7 Best Account Management Software for 2023

Zendesk Sell equips account managers with everything they need to assist, upsell, and communicate with their clients. Users, for instance, can reference product and price books from the CRM system to help clients navigate products and services. There are also communications capabilities for users to engage account points-of-contact through direct email, mass email, text, or phone through the CRM. On the data management side, Zendesk Sell teams monitor client information and activity history, store account documents, and keep their database clean with automated duplicate detection.

Ranked the best overall account management software, Zendesk Sell supplements its communications, data management, and sales features with a simple interface that’s easy to navigate. It also comes with over 1,000 outside integrations, including RingCentral, QuickBooks, and Dropbox, for sales teams to add additional functionality through their favorite third-party applications. Finally, users who need assistance can rely on Zendesk Sell’s excellent customer support, available on live chat, phone, and email channels, plus its self-service resources like an online help center and forum.

A significant issue with Zendesk, particularly for startups and smaller businesses just getting started with software for account management, is that the provider does not offer a free-forever plan to users. A free plan lets users become comfortable with the features risk-free until they’re ready to upgrade and scale their operation. Luckily, alternatives such as Freshsales and Zoho CRM offer a zero-cost plan—making them two of the best free account management software options.

Freshsales stands out as an excellent CRM system for its free plan available for up to 3 users, scalable paid plans, and solid user experience through its clean interface and easy-to-use features. In terms of sales account management tools, the platform can act as a comprehensive solution for overseeing business clients and deals. The CRM data records include a complete view of contact information, notes, tasks, appointments, prior activity, and related deals and support tickets. Account hierarchies also let users view companies with all associated personnel and job titles.

Freshsales, however, dominates with its zero-cost, built-in telephone system. A significant part of an account manager’s job involves placing or receiving calls for upselling, cross-selling, or being available to assist clients. Having a phone within the CRM makes it easy to centralize work activity in one interface. With the phone system, users can dial or call directly from a contact or account record through click-to-dial.

While cost-friendly all-around, some data management features, such as deduplication and automated profile enrichment, require the higher Pro and Enterprise plans for access. These features are critical for maintaining a clean customer database with up-to-date information to help account managers succeed. Zendesk Sell has a more cost-friendly option, with deduplication available on the Team plan for $19 per user, per month, and profile enrichment credits on the Growth plan for $49 per user, per month.

Maximizer CRM is built to help businesses “maximize” performance in terms of new business and recurring revenue. The first of the two product editions involves the base CRM system, which includes features that account managers and customer success managers use. For example, there’s a full case management module for tracking customer inquiries, managing service level agreements (SLAs), and storing manuals and notes to help reps assist clients. Teams can also organize contact data, notes, and documents, including quotes and invoices from a product catalog.

The other product offered by Maximizer is the Sales Leader edition. It’s specifically built to help sales leaders, in this case, those overseeing account management operations, boost and monitor performance. There are tools for automatically tracking indicators that a deal could be going south, performance reporting and activity tracking for account reps, and quote management features with sales forecasting. Plus, there are features for creating friendly competitions for upselling or retention campaigns and coaching tools to provide feedback and advice on specific deals, accounts, or tasks.

It’s clear that price is the most significant barrier to selecting this CRM. There’s no free plan option, and paid plans start at $55 per user on a monthly basis. Users looking for a lower-priced alternative with similar operations management capabilities should consider Zoho CRM. Many of its reporting, performance management, and process oversight features start on the Professional plan for $23 per user, monthly.

Zoho CRM is a popular, cost-friendly CRM that serves as a powerful resource due to its advanced automation and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities as well as its account and case management modules and the ability to store product price books in the system. Account management teams can also use Zia, the AI tool, to keep their profile data up to date, remind users of tasks, and recommend automated workflows and macros that boost productivity. Automated workflows are available on the free plan to send email notifications, assign tasks and records, and update data based on preset criteria in real time.

Zoho’s greatest attribute, however, is system customization. No matter what you sell, how you sell it, and the manner in which your account management operation runs, anyone can tailor Zoho to meet nearly any requirement. Teams can design custom modules, home page components, tabs, automations, and page layouts. There’s also the option to insert and require customizable data fields within account or deal records and create customizable page buttons to help navigate the interface.

Those with little technical knowledge or no experience setting up a CRM may struggle with Zoho. The platform lacks intuitiveness when managing users, creating system preferences, and configuring admin settings. Freshsales is a better alternative that measures well in all usability categories, including ease of setting up the CRM software.

Salesforce Essentials is a CRM system built specifically for small businesses. Because of Salesforce’s hold on the CRM market, the platform comes with a highly advanced mobile application to run account management operations on the go. There are also over 2,500 integration options with both general-use and industry-specific CRMs—letting teams sync account data between multiple apps. Team members can maintain a complete overview of their accounts and clients, including tracking activity history, prior communications, key contacts, and internal discussions.

For account management teams that need case management and help desk software, look no further than Salesforce Essentials. The system allows users to link cases to accounts, automatically route incoming customer inquiries to specific reps, and manage service level agreements (SLAs). Teams can also store knowledge resources while engaging with a client—allowing account managers to resolve issues faster and with better quality service.

The most clear-cut problem with Salesforce Essentials is that because it’s the provider’s small business-specific product, the features for creating contracts, sales orders, quotes, and managing a products and price books page are not included. The provider does not begin offering those modules until the Salesforce Professional Sales Cloud for $75 per user, per month. Zoho CRM is an excellent alternative with a low-cost inventory management module with quoting, invoicing, and product management starting at $23 per user, per month.

Apptivo is a sales, marketing, and inventory management system built into one platform. Regardless of the plan selected, it’s a cost-friendly customer account management software option that lets teams store and manage contact data. Teams can also organize client files and oversee tasks, appointments, and notes associated with an account. Once on the Ultimate plan for $20 per user, monthly, users can access critical features for sending quotes and bills, as well as deploying automated email and text sequences to clients.

Businesses that sell tangible products and use account managers to support existing clients (as common with office suppliers, equipment manufacturers, or IT hardware distributors) get solid value from Apptivo. In addition to sales, marketing, and account management capabilities, Apptivo has inventory management modules. These features include a customizable product catalog where users can insert specific products with descriptions, tags, serial numbers, and prices. They then can directly add ordered items from the catalogs to a payable billing invoice and track inventory stock.

Apptivo lacks platform sophistication in that there is no AI tool built in to help users get insights, automate tasks, maintain up-to-date data, or obtain productivity suggestions. These features are particularly great for small businesses as they can transform the capabilities of a small team into that of a larger operation. Zoho CRM and Freshsales are the two best alternatives for AI capabilities, with Zoho’s Zia and Freshsales’ Freddy AI tools.

Bitrix24 is exhaustive CRM software that has sales, marketing, human resources, inventory, projects, and customer service management features in one system. Users can support their business accounts with tons of account management capabilities, including contact data storage, task management, activity tracking, and a contact center with phone, email, live chat, and social media communication channels.

Bitrix24 is the best free account management software for a few reasons. The first is that the free plan is available to unlimited users. Next, the free plan offers a range of account management features. For example, teams can store and manage an unlimited number of contacts and accounts, store client documents, manage account tasks or projects, and maintain a product catalog with unlimited items in the CRM. There are also free client management features for planning collaborative activities with clients from the CRM.

Product usability is the most significant flaw with Bitrix24. Based on our evaluation and user reviews, the platform can be challenging to set up the system, operate the features and modules, and most notably, navigate the interface. Freshsales is the best CRM on this list in terms of usability and operating the system.