The Top Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software for Small Businesses in 2024

Freshworks CRM (formerly Freshsales) earned our top ranking as the best CRM out there. This software solution provides a good balance between a lean and affordable option and an enterprise solution that has more features. The platform offers excellent customer support and an intuitive interface with an option for just about any feature you would need. It also comes in at a low price point.

Some actions and dashboard customization are limited. There's also no user forum. However, these downsides are outweighed by all of the software's advantages.

One of the main features Freshworks offers is lead scoring. It has a strong prospecting tool that will help salespeople feel more in control of their pipeline. Other features include team management and reports.

Freshworks offers a lead tracking system that allows you to score individual prospects. Image source: Author

Insightly is a CRM tool geared toward improving the flow and organization of your business. Its range of marketing tools is impressive, and it has automation features that will save your team time.

Unfortunately, the best marketing features are for higher-paid tiers, and some app integrations regularly break. However, those issues are more than outweighed by a fantastic support team, extensive features no matter your business size, and even a "forever free" plan for those solopreneurs who need a simple solution right away.

Its most interesting feature is lead routing, which helps you contact prospects at exactly the right time. With this feature, the sales team focuses efforts on red-hot leads, automatically sending those leads to a team member when the time is right. Insightly also offers email marketing, custom dashboards, and plenty of integrations with popular third-party software.

Insightly’s marketing dashboard displays all the relevant data. Image source: Author

Agile CRM is designed for small and medium-sized companies. It is a cloud-based solution that integrates all of your activities -- sales, marketing, social media, and even customer service -- into one place. The software comes at a number of pricing levels, ranging from free to enterprise, and it supports more than 50 plug-ins and integrations.

While the customization could be better and automation features can be tough to understand, we like the fact that importing contacts is quick and easy, there's seamless application with popular apps like Skype and Facebook, and gamification features help improve employee efficiency.

One of the big features of Agile is its contact management tool. Agile keeps contacts organized and allows the user to store basics about your customers, including interests and how they interact with your company. This allows you to build lasting relationships with your customers. The software also offers tools for project management, appointment scheduling, and even a landing page builder.

Agile’s dashboard clearly shows where your sales team stands at the present moment. Image source: Author

Pipedrive is ideal for small businesses or salespeople who are heavily involved with the marketing team. This easy-to-use CRM has lots of marketing tools to help your team get to the next level, and it comes in at an affordable price. It's also very easy to use and was made by sales experts for sales experts. This is a great option if your team is growing and you need something to organize your efforts.

Despite the good pricing options, there's no forever free plan for this software. Also, the Essential plan includes web forms that are branded, and the feature set is somewhat limited. However, this is one of the most affordable CRM solutions out there, and it's easy to use as long as you get the training. Also, the customer support is 24/7.

Pipedrive's pipeline management feature is a standout. It allows you to closely monitor your lead generation and sales process with proven methodologies, helping your team make more conversions. You can use it to spot trends, and customization is easy. The software also integrates your email system, helps you generate leads, and produces visual sales reports.

Pipedrive will improve the communication between your sales team and your customers. Image source: Author

Redtail CRM is another top solution that goes the route of simplicity rather than trying to bombard the user with features. This software option doesn't have the range of capabilities of some platforms, but it's a great web-based solution for small businesses that need a simple CRM platform to organize their sales efforts.

The software could stand to have some free training, more features, a more robust mobile app, and some additional customization options, but it does a lot of things really well -- particularly customer service, an easy-to-use dashboard, detailed contact information, and email archiving. The pricing is pretty straightforward: It's $99/month for every 15 users.

The dashboard is one of the best aspects of Redtail. As soon as you log in, you can see everything that you need to know, including upcoming appointments, workflow tasks, and team notices. Salespeople are often pulled in every direction, so it's helpful to have one hub to keep them centered. Additionally, the software offers a calendar, detailed contacts list, reports, a mobile app, and workflow processes.

Redtail’s dashboard is easy to navigate with the handy menu on the left. Image source: Author

HubSpot CRM is a free CRM option for small businesses on a tight budget. This CRM is very easy to set up and get started with, and its massive features list makes it great for large enterprises as well. HubSpot offers something for everyone -- big companies can get all the bells and whistles to manage their marketing and sales teams, while solopreneurs can opt for the simple "forever free" option.

The massive feature set can be daunting for some users and costs can quickly increase the more features you need. However, the "forever free" option, the scalable CRM stack and marketing suite, and the excellent performance-reporting dashboards set this software platform apart in a good way.

HubSpot's pipeline dashboard is its standout feature. The dashboard shows every detail about your sales funnel in real time and lets you share it with the entire team so everyone is on the same page. It is well-designed and easy to read, and you can chop up the data to see who is overperforming and who is underperforming. Other features include activity logging, real-time chat, and email templates.

HubSpot does a good job of providing visualized data. Image source: Author

Capsule CRM is ideally suited for companies that are worried about price and ease of use. This platform provides all of the functionality any sales team expects from a CRM, even if it doesn't have some of the more advanced features you might find with some of the pricier options. However, it's a web-based tool that offers a free version, and that makes it attractive to a lot of small businesses.

Beyond its limited features, the software has other downsides. Its customer support is also limited, and it doesn't have a long list of integrations. It also doesn't offer much in the way of reports. However, it has a simple, clean dashboard, a great mobile app, and -- most importantly -- a free version. And that might be enough for your organization.

The software has an interesting contact list tool. You can upload contacts from a spreadsheet, and its automation tool checks the fields and automatically creates those fields in the software, which is a big time-saver. You can add an opportunity or a case to the contact to track sales progress with each individual or make notes and attach files to them. The software also helps you track cases and opportunities, and while its reporting features are limited (and only available to paid users), you can create basic reports to help with sales forecasting and spotting trends.

Capsule allows you to store detailed information on potential customers. Image source: Author

Zendesk Sell is a platform that excels with limited onboarding and powerful reporting features to help you improve the performance of your team. It can get expensive, but this CRM is one you should explore as it is easy to use and offers plenty of interesting features for a sales team.

The main downsides of the software are that it is expensive beyond three users, has limited features at its lowest tier, and customer support is limited. However, this is an easy-to-use platform that is great for tech novices; onboarding is minimal and its strong reporting tools compare favorably to competitors.

Zendesk has a good tool for managing leads. You can't put as much detail into it as other software platforms, but leads are easy to add and organize. The software keeps a detailed call log so you know how many calls your team is making and what impact it is having on conversion rates. Its reports let you dive into conversions, call and email outcomes, and many other aspects of your team's performance.

The Zendesk Sell dashboard can be customized depending on your needs. Image source: Author

Vtiger Sales CRM is a platform that aims to streamline communication both internally and externally, as well as improve your interactions with customers overall. The software does a good job of organizing and storing information on your various sales and marketing efforts, and it has helpful automation features to save your team some time.

Vtiger has a free version, making it a solid option for sole proprietors and small businesses. The software's organization of contact search results leave much to be desired, and a number of modules may increase the learning curve, but Vtiger has a lot of advantages as well. For example, it offers an easy-to-understand management console, adaptable customization and modules, and excellent value when it comes to the number of features you get.

The level of customization when it comes to the contact list is probably the software's strongest feature. You'll be able to capture leads and contacts a lot easier with customizable fields and the ability to attach notes and other information to help land a sale. Prebuilt widgets and customizable charts will help you get even more out of the software.

Vtiger’s contact pages are about as detailed as you will find in the CRM world. Image source: Author

Salesforce CRM is one of the biggest names in the CRM world, for good reason. This platform caters to small and large businesses alike, and it offers just about any CRM feature your company needs. The Salesforce team will customize the software to your specifications, and while it's not the cheapest CRM on the market, you'll get a lot for your money.

Salesforce can be challenging to learn, the setup is complicated, and if you want a lot of features, you'll have to pay quite a bit. However, you can pick and choose the features you want, there’s a lot of integrations, and it offers tools for every facet of your business.

Salesforce's opportunity management feature will let your team funnel leads through the pipeline so they keep track of them better. The software also offers task management, which lets you attach dates and manage the team schedule through the software. And you'll also be able to create custom quotes using information entered into the software so you can quickly process orders.

Salesforce’s highly visual dashboard will keep your sales team on the same page. Image source: Author