Startup Groundwork

Resources to start and run a business

You are here: Home / Categories / Sales & CRM Vendors

Sales & CRM Vendors

We earn revenue from affiliate links on our site. We strive to keep our site updated, so if you notice any broken links, please tell us.

This page is for business owners to research customer relationship management software options for their business. We list popular options.

CRM Vendors

  • Salesforce: Probably the most well-known vendor. They have an “Essentials” package for small businesses, and their website explains how they can help you by industry. They have a strong platform with lots of developers but are definitely a premium service. They are the force behind a lot of big and medium companies. This is a service you pick when you already have strong revenue coming in. A good fit for any type of business because their network is so strong (meaning someone in your industry is probably already using them and has figured out your problems already).
  • Hubspot CRM: They have expanded into sales, marketing, and service CRMs, so for a business looking to integrate all of their departments under one vendor, this might be a good fit (you can buy them together with the HubSpot Growth Stack). They give a 90% discount to eligible funded start-ups.
  • Zoho CRM: They have a free tier, and also more robust businesses and enterprise editions. Practically half the price of Salesforce in some instances, it might be a good fit if the particular features meet your need. They have a lot of other products with free tiers you can try out as well, so you will see them in a lot of categories on this site. Good for any size team, they are also a good fit for a wide range of industries.
  • Bigin: Part of Zoho, it focuses on the sales aspect of CRM and leaves off the other features. It’s very cheap and might be a good fit for sales teams at a small to medium-size business. As always, they have a free tier.
  • Active Campaign: A CRM from the email marketing folks at Active Campaign, it would be a good fit for an email-heavy business.
  • Pipedrive: Strong sales focus and customer support focus. This could be for you if you want customer support right away when you have problems. You can use our link to extend your trial to 30 days.
  • SugarCRM: A robust all-around product. It is focused on sales as well, but also has solutions for different industries. A 7-day free trial on some products, and demos of others. They also offer an on-site version, which would be a good fit for a security-conscious company.
  • Freshsales: Very sales and tech-focused, this would be a good fit for a small or medium start-up. They have a free version and long trials for the other versions. Part of Freshworks, they have also expanded into a lot of other areas like help desk software, chat, and telephony.
  • Insightly: Marketing & sales CRM with an additional built-in project management focus. They appear to have a free tier for two people. Another strong point is the crazy amount of integrations they offer, so a good fit if you’d rather not stop using the other tools you’re already using.
  • Close.io: extremely sales-focused, with a lot of emailing, power dialing, and automation features. They have a plan for startups.
  • Agile CRM: Again, very sales-focused, with additional features of help desk integration. Very nice free tier for up to 10 users. Tech-focused companies would be a good fit, not offline businesses.
  • VTiger: A sales and help desk CRM combined.
  • Big players: Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP. These are for million-dollar companies on their way to becoming billion-dollar companies.

Industry Specific CRMs & Niche CRMs

  • Beacon: Built for non-profit corporations in the U.K
  • Streak: a CRM built on top of Gmail, so if you use Google Apps and want a lightweight CRM that integrates nicely, this might be for you.

Top Categories on the Startup Groundwork Website

Check out other posts from the No-Nonsense blog

Sign up for Startup Deals

Get the best offers and tips right in your inbox.

SUBSCRIBE

Revenue Disclosure: We’re upfront people, so we want to be upfront with how we make money. We make money through affiliate links and ads. How do we NOT earn money? We DON’T get paid to add companies to our categories or sell email addresses. That means no one can pay us to put them on the list in any category, move them higher up the list, or change what we say about them. We want small businesses and entrepreneurs to trust us to point them in the right direction, and we’re proud of the fact that this is a guarantee you won’t see on other websites.