What Are The 13 Best Cheap CRMs in 2023?

cheap crm systems
Rob Binns

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Looking for an affordable CRM system that can still boost your business? You’re in the right place. From our research, we know that the best cheap CRM software is provided by HubSpot,  monday.com and Freshsales.

However, we also know that those three CRM companies might not be the perfect match for your business. That’s why we’ve selected and reviewed the 13 best cheap CRM software suppliers in the country, reviewing their features, pricing, and key pros and cons. By the end, you’ll know exactly which of the cheapest CRM systems is the right pick.

Or, if you’re short on time, you can find the most suitable cheap CRM software quickly and easily by using our free comparison tool. You simply answer a few questions and we’ll match your business with the right CRM company.

13 Best Cheap CRM Software: Comparison Table

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Apptivo

Agile CRM

Capsule CRM

Streak

Really Simple Systems

Cloze

Insightly

Flowlu

Bitrix24

Best for

Generous free plan

Best for

Managing big projects

Best for

Sales automation

Best for

Detailed lead management

Best for

Shoestring budgets

Best for

Marketing automation

Best for

Affordable customer service CRM

Best for

Value for money

Best for

Reporting tools

Best for

Google users

Best for

Simplicity

Best for

Automation and AI

Best for

Creating beautiful charts and graphs

Best for

Financial records tracking

Best for

Larger teams

Starting Price

$25 per user per month

Starting Price

$8 per user per month

Starting Price

$15

Starting Price

$14.90 per user per month

Starting Price

$8

Starting Price

$8.99

Starting Price

$19 per user per month

Starting Price

$14 per user per month

Starting Price

$18 per user per month

Starting Price

$15

Starting Price

$15

Starting Price

$17 per user per month

Starting Price

$29

Starting Price

$29

Starting Price

$19

Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Trial

30 days

Free Trial

14 days

Free Trial

21 days

Free Trial

14 days

Free Trial

30 days

Free Trial

Free plan

Free Trial

30 days

Free Trial

30 days

Free Trial

30 days

Free Trial

14 days (‘Pro' plan only)

Free Trial

Free plan

Free Trial

14 days

Free Trial

Free plan

Free Trial

14 days

Free Trial

30 days


HubSpot

From $45 per user, per month | Best cheap CRM for its generous free plan

Free plan available

HubSpot logo
HubSpot
4.3
Pricing $25 - $120 per user, per month
Quick overview

Each of HubSpot’s packages for marketing, sales, and service teams start at a relatively budget-friendly $25 per user, per month. We recommend the Growth Suite, though – it includes HubSpot’s Marketing, Sales, and Service ‘Hubs’ in a single package, with a tasty discount to boot. Upgrading any of HubSpot’s plans to the ‘Professional’ tier ($80 per user, per month for the Growth Suite) buys you task automation, as well as three standout features for marketing teams: A/B testing, website traffic analytics, and video hosting.

Strengths

Impressive free version available, along with a 30-day free trial

Offers discounts for startups

Weaknesses

No 24/7 phone or live chat support

It’s expensive!

Pricing
PlanMinimum usersPrice (paid annually)Price (paid monthly)
Starter 2 $15 per user per month $25 per user per month
Professional 5 $320 per user per month $356 per user per month
Enterprise 10 $2,000 per user per month Annual payment only

As with most free and cheap CRM software, though, there is a catch.

If you use HubSpot’s free CRM product in conjunction with its Marketing Hub, any contacts you add to the free version will automatically end up in the database of your paid marketing tool. Unsurprisingly, this can lead to costs quickly ballooning (HubSpot charges you for extra contacts – go figure!), so it’s worth making a mental note of.

Pros

  • Sports a stunning interface, and even more immaculate UX (user experience)
  • Powered by drag-and-drop functionality
  • Its free plan includes strong list segmentation and email marketing capabilities
  • Live chat and conversational bots included

Cons

  • When you want to upgrade from HubSpot’s cheapest CRM plans, things get expensive – fast!

monday.com

From $10 per user, per month | Best cheap CRM for longterm relationships

Free plan available

monday.com Logo
monday.com
4.1
Pricing $8-custom per user, per month
Quick overview

At $8 per user per month, the ‘Basic’ plan offers an app for both iOS and Android, as well as 5GB of storage and whiteboard collaboration. We’d recommend at least going for monday.com’s ‘Standard’ plan, though. It adds timeline and calendar views, advanced search functionality, and up to 250 app integrations – and, at just $10 per user per month all in, the plan’s not that much more expensive than its predecessor.

Strengths

24/7 customer support available, plus daily live webinars and a comprehensive knowledge base

Color-coded boards are refreshingly easy on the eye

Weaknesses

It doesn’t offer the same depth of features as an out-and-out CRM system does

Pricing
TiersPrice (billed annually)Price (billed monthly)
Basic $8 per user/month $10 per user/month
Standard $10 per user/month $12 per user/month
Pro $16 per user/month $20 per user/month
Enterprise Custom Custom

monday.com offers a free 14-day trial across all its plans.

Pros

  • Its colorful, intuitive drag-and-drop project management timelines make monday.com easy to use…
  • ...and an absolute pleasure to look at!
  • Comes with 5GB of file storage

Cons

  • Zoom integration is only available with monday.com’s ‘Standard’ plan ($10 per user, per month)

monday.com also offers discounts (and, sometimes free subscriptions too!) to nonprofits and businesses working to combat COVID-19. Head to monday.com’s website to find out if you’re eligible.


Freshsales

From $15 per user, per month | Best cheap CRM for sales automation

Free plan available

Freshsales Logo
Freshsales
4.5
Pricing Free – $69 per user per month
Quick overview

If you’re a small business looking for a good, affordable CRM system without all the bells and whistles, Freshsales will be right up your street. Get up and running in next to no time with an easy, useful dashboard, packed full of features you’ll actually use. Freshsales is popular across the board, but it’s the small businesses that sing its praises the loudest. Paid plans start at $15/user/month.

Strengths

Great for automating tasks such as logging phone calls

A simple software that’s easy to pick up, and won’t require much training

Free trial available

Weaknesses

Offers fewer third party integrations than competitors such as Zoho and Salesforce

Pricing
TiersPrice
Free Free
Growth $15 per user per month
Pro $39 per user per month
Enterprise $69 per user per month

If a completely free plan is more your thing, Freshsales doesn’t disappoint. For precisely $0 per month, Freshsales free version comes with unlimited users, contacts, and support. Just don’t expect it to scale as your business does!

Pros

  • Works with ‘Freshcaller’, Freshsales’ own integrated VoIP telephony product
  • Connects to over 100 third-party business apps
  • Lead management and scoring both available with Freshsales' cheapest CRM version

Cons

  • Bulk email marketing not available with Freshsales' Sales Cloud – you'll have to opt for its Marketing Cloud plan, instead

Want try any of Freshsales' paid plans (including its most expensive plan, ‘Enterprise', which retails at up to $69 per user, per month), completely free? You can. Head over to Freshsales' CRM's website to begin your 21-day free trial, today.


Pipedrive

From $14.90 per user, per month | Best for a smooth, easy interface

Pipedrive Logo
Pipedrive
Pricing $14.90 – $99 per user per month
Quick overview

Pipedrive is the perfect affordable CRM solution for businesses with several stages in their sales funnel. It’s the perfect way to guide each consumer from prospect to regular customer, especially for high-value products. Easily integrate with third party applications to maximize efficiency. Plans start at $14.90/user/month.

Strengths

Advanced app versions for on the move management

Efficient customer service and helpful guidance

Comprehensive lead management – clearly see where each contact is in the sales funnel

User-friendly interface

Free trial available

Weaknesses

Not as much scope for customization as other platforms, so might not be suitable for more niche industries

The features might be overkill for very small businesses

Pricing
Pipedrive CRM pricing
Essential $14.90 per user per month
Advanced $24.90 per user per month
Professional $49.90 per user per month
Enterprise $99 per user per month

Pros

  • Very affordable
  • Android and iOS apps
  • Sleek and easy interface

Cons

  • Some integrations aren't perfect
  • Input fields could use some more customisation options

Apptivo

From $8 per user, per month | Best cheap CRM for businesses on a shoestring budget

Free plan available

There aren’t many CRM providers that can claim the title of being the cheapest on the market. Actually, there’s just one – Apptivo. So what do you get for your $8 per user, per month?

Well, let’s see. There are 1,000 monthly mass email sends, and 3GB of storage. Access to Apptivo’s wide range of third-party software integrations isn’t to be sniffed at, either – nor is its generous free plan. Our only major qualm with Apptivo is the customer support – you’ll have to upgrade to at least the ‘Ultimate’ plan ($20 per user, per month) for priority attention, and will need to be subscribed to the ‘Enterprise’ plan (pricing on request) for your own account manager.

Pros

  • It’s the most affordable CRM software on the market
  • Apptivo’s cheap CRM provides 1,000 email sends per month
  • Includes invoicing, plus the ability to create proposals and purchase orders

Cons

  • If you’re new to CRM, Apptivo’s learning curve may well be a steep one
  • You’re limited to just 500MB of storage with the free plan

AgileCRM

From $8.99 per user, per month | Best cheap CRM for marketing automation and analytics

Free plan available

Cheap CRM systems aren’t typically known for boasting excellent marketing features… or for having generous bulk email send limits. AgileCRM bucks those trends, though – offering not only a free plan, but a superlative CRM product that marketing teams will love. For just $8.99 per user, per month, AgileCRM offers marketers the kitchen sink – 5,000 email sends, social monitoring, and web forms, plus contact level analytics for tracking who, when, and how your customers are interacting with your brand. Agile, indeed!

Pros

  • Allows you to dispatch up to 5,000 branded emails per month
  • Provides a drag-and-drop form builder to help you generate leads through your website
  • Two-way email integration and telephony included as standard

Cons

  • Despite offering a free version, it’s the only cheap CRM provider we reviewed without a free trial

Zendesk

From $19 per user, per month | Best for customer support CRM

Free plan available

Zendesk logo
Zendesk
3.8
Pricing $19 - $150 per user, per month
Quick overview

Despite being the only CRM provider on this list not to offer a marketing product, Zendesk makes up for it with affordable, effective solutions for sales and service teams. ‘Sell’ starts from just $19 per user, per month, while ‘Support’ – Zendesk’s product for service teams – is available at the mouth-wateringly low price point of $5 per user, per month.

Upgrading to Zendesk’s ‘Growth’ tier ($49 per user, per month) adds reporting dashboards and advanced call analytics, plus sales goals and forecasting. The ‘Professional’ plan ($99 per user, per month) adds skills-based routing to your customer service team’s armory, while your sales hotshots will benefit from lead scoring, task automation, and extra sales pipelines.

Pricing
TiersPrice
Team $19 per user per month
Growth $49 per user per month
Professional $99 per user per month
Enterprise $150 per user per month

Pros

  • Great ticketing features
  • Stellar customer service
  • Very easy to use, even when juggling multiple customers

Cons

  • Not particularly affordable

Zoho

From $14 per user, per month | Best for ease of use

Free plan available

Zoho Logo
Zoho CRM
4.7
Pricing $14 – $52 per user per month
Quick overview

Zoho is one of the most affordable CRM softwares on the market, but it more than holds its own against more expensive packages. Sure, the interface isn’t as jazzy, but it gets the job done. If email is your main use for CRM, Zoho will really come into its own. Free for up to three users, with paid plans starting at $14/user/month (billed monthly).

Strengths

Free for up to three users

Easy to use and to set up

Great email marketing tools, plus web forms for collecting lead info

Weaknesses

Mobile app has quite limited functionality

Reduced customer support

Pricing
TiersPrice
Standard $14 per user per month
Professional $23 per user per month
Enterprise $40 per user per month
Ultimate $52 per user per month

Pros

  • Zoho’s cheapest CRM plan includes email insights and sales forecasting
  • Custom reporting available
  • No contractual commitments

Cons

  • Zoho (especially its cheapest CRM plans) may prove just a little too simplistic for the needs of some businesses
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Capsule

From $18 per user, per month | Best cheap CRM for its wide range of reporting tools

Free plan available

Free CRM with unlimited cases, custom fields, and sales opportunities… surely it’s too good to be true? Well, yes – in Capsule’s case, it is. Capsule’s free CRM plan limits you to just 250 contacts, and imposes a hugely restrictive 10MB of storage per account. If you’ve got scalability on the brain, you should probably steer clear.

We have no such complaints about Capsule’s cheapest paid plan, though. At $18 per user, per month, it’s among the best value CRM options on the market. As well as 50,000 contacts and 10GB of storage per user, you’ll benefit from solid customer support, a range of reporting tools, and integrations galore. And all for the price of what – three, maybe four cups of coffee per month? It’s a no-brainer!

Did You Know?

Capsule also makes our list of the best CRM systems for travel agencies in 2021.

Pros

  • Impressive online-based customer support and knowledge base
  • 99.9% uptime, so you’ll always be online
  • Integrates with MailChimp, Wufoo, QuickBooks, Xero, G Suite, and many more third-party apps

Cons

  • Strict user and data storage limits make Capsule a tough pill to swallow for growing businesses

Streak

From $15 per user, per month | Best cheap CRM for Google lovers

Free plan available

Let’s start with Streak’s free plan. As well as all the core functionality you’d expect from a CRM system (tasks, reminders, call logs, meeting notes, data import/export, and fields), you’ll bag full mobile access, plus private pipelines to keep your immediate team in the loop. There are integrations aplenty (Streak’s compatibility with G Suite is particularly noteworthy), and email tracking and template creation are also included. You’ll even get 50 emails to send a day – not a huge amount, but ideal for smaller, more dynamic ‘guerilla’ campaigns.

Upgrading to Streak’s cheapest CRM plan (‘Solo’, $15 per user, per month) increases that number of email sends to 800, while pumping up the permitted number of ‘boxes’ (the rows of data or items you can have in your pipelines) from 500 to 5,000. Upgrading will also net you email-based support – a step up from the free plan’s complete lack of it!

Streak offers a 14-day free trial, but on its ‘Pro’ plan ($49 per user, per month) only.

Pros

  • The free version integrates with over 2,000 third-party applications
  • Highly engaging, vibrant interface
  • Streak’s top-notch Google integration means the software is easy to get the hang of

Cons

  • Streak’s free plan doesn’t include any form of customer support (!)
  • All of your team members must be on the same plan

Really Simple Systems

From $15 per user, per month | Best cheap CRM for simplicity

Free plan available

With unlimited contacts, 1,000 company records, and a forgiving 1GB of data storage, there’s plenty to love about Really Simple System’s cheapest CRM plan. You’ll receive listing and forecasting reports that are simple to generate and read, as well as a range of custom features, including analytics, fields, tables, widgets, dashboards, and pages. You’ll also benefit from email and online chat support, plus an impressive customer portal – though telephone support and an account manager are reserved for the big spenders only.

If you’re a really small business, Really Simple Systems’ free plan offers a simple alternative to the CRM industry’s big names. Really Simple Systems’ free plan boasts most of the same features as the CRM provider’s cheapest paid plan – though its effectiveness is stymied by more stringent limits on document and data storage.

Pros

  • Its cheap CRM plan offers integrations with Google Maps, Zapier, Outlook, and accounting software
  • Send up to 5,000 emails per month, all from within the comfort of the CRM’s interface
  • Task and marketing automation features included with its most basic plan

Cons

  • VoIP telephony integration is only unlocked with the ‘Professional’ plan ($33 per user, per month)
  • Add-on packages for marketing teams are expensive, and can quickly run up the overall cost of your CRM
  • Customer service CRM features are only included with the more expensive pricing plans

Cloze

From $17 per user, per month | Best cheap CRM for automation and artificial intelligence

Free plan available

When we say ‘artificial intelligence’, your thoughts might turn to Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, or Jude Law’s iconic performance as the android ‘Gigolo Joe’. With Cloze’s ahead-of-its-time CRM, though, AI is used in a far less dystopian – and far more productive – setting. Let us explain.

Cloze’s AI-powered software automatically updates your contacts based on their email signatures. It also understands action items, and will add them to your agenda for you. And if that wasn’t enough? Cloze sends reminders when it’s time to reach out to a key client, or if you’ve forgotten to reply to an important email – helping you tie up loose ends, and Cloze more deals.

Oh, and that’s all on top of the email tracking, templates, and marketing automation capabilities you’d expect from a leading CRM provider – not to mention a surprisingly powerful array of analytical CRM tools, too. You’ll pay just $17 per user, per month, too – though you’ll have to shell out an extra $10 per user, per month for a passable customer support package.

Does Cloze sound like the right fit for your business? Visit our Cloze review to make sure.

Pros

  • 14-day free trial
  • Even Cloze’s most expensive plan, ‘Business Platinum’, is super affordable at $42 per user, per month
  • User-friendly interface

Cons

  • You’ll need to pay extra for ‘Concierge Service’, Cloze’s add-on customer support plan

Insightly

From $29 per user, per month | Best cheap CRM for creating beautiful charts and graphs

Free plan available

If you’re already balking at the $29 per user, per month price tag, relax – the good news is that Insightly does offer a completely free plan. The less good news is that it’s so limited, you probably don’t want it. Insightly’s free plan is available for just two users only, and we don’t recommend it – particularly not if growing your business is on your to-do list.

Insightly’s paid plans, though, are a different story. With the ‘Plus’ plan ($29 per user, per month), your marketing team will benefit from 100 custom email templates, along with a message scheduling feature and MailChimp auto-import to save you time.

As for your sales team, they’ll get leads delivered straight into their laps, courtesy of Insightly’s web-to-lead feature. Actually, the only team that might feel a little harshly treated are your customer service staff. Insightly’s cheap CRM plan lacks strong features for dispute management and customer loyalty tracking – so if these are among your main CRM goals, look elsewhere!

Pros

  • Sports an aesthetically stunning, dynamic interface
  • Integrates with over 250 third-party business applications
  • Offers built-in dashboards for business intelligence

Cons

  • If orange isn’t your color, avoid!
  • VoIP telephony integration isn’t included with Insightly’s free or ‘Pro’ plans
Verdict

That’s it for our list of the top 15 cheap CRM suppliers for 2022. If you’d like to browse more of our expert CRM content, why not explore our guide to the best CRM systems for small businesses? Or better yet, our in-depth CRM pricing comparison page?

Oh, and remember, it’s easy to compare quotes with us. Simply hit one of the buttons below to start our quote-finding questionnaire. It takes about 30 seconds to complete, and helps give us an idea of your business’ unique CRM requirements.

When you’re done, the leading CRM suppliers we match you with will be in touch with tailored, no-obligation quotes for the finest (and cheapest) CRM software around. All you have to do is pick up the phone, and decide which deal (if any!) is the best fit for your business. Good luck!

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How we analyse and rate CRM software providers

At Expert Market, it’s our aim to provide you with the most accurate, up-to-date, and transparent product and service reviews possible. So, to help you better understand the best CRM software options out there, we’ve conducted in-depth, extensive research into the CRM software market and its top companies.

Here’s how we did it:

Independent researchers

We worked with three independent researchers to rate eight different CRM systems over a total of 40+ hours. This included five separate varieties of CRM software, as well as more than 61 specific features. Using a bespoke, industry-style algorithm, we rated each provider across four key metrics.

Ratings

  • Help and support: we assessed the level of customer support (such as email, phone, or live chat), as well as its availability (24/7, or weekdays only?), to provide a weighted score for each CRM supplier.
  • Affordability: our affordability algorithm took into account the cost of CRM ownership over 12 months – based on the average buyer – as well as factors such as free trials and money-back guarantees.
  • Features: we assessed each supplier on five specific features per type of CRM. We then weighted these scores, and translated them into a point value system. This allowed us to form accurate ratings for each CRM provider, broken down by the industry it best serves.
  • Customer approval: we assigned each provider a ‘customer score’, which involved seeking opinions from within the community, as well as feeding data aggregated from online sources into a unique algorithm. This allowed us to calculate overall customer approval scores for each CRM supplier, in real time.

survey

We take the integrity of our research seriously. If you’ve got any questions at all about our research process, feel free to get in touch with Rob, our CRM specialist, at rob.binns@expertmarket.co.uk.

Written by:
Rob Binns
Rob Binns Services Expert

Rob writes mainly about the payments industry, but also brings to the table industry-specific knowledge of CRM software, business loans, fulfilment, and invoice finance. When not exasperating his editor with bad puns, he can be found relaxing in a sunny (socially-distanced) corner, with a beer and a battered copy of Dostoevsky.

Reviewed by:
James Macey Senior Business Software Researcher

James thinks all businesses can improve if they use the right technology. At Expert Market, he utilises his 4+ years experience as a researcher to offer specialised advice on a wide range of categories from CRM to Fleet Management.