9 Best CRM for Small Businesses

• You want free sales, marketing, and service modules: HubSpot CRM is one of the best free CRM software solutions available on the market. It allows up to two users to access sales, marketing, service, and content management features. If you’re a startup or have a small business with a limited budget, you can use its mass email, third-party integrations, ad management, and support ticket features without spending a dime.
• You need an intuitive and easy CRM for small business teams: HubSpot CRM is one of the simplest CRM systems, as users—even those new to the CRM world—can quickly figure out how to use its features. It uses a modern layout and intuitive navigation system, making it easy to move between modules and operate the tools.
• You need robust marketing features: HubSpot CRM is a marketing automation platform and a CRM system, so it’s ideal for marketing agencies and teams that need high-level marketing features. The platform includes mass email, ad management, a landing page builder, social media management, A/B testing, and the ability to host a blog and on-demand video library.

• You need advanced reporting and analytics tools: HubSpot CRM is an all-around CRM for small businesses. But this CRM only offers basic reporting like email health reporting and sales forecasting. If you want a more in-depth analysis of lead generation and revenue data, you’ll need additional integrations.
  • Alternative: Bigin by Zoho CRM is a solid choice for its customizable reports with CRM data insights. Or use Copper CRM for cross-record reporting (on any field) and advanced reporting tools for insight creation and custom fields. Plus, you can send, automate, and schedule your reports.
• You need multiple pipelines for your growing small business: HubSpot CRM’s freemium plan only has one deal pipeline. Its most basic plan, Starter ($15 per user, monthly), only has two. While you can get up to 15 unique pipelines in the Professional plan ($1,170 per user, monthly), it can be more expensive for startups.
  • Alternatives: Pipedrive offers customizable, unlimited sales pipelines, making it one of the top customizable CRMs. In the same way, monday CRM offers unlimited customizable pipelines on its first tier. And we recommend Bigin by Zoho CRM for solopreneurs and startups. It gives you up to five team pipelines and 25 subpipelines in its Premier plan ($12 per user, monthly).

• You’re looking for a robust sales automation tool: Pipedrive is one of the best sales automation software tools. Teams prioritizing direct outreach for growth benefit from features like business proposal management, deal rotting, and autocontact enrichment.

Pipedrive is also equipped with sales collaboration, data management, and deal tracking tools for creating a more solid lead database and closing more sales. You can also customize its dashboards, templates, and pipelines to improve your sales process.

• You submit many business proposals and bids: Pipedrive is known for its robust proposal features. This is one of the best CRM software for small businesses that comes with autofillable templates. It pulls CRM data into sales documents for a quick generation process.

Use its Smart Docs to autofill, send, and track sales quotes and proposals, along with its built-in e-signature capabilities to get fast contract approvals. This capability further improves your sales processes to win more deals.

• You need a free-forever plan: Pipedrive is an affordable CRM software for small businesses with excellent sales goal tracking and automation features, but it doesn’t offer a free plan. So it’s unsuitable for individuals or small teams who aren’t ready to commit to a paid subscription.
  • Alternatives: Bitrix24 offers free-forever plans that support unlimited users. HubSpot CRM has a freemium plan for two users with sales, marketing, customer support, content, operations, and commerce tools included. On the other hand, Bigin by Zoho CRM offers free-forever tools like a built-in telephone and Bigin Gmail add-on for better communication.
• You want low-cost email features: Pipedrive’s email sync tools for sending, receiving, and tracking emails from the CRM are not available until the Advanced plan for $34 per user, monthly.
  • Alternative: HubSpot CRM offers solid email tools for free. Bigin by Zoho CRM provides mass email, email insights, and automation and attachments in emails on its most basic plan (Express plan for only $7 per user, monthly). Apollo.io offers 10,000 email credits per account, monthly, a Gmail extension, and Gmail and Microsoft integrations starting in its free plan.

• You need a highly intuitive CRM system: monday CRM is one of the best simple CRM systems because it has a spreadsheet format for easy data entry and management. It has a simple and highly intuitive interface, leaving little to no learning curve for navigation, workflow automation, and customization.
• You want to evaluate your database using multiple views: monday CRM is one of our top CRM database software solutions. You can quickly access and analyze data from its various board viewing options, like Kanban, calendar, map, timeline, chart, and workload. Apply color-coded labels and design your workspace based on your preferences.

Moreover, you can check the progress of sales pipeline stages, monitor tasks, or identify your customers’ current location in customizable boards with multiple viewing options. This helps you make more informed business decisions based on the real-time data generated by the CRM.

• You are looking for lead scoring tools with transparent pricing: You can use monday CRM for lead qualification and prioritization, but you’ll have to subscribe to the Enterprise plan at a custom price.
  • Alternative: Apollo.io offers lead scoring and buying intent signals to detect leads interested in your offerings starting in its freemium plan. Copper CRM offers lead scoring in its Business plan at $99 per user, monthly. This plan also includes email sequences, custom reports, and website tracking to further enhance your lead generation efforts.
• You need a CRM with direct QuickBooks or Xero integration: monday CRM integrates with QuickBooks and Xero. But it requires a third-party app connector such as Zapier, which is an extra charge. If your small business uses QuickBooks or Xero for accounting and bookkeeping functions, like payroll and supplier invoicing, this can be a major reason to find another provider.
  • Alternative: Insightly CRM integrates with accounting systems such as QuickBooks and Xero. It is one of the best CRMs that integrate with Xero, enabling business owners to access accounting records and generate invoices.

• You’re looking for an ecommerce CRM: Bitrix24 is a popular option for ecommerce operations primarily because of its plethora of tools for online businesses.If you have an online store, you can streamline operations with its inventory management and shipping cost calculator. Improve customer experiences by ensuring smooth checkout with this platform’s payment processing, and boost branding with its storefront builder.
• You want a CRM with robust internal communication tools: An all-in-one solution for small businesses, Bitrix24 can contain business-related activities internally, including communications. Under its Free plan, users can use the chat system for one-on-one and group calls. Plus, use its native video conferencing tool with unlimited call duration for customer support.

• You prefer a simple CRM with a highly intuitive interface: One common issue with Bitrix24 is its saturated interface. For solo users and absolute beginners, the sheer multitude of features can be overwhelming and require a steep learning curve.
  • Alternatives: Bigin by Zoho CRM is our recommended small business CRM for solo users for its simplicity and ease of use. Meanwhile, consider monday CRM if you want an intuitive interface with a familiar navigation layout.
• You need to automate your email marketing campaign for free: To access Bitrix24’s email marketing tools, you’ll need to subscribe to the Standard plan for $99 per organization, monthly (up to 50 users). The price can be steep for small businesses on a budget, especially those with fewer than 10 employees.
  • Alternatives: HubSpot CRM takes the edge on email marketing automation at no cost. Capsule CRM is another option to look at for its AI assistance in crafting and optimizing emails.

• You want to use an AI-powered CRM for writing sales emails: Capsule CRM’s paid plans (starting at $18 per user, monthly) give you access to its AI content assistant. With this tool, you can draft sales emails from your contact records and get recommendations on the right tone, topic, and even length of your message.
• You’re looking for a basic CRM for easy deal management: Capsule CRM offers basic CRM features like contact management, deal management, and email marketing campaigns. It also has a simple interface that makes it easy for users to manage contacts, calendars, sales, and to-do lists.

• You want a CRM with email tracking features: Capsule CRM offers basic email marketing templates and features but doesn’t have email tracking tools. While you can integrate Capsule CRM with a third-party email analytics app, like Transpond, this could mean additional expense for small business owners.
  • Alternative: HubSpot CRM tops our list of the best CRMs for email marketing because of its advanced emailing feature. If you’re looking for an email open tracker, Copper CRM is a great option.
• You need a CRM with marketing and ecommerce capabilities: Capsule CRM lacks features for setting up marketing campaigns and putting them on autopilot. The same can be said for ecommerce features like inventory management, and billing processes.
  • Alternative: Bitrix24 offers a comprehensive set of ecommerce features, including an online store builder, a built-in checkout process, and product catalogs.

Bitrix24’s marketing capabilities include websites for marketing teams, marketing automation, and segment-based marketing. Your CRM can also connect with social networks like Instagram and Facebook to reach your leads.

• You need affordable lead generation tools: Apollo.io offers lead management tools like autoscore and buying intent starting on its free plan. The buying intent tool lets you easily filter company searches to those leads who expressed interest in your products and services.

With AI-generated lead scoring, you can outline criteria, variables, and weightings that work best for your small business. By combining behavioral and demographic signals, you can quickly build buying signals and generate more leads. Plus, add some talking tips to prepare your team for the conversation.

• You’re looking for low-cost lead engagement tools: Apollo.io offers an AI Writer tool with messaging intelligence to assist reps in crafting email content for lead engagement. Small businesses that use email as a primary communication channel can benefit from this system because it offers unlimited email credits starting with its free plan.

Apollo.io’s AI-powered conversation intelligence capability provides video call insights to managers and reps. It automates manual processes and generates actionable recommendations, helping small businesses create more effective engagement strategies to win more deals.

• You need more robust and advanced digital marketing features: While Apollo.io offers cold calling and email marketing, it lacks other digital marketing features like social media marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). This is a drawback if your company wants to use these strategies for generating marketing-qualified leads.
  • Alternatives: HubSpot CRM and Zoho CRM offer free-forever marketing tools for social and email marketing. As you upgrade your plan, you can use more sophisticated marketing features like advanced SEO recommendations and analytics to inform your campaign strategies.
• You want a complete CRM for your small business: Apollo.io is not a complete CRM like HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM, and Salesforce. However, it integrates with these CRMs to sync data and enhance its capabilities. If you’re good with basic lead generation features, some alternatives have full CRM capabilities.
  • Alternatives: Bigin by Zoho CRM and Capsule CRM have a full range of CRM capabilities like lead, account, and client management with free and scalable, paid plans. If you’re a Google Workspace user, then Copper CRM is your best choice.

• You are a solopreneur or freelancer needing a free and scalable CRM: Bigin is Zoho’s affordable product CRM version built for small business owners, like freelancers and solopreneurs. Its free plan includes contact management and task automation, making Bigin one of the best personal CRMs.

You can easily connect with your acquaintances with its free built-in telephone and free Bigin Gmail add-on. Its tiers range from $7 to $12 per user, monthly for the Express and Premier plans respectively.

• You’re looking for a free CRM with a built-in telephone system: In addition to being one of the best personal CRMs in the market for offering basic features, Bigin by Zoho CRM stands out for being one of the few products with a built-in phone system. Better yet, the telephone capabilities are available on its freemium plan for placing, receiving, and tracking phone calls from the CRM system.

• You want more sophisticated sales features: Because of the bare-bones focus, Bigin by Zoho CRM lacks advanced sales features like AI analytics, proposal and invoice generation, and automated contact enrichment.
  • Alternative: Pipedrive is a powerhouse sales CRM for small business teams that offers more robust direct sales capabilities.
• You need omnichannel capabilities: Bigin by Zoho CRM is limited to communication outreach through telephone, email, and customer engagement on X (formerly Twitter). Therefore, it’s not ideal for mass marketing or using a more general approach to outreach campaigns.
  • Alternative: HubSpot CRM has more communication options, including live chat, text, email, and messaging app integrations like Facebook. You can also integrate it with voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) providers like AirCall without plugins or extensions. Small businesses can use this CRM for customer service and sales support to win more deals without hurting the budget.

• You run a startup or project-based business: This platform is one of the best CRMs small business teams can use to manage tasks and projects. Its project management and delivery tools are available across all plans, making it one of the best CRMs for freelancers.

Moreover, marketing agencies and software development companies can leverage its features for collaboration, workflow building, and milestone tracking to monitor the progress of their projects.

• You require a CRM with record-linking capabilities for referral marketing: Insightly CRM’s Plus plan allows you to link contact records to label B2B relationships. This makes it easy to trace referrals and connections between your leads, customers, and companies in your CRM records.

Insightly’s solid contact management system with record-linking makes it one of the top operational CRM platforms. It’s suitable for B2B sales and customer service teams who want to streamline their lead and client management processes.

• You want a small business CRM software with solid social media functionalities: Insightly CRM lacks social media engagement, management, and profile enrichment capabilities. This is a downside for solopreneurs and small business owners wanting to leverage social media for lead nurturing, marketing, sales, and even customer service.
  • Alternatives: HubSpot CRM and Capsule CRM are two of the best social CRM systems for small businesses. If you want to capture and engage with leads and clients through platforms like Facebook, you can do so using either CRM.
• You’re looking for a CRM with more robust tools for revenue operations: Insightly CRM is one of the best operational CRM software for its contact management features. However, a revenue operations team requires more robust tools like e-signature, payment processing, and invoicing.
  • Alternative: HubSpot CRM is a robust general-use CRM that includes Stripe payment processing, quote generation, document storage, and activity and performance reporting on its free plan. As you upgrade your plan to a paid version, you can use its e-signature feature and other advanced tools for revenue management (starting at $15 per user, monthly).

• You need affordable productivity tools: Copper CRM is equipped with productivity tools in its Starter plan ($9 per user, monthly) for more efficient overall operations. Sales reps avoid missing out on important information with built-in notes and reminders.

You can easily reach out to your prospects, follow up on sales proposals, and launch email marketing campaigns seamlessly with email templates. Meanwhile, sales managers can leverage activity feed, team collaboration, and teammate suggestions to monitor performance and boost productivity and teamwork.

• Your small business mostly uses Google apps: Copper CRM is one of the top Google CRM systems because of its similar Google interface, enhancing productivity and relationships. Easily manage leads, capture customer interactions, and close more deals straight from your Gmail and Google Calendar. With Google Sheets and Drive integration, you can automate tasks, like data entry, so you can focus more on selling.

• You have a startup business and want to try free-forever tools: If you are an independent contractor, freelancer, or startup, Copper CRM is one of the easiest CRM systems you can use. But if you prefer to start with free tools, this CRM falls short. The provider only offers a 14-day free trial to access most features.
  • Alternative: HubSpot CRM provides free-forever tools for up to two users with activity and pipeline tracking, prospecting, and list segmentation tools. Bitrix24 is another great option, as it offers a free plan for unlimited users with a client management module. Capsule CRM offers a freemium plan for two users with basic project management tools.
• You need built-in telephony for your small business: Copper CRM doesn’t have a built-in telephony system. You can only make and receive phone calls by integrating this CRM with third-party apps like JustCall or Ringover.
  • Alternative: Bigin by Zoho CRM has built-in telephony, allowing reps to answer and make outbound calls using a browser. Sales teams can also make and receive calls using a custom phone or agent phone.