few fields with the customer information (pictured below).
We liked how clear and easy it was to add notes or tags that your team could view in real time. For SMBs that want some of the easiest contact management in the game, Funnel CRM has you covered.
Do you find yourself struggling to come up with witty responses to customers, only to then have to do it about a hundred times a day?
With Funnel CRM, you can easily create different types of email templates that you can customize for future use.
We created a custom template to send to our clients (pictured below).
While admittedly simple, this whole process saved our team quite a bit of time once we had all of our templates saved.
Think of it like this: if you have fewer emails to send out and more deals to close, then Funnel CRM is well worth the investment.
Last but not least, we have Funnel CRM's task management capabilities.
To test the CRM software's capabilities, we put in some of our day-to-day tasks at Small Business Bonfire.
Here's an example of what it looked like to create a task to give you a better idea of how easy the process is.
We liked how it was easy to assign members to accomplish the following with Funnel's task manager:
- Add attachments
- Assign users
- Select a company
- Create a deadline
- Assign a relevant deal
Here's what our task management dashboard looked like.
At the end of the day (based on our three-month testing period), we found Funnel CRM's task manager to be a great way to organize your team's tasks intuitively.
More organization means more sales, happier employees, and a more successful business overall.
What are the Limitations of Funnel CRM?
Funnel CRM has a lot of great features, but there are some limitations to the platform.
For instance, there is virtually no workflow automation with Funnel. If you’re a large organization with many contacts, tasks, deals, and sales to organize, you will most likely find Funnel somewhat limited.
We would have also liked to see multichannel support through optimized communication channels for email, text, chat, or phone. This was a big limitation, in our opinion.
Plus, there’s no mobile app (which disappointed us). We love accessing our CRM on the go, and Funnel CRM offers no such functionality.
How to Get Started with Funnel CRM
Getting started with Funnel CRM was as straightforward as possible.
We simply navigated to the homepage to start the onboarding process. We liked the artistic image (shown below) and the modern-looking design of the website.
We were drawn immediately to the bright call to action button to start a 14-day free trial. So, we put in our email and got started.
From there, we input a few fields, including the following:
- Name
- Company name
- Phone number
- Company type
We were asked a few questions to help personalize the Funnel CRM experience for Small Business Bonfire. Here’s what we answered.
A surprising amount of CRMs we’ve tested have distracting images or layouts that can create visual confusion.
As we’ve touched on, with Funnel, there are no frills. I guess you could say they’re here to streamline your business and chew bubble gum (and they’re all out of gum).
Once we completed the onboarding process, we were taken to our deals section of Funnel, where we started inputting some of our affiliate marketing and PPC campaign deals.
Is Funnel CRM Easy to Use?
Funnel CRM is incredibly easy to use! It’s one of the platform’s biggest strengths, in our opinion.
Everything was laid out in a way that made it extremely easy to navigate, with no technical knowledge necessary.
The one issue we had with ease of use is that a few of the site’s links seem to be broken. For example—throughout months of testing, we were never able to successfully achieve Gmail integration despite the link being available.
Our overall takeaway is that the platform is fantastic and very user-friendly. It just might need some maintenance to iron out the flaws.
Funnel CRM Customer Service Review
We contacted Funnel CRM’s customer support team to ask a quick question about Slack integration.
Despite our best efforts (throughout our testing), we could not contact a single representative due to a continuous error on the site.
We were able to find the answer to our questions with the assistance of both their robust help center and also their Facebook community.
However, Funnel CRM’s customer support was disappointing, to say the least (as we made every effort to reach out).
We are more than happy to keep trying in the months to come because we really like Funnel CRM and hope to see their customer service improve.
Funnel CRM Alternative Comparison
Funnel CRM isn’t the only option on the market. Here are some alternatives that we think are fantastic!
Is Funnel CRM Worth it for Small Business Owners?
Funnel CRM is great for small business owners that are potentially new to CRM systems and want to get a lot of value for a low price.
With Funnel CRM, you get an incredibly easy-to-use platform that can save sales and marketing teams a ton of time. Remember, a more organized team means a more organized sales process overall.
Don’t just take our word for it, though. Try the 14-day free trial and see if it works for your business!