5 Best free CRMs for startups

When you’re building a startup, time and budget are always tight. You need tools that help you manage leads, stay organized, and grow—without draining your resources. That’s where a solid sales stack starts with the right free CRM. It gives you the core features you need to track contacts, nurture relationships, and streamline your sales process—without spending a cent. In this post, we’ll walk you through the best free CRM for startups, spotlighting tools that are easy to use, packed with value, and built to scale with your business.

Why you need a CRM

While you may be reluctant to look into yet another platform for your tech stack, a CRM is essential for startups to streamline processes and enhance your customer relationships and scale your sales ambitions.

1. Challenges without a CRM

Being on a budget doesn't have to mean that you should drop the idea of getting one. Especially when you know your team will be facing the following challenges without a good CRM in their tech stack.

• Disorganization: Without a CRM, data is scattered across spreadsheets and emails, making it hard to track customer interactions.
• Missed opportunities: Leads can fall through the cracks due to lack of a centralized system to manage follow-ups.
• Inefficient processes: Manual data entry and fragmented tools slow down operations.
• Lack of insight: Without analytics, it's challenging to understand customer behavior and sales performance.
• Inconsistent communication: Different team members might use varied methods to communicate, leading to mixed messages.

The list is endless, but these specific challenges caught our eye.

2. Benefits of a CRM

You're familiar with the problems a team faces without a good CRM. What about the benefits it can actually reap? Below are a few you can look forward to.

• Centralized information: All customer data is stored in one place, making it easily accessible. Finally a single source of truth without all the multiple password requests.
• Enhanced efficiency: Automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time for strategic activities.
• Improved customer relationships: Track interactions to provide personalized service, boosting customer satisfaction.
• Better decision-making: Use analytics to gain insights and make informed decisions.
• Increased sales: Streamlined processes and better lead management can drive higher conversion rates.
• Consistent communication: Ensure all customer-facing communication is uniform and professional.
  
  

4 ways you can boost your efficiency with a free CRM

A free CRM can help you streamline your operations from the get go. Below are a few ways how you can make the most of it.

1. Mapping your process

You can use a lightweight CRM to map your process – defining and tracking the stages of your sales and customer engagement process is crucial for startups. Use it to identify key stages such as lead generation, qualification, outreach, and closing. Use your CRM to create custom pipelines that reflect these stages, ensuring you can monitor progress and make data-driven decisions at every step.

2. Lead qualification

Effective lead qualification is essential for maximizing your startup's resources. Implement scoring criteria within your CRM to assess leads based on factors like engagement level, company size, and potential revenue. Utilize built-in tools to automate lead scoring, ensuring you prioritize high-quality prospects and streamline your sales efforts.

3. Outreach and follow-up

Automated communication is a game-changer for startups. Use your CRM to set up email and LinkedIn campaigns targeting leads, investors, and customers. Schedule follow-up reminders and track interactions to ensure no opportunity slips through the cracks. Leverage templates and personalization features to maintain a professional and consistent outreach strategy.

4. Nurture existing leads, investors and customers

Building lasting relationships is key to startup success. Use your CRM to segment your audience and tailor your communication strategies. Implement drip campaigns to nurture leads over time, and use upselling and cross-selling techniques to maximize value from existing customers. Track engagement metrics to refine your approach and drive continuous improvement.

How to evaluate and choose a CRM platform

1. Define Your Requirements

Before diving into an endless list of CRM options, make sure you identify the key features your startup needs. Focus on functionalities like contact management, lead tracking, email integration, and task automation. These features can streamline your operations and improve customer relationships without overwhelming your team.

Look out for these key features

• Automated Processes: Streamlines tasks by automating repetitive workflows, allowing your team to focus on high-value activities. Automation can include email marketing, task assignments, and follow-up reminders, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
• Contact Enrichment: Automatically finds Leads, Investors, Customers email addresses and contact information, enhancing efficiency. This feature helps in building a comprehensive database without manual data entry, saving valuable time and resources.
• Structured Pipeline: Tracks Leads, Investors, Customers through defined stages, ensuring process clarity and effectiveness. A visual pipeline helps in understanding where each prospect stands, making it easier to prioritize and manage sales activities.
• Email Sequences: Increases communication efficiency with follow-up templates and automated sequences. This ensures consistent and timely communication with prospects, improving engagement rates and conversion chances.
• LinkedIn Connection: Seamlessly imports Leads, Investors, Customers from LinkedIn and tracks conversations within the CRM. This integration is crucial for startups that leverage LinkedIn for networking and lead generation, ensuring all interactions are documented and accessible.
• Reporting & Forecasting: Provides essential data analysis and predictive insights for better planning. Detailed reports and forecasts help in making informed decisions, understanding sales trends, and setting realistic targets.

2. Budget considerations

As a startup, budget constraints are a significant concern. Opt for a free CRM that offers robust features without hidden costs. Balance the cost with the potential return on investment by assessing how the CRM can help you scale and manage customer interactions efficiently.

3. Selection process

Start by researching CRM vendors that specialize in solutions for startups. Look for reviews, case studies, and testimonials from other startups. Shortlist vendors that offer free plans with the essential features you've identified. Ensure they have a good reputation for customer support and reliability.

4. Get a demo

Once you have a shortlist, take advantage of free trials and demos. Compare the user interface, ease of use, and the overall functionality of each platform. Pay attention to how well each CRM integrates with your existing tools and processes. Make an informed decision based on which platform offers the best combination of features, ease of use, and scalability for your startup. For instance, you can get a demo of folk to see how it can streamline your processes and improve efficiency.

3 tips for implementing a CRM

At this stage, your main focus should be on familiarising yourself with the ways your new CRM can automate the repetitive tasks you do daily, making sure your contacts are all in one place and experimenting with it for your daily needs.

1. Import your data in your new CRM

Migrating your existing data is a vital step. Export your current CRM data as a CSV file. This ensures a seamless transition to your new CRM.

2. Create your first pipeline

Set up your initial pipeline with statuses tailored to your startup's workflow. For example, you might have stages like "Lead Captured," "Initial Contact," "Proposal Sent," and "Closed Deal." This structure helps in tracking progress and managing your sales funnel efficiently.

3. Onboard your team

After setting up your CRM, it's essential to onboard your team. Conduct training sessions to familiarize them with the new system. Ensure they understand how to input data, track interactions, and use the CRM to its full potential. This step is crucial for maximizing the benefits of your CRM and ensuring everyone is on the same page.

The 5 best CRMs for free CRM for startups

1. folk

folk have a generous 14 day free trial, after which you can choose from affordable price plans.

folk is a modern CRM platform for managing contacts, workflows, and relationships, offering customizable pipelines, AI-driven tools, and integrations to enhance deal management and prospecting.

Key features

• Contact enrichment: Automatically enriches contact details by finding emails and LinkedIn URLs, enabling efficient outreach without manual data entry or additional costs for email services.
• LinkedIn integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn, track conversations within folk, and use templates for quicker, streamlined communication.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• AI-Powered features: AI tools assist in managing contacts and relationships, automating routine tasks, and suggesting actions to improve productivity.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Pros

• Ease of use: folk is praised for its intuitive interface, making it accessible even to non-technical users with quick onboarding and a minimal learning curve.
• All-in-one: folk streamlines your workflow by allowing you to import contacts from LinkedIn, automatically find their emails, reach out through customizable email sequences, and track interactions in a pipeline, eliminating the need for multiple tools and saving time and money.
• LinkedIn integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn, track conversations within folk, and use templates for quicker, streamlined communication.
• Customizability: Custom fields, pipelines, and workflows.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Cons

• Reporting: Currently lacks reporting features, but there are plans for future implementation.

Price and plans

You can try folk for free with a generous 14-day free trial. After that, they have an affordable annual subscription plan which is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month
• Premium: $40 per user, per month
• Custom: Starts from $60 per user, per month

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2. HubSpot

HubSpot is known for its free forever plan, but paid plans are a steep investment.

Hubspot CRM is a user-friendly, scalable platform offering integrated tools for managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations efficiently.

Key features

• Marketing Hub: Includes email marketing, ad tracking, landing pages, and lead generation tools. Ideal for attracting and nurturing leads.
• Sales Hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting. Perfect for managing investor relations and customer acquisition.
• Service Hub: Offers customer service tools like ticketing, live chat, and knowledge bases. Essential for maintaining strong customer relationships.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring to improve sales efficiency. Helps startups focus on high-potential leads and investors.
• Operations Hub: Syncs and automates business processes across different systems. Ensures seamless operations as your startup scales.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: HubSpot is known for its intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible for users of all skill levels.
• Comprehensive free plan: Offers a robust free version that includes essential CRM features, making it ideal for small businesses and startups.
• Seamless integration with marketing tools: HubSpot integrates smoothly with its marketing, sales, and service hubs, creating a unified platform for inbound marketing and customer management.
• Automation capabilities: Provides powerful automation tools for tasks like email marketing, lead nurturing, and sales workflows, helping businesses save time and improve efficiency.
• Extensive learning resources: HubSpot Academy offers a wealth of free courses, certifications, and resources to help users get the most out of the platform.

Cons

• High cost at higher tiers: HubSpot’s pricing can become expensive as you move to higher tiers, which may be prohibitive for small businesses as they scale.
• Limited customization in free plan: The free plan and lower tiers have limited customization options, which can restrict flexibility for growing businesses.
• Complexity in advanced features: Some advanced features, such as custom reporting and workflows, have a steep learning curve and may require additional training.
• Email marketing limits: Email marketing functionality in the free plan is restricted by limits on the number of emails you can send, which can be a drawback for businesses with larger lists.
• Limited reporting capabilities in lower tiers: Detailed reporting and analytics features are often locked behind higher-priced plans, limiting insights for businesses on lower tiers.

Price and plans

The prices and plans on HubSpot's CRM suite for an annual subscription are as follows.

• Starter: $15 per user, per month.
• Professional: $450 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $1,500 per user, per month.

3. Zoho

Zoho's free plan has a 5 user limit, with 25GB/user and 25MB attachment limit.

Zoho is a CRM system with a strong sales focus. Its got features such as journey orchestration, sales process management and workflow automation. There's also something for marketing teams, including lead hurting, event management and customer segmentation.

Key features

• Sales Automation: Automates sales tasks like lead management, deal tracking, and follow-up actions.
• Lead and Contact Management: Manages customer information, tracks interactions, and segments contacts for targeted campaigns, ideal for handling leads, investors, and customers.
• Multi-Channel Communication: Integrates with email, phone, social media, and live chat to manage customer interactions seamlessly.
• Customizable Dashboards and Reports: Allows users to create and customize dashboards and reports for in-depth analytics, helping startups track performance metrics effectively.
• Workflow Automation: Automates routine tasks and processes to improve efficiency and reduce manual effort, crucial for startups with limited resources.

Pros

• Affordability: Zoho CRM offers competitive pricing with a free plan, making it accessible to startups with limited budgets.
• Customization: Extensive customization options allow startups to tailor the CRM to their specific needs, including custom fields, modules, and workflows.
• Integration with Zoho Suite: Seamless integration with other Zoho products (like Zoho Books and Zoho Campaigns) creates a comprehensive ecosystem for managing different business functions.
• Multi-Channel Communication: Zoho CRM supports email, phone, social media, and live chat, enabling startups to manage all customer interactions from a single platform.
• AI-Powered Features: Zia, the AI assistant, provides intelligent insights, predictive analytics, and task automation, helping to improve sales and marketing efficiency.

Cons

• Steep Learning Curve: The extensive customization options can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a significant time investment to master the platform.
• Complex Setup: Initial setup and configuration can be complex, particularly for startups without technical expertise or dedicated IT resources.
• Feature Limitations in Lower Tiers: The lower-priced plans may lack advanced features, pushing startups to upgrade to more expensive tiers for essential functionality.
• Data Migration Challenges: Migrating data from other CRMs to Zoho can be difficult and time-consuming, often requiring manual adjustments.
• Mobile App Limitations: While the mobile app is robust, it may not support all features available on the desktop version, limiting on-the-go functionality.

Price and plans

Free plan limited to three users suitable for small businesses. After that, an annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month
• Professional: $35 per user, per month
• Enterprise: $50 per user, per month

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4. Pipedrive

Pipedrive has a 14 day free trial for all their plans.

Pipedrive is a web-based CRM for small businesses, offering lead management, automation, email integration, and customizable pipelines to optimize sales.

Key features

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage leads, investors, and customer data, interactions, and sales pipelines, helping teams act quickly on opportunities.
• Sales automation: Workflow automation to handle repetitive tasks, such as lead routing, follow-ups, and email sequences, allowing sales teams to focus on closing deals.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Customization and security: Options to customize pipelines, fields, and user permissions, with robust security measures to protect data.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Real-time data analytics and custom reporting tools to track sales performance, forecast revenue, and gain actionable insights.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: The CRM is known for its intuitive and visually appealing interface, making it easy for users to navigate and manage their sales pipelines.
• Sales pipeline focus: Specifically designed for managing sales pipelines, offering a visual approach that helps teams track deals, leads, and investor activities effectively.
• Customization: Allows for a high degree of customization, enabling startups to tailor the platform to their specific processes with custom fields and workflows.
• Automation features: Includes automation tools that help streamline repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails and moving deals through the pipeline, saving time and boosting productivity.
• Lead management: Offers effective lead management features, including lead scoring and tracking, which help teams prioritize and convert leads more efficiently.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Lacks some of the more advanced CRM features, such as extensive marketing automation and AI capabilities, which are available in other platforms.
• Basic reporting in lower tiers: The reporting and analytics features in the basic plans are somewhat limited, requiring upgrades to access more in-depth insights.
• No built-in email marketing: Does not include built-in email marketing features, requiring users to integrate with third-party email tools for such functionality.
• Restricted customization options: While customizable, it does not offer as many advanced customization options as some other CRMs, which can be a drawback for businesses with complex needs.
• Learning curve for new users: Although generally user-friendly, may still present a learning curve for users unfamiliar with CRM systems, especially in understanding the full capabilities of the platform.

Price and plans

An annual subscription plan basis is as follows.

• Essential plan: Starts from $24 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $44 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $79 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

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5. Capsule CRM

Capsule CRM's free plan accomodates up to 2 users, and limits them to 250 contacts and a single project dashboard.

Capsule CRM is a user-friendly customer relationship management platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers a clean, intuitive interface that helps users manage customer relationships, track sales pipelines, and organize tasks and communications efficiently.

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Key features

• 1 sales pipeline
• 1 project board
• 50 custom fields
• 30,000 contacts
• 5 email templates

Pros

• User-friendly interface: Capsule CRM offers a clean and intuitive design, making it easy for users to navigate and quickly access important features. This simplicity reduces the learning curve, making it an excellent choice for startups and teams without extensive CRM experience.
• Contact and sales management: The platform provides robust tools for managing leads, investors, and customers, organizing information, and tracking sales opportunities. This helps startups maintain a clear view of their relationships and sales pipeline.
• Customization options: Capsule CRM allows users to customize fields, tags, and pipelines to fit their specific business needs, offering flexibility in how they manage data and processes.
• Integration capabilities: Capsule integrates with various popular third-party applications, including G Suite, Microsoft 365, Mailchimp, Xero, and QuickBooks, allowing users to create a seamless workflow across their business tools.
• Affordability: Capsule CRM offers competitive pricing with a free plan for basic needs and affordable premium options, making it accessible for startups.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Compared to some of its competitors, Capsule CRM lacks more advanced features such as in-depth analytics, comprehensive automation, and complex reporting capabilities. This can be a limitation for larger startups or those with more complex CRM needs.
• Basic email marketing capabilities: While Capsule integrates with email marketing tools like Mailchimp, its built-in email marketing capabilities are relatively basic. Users seeking more advanced email marketing features may need to rely on third-party integrations.
• Limited customer support: Capsule CRM primarily offers support through email and an online help center. The lack of live chat or phone support might be a downside for users who prefer immediate assistance or more direct support options.
• No built-in phone or SMS integration: Unlike some other CRMs, Capsule does not have built-in phone or SMS functionality, which could be a disadvantage for startups that rely heavily on direct communication with leads, investors, or customers through these channels.
• Scalability concerns: While Capsule CRM is great for small to medium-sized startups, companies that are rapidly growing or have more complex CRM requirements might find the platform less scalable as they expand.

Price and plans

• Starter plan: Starts from $21 per user, per month.
• Growth plan: Starts from $38 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $60 per user, per month.
• Ultimate plan: Starts from $75 per user, per month.

Conclusion

Choosing the right CRM is crucial for startups aiming to streamline their processes and enhance customer relationships without incurring high costs. Each CRM discussed—folk, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive, and Capsule CRM—offers unique features and advantages tailored to different needs and budgets. For instance, folk stands out with its contact enrichment and LinkedIn integration, making it a strong contender for startups focused on efficient outreach and relationship management. Ultimately, the best CRM for your startup will depend on your specific requirements, budget, and the features that align with your business goals. To explore how folk can streamline your workflow, test it for free here.

Need a helping hand? Use our free tool to find your perfect CRM match.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do startups looking for cost-effective CRM solutions use as a CRM?

Startups often turn to cost-effective CRM solutions like folk, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive, and Capsule CRM. These platforms offer essential features to manage customer relationships, streamline processes, and improve efficiency without breaking the bank. folk stands out for its user-friendly interface and robust integrations, making it a popular choice among startups.

Do I need a CRM?

Yes, depending on the complexity of your process. A CRM is essential for managing customer interactions, tracking sales, and automating tasks. It helps startups stay organized, streamline workflows, and improve customer relationships, which are crucial for growth and success.

How much does a CRM cost?

CRM costs can vary widely. Free plans are available, but premium features often come at a price. Typically, CRM solutions range from $15 to $150 per user per month. For example, folk offers plans starting at $20 per user per month, while HubSpot's professional plans can go up to $450 per user per month.

Does folk’s CRM respond to free CRM for startups needs?

Yes, folk’s CRM is an excellent choice for startups. Its intuitive interface, seamless LinkedIn integration, and robust email features make it easy to manage contacts and streamline workflows. The platform's automation capabilities and AI-driven tools enhance productivity, while its integration with over 6,000 apps ensures a centralized workflow. Additionally, folk's affordability and customization options make it ideal for startups looking to scale efficiently.As a busy startup, every investment and everything you spend time on counts. You need tools that help you manage your growing list of contacts, nurture leads, and keep track of customer interactions without breaking the bank.