You’re not an enterprise. And an enterprise CRM isn’t the best CRM for a small business. You don’t need to waste money on enterprise add-ons you’ll never touch, or waste time learning enterprise features you’ll never use.
But if a 29% boost in sales sounds good to you, then you do need a CRM. So we’ve assembled a comparison of the 15 best CRMs that are made for SMBs. We’ve also plugged them into a handy table, so you can consider the features that are important to your business.
Afterward, we’ll answer common questions, like ‘Why does a small business need a CRM?’ or ‘How do I choose a CRM for small businesses?’ Let’s jump in…
HubSpot’s CRM is lightweight and easy to use but has tools for all your teams. Your sales reps will love the lead scoring and sales prospecting features. Your marketers get email automation and real-time website activity tracking. And your service teams will flip for the help desk features, live chat, and shared universal inbox that simplifies their work lives. And that’s just a small sample of the features.
But best of all, the HubSpot CRM is 100% free. Forever. No time limits, unlimited users, and up to 1 Million contacts. And when you grow, HubSpot can grow with you, by choosing from 3 tiers of premium plans starting at only $45 per month.
Monday.com is best known for its project management software, so you may not have heard about this sales CRM. But if you’re a fan of Monday’s kanban-style PM tools, you’ll also like its editable pipeline tracking.
From contact management to sales forecasting to custom dashboards, Monday knows about organizing data and activities. This makes it a solid choice for small businesses that may also be in the market for task management tools.
Pipedrive is a simple and straightforward CRM with a clean user interface. Customers note that it’s easy to set up and easy to use.
Pipedrive advertises itself as being a CRM “designed by salespeople, for salespeople.” This means the tools focus mostly on managing your leads through the sales pipeline, though it does offer email marketing tools, as well. Pipedrive also boasts over 300 integrations, including HubSpot.
If you’re just starting your CRM research you might be confused why Zoho offers two CRMs. While the Zoho CRM offers a more robust suite of tools, they created Bigin to focus specifically on the features that small businesses would use most.
If you’re looking for a streamlined way to start tracking contacts and managing your deals, Bigin is a solid first choice. But if you’re ready for advanced features– like sales forecasting, lead scoring, and workflow management– then you might consider Zoho instead.
Capsule comes with a variety of customization options to help suit individual companies’ specific needs and challenges. These features include custom fields, tags, and branding options.
One of Capsule’s biggest perks is its accessibility. It has a simple, straightforward interface and easily integrates with third-party applications, including G Suite and MailChimp.
BenchmarkONE (formerly known as HatchBuck) is a simple, pipeline CRM that combines email marketing, and sales and marketing automation tools.
Companies in almost any vertical can benefit from BenchmarkONE, but they advertise as specializing in agencies and small business owners.
EngageBay is an affordable, all-in-one CRM for small businesses and startups. The multi-step automation workflow feature lets you build both simple and complex workflows with ease. You can also launch multichannel marketing campaigns across email, social media, SMS, web, and mobile push notifications.
EngageBay’s biggest perk lies in its affordability. The platform offers a collection of advanced features for under $100 per month.
Agile CRM features a simple, streamlined drag-and-drop project management tool. Its interface makes managing tasks and passing information between your support, sales, and marketing departments straightforward and seamless. It also has features like lead scoring and segmentation tools.
Agile generally suits SMBs better than enterprises, and its pricing structure reflects that. Its free plan is a great choice for smaller businesses and startups that may lack the resources to pay for premium plans elsewhere.
Accelo’s CRM features tools for lead scoring, drafting quotes and proposals, segmentation, and task management. It also has an impressive range of integrations with other leading platforms, including Salesforce, Jira, Quickbooks, and HubSpot.
Accelo focuses on the professional service sector. The platform is tailored for smaller businesses that employ professionals like architects, accountants, engineers, and designers.
GreenRope is a CRM that strives for simplicity. The platform includes features like territory management, segmentation, and lead scoring. It also has a straightforward interface that doesn’t require much setup or training.
GreenRope has a wide variety of pricing plans to suit an equally wide variety of business sizes. The platform is slightly pricier than most, so it may not be best for very small businesses or startups.
WORK[etc] is a cloud-computing CRM that emphasizes collaboration. The platform consolidates virtually every aspect of a business’s operations and enables easy communication between different departments.
The CRM works for smaller businesses across virtually every industry — from digital advertising firms to real estate agencies. The pricing is a bit more expensive than similar CRMs, but it’s worth exploring for small companies looking to streamline all aspects of their businesses.
VTiger is an affordable CRM with particularly strong sales and marketing automation tools for its relatively low price. The platform also offers solid project and inventory management infrastructure and boasts a total of over 300,000 customers worldwide. The platform has a robust suite of features across marketing, sales, and service. VTiger is a great option for small businesses running on a tight budget.
Keap provides the resources to help you organize information about leads, clients, and business communication. Its email and sales automation features speed up day-to-day processes.
Keap has invoice and payment integrations that allow you to accept credit cards, send invoices, and track outstanding payments. That’s where the platform really stands out. It’s an ideal CRM for small businesses that conduct online transactions on a consistent basis.
Glue Up is a cloud-based, all-in-one event management software and CRM. You can choose from event, membership, community, webinar, or training-focused software.
With Glue Up's CRM, you can keep your contacts organized, automate sales workflows for your events, manage all of your audiences and business opportunities, keep data and information secure, and gain insight into engagement across activities.
Nextiva is a cloud-based VoIP service that includes a CRM. It consolidates company communications into a single platform — this allows sales, marketing, and support teams to stay on the same page.
Nextiva’s biggest draw may be how well it handles multi-channel customer communication. If your business is looking for both VoIP and a CRM that can offer a solid communication infrastructure for sales and customer support reps, you should explore Nextiva as a potential option.
| CRM | G2 Rating | Free Plan? | Starter Plan Monthly Price | Plan Limits | Free Trial? |
| HubSpot CRM | 4.4 | Yes | $45 for 2 users | Free plan:
|
14 days |
| Monday Sales CRM | 4.6 | Yes | $10 per user | Free plan:
|
14 days |
| Pipedrive | 4.2 | No | $14.90 per user | Starter plan:
|
14 days |
| Bigin by Zoho CRM | 4.6 | Yes | $7 per user | Free plan:
|
15 days |
| Capsule CRM | 4.3 | Yes | $18 per user | Free plan:
|
30 days |
| BenchmarkONE (HatchBuck) | 4.5 | Yes | $29 per month | Free plan:
|
14 days |
| EngageBay | 4.6 | Yes | $11.99 per user | Free plan:
|
None |
| Agile CRM | 4.0 | Yes | $8.99 per user | Free plan:
|
None |
| Accelo | 4.4 | No | $24 per user |
|
14 days |
| GreenRope | 4.4 | No | $99 per month | Starter plan:
|
14 days |
| WORK[etc] | 4.6 | No | $78 for 2 users | Starter plan:
|
14 days |
| VTiger | 4.3 | Yes | $30 per user | Free plan:
|
15 days |
| Keap | 4.2 | No | $129 for 2 users | Starter plan:
|
14 days |
| Glue Up | 4.5 | No | $125 for 2 users |
|
None |
| Nextiva | 4.4 | No | $23.95 per user (for 1-4 users) | Starter plan:
|
7 days |
A small business needs a CRM for the same reasons a giant corp does: to organize your data, boost your sales efficiency, and align your sales, marketing, and service teams. Your SMB may not have the same sales volume as an enterprise company, but a CRM will help you scale up no matter your size.
Some of the benefits that a CRM brings include:
Maybe you’re finding that you’ve outgrown tracking customers in a spreadsheet. Maybe your sales team is drowning in manual data entry. Maybe good leads aren’t getting contacted. If these challenges sound familiar, then it’s time to consider a CRM.
Before you compare your options for a CRM, you’ll want to take some time to consider these questions:
Take some time to consider which features are must-haves and which are nice-to-haves. Then use a comparison chart to narrow down your CRM options according to what matters to you.
Once you’ve chosen your top few, make use of the free trials or free plans to test drive a CRM in real life.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in December 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.