Zoho One: 30-day free trial; then €45/employee/mo
Enterprise: 15-day free trial, then €50/user/mo
Zia, Zoho Intelligent Assistant
enriches lead and contact data; suggests best time to contact based on comms history suggests workflows (automations) and macros (shortcuts allowing one to complete multiple actions with one click) recommends upsells and follow ups based on lead data/history generates reports and charts creates and updates records via conversational interface analyzes email intent and summarizes mail comms Plus, other features available across non-CRM tools of the Zoho One Suite
4.67
extremely flexible and customizable, enabling you to create custom modules and write your own code/functions if needed comes with powerful automation features for sales and marketing, even with more affordable plans Zia AI to throw even more AI power behind the CRM wide array of native integrations (even wider with Zoho Flow within Zoho One) coupled with access to an extensive ecosystem of tools covering all aspects of business - from invoicing and inventory to website activity tracking and support easy to set up, pay-as-you-go telephony at a very affordable price might be overwhelming to set up initially, especially for businesses with complex processes and no prior experience with CRMs or no dedicated employee/consultant to assist adoption might take a while as most novice users experience a significant learning curve due to the abundance of features and options (which might be distracting at times) support can be slow to respond sometimes For years now, Zoho has offered the best value for money on the market, and they continue to push the envelope by constantly releasing new features.
Zoho CRM is perfect for businesses that want a solid foundation for managing sales and other processes in one centralized hub, and prioritize a flexible system that can easily scale with the business.
While it doesn’t have the most powerful AI functionalities on the market yet, the AI features come with an affordable price tag and are quite useful for day-to-day sales operations.
If your business requires a lot of custom solutions for its CRM, you might be wise to hire a consultant/partner to lead the setup of your system - budget money and time accordingly.
30-day free trial
Starter Suite: $25/user/mo
Professional:
$80/user/mo (billed annually)
Enterprise:
$165/user/mo (billed annually)
Einstein AI
In Starter Suite:
only Activity Capture features are available Truly useful features are only available starting with Enterprise plan:
relationship and conversation/email insights lead and opportunity scoring deal insights and sales forecasting Einstein Copilot looks impressive, but is prohibitively expensive for most SMEs
3.67
very powerful and customizable extensive ecosystem of add-on services and integrations covering all aspects of business impressive AI capabilities (however, they require investment in higher-tier plans) might be overwhelming to set up without professional help truly powerful customization, automation, and integration features are only available on more expensive tiers add-on services you’ll need to purchase to cover other business functions will add up quickly only the cheapest and most limited plan has a monthly billing option - forced to commit to a yearly plan (i.e. big investment upfront, especially with many users/employees) Powerful and sophisticated, Salesforce might not be the best choice for startups or small businesses that haven’t found their footing yet, as competitor’s products offer better value for money with a more intuitive setup.
This CRM is best for bigger, already established companies with complex processes and complicated approval hierarchies - provided your business has a healthy margin to justify the expense, and, ideally, a tech pro/IT team to manage the setup and maintenance of the system.
14-day free trial
Professional:
€59/user/mo
Sales Assistant
predicts deal closure probability provides basic performance analytics Only available in Beta for now and only for plans starting with Professional and higher; must apply to test it
4.33
clean and intuitive interface, easy to pick up even for a novice straightforward setup across modules, automations, and integrations, very DIY-friendly built-in meeting scheduler, e-docs functionality, and invoicing project management and email campaign add-ons available for an extra fee multiple email accounts sync - not a given for most competitors basic array of options for customization and automation could present issues if your processes become more complex as your business scales very limited AI capabilities and only available on request, in Beta Accessible, affordable, and user-friendly, Pipedrive is a great choice for SMEs focused primarily on sales. It would work best for businesses that don’t need robust customization and automation functionality and don’t prioritize possible integration with ERP/inventory, shipping, support, and other business functions.
Freshworks Freshsales Suite Enterprise
21-day free trial
Freshsales Suite Enterprise: $71/user/mo
Freddy AI
generates sales emails and SMS content summarizes, enhances, and rewrites articles resolves duplicate contacts provides deal /forecasting insights suggests the next best action offers out-of-office detection for optimal email deliverability
5
very smooth, well-designed onboarding and setup - best I’ve seen in a while abundance of workflow templates that make it easy to get started with automating repetitive processes possibility to enhance the ecosystem with a whole suite of marketing and support tools built-in phone calling capabilities limited number of marketing contacts included in the plan - not suitable for serious mass email marketing without paying for extra contacts AI functionality mostly focused on chatbots and user support, might not be very relevant to some businesses abundance of plans and services available makes it difficult to understand the differences and pick a suitable plan without additional help An impressive array of features coupled with a very intuitive interface make Freshsales Suite a flexible, powerful CRM system that will be the perfect fit for businesses of all sizes and niches. I’d recommend definitely trying it out if you’re on the market for a CRM.
14-day free trial
Sales - Professional: $59/month
generates content for emails, SMS messages, landing pages, and even forms recommends/designs automations suggests the best time to contact prospects with predictive sending offers AI-powered A/B testing conducts sentiment analysis and predicts win probability 5
built to encompass the whole customer lifecycle to enable CXA - customer experience automation, which shows through thoughtful selection and design of features; feels comprehensive, but not overwhelming focus on marketing and nurturing leads every step of the way - from built-in landing page builder to the presentation of contact interactions in the record and integration with Facebook Custom Audiences & Lead Ads Automations Map is a neat feature that allows you to see how various automations connect into one unified ecosystem, providing a bird’s eye view of all the cogs of your CRM machine free migration service - a very nice touch that you don’t really see at this price point CRM functionalities are rather basic compared to competitors - this could present issues when it comes to scaling your business limited reporting functionality Geared towards lead nurturing, email marketing and campaign automation, ActiveCampaign seems like a great fit for e-commerce businesses that are looking for a powerful marketing suite of tools but don’t need their CRM to do anything too complicated.
15-day free trial
Vtiger One Enterprise: $58/user/mo
Calculus AI + GPT
with GPT features, allows to do research and brainstorming right within the CRM conducts deal scoring and forecasting conducts engagement and sentiment analysis, call quality scoring generates and rewrites email content summarizes support chat conversations recommends the next best action and best time to contact leads As of March 2024, only 3 months of AI use are included in One Professional or One Enterprise Editions, then the add-on becomes paid
3.67
includes marketing, inventory, project management, support features, bringing all key business functions together in one hub similar to Pipedrive, comes with a built-in appointment scheduler the Vtiger Application Platform (VTAP) feature offers a low-code platform for building custom apps and solutions compatible with your CRM (similar to Zoho Creator) interesting licensing option with Single App vs Standard access, allowing you to save costs as your team grows has a steep learning curve when it comes to initial setup and customization - I struggled to figure out where to find certain settings the interface feels a bit clunky and complicated to get a hang of, so user adoption might suffer if you choose to go with this option Given the robust set of features and the focus on customization, Vtiger seems to be trying to compete with Zoho, but falls short when it comes to the user experience. This CRM is worth keeping an eye on to see what new features and improvements get rolled out in the future.
