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Nobody grows their business without onboarding new customers. And to manage your new relationships, you’ll need CRM software. Naturally, when you’re just beginning, you’d prefer to save as much money as possible. Fortunately, free CRM software is abundant and caters to a variety of use cases.
Below, you’ll find a list of the top 13 free CRM software with the pros and cons of each one. Remember, the free software will only get you so far, but these solutions are adequate for businesses with basic needs.
Top 13 Best Free CRM Software:
- Zoho CRM – Best All-around Free CRM Software
- Hubspot CRM – Best Free CRM Software for Growth
- Capsule – Best Free CRM Software for Beginners
- Engage Bay – Best Free CRM Software for Small Business
- Bitrix 24 – Best Free CRM Software for Collaboration
- Insightly – Best Free CRM Software for Tracking Customer Interaction
- Real Simple Systems – Best Free CRM Software for B2B Sales
- Agile CRM – Best Free CRM Software for Call Centers
- Freshsales – Best Free CRM Software for Lead Generation
- Streak – Best Free CRM Software for Gsuite Integration
- Less Annoying CRM – Best Free CRM Software for Financial Advisors
- Monday CRM – Best Free CRM Software for Sales Templates
- Clickup – Best Free CRM Software for Managing Tasks
1. Zoho CRM – Best All-around Free CRM Software
Pricing: Free for up to 3 users
Zoho recognizes that entrepreneurs need as many breaks as they can get. Therefore, they made their industry-standard CRM platform free for up to 3 users. Zoho’s built-in communication tools cover email, social media, quick chats, and bot chats. Additionally, Zoho gives you marketing capabilities like sales calls and marketing funnels. While free users can customize their landing page, further customization is limited to paid users.
| Pros | Cons |
| Highly recommended for beginners | Poor UI reflects poorly on the sender |
| Easy deployment | Poor support staff |
| Automate workflows |
2. Hubspot CRM – Best Free CRM Software for Growth
Pricing: Free plan available
With free software, things often run smoothly at the beginning. Then suddenly, you hit a roadblock: usage of the feature you wanted is limited on the free plan. Luckily, Hubspot CRM gives you unlimited users. And if you ever hit the ceiling of the 1 million free contacts, then you can probably afford the paid version. For new users, this is often a bridge to paid software like salesforce. Users also appreciate Hubspot’s pipe sales funnel logistics and workflows that are easy to automate.
| Pros | Cons |
| Unlimited Users | Only has a virtual support center |
| Easy basic tools | Overwhelming for beginners |
| Great for growth: 1M contacts | Not a final solution, despite its features |
| Easily automate workflows | Poor customer support |
3. Capsule – Best Free CRM Software for Beginners
Pricing: Free for 2 users, 10MB storage, 250 contacts
When you’re new to CRM software, you don’t want to risk lots of money on something you can’t use. Beginners favor Capsule over advanced solutions like Salesforce even if they use the paid plan because Capsule makes client management look easy. Capsule is notable for its detailed client note templates. You can even record the names of your clients’ pets! Unfortunately, advanced users often find they are hamstrung by its limited functionality outside client management.
| Pros | Cons |
| Good for managing tasks | The free plan limits your growth |
| Detailed client notes | Sales part is difficult to use |
| Mostly easy to use | No customization |
| Poor layout |
4. Engage Bay – Best Free CRM Software for Small Business
Pricing: Free plan for 15 users
If you run a small business, your marketing and sales teams likely overlap. Indeed, you might be the one responsible for both! EngageBay facilitates your workflows by combining marketing, sales, and lead generation tools into a single interface. Its free email tools are extensive, helping you design interactive emails and set up automated responses. Other capabilities include landing page design, though few templates are available.
| Pros | Cons |
| Email marketing | Few template options |
| Free helpdesk & live chat | Difficult to troubleshoot by yourself |
| Efficient to use |
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5. Bitrix24 – Best Free CRM Software for Collaboration
Pricing: Free for unlimited users, 5GB storage
Managing a sales team can be challenging, Bitrix24 is a CRM software that makes collaboration efficient. Bitrix24 regards interactions with both clients and fellow team members as equally important, giving you extensive functionality to manage both. Such functionality includes workload planning, company workspaces, calendars, and chats to help organize your team and expedite your workflows. As Bitrix24 prioritizes ease of communication, its crown jewel is perhaps the free HD video calling functionality.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easily manage leads | Can’t report success/failure with a lead |
| Automated sales process | Difficult to find certain tools |
| Customizable templates | Buggy UI |
| Unlimited users |
6. Insightly – Best Free CRM Software for Tracking Customer Interaction
Pricing: Free for up to 2 users
Every CRM software addresses customer relationships, but Insightly goes the extra mile to help you track customer interactions. With the functionality to manage the entire contact and sales pipeline, Insightly helps you to qualify leads, and track their responses. Their email tracking system even notifies you when your clients open your emails. Lead routing and contact syncing help you connect your prospect with the right person. While teams larger than 2 users must pay for this software, they will likely enjoy Insightly’s workflow automation and the further efficiency that comes out of it.
| Pros | Cons |
| Many features | Difficult to configure |
| Manage leads at every step | Complex email integration |
| User friendly | Pay to automate workflows |
7. Real Simple Systems – Best Free CRM Software for B2B Sales
Pricing: Free for 2 users and 100 accounts
Usually, B2B sales are more fruitful than any other kind. Each sale requires more care and attention than the average one. Real Simple Systems knows this and addresses your unique needs. They enable you to take detailed notes on clients and easily identify opportunities for new sales with their client database. To help you organize your team, the calendar and commission management help you to simplify your workflows.
| Pros | Cons |
| Coordinate contact & email correspondence easily | Hard to integrate with other productivity tools |
| Customizable fields for clients’ info | Crashes frequently |
| Improves workflow, efficient | Few contacts on the free plan |
8. Agile CRM – Best Free CRM Software for Call Centers
Pricing: 10 users free, 50,000 contacts
If you run a call center, one of your top priorities is client management. Yet few free solutions are tailored towards your needs. Luckily, Agile CRM developed a solution for you. Agile delivers basic tools like autoresponders, reminders, and appointment management, but they also go further. For instance, to automate your workflows, Agile allows for custom integrations with software such as Bria, Microsoft Teams, and LinkedIn. Agile also allows you to track the effectiveness of your campaigns with alpha and beta testing.
| Pros | Cons |
| Perfect for small organizations | Don’t use the paid solution |
| Many features | Workflow automation eventually becomes paid |
| Easy to set up | |
| Integrates with other software |
9. Freshsales – Best Free CRM Software for Lead Generation
Pricing: Free Plan for unlimited users
Lead generation is an integral part of your sales process. Freshsales simplifies this process with its custom lead generation forms. Moreover, Freshsales provides you with a full view of your contacts to track them through the sales lifecycle. They also offer other tools to make your life simpler. For example, this tool will automatically enrich your list of leads with their LinkedIn info, so you don’t have to. If you’re willing to pay money, they also offer AI-driven predictive scoring to determine which leads are most likely to respond.
| Pros | Cons |
| Automated lead lists | Terrible customer support |
| Easy to access, nice UX | |
| Integrate other software |
10. Streak – Best Free CRM Software for Gsuite Integration
Pricing: Free for individual users
Streak serves a very specific set of users: those who conduct their email marketing via Gmail and Gsuite. If your business is part of that demographic, you might want to check out Streak, if only to try it out – teams must pay to use the service. As Streak runs entirely within Gmail, their offerings consist mostly of functionality such as templates, internal chat, and appointment scheduling.
| Pros | Cons |
| Manage deals directly from Gmail | Limited functionality/capacity on the free plan. (50 emails per day) |
| Improves efficiency | Not great for lead generation |
| Easy to deploy |
11. Less Annoying CRM – Best Free CRM Software for Financial Advisors
Pricing: 30-day, no credit card free trial, $15/user/month after
Like many other professionals, financial advisors have better things to do than agonize over client relationships. Less Annoying CRM is a tool tailored specifically for this demographic. While it’s true that it’s only free for one month, this should give you ample time to test each of the software’s features. Naturally, those features are designed specifically for financial professionals, including contract, license, and commission management. Other relevant functions are also tailored to your needs as you can easily share contacts with your team and manage the customer lifecycle.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to set up | No full-fledged free version |
| Test every feature | No email integration |
| Import/Export data easily | |
| Excellent customer service that works with you on specific issues |
12. Monday CRM – Best Free CRM Software for Sales Templates
Pricing: Free up to 2 users, lifetime license
Monday.com made its name by providing workflow software for HR departments. If they can simplify HR workflows, then surely, they can simplify your sales workflow with their CRM. Not to mention, Monday CRM offers other helpful tools including over 200 templates to help you gather your sales materials and track your leads. As Monday CRM is better suited for larger businesses, many of its important features like email integration are offered exclusively to paying customers.
| Pros | Cons |
| Better at managing tasks than other CRMs | Limited free functionality |
| Easy to use online documentation | Better suited for larger teams |
| Beautiful UI |
13. ClickUp – Best Free CRM Software for Managing Tasks
Pricing: Free 100MB storage, unlimited tasks, users
First and foremost, ClickUp is a task management tool. However, many aspects of task management are vital to CRM activities. Therefore, ClickUp is perfect for businesses looking to manage sales assignments and perform audits. If you have a team that needs flexibility, you will appreciate the fact that ClickUp offers unlimited users and tasks. Moreover, their communication tools like email integration and built-in video chat are essential to collaboration and you can easily access these on any device.
| Pros | Cons |
| Enhances overall productivity | Complex to use |
| Great for collaboration | Features poorly integrated |
| Feature-rich | |
| Migration from another platform is simple |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CRM software and why is it important?
Customer Relationship Management software enables you to systematically track your relationships with your customers. Features often include sales force and marketing automation to help expedite your workflows. CRM software is crucial for any business looking to grow its customer base. If you don’t use CRM software, you might end up spending all your time parsing through an incomprehensible jumble of notes.
What is the best free CRM software?
While many different types of CRM software exist and account for a variety of use cases, the most comprehensive CRM tool is probably Zoho CRM. Read on to discover some CRM tools that could suit your particular use case better.
What is the best free CRM software for small businesses?
EngageBay is the best free CRM tool for small businesses. This software is perfect for small teams and allows you to combine your marketing and sales workflows so you can optimize the time you spend managing clients.
What is the best free CRM software for startups?
The answer depends on the type of startup you’re running. However, Hubspot is considered a leading CRM tool for growing your business as it allows you to keep track of 1 million contacts. Meanwhile, Freshsales is optimal for lead generation. Perhaps your startup relies on B2B sales, then you might need Real Simple Systems to give your prospects the attention they require to convert them into clients.
What is the best free CRM software for real estate?
Given the nature of the industry, Hubspot CRM is considered optimal for real estate. Given that agents rely on a plethora of contacts, the 1 million free contacts that Hubspot gives you will make networking easier.
What is the best free CRM software for sales?
While all CRM software is intended for use by sales teams, you might point out that there are many different types of sales. For B2B sales, many prefer Real Simple Systems. On the other hand, Agile CRM is perfect for managing call centers. Find the right fit for your team.
What is the best free CRM software for finance?
Less Annoying CRM was built specifically for use by financial planners and advisors. However, they only offer a 30-day free trial before forcing you to pay. Use that time to test the product to see if it’s a good fit for you.
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