Best 6 Pipeline Management Software for 2024

Why we chose Freshsales

Freshsales offers a full CRM suite at a competitive cost, gives access to more than 1,000 integrations, and most importantly, boasts a sophisticated and helpful AI assistant called Freddy AI. 

This intelligent system goes well beyond basic automation, offering a suite of tools designed to enhance sales performance across the board.

One of Freddy AI’s standout features is its predictive lead scoring capability. By analyzing historical data and lead behavior, Freddy AI assigns scores to leads based on their likelihood to convert. Its strategic prioritization allows sales teams to focus their efforts where they’re most likely to yield results. 

The automatic data enrichment feature is a noteworthy tool. By pulling information from publicly available sources, Freddy AI fills in the gaps in lead and contact profiles. This saves hours of manual data entry and ensures sales teams are always working with the most up-to-date and comprehensive information.

As timing is a crucial aspect of sales operations, Freddy AI’s ability to generate real-time deal insights keeping sales teams one step ahead is a game-changer. By continuously monitoring the sales pipeline, Freddy AI provides actionable recommendations on how to move deals forward. Whether it’s suggesting the optimal time for a follow-up or flagging deals at risk of stalling, these insights empower sales reps to make informed decisions quickly.

The beauty of this system lies in its seamless integration within the CRM. Sales professionals don’t need to juggle multiple tools or wade through complex reports. The insights are presented right where they’re needed, allowing for immediate action and maintaining the momentum of the sales process.

Freshsales also includes a feature called Freshbots Sessions, which extends the AI capabilities beyond traditional CRM functions. Freshbots Sessions is a package that includes conversational AI bots designed to interact with leads and customers, handling inquiries, qualifying leads, and even setting up appointments automatically. This feature is particularly beneficial for managing high volumes of inquiries, as it automates the initial stages of customer interaction, freeing up sales reps to focus on more complex tasks. The conversational bots are highly customizable and can be tailored to specific workflows, making them a versatile tool for businesses looking to scale their customer engagement without increasing headcount​. 

And with support for over 1,000 native and third-party integrations, including essential tools like G Suite, Microsoft Office 365, Mailchimp, Slack, and Zapier, Freshsales creates a unified ecosystem. This extensive connectivity goes a long way to creating a central business hub within the CRM. 

While competitors like HubSpot and Salesforce offer their own AI solutions, Freshsales’ Freddy AI wins out because of its deep integration into the CRM’s core functionalities. Rather than simply being an add-on or afterthought to tick the “AI” checkbox, it’s an integral part of the Freshsales experience, providing targeted, actionable insights specifically tailored to sales pipeline management.

Crucially, Freshsales offers this advanced AI-driven automation without the complexity and high costs often associated with enterprise-level solutions. This makes it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes looking to leverage the power of AI in their sales processes. 

Why we chose HubSpot Sales Hub

By leveraging HubSpot’s accessible yet powerful features, growing businesses can optimize their sales operations without the complexity or high costs often associated with enterprise-level sales management. 

One of the key advantages of HubSpot Sales Hub is its intuitive design. The interface is clean and straightforward, minimizing the learning curve for your team. This is particularly beneficial for SMBs that may not have the resources or time to dedicate to extensive training on a complex sales system. It also raises the likelihood of adoption among team members. 

In fact, according to user reviews, HubSpot users consistently praise the platform’s ease of use, with one SMB owner noting, “HubSpot is incredibly user-friendly and has a very short learning curve. Our team was able to onboard and start using the CRM within a matter of days.”

But HubSpot’s appeal goes beyond simplicity; it also offers a large set of features at an affordable price point. The platform’s free tier is one of the most comprehensive in the CRM space, providing essential CRM functionalities. This perennially makes it an attractive option for startups and small businesses that aren’t ready to invest in a paid solution. And as you scale, HubSpot’s tiered pricing structure allows you to unlock additional capabilities without the sticker shock associated with enterprise-level platforms.

The platform’s cohesive approach to marketing and sales is crucial for maintaining a smooth and efficient sales pipeline. With HubSpot, marketing efforts such as email campaigns, social media outreach, and content management are directly linked to sales activities, providing a holistic view of customer interactions. This makes it easier to track leads throughout their journey.

HubSpot’s sales-focused features further enhance the platform’s utility. The email tracking function allows sales teams to see when a prospect opens an email, clicks on a link, or downloads an attachment, providing valuable insights into their engagement level. Call recording helps maintain accurate records of customer conversations, which is essential for follow-ups and ensuring consistency in communication. And the customizable email templates save time while ensuring that communications are both professional and personalized, improving the effectiveness of outreach efforts.

When it comes to sales pipeline management specifically, HubSpot Sales Hub offers a full set of capabilities that are particularly well-suited for SMBs. The visual pipeline, with its drag-and-drop interface, makes it easy for sales teams to track deals at every stage of the sales process. This visual representation allows them to quickly identify bottlenecks and prioritize actions to move deals forward.

HubSpot’s automation capabilities also play a critical role in pipeline management. Automated workflows can handle routine tasks such as sending follow-up emails, scheduling meetings, and updating deal statuses based on predefined triggers. This reduces the manual workload on sales teams and ensures no leads fall through the cracks. The ability to integrate these workflows with marketing activities further enhances lead nurturing and maintains a consistent, personalized experience for prospects throughout the sales cycle.

Of course, HubSpot isn’t without its limitations. As noted in various reviews, the platform’s customization options are less extensive than Salesforce, which may pose a challenge for businesses with highly specialized requirements. Additionally, while HubSpot’s automation capabilities are impressive, some users have reported room for improvement in terms of third-party integrations.

Why we chose Salesforce

For enterprises that require a highly customizable, feature-rich, and deeply integrated sales pipeline management solution, Salesforce Sales Cloud is hard to beat. The level of sophistication and flexibility it provides is unmatched in the market, making it a worthy investment for large-scale businesses.

Unlike HubSpot, which offers a more standardized approach, Salesforce Sales Cloud gives you the ability to tailor the platform to your unique business needs and workflows. This level of flexibility is crucial for enterprises with complex operations that require a specialized solution.

One of the primary ways Salesforce enables extensive customization is through the creation of custom objects and fields. This allows you to capture and manage data that is specific to your business processes. For example, you can design custom sales stages that perfectly reflect your unique sales cycle, ensuring that each step in the pipeline aligns with your operational requirements.

Salesforce’s advanced workflow automation tools, such as the Flow Builder, take customization even further. You can use these tools to automate everyday tasks, like lead routing, approval workflows, and follow-up reminders. Along with saving valuable time, this helps minimize the risk of human error across sales operations.

Salesforce’s Lightning Experience also enables a high degree of customization at the user interface level. You can tailor dashboards and reports to display the most relevant data for different roles within your organization. Each team member can have the information they need laid out simply and at a glance. The drag-and-drop dashboard builder makes it easy to create and modify these views.

The AppExchange provides access to over 7,000 integrations—far more than what competitors like Freshsales offer. This means you can connect Salesforce Sales Cloud with all the other tools and systems your enterprise relies on, from accounting software to customer service platforms. 

Boasting one of the better AI tools on the list, the powerful Einstein AI is invaluable for lead scoring and predictive forecasting. These enterprise-grade features provide your sales teams with deep insights and data-driven decision-making tools. However, the full might of Einstein AI is only available at higher price tiers. Options like ActiveCampaign also offer top-notch marketing automation, but they lack the same depth of sales-specific AI and reporting tools that Salesforce brings to the table.

And, speaking of pricing tiers, Salesforce’s is on the more expensive side, especially compared to more budget-friendly options like Zoho CRM. The platform also has a steeper learning curve, and some users have reported performance issues, particularly during the transition to the Lightning interface. With a more powerful system comes more things to break. 

Why we chose Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM, a long-standing player in the CRM game, offers an incredible range of features at a price that’s hard to beat. Starting at $14 per user per month, Zoho CRM delivers the kind of advanced tools you’d typically expect from much more expensive platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot. For small to mid-sized businesses, this means you can access powerful sales pipeline management features—like customizable pipelines, sales forecasting, and territory management—without stretching your budget.

Its AI-powered assistant, Zia, provides predictive analytics and smart recommendations that help you prioritize your leads and optimize your sales strategies, all without the price tag you’d find with other CRM providers. This level of AI integration at such an affordable rate is a game-changer, especially if you’re looking to harness advanced technology to boost your sales efforts.

That said, it’s worth noting that Zoho CRM isn’t as user-friendly as some of its competitors, like HubSpot. The extensive customization options and setup process can be a bit complex, especially if you’re new to CRM software. Additionally, while the Zoho ecosystem offers a lot of functionality, you may find that to get the most out of Zoho CRM, you’ll need to integrate with other Zoho products, which can add a layer of complexity.

Why we chose Pipedrive

Pipedrive is well-suited for small to mid-sized businesses that need a straightforward solution. It’s designed to be user-friendly, with an interface that simplifies the process of managing and tracking deals. 

Compared to similar CRMs like Zoho, the differences in approach quickly become clear. Zoho CRM is packed with features and offers extensive customization options, but this comes with increased complexity. For businesses that require a broad range of tools and have the resources to manage a more intricate setup, Zoho CRM might be a suitable choice. However, this complexity can be overwhelming for teams looking for a more streamlined solution.

Pipedrive, by contrast, focuses on providing a simpler, more accessible platform that allows businesses to concentrate on sales pipeline management without getting bogged down by unnecessary features.

But Pipedrive can be a comprehensive system, too. The LeadBooster tool, which enhances the CRM’s lead generation capabilities, is an add-on priced at $32.50 per company per month. LeadBooster includes live chat, chatbots, and a Prospector tool that helps you identify and qualify leads based on specific criteria. This add-on enhances Pipedrive’s functionality by ensuring a continuous flow of qualified leads, a feature that in other CRMs, is often only available at higher subscription levels.

While Zoho CRM does offer integrated lead management tools, accessing these requires committing to higher-tier plans, which can increase costs significantly.

Pipedrive’s approach, with its modular add-ons like LeadBooster, offers more flexibility and allows businesses to scale their CRM capabilities as needed without committing to a higher upfront cost. In contrast, while Zoho CRM provides a wide array of features out of the box, it becomes more complex and expensive as businesses look to unlock advanced functionalities. 

Also read: Pipedrive vs. HubSpot CRM

Why we chose ActiveCampaign

Customization is crucial for creating optimized automation workflows and lead management processes. ActiveCampaign leads in the space for its ability to create complex, multi-step automation workflows through its intuitive visual automation builder. 

This tool allows users to design workflows that are intricately customized to fit specific business needs, far surpassing what many other CRM platforms offer. For example, businesses can create detailed sequences that trigger specific actions based on customer behavior, such as sending follow-up emails, updating CRM statuses, or assigning tasks to team members based on real-time interactions.

The platform’s use of conditional logic allows workflows to branch off based on various criteria, making it possible to automatically adjust sales strategies according to how leads engage with the content. This level of control ensures that businesses can maintain a dynamic and responsive sales process, which is crucial for optimizing lead conversion rates.

ActiveCampaign also supports multichannel integration within these workflows, enabling consistent communication across email, SMS, and social media, so leads are nurtured effectively from any stage in the sales funnel.

When compared to competitors like HubSpot and Salesforce, ActiveCampaign wins in the categories of advanced automation and cost-effectiveness. While HubSpot offers solid automation features, they come at a higher cost, particularly for advanced functionalities that ActiveCampaign provides at lower pricing tiers. Having said this, advanced AI-assisted processes and custom landing page templates are only available at higher price tiers.