Top 10 CRMs by Use Case
The era of sprawling client spreadsheets is long gone. Dedicated client relationship management (CRM) systems are now vital to modern business. Even a one-man show can benefit from having a dedicated, organised way to manage their client or donor relationships.
But there are a lot of products, and it’s hard to know what the right fit is for your business’s needs. When decision-makers aren’t careful, considerations other than business goals can get in the way of selecting the correct solution, and that path leads to budget horror and complex technology rationalisation projects down the road.
Generally speaking, any CRM will offer ways to centralise, track and organise leads and opportunities, some integrations with useful third party software, and some way to create, track and automate workflows to ensure that client information can be passed on from one team member to another with minimal fuss.
However, one of the interesting things about CRM software is that many of the biggest names in the industry did not start life as CRM systems — they are marketing, project management or even enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms which, over time, have evolved capabilities for managing customer or donor relationships. This means that different platforms will have an edge over others in certain areas. This makes a ranked list unhelpful, but matching CRM to business needs can help businesses prioritise which options to investigate.
10 of the most common CRMs we encounter, separated by use case.
Salesforce
A purpose-built product for customer relationship management and an industry veteran.
An excellent all-rounder, Salesforce offers an enormous number of integrations with other software and it’s powerful and customisable enough to meet the needs of extremely large businesses. It provides AI-driven tools and strong workflow automation, but its wide array of features and functions can render it sufficiently complex as to be challenging for newer users.
There’s no free version of this platform, but Salesforce offers a 30 day free trial. Otherwise, users can start at $35 (AUD) per month, billed annually.
Best for: Large businesses with multifaceted business needs and organisations with long or complex sales cycles. If it doesn’t do something natively, chances are that Salesforce offers a solid integration with something that does, but businesses with relatively reduced needs may find it too powerful to fit their requirements.
Microsoft Dynamics 365
A suite of products used for enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management. The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales module is its CRM offering.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 enjoys many integrations, obviously including its native and robust ones for Microsoft’s suite of office productivity applications. It’s a powerful platform that’s strong on automation, community support, and AI-powered tools. This is a cloud-hosted solution, but it can also be deployed on-premises at need.
While there is no permanently free version of Dynamics 365, there is a 30 day trial version. Otherwise, users can start at $97.30 (AUD) per month, billed annually.
Best for: Large businesses needing enterprise-level deployments, organisations already well-embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem and teams which make extensive use of their ERP software.
Hubspot
An all-in-one customer platform, executing on marketing, sales, content, customer service and commerce.
Hubspot is a cloud-hosted solution that places a lot of emphasis on its multichannel marketing and automation technologies. While it can be deployed across large businesses, the loadout of technologies is sufficiently flexible and dynamic to operate at any scale. However, adding on new capabilities can quickly increase cost, and extensive customisation is more limited at lower tiers.
There are a wide range of integrations between Hubspot and existing tools in your kit, and there is both a 14-day free trial version of the platform as well as a permanently-free, more limited version best used by individuals and very small teams. Otherwise, users start at $22 (AUD) per month, billed annually.
Best for: Small and medium businesses seeking a platform that will scale flexibly and organisations that need a CRM product that will accommodate their heavy marketing automation demands.
SugarCRM
A product designed for business-to-business sales teams that manage complex deals.
It integrates with a very wide array of ERP systems, including older legacy systems that may no longer be on the radar of alternatives. However, the integrations available scale with pricing and tier. SugarCRM also offers AI-powered tools, workflow automation, and low- or no-coding options to support highly customisable user experience.
There’s no free version. The platform starts out at $82 per user per month, but be aware that SugarCRM requires a minimum of ten users.
Best for: Business-to-business sales teams with long, complicated sales cycles. Sufficiently small businesses will be unlikely to require ten separate user seats.
Zoho CRM
Part of the broader Zoho suite, which is a dedicated series of cloud applications for businesses.
Zoho CRM is reviewed as a good all-rounder, offering a wide array of integrations, AI-powered tools and strong workflow automation. It’s capable of deployment at any scale and offers a permanently free, limited version adequate for teams with few employees or low need. The user interface and experience receives mixed reviews.
There’s a 14-day trial available at premium tiers, and otherwise an account starts at $22 (AUD) a month, billed annually.
Best for: Teams looking for a functional all-rounder with strong automation capabilities.
Less Annoying CRM (LACRM)
A straightforward CRM designed specifically for small business.
LACRM is self-funded and advertises that it is therefore beholden more to customers than to investors. It’s designed to be a highly functional and equally straightforward CRM solution, and prioritises ease of onboarding, essential integrations and strong customer support. It does not embed AI-driven tools or automations.
Although there is no free version, LACRM offers a 30-day free trial. Otherwise, there is only one pricing tier. It is charged at a flat rate of $15 (AUD) a month, which is a stark contrast to the labyrinthine pricing systems of alternatives.
Best for: Small businesses and teams seeking a cost-effective, no-frills CRM product with clear pricing and no surprises.
Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT
A relationship management platform purpose-built for the non-profit sector.
Raiser’s Edge NXT offers strong customisation of fields, views and dashboards. While it integrates with relatively fewer products than some of the heavy-hitters on this list, it does include an array of non-profit specific products like, e.g., DonorSearch or VolunteerHub. User reports indicate that the functionality is extensive, but this can occasionally make the product challengingly complex.
There is no free version of this platform. Pricing isn’t provided by the vendor, either, but reviews indicate that pricing is tiered and relies on the number of constituents held in the system.
Best for: Charities and nonprofits looking for a donor management platform that can balance core service delivery with fundraising.
Pipedrive
A CRM built by and for sales professionals, designed for small and medium sized organisations.
It has hundreds of integrations but the core product is highly sales-focused, including comprehensive, customisable pipeline visualisations, workflow automations and AI-powered tools for sales tasks. Custom fields are limited by payment tiers, which start at $14 (USD) per month, billed annually.
There’s no free version of this platform, but it offers a 14-day trial.
Best for: Small and medium businesses and teams whose focus is most strongly centred on sales, rather than an equal distribution of sales, marketing, service delivery, etc.
Insightly
Presents itself as a smaller, lighter, cheaper CRM for small and medium business.
It offers AI-powered tools, including data hygiene tools, as well as highly customisable views and dashboards with low- and no-coding options. Users report a strong user experience, a good user interface and effective project management and workflow tools embedded.
Insightly offers a 14 day free trial, and otherwise its lowest tier is for $29 (USD) per month, billed annually.
Best for: Small and medium businesses and organisations looking for robust project management options within a CRM.
Monday CRM
A product of monday.com, a project management software platform that allows users to heavily customise the software for their needs.
With this in mind, it unsurprisingly excels in areas of task and workflow automation, and offers a wide array of AI-driven enhancements and customisation options. Users attest that this platform is easy to learn and use.
Monday CRM also offers a free or heavily discounted version of its platform for registered charities, depending on their needs.
There’s a 14-day free trial available, and plans start out at $19 (AUD) per user per month, billed annually. The platform requires a minimum of three users.
Best for: Teams already using the monday.com ecosystem of products and teams that need a project management tool that has CRM features. Nonprofits seeking a more general donor and project management tool may find Monday CRM worth investigating on account of its charity discount.
CRM Migration Prerequisites
Remember, it’s vital to keep in mind that, although different products will have different strengths, the most important step is to thoroughly assess and understand your organisation’s actual business needs prior to selecting a CRM product.
Moving to a new CRM is a daunting prospect for any organisation. Once you’ve chosen a new platform, you’ll need to move all of your existing client data from your current solution to the new environment. Check out our blog about The Anatomy of a Data Migration to learn more about how that should progress.
