Best CRM Software in 2024

Monday.com has intuitive task management boards that track contacts, leads and deals all in one customizable interface.

• Who It’s Best For: Sales professionals who want full control over how they organize and visualize their sales pipeline
• Alternatives: 
  • Pipedrive is another sales CRM with an intuitive interface, but it requires less customization and offers less pipeline visualization. 
  • Zoho CRM offers a similar level of customization with less of a focus on project or task management features.

*Contact monday.com for custom pricing if you need more than 40 seats.

Monday.com’s CRM is our overall pick because it has a highly customizable interface that gives users full control over how they manage contacts, leads and deals. When we tested monday.com’s free trial, we liked the “Start from scratch” option, which allowed us to set up the platform how we wanted without pre-built templates or guidelines. We uploaded contacts and categorized them into groups with tags. We chose to view them in list format, though there are other visualization options, such as Kanban boards and Gantt charts, as well.

View of a custom monday.com board with tasks organized into groups

While we found the list view to be helpful for organizing contacts, we could see how it may not work for a longer contact list, as it would end up looking like a spreadsheet. Additionally, we noticed that many of the communication and marketing features, such as mass emailing, weren’t available until the top-tier plans.

Salesforce is a powerful CRM platform that helps with practically every sales-related task.

• Who It’s Best For: Sales teams that need robust sales features to handle large contact lists
• Alternatives: 
  • HubSpot is another powerful CRM that places more of an emphasis on marketing and communication features. 
  • Zoho CRM offers more customization than Salesforce, particularly with visualizing the sales pipeline.

According to the survey we conducted with 200 CRM users, Salesforce is a popular name in the CRM space, known for being powerful and robust. When we tested Salesforce, it was clear that the platform is equipped to handle large-scale sales needs. For instance, the customer profiles are in-depth with sections for lead scores, activities, notes and more.

View of a Salesforce contact profile

However, because Salesforce can do so much, it comes with a pretty substantial learning curve. It took us some time to figure out the layout of the platform, particularly with how contacts and leads are organized. It’s worth noting, though, that Salesforce representatives were eager to reach out and provide guidance during our free trial. Ongoing customer support is also readily available via phone and online chat.

HubSpot effortlessly combines contact and lead management with native marketing features.

• Who It’s Best For: Sales professionals who want all-in-one software to handle both their sales and marketing tasks
• Alternatives: 
  • Monday.com is another full-service CRM that combines sales features with task management tools rather than marketing tools. 
  • Zoho CRM offers built-in email marketing like HubSpot, but it also has sales pipeline visualization.

The HubSpot CRM product is set up to handle essential sales and marketing tasks. When we first signed into our free account, we appreciated the setup flow, as it walked us through each step of creating our custom sales pipeline.

View of the setup flow for the HubSpot deal pipeline

For marketing, HubSpot can create email, text, social media and ad campaigns. You can also create a custom scheduling page that contacts visit to select a meeting time that works for both of you.

While we found most features to be easy to get the hang of, organizing leads and deals was less intuitive. We had to figure this out on our own, as there was little guidance outside of the initial setup flow. 

We’d also suggest setting aside some time to explore all of HubSpot’s products, bundles and prices, as they can be confusing. You may want to consider speaking with a sales representative as well to understand the exact cost you can expect for your business.

The Freshsales drag-and-drop report builder makes custom sales reporting a breeze.

• Who It’s Best For: Sales professionals who want to track performance and share reports in addition to managing contacts
• Alternatives: 
  • Salesforce offers more robust reporting features for larger contact lists if you’re willing to take on a steeper learning curve. 
  • Insightly offers similar functionality for analytics but for custom dashboards as opposed to custom reports.

Freshsales is a CRM from the work management software provider Freshworks. Freshsales stands out from the other CRMs on our list with its extensive reporting capabilities. We tested these features ourselves using the Freshsales free trial. In particular, the drag-and-drop report builder made it easy to start with a blank report and add text, charts and other elements to our liking.

View of the Freshsales report builder with drag-and-drop widgets

Freshsales also excels at organizing contacts and transactions. Within the transactions tab, you can organize and view deals by their stage in the sales process. You can even see the month each deal is predicted to close.

However, we noticed that the tool would often prompt us to connect Freshsales to other Freshworks products. For example, when we tried to make a call from within a contact profile, we were prompted to connect to Freshcaller. If you’re already using other Freshworks software, adding Freshsales to your workflow is a no-brainer. However, if you’re hoping to connect other apps outside of the Freshsales family, then double-check that Freshsales has the necessary integrations.

Zoho CRM has a customizable yet easy-to-learn interface with all the contact management essentials.

• Who It’s Best For: Sales professionals who need a centralized, customizable place to store customer data
• Alternatives:
  • Pipedrive offers similar functionality with less of an emphasis on customization. 
  • Monday.com offers more customization with more features for task and project management.

Zoho CRM is another customizable CRM software on our list. It offers pre-built tabs to help you get started that you can tailor to your preferences. When we tested the free trial, we found it easy to set up and use the deal tracking interface. We chose which fields we wanted to use, including a unique one that tracks the probability of the deal closing. We also customized which view we wanted to use to visualize the data.

Another plus of Zoho CRM is its built-in communication features because they have the potential to cut down on the number of tools you need to pay for and integrate with. One such feature is the SalesInbox, which groups messages based on whether they’re coming from contacts that are or aren’t associated with active deals. That way, you can prioritize the messages from your most important contacts. In terms of phone calls, the call scheduler feature adds upcoming sales calls to your calendar to help you stay organized and avoid double booking. 

Because Zoho is so customizable, there is a slight learning curve. It took us a little time to get used to navigating the platform, but it was easy to customize the interface once we got the hang of it. Additionally, many advanced features have limited availability. For instance, the AI-powered tools are only available in the top Enterprise and Unlimited plans.

Pipedrive is easy to set up with a minimal learning curve, so it’s ideal for CRM beginners who want to jump right in.

• Who It’s Best For: Sales professionals who want to implement a new CRM quickly without an overwhelming setup process
• Alternatives: 
  • Zoho CRM offers similar functionality, but it has more of a learning curve with its addition of more customization. 
  • Less Annoying CRM is a similarly easy-to-use CRM for teams that are less interested in sales pipeline visualization.

Pipedrive is a solid CRM contender if you’re looking for a balance between customization and ease of use. When we tested the platform, we were able to set up the sales pipeline and edit the custom fields using Pipedrive’s pre-built templates and suggestions, making it a quick and painless process.

Beyond the overarching pipeline views, the individual contact cards are robust. Each contact profile includes an activity timeline that details every interaction you have with that contact. You can also add notes to refer back to as you follow up with them.

View of a Pipedrive customer activity timeline

Pipedrive doesn’t have many native customer communication features. Therefore, you need a separate tool for emailing, calling and texting that integrates with Pipedrive’s platform. Another downside is that advanced reporting and forecasting features aren’t available in the first two plans. You’ll have to decide if basic contact management is enough for your needs. If not, an upgrade to one of the top three plans may be necessary.

Insightly offers CRM essentials with the added bonus of reporting dashboards to track sales performance.

• Who It’s Best For: Sales teams that want basic CRM features and advanced reporting capabilities
• Alternatives:
  • Freshsales offers similar analytics capabilities but with more platform customization.
  • Less Annoying CRM is another simple CRM if you aren’t as focused on visualizing the pipeline or reporting on performance.

The feature set for Insightly is mostly CRM essentials. The exception is with reporting, which is robust. In particular, we liked how we could use the drag-and-drop editor to customize our dashboards and track key metrics at a glance.

View of the Insightly opportunities dashboard

Aside from reporting, it’s easy to organize contacts, leads and opportunities into three separate lists. However, there aren’t many ways to visualize these items within your sales pipeline or customer journey. Contacts and opportunities are limited to a list format, but you can organize leads on a Kanban board as well.

Zendesk Sell offers useful functionality for finding leads and setting goals.

• Who It’s Best For: Sales teams wanting a centralized place to manage contacts and goals
• Alternatives:
  • Monday.com focuses more on task management than goal setting if you’re looking for a way to visualize your sales pipeline. 
  • Pipedrive’s simpler interface requires less of a learning curve but has fewer advanced features.

Zendesk Sell is the CRM product that works alongside Zendesk’s well-known customer service software. The first feature we noticed when we signed up for the free trial was the goal setting functionality. We liked that we could set goals for overall sales as well as for particular contacts.

View of Zendesk Sell sales goals

Another unique feature is the Zendesk Reach tool. This tool searches company websites to find the names and titles of their employees who you can then reach out to as potential leads. You can also use this tool to find any details you’re missing for a contact in your database. We tested it ourselves by searching for MarketWatch, and it gave us a list of employees.

In terms of downsides, Zendesk Sell doesn’t offer much for visualizing your sales pipeline or organizing your deals into stages. Additionally, it had one of the steeper learning curves out of the products we tested on our list. That’s why we recommend testing the Zendesk Sell free trial yourself to see how you feel about the user interface before you commit to a plan.

Less Annoying CRM’s easy-to-use interface combines contact management and task tracking essentials.

• Who It’s Best For: Small sales teams looking for just the essential CRM features 
• Alternatives: 
  • Pipedrive offers similar ease of use with better sales pipeline visualization and more advanced features. 
  • HubSpot is built for large teams that need more contact management and marketing features.

Less Annoying CRM lives up to its name with an intuitive interface that offers just essential sales features. While it has the smallest feature set out of any of the providers on our list, it positions itself as an affordable, no-frills CRM solution for small teams. The workspace doesn’t track deals on a board or similar pipeline visualization, but the home page includes a task list and a calendar.

View of the Less Annoying CRM main workspace tab

If you’re looking to upgrade your contact management from a spreadsheet, Less Annoying can help. However, it’s not the right solution for you if you want advanced features, such as reporting, pipeline visualization and marketing. 

Less Annoying charges a flat rate of $15 per user per month, with no pricing tiers or plans. While it is ideal for small businesses, large teams can still make use of the platform if they want a simple CRM solution. Less Annoying offers special onboarding for enterprise businesses while still offering them the same $15 pricing.