Running a small business is no picnic. But despite the challenges, you still need to drive revenue, encourage customer loyalty and find ways to streamline so you can be more productive. That’s where CRM software enters the picture. And not just any CRM tool — the best CRM for small businesses.
Compare Top CRM Software Leaders
If you think a solid CRM is restricted to companies with never-ending budgets, tech experts and complex software ecosystems, think again. There are plenty of options out there perfectly suited to your unique needs as a small business. With the proper system in place, you don’t have to remain captive in spreadsheet hell or suffer through repetitive, time-consuming manual tasks every day.
The journey to finding your perfect CRM match isn’t easy, and evaluating technology that plays such a pivotal role in your business can be overwhelming. We’ve put together a list of the best CRM software for small businesses to help you out. In this article, we’ll cover:
- Best CRM software for small businesses
- Benefits of Small Business CRMs
- How To Choose the Right CRM Software for Your Small Business?
- Industry trends
- Next Steps
Maybe this is your first investment in a small business CRM, or maybe you have a current system that’s too burdensome, complex or expensive. Whatever your situation, there’s a better alternative. Let’s get started so you can begin reaping the rewards.
Our team of writers and analysts at SelectHub is committed to giving you the best recommendations based on our data. To make our list, products had to meet two criteria:
- Closely match the topic
- Earn a top-5 analyst score in our selection platform
Our analyst scores are based on an in-depth research process using primary and secondary sources. This includes SelectHub Analyst Briefings, direct communication with vendors, and reviewing materials such as user reviews, product brochures, specification sheets, case studies, user manuals, and technical documentation.
Our platform’s Scoring Engine processes the research and computes the analyst score. The score also factors in platform settings such as industry and company size.
Best CRM for Small Businesses
So, what’s the best CRM software for small businesses? The CRM experts here at SelectHub have compiled a top five list, so you don’t have to do the guesswork yourself. Let’s start on the path to improving your business with the right CRM.
Compare Top CRM Software Leaders
Zoho CRM
One of the top small business CRM in the market, Zoho offers dynamic functionalities at an affordable price. Based in the cloud, it helps with lead conversion, customer engagement and revenue generation. Features include sales force automation, sales enablement, process management and omnichannel support.
It comes with highly-rated apps for iOS and Android devices, making it a good choice if you require easy mobile access. And if security is a concern, Zoho CRM has that covered as well. It protects your data through encryption, two-factor authentication, IP restrictions and audit logs.
The leads source dashboard in Zoho CRM. Source
Highest Rated Features According to Our Data
- Opportunity/Deal Management – 100
- Workflow and Process Automation – 100
- Team Collaboration – 100
- Dashboards and Reports – 99
- Sales Performance Management – 98
Top Benefits
- Centralize Communication: Capture and store customer data from various channels, including emails, calls, texts, social media interactions and website visits. The consolidated solution helps keep on top of lead communication without having to switch between platforms.
- Automate Repetitive Tasks: Optimize your workflows by automating time-consuming, manual tasks. Enable sales reps to focus on high-level core activities. Save time, energy and resources while maximizing sales cycle efficiency.
- Keep Track of Performance: You can assess performance KPIs with advanced analytics and gain visibility into sales activities. Customize reports and dashboards using different metrics and filters.
- Easily Visualize Data: Use heat maps and pie charts to represent data in an easy-to-understand format. Managers and salespeople can use the Anomaly Detector tool to compare predicted vs. actual sales for further analysis.
- Work From Anywhere: Gain immediate access to accurate data from any device, anywhere, any time. It lets you digitally capture and record information even when offline via Zoho’s mobile app.
Primary Features
- Opportunity/Deal Management: You can create and group all activities like tasks, calls and events into distinct categories. Customize multiple sales pipelines into various stages for better sales performance. Each stage is assigned a win-probability percentage so sales reps can focus on leads that are likely to convert.
- Workflow and Process Automation: Send emails, schedule meetings and assign tasks automatically using pre-built workflow templates. Design sales processes and decide who needs to do what at which stage with a drag-and-drop interface.
- Team Collaboration: This feature lets you mention groups or individuals on tasks or communicate with them through private chats. Users can update location so teams are in the loop about client visits. Use tags to identify, segment and search records.
- Dashboards and Reports: You can customize reports and dashboards or use pre-built ones according to the company’s unique needs. Visualize data using pie charts, area maps, tables and more.
- Sales Performance Management: Manage goals by assigning targets and use revenue forecasts to gain insights. It allows you to measure sales reps’ performance with various KPIs. Create and group related sales campaigns under a parent campaign for easier organization.
Limitations
- The user interface can be hard to navigate.
- Zoho’s customer support and inquiry resolution aren’t very responsive.
- Automation is limited to the enterprise version.
Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data
- Quote, Order and Contract Management — Not Supported
- Lead Management — Supported With Additional Modules
- Account and Contact Management — Supported With Partner Integrations
- Sales Performance Management — Moderately Supported Out of the Box
- Document Management — Moderately Supported Out of the Box
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
HubSpot CRM
No list of the best CRM software for small businesses would be complete without HubSpot CRM. Its cloud-based platform consists of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub and Service Hub — all of which offer free versions — providing tools that span the entire customer lifecycle.
With HubSpot CRM, you can manage sales pipelines, track key data on dashboards, report on sales activities, get your contacts in order and capture lead data. It also has a chatbot builder, ad management features and tools for building lead generation forms. If you need extra capabilities or want to connect with tools you already use, you can turn to the App Marketplace.
A contact profile in HubSpot CRM. Source
Top Benefits
- Consolidate Data: Access the software’s three hubs in one single-view database. Every marketing, sales and service team member can work in the same system of record, enhancing organization, visibility and communication.
- Track Performance: Find out which channels produce the most conversions. You can monitor and store data about emails, offers, traffic and pages for future reference.
- Gain Sales Insights: Know where sales pipelines and customer lifecycles stand at any given moment. It lets you gauge lead flow’s overall health and optimize campaigns for the best results.
- Organize Contacts: You can automatically capture data from forms and website activity and insert them in contact profiles. Save time with automation, reduce manual input errors and eliminate data duplication.
- Navigate Platform With Ease: The solution’s intuitive interface allows users to adopt the system quickly and easily. Enable teams to customize workflows according to their unique needs.
Primary Features
- Workflow and Process Automation: You can automatically record and retain contact info on the system. Get details on email clicks and opens and configure rules to automate activities like creating tasks and rotating leads.
- Pipeline Tracking: See which deals you’ve won or lost and track pipeline progress. Generate custom reports to measure sales performance on predefined metrics.
- Dashboards and Reports: It helps you optimize data using off-the-shelf and customizable dashboards and reports. Get a deep sales data analysis and share the insights with other business leaders.
- Customer Communication Management: Filter prospects into groups based on the number of site visits, location and company size. You can use filters to generate unique contact views for different teams and keep prospects organized.
- AI-Based Email Scheduling: Stay connected with leads and customers with the right messages at the right time. Schedule email sequences and use machine learning to identify which prospects are engaging and deliver follow-up emails.
Limitations
- Lacks a global activity feed, so sales reps can’t collaborate, share docs or view activities from a central location.
- Can’t track the activities and actions users take.
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
Freshsales
Freshsales is the cloud-based CRM tool from Freshworks, which offers a suite of products targeted at small businesses. This makes it a good choice if you want tools outside of CRM, like project management and accounting, all seamlessly integrated into one set of applications.
IIt delivers comprehensive lead and deal management, email tracking, push notifications, multi-language support, customer journey timelines and one-click phone calling. Mobile apps allow users to work from anywhere on Apple and Android devices. A Zapier integration facilitates connecting with third-party apps like Google Sheets and Mailchimp.
The deal pipeline view in Freshsales. Source
Highest Rated Features According to Our Data
- Opportunity/Deal Management – 100
- Sales Performance Management – 94
- Lead Management – 92
- Dashboards and Reports – 91
- Customer Communication Management – 84
Top Benefits
- Create Detailed Pipelines: You can track visual pipelines to gain insight into various customer lifecycle stages. Customize and import sales pipelines from other CRMs and view multiple deals at the same time.
- Personalize Interactions: It helps create custom communication to target clients and boost their satisfaction and loyalty. Connect with leads by directly sending them voice messages from the platform or typing text to convert them into voicemails.
- Generate Phone Reports: Track sales reps’ phone interactions over a period of time and analyze their performance using in-depth reports. You can assess sales calls based on predetermined metrics and visualize them in a column, bar or pie chart.
- Monitor Visitor Activities: Track leads’ website visits in real time using Javascript, Ruby, PHP and Python libraries. Pinpoint what’s causing increased engagement, store that data and use it to optimize sales campaigns.
- Track Emails With Ease: It enables you to monitor email opens, attachment views, bounce rate, click rate and other factors. Directly send emails from the system, prioritize follow-ups and assess customer interest.
Primary Features
- Opportunity/Deal Management: You can keep track of sales reps’ ongoing and overdue activities. Monitor pipeline status, automate reminders, manage new opportunities and gain visibility into customer journeys.
- Sales Performance Management: This feature lets you define sales objectives and measure group and individual goals over a period of time. Create personalized campaigns, set up follow-up tasks and monitor sales activities.
- Lead Management: You can automatically distribute and assign leads to the right sales reps. Use AI-based lead scoring to rank leads based on existing data. Capture leads from various channels like emails and websites automatically.
- Dashboards and Reports: It lets you analyze sales reps’ performance based on activities like emails, phone calls and appointments. Generate email reports that identify bounce rate and bulk email engagement. You can share and export dashboards and reports with ease.
- Customer Communication Management: Use automatic voicemails, a built-in caller and call recording capabilities to enhance client interactions. Send, receive and schedule email communication directly through the Freshsales mailbox. Integrate with platforms like Gmail and Outlook and use pre-built email templates.
Limitations
- The free plan only has basic capabilities, and advanced features can be expensive.
- Can’t migrate/export information to another CRM.
- Technical glitches with APIs, migration and more.
Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data
- Quote, Order and Contract Management — Not Supported
- Workflow and Process Automation — Not Supported
- Social Engagement — Not Supported
- Account and Contact Management — Moderately Supported Out of the Box
- Lead Management — Supported With Partner Integrations
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
Pipedrive
Pipedrive’s cloud-based CRM for small businesses provides critical functionality such as sales automation, lead management, reporting, revenue projections and tools to aid collaboration. You can automate workflows, build a product catalog and use Gmail from within the platform by adding a Chrome extension.
If you need extra capabilities, Pipedrive’s app marketplace has more than 150 third-party tools. Developers can use the system’s open API to build custom features and integrate with other software. The system also offers strong security measures. A dashboard lets you control user access, view suggestions for protecting data and monitor account activity. Daily backups, encryption and GDPR compliance are part of the package.
Pipedrive’s dashboard helps track key metrics.
Highest Rated Features According to Our Data
- Opportunity/Deal Management – 86
- Sales Performance Management – 84
- Customer Communication Management – 83
- Dashboards and Reports – 78
- Product Management – 75
Top Benefits
- Robust Visual Pipelines: Gain insight into deal stages with Pipedrive’s visual format. Use filters for in-depth analysis and summary statistics to reveal the pipeline’s health.
- Work Smarter With AI: You can optimize business processes and workflows using Sales Assist, a built-in sales tool. Get personalized AI tips, notifications and suggestions to enhance sales performance.
- Migrate Data Easily: Import data from various sources like spreadsheets, communication channels and other CRM systems. Migrate information from platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM and SugarCRM.
- Save Time: The platform helps automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks like capturing social media data or qualifying leads. You can set up triggers and actions, use workflow templates and automate common sales actions instantly or at a later date.
- Understand Data: It lets you create and customize visual reports to identify bottlenecks. You can gain insight into deals won or lost, deal progress and email sent or received. Share the data with teams or upload it on cloud storage.
Primary Features
- Opportunity/Deal Management: You can set up activities like calls, appointments, emails and deadlines. Create, filter and manage deals using multiple pipelines.
- Sales Performance Management: Design sales goals and measure performance on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual basis. Set goals for specific deals and monitor how well individuals, teams or the company meet them.
- Customer Communication Management: This feature helps directly make calls without leaving the application using a built-in caller. You can log, record and store calls for future reference. Create reminders, set notifications and schedule communication with ease.
- Dashboards and Reports: It lets you generate reports with a column, bar and pie chart to easily visualize data. Get detailed reports on deals won or lost, deal progress, deal conversion and forecasted deals.
- Product Management: You can add product codes, notes and production costs to a product. Link one or multiple products to deals, clients or specific contacts. Use filters to group products on attributes like name, category and price.
Limitations
- Faulty mobile notifications for meeting or follow-up reminders.
- No campaign planning feature.
- No live reporting feature.
Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data
- Workflow and Process Automation — Not Supported
- Quote, Order and Contract Management — Supported With Partner Integrations
- Social Engagement — Supported With Partner Integrations
- Lead Management — Supported With Partner Integrations
- Document Management — Moderately Supported Out of the Box
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
Nimble
One of the best CRM software for small businesses, Nimble ensures data-rich customer profiles. It pulls online information from social channels and external databases and recommends contacts based on factors like the company or job title. It also has email template tools and an extensive app marketplace to browse over 100 product add-ons. An API enables the development of custom apps for even greater functionality.
With a native mobile app for Android and iOS, Nimble allows users to take work anywhere. Capabilities include business card scanning, voice-based notes, reminders and a calendar. You can also track and update projects and deals, visit contacts’ social profiles and assign tasks.
Nimble’s activity tracking screen. Source
Highest Rated Features According to Our Data
- Opportunity/Deal Management – 81
- Social Engagement – 80
- Customer Communication Management – 74
- Dashboards and Reports – 62
- Lead Management – 56
Top Benefits
- Unify All Data: You can consolidate customer data from various sources like phone calls, emails, website visits and social media interactions in a centralized workspace. Access client preferences, informative dashboards and interaction histories to design targeted communication.
- Track and Analyze Emails: Monitor email opens, click rates, bounce rates and attachments to measure email engagement. Associate emails with relevant contact profiles and use Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo through integrations.
- Enhance Sales Performance: It lets you track deals, tag sales reps in tasks, set milestones and measure opportunity progress. Effectively manage sales processes by identifying bottlenecks and using in-depth reports to improve revenue.
- Effectively Manage Tasks: You can use automated workflows to save time and resources. Schedule activities instantly or at a later time and set deadlines to stay on top of customer data.
- Work Remotely: Salespeople can work on the go through Nimble’s mobile app. Update accurate data in real time, schedule tasks and refer to past client interactions to convert leads.
Primary Features
- Opportunity/Deal Management: It lets you track all previous and upcoming engagements in a centralized platform. Create, assign and gain visibility into deals in the pipeline.
- Social Engagement: You can capture data from all social media handles in one place in real time. Get insight into who interacted, retweeted, mentioned or followed the brand. Directly create posts and respond to messages from the solution.
- Customer Communication Management: This feature helps organize different types of calls into groups using call tags. Track email engagement, send mass emails, create email templates and keep records of past interactions.
- Dashboards and Reports: Gain visibility into teams’ and individuals’ deal progress, forecasted deals and deal pipelines. Generate in-depth reports and share them in PDF format or save them to cloud storage.
- Lead Management: You can scan business cards and automatically create a contact record with details like name, company and phone number. Customize lead fields to add unique lead details.
Limitations
- Limited integrations and needs third-party apps for additional capabilities.
- The mobile app is slow.
- No auto-sync available.
Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data
- Workflow and Process Automation — Not Supported
- Lead Management — Supported With Partner Integrations
- Social Engagement — Supported With Partner Integrations
- Quote, Order and Contract Management — Supported With Partner Integrations
- Document Management — Moderately Supported Out of the Box
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
Primary Benefits
Don’t think all those fancy benefits are reserved for the large companies who can pay for advanced systems. You can see a huge ROI from implementing CRM software for small businesses that cater to your specific pain points and level of complexity.
CRM software for small businesses will help you:
1. Stay Organized
As a small business, keeping track of all your customer-related info can be a chore. Spreadsheets, sticky notes, random business cards — sound familiar? If you’re still handling data the old-fashioned way, a CRM will make a world of difference for your business.
By nature, a CRM tool is a storage repository for all the data that flows into your business. Lead profiles, revenue numbers, meeting notes, metrics about marketing efforts — it all gets organized and neatly recorded. No more digging through spreadsheet tabs or looking through stacks of physical files.
CRM systems can centralize customer data, so all your teams can be on the same page. This is especially useful for remote or on-the-go sales reps. With real-time access to accurate data, teams can take the right action at the right time to convert high-quality leads.
2. Save Time
The beauty of small business CRM tools is that they can support much of the work you’re used to doing manually, freeing you up to be more productive.
Workflow automation is one way this happens, and it can apply at any stage — marketing, sales or service. Instead of completing tasks yourself, you can program rules into the system, triggering automatic actions at the appropriate time.
Marketing automation and sales automation are two popular use cases. You can set up email sequences that send new emails to groups of contacts or configure your sales process to automatically assign leads to sales reps, and certain actions move the deal to the next stage in your pipeline.
3. Improve Communication
This benefit applies both internally and externally.
Internally, the disconnect between sales and marketing departments is an age-old battle. Add customer service, and things can become muddled in a hurry. Even if you don’t have defined teams at your company, chances are your collaboration process could use some improvement.
A CRM smooths out the process by providing historical info for each contact so everyone can operate with context. Some platforms even have built-in chat tools so teams can collaborate and work in the same application.
CRM software for small businesses also enables you to streamline tasks surrounding external communication. For example, you can run multiple marketing campaigns via an email marketing tool and integrate with social media channels that let you keep a pulse on what your audience is talking about.
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4. Find and Target Your Customers
Segment customers, identify profiles, and find out locations and which demographic has the greatest opportunities using customer data. You can add a personal touch to the customer experience.
CRM solutions capture contact information from various touch points, and help identify which campaign elements are the most effective and engaging. You can qualify leads based on client activity and use captured data to create personalized and targeted communication.
5. Keep Customers Happy
Small business CRM software vendors understand the importance of keeping your current base satisfied and offer features to help you achieve that. CRMs let you measure customer satisfaction via surveys, so you can always improve. They often include support tools, which let customers reach out on their preferred channels (social media, website, email) to provide greater convenience.
With customer data shared across the board, teams can predict and act on problems quickly. Personalized interactions and scheduled communication help increase retention rates and keep clients engaged.
6. Generate Reports
Another perk of CRM software for small businesses is reporting tools. You can leverage analytical reports on marketing, sales, customers and campaigns to identify problems, monitor information, trace behavioral patterns and check ROI. For instance, get reports on sales activities and trends using a sales CRM to improve your sales processes.
Teams can make smart, business-driven decisions with valuable sales insights. The system accurately predicts sales cycles, so sales reps make informed choices instead of relying on guesswork. CRM solutions also help assess anything from client behaviors and sales performance to how effective customer service has been.
7. Focus on What Works
CRM products, as we discussed, are like data goldmines. But that data is worthless unless you can act on it. That’s where analytics and reporting tools come in.
Visual elements like dashboards, reports, charts and graphs help you understand your data, often in a way that’s much more user-friendly than fiddling with a clunky spreadsheet. You can view summaries or drill down for more analysis of all your customer-related activities.
Whether you’re looking at the performance metrics for your latest marketing campaigns or tracking sales pipeline data, having a clear view of your data will show you where your business stands. Such insight will help you do more of what’s effective and eliminate what isn’t.
8. Scale Growth
Everything else circles back to this goal. If you want to survive, you’ll have to scale. Automating tasks and getting your data in order — everything we just talked about contributes to this goal. In turn, you’ll have the tools needed to grow. And even if you start with a basic small business CRM package, you can always upgrade later so the capabilities you have access to align with your business needs.
9. Make Money
You can reduce churn rate by managing sales teams closely and improving customer support. This will help you sell more and boost ROI.
How To Choose the Right CRM Software
With so many vendors in the market, it can be difficult to find the best CRM software for small businesses. Consider the following aspects to narrow down your search:
Preferred Features: It’s vital to explore the “why” behind getting small business CRM software. Why exactly do you need it? What are the most common problems you face? Which features can help solve them? Your best software options should excel in automation, contact management, dashboards, lead management, reporting and marketing tools.
You can refer to our top CRM features article for further information.
Mobile Platform: CRM applications that you can access anywhere, on any device you want, are especially beneficial if you have remote or hybrid teams. It’s a bonus if you can use the platform offline, something helpful in cases of spotty service.
Budget: Price is an obvious factor to consider for SMBs and startups looking for CRM tools. Make sure to account for all variables like the number of users, hidden costs and maintenance fees before making a purchase. However, if you’re running on a shoestring budget and not confident about the utility of this kind of software, you may want to check out a few free CRM options.
Type of CRM: There are three main types of CRM in the market — collaborative, operational and analytical.
Collaborative CRM is good for businesses with multiple locations and communication channels and allows teams to be on the same page. Operational CRM gives a high-level overview of customer lifecycles and helps keep customer-facing teams more organized and efficient. Analytical CRMs are for companies that have a lot of data and need assistance optimizing it.
For more information, check out our article, Types of CRM Software, which covers what each type of CRM system offers and how it can uniquely benefit a business.
Deployment Model: On-premise systems need a dedicated IT team, which is expensive to maintain for SMBs. Cloud solutions offer dynamic functionalities for lower prices and are easy to maintain. However, there’s no one size fits all, and it all comes down to your unique business and data needs.
Integrations: Your ideal small business CRM solutions should integrate with your preferred apps, enabling you to streamline communication. Systems that sync with your calendar, eCommerce platforms, social media handles and other communication channels are handy.
Scalability and Customizations: What customizable features does the software offer? Does it come with any pre-built templates? What about scalability options? Investing in a scalable solution helps keep up with your company’s changing technical requirements.
Vendor Support: Does your vendor provide hands-on customer support? What data security and privacy measures do they have in place? What do their installation, onboarding and training processes look like? Choose CRM providers with industry-specific experience and expertise to meet your business requirements.
User Experience: A poorly designed interface with clunky navigation and a confusing layout will only make your job more difficult. At that point, you’re just wasting your hard-earned money. Look for intuitive placement of elements, easily understandable icons, logical navigation and an uncluttered UI.
Industry Trends
The CRM industry is huge — expected to reach more than $49.6 billion by 2025. Advances like AI, deep personalization, greater integration and expanded mobile capabilities are things to consider if you’re an SMB looking to upgrade your CRM system.
In addition to better functionality, the industry continues to shift to the cloud. The SaaS market is expected to grow from $251.17 billion in 2022 to a whopping $883.34 billion by 2029.
For a full rundown of where the industry is headed, check out our articles on key CRM trends and the future of CRM.
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Next Steps
When looking at the best CRM software for small businesses, it’s clear you don’t need to sacrifice high-quality features even if you don’t have deep pockets. If you’ve never used a CRM software tool before, it can take your business to new heights. But only if you know what features you need and why you need them.
If you’re unsure where to start, grab our free CRM comparison report, which will help you build a list of ideal products based on your must-have features.
CRM software isn’t just for big companies. Make a wise choice today, and it will reap rewards for years to come.
What small business CRM are you currently evaluating, and why did you choose it? Are you struggling with the sheer amount of options? Let us know with a comment — we’d love to help!