Best of
Best CRM for small business, compared on facts
The best CRM for small business is the one your team will keep using: contacts, a pipeline, email sync and a phone app, without an admin to run it. A small company often wants a free plan or no seat minimum, and sometimes quotes and support in the same tool. This table lists those facts for eleven CRMs.
Side by side.
Facts a reader can check on each vendor’s own site. No prices.
| Free plan | No seat minimum | Quotes | Invoices | Support tickets | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | Commerce Hub | ||||
| Zoho CRM | Higher plans | Higher plans | Zoho Desk | ||
| Pipedrive | Higher plans | ||||
| Capsule | Via accounting apps | ||||
| Less Annoying CRM | |||||
| Insightly | Higher plans | Separate product | |||
| Copper | |||||
| Keap | |||||
| monday CRM | Three-seat minimum | Higher plans | Higher plans | ||
| Salesforce Starter | Pro Suite | ||||
| Spodus |
Checked on , against each vendor’s public plan pages.
The list
Each one, plainly.
What it is, who it suits, and where it stops.
HubSpot
The free CRM most small businesses try first.
HubSpot CRM is the most common first CRM for a small business because the core is free: contacts, deals, email tracking and forms. Quotes are on the free plan too. Invoices come through Commerce Hub, and tickets through Service Hub. Each paid hub is bought separately, and the free tools stop where the hubs begin.
Best for: A small team that wants to start free and grow into the paid hubs.
Zoho CRM
A full CRM with a free plan and low-cost paid tiers.
Zoho CRM has a free plan for up to three users and paid plans above it. Quotes and invoices are modules on the higher plans, and they connect to Zoho Books. Support tickets are a separate product, Zoho Desk. It does a lot, and the setup shows it.
Best for: A small company that will use several Zoho apps and does not mind configuring them.
Pipedrive
A pipeline-first CRM for small sales teams.
Pipedrive is a pipeline-first CRM that small sales teams pick for its simplicity. Deals move across stages, and activity reminders keep the follow-up honest. Quotes and proposals come from Smart Docs on the higher plans. There is no free plan, no invoicing and no help desk.
Best for: A sales team of two to twenty whose whole job is moving deals.
Capsule
A simple CRM with a free plan for two people.
Capsule CRM is a simple CRM for very small teams, with a free plan for two users. Contacts, a pipeline, tasks and a project board are the whole product. Invoices come from Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent through an integration. There are no quotes and no tickets.
Best for: A two- or three-person business that wants a CRM it can learn in an afternoon.
Less Annoying CRM
One plan, phone support from real people.
Less Annoying CRM is a CRM for small businesses that sells one plan and nothing else. Contacts, a pipeline, a calendar and tasks, with phone support from real people. There is no free plan, only a trial. It has no quotes, no invoices and no help desk.
Best for: A small business that wants a CRM with no settings to get lost in.
Insightly
A CRM with projects attached.
Insightly is a CRM with projects attached, so a won deal becomes a delivery project with tasks. Its free plan ended in late 2024. Quotes are on the higher plans, and there is no invoicing. Service tickets are a separate Insightly product.
Best for: A small company that delivers a project after each sale.
Copper
The CRM that lives inside Gmail.
Copper is the CRM for companies on Google Workspace: it reads Gmail, Calendar and Drive and lives in the Gmail sidebar. Small agencies and consultancies use it. There is no free plan. Quotes, invoices and tickets are not part of it.
Best for: A Google Workspace company that wants the CRM to fill itself in from email.
Keap
CRM, email marketing, quotes and invoices in one.
Keap is a CRM with email marketing, invoicing and quotes in one product, aimed at small service businesses. Automated follow-up is its main reason to exist. There is no free plan, and the setup takes time. Support tickets are not included.
Best for: A small service business that sells through email follow-up and bills from the same tool.
monday CRM
A board-based CRM from monday.com.
monday CRM is the sales product from monday.com: a board-based CRM with pipelines, email sync and, on the higher plans, quotes and invoices. Paid plans have a three-seat minimum. There is no free plan for the CRM product, and there is no help desk.
Best for: A team that already thinks in monday.com boards and wants the CRM to look the same.
Salesforce Starter
The small-business edition of Salesforce.
Salesforce Starter is the small-business edition of Salesforce: sales, service and email marketing in one plan, sold per user with no minimum. Cases give you support tickets. Quotes arrive with the Pro Suite. It is the same Salesforce underneath, which is both the appeal and the learning curve.
Best for: A small company that expects to be a large one and wants to start on the platform it will end up on.
Spodus
A CRM with quotes, invoices and support tickets on the same record.
Spodus is a client-operations workspace with the CRM as one part: contacts, companies, pipelines and deals with close dates. Quotes, invoices, support tickets and tasks sit on the same customer record. There is no free plan and no seat minimum. It has no dialer, no SMS and no email campaigns.
Best for: A small service business that sells, bills and supports the same customers.
How we chose
We picked the CRMs a small company is most likely to shortlist, including the ones people search for as the best CRM software for small businesses or simply a good CRM for small business, and read each vendor's public plan pages on the date above. The columns are what a small team asks first: is there a free plan, is there a seat minimum, and can it send a quote, send an invoice and hold a support ticket. No prices, because they change; no scores, because your team is not ours.
Questions, answered.
What is the best CRM system for small business?
Which are the best CRM tools for small business with no seat minimum?
What is the top CRM for small business by users?
Where can I find CRM reviews for small business?
See the whole workspace, not one row of it.
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