Free customer relationship management (CRM) software is widely available, but they aren’t all up to the task of managing complex customer relationships or improving the customer experience. We used our multidimensional, 5-star scoring tool to analyze a variety of free CRM service plans and the tools they offer to learn which solutions are right for small businesses and which is the best overall.
Free CRM Software | Best For |
|---|---|
(Best overall) Entrepreneurs and small sales teams wanting a comprehensive CRM to manage customers | |
Small businesses and teams that want a CRM with free 24x5, multichannel tech support | |
Growing sales teams that need a no-frills free CRM that supports unlimited users | |
Startups wanting a single platform to manage marketing, sales, and service activities | |
Small teams in need of a CRM with invoicing and order management features | |
Contact centers needing a solution with live chat and website call-back forms |
How We Evaluated Free CRMs for Small Business
CRM software enables businesses to better manage customer and prospect relationships by helping them organize sales initiatives and manage customer activities in one place. When considering the best free CRM for startups and small businesses, we looked for solutions that are easy to set up and to use, save time, have affordable upgrade options, and make it easier to build relationships.
To evaluate each CRM solution objectively, we created a scoring system that takes several aspects of CRM software into consideration, such as:
- Service plan types, including free options, to fit a range of budgets
- Type and amount of features available for sales, marketing, and service teams
- Type and variety of systems integrations and plugins
- Mobile app availability
- Customization tools
- Workflow automation
Our subject matter expert reviewed resulting scores for accuracy and also considered intangible elements of each CRM solution, like how speedy it is to use and whether the user interface is aesthetically pleasing. The final scores rank each CRM solution on a 5-star rating scale to determine which are the top contenders and which one is the best overall.
Zoho CRM: Best Overall Free CRM for Small Businesses
Zoho CRM’s marketing attribution dashboard (Source: Zoho CRM)
Fit Small Business score: 4.23 out of 5
Zoho CRM’s free plan is one of the most comprehensive solutions on the market. It includes everything you expect from CRM software, including marketing automation tools, customization options, workflow rules, and reporting. The biggest drawback is that the free plan only supports three users, but if that’s not a deal breaker, Zoho CRM’s free contains most of the tools your sales team needs to pursue leads and close deals.
Zoho CRM Pros | Zoho CRM Cons |
|---|---|
Individual customization options | Free plan supports only three users |
Account and deal management | Sales forecasting only available with paid plans |
Workflow automation tools | Free plan only supports five tasks |
Our Favorite Free Feature
Marketing automation: Zoho CRM offers free marketing automation tools that most types of CRM charge a fee for customers to use. Along with a collection of 10 email templates and email authentication tools, Zoho includes a website visitor tracking system that saves visitors as leads and segments them by sales pipeline.
More Zoho CRM Free Plan Features
- Automated tasks, events, and call logs
- Custom list views
- Email templates
- Web-to-lead forms
- Team collaboration tools
Why You Might Want to Upgrade
As robust as Zoho CRM’s free plan is, its $12 per user, per month Standard plan takes the platform up a level with custom dashboards, scoring rules, custom reports, and social media integration. Perhaps most important, the plan upgrade removes the user limit.
For more information on Freshworks CRM pricing plans and features, see our Freshworks CRM reviews page.
Freshworks CRM: Best Free CRM With Unlimited Tech Support
360-degree view of customer activity (Source: Freshworks CRM)
Since we last updated:
Freshworks CRM, formerly Freshsales, recently rebranded with a new name, new service plans, and access to Freshmarketer automation software. Forever-free plans are still available and include mobile apps, 24×5 support, live chat, and more.
Fit Small Business score: 4.15 out of 5
Freshworks CRM’s free plan offers key features to keep your contacts and deals organized. This includes lead scoring and unlimited users and contacts. What makes Freshworks CRM different from the other free platforms covered here is that it offers email, live chat, and phone support 24 hours a day, five days a week, which also helped Freshworks CRM earn our number one spot for best CRM for small business.
Freshworks CRM Pros | Freshworks CRM Cons |
|---|---|
Intuitive drag-and-drop user interface | Does not include sales forecasting |
Gives you access to highly rated customer support | Pipeline tool less robust than found in paid version |
Supports lead scoring and automation | Lacks advanced reporting |
Our Favorite Free Feature
Unlimited 24×5 support: It’s rare for CRM providers to offer users of a free plan access to live technical support, which is unfortunate because new users and very small teams are often the people who need it most. Freshworks CRM offers customers on both free and paid plans unlimited tech support 24×5, via phone, email, and live chat.
More Freshworks CRM Free Plan Features
- Lead scoring and insights
- Data import and export
- Role-based record access
- Mobile apps
- Task, appointment, and notes management
Why You Might Want to Upgrade
Freshworks CRM’s free plan has a lot going for it with unlimited users and contacts to help teams manage customer relationships. However, its entry-level paid plan gives you quite a bang for your buck with the addition of custom fields, 1GB of storage, and a host of email management tools for only $12 per user, per month.
HubSpot: Best Free No-frills CRM for Unlimited Users
HubSpot conversation management (Source: HubSpot)
Fit Small Business score: 4.13 out of 5
HubSpot offers a user-friendly, free CRM for sales teams with tools that include contact management, live chat, conversational bots, and social media lead ads while also supporting an unlimited number of users. HubSpot also gives users the option to build on its core free features with paid versions of additional products focused on marketing, sales, and service.
HubSpot Pros | HubSpot Cons |
|---|---|
Features extensive tutorials and an online knowledge base | Does not provide direct customer support |
Supports unlimited users and 1 million contacts | Limits the number of documents you can add per account |
Easy to set up and use | Plan upgrades can be expensive |
Our Favorite Free Feature
Supports unlimited users: In the free CRM space, businesses typically have two options. A robust feature solution that limits the number of users, or a solution that supports unlimited users but limits the number of available features. HubSpot customers can have both. This free CRM’s core set of features keeps small sales teams running efficiently and also scales to accommodate as many users as necessary, no matter how large the team gets.
More HubSpot CRM Free Plan Features
- Email tracking and integration
- Integrated live chat software
- Custom support form fields
- Ad management support
- Deal tracking
Why You Might Want to Upgrade
HubSpot’s free plan offers several features that are hard to find in other no-cost CRMs on the market. However, the $40 per month Starter plan add-on exponentially increases HubSpot’s power. For instance, email tracking and notifications are unlimited, email templates jump from five to 1,000, and document storage increases to a whopping 1,000 per user. Its biggest drawback is that the Starter plan only supports two users, so it’s best for solopreneurs and very small teams.
For more information about how HubSpot’s free CRM can help improve your sales strategy, visit our HubSpot CRM reviews page.
Agile CRM: Best Free Sales, Marketing & Service Team CRM
Agile CRM’s reporting and activity dashboard (Source: Agile CRM)
Fit Small Business score: 4.06 out of 5
Agile CRM offers an all-in-one platform for managing customer relationships. Within that platform, you can manage sales, marketing, and help desk activities. It’s free for up to 10 users and includes contact, deal, and task management. Agile CRM also supports custom data fields, email integration, and lead scoring.
Agile CRM Pros | Agile CRM Cons |
|---|---|
Simple setup | Limits the number of contacts you can manage based on number of users |
Unlimited deals | Does not include email templates or webforms |
Supports two-way email integration and tracks opens and clicks | Limits integrations you can use |
Our Favorite Free Feature
Sales, marketing, and service desk feature combo: Technically, these are multiple features, but they work together to unify the efforts of multiple departments. While most free CRMs only offer tools for sales teams, we like that Agile CRM also includes marketing and service features like mass email sends and ticketing support.
More Agile CRM Free Plan Features
- Lead scoring
- Email tracking and integration
- Custom data fields
- Landing page builder
- Contact level analytics
Why You Might Want to Upgrade
Agile CRM’s free plan is an entry-level turnkey solution for companies that want a single platform to encompass the activities of the sales, marketing, and customer service teams. Unlike other CRMs on our list, Agile CRM’s free plan only supports 10 users and 1,000 contacts, but it does offer unlimited document storage.
For an upgrade that instantly benefits all three teams, consider the Starter plan with pricing from $8.99 per user, per month. It features support for 10,000 sales contacts, two-way email for the marketing department, and a knowledge base module for the support team.
Apptivo: Best Free CRM for Invoicing & Order Management
Apptivo’s invoicing customization tool (Source: Apptivo)
Fit Small Business score: 3.90 out of 5
Apptivo’s free CRM supports one user with basic sales features, as well as tools for handling invoicing, purchase orders, work orders, and help desk tasks. Additionally, it offers the ability to store a product catalog and to issue quotes. These features work together to reduce the need for separate accounting software to manage orders.
Apptivo Pros | Apptivo Cons |
|---|---|
Includes invoicing and ordering functionality | Allows only one user without paid upgrade |
Great customer support | Mobile app is only available with paid upgrade |
Supports product management | Does not include web-to-lead capture for free |
Our Favorite Free Feature
Invoice and order management tools: The sales process doesn’t end once the deal is closed. Often there are follow-up tasks like finalizing orders, creating estimates or quotes, and invoicing customers that other CRMs don’t support. Apptivo includes these business management features as part of its free plan at no extra charge.
More Apptivo Free Plan Features
- Deal and opportunity management
- Lead list management
- Multiple sales pipelines
- Standard reporting
- Data backup and exporting
Why You Might Want to Upgrade
Apptivo’s free plan is great for sales professionals who need invoice and ordering tools. However, an $8 per user, per month tier upgrade adds a slew of marketing features, important security permissions, and robust analytics that let you do more for your sales leads and customers. It also includes access to mobile apps to keep you connected to your CRM from anywhere.
Bitrix24: Best Free CRM for Contact Centers
Bitrix24’s website live chat tool (Source: Bitrix24)
Fit Small Business score: 3.79 out of 5
Bitrix24’s free CRM service plan supports unlimited users as well as unlimited deals, leads, and contacts. Its customer history profile includes a chronological timeline of individual customer activity and actions so agents can tell at a glance where they are in their journey. Bitrix24 also offers live chat and a call-back widget for your website to ensure reliable customer communication and engagement.
Bitrix24 Pros | Bitrix24 Cons |
|---|---|
Customizable live chat | Free live chat tool limited to 12 users |
Supports unlimited users | Some paid plans have user limits |
Wide range of service plans to choose from | Paid plans for unlimited users is expensive |
Our Favorite Free Feature
Live chat: Customers can already reach your agents via email or phone, but a live chat widget on your website can enhance customer satisfaction exponentially. Live chat eliminates the need to leave your website to access customer service by phone or email, and quickens responses since engagement happens in real time.
More Bitrix24 Free Plan Features
- Built-in phone
- Website call-back request forms
- Call tracking
- Social network integration
- Easy data import via CSV files
Why You Might Want to Upgrade
Bitrix24’s free live chat is a boon for busy agents, but an upgrade to the Start+ service plan offers tools that further improve the customer journey. For $12.48 per user, per month, sales agents can receive client and supervisor satisfaction ratings on their live chat interactions, use rule-based queuing to route messages to the correct department, and route chats to all online agents simultaneously for the quickest response times.
Michael Bane
Best free CRM is Zoho and second best is eWay-CRM – this one is missing in your review. However the most important thing is also a free CRM can be good.
Amanda Norman
Hi Michael,
Thanks for reading and commenting. We update our buyer’s guides about once a year and can take that one into consideration next time.
Best wishes,
Mandy, Moderator
Camilla Barnes
Hi,
I work as a Consultant for eWay-CRM, an Outlook CRM. It is very intuitive since it looks like Outlook. We also have mobile and web app. Our eWay-CRM got excellent rating.
Customers usually need a contact management at first. Then they come up with new needs. Therefore it is necessary to have a complex CRM that is has mane functions available. It often depends on the size of your company. The more you grow, the more complex solutions you need.
We are always improving our system and trying to make our customers as happy as possible. Our system is very flexible since you can use all the modules or just those that you need.
At any time you can adjust the processes as you need. We have several modules as mentioned above. You can use all of them or just those that you need at the moment.
However you can use any of them at any he basic version of eWay-CRM is for free. Outlook CRM Software that will Help Boost your Sales | eWay-CRM
Best,
Camilla
Amanda Norman
Hi Camilla,
Thanks for visiting the site and suggesting eWay-CRM. We’ll keep it in mind for next time!
Thanks for reading!
Mandy, Moderator
Jenny Pearson
I fully agree. I have tried a couple of free CRMs but they didn’t fit my startup. Then my friend recommended eWay-CRM to me and since I have been using it. It is perfect for SME and even for law firms. My husb is a defense lawyer and his team is using it too.
Nina Bohush
Our team is a big fan of NetHunt CRM. We’ve been using it for 2 years already and it’s literally the most convenient and cheap CRM we’ve ever had. Our sales and marketing teams use it for organizing our customers base, follow-ups, bulk emails etc. It’s already synced with Google Suite, so the process of adoption was quite quick and hassle-free.
BTW, it’s free forever for teams of 1-2 people. And this is how we started testing it.
Scott
“less features” WHY IS PROPER GRAMMAR SO HARD? It’s “fewer features”. FEWER is used when you can count the thing being modified. LESS is used when it’s a continuous quantity. Sheesh.
Laura Handrick
Hi Scott,
Thanks for pointing that out. Being an Econ major myself, I’m annoyed with the misuse of less vs fewer also! We’ll correct on next go round! In fact we’ve just hired some editors who will begin looking at our 3000+ articles to make sure they’re in AP style. It’s all part of our growth and process improvement. Thanks for commenting!
Best! Laura, HR Writer, MAEd
Eric Stein
Have you tried FreeCRM.com? You get 100 users and 100,000 contacts, and it’s fully featured, sales, customer support, group calendaring, email campaigns, everything.