Startups … What can I say … Bringing an idea to life is hard. Starting a business even more so. Keeping it afloat, well, you get my drift.
It’s easy to say ‘yeah but Facebook, I mean Meta, did it’. Or ‘Yoco did it’. Or ‘SweepSouth made it’. But when it comes to launching a startup, the odds do not seem to be in everyone’s favour with reports indicating that about 90% of startups fail.
Launching a tech startup may seem like an even more insurmountable task when you read the definition of a tech startup:
‘a company working with a purpose of bringing technology products or services to market to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success may not be guaranteed’.
No obvious solution and no guarantee of success? It is easy to see why breathing life into a tech company is no easy feat.
And why a newbie tech startup may need all the help it can get, especially when it comes to attracting customers and making sales.
If your goal is to not only launch a tech or SaaS company but also grow and develop it into a successful business with a healthy financial outlook, a CRM can help you get to where you want to go smoothly - and a little faster.
Read more: Why you need a CRM for your business.
Yes, there will be a few bumps along the way but having a reliable system on your side to help with operational activities, data analysis, strat, marketing and sales campaign management, and customer care, will make the ride just a little bit more enjoyable.
The most valuable features a CRM can offer a small business or startup include:
As well as
Add to this the benefits of CRM systems for tech startups or small business, which include:
And you’ll see why investing in a solid CRM system is clearly worth your time and money.
So without further ado, here’s our list of the 20 best CRM systems for tech or SaaS startups for 2022 based on the above criteria.
GetApp score: 4.8 from 484 reviews
Less Annoying CRM is a low-code CRM specifically designed for startups or small businesses with an uncomplicated pricing structure, quick set up time and the hassle-free, user-friendly and intuitive UI.
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Pricing:
Less Annoying CRM has one pricing tier of $15 per user per month.
What clients say:
GetApp score: 4.6 from 2.4K reviews
Monday.com is a lightweight yet flexible CRM solution for SMBs with a focus on task organisation and project and sales management.
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Pricing:
Monday.com offers a free plan for up to 2 users.
There are 4 paid-for packages.
What clients say:
GetApp score: 4.6 from 481 reviews
Freshsales’ CRM system enables businesses to grow through context-driven sales on the back of personalised engagement with customers and high-tech CRM assistance.
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Pricing:
There is a free limited-functionality plan.
There are 3 paid options.
What clients say:
GetApp score: 4.6 from 338 reviews
Daylite, by Marketcircle, is an all-in-one CRM system for individuals or small teams (100 members or less) working exclusively on Macs, iPads and iPhones.
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Pricing:
There is an all-inclusive free version and 1 paid package for $39.99 per user per month.
What clients say:
GetApp score: 4.6 from 128 reviews
EngageBay is a unified sales, marketing and customer-service software system, specifically designed for startups and SMBs to help them scale faster.
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Pricing:
EngageBay is free for up to 15 users.
There are 3 paid-for options.
What clients say: “A full-featured marketing platform. With this, you have all you need to get started and succeed. Having all in one platform make any marketer job much easier” - Santiago B, Southern Europe Director, Triptease
GetApp score: 4.5 from 2.8K reviews
HubSpot is known for its comprehensive, scaleable CRM software that connects marketing, sales, content management and service hubs. The ‘HubSpot CRM is a cloud-based customer CRM software solution specialising in sales automation. With HubSpot CRM, users can control content, channels and marketing performance in one place. HubSpot's lead scoring functionality also allows users to track the people who are most important to their businesses’ success’.
The company also offers a bespoke package exclusively for startups, HubSpot Startup. Learn more about it here.
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Pricing:
HubSpot offers a free comprehensive plan for unlimited team members.
There are 3 paid-for Sales CRM packages.
What client’s say:
GetApp score: 4.5 from 2.3K reviews
Pipedrive is a robust yet flexible sales-centric CRM system that helps startups get organised, and drive sales via their sales pipeline with tools to track and analyse customer and sales data.
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Pricing:
There are 4 paid-for packages.
What clients say:
GetApp score: 4.5 from 407 reviews
Streak offers CRM software that sits on top of your Gmail (whether desktop or mobile) with G Suite integrations included (Sheets, Chat, Drive, etc) to help you access and gather data quickly and efficiently, and manage teams, projects and sales directly from your inbox.
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Pricing:
Streak offers a limited free version for unlimited users.
There are 3 paid-for options.
What customers say:
GetApp score: 4.5 from 136 reviews
Capsule is a simple yet smart online CRM designed for small businesses who want to manage time, customer data and sales efficiently.
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Pricing:
Capsule offers a free Starter package for up to 2 users.
There are 3 paid plans available.
What clients say:
GetApp score: 4.4 from 2.7K reviews
Zendesk Sell is a mobile CRM system with sales-force automation and multiple tools for maximising team collabs. Small businesses with a deep customer-service focus due to the nature of their products or services will do very well with this software.
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Pricing:
There are 3 paid-for Zendesk Sell packages.
What clients say: “We are using Zendesk Sell and Support to make it easier for the entire organisation to surface and act on relevant information. By giving our sales and support teams everything they need in one platform, they are able to effectively and efficiently collaborate and improve the customer experience” – Simon Rodriguez, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, Staples Canada
GetApp score: 4.4 from 16.3K reviews
Salesforce offers customer-centric, scaleable CRM software that provides businesses with ‘a 360-degree customer view — from pipeline and opportunity management to marketing automation and help-desk solutions’.
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Pricing:
There are 4 paid CRM options for small businesses.
What clients say: “We turned to Salesforce because we want to build even stronger and longer lasting relationships with customers, and connect our employees. We aren’t measuring ourselves by the traditional service metrics of call volume or resolution times. We care about customer happiness, satisfaction, and long term relationships” – Hilda Fontana, Global VP of Digital Technologies, Toms
GetApp score: 4.4 from 575 reviews
Apptivo provides SaaS business management software for SMBs, including a well-automated CRM system.
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Apptivo offers a free starter CRM plan for small businesses.
There are 4 paid-for plans.
What clients say:
GetApp score: 4.3 from 5.1K reviews
Zoho CRM is a prime example of a classic, full-stack CRM. It is ideal for small or large teams, especially those working remotely, that are looking to increase sales.
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Pricing:
There are 4 paid-for CRM plans.
What clients say:
GetApp score: 4.3 from 305 reviews
Vtiger is a user-friendly, all-in-one CRM software system for all businesses, from startups to enterprises, built around an open-source core.
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Vtiger offers 1 free CRM plan for a maximum of 10 users.
There are two paid options.
What clients say: “Vtiger provides us with more functionalities than what Salesforce CRM did but at just half the price. Vtiger is easy to configure to our constantly evolving business requirements. It has an intuitive UI and is easy to use. And when we face any difficulties we always get an amazing support” – Ankith, Head of Sales, HackerEarth
GetApp score: 4.3 from 200 reviews
BigContacts offers a highly effective CRM system with email and contact management capabilities for small businesses who want to focus on nurturing leads.
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Pricing:
There are 4 paid-for CRM packages.
What clients say: “BigContacts is simple to use and has all the important functionality we need without a lot of unnecessary functions that make other applications more complicated and expensive” - John, Sales Director, Leisure, Travel and Tourism Industry
GetApp score: 4.1 from 416 reviews
Bigin by Zoho CRM is a newly launched pipeline-centric CRM for small businesses and startups looking for a lightweight CRM. Bigin’s product offering is simple, straightforward and easy on the pocket.
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Begin offers a free package for 1 user.
There are two paid-for options.
What clients say: “We were so impressed by Bigin’s ‘perfect fit’ for small organizations and we have now consolidated all information about our clients and projects in Bigin. It's impressive to see that such an affordable product helps in managing duplication of records, customizing fields specific to our processes, providing dashboards to manage the performance of emails, and even linking up with the Twitter accounts of our clients” - Luison Lassala, General Manager, Bedrock Success Consulting
GetApp score: 4.1 from 416 reviews
Agile CRM is an all-in-one CRM suite with marketing, sales and customer-service automation capabilities.
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Pricing:
Agile CRM offers a limited free CRM package for up to 10 users.
There are 3 paid-for packages available.
What clients say:
GetApp score: 4.1 from 1.1K reviews
Keap is a powerful CRM solution, specifically for businesses with a large online sales focus as it is one of a handful of CRM systems with its own built-in e-commerce tools.
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Pricing:
There are 3 CRM packages available.
(Additional users can be added at $30 each per month.)
GetApp score: 3.9 from 496 reviews
Insightly’s power lies in its ability to not only help businesses track marketing and sales efforts but foster lasting relationships with customers.
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Pricing:
There are 3 CRM packages.
What clients say: “We wanted one system that could do everything that we were doing with three separate systems, so we went with Insightly. Insightly’s price point was also very appealing and allowed us to reduce our costs by 40%.” - Jamie Paton, Director of SEO, PCG Digital
GetApp score: 3.8 from 352 reviews
SugarCRM offers various sales, marketing and customer-service tools which spans the entire cycle of each customer’s buyer’s journey for a bespoke, memorable brand experience.
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Pricing:
Prices for Sugar Professional, which is the CRM package, start at around $55 per user per month for a minimum of 3 users.
What clients say:
When it comes to launching a tech or SaaS startup, or any business for that matter, asking for help is not a weakness. The best thing you can do is focus on what you know best - the idea and product, sales - and rope in a solid service provider and systems to take care of the day-to-day nitty-gritty. This is why investing in CRM systems for tech startups is never a bad idea.
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