As a small business owner or startup founder, you are well aware of the overwhelming nature of running the entire operation single-handedly. Whether it involves generating new leads, retaining current clients, or fixing a malfunctioning sales process, the workload can be extremely stressful.
And if you’re thinking about using CRM apps to manage all your work in one place, it’s a smart move. These apps are helpful assistants for businesses of all sizes, as they can help you keep track of your customer interactions, manage your sales leads, and simplify your marketing tasks. CRM apps will solve all your work management in one place.
As a new or expanding startup, we understand that you may be uncertain about which CRM application to choose based on your company’s customers, size, and budget. It’s important to carefully evaluate all of these factors before selecting a CRM tool. The good news is that we’ve got you covered. We’ve conducted the research and put together a list of the top CRM apps for small businesses and startups.
For a list of the finest CRM programs for small business owners and agencies, or startups read this post. Let's begin.
The Three Types of CRM Systems
Before diving into our top picks for CRM apps, it’s essential to understand the three primary types of CRM systems. Any startup or company looking to transition to a CRM system must comprehend the differences between these types, which include operational, analytical, and collaborative. By doing so, you can choose the best fit for your business needs before investing in CRM software.
Collaborative
Storage facilities must be broken down as a primary priority for collaborative CRM solutions. Collaborative CRMs ensure that all teams have access to the same current customer data, regardless of the division or channel they work in. With a collaborative CRM, each connection is viewed as a part of a larger, integrated conversation between the brand and the customer.
Because departments and channels are connected, customers are saved from the laborious process of having to repeat themselves every time they communicate with a new contact.
Analytical
The main goal of analytical CRMs is to assist you in analyzing your customer data so that you can learn the crucial information. Your consumer information is worth too much for that. With the use of analytical CRM tools, you may analyze your data to identify patterns in your customers’ behavior.
With that knowledge, you may more clearly identify the processes that result in sales, which boosts client retention, and which client issues are most prevalent.
Operational
Operational CRMs aid in streamlining a business’s customer relationship management procedures. They offer capabilities to visualize and manage the entire client experience more, even when it has a lot of touchpoints. Automation features are often offered by operational CRM systems.
The job that would otherwise be handled by your staff is offloaded through marketing, sales, and service automation. This frees up their schedule to focus on the more imaginative and introspective facets of their work the tasks that require a human touch.
Top 8 CRM Apps That Can Benefit Your Business
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) apps are essential tools for businesses of all sizes. These apps help companies manage their interactions with customers, automate tasks, and streamline their sales and marketing processes.
With the proliferation of CRM apps in the market, choosing the right one can be challenging. In this article, we will discuss some of the best CRM apps for businesses that offer robust features, pros, and cons.
1. HubSpot
For small organizations that don’t require all the extras, HubSpot is a fantastic option. HubSpot centralizes contact lists, gathers information about prospects from the internet, and automatically tracks interactions. For a contact-focused organization with modest needs, HubSpot is the best CRM Tool for Small Businesses.
Features:
- Helps to manage sales pipelines with total visibility
- Provides contact website activity tracking
- Provides email automation
- Provides ad management and retargeting features.
Pros
Cons
- Without interfering with the other applications and tools, it can keep working in the background.
- It aids in gathering customer feedback.
- It keeps a central repository for all customer records.
- Free version lacks all the features.
- Limited integrations compared to some competitors
- Price can be high, especially for premium features
Overall Score: Generally Ranges from 4 to 4.4 out of 5
Best For HubSpot is best for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a comprehensive all-in-one marketing and sales platform.
HubSpot CRM Pricing & Plans
HubSpot Products | Free | Starter | Professional | Enterprise |
Marketing Hub | $0 | $45/month | $800/month | Custom |
Sales Hub | $0 | $45/month | $500/month | Custom |
Service Hub | $0 | $45/month | $400/month | Custom |
CMS Hub | $0 | $300/month | $900/month | Custom |
One-line summary: HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing and sales platform that offers an extensive set of tools, integrations, and analytics to grow and manage a business, but can be cost-prohibitive for some small businesses.
2. Nimble
A CRM tool called Nimble combines information from contacts, discussions, calendars, and apps. It enables users to send group messages and establish follow-up tasks by making it simple for them to automatically group contacts and activities into segmented lists. Additional capabilities include tracking, analytics, reporting, pipeline management, power search, and customized templates for group communications.
Features:
- Easy to use and client-centric
- With improved sales pipeline tracking and reporting, assign responsibilities to your team.
Pros
Cons
- It offers a consolidated location to gather emails, calendar information, and CRM-related data.
- It offers tools for building lists and sending group communications.
- Customizable Fields
- Its deal management system is weak.
- Slack integration is absent.
- Reporting capabilities
Overall Score: Typically ranges from 4 to 4.2 out of 5.
Best For Nimble is best for small to medium-sized businesses looking for an affordable and straightforward CRM solution with social media insights and email integration.
Nimble CRM Pricing & Plans
Nimble Products | Contact | Business | Corporate |
Price Per User/month | $9 | $24 | Custom |
Social Profile Enrichment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Group Messaging | – | ✓ | ✓ |
Sales & Marketing Integration | – | ✓ | ✓ |
Custom Fields & Tags | – | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Open Tracking | – | ✓ | ✓ |
One-line summary: Nimble is a CRM tool that offers a unified contact management system with essential features, social media insights, and email inbox integration, but may lack advanced features some businesses may require.
3. Statusbrew
Status brew is a social CRM software that unifies all of your social media customer interactions into one straightforward platform to help your company succeed. Segmenting inbound leads enables you to complete your social marketing funnel and maximize the effectiveness of your social initiatives.
Features:
- You can see the threaded conversations you have with your client.
- Even an area for adding internal remarks is available in the Contact Sidebar.
Pros
Cons
- Using the Contact Sidebar, tag your contacts.
- Provide pertinent information about your contacts, such as name, email, and phone number.
- Helps manage social media efficiently with features like scheduling, analytics, and team collaboration.
- Paid plans are a bit expensive as compared to other CRM tools pricing.
- Expensive pricing plans for full features
- Some users report glitches with the platform.
Overall Score: Typically range 4.5 out of 5.
Best For Statusbrew is best for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a comprehensive social media management tool.
Statusbrew CRM Pricing & Plans
Statusbrew Products | Free | Plus | Premium | Enterprise |
Price Per Month | $0 | $25 | $416.67 | Custom |
Social Profiles | 1 | 10 | 50 | Custom |
Scheduled Posts Per Profile | 10 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Team Members | 1 | 3 | 10 | Custom |
Analytical Insights | Limited | Advanced | Advanced | Advanced |
One-line summary: Statusbrew is a social media management tool that helps manage social media efficiently with features like scheduling, analytics, and team collaboration, but can be expensive and some users report glitches with the platform.
4. ClickUp
For small enterprises, ClickUp is a project management system and CRM solution with tools for tracking accounts, managing emails, and managing customer interactions visually.
Flexible displays, such as lists, boards, and others, let you quickly see the status of your clients. Custom dashboards can be used to improve account pipelines, examine client data, and lessen bottlenecks.
Features:
- Together with the ability to create checklists and nested subtasks, tasks are customizable.
- Includes customer interactions, automation, and several integration functionalities.
Pros
Cons
- supports a limitless number of members and responsibilities.
- Contains chat and two-factor authentication.
- Extremely customizable with a vast array of features, templates, and integrations, making it great for project management with flexibility.
- Complicated to use.
- Complexity and the need for setup and learning; some features can be overwhelming and hidden.
- Not Mobile-Friendly
Overall Score: Generally ranges from 4 to 4.5 out of 5.
Best For ClickUp is best for teams of all sizes looking for a highly customizable project management software.
ClickUp CRM Pricing & Plans
ClickUp Products | Free | Unlimited | Business | Enterprise |
Price Per User/Month | $0 | $5 | $9 | Custom |
Tasks | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Automations | – | ✓ | ✓ | Custom |
Goals | – | ✓ | ✓ | Custom |
Gantt Charts | – | ✓ | ✓ | Custom |
Custom Fields | – | ✓ | ✓ | Custom |
Time Tracking | – | ✓ | ✓ | Custom |
Custom Integrations | – | ✓ | ✓ | Custom |
One-line summary: ClickUp is a highly customizable project management tool with a vast array of features and integrations, but can have a steep learning curve and some features may feel overwhelming.
5. Zoho CRM
In order to speed up business deployment and increase user acceptance, ZohoCRM is a sales CRM platform that allows UI customization. It gives small businesses a number of communication options, including email, phone, chat, social media, web forms, self-service portals, and more, to convert leads and interact with clients. It delivers real-time notifications, automates routine operations, and produces performance-tracking reports utilizing analytics.
Features:
- Using workflows and macros, it offers sales automation solutions for managing leads, accounts, contacts, and deals.
- Dashboards and reports that you may customize that have a variety of comparison and insight-gathering capabilities.
- Using mobile CRM software, you may schedule tasks, engage with customers, and capture data.
Pros
Cons
- Get in touch with your customers wherever you are with a mobile CRM app.
- Swift and simple onboarding.
- Offers the ability to customize fields, forms, and views according to business needs.
- Only 3 users can access the free plan.
- Reporting options lacking compared to other CRM software on the market.
- Limited User Access
Overall Score: Typically ranges from 4 to 4.4 out of 5.
Best For Zoho CRM is best for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a CRM solution that is easy to use and can be customized to suit their specific business processes.
Zoho CRM Pricing & Plans
Zoho CRM Products | Free | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | Ultimate |
Price Per User/Month | $0 | $12 | $20 | $35 | $45 |
Storage/User | 1 GB | 100 GB | 250 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Custom Fields | Limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Sales Forecasting | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Macros | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Territory Management | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Zia AI Sales Assistant | – | – | – | ✓ | ✓ |
One-line summary: Zoho CRM offers a user-friendly interface, customization options and intelligently automates tasks, but has limited reporting and requires a learning curve to extract maximum benefit.
6. Monday.com
Many small businesses utilize it successfully to manage the sales pipeline, earning it a spot on our list of the best CRMs for small business owners. It is mostly a visual tool. It is extremely user-friendly and offers amazing capabilities for managing your sales funnel, keeping track of prospective leads and customers, and visualizing the entire sales process.
Features:
- Session control
- additional account rights
- It offers an audit trail.
Pros
Cons
- It is a comprehensive and user-friendly CRM solution.
- It includes sophisticated search features.
- Visual and intuitive interface
- It's difficult to switch between the project views.
- Dependency management can have limitations on more complex projects.
- Users may have limited form feature options, and Customizing forms may require some coding knowledge.
Overall Score: Generally range 4.2 out of 5.
Best For Monday.com is best suited for teams of all sizes looking for a project management tool with superior customization features.
Monday.com CRM Pricing & Plans
Plan | Features | Price (per month) |
Basic | 5 GB storage, unlimited boards, 2-factor authentication | $8/seat |
Standard | 50 GB storage, unlimited boards, 2-factor authentication, charts, and activity log | $10/seat |
Pro | 200 GB storage, unlimited boards, 2-factor authentication, charts and activity log, time tracking, calendar view, automations, and integrations | $16/seat |
Enterprise | 1 TB+ storage, unlimited boards, 2-factor authentication, charts and activity log, time tracking, calendar view, automations, integrations, Enterprise-grade security and compliance, and dedicated support | Custom pricing |
One-line summary: Monday.com offers a flexible and customizable project management tool with automation and integration options, but the pricing can be high, and there may be a learning curve involved.
7. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a sales CRM and pipeline management tool that assists small businesses in increasing sales. It is simple to set up and use. Users can concentrate on certain sales-related behaviors, and analytics are used to provide quantifiable results.
Pipedrive has tools that help small businesses increase the effectiveness of their sales activities. Users may automate tedious administrative operations and keep track of calls, emails, and contact information.
Features:
- Provides functionality for a mobile app, contact history, API, and goal-setting.
- Includes options for data import and export, email tracking, and map integration.
Pros
Cons
- It integrates apps with email and has several pipelines.
- Designed to work particularly well for Sales Teams and is very effective for funnel management.
- Provides lots of customization options that help users tailor the platform to their specific business processes.
- Tricky to create customized reports.
- Some users may find the features limited compared to some of the more established CRMs.
- The platform does not offer marketing automation functionality, which might be necessary for some businesses.
Overall Score: Typically ranges from 4 to 4.2 out of 5.
Best For Pipedrive is best for small to medium-sized businesses, particularly those in the sales industry, looking for a CRM solution that’s intuitive and sales-focused.
Pipedrive CRM Pricing & Plans
Plan | Features | Price |
Essential | Customizable pipelines, 2 GB storage per user, mobile app, email integration, contact and deal management, activity reminders, 2-factor authentication, and basic reporting. | $12.50/user/month |
Advanced | All Essential features, plus: 5 GB storage per user, workflow automation, customizable dashboards, team management tools, Revenue forecasting, and advanced reporting. | $24.90/user/month |
Professional | All Advanced features, plus: 100 GB storage per user, lead and deal scoring, multiple dashboards, multiple sales pipelines, advanced email automation, advanced integrations, and permission sets. | $49.90/user/month |
Enterprise | All Professional features, plus: 2 TB storage per user, support for multiple Currencies, personalized Onboarding, phone support, advanced security features, and a dedicated account manager. | Custom pricing |
One-line summary: Pipedrive provides a straightforward and user-friendly sales management platform with plenty of customization and integration options, but could offer more advanced features and reporting.
8. Freshsales
Freshsales is a CRM that offers a thorough view of your customers to sales and marketing teams. With tools for configurable contact lifecycle phases, contact and account management, as well as built-in chat, email, and phone, it is also among the best free CRM for small organizations.
Features:
- Integrated phone, chat, and email capabilities.
- Make unique reports.
Pros
Cons
- Enhances client acquisition and management.
- Monitors consumer interactions and incorporates data from many sources about them.
- Offers personalized customer support through multiple channels, including phone support, email support, and live chat.
- Long loading time.
- Poor customer support.
- Less than perfect email functionality
Overall Score: Generally ranges from 4 to 4.5 Out of 5.
Best For Freshsales is best for small to medium-sized businesses that require a CRM with advanced sales-focused features, AI-based lead scoring, and exquisite mobile apps that work seamlessly.
Freshsales CRM Pricing & Plans
Plan | Features | Price (billed annually) |
Growth | Lead, contact, and deal management, mobile app, Email integration, built-in phone, basic reporting, custom fields and forms, and 2-way email sync. | $12/user/month |
Pro | All Growth features, plus: advanced lead and deal scoring, workflow automation, website and in-app tracking, territory management, advanced reporting, and predictive lead scoring. | $25/user/month |
Enterprise | All Pro features, plus: call recording and team management, sales goals and incentives, advanced analytics, IP whitelisting, API access and developer sandbox, and multiple currency support. | $49/user/month |
Freshsales Suite | All Enterprise features, plus: AI-based lead scoring, advanced forecasting and pipeline management, integrated email, chat, and phone bots, advanced customization, enterprise-level security, and dedicated account and support management. | Contact Freshsales for pricing details |
One-line summary: Freshsales offers an excellent sales-focused CRM with robust features, third-party integrations, and customization options, but it has a learning curve to get started, can be pricey, and email functions aren’t perfect.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a CRM Tool
The largest error that businesses who are choosing a CRM system make is that they are preoccupied with comparing providers and testing out various functions rather than focusing on their own requirements and business priorities. These are eight factors you should consider before picking a CRM system.
Easy to use
Users will be more inclined to utilize a CRM app regularly if it is simple to use and makes data entry easier and faster.
A CRM system that is challenging to use, on the other hand, will rapidly turn into a job and users will be less likely to frequently submit data, resulting in an incomplete and inaccurate database. Consequently, making a CRM app simple to use is crucial to ensure that it truly works.
Price
Finding an app with all the features you require is crucial, but it’s also vital to take the cost into account. You don’t want to spend more money than necessary on features you won’t utilize, after all.
Workflow Automation
CRM software can streamline your operations and improve your quality of life. To make you and your team more productive, look for software that enables you to create custom rules and includes sales force automation. You should also read this it will help you with tools for remote employee onboarding.
Process automation tools can also save time and effort by automating time-consuming sales tasks like inventory management, order tracking, and order processing.
Customization
Some CRM solutions let you pick the features you want to include in your package, and some also let you customize the most fundamental features, like the ability to add contact fields, pick the data that appears on your dashboard, and design unique reports.
Additionally, you can add plugins, extensions, and other add-ons to your software to increase its functionality. Many CRM software companies offer more sophisticated alternatives via APIs if you require even more customization to really personalize the product to your business.
This allows programmers access to all technical specifications and coding for complete software customization. The program can be integrated with other business solutions that your firm already uses to streamline procedures thanks to the API.
Third-Party Integration
You can save a lot of time and money by connecting your CRM software to other solutions you already employ. Most CRM solutions provide third-party software interfaces; the trick is picking one that is simple to use and compatible with the software you already use.
Customer Service
By offering top-notch customer service, CRM software can assist you in attracting and keeping consumers. To ensure that your sales representatives and customer support team can deliver their best work, look for the following capabilities:
- Provides you with a 360-degree perspective of your customers that includes every detail about them starting with your initial point of contact.
- Automatically keeps track of all communication points, from lead generation to finalized deals and past sales.
- Record any occurrences, internet visits, purchase histories, and other activities to serve as a record for future use and to keep all representatives informed.
- Sends automated responses to consumer questions and messages so they don’t feel unheard.
- Provides assistance with predefined email templates and call scripts that address the most typical inquiries.
Employee Tracking
A great way to monitor employee activity and performance are with CRM software. Select software that enables users to maintain individual records of their hours, tasks, meetings, sales figures, goals, and other items. Also, the software ought to offer supervisors and top management access to dashboards where they can see the objectives of specific employees, activities that have been done, and other productivity indicators.
This can assist managers to identify struggling employees and address areas for improvement, compose employee performance reports, develop incentives, and praise strong employees.
Lead Management
You can identify your leads and the steps they have taken in the sales cycle with the use of a lead management function. You can score your prospects through the lead management process and, if necessary, filter them off to another member of your team to convert some leads into customers.
Dead leads can occasionally remain in a CRM for weeks or months. A wise sales manager keeps track of leads and reassigns quiet or seemingly dormant leads to various team members for re-engagement.
Conclusion
Nowadays, having professional contact and sales management skills is crucial. The days of recording everything and storing it away are over. These kinds of small business CRM technologies are now necessary if you want to remain current and professional. You should also read this blog of ours once Leading Online Reputation Management Tools.
Some best CRM apps for small enterprises are those mentioned above. Your customer relationship management and sales funnel tools will start to go in the correct way with any one of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the benefits of using a CRM app?
The benefits of using a best CRM apps include improved customer engagement, increased sales productivity, better customer data management, and improved decision-making.
2. Can I customize a CRM app to fit my business needs?
Yes, many CRM apps offer customization options that allow businesses to tailor the software to their specific needs.
3. Are CRM apps easy to use?
Most CRM apps are designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, but some may have a steeper learning curve than others. Look for apps that offer training and support resources to help you get up and running quickly.
4. How secure is my customer data on a CRM tool, and what security measures are in place?
Most CRM tools offer robust security measures, including data encryption, access control, and user permissions, to ensure customer data is secure and compliant with industry standards and regulations. You should always check the security features and compliance certifications of a CRM tool before selecting one.
5. How can a small startup implement CRM effectively?
To implement CRM effectively, a small startup needs to do proper research, choose the right CRM system, train their team, and continuously evaluate and optimize their CRM activities.
6. What features should I look for in a CRM app?
When choosing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) app, look for features such as contact management, sales pipeline management, reporting and Analytics, marketing automation, and integrations with other business applications.
7. Is it possible to create a custom CRM system for a startup, and how would one go about it?
Yes, it’s possible to create a custom CRM system for a startup, but it requires technical expertise and resources such as software development skills, time, and budget.
