The 8 Most Popular CRM Software Solutions in 2023

The letters CRM, circled in red pen in a page of the dictionary
Rob Binns

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The top three most popular CRM platforms on the market are Zoho, Freshsales and HubSpot. All of these offer their own strengths and weaknesses, which are discussed at length below, but the main reasons are low cost, a wide array of features, and simplistic interfaces for easy usability.

Now that remote and hybrid working are here to stay, the flexibility that CRM brings to team collaboration means that the software is hitting new levels of popularity.

What are the top 5 most popular CRM software solutions in 2023?

These are the providers we recommend based on our research. Clicking on the links will take you to the provider's website.

  1. Zoho CRM – Best for ease of use
  2. Freshsales – Best for sales automation
  3. HubSpot CRM – Best for scalability
  4. Pipedrive – Best for detailed lead management
  5. monday.com – Best for managing creative projects and teams

Swipe right to see more
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Sugar CRM

Best for

Ease of use

Best for

Sales automation

Best for

Scalability

Best for

Detailed lead management

Best for

Managing creative projects and teams

Best for

Automation and analytics

Best for

Medium-sized businesses

Best for

Businesses looking for customer service solutions

Starting Price

$14 per user per month

Starting Price

$15

Starting Price

$25 per user per month

Starting Price

$14.90 per user per month

Starting Price

$8 per user per month

Starting Price

$25 per user per month

Starting Price

$49

Starting Price

$19 per user per month

Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan

With so many CRM options out there, how are you supposed to choose the right one? Well, one way to narrow down the top CRM solutions is to be one with the crowd – to embrace conformity, and check out the software that's most popular among your peers. The other option is to fill out our CRM comparison tool, which will match you with some suitable CRM platforms based on your business's information.

After all, they're popular for a reason! (The CRMs, not your peers). Let's get started.

About pricing

Many CRM platforms offer two pricing systems – annual and monthly. If you pay annually, the price will be slightly reduced (for example, Zoho's Standard plan is $20 per month, or $14 per month if you pay for 12 months in one payment). We'll be using their annual prices in this article.


The 8 Most Popular Top CRM Software Tools in 2023

We know that your competitors are using CRM software. Statistics suggest around 91% of businesses with over 11 employees use a CRM system to manage their deals, marketing, and customer service tickets with greater ease, speed, and efficiency.

We know CRM is popular then, but… just which CRM system providers are the most popular? We wanted to find out, so took matters into our own hands with a comprehensive research into CRM features, pricing, customer support, and customer approval – among other things.

The goal? To bring you the most popular CRM systems in the US, and to help you decide which one is best for your business.

So, without further ado, here they are – the 8 most popular CRM systems in the US, which consist of Zoho, Freshsales, HubSpot, Pipedrive, monday.com, Salesforce, Sugar, and Zendesk. Jump into the list below to navigate straight to a supplier, or scroll on to find out why these sought-after CRM systems cut the mustard.


Zoho

Best for Value for Money

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

Zoho's prices start from just $14 per user, per month.

And, while its cheaper pricing plans are still pretty feature-rich, you can upgrade to benefit from extra list management, invoicing, reporting, and HR management utilities. Zoho's premium tiers also boast intelligent sales forecasting and mass emailing features, plus social media lead capture.

You can try Zoho completely free, for a whole 15 days. Head to Zoho's website now to get started.

Pros

  • Simple to use
  • Easy to capture and import leads
  • Managers can keep track of team performance with quota management

Cons

  • Customized reporting is limited
  • Weak customer support

Freshsales

Best for user-friendliness and simplicity

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

When you upgrade to one of Freshsales' higher paid tiers – which, like its lower-cost versions, are flexible and contract-free – you'll also meet Freddy.

Freddy is Freshsales' own AI-powered ‘assistant'. Learning from your business' CRM data, Freddy offers tailored recommendations, predictions, forecasting, and unique insights to help you get the most out of your customers, and make more impactful, data-driven decisions. Some of the smart functions Freddy powers are:

  • Predictive contact scoring
  • Lead gen and answer bots
  • Duplicate contact, deal, and account removal
  • Deal and forecasting insights

Pros

  • Transparent pricing and plans – you'll know exactly what you're getting for your money
  • Um... Freddy?!
  • Marvellous mobile app

Cons

  • Its lowest pricing tier restricts you to a stingy 1,000 contact maximum

HubSpot

Best all-in-one solution

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

But we’re talking about CRM here, and one of the most appealing things about HubSpot's particularly popular CRM solution is that its (albeit most basic) plan is 100% free.

Enabling unlimited users and up to one million contacts, it’s a solid option for budget-conscious businesses. However, some of its features are limited – for example, you can only save up to five email templates, and the chatbots you can set up aren’t exactly the smartest peas in the pod.

The key advantage offered by HubSpot is its ability to take care of several vital business needs within the confines of a single, very powerful application. Of course, you will need to pay if you want additional hubs, but you may find that the convenience and intuitiveness of the system makes this worthwhile.

For a paid package, prices start from $50 per user, per month.

Pros

  • Robust free version
  • Comprehensive suite of services
  • Easy to use interface

Cons

  • Additional services are expensive

Pipedrive

Best for detailed lead management

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

  • Generous free plan
  • Its email designer is super compatible with mobile devices

Cons

  • No phone or email support
  • Little to no email/social media integration

monday.com

Best for customization

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

Pros

  • Simple to use
  • Extremely affordable
  • Phone-based and email support available, as well as an impressive online knowledge center

Cons

  • No live chat support
  • No social media integration

Salesforce

Best for automation and analytics

Salesforce Logo
Salesforce
3.8
Pricing $25 – $300 per user per month
Quick overview

There’s a reason why, when googling CRM systems, you’ll find plenty of articles with titles such as ‘7 Best Alternatives to Salesforce’; it’s really set the bar high when it comes to CRM systems, and seems to have a plan to suit everyone. But when it comes to affordability and value for money, how does it stack up? Plans start at $25/user/month.

Strengths

Good range of features that make it well-suited to medium-large businesses

Huge number of integrations available, including a number of Salesforce’s own. This makes it a really robust tool for marketing as well as sales

Free trial available

Weaknesses

One of the pricier systems around

Not the easiest to get to grips with quickly

Very small businesses should opt for a cheaper, easier product

Pricing
TiersPrice
Essentials $25 per user per month
Professional $75 per user per month
Enterprise $150 per user per month
Unlimited $300 per user per month

Salesforce is one of the largest, most popular CRM platforms on the market, with a market share of almost 20%!

As you'd expect from the most-used CRM, it's cloud-based, and also integrates well with ecommerce platforms, content management systems, email providers, and tonnes more. Actually, the Salesforce AppExchange connects your CRM to thousands of third-party applications – so there's very little the software doesn't work with!

More add-ons allow for social media management, the creation of custom membership sites, and synchronization with Gmail or Outlook.

You'll also be privy (albeit at an extra cost) to ‘Einstein Analytics', Salesforce's leading, AI-powered software for crunching the data powering your business. Just be warned… the learning curve is steep!

Which leads us into our next point – that Salesforce's vast feature set can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, learning to use the complex and quirky user interface is tough – however, users who take the time to learn the ins and outs of the service will find quite a bit of power at their fingertips.

Plus, the time saved in automation – and the money and potential reputation threat saved in better customer service and client relations – should pay dividends in the end. It was invented by a genius, after all!

Pros

  • Feature-rich, with powerful, AI-driven reporting functionality
  • Excellent customer service, with a huge online knowledge base at your disposal
  • Salesforce's basic plan is affordable, and the software comes with no implementation costs......

Cons

  • ...but on the whole, it's expensive

As we mentioned above, Salesforce isn't cheap. But if you are looking for CRM software that won't burn a hole in the pocket of your slacks, we can help. We've listed the top 15 cheap CRM systems in the US – go get yourself a bargain!


Sugar

Best for simple plans

sugarcrm logo
SugarCRM
3.7
Pricing $49 per user, per month - $1,000 per month
Quick overview

Predictably by now, SugarCRM splits its pricing out into three packages, based on the type of team they’re designed to support. There’s Sugar Sell (for sales teams, from $49 per user, per month), Sugar Market (for marketing teams, from $1,000 per month), and Sugar Serve (for customer service teams, starting at $80 per month). All are cloud-based, billed annually, and ideal for the needs of fast-growth businesses.

Pros

  • Provides extensive customisation features
  • Comparatively less expensive than other platforms

Cons

  • Does not provide a lot of digital selling tools
  • Doesn’t provide any features to track KPIs

Zendesk

Best for affordable customer service CRM

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

Zendesk's pricing is fairly reasonable, starting at $19 per user per month.

Function

Starting price

Highest price

Sales

$19 per user, per month

$199 per user, per month

Service

$5 per user, per month

$199 per user, per month

Pros

  • Excellent ticket management capabilities
  • Robust VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)* functionality

Cons

  • No document storage
  • Lacks the same level of data analysis as Salesforce and SugarCRM

How Did We Find the Best CRM Software?

Our team of independent researchers looked at a selection of the best and most popular CRM software. After finding all the information we need, the researchers then compare each software against its competitors, allowing us to find the cream of the crop. The criteria we look at include:

  • Price: Simple enough – the platform with the lowest price tag scores the best
  • Customization: What does the platform allow you to toy with in order to make it suit your business?
  • Features: Again, fairly easy to assess. Whichever platforms offer the best variety of features are given a better placement than those that have a more skint collection of tools.
  • Team Infrastructure: How does the platform allow you to manage large sales teams?
  • Customer Support: Again, easy enough – look at the options available and see what each platform offers its customers when it comes to their support resources
  • Scalability: How much does each software allow your business to grow over time?

After factoring in all this information, alongside the scores they received, we were able to calculate a final overall score for each CRM platform.


Next Steps

Running a business comes with dozens of challenges, some of which can't easily be addressed by software. Cash flow is never quite what we'd like, our marketing budget could always stand to be larger, changing rules and regulations cause headaches, and finding the right employees is anything but an exact science.

However, when it comes to a host of other business issues – lead capture, list management, client acquisition, workflow, project management, customer service automation, and so much more in the consumer lifecycle – the right CRM solution can help your business work as smart as it works hard.

So make the right decision, and pick a popular CRM solution. After all, they're tried and tested by thousands of business owners just like yourself.

But if you’re still unsure about which of these popular CRM solutions is best for your business, why not try filling out our quick quote-finding form?

Simply provide us with a bit of info about your business, and its unique CRM requirements. We'll ask how many team members the system will need to support, and for a little more info about your industry and what (if any) type of contact management software you currently rely on.

When you're done, we'll match you with one or more handpicked CRM providers, who'll be in touch with you directly to offer bespoke CRM quotes and advice. You'll just need to set aside around 30 seconds of your time, and be a US-based business. It's that easy!

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.