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Everyone knows how hard it can be for small businesses to stay on top of their finances. But you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars a month to get your organization in order!
When a small firm starts to develop, free customer relationship management (CRM) software is a wonderful tool for optimizing sales procedures. However, not all free solutions have all of the capabilities you’ll need to improve prospect engagement, cultivate customer relationships, and complete more sales. Here, we look at some of the top free CRM systems and highlight why you may want to switch to a premium version later.
The following are our top recommendations, along with their finest use cases:
- Freshsales: The best free CRM with unrestricted support.
- Agile CRM: For firms who want to combine their sales, marketing, and customer support platforms, Agile CRM is the way to go.
- HubSpot CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a free CRM that includes sales, marketing, and customer care features for an infinite number of users.
- Zoho CRM: Excellent option for companies looking for a free CRM with sales process automation.
- Bitrix24 is a good choice for businesses searching for multichannel contact management software.
- Apptivo is a great alternative for firms that need to monitor suppliers and distributors.
It’s vital to keep in mind that not all free solutions are capable of handling big numbers of contacts and transactions. Some service providers may restrict the number of users. There are various options that eliminate these limitations with entry-level plans geared to match cheaper budgets if you’re seeking more complete solutions.
How Did We Pick the Best Free CRMs?
By managing contact databases, messages, and tasks, the finest free CRM software makes it simpler for companies to foster client connections. They should also be adaptable and provide customers access to customer service.
Freshsales is our top pick for firms looking for a free CRM, with a score of 4.08. Freshsales ranks first because of its substantial free plan elements, such as account and contact management, simplicity of use, quality of support, and user feedback. There is no limit to the number of users it can support. and provides customer service by phone, chat, and email 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It also comes with capabilities for automating sales pipelines, a built-in dialer, online connectivity, and a mobile app.
30% of the overall score
We considered the expense of switching to a premium membership when searching for CRM systems that provide a free plan with unlimited users. We took into account plan cost, CRM modifications, onboarding, and maintenance expenses.
20% of the overall score
We looked at the availability of CRM features that a lot of small company owners want. They want a system that includes reporting and analytics capabilities, customized pipelines, third-party connectors, and mobile app access, among other features.
20% of the overall score
Understanding and using the finest free CRM systems for small companies do not need technical knowledge. They should also have an easy-to-use interface. Each app on this list was rated based on how simple it is to set up and use, as well as how effectively it integrates with other applications.
20% of the overall score
We evaluated the solutions to determine the level of assistance and support they provide to their consumers. Small company owners want CRMs that provide round-the-clock customer care, but most free options only offer self-help tools. During business hours, some feature customer service through phone, live chat, and email. There is a handful that stands out by providing service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
10% of the overall score
We looked at customer reviews on credible websites to see how happy their clients are. We also made a list of the most frequent difficulties that users encountered. To limit down the finest free CRM options, we examined the features that stood out, their value for money, and their popularity in addition to reviews.
Percentages based on the total score
Freshsales is the best free CRM provider overall.
Freshsales
Overall Score: 4.08 OUT OF 5
What We Enjoy
- There is no limit to the number of users it can support.
- The free tier has a built-in phone.
- Customer service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by phone, email, and chat.
What Isn’t There
- Workflows and basic segmentation are not included.
- Document management and file attachments are not available in the free plan.
- There are no free reporting tools available.
Pricing
- Free: There is no restriction to the number of people who may use it.
- $15 per month per user growth
- Pro: $39 per month, per user
- Enterprise: $69 per month for each user
- Freshsales Suite (Sales + Marketing): Prices range from Freshsales Suite (Sales + Marketing): Ranges from $0 to $69 per user, per month to $69 per month, depending on the number of users.
- 21-day free trial of premium plans
Add-ons:
- CPQ (Configure, Price, & Quote): $19 per user, per month
- $5 for workflows
- Credits for phones start at $25.
Pricing is based on a year-to-year basis. Monthly rates are also available at a little greater cost.
Freshsales is at the top of our list of free CRM providers because it has the most features in its free plan, an intuitive UI that is simple to learn and use, and no user limit. Its capabilities for organizing contacts, accounts, offers, and activities help you simplify your sales operations. Its list of free features now includes a chat widget, an in-app dialer, and website integration.
It also distinguishes out from the rest of the CRMs on our list in terms of customer service, since it provides phone, live chat, and email help 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These three help channels, let alone 24-hour access to customer assistance, are uncommon in a free CRM subscription. Most suppliers, like HubSpot CRM (Customer Relationship Management), only give self-help tools and community assistance in the free tier.
Freshsales lacks the process automation and file attachment features that Zoho CRM provides. Aside from that, the free tier lacks segmentation and reporting capabilities. Agile CRM may be a good option if you’re seeking a free solution with these features.
Features
The built-in phone dialer in Freshsales (Source: Freshsales)
- Management of contacts, accounts, phases of the contract lifecycle, and activity chronology
- Modules for CRM renaming
- Management of transactions
- Import and export of data, as well as data migration
- Inbound caller ID, built-in phone dialer, and the ability to purchase local and toll-free numbers
- Conversation threads and a chat widget
- Classic forms, smart forms, and website tracking are examples of website integration technologies.
- Access based on roles
- Apps for iOS and Android are available.
- Customer service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by phone, chat, and email.
Why You Should Consider Upgrading
Freshsales’ free plan has limited features for managing sales activities, customization, pipeline management, and calling. More capabilities, such as behavioral segmentation, workflow automation, sales forecasting, bulk mailings, and reporting, are available as you go through the tiers. It also contains sophisticated phone features including call recording, conference conversations, and virtual hold, as well as artificial intelligence (AI)-powered assistant for lead creation and deal insights.
Agile CRM: Best for Integrating Sales, Marketing & Service
Agile CRM
3.61 OUT OF 5
What We Enjoy
- Free sales, marketing, and customer service features are many.
- Deals, tasks, and documents are all unlimited.
- Free contact-level analytics are available.
What Isn’t There
- The free plan only allows for one third-party program integration.
- The free plan does not provide two-way email syncing.
- It only saves up to 1,000 contacts.
Pricing
- Supports up to 10 users for free.
- Starter: $9.99 per month for each user
- Regular price: $39.99 per month, per user
- Enterprise: $64.99 per month for each user
Pricing is based on a year-to-year basis. Monthly rates are also available at a little greater cost.
Agile CRM combines sales, marketing, and customer support into a single platform, allowing diverse teams to cooperate on transactions and customer information more easily. It can also handle an endless number of tasks and transactions. It also includes lead scoring, email monitoring, site interaction, a landing page builder, and support desk capabilities, among other things.
Among the setbacks of Agile CRM’s free plan are its 10-user limit and 1,000-cap on saved contacts and companies. It also allows only one third-party integration, limiting your options to extend its capabilities. HubSpot CRM (Customer Relationship Management), on the other hand, allows you to integrate it with other apps from its Marketplace, There is no limit to the number of users it can support and can store up to a million contacts and companies.
Features
The sales dashboard in Agile CRM (Source: Agile CRM)
- Bespoke data fields, lead scoring, appointment scheduling, custom deal milestones, and email monitoring are all components of sales automation.
- Deals, tasks, and documents are all unlimited.
- Email campaigns, website visitor monitoring, contact level analytics, form builder, email templates, landing pages, and web-to-lead forms are some of the marketing capabilities available.
- One automation rule and one campaign process
- Help desks, ticket labels, scripted replies, and next suggested actions are examples of service tools.
- Basic activity and performance reports
- Integration or a single plugin
- Email help is available.
Why You Should Consider Upgrading
In-app calling, marketing automation, social monitoring, and a knowledge base are included in Agile CRM’s subscription plans, as well as more advanced sales, marketing, and customer care solutions. Aside from that, campaign processes, automation rules, and third-party integrations are all restricted. You’ll also have access to 24-hour phone support, a dedicated account manager, and onboarding services if you upgrade.
HubSpot CRM: Best Free CRM for Sales, Marketing & Service
HubSpot CRM
3.35 OUT OF 5
What We Enjoy
- Users and data allotment are both unlimited.
- Webforms and landing pages are included.
- Chatbots are available.
What Isn’t There
- Community assistance is the only kind of free customer service available.
- Most third-party integrations come with a fee.
- In the free plan, there is no workflow automation.
Pricing
- Free: There is no limit to the number of users it can support.
- HubSpot for Startups: Monthly fees range from $40 to $89
- The Marketing Hub costs $45 per month.
- Starts at $45 per month for Sales Hub.
- Starts at $45 per month for the Service Hub.
- CMS Hub is available for $23 per month.
- Operations Hub: Free plan for synchronizing data between HubSpot and third-party applications; monthly options start at $45
- The CRM Suite costs $45 per month.
- 14-day free trial for premium plans
HubSpot CRM (Customer Relationship Management) offers a robust set of sales, marketing, and service features not usually found in similar free CRM solutions. These include unlimited users, one million saved contacts, chatbots, landing pages, ad managers, and customizable dashboards. You can also call prospects directly from the app via voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP), send bulk emails, see productivity reports, and build a library of documents related to sales.
Unlike Zoho CRM, HubSpot CRM (Customer Relationship Management) doesn’t have workflow automation in its free plan. Its customer service is also limited to community support and self-help resources. Freshsales also has an in-app calling and it supports unlimited users. However, Freshsales is superior in terms of quality of customer service because it offers 24/5 support via phone, chat, and email.
Features
HubSpot CRM (Customer Relationship Management)’s sales pipeline dashboard (Source: HubSpot)
- Contact management, website activity, businesses, transactions, tasks, activities, and corporate insights are all CRM technologies.
- Forms, email marketing, ad management, landing sites, shared inbox, and list segmentation are examples of marketing tools.
- Ticketing, email scheduling, and ticket closure reports are examples of service tools.
- Gmail, Outlook, Messenger, and the App Marketplace are among the integrations available.
- Dashboard for activity and performance metrics reporting
- Shared inbox, email tracking, email templates, and prefabricated snippets are just a few of the email options available.
- Documents related to sales
- VoIP calling from inside the app
- HubSpot Academy, as well as community support and knowledge base, are all available.
Why You Should Consider Upgrading
HubSpot CRM offers a robust set of sales, marketing, and service tools. However, it puts a cap on several features like quotes, calling hours, documents, reporting dashboards, and pipelines. Its limited capabilities might not be enough once your business starts scaling up. The HubSpot umbrella company offers paid solutions that give you access to additional features like workflow automation, sales forecasting, customized reports, and advanced support.
Zoho CRM is the best free CRM for sales workflow automation.
Zoho CRM
3.29 OUT OF 5
What We Enjoy
- Tools for email marketing are available.
- Tool for collaborating and exchanging files with a large group.
- CRM interface that may be customized
What Isn’t There
- Three users are allowed on the free plan.
- Analytics software isn’t free.
- There are just a few free third-party software connectors available.
Pricing
- Supports up to three users for free.
- Bigin: $7 per month, per user
- Standard: $14 per month per user
- Professional: $23 per month for each user
- Enterprise: $40 per month for each user
- Ultimate: $52 per month per user
- Plus: Prices start at $57 per month per user.
- 15-day free trial of premium plans
Sales force and marketing automation functions, as well as basic customization choices and standard reporting tools, are all available in Zoho CRM. Set process automation triggers using this solution, which also includes collaboration capabilities like team chat, follow-up rules, status updates, and file sharing. During business hours, you may also contact customer service through email.
While Zoho CRM is a good starting point for small businesses because it supports up to three users, other providers allow more users. Aside from that, you can only integrate it with other apps in the Zoho ecosystem. Try HubSpot CRM or Bitrix24 if you want a free CRM that has no limit to the number of users it can support. and third-party app integrations.
Features
The lead management tab in Zoho CRM (Source: Zoho CRM)
- Lead, contact, account, and Management of transactions
- Views, sophisticated filters, tasks, events, logs, and notes are all available.
- Options for customizing pages and renaming tabs
- Automation of workflow rules
- Reports that are standard
- Ten email templates, email opt-out, and email authentication are among the marketing automation tools.
- Web-to-contact and web-to-lead forms
- Calendars, status updates, direct messaging, file attachments to feeds, and follow-up rules are some of the collaboration options available.
- Tracking website visitors
- Apps for iOS and Android are available.
- Access to a knowledge library, a community forum, and email and phone help 24 hours a day, seven days a week (for critical requests only)
Why You Should Consider Upgrading
Sales forecasting, numerous pipelines, bespoke reports, social data enrichment, marketing campaigns, and inventory management are all included in Zoho CRM’s subscription solutions. Access to its AI-powered sales assistant is available at higher price levels. It also includes premium priority assistance, which starts at $114 per month.
Bitrix24: The Best Free CRM With Multichannel Contact Management
Bitrix24
2.89 OUT OF 5
What We Enjoy
- Users, leads, and contacts are all unlimited.
- Has capabilities for invoicing and quote management.
- Provides eCommerce services.
What Isn’t There
- There are no reporting features in the free plan.
- Customers on the free plan have limited customer service options.
- There isn’t a document maker.
Pricing
- Free: Access to basic services for an unlimited number of users.
- For up to 5 users, the basic plan is $35 per month.
- For up to 50 users, the standard price is $70 per month.
- Professional: $140/month for an unlimited number of users
Pricing is based on a year-to-year basis. Monthly rates are also available at a little greater cost.
Bitrix24 is a free CRM that gives you an infinite client database, making it an excellent choice for teams that deal with a large number of contacts. It also allows you to handle an infinite amount of tasks, projects, web pages, orders, and conference calls. Its contact center combines many communication methods into one platform, including live chat, email, and social network messaging.
Despite its unlimited capacity for contacts and tasks, Bitrix24 lacks lead management features, and in-app caller, and reporting tools. It also doesn’t allow you to create Documents related to sales, such as invoices and contracts. If you need lead management and reporting features, try Zoho CRM. For a free CRM with telephony and document management capabilities, we recommend HubSpot CRM.
Features
The Kanban view of workgroup tasks on Bitrix24 (Source: Bitrix24)
- Deals, contacts, businesses, tasks, projects, and web pages are all unlimited.
- CRM data, custom stages, activity timeline, sales, and marketing automated rules are all shown in a Kanban view.
- Importing data, migrating data, and importing contacts
- A live chat widget, a website widget, and 100 contact forms are among the contact center’s capabilities.
- Email and calendar integration
- Facebook and Instagram integration with contact centers
- Automated responses, sales intelligence, and ad management are just a few of the features available.
- Bitrix24 partner help, webinars, how-to videos, and access to a knowledge base
Why You Should Consider Upgrading
When you pay for a Bitrix24 membership, you have access to a comprehensive collection of tools for invoicing, quotations, lead generation, document production, telephone, and team collaboration. Advanced analytics, workflows, marketing automation, order management, payment processing, and live chat assistance are all included at higher levels. In addition, you’ll get greater monthly allowances for online storage, bespoke sales funnels, and emails sent.
Apptivo: Best Free CRM With Supplier & Distributor Tracking
Apptivo
Overall rating: 2.81 out of 5
What We Enjoy
- Features include supply chain and distributor monitoring.
- Assists in the management of products and inventories.
- Solutions for human resource (HR) management are included.
What Isn’t There
- Third-party integrations are not permitted on the free plan.
- For the free tier, there is no mobile app.
- No workflow automation and Management of transactions features in the free tier
Pricing
- Starter: $0; one user is supported.
- Lite: $8 per month per user
- Premium: $12 per month, per user
- Ultimate: $20 per month per user
- Enterprise: For the price, please contact sales.
- 30 day free trial of premium plans
Add-ons:
- Starts at $10 per month for e-signature.
- Training & onboarding: Starts at $125 per session
- Email marketing programs start at $10.
- For prices on professional installation and data migration, please contact sales.
Lead, contact, and task management are all included in Apptivo’s free cloud-based CRM solution. It also provides email customer service. It also gives you access to additional Apptivo ecosystem products including supply chain and monitoring, as well as Management of Human Resources.
The downsides of Apptivo’s free plan include its one-user limit and lack of workflow automation, Management of transactions features, and third-party integrations. It is also the only provider in this list that doesn’t offer mobile app access in the free tier. However, Freshsales has no user cap and offers basic Management of transactions features. For a free solution that allows third-party integrations and unlimited users, try HubSpot CRM (Customer Relationship Management).
Features
Product and inventory management monitoring in Apptivo (Image courtesy of Apptivo)
- Tools for managing leads, contacts, tasks, appointments, and notes in sales automation are all things that you should keep track of.
- 500MB of file storage per account, data backup, and data export are among the data management features.
- Reports that are standard on activities and performance
- Distributor and supplier tracking are among the supply chain management elements.
- Management of products and projects
- Management of Human Resources
- Apps for iOS and Android are available.
- Email help is available., knowledge base, how-to videos, and webinars
Why You Should Consider Upgrading
Apptivo’s free plan offers only the most basic contact management capabilities and does not include access to its mobile app. Upgrading to a paid plan gives you access to more features like Management of transactions, lead generation, workflow automation, email marketing tools, and custom reporting. It also offers additional apps for billing, sales and order management, and inventory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a totally free CRM?
There are a few free CRMs available on the market, but none of them offer all of the features that would be needed for your business. For example, Hubspot is totally free and offers limited features whereas Salesforce is expensive but has more extensive options like social media advertising and marketing tools.
What is the easiest free CRM to use?
The easiest free CRM to use is HubSpot.
