Best CRM for Startups — Top 11 Ranked & Reviewed for 2024

The best CRM for startups includes renowned tools like Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Monday Sales CRM.

With them, startups like yours can automate storing lead and customer data, nurture leads, build lasting relationships, and manage and organize all your client data in one centralized location.

This helps you make informed decisions with up-to-date information on where leads are in their customer journey and improves your efficiency, customer satisfaction, and, overall, your sales.

With that said, here we’ve reviewed each of the market’s best CRM tools for startups.

Regardless of your needs, one of these will surely tick all the right boxes for your business.

Startup CRM Software | Top 11 Ranked for 2024

CRM software is one of the key tools modern businesses use to operate more efficiently and make more sales. As the popularity of these solutions grew, providers flooded the market with all sorts of CRM offerings.

However, our extensive research and analysis found that only  a small selection of these platforms are a great fit for startups and make our list of the top 11 best CRMs for startups:

1. Salesforce — Best CRM for startups overall
2. Pipedrive — Top CRM for sales startups
3. Monday Sales CRM — CRM software with the best customizable features
4. Act! — Leading marketing automation CRM software
5. Zoho CRM — Best CRM for B2B startups
6. Freshsales — No. 1 CRM for scaling SMEs
7. Zendesk Sell — Excellent for integrations
8. HubSpot CRM — Best free CRM for startups
9. Less Annoying CRM — Outstanding CRM for SaaS startups
10. Maximizer CRM — Startup CRM with the best support
11. Keap — Top easy-to-use CRM for startups

Key Highlights: Choosing the Best CRM for Startups

1. Essential for Startups: CRM software is crucial for startups aiming to streamline operations, improve customer relationships, and drive sales growth effectively.
2. Top Picks for Startups: Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Monday Sales CRM lead the market with robust features tailored for startup needs, from lead management to customization.
3. Diverse Options for Different Needs: Whether it’s sales focus, B2B orientation, or scaling SMEs, there’s a CRM to match every startup’s unique requirements.
4. Automation and Efficiency: These tools offer automation of mundane tasks, leading to higher productivity and allowing teams to focus on strategic growth activities.
5. Customizable Features and Integrations: With customizable dashboards and extensive integration options, startups can adapt the CRM to their workflow and enhance their tool ecosystem.
6. Free Options and Scalable Plans: From HubSpot’s acclaimed free CRM to Salesforce’s scalable solutions, startups can find a CRM that fits their budget and grows with them.
7. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: By managing customer information and interactions effectively, startups can improve service quality, foster loyalty, and increase customer satisfaction.
8. Informed Decision Making: Real-time data and analytics provide startups with insights into customer behavior and sales performance, aiding strategic decision-making.
9. CRM as a Growth Catalyst: By optimizing customer relationship management, startups not only streamline operations but also set the stage for sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

Best Startup CRM Software — Reviewed

So, that’s the list, but let’s discuss why these solutions deserve to be a part of it. Below, we’ve thoroughly explored each provider, analyzing their main features, pros and cons, and pricing. Armed with this info, you’ll be perfectly placed to work out which is the right CRM for your startup.

1. Salesforce — Best CRM System for Startups Overall

Salesforce is one of the world’s most widely used CRM solutions, having grown into a juggernaut that serves huge companies like Walmart, Amazon, Toyota, and American Express since it launched in 1999. 

Salesforce’s high customizability and scalability, advanced account and contact management features, and great integrations will keep your customer relations running smoothly and help your startup achieve its business ambitions.

Key Features:

• Scalability — Salesforce includes several features that support the growth of your business, including an easy-to-use interface and a highly flexible layout. Your team quickly grasps how the system works quickly and can add and delete tabs and panels, use templates for email and reports, customize dashboards, and more.
• Quality onboarding program — The provider ensures you and your team members have all the help you need to make the most of Salesforce. There are over 50 virtual and in-person online courses that will teach you virtually every aspect of the tool, as well as 24/7 customer support via email, live chat, and phone for 1-1 assistance.
• Convenient automations — This CRM solution allows you to automate various workflow-related processes and work more efficiently. For example, you can auto-assign tasks, fill out orders, create proposals, update and delete records, and much more. Eliminating these repetitive tasks will let your team focus on doing what it does best — growing your business.

Pricing:

• Essentials — $25/month
• Sales Professional — $75/month
• Service Professional — $75/month
• Marketing Cloud Account Engagement — $1,250/month

Salesforce is our top overall pick for the best CRM for startups! It’s user-friendly, customizable, and packed with excellent contact management features and automations — check it out below!

2. Pipedrive — Best Sales CRM for Startups

A close second on our best CRM systems for startups list is Pipedrive — an Estonian-born sales-focused CRM company with over a decade of experience and more than 100,000 users worldwide.

Pipedrive stands out by combining excellent CRM tools with top-notch marketing and sales features.

Its superbly designed mobile apps make scheduling, taking notes, and managing accounts on the go a breeze, while its comprehensive management tools, automations, and integrations make it a favorite among startups across a variety of industries.

Key Features:

• Deal-driven workflow features — Pipedrive offers a customizable pipeline with a great drag-and-drop interface that lets you easily organize your contacts and correspondence, track employees’ progress in relation to specific deals, take notes of their achievements and mistakes, and more.
• Outstanding mobile apps — Pipedrive’s comprehensive mobile apps keep all your customer information at hand 24/7 and enable you to make and track calls, schedule activities, and take notes during meetings or calls directly from the app. The best part is that you don’t need an internet connection for many of these tasks and so you can work whenever and wherever you are.
• Customizable lead generation tool — Pipedrive’s preprogrammed questionnaire supercharges lead generation — giving you the power to add or move customers to different pipelines, change their status, attach notes to their profiles, pull public information about prospects, and more in just a few clicks.

 Pricing:

• Essential — $9.90/month
• Advanced — $19.90/month
• Professional — $39.90/month
• Enterprise— $59.90/month 

Running a sales business can be challenging, but our best sales CRM for startups should make it much easier. Pipedrive’s user-friendly layout and excellent mobile apps let you track the entire sales process from start to finish, no matter where you are.

Click the link below and see how it could help your business.

3. Monday Sales CRM — CRM Software With the Best Customizable Features

Project management powerhouse Monday.com has made a seriously impressive entry into the CRM space. This flexible solution offers advanced work management, lead scoring, and automation tools, but the real standout feature is its highly customizable interface.

Key Features:

• Easily-customizable design — Monday Sales CRM gives you the choice of several ways to view various business metrics. Once you’ve chosen a basic view, you can easily add lists, dashboards, analytics tools, and more. You can also easily access various automations and integrations to eliminate mundane tasks and streamline your business.
• Great collaboration capabilities — Accessed via the homepage, the separate work management platform features multiple workflow views, guest access restrictions, whiteboard collaborations, time tracking, formula columns, and more. You’ll be able to assign tasks to your team members, track their progress, and stay on top of each deal.
• A wide array of integrations — This CRM solution expands your startup’s possibilities by seamlessly integrating with Google Drive, Gmail, Microsoft Excel, Dropbox, Slack, One Drive, and loads of other popular cloud-based platforms. So, your team members can handle a huge variety of tasks without ever having to leave the app.

Pricing:

• Individual — $0/month
• Basic — $10/month
• Standard — $14/month
• Pro — $24/month
• Enterprise — Available on contact

Monday Sales CRM’s highly customizable features, great lead-generating and scoring capabilities, and a huge range of integration mean it’s a great fit for all sorts of startups. Try it out now and see what it could do for your SME.

4. Act! — Leading Marketing Automation CRM Software

Act! has been around for over three decades, delivering an exceptional CRM service packed with integrated email marketing features. Besides an on-premises solution, this CRM service offers a cloud-based solution hosted by AWS, ensuring high security, performance, reliability, and nightly backups.

Act! is a perfect solution for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) looking to create loyal customers through well-planned marketing.

Key Features:

• Marketing Automation — Drive your sales with email marketing campaigns and view real-time campaign metrics to understand the success of your campaign and improve it over time. You can use Act! to create multi-stage drip marketing campaigns with a detailed overview of your email statistics and subscribers. Act! has over 170 pre-made templates you can edit using its interactive template editor or create one from scratch.
• Customer Management — Stores rich customer details in one easy-to-find place, including emails, notes, files, activities, and more, to help you analyze your relationship with your customers. Zero in on your hot leads using the intelligent Call List that ranks your customers by their level of engagement. This CRM software has superb notifications, alerts, and calendar features that ensure you won’t miss an important call or email.
• Numerous Integrations — Seamlessly connect with hundreds of apps and business productivity tools to extend your reach and capabilities using Act! Connect. You can integrate popular accounting tools like QuickBooks, support ticket tools like Desk.com, team communication tools like Slack, and more versatile platforms.

Pricing:

• Act! Premium Cloud — $30/month
• Act! Premium Desktop — $37.50/month
• Act! Premium Cloud With Desktop Sync — $40/month

Act! is one of the top picks for SMBs looking to tailor the interface and email marketing campaigns to their style and needs. Take advantage of its 14-day free trial using the link below.

5. Zoho CRM — Best CRM for B2B Startups

Zoho is a famous software provider that serves over 250,000 customers in around 180 countries. Its CRM product was engineered to keep all B2B businesses’ needs fulfilled.

The platform offers a roster of features that keep stakeholders, partners, and vendors connected and allows them to access and stay up to date on deals, reports, and payments.

On top of that, its analytics keep track of your startup’s progress and make coping with the ever-changing business climate easier.

Key Features:

• Enhanced lead management tools — Zoho allows you to recognize, capture, nurture, and follow up on leads. Its unified inbox enables you to communicate with these customers through various channels, from telephone and live chat to emails and social media. It even provides historical data on each of your leads, helping your team make better decisions and improve their performance in the long run.
• Robust analytics — This CRM tool’s analytics features pull data from various sources and coordinate it through specialized data connectors. They structure and organize essential information and create useful reports. Regular reports will help your team gain insight into their work, recognize productivity gaps, and avoid future mistakes.
• Great process management features — Zoho’s features can help your startup stay on top of the latest industry trends. They analyze and prioritize leads and deals, group customers according to shared characteristics, initiate targeted surveys, enable you to set realistic goals for your business, and more.

Pricing:

• Standard — $14/month
• Professional — $23/month
• Enterprise — $40/month
• Ultimate — $52/month

Zoho CRM is an end-to-end platform packed with features that can help users build positive relationships with B2B customers.

It offers excellent lead and process management tools, fantastic analytics and reports, and numerous useful integrations. Thanks to its free plan, you can try it risk-free right now!

6. Freshsales — No. 1 CRM for Scaling SMEs

Freshsales is a CRM solution from the widely-used Freshworks suite of products. Launched in 2016, the software has already made a name for itself in the competitive business realm.

Freshsales’ many helpful contact, deal, and project management features make it an excellent platform for startups focused on scaling.

Key Features:

• AI-powered sales cycle — Freshsales software features an advanced AI assistant that makes lead generation easy as pie. It makes predictions, provides insights, and offers recommendations based on your business’s performance and needs. For example, it attends to all website visitors, recognizes hot and cold prospects, gives heads up on deals that will likely close, automates mundane tasks, and more. 
• Extensive built-in communication tools — This CRM platform facilitates customer communication by offering several communication channels. You can use the in-app phone, live chat, email, and Zoom meeting options to connect with prospects effortlessly. These functions are also part of the Freshsales mobile app, so you can also work on the move.
• Detailed email features — Freshsales allows you to sync your email platform with its software. It offers various email templates to facilitate customer correspondence and enables you to set up email sales sequence workflows effortlessly. Your reps will even be able to work in the sales email inbox simultaneously and exchange ideas and options along the way.

Pricing:

• Free — $0/month
• Growth — $15/month
• Pro — $39/month
• Enterprise — $69/month

If scaling is your top priority, Freshsales is a must. Its sales pipeline and contact management, built-in communication tools, and salesforce automations are only a few reasons why you’ll love it. Check it out to see what else it has to offer!

7. Zendesk Sell — Excellent for Integrations

Zendesk Sell comes from a business management software company with a long track record in this industry. Despite being a relatively new product, its CRM solution has developed into a powerful tool.

It offers an easy-to-use interface, great onboarding features, advanced analytics, and quality reporting options. However, it earned a spot in our best CRM tools for startups list thanks to its powerful integrations.

Key Features:

• Useful integrations — This platform integrates with many Zendesk and other provider apps to help you streamline your business. You can count on Zendesk support and chat, Dropbox and Google Drive storage, Microsoft Exchange and  MailChimp’s messaging capabilities, Xero’s accounting services, and more. 
• Custom reporting tools — Zendesk Sell’s Explore feature allows users to choose a template from a long list of pre-built reports and adjust it to their needs. However, if the available modification and customization tools don’t come up to scratch, the same tool lets you build your own reports. You can play with variables, data preview, results display, and other options Explore offers.
• Upgraded automations — This CRM solution offers two types of workflow automation — Sequences and Triggers. The former allows you to automate a series of steps — add tasks to a specific rep’s task list, contact, or deal. The latter refers to simple automated tasks the software accomplishes when certain conditions are met. For example, it notes changes and updates to deals or projects and displays them in the deal or project tracker file.

Pricing:

• Team — $19/month
• Growth — $49/month
• Professional — $99/month

Zendesk Sell is a perfect match for startups looking for CRM software with robust native and third-party integrations. It provides easy access to many important platforms, allows you to create detailed custom reports, automates your workflow, and much more.

Click on the link we’ve provided, use its free trial, and test it today!

8. HubSpot CRM — Best Free CRM for Startups

If you’re on a budget, you know it’s not easy to find affordable options among high-quality CRM software. However, HubSpot CRM has all it takes to fill that gap.

This solution is one of the most feature-rich CRM software products on the market. It offers a user-friendly layout, tons of contact and workflow management tools, unlimited access to training programs, and more.

The best part about this deal is that you can get it completely free of charge.

Key Features:

• Best CRM for startups free plan — HubSpot CRM offers the best free forever plan we could find. It allows unlimited users and up to a million contacts, companies, deals, and tasks. On top of that, the platform features in-app calls you can record and track, workflow templates, real-time notifications, reusable text blurbs for emails, over 500 add-ons, and more. 
• Fantastic training program — This solution offers an extensive onboarding program with tons of free courses recognized by universities. Courses are packed with the helpful information provided by top-of-the-line teachers. You’ll be able to learn all you need to know about CRM, regardless of your previous experience with this type of technology.
• Advanced CRM features — HubSpot CRM offers every feature your startup might need. It includes customizable deal dashboards, email tracking and notifications, pipeline management, prospect tracking, automated deals, task assignment and scheduling, and more.

Pricing:

• Free — $0/month
• Starter — $45/month
• Professional — $450/month
• Enterprise — $1,200/month

If you are looking for the best free CRM for startups, you will find HubStop CRM to be the perfect solution. Its free plan grants users a free onboarding process, access to the HubSpot user community, various contact management features, and more.

Nothing’s stopping you from trying it out — use our link and visit its official website right now.

9. Less Annoying CRM — Best CRM for SaaS Startups

The SaaS industry has become highly competitive in the last couple of years. Thankfully, technology like Less Annoying CRM can make a SaaS startup’s job much easier.

The best CRM for SaaS startups on our list is a user-friendly tool that suits smaller businesses. It features a configurable system, great import and export possibilities, solid collaboration tools, and a free trial.

Key Features: 

• Straightforward design — Complex systems with steep learning curves are a huge burden for all startups, including SaaS ones. Less Annoying CRM’s easy-to-use interface and simple layout eliminate this problem. The solution even allows you to customize its features and offers the help of its customer support in case you have any questions while on the platform.
• Good contact management tools — This software stores all your contacts in a single place but groups them according to shared characteristics. You can filter through these lists to find specific types of leads and immediately read all the vital information on them. The data you can look for includes activity lists, notes, files, pipeline status, and more.
• Various integrations — Less Annoying CRM supports numerous native and third-party integrations to provide your SaaS with additional capabilities. The list comprises the likes of Google Contacts, MailChimp, LeadsBridge, Shopify, QuickBooks, and many others. These platforms provide invoicing, call logging, call tracking, and so on.

Pricing:

• Only subscription plan — $15/month

Less Annoying CRM should meet all SaaS companies’ customer relations management needs. It has a simple design, covers all the essential contact management bases, and includes solid integrations and collaboration tools.

Check whether it suits you by taking advantage of its free trial period today!

10. Maximizer CRM — CRM for Startups With the Best Support

Maximizer is one of the oldest CRM providers on our list. It’s been a part of the customer relations management service community since 1987, so you can trust its products are reliable.

The CRM solution isn’t the prettiest or most modern software you can find on the market, but it has many great qualities. Its simple contact management features, good integrations, flexible deployment options, and excellent support won us over.

Key Features:

• Fantastic customer support features — Maximizer offers the best customer support tools you can find in CRM software. Its case management system will help you handle customer requests and complaints effectively. It’ll sort and prioritize the most urgent ones and keep a database of all of them for future needs. Your reps can always go back through the old record to help them decide how to act and respond to new problems.
• Versatile deployment options — Maximizer is one of the rare CRM providers that offer their product in two formats — a cloud-based and on-premises solution. The former will keep your data in a GDPR-compliant data storage center in the UK. The latter will store it on your own internal servers.
• Effective organization — This software offers a simple infrastructure that provides easy access to your calendar, address book, and priorities list. It also allows you to use its API to create custom features or hide unnecessary data fields and tabs.

Pricing: 

• Small Office Edition — $35/month
• Business Edition — $55/month
• Professional Edition — $100/month

Maximizer CRM is the perfect choice for all startup owners who value customer service features above all others. Combined with its simple layout, flexible deployment options, free trial, and a money-back guarantee, it seems like a no-brainer. Use the link below to check it out!

11. Keap — Best CRM for Startups With Easy-to-Use Interface

We’re closing our best CRM tools for startups list with Keap, an Arizona-based SaaS company. Keap has been serving small businesses and startups for 15 years, so there’s no doubt its CRM software has plenty to offer.

We’ve included it in our top 11 CRM tools selection mainly because of its easy-to-use interface and straightforward design. 

Key Features:

• User-friendly system — Keap’s best feature is its organization. This software keeps all your customer contact info centralized. It allows you to call, email, text, access accounts, send invoices, and more with a few clicks. To make your work even easier, you can categorize and group contacts as you like and automate tasks for each.
• Good lead scoring tools — This CRM solution lets users attach value to several variables and then use them to analyze prospects. The software uses info like customers’ activity with emails, links, submitted web forms, opened tags, and so on to assess leads’ engagement levels. This system provides your team with lead scores to create more effective marketing strategies and boost revenue.
• Built-in e-commerce features — Keap features solid invoicing and payment processing tools that can help you accelerate and facilitate your payment procedure. They’ll help you gain your customer trust by offering more payment options and including checkout promos and abandoned-cart automatons.

Pricing:

• Pro — $129/month
• Max — $199/month
• Max Classic — Available on contact

Keap is a brilliant option for any startup whose team hasn’t had any experience with CRM software. Its simple design, well-engineered interface, good lead scoring, and e-commerce tools are all you need for a great start to a successful CRM journey. Try it out using our link!

Best CRM for Startups | Top 11 Compared

To help you compare each of the best CRM tools for startup businesses, we’ve pitted them head-to-head in the table below:

It’s worth noting that all of the providers on our list provide tools for automation — a must-have for businesses of all sizes, but more-so for startups. 

Beyond this, all — besides Less Annoying CRM — offers mobile apps for both Android and iOS. Making them phenomenal for you and your teams to manage leads and customers on the go and from anywhere.

What Does Startup CRM Software Do?

Startup CRM software is customer relationship management software created for startups and new businesses. Its purpose is to help startup owners and their teams manage relationships with their clients most effectively and efficiently. 

At the basic level, CRM software is a ledger that stores essential customer information, from telephone numbers to website details. Nevertheless, the best CRMs for startups are capable of much more.

They can handle the lead generation, lead scoring, workflow management and automation, data analysis and reporting, and more.

What Are the Advantages of Using Startup CRM Software?

Using CRM software has become the norm in the business world. These solutions enjoy widespread popularity because of the many benefits they bring to the table. The following sections will explain what a CRM does for your brand. Read on!

Refined Contact Management

There are many reasons to leverage CRM software for small businesses or startups. However, one of the most crucial is a better contact management system.

The best CRM tools for startups keep all important customer-related data in one place and systemize it most efficiently. They also track and record all customer correspondence, from calls to emails, and make it accessible to your entire team at all times.

Increased Productivity and Efficiency

CRM solutions can massively improve your team’s productivity and efficiency. They organize contacts, track and record meetings and calls, automate repetitive tasks, analyze customer behavior, provide reports on your business operations, and much more. 

As a result, your team will have time to focus on demanding tasks, your performance will become more consistent, and your revenue will grow.

Enhanced Collaboration

CRM platforms feature tools that facilitate communication with both colleagues and customers. They offer a variety of communication tools and features that allows your team members to exchange ideas and opinions, help each other with tasks, find solutions to problems, and so on.

Furthermore, they let you keep in touch with your customers, track their satisfaction with your services and products, and respond to their needs more efficiently.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

“How can you measure and improve customer satisfaction” is one of the most relevant questions in the business world. However, with the best CRM for startups, it doesn’t have to be a problem. These solutions track and analyze customer behavior and generate reports on it.

They can provide you and your team with an insight into your customer’s needs and wishes and help you cater to them most effectively. In turn, customers will have more motivation to remain loyal to your business in the long run.

Conclusion: What’s the Best CRM for Startups?

The right startup CRM software can do wonders for a new business. These systems can help capture leads, establish a relationship with them, automate menial tasks, improve workflow, and more.

As a result, your startup can enjoy more organized contact management, improved productivity, and collaboration, better customer satisfaction, and boosted revenue. 

If you like the sound of that (and who wouldn’t), you’ll be happy to know you won’t have to struggle to choose the best CRM for your business needs. Our research found that Salesforce is clearly the best CRM for startups.

It boasts an intuitive UI, a customizable layout, high scalability, advanced contact, and account management tools, numerous integrations, and loads. Check out the free trial now to see what it can do!

Startup CRM FAQ