6 Best CRM Software For Your Business in 2025

Jon Morgan
Published by Jon Morgan | Co-Founder & Chief Editor
Last updated: July 31, 2025
FACT CHECKED by Lou Viveros, Growth & Transition Advisor
Methodology
We diligently evaluate each service provider showcased in our reviews and guides. By interacting anonymously with their business formation and services, and leveraging the insights of an independent review team, we strive to offer unbiased, evidence-based suggestions. Learn more

Customer relationship management software is now essential for businesses that want to track leads, manage communication, and improve service. A good CRM system helps organize customer data, automate repetitive tasks, and improve how teams follow up on promising leads.

As experts with over a decade of experience in using paid and free CRM tools, we've researched dozens of tools to bring you a clean, trustworthy breakdown of the best CRM software for small businesses, sales teams, and growing companies.

CRM Software Free Plan Available Best For Pricing Range (USD) Mobile App Available Notable Features Main Drawbacks
HubSpot CRM Yes All-in-one tool with easy integration and scalability $0–$900/month Yes Email tracking, contact & deal pipelines, marketing automation, custom dashboards Expensive upgrades
Zoho CRM No Highly customizable workflows and automation with AI tools $25–Custom/month Yes AI sales assistant, forecasting, 500+ integrations, multi-channel tools Steep learning curve
Vtiger CRM Yes Small and mid-sized businesses needing affordability and project management $0–$50/user/month Yes Lead scoring, task tracking, email marketing, strong inventory features Outdated interface
Freshsales No Teams needing a clean, fast interface with built-in communication tools $12–$65/user/month Yes Built-in phone/chat, 2-way email sync, workflow automation Limited automation/reporting in lower plans
Pipedrive No Sales teams focused on pipeline tracking with strong integrations $14–$79/user/month Yes Visual sales pipeline, drag-and-drop deal stages, reminders Limited marketing tools, limited support on basic plans
Monday.com CRM Yes Teams needing project management and sales tracking in one platform $0–Contact Sales Yes Project & sales tracking, customizable boards, dashboard widgets Less developed CRM features compared to others


Our Top Products (August 2025)

1 - HubSpot CRM

Rated 4.94/5
HubSpot CRM CTA
5.0
Support
4.8
Price
5.0
User Interface
4.9
Features
5.0
Scalability
Sign Up To HubSpot CRM

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Easy to set up and use
  • Free plan includes many features
  • Works well with Google Workspace and other tools
  • They provide customer support reliably
  • Reliable platform for the entire sales cycle
Cons
  • Upgrades can become expensive
Would you recommend HubSpot CRM?

HubSpot CRM started in 2006 as a basic contact management tool and has since evolved into a full sales, marketing, and customer service platform. Today, over 190,000 businesses across the globe use it to manage customer relationships.

One of the biggest draws is the free plan, which includes core features like contact tracking, deal pipelines, and email tools.

Hubspot CRM software also has contact and lead management, email tracking with templates, customizable dashboards, meeting scheduling, marketing automation tools, and a free plan.

From personal experience, it's a great pick if you want something with a clean interface, reliable performance, and seamless integrations with popular apps like Gmail, Outlook, Shopify, and more.

Pricing

  • Small (US$45/month): With this plan you can use up to 5,000 credits and includes access to the feature. You can manage up to 50 customer conversations each month using the Breeze Customer Agent.
  • Medium ($270/month): Here you use up to 30,000 credits. The plan also gives you full access to the feature. Use Breeze Customer Agent to manage up to 300 customer conversations per month.
  • Large ($900/month): You can use up to 100,000 credits. Unlocks the feature with higher capacity. You can handle up to 1,000 customer conversations each month using the Breeze Customer Agent.

2 - Pipedrive

Rated 4.86/5
Pipedrive CTA
4.9
Support
4.8
Price
5.0
User Interface
4.8
Features
4.8
Scalability
Sign Up To Pipedrive

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Visual pipeline is easy to manage
  • Quick to set up and start using
  • Good integrations with email tools
Cons
  • Limited marketing features
  • Support is email-based unless on higher tiers
Would you recommend Pipedrive?

Pipedrive was founded in 2010 and was built specifically for sales teams that want a simple way to stay on top of their deals.

The main goal is to give you a clear view of your sales pipeline, so you always know what stage each deal is in.

For us, we used their easy drag-and-drop system to move leads through the stages, which made tracking progress feel almost like using a to-do list.

Pipedrive also reminds you when to follow up with leads and helps you stay organized.

It’s not overloaded with extras, which keeps it fast and focused. If your main goal is to close more deals without getting lost in complex tools, Pipedrive is a solid choice.

Pricing

  • Lite (US $14/user/month (billed annually): The Lite plan gives you core CRM essentials like customizable pipelines, lead and deal management, AI-powered report tools, two-way email sync, calendar integrations, and access to 500+ app integrations.
  • Growth (US $39/user/month (billed annually): Growth builds on Lite by adding full email sync with tracking and templates, workflow automation, meeting scheduling, subscription and forecast reports, and live chat support.
  • Premium (US $49/user/month (billed annually): Premium adds smart lead scoring, company data enrichment, multi-email sends, contract and e-signature support, and customizable team and reporting tools.
  • Ultimate (US $79/user/month (billed annually): Ultimate includes everything from Premium plus enterprise-grade features: advanced security, phone support, sandbox testing, and the highest usage limits for automations and user permissions. It’s built for large organizations needing full control and scalability.

3 - Zoho CRM

Rated 4.70/5
Zoho CRM CTA
4.7
Support
4.5
Price
5.0
User Interface
4.8
Features
4.5
Scalability
Sign Up To Zoho CRM

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Good mix of features for sales, marketing, and support
  • Customizable dashboards and reports
  • Works with many external tools
  • AI tools add smart suggestions
Cons
  • Takes time to learn fully
Would you recommend Zoho CRM?

Zoho CRM has been around since 2005 and is part of the bigger Zoho suite, which includes tools for everything from accounting to project management. Today, more than 250,000 businesses worldwide rely on it to manage their customer relationships.

In our experience, Zoho has AI tools that helped us predict sales trends and spot hot leads, along with dashboards and reports that are easy to understand. It’s highly customizable, so you can adjust it to fit your business needs.

The CRM also features sales forecasting and analytics, workflow automation, integration with over 500 apps, and multi-channel communication.

If you're already using other Zoho apps, it connects smoothly and keeps everything in one system. It’s a strong pick for teams that want detailed insights with customer satisfaction and plenty of room to grow.

Pricing

  • Standard ($25 per Organization per Month, Billed annually): This plan supports multi-user access (up to 3 users), project and timesheet tracking, a self-service customer portal, custom transaction templates, business workflow customization, custom domains, detailed tax reports, and progress invoicing.
  • Premium ($59 per Organization per Month, Billed annually): Includes everything in the Standard plan plus automate usage-based pricing, and handle proration. It supports up to 10 users, hosted payment pages, in-app purchases, abandoned cart reminders, and customer access to timesheet reviews.
  • Custom (Custom Pricing): Everything in lower tiers plus advanced billing tools, automated revenue tracking, and detailed analytics. Includes cohort charts, scheduled cancellations, and personalized support with a dedicated account manager.

4 - Freshsales

Rated 4.50/5
Freshsales CTA
4.5
Support
4.7
Price
4.6
User Interface
4.5
Features
4.2
Scalability
Sign Up To Freshsales

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Modern interface and layout
  • Includes built-in calling feature
  • Mobile apps are well-designed
Cons
  • Limited automation in entry plans
  • Reporting could be stronger
Would you recommend Freshsales?

Freshsales is part of the Freshworks family and was built with small businesses in mind.

It’s been picking up popularity thanks to its clean layout and quick setup process; you can get started in minutes.

Everything from tracking leads to managing deals and sending emails is done in one place, which helps keep things organized. It also has built-in phone and chat tools, so your team can connect with customers directly from the CRM.

During our trial, the automation features helped us cut down on repetitive work, like follow-ups and data entry. If you're looking for something easy to use that still feels modern and reliable, Freshsales is a great pick.

Pricing

  • Blossom ($12/month): The Blossom plan is ideal for small teams, starting at $12 per user/month billed annually. It covers core CRM features like lead and deal management, 2-way email sync, basic automations, and 250 daily bulk emails.
  • Garden ($35/month): This plan offer more sales sequences, email limits, workflow automations, and access to advanced reports and Freshmarketer tools.
  • Estate ($65/month): The plan is built for enterprises with full access to all features. It includes advanced CRM customization, sales goals, multi-currency support, and a complete analytics suite.

5 - Monday.com CRM

Rated 4.36/5
monday.com CRM CTA
4.4
Support
4.5
Price
4.4
User Interface
4.3
Features
4.2
Scalability
Sign Up To Monday.com CRM

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Highly customizable workflows
  • Visually clean interface
  • Good for sales and projects
Cons
  • CRM is not as developed as others
  • No advanced reporting tools
Would you recommend Monday.com CRM?

Monday.com is mostly known for project management, but it now offers solid CRM features too. It’s a good choice for teams that want to manage sales, tasks, and projects all in one place without jumping between tools.

You can use ready-made templates to quickly set up a custom CRM that fits your workflow.

We appreciate how the interface is colorful, visual, and easy to use, even if you’re new to CRMs. You can track leads, deals, and team activity, all from one dashboard.

It also connects with tools like Slack, Gmail, and Zoom, making it even more flexible. If your team values collaboration and needs something that works beyond just sales, monday.com is worth trying.

Pricing

  • (Free Plan): The Free plan is designed for individuals or freelancers and includes up to 2 seats, 3 boards, unlimited docs, over 200 templates, 8 column types, and iOS/Android apps.
  • Basic Plan ($9/seat/month billed annually): Basic adds unlimited items, 5 GB of file storage, unlimited free viewers, and a single dashboard (based on one board).
  • Standard Plan ($12/seat/month billed annually): Standard brings timeline and Gantt views, a calendar view, guest access, and 250 actions per month for automations and integrations, plus dashboards combining data from up to 5 boards.
  • Pro Plan ($19/seat/month billed annually): Pro adds private boards, chart view, time tracking, formula columns, 25,000 automation/integration actions per month, and dashboards combining up to 20 boards.
  • Enterprise Plan (contact sales for pricing): Enterprise includes everything in Pro plus 250,000+ automation/integration actions, multi-level permissions, 50-board dashboards, enterprise-grade security, and 24/7 support. It’s targeted at large organizations needing scale, governance, and full control.

6 - Vtiger CRM

Rated 4.26/5
Vtiger CRM CTA
4.3
Support
4.3
Price
4.2
User Interface
4.3
Features
4.2
Scalability
Sign Up To Vtiger CRM

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Affordable pricing for growing teams
  • Project management is built-in
  • Strong inventory management features
  • Includes customer support tools
Cons
  • Interface is a bit outdated
Would you recommend Vtiger CRM?

Vtiger came out in 2004 and has grown into an all-in-one tool for small and mid-sized businesses. It puts marketing, sales, and customer support in one place, so you don’t need separate tools.

Today, over 300,000 people use it across different industries.

What makes Vtiger a solid choice is that it’s affordable but still packed with helpful features like lead scoring, pipeline management, built-in document management system, task and project tracking, email marketing tools, and mobile apps.

We like that it also includes built-in reporting and automation to save you time on routine tasks. The interface is simple, and you don’t need to be tech-savvy to use it to strengthen customer relationships.

Pricing

  • One Pilot ($0): Vtiger’s free plan is ideal for small teams starting out, offering up to 10 users, 3,000 records, and key features like lead management, email marketing, sales pipelines, and project tracking. It includes 1,000 emails per month, collaboration tools, basic automation, and 3GB of storage.
  • One Growth ($12/month per user): Includes everything in One Pilot plus, predictive and generative AI, natural language querying, AI chatbot and bot management, lead auto-assignment and marketing campaigns with up to 5,000 emails per month.
  • One Professional ($30/month per user): Includes everything in the Growth Plan plus internal team collaboration, live web chat, sales and support insights, customizable reports and dashboards, invoicing, crm vendor and purchase order management, subscriptions and payment tracking, asset and sales order management.
  • One Enterprise ($42/month per user): Everything in the lower plans plus Work order management, automated time tracking and billing, project key metrics and analytics, project templates.
  • One AI ($50/month per user): Includes all features from lower tiers plus Predictive AI, generative AI, natural language querying, voice assistant integration, chatbot, AI prompt builder, query analytics, generative AI designer, predictive AI designer.

Advantages of Using CRM Software for Your Business

A person holding a marker pointing at CRM

Using a CRM makes it easier to manage your customers, sales, and team all in one place. It takes the guesswork out of customer follow-ups and helps your business run smoother.

Here’s how it helps:

1. Keep Customer Information Organized

A CRM stores all your customer details, like names, phone numbers, emails, past chats, and purchase history, in one system. No more digging through notes, spreadsheets, or inboxes. Everyone on your team can see the same info, so nothing slips through the cracks.

2. Track the Entire Sales Cycle

You can easily follow each lead from first contact to final sale. The CRM shows you what emails they opened, what pages they visited, and which stage of the pipeline they’re in.

"Tracking your sales cycle helps your team stay on top of every deal without guessing what’s next."

- Yamini Rangan, CEO of Hubspot

3. Improve Customer Support

When a customer reaches out, your support team can quickly pull up their full history; past problems, purchases, and conversations. This helps resolve issues faster because the customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves, and your team can offer better help.

4. Make Better Business Decisions

CRMs give you reports and dashboards that show you what’s working and what’s not; like which salespeople are closing the most deals or what marketing campaigns bring in leads. With clear data, you can make smarter choices for your business.

5. Save Time on Repetitive Tasks

CRMs can handle small but time-consuming tasks like sending follow-up emails, updating contact info, or setting reminders. Instead of doing these things manually, your team can focus on building relationships and closing more deals.

Our Selection Process

A woman doing her research using a laptop

We didn’t just pick random CRM tools; we took time to research, test, and compare them based on what actually matters to small and growing businesses. Here's how we narrowed down the list:

1. Tested User Experience

We personally signed up for each CRM and tried it ourselves. We looked at how fast it was to get started, whether the layout made sense, and how easy it was to find features like contact management or pipeline tracking.

If a platform felt confusing or clunky, we left it out. Our goal was to highlight tools that save time, not waste it.

2. Real User Reviews

We read through hundreds of user reviews on trusted websites like G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, and even Reddit threads.

This helped us see what actual business owners and sales teams liked or didn’t like after using the software. We gave extra credit to tools that consistently got good feedback over time.

3. Pricing Structure

We checked whether each CRM had a free plan or trial, how long it lasted, and what features were included.

We also looked at how the pricing scaled; some CRMs start cheap but quickly get expensive as your team grows. We only featured tools that give real value without sneaky costs.

4. Must-Have Features

A CRM isn’t helpful if it’s missing the basics. So we made sure every option on our list includes core features like storing contacts, tracking leads and deals, creating tasks, and running simple reports.

If a tool didn’t offer these out of the box, we skipped it.

5. Customer Support

We tested how easy it was to get help when we ran into questions. That included checking if there was live chat, how helpful the help articles were, and how fast support teams replied to emails.

We believe good customer service is just as important as the features themselves.

FAQs

1. What Is CRM Software Used For?

CRM software is used to store contact data, track leads, manage the sales pipeline, and improve customer communication.

2. Is There a Truly Free CRM?

Yes, there is a truly free CRM. Both HubSpot and Zoho offer free CRM plans that include essential features like contact management, deal tracking, and basic reporting.

3. Can a CRM Help if I Don’t Have a Sales Team?

Yes, a CRM can help if you don't have a sales team. Even if you’re a solo business owner or run a service-based business, you can use a CRM to track client interactions, schedule follow-ups, manage inquiries, and make sure no opportunity falls through the cracks.

Our Verdict on the Best CRM Software

After testing all the platforms, HubSpot CRM stands out as the best CRM software overall. It balances strong features with a smooth experience and helpful support.

It's easy for beginners and grows with your business. We like its user-friendly setup and how it makes tracking leads simple. Compared to others,

HubSpot ticks all the boxes from good pricing, and useful tools, to a solid reputation.

If you're looking for a low-hassle CRM solution that does the job without wasting your time, HubSpot is the one to start with.

Our #1 Recommendation

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM CTA
Rated 4.94/5
5.0
Support
4.8
Price
5.0
User Interface
4.9
Features
5.0
Scalability
Pros
  • Easy to set up and use
  • Free plan includes many features
  • Works well with Google Workspace and other tools
  • They provide customer support reliably
  • Reliable platform for the entire sales cycle
  • Get the BEST PRICE until the end of August
Cons
  • Upgrades can become expensive

About The Author

Venture Smarter | 6 Best CRM Software For Your Business in [y]
Co-Founder & Chief Editor
Jon Morgan, MBA, LLM, has over ten years of experience growing startups and currently serves as CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Venture Smarter. Educated at UC Davis and Harvard, he offers deeply informed guidance. Beyond work, he enjoys spending time with family, his poodle Sophie, and learning Spanish.
Learn more about our editorial policy
Venture Smarter | 6 Best CRM Software For Your Business in [y]
Growth & Transition Advisor
LJ Viveros has 40 years of experience in founding and scaling businesses, including a significant sale to Logitech. He has led Market Solutions LLC since 1999, focusing on strategic transitions for global brands. A graduate of Saint Mary’s College in Communications, LJ is also a distinguished Matsushita Executive alumnus.
Learn more about our editorial policy

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