The Best CRM Software for 2024

monday is a great example of a CRM system that prioritizes the user experience. Out of the box, it offers excellent sales pipeline management tools, a leading customer data management system, an easy-to-use workflow automation suite and excellent team collaboration tools.

I was impressed by how monday extends the best aspects of its project management tools — specifically, the logical, clear and intuitive interface — to help users quickly and accurately customize numerous business processes, including lead generation pipelines and automated analytics and reporting. Users can access hundreds of preloaded process customization templates.

I really like the platform’s attention to detail. Workflow tools such as Kanban and Gantt reports and color-coded leads in the visual sales pipelines let managers know where every live deal is at a glance.

You’ll need to connect the platform to third-party apps to unlock mass marketing and one-to-one communication tools. However, there’s an excellent app selection, and the integration process is straightforward.

Pipedrive is an excellent sales-focused tool for managing multiple deals at different stages. The vendor understands its target market well, as is evident in the platform’s vast array of sales tools and automations.

CRM software works best when it knows its audience, and Pipedrive gets this exactly right. Companies have numerous options to improve sales performance. For example, they can create multiple sales pipelines or set up helpful reminders and notifications when a sales rep needs to move a deal to the next stage.

Users get more than 30 pre-built and fully customizable sales task management automations out of the box, including handy functions that launch welcome campaigns and send introductory emails.

I really like the Smart Contact Data option, which appends the customer records on a company’s database with LinkedIn data. Third-party configure-price-quote (CPQ) apps are excellent for companies with highly customized products and services at various price levels.

Pipeline’s built-in marketing platform is excellent, especially the email marketing and power dialing features. The 400 apps in the platform’s marketplace can extend this solution’s functionality.

You must subscribe to NetSuite’s broader ERP package to use NetSuite CRM. However, if you do, NetSuite CRM is an excellent option for your business. It’s a capable and feature-packed CRM solution.

Like most modern CRM systems, NetSuite CRM allows you to track a customer’s progress from initial contact to the point of sale and beyond. The ERP part of the software fills in the details in between, making it a viable solution for even the most complicated businesses.

Unlike most other platforms I looked at, NetSuite CRM doesn’t have a built-in omnichannel communications and marketing tool, which I found disappointing. You’ll need to use third-party providers for this function. However, NetSuite will record the data these plug-ins generate, so the CRM software can provide high-level functions, like sales forecasting, CPQ, granular analytics and reporting, upsell recommendations and e-commerce management.

I like that NetSuite is incredibly customizable; you can get it to work precisely as you envision it. If you want to extend the platform’s functionality, you can select from more than 2,000 apps in the NetSuite marketplace.

When reviewing Salesforce CRM, I was impressed that this platform brought enterprise-level functionality to small-business owners.

For example, Salesforce’s powerful artificial intelligence (AI) features are the best executed and most useful on the market. For a small fee on top of your subscription package, Salesforce’s Einstein AI will handle jobs such as finding and executing time-saving workflow automations, thereby reducing the time your staff spends on manual data-entry tasks.

I was also impressed that Salesforce centralizes data from other apps so that sales, marketing and customer service teams always work with the latest information. I found the omnichannel communication platform excellent for mass marketing and one-to-one conversations between a company and its customers. Perhaps most impressive is the availability of thousands of built-in and third-party apps, many of which are free or low-cost.

Strong customer relationships are built on regular, quality, predictable and personalized communications at all stages of the sales cycle. I like how Freshsales CRM, part of the Freshworks platform, handles this task.

The solution’s email, telemarketing and social media marketing platforms are well designed and easy to use for prospecting. For companies running Freshsales, outreach will become much more straightforward and manageable.

The platform’s sales management features are also excellent. I was impressed with the platform’s built-in AI, which can help reps identify promising leads. I also like how the VoIP system allows reps to connect with customers in more than 90 countries from within the platform.

Although Freshsales has many upsides, there’s a slight learning curve for setting up and executing sales automations, workflows and other features. However, you should still consider this system because of its excellent wider functionality, especially its reporting and analytics.

I like how the platform integrates seamlessly with Google Business Messages, Line, WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS and more. An impressive 500 apps are available in the Freshworks marketplace.

Zoho CRM is an excellent option for businesses with remote teams and hybrid working arrangements. I really like how the system simplifies remote work management and helps you create uniform, specific workflows for teams in various locations.

In companies where office attendance is not compulsory, maintaining high standards across the board can be challenging. However, Zoho CRM’s customizable workflow options effectively address this concern.

The well-stocked Zoho marketplace offers more than 1,000 apps. I was pleased to see the number of communication and collaboration apps this CRM tool offers, including popular software such as Slack, Mailchimp, Google Workspace, GoTo Meeting, Docusign and Everbrite.

All users get access to Zoho’s impressive omnichannel platform that supports mass and one-way communication with customers by phone, email, social media, messaging apps and even website chatbots.

The Zoho mobile app is particularly impressive. It offers full functionality for both managers and agents. Many platforms treat mobile apps as an afterthought, but that’s not the case for Zoho. I was pleasantly surprised by how effectively Zia, the platform’s AI assistant, works on the mobile app, helping staff members complete routine tasks and manage their days effectively.

The HubSpot marketplace is not the biggest; NetSuite and Salesforce have twice the number of apps. However, I was impressed that HubSpot’s marketplace had a wide assortment of apps focused solely on improving marketing, sales and customer service team performance.

Since its launch, HubSpot has been the tool of choice for companies that want to drive better results from their marketing and sales teams. It has an excellent — and well-justified — reputation in the marketplace.

The platform’s built-in marketing and sales automation features are superb. If you want to extend functionality, you can choose from more than 750 marketing apps, 600 sales apps and 200 customer service apps in the marketplace.

I found much to like about HubSpot, including its standout omnichannel communications and marketing platform. And if customers want to contact you in a specific way, HubSpot has an app for that.

HubSpot’s customer segmentation and general marketing tools are superb, as are the reports that link responses to campaigns (attributions), forecast sales volumes, and identify drop-off locations in sales funnels.

The user interface is simple, making it a breeze to set up and manage automations. I really like that HubSpot offers a free plan with limited functionality so you can test the platform at no cost.

Insightly CRM is highly intuitive and comes packed with dozens of valuable features out of the box. While it’s a lesser-known platform, I like that it has attracted enough developers to populate its marketplace with an impressive 2,000 available integrations.

More than 260 sales and marketing apps are available in Insightly’s app marketplace, with direct links to Shopify, Adobe Commerce, Microsoft Advertising, Buffer (social media marketing), X (formerly Twitter) and Twilio. The marketplace also boasts app categories such as AI and machine learning, collaboration, finance and accounting, and project management. I really appreciate the volume and quality of the available apps.

I was also impressed by how simple Insightly makes it to customize dashboards and automate repetitive tasks. These features free managers to focus on their core activities, making the tools particularly crucial for improving team productivity and performance.

Analytics and reporting are superb across the board. I was impressed by the level of granularity the system provides on marketing campaign performance and customer satisfaction levels.

I was impressed that Zendesk’s unified customer database allows companies to manage all stages of the sales cycle, from cold prospecting to closing deals and beyond.

As more sales and inquiries come from online forms, I appreciate how Zendesk measures, analyzes and reports on dozens of client touchpoints. Sales managers can monitor a diverse range of metrics to see what works best. These include email click-through and open rates, website visits, inbound calls and texts, and more.

I really like that Zendesk provides features to help you build a self-service online knowledge base for your customers. The AI tools can help you decide what content to use on the self-service areas. You also get a choice of more than 100 visual layouts and themes, which is great for branding.

Zendesk’s omnichannel communications tool is excellent for mass marketing and one-to-one communications. I particularly like the power dialer, as phones are still crucial all-around tools in marketing, sales and support.

I also appreciate Zendesk’s customizability and collaboration tools, particularly the “side conversations,” where a colleague can join a live conversation with a client or act as a “light agent,” hiding their involvement.

Thryv is a simple, versatile CRM system and a compelling proposition for service businesses, especially smaller firms that serve local areas.

There are two primary services: Marketing Center and Business Center.

• Marketing Center: I was underwhelmed by the Marketing Center options, which are designed to help you build and manage marketing campaigns. This service costs between $199 and $349 monthly, with a $250 onboarding fee. I found this a bit pricey; you could probably source many of this offering’s functions for $1,000 from freelancers on sites such as Fiverr.
• Business Center: The Business Center is a much better package. It’s a scaled-back CRM system with features that are essential to service businesses, like sending estimates and invoices, accepting client payments, and recording appointments. Healthcare businesses can add HIPAA compliance for an additional small fee each month. The Professional and Unlimited packages cost between $349 and $499 a month, which is pricey if you have only two or three employees. The Business Center package offers many features from the Marketing Center option, plus either 10,000 or unlimited email and SMS marketing messages.

Thryv is somewhat lacking compared with the other CRM systems on this list. However, it has earned its place here because it’s an intuitive, user-friendly system that offers smaller service businesses a highly relevant set of features. If the vendor changed from a per-location pricing model to a per-user model, this platform could be more compelling for its target market.