Modern customer relationship management (CRM) software has a relevant use in virtually every industry, including automotive. Since the best automotive CRMs include many industry-specific features, it’s important to find one that caters to your—and your customers’—exact needs.
To help you find the right provider for your dealership, we’ve rounded up the best automotive CRM providers based on their features, pricing, and ease of use.
- HubSpot CRM: Best free automotive CRM overall
- Selly Automotive: Best for independent dealers
- Zoho CRM: Best for analytical charting and reporting
- monday CRM: Best for simplified sales management
- Salesforce Automotive Cloud: Best for next-gen AI support
- AutoRaptor: Best for sales funnel visibility
- VinSolutions: Best for vehicle inventory management
- DealerSocket: Best for sales, marketing, and service integration
- Dealer Lead Track: Best for lead management and automation
- Best Automotive CRM Software Compared
- HubSpot CRM: Best Free Automotive CRM Overall
- Selly Automotive: Best for Independent Dealers
- Zoho CRM: Best for Analytical Charting & Reporting
- monday CRM: Best for Simplified Sales Management
- Salesforce Automotive Cloud: Best for Next-Gen AI Support
- AutoRaptor: Best for Sales Funnel Visibility
- VinSolutions: Best for Vehicle Inventory Management
- DealerSocket: Best for Sales, Marketing & Service Integration
- Dealer Lead Track: Best for Lead Management & Automation
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Bottom Line
Best Automotive CRM Software Compared
| Provider | Free Plan | Free Trial | Starting Monthly PriceBased on annual billing on a per-month basis; monthly billing is available at slightly higher rates, unless otherwise specified. | Our Rating out of 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ✓2 users | ✕ | $15 per user | 4.55 |
| Visit HubSpot CRM | ||||
 | ✕ | ✓14 days | $130 per userMonthly billing only | 4.24 |
| Visit Selly Automotive | ||||
 | ✓3 users | ✓15 days | $14 per user | 4.22 |
| Visit Zoho CRM | ||||
 | ✕ | ✓14 days | $12 per userMinimum of three users; total of $36 per month | 4.09 |
| Visit monday CRM | ||||
 | ✕ | ✓30 days | $325 per userAnnual billing only | 3.96 |
| Visit Salesforce | ||||
 | ✕ | ✕ Product Demo only | $399 per user | 3.95 |
| Visit AutoRaptor | ||||
 | ✕ | ✕ Product Demo only | Contact the provider for a quote | 3.74 |
| Visit VinSolutions | ||||
 | ✕ | ✕ Product Demo only | $750 per user | 3.61 |
| Visit DealerSocket | ||||
 | ✕ | ✓ 30 days | $95 per user | 3.54 |
| Visit Dealer Lead Track | ||||
HubSpot CRM: Best Free Automotive CRM Overall
HubSpot CRM Pricing & Features*
Cost: $0 for two users
Key Features:
- User management that lets you easily add, deactivate, or remove users
- Customer service features including channel switching, ticketing, and live chat
- AI-driven Breeze Copilot
- Support for invoicing, Stripe payment processing, service subscriptions, revenue reporting, and QuickBooks Online integration
*Pricing is based on annual billing and a per-month breakdown of the HubSpot Customer Platform plans for individuals and small teams. Enterprise-level products and monthly billing are also available at higher costs. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
**The Customer Platform includes sales, marketing, customer service, CMS, and operations software bundled together in one product. Individual modules can be purchased at lower prices.
HubSpot CRM ticket pipeline for car dealerships (Source: Webdew)
Our Expert Opinion
HubSpot CRM tops this list of the best automotive CRM software because of its all-in-one sales, marketing, service, and operations features. The robust free plan provides a built-in dashboard, comprehensive reporting, and team-based performance data. You can conveniently manage car dealership leads, contacts, sales pipeline, and client communications from a single platform.
Selly Automotive: Best for Independent Dealers
Selly Automotive Pricing & Features
Flat Rate Per Month
Cost: $130 per user
Key Features:
- Centralized communications with automated emails, calls, and text messages
- Deal prioritization and appointment management
- Web and mobile app
- Lead analytics and dashboard reporting
- Integrations with DMS, including CarGurus, TrueCar, and Kelley Blue Book
Selly Automotive intelligent automated text message responses (Source: Selly Automotive)
Our Expert Opinion
Selly Automotive stands out from other CRM software for the automotive industry because of its intelligent autoresponders, which help streamline customer engagement. This industry-specific CRM also offers streamlined communications, smart call routing, workflow automation, and inventory management. These features make it easy for independent dealerships to track sales team members, clients, inventory, analytics, and marketing campaigns.
Zoho CRM: Best for Analytical Charting & Reporting
Zoho CRM Pricing & Features*
Cost: $0 for three users
Key Features:
- Standard reportsIncludes reports on accounts, contacts, leads, deals, campaigns, cases and solutions, products, vendors, quotes, sales orders, invoices, sales metrics, and territories
- Automated leads, account and contact management, and deals
- Marketing campaigns
- 10 custom email templates and email opt-out functionality
- Document library
- Web forms for lead capture
- Appointment tracking
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans, though monthly billing is available at a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Zoho CRM analytics dashboard with key business metrics (Source: Zoho CRM)
Our Expert Opinion
Zoho CRM has comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities, allowing car dealers to easily generate charts, graphs, and reports to help you visualize their productivity. In addition, you can create a customized portal to help your customers easily browse your products and services. We also like its inventory management module, which allows you to manage products, price books, quotes, sales orders, invoices, and inventory.
monday CRM: Best for Simplified Sales Management
monday CRM Pricing & Features*
Cost: $12 per userThree-user minimum requirement; total of $36 per month
Key Features:
- Unlimited contacts, work management boards, pipelines, and dashboards
- Premade templates for deal, contact, and lead management processes
- Embedded documents for collaboration
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans, though monthly billing is available at a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
monday CRM post-sales management module for customer onboarding, collection tracking, and client project management (Source: monday CRM)
Our Expert Opinion
monday CRM is a highly intuitive and customizable platform that allows car dealerships to manage their fleet and operations from a centralized work management board. You can leverage its low-code automation builder to eliminate repetitive tasks and send automated reminders to clients.
Salesforce Automotive Cloud: Best for Next-Gen AI Support
Salesforce Automotive Cloud Pricing & Features*
Cost: $325 per user
Key Features:
- Salesforce Sales Cloud
- Salesforce Service Cloud
- Driver Console with a complete view of customer interactions
- Vehicle Console with records of vehicle details, warranties, and delivery reports
- Household Management with complete driver and vehicle history
- Automotive lead management
- Retail partner performance management
- No-code workflow automation tools
- Appointment scheduling
- Einstein Activity Capture for automatic syncing of email and calendar content
Salesforce Automotive Cloud Pricing Add-ons:
- Experience Cloud for Automotive: $50 per user
- CRM Analytics for Automotive Cloud: $165 per user
- Automotive Cloud Intelligence: $220 per user
- Support and Success Plans: Starting at 30% of net license fees
*Pricing is based on annual billing and a per-month breakdown of the plans. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Salesforce Automotive Cloud household management tab with overview of driver and vehicle history plus AI recommendations (Source: Salesforce)
Our Expert Opinion
The Salesforce Automotive Cloud is the best AI CRM for the automotive industry because of its powerful Einstein AI tool, which has generative and conversational capabilities. It automatically captures email and calendar data and provides actionable insights into sales metrics and smart recommendations for improving productivity and conversion rates.
Visit Salesforce Automotive Cloud
AutoRaptor: Best for Sales Funnel Visibility
AutoRaptor Pricing & Features
Cost: Custom pricing starts at $399 per user monthly
Key Features:
- Lead, contact, and communications management
- Integration with DMS, Inventory Management Systems (IMS), and credit tools
- 20-plus dashboards and reports on performance, inventory, and lead distribution
- Automated e-lead distribution, tasks, communications, and status updates
- Usable by dealerships in and outside the US
- Mobile VIN scanning and ID verification
AutoRaptor performance report and Up Sheets (Source: LinkedIn)
Our Expert Opinion
Created by professionals with prior experience in automotive sales, AutoRaptor serves as a one-stop repository for lead management, sales communications, and more. As a result, many of its core features revolve around sales, including team and dealership performance tracking, sales forecasting, data mining, and lead assignment. Not only does this provide greater visibility into the sales funnel, but it’s also helpful when tracking sales and productivity.
VinSolutions: Best for Vehicle Inventory Management
VinSolutions Pricing & Features
Cost: Contact the provider for a quote
Key Features:
- Centralized customer database for sales and service departments
- Vehicle inventory management with lead count
- Automated follow-ups, tasks, and communications
- Performance management
- Dashboards and reports
- Automated database maintenance
- Integration with Autotrader, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, and Kelley Blue Book
- Mobile app
VinSolutions active inventory list with count of total leads (Source: VinSolutions on YouTube)
Our Expert Opinion
A versatile and customizable platform, VinSolutions combines modern dealership tools with next-gen sales management functionality. One of its strengths is its robust inventory vehicle management system with a real-time view of vehicle leads, pricing, and valuation. This platform is also compatible with numerous third-party apps, including Kelley Blue Book, Dealertrack DMS, and Accelerate My Deal.
DealerSocket: Best for Sales, Marketing & Service Integration
DealerSocket Pricing & Features
Cost: Custom pricing starts at $750 per user monthly
Key Features:
- Seamless integration of sales, marketing, and service keeps all of your customers on a centralized platform
- Use marketing automation to build your customer database, drive communications, and maximize sales
- A highly configurable interface makes it easy to navigate the UI
Our Expert Opinion
DealerSocket provides a centralized platform for customer management and support. This solution simplifies connecting your team—regardless of their department or device—so they can focus on serving the customer and maximizing their productivity. It provides a modern interface with hundreds of third-party integrations that add even more value to the DealerSocket platform.
Dealer Lead Track: Best for Lead Management & Automation
Dealer Lead Track Pricing & Features
Cost:
- $95 per user
- $150 for up to 10 users per location
Key Features:
- 25 manual email scripts
- Lead management with one-click assignment
- Automated internet lead generation
- Automated calendar reminders
Dealer Lead Track manager dashboard showing leads, appointments, and sales reports (Source: Dealer Lead Track)
Our Expert Opinion
Dealer Lead Track provides a straightforward approach to lead management, sales, and customer support. One-click lead assignment makes it easy to assign leads as they come in, while the ability to transfer bulk leads is helpful if you fall behind the flow. There are also options to add automated text and email campaign capabilities.
How We Evaluated the Best Automotive CRM Software
To determine the best automotive CRM software, we evaluated specific features that car dealerships need. For instance, contact and lead management and reporting are common use cases of CRM in the automotive industry. We also looked at other critical product attributes, which include pricing, product ease of use, and customer support availability. Review our evaluation process for the best automotive CRM systems.
To help you choose the right CRM, we assessed general features essential to any product, regardless of industry or whether it’s CRM automotive software. For example, contact and lead management, sales pipelines, reporting and analytics tools, email management, and data import or export are all valuable for any business. We also wanted to check the availability, range, and quality of its third-party integrations, system customizations, and mobile app.
We evaluated niche features relevant to car dealerships. These include marketing automation, SMS and phone campaigns, task management systems, and deal management systems.
Pricing is crucial when evaluating all types of software products. In addition to the free plan or trial period, various pricing options for a growing business were considered. We also looked at billing choices for a subscriber to either pay monthly or save by paying annually and the costs specific to automotive features like vehicle inventory management.
We checked if the provider has built-in templates or automations to assess the ease of use. We also searched reputable review sites to gauge general user sentiment regarding its learning curve and ease of setup. In addition, we considered its plan options to see if it is easily scalable.
User support and customer service help prevent unfavorable experiences and outcomes that teams may encounter when using these CRM products. So we evaluated customer service hours and channel availability via phone, live chat, and email. We also looked at self-service or help center resources users can access, like tutorials, user forums, or training modules.
Aside from our first-hand experience, we evaluated what actual users say about each software according to real online reviews. We looked carefully at customer perception, particularly the value for the price, ease of use when operating the features and navigating the CRM interface, and how users feel about the CRM’s features.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
An automotive CRM is a digital tool that allows auto dealers and service centers to centralize and optimize their sales, operations, and customer service for automotive dealerships. It helps these businesses organize customer follow-ups, send service reminders, nurture customer relationships, and streamline sales lead nurturing processes. In addition, it enables them to align their logistics and inventory management from a single platform.
Several standard and automotive CRM companies are recommended for big automobile dealerships and firms. If you’re looking for a general-use CRM for sales, marketing, customer service, and operations, we recommend HubSpot CRM. Salesforce is best for those needing an AI-powered CRM to analyze data and improve customer engagement. Meanwhile, those needing an industry-specific CRM could consider Selly Automotive and AutoRaptor.
A dealer management system (DMS) is a business management tool made specifically to help dealerships manage their daily business activities. Meanwhile, a customer relationship management (CRM) system collects customer data and interaction history on a centralized platform. When you integrate the two systems, the DMS uses data from the CRM to streamline car sales activities, such as creating contracts and autofilling document templates.
Bottom Line
When choosing a CRM for your automotive business, select the one that aligns with your feature and budgetary needs. For instance, HubSpot CRM is the best free option in this guide, while Selly Automotive is recommended for independent dealers. Zoho CRM is an excellent choice for those who prioritize reporting and analytics tools, and VinSolutions is for those who need a reliable vehicle inventory management system.
