Customer relationship management (CRM) software lets businesses store contact data, manage leads, collaborate on sales activity, and run marketing campaigns in one system. The best CRMs for small businesses offer free and cost-effective subscriptions, a solid user experience through platform simplicity, and robust sales, marketing, and customer service features. We evaluated dozens of CRMs to identify the best CRM for small business teams.
- Best free plan with unlimited users: HubSpot CRM
- Excellent artificial intelligence (AI) tools for writing sales emails: Capsule CRM
- Most intuitive work collaboration tool: monday sales CRM
- Recommended for excellent sales automation tools: Pipedrive
- Great for project management and delivery: Insightly CRM
- Solid basic CRM for solopreneurs and startups: Bigin by Zoho
- Most advanced built-in phone system: Freshsales
- Best free operational CRM: ClickUp
- Top option for automated lead engagement: ActiveCampaign
- Great CRM solution for accounting and bookkeeping: SuiteDash
Best CRM for Small Business Compared
Provider | Free Plan? | Our CRM Rating Out of 5 | Learn More | |
---|---|---|---|---|
$18 (up to two users) | ✓ Unlimited users | 4.52 | ||
$18 per user | ✓ 2 users | 4.48 | ||
$10 per user (3-user minimum requirement) | ✕ | 4.46 | ||
$14.90 per user | ✕ | 4.30 | ||
$29 per user | ✓ 2 users | 4.28 | ||
$7 per user | ✓ 1 user | 4.24 | ||
$9 per user | ✓ 3 users | 4.23 | ||
$7 per user | ✓ Unlimited users | 4.22 | ||
$19 per user | ✕ | 4.19 | ||
$15 per month (unlimited users) | ✕ | 4.09 |
Pro tip: Learn about the types of CRM systems to understand which products best suit your operation. If you’re still not sure which provider to choose, check out our guide on how to choose a CRM for your business. Then, check out our other expert guides on CRMs for specific use cases:
HubSpot CRM: Best Small Business CRM With Free Plan for Unlimited Users
Pros
- Free plan for unlimited users; sales, marketing, and service tools
- Advanced marketing capabilities, including A/B testing, online and social media ads management, and content creation tools
- Simple CRM to operate and navigate through its modern design
Cons
- Expensive to upgrade from Free plans to paid subscriptions
- Deal scoring, data duplicate tracking, sales forecasting, and product library management gets expensive
- Payment processing not available on the Free plan
- You want free sales, marketing, and service modules: The most notable attribute of HubSpot CRM is that it’s by far the best free CRM software available on the CRM market. It allows unlimited users to access sales, marketing, service, and content management features. HubSpot CRM also has unique and valuable capabilities on its free plan, like mass email, third-party integrations, ads management, and support ticketing.
- You need robust marketing features: HubSpot CRM is a marketing automation platform and CRM system hybrid. This makes it a great option for marketing agency businesses and teams who need high-level marketing features. The platform includes mass email, ads management, landing page builder tools, social media management, A/B testing, and the ability to host a blog and on-demand video library.
- You need an intuitive and easy CRM for small business teams: HubSpot CRM is a highly rated simple CRM system, as users, even those new to the CRM world, can figure out quickly how to use the features. It uses a modern color scheme and intuitive navigation system, making it easy to go module-to-module and operate the tools.
- You need scalable, cost-friendly paid plans: While it has an excellent free plan, users ready to upgrade to the paid plans will need to look elsewhere for affordable options as the CRM Suite is quite expensive.
- Alternatives: Freshsales, ClickUp, and Bigin by Zoho CRM are the best free CRM options with affordable paid plans. SuiteDash also offers affordable paid plans for unlimited users starting at $15 per month.
- You want a free telephone system in your CRM: HubSpot CRM does offer third-party telephone integrations and a built-in option. Those capabilities, however, require subscribing to a paid plan.
- Alternative: Freshsales is the best CRM for small business teams for offering a free, built-in telephone system. Bigin by Zoho CRM also offers built-in telephony with its free plan.
HubSpot CRM Pricing Plan & Overview*
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-user monthly breakdown of HubSpot Sales Hub. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost. We update pricing information regularly but encourage readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
HubSpot CRM is a winner when it comes to its free CRM for small businesses. This free plan comes with comprehensive sales, marketing, and customer service tools, as well as advanced marketing capabilities. It also supports an unlimited number of users. Moreover, this product exhibits excellent platform usability ratings—something crucial in customer relationship management for a small business.
Capsule CRM: Best AI Tools for Writing Sales Emails
Pros
- Free plan includes artificial intelligence (AI) Content Assistant that helps craft and optimize sales emails
- Built-in project and task management
- Easy integration with accounting apps like Xero and QuickBooks
Cons
- Free plan does not have accounting integrations and is limited to 250 contacts, basic dashboards, and email tools
- Workflow automation features unavailable until Growth plan at $36 per user, monthly
- Lacks ecommerce features like inventory management, website designer, and purchase order processing
- 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 artificial intelligence (AI) content assistant. With this tool, you can draft sales emails from your contact records and see 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 that include 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 it does not have tools for email tracking.
- Alternatives: HubSpot CRM tops our list of the best CRM for email marketing because it offers advanced features like mass emailing and email performance tracking with its free plan. Another alternative is Freshsales, which offers email marketing features and automated sales email sequences, starting with its Growth plan at $9 per user, monthly.
- You need a CRM with built-in billing and invoicing features: Capsule CRM does not offer tools for billing, invoicing, and payment processing.
- Alternative: SuiteDash offers a comprehensive built-in billing system that includes tools for payment processing, virtual billing, sending estimates, generating invoices, and time tracking across all plans ($15 per month for unlimited users). You can also use its one-way sync with QuickBooks online for record-keeping. Alternatively, explore other options in our guide to the best ecommerce CRMs.
Capsule CRM Pricing Plan & Overview*
Capsule CRM Pricing Add-on:
- Transpond (marketing automation tools): Starts at $11 per user, monthly
*Pricing is based on annual billing. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. It comes with a 14-day free trial. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
Capsule CRM sets itself apart from other CRMs for small business teams with its free AI content writing assistant tool. This helps small businesses improve their productivity by reducing the time it takes to compose sales emails. What makes this better is that this smart tool is available with its free plan. This is one of the reasons why it is one of our recommended AI CRMs. Aside from that, this provider has high usability ratings, not only for its system interface and general features but also for its AI tool.
monday sales CRM: Most Intuitive Work Collaboration Tool
Pros
- Unlimited contacts, documents, and boards
- Simple and intuitive product to use with a spreadsheet-style format for data entry and customizing boards
- Excellent no-code automation design tools for creating data management and email outreach workflows
Cons
- Misleading pricing; paid plans require a three-user minimum
- Doesn’t offer a free plan
- Lead scoring and duplicate warning require the Enterprise plan (customized pricing)
- You need a highly intuitive CRM system for work collaboration: monday.com sales CRM uses its spreadsheet format for easy data entry and management. Its simple and highly intuitive interface leaves little to no learning curve for navigation, workflow automation, and customization.
- You want to evaluate your database using multiple views: monday.com sales CRM provides you with various board viewing options, including Kanban, calendar, map, timeline, chart, and workload. You can use these views to check your sales pipeline progress, monitor tasks, or identify your customers’ current location.
- You are a small business looking for free lead scoring tools: You can use monday sales CRM for lead qualification and prioritization, but you’ll have to subscribe to the Enterprise plan at a custom price.
- Alternative: Freshsales is a great option that offers lead scoring with its free plan for three users.
- You want to leverage AI for analytics: With monday sales CRM, you can only use AI features via third-party app integration.
- Alternative: ActiveCampaign’s Professional plan ($49 per user, monthly) allows you to use AI for sentiment analysis and win probability. This helps you concentrate your nurturing efforts on deals that are most likely to close.
monday sales CRM Pricing Plan & Overview*
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a monthly per-user breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. There is a 14-day free trial for the paid plans. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
monday sales CRM has high usability ratings because of its simple yet highly intuitive interface, making it easy to learn and use even for absolute beginners. It offers a comprehensive set of work collaboration tools, such as digital whiteboards, collaborative document editing, file sharing, and guest access for work boards. You can choose from its several view options (including Kanban, map, timeline, and calendar) to view your sales data. All these features help put this provider on this list of the best CRM for small businesses.
Pipedrive: Best Sales Automation Tools
Pros
- Low-cost AI tools for analytics and performance recommendations
- Great operations CRM for boosting productivity and facilitating team and deal collaboration
- Offers end-to-end lead generation, deal management, and proposal creation capabilities
Cons
- No free plan
- Requires a slight learning curve, particularly for the more advanced sales features
- Expensive workflow automation and email tools
- You’re looking for a robust sales automation tool: Pipedrive is a top sales CRM small business teams prefer because of its lead management software, deal tracking capabilities, sales collaboration features, and data management tools. Teams prioritizing direct outreach for growth benefit from features like business proposal management, deal rotting, auto-contact enrichment, team comments and mentions, and a built-in meeting scheduler.
- You submit many business proposals and bids: Another tremendous use case for Pipedrive involves its robust proposal features. It comes with auto-fillable templates that pull CRM data into sales documents for you for a quick generation process. There’s also a Smart Docs tool that allows users to auto-fill, send, and track sales quotes and proposals, which pairs nicely with the built-in e-signature capabilities.
- You need a free-forever plan: While it’s not necessarily an expensive system, Pipedrive does not offer a free plan for users to experience a risk-free test drive of the platform.
- Alternative: HubSpot CRM and ClickUp both offer free-forever plans that support an unlimited number of users.
- 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 $24.90 per user, monthly.
- Alternative: Freshsales and HubSpot CRM offer solid email tools for free.
Pipedrive Pricing Plan & Overview*
Pipedrive Pricing Add-ons:
- Projects Project management tools; free with Power and Enterprise plans : Starts at $6.70 per user, monthly
- Campaigns Customizable email campaigns : Starts at $13.33 per company, monthly
- LeadBooster Lead generation tool set (chatbot, live chat, prospector, web forms, and appointment scheduler) : Starts at $32.50 per company, monthly
- Smart Docs Trackable quotes, proposals, and contracts; free with Professional, Power, and Enterprise plans : Starts at $32.50 per company, monthly
- Web Visitors Web tracking and lead ranking : Starts at $41 per company, monthly
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost. Paid plans include a 14-day free trial. We update pricing information regularly but encourage readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
Pipedrive offers a robust set of sales automation tools, which include its Smart Docs with auto-fill templates for sales documents. Its Smart Contact Data also auto-enriches profile records based on data from website pages and LinkedIn accounts. It also has an AI sales assistant that provides recommendations on tasks and deals. Its excellent pipeline and deal customization capabilities make it a great customizable CRM software.
Insightly CRM: Best for Project Management & Delivery
Pros
- Includes built-in features for project management across all plans
- Robust contact management tools with relationship linking, data storage, and activity tracking, including from third-party tools
- Highly customizable sales workflows
Cons
- Marketing and customer service modules require a separate product for an added cost (starting at $29 per user, monthly)
- Free plan is limited to two users
- Workflow automation is available only starting with the Professional plan ($49 per user, monthly)
- You run a startup or project-based business: This platform is one of the best CRM small business teams can use for managing tasks and projects. It has project management and delivery across all plans. Marketing agencies and software development companies can leverage its tools 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 ($29 per user, monthly) allows you to link contact records to label business-to-business (B2B) relationships. This makes it easy for you to trace referrals and connections between your leads, customers, and companies in your CRM records.
- You’re looking for a CRM for revenue operations: A revenue operations team requires built-in customer service and advanced marketing features. With Insightly CRM, you’ll need to purchase these as add-on products starting at $29 per user, monthly.
- Alternative: HubSpot CRM is our top recommendation for users needing a unified CRM with comprehensive tools for marketing and service automation.
- You want a CRM with solid social media features: Insightly CRM does not have tools for social engagement, social profile enrichment, and social media management.
- Alternatives: HubSpot CRM, Freshsales, and Capsule CRM are included in our list of the best social CRM software. These providers allow you to generate leads and engage customers directly from within your CRM system.
Insightly CRM Pricing Plan & Overview*
Insightly CRM Add-ons:
*Pricing is based on annual billing. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. It comes with a 14-day free trial. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
Insightly CRM offers an excellent set of task and project management tools available across all plans, including the free tier. You can collaborate on tasks and opportunities as well as customize your pipeline stages. In addition, you can convert closed deals into projects, allowing you to view the contact details, records, and tasks relevant to the new post-sale project. When you subscribe to the Enterprise plan ($99 per user, monthly), you can use its products and pricebooks feature to keep a record of all the products and services that you offer.
Bigin by Zoho CRM: Best for Solopreneurs & Startups
Pros
- Free and low-cost subscription options and includes a built-in telephone system
- Offers a basic system for freelancers for managing contacts and pipelines, emailing, and integrating with popular third-party apps
- Solid product customization for pipeline stages, data fields, automations, tabs, reports, and views
Cons
- Poor product usability ratings
- Mostly offers the basics and lacks advanced marketing, customer support, and sales tools
- Mass email not available for free
- You are a solopreneur or freelancer needing the basics: Bigin is Zoho’s product built for small businesses to get all the basics like contact data storage, pipeline management, direct and mass email, performance tracking, and workflow automation. Its simple feature arsenal pairs well with the free and affordable paid options. Its free plan for one user makes it stand out as a solid CRM for freelancers and solopreneurs.
- 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 a few products with a built-in phone system. Better yet, the telephone capabilities are available on the Free plan to a user for placing, receiving, and tracking phone calls from the CRM system.
- You want more sophisticated sales features: Because of the barebones focus, Bigin by Zoho CRM lacks advanced sales features like artificial intelligence (AI) analytics, proposal and invoice generation, and automated contact enrichment.
- Alternatives: Freshsales and Pipedrive are powerhouse sales CRM tools for small business teams that offer more robust direct sales capabilities. You can also explore other similar alternatives in our guide to the best CRM for startups.
- You need omnichannel capabilities: Bigin by Zoho CRM is limited to communication outreach through telephone, email, and customer engagement on Twitter. Therefore, it’s not ideal for mass marketing or using a more general approach to outreach campaigns.
- Alternatives: Freshsales and HubSpot CRM are better alternatives with more communication options, including live chat, text, email, phone, and messaging app integrations.
Bigin by Zoho Pricing Plan & Overview*
Bigin by Zoho CRM Pricing Add-ons:
- One-time Data Backup: $5 per request
- Additional File Storage: $4 for 5GB per month for paid plans
- File Cabinet (exchange files with contacts): $4 per month for paid plans
- Mass Email: $3 per 100 daily emails for paid plans
- Email Templates: $1 per month per five additional templates for paid plans
- Workflows: $1 per month per additional workflow for paid plans
- Records: $1 per month for additional 10,000 records for paid plans
- Team Pipelines: $5 per month per additional Team Pipeline
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost. Zoho Bigin offers a 15-day free trial for paid plans. We update pricing information regularly but encourage readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
Based on our evaluation, Bigin by Zoho is a clear frontrunner for CRMs for startups and solo-operated businesses. While it would be great for the product to have more advanced features than contact storage, pipeline management, and communication tools, that’s not the developers’ intention. When the business is ready, teams can easily upgrade to the native Zoho CRM for broader, more advanced capabilities that include lead qualification, quotes, and account linking.
Pro tip: Planning to upgrade from Bigin to Zoho CRM? Don’t forget to check out our guide on how to use Zoho CRM for tips on setting up an account, tailoring your system, importing data, and managing users.
Freshsales: Best CRM With Built-in Phone System
Pros
- Includes a built-in phone, quote and proposal, generation, deal and account management, and workflow automation
- Easy setup process with plenty of customization and intuitive CRM tools
- Great omnichannel communication tools through email, phone, text, chatbot, live chat, and messaging app integrations
Cons
- Free plan lacks file storage and email marketing capabilities
- Expensive deal teams and auto-profile enrichment features ($69 per user, monthly with Enterprise plan)
- Sales forecasting and multiple sales pipelines require the Pro plan ($39 per user, monthly)
- You need free calling features in your CRM: Freshsales offers one of the best free-forever subscriptions available on the CRM market, as it already includes a built-in phone system. This capability is a major value add as users can place cold calls and follow-ups, receive incoming calls, and record, mask, and transfer calls to the queue, all from the CRM platform.
- You sell business-to-business (B2B): Freshsales is one of our favorite B2B CRM systems because it includes features specifically useful when selling to other organizations. It offers an account management module, a built-in cloud phone system, and deal tracking with insights and rotting indicators. There’s also contact scoring, appointment scheduling, and document generation for quotes, proposals, and invoices.
- You use an omnichannel selling approach: Freshsales is one of our recommended CRMs for teams that want to market their brand and sell using a multichannel strategy. It allows users to engage prospects through direct and mass email, short message service (SMS) text, telephone, live chat, messaging app, and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
- You want to run more elaborate marketing campaigns from your CRM: Though it has omnichannel capabilities, Freshsales doesn’t let you create and deploy non-email campaigns, such as online ads, social media posts, or content marketing campaigns unless you subscribe to its native Freshmarketer tool.
- Alternatives: HubSpot CRM is the best alternative for complete marketing and content management capabilities, including blog and video hosting, ads management, and the ability to publish posts on social media. ActiveCampaign is also a good option for those who want to create AI-powered content for email marketing.
- You need a built-in case and ticketing management tools: Freshworks, the developer of Freshsales, offers excellent customer service software for small business through its native Freshdesk tool. Unfortunately, that’s a separate product, and users cannot manage service tickets in the Freshsales CRM system.
- Alternatives: HubSpot CRM can handle customer support operations in the CRM system, starting with its free plan. SuiteDash is also a great alternative that offers a support ticket toolkit with its Pinnacle plan ($80 per month for unlimited users).
Freshsales Pricing Plan & Overview*
Freshsales Pricing Add-ons:
- Workflows: $5 for 10 workflows
- Phone Credits: Starts at $5
- CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote): $19 per user, monthly
- Additional Bot Sessions: $75 for 1,000 bot sessions per month
*Pricing is based on annual billing. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. It comes with a 21-day free trial. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
Freshsales made our list of the best CRM software for small businesses for its free and low-cost subscriptions. It gives those on a tight budget an excellent solution for managing leads and client accounts. It’s also unique in that the system not only offers a built-in telephone system but does so on the free-forever plan. Finally, we can’t overlook the platform usability that lets new CRM users easily set up and operate the features.
ClickUp: Best Free Operational CRM
Pros
- Free plan and affordable paid plans
- Fully customizable and can be tailored for various use cases outside of sales
- Multi-view work management options and reporting capabilities
Cons
- Not a traditional CRM system; users must customize their boards to meet their needs
- Tough system to operate and navigate
- Limited number of workspaces and active automations allowed on the Free plan
- You need a free operational CRM system: ClickUp’s free plan supports an unlimited number of users and offers a robust set of tools for improving productivity. These include automations, task checklists, time tracking, file sharing, and work management dashboards.
- You prefer using a non-traditional CRM: ClickUp is a CRM alternative that allows you to manage work using tailor boards, work processes similar to a deal pipeline, and data records. It also offers a multi-view format for users who want to oversee various business functions, including marketing, service, and projects.
- You are well accustomed to traditional CRM systems: If you prefer using traditional CRMs, ClickUp may not be the right option for you. There’s a learning curve to work management software that requires you to create your own work boards and processes.
- Alternatives: Freshsales, Pipedrive, and Bigin by Zoho CRM are among the best traditional operational CRMs that you can use to easily automate your business processes.
- You want a simple work management tool: ClickUp has a rather complex setup process and various modular options that make it difficult to learn and navigate, especially for beginners.
- Alternatives: Freshsales and monday sales CRM are highly recommended for usability.
ClickUp Pricing Plan & Overview*
ClickUp Pricing Add-ons:
- ClickUp AI: $5 per user, monthly
- Automations: Starts at $19.99 per month for 1,000 monthly automations
- Email Account: $2 per user or $24 per year for each additional email account
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. We update pricing information regularly but encourage readers to check current pricing here and the latest add-ons here.
Our Expert Opinion
ClickUp is recommended for those who like using CRM alternatives to manage business operations. It offers unlimited viewing options for sales leads, projects, and deals. Its strength lies in its comprehensive work management and collaboration tools offered for free. Moreover, it provides affordable paid plans starting at just $7 per user, monthly for those who need more storage space, automations, and integrations.
ActiveCampaign: Best for Automated Lead Engagement
Pros
- Simple interface makes it easy to learn and use
- Basic plan includes lead scoring and AI tool for email content generation
- Includes free account migration services
Cons
- No free plan
- Sales engagement automation is not available until the Professional tier at $49 per user, monthly
- SMS automation costs extra, starting at $21 per month
- You want to automate sales engagement and nurture campaigns: ActiveCampaign’s Professional plan ($49 per user, monthly) allows you to automate sales engagement and one-on-one emails. This platform uses data from customer touchpoints to determine the right time and channel for engagement, and when human touch is needed to close sales faster.
- You’re looking for a CRM with AI content generation tools: ActiveCampaign offers AI-powered email content generation tools across all plans. This makes it easier for sales reps to create personalized and engaging emails at every touchpoint and then send them from Gmail.
- You want a free CRM with lead engagement tools: Unfortunately, ActiveCampaign does not offer free tools for engaging leads and prospects.
- Alternative: Freshsales’ free plan for three users includes an AI chatbot builder that auto-engages website visitors and books meetings from the chat widget.
- You’re looking for a more advanced CRM system: ActiveCampaign’s sales CRM currently offers bare-bones features for managing leads, deals, and accounts. It does not have advanced CRM features like sales forecasting, bulk email, and sales quotes.
- Alternative: HubSpot CRM offers an amazing set of advanced CRM features with its free plan. These include conversational bots, customizable quotes, a product library, and email tracking. Pipedrive is also a great alternative with features like deal rotting indicators, products catalog, customizable pipelines, and an AI sales assistant starting at $14.90 per user, monthly.
ActiveCampaign Pricing Plan & Overview*
ActiveCampaign Pricing Add-ons:
- SMS (Short Message Service) Automation: Starts at $21 per month for 1,000 SMS credits
- Marketing: Starts at $92.83 per month for five users
- Transactional Email: $15 per month for 10,000 sends
- Custom Reporting: $159 per month for 50 reports and 25 dashboards
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-user monthly breakdown of its packages for CRM and Sales Engagement, which comes with a 14-day free trial. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
ActiveCampaign has basic CRM features such as deal and account management, lead scoring, and lead segmentation across all plans. However, you can access over 800 automation recipes (templates) from the ActiveCampaign Marketplace and customize them according to your business needs. Moreover, its Sales Professional plan ($49 per user, monthly) leverages chatbots to automate sales engagement, including those that need personalized messaging.
SuiteDash: Best for Accounting & Bookkeeping
Pros
- All plans offer tools for accounting and bookkeeping
- Basic plan ($15 per month) supports unlimited users and includes white labeling and custom branding
- Pinnacle plan ($80 per month) allows you to host courses with its Learning Management System (LMS)
Cons
- No free plan
- Workflow automation is available only with the highest tier at $80 per month
- Clunky and slow interface with a steep learning curve
- You need an all-in-one CRM for accounting and bookkeeping: SuiteDash has a Billing and Time Tracking toolkit that enables you to process payments, generate invoices and estimates, and track billable time. You can also integrate this platform with QuickBooks Online to sync your CRM records. These features are available with its entry-level plan at $15 per month for unlimited users.
- You want to use your own branding for your CRM software: All of SuiteDash’s plans allow you to customize the platform according to your company’s branding and colors. You can also set your own login URL, email notifications, and even the mobile CRM app.
- You prefer a simple CRM with a highly intuitive interface: One of the common issues with SuiteDash is the slow and clunky interface that makes it difficult to learn and navigate.
- Alternatives: Consider using Freshsales, monday sales CRM, or Pipedrive if you want a CRM with a straightforward interface. All these providers have little to no learning curve, making it perfect for absolute beginners.
- You’re looking for a CRM with free or low-cost workflow automation: Unfortunately, SuiteDash does not offer a free plan, and its workflow automation is only available with its Pinnacle plan ($80 per month).
- Alternative: Bigin by Zoho CRM offers workflow automation with its free plan for a single user. Meanwhile, monday sales CRM’s Standard CRM ($14 per user, monthly) includes low-code workflow automation with trigger-based actions for modifying and creating records.
SuiteDash Pricing Plan & Overview*
SuiteDash Pricing Add-ons:
- VIP Bundle Access to live support sessions, a private Discord community server, and priority support : $50 per month
- Community Available starting January 2024; includes up to five communities with unlimited members, live community chat and direct messaging, and LMS course communities : Starts at $15 per month
- Prime Bundle Includes sales funnel builder, PDF document signing and templates, and embeddable chat widget : $40 per month
- Plus Bundle Includes credit card vaulting, email cannons (richly formatted emails for a single recipient), form sending, secure passwords, and additional 1TB file storage : $40 per month
- Deliverability Includes a dedicated IP and 10,000 email sends per month; $15 per month for every additional 10,000 emails : $20 per month
- Wizarding Includes a 45-minute Zoom session with a SuiteDash expert on CRM workflow and white labeling : $50 per session
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost, and lifetime plans can be accessed for a one-time fee. Subscriptions come with a 15-day free trial of the Pinnacle plan. We update pricing information regularly but encourage readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
At first glance, SuiteDash might not appear to be one of the most affordable CRM options, but its plans support an unlimited number of users, starting at $15 per month. All the plans include a comprehensive set of billing and accounting features, making it a great fit for accountants and bookkeepers. You can configure a payment gateway to process payments, send virtual billing for customer subscriptions, calculate taxes and discounts, send estimates and invoices, and track time spent on tasks. In addition, it offers a one-way sync to QuickBooks Online for your recordkeeping needs.
How We Evaluated the Best CRM for Small Business
To determine the best CRM software for small businesses, we evaluated each platform in terms of overall affordability, feature capabilities, and the value an organization with a small sales, marketing, or service team can obtain from the software. We also looked at customer support options offered by the provider and how each CRM platform performs in terms of product intuitiveness and user experience.
The tabs below show our evaluation criteria for the best small business CRMs:
25% of Overall Score
20% of Overall Score
20% of Overall Score
20% of Overall Score
15% of Overall Score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
All CRM solutions on our list offer free or affordable plans for small businesses. The CRMs, however, that offer both affordable plans and a free-forever option include Freshsales, HubSpot CRM, Insightly CRM, Bigin by Zoho, and ClickUp.
Based on our evaluation, HubSpot CRM is the best overall small business CRM software. However, certain CRMs may be a better fit depending on feature and product attribute requirements. Freshsales, for example, offers the most advanced built-in phone with its free plan, while SuiteDash is a great fit for accountants and bookkeepers.
Your small business CRM should include features that help your company stay organized and grow. At a minimum, it should have contact data storage, email and phone communication capabilities, pipeline tracking, and solid reporting tools. Additionally, you should be able to manage sales and marketing on the go through a mobile app and have the ability to customize your system’s data fields, pages, and modules to meet your operational needs.
Bottom Line
The best CRM for small businesses is affordable, easy to use, and includes solid features for storing data, managing sales opportunities, deploying marketing campaigns, and supporting customers. While HubSpot CRM is our pick for the best CRM software for a small business, other systems will better suit your business depending on your needs. Pipedrive, for instance, is great for lead monitoring, while Bigin has useful tools for solopreneurs and freelancers.