The best CRM software in 2024

We tested dozens of Salesforce, Zoho CRM & HubSpot alternatives and identified the top 6 CRM applications available.

It can be challenging to find the best CRM (customer relationship management) software for your company. Plenty of options. Many characteristics. I've used a variety of lead management tools over the past 20 years or more, including company-specific CRMs and commercial CRM platforms like the ones shown above. I took the time to test each of the best products on the market for this article.

I'll give you a glimpse inside these dynamic systems, explain how they operate, highlight what makes the top CRMs unique, and even delve into areas where I believe improvements might be made.

Here are the top 6 CRMs that I've found after doing a lot of testing. You can click on each app to learn more about it, or you can read on to learn more about CRMs.

The best CRM software in India

• Zoho CRM Plus - Best all-in-one CRM software for small businesses
• Salesforce Sales Cloud - Best for easy customization options
• HubSpot - Best for scaling a business
• Pipedrive - Best easy-to-use platform
• Ontraport - Best for automating online transactions
• Nimble - Best choice for customer prospecting
• Nutshell - Ideal options for administering a sales team

What makes CRM an ideal platform?

A centralised, manageable location for sales and contact information is maintained by client relationship management software. Every interaction, such as phone calls, emails, chats, website visits, social connections, campaigns, etc., should be recorded in your CRM. Why? Because every interaction with a customer presents an opportunity for learning.

When it comes to CRM solutions, every organisation has various needs, so I chose the components I thought best captured those needs:

• Simple to use: The don't make me think approach for websites is something to strive for, even though it could be asking too much of CRM software. If a user can sign in for the first time and comprehend the basics, it is a success; nevertheless, not everything will be as straightforward. For the more complex functions, in-app instructions, explanations, and help information are crucial and beneficial. When support and onboarding services are frequently available, users are more productive.
• Managing sales and contacts. Your CRM and your business depend on people, so how you manage them is crucial. How well-versed are you in them? What information can you get about them? Where should you concentrate your sales efforts? What form of interaction and communication is most efficient? Your target customers' purchase behaviours should be suitable with the contact and sales management features of a CRM.
• Customization Ideas: Your CRM programme should function just how your business does. The terminology you employ, the information you require, the processes you adhere to, and the apps you utilise (see the linkages below) are all unique to the manner in which you conduct business. CRM software should be as closely adapted to your company's needs as is reasonably possible.
• Reporting Features: You cannot manage anything if you don't measure it. What do you intend to quantify? How about predicting sales? The ideal CRM can report on every piece of data you can gather, including sales by rep, sales cycle, average value, loss factors, and a plethora of other data points.
• Automation and integration. Automation of processes will increase employee productivity (and make them happier) and help to ensure that crucial aspects like communication are not missed. A CRM cannot manage every situation. A wide variety of third-party connectors can integrate departmental activities and expand the client data collection capability, resulting in a more complete customer profile.

Zoho CRM Plus (Web, iOS, Android) - Best all-in-one CRM software for small businesses

Zoho CRM Plus is the only option for small organisations searching for an all-in-one solution. This platform ($57/month/user) incorporates many channels, including sales, marketing, customer service, social media, and projects. To top it off, Zoho provides affordable add-on suites for simple integration, like Finance, Custom Apps, and Forms, to mention a few.

Although Zoho already offers a lot of customization options, the Canvas tool lets you alter the CRM's appearance and feel as if you were creating the user interface from scratch. Access it from Setup, choose the module you wish to (re)design (for example, contacts), and then continue. then choose a template to modify or start from scratch. From there, you can simply drag and drop the desired data fields, elements, and style onto the WYSIWYG editing page. Lastly, decide which team will be able to see the updated design. Each module can have a unique design, or they can all be duplicated to have the same appearance. Also, you can alter the main menu's name, order, and visibility of the modules.

Salesforce Sales Cloud (Web, iOS, Android) - Best for easy customization options

Businesses who require several customization possibilities in their CRM programme may think about Salesforce Sales Cloud. The potential for building a customised platform is practically limitless thanks to its own customization capabilities, the internal ecosystem, and both third-party AppExchange and external ecosystem.

Using the Flow Builder, you can create customised process management automations. By selecting Flows from the Settings menu, you may choose the type of flow you want to create. A record-triggered flow, for example, allows you to specify what happens once a certain record (like a contact) is created. The visual builder allows you to then set conditions. For example, contacts created exclusively during a particular date range would only receive follow-up emails.

Salesforce allows you to manage who has access to see and edit fields at the page level. So, depending on their roles, you might wish to prevent employees from viewing or editing fields in a contact record that have nothing to do with their line of work. This may be done for security reasons as well as to prevent integrity problems from staff who might not have the necessary specialised knowledge. You can also write your own help text at the field level to describe what that field means. You might have a description that reads: This is the maximum allowed for this account type for the discount field, for instance. All of the aforementioned require manager permission. These guidelines serve to remind employees of proper business procedures, especially those who are newer to the company.

Pricing for Salesforce Sales Cloud: $25 per user each month

HubSpot (Web, iOS, Android) - Best for scaling a business

Let's start with user friendliness. Since I began using HubSpot CRM about ten years ago, the interface hasn't undergone any modification. With numerous dropdowns and a convenient search box, the menu is positioned vertically at the top of the page (filterable by object). Everything you could possibly need is displayed in contact records at a glance: contact information on the left, activities in the middle, and associated objects like deals, invoices, and payments on the right. With just a few clicks, you may add offers, quotations, and tickets; with others, you can write an email, make a call, or schedule a meeting.

A Sales Hub add-on must be purchased in order to access more sophisticated sales functions; prices start at $45/month for two users and include unlimited users and one million contacts. You can track all of your contact engagements and sell more effectively with the help of these tools. For instance, contacts can simply book calls without exchanging emails back and forth by clicking the calendar link in my email signature, which is connected to my Microsoft calendar. When I send a sales deck, I can then see their page views and track their website visits and email opens. Target Accounts, an account-based marketing (ABM) tool, lets you analyse information like open deals, last touch, and other filters when identifying your potential clients.

One feature that I frequently utilise is Sales Sequences, which enables me to build relationships and stay top-of-mind with my ABM targets by allowing me to design a series of five automatic emails. Instead of a salesy bombardment, I typically send brief marketing-related blog post links or eBooks that look like a one-time personal email (though you could create those too if you wanted). They are simple to set up, keep an eye on, and evaluate, just like other things in HubSpot. Also, using quotes, I can quickly prepare SOWs that I can then submit to my clients for electronic signature.

Price of HubSpot CRM: Starter CRM Package (Marketing, Sales, Service, CMS, Operations) starts at $30/month; free for an unlimited number of users.

Pipedrive (Web, iOS, Android)- Best easy-to-use platform

If you need software that is easy to use, Pipedrive, a well-known sales CRM package, is a good option. The platform offers a lot of flexibility, but its sole function is to help salesmen close deals. There aren't many advertising or service features to divert your attention.

The Pipedrive layout is simple, with all of the menu options located on the left, a search bar at the top, and an expanding menu on each page for adding deals, activities, leads, etc. rapidly. One of the options on the menu is your mailbox. After establishing a connection with your email provider, tracking openings, and email history, you can email directly from the inbox or contact record. Also, you can manage your meeting availability inside the app, sync your Outlook or Google Calendar, and create a link to share with contacts. Smart Contact Data is another useful tool that pulls known social and professional data for contacts with a single click.

You'll need to buy blocks of call credits to make calls using the app (you receive five free hours per month), and these call credits will be applied to your monthly by-the-minute rates. Calls can be placed and recorded from both the People list view and from individual records. When a call is over, select the next option from a list by clicking the result. A contact's timeline includes a record of every call activity, including the recording.

If you're seeking for more automation capability, Pipedrive's Zapier connectors enable you to do a variety of things, such as send Gmails when new deals are added to a stage, add new deals to a spreadsheet, and add new subscribers to Mailchimp.

Pipedrive cost: from $14.90 per month per user; add-ons: LeadBooster $32.50 per month per business; Web Visitors $41 per month per business

Nimble (Web, iOS, Android) - Best choice for customer prospecting

Nimble CRM keeps prospecting sales teams well-organised and more productive with its Prospector engine, contact action lists, and social tracking capabilities. Also, the Interface has a dynamic feel to it that makes it fun to use.

When you first join up, Nimble offers a tonne of instruction, making it difficult not to get started and up to speed right away. The Signals portion of the dashboard offers a convenient high-level summary of important daily data, such as deals, tasks, activities, email tracking, and social activity. When you're prepared to start eating, the menu features these same items. Even though Nimble recently introduced a few new reports, this is still a flaw in the programme. Deal progress, funnel conversion, deals won and lost, expected revenue from deals, and opportunities per stage are all included. A custom reports option that enables you to keep track of the information you're gathering, such as activities or business categories, would be helpful.

With Nimble's Zapier connections, you can do anything you need to in your most-used apps, including automatically adding new email subscribers as Nimble contacts and adding new contacts to Google Contacts.

Cost-effective: From $25 per month per user with 25 Prospector credits each month ($10 for every 100 additional credits).

Nutshell (Web, iOS, Android) - Ideal options for administering a sales team

The features of Nutshell, a sales-focused CRM, will make the jobs of sales managers and their representatives simpler and more effective. Team and territory management, extremely detailed adaptations to match how and to whom you sell, and reporting tools to assess any data point are some of these features.

In order to keep up with the work of your team, managers can completely customise the numerous notifications (such as new leads, watched leads, actions, tasks, and mentions). You can specify confidence percentages, the number of days a contract must be late, and the automatic closing of past-due deals using customised pipelines. Fields for rivals, industries, and marketplaces are among the useful, organization-specific characteristics.

You can assign leads to your team's reps based on their given regions, which can be set by area code, city, state, and postal code. I could therefore automatically distribute all leads to Hondo based on his designated territory if he is given the South. This is multiplied by a few territories and hundreds of leads each month. Moreover, lead distribution works with markets, suppliers, and industries.

A contact's appropriate LinkedIn page and other social media profiles will be linked when you add them as a contact. Also, it will pull in your work profile and add your employer. Tasks and other activities can be scheduled to facilitate teamwork. Furthermore, Nutshell's options offer limitless contact and data storage.

By integrating Zapier with Nutshell, you may expand your company's capabilities. You can add individuals to Nutshell based on fresh form submissions and automatically create Google Contacts from fresh Nutshell leads.

Nutshell Pricing: From $16 per month per user; a marketing add-on begins at $5 per month for 100 contacts.

What is the best CRM (customer relationship management) platform?

Since there are so many capable CRMs available, the majority of them will likely suffice. Yet, you'll be able to move swiftly, adjust as necessary, and close more leads if you locate a CRM that's tailored to your organization's demands. Your company's success depends on how well you manage your client relationships, therefore do it well.

Check out my suggestions to determine which CRM platform is best for your company because I've used all of the ones on this list extensively and can attest that they're all reliable resources.