Close CRM Review: Is It Right for Your Business?
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.
Jill is a writer at Fit Small Business specializing on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
This article is part of a larger series on CRM.
Close is one of our top picks for the best customer relationship management (CRM) system for small businesses. In our evaluation of our most recommended CRMs, Close scored high in the areas of general features and ease of use. However, it scored lower in some areas, particularly specialized features, as it lacks crucial features like lead scoring. It also scored low in customer support because it doesn’t offer live chat and phone support.
Overall Score:
3.63 / 5
What We Like
- Easy to set up and use
- All plans include analytics and reporting
- All plans include built-in phone dialer
What's Missing
- No free plan
- Limits the number of users per pricing tier
- Limited pipelines; only one pipeline is allocated for the Starter and Basic plans
- No live chat and phone support options
When to Use Close
- Telesales engagement: Check our top CRM picks for small businesses and learn why Close is best for managing telesales engagement.
When to Use an Alternative
- Outlook integration: Check out this guide for top CRM options to integrate your Outlook account.
- Ecommerce CRM: Read this guide for top CRM options to manage your online store.
- Free CRM: Close doesn’t offer a free plan, but you can choose from these six alternative providers of free CRMs.
Close is an excellent CRM system for teams heavy on sales engagement as it offers various tools for reaching out to new leads, specifically emails, SMS, and an in-app phone. It is ideal for beginners because it features an intuitive dashboard that helps you input and manage leads easily. Its Smart Views feature provides a single place to access your saved lead filters, follow-up lists, tasks, and reminders.
Close CRM Review Deciding Factors
Supported Business Types | Small sales teams to large companies, depending on the plan chosen |
Standout Features |
|
Pricing Plans | $25 to $129 per user, per month |
Contract Duration | Monthly and annual plans are available |
Key Integrations |
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Customer Support | Email support Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time |
Are you interested in learning more about the best CRM options for your organization? Check out our guide on the best CRMs for small businesses.
Close Alternatives
If Close doesn’t meet your business needs, below are some alternatives you can consider:
 |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|
Best For | Best ecommerce solution for startups and small businesses | Companies that need visual representations of their sales pipelines | Businesses that want an affordable CRM with excellent analytics tools |
Starting Price | Offers a free plan; paid plans start at $39 per month | Starts at $14.90 per user, per month | Offers a free plan; paid plans start at $14 per user, monthly |
Close earned a pricing score of 3.88 out of 5 in our evaluation. Close pricing ranges from $25 to $129 per user, per month when billed annually. All users can access core CRM features like pipelines, activity, and opportunity management. Interested users can sign up for a 14-day free trial before subscribing to a paid plan.
Plans | Starter | Basic | Professional | Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Best For | Small sales teams | Growing sales teams | Mid-sized businesses | Large companies |
Monthly Pricing ($/User/Month) | $25 | $59 | $89 | $129 |
Annual Pricing ($/User/Month) | $29 | $69 | $99 | $149 |
User Limit | 3 | 30 | 100 | Unlimited |
Leads | 2,500 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Pipelines | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
Pipeline, Activity & Opportunity Reporting | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Saved Lead List | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Sales Leaderboard | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Power Dialer | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Built-in Call Coaching | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Starter
Close’s Starter plan includes core CRM features, such as lead, contact, and opportunity management. In addition, it has a functionality called Smart Views, which lets you save customized views of leads to tailor-fit your workflow and keep you on top of your outreach activities. The Starter plan has an allocation of only one pipeline, a maximum of three users who can subscribe to the same plan, as well as a limit of 2,500 leads you can store in the system.
Basic
The Basic plan includes everything under the Starter plan. In addition, it gives users access to more advanced features like call forwarding, custom fields, sales leaderboards, and sales comparison reports. Like the Starter plan, the Basic plan users are only allocated with one sales pipeline. It has a user limit of 30 seats and allows you to store an unlimited number of leads in the system.
Professional
The Professional plan offers everything under the Basic plan plus additional features like bulk email sending, email sequences for drip campaigns, and a power dialer. This plan is more suitable for sales agents who do a lot of outgoing lead outreach as it gives them ample email and phone call allocation. Subscribers of the Professional plan have a user limit of 100 seats and can create up to three pipelines in their dashboard.
Business
The Business plan is Close’s most advanced plan. Apart from the features included in the Professional plan, it has an allocation of unlimited users and up to 10 pipelines. Furthermore, users also have access to premium features like in-call coaching to help train agents, call transferring, and custom roles and permissions within the dashboard.
Close Features
Close offers a range of essential tools that sales teams need to engage and attract quality leads and customers, and close more deals. It also provides sales managers with helpful tools to monitor their agents’ performance, including reports and leaderboards.
We gave Close’s general features a score of 5 out of 5 because it offers fundamental CRM tools, including lead, task, and pipeline management. It provides helpful tools to salespeople who are focused on doing cold outreach to potential leads, such as emails and SMS. Various features like leads, opportunities, and pipelines have custom fields, so users can tailor-fit them based on their own business processes.
Below are general features of Close:
- Contact management
- Lead management
- Task management
- Sales pipelines
- SMS and email
- Mobile app
- Sales email templates
- Email open tracking
- Email scheduling
Close’s main dashboard shows all the pertinent information about active leads and deals. (Source: Close)
Close earned a score of 3 out of 5 for its specialized features as we saw some areas that need improvements, such as the lack of lead scoring features and territory management capabilities. These two features are crucial—especially since Close is a sales-oriented CRM.
Reporting & Analytics
Close lets you make accurate sales forecasts on open deals in the opportunity management dashboard. Additionally, you can check factors affecting lead conversion rate, including agents’ phone hours, lead distribution, and average time to win leads. Close’s reporting feature also gives visibility into your team’s performance based on deal value closed vis-a-vis the volume of leads engaged.
Here are some functionalities under Close’s reporting and analytics features:
- KPI reports
- Funnel health reports
- Sales forecasts
- Activity summary reports
- Agent leaderboard
Users can pull reports from the CRM that summarizes their team’s activities, including daily, weekly, and monthly activities. (Source: Close)
Call Coaching
Close’s call coaching feature offers listen, whisper, and barge features that enable sales managers to assist their agents as needed when dealing with leads and customers. Sales managers can observe how their agents interact with customers and provide suggestions on the spot without the customers knowing. When needed, sales managers can intervene during the call to ensure customers are satisfied with the service being provided to them.
Close makes it easy for sales managers to monitor the quality of their agents’ phone calls with leads and customers. (Source: Close)
Power Dialer
Close’s power dialer lets you make outbound calls directly from the software, and record details like call history, notes, and minutes used. Sales managers also have visibility on who their agents are calling in real time, as well as the volume of calls each agent made in a specific time period. The power dialer has features like call forwarding, caller ID, call transfers, and voicemails.
Below are some functionalities under Close’s power dialer features:
- Call recording
- Call forwarding
- Automatic call logging
- Voicemails
- Call transferring
- Custom voicemail greetings
Calls made by the users through Close are automatically recorded, so users can easily go back and check the call history if needed. (Source: Close)
Doing a lot of cold calling outreach to leads and potential customers? Learn more by reading our ultimate guide to cold calling, and pick up some tips on how to write effective cold calling scripts.
Third-party Integrations
Close has integration capabilities with many third-party applications, giving you the ability to synchronize all your customer data into the platform. These include its native integrations with tools for email marketing, document management, and collaboration.
Some of its most popular integrations include:
- HubSpot CRM
- ActiveCampaign
- Airtable
- Asana
- Calendly
- Facebook Lead Ads
- Mailchimp
- Shopify
- Slack
- Trello
- Unbounce
- Zendesk
Close earned a lower score of 1.63 out of 5 for its support as it offers limited support to customers. It only provides a self-service help center and email support Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Only Business plan subscribers are given custom onboarding and a dedicated customer success manager.
Users who require premium custom support need to pay a steep amount that starts at $750 per month. Subscribers of the premium support plan have access to a dedicated queue managed by Close’s senior support staff. They also get a response time of two hours or less during business hours and can book same-day screen share support appointments.
We scored Close 5 out of 5 for ease of use because it is easy to implement and operate. Most Close reviews mentioned that onboarding team members is straightforward, and it is easy to familiarize oneself with its features. Close’s interface is sleek and laid out intuitively, making it easy for users to find the tools they need.
We scored Close 4.13 out of 5 for expert scores, as most of the existing Close CRM reviews online are positive. Users like that the system is highly customizable, which allows them to tailor it based on their needs and processes. They also like the power dialer feature as it helps their agents make and log calls easily from within the app.
- Capterra: 4.7 out of 5 based on 149 reviews
- G2: 4.6 out of 5 based on 324 reviews
- TrustRadius: 8.4 out of 10 based on 38 reviews
Methodology: How We Evaluated Close CRM Reviews
To evaluate Close against other CRM software, we looked at different and crucial areas, such as pricing and the core set of features every CRM should have. We also evaluated the level of customer support and ease of use, as well as looked through existing CRM ratings about Close from credible review sources.
Click through the tabs below for our Close CRM review evaluation criteria:
10%
Pricing
10%
General Features
30%
Niche Features
20%
Ease of Use
20%
Support
10%
Expert Score
10% of Overall Score
Cost is typically an important criterion for any business, so it was one of our considerations when evaluating the cost-effectiveness of Close pricing. We give a high score to providers that offer a starter plan that costs $30 or less. We also check the availability of a free plan, scalable pricing options, and options to pay monthly or annually.
10% of Overall Score
We looked at overall features we feel are necessary for any CRM system, such as integration options, reporting, and analytics tools. We also considered the availability of a mobile app—which is important for sales reps who are always on the go.
30% of Overall Score
We also looked at the niche and targeted features of the software to see the value a user can get by subscribing. For Close, we checked if they offer specialized features such as lead scoring, workflow automation, and analytics.
20% of Overall Score
We evaluated Close’s platform usability and the level of technical experience needed to use the system. This was analyzed in terms of the expertise needed to set up an account, the learning curve for learning to use its features, and the ease of integrating with other third-party applications.
20% of Overall Score
Support is critical for running any CRM tool, especially for small businesses that don’t have in-house technical support. We analyzed the types and availability of support offered by these providers through live chat, email, and phone.
10% of Overall Score
We looked through existing Close reviews on credible sites to measure the level of satisfaction current users have and any problems they typically encounter. We also added our thoughts and expert opinion on key features, value for money, and popularity.
*Percentages of overall score
Close Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Who will benefit most from using Close?
Close CRM is best for users looking for a sales-focused CRM system. Its low-tier plans are suitable for small sales teams that need basic lead management and outreach tools. Its high-tier plans are ideal to be used by teams that need advanced features, such as call coaching.
When should I use a Close alternative?
- Users who want a free plan can consider HubSpot CRM, which tops our list of the best free CRMs for small businesses.
- Users managing online stores can consider an alternative. Close is designed for sales engagement and doesn’t have ecommerce features. As an alternative, you can consider Agile CRM, which tops our best ecommerce CRM software.
Bottom Line
Close software is a simple sales CRM packed with features for contact, pipeline, task and opportunity management. Its standout features are its reporting and analytics, as well as call coaching and power dialer. However, one of its biggest drawbacks is its lack of a free plan and limited customer support.
Visit Close’s website to sign up for a 14-day free trial and gain access to its full set of features.
