Best Free CRM for Startups: Top 7 in 2024 to Boost Your Sales

If you want to be a successful startup, developing and maintaining customer relationships and interactions is essential. Without a CRM, it’ll be challenging to stay on top of your customer data and their needs while keeping a profitable relationship with them.

That said, picking a CRM that fits both your needs and budget as a startup can be an incredibly challenging task. To help, we’ve sourced, reviewed, and compared the best free CRM software solutions on the market that offer invaluable tools for startups.

The Best Free CRM Software for Startups in 2024

Below is a quick look at our top picks for the best free CRM software for startups, with HubSpot coming out on top. It caters to businesses of all sizes, not just startups, and the premium features it includes blow the competition out of the water. Here’s the full list:

1. HubSpot — Overall, the best free CRM for startups based on its feature-rich free plan that allows unlimited users.
2. Monday Sales — A popular freemium CRM solution that can be customized to fit in with any business’s requirements.
3. Zoho CRM — An excellent choice for businesses looking for a system that can scale alongside them, thanks to its wide range of flexible and affordable plans.
4. Freshsales — Top free solution for sales and marketing teams as it boasts an excellent built-in phone system.
5. Salesforce — The best choice for a premium CRM with a ton of advanced features like personalized sales pipelines. It offers a month-long free trial.
6. Pipedrive — Superb for sales and marketing teams thanks to features like mass emailing that can include up to 1,000 customers at a time. Try it free for two weeks.
7. Maximizer CRM — An incredibly user-friendly CRM that’s great for first-time users. Try it risk-free for a full month with the free trial.

Why Do You Need a CRM Software for Your Startup?

For startups looking to enhance communication with clients, consumers, and even within their own organization, a CRM is a must-have solution. By monitoring customer interactions across channels, CRMs can increase client retention. Here’s why:

• Customers won’t have to wait for answers if teams from various departments have fast access to data.
• Employee productivity can be increased while also enhancing the client experience.
• They aid in assigning responsibility to tasks that improve productivity and your processes to bolster your startup’s growth.

Using historical data in personalized reports, you can keep track of tasks and assess the overall performance of your business. By having the means to pinpoint areas of improvement, you’ll have everything you need at your fingertips to catapult your business’ sales, customer satisfaction, and employee performance.

How to Choose the Best Free CRM Software for Your Startup

There are some crucial factors you should consider, such as ease of use or connectors, to make sure you get the best CRM app for your business needs. We’ve created this list of everything you should keep in mind when choosing the best one for your needs:

• User-friendliness — Your CRM software should be just as easy to use as your email client — especially in terms of routine chores like updating contact information or keeping track of sales.
• Scalability — Startups are always expanding and changing, so you need a CRM that can scale with you as your business moves from the pre-seed stage to the seed stage and finally to the growth stage. Pick a CRM tool for startups that has a range of affordable pricing plans where you can expand beyond the fundamentals.
• Analytics — Customer metrics like purchase history, demographics, and customer care interactions are included in most of the free CRMs on this list, but for more advanced analytics, you may need to upgrade your plan. With that being said, the best free CRMs will offer some valuable insight into customer behavior and trends.
• Integrations — By integrating your CRM with other applications you already use, you’ll be able to save a boatload of time and money. Most CRMs on this list can link with tools like Slack, Microsoft Office, and Google Suite. However, for more advanced integrations, you may need to upgrade to a higher-tier plan.

The Best Free CRMs for Startups Reviewed

Let’s take a deeper look at the top free CRM for startups in 2024, with HubSpot leading the way for businesses around the world, no matter what size or scale. We’ll review the key features, integrations, scalability, and more, including the key advantages and disadvantages of each one so that you can make an informed decision.

1. HubSpot — Overall, the Best Free CRM for Startups

HubSpot CRM solidifies its position at the top of our list by providing a solid platform for small and midsize businesses looking to combine their capabilities for sales, marketing, and customer service. It truly is the best free-forever CRM on the market right now to streamline your business thanks to the free features on offer.

Besides being an incredibly reliable, easy-to-use CRM software, the free bundle provides what you need for handling new leads using a variety of complimentary CRM, marketing, sales, and customer support solutions, such as dashboard reporting, deal tracking, and pipeline management.

In fact, the functionality included in the free plan is the key factor that sets HubSpot apart from its competitors. For instance, the shared inbox feature, which gathers all incoming emails and live chat correspondence in one place, makes it easier for the entire team to access client information to ensure accurate data and timely support.

Email templates can also be swiftly created and sent, saving you time for other tasks, and you can easily import contacts from other mail providers and then design your email using one of five templates. Beyond this, as part of the free plan, a support form and tracking code can be placed on your website so you can:

• Keep tabs on visitor activity
• Automatically store their data in your database, and
• Track interactions with them over time

Teams seeking more specialized capabilities can upgrade to the CRM Suite bundle or the Starter package for individual hubs, which offers more powerful features. For instance, using segmented lists and the Starter plan of the Marketing hub, you can easily develop branded, personalized email campaigns to bolster their success.

To further optimize your efforts, you can also observe how and when your customers are responding to your emails. Similar feature upgrades are available with the CRM Suite Starter subscription, including extra ad account possibilities, meeting scheduling, two deal pipelines, and 5,000 email templates.

All the free tools come with enhanced limits when you upgrade to the Starter plan, and the HubSpot branding is removed from services like forms, landing pages, and live chat. Overall, the free tools are the best you’ll find, and scaling is effortless and affordable with HubSpot.

2. Monday Sales — A Highly Customizable CRM for Startups

Monday is among the most adaptable customer relationship management platforms. Your team can customize Monday to their own needs because of its extensive customizability possibilities — from personalized reporting to ample column types, you can make Monday your own.

However, the free plan is best for individuals, as it allows for only one user. That said, it’s fantastic for small startups or users looking to try most of the premium features on offer before upgrading. It lets you create Unlimited boards, use the software on the go with the mobile apps, and you’ll get a generous 5GB of storage, all for $0.

This plan also provides you with a ton of core features that most CRMs would charge a hefty price for, including 200+ templates, 20 column types for customization, web-to-lead capture, two-factor authentication, and 24/7 customer support.

Beyond this, Monday’s popularity is also largely due to how affordable it is to have this tool scale with you.

For companies with specific sales processes and close-knit departmental interactions, Monday’s Standard plan is a great option because it provides fully customized dashboards, templates, workflows, forms, quotes, and widgets, plus personalized labels and items.

Along with offering essential capabilities like sales pipeline and contact management to effectively monitor and manage your customer journey, workflow automation to streamline processes, and easy email synchronization, Monday enables sales teams and managers to customize almost every part of the CRM.

Unlike some CRMs that offer predefined automations, Monday lets you create custom workflows using IF/THEN equations to reduce the time spent on mundane tasks, like assigning work or offering updates; plus, it promotes efficient teamwork on projects and streamlines customer communication by automating tasks like emails.

Beyond all this, Monday is incredibly easy to use and set up. Try the free plan to see if Monday is the best fit for your needs, and upgrade to one of the many budget-friendly paid plans if you need more functionality.

3. Zoho CRM — Solid Free CRM That’s Great for Affordable Scaling

As one of the best small business CRMs, Zoho expands with your needs, and it’s a top choice for startups seeking a straightforward, cost-free method of storing contacts and monitoring leads.

With the free plan, up to three users can track customers, leads, accounts, and deals without spending a cent. For easier customer relationship management, you can also record calls, events, and notes to ensure nothing gets lost and your team knows where each lead is in their customer journey and what to do next.

Plus, to automate particular actions, such as reminding sales to email prospects on a specific date, you can define workflow rules. So, you can set up task reminders, and it even lets you build up a lead, account, and deal management pipeline and store all the necessary documents related to each one.

That said, the social tabs for Facebook and Twitter aren’t available on the free plan, and you’re unable to accept calendar bookings from your website into your CRM. As such, although the free plan is an excellent place to start for many new users or small organizations, you’ll likely rapidly outgrow this plan.

However, upgrading to a subscription plan for more advanced features is affordable with Zoho, and it’ll open up ample more services, including automating marketing tasks and lead scoring that will allow your team to prioritize certain leads depending on their interactions with your business.

Lead scoring also ensures contacts are forwarded to the relevant teams. With Zoho, every one of your leads has a tag that lets you know:

• If contact has been made
• If more action is needed, or
• If the lead has been lost

Furthermore, Zoho CRM provides seamless integrations with other Zoho tools, like the help desk and project management software, and hundreds of other third-party programs you might be using, like as MailChimp, Google Analytics, and QuickBooks.

Overall, Zoho CRM is a more effective tool than just a simple CRM for managing contacts and leads, even on its free plan. The sales automation solutions aid in producing leads that are instantly added as contacts in your CRM through forms on your website, social media, and email.

4. Freshsales – Reliable Free CRM for Sales and Marketing Teams

Freshsales is one of the best cloud-based CRMs for small businesses since it includes a highly functional, perpetually free plan and fairly priced premium alternatives. It’s free to use for up to three individuals, and it’s a one-stop shop where you can start up your expanding small business for nothing.

It’s also easy to use and reasonably priced for small businesses looking to make a wise financial decision when it’s time to scale. That said, the free plan is an excellent place to start; you can handle transactions, analyze and track business success, send emails, and much more with free sales and marketing tools.

And to top it off, signing up doesn’t require a credit card, and you can open a new account if you already have an account to use the free version. Plus, although only three users and 1,000 marketing contacts are included in the free version, you can pay a small fee to add more users, contacts, and add-ons at any time.

Freshsales distinguishes itself from its competitors with its AI-powered contact and deals scoring, customization, and built-in marketing, chat, and phone functionality. Plus, as you can add as many users and support personnel as you wish, it’s a top choice for growing sales teams.

Besides this, the free plan gives you access to features like contact scoring and connection with Freshdesk for streamlined customer support, and beyond being affordable to scale, you can also upgrade to a premium account without losing your data.

Overall, Freshsales offers a variety of tools to support the growth of your business. You can obtain important information regarding your contacts, accounts, and deals, and you can use it to gather leads from website visitors and learn how to effectively engage more potential customers.

Additionally, you’ll get extensive analytics, transaction monitoring, and complete reporting features for accurate revenue forecasting. In fact, you can build detailed reports on sales activities, measure crucial metrics like conversion rates, and get real-time data on performance to make improvements based on informed judgments.

5. Salesforce — The Best Premium CRM for Startups With a Free Trial and Advanced Features

Salesforce CRM is a market leader for a wide range of requirements thanks to its powerful sales automation across various industries. That said, it functions best for sales teams and big or expanding businesses that need a highly customizable solution.

Unfortunately, there’s also no free plan, which is why Salesforce isn’t ranked first on our list as the best CRM overall for startups. However, it does offer a generous 30-day free trial which gives you ample time to try the service to see whether you think upgrading is a good choice for your business.

It works well for established firms looking to optimize their sales processes, integrate many platforms into one CRM, or both. As such, a large sales staff will particularly benefit from Salesforce’s many advanced capabilities, such as the numerous opportunities for customization and integration.

Salesforce offers a wide range of services, including simple lead management, complicated workflows, and personalized sales pipelines. And despite it being not the easiest CRM to use, it’s certainly among the most intuitive, and with time and practice, it’ll prove to be a vital tool for many businesses.

Unlike many CRMs that are difficult to use since they can’t be completely tailored to your pipeline, one of Salesforce’s great advantages is its flexibility to customize almost every aspect of your sales process, which opens a world of opportunity in how you accomplish your goals.

For example, you can get leads distributed automatically as they come in with Salesforce, and it also offers a wide range of other automation options to streamline your customer relationship management processes.

The vast array of third-party integration options also makes it excellent for businesses that need to put together various solutions. With over 3,000 integrations, Salesforce enables you to easily ensure effortless cross-compatibility with different tools your businesses use — this includes apps like Slack, LinkedIn, and DocuSign.

 6. Pipedrive — Great Option for Securing New Sales Leads Thanks to its Excellent Email Marketing Software

Pipedrive is a well-known CRM that was developed by and for sales teams, and as its name suggests, it primarily focuses on sales pipelines. Despite the lack of a free plan, it’s a solid choice for small businesses because it’s affordable and easy to use, plus, it comes with a 2-week-long trial that doesn’t require any credit card details.

With it, you can process incoming leads quickly with forms, and the platform can be completely customized to meet the unique workflows used by your team. By keeping track of important contacts and comments as a lead moves through the sales process, the CRM aids sales teams in tracking leads efficiently to bolster revenue.

However, cheaper plans have a lot of limitations, so if you’re willing to pay for a high-tier plan, you’ll get the most for your money.

Overall, Pipedrive shines as a sales-focused CRM, and the capabilities it offers are consistent with this. For example, contacts may be created and tracked all the way through the sales pipeline, from the first conversation to the last transaction and beyond.

Automation helps eliminate a lot of the tedious busywork that would otherwise take up employees’ time and allows each step of the process to be customized to the needs of certain teams.

One of the key advantages is the customized chatbot that companies can place on their website to gather new leads that are quickly integrated into the sales funnel. This introduces a critical technique that firms may use to acquire warm and hot leads that don’t fall through the cracks while people surf the internet.

Despite Pipedrive offering a completely functional CRM out of the box, you can expand its functionality by adding third-party apps. It can be integrated with over 400 third-party applications, including Leadfeeder, Zoom, Calendly, and Zapier.

7. Maximizer CRM — Decent Choice For CRM Beginners

Right now, one of the most reliable solutions for Sales Leaders is the all-around strong Maximizer CRM. It gives you an advantage over the competition by combining both leading and lagging indicators so you can more precisely predict and influence future sales success.

You have exceptional visibility into the activities of your salespeople, making it easier to keep track of and analyze important data and monitor and manage them in real-time. Maximizer includes capabilities for sales management, CRM marketing automation, customer service and support, and corporate productivity.

A wide range of productivity tools is also included with Maximizer, making it simple to track important sales, locate pertinent information quickly, and send automated emails. Plus, it also integrates with Microsoft Office programs, such as Outlook, Word, Excel, and SharePoint.

The marketing automation component of the product includes email marketing campaigns, integrated campaign planning, and marketing analytics. Users can also search and filter customer data using list management tools based on pre-set criteria, targeted leads, and customers to save time.

Beyond this, you can use the powerful analytics features to discover more about the performance of your business. These technologies enable you to monitor and assess activity in real time, enabling you to quickly decide how to proceed and adjust your plans as necessary.

By having the ability to create both standard and customized templates, you can also reduce the time it takes to send messages while ensuring their accuracy. And although there isn’t a free plan available, you can take advantage of the lengthy 30-day free trial or the 60-day money-back guarantee.

Comparison of the Best Free CRM Software in 2024

Now that we’ve reviewed all of our top picks, it’s time to compare key features like pricing and compatibility. Below is a useful table you can use to find the best CRM for your startup:

A Quick Guide On How to Use a CRM

Early on, using a CRM can be somewhat tricky, but once you’ve figured it out, they’re the perfect solution to automate your processes, improve your customer support, and gain invaluable insights to catapult your startup.

For this guide, we’ll be using HubSpot as our example, but it works the same for pretty much any other CRM software you might decide to use.

Add Users

Adding new staff members to your HubSpot account is pretty straightforward, just follow the simple steps listed below:

• Click the settings icon in the main navigation bar of your HubSpot account.
• Go to Users & Teams in the left sidebar menu and click Create User in the upper right corner.
• Add a user by entering their email, if there are multiple users, make sure to leave a space.

Automate Workflows

There are so many options for automation. For example, you can choose what happens after a form is submitted by visiting the Automation tab of the form. Activate basic automation functions, including sending a contact a follow-up email.

• Navigate to Marketing > Lead Capture > Forms in your HubSpot account.
• To add follow-up emails or create a new form, click Edit next to the name of an existing form.
• Click the Automation tab in the forms editor.

Import Data

Startups managing prospects and opportunities using a different CRM or spreadsheet can import this data by uploading a CSV file. To ensure that your data transfers between your old and new systems without any errors, each column in your spreadsheet should correspond to a contact property in the CRM.

Below is an example of how to import files, the steps are pretty much the same as if you wanted to import multiple or single files:

• Click the settings icon in the main navigation bar of your HubSpot account.
• Go to Import & Export in the left sidebar menu, then click Go to import.
• Tap Start an Import on the Imports screen, choose File from the computer, and then select Next.
• Now choose Next after selecting One File/Multiple items.
• Click Next after selecting the items and actions in your import file.
• For each object or activity, select Choose a file, then pick your import file.
• Click the Choose how to import [objects/activities] dropdown menu for each object/activity and select how to import your data
• Finally, select Create new contacts only.

Integrations

If your business currently uses other apps like Google Suite, Shopify, QuickBooks, and so on, you can link them to your CRM to streamline your processes. Choose tools that are already connected to your preferred CRM (check out the integration partners for your CRM), or use Zapier to connect them.

For instance, you might configure a Zap to send entries from Google Forms directly to your CRM. Below is an example of how to integrate a third-party app, in this case, QuickBooks. It works the same for most external apps, so just follow these steps for the program you need:

• Select App Marketplace by clicking the marketplace symbol in the main navigation bar of your HubSpot account.
• To find and choose the QuickBooks Online integration, use the search bar. Click “Install app” in the upper right corner.
• Use your QuickBooks Online credentials to log in.
• The connected integration will appear in your area of connected apps once it has been connected successfully.
• By going to the Marketplace icon in the main navigation bar, you can connect numerous accounts. Then click Connected Apps under Manage.
• Click Connect QuickBooks account in the upper right after choosing QuickBooks Online. By choosing Disconnect, you can also terminate your account.

Reports

You spend a lot of time looking at data as a sales manager. However, your representatives ought to be out there selling as much as they can. Making daily, weekly, monthly, and/or quarterly email reports is an excellent idea because of this.

The reports also allow you to oversee the performance of staff, a product, and so on, and provide an easy way to provide feedback on working performance and sales behavior. The processes for creating a report in the custom report builder are as follows:

• Choose the HubSpot data types that will be included in the report’s data sources.
• Select the specific property, event, and activity data to report on by adding fields to the report.
• Create your own report filters by defining upper and lower bounds for the additional fields.
• Configure report visualization by selecting the data display options.
• Make your report accessible to you and others by saving or exporting it to remove your data from the internet.

All of the tools we’ve reviewed in this article offer excellent customer support, plus in-depth help articles populated by images and short videos to help you get accustomed to the software, and thankfully most are incredibly intuitive to use.

It’s just a matter of playing around during the free trial or on the free plans to determine whether the one you’re using is a good fit for your business.

Conclusion | What is the Best Free CRM to Use in 2024?

When assessing the best free CRMs for startups, we took several factors into consideration, including functionality, customer service, usability, user experiences, and third-party integrations.

Overall, HubSpot is undoubtedly the top pick for the top free CRM for startups since it offers a feature-rich free forever plan that permits several third-party connections and includes a tonne of premium features like Website Activity Tracking, Email Integration, and a fantastic Opportunity Pipeline tool.

It’s also a fantastic choice if your company has to scale up because it offers a selection of plans that come loaded with added functionality that’ll help bolster your startup to a booming business.

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