March 07, 2020 Published by Mouna Challa

Best CRM for Solopreneurs and Small Businesses [Top 10 CRM's]

A CRM helps to save time, money and resources by streamlining workload, automate processes and individualising marketing efforts. Find 10 best CRM for solopreneurs and small businesses.


A lot of small businesses and solopreneurs find it challenging to stay in touch with their customers. From signing up new customers to retaining existing ones, there is a lot going on.

And you certainly don't want to waste time in scanning thousands of emails chasing down leads or trying to figure out the last time you spoke with a customer. This is where customer relationship management (CRM) can come in handy.

It helps save time, money and resources by streamlining workload, automate processes and individualising marketing based on a customer’s previous engagement with the brand. Here are 10 best CRM for small business and solopreneurs.

Less annoying CRM

Less annoying CRM

Less annoying CRM

What is It? This CRM does what its name promises. It offers a tool that enables you to keep track of sales and business processes and helps you to stay in touch with your contacts. Less Annoying CRM doesn't overwhelm the user with features.

What’s Inside? It's packed in an intuitive interface and almost everything about this CRM can be customised, including the layout and content of your workspace. With its low monthly price and free support, this Less Annoying CRM is a first-class product even for the smallest companies.

Pros: Clean interface with decent features, Robust platform support.

Cons: Basic reporting

Price: Offers only one plan which is $10 per user per month with unlimited contact. You can try all features for free for 30 days without putting in any payment information.

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM

What is It? Solopreneurs or small companies who are getting into CRM for the first time , HubSpot CRM software is an excellent choice.

What’s Inside? It's pretty straightforward to set up and use, email and calendar integration are top-notch and helps remove a lot of the monotonous data entry work. As your organization grows, it offers plans to fit every budget.

Pros: Free edition with Primary CRM features. Decent user interface integrates well with other Hubspot products.

Cons: Premium features are pricey, lack of feature depth

Price: Freemium model which means core features are free, Offers three paid Sales Hub plans, Hub Starter ($50 per month and up), Professional ($400 per month and up), and Enterprise ($1,200 per month and up).

Insightly CRM

Insightly CRM

Insightly CRM

What is It? This crm development services is a great choice for small businesses who are searching for a way to streamline and organize their clients.

What’s Inside? It incorporates multiple tools in a single dashboard, so all your business aspects are on one page. Once you set up properly and get used to it, this CRM will be updating contacts and linking projects for you without much help at all.

Pros: intuitive, affordable, easy-to-use platform loaded with team-friendly features.

Cons: integration needs work.

Price: Offers a Free plan with limited functionality for just two users. Pricing tiers include Plus tier ($29 per user per month billed annually), Professional tier ($49 per user per month billed annually) and Enterprise tier ($99 per user per month billed annually.

Apptivo CRM

Apptivo CRM

Apptivo CRM

What is It? This do-it-all CRM tool has the functionality of higher-cost products like Salesforce. The best part is you can customize it to your precise needs by tweaking it as your business changes and grows.

What’s Inside? This well-rounded CRM is a one-stop solution for small to mid-sized businesses. It also comes with a good number of strategic integrations and easy to use mobile app for all platforms.

Pros: Easy to use interface, Completely customizable solution. Affordable. 24-hour support. Great mobile app.

Cons: Lacks integration with other services.

Price: Offers a free Starter plan and two paid plans, Premium ( $8 per user per month, billed annually) and Ultimate ( $20 per user per month, billed annually).

Freshsales CRM

Freshsales CRM

Freshsales CRM

What is It? For those who are looking for a simple, lightweight CRM, then Freshsales is an excellent choice. There is no steep learning curve, which solopreneurs and small sales teams appreciate because of the time saved and tedium evaded.

What’s Inside? This unified platform comes with extensive features including workflow automation and sales intelligence features

Pros: Easy-to-learn interface, works with other business platforms, available in more than 30 languages, and supports multiple currencies

Cons: Lacks the breadth of third-party integration.

Price: offers five pricing tiers: Sprout ( Free ), Blossom ($12 per user per month), Garden ($25 per user per month), Estate ($49 per user per month) and Forest ($79 per user per month). You can try its features with a 21-day free trial (no credit card information required).

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM

What is It? This CRM provides an incredible bang for your buck with its easy-to-use marketing and reporting tools along with providing excellent user experience.

What’s Inside? Zoho CRM offers a decently intuitive interface, with a huge collection of advanced features and third-party integrations. It's easy to learn and customise as per your needs.

Pros: Plenty of Features, Low Costs, Robust marketing tools and reporting, Custom dashboards, integrates well with other products.

Cons: Limited customer support and requires a lot of customisation before you begin using it.

Price: Offers a free package alongside four paid CRM packages, Standard edition ($15 per user per month), Professional edition ($25 per user per month), Enterprise edition ($40 per user per month), Zoho CRM Plus ($60 per user per month). Each plan has user, features and storage limits.

Infusionsoft by Keap

Infusionsoft by Keap

Infusionsoft by Keap

What is It? This CRM can double as your digital marketing hub and email marketing tool, all in one single software. Its intuitive interface combines widely different toolsets which attract small to midsize business in spite of its high price tag.

What’s Inside? It's easy to use drag-and-drop interface simplifies complex marketing workflows and marketing automation features. However, if you are looking for just a reliable email marketing solution to start digital marketing in general, then GetResponse with bare-bones analytics and third party integration is a much cheaper and effective option.

Pros: Full-fledged CRM with marketing automation and other comprehensive tools.

Cons: No free plans, the account is set up by Sales rep. Limited import tools. Requires training.

Price: Pricing model begins at $199 per month, starting with 500 contacts ( monthly fee increases as your number of contacts increases) along with a mandatory one-time setup fee of $499.

Zendesk Sell CRM

Zendesk Sell CRM

Zendesk Sell CRM

What’s It? Earlier called as Base CRM, this web and mobile-based CRM is simple to use and primarily aimed at solopreneurs and small business customers.

What’s Inside? With Zendesk Sell, you get all the basic features that a small sales team needs like lead management, sales pipeline, customer tracking, reporting along with integrated email and voice communication. It's easy to use interface doesn't scare off users who are new to CRM.

Pros: Easy to set up and simple interface with robust features. Offers Addons and third-party integrations.

Cons: Limited integrations. No phone support.

Price: Offers three paid plans and a 14-day evaluation free trial. Team ($19 per user per month), Professional ($49 per user per month), Enterprise ($99 per user per month).

Pipedrive CRM

Pipedrive CRM

Pipedrive CRM

What is It? This CRM prioritises ease of use over features, which is certainly very lucrative to solopreneurs and small businesses.

What’s Inside? It's simple design and minimalist layout is refreshing. It's simple UI which is packed with features and few advanced capabilities let you spend less time working with the CRM and more time working on your next sale.

Pros: Easy setup and intuitive interface. Useful mobile app.

Cons: Limited functionality for the offered price.

Price: Offers three tiers, Essential tier ( costs $12.50 per user per month billed annually), Advanced tier ($24.90 per user per month, or $29 month-to-month) and Enterprise tier ($49.90 per user per month)

Nutshell CRM

Nutshell CRM

Nutshell CRM

What is It? With an impressive interface and easy-to-use tools, Nutshell CRM is designed for small businesses and sole proprietors looking to automate their sales processes without cutting corners on features.

What’s Inside? It is one of the most straightforward CRM with intuitive contact management, solid Google integration, and outstanding reports and analytics features. It doesn't have any user limits, storage caps, or restrictions on the number of records that you can create.

Pros: Easy to set up and use with helpful tips throughout the interface. Extensive knowledge base when needed, phone and chat support, Excellent reporting and analytics tool.

Cons: Limited customization options, suitable only for small teams.

Price: Offers one single plan for one single price which is $20 per user per month. Also offers a free 14-day trial to test its features.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right CRM might have been a little challenging for you. However, you shouldn’t make this decision hastily. Once you are able to understand what your business needs, you will be able to figure out the right one. You might involve your sales team while making the decision. The perfect CRM is the one that solves your problems and helps you to attain your goals. You can also consider reading reviews and asking for a demo from the CRM vendors. Remember, choosing the right CRM might be time consuming but it is all worth it in the end.
 

Kommo CRM

What is it? Kommo is a CRM Platform that allows you to synchronize multiple messaging channels, from SMS to telegram or WhatsApp. It's one of the must complete tools, since it allows you to attract leads and analyze the performance of your strategies, all in one place and without missing any information.

What’s inside? This all-in-one CRM includes full control of the pipeline of every prospect. Also includes team management, internal chat between team members and data analysis.

Pros: Kommo is the perfect option for solopreneurs that want to connect with potential customers over a variety of communication channels. The platform synchronizes messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, and more

Cons: could have integration with other project management platforms.

Price: You can start with a free trial of 14 days. After that you can opt for plans starting at $15 per user, per month.

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Mouna ChallaMouna is a Digital Marketing Consultant and manages her own blog SolopreneurStation. She is an Automobile Engineering graduate but a Digital Marketing buff. Expert in SEO and keen to help businesses with Digital Marketing, CRO and Growth Driven Design.