Written by Rob Binns Reviewed by James Macey Updated on 20 March 2023 On this page Salesforce Einstein Analytics Zendesk Explore Sugar Discover Zoho Analytics The Benefits of Analytical CRM Software Our Methodology: How We Ranked the Best CRMs for Analytics Verdict Expand Our site is reader-supported – by clicking our links, we can match you with a potential supplier, and we may earn a small commission for this referral. According to our extensive research, Salesforce – with its superlative, AI-driven reporting module Einstein Analytics – is our top pick for medium-sized to large businesses looking for an analytical customer relationship management (CRM) system and one of the best cloud CRM systems.Rounding out the rest of the list is Zendesk Explore, SugarCRM’s Sugar Discover, and Zoho Analytics, which might serve you better depending on your specific needs.That said, the best way to know for sure is to user our free comparison tool, through which we can quickly match you up with trusted providers that fit your needs. They’ll then get back to you with bespoke quotes for you to compare and get the best deal.However, if you’d like to know more about the analytical CRM systems we picked, along with their pros and cons, just head to our research-backed ranking below. Swipe right to see more 0 out of 0 backward forward Salesforce Zendesk SugarCRM Zoho Best For Detailed sales and service insights Best For Low-cost software Best For Data visualisation and intelligent reporting Best For Ease of use Price Range £20 – custom per user per month Price Range £15-£89 per user per month Price Range £41-bespoke per user per month Price Range £12-£42 per user per month Free Trial/Plan Free Trial/Plan Free Trial/Plan Free Trial/Plan Sales Reporting Sales Reporting Sales Reporting Sales Reporting Sales Forecasting Sales Forecasting Sales Forecasting Sales Forecasting 1. Salesforce (Einstein Analytics)Best for the most detailed sales and service insights Salesforce 3.9 Pricing From £20 per user per month Try Salesforce Read our review Quick overview Best in class analytics, 24/7 phone-based support, and pricing that starts from £20 per user, per month? We like the sound of that. Offering thousands of app integrations, unlimited contacts, and just about every feature a business could ask for, Salesforce is one of our top CRM selections. Be warned, though – Salesforce does come with a fairly steep learning curve, and beyond its cheapest tier, it gets expensive – and fast. We’d recommend small businesses stick to the ‘Essentials’ plan, to keep costs down! Read more + Read less - Strengths Its ‘Einstein Analytics’ add-on is one of the most advanced reporting tools money can buy No contact limit Free trial available for sales, service, and analytics modules Tailored to insights for the specific needs of sales and customer service teams Integrates with thousands of third-party applications User-friendly mobile app Weaknesses No free trial for its marketing automation product 24/7 phone-based support is restricted to Salesforce’s more expensive pricing plans At £60 per user, per month, Einstein Analytics is expensive – particularly when added to Salesforce’s already steep costs Notoriously difficult to get to grips with Pricing See more See less FunctionStarting priceHighest price Sales/Service £20 per user per month £240 per user per month Marketing £320 per month £1,000 per month Analytics £60 per user per month £120 per user per month Perhaps the only setback is that Einstein Analytics is, well… too advanced! Many user reviews suggest it can be tough to use, and even harder to get to grips with. You’ll receive amazing insights, but equally need to be prepared for the costs and onboarding difficulties that may arise.Salesforce (Einstein Analytics): feature analysisWe’ve assessed Salesforce (as well as all the other analytical CRM software providers showcased here) on their ability to perform a specific subset of functions that are crucial for medium-sized to large businesses. Note To find out more about what these features mean, jump to the section ‘the benefits of analytical CRM’ below for a full breakdown.Sales reporting: Yes.Revenue cycle modelling: And how! Einstein Analytics empowers you to build complex revenue cycle models based on how your users are interacting with your website, allowing you to see which behaviours led to which purchases, and better optimise your site and marketing for conversions.Sales forecasting: Yes.Business intelligence: Yes – in fact, Einstein Analytics actually represents the industry’s most advanced reaches into the depths of customer data analysis. Utilising both machine learning and artificial intelligence, Salesforce offers granular insights into your customers, your team’s performance, and the overall health of your business. 2. Zendesk (Explore)Best for low-cost software Zendesk 3.3 Pricing From £15 per user, per month Try Zendesk Quick overview With robust modules for sales and customer service, Zendesk is a versatile CRM offering plenty of value for small businesses. You can get started with a monthly fee of just £5 per user, and benefit from some of the highest quality help and support we came across during our research. Zendesk’s contact management features are a breeze to use, as is calling people through their profiles (pictured). That said, Zendesk – perhaps more than any other small business CRM here – ails from freemium software’s biggest weakness; that you’ll need to upgrade to the most expensive plans to enjoy its finest features. Read more + Read less - Strengths Extremely low starting price Excellent ticket management capabilities Boasts an aesthetically-pleasing user interface Low starting price Weaknesses No document storage Doesn't provide the same level of data analysis as Salesforce and SugarCRM Pricing See more See less PlanPrice Team £15 per user per month Growth £39 per user per month Professional £79 per user per month Sure, Zendesk Explore certainly isn’t the most feature-rich analytical CRM system on our list (if it were, you’d be adding another zero onto the end of those prices). However, it’s still a powerful piece of software – and, at the very least, an excellent entry-level analytical CRM for growing businesses.Zendesk (Explore): feature analysisSales reporting: No – this feature is part of Zendesk Sell, but not Explore. Zendesk Explore’s reporting features are tailored more to handling ticket submissions, and automating your team’s customer service endeavours.Revenue cycle modelling: Yes, but with Zendesk Explore’s ‘Professional plan’ (£9 per user, per month) only – not the free version.Sales forecasting: No.Business intelligence: Yes. Is Zendesk Explore the right analytical CRM software for your business? Do you already use CRM software? Yes No Complete our short questionnaire to find out 3. Sugar (Discover)Best for data visualisation and intelligent reporting SugarCRM 3.7 Pricing From £39 per user, per month Try Sugar CRM Quick overview If you can afford the £64 per user, per month price tag (make that £1,000 if you’re in marketing!), SugarCRM offers plenty of sweet features for your small business. Plus – in terms of analytical CRM software, at least – it’s up there with Salesforce and Dynamics 365, and is sure to provide suitably granular insights into the health of your small business’ sales. That said, there’s a reason it’s lower on our list – namely, because of the steep learning curve, and because it’s only more established small businesses that’ll come close to requiring SugarCRM’s daunting breadth of features. Read more + Read less - Strengths Offers an integration for… well, just about any software you can think of! Feature-wise, it’s all there Respectable customer approval scores Its ‘root cause identification’ feature empowers your team to get to the bottom of issues with ease Straightforward onboarding process Weaknesses It’s pricey... …and not particularly user-friendly, either Third-party integration required to enable VoIP calling No sales reporting functionality Our only gripe? The price point. Sugar Discover comes in at about half the price of what you’ll pay for the system it relies upon. But, when this initial cost can be as low as $52 (£41) per month and as high as $1,000 per month, there’s not much in the way of transparency.Sugar (Discover): feature analysisSales reporting: No.Revenue cycle modelling: Yes.Sales forecasting: Yes.Business intelligence: Yes. 4. Zoho (Analytics)Best for ease of use Zoho 4.7 Pricing From £12 per user, per month Try Zoho Quick overview A free plan and a free trial? Sign us up. As well as boasting one of the most user-friendly, eye-catching, and dynamic interfaces around, Zoho’s CRM is also one of the cheapest. For just £12 per user, per month, Zoho’s ‘Standard’ plan sets the standard – offering everything its free plan does, plus workflows, lead scoring, and mass email capabilities. Add in multiple pipelines and custom dashboards, and Zoho emerges as a CRM that’s equal parts style and substance. Read more + Read less - Strengths Zoho’s cheapest CRM plan includes email insights and sales forecasting Custom reporting available No contractual commitments Zoho Analytics also offers an on-premise solution Highly customisable Weaknesses Zoho (especially its cheapest CRM plans) may prove just a little too simplistic for the needs of some businesses Its mobile app can be slow to update with data, with some online reviews suggesting branding it ‘cumbersome’ Limited range of integrations, particularly when compared to some other analytical CRM software providers Pricing See more See less PlanPrice Standard £12 per user per month Professional £18 per user per month Enterprise £35 per user per month Ultimate £42 per user per month Of course, Zoho Analytics does have its setbacks. It doesn’t boast as many features as Einstein Analytics or Dynamics 365 (though in fairness, not many analytical CRM systems do), and sometimes it can be tough to drill right down into the data you need. Price-wise, it’s not quite as affordable as the rest of Zoho’s range of software products – though a decent free version helps to negate this. Note Don’t know your cloud from your on-premise? Check out our guide to the best cloud-based CRM systems to get clued up.Zoho (Analytics): feature analysisSales reporting: Yes.Revenue cycle modelling: Yes.Sales forecasting: Yes, though this feature is included as part of Zoho’s regular CRM, rather than being restricted to its analytics module alone.Business intelligence: Yes. Is Zoho Analytics the right analytical CRM software for your business? Do you already use CRM software? Yes No Complete our short questionnaire to find out The benefits of analytical CRMIn order to rate each analytical CRM provider on its effectiveness for medium-sized to large businesses, we assessed each provider on four key features all advanced CRM systems need to have. Conveniently, these features also illustrate several of the key benefits analytical CRM can introduce to your business:Sales reportingGenerating accurate reports about the sales your business has made over a specific period isn’t just about understanding how much money you’ve made – it’s how you turn short-term success into long-term profitability.Sales reporting allows you to understand who your customers are, and where they’re coming from. It allows you to identify the bottlenecks in your pipeline, and address them with confidence. Moreover, sales reporting allows you to see how each of your individual reps are performing against their own targets, and what that means for your business at large.Revenue cycle modellingThink of the sales funnel – that familiar shape that adorns the walls of break rooms and sales academies across the country. Well, a revenue cycle is basically that, but tailored to your own business. It’s also less of a funnel, and more of a cycle – mapping out the journey each one of your customers will take, from a prospect all the way to a closed deal, or from failure to re-engagement.Revenue cycle modelling allows you to understand where the gaps in that user journey lie. Moreover, it enables you to remove any roadblocks to lead qualification and conversion, and develop an intimate knowledge of the customer experience.Sales forecastingSales forecasting helps your team plan for the future, analysing current sales to provide an estimation of what quota you can expect to hit in the weeks and months ahead.Forecasting helps you manage your resources, cash flow, workforce, and growth. Taking into account a combination of your business’ historical data, wider economic trends, and your competitors’ situations, effective forecasting is vital to sales success.Business intelligenceBusiness intelligence is the process of analysing and understanding data to make better decisions.It’s also about seeing the bigger picture – about pulling data from numerous sources to get a holistic view of your operations. Business intelligence allows you to know what you’re doing well, and improve in the areas you’re not. It’s not necessarily limited to your own activities, either – if done well, business intelligence can help you identify emerging market trends and new opportunities to scale. Our Methodology: How We Ranked the Best CRMs for AnalyticsTo bring you our reviews, we analysed 13 market-leading CRM systems, evaluating them in terms of functionality, usability, cost, and scalability so we can make honest and accurate recommendations to UK businesses.Our rigorous testing and research procedures see these products scored and rated using six core categories of investigation and 13 subcategories – in fact, we covered 84 areas of investigation in total. We then gave each category score a ‘relevance weighting' to ensure the product's final score perfectly reflects the needs and requirements of Expert Market readers.Our main testing categories for CRM systems are:Features: the functionalities and capabilities provided by the CRM software, such as contact management, lead and opportunity tracking, and task and activity management.Help and Support: the resources and assistance available to users when they encounter issues or require guidance while using the CRM software.Customization: the ability to tailor the CRM software to suit the specific needs and processes of the organisation, e.g. customising fields, layouts, and workflows.Scalability: the ability of the CRM software to accommodate the growth and changing needs of the organisation, such as the capacity to handle a growing customer database.Price: the cost associated with using the CRM software. It includes factors such as licensing fees, subscription plans, and additional charges for add-on modules or features.Team Structure – Sales CRM: determining if a platform makes it easier to manage large sales teams, including team dashboards, team hierarchies, and team inboxes.Usability – Small Business CRM: assessing the simplicity of the interface, the ease of navigating through menus and options, and the overall user experience. Verdict Due to its AI-driven reporting and functionality, which makes it one of the best CRM systems out there (full stop), Salesforce’s Einstein Analytics is your best bet when it comes to analytical CRM.Our research, which took price, features, help and support, and customer ratings into account, also found Einstein Analytics’ thousands of app integrations and unlimited contacts to be major pluses, despite its steep learning curve.Of course, analytical CRM systems are intricate pieces of software and not one-size-fits-all solutions. If you’re still unsure of which will serve you best, just use our free comparison tool. This way, you’ll be able to receive bespoke quotes from our trusted providers and choose the one most suitable to your needs. Written by: Rob Binns Services Expert Rob writes mainly about the payments industry, but also brings to the table industry-specific knowledge of CRM software, business loans, fulfilment, and invoice finance. When not exasperating his editor with bad puns, he can be found relaxing in a sunny (socially-distanced) corner, with a beer and a battered copy of Dostoevsky. Reviewed by: James Macey Senior Business Software Researcher James draws on his 4+ years experience as a researcher to offer specialized advice on a wide range of categories from CRM to Fleet Management. He believes all businesses can grow if they use the right tools and services.