The Best CRM Software of 2024

For your sales team to operate at its best and close as many deals as possible, they need to be able to keep track of interactions with leads and prospects as they nurture them along the sales funnel. Marketers need to devise targeted, personalized campaigns that resonate with your target audience. And your customer service team needs to be able to promptly address customer inquiries and complaints effectively in order to maintain customer satisfaction.

Enter customer relationship management (CRM) software. These platforms have become indispensable to sales, marketing and support teams, helping them understand more about the people they’re communicating with to better meet their needs and achieve business objectives.

CRM software is a type of software businesses use to manage their sales and marketing interactions with current and potential customers. CRM stands for customer relationship management, so another way to think of CRM software is as a platform that helps companies manage their customer relationships throughout the customer lifecycle — from lead to renewal. With the help of a CRM system, you can generate leads, manage your deal pipeline, close sales, collect and store customer data, execute marketing campaigns, analyze business data and even automate workflows.

Any business engaged in sales can make excellent use of a CRM. For example, a clothing store may want to use a CRM to house customer data and identify its most loyal shoppers. A timeshare company can use a CRM to assist with lead management and ensure they are engaging their ideal prospects. An enterprise that wants to better coordinate between its sales and marketing teams will find CRM software gives it the tools to do so. However, a CRM system doesn’t make sense for certain types of businesses. For example, a fast-food restaurant is unlikely to use a CRM, and so is a doctor’s office. However, each may use other technology, such as a POS system and medical software, that contains applicable CRM functions.

There are many benefits to using CRM software in your business, but these four stand out over all others.

1. You’ll understand your customers better. The sales funnel data generated by CRM software helps you gain a better understanding of what your customers want. Over time, you get to know what keeps prospective new clients in the funnel long enough to make an inquiry or purchase and then you can tailor your sales strategies accordingly. Also, by understanding your customers better, you can strengthen and retain client relationships.
2. You can monitor employee performance. Without centralized information on prospecting and conversion rates, it’s difficult to know who on your sales team is not getting in touch with enough new people and who’s not closing enough deals. But with a CRM, you get to see which team members are performing better than others. CRM systems allow you to identify training opportunities for those struggling and make sure the top sellers get the best leads.
3. Your staff will save time. CRM software automates repetitive, dull and unproductive but necessary tasks, increasing efficiency. Since CRMs improve communication between sales, marketing, customer service and other teams, you also reduce redundancies and confusion. By streamlining business operations with a CRM, your employees will waste less time and can focus more on revenue-generating activities.
4. You’ll get game-changing business insights. The best CRMs track analytics on everything from revenue to churn rates. With this data, you can identify patterns across the performances of your sales, marketing and customer service teams, as well as in your customers’ behavior. These metrics and insights are invaluable for improving your processes, forecasting future sales and refining your company’s budget.

There are five kinds of CRM software. Here are the key points that define each type.

• Operational CRMs help you market to your audience based on the data you collect from the software.
• Analytical CRMs provide business foresight through customer data.
• Collaborative CRMs allow you to share customer information interdepartmentally (e.g., between your customer service department and your sales team) based on customer interactions.
• Campaign management CRMs are often described as both analytical and operational systems. These solutions are ideal for assisting with sales and marketing campaigns based on collected client data.
• Strategic CRMs integrate with other apps, such as Mailchimp, to run marketing campaigns. These systems use collected customer data to inform business decisions about how to execute marketing campaigns.

It’s important to understand that even if you purchase, for instance, an analytical CRM, it doesn’t mean you won’t have access to features commonly found in campaign management or strategic CRMs. The best CRM software on the market usually has a standard set of core features regardless of type, and then you can customize the system either by upgrading to a higher plan with greater functionality or adding on services. With CRMs that boast open APIs, the possibilities are really limitless; you just need a developer who can build the platform into whatever you want it to be.

So even if you choose, say, a collaborative CRM because your top objective is to foster interdepartmental collaboration, you can still reap a lot of the use cases and benefits more closely associated with other CRM types thanks to overlapping features. The size of your business can also influence which type of CRM you choose to purchase. Generally speaking, the larger the company, the more complex your CRM software needs are likely to be, necessitating a fully featured solution. There are also industry-specific CRMs on the market.

How much CRM software would cost your business depends on a variety of factors, from the number of users to the specific feature set. There are free and inexpensive CRMs, which are best for small teams and microbusinesses. These platforms come with integration options if extra functionality is needed. There are also heavy-duty CRM platforms that cost a substantial amount and have a much greater number of features (both native and plug-in). These CRMs offer better flexibility and scalability.

Here’s the general price range of CRM software.

• Inexpensive cloud-based CRM systems often have a free version for up to 10 or so team members. Usually, entry-level paid subscriptions begin at around $15 per user per month.
• Midrange cloud CRM subscriptions tend to run from $20 to $40 per user per month. These systems generally meet most small business needs. If the inexpensive but ultralight solutions aren’t working for you, you’ll likely find a better solution at this price level.
• Enterprise-level cloud CRMs are available for about $50 to $150 per user per month. These systems often offer higher levels of customization, more features and personalized customer support or training services.
• High-end cloud CRM subscriptions can cost upward of $250 per user per month, but most small and midsize businesses will not need the wide range of features they offer.
• On-premises CRM software can cost well over $900 per user per month. In contrast to a cloud-based solution, these client-hosted systems offer a business more control but also require a significant upfront investment, as well as extensive technical knowledge and skill to maintain them.

Most cloud-based CRM providers offer the option of monthly or annual billing, with the possibility of up to a 20 percent discount for paying for the year upfront. Vendors selling on-premises CRMs, where the system is hosted on your computer network, typically charge a flat, one-time, per-user fee.

Complicating matters further are add-on products and services, storage upgrades, implementation fees and automatic upgrades. One CRM software’s per-user price might be cheaper at first glance, but when you calculate the add-ons you need to achieve the functionality you want, it may end up costing you more.

When deciding how much you’re going to spend on CRM software, try to strike the right balance between understanding your current business needs, anticipating future needs and what your business can afford. Ensure you fully understand the pricing structure of any CRM product before you decide on a platform. Specifically ask about automatic upgrades, storage caps and user limits before signing a service agreement.

Reporting dashboards, like this one from Pipedrive, allow sales managers to see multiple metrics on one screen. (Source: Pipedrive)

The specific kind of data a CRM will provide your business depends on the reporting and analytics module included in your CRM software. Generally speaking, however, you should seek a CRM solution that includes business performance metrics, user adoption metrics and customer perception metrics.

Business performance metrics refer to data related to sales, revenue, profit, etc. — they shed light on how your business is performing. User adoption metrics provide data on how your employees are using the software. Customer perception metrics monitor customer interactions with your business and client sentiment. With this intelligence, you can optimize how your company operates to better achieve its objectives.

Some specific CRM data points you may want to track include the following.

• Cost per lead / customer acquisition cost: This dollar figure tells you how much your business is spending in its marketing efforts to acquire each new lead.
• Sales conversion rate / close rate: This percentage indicates how many of your leads and prospects become customers.
• Renewal rate: This number shows the percentage of your existing customers who renew their purchases or buy from you again.
• Customer lifetime value: This figure estimates the revenue you can expect to generate from a customer over the length of your relationship.

The specific data your business tracks through its CRM should relate to your company’s goals or key performance indicators (KPIs). If your chosen CRM software isn’t capable of delivering the granular data you’re after, you may be able to upgrade to a package with advanced analytics or integrate the platform with a third-party data application.

To choose CRM software, you should start by identifying your company’s needs. What do you want to accomplish via your CRM and, therefore, what features do you need it to contain? Next, you should determine your budget. How much can you afford to spend on a recurring monthly subscription for cloud-based software or upfront for an on-premises solution? After nailing down your desired features and budget, you should conduct research via buying guides like this one to identify which CRM systems offer the functionality you want at a price you can afford.

There are, however, some other factors to keep in mind. Business.com spoke to dozens of business owners and leaders about the criteria they prioritized when deciding which CRM to purchase for the first time or when switching CRMs.

Usability

Robert Resz, owner of Rad Bronco Parts, told us “ease of use” was one of his top priorities when looking for a CRM that would “streamline our sales processes without disrupting daily operations.” He ultimately found a system that enabled his “small team to work smarter, not harder.”

Tumble co-founder Zach Dannett confessed that he and his team “rushed into picking a CRM without fully understanding our needs” and “ended up with a system that was too complex for our small team.”

“We picked a CRM with all the advanced features, but our team found it too complicated to use effectively,” Dannett said. “We didn’t really need those extra features for our use. In the end, we switched to a simpler system that was compatible with our needs and that our team enjoyed using.”

Integrations

“When evaluating CRMs, integrations with tools we already used like ConnectWise Manage and Office 365 were key,” said Cyber Command CEO Reade Taylor. When shopping for CRM software, he urged, “Look for one that integrates with tools you already rely on. The more connected your tech stack, the better the experience you can provide customers.”

For Brad Smith, owner of Omni Home Ideas, “integration capabilities” were also top of mind. He sought a CRM system that would “seamlessly integrate with our existing software stack, particularly our project management and accounting tools.”

Scalability

Smith’s other concern was scalability, leading him to choose a “CRM that could grow with us.” He recommended, “Don’t just think about what your business needs now. Consider where you want to be in five years and choose a CRM that is capable of scaling and evolving as your business grows.”

RevOppAI owner Angela Green Urbaczewski named “ability to scale with the business” as her top factor, pointing out, “Free options can be a good starting point, but will the paid system best meet future needs?”

Customer Support & Training

Noting that “a lot of setup is self-serve,” Urbaczewski strongly advised considering implementation assistance and customer support.

“If it’s your first CRM setup, or you’re not an expert in this part of your business, investing in solid setup support can accelerate your business growth much faster than unfocused paid ads or marketing,” she said.

Though satisfied with his CRM platform, Resz admitted the “learning curve was steeper than anticipated” and expressed regret over not using the vendor’s support resources “sooner to leverage more features from day one.”

He recommended new buyers “take advantage of implementation resources and free training to get the most from your investment. A CRM is only as good as how well you can use it, so invest in your team to build the skills and workflows to maximize its impact.”

Smith had a similar experience. “If I were to go through the process again, I would place even more emphasis on user training and adoption from the outset to ensure all team members were fully onboard and maximizing the CRM’s capabilities from day one,” he said.

CRM features run the gamut, with lightweight services intended for quick and easy lead and customer relationship management to powerhouse functions that enable e-commerce and advanced analytics. Below are some of the most important features to look for.

Sales Tools

Your CRM should be capable of lead management and deal management, allowing you to monitor your pipeline and move prospects through the sales funnel. You should be able to score and qualify leads, contact prospects via phone and email, and close deals with the assistance of your CRM software. Additionally, there should be features that allow you to execute, monitor and evaluate sales campaigns. These tools are vital for optimizing the sales process.

Contact Management Tools

A customizable customer database like HubSpot’s allows you to create custom fields for whatever client information you want to record. (Source: HubSpot)

Your CRM platform should be able to automatically or manually collect data about your prospects and customers, whether by pulling in information from outline sources or via an employee who enters in the details. The contact management tools should let you create a record for each prospective or existing client, one that tracks every interaction with your business. Furthermore, you should be able to segment your customers into different groups for specific targeting and monitoring. [Learn more about customer tracking.]

Marketing Tools

Modern CRMs are equipped with tools to create, execute and track marketing campaigns. They may natively allow email messaging and other communication methods, or let you integrate the system with a third-party service. It’s common today for CRM software to have social media functions, such as the ability to set up social listening to monitor mentions of your brand on Instagram. Built-in marketing tools are important for aligning marketing efforts with sales objectives.

Customer Service Tools

Since one of the core objectives of CRM software is customer relationship management, your CRM should allow you to communicate with clients and address any support inquiries. Your customer service team can use the CRM to respond to tickets, monitor open cases, track customer satisfaction and coordinate with other departments as issues arise. To help nurture your client relationships, you could even set up your CRM to remind you of a customer’s anniversary with your business and automatically send an email thanking them for their continued partnership.

Reporting Tools

CRM reports can indicate how well your sales and marketing campaigns are performing, how many prospects or sales you get within a certain time frame, the point at which leads drop off, how many outbound calls each sales representative has made in a given period, etc. These reports help you make informed decisions about your business, which is why robust analytics is a critical CRM feature to look for.

Automation

Some CRMs have drag-and-drop automation building tools while others, like Zendesk’s platform, use a step-by-step approach. (Source: Zendesk)

The best CRM programs automatically execute actions based on workflows you establish. For example, when a customer fills out a form, you can set up your CRM to automatically send a notification to the appropriate sales representative. Workflow automation minimizes or eliminates much of the time-consuming, nonproductive work involved in data entry and sharing. It gives your staff more time to make sales and reduces the chance a lead or customer complaint may be overlooked or lost in the system.

How you implement a CRM within your business will be determined based on whether you purchase an on-premises CRM system or cloud-hosted platform. With an on-premises setup, the software is installed on your servers instead of being hosted by the vendor. This option will be more time-consuming to manage, but installing a client-hosted CRM isn’t as complex as implementing other on-premises software, such as call center systems.

With cloud-based CRMs, installation is usually a matter of simply signing up for an online account and using a web browser or downloading a desktop application to access the sofware. The complete implementation process, however, does require more time and effort than that. You’ll need to set up user accounts for your employees, configure security settings, import any existing customer data, establish your preferred workflows and communications channels, create your sales and marketing campaigns, etc. The more you want to customize your CRM with prebuilt integrations or custom development, the longer implementation will take. As a result, it could be days or weeks — and, in some cases, months — before your CRM is fully ready to use.

Fortunately, the best CRM vendors offer a range of assistance options, from onboarding checklists and tutorials to setup wizards to dedicated, hands-on implementation support. Additionally, to ensure your team is ready to use the CRM once it’s set up, you should urge employees to take advantage of any training guides and videos, community forums or knowledge base the vendor offers. Some providers even have training webinars and workshops so users can better learn the system.

When your CRM software has been live for a few weeks, revisit how it’s operating to make sure it meets all of your needs and that your employees are comfortable with it. Then, address any trouble spots to optimize the system.

There are dozens of CRM software vendors, each with their own platform and value proposition. If our top picks don’t meet your needs, other systems we investigated that are worth considering for your business include the following.

Keap

Keap is a powerful contact management-driven CRM designed to help companies manage customers at each point of the sales cycle. It does this thanks to its highly flexible workflow automations that users can build with the platform’s user-friendly drag-and-drop builder and customizable out-of-the-box templates. You can streamline customer management and declutter your team’s workday with automations for chase-ups of unpaid invoices and following up with unhappy customers.

Keap is highly effective not just in improving deal conversion rates but also in helping companies generate more sales leads. We really like the integrated email platform that’s built into the software, which allows for the easy creation of email designs, precise segmentation of customers for better targeting and powerful analytics tools to measure engagement. We were further impressed by the high volume of integrations, though you can also create your own integrations via Zapier. See a plan breakdown in our in-depth review of Keap.

Insightly

Repeat business is easier to find and more profitable than constantly searching for new customers to replace those that have churned. Selling again and again to the same customers has been the foundation of some of the world’s biggest businesses in the past two decades. If you want to build strong client relationships that go beyond winning the deal, Insightly is a CRM you should consider for managing the customer journey effectively and efficiently.

Customer knowledge is key to repeat business, so we were impressed by how Insightly enriches customer records with social data, identifies relationships between contacts and detects duplicates, ensuring you’re working from accurate data. You can stay in touch with your contacts by sending out between 2,500 and 10,000 marketing emails a day and track campaigns to determine which perform best. We also loved the powerful automation on Insightly, which we found key to creating workflows that prevent follow-ups from being forgotten and keep sales teams and managers up to date with the progress of each deal.

LessAnnoying

We really liked the Less Annoying CRM system when we first reviewed it and still do. This is a “what you see is what you get” CRM, priced at $15 per user for all features. It’s aimed squarely at microbusinesses with 10 or fewer employees. Although workplace automation is limited, the platform excels in several areas, including contract management, pipeline management, reminder settings, custom fields (to personalize your client database), and reporting and analytics. The drag-and-drop functionality is among the smartest and most intuitive we’ve seen on any CRM. You’ll pick up using the software in no time, and that’s one of the many reasons the Less Annoying CRM is ideal for beginners.

To determine the best CRM software on the market, our team of sales experts and software analysts evaluated an initial list of 65 platforms. We then whittled our selections to 13 systems to investigate further before choosing 10 CRM programs as our top recommendations.

To help us narrow down the options at each phase and identify our eventual top picks, we interviewed vendors and participated in product demos, in addition to testing the software ourselves. We examined plan options and feature sets while also considering customization options and add-on services, such as whether email marketing tools were included in the core system or only available as an extra. We also took the time to research independent user reviews, looking for real-life testimonials to weigh against our own experience using each CRM.

Ultimately, our experts and analysts studied each solution’s functionality and judged the products on more than 30 factors. These factors were weighted differently in our overall conclusion. The weights were determined based on how much business owners prioritize these criteria when shopping for business software and services and making purchasing decisions.

• Pricing (30%): Our experts and analysts compared and contrasted each vendor’s plans, judging which packages offered the best bang for your buck. We took into account monthly subscription rates, per-user fees, costs for cloud-based versus on-premises systems, implementation fees and add-on expenses.
• Features (25%): We looked for standard CRM system functions like lead, contact and campaign management, automated workflows, revenue tracking and forecasting tools, and reports. We also assessed the available integrations and awarded extra points for advanced services, like omnichannel communications, no-code customization, AI-powered features and customer self-service abilities.
• Ease of Use (25%): We tested the software ourselves, gauging each solution’s learning curve, user-friendliness and customization options. We also considered whether the program had easy-to-use marketing capabilities and if the vendor offered a fully featured mobile app for managing customer relationship and sales-related tasks on the go.
• Customer Service (15%): We evaluated the range of each provider’s customer service options, including whether phone assistance was included with all package tiers. We also examined each vendor’s online resources for businesses interested in self-guided help.

Based on these criteria, we not only determined which CRM systems our readers could trust but also the ways in which each solution could best serve different business needs. Some platforms were better at certain tasks than others or more suited to a particular type of company. These takeaways informed the “Best for” use cases you see on this page.

To learn more about our methodology, see our full editorial process.