10 Best Simple CRM Systems

• You’re a startup or small team looking for a free all-in-one CRM: HubSpot is free for two users. Users can bundle products with HubSpot CRM, including sales, marketing, content, operations, and service features.

The features include email campaigns, ads, list segmentation, deal and contact management, and live chat. This CRM system also has easy-to-use prospecting tools, which help identify leads visiting your website.

• You want to put marketing campaigns on autopilot: One of the top easy CRM software tools for HubSpot CRM is the email automation features. Many of the email features are free, and the automation uses a no-code format. This lets users at all skill levels deploy mass emails that automatically send or resend depending on contact segments or engagement activity like opens and clicks.

• You need scalable paid plans: HubSpot CRM’s Starter plan is affordable at $15 per user monthly. However, as you upgrade your plan, the pricing increases even with five users included, starting at Professional for $1,170 monthly. If you have a startup or small business, having a tight budget can restrict you from accessing more advanced features like lead scoring for ABM.
  • Alternative: Zoho CRM offers easy-to-use CRM features in its free plan and cost-friendly paid plans that start at $14 per user for its Standard plan. This plan includes lead scoring and custom email templates for ABM. On the other hand, Pipedrive offers affordable and scalable paid plans. Its basic plan, Essential, comes with lead, calendar, and pipeline management features at $14 per user.
• You need multiple pipelines at a lower cost to sell multiple product lines: HubSpot CRM’s free plan allows you to manage only one deal pipeline, while its Starter plan limits you to two. The Professional plan costs $1,170 per month for 15 unique pipelines per account, which can be relatively pricey for startups.
  • Alternatives: Zoho CRM allows sales teams to create five pipelines on its Standard plan for only $14 per user monthly, and then 10, 20, and 50 pipelines, respectively, on the Professional at $23, Enterprise at $40, and Ultimate plans at $52 per user, per month. EngageBay’s paid plans allow you to manage multiple deal pipelines, starting at $13.79 per user monthly.

• You need robust yet easy-to-use sales automation tools: Pipedrive is one of our top recommended sales automation software for automatically assigning sales tasks, updating CRM records, and more. Its smart Sales Assistant tool analyzes CRM data for lead prioritization and performance monitoring. Its Smart Contact Data feature also crawls the web for valuable data to help supercharge lead-generation efforts.
• You use Microsoft Outlook and Slack: Pipedrive is among our best choices for CRMs that integrate with Outlook. It has a two-way integration for email, contacts, and calendar with Outlook, keeping data consistent between the two systems. This easy CRM software is also one of the best CRMs that integrate with Slack. The Dealbot feature notifies users via Slack whenever there are updates or changes to deals.

• You want a free CRM: While Pipedrive offers affordable paid plans with a 14-day free trial, it does not offer a free plan. Hence, if you’re a freelancer or a startup looking to explore a CRM system at no cost, consider looking elsewhere.
  • Alternative: HubSpot CRM is free and easy to use for beginners and small businesses. This CRM solution has robust features in its free plans that include deal management, marketing tools, and built-in calling, as well as a Kanban view for records. Other providers that offer freemium plans and scalable paid plan options include Zoho CRM and EngageBay.
• You need a basic CRM with affordable phone support: Pipedrive’s phone support for technical inquiries and other concerns starts in its Power plan at $64 per user monthly. Lower tiers have 24/7 chatbot support (starting with the Essential plan at $14 per user) and live chat support (starting at the Advanced plan for $34) during business hours. Some users find not being able to talk to a human person a huge drawback.
  • Alternative: Less Annoying CRM offers phone support Monday through Friday during business hours. Similarly, EngageBay provides scheduled phone support during weekdays. And monday CRM offers 24/7 customer support from its customer success team and callbacks for billing inquiries.

• You need a simple and intuitive customer database: monday CRM makes it easy to organize and manage customer data with its neatly arranged folders for each aspect of your sales process. This easy CRM for small businesses has a highly intuitive interface, which makes it very easy to learn, navigate, use, and customize.

You can also use its CRM templates to manage contacts, leads, and workflows, which makes it one of the best customer database software.

• You want multiple viewing options for your data: Another great aspect of monday CRM is the various board viewing options to evaluate your database. Depending on your objective, such as checking sales pipeline progress, tracking task due dates, or identifying customers’ locations, you can look at their data in Kanban, timeline, calendar, map, chart, or workload views.

• You need more affordable lead scoring: While monday CRM offers lead scoring to help you qualify leads and prioritize sales opportunities, you need to avail of the Enterprise plan, which requires a custom quote.
  • Alternative: Zoho CRM lets you score leads to prioritize those with a higher likelihood to convert. This feature is available on its most basic plan, Standard, for only $14 per user monthly.
• You need a CRM with more transparent pricing and no minimum user requirement: monday CRM plans require a three-user minimum requirement, so expect to pay at least $36 per month at $12 per user. This can be a big disadvantage for solopreneurs and freelancers.
  • Alternatives: HubSpot CRM is an excellent alternative to monday CRM. It comes with free plans and no minimum user requirement. EngageBay and Capsule CRM have free and scalable plans with clear pricing on a per-user basis.

• You need a CRM solution with thorough database customization: Zoho CRM is one of the best customizable CRMs. If you’re looking to customize your CRM based on your branding and work preferences, you can change the homepage’s visual elements. For instance, you can modify the list views and data fields, rename the tabs, change search layouts, and even build custom modules—all in its free plan.
• You’re looking for a solid social CRM: Zoho CRM integrates with Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn. If you want to frequently interact with your followers and engage directly with customers via comments and messages, Zoho CRM is an excellent choice. With direct integration with Zoho’s business tools, like Zoho Desk and Zoho Campaigns, you benefit from more efficient business operations.

• You’re looking for a sales-focused CRM: Zoho CRM is an all-in-one platform with plans that include comprehensive tools for sales, marketing, and customer service. It’s less ideal if you only need tools for sales processes.
  • Alternative: Pipedrive offers specialized tools for sales. These include time-saving workflows, visual sales pipelines, and deal management.
• You want a CRM with free telephone and email features: Zoho CRM’s free-forever plan does not include native telephone and email management tools. Zoho PhoneBridge starts in the Standard plan (at $14 per user monthly). This integration makes calls part of your sales process, which is available on a private branch exchange (PBX) for inbound and outbound calls, voicemail, and call forwarding.
  • Alternative: HubSpot CRM offers a free plan that lets you integrate Aircall and other voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) providers without plugins or extensions. This simple CRM for small businesses also has a built-in phone system, email integrations, and meeting scheduling capabilities, which help with prospect engagement and overall customer service.

• You want to use AI assistance to write sales emails: Capsule CRM’s best feature is its AI content assistant tool, which helps you generate quality email drafts from within contact records. It also gives you recommendations on the content, length, and tone of your message. AI assistance is available in free and paid plans.
• You run a project-based business: Capsule CRM offers Kanban-style boards and “Tracks” across all its plans, standardizing the project delivery and sales process. If you have a project-based business like a construction firm, Capsule CRM is a great option. You can easily track project timelines, conduct onboarding processes, and monitor customer activities, support requests, and client deliverables.

• You want a CRM that offers email tracking tools: Capsule CRM offers basic email marketing features with templates, but it has no advanced features like tools for email tracking. Some marketing agencies and companies needing to implement email newsletter campaigns may find this as a significant drawback.
  • Alternatives: HubSpot CRM tops our list of the best CRMs for email marketing, offering free mass email and performance tracking. EngageBay offers free email tracking tools and templates for 15 users, suitable for launching email outreach and marketing campaigns. Copper CRM offers email open tracking, automation, and bulk email on its Professional plan ($59 per user monthly).
• You need a CRM for managing your ecommerce business: You need ecommerce features for inventory and order management, an online store builder, etc. But Capsule CRM doesn’t offer these capabilities.
  • Alternatives: Zoho CRM is one of our top recommended ecommerce CRMs for small businesses. It offers various tools for online businesses, such as inventory management, marketing, analytics, and customer support. HubSpot CRM and Pipedrive are excellent ecommerce CRMs, too, with easy-to-operate features.

• You need a simple CRM with all features included in one straightforward pricing: Less Annoying CRM offers no frills, highly recommended for solopreneurs and startups. It displays tasks and sales pipelines in a way that helps users quickly see where leads are and what the next best steps are. Moreover, Less Annoying CRM gives you access to all features, like a simple calendar for tracking tasks, at one price tier.
• You want a basic CRM with unlimited contacts and company records: Less Annoying CRM lets you store unlimited contacts, company records, custom fields, and sales pipelines. If you’re a solopreneur, this basic CRM makes data gathering more streamlined even without extra hands available. Scaling businesses like service-based companies can save money with a single-priced plan for unlimited users.

• You need robust native and third-party integrations: For small businesses needing a simple CRM but with several integration options, Less Annoying CRM falls short. This CRM can be directly integrated with Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and Xapp.ai (generative AI). However, it can’t connect with accounting, inventory, and other third-party apps without an app connector, like Zapier.
  • Alternative: HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, and Zoho CRM have hundreds of integrations with native and third-party apps for various business operations. These CRMs have a full-packed app marketplace, where you can find plenty of solutions to integrate with and power up your business system.
• You want access to AI tools for automating tasks: Less Annoying CRM lacks advanced AI features. This limits your ability to automate workflows and generate data insights quickly, which can affect a sales executive’s decision-making process.
  • Alternatives: Pipedrive uses AI and automation tools like a chatbot, an email summarizer, and an AI sales assistant to help reps convert leads and retain buyers. On the other hand, HubSpot CRM has AI-driven tools that can help enhance productivity. These capabilities help reps manage menial tasks and sell quickly while ensuring better customer experiences.

• You need project and task management features: Insightly CRM offers several project management and delivery capabilities to help you tackle tasks quickly. Sales reps can turn deals into projects for 360-degree visibility of customer requirements. It promotes seamless after-sale transitions and retains more loyal customers. With milestones and pipelines, you can improve cross-team communication to attain goals.
• You need an easy-to-use email builder: Engage with your prospects using Insightly CRM’s customizable email templates. Front-end developers can easily add buttons, media, buttons, content blocks, and icons by simply dragging and dropping the elements for a custom email layout. Business-to-business (B2B) companies focused on email marketing and lead-nurturing campaigns greatly benefit from this tool.

• You prefer a CRM with built-in customer service and marketing modules: Insightly CRM’s customer service and marketing modules are available as add-ons. Other providers offer support and marketing tools within their packages for cost-effectiveness or more structured CRM pricing.
  • Alternatives: Our top recommendations for built-in marketing and service capabilities are HubSpot CRM and Zoho CRM, which offer these modules in their free plans. HubSpot CRM’s free marketing tools include an AI blog and marketing event objects to store and track campaigns. Zoho CRM offers marketing campaign automation in its freemium plan.
• You want to integrate your simple CRM with social media: While Insightly CRM has excellent project management features, it lacks social media capabilities for engagement, profile enrichment, and overall management. If you frequently use social media for marketing, outreach, and lead nurturing, you can choose a suitable alternative to this CRM.
  • Alternatives: Zoho CRM lets you connect and engage with your prospects and customers on social media without leaving the platform. With monday CRM, you can manage your Facebook Ads campaigns from the platform.

• You use an omnichannel approach for customer engagement: With EngageBay, you can interact with your leads and customers through email, live chat, social media, SMS, and video messaging, all from a single platform.

This basic CRM system also allows you to integrate your CRM with VoIP telephone systems like RingCentral and Twilio. With this capability, you can easily make and receive calls from leads and customers, ensuring you promptly respond to their inquiries efficiently and cost-effectively.

• You need free lead scoring features: EngageBay’s predictive lead scoring features are available even with its free plan. Scoring your leads improves conversion as you identify qualified leads that are closest to making a buying decision. Hence, having these features for free makes EngageBay a solid choice for lead generation on a budget.

• You’re seeking a CRM with low-cost proposal generation features: EngageBay’s proposal generation and management features are not available until the Growth plan, which costs $59.79 per user monthly.
  • Alternative: Pipedrive’s Professional plan ($49 per user monthly) includes Smart Docs to centralize your entire documentation process. You can send trackable quotes, contracts, and proposals from within the CRM.
• You need free and affordable CRM options with more data capacity: EngageBay’s free tier has a 250-limit on contact storage. So it’s not ideal if you’re catering to contact data on a massive scale.
  • Alternative: If you’re looking to build relationships with more than 250 leads and customers at no cost, try HubSpot CRM. Its free option allows you to store up to 1,000,000 contacts. Moreover, Streak CRM offers unlimited contact data capacity.

• You need an easy-to-use and low-cost way to manage contact data: Copper CRM’s Basic Plan at $23 per user monthly lets users enrich contact data using publicly available information. This helps in lead generation and sales follow-ups. This simple CRM for small businesses supports Google users using Gmail, Drive, and Sheets.
• Your team uses Google apps for work collaboration: Copper CRM is considered the best Google CRM system because it is built specifically for Google Workspace app users as reflected by its similar design. It directly integrates with other Google products to expand data management functionality. This simple CRM tool also has a Chrome extension to modify CRM data records directly from within Gmail and Google Calendar.

• You need a free client database solution: Copper CRM, unfortunately, does not offer a free option for storing contacts and customer data.
  • Alternative: One of the best free customer and client database systems is HubSpot CRM. Its free plan includes contact and company management tools, email templates, and Gmail, Outlook, and Microsoft Exchange integrations—all crucial in building a solid client database.
• You’re looking for low-priced lead scoring tools: Copper CRM’s lead scoring features for analyzing promising leads based on profiles and activity get expensive—starting at $99 per user monthly for the Business plan.
  • Alternative: Zoho CRM offers a lead-scoring feature for only $14 per user monthly. Sales reps can score leads based on their interactions with your small business to determine their chances of conversion from prospects to paying customers.

• You want easy CRM software to use with Google Workspace: Streak CRM is one of our top Google CRMs because it integrates with Google Workspace and its major apps like Docs, Sheets, and Drive.

Plus, it connects seamlessly with Gmail, allowing you to access CRM data and tools from within your inbox. That way, you can monitor pipeline stages, records, and tasks without hopping between two platforms.

• You want unlimited contact data capacity: Even in its free plan, you can already store unlimited contacts and track associated data in the pipeline—a feature made exclusive to paid plans in other providers. On top of that, you can readily use this data to deploy mass email campaigns for prospects and leads in this basic CRM system.

• You want affordable workflow automations: Setting sales processes and CRM workflows on autopilot will require you to shell out $69 (Pro+ plan) when using Streak CRM. This price may appear too hefty for small businesses on a budget.
  • Alternative: Pipedrive is our top pick for an easy-to-use CRM for small businesses with solid yet less costly automation features under its Advanced plan for only $34 per user. Also, Zoho CRM has free workflow automation tools.
• You need a free plan for multiple users: While Streak CRM offers a free-forever plan, it is limited to only one user. If you’re a team looking for a gateway CRM, you may want to consider looking elsewhere. Moreover, Streak CRM’s free plan only has email tracking tools like email sharing, link tracking, snippets, and mail merge.
  • Alternative: HubSpot CRM provides access to two users in its free plan. This CRM is ideal for solopreneurs or a small business handled by one to two members. If you have more than 10 users, go for EngageBay. It provides free-forever tools for teams of up to 15 members.