3 Best Free CRM Software You Can’t Ignore

Wondering how to expand your loyal customer base? Look no further. Explore these 3 best free CRM solutions to manage and build strong customer relationships.

A customer relationship management (CRM) tool allows you to better manage customer interactions and relationships through reliable systems and processes. It also helps you integrate organizational processes across marketing, sales, and customer service.

You may be wondering that this kind of product must cost a lot! Well, you aren’t entirely wrong because there are CRM suites and online CRM software that are expensive. But there are options that are free. Yes, you read it right: Some CRM systems are free!

In this article, you’ll get to know about the three best free CRM software options. You’ll learn each CRM platform’s features and its cost to upgrade. Each of these tools, arranged alphabetically, is a part of the 2021 Capterra Shortlist for CRM and has a minimum user rating of 4 out of 5 stars and 100+ user reviews. Click here to read the full selection methodology.

See all CRM tools

This article looks at three highly-rated free CRM software options. See the full list of CRM tools in Capterra’s software directory.

VISIT DIRECTORY

• Free plan: Includes data storage limit of 5 GB and basic live chat support.
• Paid plans: Upgrades start at $24 per month for two users and include 10 GB data storage and Pro live chat support.

Bitrix24 is a CRM software that helps you generate leads via different channels. It lets you integrate customizable CRM webforms into your website, social media, and emails.

The software solution uses a built-in lead scoring tool to score the acquired leads and automatically distributes and assigns the leads to sales reps. It offers a unified platform to store customer data and helps you reach out to customers via multiple channels such as Facebook, email, phone calls, SMS, or push notifications.

The tool has mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.

• Free plan: Includes deal management, contact management, and HubSpot community support.
• Paid plans: Upgrades start at $50 per user, per month.

HubSpot CRM is a cloud-based tool that supports email tracking, lead management, contact management, outbound and inbound marketing, sales automation, and sales pipeline management.

The tool helps you track the complete sales lifecycle right from the leads prospecting stage to after-sales processes. To manage leads, you can track outreach emails and get notified whenever a lead opens your email.

The CRM system has mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.

• Free plan: Includes three free users, lead management, and 10 MB of data storage.
• Paid plans: Upgrades start at $9.9* per user, per month and include additional features such as lead management, contact management, sales forecasting, and standard reporting. (*converted from INR to USD using Google converter on March 4, 2021)

Zoho CRM is a cloud-based solution that enables you to interact with customers and leads via email, social media, chat, or call.

Based on your interactions with customers on social media and their email open rates and click-through rates, the tool scores the leads. Using these scores, you can create a targeted communication strategy to improve how you communicate with your customers.

The tool has mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.

How to choose the right free CRM tool for your business

After reviewing our list of free CRM solutions, the next step for you is to find a solution that best fits your business needs. Follow these steps to find the right product for your business:

• Compare each solution’s total cost of ownership (TCO) by checking the costs of implementation, data storage, training, IT staff hiring, upgrades, and other important factors.
• Compare the free usage limits (such as the number of free emails or contacts) and shortlist products based on your current requirements.
• Compare each product based on the features it offers and select one that fits your business requirements.

Common questions to ask while selecting a free CRM tool

When making a software investment decision, you need to ask your CRM provider the following questions to make sure you decide appropriately:

• Will the CRM tool integrate with other apps? If your CRM product integrates with other business apps such as accounting software, marketing tools, or customer service apps, it will help you boost contact management efficiency.
• What type of customer support is included with mobile versions of the CRM tool? This will help you understand if you can use your CRM app on the go and still be able to contact customer reps to get quick help if you get stuck.
• Can you generate customized reports? Customized reports can help you get insights about your sales, new leads, marketing efforts, and more. This will enable you to improvise on your business strategies.
• What are the CRM security protocols and measures used? This will tell you if your business and customer data is protected.

How we rate

This article was updated on March 4, 2021. Products considered for this article had to be in the 2021 Capterra Shortlist for CRM tools and:

• Offer a free, stand-alone version of the software (not a trial version of the software where you must purchase a product after a limited amount of time).
• Meet our customer relationship management definition: Customer relationship management (CRM) software allows businesses to better manage customer interactions, support, and relationships through reliable systems and processes. It also integrates organizational processes across marketing, sales, and customer service.
• Software that met the market definition also needed a minimum of 100 user-submitted reviews and have an above-average overall user rating compared to other products in the category.
• “Top” free tools had a minimum overall rating of 4/5 stars from reviewers on Capterra at the time of publication.

Note: The content in this piece that provides opinions and points of view expressed by users does not represent the views of Capterra.