Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions are not only a staple in the day-to-day management of sales teams, but also for marketing teams. Whether you’re managing marketing channels and campaigns in-house or have an agency with a team managing clients, the right CRM solution will save you time, increase your efficiency, and help your business grow.
Of course, finding the best CRM software in a sea of solutions all touting themselves as the best can be a challenge. So, our team of experts at Fortune Recommends™ put them to the test to find the best marketing CRM software based on must-have features for marketing teams and agencies as well as user-friendliness, affordability and value for price, flexibility, and support quality.
Why trust Fortune Recommends
Our editors are committed to bringing you unbiased ratings and information. Our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and companies, so all are measured equally. Read more about our editorial guidelines and the business solutions methodology for the ratings below.
- Over a dozen plans compared
- Over 600 data points collected
- 30+ years of combined marketing experience
- 5 layers of fact-checking
10 best marketing CRM of 2024
Zoho CRM (Standard): Best for email marketing
Zoho CRM has become one of the most popular CRM solutions in the world with over 80 million users since it was first released in 2005. It stands out for its user-friendly interface, flexibility with its long list of features for sales and marketing teams alike and affordability with a free plan and paid plans starting at $14 per user, per month, with annual billing.
Zoho CRM
| Base price: | $20 per user, per month* |
| Free trial length: | 15 days |
| Free plan available?: | Yes* |
Why we picked it
Zoho CRM stands out as one of the most well-designed CRM solutions on the market thanks to its modern interface that is streamlined and intuitive, lending to a very minimal learning curve. From the initial steps of setting up a new account and importing contacts to building out landing pages to generate new leads or create code-free email marketing campaigns to foster existing leads and clients, it’s straightforward to use. While there are CRMs in the space that are straightforward because they are lightweight, Zoho CRM is packed with features that can greatly expand its functionality.
It also stands out for its full email marketing suite that is one of the most beginner-friendly solutions on the market. It has a code-free, drag-and-drop email builder, a large library of email templates to help you get started and various email campaign tools, such as audience segmentation, automated workflows, dynamic content, and email sends by time zone or optimal time.
On top of that, marketing teams and agencies may enjoy its collaboration tools that make it easy to manage clients—especially agencies that have various account managers handling different marketing services, such as content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, for one client. It also has a booking feature to help make scheduling meetings with clients easier, an app to facilitate online signatures, a form builder for creating online forms without code, and a full-fledged email marketing software built-in.
Another helpful feature for agencies is that it gives users the ability to create quotes and invoices, which can be a helpful tool for prospecting new clients and billing existing clients. In short, Zoho CRM offers a suite of solutions that give users a la carte options to build out a marketing and CRM ecosystem.
Learn more: Read our Zoho CRM review.
Top marketing features of Zoho CRM
- Zoho Campaigns: Create, launch, and track email marketing campaigns easily.
- Team Collaboration: Stay on top of tasks and projects, communicate with colleagues and clients, and share updates with your team.
- Zoho Booking: Schedule appointments and book meetings.
- Zoho Sign: The digital signature apps makes it easy for clients to sign documents.
- Zoho Forms: Create online forms for lead generation purposes without code.
- Zoho Invoice: Create and send quotes and invoices to clients.
See more Zoho CRM plans & pricing
| Plans | Pricing | Free Trial or Plan Available? | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Free for up to three users | Yes | 3 organization emails Sales and marketing automation tools Document library Standard reports 10 custom email templates 1GB file storage for the organization |
| Standard plan | $14 per user, per month | Yes; 15 days | 50 organization emails Supports up to five currencies Email integration Up to 10 custom lead scoring rules Up to 100 custom reports 10 custom dashboards Up to 250 mass emails per day 100 custom email templates Zoho Meetings integration Google calendar integration Up to 5 CRM Marketplace extensions |
| Professional plan | $23 per user, per month | Yes; 15 days | 75 organization emails Supports up to 10 currencies Up to 20 custom lead scoring rules Motivator tool for sales gamification Unlimited custom reports Unlimited custom dashboards Up to 500 mass emails per day Unlimited custom email templates Inventory management tools Customer service tools Up to 10 CRM Marketplace extensions |
| Enterprise plan | $40 per user, per month | Yes, 15 days | 500 organization emails Sales territory forecasting Supports up to 25 currencies Up to 30 custom lead scoring rules Anomaly detector Up to 1,000 mass emails per day ZIA AI tool for scoring, recommendations, and email and call summaries Up to 20 CRM Marketplace extensions |
| Ultimate plan | $52 per user, per month | Yes; 15 days | 500 organization emails Supports up to 50 currencies Up to 50 custom lead scoring rules Up to 2,000 mass emails per day ZIA AI tool for scoring, recommendations, and email and call summaries Up to 50 CRM Marketplace extensions |
| Free plan | |
|---|---|
| Free for up to three users | |
| Yes | |
| 3 organization emails Sales and marketing automation tools Document library Standard reports 10 custom email templates 1GB file storage for the organization |
|
| Standard plan | |
| $14 per user, per month | |
| Yes; 15 days | |
| 50 organization emails Supports up to five currencies Email integration Up to 10 custom lead scoring rules Up to 100 custom reports 10 custom dashboards Up to 250 mass emails per day 100 custom email templates Zoho Meetings integration Google calendar integration Up to 5 CRM Marketplace extensions |
|
| Professional plan | |
| $23 per user, per month | |
| Yes; 15 days | |
| 75 organization emails Supports up to 10 currencies Up to 20 custom lead scoring rules Motivator tool for sales gamification Unlimited custom reports Unlimited custom dashboards Up to 500 mass emails per day Unlimited custom email templates Inventory management tools Customer service tools Up to 10 CRM Marketplace extensions |
|
| Enterprise plan | |
| $40 per user, per month | |
| Yes, 15 days | |
| 500 organization emails Sales territory forecasting Supports up to 25 currencies Up to 30 custom lead scoring rules Anomaly detector Up to 1,000 mass emails per day ZIA AI tool for scoring, recommendations, and email and call summaries Up to 20 CRM Marketplace extensions |
|
| Ultimate plan | |
| $52 per user, per month | |
| Yes; 15 days | |
| 500 organization emails Supports up to 50 currencies Up to 50 custom lead scoring rules Up to 2,000 mass emails per day ZIA AI tool for scoring, recommendations, and email and call summaries Up to 50 CRM Marketplace extensions |
HubSpot (Sales Hub Starter): Best for growing businesses
Designed to be a complete customer platform, HubSpot is a top CRM among businesses large and small thanks to its wide range of features and capabilities. That said, it provides an entire ecosystem for marketers to be able to choose the solutions and tools they wish to use—at the scale they wish to use them.
HubSpot
| Base price: | $20 per user, per month
|
| Free trial length: | None |
| Free plan available?: | Yes, for up to five users |
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Supports up to one million sales products and 5,000 documents
- Live chat and Facebook Messenger integration
- Up to 5,000 email templates
Cons
- Limited to one shared inbox
- Limited to one HubSpot-provided phone number
- Lacks automated sequences or workflows until higher-priced plans
Additional features
“HubSpot has many workflows we can set up, which ensures no lead falls through the cracks,” says Ultan O’Callaghan, CEO at Thooja. “For example, if someone contacts us through our website, we can easily set up a workflow to ensure they are contacted by sales rep.”
Customer Support
HubSpot’s Sales Hub Starter Plan offers email support and a comprehensive knowledge base, HubSpot Academy to learn about its rich feature set, and HubSpot Community to learn from other users. Professional Plan users gain access to phone support.
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Why we picked it
A fan favorite among small businesses and enterprises alike, HubSpot stands out for its sheer versatility and scalability. It offers a comprehensive Sales Hub and Marketing Hub, giving in-house marketing teams and marketing agencies alike a great deal of flexibility with a long list of features, including advanced email marketing software, lead generation tools, such as a form and landing page builder, website visitor tracking, document tracking, ad management, invoicing, and more. While many of the best marketing CRMs offer many of these same features, what’s different is that HubSpot offers a depth of features where many are available with more advanced capabilities—especially when it comes to tracking and analytics.
For example, not only does HubSpot enable users to track web activity but also track calls and emails as well as performance data and analytics giving your team a panoramic view. With that, it also has a custom report builder, so agencies can build detailed white label reports for clients to share and detail the performance of marketing campaigns and activities in relation to data, such as web traffic, engagement, and sales.
As the CRM of choice by Reddit, Tripadvisor, DoorDash, and more, it may sound expensive, but it is surprisingly affordable for businesses of all budgets. It offers a free CRM and competitively-priced paid plans starting at $15 per user, per month, when billed annually. So, it’s not only affordable to get started with, but it’s also affordable to grow with while offering an immense roster of advanced features.
Learn more: Read our HubSpot CRM review.
Top marketing features of HubSpot
- Email marketing
- Track web activity
- Form builder
- Landing page builder
- Lead generation
- Ad management
- Document tracking
- Invoicing
See more HubSpot plans & pricing
| Plans | Free trial | Features | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | N/A | Contact management Deal pipeline Meeting scheduling Shared inbox Conversational bots Email scheduling Email reply tracking Gmail, Outlook, and Microsoft integrations |
$0 (up to five users) |
| Sales Starter | 14 days | All features on HubSpot Free plus: Sales automation Sales content analytics Automated task queues Team performance measurements HubSpot-provided phone numbers Digital signatures Conversation routing Multicurrency support Task and deal notifications Task calendar sync Payments |
$20 per month, per seat |
| Sales Professional | 14 days | All Sales Starter features plus: Prospecting and lead management Sales forecasting Custom reporting and analytics Customizable playbooks Call transcriptions Coaching playlists Account-based marketing (ABM) tools and automation Contact scoring Video messaging Workflow extensions Automated sequences (outreaches, follow-ups, and tasks) |
$100 per month, per seat |
| Sales Enterprise | 14 days | All Sales Enterprise features plus: Predictive lead scoring Recurring revenue tracking Deal journey analytics Lead form routing Advanced permissions Single sign-on (SSO) Field-level and advanced permissions Conversation intelligence (insights on customer calls) |
$150 per month, per seat |
| Free | |
|---|---|
| N/A | |
| Contact management Deal pipeline Meeting scheduling Shared inbox Conversational bots Email scheduling Email reply tracking Gmail, Outlook, and Microsoft integrations |
|
| $0 (up to five users) | |
| Sales Starter | |
| 14 days | |
| All features on HubSpot Free plus: Sales automation Sales content analytics Automated task queues Team performance measurements HubSpot-provided phone numbers Digital signatures Conversation routing Multicurrency support Task and deal notifications Task calendar sync Payments |
|
| $20 per month, per seat | |
| Sales Professional | |
| 14 days | |
| All Sales Starter features plus: Prospecting and lead management Sales forecasting Custom reporting and analytics Customizable playbooks Call transcriptions Coaching playlists Account-based marketing (ABM) tools and automation Contact scoring Video messaging Workflow extensions Automated sequences (outreaches, follow-ups, and tasks) |
|
| $100 per month, per seat | |
| Sales Enterprise | |
| 14 days | |
| All Sales Enterprise features plus: Predictive lead scoring Recurring revenue tracking Deal journey analytics Lead form routing Advanced permissions Single sign-on (SSO) Field-level and advanced permissions Conversation intelligence (insights on customer calls) |
|
| $150 per month, per seat |
HoneyBook (Starter): Best for marketing agencies
Founded in 2013, HoneyBook may be one of the newest CRMs on our list, but it is also one of the best for marketing agencies thanks to its laundry list of marketing features and helpful tools that streamline the client management process. In slightly more than 10 years since its release, the San Francisco-based CRM has quickly grown into a popular CRM with over 100,000 users worldwide.
HoneyBook
| Base price: | Starting at $11.20 per month |
| Free trial length: | 7 days |
| Free plan available?: | No |
Why we picked it
HoneyBook is an end-to-end CRM that stands out for its advanced features that help service providers, such as marketing agencies better manage their leads, clients, and billing. Speaking of billing, this is one of the areas in which it outshines much of the competition. Not only does it have a quotes and invoicing functionality, but it also uniquely has the ability to set up recurring invoices, which is ideal for agencies that offer monthly management services to clients. Another nice feature related to billing is its payment tracking tool which lets you know which clients have—or have not—paid. With its automatic email follow-ups, you can send a payment reminder to any clients with unpaid invoices.
Billing aside, what also makes HoneyBook stand out is its client portal and team management features. Not only does it give administrators the ability to set up roles, such as participants and team members, but it also lets you assign tasks and track time. For agencies, the time tracking feature allows you to determine billable hours more efficiently or understand your profit margins better. In short, HoneyBook has all of the must-have features that businesses would expect with a CRM, plus a variety of other very smart features to help them operate this business more efficiently.
In general, HoneyBook stands out as a top CRM for service providers as it offers all the features they need to manage contacts, clients, and customers. From nurturing leads and communicating with customers to sending automatic reminders to creating invoices and getting paid, it has the features service-based businesses need. So, it’s not only ideal for businesses that sell marketing services but those in a service industry looking to ramp up their in-house marketing efforts.
Learn more: Read our HoneyBook review.
Top marketing features of HoneyBook
- Team management and task assignment
- Time tracking
- Payment tracking
- Recurring invoices
- Automatic email follow-ups
- Calendly integration as well as a built-in scheduler
See more HoneyBook plans & pricing
| Plans | Free trial or plan available? | Features | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 7-day free trial | Unlimited clients and projects Invoices and payments Create proposals Contract management Client portal |
$11.20 per month (billed annually) |
| Essentials | 7-day free trial | Everything in the start plan, plus: Automations Expense management QuickBooks Online integration Remove HoneyBook branding |
$22.40 per month (billed annually) |
| Premium | 7-day free trial | Everything in the essentials plan, plus: Unlimited team members Advanced reports Multiple companies Priority support |
$46.20 per month (billed annually) |
| Starter | |
|---|---|
| 7-day free trial | |
| Unlimited clients and projects Invoices and payments Create proposals Contract management Client portal |
|
| $11.20 per month (billed annually) |
|
| Essentials | |
| 7-day free trial | |
| Everything in the start plan, plus: Automations Expense management QuickBooks Online integration Remove HoneyBook branding |
|
| $22.40 per month (billed annually) |
|
| Premium | |
| 7-day free trial | |
| Everything in the essentials plan, plus: Unlimited team members Advanced reports Multiple companies Priority support |
|
| $46.20 per month (billed annually) |
Agile CRM (Starter): Best for businesses on a budget
Agile CRM may be a lesser-known CRM, but that does not mean it is a lesser CRM. Released in 2013 in India, Agile CRM was designed to meet the needs of small and midsized businesses (SMBs) on a budget. It has since grown into a CRM with over 20,000 users who appreciate its high-power features and its industry-low prices.
Agile CRM
| Base price: | $14.99 per user, per month |
| Free trial length: | none |
| Free plan available?: | Yes, for up to 10 users
|
Why we picked it
Agile CRM is a powerful CRM that comes packed with helpful features for sales and marketing teams that manage multiple marketing channels and campaigns. For example, it has email marketing with automations, PPC management for those advertising on platforms, such as Google Ads, and it is regarded as a social CRM. What that means is that it collects insights on users using social media, which are then used to help you create more informed and strategic marketing automations campaigns. In the process, businesses have the ability to increase their return on investment as it lends to more effective campaigns.
It also has features that matter to marketers who manage clients. For example, it has appointment scheduling so you can easily set up monthly management calls to review performance reports and discuss strategies and goals. It also has a proposals feature as well as an eDocs tool, so you can send proposals to prospective clients and get contracts signed by new clients. Additionally, it also helps your team generate more leads with its user-friendly drag-and-drop landing page builder, obtain customer behavior insights from the web, manage documents, assign and monitor tasks across your team, and create custom reports for your business or your clients.
Learn more: Read our Agile CRM review.
Top marketing features of Agile CRM
- Appointment scheduling
- Email tracking
- Marketing automation
- Email marketing
- Multichannel campaigns
- PPC management software
- Landing pages and lead generation
- Social CRM
- Proposals, eDocs, and document management
- Team management
See more Agile CRM plans & pricing
| Plans | Free trial or plan available? | Features | Pricing per user, per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Yes | Unlimited deals, tasks, and documents Appointment scheduling Lead scoring |
$0 |
| Starter | No | Email campaigns Marketing automation Landing page builder |
$14.99 per user |
| Regular | No | Helpdesk Canned responses Create service groups |
$49.99 per user |
| Enterprise | No | 50-plus integrations Syncs with Stripe, Shopify, and Google Basic reports |
$79.99 per user |
| Free | |
|---|---|
| Yes | |
| Unlimited deals, tasks, and documents Appointment scheduling Lead scoring |
|
| $0 | |
| Starter | |
| No | |
| Email campaigns Marketing automation Landing page builder |
|
| $14.99 per user | |
| Regular | |
| No | |
| Helpdesk Canned responses Create service groups |
|
| $49.99 per user | |
| Enterprise | |
| No | |
| 50-plus integrations Syncs with Stripe, Shopify, and Google Basic reports |
|
| $79.99 per user |
Freshsales (Growth): Best for ease of use
Freshsales by Freshworks is a leading CRM for small business and marketing teams thanks to its advanced sales pipelines and its productivity-enhancing. Originally developed in India, the now California-based software company has 65,000 users—many of which chose it for its user-friendly interface that makes getting started and ramping up sales a breeze.
Freshsales
| Base price: | $11 per user, per month |
| Free trial length: | 21 days |
| Free plan available?: | Yes, for up to three users
|
Why we picked it
As with Zoho CRM, Freshsales may be top of class when it comes to ease of use with its modern and intuitive interface, but it also has a lot to offer beyond that. Marketers will appreciate its email marketing campaigns features, which enable you to create transactional emails as well as features, such as social media campaigns, automated customer journeys, advanced segmentation, and lead generation tools, such as a landing page builder. Collectively, this gives you and your team the ability to manage various aspects of your marketing mix within one platform.
For marketing agencies, it has the ability to create branded (or white label invoices, quotes, and contracts with its ‘Configure, Price, Quote’ add-on. Granted, this does come at the additional cost of $19 per user, per month, making the total monthly cost at least $28 per user, per month, with the Freshsales Suite Growth plan. If you need invoicing features but are looking to keep costs as low as possible, consider Zoho, HubSpot, or Apptivo.
Additionally, it also has custom roles and permissions, which can help make it easier to manage teams, assign tasks, and track time using its integration with the Timely app. Another unique feature relative to time is that it also enables users to track time spent on support tickets. With that, users can then invoice clients for time spent. This niche feature may not be useful to every marketing team, but it could be highly beneficial for agencies that offer white label customer support services.
Learn more: Read our Freshsales review.
Top marketing features of Freshsales
- “Configure, Price, Quote” (add-on, $19 per user, per month)
- Email marketing campaigns
- Transactional emails
- Social media campaigns
- Automated customer journeys
- Advanced segmentation
- Landing pages
- Custom roles and permissions
- Time tracking through Timely App
See more Freshsales plans & pricing
| Plans | Free Trial or plan available? | Features | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Yes | Account and contact management Deal management Built-in phone and live chat |
$0 |
| Growth | Yes | Visual sales pipeline Integration with short message service (SMS), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Business messages 20 basic workflows |
$11 per user, per month |
| Pro | Yes | 10 sales pipelines 50 basic workflows and 50 advanced workflows Access to Freddy AI insights |
$47 per user, per month |
| Enterprise | Yes | AI-powered forecasting insights 10 custom modules Profiles automatically enriched with public information |
$71 per user, per month |
| Free | |
|---|---|
| Yes | |
| Account and contact management Deal management Built-in phone and live chat |
|
| $0 | |
| Growth | |
| Yes | |
| Visual sales pipeline Integration with short message service (SMS), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Business messages 20 basic workflows |
|
| $11 per user, per month | |
| Pro | |
| Yes | |
| 10 sales pipelines 50 basic workflows and 50 advanced workflows Access to Freddy AI insights |
|
| $47 per user, per month | |
| Enterprise | |
| Yes | |
| AI-powered forecasting insights 10 custom modules Profiles automatically enriched with public information |
|
| $71 per user, per month |
Pipedrive (Essential): Best for marketing automations
Pipedrive is an Estonia-based CRM that first launched in 2010. It has grown into a popular CRM with over 100,000 users and has built a reputation for its visual sales pipeline, time-saving automations, and customization capabilities using integrations. It offers competitively priced plans starting at $14 per user, per month, and a la carte pricing for added features, such as campaign management, website analytics and insights, and project management.
Pipedrive
| Base price: | $24 per user, per month |
| Free trial length: | 14 days |
| Free plan available? | No |
Why we picked it
Pipedrive stands out for its advanced automations that can help you and your marketing team save a good deal of time and its flexibility through integrations. In other words, if you are struggling to find an affordable CRM that has the features that you are looking for, Pipedrive may be a good option given that it is highly customizable with the use of integrations.
For example, if you are an agency, you can create quotes and invoices using the QuickBooks integration. If you want to enable your team to place calls directly through Pipedrive, the JustCall integration can do that. Use an integration to connect with Facebook Ads and Google Ads. Maybe you already use a project management tool, such as Trello or Asana, and you want a way to sync it to your CRM.
Agencies will benefit from its ability to schedule meetings, manage contracts, eSignatures, time tracking with the Timely App, offer a client portal through the Clientjoy app where clients can access their account, and generate custom reports. Speaking of reports, a unique aspect of its custom reporting abilities is its Insights feature. This enables you to quickly see performance data, such as deal progress, monitor progression toward goals, and generate reports that provide a visual representation using your filters of choice.
Learn more: Read our Pipedrive review.
Top marketing features of Pipedrive
- Quotes and invoicing (via QuickBooks)
- Email marketing software
- Contract management
- Meeting scheduler
- Facebook Ads integration
- Client portal (via Clientjoy app)
See more Pipedrive plans & pricing
| Plans | Pricing | Free Trial or Plan Available? | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | $24 per user, per month | 14-day free trial | Up to 3,000 open deals 30 custom fields per company 15 reports per user Customizable pipelines Products catalog Data import and export Mentions and comments feature Calendar view and activity management tools Sales Assistant One customized visual dashboard Native Android and iOS apps Chrome extension for Gmail Calendar sync with Google and Microsoft Automatic call logging |
| Advanced | $44 per user, per month | 14-day free trial | Up to 10,000 open deals 100 custom fields per company 30 reports per user 30 active automations One email sync per user Customizable email templates and signatures Email open and click tracking Email scheduling Meeting scheduler Web to-mobile-calling |
| Professional | $64 per user, per month | 14-day free trial | Up to 100,000 open deals 300 custom fields per company 150 reports per user 60 active automations Two email syncs per user Three teams per company Custom visibility and permission groups Deal card customization Unlimited scheduling links Free Smart Docs add-on with e-signatures AI-powered Sales Assistant Unlimited visual dashboards Custom field reports |
| Power | $79 per user, per month | 14-day free trial | Up to 200,000 open deals 500 custom fields per company 250 reports per user 90 active automations Three email syncs per user 15 teams per company Free projects add-on 24/7 live chat support |
| Essential | |
|---|---|
| $24 per user, per month | |
| 14-day free trial | |
| Up to 3,000 open deals 30 custom fields per company 15 reports per user Customizable pipelines Products catalog Data import and export Mentions and comments feature Calendar view and activity management tools Sales Assistant One customized visual dashboard Native Android and iOS apps Chrome extension for Gmail Calendar sync with Google and Microsoft Automatic call logging |
|
| Advanced | |
| $44 per user, per month | |
| 14-day free trial | |
| Up to 10,000 open deals 100 custom fields per company 30 reports per user 30 active automations One email sync per user Customizable email templates and signatures Email open and click tracking Email scheduling Meeting scheduler Web to-mobile-calling |
|
| Professional | |
| $64 per user, per month | |
| 14-day free trial | |
| Up to 100,000 open deals 300 custom fields per company 150 reports per user 60 active automations Two email syncs per user Three teams per company Custom visibility and permission groups Deal card customization Unlimited scheduling links Free Smart Docs add-on with e-signatures AI-powered Sales Assistant Unlimited visual dashboards Custom field reports |
|
| Power | |
| $79 per user, per month | |
| 14-day free trial | |
| Up to 200,000 open deals 500 custom fields per company 250 reports per user 90 active automations Three email syncs per user 15 teams per company Free projects add-on 24/7 live chat support |
Monday CRM (Basic CRM): Best for marketing teams
Monday.com may be best known as project management software, but Monday CRM is also an industry-leading CRM platform. It boasts over 225,000 users, including internationally recognized brands, such as Coca-Cola and Universal. Although don’t let these big names fool you into thinking it’s only for enterprise-level companies as it’s also a solid solution for small to medium-sized businesses.
monday.com
| Base price: | $15 per user, per month |
| Free trial length: | 14 days |
| Free plan available? | Yes, for up to two users |
Why we picked it
Monday CRM is a highly versatile CRM platform that has become a go-to choice for businesses small and large looking to supercharge their sales and marketing teams. It stands out for its wide range of features that are applicable to marketing agencies. For example, it enables you to add viewers to an account, which may be used to share with clients. It also has the ability to create quotes and invoices, send bulk emails, have documents signed online using its DocuSign integration, track time, set team goals, and integrate with other software, such as Facebook Ads, Mailchimp, Salesforce, and HubSpot.
Aside from Monday CRM’s long list of features that can be used to build out the CRM that suits your needs, it is also user-friendly and affordable. Its interface is clean and modern, making it easy to use and, since it’s buildable with integrations, it does not feel cluttered or overwhelming out of the box. In terms of pricing, it starts at $12 per user, per month, with annual billing—however, it’s important to note that it has a three-user minimum, so it’s not suitable for those who only have one or two users. Granted, it is designed to meet the needs of teams with advanced management and collaboration tools.
Learn more: Read our monday.com CRM review.
Top marketing features of monday.com CRM
- Free viewers
- Quotes and invoices
- Mass emails
- Email templates
- Google Calendar sync
- DocuSign integration
- Mailchimp integrations
- HubSpot integration
- Facebook Ads integration
- Salesforce integration
- Time tracking
- Team goals
See more monday.com CRM plans & pricing
| Plans | Free trial or plan available? | Features | Pricing, per seat per month (minimum of 3 seats) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Yes, 14 days | Unlimited custom pipelines Unlimited contacts Unlimited boards |
$9 |
| Standard | Yes, 14 days | AI email generator 250 custom CRM automations per month Quotes and invoices |
$12 |
| Pro | Yes, 14 days | Sales forecasting Sales analytics 25,000 custom CRM automations per month |
$19 |
| Enterprise | No | Lead scoring Team goals HIPAA compliance |
Custom pricing |
| Basic | |
|---|---|
| Yes, 14 days | |
| Unlimited custom pipelines Unlimited contacts Unlimited boards |
|
| $9 | |
| Standard | |
| Yes, 14 days | |
| AI email generator 250 custom CRM automations per month Quotes and invoices |
|
| $12 | |
| Pro | |
| Yes, 14 days | |
| Sales forecasting Sales analytics 25,000 custom CRM automations per month |
|
| $19 | |
| Enterprise | |
| No | |
| Lead scoring Team goals HIPAA compliance |
|
| Custom pricing |
Apptivo (Lite): Best for affiliate marketing
Started in 2009, Apptivo was designed to make enterprise management easy with a powerful yet user-friendly CRM. Apptivo has since grown into a unified sales, marketing, and customer service platform that stands out as one of the best CRMs for marketers who rely heavily on affiliate marketing given its unique referral tracking feature and for agencies given its recurring invoices and subscription billing capabilities.
Apptivo
| Base price: | $20 per user, per month |
| Free trial length: | 30 days |
| Free plan available?: | No
|
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Vast library of integrations
- User-friendly mobile apps
- Multiple sales pipelines
Cons
- No free forever plan available
- Limited to 18 integrations in the Lite Plan
- Lacks e-commerce and marketing automation tools in the Lite Plan
Additional features
Customer Support
Apptivo’s Lite plan offers customer support via email, phone, live chat, knowledge base, how-to videos, webinars, and training support. On the Lite plan, phone support is available 24/5 and live chat is offered 24/7.
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Why we picked it
What’s nice about Apptivo’s unified CRM is that it gives users the ability to create a central platform for managing sales, marketing, and customer support. While it is designed to be beginner-friendly, there is a learning curve involved due to its large volume of features and capabilities. Speaking of which, Apptivo comes packed with helpful features for marketers and particularly agencies. For example, it has advanced billing features, such as recurring invoices and subscription billing—both of which could save agencies with monthly management services a good deal of time. It also has a referral tracking feature where users can track referral sources, making it a good choice for those that depend heavily on affiliate marketing.
Like many of our top marketing CRMs, it also has campaign management, where users can create email campaigns using its drag-and-drop editor. However, where its campaign feature differs from others is that it offers real-time reports, automatic audience segmentation for highly targeted campaigns, and both time and event-based email triggers. While it does not offer a native custom reporting feature, it is entirely possible to create custom reports as well as track time and offer a client portal with Apptivo through the use of its integrations. Apptivo was designed to take advantage of third-party integrations, making it something of an a la carte CRM where you can customize it to suit your needs.
Learn more: Read our Apptivo review.
Top marketing features of Apptivo
- Referral tracking
- Campaigns management
- Marketing automation
- Email sequencing
- Event-based email triggers
- Email open and click tracking
- Client portal integrations available
- Time tracking integrations available
- Facebook Ads integration
See more Apptivo plans & pricing
| Plans | Free trial or plan available? | Features | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | Yes, 30 days | 18 connected apps 24 automated workflows Eight customizable dashboards |
$20 per user, per month |
| Premium | Yes, 30 days | 46 connected apps 75 automated workflows 25 customizable dashboards Track and manage ecommerce products |
$30 per user, per month |
| Ultimate | Yes, 30 days | 57 connected apps 150 automated workflows 50 customizable dashboards Automated marketing email sequences |
$50 per user, per month |
| Enterprise | No | 65 connected apps 300 automated workflows 100 customizable dashboards Google Maps integration |
Custom pricing |
| Lite | |
|---|---|
| Yes, 30 days | |
| 18 connected apps 24 automated workflows Eight customizable dashboards |
|
| $20 per user, per month | |
| Premium | |
| Yes, 30 days | |
| 46 connected apps 75 automated workflows 25 customizable dashboards Track and manage ecommerce products |
|
| $30 per user, per month | |
| Ultimate | |
| Yes, 30 days | |
| 57 connected apps 150 automated workflows 50 customizable dashboards Automated marketing email sequences |
|
| $50 per user, per month | |
| Enterprise | |
| No | |
| 65 connected apps 300 automated workflows 100 customizable dashboards Google Maps integration |
|
| Custom pricing |
Nimble CRM: Best for social media marketing
Nimble CRM is a well-rounded CRM solution that places a focus on lead generation and nurturing using advanced social media tools and data-driven marketing. It ranks among our best marketing CRMs for small businesses and brands that heavily rely on social media to gain visibility and to generate both leads and sales.
Nimble CRM
| Base price: | $29.90 per user, per month |
| Free trial length: | 14 days |
| Free plan available?: | No |
Why we picked it
Nimble CRM stands out in the CRM space for many reasons, and the first one new users will notice is that its interface is one of the most modern in the industry. Unlike some other CRMs that can feel borderline dated, Nimble has a top-notch interface that provides a great user experience. Design aside, it also has the features that businesses and brands need to create more advanced marketing campaigns and power your sales team. To start, it has lead enrichment, which means that it will pull user data from social media and online to build out contacts’ profiles and enable marketers to tailor marketing campaigns by specific audiences. But to help businesses build out their contact lists, it has a built-in LinkedIn prospector tool to help you identify and collect leads.
Once Nimble helps users build their contact list with comprehensive data, users can then create advanced segmentations, and build automated email campaigns to nurture relationships while saving your team time. Not only are these email campaigns tracked, but performance data is fed into real-time reports which allow marketers to view metrics, such as open rates, clickthrough rate (CTR), and more. Reports also provide insights into revenue forecasting, providing a deeper look into sales and marketing performance.
For marketing agencies, it has invoicing capabilities for client billing, team management with task assignment and time tracking to monitor your team, click to call to connect to clients quickly and track calls and call times, and custom reporting. However, one key feature that it does not have that many agencies may need is a client portal where clients can log in and view their account’s performance.
Learn more: Read our Nimble CRM review.
Top marketing features of Nimble CRM
- Contact enrichment
- Nimble prospector tool
- Team management with activity tracking
- Team permissions
- Web forms
- Email sequences
- Email templates
- Invoicing
- Custom reporting
See more Nimble CRM plans & pricing
Nimble offers just one plan, at a monthly price of $29.90 per user.
Originally email marketing software, Constant Contact has since expanded and now offers a leading CRM solution. With 600,000 users worldwide, it is the software of choice for businesses of all sizes, from small solopreneurs to large government agencies. With its sleuth of built-in marketing and e-commerce tools, it is also one of the leading marketing CRMs.
Constant Contact
| Base price: | Starting at $12 per month, based on the number of contacts who are sent emails |
| Free trial length: | 60 days |
| Free plan available?: | No |
Why we picked it
As email marketing software primarily, Constant Contact is no stranger to the importance of marketing, and it has built an ecosystem around digital marketing. Not only does it have a full email marketing solution complete with transactional emails where you can drive sales from email campaigns, but it also has marketing automation to help you and your team save time, SMS marketing campaigns, a web form builder to generate leads from your website, and a social media and Google Ads manager to help create a centralized dashboard for those that utilize paid social and search ads.
For marketing agencies, Constant Contact has an Agency Partner Program. This adds many of the functionalities that an agency would need, such as a partner portal and the ability to add and manage client accounts and campaigns. Unlike other marketing CRMs, Constant Contact’s Agency Partner Program allows partners to earn an ongoing monthly revenue share when they have three or more client accounts with Constant Contact as well as the potential to earn sales bonuses for every new account you bring in (up to $200 each). In other words, it gives agencies another revenue stream in addition to management and service fees.
Learn more: Read our Constant Contact CRM review.
Top marketing features of Constant Contact
- Marketing automation
- Transactional emails
- SMS marketing campaigns
- Social media ads manager
- Google Ads manager
- Marketing campaign calendar
- Form builder
- Drag-and-drop email templates
- Custom reports
See more Constant Contact plans & pricing
For the most accurate pricing, reach out to a Constant Contact sales representative on the website.
Top features of a marketing CRM
When looking for a marketing CRM there are several features to consider, and which matter most to you will depend on a variety of factors. For example, whether you have an in-house marketing team or operate an agency managing client accounts, your budget, team size, the marketing channels your business depends on, and your goals.
Here are the top features of a marketing CRM:
- Contact management: The core function of a CRM is to help users manage their contacts, leads, and clients, so a user-friendly contact management feature that has the tools you need to manage leads and contacts effectively is key.
- Email marketing: One of the most common elements of a marketing CRM is that includes a built-in email marketing software that enables users to easily build email campaigns without the use of code, create transactional emails (for e-commerce businesses), schedule emails, and track email performance.
- Marketing automation: Email marketing is only one element in the marketing automation mix. Many CRM solutions also offer a variety of automations to help you and your team save time while nurturing leads, onboarding new clients, and customers and following up to stay top-of-mind.
- Quotes, proposals, and invoicing: Marketing agencies will generally benefit from choosing a CRM that has a native quotes, proposals, and invoicing feature. This enables you to create proposals and quotes for prospective clients while also streamlining the billing process with recurring invoices for monthly management services.
- Lead generation tools: There are many ways in which a marketing CRM will provide lead generation tools, such as through the availability of web forms, a landing page builder, or lead prospecting tools.
- Advertising integrations: Businesses that employ paid search and social ads should evaluate whether a CRM includes integrations with the advertising platforms they use, such as Facebook and Google.
- Web tracking: Gain a deeper understanding of how your website visitors interact with your website through the use of web tracking. This enables you to see insights, such as which pages are visited, time on page, and CTRs.
- Performance analytics: In addition to web tracking data, another key feature is performance analytics, which typically tracks information, such as clients and/or deals won, goals achieved, order volume, performance by sales team member, and revenue forecasting.
- Custom reporting: It is vital to have the ability to create custom reports that display the metrics and key performance indicators that are important to you, which is why it is important to choose a CRM that offers custom reports that can be tailored to your unique needs and goals.
- Client portal: Marketing agencies that wish to give their clients a self-service portal where they can log in and view performance data and account information will want to choose a CRM that offers a client portal.
- Meeting scheduler: Take the back-and-forth conversations out of scheduling a meeting or appointment by choosing a CRM that has a built-in meeting scheduler that lets your clients, contacts, and colleagues view your availability and schedule a time to meet.
- Team management: If you have a team that will use your CRM, be sure to choose one that provides you with the ability to create user roles and permissions as well as assign tasks.
- Time tracking: Another feature that is geared most towards agencies, time tracking enables you to monitor the time your team spends on particular tasks, contacts, and clients. This can come in handy for client billing or to ensure your staff allocates an appropriate amount of time to each client.
Of course, not every business will need all of these features, which is good news as not every CRM will offer all of these features. Consider which features you and your team will use and which will help you save the most time while growing your business.
How to choose the right CRM for your business
With so many CRMs on the market—all with a varying feature set, depth of features, flexibility, and scalability, the decision as to which is right for your business can be a challenge. Ultimately, it’s crucial to find the CRM that offers the features you and your team need. For example, a marketing agency might need time tracking, subscription billing, and a client portal—none of which might be all that useful to a business seeking a CRM for its in-house sales and marketing team.
Beyond the built-in features a CRM offers, also consider which third-party companies it integrates with and seek the CRM that offers integrations with the providers you already use, whether that’s QuickBooks, Facebook Ads Manager, or Mailchimp. This way, you can seamlessly connect your CRM to your existing platforms of choice to create a more unified dashboard for your sales and marketing efforts.
Last but not least, pricing is inherently a deciding factor when choosing a marketing CRM as it doesn’t matter how many features a CRM has if using it would break the bank. Another factor to consider is usability as most want a CRM that is user-friendly and doesn’t involve a steep learning curve as well as scalability as growing businesses need a CRM that can grow with them, otherwise, you will be faced with migrating to a new CRM again in the future as your needs evolve and expand with your business.
For more information, visit our other CRM recommendations:
Our methodology
The Fortune Recommends team drew from personal experience to determine the top CRMs for marketing, carefully evaluating more than 20 CRM providers. The platforms were scored based on several key categories, including:
- Annual cost: We analyzed the monthly and annual pricing structures as well as team member allowances per plan.
- General features: Core CRM functionalities such as reporting, document management, and integration with third-party tools were essential in our evaluation.
- Pipeline management: A key feature of any CRM is its ability to manage sales pipelines and highlight critical customer engagement points.
- Dashboard customization: The ability to customize the dashboard to suit a team’s unique workflows was a crucial factor in our assessment.
- Additional features: We also looked at unique features such as task automation and delegation that, while not essential, add value to many teams.
- Customer support: We examined the range of customer support options, including availability times, self-service resources, and support accessibility during emergencies.
- Free trial length: Platforms offering extended free trials were rated higher, as they allow for thorough testing.
- Free plan availability: We gave bonus points to CRMs that offer free, non-expiring plans with basic features.
Frequently asked questions
What are the top three marketing systems?
There are a number of highly-regarded marketing systems, but three of the biggest names in the industry include HubSpot, Salesforce, and Mailchimp. However, each marketing system offers differing features and capabilities, user-friendliness, and affordability. For example, one of the best budget-friendly systems is Agile CRM while Zoho CRM is one of the most user-friendly, and Monday CRM stands out for large marketing teams.
What is the best CRM for email marketing?
Many of the top CRM solutions include native email marketing software. Among those are Zoho CRM which is feature-rich, affordable, and user-friendly, Constant Contact which offers a number of features that make it suitable for online retailers, and HubSpot for businesses that are looking for a CRM that can scale with them as they grow.
How do I know if I need a CRM?
A CRM is software that gives businesses the ability to easily manage all of their leads, contacts, and customers or clients in one central location. Many types of businesses benefit from using CRM solutions, from small businesses that want to manage their contacts to those with sales teams that need an easy way to manage and track sales pipelines, keep tabs on tasks and projects, and follow up with leads and contacts.
What is the best CRM for marketing agencies?
While most of the top marketing CRM solutions offer the feature set that agencies need, such as proposals and invoicing, recurring billing, custom reporting, team management, and integrations to expand functionalities, HoneyBook and Apptivo both have client portals. This is ideal for agencies that would like to give clients the ability to access their accounts and view their account’s performance. Additionally, Constant Contact has an Agency Partner Program where businesses can earn a monthly revenue share if they get three or more clients started with Constant Contact, plus the ability to earn sales bonuses.
Are there any legitimate free CRMs?
There are several free CRMs that are not only 100% legit, but also high-quality. Out of all the options available today, the expert team at Fortune Recommends rates Zoho CRM, Freshsales, Agile CRM, HubSpot, and Bitrix24 among the best. Granted, which is best for you will depend on your needs. For example, HubSpot is best for those who want a CRM with rich marketing capabilities while Bitrix24 offers unlimited free users making it the most budget-friendly choice for businesses with large teams. Get the complete breakdown of the best free CRM software.