18 Free CRM Software for Your Business [Reviews 2024]

Looking for a free customer relationship management platform for your business but don’t know where to start?

There are many options for CRMs out there.

But be careful— 

The majority of them don’t offer a free plan for their system. 

So, if you don’t have the budget to spend on that tool or just want to try something for free first, then stick around!

We’ll go through the best free CRM software available online and show you their pros, cons, and pricing, so you can make an informed decision for your business. 

In this article:

• What customer relationship management software is
• Comparison table of best CRM systems
• In-depth reviews
• Frequently Asked Questions

If you want to learn more about customer relations, retention, and setting up customer database management tools, check out these articles:

• What Is Customer Relations? Definition, Best Practices & Benefits [+9 Examples]
• 16 Customer Retention Software Tools to Reduce Churn
• 10 Best Customer Database Software Solutions for 2022

Let’s start from the basics—

What is customer relationship management software?

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a system to manage customer interactions and relations with existing and potential customers. This tool lets businesses identify sales opportunities, store customer contact information, and manage marketing campaigns. It also provides a unified platform for better organization of tasks, projects, and customer communication at a company.

Some systems come at a hefty pricetag that’s understandable for all the functionality they offer. However, other companies offer a more basic version of CRM software free of charge. These are aimed at smaller businesses that want the great benefits but can’t efffort the expensive plans.

Benefits of CRM system

There are many advantages of using customer relationship management free software. These include storing all the client information in a single database, automating your support, and helping you with your marketing efforts. 

But, to back our words with some data, let’s look at what research says.

The five main reasons you should consider implementing free customer relationship management software to your business are:

• CRM has a return on investment of an average of nearly $9 for every dollar spent
• Contact management software can increase sales by up to 29% and can help to increase sales forecast accuracy by 42%
• Around 64% of companies that use CRM tools say they are impactful
• From companies that use CRM tools, about 85% improved customer experience and over 54% streamlined customer-related operations
• A study shows that 74% of business owners say that free CRM applications allow them to have more access to their customer data

Now—

How to choose the best free CRM tools for your company? Let’s have a look!

First and foremost, the CRM free software you choose should be user-friendly so that anyone from your support team can get up to speed quickly. You don’t want to implement a software and then have to spend days explaining how it works to each of your team members.

Another aspect you should be wary about are the resources the free client management system provides. These should be sufficient to assist you to solve arising problems quickly and efficiently. For example, resources could be a knowledge base, a knowledgeable customer support, and forums. You can check whether the system has a good support team by looking at the current users’ of the free CRM reviews.

Even though we’re looking at the best free CRMs—but the system you choose should also have an option to upgrade it once your company scales. These paid plans should aim to accommodate your different business needs when your company expands. 

When it comes to features—

Let’s point it out that desired features and functionalities will change depending on what you’re planning to use your free CRM apps. So, start by deciding whether you need a simple free CRM, free CRM for Facebook leads, or a real estate CRM free of charge. 

Having said that, there are some main features that should be a standard in a CRM solution as they are useful for all business types and sizes.

So—what are some of the most important features of the best free CRM systems?

Main features in a free CRM software 

Some of the best free CRM for sales include invoicing, marketing automation, and prospecting features. Ecommerce businesses will also find customer service automation particularly useful. And most of the free CRM software for small business include pipeline management and client engagement. 

Now—to the point. 

The main CRM functionality you should look for in the free CRM solutions includes:

• Reports and analytics—advanced reporting will help you keep track of your results and point out areas that need improvement
• Third-party integrations—seamless integrations with ecommerce platforms, and other software is useful when connecting your tools to third-party software
• Pipeline management—it helps you manage your workflows and stay on top of your team’s tasks with a bird’s eye view
• Sales automation—this will help you grow sales by automating some of the processes: from lead generation, all the way to scheduling meetings and providing invoices
• Visitor tracking—know exactly where your visitors are, when they’re leaving your site, and what they’re browsing, so you can approach them in the perfect time to secure a sale

Okay—

So, these were the features you should look out for. But what is the best free CRM tool?

Let’s have a quick look at a comparison table of the best free CRM software:

Platform	Ratings	Number or users & contacts for free	Mobile app for iOS & Android
Tidio	4.7/5 ⭐️ (1,310+ reviews)	3 operators &  unlimited contacts	✅
Zoho CRM	4/5 ⭐️ (2,095+ reviews)	3 users & unlimited contacts	✅
Vtiger CRM	4.9/5 ⭐️ (390+ reviews)	10 users & 3,000 records	✅
Agile CRM	4/5 ⭐️ (310+ reviews)	10 users & 50,000 contacts	✅
Streak	4.5/5 ⭐️ (165+ reviews)	1 user & unlimited contacts	✅
HubSpot CRM	4.4/5 ⭐️ (8,230+ reviews)	Unlimited users & 1,000,000 contacts	✅
BenchmarkONE	4.5/5 ⭐️ (180+ reviews)	Unlimited users & 250 contacts	✅
Odoo CRM	4/5 ⭐️ (70+ reviews)	Unlimited users & contacts	✅
SuiteCRM	4.2/5 ⭐️ (80+ reviews)	Unlimited users & contacts	❌
CiviCRM	4/5 ⭐️ (80+ reviews)	Unlimited users & contacts	✅
Freshsales	4.6/5 ⭐️ (9,700+ reviews)	Unlimited users & contacts	✅
Engagebay	4.6/5 ⭐️ (135+ reviews)	Unlimited users & 500 contacts	✅
Apptivo	4.3/5 ⭐️ (120+ reviews)	1 user & unlimited contacts	✅
Capsule CRM	4.3/5 ⭐️ (80+ reviews)	2 users & 250 contacts	✅
Bitrix24	4.1/5 ⭐️ (450+ reviews)	Unlimited users & contacts	✅
Monday.com	4.7/5 ⭐️ (5,650+ reviews)	2 seats & 200 rows	✅
Insightly	4.2/5 ⭐️ (710+ reviews)	2 users & unlimited contacts	✅
Really Simple Systems	4.4/5 ⭐️ (140+ reviews)	2 users & unlimited contacts	❌

First off—

What CRM software is best for a small startup?

Best free CRM for small businesses

Are you a startup that wants to scale up your business? Maybe you have a small business that needs help with managing your customer relationships? Or maybe you’re a freelancer that needs a free CRM tools for customer communication, so you can focus on your work? Do you want a helping hand to improve shopping experience, increase sales, and lower costs?

We have five best options just for you!

1. Tidio

Ratings: 4.7/5 ⭐️ (1,310+ reviews)

This article is not the right place for us to promote ourselves as “the best free CRM software out there.” So, we’ll just encourage you to try our CRM software for free and see for yourself if we deserve the positive reviews we get on G2 and other third-party review websites.

Let’s keep it simple here. Tidio is a system that offers tools for multichannel customer communication, AI chatbots, and a shared inbox for your team. It also provides pre-chat surveys and chat ratings to collect leads and get more feedback from your clients. You can import contact lists, tag customers, and manage your contacts with advanced filtering options to make client management easier for you. 

Main features:

• NLP (Natural Language Processing) technology
• Shared inbox for teams
• Live chat with live typing feature
• Great customer support with a dedicated customer success manager
• Ticketing system
• Order status and history

Free features:

• AI chatbots 
• Visitor profiles for client information
• Mobile app for iOS and Android
• JavaScript APIs available 
• Useful integrations, such as Zapier, Shopify, and MailChimp

Pricing:

• Free
• Email marketing ($10/mo) 
• Starter ($29/mo)
• Automation ($29/mo)  
• Growth ($59/mo)
• Lyro AI ($39/mo)
• Tidio + (starting from $499/mo)

Read more: Learn how to use contacts effectively with Tidio.

In addition, make sure to check out the best customer service software you can use to enhance your client experience and support efforts.

2. Zoho CRM

Ratings: 4/5 ⭐️ (2,095+ reviews)

Zoho CRM is one of the best free CRM for startups on the market. It advertises itself as a 360º client relationship lifecycle management solution. It offers CRM features such as sales funnels, inventory management, pipeline management, and audience segmentation. 

This free CRM software for small business also provides AI conversational assistant for better workflow automation. You can also find over 500 business apps to integrate with your system for additional functionality.

Pros:

• Complete ecosystem
• Advanced analytics dashboards and reports
• Customizable to the company’s needs

Cons:

• Complicated to use
• Limited automation

Free features:

• Contact book
• Email marketing workflows
• Visitor tracking
• Storage of up to 5,000 records 
• Workflow automations

Pricing:

• Zoho CRM Free Edition available
• Standard ($20/mo/agent)
• Professional ($35/mo/agent)
• Enterprise ($50/mo/agent)
• Ultimate ($65/mo/agent)

3. Vtiger CRM

Ratings: 4.9/5 ⭐️ (390+ reviews)

This is one of the free small business CRMs that give you the ability to create fruitful relationships with your shoppers. It brings all your teams together and connects their goals for better results. 

Vtiger also helps you optimize sales, marketing, and support team with real-time insights and actions. This free, web-based CRM helps your customer-facing teams create a delightful customer experience across the buyer’s journey.

Pros:

• Easy grouping of organizations
• Alert notifications
• Intuitive design

Cons:

• Limited customization
• On-page categorization of elements not available

Free features:

• Single view for contact management
• Storage of up to 3,000 records
• Actions page for internal collaboration
• Mobile app with real-time notifications
• Gantt View for project management

Pricing: 

• Free plan available
• Professional Standard ($42/mo/agent)
• Professional Single App ($28/mo/user)
• Enterprise Standard ($58/mo/user)
• Enterprise Single App ($42/mo/user)

4. Agile CRM

Ratings: 4/5 ⭐️ (310+ reviews)

Agile CRM is a cloud-based free CRM email marketing software with fully integrated automation, web analytics, and sales tracking. You can track, score, and nurture leads based on their web and email activity. 

This is one of the free CRM systems for small business owners that enables multichannel communication with buyers via phone, email and Twitter. It also monitors customer behaviors and sends real-time alerts about their activity, so you stay on track with your shoppers. 

Pros:

• Variety of free CRM templates available
• Minimalist dashboard design
• Over 500 apps available for additional functionality 

Cons:

• Better documentation and tutorials needed
• Users state that occasionally, automatic messages don’t work

Free features:

• Custom data fields
• Appointment scheduling
• Email tracking
• Comprehensive view of contact information
• Custom deals tracking

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Starter ($14.99/mo)
• Regular ($49.99/mo)
• Enterprise ($79.99/mo)

5. Streak

Ratings: 4.5/5 ⭐️ (165+ reviews)

Streak is the only CRM built entirely inside of Gmail, so it’s a perfect choice if you need a simple customer relationship management system based on email communication. You can set up processes for your sales team, support reps, and even the HR department all from your inbox. 

This free CRM app for small businesses offers features for searching, filtering, and grouping your data into custom fields and views for better organization.

Pros:

• Seamless integration with Gmail
• Simple-to-use administration
• Categorization and monitoring of customers

Cons:

• Bulk emails for a set of users not available
• Timezones management can be difficult to use 

Free features:

• Private pipelines
• Call logs and meeting notes
• Mobile access for iOS and Android
• Automatic email categorization
• Custom columns & fields

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Solo ($19/mo/user)
• Pro ($59/mo/user)
• Enterprise ($159/mo/user)

6. HubSpot CRM

Ratings: 4.4/5 ⭐️ (8,230+ reviews)

HubSpot CRM is an easy-to-use, yet powerful platform. It offers the tools you need to provide a personalized shopping experience. This is a very robust system that offers free customer management software for small businesses as well as a solution for enterprises. 

It can help you attract and convert the right clients at scale, and you will be prepared for a larger audience once your business grows. This free CRM system for small businesses can also help marketers keep data at the center of their activities and turn your business into a customer-centric, data-driven company.

Pros:

• Drag-and-drop landing page builder available
• Lead generation and scoring feature
• Analytics available for each task

Cons:

• Users report that it is not possible to change rules for customer lifecycle stages
• Only set color schemes available

Free features:

• Sales activity tracking
• Company insights
• Ad management
• Landing page and form builder
• Shared inbox for customer communications

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Starter ($50/mo)
• Professional ($890/mo)
• Enterprise ($3,200/mo)

Free open-source CRM

Open source CRM software is a system that has a publicly accessible code that anyone can see and modify for their needs. If this is what your business requires, then let’s see what are the best free options of an open source customer relationship management software for you.

7. BenchmarkONE

Ratings: 4.5/5 ⭐️ (180+ reviews)

BenchmarkONE might not be as well-known as HubSpot, but you shouldn’t dismiss it just yet. It is one of the all-in-one marketing tools that include a sales platform that helps to turn website visitors into loyal customers. 

This is free open-source CRM software for small business owners. It offers real-time client insights from a dashboard for clarity in data. It also offers website tracking and lets you insert photos to your contacts for better personalization of communication.

Pros:

• Variety of flows for different contacts
• Dashboard helps with email tracking and open rates reports
• Online forms to collect new contacts

Cons:

• Not possible to make ad-hoc reports 
• Some users found it frustrating that once you leave a contact’s page, the system takes you back to the top of the contacts’ page 

Free features:

• Social profiles
• Marketing automation
• Pop-ups 
• Landing pages
• Contact management

Pricing:

• Free version available
• Lite (starts at $29/mo)
• Pro ($179/mo)
• Agencies → contact sales

8. Odoo CRM

Ratings: 4/5 ⭐️ (70+ reviews)

This free open-source CRM provider lets you create marketing campaign automations, get insights from forecasts, and customize the sales cycle. Odoo also offers follow-ups on phone calls and meetings as well as quality analysis for lead management. 

This can help to speed up the decisions for your business and grow your contact list while increasing revenue. It also provides space for internal notes and a search feature for leads and opportunities based on the phone number.

Pros:

• Consultation history 
• Powerful API to connect other software
• Shoppers’ preferences settings 

Cons:

• Automation processes need improvement
• Some users report that the user management role is complicated to create and manage

Free features:

• Pipeline management
• Buyers’ profiles with addresses, preferences, and full history
• Custom alerts for communications
• Email templates and automations
• Custom rules for assigning leads

Pricing:

• Free to use software
• Add users ($15/mo/user)
• Pricing also depends on the added apps

9. Suite CRM

Ratings: 4.2/5 ⭐️ (80+ reviews)

No more spreadsheets!

SuiteCRM is a good option for big companies as it is enterprise-ready and scalable to suit any business requirements. It is fully customizable and provides a single view of customer engagements on a shared dashboard for all departments to keep track of. 

This free, open-source CRM offers hundreds of extensions and integrations for additional functionalities and better control over your system.

Pros:

• Project tracking and metrics reporting
• Task management and prioritization
• Recording and automation of key touchpoints with your customers

Cons:

• Users report outdated versions of PHP
• Messy interface

Free features:

• Multilingual system
• User guides for onboarding
• 360-degree view of the customer base
• Sales automation
• Modules for target lists 

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Starter ($120/mo)
• Business ($415/mo)
• Premium ($595/mo)

10. Civi CRM

Ratings: 4/5 ⭐️ (80+ reviews)

This free open source CRM software was built with non-profit organizations in mind. So, if you’re running a charity organization, this is a perfect choice for you. CiviCRM is perfect for fundraising, event and contact management system. 

It helps you record and manage information about your constituents. This free cloud CRM also provides a centralized constituent communication platform for all of your interactions and building your donor base.

Pros:

• Choices on payment processors
• Deep integration with Drupal, WordPress, and Joomla
• Donor and membership management

Cons:

• Not intuitive interface
• No centralized support

Free features:

• Membership management
• Advocacy campaign builder
• Variety of reports
• Processing and tracking of contributions
• Unified storage of all contact data

Pricing:

• Free to use and download

Free CRM software for sales

Sales and marketing are two of the most important areas that many businesses target with their CRM systems. Additionally, for organizations focusing on a meaningful cause, utilizing a nonprofit CRM can significantly enhance their ability to connect with donors and manage relationships effectively. Do you work in a sales team and need a program to deliver better results? Or maybe you’re a business owner that want a free CRM solution for your sales team to use in their process? 

Either way, let’s see what are your best choices—

11. Freshsales

Ratings: 4.6/5 ⭐️ (9,700+ reviews)

Freshsales is a sales automation that provides everything your sales team needs to scale up their efforts. It offers a built-in phone, email, and chat for increased efficiency and productivity of the sales process. 

This free sales CRM provides Freddy AI to give you insights into the best deals, actions, and revenue predictions with sales forecasting. You can also generate and share quotes hassle-free from the free CRM platform. 

Pros:

• Tags and lead stages for marketing
• Well-structured calendar
• Bulk email features

Cons:

• Slow mobile app
• Some reviewers report poor customer service and lack of support

Free features:

• Account management 
• Contact lifecycle stages 
• Chat, email, and phone communication built in
• 24×5 support available
• Mobile app for Android and iOS

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Growth ($15/mo/agent)
• Pro ($39/mo/agent)
• Enterprise ($69/mo/agent)

12. Engagebay 

Ratings: 4.6/5 ⭐️ (135+ reviews)

This free sales CRM software helps you acquire, nurture, and engage website visitors to convert them into happy customers easier. It offers live chat, helpdesk software, and web forms to capture online leads. 

Engegabay also provides appointment scheduling software and deal management, so you can store an unlimited number of contacts, keep track of your shoppers’ details and build strong relationships, all in one place.

Pros:

• Targeted marketing feature
• Responsive and knowledgeable customer support
• Chrome plugin

Cons:

• The email templates are a little dull for some users 
• Ad network integration with social media, like Facebook or Google Ads not available 

Free features:

• Email tracker
• Utm builder
• Custom campaigns
• Email validator
• Rich formatting options and templates

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• All-in-One Basic ($14.99/mo/agent)
• All-in-One Growth ($49.99/mo/agent)
• All-in-One Pro ($99.99/mo/agent)

13. Apptivo 

Ratings: 4.3/5 ⭐️ (120+ reviews)

Apptivo is one of the best free sales CRM systems that offers a cloud platform with a variety of business apps in one system for sales, marketing, billing, and other company needs. The apps on this platform cover the entire customer lifetime cycle, from turning visitors into leads to keeping raving fans up to date. 

This is one of the top free CRM for sales management that helps you create targeted lists of contacts and manage project schedules via Gantt charts, time tracker, and milestones.

Pros:

• Centralized project management
• G Suite integration
• Modular system

Cons:

• Some reviewers report inconsistent fonts and layouts of the internal email platform
• No Zapier integration

Free features:

• Automation for follow-ups
• Custom views and layouts
• Mobile CRM available
• Activity tacking 
• Email sequencing

Pricing:

• Forever free CRM plan available
• Lite ($10/mo/user)
• Premium ($15/mo/user)
• Ultimate ($25/mo/user)
• Enterprise → contact sales

14. Capsule CRM

Ratings: 4.3/5 ⭐️ (80+ reviews)

This free CRM software for sales is a simple platform to build stronger customer relationships, increase sales, and save your team members’ time. It offers a tailored pipeline to match your processes and spot the important deals. 

Capsule CRM helps you be more organized with your client data and easily track conversations with prospects and loyal shoppers. This is one of the best free CRM software for sales that helps you to make better-informed business decisions with insightful reports.

Pros:

• Two-factor authorization
• Easy and intuitive to use
• Sales pipeline dashboard

Cons:

• Limited email campaign automations
• Logos save as separate icons when saving emails

Free features:

• Log activity
• Tag management
• Reminders for follow-up tasks
• Customer milestone tracking
• Access to APIs

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Professional ($12/mo/user)
• Team ($24/mo/user)
• Enterprise ($36/mo/user)

15. Bitrix24 

Ratings: 4.1/5 ⭐️ (450+ reviews)

Bitrix24 is an online workspace with tools for tasks and project management to help you run your business more efficiently. It offers a website builder, video calls, and analytics to help you create and track customer success KPIs. 

This free sales CRM software packages all the important tools. It also seamlessly integrates the tools with each other for you to access via your browser, desktop or mobile app. 

Pros:

• Activity Stream intranet center for better communication within the team
• AI chatbots available
• Online storage provided

Cons:

• Difficult to schedule automated notifications
• Limited customization

Free features:t

• Chat and video collaboration
• Variety of task modes
• Product catalog
• Meeting planner
• Inventory management

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Basic ($49/mo)
• Standard ($99/mo)
• Professional ($199/mo) 

Free CRM for real estate

Real estate industry requires a lot of organization and clarity of processes. There are usually many different teams working on a project that needs to stay organized in order to get the best results. You know that. So, to plan projects better and have a clear view of your team’s progress and results, you need a free real estate CRM. To make a choice easier for you, we picked three top players for the job.

16. Monday.com

Ratings: 4.7/5 ⭐️ (5,650+ reviews) 

This list of free client management systems wouldn’t be complete without monday.com. It’s an open platform with building blocks, like apps and integrations, to manage your relations with clients. Monday.com provides custom workflows and helps you boost your team’s alignment with a single platform for all the projects. This project management software has client portals so that your team can easily provide feedback straight to your clients.

This is one of the best free CRM for real estate that lets you stay on top of your goals with customizable dashboards for an overview of your organization’s results.

Pros:

• Adding notes
• Automated reminders
• Separate boards for projects 

Cons:

• Weekends counted as workdays in the calendar
• Limited number of panels in the monitor panel

Free features:

• Over 200 templates
• Whiteboard collaboration
• Customizable notifications
• Shareable forms
• Over 20 different column types

Pricing:

• Free individual plan available
• Basic ($10/mo/seat)
• Standard ($12/mo/seat)
• Pro ($20/mo/seat)
• Enterprise → contact sales

17. Insightly CRM

Ratings: 4.2/5 ⭐️ (710+ reviews)

Insightly advertises itself as a unified customer relationship management platform for Google and Office 365 users, as well as growing businesses. It offers a centralized system for managing customers and business data. 

This free real estate CRM helps you increase the efficiency and transparency of your company. It lets you connect products and services to specific opportunities to avoid human errors and inconsistencies. 

Pros:

• Customizable opportunity pipeline
• Variety of filters available
• Single window with all contact information

Cons:

• Not able to hide unused modules from the view
• Lead photos cannot be imported

Free features:

• Lead routing
• Workflow automation
• Email tracking 
• Model and manage data sets
• Custom apps

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Plus ($29/mo/user)
• Professional ($49/mo/user)
• Enterprise ($99/mo/user)

18. Really Simple Systems

Ratings: 4.4/5 ⭐️ (140+ reviews)

This is an easy-to-use free CRM software for real estate agents to stay on track with their goals and effortlessly contact one another. Really Simple Systems streamlines processes and helps you stay organized on all the customer touchpoints. 

It offers great customer support to help you set the system and customize it to your needs. On top of that, you can use the self-service resources to enhance your support channels. 

Pros:

• Easy to create and move around homepage widgets
• Outstanding & overdue tasks function
• Built-in features for building and sending email marketing campaigns

Cons:

• Only English version supported
• Some reviewers say the reports are outdated

Free features:

• Pipeline management
• International time zones
• Responsive design for mobile 
• Custom fields and tables
• Forecast reporting

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Starter ($12/mo/user)
• Professional ($26/mo/user)
• Enterprise ($41/mo/user)

Key takeaway 

Customer relationship management system helps you manage your customer relationships and interactions. It tracks user behaviours, connects client databases in one place, and helps you automate some of the processes.

Three of the main benefits of a free basic CRM include increased sales, improved customer experience, and better tracking of customer information.

There are many great free CRM options out there. As a recap, the best free CRM software are:

• Tidio—best for customer communications
• Zoho CRM—best for complete ecosystem
• Vtiger—best for alert notification
• Agile CRM—best for additional apps
• Streak—best for Gmail integration
• HubSpot CRM—best for lead scoring
• BenchmarkONE—best for variety of flows
• Odoo CRM—best for forecasts
• SuiteCRM—best for task prioritization
• CiviCRM—free CRM software for nonprofits
• Freshsales—best for tagging system
• Engagebay—best for targeted marketing
• Apptivo—best for module building system
• Capsule CRM—best for sales pipelines
• Bitrix24—best for video calls
• Monday.com—best for team organization
• Insightly CRM—best for variety of filters
• Really Simple Systems—best for outstanding and overdue tasks functionality

The choice is yours.

If any of the platforms took your fancy, we recommend visiting their website and discovering more of the provided features. Just remember to check if it offers frequent updates, good customer support, and all the functionalities that are essential to your business needs. 

FAQ