What is generative AI?

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) refers to models or algorithms that create brand-new output, such as text, photos, videos, code, data, or 3D renderings, from the huge amount of data they are trained on. The models ‘generate’ new content by referring to the data they have been trained on, making new predictions. 

The purpose of generative AI is to create content, as opposed to other forms of AI, which suit different purposes, such as analyzing data, making ad recommendations, parsing through applications, helping to control a self-driving car, etc.

As mentioned above, generative AI is simply a subsection of AI that uses its training data to ‘generate’ or produce a new output. AI chatbots or AI image generators are quintessential examples of generative AI models. These tools use vast amounts of materials they were trained on to create new text or images. 

The term generative AI is causing a buzz because of the increasing popularity of generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s conversational chatbot ChatGPT and its AI image generator DALL-E 3. 

These and similar tools use generative AI to produce new content, including computer code, essays, emails, social media captions, images, poems, Excel formulas, and more, within seconds, which has the potential to boost peoples’ workflows significantly. 

ChatGPT became extremely popular quickly, accumulating over one million users a week after launching. Many other companies saw that success and rushed to compete in the generative AI marketplace, including Google, Microsoft’s Bing, and Anthropic. These companies quickly developed their own generative AI models. 

The buzz around generative AI will keep growing as more companies enter the market and find new use cases to help the technology integrate into everyday processes. For example, there has been a recent surge of new generative AI models for video and audio.

AI features coming to Insightly Marketing

As you can imagine, generative AI lends itself well to marketing use cases. We’re building generative AI capability into Insightly Marketing, our marketing automation platform, in a number of areas, and partnering with the leader in generative AI, OpenAI, to do so. It will be a chat-like interface that’s familiar to users with an AI assistant built right into the editing experience.

Write brand new, original content

Let’s solve the ‘blank page’ problem. When you don’t know what to write or how to get started, AI will be your ally within Insightly Marketing. You will be able to use AI to write content for emails and landing pages without leaving the editor. Simply give the AI assistant some direction with a few prompts, and it will generate paragraphs of content for emails and landing pages that you can then use, edit, and modify to your needs. The new AI assistant can also be used to come up with some catchy titles for emails or headers for landing pages.

Rewrite Existing Content or generate content variations

Another useful task for our AI assistant is to come up with variations of content you have already written, or to rewrite existing content for use in A/B testing of emails or multivariate tests of emails which we already support.

Check spelling and grammar

Our new AI assistant can also be used to check spelling and grammar. Just give it the text you wish to check, and ask it to check for spelling and grammar and it will take a look over what you have written and provide edits or suggestions of how to better phrase passages.

Change length, tone or call to action

You will also be able to use the AI assistant to to change the character length of an email. Maybe you have some existing content from a blog post or a web page that you want to use, but it is a bit too long for what you would like to include in a short email. The AI assistant can write an abbreviated version that gets the main points across for you to easily use in an email.

(This feature hits close to home because we have a small but mighty marketing team here at Insightly. I know they often reuse and repurpose content for different channels like many other marketing organizations do. With them in mind, I know this feature will be well-received.)

Similarly you can change the tone of an email. If a team member has written some content you would like to repurpose, but you would like it rewritten in a more business oriented style, our AI assistant can do that for you in just a few keystrokes.

The new Insightly AI assistant can really speed up the email creation and landing page authoring process right there in the editor, and it allows you to do so without having to switch apps and change contexts.

AI features coming to Insightly mobile apps

We’re bringing the power of AI to our Android and iOS mobile apps too. We have a brilliant free feature in our mobile apps that allows you to bring in contacts into Insightly from business cards you receive from clients. You can use the camera on your phone and the Insightly mobile app to take a picture of a business card and Insightly will automatically bring that into Insightly as a contact.  Insightly recognizes the text on the business card and sorts out the name, company title, addresses, phone and fax numbers and email and website addresses on the business card and then saves them directly to Insightly.

With AI, this feature gets better. We’re launching a new version of the business card scanner that is infused with AI. Using the power of artificial intelligence, the new scanner system is much more accurate at recognizing contact titles and roles than the previous version and categorizing and importing all the relevant information from a business card without human intervention.

AI features coming to Insightly Service

Insightly Service is an application available on our platform for customer support ticketing. Customer success and service agents use it everyday to capture and resolve customer issues and queries. 

One of the huge advantages of using Insightly’s unified platform of Insightly CRM, Insightly Marketing and Insightly Service is that your entire staff can see those valuable customer service tickets and Insightly marketing data right inside CRM contact and lead records. The integration between the three products and their data is built right into Insightly, aligning your teams and giving them the opportunity to create great customer experiences. 

Sometimes resolving customer service tickets with customers involves a number of interactions or the back and forth correspondence between customers and your staff can result in some lengthy exchanges.

Rather than staff members working in Insightly CRM or Insightly Marketing having to read and review all those interactions back and forth between the customer and staff to understand a ticket and what it is about, we’re bringing the power of AI to save you time. 

The AI built into Insightly will read through all the interactions and back and forth in a ticket and then generate a short summary of each ticket. The summary includes the nature of the ticket correspondence and the resolution provided. 

This allows your staff to be able to review all the tickets linked to customers very quickly without having to wade through the entirety of the correspondence for each one. It will save you time and give you a fuller picture of all the customer interactions and the state of the relationship.

AI features coming to Insightly CRM

Generative AI is not only awesome at creating and generating text for you, it’s also really good at writing code too. We’re utilizing this superpower-like capability to generate code to help you create new calculated fields in Insightly.

Calculated fields are new fields you can add to any record in Insightly CRM that calculate something and save the result – a bit like a spreadsheet. Calculations can include math operators like division and subtraction, text operators like concatenation, logical operators like true false assertions and branching, date time functions, etc.

Insightly customers can use calculated fields for calculating discounts or commissions on sales, for working out the tax on items, calculating scores or working out if a field has certain text within it, or for combining and calculating the total of several other fields.

Calculated field formulas in Insightly are written in computer code a little like Excel formulas, and you need a certain level of expertise and understanding to be able to write one correctly. We’re making it a lot easier for just about anyone to create one of these calculated fields by using the power of AI to write the formula for you. Just describe in plain English in a few words what you’re trying to do or accomplish, and our AI assistant will automatically generate and write the complete calculated field formula field for you. The benefit here is that you don’t have to know or understand any computer code to make it work. Just describe what you want and we can do the rest for you automatically and seamlessly using the power of AI.

Get ready for AI

I’m happy to share that we’re bringing the power of generative AI across our whole suite of applications in Insightly. In the near future, Insightly will be using generative AI to make your teams more efficient. Whether you use Insightly CRM, Insightly Marketing, Insightly Service, or even our mobile apps, you’ll get a helping hand from AI to do more with less. Stay tuned for more details as we roll out these updates. 

Globally, it’s nearly a tie.  According to NinjaOne, “Google Workspace tends to be more popular among businesses, holding 50% of the market compared to Microsoft 365’s 45% market share.”

If you are using Insightly, you don’t need to worry either way. Read on for the many ways your Google products play nicely with Insightly. In fact, Insightly was born in the Google Marketplace and has since added significant functionality to become a full featured platform serving sales (Insightly CRM), marketing (Insightly Marketing) and customer success (Insightly Service) teams, along with an integration building tool (AppConnect) to make your entire tech stack function better. 

Microsoft fans, do not fret! You can find out about all the ways Insightly CRM works with Microsoft products and apps in a similar article. 

What Google integrations are available in Insightly?

There are several ways you can sync Google features to Insightly. These integrations are available for all users, though some require a paid Insightly plan. (Psst – get the details on the Insightly Free Plan.) Read on for ways to get more from Insightly plus Google apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google contacts, and Google Workspace SSO (single sign on).

Insightly Email Sidebar for Gmail 

With the Insightly Gmail Sidebar for Chrome Browsers you can build stronger relationships right from your inbox. Insightly knows that sales reps spend a ton of time in their email inboxes as well as in Insightly CRM. With this sidebar, you don’t have to choose. You get the convenience of both at the same time so the CRM stays up to date. 

To access the sidebar, search for it in the Google Workspace Marketplace and then download/install it. (Note: Be sure to sign into the Gmail account you use for Insightly.) Next time you load Gmail,  you’ll see the Insightly Gmail sidebar on the right of your screen.

With the sidebar, you view customer information and save emails to Insightly CRM right from your Gmail inbox. Select your recipients from Insightly, use a template, and even schedule an email to send later. You’re doing this all from Gmail, so it’s super convenient. The email you send appears as a sent item in both Gmail and in Insightly CRM. 

If you’re in Gmail and you’d like to send a message to someone who is not yet in Insightly CRM, no worries. You can use the sidebar to create the contact in Insightly and then go ahead and send that person a message. 

Ready to start using it? Great! You can install the sidebar. This feature is available with all Insightly plans.

Learn more in this video:

Google Calendar Sync   

Maintaining multiple calendars is a sales rep’s worst nightmare. The odds of missing a super important meeting go up exponentially when you don’t have your business in one place. Your Insightly calendar is just as important as your Google calendar, but the good news is that you don’t have to choose.

Set up a two-way sync of your Insightly CRM calendar with your Gmail calendar and you’re all set. Once you’ve established this two-way sync, Insightly will display your Google calendar items on your Insightly calendar and copy Insightly items from the last two months and into the future to your Google calendar. 

What about milestones and tasks? No worries – you can also choose to sync Insightly milestones and tasks if that additional data is helpful for your daily operations. When you enable either of these options, Insightly will add two new calendars to your external calendar called Insightly-Tasks and Insightly-Milestones. Heads up: this feature is only available on paid Insightly plans. Learn more. 

Insightly Calendar Feed 

If you’re on the Insightly Free Plan, you still have options! You can display your Insightly calendar in your Google Calendar via a link. The link can be found at the bottom of your Insightly calendar page, and you can add it in Google Calendar under ….Other calendars > Add by URL.

Save Files in Insightly CRM to Google Drive 

You’ve likely got a lot of data – docs, spreadsheets and more – saved on Google Drive. Saving to the cloud is a much better option than saving to a local drive. Local drives can get damaged, lost, or even corrupted, leaving users in a tough spot. 

So it just makes sense that Google Drive users can link to files in Google Drive directly from Insightly. 

Files stored in Google Drive — including Google Docs and Google Sheets — can be linked directly to your Insightly records from the Files section on the Related subtab.

This section is available in contacts, organizations, opportunities, and projects. The first time you click the Google Drive icon, you will be prompted to log in to Google. Click Allow to grant Insightly permission to access your Google Drive. (Heads up: make sure you select the account associated with your Insightly login.)

Learn more in this Help Center Article. 

Sync your Google Contacts with Insightly CRM

You’ve likely got a lot of contacts in your CRM and you may also want to access them in your Google Contacts. No worries! Insightly syncs them for you. You can utilize a one-way sync from Insightly to Google in which you can sync all of your Insightly contacts to your Google Contacts list. Your contacts will appear in a group called “Insightly-Contacts” in Google Contacts. They can optionally be added to your “My Contacts” group, too. Anytime you make changes to these contacts in Insightly, those updates will be reflected in Google. Heads up: This feature is only available on paid Insightly plans.

SSO for Insightly CRM with Google Workspace

Make it easy to log in to Insightly for your whole team when you enable single sign on (SSO). Your Google Workspace Super Amin can access the External Directory Sharing toggle and enable it to allow for single sign on with Google. 

The sharing toggle must be enabled to allow public data and authenticated users basic profile fields to ensure that Insightly’s API will have access to the Super Admin’s profile. Then, all users can log in to Insightly directly from the Google Workspace app grid. Please note that all users must have the Google Workspace for Insightly account type. Visit this help article to see if you have that account type. 

Get to work fast with Insightly CRM and Google applications

Insightly and Google make up a winning combination for workplace efficiency. This article covered ways to get more from using both, including opportunities in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Contacts, and enabling single sign on with Google Workspace.

Want to get a closer look at any of these features? Schedule a personalized demo with a member of the Insightly team today.

Did you know that globally, it’s nearly a dead even split? According to NinjaOne, “Google Workspace tends to be more popular among businesses, holding 50% of the market compared to Microsoft 365’s 45% market share.”

The good news is that you are all set either way with Insightly. This article explores the many ways to connect Microsoft products with Insightly. 

Google fans, do not fret! You can find out about all the ways Insightly CRM works with Google Workspace in a similar article. 

What Microsoft integrations are available in Insightly?

There are several ways you can sync Microsoft features to Insightly. These integrations are available for all users, though some require a paid Insightly plan. (Psst – get the details on the Insightly Free Plan.) Read on for ways to get more from Insightly plus Microsoft apps, including Microsoft Outlook Email, Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Sharepoint, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Azure AD, and Microsoft Word. 

Insightly Email Sidebar for Microsoft Outlook 

With the Insightly Email Sidebar for Outlook, you can build stronger relationships right from your inbox. Insightly knows that sales reps spend a ton of time in their email inboxes as well as in Insightly CRM. With this sidebar, you don’t have to choose. You get the convenience of both at the same time so the CRM stays up to date. 

With the sidebar, you view customer information and save emails to Insightly CRM right from your Outlook inbox. Select your recipients from Insightly, use a template, and even schedule an email to send later. You’re doing this all from Outlook, so it’s super convenient. The email you send appears as a sent item in both Outlook and in Insightly CRM. 

If you’re in Outlook and you’d like to send a message to someone who is not yet in Insightly CRM, no worries. You can use the sidebar to create the contact in Insightly and then go ahead and send that person a message. 

The sidebar pops up on the right side of your screen while you are using Outlook and gives you these options. Ready to start using it? Great! You can install the Sidebar from the Microsoft Office Store. This feature is available with all Insightly plans.

Learn more in this video.

Microsoft Exchange Calendar Sync   

Everyone knows that maintaining multiple calendars is a recipe for disaster…or at least a missed meeting or two. Your Insightly calendar is just as important as your Outlook calendar, but the good news is that you don’t have to choose.

Set up a two-way sync of your Insightly CRM calendar with your Outlook calendar and you’re all set.  Once you’ve established this two-way sync, Insightly will display your Exchange calendar items on your Insightly calendar and copy Insightly items from the last two months and into the future to your Exchange calendar. 

What about milestones and tasks? No worries – you can also choose to sync Insightly milestones and tasks if that additional data is helpful for your daily operations. When you enable either of these options, Insightly will add two new calendars to your external calendar called Insightly-Tasks and Insightly-Milestones. Heads up: this feature is only available on paid Insightly plans. Learn more. 

Insightly Calendar Feed 

If you’re on the Insightly Free Plan, you still have options! You can display your Insightly calendar in your Outlook Calendar via a link. The link can be found at the bottom of your Insightly calendar page, and you can add it in Outlook Calendar under ….Other calendars > Add by URL.

Save Files in Insightly CRM to Microsoft OneDrive 

A lot of companies rely on the safety of Microsoft OneDrive. It can offer peace of mind versus saving files to local machines that can die or be corrupted. 

Did you know that Microsoft OneDrive files can be linked to your Insightly records? All you need to do is click the OneDrive cloud icon on the Files subtab of a record when you want to log in to OneDrive and create links to those files. Then you will see your Microsoft OneDrive files in the Files section in the Related subtab in your records.

Learn more in this Help Center Article. 

Connect Insightly CRM with Microsoft Sharepoint

If your team is using Microsoft products, odds are you are utilizing Microsoft Sharepoint to share files. With Sharepoint, your team can create document collections and make custom layouts and designs. 

You can connect Insightly CRM and Sharepoint via AppConnect, Insightly’s low-code/no-code integration tool. 

With AppConnect, you can set up a recipe to run between Insightly CRM and Sharepoint. When a new project is created in Insightly, a linked Sharepoint folder is created and you can sync the attached files in the CRM to that Sharepoint folder. This makes it easy for everyone on your team to collaborate and have access to the documents and data they need to do their jobs. 

Get the details in this video:

Connect Insightly CRM with Microsoft Teams

In addition to being in the CRM and email all day, your team is probably spending a great deal of time in Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is an excellent way to foster collaboration in your organization since it shares data and information instantly. It can also be a source of fun and connection for teams who are spread across an office or even the world. 

Great news…it’s pretty simple to connect Insightly CRM and Microsoft via AppConnect, Insightly’s low-code/no-code integration tool. Just build a recipe and let it run. 

Here’s what it looks like in action. Imagine you have a new project in Insightly CRM. With a simple checkbox, you can have Insightly CRM create a channel in Microsoft Teams for that new project, and even invite the team members to that Microsoft Teams channel. They’ll get notified in Microsoft Teams, so you’ll ensure that everyone is aware of the project. This is just one way that Insightly CRM and Microsoft Teams can work together to improve communication for your teams. 

Get the details in this video:

SSO for Insightly CRM with Microsoft Azure Active Directory

With the Insightly Single Sign-On (SSO) application, your Azure Active Directory users can access Insightly with one click through Azure AD. It’s convenient to give your users access to Insightly from their Azure AD access panel or Office 365 portal. Clicking the Insightly icon will log them in to Insightly without entering their Insightly username and password – an extra time saver. While this makes it more convenient to sign in, they can still access Insightly by signing in directly, too. 

To access this feature, your Azure system admin will need to log in to the Azure portal and access Insightly via the Enterprise Applications menu. From there, grant the necessary permissions and you’ll be all set. Read more in the Help Center Article. 

Add conditional merge statements into Microsoft Word templates

Using Microsoft Word and Insightly? You’ve got a great option for your templates. Whether you are on a Mac or PC, you can create a PDF from any record in Insightly with Microsoft Word. 

When making templates for merge documents or PDFs, you have the option to include IF/THEN logic within them. You can use this logic to selectively include document sections depending upon what fields are filled out in the record. Using the features under the ‘Insert’ tab in Microsoft Word, you’ll add a conditional statement that routes to a Field Code in Insightly. Read more in the Help Center Article. 

Get to work fast with Insightly CRM and Microsoft applications

Insightly plus Microsoft is a winning combination. This article covered ways to get more from using both, including opportunities in Microsoft Outlook Email, Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Sharepoint, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Azure AD, and Microsoft Word. 

Want to get a closer look at any of these features? Schedule a personalized demo with a member of the Insightly team today. 

Customer experience (CX) and satisfaction are some of the driving forces behind modern business success. To meet customer-centric goals, new CRM tools with greater precision are being developed.

Every year, new trends come up in the CRM space. Keeping track of these trends will help you plan ahead, meet changing business needs, and gain a competitive edge.

So, here are the top CRM trends for 2024. Let’s explore each in some detail so you can be prepared as a CRM user to leverage the most recent technology in your day-to-day business operations.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Of course AI tops the list of 2024 CRM trends. All major platforms are releasing updates to show how CRM users can use AI to be more efficient. (Psst: Watch Insightly’s webinar on this topic and hear straight from the CEO on ways Insightly is adding AI to the platform.)

One thing that AI can do very well is understand plain English commands.  This is what is so appealing about AI in general, and particularly generative AI. As the phrase implies, generative AI can generate net new content from what it ‘learns’ from various sources. A great example of this in action is writing code. Code writing can be a tedious task that also requires a high level of skill, but with a plain English command, you can get AI to write code for you. In CRM, this can mean calculated fields or integrations become much more accessible and easy to create.

Another way that AI can show up in CRM is by helping to grade and score leads so that the highest quality leads are prioritized. By automatically synthesizing data from the lead like employee count, revenue level, geographical location, job level, role department, and more, AI can tell you what leads should command attention quickly. This might take a human time and therefore cause leads to sit which we all know isn’t ideal.

IoT technologies

IoT stands for “the internet of things” and is used to describe a network of physical objects that are tied to the internet through sensors, scanners, software, and other technologies.

One of the main purposes of connecting the physical and digital worlds is the exchange of information. There has been an upward tick of CRM integrations with IoT tech to make life a little easier.

Enriched IoT data

IoT technology helps to monitor and service clients in proactive ways. Data generated from these solutions is used to increase customer satisfaction and retention.

CRMs are integrating with compact resources that have flexible offline/online capabilities, such as:

• Wearable monitors
• GPS systems
• Cybersecurity scanners
• Smart appliances
• Energy meters
• And more…

These advanced solutions lead to greater visibility and cost efficiencies. The more mobile people become, the more IoT integrations we will see.

Workflow automation

Automation-enabled self-service is another emerging trend in 2024. The concept of self-help in the CRM world is catching on. Working smarter, not harder, happens with automation and CRMs offer many opportunities for workflow automation in businesses.

Automating processes can have huge benefits. It frees up your team from manually intensive work. It ensures things don’t get missed or forgotten due to human error. For example, when a new lead is entered into your system, a welcome email can be triggered to ensure that person feels valued and welcomed. Can you put a price tag on that customer experience?

Effective workflows can move prospects through sales and marketing pipelines quickly resulting in an increase in pipeline velocity.

This synergy has enabled chatbots to complete more contact management tasks without any human interference. They can quickly guide users through the right channels and provide actionable insights. Integrate that with a CRM, and you have an entire workflow that’s completely run by machine learning.

This extends to email communications as well, and once set up, these require little to no effort on the part of employees. Entire email campaigns can be automated to nurture sales prospects down the funnel. (If your CRM is on the same platform as your marketing automation application, this can be even more effective with drip campaigns, landing pages and forms all connecting with your CRM.

Workflow automation enables a business to offer high-quality customer service while optimizing operational costs. This is something that CRMs are supporting in new and innovative ways.

Flexible APIs

In CRM, APIs are the roadmap to customer intelligence. An API is what integrates platforms together. It is the glue that binds enterprise systems and helps to capture greater revenue growth.

Flexible APIs create a valuable record of customer preferences, while driving successful strategies. It’s one of the key technologies that enable cloud-based CRM applications to flex in response to sales and marketing needs. They’re fueling an unprecedented level of data-driven insights.

Additionally, CRMs with open API integration are enabling entirely new business models. As the development becomes increasingly customer-centric, APIs allow for greater versatility and  flexibility in designing custom:

• Workflows
• Graphical user interfaces (GUI)
• Screen designs
• Process steps

Over time, APIs will redefine the nature of how cloud-based CRMs operate. Today, nearly every CRM will offer API features (some more scalable and mature than others).

Cloud-based CRMs have enterprise-grade APIs that orchestrate a wide variety of databases. Cloud management is helping APIs become more customer-oriented by providing scalable integration frameworks and technologies. This allows for greater collaboration across departments, teams, divisions, and channels.

APIs are facilitating a new era of integrated CRM systems that are innovative and data-driven.

Dynamic user interface

One of the top CRM trends for 2024 also involves dynamic user interfaces. As CRMs evolve, the need to manage multiple functions in one spot becomes apparent. Rather than using separate systems for sales, marketing, service, and operations, new CRM dashboards are multifaceted.

A business can condense robust sales and marketing tech stacks into a single spot. Brands like Insightly provide several dashboards for universal insight. Toggle between opportunities, projects, and leads with a simple click. Colorful visuals that include charts, graphs, and gauges help a business assess important data at a glance.

Dynamic CRM dashboards display a quick overview of your most critical reports. It presents complex information that’s easy to digest and share with the team. As CRMs continue to evolve, the user interface will convey more and more data streams, in less amount of time.

Voice controls

As technology like Alexa and other voice-activated hardware become more and more common on households, business software will soon follow. Customers are getting comfortable with conversational AI and this means, CRMs are following suit.

According to a PWC report on voice technology, 90% of consumers who had heard of voice-enabled products and devices and 72% of those had used a voice assistant.

That means that conversational apps are critical for the evolution of CRM tools. Voice technology is a key factor for accessibility and helps to increase user engagement.

Voice-assisted virtual assistants within CRM infrastructures are helping salespeople track, manage, message, update, and notify teams about customer data in real-time. This leads to faster decision-making and a quicker close.

In the near future, you should expect to see an increase in the usage of voice assistants and supporting hardware in CRM processes and interfaces.

One last thought

Most trends in CRM are influenced by brands that can quickly pivot to meet evolving customer needs. In order to stay relevant to tech-savvy consumers, top CRMs need to offer tools with AI, advanced automation, IoT integrations, flexible APIs, a dynamic user interface, and voice technology.

Does that seem like a big ask? 

Not really. The truth is, most of this technology is currently in place. More intelligent and contextually-aware CRM applications already incorporate machine learning, AI, and business intelligence.

The companies that are getting ahead use CRMs to build lasting customer relationships, drive sales, measure performance, and contribute to business growth; all while keeping customer satisfaction at an all-time high.

According to a  study by SelectHub, “CRM will continue to outpace overall enterprise software growth, as the plethora of technologies and strategies they support directly contribute to revenue growth.”

This is because the technologies and strategies that CRM applications support contribute directly to new customer acquisition and retention, gross margin growth, and a healthy return on investment.

If you’re looking for a CRM that stays on top of trends, Insightly is a great place to start. Request a product demo, watch a demo on demand at your convenience, or jump right in with a free trial.

Data serves as the lifeblood of most businesses today, and safeguarding its security is imperative. I believe this commitment is not merely an obligation to uphold ethical and legal standards; it also lies at the heart of preserving trust within the business-customer relationship.

According to PWC, 55% of business leaders today say that their clients trust them with more data than 24 months ago, but only 21% of those clients report an increase in trust, with another 28% reporting dropping trust levels. As the founder of a software company that manages customer data, security has always been top of mind for me. Robust security measures, like protecting physical, network and application components—and having a commitment to transparency and security policies—can instill that missing piece: the assurance customers need to trust your company with their sensitive data. As businesses increasingly invest in data integrity and security strategies, here are five areas of focus

1. Securing The Foundation With SOC2 Accreditation

A well-known framework for organizational data protection and client privacy, Systems & Organization Control 2 (SOC2) certification is a barometer of good business hygiene and a step in establishing a high-quality data security framework. Once my company undertook securing our infrastructure under SOC2, I respected the process so much that I only sought out other vendors that were compliant under the certification. Companies that adhere to SOC2 undergo rigorous annual audits, ensuring their data security controls meet the highest standards possible. Upon successfully passing each audit, companies receive a certificate as a good housekeeping seal of approval, indicating that their security protocols are transparent and effective.

2. Data Encryption

Encryption is the backbone of data security. This comes in two key forms: data at rest and data in transit. Data at rest refers to information stored on servers or hard drives, while data in transit is transmitted over networks. Data encryption converts readable text, or “plaintext,” into unreadable text, also known as “ciphertext.” Only an individual with the correct encryption key can decipher encrypted data.

Adopting strong encryption standards like Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit encryption can provide proper data security when dealing with data at rest. For scenarios that include transmitting data over networks, enforcing secure protocols like Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) can help ensure the integrity and confidentiality of your data. It matters less which specific set of protocols your business follows and more that data encryption is a thoughtful defense mechanism deployed to protect and safeguard your customers’ sensitive information.

Additionally, I recommend providing support for two-factor authentication (2FA). This step adds an extra layer of security, making it harder for unauthorized individuals to access sensitive information.

3. Training And Best Practices

Data breaches or security incidents are often not solely the result of system vulnerabilities: They can occur due to critical errors made by well-intentioned individuals. In fact, a staggering 82% of security breaches are attributed to human error. That is why I believe it is crucial for companies to prioritize investments in comprehensive training programs for all employees. Regular training sessions and workshops can be pivotal in consolidating best practices and fostering a strong security culture—and awareness—within your organization.

Also, continually update and enhance your employees’ understanding of fundamental data security principles like having remote workers use a secure VPN to access the company network, creating unguessable passwords, and utilizing password managers to limit exposure to a single account and not a myriad of them. This ongoing commitment to training and awareness can help ensure data security for your valued customers.

4. Preparation And Honesty

There’s a widely recognized adage regarding data breaches: Companies should prepare for a breach—not questioning whether it will happen, but rather when. No matter how powerful your data security measures may be, breaches still happen, so have an incident response plan in place. With clear and established protocols for reporting and addressing security incidents, this proactive approach can help ensure a fast and effective response. I recommend including a swift disclosure to customers within three business days of a breach, along with an outline of the steps being taken to rectify the situation. Transparency in these moments is one of the best ways to maintain trust and allow customers to react effectively.

5. Smart Tools For Proactive Security​​

Embracing cutting-edge tools and technologies represents a potent strategy to fortify security measures. For example, use sophisticated network and computer scanning tools designed to proactively identify unusual activities, signaling potential security threats. It’s worth noting that these systems may occasionally trigger false alarms. In any instance, take swift action, such as quarantining laptops or devices until their legitimacy is verified.

Another example of a tool that offers convenience but also challenges is the USB drive. A good workplace solution doesn’t necessarily entail an outright ban of thumb drives; rather, it can involve educating employees about the potential risks associated with their use. Raising awareness can help your team become a proactive line of defense against vulnerabilities stemming from these innocuous devices.

The judicious adoption of effective security tools and technologies is important for avoiding potential threats. While false alarms may arise, quick and decisive responses can help maintain the integrity of your network.

Embracing Zero-Trust Networking

The zero-trust networking model epitomizes a forward-thinking paradigm for data security. It embodies the fundamental principle that trust should not be granted by default to anyone, whether within or outside an organization, and access should be strictly confined. Information security transcends mere compliance; it represents a profound ethical and business imperative contingent upon a multifaceted approach that includes implementing layered data security measures.

These efforts are important for safeguarding the integrity of customers’ data and sustaining the trust they place in a businesses’ services. By adhering to these principles, we can ensure that data security remains a cornerstone of industry and that our customers’ confidence remains unwavering.

This article was originally published on Fast Company Executive Board.

Check out nearly any review platform for SaaS companies and a phrase you’ll run into often is “ease of use.” It is important because nearly all users and SaaS buyers cite “ease of use” as one of the top requirements for software they purchase. This should be fairly straightforward—how quick is the learning curve to onboard new users to the product or platform?

Unfortunately, the phrase has become overused and is now just another term in the SaaS jargon toolbox. In the realm of SaaS, where applications are hosted on the cloud, the concept of “ease of use” stands as a key factor that influences the success and adoption of a platform. This inherent attribute holds substantial weight, impacting both the user experience and the bottom line of businesses.

In my experience, applying “ease of use” to a user interface means being able to navigate around an app easily and being able to discover, understand, and use all of the features without requiring any specialized training. For example, my team and I at Insightly achieve this by providing new users with an immediate sense of familiarity when they first use our apps. I hear a lot of feedback from our users that they just “get it” when they see it.

According to Statista, Salesforce spent 13.5 billion U.S. dollars on marketing and sales in the fiscal year 2023.

I won’t bore you with the specifics, but Insighty’s marketing budget does not start with a ‘B.’ Not even close. 

We’re small, and we’re scrappy, trying to get the good word out about a modern CRM that’s affordable, flexible and scalable. We also talk a lot about how switching from Salesforce to Insightly is really quite easy. 

So when an outside third party firm publishes data showing that Insightly stacks up pretty well against the pricer alternative, you take notice. 

Software Reviews – CRM category

Software Reviews is a division of Info Tech Research Group. Its mission is to “improve the B2B software experience for both buyers and providers.” 

To do so, they provide an experience-focused review platform helping businesses through the software selection process as it becomes increasingly complex. The firm gathers and disseminates data from actual software users with a mission of ensuring everyone has access to the right information to make better decisions.

Software Reviews recently published its Best CRM Software report and divides its findings among enterprise, mid-market, and small business. It includes a data quadrant for the category where it shows an axis for innovation, leadership, service and challengers. 

Software Reviews defines CRM as software that “enables an organization to manage the complete customer lifecycle and capture, integrate and analyze data across all customer touchpoints.”

In its 2024 report, Software Reviews shows data where Insightly outscores Salesforce for small businesses, and defines small businesses as having between $10 and $50 million in revenue.

The data shows that service experience, features, and capability are three areas where software users indicate that Insightly edges out Salesforce. 

Vendor Capabilities: Insightly wins over Salesforce

To measure vendor capability, Software Reviews examines 11 core vendor capabilities common across all Software Vendors. These capabilities represent table-stakes expectations for any software vendor, and are critical to driving a strong, long-term relationship between a vendor and a customer. The 11 core vendor capabilities that have been measured are quality of features, product strategy and rate of improvement, vendor support, ease of data integration, ease of administration, ease of customization, and ease of implementation.

Net Score: Insightly 83%, Salesforce: 82%

Why Insightly wins: All of these capabilities can be achieved within both Insightly and Salesforce, however, with Salesforce, complexity rears its ugly head. You’ll likely need to hire an integration firm, hire a dedicated Salesforce Administrator, or work with a pricey consultant in order to accomplish anything. Insightly is a highly customizable CRM, is easy to manage, and using AppConnect, is easy to integrate all with your existing team.  

When shopping for a CRM, be sure to speak to other clients who have successfully implemented the CRM solution you are purchasing, and ask specific questions about costs around administration, customization, and implementation. The responses will be enlightening.

Product Feature Summary: Insightly wins over Salesforce

To measure vendor capability, Software Reviews examines product features that have been chosen based on market relevancy and typical use within the category. Viewers can use this data to compare their primary use case and identify relative strengths and weaknesses across shortlisted vendors. The features that are examined by Software Advice include account and contact management, activity and workflow management, analytics and reporting, collaboration, customer service management, lead management, marketing management, mobile, quote contract and proposal, sales management, and telephony and call center management.

Net Score: Insightly 85%, Salesforce: 82%

Why Insightly wins: While all CRMs have similar features, Insightly’s ease of use helps it stand out. This means that not only do you have access to world class features, you’ll actually use them because Insightly is intuitive. Managing pipelines, tracking opportunities, creating proposals and quotes, and automating workflows are all table stakes in CRM, and Insightly puts them at your fingertips. Insightly’s mobile capabilities also shine in this report, since the Insightly mobile app (available for Android and Apple devices) is robust and convenient. 

Service Experience: Insightly wins over Salesforce

Software buyers know that good service matters. The last thing you need is to be disrespected by your software vendor or to get bogged down by their ineptitude or neglect. This section displays data related to quality and effectiveness of service, so buyers can know whether they’ll be treated well before and after they’ve made the purchase. Service is rated on the software provider being respectful, effective, caring, efficient and whether the team saves you time. 

Net Score: Insightly 90%, Salesforce: 87%

Why Insightly wins: Sometimes smaller is better. While there are likely hundreds of employees at Salesforce that provide support, they may not all be aligned. The team behind the software at Insightly is a tight-knit group of service professionals. They collaborate internally, consistently train and retrain, and drive each other to provide the best possible customer experience. Whether you choose to work on your own with periodic support, or choose a more hands-on support plan (e.g. Premier Support and Success), you’ll never feel alone when you need help with your Insightly instance. Insightly is also known for its guided onboarding program to ensure that CRM buyers are empowered from the beginning of the CRM implementation. 

Visit the Insightly website to read the full report and to see the data. 

Methodology and Data

Software Reviews is part of Info Tech Research Group. With practical advisory services and a data-driven approach, SoftwareReviews’ mission is to improve the B2B software experience for all software buyers and providers. Our pragmatic tools and detailed customer insights help software buyers maximize success with their technology decisions. We collect the most in-depth customer review data from both business and IT professionals to shorten the time to decision and action for software purchasers and improve overall buyer satisfaction. Combining deep buyer knowledge and experience, SoftwareReviews’ go-to-market practice helps technology providers better understand customer needs and accelerates planning and execution of go-to-market and product strategy. SoftwareReviews is a division of Info-Tech Research Group with over two decades of research-based IT advice and technology implementation.

Methodology for the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) head to head report

SoftwareReviews collects in-depth, first-party feedback from verified end users about their customer experience with their top enterprise software providers. Quantitative and qualitative feedback data is collected via SoftwareReviews’ proprietary online survey platform. The survey gathers over 130 data points on each product, allowing the end user to thoroughly evaluate their experiences over their full lifecycle using the software – from their selection experience through their purchase and service experience. Every review is meticulously checked through a robust quality assurance process to ensure it is submitted by a real person with valid credentials for using the software. End user experience and sentiment measures revealing product feature fit, perceived vendor capabilities, business value drivers, and the quality of the vendor relationship are accessible at both a high level roll up and a more detailed drill down. SoftwareReviews reports are available to download at SoftwareReviews.com/categories.

Considering a CRM? 

If a new CRM is in your future and Salesforce is on your list, you should also check out Insightly CRM. Start a free trial, watch a demo on demand, or get a personalized walk through of the platform from a team member. See what users and experts already know – that Insightly is a great alternative to Salesforce. 

If you’re looking for a highly customizable CRM with project management features built in, Insightly is a great fit and is a strong contender. Insightly scores high on a wide range of security measures with SOC2, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance. It is also known for a slick and quick user interface with a popular blade view which means data drill-down doesn’t load a whole new page. It’s a convenient and powerful tool to manage customer relationships.

Insightly bills itself as a modern CRM, characterized by fast implementations, affordable and predictable pricing, low administration costs, a high number of integrations, and a free mobile app that packs power. When businesses choose Insightly Marketing for their marketing automation platform, and Insightly Service for customer service ticketing, they get teams that are aligned and a single view of the customer.

Key features of Insightly CRM

• Super-fast, intuitive interface: Insightly was developed as a modern, cloud-based CRM, it is fast to load and use. Its convenient blade view lets you drill-down to view data without loading pages, making it a fast application.
• Sales pipeline and lead management: Capture leads, prioritize and distribute leads, and get a real-time view of all deals in your pipeline. Put all of your contacts into the system and experience the convenience of contact management.
• Lead tracking and opportunity management: Improve deal velocity by managing opportunities in customizable pipelines and tracking deal progress
• Business workflow and process automation: Automate tasks that take up time, reduce human error, and free up your team for more important work
• Validation rules and advanced permissions: Ensure data accuracy, integrity and compliance while giving appropriate access to team members
• Products, price books and quotes: Make it easy to close the deal when you configure price quotes from opportunities. Generate and email quotes right from Insightly.
• Project and task management: Convert opportunities to projects seamlessly and manage them with a familiar, intuitive interface.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Create a comprehensive record of each customer interaction and improve overall business processes
• Customizations: Configure the CRM to your organization’s unique needs. Save on outside integrators and consultants with simple customization and configuration options.
• Email management: Stay in the CRM and send one-off emails or templated emails to dozens of contacts. Use convenient email templates and email tracking features.
• Performance dashboards and reporting: Customize dashboards and reports to get real-time insights and make informed decisions.

Advantages of using Insightly CRM

• Free plan: To help new business owners and start-ups, Insightly offers a plan that is free forever for up to 2 users. The free plan is comprehensive. You get up to 2,500 records, 5 email templates and can send up to 10 emails per day. You can also customize the CRM with up to 2 custom fields and custom page layouts. To get started on the free plan, first you’ll start a Free Trial of Insightly. For 14 days, you’ll get to experience the platform and you’ll receive a series of emails that will walk you through the major features. When you first login, you’ll see some sample data in the platform as you look around. When you’re ready to start using the platform, delete the sample data and start entering your data. At the end of the 14 day trial, you’ll be asked to move to a paid plan. If you do not move to a paid plan, your account will be converted to the Free CRM plan.
• Project management features: Many CRMs offer project management features as an add-on or an extra application, but Insightly builds in robust project management features in its CRM offering. Best of all, the project management features use the same intuitive interface that is used in the lead and opportunity management phases, so it’s already familiar to users. The kanban style that is so easy to visualize is in play here, and project managers will delight in how easy it is to move won opportunities into projects. All of the data from the sale carries over, so PMs can see exactly what led to this customer choosing your solution. 
• Customizations: Most CRMs are customizable…that’s true. However, most also require a lot of help. You’ll need help from the platform’s customer service team. Or worse, you’ll need to hire an outside integration or service company to do the customizations for you. This can add up quickly. This is especially true for legacy CRMs (looking at you, Salesforce). 
• HIPAA compliance: If you are in the healthcare industry and need to be assured of data security under HIPAA, Insightly is a clear choice. Few CRMs are HIPAA compliant. 
• Features of a Modern CRM, including speedy implementations, affordable and predictable pricing, low overhead and administration costs, ease of integration, and a free, powerful mobile app for teams on the go.

User reviews of Insightly CRM from G2

• “Helps you to improve efficiency, and is easy to use.”
  This is a very user friendly software that makes your work easier. – Kratika C., Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Easy to use and efficient”
  The application is a user friendly app that helps fulfill all the needs. Their customer support is amazing. Vanshika G. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Insightly for improved efficiency in association management”
  Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
• “Amazing support, easy to use and so much still to explore” – Dawn R. Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “A modern customizable CRM with on the clock support” – Kati G., Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

When is Insightly a good choice?

• Customizations: Insightly is an excellent option for enterprises that need CRM that’s tailored to their needs. Insightly is easy to customize without the need for an outside firm or agency.
• Workflow automation: Insightly has powerful features that can shorten your sales cycle by automating sales processes and business processes via workflow automation.
• Integrations: Using the AppConnect middleware tool, it’s easy to connect Insightly to thousands of popular business applications without the need to write code.
• Project management: If your business wants to manage projects right in the CRM, Insightly’s project management features will impress you. You won’t need to buy and implement a separate app to manage projects post-sale.
• Your team likes to ‘tinker:’ Insightly is a highly flexible tool that businesses can use in a myriad of ways. The possibilities are endless and the guardrails are down – you can truly make Insightly perform in countless ways if you want.
• You’re not quite ready to buy: Insightly’s Free CRM plan is robust. It is free forever for up to 2 users and includes up to 2,500 records, 5 email templates and you can send up to 10 emails per day. You can make customizations on the free plan as well with up to 2 custom fields and custom page layouts. 
• You want one, modern, single platform for your Go-to-Market teams: In addition to a robust CRM for sales teams and sales automation, Insightly offers Insightly Marketing for marketing automation and to manage your marketing campaigns, and Insightly Service for customer support and ticketing. Your GTM teams gain visibility into each other’s work with one platform, one data set, and one login. It’s team collaboration that leads to improved customer engagement.

Insightly Pricing

Insightly’s pricing model includes a completely free CRM plan for up to two users – a practical choice for startups and small businesses. As such, Insightly is a completely free Insightly alternative for businesses seeking a comprehensive CRM without high costs. The Plus, Professional and Enterprise plans offer a variety of features and limits so you can customize your CRM to the needs of your business at different price points. You can watch a demo on demand at your convenience to see all of the Insightly platform options.

For detailed pricing information, visit Insightly’s website.

Best alternatives to Insightly CRM

Copper CRM – an Insightly alternative

Copper is a CRM with useful features for small businesses. It scores well on the essential functions of a CRM. Copper CRM is a favorite among businesses using Google Workspace since it easily integrates with Google products.

Key features of Copper CRM

• Google Workspace integration: Easily interacts with all Google apps
• Customization: Easy to add fields, drop downs, etc. to perfectly set up the CRM for your business.
• Advanced reporting: Powerful, pre-built reports for sales teams
• Integrations: Supports app connections at higher plan levels
• Automate workflows: Take tasks off your plate when you automate calls, meetings, and follow-ups.

Advantages of using Copper CRM

• Keep reps organized with inbox integration so they can record emails in the CRM without leaving their inbox. 
• Simple pipeline views using a kanban format provides visibility across your sales team.
• Copper makes it easy to automate repetitive tasks, keeping your sales team focused on selling.
• Built-in native integrations with commonly used apps like MailChimp and Slack.

Challenges of Copper CRM

• Compared to other CRMs targeting small businesses, pricing is on the high end. 
• If you have a lot of contacts, this is not the CRM for you. Contact limits are lower than most other CRMs at each price point.
• The lowest level plan does not include workflow automation, which is included in most other CRM plans at that pricing tier.
• Copper is known to have a bit of a steep learning curve. There are more intuitive CRMs on the market.

User reviews of Copper CRM from G2

• “Intuitive product, excellent service and great service” – Lydia. F Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “The ease of finding a contact’s information” – Traci N. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Maximize Efficiency : a deep dive into Copper CRM’s seamless workflow solution.” Varun D. Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

When is Copper CRM a good choice?

• When your business uses Google Workspace
• When you have a small amount of contacts in your database
• When you don’t need a free option to get started. Beyond the Free Trial, you’ll need to pay to use the system as there is no free tier. 
• You need multi-lingual support

Copper Pricing

With just 3 tiers to choose from, Copper makes pricing simple. Their Basic plan is $29 per user per month, Professional is a bug jump to $69 per user per month, and Business, the full-featured offering, is $134 per user per month. These are comparatively high for a CRM targeted at small businesses. However, you don’t need to worry about add-ons like Insightly CRM and others…everything is included in these price points. 

For detailed pricing information, visit Copper’s website.

HubSpot CRM – an Insightly alternative

HubSpot CRM is part of a larger system of products. HubSpot started as a marketing automation platform and then added a CRM later, so its main focus is on the marketing buyer. However, the CRM has matured over the years to become a viable option for small businesses and a realistic alternative to Insightly. 

Key features of HubSpot CRM

• Marketing automation: HubSpot CRM is most powerful when used with HubSpot’s marketing automation software. 
• Contact management: HubSpot’s robust contact tracking helps businesses have a single source of truth for all customers and prospects.
• Deal tracking: It’s easy to see where deals are in HubSpot CRM
• Reporting dashboards: HubSpot gives users a great way to visualize data with robust reports and real-time dashboards.
• Easy UI: HubSpot CRM has a clean and intuitive interface that is very popular with users. 

Advantages of using HubSpot CRM

• A popular system: It’s not difficult to find new team members with experience using HubSpot since it is a popular software application.
• Easy to learn: HubSpot’s intuitive interface means that the learning curve isn’t steep. Your users will be up and running on HubSpot quickly. Plus, the robust HubSpot Academy has tons of resources for new users, 
• It’s a closed system: If you stay within the HubSpot platform for CRM, Marketing and Service, you’ll find efficiencies. 

Challenges of HubSpot

• Pricing concerns: HubSpot can quickly get really expensive for many businesses. You may qualify for an introductory rate, but beware. Once that rate expires, you’ll be on the hook for a big monthly fee. While it has a free plan, it does not include many necessary features. The Professional plan is robust, but it will run you $1,600/month – a high cost for smaller operations.
• Leaving the ‘ecosystem:’ HubSpot works best when you use all of the tools they offer. For example, should you decide to use a more robust, separate social publishing tool vs. the basic one included in HubSpot, you lose all of the benefits of comprehensive reporting. 

User reviews of HubSpot CRM from G2

• “Easy to use – way better than the FrankenSalesForce” it’s easy to use, intuitive, and we finally managed to crack the code with it. Valentin R. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Comprehensive and User-Friendly CRM for Streamlined Sales Processes” Raj K.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Great for basics” Or A.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Most preferred tools for Sales Team” Shyam S. Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)

When is HubSpot CRM a good choice?

• When you are committed to using HubSpot Marketing Hub
• If you have a users who have used it before 
• When budget is not a concern
• When you plan on using and staying in the HubSpot ecosystem for an extended period of time

HubSpot Pricing

Within the free plan, HubSpot offers CRM features that are suitable for simple startups and micro businesses. Higher-tier plans such as the Professional plan can cost as much as $1,600 per month and can quickly become even more expensive with various add-ons. Keep in mind that HubSpot’s most robust offering is its marketing automation platform, so without the use of that piece, the value diminishes. Beware of low-level introductory pricing. These contracts will be as much as 90% off year one, but are difficult to get out of once that first year passes and your costs increase dramatically. HubSpot’s pricing is confusing and highly detailed, so read carefully to make the best decision for your business. 

For detailed pricing information, visit HubSpot’s website.

Monday – an Insightly alternative

Monday started out as a project management application. It has since added a software development tracking tool and a CRM.  Monday.com’s main focus is on the project manager buyer. However, the CRM features have matured over the years to become a viable option for some small businesses. The CRM features make some consider it an alternative to HubSpot.

Key features of Monday

• Also offers a popular project management application: Monday is known as a project management company. If your business uses the Monday project management system, you may want to consider getting your CRM from them as well. These products are priced separately.
• Contact management: Manages your contacts in one place. No limits on contacts.
• Sales forecasting: Uses data to predict future sales
• Task organization: Track tasks in the platform
• Automate workflows: automate repetitive processes to save time
• Dashboards: Easy data visualization

Challenges for Monday CRM

• No free version: There is no Monday free plan at the time of this writing. It is indicated that a free plan with limited features is coming soon.
• Integrations: If integrations are vital to your business, Monday’s Basic plan won’t work. It excludes integrations so you will not be able to connect the CRM with their other tools.
• You’ll need to pay up to access basic CRM features: Since Monday is more focused on its project management business, some basic CRM functions are missing from lower tiers. You’ll find many more CRM-specific features on other apps at a lower cost. 

User reviews of Monday from G2

Note that these reviews are all of Monday.com as a Project Management Tool, since that is its primary purpose. 

• “Good and Advanced project management tool” – Jacquelynne H., Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Project management made easy” – Viktoriia k. Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
• “Best tool for project management tool” – Aman S., Project Development Manager, Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)

When is Monday CRM a good choice?

• When you are already using it as a Project Management Tool and don’t want to add more applications to your tech stack.
• If your CRM needs are simple then Monday’s lower plans may be a fit at a relatively low cost.

Monday Pricing

Monday.com CRM pricing is on the low end for CRMs. This is because Monday’s main business is primarily a project management tool designed for project management teams with a simple CRM as a side business. There is no free plan at the time of this writing, so you’ll need to commit to paying after the 14-day trial period. Most features that are common in lower tiers for other CRMs can only be found in the Enterprise tier for Monday.

For detailed pricing information, visit Monday.com’s website.

Nutshell CRM – an Insightly alternative

Nutshell CRM is a CRM for small businesses and small teams. For small businesses with a more simple set of needs, it can be a viable option and an alternative to Insightly. 

Key features of Nutshell CRM

• Simple interface: Uses drag-and-drop functions to simplify use
• Sales management: Streamlines sales operations 
• Hands-on service: Get a dedicated account manager with their higher plans
• Foundation level pricing: a low-cost entry point to get started

Advantages of using Nutshell CRM

• Choose from 4 pricing tiers to get exactly what you need. Then, select add-ons to customize it for your business. 
• No contact limits. Some platforms have limits on the number of contacts you can store in your database. Nutshell frees you from this constraint.
• Easy to implement. You won’t need to hire an integration firm or consultant to implement Nutshell.
• Zoom meetings transcribed. In higher level plans, you can have your Zoom meetings automatically transcribed in Nutshell.

Challenges of Nutshell

• Pricing can be tricky. The monthly licensing fee per user per month isn’t where it ends. You’ll need to choose some add-ons to get what is essentially basic functionality in other CRMs. This can add up quickly.

• No free plan. While you can start a trial of Nutshell, there is no low-level free plan. So after your trial, you’ll need to commit to a paid plan. 
• Out of the box. There is a limit to how much users can customize the front end look and feel. This could be a benefit for small companies looking for an out-of-the-box solution, but businesses looking to make changes will struggle with Nutshell.
• You may outgrow it. While Nutshell offers Enterprise pricing, nearly all of its customers are small businesses. It’s easy to outgrow over time.

User reviews of Nutshell CRM from G2

• “Nutshell keeps adding awesome capabilities…” Richard S.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Very customer oriented” – Peggy B.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Exactly what we were looking for!” Mariah B.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Nutshell CRM a good choice?

• When you are a sole proprietor or micro business
• When you know you need a CRM and are ready to pay for it out of the gate.
• When you are looking to store and manage contacts but don’t necessarily need a full-blown CRM
• When you will be using a marketing tool and want it integrated with your CRM
• If you’re not looking for AI features. Foundation and Pro levels don’t offer the help of AI. You’ll need to be in the highest pricing tiers for those functions. 

Nutshell Pricing

With 4 tiers to choose from plus add-ons, Nutshell pricing can feel overwhelming. Foundation pricing starts at $14/mo with Enterprise running $67/mo. However, these prices don’t include any add-ons that some may say are essential to your CRM experience. For instance, email campaigns and the ability to send emails from your inbox are included in Insightly CRM. With Nutshell, you’ll need to pay an additional $37/mo. for each. For a small company, that’s literally tripling your monthly fee. 

For detailed pricing information, visit Nutshell’s website.

Pipedrive CRM – an Insightly alternative

Pipedrive is a CRM with useful features for small businesses. It scores well on the essential functions of a CRM. 

Key features of Pipedrive CRM

• Automation – Pipedrive enables automation to eliminate redundant tasks and make your team more efficient. 
• Customization – You can customize your pipeline and you processes to match your organization’s needs.
• Email and communication – Keep all of your sales team communication in one place with email features in Pipedrive.
• Reports – Make custom sales reports to keep your team informed.
• Integrations – Connect Pipedrive with the other tools your business uses every day.
• Lead management – Generate, qualify and prioritize leads.
• Security – Your data is protected in Pipedrive
• Manage activities – Use features like goal setting, insights, and activity tracking

Advantages of Pipedrive CRM

• Pipedrive is account-centric vs. contact-centric, so if you are working on large accounts, it could be a good fit.
• No charge for onboarding. Pipedrive sets you up for success in using their platform.
• Customizations are fairly easy to make. For instance, custom fields are a great way to classify deals and customer types.
• Integrations are easy to set up.
• Ease of use – most teams are up and running on Pipedrive in under 3 months.

Challenges of Pipedrive CRM

• Pricing – Look through the pricing carefully – some functions you may consider essential can be part of their flexible ‘add-on’ model. With 5 options, there is a lot of research to do here to make sure you select the right plan. Be sure to scroll down to their add-ons section. Here, you’ll find some features that are included in other CRMs like email templates. This is part of Pipedrives ‘campaigns add on’ but is standard in CRMs like Insightly. 
• Project Management – Many CRMs include project management features as part of the CRM licensing fee. For example, Insightly has project management features built in for no extra cost. Pipedrive calls this the “Projects” add=on and it will cost you per user per month, bringing all of Pipedrives plans to a higher price point than many other CRMs.
• User Interface – The interface can be complex until you’ve mastered it, so allow time for adoption. Also keep in mind that the essential plan does not include chat or phone support, so you’ll be on your own when you choose their most basic plan level. 
• No Free Plan – There is no free option with Pipedrive, so you’ll need to commit to the lowest pricing level to use it beyond the 2-week trial.

User reviews of Pipedrive CRM from G2

• “Really smooth and easy to use. The onboarding session was unreal.” – Nathan M. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Does just what you need” – Tom S. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “So far so good. So far the automation is fantastic – it syncs up with my email outreach strategy very well.” – Sam T. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Pipedrive CRM a good choice?

• When you need a robust CRM at a reasonable price point.
• When you want to customize your CRM without the need for expensive consultants.
• When you work larger accounts.
• When you are sure you need a CRM and are ready to pay (no free plan available.)

Pipedrive Pricing

With five tiers from which to choose, Pipedrive gives you a lot of options to find the right plan for your business. Plans start at $14 per user, per month and go up to $99 per user, per month for Enterprise. This is significantly less expensive than Salesforce.

For detailed pricing information, visit the Pipedrive website.

Salesforce CRM – an Insightly alternative

Salesforce is a CRM investment suited for large scale enterprises like Fortune 500 companies. It requires expensive third party partners to implement, and will often require multiple dedicated team members to operate it day to day. Once in place however, it is a powerful CRM that integrates with a plethora of tools via its marketplace to deliver a full and robust business management system.

Key features of Salesforce CRM

• Contact management
• Dashboard views
• Task and event management
• Opportunity and pipeline management
• Account management
• Automation
• Integration with other tools
• Powerful analytics driven by AI

Advantages of Salesforce CRM

• Robust marketplace for app integrations
• Supported by an ecosystem of developers, integrators, resellers and consultants
• Considered the grandfather of CRMs – the first cloud-based CRM on the market
• Widely used by businesses of all kinds

Challenges of Salesforce CRM

• Interface is clunky and slow to load
• Implementations take 6-9 months
• An integration or consulting firm is almost always required to implement the platform
• Integrations are costly to develop and maintain since they often break
• It’s complex and therefore requires extensive employee training
• Adoption can be difficult as its complexity makes it difficult to use
• Each implementation is unique – therefore the skills in using it rarely transfer from one business to another
• Can be cost prohibitive to small businesses

User reviews of Salesforce CRM from G2

• “CRM for time saving and easy to use” – Divy M. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• Flexibility: Salesforce Sales Cloud can be highly customized to fit the specific needs of any business. – Jolyma Jem M.Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Easy to use and track the leads” I like the interface of the CRM tracking the accurate customer interface – Devyani G.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Salesforce CRM a good choice?

• When budgets are not a consideration
• When you have a strong IT team to support it and can hire multiple CRM administrators for day-to-day operation
• For a Fortune 1000 enterprise
• When you have a 6-9 month runway of time to implement it and train your workforce

Salesforce Pricing

With four pricing tiers for Salesforce Sales Cloud (AKA CRM), you have choices. At $25 per user per month, the starter edition is aimed at small businesses and is designed to compete with other value CRMs. However, it still has a considerable amount of complexity that will be a struggle for many companies. The Professional edition ($80 per user per month) has many more features, but most companies choose Enterprise ($165 per user per month) or Unlimited ($330 per user per month). These prices are clearly out of range for a lot of companies and therefore show how Salesforce is designed for large scale enterprises.

For detailed pricing information, visit the Salesforce website.

SugarCRM – an Insightly alternative

SugarCRM (Sugar Sell) is a comprehensive CRM platform. It is very configurable so it can be adapted to a wide variety of use cases. In addition to Sugar Sell, the platform includes Sugar Serve for customer service and Sugar Market for email marketing. 

Key features of SugarCRM (Sugar Sell)

• Easy to use: Sugar has an intuitive interface that is easy to navigate.
• Lead and contact management: Sugar helps you manage leads and contacts with features such as list segmentation and lead scoring
• Reporting and analytics: Sugar has a robust analytics function to track lead and opportunity performance 
• Customization: IT teams can tailor SugarCRM to meet your team’s needs
• Security and compliance: Sugar uses encryption measures and complies with customer data protection regulations

Advantages of SugarCRM

• Sugar works best when your team uses all of the apps on the platform, including CRM, Sugar Market and Sugar Serve.
• Sugar supports a wide range of languages, which can be helpful for global businesses.
• Sugar is easy to customize without the need of a developer or IT professional. 

Challenges of SugarCRM

• You will likely need an integrator to get you up and running on SugarCRM. You’ll need to be well versed in business processes to get the system configured, and this level of sophistication is not likely to be in house.
• Project management functions in Sugar are limited. You’ll likely need a separate project management tool to manage even simple projects. 
• The lowest pricing tier doesn’t offer much functionality; be sure you find the exact needs you have in the tier you select, or you risk having to bump up to the next level.
• There are more cost-effective options on the market.
• If you have more than 5 seats, you will need to bump up into the Advanced tier which is 4x more expensive than Essentials. It feels like a penalty for growth.

User reviews of SugarCRM from G2

• “It is convenient when using as a group.” – Sean Ching S.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “An excellent, customizable experience” – Jessica F.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Great product and service!” – Mark B.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is SugarCRM a good choice?

• When budgets are not a consideration
• When you have a strong IT team to support it and can a multiple CRM integrator for implementation
• When you only need 5 seats or fewer
• When you want to use a CRM, marketing platform, and customer service tool from one vendor

SugarCRM Pricing

It appears that you have 3 tiers from which to choose, but the Essentials tier (at $19 per user, per month) is only for teams of 5 or fewer. This means that teams of 6 or more will pay a minimum of $85 per user, per month. This is much higher than many other CRMs on the market. The Premier level is at $135 per user, per month, which is also unusually high for the market. 

For detailed pricing information, visit the SugarCRM website.

ZohoCRM – an Insightly alternative

Zoho is a cloud-based CRM. Rather than focus on one size of company, Zoho caters to the needs of businesses of all sizes. Zoho has the key features of most CRMs even though out-of-the-box customizations are limited. Once you learn the interface, the tool is powerful. No direct support is available, so one person in your organization will likely need to become an expert quickly or you’ll need an outside consultant. Although the integration process is complex, once integrated, it is a good tool for cross company communication.

Key features of Zoho

• Dashboard: It’s easy to monitor team performance with Zoho’s dashboards.
• Workflow automation: Improve efficiency and eliminate repetitive tasks with automation.
• Lead management: Nurture leads effectively within the platform
• Marketing automation platform available: Zoho’s marketing automation platform is available to license, keeping your marketing and sales teams in the same platform.

Advantages of Zoho

• Zoho has a free version for up to three users.
• Zoho offers ‘lite’ licenses so team members from other departments can get access to data but not be billed as full users. (Note: limited to Enterprise and Ultimate plans)
• CRM Plus is 8 Zoho apps bundled together. Should you need these apps, this could be a good value. 
• Zoho supports 28 languages.

Challenges of Zoho

• Zoho has the key features of most CRMs even though out-of-the-box customizations are limited. 
• Once you learn the interface, the tool is powerful. However, the learning curve is steep. The interface appears to be quite dated.
• No direct support is available, so one person in your organization will likely need to become an expert quickly or you’ll need an outside consultant. 
• Although the integration process is complex, once integrated, Zoho can be a good tool for inter-departmental communication.

User reviews of Zoho CRM from G2

• “Maximizing Business Efficiency with Zoho CRM” – Rushikesh P., Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Zoho CRM: A Powerful and Affordable CRM for Businesses of All Sizes” – Somdeb K., Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “We constantly refer Zoho One to clients to use.” – Mark T. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Zoho CRM a good choice?

• When you can use all eight of the apps included in Zoho Plus, you’ll get good value.
• When you can hire an integrator who can also support your team in day-to-day questions, since customer support from Zoho can be unreliable.
• When a mobile app is not a high priority; Zoho’s mobile app lags behind the desktop version significantly. 

Zoho CRM Pricing

With four tiers available, Zoho provides options for businesses of all sizes. The Standard license is the entry point at $14 per user, per month. The highest price option is Ultimate at $52 per user, per month. These price points are lower than most other CRMs.

For detailed pricing information, visit the Zoho CRM website.

Frequently asked questions about Insightly

Question: What is Insightly used for? 

Answer: Insightly is a Customer Relationship Management platform (also known as CRM). A CRM is the single source of truth for a business by managing all of the contact information for current and prospective customers. CRMs help businesses manage their leads and sales pipelines. Insightly also offers dashboards and reports for helping communicate status to all departments of a company. 

Question: Is Insightly a good CRM?

Answer: Insightly is a powerful, modern CRM that teams love to use. It helps businesses grow faster. 

Question: Is Insightly CRM expensive?

Answer: Insightly is priced well for the features it provides. It is much less expensive that Salesforce in terms of license fees and total cost of ownership. 

Question: What is a CRM used for?

Answer: A CRM is used by sales team members every day to track their work, automate tasks, send emails, and record interactions with customers and prospects. 

Monday.com is a project management application that has moved into the CRM space. Monday started as a project management platform and then added a software development application and a CRM later, but its main focus remains on the project manager buyer. However, the CRM features have matured over the years to become a viable option for some small businesses. Monday.com is most often chosen as a CRM when a company is already using Monday for project management or using Monday for software development management. Rather than add a new vendor to the tech stack, the team may choose Monday CRM.

Key features of Monday CRM

• Project management flows: Moves projects through stages with a drag and drop, intuitive interface. Offers unlimited projects.
• Contact management: Manages your contacts in one place with no limits
• Task organization: You can track tasks in the platform so small issues don’t fall through the cracks, and you’re to-do lists get done
• Automate workflows: automate repetitive processes to save time
• Dashboards: Easy data visualization and you can create custom reports (Enterprise plan)
• Can be convenient if the project management office is already using Monday.com
• Monday has a user-friendly interface for project views that may be familiar to project managers so there won’t be a steep learning curve

Challenges for Monday.com as a CRM

• Not initially built as a CRM: If you’ve used a full-featured CRM before, you’ll recognize how Monday CRM was built as a project management platform first. (However, they do offer a great PM tool for managing complex projects.)
• No free version: There is currently no free version of Monday CRM (Monday Work Management does offer a free version, so this can be confusing). You can take a free CRM trial, but you’ll need to pay after 14 days priced per user per month with no option for unlimited users. This can be cost-prohibitive to startups and micro businesses. (The website shows that a free CRM plan is pending.)
• Integrations: If seamless integrations are vital to your business, Monday’s Basic plan won’t work. It excludes integrations so you will not be able to connect the CRM with their other tools for team collaboration and file sharing.
• You’ll need to pay up to access basic CRM features: Since Monday is really for PMs, you’ll see lots of project management tools masquerading as a CRM, some basic CRM functions are missing from lower tiers like email and quotes/invoices. You’ll find many more CRM-specific features on other apps at a lower cost, like quotes and custom fields. Larger teams and remote teams may find this challenging.
• Other vendors offer more advanced features at the lower pricing levels and standard plans. 

Why should you look for Monday alternatives?

• If you are using the project management features of Monday.com as a CRM, you may need to actually use a real CRM instead.
• If you want email features but are looking for a low-rate CRM, Monday may not be a fit.
• If you need HIPAA compliance, Monday only offers it at the Enterprise level.

Best alternatives to Monday CRM

#1 Insightly CRM – top Monday alternative

If you’re looking for a highly customizable CRM with project management features built in, Insightly is a great fit and is a strong contender and alternative to Monday.

Key features of Insightly CRM

• Super-fast interface: Insightly was developed as a cloud-based CRM, it is fast to load and use. Its convenient blade view lets you drill-down to view data without loading pages, making it a fast application.
• Sales pipeline and lead management: Capture leads, prioritize and distribute leads, and get a real-time view of all deals in your pipeline
• Lead tracking and opportunity management: Improve deal velocity by managing opportunities in customizable pipelines and tracking deal progress
• Business workflow and process automation: Automate tasks that take up time, reduce human error, and free up your team for more important work
• Validation rules and advanced permissions: Ensure data accuracy, integrity and compliance while giving appropriate access to team members
• Products, price books and quotes: Make it easy to close the deal when you configure price quotes from opportunities. Generate and email quotes right from Insightly.
• Project and task management: Convert opportunities to projects seamlessly and manage them with a familiar, intuitive interface.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Create a comprehensive record of each customer interaction and improve overall business processes
• Customizations: Configure the CRM to your organization’s unique needs. Save on outside integrators and consultants with simple customization and configuration options.
• Email management: Stay in the CRM and send one-off emails or templated emails to dozens of contacts.
• Performance dashboards and reporting: Customize dashboards and reports to get real-time insights and make informed decisions.

Advantages of using Insightly CRM

• Free plan: To help new business owners and start-ups, Insightly offers a plan that is free forever for up to 2 users. The free plan is comprehensive. You get up to 2,500 records, 5 email templates and can send up to 10 emails per day. You can also customize the CRM with up to 2 custom fields and custom page layouts. To get started on the free plan, first you’ll start a Free Trial of Insightly. For 14 days, you’ll get to experience the platform and you’ll receive a series of emails that will walk you through the major features. When you first login, you’ll see some sample data in the platform as you look around. When you’re ready to start using the platform, delete the sample data and start entering your data. At the end of the 14 day trial, you’ll be asked to move to a paid plan. If you do not move to a paid plan, your account will be converted to the Free CRM plan.
• Project management features: Many CRMs offer project management features as an add-on or an extra application, but Insightly builds in robust project management features in its CRM offering. Best of all, the project management features use the same intuitive interface that is used in the lead and opportunity management phases, so it’s already familiar to users. The kanban style that is so easy to visualize is in play here, and project managers will delight in how easy it is to move won opportunities into projects. All of the data from the sale carries over, so PMs can see exactly what led to this customer choosing your solution. 
• Customizations: Most CRMs are customizable…that’s true. However, most also require a lot of help. You’ll need help from the platform’s customer service team. Or worse, you’ll need to hire an outside integration or service company to do the customizations for you. This can add up quickly. This is especially true for legacy CRMs (looking at you, Salesforce). 
• HIPAA compliance: If you are in the healthcare industry and need to be assured of data security under HIPAA, Insightly is a clear choice. Few CRMs are HIPAA compliant. 

User reviews of Insightly CRM from G2

• “Helps you to improve efficiency, and is easy to use.”
  This is a very user friendly software that makes your work easier. – Kratika C., Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Easy to use and efficient”
  The application is a user friendly app that helps fulfill all the needs. Their customer support is amazing. Vanshika G. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Insightly for improved efficiency in association management”
  Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
• “Amazing support, easy to use and so much still to explore” – Dawn R. Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “A modern customizable CRM with on the clock support” – Kati G., Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

When is Insightly a good choice?

• Customizations: Insightly is an excellent option for enterprises that need CRM that’s tailored to their needs. Insightly is easy to customize without the need for an outside firm or agency. 
• Integrations: Using the AppConnect middleware tool, it’s easy to connect Insightly to thousands of popular business applications without the need to write code.
• Project management: If your business wants to manage projects right in the CRM, Insightly’s project management features will impress you. You won’t need to buy and implement a separate app to manage projects post-sale.
• Your team likes to ‘tinker:’ Insightly is a highly flexible tool that businesses can use in a myriad of ways. The possibilities are endless and the guardrails are down – you can truly make Insightly perform in countless ways if you want.
• You’re not quite ready to buy: Insightly’s Free CRM plan is robust. It is free forever for up to 2 users and includes up to 2,500 records, 5 email templates and you can send up to 10 emails per day. You can make customizations on the free plan as well with up to 2 custom fields and custom page layouts. 
• You want one platform for your Go-to-Market teams: In addition to a robust CRM, Insightly offers Insightly Marketing for marketing automation and Insightly Service for customer support and ticketing. Your GTM teams gain visibility into each other’s work with one platform, one data set, and one login.

Insightly Pricing

Insightly’s pricing model includes a completely free CRM plan for up to two users – a practical choice for startups and small businesses. As such, Insightly is a completely free Insightly alternative for businesses seeking a comprehensive CRM without high costs. The Plus, Professional and Enterprise plans offer a variety of features and limits so you can customize your CRM to the needs of your business at different price points. 

For detailed pricing information, visit Inisghtly’s website.

Copper CRM – a Monday alternative

Copper is a CRM with useful features for small businesses. It scores well on the essential functions of a CRM. Copper CRM is a favorite among businesses using Google Workspace since it easily integrates with Google products.

Key features of Copper CRM

• Google Workspace integration: Easily interacts with all Google apps
• Customization: Easy to add fields, drop downs, etc. to perfectly set up the CRM for your business.
• Advanced reporting: Powerful, pre-built reports for sales teams
• Integrations: Supports app connections at higher plan levels
• Automate workflows: Take tasks off your plate when you automate calls, meetings, and follow-ups.

Advantages of using Copper CRM

• Keep reps organized with inbox integration so they can record emails in the CRM without leaving their inbox. 
• Simple pipeline views using a kanban format provides visibility across your sales team.
• Copper makes it easy to automate repetitive tasks, keeping your sales team focused on selling.
• Built-in native integrations with commonly used apps like MailChimp and Slack.

Challenges of Copper CRM

• Compared to other CRMs targeting small businesses, pricing is on the high end. 
• If you have a lot of contacts, this is not the CRM for you. Contact limits are lower than most other CRMs at each price point.
• The lowest level plan does not include workflow automation, which is included in most other CRM plans at that pricing tier.
• Copper is known to have a bit of a steep learning curve. There are more intuitive CRMs on the market.

User reviews of Copper CRM from G2

• “Intuitive product, excellent service and great service” – Lydia. F Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “The ease of finding a contact’s information” – Traci N. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Maximize Efficiency : a deep dive into Copper CRM’s seamless workflow solution.” Varun D. Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

When is Copper CRM a good choice?

• When your business uses Google Workspace
• When you have a small amount of contacts in your database
• When you don’t need a free option to get started. Beyond the Free Trial, you’ll need to pay to use the system as there is no free tier. 
• You need multi-lingual support

Copper Pricing

With just 3 tiers to choose from, Copper makes pricing simple. Their Basic plan is $29 per user per month, Professional is a bug jump to $69 per user per month, and Business, the full-featured offering, is $134 per user per month. These are comparatively high for a CRM targeted at small businesses. However, you don’t need to worry about add-ons like Monday CRM and others…everything is included in these price points. 

For detailed pricing information, visit Copper’s website.

HubSpot CRM – a Monday alternative

HubSpot CRM is part of a larger system of products. HubSpot started as a marketing automation platform and then added a CRM later, so its main focus is on the marketing buyer. However, the CRM has matured over the years to become a viable option for small businesses and a realistic alternative to Monday. 

Key features of HubSpot CRM

• Marketing automation: HubSpot CRM is most powerful when used with HubSpot’s marketing automation software. 
• Contact management: HubSpot’s robust contact tracking helps businesses have a single source of truth for all customers and prospects.
• Deal tracking: It’s easy to see where deals are in HubSpot CRM
• Reporting dashboards: HubSpot gives users a great way to visualize data with robust reports and real-time dashboards.
• Easy UI: HubSpot CRM has a clean and intuitive interface that is very popular with users. 

Advantages of using HubSpot CRM

• A popular system: It’s not difficult to find new team members with experience using HubSpot since it is a popular software application.
• Easy to learn: HubSpot’s intuitive interface means that the learning curve isn’t steep. Your users will be up and running on HubSpot quickly. Plus, the robust HubSpot Academy has tons of resources for new users, 
• It’s a closed system: If you stay within the HubSpot platform for CRM, Marketing and Service, you’ll find efficiencies. 

Challenges of HubSpot

• Pricing concerns: HubSpot can quickly get really expensive for many businesses. You may qualify for an introductory rate, but beware. Once that rate expires, you’ll be on the hook for a big monthly fee. While it has a free plan, it does not include many necessary features. The Professional plan is robust, but it will run you $1,600/month – a high cost for smaller operations.
• Leaving the ‘ecosystem:’ HubSpot works best when you use all of the tools they offer. For example, should you decide to use a more robust, separate social publishing tool vs. the basic one included in HubSpot, you lose all of the benefits of comprehensive reporting. 

User reviews of HubSpot CRM from G2

• “Easy to use – way better than the FrankenSalesForce” it’s easy to use, intuitive, and we finally managed to crack the code with it. Valentin R. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Comprehensive and User-Friendly CRM for Streamlined Sales Processes” Raj K.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Great for basics” Or A.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Most preferred tools for Sales Team” Shyam S. Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)

When is HubSpot CRM a good choice?

• When you are committed to using HubSpot Marketing Hub
• If you have a users who have used it before 
• When budget is not a concern
• When you plan on using and staying in the HubSpot ecosystem for an extended period of time

HubSpot Pricing

Within the free plan, HubSpot offers CRM features that are suitable for simple startups and micro businesses. Higher-tier plans such as the Professional plan can cost as much as $1,600 per month and can quickly become even more expensive with various add-ons. Keep in mind that HubSpot’s most robust offering is its marketing automation platform, so without the use of that piece, the value diminishes. Beware of low-level introductory pricing. These contracts will be as much as 90% off year one, but are difficult to get out of once that first year passes and your costs increase dramatically. HubSpot’s pricing is confusing and highly detailed, so read carefully to make the best decision for your business. 

For detailed pricing information, visit HubSpot’s website.

Nutshell CRM – a Monday alternative

Nutshell CRM is a CRM for small businesses and small teams. For small businesses with a more simple set of needs, it can be a viable option and an alternative to Monday. 

Key features of Nutshell CRM

• Simple interface: Uses drag-and-drop functions to simplify use
• Sales management: Streamlines sales operations 
• Hands-on service: Get a dedicated account manager with their higher plans
• Foundation level pricing: a low-cost entry point to get started

Advantages of using Nutshell CRM

• Choose from 4 pricing tiers to get exactly what you need. Then, select add-ons to customize it for your business. 
• No contact limits. Some platforms have limits on the number of contacts you can store in your database. Nutshell frees you from this constraint.
• Easy to implement. You won’t need to hire an integration firm or consultant to implement Nutshell.
• Zoom meetings transcribed. In higher level plans, you can have your Zoom meetings automatically transcribed in Nutshell.

Challenges of Nutshell

• Pricing can be tricky. The monthly licensing fee per user per month isn’t where it ends. You’ll need to choose some add-ons to get what is essentially basic functionality in other CRMs. This can add up quickly.

• No free plan. While you can start a trial of Nutshell, there is no low-level free plan. So after your trial, you’ll need to commit to a paid plan. 
• Out of the box. There is a limit to how much users can customize the front end look and feel. This could be a benefit for small companies looking for an out-of-the-box solution, but businesses looking to make changes will struggle with Nutshell.
• You may outgrow it. While Nutshell offers Enterprise pricing, nearly all of its customers are small businesses. It’s easy to outgrow over time.

User reviews of Nutshell CRM from G2

• “Nutshell keeps adding awesome capabilities…” Richard S.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Very customer oriented” – Peggy B.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Exactly what we were looking for!” Mariah B.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Nutshell CRM a good choice?

• When you are a sole proprietor or micro business
• When you know you need a CRM and are ready to pay for it out of the gate.
• When you are looking to store and manage contacts but don’t necessarily need a full-blown CRM
• When you will be using a marketing tool and want it integrated with your CRM
• If you’re not looking for AI features. Foundation and Pro levels don’t offer the help of AI. You’ll need to be in the highest pricing tiers for those functions. 

Nutshell Pricing

With 4 tiers to choose from plus add-ons, Nutshell pricing can feel overwhelming. Foundation pricing starts at $14/mo with Enterprise running $67/mo. However, these prices don’t include any add-ons that some may say are essential to your CRM experience. For instance, email campaigns and the ability to send emails from your inbox are included in Insightly CRM. With Nutshell, you’ll need to pay an additional $37/mo. for each. For a small company, that’s literally tripling your monthly fee. 

For detailed pricing information, visit Nutshell’s website.

Pipedrive CRM – a Monday alternative

Pipedrive is a CRM with useful features for small businesses. It scores well on the essential functions of a CRM. 

Key features of Pipedrive CRM

• Automation – Pipedrive enables automation to eliminate redundant tasks and make your team more efficient. 
• Customization – You can customize your pipeline and you processes to match your organization’s needs.
• Email and communication – Keep all of your sales team communication in one place with email features in Pipedrive.
• Reports – Make custom sales reports to keep your team informed.
• Integrations – Connect Pipedrive with the other tools your business uses every day.
• Lead management – Generate, qualify and prioritize leads.
• Security – Your data is protected in Pipedrive
• Manage activities – Use features like goal setting, insights, and activity tracking

Advantages of Pipedrive CRM

• Pipedrive is account-centric vs. contact-centric, so if you are working on large accounts, it could be a good fit.
• No charge for onboarding. Pipedrive sets you up for success in using their platform.
• Customizations are fairly easy to make. For instance, custom fields are a great way to classify deals and customer types.
• Integrations are easy to set up.
• Ease of use – most teams are up and running on Pipedrive in under 3 months.

Challenges of Pipedrive CRM

• Pricing – Look through the pricing carefully – some functions you may consider essential can be part of their flexible ‘add-on’ model. With 5 options, there is a lot of research to do here to make sure you select the right plan. Be sure to scroll down to their add-ons section. Here, you’ll find some features that are included in other CRMs like email templates. This is part of Pipedrives ‘campaigns add on’ but is standard in CRMs like Insightly. 
• Project Management – Many CRMs include project management features as part of the CRM licensing fee. For example, Insightly has project management features built in for no extra cost. Pipedrive calls this the “Projects” add=on and it will cost you per user per month, bringing all of Pipedrives plans to a higher price point than many other CRMs.
• User Interface – The interface can be complex until you’ve mastered it, so allow time for adoption. Also keep in mind that the essential plan does not include chat or phone support, so you’ll be on your own when you choose their most basic plan level. 
• No Free Plan – There is no free option with Pipedrive, so you’ll need to commit to the lowest pricing level to use it beyond the 2-week trial.

User reviews of Pipedrive CRM from G2

• “Really smooth and easy to use. The onboarding session was unreal.” – Nathan M. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Does just what you need” – Tom S. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “So far so good. So far the automation is fantastic – it syncs up with my email outreach strategy very well.” – Sam T. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Pipedrive CRM a good choice?

• When you need a robust CRM at a reasonable price point.
• When you want to customize your CRM without the need for expensive consultants.
• When you work larger accounts.
• When you are sure you need a CRM and are ready to pay (no free plan available.)

Pipedrive Pricing

With five tiers from which to choose, Pipedrive gives you a lot of options to find the right plan for your business. Plans start at $14 per user, per month and go up to $99 per user, per month for Enterprise. This is significantly less expensive than Salesforce.

For detailed pricing information, visit the Pipedrive website.

Salesforce CRM – a Monday alternative

Salesforce is a CRM investment suited for large scale enterprises like Fortune 500 companies. It requires expensive third party partners to implement, and will often require multiple dedicated team members to operate it day to day. Once in place however, it is a powerful CRM that integrates with a plethora of tools via its marketplace to deliver a full and robust business management system.

Key features of Salesforce CRM

• Contact management
• Dashboard views
• Task and event management
• Opportunity and pipeline management
• Account management
• Automation
• Integration with other tools
• Powerful analytics driven by AI

Advantages of Salesforce CRM

• Robust marketplace for app integrations
• Supported by an ecosystem of developers, integrators, resellers and consultants
• Considered the grandfather of CRMs – the first cloud-based CRM on the market
• Widely used by businesses of all kinds

Challenges of Salesforce CRM

• Interface is clunky and slow to load
• Implementations take 6-9 months
• An integration or consulting firm is almost always required to implement the platform
• Integrations are costly to develop and maintain since they often break
• It’s complex and therefore requires extensive employee training
• Adoption can be difficult as its complexity makes it difficult to use
• Each implementation is unique – therefore the skills in using it rarely transfer from one business to another
• Can be cost prohibitive to small businesses

User reviews of Salesforce CRM from G2

• “CRM for time saving and easy to use” – Divy M. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• Flexibility: Salesforce Sales Cloud can be highly customized to fit the specific needs of any business. – Jolyma Jem M.Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Easy to use and track the leads” I like the interface of the CRM tracking the accurate customer interface – Devyani G.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Salesforce CRM a good choice?

• When budgets are not a consideration
• When you have a strong IT team to support it and can hire multiple CRM administrators for day-to-day operation
• For a Fortune 1000 enterprise
• When you have a 6-9 month runway of time to implement it and train your workforce

Salesforce Pricing

With four pricing tiers for Salesforce Sales Cloud (AKA CRM), you have choices. At $25 per user per month, the starter edition is aimed at small businesses and is designed to compete with other value CRMs. However, it still has a considerable amount of complexity that will be a struggle for many companies. The Professional edition ($80 per user per month) has many more features, but most companies choose Enterprise ($165 per user per month) or Unlimited ($330 per user per month). These prices are clearly out of range for a lot of companies and therefore show how Salesforce is designed for large scale enterprises.

For detailed pricing information, visit the Salesforce website.

SugarCRM – a Monday alternative

SugarCRM (Sugar Sell) is a comprehensive CRM platform. It is very configurable so it can be adapted to a wide variety of use cases. In addition to Sugar Sell, the platform includes Sugar Serve for customer service and Sugar Market for email marketing. 

Key features of SugarCRM (Sugar Sell)

• Easy to use: Sugar has an intuitive interface that is easy to navigate.
• Lead and contact management: Sugar helps you manage leads and contacts with features such as list segmentation and lead scoring
• Reporting and analytics: Sugar has a robust analytics function to track lead and opportunity performance 
• Customization: IT teams can tailor SugarCRM to meet your team’s needs
• Security and compliance: Sugar uses encryption measures and complies with customer data protection regulations

Advantages of SugarCRM

• Sugar works best when your team uses all of the apps on the platform, including CRM, Sugar Market and Sugar Serve.
• Sugar supports a wide range of languages, which can be helpful for global businesses.
• Sugar is easy to customize without the need of a developer or IT professional. 

Challenges of SugarCRM

• You will likely need an integrator to get you up and running on SugarCRM. You’ll need to be well versed in business processes to get the system configured, and this level of sophistication is not likely to be in house.
• Project management functions in Sugar are limited. You’ll likely need a separate project management tool to manage even simple projects. 
• The lowest pricing tier doesn’t offer much functionality; be sure you find the exact needs you have in the tier you select, or you risk having to bump up to the next level.
• There are more cost-effective options on the market.
• If you have more than 5 seats, you will need to bump up into the Advanced tier which is 4x more expensive than Essentials. It feels like a penalty for growth.

User reviews of SugarCRM from G2

• “It is convenient when using as a group.” – Sean Ching S.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “An excellent, customizable experience” – Jessica F.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Great product and service!” – Mark B.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is SugarCRM a good choice?

• When budgets are not a consideration
• When you have a strong IT team to support it and can a multiple CRM integrator for implementation
• When you only need 5 seats or fewer
• When you want to use a CRM, marketing platform, and customer service tool from one vendor

SugarCRM Pricing

It appears that you have 3 tiers from which to choose, but the Essentials tier (at $19 per user, per month) is only for teams of 5 or fewer. This means that teams of 6 or more will pay a minimum of $85 per user, per month. This is much higher than many other CRMs on the market. The Premier level is at $135 per user, per month, which is also unusually high for the market. 

For detailed pricing information, visit the SugarCRM website.

ZohoCRM – a Monday alternative

Zoho is a cloud-based CRM. Rather than focus on one size of company, Zoho caters to the needs of businesses of all sizes. Zoho has the key features of most CRMs even though out-of-the-box customizations are limited. Once you learn the interface, the tool is powerful. No direct support is available, so one person in your organization will likely need to become an expert quickly or you’ll need an outside consultant. Although the integration process is complex, once integrated, it is a good tool for cross company communication.

Key features of Zoho

• Dashboard: It’s easy to monitor team performance with Zoho’s dashboards.
• Workflow automation: Improve efficiency and eliminate repetitive tasks with automation.
• Lead management: Nurture leads effectively within the platform
• Marketing automation platform available: Zoho’s marketing automation platform is available to license, keeping your marketing and sales teams in the same platform.

Advantages of Zoho

• Zoho has a free version for up to three users.
• Zoho offers ‘lite’ licenses so team members from other departments can get access to data but not be billed as full users. (Note: limited to Enterprise and Ultimate plans)
• CRM Plus is 8 Zoho apps bundled together. Should you need these apps, this could be a good value. 
• Zoho supports 28 languages.

Challenges of Zoho

• Zoho has the key features of most CRMs even though out-of-the-box customizations are limited. 
• Once you learn the interface, the tool is powerful. However, the learning curve is steep. The interface appears to be quite dated.
• No direct support is available, so one person in your organization will likely need to become an expert quickly or you’ll need an outside consultant. 
• Although the integration process is complex, once integrated, Zoho can be a good tool for inter-departmental communication.

User reviews of Zoho CRM from G2

• “Maximizing Business Efficiency with Zoho CRM” – Rushikesh P., Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Zoho CRM: A Powerful and Affordable CRM for Businesses of All Sizes” – Somdeb K., Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “We constantly refer Zoho One to clients to use.” – Mark T. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Zoho CRM a good choice?

• When you can use all eight of the apps included in Zoho Plus, you’ll get good value.
• When you can hire an integrator who can also support your team in day-to-day questions, since customer support from Zoho can be unreliable.
• When a mobile app is not a high priority; Zoho’s mobile app lags behind the desktop version significantly. 

Zoho CRM Pricing

With four tiers available, Zoho provides options for businesses of all sizes. The Standard license is the entry point at $14 per user, per month. The highest price option is Ultimate at $52 per user, per month. These price points are lower than most other CRMs.

For detailed pricing information, visit the Zoho CRM website.

Frequently asked questions about Monday CRM

Question: What is Monday.com used for? 

Answer: Monday.com is known best for being a project management application. Monday has added on a CRM (customer relationship management) software and a software development app recently. Both applications have gained a customer base, but most people associate Monday.com with project management and most customers are project managers.  

Question: Is Monday.com a good CRM?

Answer: Monday started out as a very good project management application. It has since added a software development management app and a CRM. But Monday is primarily associated with project management.

Question: Is Monday CRM expensive?

Answer: CRMs are usually priced per seat, per month and Monday’s prices are in line with most others. At the Basic level, many expected CRM features are lacking, so plan on needing at least the standard level for most small to midsized businesses. There is currently no free plan, although Monday’s website indicates it is pending. 

Question: What is a CRM used for?

Answer: A CRM is a single source of truth for any business with all of the business’s contacts, customers, and potential customers stored in a database with a convenient user interface for access. A CRM is much different from a project management application, which is what Monday is. 

HubSpot started as a marketing automation platform and later added a CRM, service app, and project management app to be a full service platform for end users. The sales team often uses the low-cost, simple CRM as an entry point to move customers into marketing software contracts. 

HubSpots best features are related to email marketing and email management. It is robust out of the box, but advanced customizations can be limited since it is a closed system where you’ll get the most out of it when you use all of its components together. Leaving the ecosystem means building integrations and those can be costly. The small number of integrations that are available are easy to use. Building reports can be a challenge, so you may need to have some expertise on your team or hire an external integrator to get the most from the system. The HubSpot online academy is a great resource for learning how to use the platform and for marketing training in general.

Key features of HubSpot CRM

• Contact management: HubSpot’s Sales Hub has robust contact tracking that helps businesses have a single source of truth for all customers and prospects thus improving customer relationships.
• Workflow automation: HubSpot can help your team be more efficient by automating repetitive tasks. This sales automation is key to freeing up your team to close more deals with clear sales funnels.
• Deal tracking: It’s easy to see where deals are in HubSpot CRM
• Reporting dashboards: HubSpot gives sales teams a great way to visualize data with robust reports and real-time dashboards.
• Easy UI: HubSpot CRM has a clean and intuitive interface that is very popular with users to manage contacts.
• A popular system: It’s not difficult to find new sales reps with experience using HubSpot since it is a popular software application. They will also be familiar with the HubSpot sales processes.
• Easy to learn: HubSpot’s intuitive interface means that the learning curve isn’t steep. Your users will be up and running on HubSpot quickly. Plus, the robust HubSpot Academy has tons of resources for new users, 
• It’s a closed system: If you stay within the HubSpot platform for CRM, Marketing and Service, and Project Management you’ll find efficiencies. 
• Marketing automation tools: HubSpot CRM is most powerful when used with HubSpot’s Marketing Hub marketing automation platform and content management features. The landing page builder, SMS marketing functions, account-based marketing features and more will make your marketing team more efficient.

Why should you look for HubSpot alternatives?

• Pricing concerns: HubSpot can quickly get really expensive for many businesses. You may qualify for an introductory rate, but beware. Once that rate expires, you’ll be on the hook for a big monthly fee. While it has a free plan in its pricing plans, it does not include any advanced features. The Professional plan is robust with key features, but it will run you $1,600/month – a high cost for smaller operations.
• Leaving the ‘ecosystem:’ HubSpot works best when you use all of the tools they offer. For example, should you decide to use a more robust, separate social publishing tool vs. the basic one included in HubSpot, you lose all of the benefits of comprehensive reporting. 

Best alternatives to HubSpot CRM

#1 Insightly CRM – top HubSpot alternative

If you’re looking for a highly customizable CRM with project management features built in, Insightly is a great fit and is a strong contender and alternative to HubSpot.

Key features of Insightly CRM

• Super-fast interface: Insightly was developed as a cloud-based CRM, it is fast to load and use. Its convenient blade view lets you drill-down to view data without loading pages, making it a fast application.
• Sales pipeline and lead management: Capture leads, prioritize and distribute leads, and get a real-time view of all deals in your pipeline
• Lead tracking and opportunity management: Improve deal velocity by managing opportunities in customizable pipelines and tracking deal progress
• Business workflow and process automation: Automate tasks that take up time, reduce human error, and free up your team for more important work
• Validation rules and advanced permissions: Ensure data accuracy, integrity and compliance while giving appropriate access to team members
• Products, price books and quotes: Make it easy to close the deal when you configure price quotes from opportunities. Generate and email quotes right from Insightly.
• Project and task management: Convert opportunities to projects seamlessly and manage them with a familiar, intuitive interface.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Create a comprehensive record of each customer interaction and improve overall business processes
• Customizations: Configure the CRM to your organization’s unique needs. Save on outside integrators and consultants with simple customization and configuration options.
• Email management: Stay in the CRM and send one-off emails or templated emails to dozens of contacts.
• Performance dashboards and reporting: Customize dashboards and reports to get real-time insights and make informed decisions.

Advantages of using Insightly CRM

• Free plan: To help new business owners and start-ups, Insightly offers a plan that is free forever for up to 2 users. The free plan is comprehensive. You get up to 2,500 records, 5 email templates and can send up to 10 emails per day. You can also customize the CRM with up to 2 custom fields and custom page layouts. To get started on the free plan, first you’ll start a Free Trial of Insightly. For 14 days, you’ll get to experience the platform and you’ll receive a series of emails that will walk you through the major features. When you first login, you’ll see some sample data in the platform as you look around. When you’re ready to start using the platform, delete the sample data and start entering your data. At the end of the 14 day trial, you’ll be asked to move to a paid plan. If you do not move to a paid plan, your account will be converted to the Free CRM plan.
• Project management features: Many CRMs offer project management features as an add-on or an extra application, but Insightly builds in robust project management features in its CRM offering. Best of all, the project management features use the same intuitive interface that is used in the lead and opportunity management phases, so it’s already familiar to users. The kanban style that is so easy to visualize is in play here, and project managers will delight in how easy it is to move won opportunities into projects. All of the data from the sale carries over, so PMs can see exactly what led to this customer choosing your solution. 
• Customizations: Most CRMs are customizable…that’s true. However, most also require a lot of help. You’ll need help from the platform’s customer service team. Or worse, you’ll need to hire an outside integration or service company to do the customizations for you. This can add up quickly. This is especially true for legacy CRMs (looking at you, Salesforce). 
• HIPAA compliance: If you are in the healthcare industry and need to be assured of data security under HIPAA, Insightly is a clear choice. Few CRMs are HIPAA compliant. 

User reviews of Insightly CRM from G2

• “Helps you to improve efficiency, and is easy to use.”
  This is a very user friendly software that makes your work easier. – Kratika C., Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Easy to use and efficient”
  The application is a user friendly app that helps fulfill all the needs. Their customer support is amazing. Vanshika G. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Insightly for improved efficiency in association management”
  Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
• “Amazing support, easy to use and so much still to explore” – Dawn R. Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “A modern customizable CRM with on the clock support” – Kati G., Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

When is Insightly a good choice?

• Customizations: Insightly is an excellent option for enterprises that need CRM that’s tailored to their needs. Insightly is easy to customize without the need for an outside firm or agency. 
• Integrations: Using the AppConnect middleware tool, it’s easy to connect Insightly to thousands of popular business applications without the need to write code.
• Project management: If your business wants to manage projects right in the CRM, Insightly’s project management features will impress you. You won’t need to buy and implement a separate app to manage projects post-sale.
• Your team likes to ‘tinker:’ Insightly is a highly flexible tool that businesses can use in a myriad of ways. The possibilities are endless and the guardrails are down – you can truly make Insightly perform in countless ways if you want.
• You’re not quite ready to buy: Insightly’s Free CRM plan is robust. It is free forever for up to 2 users and includes up to 2,500 records, 5 email templates and you can send up to 10 emails per day. You can make customizations on the free plan as well with up to 2 custom fields and custom page layouts. 
• You want one platform for your Go-to-Market teams: In addition to a robust CRM, Insightly offers Insightly Marketing for marketing automation and Insightly Service for customer support and ticketing. Your GTM teams gain visibility into each other’s work with one platform, one data set, and one login.

Insightly Pricing

Insightly’s pricing model includes a completely free CRM plan for up to two users – a practical choice for startups and small businesses. As such, Insightly is a completely free Insightly alternative for businesses seeking a comprehensive CRM without high costs. The Plus, Professional and Enterprise plans offer a variety of features and limits so you can customize your CRM to the needs of your business at different price points. 

For detailed pricing information, visit Inisghtly’s website.

Monday – a HubSpot alternative

Monday started out as a project management application. It has since added a software development tracking tool and a CRM.  Monday.com’s main focus is on the project manager buyer. However, the CRM features have matured over the years to become a viable option for some small businesses. The CRM features make some consider it an alternative to HubSpot.

Key features of Monday

• Also offers a popular project management application: Monday is known as a project management company. If your business uses the Monday project management system, you may want to consider getting your CRM from them as well. These products are priced separately.
• Contact management: Manages your contacts in one place. No limits on contacts.
• Sales forecasting: Uses data to predict future sales
• Task organization: Track tasks in the platform
• Automate workflows: automate repetitive processes to save time
• Dashboards: Easy data visualization

Challenges for Monday CRM

• No free version: There is no Monday free plan at the time of this writing. It is indicated that a free plan with limited features is coming soon.
• Integrations: If integrations are vital to your business, Monday’s Basic plan won’t work. It excludes integrations so you will not be able to connect the CRM with their other tools.
• You’ll need to pay up to access basic CRM features: Since Monday is more focused on its project management business, some basic CRM functions are missing from lower tiers. You’ll find many more CRM-specific features on other apps at a lower cost. 

User reviews of Monday from G2

Note that these reviews are all of Monday.com as a Project Management Tool, since that is its primary purpose. 

• “Good and Advanced project management tool” – Jacquelynne H., Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Project management made easy” – Viktoriia k. Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
• “Best tool for project management tool” – Aman S., Project Development Manager, Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)

When is Monday CRM a good choice?

• When you are already using it as a Project Management Tool and don’t want to add more applications to your tech stack.
• If your CRM needs are simple then Monday’s lower plans may be a fit at a relatively low cost.

Monday Pricing

Monday.com CRM pricing is on the low end for CRMs. This is because Monday’s main business is primarily a project management tool designed for project management teams with a simple CRM as a side business. There is no free plan at the time of this writing, so you’ll need to commit to paying after the 14-day trial period. Most features that are common in lower tiers for other CRMs can only be found in the Enterprise tier for Monday.

For detailed pricing information, visit Monday.com’s website.

Copper CRM – a HubSpot alternative

Copper is a CRM with useful features for small businesses. It scores well on the essential functions of a CRM. Copper CRM is a favorite among businesses using Google Workspace since it easily integrates with Google products.

Key features of Copper CRM

• Google Workspace integration: Easily interacts with all Google apps
• Customization: Easy to add fields, drop downs, etc. to perfectly set up the CRM for your business.
• Advanced reporting: Powerful, pre-built reports for sales teams
• Integrations: Supports app connections at higher plan levels
• Automate workflows: Take tasks off your plate when you automate calls, meetings, and follow-ups.

Advantages of using Copper CRM

• Keep reps organized with inbox integration so they can record emails in the CRM without leaving their inbox. 
• Simple pipeline views using a kanban format provides visibility across your sales team.
• Copper makes it easy to automate repetitive tasks, keeping your sales team focused on selling.
• Built-in native integrations with commonly used apps like MailChimp and Slack.

Challenges of Copper CRM

• Compared to other CRMs targeting small businesses, pricing is on the high end. 
• If you have a lot of contacts, this is not the CRM for you. Contact limits are lower than most other CRMs at each price point.
• The lowest level plan does not include workflow automation, which is included in most other CRM plans at that pricing tier.
• Copper is known to have a bit of a steep learning curve. There are more intuitive CRMs on the market.

User reviews of Copper CRM from G2

• “Intuitive product, excellent service and great service” – Lydia. F Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “The ease of finding a contact’s information” – Traci N. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Maximize Efficiency : a deep dive into Copper CRM’s seamless workflow solution.” Varun D. Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

When is Copper CRM a good choice?

• When your business uses Google Workspace
• When you have a small amount of contacts in your database
• When you don’t need a free option to get started. Beyond the Free Trial, you’ll need to pay to use the system as there is no free tier. 
• You need multi-lingual support

Copper Pricing

With just 3 tiers to choose from, Copper makes pricing simple. Their Basic plan is $29 per user per month, Professional is a bug jump to $69 per user per month, and Business, the full-featured offering, is $134 per user per month. These are comparatively high for a CRM targeted at small businesses. However, you don’t need to worry about add-ons like HubSpot CRM and others…everything is included in these price points. 

For detailed pricing information, visit Copper’s website.

Nutshell CRM – a HubSpot alternative

Nutshell CRM is a CRM for small businesses and small teams. For small businesses with a more simple set of needs, it can be a viable option and an alternative to HubSpot. 

Key features of Nutshell CRM

• Simple interface: Uses drag-and-drop functions to simplify use
• Sales management: Streamlines sales operations 
• Hands-on service: Get a dedicated account manager with their higher plans
• Foundation level pricing: a low-cost entry point to get started

Advantages of using Nutshell CRM

• Choose from 4 pricing tiers to get exactly what you need. Then, select add-ons to customize it for your business. 
• No contact limits. Some platforms have limits on the number of contacts you can store in your database. Nutshell frees you from this constraint.
• Easy to implement. You won’t need to hire an integration firm or consultant to implement Nutshell.
• Zoom meetings transcribed. In higher level plans, you can have your Zoom meetings automatically transcribed in Nutshell.

Challenges of Nutshell

• Pricing can be tricky. The monthly licensing fee per user per month isn’t where it ends. You’ll need to choose some add-ons to get what is essentially basic functionality in other CRMs. This can add up quickly.

• No free plan. While you can start a trial of Nutshell, there is no low-level free plan. So after your trial, you’ll need to commit to a paid plan. 
• Out of the box. There is a limit to how much users can customize the front end look and feel. This could be a benefit for small companies looking for an out-of-the-box solution, but businesses looking to make changes will struggle with Nutshell.
• You may outgrow it. While Nutshell offers Enterprise pricing, nearly all of its customers are small businesses. It’s easy to outgrow over time.

User reviews of Nutshell CRM from G2

• “Nutshell keeps adding awesome capabilities…” Richard S.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Very customer oriented” – Peggy B.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Exactly what we were looking for!” Mariah B.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Nutshell CRM a good choice?

• When you are a sole proprietor or micro business
• When you know you need a CRM and are ready to pay for it out of the gate.
• When you are looking to store and manage contacts but don’t necessarily need a full-blown CRM
• When you will be using a marketing tool and want it integrated with your CRM
• If you’re not looking for AI features. Foundation and Pro levels don’t offer the help of AI. You’ll need to be in the highest pricing tiers for those functions. 

Nutshell Pricing

With 4 tiers to choose from plus add-ons, Nutshell pricing can feel overwhelming. Foundation pricing starts at $14/mo with Enterprise running $67/mo. However, these prices don’t include any add-ons that some may say are essential to your CRM experience. For instance, email campaigns and the ability to send emails from your inbox are included in Insightly CRM. With Nutshell, you’ll need to pay an additional $37/mo. for each. For a small company, that’s literally tripling your monthly fee. 

For detailed pricing information, visit Nutshell’s website.

Pipedrive CRM – a HubSpot alternative

Pipedrive is a CRM with useful features for small businesses. It scores well on the essential functions of a CRM. 

Key features of Pipedrive CRM

• Automation – Pipedrive enables automation to eliminate redundant tasks and make your team more efficient. 
• Customization – You can customize your pipeline and you processes to match your organization’s needs.
• Email and communication – Keep all of your sales team communication in one place with email features in Pipedrive.
• Reports – Make custom sales reports to keep your team informed.
• Integrations – Connect Pipedrive with the other tools your business uses every day.
• Lead management – Generate, qualify and prioritize leads.
• Security – Your data is protected in Pipedrive
• Manage activities – Use features like goal setting, insights, and activity tracking

Advantages of Pipedrive CRM

• Pipedrive is account-centric vs. contact-centric, so if you are working on large accounts, it could be a good fit.
• No charge for onboarding. Pipedrive sets you up for success in using their platform.
• Customizations are fairly easy to make. For instance, custom fields are a great way to classify deals and customer types.
• Integrations are easy to set up.
• Ease of use – most teams are up and running on Pipedrive in under 3 months.

Challenges of Pipedrive CRM

• Pricing – Look through the pricing carefully – some functions you may consider essential can be part of their flexible ‘add-on’ model. With 5 options, there is a lot of research to do here to make sure you select the right plan. Be sure to scroll down to their add-ons section. Here, you’ll find some features that are included in other CRMs like email templates. This is part of Pipedrives ‘campaigns add on’ but is standard in CRMs like Insightly. 
• Project Management – Many CRMs include project management features as part of the CRM licensing fee. For example, Insightly has project management features built in for no extra cost. Pipedrive calls this the “Projects” add=on and it will cost you per user per month, bringing all of Pipedrives plans to a higher price point than many other CRMs.
• User Interface – The interface can be complex until you’ve mastered it, so allow time for adoption. Also keep in mind that the essential plan does not include chat or phone support, so you’ll be on your own when you choose their most basic plan level. 
• No Free Plan – There is no free option with Pipedrive, so you’ll need to commit to the lowest pricing level to use it beyond the 2-week trial.

User reviews of Pipedrive CRM from G2

• “Really smooth and easy to use. The onboarding session was unreal.” – Nathan M. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Does just what you need” – Tom S. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “So far so good. So far the automation is fantastic – it syncs up with my email outreach strategy very well.” – Sam T. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Pipedrive CRM a good choice?

• When you need a robust CRM at a reasonable price point.
• When you want to customize your CRM without the need for expensive consultants.
• When you work larger accounts.
• When you are sure you need a CRM and are ready to pay (no free plan available.)

Pipedrive Pricing

With five tiers from which to choose, Pipedrive gives you a lot of options to find the right plan for your business. Plans start at $14 per user, per month and go up to $99 per user, per month for Enterprise. This is significantly less expensive than Salesforce.

For detailed pricing information, visit the Pipedrive website.

Salesforce CRM – a HubSpot alternative

Salesforce is a CRM investment suited for large scale enterprises like Fortune 500 companies. It requires expensive third party partners to implement, and will often require multiple dedicated team members to operate it day to day. Once in place however, it is a powerful CRM that integrates with a plethora of tools via its marketplace to deliver a full and robust business management system.

Key features of Salesforce CRM

• Contact management
• Dashboard views
• Task and event management
• Opportunity and pipeline management
• Account management
• Automation
• Integration with other tools
• Powerful analytics driven by AI

Advantages of Salesforce CRM

• Robust marketplace for app integrations
• Supported by an ecosystem of developers, integrators, resellers and consultants
• Considered the grandfather of CRMs – the first cloud-based CRM on the market
• Widely used by businesses of all kinds

Challenges of Salesforce CRM

• Interface is clunky and slow to load
• Implementations take 6-9 months
• An integration or consulting firm is almost always required to implement the platform
• Integrations are costly to develop and maintain since they often break
• It’s complex and therefore requires extensive employee training
• Adoption can be difficult as its complexity makes it difficult to use
• Each implementation is unique – therefore the skills in using it rarely transfer from one business to another
• Can be cost prohibitive to small businesses

User reviews of Salesforce CRM from G2

• “CRM for time saving and easy to use” – Divy M. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• Flexibility: Salesforce Sales Cloud can be highly customized to fit the specific needs of any business. – Jolyma Jem M.Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Easy to use and track the leads” I like the interface of the CRM tracking the accurate customer interface – Devyani G.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Salesforce CRM a good choice?

• When budgets are not a consideration
• When you have a strong IT team to support it and can hire multiple CRM administrators for day-to-day operation
• For a Fortune 1000 enterprise
• When you have a 6-9 month runway of time to implement it and train your workforce

Salesforce Pricing

With four pricing tiers for Salesforce Sales Cloud (AKA CRM), you have choices. At $25 per user per month, the starter edition is aimed at small businesses and is designed to compete with other value CRMs. However, it still has a considerable amount of complexity that will be a struggle for many companies. The Professional edition ($80 per user per month) has many more features, but most companies choose Enterprise ($165 per user per month) or Unlimited ($330 per user per month). These prices are clearly out of range for a lot of companies and therefore show how Salesforce is designed for large scale enterprises.

For detailed pricing information, visit the Salesforce website.

SugarCRM – a HubSpot alternative

SugarCRM (Sugar Sell) is a comprehensive CRM platform. It is very configurable so it can be adapted to a wide variety of use cases. In addition to Sugar Sell, the platform includes Sugar Serve for customer service and Sugar Market for email marketing. 

Key features of SugarCRM (Sugar Sell)

• Easy to use: Sugar has an intuitive interface that is easy to navigate.
• Lead and contact management: Sugar helps you manage leads and contacts with features such as list segmentation and lead scoring
• Reporting and analytics: Sugar has a robust analytics function to track lead and opportunity performance 
• Customization: IT teams can tailor SugarCRM to meet your team’s needs
• Security and compliance: Sugar uses encryption measures and complies with customer data protection regulations

Advantages of SugarCRM

• Sugar works best when your team uses all of the apps on the platform, including CRM, Sugar Market and Sugar Serve.
• Sugar supports a wide range of languages, which can be helpful for global businesses.
• Sugar is easy to customize without the need of a developer or IT professional. 

Challenges of SugarCRM

• You will likely need an integrator to get you up and running on SugarCRM. You’ll need to be well versed in business processes to get the system configured, and this level of sophistication is not likely to be in house.
• Project management functions in Sugar are limited. You’ll likely need a separate project management tool to manage even simple projects. 
• The lowest pricing tier doesn’t offer much functionality; be sure you find the exact needs you have in the tier you select, or you risk having to bump up to the next level.
• There are more cost-effective options on the market.
• If you have more than 5 seats, you will need to bump up into the Advanced tier which is 4x more expensive than Essentials. It feels like a penalty for growth.

User reviews of SugarCRM from G2

• “It is convenient when using as a group.” – Sean Ching S.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “An excellent, customizable experience” – Jessica F.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “Great product and service!” – Mark B.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is SugarCRM a good choice?

• When budgets are not a consideration
• When you have a strong IT team to support it and can a multiple CRM integrator for implementation
• When you only need 5 seats or fewer
• When you want to use a CRM, marketing platform, and customer service tool from one vendor

SugarCRM Pricing

It appears that you have 3 tiers from which to choose, but the Essentials tier (at $19 per user, per month) is only for teams of 5 or fewer. This means that teams of 6 or more will pay a minimum of $85 per user, per month. This is much higher than many other CRMs on the market. The Premier level is at $135 per user, per month, which is also unusually high for the market. 

For detailed pricing information, visit the SugarCRM website.

Zoho CRM – a HubSpot alternative

Zoho is a cloud-based CRM. Rather than focus on one size of company, Zoho caters to the needs of businesses of all sizes. Zoho has the key features of most CRMs even though out-of-the-box customizations are limited. Once you learn the interface, the tool is powerful. No direct support is available, so one person in your organization will likely need to become an expert quickly or you’ll need an outside consultant. Although the integration process is complex, once integrated, it is a good tool for cross company communication.

Key features of Zoho

• Dashboard: It’s easy to monitor team performance with Zoho’s dashboards.
• Workflow automation: Improve efficiency and eliminate repetitive tasks with automation.
• Lead management: Nurture leads effectively within the platform
• Marketing automation platform available: Zoho’s marketing automation platform is available to license, keeping your marketing and sales teams in the same platform.

Advantages of Zoho

• Zoho has a free version for up to three users.
• Zoho offers ‘lite’ licenses so team members from other departments can get access to data but not be billed as full users. (Note: limited to Enterprise and Ultimate plans)
• CRM Plus is 8 Zoho apps bundled together. Should you need these apps, this could be a good value. 
• Zoho supports 28 languages.

Challenges of Zoho

• Zoho has the key features of most CRMs even though out-of-the-box customizations are limited. 
• Once you learn the interface, the tool is powerful. However, the learning curve is steep. The interface appears to be quite dated.
• No direct support is available, so one person in your organization will likely need to become an expert quickly or you’ll need an outside consultant. 
• Although the integration process is complex, once integrated, Zoho can be a good tool for inter-departmental communication

User reviews of Zoho CRM from G2

• “Maximizing Business Efficiency with Zoho CRM” – Rushikesh P., Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
• “Zoho CRM: A Powerful and Affordable CRM for Businesses of All Sizes” – Somdeb K., Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
• “We constantly refer Zoho One to clients to use.” – Mark T. Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

When is Zoho CRM a good choice?

• When you can use all eight of the apps included in Zoho Plus, you’ll get good value.
• When you can hire an integrator who can also support your team in day-to-day questions, since customer support from Zoho can be unreliable.
• When a mobile app is not a high priority; Zoho’s mobile app lags behind the desktop version significantly. 

Zoho CRM Pricing

With four tiers available, Zoho provides options for businesses of all sizes. The Standard license is the entry point at $14 per user, per month. The highest price option is Ultimate at $52 per user, per month. These price points are lower than most other CRMs.

For detailed pricing information, visit the Zoho CRM website.

Frequently asked questions about HubSpot

Question: What is HubSpot CRM used for? 

Answer: HubSpot is a CRM for small businesses. It manages contacts, sales pipelines, and provides reports for owners/leaders to monitor the sales function at a business.

Question: Is HubSpot a good CRM?

Answer: HubSpot has the essential functions of a CRM, and is priced low for start-up and small businesses.

Question: Is HubSpot CRM expensive?

Answer: Compared to other CRMs, HubSpot is a value-priced CRM with low starting price points and the option to add on additional features as needed. As such, it is a low cost option for small businesses.

Question: What is a CRM used for?

Answer: A CRM is a single source of truth for any business with all of the business’s contacts, customers, and potential customers stored in a database with a convenient user interface for access.