Pipedrive vs Freshsales

At a glance: Pipedrive vs. Freshsales (and folk)

Pipedrive and Freshsales are two CRM platforms designed to help businesses streamline their sales processes, each with a distinct approach. Pipedrive focuses on pipeline management and deal tracking, offering a visual, sales-centric approach ideal for teams prioritizing straightforward workflows.

Freshsales, on the other hand, integrates AI-powered insights and automation with communication tools like email and phone, making it suitable for teams looking to enhance their sales efficiency with data-driven features.

In this blog post, we'll explore their key features to help you decide which CRM aligns best with your business needs—or if Folk might provide a more flexible alternative with user-friendly contact management and customization options perfect for sales teams of 20-50 people.

What is Pipedrive?

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

Key features of Pipedrive

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage 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.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Real-time data analytics and custom reporting tools to track sales performance, forecast revenue, and gain actionable insights.
• Customization and security: Options to customize pipelines, fields, and user permissions, with robust security measures to protect data.
  

What is Freshsales?

Freshsales is a CRM platform by Freshworks designed to help businesses streamline their sales processes with AI-powered tools and automation. It provides features like lead scoring, deal tracking, email and call management, and workflow automation to enhance efficiency and drive conversions. Freshsales also integrates communication and sales in one place, offering tools for personalized outreach and detailed insights to improve sales strategies. With its focus on reducing manual tasks and delivering actionable insights, Freshsales caters to teams looking for a smarter way to manage customer relationships and close deals faster.

Key features of Freshsales

• AI-powered insights: Freshsales leverages AI to provide recommendations, predict deal outcomes, and offer actionable insights to improve sales strategies.
• Lead scoring: Automatically prioritizes leads based on their engagement and likelihood to convert, helping sales teams focus on high-value opportunities.
• Deal tracking: Provides a visual sales pipeline to track deals through various stages and monitor progress in real time.
• Email and call management: Integrates email and phone communication, allowing users to manage interactions directly from the platform.
• Workflow automation: Automates repetitive tasks like sending follow-up emails or updating deal statuses, reducing manual work and improving efficiency.

Pipedrive vs. Freshsales: Feature Comparison

Let's break down the key features of two CRM software solutions and take a closer look at their sales automation, email marketing tools, and contact management.

1. Sales pipeline management

Pipedrive offers a user-friendly Kanban-board interface that aligns closely with traditional sales pipeline management processes, making it intuitive for sales teams to track and manage deals.
Freshsales provides a visual sales pipeline that allows you to track deals through various stages in real-time. Its drag-and-drop functionality simplifies moving deals between stages, offering a comprehensive view of your sales progress. Freshsales also integrates tools like lead scoring and AI insights, which enhance deal management by identifying priorities and predicting outcomes. However, while Freshsales is designed for simplicity and efficiency in sales workflows, it may lack the flexibility needed for teams that require broader project or task tracking capabilities.
For medium-sized sales teams of 20-50 people seeking the perfect balance of intuitive pipeline management and customization, folk CRM emerges as the superior choice, offering Kanban-board views with unmatched flexibility to adapt to unique sales processes.

👉🏼 Try folk now to customize pipelines for teams switching from Pipedrive or Freshsales

2. Ease of use

Pipedrive is known for its intuitive interface and straightforward setup, making it easy for teams to adopt. Freshsales also offers a user-friendly experience with a clean layout, but its broader feature set might require a steeper learning curve for new users.

3. Contact enrichment

Pipedrive's contact enrichment integrates with tools like Clay.com to automatically populate fields with data such as job titles and social media profiles. This feature enhances the quality of your contact information by pulling relevant details from external sources.

4. Outreach

Pipedrive's email builder is ideal for newsletters and responsive campaigns. Freshsales offers comprehensive outreach tools, including personalized emails, call tracking, and chat options, focusing on sales communication. While Freshsales provides a centralized platform, it may lack the depth of dedicated marketing tools.

5. Automation

Pipedrive automates repetitive tasks like data entry and follow-ups to streamline sales processes. Freshsales enhances workflow efficiency with automation for lead assignments and follow-up emails. Its advanced workflow automation supports complex sales processes but may require time to configure effectively.

6. Integration

Pipedrive offers over 300 integrations, enabling users to connect with various third-party tools across categories like marketing automation and email platforms, enhancing its functionality and adaptability. Freshsales integrates with tools like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Mailchimp, as well as Freshworks products such as Freshdesk and Freshchat, to streamline workflows. These integrations support email, calendar, marketing, and customer support, enhancing the platform's functionality.

7. Artificial Intelligence

Pipedrive's AI-driven Sales Assistant offers insights to optimize sales activities. Freshsales' Freddy AI provides predictive analytics and lead scoring, helping prioritize opportunities and forecast outcomes. Freddy AI suggests follow-up times and next steps but may require familiarity with AI workflows for maximum benefit.

Price and plans comparison

Let's take a closer look at the price and plans of both Pipedrive and Freshsales.

Pipedrive prices

Pipedrive offers two types of plans, both for their CRM product. It comes as either a monthly or an annual subscription basis. Their annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Essential plan: Starts from $24 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $44 per user, per month.
• Professional plan: Starts from $64 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $79 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

Freshsales prices

• Growth: Starts from $9/user/month.
• Pro: Starts from $39/user/month.
• Enterprise: Starts from $49/user/month.

Introducing folk CRM: the best alternative to Pipedrive and Freshsales

Looking for an affordable alternative? We recommend folk. A multiple award-winning CRM platform loved for its easy-to-use, plug-and-play CRM system. Folk CRM is specifically designed for growing sales teams of 20-50 people, offering the perfect balance of simplicity and powerful features that scale with your team's needs. You can use folk as a solopreneur, small to mid-size team, or large enterprise. Allowing it to scale with you, as your business grows.

Key features

• Contact management: Bring all your contacts into one place seamlessly, from social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and X to multiple inboxes including Gmail and Outlook.
• Notes and reminders: Attach notes directly to a contact's profile in folk, and access them on the go. And assign reminders so you know exactly when to follow-up.
• Sales pipeline dashboard: Manage your entire sales cycle and leads with a highly customizable sales pipeline dashboard that can be used in Kanban-board view or listicle.
• Ease of use and customization: Easily customize the pipelines, dashboards, automation, email sequences, so that you can use it across your sales cycle and pipeline management – and other business functions such as recruitment, marketing, and more.
• Social media integration: Import people and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, and X within a click thanks to folk's Google Chrome extension.
• Contact sync from Gmail and Outlook: Full email sync enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Find email addresses in a click: Contact enrichment powered by Apollo, and Dropcontact so you can fill in missing data points with 1-click.
• Email sequences: Send email sequences with reminders if your leads don't reply to your first emails. It includes an AI integration allowing you to personalize email at scale.

Price and plans

folk has a 14-day free trial. After that, there are affordable monthly or annual subscription plans. The annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $80 per user, per month.

Pipedrive vs. Freshsales: What's the verdict?

It's apparent that both Pipedrive and Freshsales offer robust CRM solutions tailored to different business needs. Pipedrive excels in sales pipeline management with its intuitive interface, while Freshsales stands out with its AI-driven insights and comprehensive customer engagement tools. However, for sales teams of 20-50 people looking for the optimal balance of functionality, customization, and cost-effectiveness, folk CRM stands as the clear winner, offering superior flexibility and ease of use compared to these traditional CRM options.

👉🏼 Try folk now to never miss a follow-up when migrating from Pipedrive or Freshsales

FAQ

What is the difference between Pipedrive and Freshsales?

Pipedrive focuses on visual pipeline and deal tracking with strong email sync and reporting. Freshsales adds AI insights, lead scoring, and integrated email/phone to prioritize deals and automate workflows.

Which is easier to use, Pipedrive or Freshsales?

Pipedrive is generally quicker to set up and navigate. Freshsales is clean and user-friendly, but its broader feature set can require more onboarding for new teams.

How do Pipedrive and Freshsales pricing compare?

Pipedrive (annual): Essential $24, Advanced $44, Professional $64, Power $79, Enterprise $129 per user/month. Freshsales (annual): Growth $9, Pro $39, Enterprise $49 per user/month. Pricing may vary by region and billing terms.

What is a strong alternative to Pipedrive and Freshsales?

folk offers a customizable pipeline, contact enrichment, and email sequences with automation. Annual plans: Standard $20, Premium $40, Custom from $80 per user/month, plus a 14-day free trial. Suits teams of 20–50.