4 Best Free CRM Software Picks For SMEs 2023 | Startups

Mục lục bài viết

Is a free CRM software enough?

When you’re just starting out as a business, it makes sense to keep your expenses low to ensure you are in a stable financial position before investing in the areas you’d like to grow. Choosing a freemium tier of business software is a great way to do this.

However, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the free versions of business tools aren’t sufficient for long-term use, as you’ll find you struggle to grow your consumer base due to feature limitations. It might better to find a low-budget option from our top CRM software for small businesses instead.

Here are some CRM features that a free tier generally won’t give you:

  1. Accounting capabilities

All your customer information should be available from your CRM system, including accountancy statistics.

Accounting data is an essential part of monitoring your customers and sales. Invoice tracking, budgeting, automated billing, and flexible ledgers are just some of the benefits that accounting and CRM integrations can give you. However, due to how important this area is, most CRM platforms only offer it on their paid tiers.

  1. No user restrictions

Unless you’re using Freshsales, most freemium tiers place limitations on the number of users you’re permitted per account. This is essentially a cap on your employees, and is done to ensure that as your company scales and depends more on CRM software, you are investing more in your providers.

To make sure your recruitment plans aren’t being curbed by unfair user limitations, invest in a paid-for plan.

  1. Social media integration

Where would today’s marketing teams be without social media? It’s the cheap and cheerful method for attracting consumers and targeting your specific audience – allowing your teams to leverage social information to understand and engage customers, gain market insights, and provide better customer service.

  1. Customer service

We don’t just mean tickets or a help desk – as this list proves, brands like Freshsales have plenty of different customer service options for zero charge.

However, desirable functions like case management and support tickets aren’t easily accessible when it comes to freemium plans, as most platforms tend to keep their free customer service tools to the bare minimum.