Before I get into choosing the best CRMs for small businesses, I want to point out that you might not need a CRM at all. At least not today.
Funny way to start an article on the best CRMs for small businesses, isn't it? So I'll start by dispelling a common myth:
Does every small business need a CRM?
No, not all small business owners need customer relationship management software. Whether you need customer relationship management software depends on a lot of variables.
If you're running a relatively young small business, or you've just launched a brand new startup, chances are you're tied up with performing essential tasks, like trying to get enough investment capital to keep the lights going. lit, or bring in your first paying customer (as a one-person sales team) to prove the business has a viable future.
At the very beginning, you will not have such amount of customer and prospect data that you'll feel like you're drowning in a series of Excel spreadsheets and email tracking tools.
If that sounds like your current situation, then a CRM probably isn't for you… today. Instead, use free tools.
What is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management Software) for SMEs?
Customer relationship management (CRM) is software that helps small businesses manage customer interactions and close more sales.
The goal of a CRM system is to improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention by organizing and automating core processes such as sales, marketing, and customer service. A typical CRM platform typically includes features such as contact management, lead scoring, lead management, opportunity tracking, sales forecasting, real-time reporting, and analytics metrics. The best CRM solutions also integrate with other tools often used by small businesses, including email and marketing automation platforms.
Small businesses that invest in using the right CRM features with great ease of use will be able to create a centralized database of customer information that can be used to close more sales, improve customer support, manage a help desk, get notifications about prospect activity, and get better insights into customer behavior (all in a cloud-based platform these days). In short, the best CRMs will help you generate more revenue for your small business.
When will you be ready to support a CRM…
If you have your first loyal customers, are starting to grow, and are trying to keep up with all the (exciting) changes that are happening, now is a great time to reinvest some of that capital into your business by choosing the best customer relationship management (CRM) tool for your small business.
Time is the most valuable resource you have at this stage. Therefore, any investment that saves you time is likely to pay huge dividends to your business, especially if it's a CRM designed to help you grow your business.
At this point you need a customer relationship management (CRM) system, and urgently. A CRM can save you a lot of time and allow you to focus on capturing (and converting) new leads.
In this review of the best CRMs for small businesses, I have gone to great lengths to highlight different types of CRMs that focus on various aspects. We cover CRMs that are suitable for small businesses, and even specifically for freelancers.
Some are more focused on generating sales, others on managing contacts or sending bulk emails, and still others on tracking and reporting the performance of your sales team members. . It all depends on you and your business needs!
Remember you get what you pay for.
Take a critical look at your business needs and what you can reasonably gain by saving time on customer management. If you see the more expensive CRM options, it's because their offerings are often feature-rich and will bring you more value.
Determine which features are most important to you, your sales process, and your business goals before choosing the best CRM for your needs.
Without further ado, here are my picks for the best small business CRMs on the market in 2023.
25 Best CRMs for Small Businesses (To Increase Sales) in 2023
To start this list, my personal top pick is a small business CRM that I've been using for years and have a lot of experience with.
1. Close
The first is Close. It's my top pick as the best CRM for small businesses, due to its focus on reducing time spent on activities that don't drive business forward – plus, it's the only CRM out there. the marketplace that incorporates calls, making it a godsend if calling is part of your sales process.
Close is truly designed to reduce mundane tasks like entering data and updating contact fields, so you can maximize the time you spend contacting, developing, and closing deals. What requires 8 clicks in a larger CRM like Salesforce, only requires 2 in Close. For small businesses that are more focused on the essentials (closing more sales), the time you save with a CRM that isn't overloaded with occasionally used features translates into real savings.
For small businesses, the focus on increasing revenue is the most vital part of growing the business today. And when you struggle to keep your highest priority leads on track, and spend time handling at least some of the business yourself, Close will be a lifesaver.
My favorite thing about Close is their function Email sequences, extremely easy to use, which allows me to send an automated series of (personalized) sales emails to potential new customers that either arrive automatically from my blog, either from manual list imports after attending a trade show or participating in a large webinar, for example.
It's all designed to help you get more responses, book more appointments, schedule more demos, and close more deals, resulting in a refreshing CRM that really cuts out all the clutter. The company is proud to focus on sales productivity before everything else.
If you're a small business with a growing but loyal customer base, proven results, and a sales team of 3-20 reps, consider upgrading to Close to see what more you can accomplish. You'll have access to great sales reports, an easy-to-use sales funnel view, and a host of great sales management tools to control your team's sales activities.
Plus, the Close team genuinely cares about your success as aOrganisation commercial – they have an excellent guide to choose the best CRM for your needs (even if that means not choosing them.) From my point of view, Close offers the best user-friendly tools with a user experience designed for sales productivity and closing more deals.
Free try: 14 days (no credit card required)
Fees : Basic ($59/user/month) | Professional ($89/user/month) | Business ($129/user/month)
→ Want to see Close in action? Check out their free demo (short!).
2. Hub Spot CRM
This CRM can be a great choice for small businesses that don't need all the frills, but could really benefit from some basic assistance in systematizing data entry. HubSpot centralizes your contact list, automatically logs customer interactions, and pulls data from the internet to provide insights into your leads.
For a contact-focused business that doesn't need a complex CRM, HubSpot is ideal (and its user interface is fairly simple to learn) – which puts it on our list of best CRMs for small businesses looking to also run their marketing (and marketing automation) campaigns from the same platform.
Also, if you want to try a very simple version to see if it works for you, it's completely free. If you want to eventually upgrade and unlock additional features (be careful, they add up fast!), they're broken down by Marketing, Sales, and Services, but they're billed on a monthly flat rate, not per user. , so the addition is not as fast as for other CRMs.
Free trial: N/A. Try them standard free plan to see if you like it.
Price : Varies depending on the additional features you want to use. The range is from $50 to over $800 per month.
3. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is one of the best CRMs for small businesses because it's focused on increasing sales and actively managing your deal pipeline. The company prides itself on being simple, yet powerful, and opting for efficiency over flashy features in its customer experience design. It's easy to set up (visual) sales processes to predict problems before they happen, which is a dream come true for any sales manager.
For small businesses, you can get a head start when trying to grow quickly by implementing a powerful tracking tool and streamlined process from the start. It's very affordable and also a great choice for integrating with other tools if you need a little more functionality.
Free try: 14 days
Price : Essential ($14,90/user/month) | Advanced ($24,90/user/month) | Professional ($49,90/user/month)
4. Agile
Unlike our previous competitors, Agile presents itself as an “all-in-one” solution for small businesses. And unlike your all-in-one shampoo-conditioner, body wash, lotion, dish, soap, and detergent, Agile actually works great for different types of businesses.
The Agile approach revolves around three main axes to keep your team members on track:
- Sales facilitation
- Marketing automation
- Customer Service
A CRM can work in two ways: either by offering a large number of services that you can use through its platform, or by offering a few basic services and integrating very well with the other tools and services that you already use.
Agile is one of the best CRMs for small businesses because it does a decent job as business management software, the closest thing to a one-stop-shop you'll find. By far the greatest strength of Agile is reporting, where you can get a complete and deep insight into anything you want, by bringing together statistics by cases, calls, activities and growth.
Free try: Unlimited base for 10 users
Prices : Starter ($8,99/user/month) | Regular ($29,99/user/month) | Enterprise Plan ($47,99/user/month)
5. Copper
Formerly known as ProsperWorks, Copper made our list of best CRMs for small businesses because it does a fantastic job of integrating with everything Google has to offer in a very intuitive way. It's almost as easy to use as Gmail, which makes it a very useful CRM in your sales process if you've never used one before.
Copper integrates directly with your existing G Suite (Gmail and Google Apps), allowing you to continue using everything as you normally would, while adding many features such as task automation, reports, business monitoring and forecasting.
While it leaves you wanting more compared to other more comprehensive picks on our list of the best CRMs for small businesses, the good thing about Copper is that you can also link it to other programs you already use thanks to to a series of Zapier integrations. Ultimately, if you're looking to quickly use a CRM beyond your Excel sheet and existing Gmail account, this is a great place to start.
Free try: 14 days
Price: Basic ($23/user/month) | Professional ($49/user/month) | Business ($99/user/month)
6. Salesmate CRM
Salesmate is a CRM intentionally designed for sales teams to provide them with a simple, powerful and productive sales experience. It helps streamline your sales process and grow relationships with customers (and prospects). With the right mix of features, Salesmate CRM allows your sales team to focus relentlessly on executing the activities that lead to more sales.
With Salesmate, you'll be able to convert more leads into customers through well-targeted emails, texts, calls and follow-ups, all of course automated and personalized as much as possible. Features include things like:
Deal management, multiple pipeline management, activity management, deal timeline, contact management, but more advanced features like integrated phone system, smart queue, sequences, automation workflow, the powerful dialer, shared inbox and teams really make a difference and will help you stay ahead of the curve.
Salesmate can also boast of being integrated with tools such as QuickBooks Online, Data Studio, InvoiceBerry, Google & Microsoft Calendar, MailChimp, Harvest, RingCentral, ActiveCampaign, Clearbit and many more. The product is also available as a web application, through apps on Android and iOS devices, and as a Chrome extension, making it one of the most widely usable CRMs on the market today.
Free try: 15-day free trial to test Salesmate
Price: Starter: $12/user/month | Growth: $24/user/month | Boost: $40/user/month
7. Nutshell
Small traveling sales teams will love the ease of use of this CRM. Instead of feeling pressured to use this new product because management asks them to, your reps will appreciate being able to streamline and track their progress. That's why it's on our list of the best CRMs for small businesses.
Some of the features your sales team will appreciate include the ease of scheduling and tracking appointments, setting up quick follow-up, and reporting on results. It's also extremely customizable, and it's easy to add features as you go from beginner to advanced. Your sellers will be delighted with the simplicity that Nutshell brings.
Free try: 14 days
Price: Nutshell ($16/user/month) | Nutshell Pro ($42/user/month)
8. Salesforce Essentials
If you've even thought for a moment about implementing a CRM for your business, the evaluation process has likely included Salesforce at one time or another. They're actually the OG of CRMs (I've heard they'll be adopting that slogan soon), and they serve tons of small businesses, startups, SaaS companies, and e-giants. -commerce worldwide, making it a must-have on any list of the best CRMs for small businesses. But… in my personal experience, Salesforce is quite overwhelming and comes with a steep learning curve, if you're just starting your sales process.
Salesforce Essentials offers two different base plans to get started, depending on your exact business activities.
- Sales Cloud for sales-focused businesses
- Service Cloud for more service-oriented businesses
Their starting price is actually quite reasonable, which is why they can be a great choice for a small business that has experience with CRMs in the past. The biggest downside is that your expenses can add up pretty quickly if you need more than their super basic $25/user/month monthly plan for sellers to join your account. The next price tier is $75/user/month. While it's worth evaluating Salesforce as an option for your best potential CRM, be sure to carefully analyze the numbers and keep an eye on the ROI you're getting.
Free try: 14 days
Price: $25/user/month for sales features only
9. Insightly
You know those people who are so obsessed with iPhones that they despise anyone who dares to use any other type of phone? If you're even a bit into Google, Insightly is a great choice for you when it comes to the best CRMs for small businesses.
It integrates with all the apps offered by Google (and many other apps you probably use), and it's perfect for integrating contacts from various social media accounts into your existing contact profiles. You can also use a third-party tool like Piesync to sync contacts between all your cloud apps.
Insightly is also a full-fledged CRM for small businesses. It focuses on three main areas:
- Accelerate sales
- Build Relationships
- Carry out projects
They offer excellent categorization and filtering of your data, as well as highly customizable reports, allowing you to get a single snapshot of where your small business is right now, based on what matters most to you. For a small or medium-sized team, the price and usefulness are definitely worth a try.
Free try: 14 days
Price: Plus ($29/user/month) | Professional ($49/user/month) | Enterprise Plan ($99/user/month)
10. Keap (Previously Infusionsoft)
This CRM sits directly on the sales and marketing side, helping you deliver personalized experiences to your customers that can result in more deals. Sounds nice, right?
Keap made it to our list of best CRMs for small businesses because it includes a few features that most CRMs don't have: automatic lead generation capture, custom feeds, quotes, and invoicing that can all be very useful for e-commerce businesses.
One of the points they emphasize is segmentation, which is crucial for the growth of a small business. What makes your customers similar or different? What message will reach one segment and deter another? Infusionsoft is designed to help you discover (and track) this key information.
Free try: 14 days
Price: Pro ($129/month/1500 contacts) | Max ($199/month/2500 contacts)
11. OnePageCRM
If checking off items on your list gives you butterflies in your stomach, then prepare to have a lot with OnePageCRM. This tool makes it to our list of best CRMs for small businesses because its main concept is to take all the complex information you enter (into a CRM) and turn it into a simple to-do list.
It's great, right? There are no overly complex functions. It's easy to use, easy to manage leads, and easy to increase sales.
Free try : 21 days
Price: Professional ($9,95/user/month) | Business ($19,95/user/month)
12. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign made our list of the best CRMs for small businesses because it focuses on both marketing and sales — specifically, helping you use automated processes to streamline your communications for the purpose of building rapport. with your customers.
It also harnesses the power of your customer segmentation, using your customer behavioral data to help you send the right messages.
Bonus: ActiveCampaign also integrates with almost every other marketing tool. online business which you probably already have in place.
Free try : 14 days
Price: Depending on how many contacts you have. Up to 1 contacts: Lite ($000/user/month) | Plus ($29/user/month) | Professional ($49/user/month)
13. Salesflare
Salesflare makes this list of best CRMs for small businesses because it was designed to help any small business (primarily B2B) that wants to make more sales with less work.
What I personally love is that the CRM automatically fills in the information by syncing with your email, calendar, phone, social media and then organizes all of that data for you into the prospects contact records.
The email integration is great too – there's instant import, customizable email signatures, tracking of email open rates, link clicks and website visits.
It's particularly unique in this list because it integrates all of these features into its mobile app, so you can even send email campaigns on the go.
Free try : 14 days
Price: Growth ($29/user/month) | Pro ($49/user/month)
14. Capsule
Capsule makes it to my list of best CRMs for small businesses because of its simplicity and how it integrates with all the tools most small businesses already use (like Gmail, Google Docs, etc.).
From managing contacts to sending emails and tracking sales, Capsule streamlines your sales process into one efficient and helpful pipeline that you can use to get ahead of the competition.
Plus, when Capsule says they manage all of your contacts, they mean it. Beyond just tracking conversations with your customers, this CRM stores and manages your leads, vendors, and anyone else who helps your business run smoothly, which contributes to its uniqueness.
Free try : 30 days
Price: Professional ($18/user/month) | Teams ($36/user/month)
15. Solve360
Solve360 aims to help you manage “just about everything” when it comes to keeping your business (and your sales process) on track. And it does it very well, earning it a spot on our list of the best CRMs for small businesses.
You can use Solve360 on the go with their mobile app, to manage and organize client activity, leads, keep tabs on existing projects, jobs, and anything else that matters to your business. Built-in utility and customization is a big part of why Solve360 made our list, because it can be used by almost any type of business.
Free try : 14 days
Price: Plans start at $25/user/month, but you must start a free trial to see all plan options.
16. Maximize
Maximizer is another "all-in-one" suite of tools that maximizes (sorry) the functionality and value you get in terms of the cross-business impact it can have on various processes. It is particularly effective if you are a financial advisor, a niche for which it offers specific features.
What I love about Maximizer is that it helps you organize your contacts, manage all your communications, automate the key parts of your sales process that take the most time, see how all your business progress through the pipeline, manage your campaigns, automate reporting, and more (as if that weren't enough.)
Multi-purpose CRMs like this can be really useful for small businesses because sometimes it's easier to have all your essential tools online in one destination.
Free try : 30 days
Price: Basic ($55/user/month) | Sales Leader Edition ($75/user/month)
17. creatio
Although the name of the product is not the most suggestive, Creatio deserves its place in this list of the best CRMs for small businesses because it is designed for fast-growing small businesses that have outgrown the free (and simple) tools with which they started their business.
Their sales tools are a great choice for a small business with a proven sales model and process, so they are now 100% focused on building a large customer base and finding them. more qualified prospects.
Creatio Sales offers full control of the customer journey, including lead management, opportunity management, invoices, forecasts, project management, and more.
Free try : 14 days
Price: Team ($30/user/month) | Commerce ($35/user/month) | Enterprise Plan ($60/user/month)
Now it's time to talk about the best CRMs for small businesses that also apply more specifically to helping freelancers (like me) manage a high volume of business conversations for freelance jobs home.
We're going to dive into my CRM picks that small one-man businesses (like freelancers, founders, and solopreneurs) shouldn't ignore.
18. CRM Suite
SuiteCRM is one of the best CRMs for very small businesses because it can be used in a product- or service-oriented business…and believe it or not, it's completely free because it's part of an open-source project ( in fact, it is the most popular open source CRM in the world with over 4 million users).
In SuiteCRM, it's easy to take notes, track cases (or leads), schedule tasks for yourself or your team, and organize all your prospect contact information in one central place. Plus, everything is easily manageable from mobile devices and tablets.
The only downside to SuiteCRM is that since it's free software, you'll need someone with a bit of technical expertise to set it up, customize it to your business needs, and continue to manage it as your needs grow and change over time.
A team is there to help you, but if you have a confident developer on your team, it will help you a lot.
Price : Free forever (no, no paid plans!)
19. Bloom
Three words describe what I think of this CRM: Modern, elegant and robust. Bloom.io is designed to be an all-in-one management tool for freelancers and small businesses in particular.
Bloom really stands out with its beautiful design, clean presentation, and price – which includes a starter plan with a free trial. The simple design makes it easy to dive into the features and build your own project. It integrates well with several other online tools like Gmail, Quickbooks and more.
Bloom makes repetitive tasks easy with a suite of tools, including integrated Zoom scheduling, lead and customer management, instant booking, email automation, and dynamic, customizable workflows. It puts workflow and customer data at your fingertips.
Bloom excels at generating leads by making the sales process easier for customers. Bloom also has other great features like workflows, quotes, signing contracts, and an invoice generator.
Price: Starter plan (free) | Premium plan ($33/user/month)
20. Indy
Indy makes our list of best CRMs for small businesses because of its low price and focus on the administration needed for freelancers to land new clients.
First, administration. Closing a deal requires paperwork – a proposal, a contract, then a project plan, invoices and billable hour tracking. Indy gives you the tools you need to do it all in one place.
You can add your prospect's details, create a new proposal from a customizable template in minutes, use a contract template to close the deal, then start working on the project using the follow-up. hours. When it's time to get paid, create and send invoices from customizable email templates in no time.
Second, the price. Indy does all of this for $12 a month. This won't work as well for a large company, or even for a growing 5-10 person sales team. But freelancers who want to get their business off the ground by closing more deals with professional proposals, contracts, and documents will love Indy's ease of use.
Free try : Unlimited time, usage limits
Price: Free plan and Pro Bundle for $12/user/month
21. Monday.com
Although this small business CRM is primarily a project management tool, it can also be used to manage your sales pipeline, earning it a spot in our CRM selection for very small businesses, freelancers, and solopreneurs. .
Monday.com markets itself as a visual tool first, reducing complexity and increasing ease of use with drag-and-drop functionality. It offers great features for managing your sales pipeline, tracking leads and leads, and visualizing your entire sales process, all while being very intuitive to use.
Their pricing not only increases as you get more features, but also as you add people to your team. However, for freelancers, if you are the only one or a small group of people using the CRM, the prices are still very reasonable.
Free try : 14 days
Pricing (for 5 users): Basic ($25/user/month) | Standard ($39/user/month) | Pro ($59/user/month) | Enterprise Plan ($118/user/month)
22. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM makes it to our list of the best CRMs for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs because it strikes a good balance between software functionality and integration options with other tools you're probably already using (plus , Zoho has a conversational AI that answers almost any question you ask it, which really sets it apart from Freshworks' Freshsales).
This CRM also has a very wide range of email marketing tools, so if you're a small business owner or a SaaS founder who primarily emails a high volume of potential customers, this is a great choice – and of course it has that great Google G Suite (and Outlook) integration that I appreciate so much in a CRM.
Free try : 15 days
Price: Standard ($14/user/month) | Professional ($23/user/month) | Enterprise Plan ($40/user/month) | Ultimate ($52/user/month)
23. Less Annoying CRM
They really nailed it with the name, didn't they? Less Annoying makes it to our list of best CRMs for small businesses due to the product's simplicity and ease of use, which is what you would expect from a CRM that aims to be less boring.
It's an especially good choice for sole traders and freelancers, because it's so simple you can get rid of everything else to focus on managing leads and tracking your sales pipeline, with powerful reporting. (but very basic). At the risk of getting a little boring, I'll leave it at that. Take a look for yourself.
Free try : 30 days
Price: Only one option; did you expect less? ($15/user/month)
24. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 makes it to my list because it's a great fit for the remote work lifestyle, which makes it especially suitable for freelancers. Bitrix24 lets you send quotes and invoices directly through its platform, which is a big part of the average freelancer's work day.
The platform also offers an incredible amount of functionality in its free version (for up to 12 users), which is rather unusual for a CRM. Using Bitrix24, you can chat with other teammates, manage your leads, create timelines, and track the progress of every deal in your pipeline. It is even possible to customize the application for free.
Free try: Their specific plan for freelancers is free forever !
Prices : Basic ($46/month for 5 users) | Standard ($87/month up to 50 users) | Professional ($175/month up to 100 users)
Please note: : the monthly price is per month for several users; most other CRMs charge per user. This makes it a bit more affordable for small businesses!
25. Nimble
For Nimble, simplicity is key. They focus on customer data, collect it smartly in one place and make it very useful and valuable for users.
Beyond the data you enter or import yourself, Nimble strives to find as much additional customer data as possible, including analyzing social media profiles and checking websites, making it an ideal tool for individual entrepreneurs and the self-employed who have an active social presence.
Free try : 14 days
Price : $19/user/month for paid plans
Final Thoughts: Choosing the Best Small Business CRM in 2023
Here we are ! All of my picks are vying to be the best CRM for small business.
And while I'm clearly a bit biased due to my own experiences, this breakdown should guide you to the best possible choice based on your business situation at the moment.
As I said at the beginning of this article, you should only invest in a CRM when you are ready.
So, if using a paid CRM tool for your business today is too difficult, I highly recommend getting my free CRM spreadsheet template to stay organized and on top of your lead management… which will allow you to focus on closing more deals, so you can soon be able to offer yourself a more professional CRM.
Did I miss one of the best customer relationship management software for small businesses?
Are there any tools I forgot that should be on this list of best CRMs for small businesses?
If so, let me know your CRM software choices in the comments below!
