6 Best CRM Call Center Software in 2022
Jess served on the founding team of a successful B2B startup and has used a wide range of sales and marketing tools over the course of her 15-year career. She uses her industry knowledge to deliver the best answers to your questions about sales tools and sales management.
Bianca is a staff writer at Fit Small Business who specializes in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
This article is part of a larger series on CRM.
Customer relationship management (CRM) call center software not only offer tools for contact and lead management, but also has telephonic features that allow you to manage and track calls as well as generate call-centric analytics reports. The best CRM call center software providers offer these features at an affordable price point. Here, we compared dozens of CRM call center solutions and narrowed it down to our top six.
Our top picks, and their best uses cases, include:
- Freshsales: Best overall for businesses that want the essential calling features for sales enablement combined with an easy-to-use, customizable CRM
- Agile CRM: Best for teams that use multiple channels and applications to communicate with customers
- Zoho CRM: Ideal option for small businesses looking for a low-cost, operational CRM with call center functionalities
- Nextiva: Great choice for companies that want robust call center automation tools
- Bitrix24: Suitable for businesses that want call center features combined with project management tools
- Voicent: Excellent choice for companies looking for advanced call center features like an auto-dialer, phone surveys, and call routing
Best CRM Call Center Software Compared
Features |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Free Plan | Yes (unlimited users) | Yes (10 users) | Yes (3 users) | No | Yes (unlimited users) | No |
Free Trial for Paid Plans | 21 days | N/A | 15 days | 7 days | N/A | 30 days |
Starting Price for Paid Plans* | $15 per user, per month | $9.99 per user, per month | $14 per user, per month | $28.95 per user, per month | $39 per month for 5 users | $19 per agent, per month |
Call Routing | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ |
Outbound Calls | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ |
Interactive Voice Response | âś“ via Freshdesk Contact Center and Freshsales Suite | N/A | âś“ via Zoho Desk | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ |
Mobile App | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ |
Help and Support | 24/7 support via phone, chat, and email; dedicated account manager | Setup guides, training workshops, and 24/5 customer support via email and phone | Self-help guides, community forum, training videos and webinars, tier-based customer support via email (24/7), phone and live chat (24/5) | Professional implementation, and 24/7 support via email, chat, and phone | Help desk, online training, chat with tech support, and email support | Self-help modules and YouTube videos; paid tech, email, and phone support |
*Based on annual billing
Freshsales: Best Overall CRM Call Center Software
Freshsales
Overall Score: 4.79
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Freshdesk Contact Center (Freshsales’ call center software) product offered within the platform
- Both the CRM and call center options offer a free plan
- Analytics feature measures sales of individual performance based on outbound calls made, pipeline process, and customer interactions
What's Missing
- Can get expensive if you want all features offered by both the CRM and Freshdesk Contact Center
- Mobile app is known to have issues with crashing and unresponsiveness for the call features of the CRM and Freshdesk Contact Center
- Freshdesk Contact Center can’t transfer to the live chat systems of Freshchat while on a call
Freshsales Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Unlimited users (limited features)
- Growth: $15 per user, per month
- Pro: $39 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $69 per user, per month
- Freshsales Suite (Sales + Marketing CRM): Ranges from $0 to $69 per user, per month
- Free trial for paid plans: 21 days
Add-ons for paid plans:
- Additional workflows: $5
- Phone credits: Starts at $25
- CPQ (Configure, Price, & Quote): $19 per user, per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
Freshsales by Freshworks is an intuitive CRM with built-in cloud telephony tools, such as automatic inbound call routing, click-to-call functions, call recording, and call queues. Its easy-to-use call center tools include sales call and team performance analytics. It also comes with a mobile app that lets you take calls on the go, log calls, and link them with a contact, deal, or account.
If you want access to more advanced call center features, you can sign up for Freshdesk Contact Center (free or starting at $15 per agent, per month). This smart call center software within the Freshworks platform offers expanded call center functionalities, such as international phone numbers, vanity numbers, call blocking, voice bots, and abandoned call metrics.
For small businesses, Freshsales offers a great price point for a CRM system with solid basic call center features. However, the cost of many agents, number of calls, call duration, and subscription to both Freshsales and Freshdesk Contact Center could soar. Check out its Call Center Estimator to learn more about the specifics of your total operational costs. Alternatively, consider Zoho CRM or Agile CRM for basic CRM call center software solutions with more budget-friendly pricing schemes.
Freshsales Features
- Core CRM: Contact management, account management, contact lifecycle stages, activity timeline, auto-profile enrichment, sales activities (tasks, appointments, and notes), and activity home dashboard
- CRM customization: Rename modules, custom fields, profile avatar for contact and account, record tags, product catalog, email template tags, workflows, and auto-assignment rules
- Sales pipeline management: Deal management, visual sales pipelines, collaboration with Slack, rotten deals, multiple sales pipelines, sales goals, and sales forecasting
- Cloud telephony: Built-in phone, buy local and toll-free numbers, inbound caller ID, call masking, call recording, voicemails and voicemail drop, call queues, bring your own carrier (BYOC), conference calling, holiday routing, virtual hold, and warm transfer
- Chat: Chat widget, conversation threads, chat assignment rules, canned responses, private notes, FAQs (frequently asked questions) articles, auto-resolve rules, IntelliAssign (auto-assign chats based on agent availability and workload), and chat campaign
- Freddy AI (artificial intelligence) assistant: Predictive contact scoring, lead gen bot, smart matches (deduplication of data), chatbot, deal insights (close rate, trending, at risk, or cold), and forecasting insights
- Integrations: Messaging channels (short message service, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Apple Business Chat), website (classic forms, smart forms, and website tracking), application programming interface (API) access, and Freshworks Marketplace
- Mobile app: Android and iOS apps, contact, account, and deal management, voice notes, book Uber from CRM, Google Maps integration, caller ID, location check-in, automatic call logging, documents, and offline access
- Help and support: 24/7 support via phone, chat, and email; access to dedicated account manager for Enterprise users
Read our Freshsales review to discover how this software can benefit your growing business.
Agile CRM: Best CRM Call Center Software for Multi-channel Communications
Agile CRM
Overall Score: 4.65
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Can integrate with several communication applications, like Twilio, Skype, and RingCentral
- Tag-based calling features to flag specific contacts as critical or tag them for a unique accommodation
- Two-way telephony includes enhanced caller ID and call scripts
What's Missing
- Telephony features are included in higher tiers only
- Call center features like post-call automation and automated voicemails are only available on the highest-priced plan
- Analytics does not report website tracking
Agile CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to 10 users (limited features available)
- Starter: $9.99 per user, per month
- Regular: $39.99 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $64.99 per user, per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates, and two-year contracts are available at slightly lower rates.
Agile CRM allows you to integrate your system with third-party telephony apps so you can make and receive calls directly from your CRM. Some of these popular integrations include voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) providers, e.g., Twilio, CounterPath, Skype, and RingCentral. Its enhanced caller ID provides you with real-time information about a caller even before receiving a call. In addition, its call automation features include call scripts, voicemail drops, and call forwarding.
Unlike Freshsales and Bitrix24, which both offer telephony integrations and features with its free plan, Agile CRM’s calling capabilities are only available in its two highest tiers. Aside from that, its post-call automation, call recording, and voicemail capabilities are included only in its Enterprise plan. Zoho CRM is another competitor that offers similar basic calling features but at more affordable rates.
Agile CRM Features
- CRM sales essentials: Contact management, centralized database, calendar, documents, and deals
- Sales enablement: Lead scoring, appointment scheduling, gamification, project management, lead prospector, CRM reporting, e-docs and proposals, document signing, and email finder
- Telephony: Inbound computer telephony integration (CTI), auto-dialer, voicemail drops, call recording, call scripts, post-call automation, call conferencing, and virtual private branch exchange (PBX)
- Marketing: Marketing automation (email marketing, email tracking, and newsletters), web engagement (landing pages, web forms, and CRM analytics), and mobile marketing
- Service: Help desk, service automations (canned responses and ticket feedback), live chat, and knowledge base
- Popular integrations: Twitter, Facebook, Zendesk, ClickDesk, IMAP, Google Workspace, Twilio, RingCentral, SendGrid, Amazon SES, Plivo, Stripe, Shopify, Drupal, Unbounce, and Zapier
- Mobile app: Android and iOS apps offer a mobile dashboard, contact management, deal tracking, events and tasks, and Google Calendar sync
- Help and support: Setup guides, training workshops, and 24/5 customer support via email and phone
Check out our Agile CRM review to explore the other benefits that your company can gain from using this software.
Zoho CRM: Best Cost-effective CRM With Call Center Features
Zoho CRM
Overall Score: 4.43
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Integration with PBX systems provide precise analytics on sales calls-to-deals made, allowing call strategies to be adjusted for better performance
- Call reporting analytics are displayed in an easy-to-understand format
- Call center software included in Zoho Desk, customer service software within the Zoho ecosystem
What's Missing
- Free plan has very few features and is limited to 3 users
- Limited customer support; premium support requires separate purchase
- Most of the CRM customization is only available in the highest-priced plan
Zoho CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to 3 users (minimal features)
- Bigin: $7 per user, per month
- Standard: $14 per user, per month
- Professional: $23 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $40 per user, per month
- Ultimate: $52 per user, per month
- Zoho CRM Plus: $57 per user, per month
- Free trial: 15 days
Add-ons:
- Additional file storage: $4 per month per 5GB
- Additional data storage: $2 to $4 per 100MB
- Additional data backup: $12 per request
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
Zoho CRM offers a free option with basic features and robust yet affordable paid plans. It has a built-in telephony system that allows you to buy local or toll-free numbers and assign unique outgoing numbers to your agents. This solution integrates with Zoho Desk, so you can access email ticketing and help desk capabilities at no additional cost. You can also connect it with other telephony and PBX programs, such as Ring.io, Amazon Connect, and Zoho PhoneBridge.
One of the challenges of using Zoho CRM is navigating around its robust features, since this is an all-inclusive sales solution that offers a broad suite of tools. If you prefer using call center software that is not as complicated as a full-featured CRM, consider choosing Voicent or Nextiva.
Zoho CRM Features
- Sales force automation: Leads, contacts, accounts, deals, tasks, events, call logs, notes, sales forecasting, email insights, multiple currencies, scoring rules, assignment rules, email parser, and multiple pipelines
- CRM customization: Page customization, rename tabs, custom fields, custom modules, page layouts, and custom list views
- Telephony: PBX integration, single-click dialing, reminders for upcoming and missed calls, automate scheduling of calls and post-call activities, auto-log calls, update call status, and save notes
- Zia (artificial intelligence): Data enrichment, conversational artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, reminders, best time to contact, smart automations, assignment suggestions, AI for emails, and best recommendations
- Reports and analytics: Standard and custom reports, scheduled reports, charts, key performance indicators (KPIs), funnels, target meter, comparator, cohorts, anomaly detector, dashboard, webform analytics, webform A/B testing, and workflow reports
- Social: Enrich data with Twitter and Facebook profiles, social tabs, automated lead generation from social media, and social interaction with leads and contacts
- Marketing automation: Email templates, email opt-out, mass email, marketing campaigns, customer segmentation, and auto-responders
- Web forms: Web-to-lead, web-to-contact, and web-to-case forms
- Team collaboration: Motivator (gamification), calendar, status updates, direct messages, attach file to leads, tagging, and groups for team collaboration
- Inventory management (for Professional and higher plans only): Products, price books, sales quotes, sales orders, invoices, vendors, and purchase orders
- Integrations: Apps for online meetings, telephony, and PBX, team collaboration, office productivity, storage, analytics, email marketing, customer service, finance, business operations, website visitor tracking, and maps and route planning
- Mobile app: Android and iOS apps manage deals, contacts, tasks, analytics dashboards, RouteIQ (route planning), and mobile card scanner (convert business cards into CRM contacts)
- Customer support: Knowledge base, FAQs, community forum, training, videos, webinars, e-books, and Zia on-screen tips; tier-based customer support via email (24/7), phone (critical cases only or 24/5), and live chat (24/5)
If you want to know more about this software’s features and capabilities, read our Zoho CRM review.
Nextiva: Best for Automating Call Center Functionalities
Nextiva
Overall Score: 4.28
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Offers 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, and email
- Drag-and-drop call flow builder for setting up the phone system
- Known for having a high percentage of uptime and minimal outages
What's Missing
- Does not offer a free plan
- Training is limited to videos
- Doesn’t offer email marketing
Nextiva Pricing at a Glance*
- Essential: Starts at $28.95 per user, per month
- Professional: Starts at $33.95 per user, per month
- Enterprise: Starts at $43.95 per user, per month
- Ultimate: Starts at $73.95 per user, per month
- Cloud contact center: Contact sales for pricing
- Free trial: 7 days
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates, while 24-month, 36-month, and prepay 36-month agreements are available at lower rates.
Nextiva offers business communication plans that consolidate phone, video, chat, and collaboration tools into a single app. Its features include unlimited high definition (HD) calling, call routing, screen sharing, and custom caller ID. While it does not function like a traditional CRM, it has excellent automation features that allow you to automatically deploy surveys after calls, prioritize cases with poor customer feedback, and direct emails to new leads.
Nextiva is an excellent tool for business communication management, but it may not be the best choice for you if your business requires robust customer support features. In that case, consider Freshsales or Bitrix24, which both offer free and affordable CRM call center software options.
Nextiva Features
The call pop feature provides a view of all relevant customer information and interactions on a single screen (Source: Nextiva)
- Voice calling: Unlimited calling within the U.S. and Canada, free local and toll-free number, 1,500 to 12,500 toll-free minutes, high-definition (HD) voice, auto-attendant, unlimited internet fax, and free number porting
- Voice productivity: Call pop (complete customer information view), voice-to-email notifications, voice-to-SMS notifications, voicemail transcription, team presence (agent status and availability), shared line appearance, professionally recorded greeting, single sign-on, hold music, and call group
- Meetings: Unlimited conference calls, unlimited video calling, and HD video calling
- Collaboration: Team messaging and collaboration, private group messaging, screen sharing, mobile SMS and MMS (multimedia messaging service)
- Voice analytics and reports: Call history, call log reports, and voice analytics
- Voice administration: Admin portal, user portal, dashboard, real-time system status alerts, and call recording
- Phones: Bring your own device (BYOD), desk and conference phone rental options, desk phone, and conference phone
- Integrations: Nextiva CRM, Salesforce, Microsoft Outlook, Google Contacts, HubSpot, Zendesk, NetSuite, ServiceNow, ConnectWise, and Microsoft Dynamics
- Mobile app: Android and iOS apps; Nextiva Anywhere (inbound and outbound calls from your own mobile device)
- Customer support: Multi-site support, real-time system alert status, professional implementation, and 24/7 support via email, chat, and phone
Check out our Nextiva review to find out this is the right solution for your growing business.
Bitrix24: Best for Combined Call Center & Project Management Tools
Bitrix24
Overall Score: 3.59
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Phone features work anywhere in the world
- Relatively inexpensive when evaluated per user
- Call center software includes collaboration options that integrate well with the project management tools
What's Missing
- Does not offer any customer phone support
- User interface can be difficult to navigate
- Unlimited call recording is only available in higher-priced plans
Bitrix24 Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Unlimited users
- Basic: $39 per month (5 users)
- Standard: $79 per month (50 users)
- Professional: $159 per month (unlimited users)
*Based on annual billing. Monthly and quarterly pricing are also available at slightly higher rates.
Bitrix24 is a CRM system with integrated project management features that can be used for specific call center functions. For example, you can assign inbound calls as tasks within a project. You can also automatically generate leads for answered and missed calls logged in the contact center. In addition, you can connect your phone to your CRM to link calls to deals.
This solution is great if you need additional tools for human resources and website design. Its telephonic features allow you to call your staff or clients directly from your CRM app. You can also easily access relevant contact data such as company position or order details before you start a call.
Much like Bitrix24, Zoho CRM also offers tools for managing human resource tasks. When it comes to project management features, Bitrix24 has the edge because of its Gantt chart generation and Kanban board functionality. However, it does not offer phone customer support, and its user interface can be overwhelming for beginners. Freshsales, on the other hand, offers unlimited support and has an easy-to-use interface.
Bitrix24 Features
Bitrix24’s telephony solution (Source: Bitrix24)
- CRM: Unlimited leads, deals, contacts, quotes, and invoices; lead and deal conversion, product catalog, sales pipelines, sales automation tools, custom fields, document generator, custom stages, client profile, activity timeline, recurring deals and invoices, automatic duplicate detection, payment and delivery, and inventory management
- Contact center: Connect different channels (phone, email, live chat, and social media messaging) to your CRM; built-in telephony call back widget, website widget, and email copy storage
- Telephony: PBX integration, unlimited incoming and outgoing lines, call routing, call transfer, VoIP integration, internal extensions, work hour settings, voicemail and greetings, call-to-all distribution mode, missed call forwarding, export call details, automatic dialer, client conversation rating, interactive voice response (IVR) menu, queue groups, automatic call transcription menu, and call recording
- Communication: Chat, HD video calls, video conferencing, company drive, calendar, company social network, news feeds, work groups, extranet (private network with controlled access for outsiders), announcements, polls, appreciation badges, video announcements, company knowledge base, and smart search
- Tasks and projects: Tasks, Kanban boards, project management, auto-focus mode (automatically sort tasks based on priority), scrum, efficiency KPI, task automation, attach files from drive, integration with workflows, access permissions, and report builder
- Sites and landing pages: Visual website builder, connect sites to Bitrix24 call tracking, free website hosting, website widget, customer journey tracking, and site import and export
- Ecommerce: Online store builder, products, orders, checkout scripts, order processing, payment processing, access rights, coupons, cumulative discounts, automation rules, fixed shipping costs, shipping cost calculator, and inventory management
- CRM marketing: Customer segmentation, segment-based email marketing, audience search, Facebook advertising, advertising automation rules, and email templates
- Sales intelligence: Automatic customer journey tracking, analytical reports, automated ad management, call tracking, and offline ad tracking
- Human resources (HR) tools: Company social network, employee profile page, company structure, employee directory, quick employee search, work time tracking, absence management, work reports, company knowledge base, and meetings
- Mobile app: Android and iOS apps; deals, contacts, companies, invoices, offers, products, tasks, and projects
- Customer support: Help desk, online training (tool tips, FAQs, video tutorials, and webinars), chat with tech support, and email support
We have created this Bitrix24 review to help you decide if this solution fits your business needs.
Voicent: Best for Advanced Call Center Features
Voicent
Overall Score: 3.03
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Has a built-in email campaign tool
- Includes automated phone survey even for outbound calls
- Offers predictive dialing features, which can drastically improve calling productivity
What's Missing
- Certain features, like inbound call center caller ID and workflow automation, cost extra
- No mobile application
- Free customer support is limited to self-help modules and tutorial videos
Voicent Pricing at a Glance*
- All-in-One Voicent Cloud: $19 per agent, per month
- Usage fees: Starts at 1.5 cents per minute
- Free trial: 30 days
Support & Training:
- Professional Support & Training: Ranges from $149 to $499 one-time fee
- Annual support: $99 per month (paid annually) or 30% of software purchase
- One-time product help phone support: $185 per hour
Add-ons:
- Inbound call center with number: $15 per number
- 2-way text message campaign tool with number: $15 per number
- Additional inbound/outbound voice channel: $7 per channel
- Workflow automation and customer journey management: $99 per account
- Caller ID: $2 per ID
- Email campaign tool: $5 per user
- Call center manager: $10 per user
- Dedicated cloud account: Starts at $250 per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
Voicent is a communication platform that offers a built-in CRM with basic contact and lead management functionalities. It is equipped with call center-specific tools that help improve agent productivity, such as automated outbound phone surveys, IVR, and an auto-dialer. It also integrates with other CRM platforms, including Zoho CRM, Salesforce, and SugarCRM.
Among the glaring disadvantages of Voicent are its lack of a mobile app, few third-party integrations, and limited customization options. It also does not offer online marketing campaign tools. You have to pay extra for other call center features like inbound call center caller ID, workflow automation, and email campaigns. If you need a custom CRM with phone capabilities and more customization options, choose Agile CRM or Zoho CRM.
Voicent Features
- CRM: Contact management, CRM import wizard, save search filters, custom fields, custom sales pipeline categories, custom displays, agent access management, and custom agent roles and permissions
- Business automation: Capture leads (via phone, email, and web), track website visitors and web forms, workflow triggers, contact activity tracking, record daily sales and potential deals, agent performance and activity, custom caller experience, and automatic CRM pop-up on phone calls
- Call center tools: Auto-dialer, predictive dialer, PBX phone system, outbound call center, inbound and outbound IVR, email and SMS marketing, phone and SMS surveys, and inbound call center
- Help and support: Product usage self-help module and YouTube tutorials; paid support includes product training, standard setup, professional support, remote login, and free upgrades, license transfers, remote support services, maintenance, and email and phone support
How We Evaluated the Best CRM Call Center Software
Excellent call center CRM software provides state-of-the-art features specific to phone calling activities within the platform or through a third-party app integration. The software should also offer reporting functionality to track call logs and call center activity. Additionally, great CRM providers deliver solid customer support, are easy to use, and offer attractive pricing options—some of the core CRM features that small businesses need.
Based on our evaluation, Freshsales is the best call center CRM system because of its ability to offer unique call center features like Queue Callback (virtual hold), Bring Your Own Carrier, and supervisor call center controls, all in addition to CRM sales and marketing tools.
The tabs below offer more insight into our evaluation process for selecting the best free customer service software:
40%
Pricing
20%
General Features
15%
Ease of Use
15%
Help & Support
10%
Expert Score
40% of Overall Score
Total costs, along with a variety of pricing options, are typically the most important criteria for any small business decision. Therefore, it was the most heavily weighted when reviewing all of the best call center CRM software. These criteria looked at free account availability, numerous subscription choices, and the flexibility of billing options.
20% of Overall Score
On top of overall core CRM features, we also looked into call center industry-specific CRM functionalities that we consider a necessity. These features include tools to make or receive phone calls, outbound call tracking, third-party integrations, robust contact management features, and mobile capabilities.
15% of Overall Score
The functions of any application are only as beneficial as they are usable. Therefore, we analyzed ease of use in terms of the expertise needed to integrate it with other applications, the skill required to operate the call center features, and the overall interface usability.
15% of Overall Score
Help and support hold the same weight as the ease-of-use criteria, and we evaluated it in terms of customer service hours, phone support, live chat support, and email support.
10% of Overall Score
In addition to our own experiences with the providers, we looked at reputable review sites and gathered expert opinions from outside sources. We evaluated standout features, overall value for money spent, popularity, and ease of use.
*Percentages of overall score
