This isn't yet another top 10 post full of affiliate links with surprisingly expensive "free CRM solutions", or with hidden costs that are basically inevitable.
We ourselves are confronted with this problem quite regularly on various side-projects: we need some sort of CRM to manage activities (especially remotely).
However, "real" CRM solutions are not only too expensive, but also far too comprehensive for most small projects.
Pro tip
If what you're looking for is a light, simple, and comfortable solution, look into Monday CRM, they've done a lot of work on the CRM suite, and it's a really good fit for simple projects.
The free plan allows up to 2 users, and Monday integrates with Google Suite, Outlook, Slack, Zoom, Linkedin, etc. It's a great trade-off to better manage your contacts, and build a beginning of a sales process.
In this article, we recommend 12 *really* free CRM solutions. We have classified them by simplicity of configuration. The first ones can be up and running in thirty minutes, while the last ones can take a solid few weeks to be set up properly.
Why did we mention the last one?
Solutions that are more complex to set up will also survive your evolution longer. Investing time at the beginning can be worth it, especially if you expect longer sales cycles and / or strong growth.
Remember to integrations properly in your selection. With tools you're using now, and with the tools you are planning for the future.
Beware of the illusion of freeware. If you are looking to equip yourself with a project that is intended to grow, recruit, etc., free tools will be suitable for a while, and then you will have to migrate. And there you will lose a lot of time, money, and information. The extra cost of the migration is largely compensated by the few months of paying for an "overly robust" solution like Pipedrive or noCRM.
Free CRM software: comparison table
#1 Google Spreadsheets: the free basic CRM template
The most advanced relational CRM software basically comes down to a set of data tables:
- Contacts
- Organisations (accounts)
- Opportunities
Google Spreadsheets is very light, very efficient and has a reporting dashboard (see picture above). You can format and analyse data with standard spreadsheet tools, extract data from the web and automatically run somewhat complex workflows.
- Set up in less than 30 minutes.
- Effective reporting system.
- Doesn't stand up well to team growth. We've tried adding an "owner" column, or consolidating several individual spreadsheets into one, but it requires a bit of tinkering and it won't really make the cut.
Try the free google sheets template
#2 Folk App - The DIY CRM with a free version
If you're looking for a CRM that puts user experience and customisation first, Folk App is a great option.
Folk offers a contact-first approach, and a very deep integration with G-suite. Each team member can import all their mailbox contacts, and you get a very rich interface to organise them across the organisation. The history of all conversations is available to everyone and you can customise the lead information as you wish.
But Folk's brilliance is that it adds the complexity needed for small agile teams, without adding the unnecessary bells and whistles:
- You can organise your contacts as investors, friends, suppliers, employees, journalists, competitors, etc. and create groups for each of these categories.
- You can manage who has access to which group of contacts in a very simple and precise way. Something traditionally reserved for "Enterprise" plans, with prohibitive pricing.
- The tool also offers to distinguish between companies and contacts with the appropriate links between the two. This may sound basic, but in reality few free CRMs allow this.
In short, it's software that lets you go quite far, but is designed to be simple, without ever imposing a complicated configuration.
The main limitation is that it is a contact management tool first, and not really a pipeline. But a sales pipeline only makes sense for sales organisations that are already fairly advanced, and it is limited to sales activity alone.
The approach is very different, and it's refreshing!
The free plan is a legitimate free plan: it allows up to 200 contacts, and 200 messages with access to all the features. Beyond that, the Premium plan is priced at $8/month per user. This isn't that far from Notion ($5) or Trello (also $5).
Try Folk App
#3 Pipeline by Trello: Free CRM
If you are used to Trello, you know that the power of the tool lies in automation. You can assign, pre-fill and move cards automatically, set up deadlines, etc. Here are the main features you can use for free:
- Create an inbound lead or prospect management pipeline that can be tailored to your team's needs for any type of contact or customer relationship management.
- Organise contact information and notes on each prospect's record.
- Keep assets in a centralized location by attaching all relevant documents, such as emails and follow-up requests.
- Keep business development on track by assigning team members and due dates to tasks, then watch the card move through the process from "New" to "Closed win / lost".
- The free CRM template is well designed, and allows you to see quite quickly the automations to be set up (for example the pre-appointment checklist, or the automatic arrival of leads when a contact form is processed).
- No real reporting in trello apart from the kanban view. You'll have to set up other automations & be a bit creative to adapt it to your business processes.
Try Pipeline by Trello
#4 The most advanced free Trello CRM by Crmble
If you're looking for a simple CRM tool that's powerful enough to manage your sales pipeline, try Crmble. It's easy to get started and it will only take a few minutes to set up in a Trello board. Here are the different features you can find:
- Get instant access to your customers' contact information with "Crmble fields". A key feature that helps you stay organised and offers consistent data collection and great integration possibilities with third party services.
- A popular Trello feature is the ability to import a CSV file into Trello and turn your rows into cards on your Trello boards. Easily migrate your contact list to your board with Crmble!
- Whether you are using Google Forms, Typeform, Facebook Lead Ads etc., you can sync your leads directly into your table with Crmble.
- Start syncing your Trello card data with your Google account. Create a Google contact from any Trello card on demand or save your card attachments to your Google Drive
- It is a much more advanced tool and allows you to add the right layers ofautomation easily.
- A significantly more complex and rather rigid solution.
- A good solution for guidance, but you will need prior knowledge of some CRM solutions on the market such as Pipedrive.
Try Crmble CRM on Trello
The Salesdorado bonus
Our complete CRM software benchmark is available for download in excel format free of charge. You will also find a comparison of each tool on about thirty different features.
#5 Free CRM (light version) by Notion
Notion provides you with the building blocks to create your own layouts and toolkit to work with. Many people refer to Notion as an "internal wiki" allowing teams and individuals to plan their projects and track their work and goals throughout the process. This workspace allows you to :
- Create your own wiki (with infinite layers of content),
- Planning using a Kanban view, calendar or simple list view
- Capture your workflows and record everything that creates spreadsheets and databases.
In addition, Notion offers features for real-time collaboration and allows teams to share, comment and assign tasks and reminders.
Notion is an "all-in-one workspace". It is a SaaS designed to concentrate all the information and documents you need for your work. It works very simply as a pyramid system of pages that are all connected and can take a wide variety of formats.
- It is a very close solution to the free Google Spreadsheets CRM template.
- A Notion CRM is very simple and easy to set up, with the power of automation and the significantly more pleasant interface.
- Only one table means that you'll quickly end up with tons of columns that aren't used very much.
Try Notion Lightweight CRM for free
#6 The £5 CRM (more complete version) on Notion by Alex Sherwood
Obviously, this version is not free, but paying £5 to have access to a much more complete (and multi-table) version is well worth it.
- Multi-tables CRMs allow you to go much further & limit the complexity of each table (and data filling operation, whether automatic or manual).
- It's still £5. Then again it helps out a guy who creates an incredible amount of stuff for the Notion ecosystem. Better than helping Salesforce, isn't it?
Try Notion's advanced CRM for free
#7 Streak CRM: The well-designed mini CRM on gmail
Streak CRM is an add-on to G-suite that allows you to go very far.
In the free version, you get unlimited pipelines, which you can adapt to all your processes: customer support, sales, pre-sales, etc. The tool also has tons of features to make cold email easier.
The (big) limitation is that you can't share anything as a team until the pro plan, which starts at $49 / month. Basically, if you're going to manage CRM on your own, it's a great tool, and the free version will get you pretty far.
However, if you're looking to hire in the short term, it's more expensive & not as complete as market leaders like Pipedrive or Hubspot.
- Excellent interface & superb vision
- The gmail integration and working modes are excellent
- Very effective for simple processes and for prospecting
- Free plan prevents sharing of information
- Pricing on paid plans is hard to justify except in very specific cases...
- No support on the free plan
Please note that you will need a Gsuite account to use Streak CRM.
#8 Hubspot CRM: free CRM, but not for long
Hubspot is now very well established in the CRM world. Marketing automation, social media campaign, reporting, very strong support etc. Hubspot has all the features of the leading CRM solutions. Hubspot CRM has a free version. If you want to take it to the next level, the Starter version for 46€ per month has all the features you need. Here are some of them:
- Sales pipeline,
- Simple automation,
- Live chat,
- Scheduling suite,
- Reporting Dashboard ...
With the Starter plan, Hubspot CRM can be used by 2 users, so it comes down to around $25 / user.
- It is true CRM software, with all the associated features, and there are many.
- Hubspot allows you to customize just about anything to your brand and sales processes.
- Paradoxically, it is not really sure that the free version of Hubspot CRM will last you longer than a 100% free CRM solution like Notion, Trello, or Google spreadsheets.
- The tiers to push you to pay are frankly a little too well designed.
Hubspot is free to use, no credit card required.
#9 Agile CRM: an all-in-one CRM solution, with a very generous free plan
Agile CRM is SaaS software, and it is not open source. But it is probably the CRM that offers the most generous free plan on the market.
In addition to a large number of features on the sales CRM side, the software also offers a number of features that are more akin to those of marketing automation software. However, these marketing features are only available from the first paid plan. The software even goes as far as to offer customer support features, and it is also a complete live chat suite.
But back to the free plan: you can use the free plan with up to 10 users, up to 50,000 contacts & businesses created. You will be able to enjoy quite advanced features like lead scoring, appointment scheduling, tracking of your cold emails, and solid integrations with VOIP software (both ways) and email clients (read & write).
In our opinion, it is the most complete free solution on the market, but it is still significantly more complex to set up than Hubspot.
- Robust software and excellent reputation
- Unmatched functional depth for a free version
- Possibility of extending to pay-as-you-go plans with excellent value for money
- A true vision of enterprise software today, far from the dusty ERPs
- A bit more complex than Hubspot or lighter tools
- No support on the free plan
You can try Agile CRM for free without having to provide any payment information.
#10 Bitrix24: a (really) free CRM, but not that simple
Bitrix24 is a software that is not much talked about, but that actually allows you to get a lot done. The big disadvantage of the tool is that all the features (which are very, very numerous) are pretty badly organised.
It's hard to know where to start and, in most cases, you end up with a very partial use, on a pretty dusty interface. On the other hand, if managing your customer data is at the heart of your business, and you are fairly familiar with the subject, Bitrix24 could be a great fit.
- Lots of features available.
- Quite complex and difficult to access.
More about Bitrix24
#11 Dolibarr: a stronger, open source CRM
We hesitated for a long time to include Dolibarr in this list, but since everybody does it, we thought it was better to address the subject & explain why it is not a very good choice.
It's all in the title of their homepage: ERP & CRM.
In real life, a solution like Dolibarr may be free in terms of licensing costs, but it will quickly cost you tons of money in installation, maintenance, training, and other costs related to the installation of a CRM software.
The trade-off is therefore far from being a trade-off between free or not, and you really need to look at the full cost of the installation over the first two years to make the right decision. The price of CRM licences for such complete solutions is generally limited compared to the rest.
- Free software
- Great functional depth and good reputation in the market
- Old solution with a real network of partners
- Much too heavy, has aged rather badly
- Dolibarr's hosted solution has very little success
You can try the software online for free on their website, or download it directly
#12 VTiger: The open source CRM software
Opinions on the evolution of vTiger are somewhat mixed. We'll explain.
Version 7 of the software is available for free download, like all open source software. So far so good.
It is a very complete software, with a real "all-in-one" ambition: Marketing, Sales, and customer relations (helpdesk, etc.).
Where it gets complicated is that they have released a version 9 that is just as complete, and with a free plan, somewhat along the same lines as Agile CRM: 10 users, but only 3000 "records". A very serious limitation...
A bit of a pity, because version 9 is very promising, see for yourself, it's a legitimate all-in-one CRM software
In the open-source version, vTiger is a solid & robust piece of software, but it is unclear to what extent the company's efforts will be directed towards this deprecated version...
And in the new version, it is clearly ambitious, but you can hardly call it freeware. A bit of an unclassifiable in this post, but clearly worth giving it a look!
- Accessible and highly regarded open source version
- Large community and strong network
- Version 9 is very promising, but it's a shame that it is only available as SaaS.
- The v9 free plan is more like a free trial.
- The future of the open-source version is rather uncertain given the distribution strategy for v9
We recommend that you check out both versions of vTiger before choosing.
The Salesdorado bonus
Our complete CRM software benchmark is available for download in excel format free of charge. You will also find a comparison of each tool on about thirty different features.
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