10 Best Free CRM For Small Business

To better understand CRM solutions, an introduction to its free version is a must. Just like window shopping, you are free to explore the features before settling down with a vendor. Without the fear and pressure of breaking your bank, and failure post-implementation, you can take time to gain deep insights about the CRM system. You can learn the upside as well as the downside of the CRM systems and make the ultimate choice. Thus, go on reading this article on the 10 best free CRM for small businesses in the world and learn which one fits your business needs!

1. HubSpot:

HubSpot is literally becoming the hub of customer interactions and building relations out of it. It is one of the best free CRM for small business and offers you a smooth and easy entry as you step into the world of CRM solutions and SaaS products. It helps small businesses and startups that cannot spend a surplus amount of money in one go but also wish to escalate their business. HubSpot offers varieties of marketing tools, various sorts of templates, calling and call-recording features, email marketing, and social media tools, lead management, and sales pipeline management features at no charge.

HubSpot features are a mixture of paid and free versions. HubSpot’s core features are intense on the sales and marketing side apart from offering some of the real benefits of CRM software to the users.

Features of HubSpot:

• The free version of HubSpot CRM allows you to add up to 1 million contacts to your HubSpot database easily.
• Includes features like Live Chat, Content management, Gmail or Outlook Integration, Contact Website Activity, App Marketplace Integrations, Ad Management, etc.
• Access to Email Tracking, email templates, and canned snippets.
• HubSpot Academy can work wonder. It is free online training support for gaining knowledge about inbound marketing, sales, and customer service.
• HubSpot free tools are great for motivated DIY users. There is a grand buffet of options such as Email Signature Generator, Growth Grader, Blog Ideas Generator, Make My Persona, etc.
• The free CRM version facilitates tracking of prospect’s interactions and deals finalized at one location. It helps to generate basic reports which are sufficient for small businesses :
  • Total value of deal per stage
  • Analyze sales performance and number of contacts and deals assigned to sales reps
  • Productivity highlighting the total number of calls made and received
  • Tasks finished in a given time period
  • Closed deals and recent activities

You can spruce up the free dashboard with add-ons, of course for a certain fee.

Limitations Of HubSpot:

There are no limitations as such, but you know you cannot be using this free version of HubSpot CRM for too long because your ultimate goal is to scale your business. If you can manage within the limited features of the free CRM, you can stay it on forever but for growing companies, there is a requirement for advanced features in the paid versions of HubSpot CRM. You will get access to only five email templates, five snippets, and five documents. Also, you will be curbed to one meeting scheduling link without any customization.

This can be frustrating when you come to know that you will have to start paying for every 1000 contacts in your database once you start using the paid versions. However, it should be well-understood that those advanced features are a financial investment and robust tools comes at a price.

Pricing:

HubSpot CRM is free allowing unlimited number of users and for detailed knowledge of pricing plans separately, you can visit HubSpot.

2. EngageBay:

EngageBay often quotes itself as a HubSpot alternative and it’s a modular suite comprising three products similar to HubSpot- Marketing Bay, Sales Bay, and Service Bay. Each of these modules is assigned with a specific set of features that helps in workflow automation, lead generation, email marketing, landing pages, and business sales automation. Its robust yet integrated sales and marketing tools help the users to engage, gather and nurture leads and convert them into paying customers. Thus, this CRM system is considered as one of the best free CRM for small businesses.

Integrated systems with in-built tools aren’t something new. ERP platforms are one such example that combines various functionalities and streamlines business processes. There are other business management solutions as well offering core toolsets of sales, marketing, and customer service in one package and EngageBay belongs to that elite group.

This unified cloud-hosted CRM solution helps in organizing email contacts, tracking leads, and managing the sales pipeline, in the meantime, its live chat and helpdesk features allow you to track and give precedence to support tickets to expedite the resolution of issues.

All these features and tools can be evaluated at first for no cost. Just sign up for EngageBay free trial.

EngageBay is cited as a perfect substitute for expensive customer relationship management software due to its flexibility and budget-friendly pricing and thus listed in the best Free CRM for small businesses. It comes with an absolutely free plan for up to 1000 contacts and 1000 branded emails. The crowning accomplishment is that this free plan is as good as for unlimited users.

Features of EngageBay:

• EngageBay can be used by any business regardless of size and industry, but its focus is on startups and SMBs looking for a comprehensive CRM solution that does not break the bank.
• As already stated above, it’s a free, all-in-one package where you get 1000 contacts and 1000 branded emails per month with other features like Ticketing Management and Lead Grabbers. Providing up to 20 GB of file storage, email and chat support, Web forms, and Schedules, EngageBay is one of the most robust CRM software around.
• With EngageBay, you can send personalized newsletters and birthday wishes automatically.
• Using the tools like A/B testing, EngageBay ensures your campaign clicks and conversions are high as possible.
• Complete visibility over your customer’s journey, moreover, marketing automation tools help streamline marketing funnels, nurture leads, and upgrade engagements.

Limitations of Free EngageBay CRM

Just as any other free CRM solutions, the features of free EngageBay is also limited to an extent. You can send 1000 customized emails to 1000 recipients in the free version, which is bound to fall short if you are a developing company. Moreover, the CRM can prove to be quite expensive when you opt for extra and paid features. Hence, you should only proceed to settle with the CRM if it fits within your extra expenses.  Apart from all of these limitations the CRM is still certainly one of the best free CRM for small businesses that you can choose without any hesitance.

3. Bitrix24:

With its dizzying array of functions, Bitrix24 is an awesome customer relationship management (CRM) software for small and mid-sized businesses and startups. Along with lead management capabilities, Bitrix24 also throws in a few astonishing software automation features, file sharing, and solid market integration too.

Bitrix24 offers a free 30-day trial of its paid Professional Plan, and you can explore all the functionalities this service offers. It also includes a free plan for 12 users, 5 GB of cloud storage, and access to core CRM. Communication tools are left totally free for unlimited users. Other communications and collaboration tools such as Slack, Asana, Basecamp, activity streams, workgroups, instant message (IM), email, telephony, employee directory, and company structure directory are also made free for unlimited users and that’s why it isn’t shocking to include it in the list of best free CRM for small business and startups list!

Features of Bitrix24:

• It is a productivity suite that offers a variety of features like Project management, Internal Communication, Video Conferencing, and the list goes on!
• Bitrix24 can be used by everyone. However, it is frequently used by the sales and marketing team for managing their leads and customers.
• It has detailed task management metrics- a feature that ensures your team is not wasting time on unnecessary tasks rather it fixes a certain time limit on high-priority tasks so that time can race against the clock to accomplish them.
• There is an Efficiency Indicator that calculates how efficient the users are in achieving their goals and keep them motivated.
• Bitrix24 contains Quality Contact Management System that allows you to create custom contacts or import the old ones so that the data is stored appropriately in the database.
• With the help of reliable Kanban boards, the sales teams are able to get a bird’s eye view of all the transactions and then can write the details of the deals on the Kanban Card and start tracking them. All of the features are free! And that it what makes Bitrix24 one of the best free CRM for small businesses.

Limitations of Bitrix24:

• Bitrix24 greatest pro is also its greatest con. How? Offering a lot of features is not a big deal but organizing and presenting them well is counted. It has a cluttered user interface as the features are presented as an ostensibly never-ending list on the side of the page. And this makes it puzzling to find features.
• Although Bitrix24 has in-built task statues like “assigned”, “completed”, “overdue” but none of them specifies whether the task is currently being worked on or what its headway is.
• As per reviews, the price has been a major roadblock.

The freemium version of Bitrix24 is totally free for unlimited users, where you get 5 GB of online storage capacity and features like Website Builder, Contact Center, Tasks and Project management, CRM, and many others. You can also click on the link to check out the pricing plans!

4. Vtiger:

The fourth one in this list of the best free CRM for small business is Vtiger. Vtiger is the CRM solution that offers free cloud CRM and an open-source variant at the same time. There are multiple choices of plans for every edition to fit better as per your needs. Vtiger is the world’s leading open-source CRM where you can carve out your own CRM and expand it the way you want.

Founded in 2004, Vtiger’s only aim was to help small businesses establish better customer relationships through better practices and software. The Vtiger One: Pilot Edition is crafted in such a way that it gives you the power to manage your sales funnel without the costs and complexities involved in the course of learning a fully featured CRM. This free PILOT edition is the first offering under Vtiger’s Re: boot Program.

Vtiger One Pilot is designed for:

• Lean startups and first-time CRM users
• Small and mid-sized businesses struggling to boost productivity
• Teams that are thinking to shift from spreadsheets.

You can better understand the pricing of the same and decide it for yourself!

What makes Vtiger get itemized in the 10 best free CRM for small business?

• Attract and engage customers with robust lead generation tools like Contact Management, Contact Engagement, Internal Collaboration, and Marketing.
• With One View, your teams are on the same page, you get crystal clear visibility into your sales pipeline, and you are able to close the deals even faster. Features like Deal Kanban View and Idle Deal Alerts help you to focus on what matters the most and provide you with an easy-to-use interface.
• The Helpdesk features such as First response SLA, Resolution SLA, and Email to Case help to automate the support processes and empower teams to respond quickly to customer requests.
• Powerful Project Management tools help to be on top of all ongoing projects. From Kanban view to Gantt charts, you can experience it all in the Pilot Edition.
• Vtiger helps you to stay connected with your customers through its Mobile App where you enjoy features like Real Time Notifications, Action Page, Voice Notes, etc.
• Feature like Calculus AI helps to flag conversations that need due attention, furnishes conversation summaries, analyze the call quality, and monitors potential blockers like long monologues, conversing speed, and talk-to-listen ratio.

Limitations of Vtiger:

• Vtiger has advanced but somewhat convoluted and twisted navigation and menu system.
• Reviews conclude that the process of upgrading between versions is not so great but rather clumsy and full of errors. Also, they find UI not so user-friendly for tech-challenged team members.

Generally, there’s nothing to not like about Vtiger. There are a few drawbacks which are continuously improving, trying to serve better day by day.

5. Capsule:

Capsule is considered one of the cheapest and light on pockets CRM solutions as compared to its competitors like Salesforce, HubSpot, and ZOHO. Hence, without a doubt it claims a spot in the list of best free CRM for small businesses. However, the others are considerably more feature-rich than Capsule, but Capsule is also no lesser than them when it comes to pricing, it takes care and is well-aware of your business needs.

And talking about features….

• In terms of core business requirements, Capsule CRM allows you to track activities between you and your leads, store and share contacts with your fellow team members, manage sales pipeline, to-do lists and calendars, and third-party integration with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
• Capsule CRM possess quite easy to use, clean, and user-friendly interface. Capsule’s main menu consists of 6 icons-
  • Home icon that takes you to the front face of the software with screen detailing, forthcoming tasks, and newly added contacts.
  • People and organizations icon that permits you to browse through contacts.
  • Calendar and tasks icon that lets you explore your calendar, to-do tasks and activities.
  • Sales pipeline icon allowing you to manage your sales funnel and track your business opportunities.
  • Cases icon that allows seeing through your open cases.
  • Reports icon that takes you through the reporting dashboard.
• Under Microsoft 365 integration, you can install the “Outlook Add In” that helps you play with contacts and events in Capsule. You can search for or add contacts and can also add opportunities to contacts.
• What is the most commendable facet of Capsule CRM? It is the free plan that enables budget-cranky small businesses to invest in a good CRM and get started in the era of digital transformation.
• With its straightforward interface of Capsule CRM, managing sales pipeline has become pretty much simple and easier to move deals across various stages. However, it should be noted that only the expensive plans let you create multiple pipelines.

Limitations of Capsule:

• The Capsule’s Helpdesk is available from Monday to Friday but it’s not clear during what hours.
• Regrettably, there is no reporting functionality available on the freemium version of Capsule.
• Also, with the “Professional” edition, you don’t get many choices regarding reporting tools either, you are limited to Activity Reporting and the sales pipeline dashboard.
• There are no group messaging or autoresponder features available in the tool. If you wish to see a built-in email marketing feature, you can better be looking at a solution like HubSpot that includes this functionality even on its free plan.

Overall, Capsule CRM is one of the economical CRM solutions with not at all steep learning curve and that would also not break the bank for startups! You can also learn more about its pricing and choose accordingly.

6. Bigin by ZOHO CRM:

The 6^th position in this list of best free CRM for small businesses has been claimed by Bigin by ZOHO CRM. Bigin is basically a solid pipeline-based CRM solution for small businesses and solopreneurs. Its simplified and lightweight version of ZOHO CRM. Billed annually at $7 per user per month, Bigin proves to be effective on both PCs and on mobile devices. With an intention to fill the void between smaller companies using spreadsheets and conventional techniques for their CRM needs and complex and pricey CRM software used by larger companies, ZOHO came with a well-designed approach i.e., Bigin!

Features of Bigin by ZOHO CRM:

• Begin with Bigin’s clutter-free pipeline management tools that will help your team get command over the sales pipeline by providing you with the option to tailor sales stages to fit your business processes with drag and drop interface.
• You can also view innate integrations with applications like Mailchimp, Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, and over 85 third-party telephony providers.
• Bigin assists you in keeping your data gathering and processing clean and tidy. It helps you stay GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant and collect information consensually from your contacts and process data in a transparent mode.
• Not just being affordable CRM is Bigin’s forte, but it also works splendidly in making you close more deals. But how? It helps you to create intelligent workflows and lets you prioritize tasks in just three steps-
  • All you need to do is set triggers for the workflows to initiate
  • Stipulate a condition for the trigger
  • Select an action to be executed when the condition is met.
• In today’s scenario, where more and more businesses regardless of their size and nature are marketing themselves online on social media, it’s natural to see customers addressing their issues straight on social media like Twitter! Bigin helps you to add your contact’s Twitter account to their personal details and you will be able to stay updated with real-time notifications, and you can check what’s happening on Twitter without leaving Bigin.
• If you are not a hard coding lover, no problem! With Bigin’s no-code web forms, you can build and deploy web forms in minutes.

Limitations of Bigin:

There is no such huge drawback but when the business scales up, Bigin may start to throw tantrums and may push you off the edge. It is a free CRM for small business but as the business grows, their requirements expand and become more complex which might force them to look out for higher editions of ZOHO CRM. Overall, it’s a viable choice to satisfy your basic CRM needs with its free edition.

7. Agile CRM:

Securing a place in the list of best free CRM for small business, Agile CRM is well-known for its support catered to E-commerce businesses. It is a specific solution designed for connecting sales, marketing, customer service, social media marketing, and third-party integrations in one centralized and unified interface. Agile is undeniably among the top easy-to-use CRMs in the market because of its quick and intuitive management interface.

Features of Agile CRM:

• Budget is the most important matter while finalizing any CRM solution. Starting from $0 to $47.99  per user per month, Agile CRM fits all business sizes. You can also upgrade, downgrade, or cancel your plan as per your wish which is super convenient. The plan can also be altered directly from Agile CRM’s online dashboard!
• Besides providing stupendous CRM features, it also gives proper customer support. Customers using free package, they can email their query 24 hours a day, five days a week. For paid users, if they wish to contact support team, they can do it via email or by phone, between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday to Friday.
• It is a simple and lean choice of CRM solution for small to mid-size companies. With up to 1000 and unlimited contacts for free and Enterprise plans respectively, you can be confident that Agile CRM will not only help you to get a clarity about your customer lifecycle but also monetize the data collected with analytics and automated business workflows.
• Agile Free CRM : This non-profit version was initiated to support small teams and startups to manage data in one place. Features that you will be enjoying with the free plan includes-
  • 360-degree contact management
  • A maximum of 10 users
  • Web pop-ups and surveys
  • Lead Scoring
  • Unlimited deals, tasks, and documents
  • Appointment Scheduling
  • Custom Deal Milestones
  • Email Tracking
  • 5000 Branded Emails
  • Landing Page Builder
  • Web Engagement
  • Email Templates Builder and many other facilities
• Agile CRM is arguably the most powerful and efficient E-commerce CRM for SMBs. With its seamless design, integrated features, and remarkable affordability specifically designed for E-commerce startups and businesses, Agile CRM is the leading E-commerce CRM. With features like Address Cart Abandonment, Automated User Management, Smartest Campaigns, and User Engagement with no hidden costs involved Agile CRM is a true E-commerce business supporter and therefore, reckoned as one of the best free CRM for small businesses!

Limitations of Agile CRM

There are very few limitations to be associated with Agile CRM. The primary one of those are the lack of reporting features. Even in the paid version, there are lack of reporting features, which can be quite upsetting. Additionally, limited third-party integration is another issue to be faced by the users.

Nevertheless, Agile CRM is still one of the most viable options for best free CRM for small businesses.

8. Insightly:

If you are in search of a CRM solution that matches your budget and needs, and you want to try it for free, then buckle up to get some insights on Insightly!

Insightly has always thrived to be one of the best free CRM for small businesses and lean startups. Because of its user-friendly interface and sophisticated marketing features, it is considered by SMBs and SMEs. Insightly also won the category for TOP CRM software for Analytics and Reporting 2022, which by the way are two of the most essential features of CRM tools!

Let’s see whether Insightly is any good.

If we dig deeper into the ethos of the system, we can say that it helps in building connections between your contacts and provides deeper insights as the name says, into your potential customers and leads, and expand the network likewise. With its best lead routing features, custom dashboards, free plan, third-party integrations with Zapier, Slack, Dropbox, Microsoft and Google, Mailchimp, QuickBooks, and others, and pipeline management, you can brilliantly visualize an ocean of opportunities and your team can know the exact status of every lead and project.

Insightly Pricing:

If we talk about the plans, then there are three pricing tiers namely Plus, Professional, and Enterprise. However, there’s a free plan included with not so wide-ranging features, but you can organize your basic CRM needs.

Plus - $29 per user per month, billed annually

Professional and also Popular One- $49 per user per month, billed annually

Enterprise- $99 per user per month, billed annually

You can check out the complete pricing list and opt for free trial as well!

9. Streak:

Streak is a CRM that is meant to work inside your Gmail and other G Suite apps. It was purely built for Gmail providing a seamless experience between your inbox and CRM. Streak was born out of the frustration of incessantly switching between our inbox, where we do our tasks and external systems. It is a pipeline management tool that tends to live inside Gmail’s platform and is built specifically as a Gmail Chrome extension. Ideal for freelancers, startups and small businesses, it’s quite affordable and if you are a frequent Gmail user, then consider it a great boon and which is why it is enumerated as one of the best free CRM for small businesses!

With its bunch of features like Email Tracking, Support Ticket management, Custom Pipeline views, Enrichment of contact data, Management of recruitment leads, Mobile Application Composer, Custom Team billing options, Sharing of timeline of emails and notes, Thread splitter, Project management, Business developments and Integrations, Streak proves to be quite beneficial when it comes to use cases and verticals. There are other ways too to use this CRM especially if you are in real estate or commencing a fundraiser.

Email Tracking feature of Streak is marvelous. It gives you notifications whenever your email is read, responded to, or has failed to reach the recipient. Features like Thread Splitter sort out wrongly fused email threads for better clarity. It helps to keep the conversations to the point. Other features like Snippets and Mail merge saves you time by avoiding rewriting emails, instead inserting canned responses and sending personalized emails easily.

However, there are certain imperfections attached to it.

10. Less Annoying CRM:

Ever wondered why the makers kept the name “Less Annoying” ? Unlike other CRM software, this particularly is free from such complex pricing tiers, upfront payments, hidden costs, usage limits, long-term contracts, or upsells. In fact, it’s quite simple or say, less annoying, you can add, cancel or remove users at any time you want for under $15 per user per month. There’s a free 30-days trial, where you can measure its pros and cons and make sure whether its features are suitable for your business or not. And the best part, they don’t even ask for your credit card at the time of signing up, so if you don’t like it, there’s nothing to cancel as such. And this makes Less Annoying one of the best free CRM for small businesses.

why Less Annoying CRM is one of the best free CRM for small businesses

• Less Annoying CRM (LACRM), helps you to set up in minutes without leaving you in a complicated mess.
• Now you don’t have to worry about the mundane technical stuff anymore, as LACRM is entirely web-enabled which means you can access it from anywhere around the world via computer, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone.
• With LACRM, stop fretting about losing your data! They offer 256-bit encryption and follow the best practices to ensure the security of data.
• Get an up-to-date list of every lead in your pipeline. Use of editable templates for specific pipelines such as orders, projects, and billings.
• Native integrations with third-party apps like Mailchimp, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, QuickBooks, Facebook Lead Ads and Shopify to add capabilities like lead forms, call tracking and logging, invoicing and more. Overall, LACRM is a straightforward CRM platform that caters to small business users, eliminating much of the learning curve, easy to customize, has strong customer support, third-party integrations, robust security, and is quite inexpensive as reported by most reviewers.

Concluding Thoughts:

As per this article on "10 Best Free CRM for small businesses", free CRM software is a tremendous initiative for small businesses that look out for a better understanding of customer relationships and retention. The only shortcoming to this would be that you have to work with limited tools and perhaps you won’t enjoy all the features needed at your fingertips. After reading thoroughly the comprehensive list, simply sign up for free, with one of the vendors listed above. There’s never a better time for trying something new and that too free!