CRM Software
Compare Over 180 Vendors
Do you currently use CRM software?
No matter what industry you’re in, you probably need a customer relationship management (CRM) system. The CRM market is chock-full of great software, so we’ve highlighted several of the best solutions below to help you make a faster decision. For a free, custom list of CRM recommendations based on your individual needs, use our Product Selection Tool at the top of this page.
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4/5 - Contact Management
Yes - Email Marketing
No - Task Management
No - Lead Management
Yes
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- An industry standard when it comes to CRM software, Salesforce Sales Cloud offers powerful features for medium and large sized businesses to get to know their customers and track their interactions.
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- Features
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3.5/5 - Contact Management
Yes - Email Marketing
Yes - Task Management
Yes - Lead Management
Yes
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- Oracle Sales Cloud is a comprehensive CRM for enterprises that need a customizable system with advanced reporting features.
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- Features
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3.5/5 - Contact Management
Yes - Email Marketing
Yes - Task Management
No - Lead Management
Yes
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- A slightly more expensive CRM option for enterprises, Netsuite CRM enables businesses to track large amounts of leads and convert them to sales through its customizable user interface (UI).
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3.5/5 - Contact Management
Yes - Email Marketing
No - Task Management
Yes - Lead Management
Yes
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- SAP CRM pulls data from multiple sources across a business to show enterprises the clearest full picture snapshot of their customers. Works best when used with other SAP products.
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- Features
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3.5/5 - Contact Management
Yes - Email Marketing
Yes - Task Management
no - Lead Management
Yes
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- A quality CRM at a reasonable price, Microsoft Dynamics CRM works best when used by experienced Microsoft users who also use other Microsoft products.
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- Features
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4/5 - Contact Management
Yes - Email Marketing
Yes - Task Management
Yes - Lead Management
Yes
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- Infusionsoft by Keap is a small business CRM that incorporates sales and marketing automation features to assist the busy small business owner.
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4/5 - Contact Management
Yes - Email Marketing
No - Task Management
No - Lead Management
Yes
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- Teams of at least a few people or more will get the most out of this software, and setting aside enough time to learn the software in the beginning is crucial.
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- Features
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3.5/5 - Contact Management
Yes - Email Marketing
Yes - Task Management
No - Lead Management
Yes
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- Blackbaud CRM is a nonprofit CRM built for people with limited database experience. The software works best for larger organizations in education, healthcare, and certain foundations.
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4/5 - Contact Management
Yes - Email Marketing
Yes - Task Management
Yes - Lead Management
Yes
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- A functional and lighter alternative to Salesforce and Oracle for enterprise businesses that offers fast load times and competitive pricing.
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- Features
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4/5 - Contact Management
Yes - Email Marketing
No - Task Management
No - Lead Management
Yes
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- More data enrichment tool than fully-fledged CRM, Nimble offers a major value-add for enterprises that regularly work in Google for Work, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, and others.
Table of contents
- What is CRM software?
- The future of CRM software
- Best-in-class breakdown
- Enterprise CRM systems
- Small business CRM software
- Benefits of using CRM software
- Top CRM software by industry
- Choosing the best CRM software for your business
What is CRM software?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is designed to help companies keep track of their relationships, manage sales and marketing processes, and deliver more efficient service.
Created as a digital alternative to the Rolodex, CRM tools are full databases of customer and business contacts at their core, but leaps in technology now enable sales, marketing, and customer support specialists to use customer relationship management tools for a wide variety of business tasks.
With CRM systems, users get greater personalization, build better relationships, and can more easily track and plan customer interactions to make the entire sales funnel intentional. CRM software typically offers lead management, lead scoring, sales activity, email tracking, automatic updates to contact records, and notifications for upcoming sales events like calls, emails, follow ups, and appointments. Additional features may include contract and document management, sales goal planning and tracking, invoicing and billing, sales performance and activity monitoring, and campaign mapping and analytics.
Marketing teams use the customer information a CRM system collects to personalize marketing outreach to target audiences and mine data to create more accurate customer personas. Individual customer information is useful for customer support teams who receive the client handoffs from sales to better understand the context and content of sales deals.
The future of CRM software
With mission-critical functionality, it’s clear why CRM has become one of the most widely-adopted solutions in business IT. By 2025, CRM is projected to hit more than $80 billion in revenue, likely increasing its lead as the largest software market. Thanks to a wave of cloud and mobile innovation, this broad category has expanded far beyond sales into other job functions and industries like financial services, real estate, and nonprofit.
Companies are expected to upgrade and adopt new CRM software to keep up with a renewed focus on targeting the right customer and retaining them for the long term—jobs traditionally managed by sales and marketing. It’s no coincidence that these departments are expected to be the top two software spending areas for 2021. Interestingly, Salesforce’s revenue projections have skyrocketed to at least $20.7 billion for the 2021 fiscal year. Salesforce’s investment in low-code technology has allowed them a wider reach, serving teams who don’t have professional developers. The variety of modules Salesforce offers also highlights a tech trend that many companies already understand: CRM lives at the core of any customer-driven company, with other software forming a galaxy of apps around it.
As the CRM software market has become more crowded in the race to build bigger-better-faster CRM and integrated tools, it’s become harder than ever to choose the right CRM system for your team. Gene Marks, formerly of KPMG says, “The cloud is steadily turning applications into commodities.” Technology has progressed so much in the past few years that consumers can’t use feature lists to differentiate between options because so many vendors can offer the same features. To distinguish and find the right product for your company, you have to look at all of the surrounding factors like support, community, and your own IT infrastructure.
CRM tools systems are rapidly changing to encompass more business-critical features and make managing sales, marketing, and customer success easier than ever. The market can feel overwhelming to any buyer, but we’re here to help. In this guide, we’ll look at primary CRM categories, industry specializations, top CRM software, and current technology trends impacting the CRM market today and in the future.
If you’re ready to start browsing the best CRM systems, complete the form at the top of the page. We’ll provide you with recommendations based on your company’s needs.
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- Which CRM software solution is right for your business?
- Find out now
Best-in-class breakdown
Best CRM software vendors (by market presence)
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- TA Rating
4.16/5 - Category
Enterprise - Pricing Tier
High-end - Mobile App
Yes - Free Trial
Yes
- TA Rating
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3.68/5 - Category
Enterprise - Pricing Tier
High-end - Mobile App
Yes - Free Trial
No
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-
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3.71/5 - Category
Enterprise - Pricing Tier
High-end - Mobile App
Yes - Free Trial
No
- TA Rating
-
- TA Rating
3.38/5 - Category
Enterprise - Pricing Tier
High-end - Mobile App
Yes - Free Trial
Yes
- TA Rating
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- TA Rating
3.42/5 - Category
Enterprise - Pricing Tier
High-end - Mobile App
Yes - Free Trial
Yes
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3.91/5 - Category
SMB - Pricing Tier
Average - Mobile App
Yes - Free Trial
No
- TA Rating
-
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3.75/5 - Category
SMB - Pricing Tier
Low-end - Mobile App
Yes - Free Trial
Yes
- TA Rating
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3.69/5 - Category
Nonprofit - Pricing Tier
Average - Mobile App
Yes - Free Trial
No
- TA Rating
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4.11/5 - Category
SMB - Pricing Tier
Average - Mobile App
Yes - Free Trial
Yes
- TA Rating
-
- TA Rating
4.23/5 - Category
SMB - Pricing Tier
Low-end - Mobile App
Yes - Free Trial
Yes
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Enterprise CRM systems
While there are many kinds of CRM systems designed for enterprise use, they are all intended to serve large-scale business needs across a variety of departments. Enterprise platforms typically have numerous integrated features, the ability to add features by purchasing apps and add-ons, and/or the ability to custom-design new features by using a developer toolkit.
The phrase “enterprise CRM” usually indicates the product is focused on improving contact management through a set of predetermined channels—both inbound and outbound—and automating sales processes to nurture old and new customer relationships.
Enterprise software also provides powerful tools for data analysis and insight, which can help managers take massive amounts of stored data, make sense of it, and put it to work. In large companies where customer data can be stored in vast databases and translated into predictive customer journeys and interactions it’s crucial to have CRM software for transforming information into strategy. During your CRM comparison, it’s a good idea to look for products that include built-in reporting or analytics.
For companies interested in extending the value of their data, enterprise CRM systems often include AI and machine learning tools that augment reporting and analytics and give sales reps actionable steps to improve processes and close more deals.
Enterprise CRM comparable products
Ready to find your next enterprise-ready CRM system? Click on the banner at the top of the page to get fast, free recommendations, or call a TechnologyAdvisor today at 877.822.9526 for a shortlist of the top CRM software for your company’s needs.
Small business CRM tools
A market full of “mega vendors” like Salesforce and Oracle can be intimidating to small businesses that work in niche industries or have limited budgets. Some of these businesses simply can’t afford a product like Oracle. Others find the large feature sets of enterprise CRMs too complicated or unnecessary for their basic needs.
Luckily, there are innovative vendors that offer impressive CRM systems built specifically for these businesses. From industry-specific (retail, nonprofit, real estate, financial services) to less complicated and more affordable platforms, there are lots of contenders in the market for the best CRM for small businesses.
And as the CRM market expands, the race to attract the most SMB software subscribers means that those CRM solutions often include some highly advanced features once only found in enterprise tools. Look for automated workflows, detailed reporting, and straightforward integrations to popular tools within SMB CRM systems.
SMB CRM comparable products
If you’re ready to find the right CRM for your small business, click on the image at the top of the page to enter your requirements. We’ll send you a curated list of custom recommendations to simplify your search.
Benefits of using CRM software
CRM software has changed the way companies do business because of the numerous benefits it offers. It’s made remote work easier through mobile features and SaaS offerings, while AI and customer experience management have improved the quality of customer interactions. Here’s a breakdown of some common CRM features and the benefits they offer:
Mobile features
Sales reps have not traditionally been tied to desks, but their freedom has expanded more than ever as CRM software has improved for mobile use. This proliferation, in many ways, parallels a growing interest for CIOs to pursue “customer experience management,” which requires businesses to meet customers where they are and react to their needs rather than simply push products.
Your company might also want to look into a CRM system specifically designed for mobile use. In industries where sales reps go to the clients—not vice versa—mobile CRM tools are instrumental in organizing and updating leads and client data, connecting salespeople with management, and optimizing daily operations. For example, many mobile CRM tools incorporate geolocation features, helping your reps plan the quickest route between multiple contacts on their smartphone and providing live GPS directions to get them there.
Real estate, merchant services, and energy/utilities commonly use mobile CRM, since their employees are rarely in the office.
Social CRM
As with the mobile CRM category, integrated social features are becoming increasingly commonplace in the software market, especially as companies look to better engage with their customers on more than just a few predetermined channels. Social media marketing has affected both customers’ relationship expectations and companies’ obligations now that customers have direct access to companies through social messaging features.
As more companies move their customer service models out of email and into chat functions, social media CRMs and social integrations with mainstream CRMs are gaining importance. You can find solutions ranging from platforms with basic social media integrations up to entire enterprise suites designed to help grow a successful community around your brand.
Many companies find it helpful to tether social media access with back-end programs so that reps can not only reach out to clients and know what they’re saying, but also respond with targeted marketing or business responses like recommending a product via email or completing a service request. Social CRM makes this possible. Top CRM software companies like Salesforce and Oracle have added social listening and social CRM features to their existing products, but lightweight, standalone products still exist that can provide social CRM services.
We’ve got more details and product recommendations for social CRM tools at that overview page, or you can click the banner at the top of the page to get fast, free recommendations based on your needs.
Sales mapping software
For mobile sales teams, mapping software can make the difference between closing deals or sitting in traffic hoping to make it to an appointment on time. Most modern sales mapping tools will locate current and potential customers on a digital map where sales managers can assign territories and suggest sales routes, and reps can find potential leads on the fly.
Combined with geolocating services and mobile access apps, sales mapping software often includes tools that give field reps the freedom to file contracts and line up deals from the road without checking in at the office every night. These tools save reps on gas money, commuting time, and paperwork. Find sales mapping software included as a feature of full-service CRM solutions or as stand-alone sales enablement software.
Customer experience management (CEM/CXM)
Some CRM companies are backing a new field of technology and strategy, which could eventually replace traditional CRM solutions. Customer experience management offers a new, more customer-centric engagement approach to relationships. It alleges that it is a company’s responsibility, not the customer’s, to make advances and contextualize its approach.
Interactions are focused on catering to the needs and questions of customers and take place on social media, web sites, instant messaging, email, and even SMS. This trend follows the rise of customer expectations. According to a 2019 Microsoft survey, “…nearly two thirds (59%) of [Microsoft’s] survey respondents have higher expectations for customer service than they did just a year ago.” To stay head of this growing trend, look for a solution that will help you stay connected to customers across a number of different channels and track customer interactions throughout their lifecycle instead of simply focusing on the sales pipeline.
Omnichannel features
Building off the trends of integrating social CRM and customer experience management tools, many CRMs look to fully encompass a company’s customer relationship landscape by enabling connections through all customer channels, including phone, email, social media, in-person interactions, and live chat. Keeping all of this data in one place where it can be easily tracked and analyzed is crucial to a higher sales conversion rate.
Because they monitor and incorporate information from so many sectors, omnichannel CRMs bring together the sales, marketing, and customer support teams over data in ways that previously seemed impossible. This greater cooperation between teams and proliferation of data can be found in AI and automation-enhanced CRMs, many of which integrate directly with marketing automation or ERP tools that aggregate data and transform it for business use.
AI, machine learning, and automation
Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and automation have surpassed being just a trend and are now fully making contributions to the software market in general and CRMs in particular. By the end of 2021, artificial intelligence included in CRMs is expected to be responsible for an extra $1.2 trillion in revenue over the past four years.
These three technology advances serve to augment and remove much of the manual work that sales reps have traditionally performed in the administrative side of their jobs: updating contact records, finding new leads in networks, remembering to follow up with prospects, and analyzing sales for trends can all be handled by automation, AI, or machine learning—and much faster and better than busy humans can manage. That leaves human sales reps free to focus on the customer interactions that drive revenue growth.
Top CRM software by industry
While many organizations choose their CRM software based on size or price, some industries have more customized needs. Industry-specific CRM systems include specialized features built to ease customer relations and speed work for companies with strict regulatory requirements or unique customer demands.
Nonprofit CRM
Nonprofit organizations have specific needs for member management and donor relations that demand specialized tools to manage lists and outreach. Nonprofit CRM solutions are specialized to cater to the requirements of nonprofit organizations who are looking to sustain membership and grow their donor books.
When looking for the best nonprofit CRM software, consider platforms that include email marketing, social integrations, and artificial intelligence. These tools are perfect for increasing donor engagement, managing current and prospective donor lists, and analyzing organizational improvements. Traditional CRMs can work for nonprofits, especially if they give users the flexibility to define custom categories or tags for leads and prospects. However, they often don’t include the right features for a price that fits within a nonprofit operating budget.
Comparable Nonprofit CRM vendors
Ready for custom recommendations on the best CRM for your nonprofit? Click the image at the top of the page for a list of vendors who meet your organization’s requirements.
Financial services CRM
A financial services CRM organizes contacts and provides insight into sales pipelines for financial services outlets including insurance, banks, and investment firms. Since many financial organizations don’t directly provide products to consumers but rather work as third party connections, the top CRM software for financial services helps sales representatives grow their clients’ portfolios, take on new business, and create networks of clients within these restrictions.
Financial services companies operate under strict government regulations concerning the privacy and security of their client’s personal data. Plus, they need to keep detailed records for audits and investigations. The best CRM for financial services will include security features, document management for contracts and tax forms, and integrated analytics that help reps build relationships and keep records safe.
Leading financial services CRM software
Real estate CRM systems
Real estate CRM software helps real estate agents and brokers manage the complicated relationships between property owners, sellers, buyers, lenders, banks, brokers, and lawyers. With property as the product, real estate CRM solutions help agents track relationships through the sometimes lengthy and difficult process of finding, contracting, and closing deals in the housing and commercial real estate sectors.
A solid real estate CRM will provide contact management, contract and document management, sales pipeline visibility, and task automation. It should also include or integrate with marketing tools, like email marketing. Many real estate agents use their CRM as a central hub to track and manage both incidental and ongoing relationships with buyers and sellers as well as third party vendors. Connections to other sales enablement and support tools are vital with real estate CRM systems as well.
Real estate CRM software options
CRM for field service management
Field service management software helps those in the construction, utilities, and service sectors organize their relationships with a widely dispersed customer base and field technicians who are constantly on the move. Nearly 80 percent of all field service management software includes some form of CRM software. Depending on industry or company needs, some companies might adopt a FSM or ERP software that does not include CRM capabilities. In these cases, the company should look for a CRM that integrates closely with their FSM dispatch, work order, and inventory software.
CRM solutions that work for field service organizations include features like mapping, quote management, invoicing and billing, and mobile applications. Some big-name CRMs like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics have FSM-specific extensions and capabilities—but may be overkill for small teams with tighter budgets. Small teams may fare better by customizing a small business CRM that integrates with their other field service technology or adopt a full-service FSM software that includes CRM features.
Field service management CRM vendors
Healthcare CRM
Commonly known as patient management and medical practice management software, healthcare CRM software is on the rise among modern healthcare groups that adopt sales and marketing techniques long used by businesses to stay relevant in a highly competitive marketplace.
Healthcare CRM will include many of the standard tools like contact management, billing, purchasing habits, and network records. Normally, it will also include features unique to the needs and regulatory compliance inherent in healthcare. Look for HIPAA-compliant databases and security features, user-friendly patient portals, and billing tools ready-made for insurance inquiries. Many healthcare CRM software options also include patient education and outreach tools similar to what one would find in a marketing automation tool.
Healthcare CRM vendors
Choosing the best CRM software for your business
Now that you have a better picture of some specific applications and vendors, it’s time to choose one for your business. Luckily, TechnologyAdvice has already done the hard part for you. When you use our product selection tool banner at the top of the page, you’ll find organized information and reviews on 100+ different CRM software vendors. We’ll help you connect with the right solution for your business according to the features you value most.
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- Which CRM software solution is right for your business?
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