The 8 Free CRM for Small Businesses
For many small businesses, the biggest initial challenge is being able to find your first few customers. However, once that initial wave of customers arrives, juggling existing client needs while attracting new customers can quickly become overwhelming.
You may find yourself struggling to meet deadlines and manage client expectations, leaving little time to even establish a sales funnel.
That’s where CRMs come in. It helps in multiple ways from tracking leads, following up, managing sales pipeline, to taking care of customer support.
To help you choose CRM tools that don’t make a dent in your pocket, we have compiled a list of free CRM software systems for your Small Business that we tested ourselves, considering different factors like accessibility, support, integrability and user reviews.
Rundown
- Best free CRM for small business: HubSpot CRM, “It is an easy-to-use free CRM that seamlessly integrates sales and marketing tools into a single platform, streamlining your workflow and improving efficiency. Additionally, it has marketing tools like email marketing, forms, ad management, a shared inbox, list segmentation, and landing pages.”
- Free AI-powered CRM: Zoho CRM, “It is an AI-powered versatile CRM that is highly customisable and offers tools for managing contacts, leads, deals, and tasks, enabling you to streamline your sales processes. Its omnichannel solution helps you to manage customer interactions across multiple channels, including phone, email, social media, and live chat.”
- All-in-one free CRM for small businesses: EngageBay CRM, “It provides a comprehensive system that goes beyond CRM, including contact and lead management, as well as marketing automation and customer support features. You can efficiently handle contact and deals, automate sales cycles, and schedule appointments all in one environment.
- Best free CRM for sales teams: Snov.io, “It provides a suite of sales tools designed to accelerate sales automation at scale and generate quality leads effortlessly. It also gives access to features like email finder, drip campaigns, email verifier, email warm-up, and more within the same platform.”
- Best Free CRM for lead management and Email Outreach: Insightly, “From lead capturing forms to custom lead scoring and automated lead assignment, Insightly equips you with the necessary features to efficiently manage and prioritise leads. Additionally, it helps you to send personalised and targeted email campaigns, track email opens and clicks, and automate follow-ups.”
- Best for Visual Sales Processes: Pipedrive CRM, “Pipedrive helps you to effectively manage your deals through a graphical interface that visually presents the different stages of your sales pipeline. With Pipedrive's visual reporting, you can easily derive insights from your data and utilise it to improve your sales pipeline.”
- Best free CRM for small business scalability: Bitrix24, “Bitrix24 offers a customisable CRM system with various tools and functionalities, such as contact management, lead tracking, sales automation, and communication channels integration, to effectively manage and scale customer relationships while adapting to evolving requirements.”
- Best free CRM for email marketing: Brevo, “Brevo seamlessly integrates with popular email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, making it easy to manage and track your email marketing campaigns. You can also create targeted email campaigns, track email performance, and nurture customer relationships, all within Brevo.”
How We Found the Best Free CRMs for Small Businesses
Choosing the Best CRMs for Small Businesses requires extensive research and evaluation.
We carefully looked at many different platforms and evaluated them based on certain criteria to find the most reliable and effective ones.
In this list, there are different CRMs for different use cases, like; some are for lead management, email marketing, Visual Sales Processes, etc.
We have curated this list following the following criteria:
- Platform utilisation: We went beyond the reviews and personally tried the platforms firsthand to comprehensively understand their features, functionalities, and user experience.
- Features: We assessed each CRM's feature set, focusing on essential functionalities that small businesses need, such as contact management, task and activity tracking, sales pipeline management, email marketing integration, and automation capabilities. We looked for CRMs that offered a comprehensive set of features to support small business operations.
- Ease of Use: Usability is crucial for small businesses with limited time and resources. We evaluated the user interface and intuitiveness of each CRM, considering factors such as navigation, customisation options, and the availability of tutorials or support resources. CRMs that were user-friendly and required minimal training were prioritised.
- Integration Options: Small businesses often rely on multiple software tools to manage their operations. Therefore, we looked for CRMs that offered seamless integrations with popular third-party applications, such as email marketing platforms, accounting software, and customer support systems. Integration capabilities were important to ensure a smooth workflow and eliminate manual data entry.
- Scalability: Small businesses aim to grow, so it was important to consider CRMs that could accommodate future expansion. We evaluated the scalability of each CRM, assessing factors like user limits, storage capacity, and pricing options for scaling up as the business grows. CRMs that provided flexibility and easily accommodated business growth were given preference.
- Customer Support: Having access to reliable customer support is crucial for small businesses that may encounter technical issues or need assistance with implementing and optimising the CRM. We looked for CRMs that offered strong customer support, including options for live chat, email support, phone support, and comprehensive knowledge bases or help centers.
Recommended Free CRMs for Small Businesses
Best free CRM for small business
HubSpot CRM
As a small business owner, you may encounter difficulties keeping track of customer interactions, managing sales processes, and analysing data. HubSpot CRM is a free CRM software that helps you navigate these challenges effectively.
The free HubSpot option combines their CRM, marketing, sales, and services tools, making it a versatile choice for both sales teams in need of CRM and marketers looking to automate communications.
Hubspot CRM gives you a comprehensive set of tools to facilitate lead capturing, company and contact profiling, and sales conversions. It helps you create detailed company and contact profiles, organising all customer data in a clear and manageable format with no limits on the number of contacts (up to one million).
This free CRM tool also provides a single dashboard that can be accessed by every team member, with no restrictions on the number of users. This enables seamless collaboration across your team.
The best things about HubSpot CRM are:
- Lead Generation Tools: You can utilise lead generation tools such as built-in forms, pop-ups, and live chat to capture leads directly from their websites.
- Email Tracking & Notifications: You'll receive instant updates when prospects open your emails or interact with links, enabling you to follow up promptly and maximise sales opportunities.
- Deal Pipeline Management: Efficiently manage your deals and sales pipeline by customising deal stages to align with your unique sales process. Easy drag-and-drop functionality lets you track progress and keep deals moving forward effortlessly.
- Reporting Dashboards: Create detailed reports within the CRM that will help you evaluate performance, spot trends, and make informed decisions to drive success in your small business.
In addition, the suite also provides training resources, learning guides, invoice template generators, email signature generators, and marketing plan template generators as part of its extensive online library.
Free AI-powered CRM
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a user-friendly, free-to-use solution that enhances traditional CRM software by utilising the power of artificial intelligence.
With its AI-powered capabilities, Zoho CRM automates routine tasks, saving you valuable time and allowing you to focus on more important aspects of your business.
With Zoho CRM, you also have the ability to seamlessly integrate the tool with your everyday solutions like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
Additionally, Zoho CRM's AI technology provides valuable insights and data analysis, helping you make informed decisions and improve your marketing and sales strategies.
Zoho CRM offers a solution by providing a system that can grow with your business. As your business expands, Zoho CRM allows for easy customisation and integration with other business tools and applications, making it adaptable to changing needs and ensuring a seamless workflow.
The best things about Zoho CRM are:
- Zoho CRM offers a user-friendly experience for beginners, making it easy to use.
- Even on the free plans, Zoho CRM provides advanced features such as AI
- With Zoho CRM, you get all-in-one support that covers sales, marketing, and service functions, ensuring a comprehensive solution for your business needs.
- It allows you for customisation and integration, giving you the flexibility to tailor the system to your specific requirements and seamlessly integrate with other tools.
In addition, Zoho CRM offers a wide range of support channels including email, live chat, telephony, and social media. This allows you to capture and convert your leads across various communication channels effectively.
All-in-one free CRM for small businesses
EngageBay CRM
EngageBay goes beyond being just a CRM solution by providing a complete toolkit for customer engagement. This all-in-one platform offers a range of valuable tools that empower marketing, sales, and support teams.
With EngageBay, you can easily manage contacts and deals, automate sales cycles, and schedule appointments, all within a user-friendly environment.
You can build forms and landing pages, create your own help desk, and even provide self-service options through live chat. The platform makes it exceptionally straightforward to add and segment contacts using filters, as well as create automated workflows.
The visual sales pipeline feature comes with drag-and-drop capabilities for easy customisation, providing a highly visual and customisable approach to managing your small business sales process.
The best things about EngageBay CRM are:
- Easy to use
- It includes a range of marketing features at no cost, such as mass email, newsletters, web forms, and social monitoring.
- Seamless integration with popular everyday tools like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
- You get free access to lead scoring features which helps you to to assess and quantify potential customers based on various criteria, enabling you to prioritise and focus on the most promising leads.
EngageBay also offers seamless integrations with ecommerce platforms, email marketing tools, and other essential business software, enabling you to connect and streamline your workflows.
Additionally, the platform provides useful dashboards for tracking insights and analytics, allowing you to gain valuable data and monitor performance, even on the free plan.
Best free CRM for sales teams
Snov.io
Snov.io goes beyond being just a conventional CRM system; it serves as a comprehensive sales enablement solution for your small business.
Its toolkit enables you to search for companies, verify email addresses, and discover social media contacts, enhancing the prospecting process significantly.
In addition, you can create automated email workflows and drip campaigns using dedicated templates. These features help you to streamline your email marketing efforts and ensure consistent engagement with your customers.
Plus, the platform offers a useful "email warm-up" feature to enhance email deliverability and prevent your emails from being flagged as spam by recipients.
The best things about Snov.io are:
- Comprehensive sales prospecting tools that enable you to effectively discover and engage with potential customers, ensuring a comprehensive approach to sales.
- Excellent email marketing capabilities to help you create and manage impactful email campaigns.
- It offers a wide range of integrations with various third-party tools, allowing you to connect and consolidate your workflow for better efficiency and productivity.
- Custom reports and analytics
- Unlimited campaigns on the free plan
Moreover, Snov.io's customisation options enable small businesses to tailor the CRM to their unique workflows and processes.
This customisation ensures that the CRM solution aligns with the specific needs of your business, equipping the sales team with the tools they need to effectively manage customer relationships and drive revenue growth.
Best Free CRM for lead management and Email Outreach
Insightly
Small businesses often face challenges when it comes to managing their leads effectively and communicating with them in a way that maximises conversion rates. Without a streamlined system in place, you may struggle to keep track of potential customers and nurture them through the sales process.
Insightly helps you to easily capture, track, and convert leads, ensuring that no opportunities are missed. The lead management features offered by Insightly streamline the lead lifecycle, making it easier for you to nurture potential customers and move them through the sales funnel.
In addition, You can create personalised and targeted email campaigns, set up automated follow-ups, and track engagement, all within the Insightly platform. This feature enables you to effectively reach out to your leads and increase the chances of conversion.
The best things about Insightly are:
- It offers convenient integrations for sales, marketing, and service functions, allowing you to seamlessly connect different aspects of your business operations.
- It has hundreds of templates for creating professional-looking pages and emails; you can easily customise your communications to match your brand and engage your audience effectively.
- Insightly also provides business dashboards and analytics, giving you valuable insights into your performance, customer interactions, and overall business health.
Additionally, Insightly offers automation options that enable you to streamline repetitive workflows, saving time and optimising efficiency in your day-to-day operations.
Also, Insightly has seamless integrations with other tools. This feature enables you to connect the CRM with other apps and software, all within the CRM platform.
Best for Visual Sales Processes
Pipedrive CRM
Sales pipeline management is a critical aspect of your operations, as it involves tracking and managing potential leads and deals throughout the sales process. Without a proper system in place, you may struggle to keep track of each deal's progress, tasks involved, and key milestones.
Pipedrive CRM has a user-friendly platform specifically designed for sales pipeline management.
Through a structured and visual representation of the sales pipeline, you can easily track the progress of your deals, prioritise tasks, and ensure that no opportunities are missed.
Pipedrive CRM is customisable as you can create custom fields, tags, and filters, enabling you to organise and analyse your data in a way that makes sense to you. This flexibility ensures you can adapt the CRM to your specific sales processes and workflows.
The best things about Pipedrive CRM are:
- Sales Pipeline Visualisation: Effectively manage your deals through a graphical representation showcasing your sales pipeline's different stages.
- Timely Activity Notifications: Keep track of your tasks and never miss an important follow-up with leads and clients, thanks to reminders that ensure you stay on top of your activities at the right time.
Pipedrive CRM offers seamless integrations with popular business tools such as email clients, calendars, and marketing automation platforms. This integration allows for smooth communication between your CRM and other essential systems, eliminating the need for manual data entry and enhancing your overall productivity.
Pipedrive CRM also offers a mobile app that enables you to manage your sales pipeline and track progress from anywhere.
Best free CRM for small business scalability
Bitrix24
Scalability is crucial for small business because as you grow, your CRM needs must be able to adapt and accommodate your expanding requirements.
Bitrix24 gives a range of features that ensure seamless scalability for small businesses.
Bitrix24 allows you to add as many team members as needed without any additional costs. This not only ensures that everyone in your growing business can access and contribute to the CRM, but it also eliminates any barriers to expanding your team.
In addition to its user access and storage capabilities, Bitrix24 offers a comprehensive set of CRM functionalities essential for efficient customer management and sales automation.
You can easily manage contacts, track communication history, automate routine tasks, collaborate seamlessly with your team, and provide exceptional customer service.
The best things about Bitrix24 are:
- Offers collaboration capabilities that are well-suited for remote teams.
- The free plan allows for an unlimited number of contacts, ensuring that you can manage and engage with your entire customer base without any constraints.
- Provides a range of comprehensive integration options, enabling you to connect the CRM with other essential tools and systems for seamless data flow and enhanced productivity.
In addition, Bitrix24 includes cloud storage, allowing you to store your data securely and conveniently within the CRM platform. This provides easy access to information from anywhere, promoting efficient workflows and centralised data management.
Best free CRM for email marketing
Brevo
If you need a CRM specifically for email marketing, then Brevo is worth checking out.
It offers a range of features that enable you to easily create, manage, and track email campaigns. From intuitive email template builders to automated email workflows, it helps you optimise your email marketing efforts and drive significant results.
It also helps in contact management by importing and organising your contacts, ensuring that the right messages reach the right audience. The CRM provides valuable insights into contact engagement, allowing you to tailor your email campaigns and deliver personalised content that resonates with your target market.
The best things about Brevo are:
- It offers free unlimited email sending. With no restrictions on the number of emails you can send, you can maximise your reach and engagement without any added costs.
- It has an user-friendly interface
Additionally, It provides a wide range of integrations, making it seamless to connect with your preferred email service providers, marketing automation tools, and other essential platforms.
