November 3, 2024

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The best CRMs for startups: features guide and user reviews

The best CRMs for startups: features guide and user reviews

Startups need customer relationship management (CRM) software to help organize and manage sales processes, email outreach, and customer journeys. The best CRM for startups includes project management features and data management can also help you manage business plans and goals to present to venture capitalists when seeking funding.

Whether you’re looking for the best CRM software as a solopreneur or starting a business with a small team behind you, these tools can benefit your startup. We looked at various CRMs and chose those with the best sales features at an affordable price to best suit startups that need a user-friendly and budget-friendly option that can scale as their business grows.

Table of Contents

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  • Over a dozen plans compared
  • Over 600 data points collected
  • 30+ years of combined entrepreneurial experience
  • 5 layers of fact-checking

10 best CRMs for startups in 2024

Provider & plan Best for: Month-to-month price See details
HubSpot Sales Hub Starter Scalable solution as you grow $20 per user View offer
at Expert Market
Zoho CRM Standard User-friendliness $20 per user View offer
at Zoho CRM
Freshsales Growth Most affordable entry-level plan $11 per user View offer
at Freshsales
Bitrix24 Standard Built-in telephony $124 per organization (50 users) View offer
at Expert Market
Agile CRM Free Feature-packed free plan Free View offer
at Expert Market
Pipedrive Advanced Mobile CRM $44 per user View offer
at Pipedrive
Nimble CRM All features at one price $24.90 per user View offer
at Expert Market
monday.com Standard Unlimited features $20 per user (3-seat minimum) View offer
at monday.com
Insightly Plus Custom reporting $29 per user View offer
at Expert Market
Constant Contact CRM CRM with email marketing $299 (starting price) View offer
at Expert Market
HubSpot Sales Hub Starter
Scalable solution as you grow
$20 per user
View offer
at Expert Market
Zoho CRM Standard
User-friendliness
$20 per user
View offer
at Zoho CRM
Freshsales Growth
Most affordable entry-level plan
$11 per user
View offer
at Freshsales
Bitrix24 Standard
Built-in telephony
$124 per organization (50 users)
View offer
at Expert Market
Agile CRM Free
Feature-packed free plan
Free
View offer
at Expert Market
Pipedrive Advanced
Mobile CRM
$44 per user
View offer
at Pipedrive
Nimble CRM
All features at one price
$24.90 per user
View offer
at Expert Market
monday.com Standard
Unlimited features
$20 per user (3-seat minimum)
View offer
at monday.com
Insightly Plus
Custom reporting
$29 per user
View offer
at Expert Market
Constant Contact CRM
CRM with email marketing
$299 (starting price)
View offer
at Expert Market

HubSpot Sales Hub Starter: Best for scalability

HubSpot is well-known in the CRM industry for bridging the gap between sales and marketing with its many tools. It offers several plans to satisfy the needs of individuals, sales or marketing teams, support teams, and businesses that need all of the features to manage customer relationships. 

HubSpot






Base price: $20 per user, per month

 

Free trial length: None
Free plan available?: Yes, for up to five users


Pros

  • Supports up to one million sales products and 5,000 documents
  • Live chat and Facebook Messenger integration
  • Up to 5,000 email templates

Cons

  • Limited to one shared inbox
  • Limited to one HubSpot-provided phone number
  • Lacks automated sequences or workflows until higher-priced plans


  • Pipeline management dashboard is included but cannot be customized for users until upgrade to the Professional plan
  • Up to 10 reporting dashboards with 10 reports per dashboard
  • Open API for developers with integration guides
  • Email integration for Gmail, Outlook, and Microsoft Exchange
  • Hundreds of app integrations
  • Sales automation features that can trigger tasks and email notifications, with advanced workflows in higher-tier plan

  • “HubSpot has many workflows we can set up, which ensures no lead falls through the cracks,” says Ultan O’Callaghan, CEO at Thooja. “For example, if someone contacts us through our website, we can easily set up a workflow to ensure they are contacted by sales rep.”


    HubSpot’s Sales Hub Starter Plan offers email support and a comprehensive knowledge base, HubSpot Academy to learn about its rich feature set, and HubSpot Community to learn from other users. Professional Plan users gain access to phone support.



    View Offer

    at Expert Market


    Why we picked it

    HubSpot’s Sales Hub Starter is a great starting point for almost any startup on a budget but still needs the right tools to track customers, sales, venture capital (VC) communication, and metrics to help secure more funding. However, you also need room to grow, which is why we suggest HubSpot. There are plenty of plan options you can upgrade to when you need more advanced tools, more reporting dashboards, or sales forecasting.

    For $20 per user, per month, HubSpot Sales Hub Starter provides many of the tools you need to sell your products or services and manage contacts and leads. Sales automation features save you from having to keep an eye on pipelines because you’ll get notifications automatically when a deal needs your attention. We like that HubSpot removes its branding from your communications at this plan level and allows e-signatures, which isn’t always the case for entry-level CRM plans (AgileCRM requires an integration with Sign.cc at an added monthly cost). At this plan level, you get built-in calling (outbound and inbound), but you’re limited to 300 minutes per month.

    When you’re ready to upgrade, HubSpot Sales Hub Professional provides more shared inboxes, more advanced chatbots, segmented lists, minutes per month, and team management. HubSpot also offers plans that include marketing and customer support tools, so you can choose a plan with the tools all of your teams will need eventually. It’s worth mentioning that you already get a handful of marketing, support, and operations tools from the free CRM plan.

    Learn more: Read our HubSpot CRM review.

    See more HubSpot plans & pricing

    Plans Free trial Features Pricing
    Free N/A Contact management
    Deal pipeline
    Meeting scheduling
    Shared inbox
    Conversational bots
    Email scheduling
    Email reply tracking
    Gmail, Outlook, and Microsoft integrations
    $0 (up to five users)
    Sales Starter 14 days All features on HubSpot Free plus:
    Sales automation
    Sales content analytics
    Automated task queues
    Team performance measurements
    HubSpot-provided phone numbers
    Digital signatures
    Conversation routing
    Multicurrency support
    Task and deal notifications
    Task calendar sync
    Payments
    $20 per month, per seat
    Sales Professional 14 days All Sales Starter features plus:
    Prospecting and lead management
    Sales forecasting
    Custom reporting and analytics
    Customizable playbooks
    Call transcriptions
    Coaching playlists
    Account-based marketing (ABM) tools and automation
    Contact scoring
    Video messaging
    Workflow extensions
    Automated sequences (outreaches, follow-ups, and tasks)
    $100 per month, per seat
    Sales Enterprise 14 days All Sales Enterprise features plus:
    Predictive lead scoring
    Recurring revenue tracking
    Deal journey analytics
    Lead form routing
    Advanced permissions
    Single sign-on (SSO)
    Field-level and advanced permissions
    Conversation intelligence (insights on customer calls)
    $150 per month, per seat
    Free
    N/A
    Contact management
    Deal pipeline
    Meeting scheduling
    Shared inbox
    Conversational bots
    Email scheduling
    Email reply tracking
    Gmail, Outlook, and Microsoft integrations
    $0 (up to five users)
    Sales Starter
    14 days
    All features on HubSpot Free plus:
    Sales automation
    Sales content analytics
    Automated task queues
    Team performance measurements
    HubSpot-provided phone numbers
    Digital signatures
    Conversation routing
    Multicurrency support
    Task and deal notifications
    Task calendar sync
    Payments
    $20 per month, per seat
    Sales Professional
    14 days
    All Sales Starter features plus:
    Prospecting and lead management
    Sales forecasting
    Custom reporting and analytics
    Customizable playbooks
    Call transcriptions
    Coaching playlists
    Account-based marketing (ABM) tools and automation
    Contact scoring
    Video messaging
    Workflow extensions
    Automated sequences (outreaches, follow-ups, and tasks)
    $100 per month, per seat
    Sales Enterprise
    14 days
    All Sales Enterprise features plus:
    Predictive lead scoring
    Recurring revenue tracking
    Deal journey analytics
    Lead form routing
    Advanced permissions
    Single sign-on (SSO)
    Field-level and advanced permissions
    Conversation intelligence (insights on customer calls)
    $150 per month, per seat

    Zoho CRM Standard: Best for user-friendliness

    Zoho CRM is one of many modules under the Zoho umbrella. It’s an affordable full-featured CRM with tools to support businesses of all sizes and includes multiple integrations with its own products and third-party options to extend the functionality of its platform. 

    Zoho CRM






    Base price: $20 per user, per month*
    Free trial length: 15 days
    Free plan available?: Yes*


    Why we picked it

    There are many reasons to choose Zoho CRM for your business, whether you’re at the beginning of your journey or you’re looking for a new centralized platform. One reason we named it one of the best CRMs for startups is because it has an intuitive interface making it easy for all of your team members to adopt it for managing customer relationships and sales pipelines. 

    Most user reviews on aggregate sites, such as G2 and Capterra, call out Zoho CRM’s ease of use particularly. The interface is instantly intuitive, and the setup is quick and simple. Drag-and-drop customization means you don’t need to be super tech-savvy to learn how to set it up to your liking. When comparing it to some of the biggest names in salesforce automation, Zoho CRM has a quick adoption rate. In a company profile for TECO Pneumatic, Zoho discovered that adoption rates increased by 300% when TECO switched to Zoho CRM.

    The Zoho CRM Standard plan is the entry-level paid plan, which costs $20 per user, per month, with no user minimum requirement. Although this price seems a bit high, it’s average for the industry. At this stage, you can expect the basics, such as lead, contact, and deal management. A surprising addition for an entry-level plan is sales forecasting; Freshsales and monday CRM offer it on Pro and Enterprise plans. An upgrade to the Zoho CRM Professional plan costs $35 per user, per month, and it includes inventory and support management, far more data storage (10GB), and access to Zoho Blueprint, which is a digital business process tool.

    Learn more: Read our Zoho CRM review.

    See more Zoho CRM plans & pricing

    Plans Pricing Free Trial or Plan Available? Features
    Free plan Free for up to three users Yes 3 organization emails
    Sales and marketing automation tools
    Document library
    Standard reports
    10 custom email templates
    1GB file storage for the organization
    Standard plan $14 per user, per month Yes; 15 days 50 organization emails
    Supports up to five currencies
    Email integration
    Up to 10 custom lead scoring rules
    Up to 100 custom reports
    10 custom dashboards
    Up to 250 mass emails per day
    100 custom email templates
    Zoho Meetings integration
    Google calendar integration
    Up to 5 CRM Marketplace extensions
    Professional plan $23 per user, per month Yes; 15 days 75 organization emails
    Supports up to 10 currencies
    Up to 20 custom lead scoring rules
    Motivator tool for sales gamification
    Unlimited custom reports
    Unlimited custom dashboards
    Up to 500 mass emails per day
    Unlimited custom email templates
    Inventory management tools
    Customer service tools
    Up to 10 CRM Marketplace extensions
    Enterprise plan $40 per user, per month Yes, 15 days 500 organization emails
    Sales territory forecasting
    Supports up to 25 currencies
    Up to 30 custom lead scoring rules
    Anomaly detector
    Up to 1,000 mass emails per day
    ZIA AI tool for scoring, recommendations, and email and call summaries
    Up to 20 CRM Marketplace extensions
    Ultimate plan $52 per user, per month Yes; 15 days 500 organization emails
    Supports up to 50 currencies
    Up to 50 custom lead scoring rules
    Up to 2,000 mass emails per day
    ZIA AI tool for scoring, recommendations, and email and call summaries
    Up to 50 CRM Marketplace extensions
    Free plan
    Free for up to three users
    Yes
    3 organization emails
    Sales and marketing automation tools
    Document library
    Standard reports
    10 custom email templates
    1GB file storage for the organization
    Standard plan
    $14 per user, per month
    Yes; 15 days
    50 organization emails
    Supports up to five currencies
    Email integration
    Up to 10 custom lead scoring rules
    Up to 100 custom reports
    10 custom dashboards
    Up to 250 mass emails per day
    100 custom email templates
    Zoho Meetings integration
    Google calendar integration
    Up to 5 CRM Marketplace extensions
    Professional plan
    $23 per user, per month
    Yes; 15 days
    75 organization emails
    Supports up to 10 currencies
    Up to 20 custom lead scoring rules
    Motivator tool for sales gamification
    Unlimited custom reports
    Unlimited custom dashboards
    Up to 500 mass emails per day
    Unlimited custom email templates
    Inventory management tools
    Customer service tools
    Up to 10 CRM Marketplace extensions
    Enterprise plan
    $40 per user, per month
    Yes, 15 days
    500 organization emails
    Sales territory forecasting
    Supports up to 25 currencies
    Up to 30 custom lead scoring rules
    Anomaly detector
    Up to 1,000 mass emails per day
    ZIA AI tool for scoring, recommendations, and email and call summaries
    Up to 20 CRM Marketplace extensions
    Ultimate plan
    $52 per user, per month
    Yes; 15 days
    500 organization emails
    Supports up to 50 currencies
    Up to 50 custom lead scoring rules
    Up to 2,000 mass emails per day
    ZIA AI tool for scoring, recommendations, and email and call summaries
    Up to 50 CRM Marketplace extensions

    Freshsales Growth: Best for affordability

    Freshworks is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: FRSH) that’s similar to some of its competitors in that it offers a suite of products for specific solutions including Freshsales. The CRM uses artificial intelligence (AI) and intuitive product design to help you with lead conversion, customer relationships, and workflow automation.

    Freshsales






    Base price: $11 per user, per month
    Free trial length: 21 days
    Free plan available?: Yes, for up to three users

     


    Why we picked it

    Freshsales is available in four plans: Free, Growth, Pro, and Enterprise, making it a scalable solution. We chose the Growth plan because it’s one of the most affordable CRMs for startups that includes a lot of value. For $11 per user, per month, you get the basics of any CRM such as contact and account management, tasks and appointments, custom fields, and a sales dashboard. You can also create up to 20 automated workflows, which is a bit stingy compared to Bitrix24, which doesn’t apply limits on its entry-level plan. 

    What may be most impressive in Freshsales’ value-to-cost ratio is how many advanced features you get with its built-in telephony. You get inbound caller ID, call masking, call queues, recording, and voicemail, to name a few. You can also set up a chatbot on your website with canned responses, rules for routing conversations, and frequently asked questions (FAQs) for quick answers. To top it off, you get 500 AI bot sessions to interact with leads and customers, which is the same as the top-tier plans.

    The only areas in which you may feel you’re missing out are in AI tools and some security features. The Freddy AI tool assists your work with lead scoring, deal insights, and sales forecasting, which are valuable features but they’re only available on the Pro and Enterprise plans. Once your startup is ready for those tools, you’ll feel the steep incline in cost: The price range of those plans is $47 to $71 per user, per month.

    Learn more: Read our Freshsales review.

    See more Freshsales plans & pricing

    Plans Free Trial or plan available? Features Pricing
    Free Yes Account and contact management
    Deal management
    Built-in phone and live chat
    $0
    Growth Yes Visual sales pipeline
    Integration with short message service (SMS), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Business messages
    20 basic workflows
    $11 per user, per month
    Pro Yes 10 sales pipelines
    50 basic workflows and 50 advanced workflows
    Access to Freddy AI insights
    $47 per user, per month
    Enterprise Yes AI-powered forecasting insights
    10 custom modules
    Profiles automatically enriched with public information
    $71 per user, per month
    Free
    Yes
    Account and contact management
    Deal management
    Built-in phone and live chat
    $0
    Growth
    Yes
    Visual sales pipeline
    Integration with short message service (SMS), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Business messages
    20 basic workflows
    $11 per user, per month
    Pro
    Yes
    10 sales pipelines
    50 basic workflows and 50 advanced workflows
    Access to Freddy AI insights
    $47 per user, per month
    Enterprise
    Yes
    AI-powered forecasting insights
    10 custom modules
    Profiles automatically enriched with public information
    $71 per user, per month

    Bitrix24 Standard: Best for built-in telephony

    Bitrix24 is a work operating system with more than 8 million businesses using the product, according to the company. It’s a privately owned company with its headquarters in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

    Bitrix24






    Base price: $61 monthly for up to five users
    Free trial length: 15 days
    Free plan available?: Yes, with limited features


    Pros

    • Unlimited built-in phone calls, including video calls
    • Competitive pricing for small teams
    • Store an unlimited number of deals

    Cons

    • Basic plan only supports up to five users
    • Only 24GB of storage for the organization
    • Lacks custom fields in tasks and projects




  • Up to five pipeline dashboards with the ability to make custom fields
  • Up to 100,000 leads, deals, contacts, or companies in sales intelligence reports
  • Ability to store and video documents, but collaborative editing is not available until the Standard Plan
  • Email integration with Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Office365, Exchange, Yahoo, and AOL
  • Integration with popular VoIP systems like RingCentral, Vonage, and GoTo Connect
  • Product catalog with up to 3,000 products and the ability to process payments in the CRM



  • Bitrix24 offers excellent customer support for all paid plan subscribers. Support avenues include online training via built-in tooltips throughout the platform, video tutorials, webinars, and live chat. However, phone support is not available.



    View Offer

    at Expert Market



    Why we picked it

    Bitrix24’s Standard plan is one of the most balanced between value and cost. It includes a contact center that offers a built-in caller that doesn’t require you to integrate any other VoIP product. Also within the contact center features are a callback widget, so leads can request a call from your team, and two open channels for communication between your team and leads from your socials. You also get call statistics reports, call transfers, routing, voicemail, intercept, an automatic dialer, and many more tools to support communication.

    The CRM is also packed with features to help optimize your sales process including lead, deal, and contact management, one-click lead-to-deal conversions, up to 10 pipelines, and video calls via a Zoom integration. The AI assistant CoPilot is a time-saving addition that can transcribe your call recordings and generate content for emails and campaigns. Unfortunately, the AI-powered call transcription costs extra.

    The Standard plan costs $124 per month for up to 50 users, which shakes out to less than $2.50 per user, per month. If you have fewer than 10 people in your organization, the cost is still comparable to, and even more affordable than, Bitrix24’s competitors. While Bitrix24 includes some AI assistance for task management and chats, it lacks workflow automation that CRMs, such as HubSpot and Agile CRM, offer unless you opt for the higher tiers.

    Learn more: Read our Bitrix24 review.

    See more Bitrix24 plans & pricing

    Plans Free Trial or Plan Available? Features Pricing
    Basic Yes; 15-day free trial and free forever plan 24GB
    Includes 5 users
    1 account administrators
    Collaboration, tasks and projects, CRM, Bitrix24 sign, drive, contact center, website builder, and online store
    $61 per organization, per month
    Standard Yes; 15-day free trial and free forever plan 100GB
    Includes 50 users
    5 account administrators
    Everything in Basic plan plus; segment-based email marketing, online documents, and administration
    $124 per organization, per month
    Professional Yes; 15-day free trial and free forever plan 1,024GB
    Includes 100 users
    10 account administrators
    Everything in Standard plus sales intelligence, workflow automation, and human resources (HR)
    $249 per organization, per month
    Enterprise Yes; 15-day free trial and free forever plan 3TB
    Includes 250 users
    25 account administrators
    Everything in Professional plus unlimited branch accounts, high-performance enterprise cluster, and encryption at rest.
    $499 per organization, per month
    Basic
    Yes; 15-day free trial and free forever plan
    24GB
    Includes 5 users
    1 account administrators
    Collaboration, tasks and projects, CRM, Bitrix24 sign, drive, contact center, website builder, and online store
    $61 per organization, per month
    Standard
    Yes; 15-day free trial and free forever plan
    100GB
    Includes 50 users
    5 account administrators
    Everything in Basic plan plus; segment-based email marketing, online documents, and administration
    $124 per organization, per month
    Professional
    Yes; 15-day free trial and free forever plan
    1,024GB
    Includes 100 users
    10 account administrators
    Everything in Standard plus sales intelligence, workflow automation, and human resources (HR)
    $249 per organization, per month
    Enterprise
    Yes; 15-day free trial and free forever plan
    3TB
    Includes 250 users
    25 account administrators
    Everything in Professional plus unlimited branch accounts, high-performance enterprise cluster, and encryption at rest.
    $499 per organization, per month

    Agile CRM Starter Best for feature-packed free plan

    Agile CRM is a sales automation platform with features to assist sales, marketing, and customer support teams manage customer relationships. The privately owned company claims it has more than 14,000 customers and more than 170,000 users.

    Agile CRM






    Base price: $14.99 per user, per month
    Free trial length: none
    Free plan available?: Yes, for up to 10 users

     


    Why we picked it

    Agile CRM is an excellent choice for small businesses starting with sales and marketing campaigns because it’s an affordable, easy-to-use platform that includes so many features on its free and entry-level plans. For $14.99 per user, per month, you get most of the basic tools you need to organize contacts, campaigns, and support for your business. Agile CRM is one of the few companies that includes lead scoring on all its plans. There’s also no limit to the number of deals you can have on the platform. 

    If you’re looking to provide robust support to your customers, Agile CRM could be a great pick. All of the service desk features are included in the Standard plan, such as a knowledge base and canned responses. The marketing features are also strong but somewhat limiting. For example, you can create email campaigns but only five campaign workflows. You get a landing page builder but only one landing page. There are still plenty of lead generation tools, such as a form builder, email campaign templates, and a pop-up builder.

    Telephony features are also limited, especially compared to Bitrix24. Agile CRM allows two-way calls on its Regular and Enterprise plans, and call recording and automated voicemails are only on the Enterprise plan. The cost of those high-tier plans are $49.99 per user, per month, and $79.99 per user, per month, respectively, which is much more expensive than Zoho CRM, which caps its pricing at $65 per user, per month.

    Learn more: Read our Agile CRM review.

    See more Agile CRM plans & pricing

    Plans Free trial or plan available? Features Pricing per user, per month
    Free Yes Unlimited deals, tasks, and documents
    Appointment scheduling
    Lead scoring
    $0
    Starter No Email campaigns
    Marketing automation
    Landing page builder
    $14.99 per user
    Regular No Helpdesk
    Canned responses
    Create service groups
    $49.99 per user
    Enterprise No 50-plus integrations
    Syncs with Stripe, Shopify, and Google
    Basic reports
    $79.99 per user
    Free
    Yes
    Unlimited deals, tasks, and documents
    Appointment scheduling
    Lead scoring
    $0
    Starter
    No
    Email campaigns
    Marketing automation
    Landing page builder
    $14.99 per user
    Regular
    No
    Helpdesk
    Canned responses
    Create service groups
    $49.99 per user
    Enterprise
    No
    50-plus integrations
    Syncs with Stripe, Shopify, and Google
    Basic reports
    $79.99 per user

    Pipedrive Advanced: Best for mobile CRM

    Pipedrive is a CRM built by salespeople and is privately owned by Vista Equity Partners. According to Pipedrive’s website, it has more than 100,000 clients and its headquarters are in New York.

    Pipedrive







    Base price: $24 per user, per month
    Free trial length: 14 days
    Free plan available? No


    Why we picked it

    As a standard CRM, Pipedrive does well on its own, but the standout feature is its mobile app that’s praised for how easy it is to use. We suggest the Advanced plan, which is a step up from the entry-level plan, although it is a bit pricey compared to competitors, such as Zoho CRM and HubSpot at $44 per user, per month. The Advanced plan gives you up to 10,000 open deals, automations, two-way email sync, e-signatures, email tracking, and email scheduling. It also allows you to send calls from your desktop to your mobile phone, includes call logging, and syncs with your calendars (Google and Microsoft).

    It’s easy to navigate the Pipedrive app because its user interface (UI) is intuitive. There are tabs for deals, contacts, and activities. The focus tab includes your personal schedule, emails, and tasks as with a desktop dashboard. Under the deals tab, you can see multiple visual pipelines. In addition to a search bar, there’s a filter option in the mobile app to make it easier to find specific deals, tasks, or messages.

    Pipedrive’s CRM, aside from the mobile app, is made with sales teams in mind. Pipelines are visual and customizable, you can get notifications when a deal sits too long and is in danger of rotting, and there’s a Google Maps integration. Connecting with leads happens in different ways, and the Pipeline Advanced plan includes options for video call scheduling, email scheduling, meetings, group emails, and scheduling links (similar to Calendly).

    Learn more: Read our Pipedrive review.

    See more Pipedrive plans & pricing

    Plans  Pricing Free Trial or Plan Available?  Features 
    Essential  $24 per user, per month 14-day free trial   Up to 3,000 open deals 
    30 custom fields per company 
    15 reports per user 
    Customizable pipelines 
    Products catalog 
    Data import and export 
    Mentions and comments feature 
    Calendar view and activity management tools 
    Sales Assistant 
    One customized visual dashboard 
    Native Android and iOS apps 
    Chrome extension for Gmail  
    Calendar sync with Google and Microsoft 
    Automatic call logging 
    Advanced $44 per user, per month  14-day free trial   Up to 10,000 open deals 
    100 custom fields per company 
    30 reports per user 
    30 active automations 
    One email sync per user 
    Customizable email templates and signatures 
    Email open and click tracking 
    Email scheduling 
    Meeting scheduler 
    Web to-mobile-calling 
    Professional $64 per user, per month 14-day free trial   Up to 100,000 open deals 
    300 custom fields per company 
    150 reports per user 
    60 active automations 
    Two email syncs per user 
    Three teams per company 
    Custom visibility and permission groups  
    Deal card customization 
    Unlimited scheduling links 
    Free Smart Docs add-on with e-signatures  
    AI-powered Sales Assistant 
    Unlimited visual dashboards 
    Custom field reports 
    Power $79 per user, per month  14-day free trial   Up to 200,000 open deals 
    500 custom fields per company 
    250 reports per user 
    90 active automations 
    Three email syncs per user 
    15 teams per company 
    Free projects add-on 
    24/7 live chat support
    Essential 
    $24 per user, per month
    14-day free trial  
    Up to 3,000 open deals 
    30 custom fields per company 
    15 reports per user 
    Customizable pipelines 
    Products catalog 
    Data import and export 
    Mentions and comments feature 
    Calendar view and activity management tools 
    Sales Assistant 
    One customized visual dashboard 
    Native Android and iOS apps 
    Chrome extension for Gmail  
    Calendar sync with Google and Microsoft 
    Automatic call logging 
    Advanced
    $44 per user, per month 
    14-day free trial  
    Up to 10,000 open deals 
    100 custom fields per company 
    30 reports per user 
    30 active automations 
    One email sync per user 
    Customizable email templates and signatures 
    Email open and click tracking 
    Email scheduling 
    Meeting scheduler 
    Web to-mobile-calling 
    Professional
    $64 per user, per month
    14-day free trial  
    Up to 100,000 open deals 
    300 custom fields per company 
    150 reports per user 
    60 active automations 
    Two email syncs per user 
    Three teams per company 
    Custom visibility and permission groups  
    Deal card customization 
    Unlimited scheduling links 
    Free Smart Docs add-on with e-signatures  
    AI-powered Sales Assistant 
    Unlimited visual dashboards 
    Custom field reports 
    Power
    $79 per user, per month 
    14-day free trial  
    Up to 200,000 open deals 
    500 custom fields per company 
    250 reports per user 
    90 active automations 
    Three email syncs per user 
    15 teams per company 
    Free projects add-on 
    24/7 live chat support

    Nimble CRM: Best for full-featured plan at one price

    Nimble CRM is a simple platform designed to support sales teams in lead generation, conversion, and retention. The privately-owned company is located in California, and it’s been in operation since 2009.

    Nimble CRM






    Base price: $29.90 per user, per month
    Free trial length: 14 days
    Free plan available?: No


    Why we picked it

    One of Nimble CRM’s standout features is its pricing model: Pay $29.90 per user, per month, to get all of its basic features including the prospector tool, up to 25,000 contacts, and automated workflows. There’s an option to log calls into the platform and create events. There’s also a call reminder feature you can set up to get reminders to call leads or customers at regular intervals.

    Every user gets a customizable dashboard, so they can track meetings, events, tasks, emails, or revenue, which helps keep the most important information top of mind. Nimble CRM offers excellent pipeline management, and you aren’t limited by the number of pipelines you have. There are a few marketing features that might sweeten the deal including automated email sequencing, web forms, and email tracking, some of which are new features for Nimble CRM. 

    Nimble CRM is suitable for a startup that doesn’t need advanced sales features, but it can be a bit limited. There’s no scalability with tiered service plans and you’re limited to 1,000 custom fields, 2GB of storage per user, 25 credits for social media profile matching per user, and Google Contacts only syncs one way (Microsoft 365 has a two-way sync). 

    Learn more: Read our Nimble review.

    See more Nimble CRM plans & pricing

    Nimble only has one plan, with a monthly price of  $29.90 per user.

    monday.com Standard: Best for unlimited features

    Although monday.com is best known as a project management platform, it offers modules geared toward specific use cases, including a CRM option. The publicly traded company (NASDAQ: MNDY) offers scalability with tiers that grow in features as small businesses grow.

    monday.com



     





    Base price: $15 per user, per month
    Free trial length: 14 days
    Free plan available? Yes, for up to two users


    Why we picked it

    If limits on contacts, projects, deals, or opportunities are frustrating, consider using monday.com CRM. It offers many unlimited features, generous storage for small teams, and includes advanced features, such as automations. We suggest the Standard plan, which is a step up from the Basic plan because it’s affordable at $20 per user, per month, although it requires a three-seat minimum. 

    Most of the features you need to support a sales team are included at this plan level, such as unlimited pipelines, contacts, and boards, plus you get two-way sync email integration with Microsoft Outlook and Gmail, unlike Nimble CRM. There’s also an AI-assisted email generator, so you can produce emails for leads quickly. A feature rarely called out that’s also available is an option to merge identical data, which helps you clean your lists efficiently.

    A unique difference between monday.com CRM and other CRMs is its base platform as a project management system, so it works well for various teams. Create tasks, boards, and manage product development or content creation. Although it offers automations and integrations, monday.com limits these to 250 actions per month, which may not be enough for a large team. Also missing from the Standard plan are helpful features such as forecasting, lead scoring, and mass emails.

    Learn more: Read our monday.com review.

    See more monday.com CRM plans & pricing

    Plans Free trial or plan available? Features Pricing, per seat per month (minimum of 3 seats)
    Basic Yes, 14 days Unlimited custom pipelines
    Unlimited contacts
    Unlimited boards
    $9
    Standard Yes, 14 days AI email generator
    250 custom CRM automations per month
    Quotes and invoices
    $12
    Pro Yes, 14 days Sales forecasting
    Sales analytics
    25,000 custom CRM automations per month
    $19
    Enterprise No Lead scoring
    Team goals
    HIPAA compliance
    Custom pricing
    Basic
    Yes, 14 days
    Unlimited custom pipelines
    Unlimited contacts
    Unlimited boards
    $9
    Standard
    Yes, 14 days
    AI email generator
    250 custom CRM automations per month
    Quotes and invoices
    $12
    Pro
    Yes, 14 days
    Sales forecasting
    Sales analytics
    25,000 custom CRM automations per month
    $19
    Enterprise
    No
    Lead scoring
    Team goals
    HIPAA compliance
    Custom pricing

    Insightly Plus: Best for custom reporting

    Insightly was founded in 2009 as a project management and CRM platform. Over the years, Insightly raised millions in funding and recently merged with Unbounce, a marketing company.

    Insightly CRM






    Base price: $29 per user, per month*
    Free trial length: 14 days
    Free plan available: Yes


    Why we picked it

    Insightly offers a few different modules you can use to manage different teams, from sales and marketing to support and project management. In all these modules, you get customizable reports and solid analytics, or insights (it’s kind of in the name). We suggest starting with the entry-level plan for the Insightly CRM module. It offers basic tools to help you manage leads, deals, pipelines, opportunities, emails, and projects. 

    Custom reporting is an uncommon feature in entry-level CRM plans, which Insightly includes. There are more than 40 charts you can use in the business intelligence (BI) dashboards Insightly offers, and it’s easy to design your dashboard with its drag-and-drop interface. The CRM module also includes project management features, which are useful for various teams. 

    There are some sales features you’ll miss out on unless you upgrade to a higher tier including lead routing and workflow automation. For $29 per user, per month, the Insightly Plus plan is enough for a startup that needs to make sales, automate email sends, generate leads from web forms, and manage the sales process. It’s good to keep in mind the limits at the entry level: You get 100,000 records, 10GB total storage, and 2,500 mass emails per day. 

    Learn more: Read our Insightly review.

    See more Insightly plans & pricing

    Plans Pricing Free Trial or Plan Available? Features
    Plus $29 per user, per month Yes Track and manage leadsTask managementCustomizable reports
    Professional $49 per user, per month Yes Customizable dashboardsEmail schedulingComplete workflow automation
    Enterprise $99 per user, per month No Unlimited dashboard cardsDeploy custom apps across platformsDynamic page layout rules
    Plus
    $29 per user, per month
    Yes
    Track and manage leadsTask managementCustomizable reports
    Professional
    $49 per user, per month
    Yes
    Customizable dashboardsEmail schedulingComplete workflow automation
    Enterprise
    $99 per user, per month
    No
    Unlimited dashboard cardsDeploy custom apps across platformsDynamic page layout rules

    Constant Contact is one of the oldest email marketing services built for small businesses. It started in 1995 and has grown from a simple contact management tool to an AI-powered sales and marketing platform.

    Constant Contact






    Base price: Starting at $12 per month, based on the number of contacts who are sent emails
    Free trial length: 60 days
    Free plan available?: No


    Why we picked it

    Constant Contact has recently expanded its contact management and email marketing service to include more traditional CRM features. Though it can stand on its own as a CRM tool with features, such as a built-in dialer, automation, lead scoring, opportunity management, sales reports, and lead generation, it’s still one of the best email marketing platforms. 

    Pricing for Constant Contact CRM starts at $299, though there’s no pricing publicly published, so you have to contact support to learn more. Each CRM plan is customized to your business needs, so the best thing to do is reach out to sales for a demo. Given the cost of the platform, Constant Contact is best suited for a midsized startup that needs a basic CRM with strong email marketing features including AI-assisted content creation, low-cost email sends, a drag-and-drop email campaign platform, and email scheduling. 

    Whether you choose to sign up for Constant Contact CRM or integrate an existing CRM such as Salesforce, Zoho CRM, or HubSpot, the email, social, and short message service (SMS) marketing tools may be worth the cost. Plus, Constant Contact often updates its products with new features such as its recent improvements to customization options, path building for SMS campaigns, and generated sign-up landing pages automatically.

    Learn more: Read our Constant Contact CRM review.

    See more Constant Contact plans & pricing

    For the most accurate pricing, reach out to a Constant Contact sales representative on the website.


    Top features of a CRM for startups

    Managing customer relationships with only a phone and a spreadsheet is time-consuming, inefficient, and requires excellent organizational skills. When you choose a CRM to help you combat the hellscape that can be multiple tabs, cells, and email threads, you free up your time and patience to devote to building your startup into a success story.

    Here are the features you should look for in the best CRM for startups: 

    • Contact management: This is a basic feature, but it’s the core of any CRM. It’s necessary to keep contacts segmented, such as leads, prospects, VCs, vendors, and colleagues, and it’s much easier to do so with a platform designed to help you manage contacts.
    • Pipeline management: To start, you may only need one pipeline, so some of the low-cost CRM plans can work. This feature is important for giving your sales team visibility into which stage each customer is in and that allows for better intention to help nurture a lead or upsell when the time is right.
    • Mobile CRM: Although mobile CRM is rarely mentioned because any CRM worth its weight includes a mobile app, it’s an important feature that shouldn’t be overlooked. Having an app allows salespeople to update contact information, respond to emails, and connect with leads quickly wherever they are.
    • Call center features: You won’t likely need a full-blown call center yet but having built-in telephony or integrations with voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) services can help immensely. Additionally, when you have auto-dialers, call recording or logs, and queues in your CRM, all teams can serve customers better and know precisely what’s going on with each customer. 
    • Analytics: There are basic data reports and advanced ones but, at a minimum, you need sales reports. Having the ability to collect, organize, and analyze data from different points of view can help your sales and marketing processes and prove to investors why they should take a chance on your startup.
    • Lead scoring: Identifying opportunities is a huge part of sales. Perhaps because lead scoring is such a key feature, it’s often locked behind pricier high-tier plans. Lead scoring is one of the best ways to optimize your sales process and convert leads quickly.
    • Prospectors: Though lead prospecting is helpful and saves a lot of time, it isn’t always accurate and may not be a need-to-have feature so much as it’s a nice-to-have feature. These features usually gather and confirm information by scraping social media data, such as LinkedIn, to verify names, roles, and contact information that you may be pursuing as leads.
    • Sales forecasting: This is another advanced feature that your startup might not need yet, but it can be helpful to understand future sales (and possibly sway an investor). A forecasting feature can help you manage resources well, plan for future products, and make informed decisions about various strategies for sales, operations, and marketing.
    • Automation: If you recall the spreadsheet process then you’ll understand why sales force automation is so important to your sales process. Letting your CRM do the work when it comes to follow-up reminders, email campaigns, and regular calls to leads can save you a lot of time and effort.
    • Integrations: Even the most functional CRM is going to require some integrations. Look for two-way sync for email, marketing platforms, VoIP, website analytics, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Essentially, you’re looking for a CRM that will connect to the tools you already use or plan to use as your business grows. If there isn’t a native integration, an open application programming interface (API) and a dev can likely make your tech stack work.
    • Email marketing: We will caution you on email marketing built into CRM because the more email sends you have per month, the more money it will cost you eventually. Startups that are at the beginning stages may do well with the native marketing features in some CRMs, but it can become cost-prohibitive as you build your list.
    • Data storage: It’s rare to see data storage mentioned when looking for a good CRM for your startup, but it’s important. As your business grows, so will the data you store in your cloud-based CRM. The average storage offered in low-cost plans is about 2GB per user, which sounds like a lot until you start creating emails with graphics and images or demos of your products uploaded into your CRM. If you can’t find a generous data storage option, look for data storage integrations or price out how much extra storage will cost per month if you go over the allowance for your plan.
    • Support features: Customer satisfaction and retention may start with sales and marketing, but it continues with support. You want to make sure customers have a way to interact with support agents, whether that’s by phone, email, or live chat. It’s a good idea to have shared contact profiles so everyone knows what each customer’s experience has been with each team.
    • Marketing campaigns: Most small businesses prefer to have separate marketing software for campaigns, but there are many CRMs with marketing features that will support a startup’s efforts. Look for email templates, landing page generators, SMS marketing options, and reports to help you track your key performance indicators (KPIs).
    • Landing page creator: Landing pages are a great way to encourage clicks, measure digital advertising performance, and sell specific products or services, but it is by no means a requirement of CRM software. As with email marketing, a landing page creator is a nice-to-have feature, but it can be a separate piece of software your marketing team uses.
    • Customer tracking: Customer tracking is a combination of features to help you track a customer’s journey from the first time they interact with your website or social media profile. These features can help you analyze customer behavior and provide you with the data you need to keep campaigns going or try something new.

    Although you’d be hard-pressed to find an affordable CRM plan that can do all of that listed above, you should choose the most important features to your business and go from there. Once your startup is more established you can consider upgrading to a more robust plan or advanced CRM to get all of the advanced tools. Keep in mind that even free and cheap CRM software may include integrations so you can combine features from several platforms to create the solution you need.

    How to choose the right CRM for your business

    Startups require various tools for outreach to leads, whether they’re potential customers or investors, and the right CRM can help organize and expedite the process. Solopreneurs or small businesses at the pre-seed stage can benefit from the best simple CRM systems because they’re streamlined, intuitive, and easy to use.

    If you’re on the fence about signing up for a CRM because you have few customers, a tight budget, or you’re working on lead generation, consider CRMs meant to help in specific use cases. For example, the best cheap CRM may not have all the features you need on the entry-level plan but, as with Zoho CRM, may include key integrations to make it a good-for-now choice. Plus, in the case of Zoho CRM, it offers more tiers, so you can scale up to a plan with more advanced features when you can afford it.

    Sales and marketing go hand in hand, even if teams can struggle to stay on the same page at times. To ensure you have your bases covered for lead generation, content creation, and email marketing to help bring in the leads the sales team needs, look for the best marketing CRM to offer you the best of both worlds. Agile CRM and HubSpot are excellent choices because both include marketing automation and email templates, along with lead scoring and advanced reporting. 

    As stated above, analytics is one of the most important features for any business, and especially startups. A CRM with prebuilt or custom report building helps you understand how customers interact with your landing pages, website, and emails. This customer relationship data is vital to understanding the customer journey so that you can pivot as needed. Sales and customer data are important regardless of where your business stands.

    If you’re still not convinced that your startup needs a CRM and you’d rather stick with email and spreadsheets, keep in mind that the best free CRM can perform better than your current method. HubSpot and Zoho CRM, for example, include features such as reports, pipelines, integrations, and email scheduling. Even if you export data at regular intervals to use in another CRM later, free CRM can be a good stop-gap while you sort out the CRM you want.

    Our methodology

    The Fortune Recommends team drew from personal experience to determine the top CRMs for startups, carefully evaluating more than 20 CRM providers. The platforms were scored based on how well they meet the needs of users starting a new business. Our team paid close attention to the number of essential features included by each provider as well as the cost of the cheapest plan that offers the functionality necessary to get up and running quickly.

    Learn more: Read our business solutions methodology.

    Frequently asked questions

    Do startups need a CRM?

    The short answer is yes; the longer answer is it depends. Many startup founders may believe they can get by with spreadsheets and email, but you’re likely to outgrow that method quickly and, if you start with a low-cost CRM, you can retain your data and analyze processes early on to help you succeed.

    What’s the best CRM for startups?

    There is no single right answer to this question because it’s subjective. There are cheap CRMs that are best suited to startups on a shoestring budget and CRMs that include advanced features but, at a higher cost, that can help startups already doing big business. Our list of the best CRMs for startups includes options for businesses at all levels.

    How to choose a CRM for a small business?

    Consider your business needs now and in the future. You want to choose a CRM that works for either a sales team or sales and marketing teams. Look for CRM software that gives you the features you need now such as automated workflows and email scheduling and features for the future including advanced reports, lead prospecting, and AI-assisted forecasting.

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