Before revealing our top contenders, let’s delve into the question of which CRM is the most suitable for a startup business. Essentially, every new business requires a CRM solution to effectively manage customer relationships, centralize processes, and store contacts.
The CRM software industry has experienced significant growth in recent years, with each new solution offering its own distinct features. However, for startups with limited funds, affordability and scalability are the key factors. It can be challenging to switch from one CRM to another in the future, so it is crucial to select a solution that will not become obsolete from the beginning. The chosen solution should have the capability to grow with your business.
Below are cost-effective and highly scalable CRM solutions. Keep reading and we will provide you with all the necessary information about them. By the end of this guide, you will have all the information required to make an informed decision.
What are the best CRM startups?
The ideal CRM solution for your company will vary depending on factors such as the size of your business, your objectives, and your budget since every startup is unique.
Our top pick overall is HubSpot because it offers a generous free plan, a wide range of tools, and exclusive discounts for startups. Zoho is also a great option, especially if you already use other Zoho tools or if you want to create your own customized CRM interface.
Insightly is at the forefront of project management, offering a plethora of advanced tools for automating workflows.
If you prefer to go along with the majority, you have the option to choose Salesforce Essentials, which is a budget-friendly and simplified version of the most widely used CRM in the world.
- Salesforce Essentials
Salesforce, known for its excellence, has gained the reputation of being one of the top CRM solutions worldwide.
Because Salesforce is widely used, it is the software that salespeople usually have the most familiarity with, facilitating the onboarding process as your business expands and you employ additional representatives. Nonetheless, the complete edition of Salesforce can be quite costly.
Start-up teams on a tight budget have a cost-effective option called Salesforce Essentials. This version of the software has fewer features and extras, but can serve as a reliable option for start-ups planning to switch to the full version of Salesforce in future as their business expands.
Salesforce Essentials offers the capability to streamline the organization of your customer data, sales tracking, and customer support through a single integrated dashboard. Additionally, it allows seamless integration with other tools such as ActiveCampaign, Zapier, and DocuSign within your existing stack.
- HubSpot CRM
The HubSpot CRM consists of various tools that are designed to assist with different aspects of your business, including marketing, sales, customer service, and operations. You have the option to buy these tools separately or combine them for a comprehensive CRM solution, thanks to flexible pricing plans.
One reason why we believe HubSpot is the top CRM choice for startups is due to the HubSpot for Startups program. This program offers startup-friendly onboarding and personalized training, along with significant discounts of up to 90% for eligible ventures during the initial year. This effectively reduces costs, allowing for a larger portion of the budget to be allocated towards business growth.
Additionally, there is also the option of the free plan which allows you to utilize a simplified version of Hubspot’s marketing, sales, operational, and customer service tools at no cost.
The features included in the free plan are a shared inbox, contact management, live chat, email marketing tools, dashboard reporting, deal tracking, onscreen calling, and more. If you require more advanced features as your business expands, you have the option to purchase paid add-on packages.
Additionally, for startups, the HubSpot Academy is a valuable resource as it offers unlimited free access to training materials. This assistance helps individuals maximize the benefits of their CRM and quickly bring their team up to date.
- Zoho CRM
Zoho is a CRM that is powerful and has all the necessary features. It offers contact and pipeline management, lead generation tools, reporting and analytics, workflow automation, and more, just like any other customer relationship management platform.
The unified inbox enables you to access and deal with customer messages from various communication channels, such as telephone, email, live chat, and social platforms, all in a single location.
Zoho’s Canvas design studio stands out as one of its major strengths. Users of Zoho can utilize this advanced feature to create their own CRM interface according to their individual preferences and needs. This is made possible through an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor.
Furthermore, Zoho CRM effortlessly integrates with all other tools found in Zoho’s cloud software suite, making it the logical selection for current Zoho users.
A free plan is also offered, which is beneficial for very small startups. Although it has limited features, it allows for up to three users.
- Insightly
Insightly, an adaptable CRM, is ideal for startups seeking CRM tools with project management capabilities. It offers improved project management through milestone/task tracking and calendar syncing.
It is equipped with effective features for workflow management which can assist in optimizing operations and time-saving.
One, lead routing ensures that your leads are assigned to the correct sales representative in order to promptly follow up with potential customers and increase the likelihood of closing deals. Two, powerful automations enable the establishment of intricate workflows to automate monotonous tasks such as sending emails and updating records.
You can use the built-in email marketing features within Insightly to send, create, and track emails. It also provides information about the open and click-through rates of your emails. Custom business reports assist in keeping track of other essential metrics for your startup.
Insightly has a steeper learning curve compared to other CRMs due to the range of possibilities it offers.
More CRM Tools
Sales CRM on Monday.
The monday sales CRM is an excellent software solution for enhancing the effectiveness of your sales and customer management teams and offering insights into your sales pipeline, making it an ideal customer relationship management (CRM) solution.
The CRM on Monday is able to be personalized to fit the needs and specific characteristics of your sales process, enabling you to customize every aspect of the platform to suit your preferences. It offers links to external tools and appealing dashboards that provide a detailed overview of each stage of the sales cycle, including emails and other activities for consolidated client communication.
The following text should be rephrased step by step while maintaining the same meaning: “Key features:” 1. Important characteristics: 2. Essential attributes: 3. Principal elements: 4. Key components: 5. Fundamental traits: 6. Crucial aspects: 7. Vital characteristics: 8. Significant features:
- Provides exceptional sales pipeline visibility.
- A highly customizable sales cycle that you can tailor to your company.
- Integrations with email and a central client communication center.
- Functionality for automating sales processes.
- Short overviews of each deal to give you the complete picture.
- Real-time dashboards that look beautiful and can be customized.
- Numerous integrations with frequently used third-party platforms and tools.
Advantages:
- Centralized software platform for all CRM-related functions.
- Very flexible, with a variety of features for managing and using the platform.
- Incredibly simple to customize to your company’s needs.
- The user interface is easy to use.
- An extensive template library lets you start from proven layouts.
- The platform makes it simple for you to keep track of your clients.
- Attractive dashboards.
Drawbacks:
- Upgrading to the next price level can be necessary for additional capabilities.
- If your system has a lot of data, the user interface (UI) may become slow.
- Reporting capabilities could be improved.
The cost of the product or service.
- Individual CRM: free up to 2 seats.
- Basic CRM: costs $10 per seat/month, billed annually.
- Standard CRM: costs $14 per seat/month, billed annually.
- Pro CRM: costs $24 per seat/month, billed annually.
- Enterprise CRM: contact the vendor.
Pipedrive, when thought about methodically, should be rephrased step by step without any addition or omission of information, while keeping the meaning intact.
Pipedrive CRM is an ideal choice for businesses seeking to enhance customer interactions as it is a cloud-based CRM designed for startups. It enables businesses to effectively manage customer relationships by providing a centralized platform for gathering customer data and an array of tools to support the achievement of client objectives.
Here are the main characteristics:
- Drag and drop capabilities.
- Track deals and import sales data.
- CRM tool for assigning tasks to the sales staff.
- Make to-do lists to streamline business processes.
- Set task priorities within the CRM platform.
- Account management.
- Sales forecasting.
Advantages:
- Created by salespeople.
- Lead management and call tracking.
- Workflow automation and sales automation.
- Low service costs.
- Excellent customer service.
The drawbacks are as follows:
- The standard version doesn`t include any additional functions, such as email or phones.
- Limited analytics.
- Creating customized reports is not possible using the automation feature.
The pricing of the product or service is being considered and discussed.
- Essential: costs $12.50 per user/month, billed annually.
- Advanced: costs $24.90 per user/month, billed annually.
- Professional: costs $49.90 per user/month, billed annually.
- Enterprise: costs $74.90 per user/month, billed annually.
Freshsales is a sales software that helps businesses effectively manage their sales processes and increase productivity. It provides various features and tools that enable sales teams to track leads, engage with customers, and close deals more efficiently. With Freshsales, businesses can streamline their sales operations and improve their overall sales performance.
The sales automation solution provided by Freshsales enables companies to decrease sales cycles, customize customer interactions, and even grow their business and increase profits.
The main features of the platform include the ability to view every interaction with your customers and utilize data to provide personalized experiences. It also provides tools to simplify the process of optimizing sales.
This CRM software designed for startups offers the necessary features to focus on high-quality leads, identify promising opportunities, and shorten the sales cycle by engaging with potential customers based on their progress in the purchasing journey.
Key characteristics: Some important aspects: Critical points to note: Vital elements to consider:
- Comprehensive sales automation platform.
- Chatbots with artificial intelligence (AI).
- Use web forms to collect visitor information.
- Keep track of visitor behavior and viewed pages to understand user intent.
- Identify the best leads using contact scoring.
- Use a variety of channels, such as phone, email, chat, and SMS, to communicate with prospects.
- Get a birds-eye view of the sales process with an activity timeline that shows you support, marketing, and sales touchpoints.
- With the dynamic forecasting tool, you can more accurately predict your revenue.
Advantages:
- Easy setup and onboarding.
- Quickly access client accounts and get a detailed view of the sales process with each prospect.
- An excellent tool for tracking, planning, selling, and auditing processes that complements your business.
- Provides users with automated sales campaigns that allow them to cross-sell and upsell products.
- AI-powered insights allow you to increase conversion rates and close more deals.
- Has many integrations with popular applications and programs, such as Freshdesk for customer support.
- Outstanding support and documentation.
One disadvantage is that…
- Some users reported sync times with integrations, and internal tools can have slight delays.
- There is no “search by keyword” or keyword option in the basic search feature.
- Lack of integration with well-known email services like Gmail.
The pricing is to be considered in a step-by-step manner, without any addition or removal of information.
- Growth: costs $15 per user/month, billed annually.
- Pro: costs $39 per user/month, billed annually.
- Enterprise: costs $69 per user/month, billed annually.
Salesmate is a software solution that helps businesses manage their sales process efficiently and effectively. With Salesmate, businesses can streamline their sales activities and track their progress to optimize their performance. This software provides various features and tools that enable businesses to manage contacts, track deals, schedule tasks, and generate insightful reports. Salesmate is designed to simplify the sales process and enhance collaboration among team members. With its user-friendly interface and comprehensive functionality, Salesmate proves to be a valuable asset for businesses looking to improve their sales productivity.
Salesmate is a software platform that provides personalized and positive experiences to customers and sales teams. It functions as a customer relationship management (CRM) and automation software. Salesmate is utilized in more than 70 countries to assist sales teams in increasing their income, enhancing client satisfaction, and successfully concluding more business deals.
This CRM caters to startups and offers numerous features such as managing prospects and leads, tracking sales pipeline and activities, automating sales sequences, providing sales intelligence and reporting, and integrating seamlessly with various other products commonly utilized by sales teams.
These are the main characteristics:
- Use the lead and prospect engagement features to reach even more potential customers.
- Send bulk emails and texts, easily track emails, and use a calling power dialer if necessary.
- Built-in collaboration tools for your entire team.
- Track all sales activities and visualize your complete sales pipeline.
- Automate sales processes to eliminate routine repetitive tasks.
- Deep insights and reporting, including custom dashboards, reports, and predictions for sales.
- Integrate with 700+ business programs, including Zapier, Google Apps, and Microsoft.
Advantages:
- In comparison to other CRM solutions, pricing is affordable for small teams.
- Positive user experience for sales teams of all sizes.
- Integrated phone, SMS, email, and other platforms.
- Graphs of the sales pipeline are intuitive and simple to understand.
- Increases sales representative productivity.
- Customer service and support are friendly and helpful.
Drawbacks:
- Reports’ formatting can make them difficult to read.
- There is room for improvement in the “deals” page’s structure and layout.
- Because of the platform’s extensive features, learning it from scratch can be overwhelming.
The pricing aspect can be approached by thinking step by step.
- Starter: costs $12 per user/ month, billed annually.
- Growth: costs $24 per user/ month, billed annually.
- Boost: costs $40 per user/ month, billed annually.
- Enterprise: contact the vendor.
Agile CRM remains unchanged in terms of content and structure.
Agile CRM is a cutting-edge cloud-based platform that businesses can use to increase sales, close more deals, and enhance customer support. It provides efficient and easy-to-use marketing automation, sales enablement, and customer service solutions. With Agile CRM, businesses can access an all-in-one automated CRM for sales, marketing, and service purposes. Additionally, the platform is mobile-ready for added convenience.
Agile CRM, a trustworthy CRM software, enables users to enhance relationships with their significant client base and increase deal closures by utilizing appointment scheduling, telephony, project management, gamification, and contact management features.
The main characteristics are as follows:
- One of the best CRMs for startups that combines marketing, customer service, and sales automation.
- Simple implementation and affordable pricing.
- Sales tools include project management, contact management, and deal stage tracking.
- There are various marketing features, such as a landing page builder, marketing automation, email marketing, mobile marketing, and even email tracking.
- Service features include a help desk, knowledge base, canned responses, ticketing, and client feedback.
- Integrations with well-known applications, like Twitter, Facebook, Google Apps, RingCentral, LinkedIn, Twilio, and more.
Advantages: 1. It allows for a logical and organized thought process. 2. It breaks down complex tasks into manageable and achievable steps. 3. It helps identify potential problems and errors in the process. 4. It improves decision-making by considering all the factors involved. 5. It promotes a systematic approach to problem-solving. 6. It aids in effective communication by presenting ideas in a clear and coherent manner.
- The best option for companies looking for an “all-in-one” platform.
- Offers a wide variety of features that are perfect for any business or sales team.
- Flexibility and structure are perfectly balanced.
- Powerful marketing and tracking capabilities.
- Includes lots of support documentation to help you get started.
- Excellent platform for optimizing sales, marketing, and report generation.
- It is simple to view recorded interactions and tracked processes.
Drawbacks:
- English is the only language used for customer service.
- Lacks on-premises deployment.
The pricing of products or services.
- Free: available for up to 10 users.
- Starter: costs $8.99 per user/month.
- Regular: costs $29.99 per user/month.
- Enterprise: costs $47.99 per user/month.
Please rephrase the text below while maintaining the same meaning: “Consider each step carefully and rephrase the text below without adding or removing any information. The text is about ClickUp.”
ClickUp is an exceptional CRM option for teams and businesses that prioritize project management and desire to visually represent their organization’s key processes and sales pipelines in impressive graphics, data, and illustrations. Selecting ClickUp means reducing the risk of losing important client information, as this affordable CRM for startups encompasses a wide range of features such as account management, communication tools, and sales pipelines.
The main characteristics are:
- Quickly look at all of your client’s orders with intuitive CRM views.
- Use high-level views to analyze your data for customer insights.
- 50+ widgets on the dashboard for beautiful graphics and reporting.
- Centralized client outreach with email integrations and a single email hub.
- Designed to help your company quickly build the perfect client database.
- Forms and automation make it simple to collect account information.
- Using an organized workflow, make account management easier.
The advantages are as follows:
- Feature-rich, intuitive, and user-friendly.
- Provides almost all business solutions on a single platform.
- Easy automation setups.
- Excellent for marketing teams to keep all projects organized.
- Includes time-tracking for both users and employees.
- A great platform for gathering customer feedback.
Negative points: – Disadvantages – Drawbacks – Downsides – Weaknesses
- There are a lot of features, making it easy to become lost.
- It can take some time to get used to the Gantt chart feature.
- It can be challenging to read the font and text themes on some pages.
- You can click down a level because subtasks don’t appear on the home page.
The pricing of a product or service.
- Free: available.
- Unlimited: $5 per user/month, billed annually.
- Business: $12 per user/month, billed annually.
- Business Plus: $19 per user/month, billed annually.
- Enterprise: contact the vendor.
Please think about each step carefully before making a decision and provide an alternative version of the text.
Close is a CRM that is focused on sales and highly regarded among startups. It allows teams to effectively oversee their leads, contacts, opportunities, pipelines, and sales-related tasks. Besides managing these types of data and tasks, Close offers numerous features for monitoring and reporting, such as the ability to generate reports on email template performance, activity, sales funnel health, and automation performance.
Here are the main attributes:
- It offers the ability to customize HTML, allowing you to brand your campaigns easily.
- You can be focused on the deals that matter most.
- You can plan emails to send at specific times.
- It includes custom fields.
- Analytics and reporting.
Advantages:
- Easy to use and intuitive interface.
- It streamlines the import of your leads.
- You can track your emails so you can see who opened what and when.
- You can fix any errors using the undo-send feature.
Drawbacks:
- There is a steep learning curve.
Pricing step by step.
- Start: costs $25 per user/month billed annually.
- Basic: costs $59 per user/month billed annually.
- Professional: costs $89 per user/month billed annually.
- Business: costs $129 per user/month billed annually.
Bitrix24 is a platform that allows users to collaborate and communicate within a centralized virtual office.
Bitrix24 is a team collaboration solution that includes CRM functionality. Using this software, you can efficiently manage your sales team by customizing permissions, utilizing a native time tracker, and implementing sales automation. Furthermore, this CRM solution provides a video calling feature that allows for up to 24 participants.
The main characteristics are:
- Using the sales funnel analysis tool, find sales opportunities and bottlenecks.
- Use email and SMS automation to increase sales and customer loyalty.
- The Gantt chart view allows you to schedule and monitor the progress of sales activities.
- Develop relationships between sales activities with task dependencies.
Advantages:
- Bitrix24 is a comprehensive, robust CRM that manages marketing and sales campaigns and enhances team collaboration.
- It enables you to create an HR help desk, create an unlimited number of work and user groups, and centralize document storage within the app.
- Targeted specifically at startups, Bitrix24 offers a free version with up to 12 users and 5 GB of storage that includes HR, task, lead, contact, and project management features.
Drawbacks:
- The UI is quite “maximalist,” which makes it difficult to navigate through an app.
- The learning curve and app customization limitations could be problematic for some startups.
Prices are determined according to a step-by-step process. No additional information is added or removed.
- Free: available for unlimited users.
- Basic: costs $49 per 5 users/month, billed annually.
- Standard: costs $99 per 50 users/month, billed annually.
- Professional: costs $199 per 100 users/month, billed annually.
Please rephrase the statement below using a step-by-step thinking process while keeping the meaning intact and without adding or removing any information: “The name of the software platform is Zendesk Sell.”
Zendesk is a sales CRM that enhances the productivity of sales teams and provides clear visibility of their sales pipeline. With this tool, you have the ability to document every customer interaction and generate reports based on this data. It also allows you to make phone calls, send emails, and organize meetings.
What follows are important characteristics:
- It provides salespeople with marketing and sales tools.
- You can use it to call, email, schedule meetings, and view deal history all from one location.
- Your team can keep their focus on the leads with the highest value.
- You can run marketing campaigns.
- It enables you to manage your sales effectively.
- The Zendesk Apps framework makes it easier for you to create your own applications.
- With pre-built dashboards, analyze your sales data more thoroughly.
Advantages:
- With this customer acquisition management solution, you can track leads from the time they enter the sales funnel until they become clients.
- Activity tracking assists you in monitoring a lead’s engagement with your company.
- It enables you to gather crucial details about the lead, including contact information, behavior, and other key information.
- It provides in-depth and accurate reporting and analytics to help you implement data-driven solutions.
- You can seamlessly integrate with several existing business applications to make lead generation.
Downsides:
- There is a learning curve.
- If you want to use more sophisticated features, it can get costly.
- It may be challenging to contact customer service.
Pricing steps:
- Team: costs $19 per user/month, billed annually.
- Growth: costs $49 per user/month, billed annually.
- Professional: costs $99 per user/month, billed annually. Enterprise: starting at $150 per user/month, billed annually.
