6 Best Pipedrive Alternatives for Small Businesses 2019

Pipedrive alternatives are customer relationship management (CRM) tools that display sales-related information in a highly visual way, so users can determine actionable next steps. However, they can vary in price and added features. For comparison purposes, we looked at dozens of CRMs and arranged a list of the top six alternatives, including the best overall.

Top 6 CRM Alternatives to Pipedrive 2019

How We Evaluated CRM Alternatives to Pipedrive

Pipedrive alternatives should help teams organize and view customer information, as well as related activities, in a highly digestible way that supports decision-making and can grow with them. Because small business CRMs, like Pipedrive, are most successful when they help teams analyze data and design process improvements, we investigated how well each featured CRM feeds reporting and accomplishes other common CRM tasks.

Specifically, we evaluated Pipedrive alternatives using the following criteria:

• Price: We considered the affordability of each tool in comparison to pricing offered with Pipedrive.
• Affordability of upgrades and paid plans: We compared the price ranges of paid plans and upgrades, setting transparent expectations of functionality.
• Customer satisfaction: We took a look at CRM software user reviews to distinguish the best Pipedrive alternatives.
• Ease of use: We considered how easy it is to use each CRM tool.
• Lead and opportunity management: We examined how well each platform facilitates lead and opportunity management.
• Mobility: Because many sales teams employ remote or traveling employees, we compared how well each platform supports mobile CRM.
• Reporting tools: We compared each CRM’s capabilities around reporting and analytics.
• Workflow automation: Because workflow rules can help to efficiently improve operations, we also considered the automation features included with each CRM.

We chose Freshworks CRM as the best of featured Pipedrive alternatives because it offers free and paid plans with full CRM functionality, including from mobile devices, and consistently scores highly among existing users. Freshworks CRM also encourages scaling with features that support the continued growth of small businesses, and has telephone-accessible customer service during business hours, five days a week. To sign up for a free Freshworks CRM account, visit their website.

Freshworks CRM: Best Overall CRM Alternative to Pipedrive

Freshworks CRM is a cloud-based CRM tool that is easy to set up and use with a free-forever plan that includes account, contact, lead, and deal management. Paid plans start at just $12 per user, per month and, like Pipedrive, offer team management and workflow rules. Freshworks CRM also offers web-based calling and is supported in more languages and on more operating systems than Pipedrive, making it a robust, scalable, and flexible CRM alternative to Pipedrive.

Freshworks CRM Pricing

Freshworks CRM makes its CRM tool available in one of four packages: Sprout, Blossom, Garden, and Estate. Each paid package builds upon the core functionality included with its free plan, Sprout, and pricing ranges from $12 to $49 per user, per month.

Freshworks CRM Tiered Features

Sprout

The free-forever plan from Freshworks CRM offers the ability to manage accounts, contacts, leads, and deals, much like the free option from Zoho CRM. However, unlike the free plan from Zoho CRM, the Sprout plan can accommodate unlimited users.

The Sprout plan makes voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) calling a possibility, something that Pipedrive only introduces with its Professional plan at a much higher per-user price. It also includes lead scoring for free, the only provider to do so, making it our overall choice for small businesses that do not need workflow automation or email integration but want a free Pipedrive alternative with web calling and lead scoring.

Blossom

Freshworks CRM’ Blossom package is as robust as introductory CRMs get, with basic reporting, pipeline management, and five automated workflow rules for just $12 per user, per month. The Blossom plan joins Insightly, Salesforce, and Zendesk Sell as featured Pipedrive alternatives with entry-level paid plans that offer two-way email sync, whereas Pipedrive does not.

The Blossom package is also one of only two featured CRM tools with an introductory offering that includes automated workflows. This makes it a good choice for small business sales teams looking for functionality and mobility.

Garden

The Garden plan is $25 per user, per month and builds on Freshworks CRM’ introductory tier with the addition of advanced customization. This is a huge upgrade for teams looking for the flexibility to make deal stages, forecast properties, and use other fields that reflect internal sales processes. Administrators can also mark the most important fields as required, ensuring that critical information is obtained at various stages of the sales process.

Territory assignment is also a part of this package, further enhancing a comprehensive sales process that is better facilitated by a CRM. Before new contacts and deals are created, teams can assign account responsibility based on individual territories. That is why the Garden plan from Freshworks CRM is our overall pick for small businesses that are evaluating Pipedrive alternatives.

Freshworks CRM customization
Source: Freshworks CRM

Estate

The Estate plan from Freshworks CRM includes auto-profile enrichment, a feature that is useful for obtaining up-to-date public social data on existing contact records. In addition to keeping databases current, profile enrichment can reduce the frequency of contacting non-decision-makers, freeing up salespeople for more productive activities.

Smart forms can also help teams capture information like the names and company associations of website traffic. Teams can use the resulting lists of contacts as warm leads for outbound prospecting. Because of the aforementioned additions, the Estate plan is ideal for small businesses that are looking to affordably scale marketing operations.

Forest

Freshworks CRM offers the Forest plan for companies that need powerful CRM functionality and want to document activity histories. For $79 per user, per month, the system records changes to account settings, territories, workflows, and more.

Due to its ability to automatically audit and record audited information, we recommend this package for teams with dedicated quality control resources like Sales Operations Analysts or Deal Desks, who need account and deal histories in order to resolve requests quickly.

What Freshworks CRM Is Missing

Freshworks CRM packs a full suite of capabilities, all of which are priced perfectly to compete against Pipedrive and other feature-rich CRMs, like Zoho CRM and Salesforce. Currently, however, there is no built-in chat feature. Users must, instead, opt into a separate service under the Freshworks ecosystem called Freshchat.

What Users Think About Freshworks CRM

Freshworks CRM is rated highly by our readers. Some wish that more of the features found in separate Freshworks products were built into the CRM platform, but most are highly satisfied with the service.

Where to Find Freshworks CRM

Freshworks CRM is a reasonably priced CRM that really has it all. Users can manage contacts, leads, and deals, feeding meaningful reports and driving process improvement. To learn more about Freshworks CRM or to set up a free account, visit their website today.

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HubSpot CRM: Best Free CRM Alternative to Pipedrive

HubSpot CRM makes it easy for unlimited users to customize and share emails and to both create and manage companies, contacts, leads, and deals for free. Because of its feature set, which includes chatbots and email tracking, HubSpot is a good choice for budget-conscious companies looking for a tool that includes inbound lead generation tools in addition to basic account, contact, and deal management.

HubSpot CRM Pricing

HubSpot is a solid option for small businesses because it puts straightforward marketing and sales tools into the hands of an unlimited number of users for free. Add-ons offering more robust marketing and service capabilities are also available and start at $50 per month.

HubSpot CRM Features

HubSpot provides core CRM features like contact, deal, and lead management. The platform also supports the ability to make calls directly from the web, helping salespeople move between tasks with speed.

Additional features include:

Contact & Lead Management

HubSpot makes it easy to fully manage contact records from creation to association with records and logging related activities, such as calls, emails, notes, and future tasks. With that data, a designated sales dashboard generates high-level graphics showing new contacts added, assigned, and worked, as well as team activities and new deals won, and keeps administrators up to date on performance.

Email & Marketing Automation

HubSpot CRM supports the customization of emails and newsletters from preloaded templates, complete with access to a document repository. The platform also supports email integration with Gmail and Outlook. The integration enables email tracking, allowing users to receive notifications of email opens and user engagements, a distinct advantage over Pipedrive, which only offers email tracking with its Advanced plan at a price of $24.90 per user, per month.

Pipeline Management

With pipeline management from HubSpot, companies can easily view and update deals in accordance with internal sales processes. Individual deals reflect a wealth of information like deal stage, owner, close date, and associated tickets. Plus, deal stages can be customized to mirror unique sales processes.

HubSpot CRM customizable deal stages
Source: HubSpot

Pipedrive alternatives such as Zendesk Sell and Salesforce offer forecasting. However, HubSpot CRM is the only featured tool that offers forecasting for free, making it a good choice for businesses that want a free CRM that reflects internal processes and drives efficient resource planning.

What HubSpot CRM Is Missing

HubSpot CRM is a good choice for small businesses that want a free CRM tool, but only those that can accept that certain add-on features and telephone access to customer service representatives will cost more down the road. However, companies that are looking for a slightly more scalable CRM solution should look at the introductory tier from Zendesk Sell, which includes phone support and starts at $19 per user, per month.

What Users Think About HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM users rate it highly with 4.5 stars out of 5 and share generally favorable comments about the user experience. Others, however, have shared that the limited customer support for free plan users is not always enough.

Where to Find HubSpot

Small businesses that want a simple, free CRM tool that can help streamline marketing and put core features like contact and deal management into the hands of mobile users should check out HubSpot. Visit HubSpot’s website to sign up for a free account today.

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Salesforce: Best Pipedrive Alternative for Partner Management

Salesforce may be known as an enterprise CRM solution, but small businesses can use it to create and manage customer activities and sales pipelines. They can also grow into its more advanced feature set easily with time. Competitive entry-level pricing of $25 per user, per month and the possibility to upgrade to features like partner management and opportunity registration make it a great CRM alternative to Pipedrive for businesses planning for long-term growth.

Salesforce Pricing

Salesforce CRM ranges from a monthly per-user price of $25 to $150. Every tier includes requisite CRM features like account, contact, lead, and opportunity management. However, the lead scoring and opportunity registration upgrade will cost $75 per user, per month, and for automated workflows, companies can expect to pay $150 per user, per month.

Salesforce Tiered Features

Essentials

Salesforce’s Essentials package is offered at a monthly price of $25 per user and gives salespeople the ability to fully manage activities related to contacts, leads, and opportunities in progress. Plus, seamless email integration with Microsoft or Google makes it easy for users to transfer relevant information quickly.

Also included with the Essentials package is access to the Salesforce mobile app, available from both the App Store and Google Store and optimized for iPad and tablets. Users can maintain access to contact records, deals in progress, and maintain productivity, even while on the road. So, we recommend Salesforce Essentials for small businesses wanting to equip a small, mobile sales force with enterprise-level CRM functionality.

Professional

The Professional plan from Salesforce is at $75 per user, per month and builds on the features included with the previous tier with the addition of lead registration and rule-based scoring. Scoring rates each new lead by its potential value to the company, helping users better prioritize leads.

Also included with the Professional plan is an opportunity registration feature, allowing teams to recognize and reward partner involvement on deals. We recommend this tier to businesses looking to enhance existing channel partner programs because Salesforce Professional users have access to all of the tools needed to more successfully engage both prospective customers and partners.

Salesforce pipeline management
Source: Salesforce

Enterprise

Salesforce’s Enterprise tier introduces workflow and approval automation rules at a per-user price of $150 each month. Despite its significantly higher cost, this plan lacks the workflow restrictions imposed by less expensive CRMs like Pipedrive and a featured alternative, Zoho CRM. We recommend this package for businesses with larger sales teams that need unlimited workflow rules for delegating and managing a high number of tasks.

Businesses looking for around-the-clock support and limitless workflow and approval automation rules should consider Salesforce’s Unlimited option. In addition to unlimited workflows, at a monthly price of $300 per user, teams gain access to dedicated support and configuration services, 24 hours a day.

What Salesforce Is Missing

Salesforce supports Android, iOS, iPad OS, macOS, Linux, and Windows 10 devices. The CRM tool, however, is not supported on Windows 10 mobile devices, making it a difficult choice for small businesses that have committed to the Microsoft ecosystem. Businesses that rely on mobile sales should consider Zendesk Sell.

What Users Think About Salesforce

Salesforce users rate it highly for its ability to integrate with other systems and for its granular reporting capabilities, which helped their small businesses make operational improvements. However, some users say that using the platform can be overwhelming because of so many features.

Where to Find Salesforce

Salesforce is the optimal choice for small businesses that want a CRM with a highly rated user interface and the option to use enterprise-level CRM features, like direct email integration, customizable sales processes, and customizable reports. Visit their website today to start a free trial.

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Zendesk Sell: Best Mobile-friendly CRM Alternative to Pipedrive

The web-based tool from Zendesk Sell offers comprehensive CRM functionality starting at $19 per user, per month. In addition to account and opportunity management, the platform includes built-in voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) calling and a full-featured CRM. These features are fully sustainable from mobile device platforms like Android, iOS, and iPad OS, making it perfect for small businesses that want an affordable CRM solution with user-friendly mobile apps.

Zendesk Sell Pricing

Zendesk Sell is available in one of four models, all of which include access to a caller, customized sales pipelines, and mobile apps for Android and Apple devices. Pricing for its introductory tier is $19 per user, per month, while more feature-inclusive packages range from $49 to $199 per user, per month.

Zendesk Sell Tiered Features

Team

Zendesk’s Team package is designed specifically for small business users who need core CRM functionality at an ultra-competitive price. For just $19 per user, per month, three users can manage accounts, contacts, and deals and can even click to dial contacts from within the tool itself, making it one of the few CRMs to include web-based phone services with its base model.

Mobile users of any Zendesk package are fully supported via mobile apps that can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Store. Managing tasks, importing mobile contacts, creating new deals, logging calls, and sending emails can be accomplished remotely, and that’s why we recommend the Team package for small business owners who work primarily from mobile devices and want to capture and update information quickly.

Zendesk Sell mobile call
Source: Zendesk Sell

Professional

Zendesk’s Professional package builds on the functionality of the preceding plan with the addition of advanced call analytics. For just $49 per user, per month, teams can use reports to analyze how day-to-day activities like prospecting calls and scheduled meetings are impacting new sales, leading to more efficient sales processes and training with time.

The Professional plan also includes sales goals with forecasting and unlimited custom fields. With custom fields that mirror internal deal stages and processes, reps will recognize information more quickly and feel better equipped to confidently make forecasting updates to deals. Overall, this package is our choice for sales teams with a mobile device to sales rep ratio of 1:1 and with remote employees who need to be kept in the loop.

Enterprise

The Enterprise plan from Zendesk Sell is $99 per user, per month and adds lead scoring and task automation, reducing the time spent on administrative tasks like assigning leads. Also included are activity reports that allow management to review productivity metrics like call volume and demos as they occur. Because it facilitates the efficient management of sales activities, we recommend this plan for teams that are struggling to scale operations effectively.

Zendesk Sell also offers an Elite plan at a monthly price of $199 per user. The plan includes a rep performance dashboard and unlimited sales pipelines, as well as access to premium customer support. Due to its high price, we only recommend this tier for businesses that want the ability to monitor individual sales rep performance from a mobile device and the ability to engage triage support.

What Zendesk Sell Is Missing

Zendesk Sell offers small businesses a lot in terms of functionality, flexibility, and customer service. It is, however, offered in English and Spanish only. Businesses that want an affordable solution that is supported in more languages and on more operating systems should consider Freshworks CRM.

What Users Think About Zendesk Sell

Zendesk Sell users rate it favorably for its affordability, simple user interface, and intuitive layout. Some, however, have shared that navigation from one record to another could be smoother. For more user reviews, visit our Zendesk Sell user reviews page.

Where to Find Zendesk Sell

Small businesses that want a comprehensive CRM platform that supports mobility and includes a built-in caller, customized pipelines, lead scoring, and the ability to automate tasks should take a look at Zendesk Sell. Visit their website to sign up for a free trial today.

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Insightly: Best Project Management CRM Alternative to Pipedrive

Insightly’s cloud-hosted CRM tool offers integrated project management, including the ability to convert opportunities to projects and the option for custom project stages. Pricing starts at $29 per user, per month, and because Insightly offers tools for managing customer information and complex projects, we recommend it as the best project management CRM alternative to Pipedrive.

Insightly Pricing

Insightly offers three paid plans. The introductory plan includes email integration, web-to-lead capture, and contact and deal management at a relatively low price of $29 per user, per month. The other plans range from $49 to $99 per user, per month and introduce workflow automation.

Insightly Tiered Features

Plus

Insightly offers an introductory plan for $29 per user, per month, and is the only featured provider to offer integrated project management. This includes customizable project stages and opportunity-to-project conversions, making it possible for project managers to assume responsibility for newly won deals and to easily handle updates.

In addition to the project management piece, the Plus plan includes common CRM features like account, contact, and deal management. It also includes email integration, web-to-lead capture, and dashboards that visualize data like conversions and goal attainment. Due to its unique set of features, the Plus plan is our choice for teams that want a Pipedrive alternative for managing projects.

Insightly project management
Source: Insightly

Professional

The Professional plan is $49 per user, per month. The plan builds on the features included with the previous tier with custom objects and workflow automation. On top of workflow rules, the plan also offers automatic lead assignment, a feature that Pipedrive lacks entirely and that forces teams to use limited workflow rules to accomplish the same task.

With Insightly’s Professional package, users can set up workflow rules around unique processes and automatically assign projects to the right individuals or trigger re-assignment once certain conditions are met. For this reason and because of its custom fields, we recommend this tier for small companies that want to automate lead or project assignment as well as those managing complex projects across different departments.

Enterprise

Insightly’s Enterprise package builds on the features included with the previous two tiers and, for $99 per user, per month, introduces custom validation rules. These rules can ensure that only information that meets predefined quality criteria is successfully stored, a feature that is especially useful for people working with sensitive data.

The Enterprise plan also offers the ability to store and manage product lists and price books, as well as the ability to create sales quotations. Because it permits some quality control, preserving the quality of sensitive information, we think it offers a good fit for consultants, product development teams, and project managers who want a Pipedrive alternative that allows them to quote projects and manage entire project cycles affordably.

What Insightly Is Missing

Insightly does not offer case management. Teams that prefer the idea of a CRM with the ability to manage customer service in addition to marketing and sales activities should take a look at Salesforce, Zendesk Sell, or HubSpot CRM.

What Users Think About Insightly

Many of our readers say that Insightly is especially helpful in facilitating collaboration on projects. Some, however, admit that it is somewhat limited in functionality compared to other CRMs.

Where to Find Insightly

Insightly offers built-in tools for managing projects and is the best Pipedrive alternative for freelancers, solopreneurs, and project teams looking to organize project-related activities. To learn more about Insightly or to sign up for a free trial account, visit their website today.

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Zoho CRM: Best Pipedrive Alternative With Inventory Management

Zoho CRM helps teams manage outreach to prospective and current customers, and like the other featured CRMs, offers activity, contact, deal, and task management. In addition to a free-forever plan and paid plans starting at just $18 per user, per month, its main advantage over the others is its capacity for order, price book, products, and quote management. That is why we consider it the best Pipedrive alternative for teams that want a CRM for managing inventory.

Zoho CRM Pricing

Zoho CRM’s paid plans range from $18 to $45 per user, per month. The introductory tier includes the basics like account, contact, lead, and deal management, and, unlike many of the featured CRM solutions with similar price structures, some workflow rules.

Zoho CRM Tiered Features

Standard

Zoho CRM’s Standard package is $18 per user, per month and includes essential CRM functionality, like account, contact, and lead management. The Standard package also introduces a total of six workflow rules in contrast to the 30 workflows offered with Pipedrive’s Advanced plan for a higher per-user price. However, these six rules can allow administrators to automate tasks, like lead and task assignment, thus saving time.

The Standard plan offers website visitor tracking and the ability to schedule follow-up reminders. However, it does not offer email association with deals as does the introductory plan from Pipedrive, so we recommend the Standard package for teams that do not rely heavily on email correspondence and need a CRM to automate only a few tasks.

Professional

Zoho’s Professional package is priced at $30 per user, per month and, building on the features included with the previous tier, adds the ability to automatically link emails with deals. Salespeople can save time on administrative tasks, transferring information and focusing their efforts where needed most.

Though Pipedrive offers a product catalog with its Advanced tier, the Professional plan from Zoho CRM allows for the management of products, price books, and quotes, all at a price lower than any other featured CRM. Because it supports activities like creating custom sales quotes from different price books, the Professional package is our recommendation for small businesses that want a CRM that empowers individual users with inventory knowledge.

Zoho CRM products list
Source: Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM product detail
Source: Zoho CRM

Enterprise

The Enterprise package from Zoho CRM builds on the features included with previous tiers and, at a per-user price of $45 per month, adds funnels and comparative graphics including a target meter. System administrators and sales leadership can filter data by teams, territories, and individual reps, enabling deeper insights into marketing and sales performance.

Zoho CRM’s Enterprise package also increases the number of permitted mass emails from 500 to 1,000 per day. Because this can be a huge boost for marketing teams, we recommend this package for larger businesses seeking to ramp up email marketing campaigns.

What Zoho CRM Is Missing

Though Zoho CRM is a good way for users of other Zoho products to capture and manage customer and sales data, it is missing a way to visualize the sales pipeline, as does Pipedrive. Businesses wanting these features should take a look at Salesforce, which also boasts direct email integration and a sleek user interface with dynamic pipeline views.

What Users Think About Zoho CRM

Our readers give Zoho CRM an average rating of just under 4 stars out of 5. Some users say the software has helped them improve the way they manage customer information, while others suggest a different platform for customization and third-party integrations.

Where to Find Zoho CRM

Businesses that are already using other Zoho products, like Zoho Mail or Zoho Projects, can look to Zoho CRM for a fairly comprehensive utility that will simplify the management of sales-related activities. It’s free to set up an account for three users, and the company offers a free trial of all its paid plans. Visit Zoho CRM’s website for details.

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Bottom Line

Pipedrive is a great CRM tool for small businesses and sales teams. However, some companies may prefer Pipedrive alternatives that offer a different combination of features or desire a solution that’s available at different price points.

Of the featured Pipedrive alternatives, Freshworks CRM offers the most comprehensive free and paid plans at its price point and supports employees working from desktops, smartphones, or tablets almost anywhere in the world. For more information and to sign up for a free trial of Freshworks CRM, visit their website today.

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