List of 10 Best CRM Tools in 2024

Forging meaningful relationships is key to securing bigger returns for your business. In doing so, you can turn interested parties into loyal customers and potential investors into worthwhile business partners or connections. Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms help make this a reality with the way they afford users a quick and easy way to communicate with your clientele and other relevant parties to your business, especially with COVID-19 forcing most people to stay home.

As such, a lot of CRM software can be found on the market, offering various modes and features to bridge communication gaps, from contact list management to instant messaging. Should you have trouble picking one that suits your needs the best, we have carefully selected 10 of the best CRM tools based on their usability, features, and capabilities, among other factors. These products are recipients of top scores in our reviews and high ratings from users.

CRM is now considered the nucleus of a business, a primary driver of sales and revenues. Sales teams use it to automate sales processes, store all contact information and interaction in one easily accessible location, and solidify customer relationships. These are all important in the context of the customer lifecycle. CRM tools can be used to permeate, influence, and affect all the phases of the customer lifecycle, from establishing initial awareness to conversion as buying customers, up to the stage of reinforcing loyalty and winning them to your side as advocates and promoters of your business.

With that being said, there is a likelihood that CRM platforms are being underutilized by users, with many only leveraging familiar features like contact management and some of the communication channels afforded. In fact, 43% of users capitalize on less than half of what the software has to offer. While it’s true that some features are more beneficial than others, exploring a platform’s full capacity to perform can help streamline your operations further. For instance, using mobile CRM, on top of traditional CRM, has helped companies reach their sales quotas by 65%.

Moreover, knowing what the platform can really do might give you more options for communication with customers and potential investors who are on COVID-19 lockdown. In case you need more proof, there are a lot of CRM statistics on the internet that verify the platform’s full range of benefits. Another concern is the number of worthwhile options on the software market.

How can CRM tools improve customer retention rates?

Customer retention is a critical measure of a business’s success, as retaining customers often costs significantly less than acquiring new ones. CRM tools offer robust features that can help businesses not only attract but also retain customers over the long term. Here’s how CRM systems improve customer retention:

• Personalized Communication and Follow-Ups
  CRM tools store detailed customer information, allowing businesses to personalize communications based on customer preferences and history. Personalization increases customer satisfaction, making them feel valued and understood.
• Automated Reminders and Notifications
  With automated reminders, sales and customer service teams are prompted to follow up at crucial moments in the customer journey. Regular follow-ups show attentiveness and keep the business at the forefront of the customer’s mind, fostering loyalty.
• Customer Support and Issue Tracking
  CRM systems track customer issues and service requests, enabling customer service teams to address problems efficiently. By resolving issues promptly, businesses build trust and demonstrate commitment to customer satisfaction.
• Loyalty Programs and Rewards
  Many CRM tools support loyalty programs that reward repeat customers. By using CRM analytics to identify frequent buyers or high-value clients, businesses can create rewards that enhance customer loyalty.
• Insightful Customer Feedback and Sentiment Analysis
  CRM tools gather and analyze customer feedback, allowing businesses to adjust offerings and resolve issues proactively. By responding to customer sentiment, businesses can improve their products and services, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and retention.
• Proactive Engagement
  CRM systems can identify patterns in customer interactions, helping teams anticipate needs and provide relevant information or offers. Proactive engagement, such as sending helpful tips or exclusive offers, shows customers that the business cares about their experience.

We’ve got you covered in that regard as we present the 10 best CRM applications you can avail of right now.

1. HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM is a free CRM tool for businesses that still packs a punch when it comes to robust and effective features. These functionalities include social media, customized views, company database, drag-and-drop communicator, and website, phone, and email integration. You can get started with this application quickly and need not change your existing workflow. The product offers the essential basic features and does not confuse users with complex bells and whistles. For these reasons, it is suitable for small and large businesses in any industry and niche.

With HubSpot CRM, you can create detailed company and contact profiles as the platform organizes all facts obtained from customer contacts with you. It provides a single dashboard that your team members can access to stay updated on company activities. The vendor has an appealing free trial where you can tinker with the features at no cost. 

HubSpot Smart CRM

Try out HubSpot CRM for free

VISIT WEBSITE GET STARTED

One of the main advantages is you can connect this system to all the places where you conduct your sales process such as phone, websites, social media, email, etc. Plus, it integrates smoothly with leading business solutions such as Dropbox, SugarCRM, Pipedrive, Snapengage, Gravity Forms, Bigcommerce, Google Dynamics, Google Chrome, Base CRM, and more.

2. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is another excellent CRM tool for business and a strong contender on our list of 10 best CRM software tools. It organizes your leads in a manner that gives you a clear overview of your sales process and empowers you to focus on important deals. Plus, you can utilize this solution to efficiently manage your organization’s sales pipeline. In fact, you can switch modules on and off as per your needs without any effect on your service quality. Key features include sales reporting, timeline view, simple data import and export, contact history, and email integration.

The vendor offers a convenient 30-day free trial for its three paid packages. Pricing starts from $10/month/user (annual billing) for the basic Silver plan and goes up to $63/month/user (annual billing) for the Platinum plan. You can use Pipedrive free trial to experience how it can enhance your sales process.

Pipedrive

Try out Pipedrive with their free trial

Pipedrive is an ideal option for companies that do international business as it is available in 13 currencies and supports a range of major and minor currencies. Its open API configuration allows it to blend smoothly with top business applications such as Zoho CRM, MailChimp, RightSignature, Zapier, Dropbox, and more.

3. CRM Creatio

CRM Creatio serves as a unified platform for boosting the productivity of marketing, sales, and service teams. The platform offers end-to-end solutions through three modules, namely, Marketing Creatio, Sales Creatio, and Service Creatio. Each module comes with tools and features to meet the unique needs of marketing, sales, and service departments.

Marketing Creatio, for instance, helps users track website activity to identify potential sources of leads. This module also comes with an intuitive campaign designer, along with features for setting up target conversion rates and monitoring campaign progress. Meanwhile, Sales Creatio makes it easier for teams to manage not only orders and invoices but also contracts, products, and services.

CRM Creatio

Try out CRM Creatio with their free trial

Lastly, through Service Creatio, self-service options such as knowledge bases boost the productivity of reps, allowing them to focus on more important tasks. This module also allow users to create a unified service catalog that improves the regulation and delivery of service processes.

Aside from its versatility, one of the best features of CRM Creatio is its flexible pricing. Each module can be purchased on its own at various pricing plans. Businesses also have the option to go for a CRM bundle that includes Marketing Creatio, Sales Creatio, and Service Creatio, priced according to number of users.

4. Salesforce CRM

Salesforce CRM allows you to track all customer details in one place so that you can nurture more leads. Then, you can utilize its main modules such as sales data, marketing automation, lead management, partner management, and contact manager to track these leads and convert them into profitable deals. One of the highlights is that your team can use this app to be productive anywhere—in the office or field. The mobile apps for iOS and Android offer real-time data from dashboards as well as custom reports.

Salesforce CRM’s Opportunity Management module provides insights on opportunities. The Contact Manager module offers a complete view of important customer details such as discussions, communications, social mentions, and activity history. The vendor offers a great free trial plan that lets you try out all key features first.

Salesforce CRM

Try out Salesforce CRM with their free trial

With the Sales Collaboration module, you can track deals and search for competitive information. The Reports and Dashboards functionality allows you to gather data for in-depth reporting and analysis. The vendor offers five paid packages with pricing starting from $25/month for 10 users.

5. NetSuite CRM

NetSuite CRM is a product of Oracle that offers companies a complete view of every customer they have. The best thing about it is that it provides information regarding consumers steadily. This means regardless of the customer lifecycle stage they are in, you can gain more insights about purchasers continuously. With this, you can provide the best experience and service to them every time.

To that end, you can maximize the robust tools that NetSuite CRM offers. One of those is integrated contact management. This arranges data on every interaction with a customer. Because of this, anybody can access the communication history and act accordingly. You can use all the features for free for a period of time to see if the software matches your needs. 

NetSuite CRM

Try out NetSuite CRM with their free trial

Other than that, NetSuite CRM has a component that enables you to manage your partner relationships. This helps you work with other businesses with ease by making visible every marketing activity on a daily basis. The solution has more to offer than those mentioned above. For example, it has sales force automation, sales forecasting, and an employee workflow tracker.

6. monday.com CRM

monday.com CRM can rival any of the top 10 leading CRM solutions here. First, the platform allows you to customize your very own dashboards and workflows to fit your every need. Second, it has tons of integrations that extend its capabilities. Stack these with its if-then rule-based automation, you can easily create and manage a CRM platform just for you. 

Moreover, monday.com has a highly-visual dashboard packed with other powerful features like collaboration tools, visualizations, automatic report generation, and dashboard templates. Thus, you can manage both CRM processes and team management processes under one roof.

monday.com

Try out monday.com with their free trial

Also, it allows users to share dashboards with your clients. This is very useful if you’re in the B2B industry, especially consultancy. Furthermore, you can even leave live comments on visuals to make reports and the like more understandable. Also, this is great for collaborative brainstorming for strategies and tactics. 

Plus, you can access your monday.com CRM tool on mobile, thanks to its iPhone and Android apps. Lastly, paid plans start at $39 per month billed annually for five users. 

7. Freshsales

Another robust CRM solution is Freshsales. This software is designed to increase the productivity of your sales team. It incorporates advanced tools that automate crucial stages of the sales cycle, including gathering and nurturing leads, contact management, and managing the sales pipeline.

One of Freshsales’ prominent features is Freddy AI, an advanced technology that offers insights on scoring leads, identifying potential deals, and determining which deals have the highest closing potential based on deal activities, such as engagements. With such an intuitive tool, sales teams will know which deals need to be prioritized to improve sales performance.

Freshales is also equipped with easy-to-use tools that make contact and pipeline management more efficient. These tools enable the sales team to create detailed profiles of qualified contacts. These details include a complete timeline of activities each contact has been involved in, giving the sales team a complete view of each contact’s status in the sales pipeline. Freshsales also enables sales reps to create filters that can help them segment their contacts according to behaviors and activities. Furthermore, sales teams can create workflows based on daily, weekly, and even monthly activities to make sure that everyone in the sales team is aware of their goals.

A CRM tool that strongly supports optimizing productivity, Freshsales offers a full-featured mobile app, which enables sales reps and other members of the sales team to remain up-to-date on their tasks and contacts even while on the road.

8. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is an award-winning CRM solution that offers SMBs and large enterprises free and reasonably priced packages. A full-featured CRM software, Zoho CRM reinforces the foundation of your lead and contact management, sales pipeline management, and control of purchase by providing you with powerful tools to streamline these core business processes. Using Zoho CRM’s automation capabilities, your teams can improve their efficiency as they no longer have to spend time on time-consuming and repetitive tasks and focus instead on building a good relationship with your customers.

Aside from its powerful automation functions, Zoho CRM also offers robust customization tools. Zoho CRM’s customization function applies to the overall solution—this means Zoho CRM is flexible enough for you to modify it according to how your business operates. You can create templates for various processes, account settings, and more. Also, you can build advanced business logic using Zoho CRM’s low-code scripting function. Furthermore, Zoho CRM has a journey orchestration feature, which allows you to customize customer journeys.

Zoho CRM

Try out Zoho CRM with their free trial

What makes Zoho CRM even more ideal lies in its capability to adapt to drastic changes and help businesses do the same. As part of its latest development, Zoho CRM launched the Remote Sales Office feature. This is an add-on that comes equipped with Cliq, Meeting, and ShowTime to help your sales team continue communicating seamlessly with customers and prospects while working from home. Moreover, Zoho CRM also has a dedicated application that supports iOS and Android devices, which gives you and your teams more mobility. When it comes to integrations, Zoho CRM can be integrated with over 400 third-party applications such as Google G Suite, Slack, Panda Doc, PayPal, HubSpot, and more.

In terms of cost, Zoho CRM is available for free, with paid plans that start at $18/month for every user.

9. LeadSquared Sales + Mobile CRM

LeadSquared Sales + Mobile CRM is one of the best CRM software tools for businesses looking to improve their productivity, lead management, and sales process. Companies can prioritize their efforts on the platform by scoring and routing leads. LeadSquared’s mobile CRM allows agents to manage leads and customer interactions while on the go, and its reporting and analytics tools provide insights into the sales process.

The platform’s features include sales automation, lead nurturing, and an offline mobile app for contact management. LeadSquared integrates seamlessly with Zapier, Salesforce, and Gmail. By integrating LeadSquared with these tools, businesses can improve lead generation, customer service, and sales.

LeadSquared Sales + Mobile CRM

Try out LeadSquared Sales + Mobile CRM with their free trial

LeadSquared improves lead management, productivity, and revenue. It offers a 15-day free trial to check its fit for your business. If you find it a good match, choose between three pricing plans starting at $25 per user per month for the Lite Plan.

10. Pipeline CRM

Pipeline CRM is an all-in-one tool designed to help businesses streamline their sales processes by automating tasks, tracking leads, managing deals, and analyzing data. The software provides a visual representation of your sales pipeline, allowing you to easily track the progress of each deal, identify bottlenecks or areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to close more deals.

Pipeline CRM

Try out Pipeline CRM with their free trial

With automated reminders and notifications for follow-ups, you’ll never miss an opportunity to convert a lead into a customer. The software also includes email campaigns and tracking, custom fields, lead and team management, and account customization, all of which can be integrated with popular business tools like MailChimp, Google Apps, and Zapier for increased efficiency and productivity.

Supercharge Your Sales Team and Processes with CRM Tools

CRM platforms have become even more relevant, given today’s business landscape as companies are compelled to work through the pandemic to stay afloat. One of the foremost concerns of business is maintaining contact with one’s clientele, and this is made possible by picking a highly functional CRM software. In doing so, you have several avenues, through which you can communicate with your customer base, to leverage.

With ecommerce gaining more ground due to the pandemic lockdowns, you can drive your previous physical traffic to your digital store and social media accounts through your CRM platform. In addition, you can monitor every conversation and track changes in customer requests, keeping you on top of your clientele’s best interests. An effective multifunctional tool like Hubspot CRM and the others on this list let you do all that and more.

In case you’re still having trouble making a decision, you can look at the current CRM trends like IoT and voice tech and see how these developments can be used for your operations.

Key Insights

• CRM Importance: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms are crucial for businesses to forge and maintain meaningful relationships with customers and partners, which in turn drives sales and revenue growth.
• Comprehensive Features: The best CRM tools offer a variety of features including contact management, sales automation, marketing automation, analytics, and reporting, which help streamline business operations and improve efficiency.
• Underutilization: Despite the vast capabilities of CRM platforms, many businesses use less than half of their features, missing out on opportunities to optimize customer interactions and sales processes.
• Mobile CRM Benefits: Utilizing mobile CRM tools can significantly enhance a sales team’s productivity by allowing them to access customer information and manage sales activities on the go.
• Adaptability and Integration: Modern CRM solutions are highly adaptable and can be integrated with numerous third-party applications, enhancing their functionality and allowing businesses to create a seamless workflow across different platforms.
• Industry Versatility: CRM tools are versatile and can be customized to meet the specific needs of various industries, from small businesses to large enterprises.
• Remote Work Support: In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, CRM tools have become even more essential by enabling businesses to maintain customer relationships and manage sales processes remotely.

FAQ

1. What is a CRM platform?
   A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform is a software solution that helps businesses manage interactions with customers, automate sales processes, and store customer information in one centralized location.
2. Why is CRM important for businesses?
   CRM is important because it helps businesses build and maintain strong relationships with customers, streamline sales and marketing processes, and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately driving revenue growth.
3. What are some key features of a good CRM tool?
   Key features of a good CRM tool include contact management, sales automation, marketing automation, analytics and reporting, integration with other business applications, and mobile accessibility.
4. How can CRM tools improve sales productivity?
   CRM tools improve sales productivity by automating repetitive tasks, providing sales teams with real-time access to customer information, enabling better tracking of sales activities, and offering insights into sales performance through analytics and reporting.
5. Why are many businesses underutilizing their CRM platforms?
   Many businesses underutilize their CRM platforms because they may not be fully aware of all the features and capabilities available, or they may lack the necessary training to leverage the platform’s full potential.
6. How does mobile CRM benefit sales teams?
   Mobile CRM benefits sales teams by allowing them to access customer information, manage sales activities, and communicate with clients from anywhere, which is especially useful for sales representatives who are frequently on the move.
7. What should businesses consider when choosing a CRM platform?
   When choosing a CRM platform, businesses should consider factors such as ease of use, feature set, integration capabilities, scalability, cost, and the level of customer support provided by the vendor.
8. How do CRM tools support remote work?
   CRM tools support remote work by enabling businesses to manage customer relationships, sales processes, and marketing campaigns from any location, ensuring continuity of operations even when employees are working from home.
9. Can CRM tools be customized to fit specific industry needs?
   Yes, CRM tools can be customized to fit the specific needs of various industries, allowing businesses to tailor the platform’s features and workflows to their unique operational requirements.
10. What are some examples of popular CRM tools?
    Some examples of popular CRM tools include HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, CRM Creatio, Salesforce CRM, NetSuite CRM, monday.com CRM, Freshsales, Zoho CRM, LeadSquared Sales + Mobile CRM, and Pipeline CRM.

By Adam Goldberg

Adam Goldberg is a senior market research analyst and one of the key customer experience technology and CRM pioneers working for the FinancesOnline review team. He has been cooperating with FinancesOnline for over 5 years now. During that time Andrew has analyzed more than 2,000 CRM solutions and he’s well-known for his honest reviews and his unique perspective on challenges and opportunities posed by customer-centric innovation. He’s a strong believer in business process automation and the role it plays in customer data management, conversational intelligence, and customer engagement. His work has been mentioned in many major publications and media sites, including MSN, Springer, TheNextWeb, and CIO.