14 Best Sales Automation Software Tools for 2023
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.
This article is part of a larger series on Sales Management.
Sales automation software helps teams put repetitive tasks, such as email follow-ups, data management, and prospecting, on autopilot so they can focus on relationship-building with leads and prospects. Automation tools can be standalone products that serve a specific purpose or are built into customer relationship management (CRM) software to serve sales functions.
Based on our expert evaluation of pricing, features, and user experience, the best sales automation software includes:
- Best free automation tools: HubSpot Sales Hub
- Excellent for automating proposal management: Pipedrive
- Most robust sales automation tools: Keap
- Great for all-in-one revenue operations automation: EngageBay
- Solid email automation platform with free tools: Mailchimp
- Excellent automation reporting features: ActiveCampaign
- Best for automating revenue intelligence: InsightSquared
- Ideal for streamlining data modeling: Looker
- Best for budget collaboration automation: Phocas Software
- Great for using automated call flows: Nextiva
- Excellent auto-dialing tools: RingCentral MVP
- Best text messaging tools: GoTo Connect
- Great solution for automating prospect research: Apollo
- Best combined prospecting and outreach tool: Growbots
Best Sales Automation Software Compared
Provider | Starting Monthly Price* | Solution Type | Key Automation Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Free to $18 (two users) | CRM | Free email follow-ups and contact data management |
 | $14.90 per user, per month | CRM | Proposal generation and tracking |
 | $149 per month (two users) | CRM | Advanced campaign and sales pipeline automations |
 | Free to $13.79 per user, monthly | CRM | Integrated sales, service, and marketing task automation |
 | Free to $13 per month (one user) | Email automation platform | Free email campaign tools with automatons |
 | $29 per month (one user) | Email automation platform | Automated email campaigns with automation reporting tools |
 | Contact for pricing | Forecasting automation tools | Revenue intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI) insights |
 | Contact for pricing | Forecasting automation tools | Automated data modeling and predictions |
 | Contact for pricing | Forecasting automation tools | Budget planning and collaboration |
 | $17.95-$23.95 per user, monthly | Phone automation software | Automated call flows that specify routing instructions |
 | $20 per user, per month | Phone automation software | Automated and predictive phone dialing |
 | $24 per user, per month | Phone automation software | Campaign automation through short message service (SMS) texts |
 | Free to $39 per user, per month | Prospecting automation tool | Prospect database for automating research activity |
 | $49 per month | Prospecting automation tool | Prospect research, email campaigns, and automated data management features |
*Based on annual billing; monthly billing is also available for slightly higher rates.
Pro tip: Providing your reps with the necessary resources to succeed is a huge part of being an effective sales manager. In addition to deploying sales automation platforms throughout the operation, managers must create a strategy and build a team to help execute it. Learn the key functions of a manager in our guide on the six key aspects of sales management.
CRM Automation Platforms
A customer relationship management (CRM) system is sales software that provides numerous functions, like contact management, deal tracking, and communications tools, in one platform. One of its most crucial capabilities, however, involves sales automation, where users can create workflows for auto-assigning leads, updating data records, or deploying email messages based on triggers and conditions.
1. HubSpot Sales Hub: Best Free Sales Automation Software
Pros
- Free plan for unlimited users
- Highly intuitive system for navigating and operating the workflow automation tools
- Contact data management and email outreach automation are available for free
Cons
- Higher-tiered plans get expensive
- Doesn’t have lead scoring until the Professional plan for $450 monthly
- Automated sequences for creating task and follow-up flows via email and LinkedIn get expensive
Starting Price: Free plan with limited features to $18 per month (up to two users)
Other Price Tiers:
- Starter CRM Suite: $30 per month with additional marketing and service tools (up to two users)
- Professional Sales Hub: $450 per month (up to five users)
- Enterprise Sales Hub: $1,200 per month (up to 10 users)
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Simple workflow automation that triggers new task assignments and notifications based on deal stage changes throughout the pipeline
- Conversation routing that auto-assigns incoming leads through email or live chat to reps based on preset criteria
- Lead scoring that lets you qualify leads and determine the best opportunities based on preset criteria and can trigger automations based on a contact’s score like email follow-ups, list segmentation, and assignment to other users
- Email automation that will send follow-ups or introductions based on a scheduled time, automated sequence, or contact engagement like opens and clicks
HubSpot Sales Hub has an excellent free-forever plan that includes some automation capabilities like contact record management for auto-updating data and deploying email follow-ups. The interface design makes it easy for any user to create and activate workflows to meet numerous sales automation needs. These include contact scoring, automated lead and conversation assignment, deal-based task triggers, and data duplicate detection.
HubSpot simple deal automation (Source: HubSpot)
2. Pipedrive: Best for Proposal Management
Pros
- Includes data management automation for identifying duplicate records and enriching profile information
- Unique Smart Docs and data auto-populating tools to auto-generate proposals and obtain signatures on them
- Built-in meeting scheduler so reps can avoid back-and-forth conversations trying to find an available time and automate scheduling tasks
Cons
- No free plan
- Email usage from the CRM and automated email deployment requires the Advanced plan
- Automated lead and deal assignment requires the expensive Professional plan
Starting Price: $14.90 per user, per month
Other Price Tiers (per User, per Month):
- Advanced: $27.90
- Professional: $49.90
- Power: $64.90
- Enterprise: $99
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Smart Docs with auto-fill templates that populate contact and lead data in the CRM to create, send, and track sales proposals and obtain digital signatures on them
- Smart Contact Data tool that auto-enriches profiles based on web site pages and LinkedIn account information to keep records up to date
- Artificial intelligence (AI) sales assistant that provides recommendations on how to improve, automatic task suggestions, and system notifications
- Built-in meeting and video scheduler that lets contacts schedule an appointment based on preset availability and conditions
Pipedrive is a complete sales CRM for lead management, deal tracking, appointment scheduling, and proposal generation. While it’s a sales automation system for many scenarios like lead assignment, task generation, and activity notifications, we mostly like its use in proposal management. From generating and sending quotes to tracking and finalizing contracts, Pipedrive can automate the entire process with its Smart Docs tool and data auto-fill features.
Pipedrive Smart Docs feature (Source: Pipedrive)
3. Keap: Best Advanced Automation Capabilities
Pros
- Highly tailorable workflow builder tools, letting you design automations for nearly any sales or marketing process
- Simple creation of both basic and complex automations through its intuitive “when/then” automation builder
- Comprehensive sales system for managing leads, deals, payments, appointments, omnichannel outreach, and proposals in one platform
Cons
- Expensive for all plans
- Auto-lead assignment requires the highest-tiered plan
- Lacks built-in project management features
Starting Price: $149 per month (two users included)
Other Price Tiers:
- Max: $199 per month (includes three users)
- Max Classic: Contact for pricing
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Omnichannel communications via phone, text, or email with automated marketing campaign deployment options
- Payment processing with automated recurring invoices and payments
- Auto-task generation and assignment based on sales funnel stage changes
- Customizable task reminders and notifications that auto-update users on what to complete next
Keap is comprehensive sales process automation software where workflows can be tailored for various needs like pipeline management and marketing campaigns. The CRM also includes proposal and payment processing tools in addition to standard deal and lead management. Not only does the CRM allow you to oversee all parts of your sales process, from prospecting to revenue collection, but the design tools are simple for creating all automated workflows.
Keap automation builder (Source: Keap)
4. EngageBay: Best for Automating Revenue Operations
Pros
- Free plan available plus affordable paid plans
- CRM includes all-in-one sales, marketing, and customer service management capabilities
- Automated email sequences are available for free
Cons
- Marketing and workflow automation not available until the Growth plan for $45.99 per user, monthly
- Poor usability ratings for operating the CRM tools
- Automated canned responses to customer service inquiries aren’t available for free
Starting Price: Free to $13.79 per user, per month
Other Price Tiers (per User, per Month):
- Basic: $13.79
- Growth: $45.99
- Pro: $91.99
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Predictive lead scoring for automatically identifying solid opportunities based on profiles and engagement history
- Email sequences and marketing automation for deploying email campaigns on time-based or event-based triggers
- Custom CRM sales automations for lead and task assignment, notifications, and data updates based on triggers and conditions
- Customer service automation including auto-case assignment to users, canned responses, and ticket macros that let users complete workflows using one-click functionality
EngageBay is the best sales automation software for revenue operations as it includes a sales, marketing, and customer service module, and each have workflow automation capabilities. Users can manage tasks and update records based on sales activity and deal stages. They can also create and auto-deploy marketing campaigns according to list segments and engagement history, plus auto-assign customer service tickets and generate canned responses for them.
EngageBay marketing automations (Source: EngageBay)
Sales Email Automation Systems
Sales email automation platforms are specifically used for developing campaigns and nurturing leads. These tools allow you to create marketing emails and then auto-deploy them on a mass scale based on the recipient’s associated contact list, profile attributes, time intervals, or behaviors, such as clicking a previous email link. Email automation systems also let teams track campaign performance and optimize their content through A/B testing tools.
5. Mailchimp: Best for Free Email Automation
Pros
- Free plan available for creating mass email campaigns and automated customer journeys
- Built-in creative assistant and campaign insights tools for optimizing email content and delivery
- Subscribers report excellent user experience as the campaign features are easy to operate
Cons
- Only 500 contacts allowed on the free plan
- Free plan limited to one user
- Multi-step email automations are not available until the Standard plan
Starting Price: Free (one user) to $13 per month (three users)
Other Price Tiers:
- Standard: $20 per month (five users)
- Premium: $350 per month (unlimited users)
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Mass emails can be automatically personalized based on contact profiles, tags, or segmented lists
- Email automations builder for deploying and redeploying email messages based on activity like an abandoned carts, purchases, or engagement with prior messages
- Automated campaign insights for recommending next-best actions, optimizing content and subject lines, and inserting personalized dynamic content that will adjust images or copy based on contact information
Mailchimp is an easy-to-use, cost-friendly email automation platform that helps small businesses grow. As it’s a specialized tool designed for email outreach, you can use Mailchimp to automate email creation through premade templates and contact data-populating features, and campaign deployment through the automated journey builder. Teams can also redeploy emails based on events like abandoned carts or purchases.
Mailchimp creating automated email journeys (Source: Stewart Gauld)
Did you know you can integrate Mailchimp with your CRM? This connection allows you to synchronize contact data and monitoring campaigns in both systems. Find out the best providers for Mailchimp integration in our guide on the best CRMs for Mailchimp.
6. ActiveCampaign: Best for Reporting Email Automations
Pros
- Integrates with many ecommerce and other third-party applications to auto-sync data across systems
- Unique features for reporting automation performance and visually mapping automated workflows
- Uses drag and drop email design tools for creating email campaigns
Cons
- No free plan and relatively expensive paid options
- Automation splitting for separating out different journeys based on contact actions requires the Professional plan
- Only one user allowed on the Lite plan
Starting Price: $29 per month (one user)
Other Price Tiers:
- Plus: $49 per month (three users)
- Professional: $149 per month (five users)
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing (10 users)
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Lead scoring that assigns points to contact profiles based on engagement with emails to identify interested sales leads
- Email campaign design tools with automated workflows that sets deployment rules per the contact profile, events like purchases, or interactions with previous campaigns
- Automation reporting that generates visual data for active email workflows to how many contacts have been triggered by an automation and how each automated campaign is performing
ActiveCampaign’s CRM and marketing tools combine as a great email marketing CRM. It lets users create and automate campaigns with data from the stored customer profiles, transaction history, and engagement with previous campaigns. Additionally, ActiveCampaign includes automation reporting that visualizes the number of executed triggers for every stage of the workflow and how many contacts were triggered in each workflow.
ActiveCampaign automation reports (Source: ActiveCampaign)
Sales Forecasting Automation Tools
Rather than trying to manually estimate how many deals you’ll close and projecting revenue numbers, sales forecasting automation tools perform these functions for you. These products essentially automate the data analytics process by pooling information from outside databases and gaining intelligence without needing additional actions by the user.
7. InsightSquared: Best for All-around Revenue Intelligence
Pros
- Intuitive dashboard and navigation system
- Complete revenue intelligence platform that provides pipeline insights, sales forecasts, and sales improvement recommendations
- Leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to help analyze data across CRMs and other tools
Cons
- No transparent pricing
- Primarily a revenue analytics tool; doesn’t provide intelligence for other business areas
- Cannot run broader data management functions like governance settings or statistical modeling
Starting Price: Contact for quotes
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Sales forecasting through artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of historical trends and current data
- Automated pipeline intelligence that will report conversions, effectiveness at each sales pipeline stage, and next-step recommendations to finalize each deal
- Data enrichment tools for keeping integrated data up to date automatically
- Automated direct data sync and data flows between InsightSquared and CRM systems
InsightSquared helps revenue operations teams uncover insights and make decisions. It integrates with other sales automation platforms like CRMs and tools storing lead data, pools the information into one system, and provides AI-driven analysis. Users can perform many functions like phone conversation insights, sales forecasts, pipeline analysis, dashboard reporting, and guided selling that prompts the next activity steps you should follow for each deal.
InsightSquared forecast notification (Source: InsightSquared)
8. Looker: Best Complete Data Management Platform
Pros
- Full business intelligence platform that can perform data modeling, visualization, and analysis for all business functions
- Google-native product that has an interface similar to Google apps and high usability ratings for navigating the system
- Robust options for third-party integrations
Cons
- No transparent pricing
- Primarily a data management and modeling platform; requires technical experience to operate its tools
- Minimal customer support available for user assistance; limited to email ticketing
Starting Price: Contact for quotes
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Prebuilt data modeling templates that let you quickly connect to databases, identify patterns, and make predictions
- Automatic data sync through embedded analytics that update dashboards and report metrics from other sources in real time
- Connect data flows between applications that sync contact data and share insights with users in tools like Slack, Salesforce, and Airtable
Looker is a Google Cloud product that offers versatile intelligence to teams in all business roles. It’s a full data management platform that lets you connect with third-party tools and databases for data modeling, forecasting, and embedded analytics that auto-updates dashboard metrics in real time. The best thing about Looker is that it comes with prebuilt data modeling templates, which take care of much of the preparation work when uncovering data trends and patterns.
Looker business intelligence dashboard (Source: Looker)
9. Phocas Software: Best for Budget Planning
Pros
- Highly acclaimed for its product usability specifically when operating the budgeting and forecasting tools
- Includes unique features for obtaining feedback on budget plans with automated assignment and approval
- Complete financial oversight platform for planning sales, operations, and growth initiatives
Cons
- No transparent pricing
- Limited number of direct integration options
- Data visualization features require a steep learning curve
Starting Price: Contact for quotes
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Forecasting and budgeting analytics by connecting sales, operations, and other business tools into a single source of truth
- Collaboration and automated approval tools that allows various users to submit, assign, approve, or make notes on budgetary requests
- Automated data flows from integrated CRM systems that sync data on performance, activity, and deal records to report and analyze in Phocas
Phocas Software takes automated sales forecasting a step further by incorporating budget tools into the mix. This not only lets you integrate outside tools to collect and analyze data that generates the forecast but also plans out capacity, inventory, and operations growth to scale the business. The most notable capability is the budget collaboration tools, where teams can automatically request budget increases to numerous stakeholders for fast approval or rejection.
Phocas budgetary collaboration feature (Source: Phocas)
Phone/Calling Automation Software
Phone and calling automation streamline some of the most tedious tasks in a sales rep’s day-to-day—dialing and logging phone calls. These tools can also help manage video conference calls and deploy text message campaigns. By taking care of the legwork involved while doing cold call outreach, follow-ups, and meeting scheduling, sales reps can focus on solving prospect challenges and converting them into leads.
10. Nextiva: Best for Creating Call Flows
Pros
- Relatively affordable phone and business communication system
- Integrates with major CRM systems like HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, and SugarCRM
- Acclaimed for great call quality, high uptimes, and robust automation features for routing callers to the right reps
Cons
- Only has predictive dialing; power dialing for auto-dialing calls down a premade list is not available
- Full call center platform does not have transparent pricing
- Automatically transcribing voicemail messages requires expensive Enterprise plan
Starting Price: $17.95 to $23.95 per user, per month (depending on total users)
Other Price Tiers (per User, per Month):
- Professional: $21.95 to $27.95
- Enterprise: $31.95 to $37.95
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Call flow designer that manages calls and auto-routes incoming callers to users based on time, territory, or contextual details like whether a voicemail is left or the initial rep doesn’t answer
- Automated voicemail-to-email or text notifications for reps to receive notifications for voicemails left by contacts
- Auto-call attendant to help navigate inbound callers to the right teams
- Call trend analysis to identity high-volume times and evaluate call qualify by analyzing recorded conversations
Nextiva is a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone system that has video conferencing and texting capabilities. It offers a central platform for reps to place, receive, and log calls, record conversations, and analyze call trends and conversations. The call flow designer is an ideal sales automation solution for managing calls and getting them to the right teams. It lets you design automated flows that specify call routing scenarios and what happens if it’s unanswered.
Nextiva creating a call flow (Source: Nextiva)
11. RingCentral MVP: Best for Auto-dialing Features
Pros
- Offers auto-dialing capabilities to automatically place calls based on a preset list of contacts
- Broad range of CRM and third-party integration options
- User-friendly platform that's easy to set up, integrate with other systems, and operate the call features
Cons
- Automated call recording requires the Advanced plan
- Only 100 toll-free minutes allowed on the Core plan
- Conversation intelligence features requires separate add-on for an additional cost
Starting Price: $20 per user, per month
Other Price Tiers (per User, per Month):
- Advanced: $25
- Ultra: $35
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Auto-dialing for placing calls automatically based on a preset contact list
- Call recording with automatic options for all inbound and outbound phone calls
- Call queue management with advanced options for auto-routing inbound calls to specific users
RingCentral is a cloud phone system that lets sales teams manage calls. It integrates with a wide range of CRM products to access the calling tools from the CRM interface and sync call activity data between each system. As a sales automation tool, the auto-dialing features stick out the most. The progressive dialer auto-dials phone numbers of a preset contact list while giving the rep a few moments to review lead information and call scripts before placing the call.
RingCentral progressive dialer (Source: RingCentral)
12. GoTo Connect: Best for Text Campaigns
Pros
- Includes short message service (SMS) credits on the low-tiered plan with mass texting campaign options
- Offers smart call routing tools that automatically route calls based on sequences to multiple phones to ensure nothing goes unanswered
- Built-in auto-attendant that helps inbound callers navigate and get to the right rep
Cons
- CRM integrations only allow HubSpot and Salesforce
- Conversation and call center analytics requires the higher-tiered plan
- Video conferencing limits you to four participants and 40 minutes of call time on the Basic plan
Starting Price: $24 per user, per month
Other Price Tiers:
- Standard: $29 per user, monthly
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Text messaging options to send mass campaigns or individual messages; includes automated deployment options
- Smart call routing for creating automated flows for how an inbound call is handled and who it gets routed to
- Predictive analytics on call conversations to determine customer satisfaction levels and help with on-the-spot decision making for the rep
Connect is the phone and call center product offered by the provider GoTo. Like other cloud phone systems, it lets teams automate call management tasks such as recording, logging, routing, and conversation analysis. We most liked the built-in messaging capabilities that allow users to deploy text campaigns or send out individual texts to contacts in the database. Users can use these tools to automate survey outreach and appointment confirmations.
GoTo Connect sending a text message (Source: GoTo)
Prospecting Automation Tools
Prospecting automation tools allow teams to generate leads and conduct prospect research without manual input. The main feature of these sales automation services is the database of lead information that can be searched and filtered based on industry, company size, job title, and other attributes that let you narrow in on ideal customer contacts. Prospecting tools also let you automate the data transfer process to mass import lists into a spreadsheet or CRM.
13. Apollo: Best for Obtaining Prospect Data
Pros
- Free plan available
- Users can identify buyer intent for specific products or services included on the free plan
- Includes built-in email sequences and appointment scheduling to automate outreach
Cons
- Only 25 monthly records can be downloaded on the free plan
- Contact and account enrichment not available until the Enterprise plan
- Revenue and technology stack data can’t be filtered on the free plan
Starting Price: Free to $39 per user, per month
Other Price Tiers (per User, per Month):
- Professional: $79
- Organization: $99
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Prospect research and filtering to auto-create lead lists based on job title, location, industry, employee count, personas, technology stack, revenue, buyer intent, and other key attributes
- Email sequences to send out campaigns and automate follow-ups
- Built-in meeting scheduler to book meetings and auto-sync them to Google and Outlook calendars
Apollo is an automation software and database that lets you identify and engage prospects. The main feature is the database that allows teams to filter out leads based on customer profile criteria, then use credits to purchase contact, phone number, and email information. From there, they can create mass lead lists without manually finding and importing information into a CRM or other data system.
Apollo contact data filtering (Source: Apollo)
14. Growbots: Best Combined Prospecting & Outreach Tools
Pros
- Excellent data management features like automated profile enrichment and data deduplication
- Comes with a prospect database to create lead lists based on customer profile attributes
- Email outreach features with automated sequences, A/B testing, and campaign performance reporting
Cons
- Only allows direct CRM integration with HubSpot and Salesforce
- Relatively expensive software
- Outreach tools limited to email sequences
Starting Price: $49 per month for the first user then $39 per month for each one after
Other Price Tiers:
- All-in-One: $199 per month
- Pro: Contact for pricing
Key Sales Automation Features:
- Automatic data deduplication to ensure contact database stays clean
- Spam management that automatically update records with do-not-contact labels and removes them from contact lists
- Automated campaigns deployment through email
- Data enrichment for automatically keeping account and contact data up to date
Growbots combines as a great prospecting, lead generation, and nurturing tool. Not only does it let you create lead lists through its robust contact and company database, but it also allows you to run sequences to make introductions and follow-ups via email. Additionally, Growbots has solid data management tools that automate mundane tasks such as record updates through auto-enrichment features, and it data cleanses with its deduplication tools.
Growbots adding contacts to sequence list (Source: Growbots)
Pro tip: Ensure you give your employees the tools to hit their goals. Check out our guide on the best sales management software to learn about products that allow business owners and managers to monitor their operations, coach other reps, and generate sales forecasts.
How We Evaluated the Best Sales Automation Platforms
Because these sales automation platforms each serve different purposes, we first categorized the providers based on product types, like CRM systems or email automation platforms. Next, we looked at each product within its category in terms of automation capabilities, how broad its use cases are, and the simplicity of configuring the workflows. Finally, we looked at general attributes crucial for all software, like affordability, system customization, and customer support availability.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Sales automation software is a solution, found either as a specialized tool or as a set of features in a CRM system, that functions without any user input. For example, rather than updating contact records in a database with new information, you can use automated data enrichment to find new information online and update the record on its own. Similarly, you can automate communications like email follow-ups by creating triggered-based workflows.
Besides the human-oriented activities that require direct contact with a lead or customer, just about every sales task or process can be automated to some extent. As long as there is a software tool that can create workflows with triggers (such as deal stage changes or product purchases) and actions like email follow-ups or data updates, that process can typically be automated.
Bottom Line
Sales automation software allows teams to put repetitive tasks on auto-pilot by setting up workflows that follow an if/then or trigger-based action. It can consist of a specialty tool or a set of features within a CRM system. Depending on your preferred use cases, such as automating emails, calls, or prospecting, various automation platforms can help you meet your objectives so you can focus efforts toward other initiatives like relationship building or creative collaboration.
