The 5 Best CRM Software Systems for Small Businesses

The overall best affordable CRM system for small businesses is Zoho Professional. Bursting with top-rated features, this is our number-one recommendation for small businesses looking to optimize their customer relationship management.

Now that hybrid working is the new standard, it’s essential to collect customer data in one place to avoid confusion and duplicated efforts. CRM software acts as a central hub for all your small business’s lead, deal, and client information, accessible anytime, and from anywhere in the world.

Short on time? Tell us your requirements and CRM software preferences, and we’ll connect you with top suppliers who can offer tailored quotes for your small business. Otherwise, read on for our detailed breakdown of the top CRM systems for small businesses in 2024.

What is a CRM System?

CRM systems are software platforms that help businesses manage customer relationships and interactions. The core purpose of a CRM system is to collect contact and lead information in one centralized location for all team members to access.

On top of that, CRM systems also help with sales pipeline tracking, marketing automation, reporting and analytics, customer support, integration with other systems, and customization.

While it’s likely that larger businesses already have CRM systems in place, smaller businesses should also consider adopting a dedicated central system for contact management.

Small businesses can expect to pay $40 per user at the most and at the least, nothing – some plans, like HubSpot, are completely free.

The Best CRM Software for Small Businesses: Our Shortlist

Based on our research and testing, we have determined that these are the top CRM options for small businesses:

1. Zoho Professional – Best Overall CRM System for Small Businesses

Zoho Professional’s Ease of Use

We scored Zoho an excellent 4.5/5 for its user-friendliness, coming in only second to Freshsales. Zoho Professional offers a comprehensive suite of features that are customizable to your business needs. While there is a bit of a learning curve in getting to grips with the range of functions, we’ve found that the helpful onboarding features such as a checklist and walkthrough made the setup that much easier.

Zoho Professional’s Features

• Integrations: Zoho Professional worked seamlessly with our other software as it has an impressive list of compatible apps including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Shopify, MailChimp and Facebook Ads, to name a few.
• Contact Segmentation: Zoho allows you to group your contacts based on certain criteria to identify potential opportunities and offer personalized campaigns to secure deals.
• Advanced Lead Scoring: Scoring your leads according to assigned criteria allows you to prioritize your sales and marketing efforts, saving you time and money. Zoho is one of only two providers offering this feature, the other being Freshsales.
• Automated Workflows: Save time by focusing your efforts on the leads most likely to convert.
• Mobile Access: Stay connected with your contacts and sales pipeline when on the go with the handy mobile app.

Which features does it lack? Drip marketing campaigns, chatbots and security emails.

Zoho’s Customer Service

We were pleased to encounter the best customer support options on offer from Zoho, with help available via its comprehensive online knowledge base. If you prefer personalized support, you can reach its team by email, phone or live chat from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Zoho stands out from other providers by offering onboarding support, although it comes at an extra cost.

2. Freshsales Growth – Best of Ease of Use

Freshsales Growth Ease of Use

When it comes to usability, Freshsales is our top choice. Its kanban boards with drag and drop functionality provide an intuitive user experience. Additionally, we found that Freshsales makes it easy to import data from various sources and seamlessly integrates with other CRM systems. When implementing new software, high usability scores are crucial to ensure quick adoption by your team and a worthwhile investment.

Freshsales Growth Features

• Data import and export: Nobody wants to spend hours manually inputting data so luckily Freshsales Growth takes this off your plate.
• Tracks and automatically scores leads: Save time by focusing your efforts on the leads most likely to convert.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: According to our research, Freshsales has the most complete reporting features, with insights into deals, activity and leads, as well as recurring revenue reports and revenue forecasts.
• Integration with communications, accounting and eCommerce apps: Freshsales works seamlessly with the rest of your software suite, with numerous app integrations.

Which features does it lack? Customer support features, social media integration and a chatbot feature.

Freshsales Growth Customer Service

Freshsales does not provide onboarding support, unlike Zoho. However, they do have an online knowledge hub and community forum to help you with any questions you may have. If you prefer to speak with a support agent, you can contact them by phone or email. It’s important to note that they do not offer 24/7 live chat as Pipedrive does.

3. Pipedrive Advanced – Best for Email Templates

Why Pipedrive is Best for Email Templates

Pipedrive stood out against its competitors for its superb email template feature. We found it super easy to create and personalize email marketing campaigns. Sending out is easy with automated workflows and campaign tracking grants you insights into how each email performed, giving you the chance to replicate what struck a chord with your audience.

Pipedrive Advanced Ease of Use

Pipedrive’s interface is very intuitive and easy to follow and it offers a ton of ready-made email templates, earning it a 4.4/5 for usability. Similar to HubSpot, we found it slightly challenging to optimize the full potential of the platform after the initial setup, which may be important to note if you frequently onboard new team members.

Pipedrive Advanced Features

• Customizable email templates: What stood out during our testing of Pipedrive was the customizable templates that make it very easy to create professional email campaigns.
• Mobile app: Start-ups or sole traders can benefit greatly from accessing their CRM data on the go, especially since they may be more stretched for time than larger operations.
• 400 integrations: With a vast library of 400 app integrations, you won’t have to change your existing software suite to accommodate your new CRM. It will likely be able to slot right in with your communications, analytics and accounting software.
• Email scheduling and tracking: Pipedrive’s stand-out email features helped us massively with scheduling email send-outs and track successful campaigns, allowing you to replicate what works best.

Which features does it lack? High-level security features, phone support, custom dashboards and advanced reporting features.

Pipedrive Advanced Customer Service

Pipedrive primarily relies on an online customer support system. They provide 24/7 live chat support, which sets them apart from other providers. Additionally, they offer a knowledge base and community forum. However, if you prefer email or phone support, it’s worth considering other options like Zoho or Freshsales as Pipedrive only offers it on its more premium Power plan.

4. HubSpot Free – Best Value for Money

Why HubSpot is Best Value for Money

Simply put, it’s free. Don’t be fooled into thinking that “you get what you pay for,” as HubSpot’s free plan is super generous and offers professional features that rival its competitors. You may encounter some limitations, such as with storage allowance, but if you’re thinking of dipping your toes into CRM without making a substantial investment, HubSpot should be your first port of call. Discover more affordable CRM solutions in our dedicated guide.

HubSpot Free Ease of Use

HubSpot Free received a usability score of 3.9 out of 5, which is the lowest score on this list along with monday CRM. Although the interface was easy to navigate during our testing, more complex tasks like automated workflows required some additional time and effort to understand. Despite this, we found that these tasks proved to be extremely valuable in terms of easing sales and marketing teams‘ workload.

HubSpot Free Features

• Contact segmentation: Split your contacts into groups based on certain criteria to send out targeted campaigns and hopefully, see a greater success level.
• Social media integration: Integrate your CRM with your social media to create posts and track your social media engagement.
• Chatbots and web forms: HubSpot Free is the only provider in our list to include both marketing features, and it’s free.
• Visual sales pipeline: You can achieve greater visibility over your customer relationships by viewing all of your contacts in one place.
• In-built email design editor: HubSpot allows you to create email campaigns from within your CRM, with no need for a third-party app.

Which features does it lack? Drip marketing campaigns and lead scoring.

HubSpot Free Customer Service

The customer support options for HubSpot’s free plan are rather thin on the ground – but for a free plan, you can’t expect the whole package. Unless you’re on a paid plan, you can’t access personalized help in the form of live chat, email or phone support and will have to make do with the knowledge base and community forum which may not be the best route for complex issues.

5. monday CRM Pro – Best for Customizable Lead Management

Why monday CRM is Best for Customization

monday CRM is well-known and loved for its software platforms because they are easy on the eye, user-friendly and intuitive. It favors a drag-and-drop editing style and offers more flexibility than its competitors with regard to custom fields, dashboards, task types and objects. Companies who like to use their own lingo — this one’s for you.

monday CRM Pro Ease of Use

We found monday CRM one of the least easy-to-use CRM systems, giving it a score of  3.9/5, alongside HubSpot. Although it is highly customizable with various views to accommodate your teams’ needs, we found that some improvements could be made to enhance the user experience, such as faster loading times and simpler navigation.

monday CRM Pro Features

• Optimized for collaboration: monday CRM is created with teamwork in mind, allowing you to share documents and make comments with coworkers.
• Sales features: This plan is predominantly made for sales teams, rather than customer service or marketing teams. So it’s well-stocked with sales features such as a visual sales pipeline and the capacity to create quotes and invoices.
• Highly customizable: You can easily tweak your dashboard to show the widgets that are most relevant to your team and hide clutter.
• Cloud-based: monday CRM is hosted in the cloud, which means that teams can access it from anywhere.

Which features does it lack? Chatbots, drip campaigns, social media integration, lead scoring, email design editor.

monday CRM Pro Customer Service

monday CRM’s customer support options are almost as basic as HubSpot’s free plan, which is a little surprising since monday CRM is a paid option. On top of the online knowledge hub and community forum, you can access personalized support via email. Unfortunately, there is no phone support, which is a shame for those who prefer to speak to a human being when encountering difficulties.

How to Switch CRM Provider

If you’ve outgrown your current CRM system or are just looking to try something new, it might be wise to switch to a provider that better serves your needs.

Here are the top signs that you may need to consider switching to a different CRM system:

• You’re spending too much on your current plan: It’s always possible that you could find a better deal elsewhere to be sure to check out all the available options. Use our free tool to get tailored quotes directly from your best-suited providers.
• You’re missing out on vital features: If you don’t feel you’re hitting your potential when it comes to closing deals or efficiently dealing with customer service cases, consider whether your CRM system could be hindering your team’s success.
• You don’t have enough paid users or storage available to efficiently use the system: If your business is expanding, you can quickly outgrow your current plan’s capacity. You may be able to upgrade to a higher-capacity plan with your current provider but this may incur extra costs so it’s best to review your options.
• Your team doesn’t use the CRM system effectively: Sometimes CRM software has all the features you could possibly desire but is not effectively used by team members. It may be that it’s too complicated or lacks the ease-of-use necessary for team members, old and new, to get to grips with it.

How We Ranked the Best CRM Software for Small Businesses