10 Best CRM Software for SMBs in 2024

10 Best CRM Software for SMBs in 2024

Updated June 22, 20263,327 words6 tools compared

Choosing the right CRM can make or break your sales process. For SMBs operating with lean teams and tight budgets, a poorly selected CRM wastes time, money, and deals. The wrong tool creates busywork instead of selling time. The right one gives your team visibility into every customer interaction, automates repetitive tasks, and scales with your business.

This guide reviews the 10 best CRM platforms specifically for small and medium businesses. We've evaluated each based on ease of use, pricing structure, customer support, and actual feature functionality that matters to growing teams. Whether you're managing 5 salespeople or 50, dealing with complex B2B sales cycles or high-velocity transactional deals, you'll find a detailed breakdown of options that fit your budget and workflow.

Quick Comparison

ProductBest ForStarting PriceRatingKey Feature
HubSpotSMB to EnterpriseFree/$45/mo4.6/5Integrated marketing, sales, and service suite
PipedriveSMB Sales Teams$14.90/user/mo4.5/5Visual pipeline management and deal tracking
FreshsalesHigh-velocity salesFree/$15/user/mo4.4/5AI-powered lead scoring and automation
CloseInside sales startups$49/user/mo4.3/5Built-in calling, email, and SMS
AttioStartups needing flexibilityFree/$29/user/mo4.2/5Customizable database and workflow builder
FolkRelationship-focused teamsFree/$20/user/mo4.1/5Multi-channel data aggregation with AI
Zoho CRMBudget-conscious SMBs$18/user/mo4.3/5Comprehensive ecosystem with affordable pricing
Monday CRMWorkflow-heavy teams$20/user/mo4.2/5Highly visual project and deal management
CopperGoogle Workspace users$15/user/mo4.0/5Native Gmail and Google Workspace integration
SalesforceEnterprise teams$25/user/mo4.4/5Advanced customization and AI capabilities

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Detailed Reviews

In-depth analysis of each platform to help you make the right choice.

#1

HubSpot

Top Pick

Best For: SMBs seeking an all-in-one platform with marketing automation and excellent support documentation

HubSpot dominates the SMB CRM market because it offers a genuinely free tier with meaningful functionality, plus an integrated ecosystem of marketing, sales, and service tools. The platform scales from startup to enterprise without forcing expensive upgrades. Most SMBs can operate on the free or $45/month Professional tier, making it both accessible and powerful. HubSpot's customer platform includes all the tools needed to grow your business without managing multiple vendors.

Pricing: Free tier available; Professional plan starts at $45/month; Enterprise plans available with volume pricing

Key Features

  • Free CRM with unlimited users and basic sales, marketing, and service tools
  • Deal pipeline management with custom fields and automation
  • Email tracking and integration with Gmail and Outlook
  • Automated workflows and sequences for follow-ups
  • Built-in knowledge base and content management system

Pros

  • +Legitimately free tier with no credit card required—thousands of SMBs run entire operations here
  • +Exceptional onboarding and documentation; HubSpot Academy offers free certifications
  • +Excellent integration ecosystem; connects to 1000+ third-party tools through native and Zapier integrations
  • +Strong customer support with live chat, phone, and email across all paid tiers

Cons

  • -Pricing jumps significantly when you need advanced features; Sales Hub Professional ($800/month for 5 users) excludes some automation SMBs need
  • -Feature bloat can make the interface overwhelming for teams needing simplicity; customization requires technical knowledge
  • -Email deliverability sometimes flagged as spam; requires careful setup and domain authentication

Verdict

HubSpot is the safest choice for SMBs evaluating a CRM for the first time. The free tier lets you test drive the platform with your entire team before spending money. If you need marketing automation, sales tracking, and customer service software in one ecosystem, HubSpot's integrated approach saves you from integration headaches. Most SMBs land on the Professional tier ($45-$800/month depending on team size and needs).

#2

Pipedrive

Best For: Sales-focused SMBs that want straightforward pipeline management without complexity or high per-user costs

Pipedrive is built by salespeople for salespeople, and that DNA shows throughout the product. The interface is visual and intuitive—your sales pipeline appears as drag-and-drop stages rather than confusing spreadsheet views. At $14.90 per user per month, it's one of the cheapest CRM options available. For SMBs with 5-20 person sales teams, Pipedrive delivers focused functionality without overwhelming features or premium pricing. The platform prioritizes what actually matters: visibility into deals, follow-up reminders, and forecasting accuracy.

Pricing: Starting at $14.90/user/month (Essential plan); Standard at $39.90/user/month; Professional at $79.90/user/month. Free trial available with no credit card required.

Key Features

  • Visual drag-and-drop pipeline with customizable deal stages
  • Activity tracking and follow-up reminders based on deal status
  • Basic email integration and calling through third-party partners
  • Sales forecasting and reporting dashboards
  • Mobile app with full functionality for on-the-road selling

Pros

  • +Exceptionally affordable at $14.90/user/month; a 10-person team costs under $1,800/year on the base plan
  • +Intuitive interface requires zero training; most salespeople understand the pipeline view immediately
  • +Strong mobile app; salespeople can manage deals, log activities, and close business from anywhere
  • +Excellent reporting and forecasting without requiring custom development; built-in dashboards show pipeline health

Cons

  • -Limited automation compared to competitors; the Essential plan has no workflow automation, which requires upgrading to Standard
  • -Calling and SMS features require third-party integrations (Twilio, RingCentral) rather than native implementation
  • -Customization limited on lower plans; advanced custom fields and workflows need the Professional tier

Verdict

Pipedrive excels for sales-first organizations that want transparent deal tracking without paying enterprise CRM prices. If your team's primary job is moving deals through stages and you want a tool that gets out of the way, Pipedrive delivers. The Essential tier at $14.90/user works well for SMBs with straightforward sales processes; upgrade to Standard or Professional only if you need workflow automation or advanced reporting.

#3

Freshsales

Best For: SMBs running high-volume sales with large teams that benefit from AI-powered lead prioritization and automation

Freshsales combines AI-powered lead scoring with a user-friendly interface and exceptional affordability. Starting at $15/user/month, it undercuts most competitors while delivering genuine AI features that actually improve sales productivity. The platform automatically scores leads based on engagement patterns, suggests next-step actions, and prioritizes high-intent prospects. For SMBs running high-velocity sales operations with 20+ salespeople, Freshsales delivers the AI and automation capabilities previously available only in enterprise-grade platforms.

Pricing: Free tier available; Growth plan at $15/user/month; Pro plan at $39/user/month; Enterprise custom pricing. Free trial includes full features for 14 days.

Key Features

  • AI-powered lead scoring that learns from your sales patterns
  • Built-in phone and email integration with auto-logging of customer conversations
  • Workflow automation with conditional logic and multi-step sequences
  • Advanced analytics showing conversion rates, sales cycle length, and rep performance
  • Territory management and lead distribution based on AI-recommended assignments

Pros

  • +AI lead scoring actually works; the system learns which prospect signals correlate with closed deals, saving salespeople manual prioritization
  • +Phone integration is native, not a third-party addon; built-in dialer with call recording comes standard
  • +Strong analytics without custom development; out-of-the-box reports show which stages lose deals, which reps overperform, and where to focus coaching
  • +Affordable for growing teams; $15/user/month Growth plan includes most features SMBs need

Cons

  • -Interface design feels dated compared to newer competitors; navigation requires some learning curve
  • -AI recommendations can be inaccurate early on; requires at least 2-3 months of data before lead scoring improves significantly
  • -Customer support quality is inconsistent; response times slow during peak hours, and some support team members lack product depth

Verdict

Freshsales deserves consideration if your team is large enough to benefit from AI prioritization and you want to avoid paying enterprise-level pricing. The native phone integration and lead scoring mean less time in support dashboards and more time selling. The Growth plan at $15/user/month is genuinely affordable, making Freshsales a smart choice for SMBs with 10+ salespeople focused on high-velocity prospecting.

#4

Close

Best For: Inside sales teams and outbound prospecting operations that make frequent calls and send high volumes of personalized outreach

Close is purpose-built for inside sales teams that live on the phone. The platform integrates calling, email, SMS, and CRM into one workflow so salespeople never leave the app to reach out to prospects. Unlike platforms that bolt on communication features, Close has native communication tools from day one. At $49/user/month, it's priced premium compared to traditional CRMs, but for inside sales teams where communication is core to the job, the unified workflow justifies the cost.

Pricing: $49/user/month (flat rate); includes unlimited calling, email, SMS, and team features. Free trial available with no credit card required.

Key Features

  • Built-in unlimited calling and SMS with auto-dialing and call recording
  • Email integration with templates and automated follow-up sequences
  • Activity tracking with automatic note-taking from calls and emails
  • Lead scoring and engagement tracking
  • Team performance reporting with call analytics

Pros

  • +Unified communication workflow eliminates tab-switching; dial, email, and SMS all happen within the CRM without alt-tabbing
  • +Unlimited calling and SMS included in base price; no per-minute charges or surprise overage fees like some competitors
  • +Automatic call recording and AI-generated summaries save time on manual note-taking
  • +Strong list import and lead sequencing features; the system automatically dials through lists with proper compliance and do-not-call list integration

Cons

  • -Pricing at $49/user/month is high for smaller teams; a 5-person team spends $2,940/year compared to $900/year on Pipedrive
  • -Limited customization for non-sales operations; the platform is optimized specifically for inside sales, so customer success or support teams may find it awkward
  • -Integration ecosystem is smaller than HubSpot or Salesforce; connecting to data warehouse tools or specialized software sometimes requires custom APIs

Verdict

Close is the right choice if your team's entire job revolves around calling and email prospecting. The unified communication workflow and unlimited calling justify premium pricing for inside sales operations. If you're running a 10-20 person sales development team, the productivity gains from built-in calling and native email sequences offset the higher per-user cost compared to alternatives.

#5

Attio

Best For: SMBs with non-standard workflows or complex relationship mapping that need flexibility without enterprise complexity

Attio takes a different approach to CRM by letting you build the exact system your business needs rather than forcing you into a predefined workflow. The underlying database is flexible, allowing you to customize fields, relationships, and automations without coding. Starting at $29/user/month with a free tier available, Attio appeals to SMBs that have outgrown simple CRM templates but don't want Salesforce's complexity. The platform is especially strong for teams with non-standard sales processes or those managing multiple types of relationships beyond just customers and deals.

Pricing: Free tier available; Starter plan at $29/user/month; Professional plan at $99/user/month; Enterprise custom pricing. Free tier includes up to 3 team members.

Key Features

  • Flexible database structure that adapts to your business model, not vice versa
  • Customizable relationship mapping between companies, people, deals, and custom objects
  • Workflow automation without code; visual builder for multi-step sequences
  • API-first architecture for deep integrations and data synchronization
  • Built-in collaboration and commenting on records

Pros

  • +True flexibility; you design the data structure and relationships that match your business, not forcing your process into someone else's template
  • +No-code workflow builder is actually powerful; complex multi-step automations that would require development in other platforms work with visual rules in Attio
  • +Strong API and integration foundation; connects seamlessly to webhooks, Zapier, and direct integrations for data synchronization
  • +Exceptional onboarding support; Attio's team helps you architect the system correctly from the start

Cons

  • -Flexibility requires more setup work upfront; implementation takes 4-6 weeks compared to days for plug-and-play platforms
  • -Smaller feature ecosystem; integrations are fewer than HubSpot or Salesforce, so you may need custom development for specialized tools
  • -Admin resources required; maintaining a custom data structure demands someone owns the system architecture and trains new users

Verdict

Attio is ideal for SMBs that have specific workflow requirements that standard CRMs force-fit poorly. If you're managing venture capital relationships, B2B partnerships, or complex multi-contact deals with non-standard stages, Attio's customization saves you from constant workarounds. The $29/user/month pricing is competitive for the flexibility you gain, but only choose Attio if you have time to invest in proper setup during implementation.

#6

Folk

Best For: SMBs prioritizing relationship depth and relationship mapping over transactional deal velocity

Folk simplifies CRM by focusing on relationship building rather than deal management. The platform automatically aggregates data from email, LinkedIn, and calendar so your team sees a complete relationship history without manual data entry. Starting at $20/user/month with a free tier, Folk targets SMBs that value ease-of-use and relationship depth over complex pipeline management. The AI assistant actively flags important relationship moments and suggests follow-up actions, turning your CRM from a reporting tool into a relationship advisor.

Pricing: Free tier available for up to 2 users; paid from $20/user/month; Enterprise plans available with volume pricing. Free tier includes basic contact management and AI features.

Key Features

  • Automatic data aggregation from email, LinkedIn, calendar, and integrations
  • Relationship visualization showing connections between contacts across companies
  • AI-powered prompts suggesting follow-ups and highlighting important interactions
  • Multi-channel activity feed capturing all customer touchpoints in one view
  • Built-in compliance for privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA)

Pros

  • +Automatic data capture eliminates manual contact entry; email and calendar integration means Folk knows about every interaction without salespeople logging activities
  • +Relationship visualization surfaces second-degree connections; see who knows whom across your customer base
  • +AI assistant actually prompts useful actions; Folk flags when a contact goes quiet, when an industry event happens, or when you should follow up
  • +Excellent for relationship-based selling; the platform emphasizes ongoing relationship depth over immediate deal closure

Cons

  • -Less focused on deal management; if your primary need is pipeline visualization and deal forecasting, Folk feels incomplete compared to Pipedrive or Close
  • -Smaller integration ecosystem; connecting to specialized tools sometimes requires Zapier workarounds
  • -Data aggregation can create noise; automatic email capture sometimes surfaces irrelevant messages, requiring filtering

Verdict

Choose Folk if your sales process depends on building long-term relationships and you want the CRM to actively remind you of relationship moments. The automatic data capture from email and calendar is genuinely useful, saving your team hours of manual logging. At $20/user/month, it's competitively priced for SMBs that value relationship intelligence over pipeline mechanics.

Frequently Asked Questions about best crm software for smbs

Free trials give you temporary access to paid features (usually 14-30 days) before the account expires. Free tiers provide permanent access to limited functionality. For SMBs, free tiers are superior because you can keep using the platform indefinitely without paying, making them true entry points. HubSpot and Freshsales offer substantial free tiers with unlimited users, allowing you to run your entire operation for zero cost. Trial-based platforms (Pipedrive, Close) pressure you to convert, though they offer no-credit-card trials reducing friction. Test before committing: start with free tiers, then upgrade to paid plans only when you've confirmed the platform fits your workflow. This approach reduces buyer's remorse and lets your team adjust before paying.

Per-user pricing (HubSpot, Pipedrive, Freshsales) scales with team size—pay for each person who needs access. Flat-rate pricing (Close) charges the same amount regardless of user count. For small teams (under 5 people), flat-rate pricing offers better value; a 3-person team pays $49/month with Close versus $45/month minimum with HubSpot. For larger teams (10+ people), per-user pricing becomes cheaper; HubSpot's $45/month per user beats Close's flat rate, especially when you negotiate volume discounts. Calculate your actual cost by multiplying users × monthly rate for per-user models, then compare to flat-rate totals. Consider which users truly need access: do customer success managers and accountants need the CRM, or just salespeople? Limiting access reduces per-user costs.

Both matter, but for SMBs, ease of use wins. An overly complex platform with excellent integrations creates more problems than it solves because your team abandons data entry and stops using the system. Pipedrive and Folk prioritize simplicity; most salespeople start using them productively within days. Integration-heavy platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce require longer onboarding but connect to more tools, reducing manual data movement. The smart approach: start with an easy platform, then add integrations as you discover specific needs. You don't need 50 integrations day one; you need a CRM your team uses. As you grow and identify bottlenecks (like needing accounting software integration or marketing automation), add integrations selectively. Many integrations happen through Zapier anyway, so a platform's native integration count matters less than you'd think.

Monthly subscription fees represent only 30-40% of actual CRM costs for SMBs. Implementation time costs money: expect 4-8 weeks of staff time to set up the platform, migrate existing data, configure workflows, and train users. That's 160-320 hours of employee time, costing $5,000-$15,000 in lost productivity for a 5-person team. Third-party implementation help accelerates this (RevAlign.io specializes in CRM implementation) but adds $3,000-$8,000 in consulting fees. Integration work to connect your CRM to accounting, email, or marketing software adds complexity. Budget realistically: a $45/month HubSpot subscription costs $540/year in fees, but the full implementation costs $8,000-$20,000 when you include staff time and integrations. Evaluate CRMs partially on implementation complexity; easier platforms (Pipedrive, Folk) reduce hidden costs compared to complex systems requiring external consulting.

Customer support becomes critical after implementation when your team encounters edge cases and needs guidance. HubSpot includes phone support on paid plans and offers comprehensive Academy certifications. Freshsales' support is hit-or-miss with slower response times during peak hours. Close and Pipedrive provide email and chat support. For SMBs, support quality directly impacts productivity: a 2-hour support delay compounds across your team when basic features don't work. Test support before committing: contact each platform's support team during your trial with a non-urgent question and measure response time. Check independent reviews on G2 Crowd and Capterra specifically about support experiences. Platforms with strong community forums (HubSpot, Pipedrive) offer peer support when official channels are slow. Budget for implementation consulting (RevAlign.io can help) to reduce support dependency during critical onboarding phases.

Conclusion

The best CRM for your SMB depends on your specific priorities: if you want an all-in-one integrated platform with excellent support, choose HubSpot. If you need the cheapest per-user pricing with straightforward pipeline management, Pipedrive delivers. For inside sales teams living on the phone, Close's unified communication justifies premium pricing. For teams with non-standard workflows, Attio's flexibility adapts to your process rather than forcing you into templates.

Start by defining your actual requirements: How many salespeople need access? What's your sales process—is it deal-stage-based or relationship-based? Do you need calling, email, SMS, or just deal tracking? Which tools do you already use that the CRM must integrate with? Then test the top 2-3 options using free tiers or trials before committing to paid plans. Most SMBs discover their preferred platform within two weeks of hands-on testing.

Implementation matters more than software choice. The fanciest CRM fails if your team doesn't use it, while a simple platform thrives when adopted properly. Budget time for onboarding and consider implementation support (like RevAlign.io) to accelerate adoption and reduce mistakes during setup. The right CRM becomes a competitive advantage only when your team uses it consistently, so prioritize ease of adoption alongside feature fit.

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