Best free CRM software and trials

CRM software provides the tools to help you boost productivity, deliver better customer experiences, and increase revenue. Try CRM software for free to find the best fit for your business.

A guide to the best free CRM software solutions

Last updated July 12, 2023

Your support team is made of experts who build and maintaincustomer relationships, and having a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that keeps data organized in one place makes it easier for your employees to create a richercustomer experience. A free CRM software trial lets you take the platform for a spin so you can evaluate how it fits with your business needs before you invest.

In our comprehensive guide to the best free customer relationship management platforms, you’ll discover common features that typically come with the best free CRM apps and how using this software benefits your business. Plus, we offer a detailed CRM software comparison to help you make the right decision for your business.

Table of contents

What is free CRM software?

Free CRM software is a trial or free version of a platform that allows you to test out the software’s features and evaluate the benefits of customer relationship management tools prior to making a purchase.

It’s important to distinguish between free trials and free plans to fully understand the benefits of each:

  • Free trials allow you to utilize the full version of the software for a limited time.
  • Free plans provide a free version of the software that often has limited features or capabilities.

Comparison chart of 21 free CRM tools and trials

Our comparison chart highlights common details that many businesses consider while researching CRM software.

CRM software Free trial Free plan Key features
Zendesk Sell

14 days

Not available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Advanced sales reporting and analytics
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
HubSpot CRM

14 days

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Advanced sales reporting and analytics
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Less Annoying CRM 30 days

Not available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Advanced sales reporting and analytics
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Zoho CRM

15 days

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
CRM Creatio

14 days

Not available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Advanced sales reporting and analytics
  • Support integration
Apptivo CRM

30 days

Not available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Advanced sales reporting and analytics
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Flowlu CRM

14 days

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Insightly CRM

30 days

Not available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Advanced sales reporting and analytics
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Freshsales

21 days

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Microsoft Dynamics 365

30 days

Not available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Advanced sales reporting and analytics
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Copper

14 days

Not available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Really Simple Systems

Not available

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
Capsule

14 days

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Salesforce Sales Cloud

30 days

Not available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Advanced sales reporting and analytics
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
BenchmarkONE

Not available

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Vtiger One

15 days

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
EngageBay

Not available

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Kustomer

14 days

Not available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Agile CRM

Not available

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Bitrix24

15 days

Available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app
Pipedrive

14 days

Not available

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Advanced sales reporting and analytics
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app

The 21 best free CRMs and trials

选择正确的客户关系管理software is an important decision for your business. Our roundup of the top free CRMs and free trials gives you the detailed information you need so you won’t waste time trying out software that doesn’t align with your business needs.

1.Zendesk Sell

Zendesk Sell sales CRM

In order to run a successful business, companies must create a balance of happy customers and happy employees. Implementing a CRM system can help by providing sales agents with tools that make their jobs easier, boosting efficiency and productivity. This allows them to focus less on the technical stuff and more on providing an excellent, personalized customer experience throughout the sales process.

Zendesk Sell offers a free trial version of its cloud-based, all-inclusive sales CRM. Zendesk Sell is a powerful领导管理系统that enables sales teams to stay on top of every lead until it converts. Productivity tools, like email sequencing, let you automate tasks and view metrics on how customers engage with your messaging.

Designed with the modern sales agent in mind, Zendesk Sell gives your representatives full pipeline visibility so they can keep a sharp eye on every aspect of thesales cyclewithout being bogged down with data scattered across different systems and apps. With an intuitive dashboard, easy customization options, and a free resource library, the learning curve for Zendesk Sell is more like a bunny slope, rather than a black diamond.

With a free trial, you have access to the full suite of features, allowing you to quickly learn how Zendesk benefits your business.

Features:

Pricing:

  • Sell Team: $19 per agent/month
  • Sell Growth: $55 per agent/month
  • Sell Professional: $115 per agent/month

Plans billed annually.

Free trial:

  • 14 days

Free plan:

  • Available for qualifying startups (6 months)

2.HubSpot CRM

Hubspot sales tool

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HubSpot CRM offers free customer relationship management software for sales, customer service, and marketing teams. It allows you to manage contacts and has productivity tools to help sales teams organize leads in the sales pipeline. The program hosts several marketing automation capabilities, such as email campaign automation and workflows that alert your sales team for follow-ups.

Hubspot CRM can also integrate with other tools, applications, and software. For example, HubSpot can integrate with both the sales and support software from Zendesk. This integration incorporates activity from Zendesk support tickets into HubSpot’s CRM timeline.

Features:

  • 联系deal and task management
  • Email tracking and engagement notifications
  • Email templates and scheduling
  • Document sharing
  • Meeting scheduling
  • Live chat
  • Sales quotes

Pricing:

  • Starter: $45 per month
  • Professional: $450 per month
  • Enterprise: $1,200 per month

Free trial:

  • 14 days

Free plan:

  • Available

Learn more about HubSpot App for Zendesk Sell.

3.Less Annoying CRM

Less Annoying

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Less Annoying offers a free 30-day trial of their simplified CRM platform. The software lets you manage team communications and consolidates customer profiles in one centralized location. With unlimited custom fields, you can tailor customer profiles with a variety of options, allowing agents to add the info they want and hide the rest.

You can consolidate calendars and tasks onto a single dashboard and have full team visibility with activity reports, and see what other agents are working on and the status of leads in the sales pipeline. With an email logging feature, daily agenda email, one-click export, and 256-bit encryption, Less Annoying offers functionality and security.

Features:

  • 联系management
  • Customer database
  • Leads and pipelines
  • Project management
  • Partner tracking
  • Task assignment
  • Custom fields

Pricing:

  • CRM plan: $15 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 30 days

Free plan:

  • Not available

4.Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM

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Zoho CRM offers a free edition of its CRM software for small businesses. Its free software is limited to only three users but includes features that benefit small businesses with limited resources. As businesses scale, there’s an opportunity to level up to paid plans to support growth.

付费版本萤火虫Zoho CRM的功能ing lead and contact management, email templates, lead tracking, and workflow automations that handle routine tasks. In addition to integrating with its own suite of products, Zoho CRM can boost its capabilities by integrating with apps and software, like Zendesk. It also has a free trial version of each software package if you need something more than the free version for small businesses.

Features:

  • Standard reporting
  • Email notifications
  • Active workflow automations (up to 5)
  • Integrations with Zoho products
  • Auto-response rules for web forms

Pricing:

  • Standard: $20 per user/month
  • Professional: $35 per user/month
  • Enterprise: $50 per user/month
  • Ultimate: $65 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 15 days

Free plan:

  • Available for three users

Learn more about Zoho Desk for Zendesk.

5.CRM Creatio

CRM Creatio

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Businesses can use CRM Creatio alone or bundle it with other products to combine marketing, sales, and service in one customizable platform. This CRM is for teams who need to increase productivity and collaboration and streamline workflows in a unified workspace.

The company offers cloud-based CRM and on-site options so you can choose the best fit for the admin resources your business already has in place. The low-code platform allows users to create customized forms, email templates, and contracts—depending on their individual business needs.

Features:

  • Funnel reporting
  • Integrations
  • API access
  • Quotation handling
  • Contract management
  • Sales gamification
  • Database management

Pricing:

  • Team: $30 per user/month (Cloud)
  • Commerce: $35 per user/month (Cloud)
  • Enterprise: $60 per user/month (Cloud)

Free trial:

  • 14 days

Free plan:

  • Not available

6.Apptivo CRM

Apptivo CRM

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Apptivo offers a simple CRM that helps you manage your leads and opportunities throughout the sales cycle. There are several customizable options with drag-and-drop configurations, allowing you to create custom views, fields, and layouts to help streamline your workflows. Its CRM has mobile options to help teams manage and monitor sales while on the go.

Apptivo CRM features a client management system that helps generate and manage leads. You can manage daily tasks with activity tracking tools to help agents work more efficiently; and with email sequences, you can automate communications for faster responses and follow-ups.

Features:

  • Lead generation
  • Mobile access
  • Email marketing
  • Document storage
  • Calendar with notifications and reminders
  • Internal chat integration

Pricing:

  • Lite: $10 per user/month
  • Premium: $15 per user/month
  • Ultimate: $25 per user/month
  • Enterprise: Contact Apptivo

Free trial:

  • 30 days

Free plan:

  • Not available

7.Flowlu CRM

Flowlu

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Flowlu’s CRM solution helps businesses organize projects and workflows. They help many businesses in the finance space manage multiple accounts with automated sales invoices and estimate generations. Users can monitor expenses for various projects, manage contacts, and track new sales opportunities.

Its free sales CRM helps sales teams stay on track throughout the sales process. With email and phone integrations, opportunities and sales funnels, web forms for lead generation, appointment scheduling, and customizable fields, Flowlu CRM can help teams stay organized and on top of sales opportunities.

Features:

  • Finance dashboard
  • Expense and payment tracking
  • 联系and lead management
  • Invoicing

Pricing:

  • Team: $39 per month (8 users)
  • Business: $74 per month (16 users)
  • Professional: $149 per month (25 users)
  • Enterprise: $249 per month (unlimited users)

Free trial:

  • 14 days

Free plan:

  • Available for two users

8.Insightly CRM

Insightly

Image credit

洞察力是旨在帮助scalin现代CRMg small businesses integrate sales and project management into their workflow. It features a customizable interface, so your teams can create a personalized view. The sales pipeline and lead management tools can help teams prioritize leads (capturing important information about them) and have real-time views of the sales process.

If you like what you try, Insightly CRM’s pricing packages start with its Plus Plan, which includes integrated project management capabilities, associated task tracking, and sales email templates.

Features:

  • API access
  • Lead qualification
  • Pipeline management
  • Project management
  • Social media integration
  • Territory management
  • Funnel reporting

Pricing:

  • Plus: $29 per user/month
  • Professional: $49 per user/month
  • Enterprise: $99 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 30 days

Free plan:

  • Not available

9.Freshsales

Freshsales

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Freshsales is a CRM software by Freshworks that helps businesses personalize engagement, better manage their contacts, and streamline their sales process. Unlike many CRMs, Freshsales has AI capabilities that allow your team to communicate across multiple channels. The software also makes it simple to collaborate with teams through its Slack integration.

Its free CRM software for small businesses allows for unlimited users and offers free support over multiple channels. Freshsales unifies sales, marketing, and data management into a single platform, so scaling businesses can stay organized.

Features:

  • 人工智能功能
  • View of all customer interactions
  • Built-in email, chat, and phone capabilities
  • Dynamic forecasting

Pricing:

  • Growth: $18 per user/month
  • Pro: $47 per user/month
  • Enterprise: $83 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 21 days

Free plan:

  • Available for three users for Growth

10.Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers both cloud-based and on-premise options. Some features include custom dashboards, contact management, appointment and meeting alerts and notifications, customizable activities, and reporting and analytics. Businesses can customize this CRM by using several extensions and integrations. This includes a dynamic two-way virtual integration with Zendesk for a complete customer view and enhanced ticketing experience.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides social listening tools that allow you to gather insights into what your CRM contacts are saying about your business across social media channels. Its analytics and performance metric tracking can help management teams make business decisions and better utilize internal resources.

Features:

  • Activity dashboard
  • Configurable workflow
  • Lead management and scoring
  • Real-time analytics and reporting
  • Social media integration

Pricing:

  • Professional: $65 per user/month
  • Enterprise: $95 per user/month
  • Premium: $135 per user/month
  • Microsoft Relationship Sales: $162 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 30 days

Free plan:

  • Not available

Learn more about Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Zendesk.

11.Copper

Copper

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Copper is a good option for those seeking the most essential features of CRM software, such as email marketing, calendar and reminder systems, and client tracking. Users can sync Copper with Google Workspace and import communication records, track email, and manage meetings and appointments in Google Calendar.

Though it gears itself specifically toward G Suite users, Copper offers integrations with common applications, including Intuit Quickbooks, Slack, DocuSign, Zapier, and Mailchimp. It’s easy to set up and easy to use, with no coding required to configure automation or customizations.

Features:

  • 联系management
  • Campaign management
  • Desktop integration
  • Task/activity management
  • Dashboard
  • Customer support portal
  • Pipeline management

Pricing:

  • Basic: $29 per user/month
  • 专业:69美元ser/month
  • Business: $134 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 14 days

Free plan:

  • Not available

12.Really Simple Systems

Really

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Really Simple Systems is a cloud-based CRM software known for its simple-to-use service and sales platform and marketing automation. It’s designed for growing business-to-business (B2B) teams and features an intuitive interface to keep training to a minimum.

Users can access a wide range of tools for your unlimited contacts that update in real time with relevant tasks and information, as well as take advantage of features like customer service and sales automation.

Features:

  • Lead management
  • Workflow management
  • Email integration
  • Reports and forecasts
  • Task management and calendars

Pricing:

  • Starter: $21 per user/month
  • Professional: $43 per user/month
  • Enterprise: $64 per user/month

Free trial:

  • Not available

Free plan:

  • Available for two users

13.Capsule CRM

Capsule

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Capsule strives to build customer and business relationships with a simple interface. Although the number of features is minimal, the software helps you manage day-to-day tasks.

With the free CRM trial, easily access information about your business’s sales pipeline and quickly import contact lists from places like Outlook, Gmail, and other databases. Keep in mind that the free plan is only available for up to two users.

Features:

  • 联系management
  • Sales pipeline dashboard
  • Sales analytics
  • Calendar and task management tools
  • Outlook and Gmail integration
  • Two-factor authentication

Pricing:

  • Professional: $18 per user/month
  • Teams: $36 per user/month
  • Enterprise: $54 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 14 days

Free plan:

  • Available for two users and 250 contacts

14.Salesforce Sales Cloud

Salesforce

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Salesforce Sales Cloud helps teams collaborate and provide a great customer experience. The CRM helps collect data and metrics so you can create actionable insights, attract leads, and convert more sales.

The CRM hosts software for marketing, sales, commerce, and service, all in one platform. It has several integration options to help boost collaboration and organize customer information. Customer 360 offers security features to keep cloud data safe.

Features:

  • Sales engagement tools
  • Sales triggers
  • Advanced sales reporting and analytics
  • Support integration
  • Mobile app

Pricing:

  • Starter: $25 per user/month
  • Professional: $75 per user/month
  • Enterprise: $150 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 30 days

Free plan:

  • Not available

15.BenchmarkONE

BenchmarkONE

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BenchmarkONE offers in-depth reporting and analytics through its sales and marketing CRM system. Easily track and manage your contacts, automate workflows, and monitor your business sales pipeline from end to end.

免费帐户,用户还可以将如何ge of automated email marketing and sales features to help win conversions. It’s available for unlimited users and can manage up to 250 contacts and 500 emails per month. However, BenchmarkONE does not offer any customer support tools; keep this in mind when searching for the best CRM software for your company.

Features:

  • Email marketing automation
  • Sales automation
  • Advanced reporting
  • Analytics dashboard

Pricing:

  • Lite: Contact for pricing
  • Pro: Contact for pricing
  • Agency: Contact for pricing

Free trial:

  • Not available

Free plan:

  • Available for 250 contacts and 500 emails per month

16.Vtiger One

Vtiger

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Vtiger is known for being inexpensive—great for businesses on a budget. Its many cloud-based features help simplify the workload of sales, marketing, and support teams. Vtiger’s contact management feature offers a 360-degree historical view and comes equipped with alerts and notifications to keep teams organized.

Vtiger offers a free plan for up to 10 users and 3,000 contacts. It includes limited contact engagement and management, internal collaboration, marketing, and sales features. Take advantage of the priced packages if more users want to work with the software or your team grows beyond the free version’s capabilities.

Features:

  • Multi-channel help desk
  • Marketing automation
  • Inventory tracker
  • Sales forecasts and insights

Pricing:

  • One Professional: $42 per user/month
  • One Enterprise: $58 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 15 days

Free plan:

  • Available for up to 10 users and 3,000 contacts

17.EngageBay

EngageBay

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As free CRM programs go, EngageBay has some perks. The platform is a whole-stack CRM that boasts modular business tools, including drag-and-drop project management, task filters, customizable project reports, and more.

It also integrates with many channels, including Office Suite and Gmail, and offers three different suites: Marketing Automation, CRM & Sales Bay, and Live Chat & Helpdesk. EngageBay is free for up to 15 users—great for trial periods and small businesses.

Features:

  • Marketing automation
  • Landing page builder
  • Sales workflows
  • Deal management
  • Site messaging
  • Email sequencing

Pricing:

  • Basic: $14.99 per user/month
  • Growth: $49.99 per user/month
  • Pro: $99.99 per user/month

Free trial:

  • Not available

Free plan:

  • Available for up to 15 users

18.Kustomer

Kustomer

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Kustomer CRM offers a flexible option for teams to manage customers and keep data organized. Its CRM has modern communication tools, allowing you to seamlessly collaborate across teams to enhance your customer support.

Kustomer allows you to automate things like customer profile updates, routing, and other repetitive tasks to help streamline workflows for efficiency. Its AI service, Kustomer IQ, assists customers through contextual conversations and predictive insights; while machine learning helps support improvement over time.

Features:

  • Email, chat, SMS, social, WhatsApp
  • 60+ integrations (channel, social, voice, analytics)
  • Custom objects and attributes
  • Internal knowledge base
  • Standard reporting
  • Message redaction
  • Google authentication

Pricing:

  • Professional: $29 per user/month
  • Business: $49 per user/month
  • Enterprise: $89 per user/month
  • Ultimate: $139 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 14 days

Free plan:

  • Not available

19.Agile CRM

Agile

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Agile’s free sales CRM software is an all-in-one cloud-based platform. The free version is limited to 10 users but works well for small businesses looking to test out the software before making an investment. Its capabilities include sales, marketing, service, and integrations that can help streamline the sales process.

Additionally, Agile CRM offers customer ticketing that assists a support team with a knowledge base, help desk, and feedback forms for customers. It features free contact management resources with a 360-degree view that mimics a scrollable social media interface.

Features:

  • 联系management
  • 约会安排
  • Mobile marketing
  • Email tracking
  • Help desk capabilities
  • Track milestones

Pricing:

  • Starter: $8.99 per user/month
  • Regular: $29.99 per user/month
  • Enterprise: $17.99 per user/month

Free trial:

  • Not available

Free plan:

  • Available for 10 users

20.Bitrix 24

Bitrix

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Bitrix24 provides a free online CRM suite for unlimited users and offers over 35 tools to assist with the marketing and sales process. It’s a cloud-based platform with an online workspace that works well for remote or hybrid teams.

Features include pipeline management, task automation, sales tracking, and many more. It also offers video-channel access, chat, voice, and email, as well as mobile apps for Android and iOS. You’ll also have access to a Bitrix24 storage drive to store files with customizable access permissions.

Features:

  • Lead generation
  • Online marketing
  • Business automation
  • Unified workspace
  • Omnichannel marketing

Pricing:

  • Basic: $61 per month (up to five users)
  • Standard: $124 per month (up to 50 users)
  • Professional: $249 per month (up to 100 users)

Free trial:

  • 15 days

Free plan:

  • Available

21.Pipedrive

Pipedrive

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Pipedrive offers a free trial of its CRM. The free plan allows you to switch between their three plans as often as you’d like during the trial. This can give you a good feel for the software and its capabilities.

With Pipedrive, users can create customizable sales pipeline dashboards, track progress, and automate growth thanks to built-in AI technology that helps you close more sales by identifying opportunities. Pipedrive can also organize and track calls automatically and synchronize schedules across your devices.

Features:

  • Visual and customizable sales pipeline
  • Team collaboration
  • 联系history
  • Reporting dashboards

Pricing:

  • Essential: $19.90 per user/month
  • Advanced: $34.90 per user/month
  • Professional: $59.90 per user/month
  • Enterprise: $119 per user/month

Free trial:

  • 14 days

Free plan:

  • Not available

Features of free CRM software

CRM software features

Software companies want to show you what their customer relationship management systems can do for your business, and the available features in a free trial or plan can often tell you if investing in the full version will pay off. Below are several popular features to look for when choosing the best free CRM software for your business.

Sales reporting and analytics

CRM reporting and analytics can help you predict deal volume and forecast revenue. Pre-calculated sales performance metrics, such as loss reasons and deal source performance, help to improve pipeline visibility. With aCRM dashboard, you can gather all your important sales and prospect data in one centralized and customizable location. When everyone has access to the most current information, opportunities fall into laps—not through cracks.

Free CRM software may offer pre-built dashboards that enable you to view sales metrics instantly, whereas, with many free trials, you can create custom dashboards that carry over once you upgrade your plan that best fits your business.

联系and deal management

The right CRM system needs to have effectivecontact management softwarethat helps you organize and manage your customers, leads, and prospects. Paired with CRM features, like reporting and analytics, pipeline management, email and task automation, and activity tracking, deal and contact management can help you boost the experience along the entire customer journey.

Free trials can provide full access to contact and deal management features to help you understand how itpersonalizes customer interactionsby reviewing recorded notes of prior conversations, keeping teams organized with automated customer segmentation, and increasing productivity with automated tasks.

Task and appointment setting

Sales teams need features that help them keep leads, contacts, and deals on track. For example, you may want to create a task to make first contact with a new lead. You can create the task or appointment and invite the customer. Say you’re running late—you should be able to notify the customer with the click of a button inside the calendar.

找一个与你面临功能连接g calendar and makes adding and managing these tasks and appointments easy. This feature should be available with your free trial or free CRM, so you can test how reminders and notifications can prevent important tasks and appointments from falling to the wayside.

Sales automation

Sales automationfeatures allow you to automate repetitive tasks to streamline the sales process and workflows. This gives you more time to focus on providing a personalized customer experience and lets you handle more leads. It also helps you gather deeper consumer insights with automated data-enrichment tools that generate and qualify leads faster.

The most beneficial automated processes vary by business. Trying out CRM software for free or enrolling in a free trial allows you to analyze which automations the CRM has—like forecasting, quota setting, follow-up communication, or pipeline management—and how it fits with the direction of your business plans.

Email integrations with tracking

With email integrations with tracking, you never have to wonder if a customer has read your email. This feature allows you to see how customers are engaging with your emails by providing:

  • Read receipts that show when the customer opened your email
  • Metrics that track link openings
  • Downloadable reports with email performance metrics
  • Ticket or user tracking customization

Free trials allow you to see how you like this feature. After you upgrade, you can unlock the benefit of account andcustomer success managementteams that can answer questions and offer assistance to help you maximize yourCRM tools.

Benefits of free CRM tools

Benefits of free CRM tools

Here are a few benefits of starting with a free CRM.

Test the software to see if it meets your needs

Testing out customer relationship management software for free lets you play with all the time- and energy-saving CRM perks—minus the financial commitment. Think of it like shopping for a car. You want to sit in the car to see how comfortable it feels, drive it around the block a few times, and maybe even test its limits. So when it comes time to lock in your commitment, you know exactly what you’re getting.

See how easy it is to use and implement

New software can cause severe IT headaches. Even the best apps can feel jarring if the implementation process isn’t smooth and you don’t have the support to use the tools efficiently. Modern CRMs should be easy to use and feature an intuitive interface that organizes customer data in a unified workspace and enables omnichannel support.

Enrolling in a free trial for CRMs like Zendesk allows you to set up software quickly with minimal training. Once you reach the end of your free trial and make the upgrade, all your data is already there, making for a seamless transition for your business.

Learn which features are most useful to your business before committing

When trying out a free CRM, it’s best to have a list of must-have features that will be most useful for your business. Free trials allow you to test out these features as well as others you might not be familiar with. You may discover a few features that you didn’t even know you needed that benefit your business in ways you didn’t consider.

Fine-tune staffing requirements during trial period

Free CRM software and free trials allow you to gauge your staffing requirements based on the system.AI and automation featurescan help you maximize your existing workforce by increasing efficiency and productivity without needing additional support. This allows you to plan better for the future and save costs on unnecessary staffing needs.

Build a strong proposal for leadership buy-in

Without taking a CRM for a test drive, you may not have all the information you need to get support from leadership to invest. Using the software can provide quantifiable data and performance metrics that you can provide to decision-makers so they can make informed business choices.

How to choose a free CRM system or a trial that best fits your business

Everybody loves free stuff, especially when it’s for software that can benefit your business. However, because CRM software is a crucial component to company success, you must understand what you’re getting and why the software is free. As the saying goes: You get what you pay for. Before committing to learning a new platform, consider the following questions.

Does it set up quickly and easily?

A CRM that sets up quickly and allows your teams to hit the ground running—without the need for vigorous training that takes time away from the customer—is important. Plus, trial software can preview how quickly you can start seeing ROI and scaling operations. Bonus: If your software has a professional services team that helps streamline the setup process (and helps with questions for the lifecycle of the software), you can make the transition even easier.

How will it integrate with your other apps and systems?

The right integrations can supercharge your business, tailoring it to run like a well-oiled machine. Integration with other apps and systems can help your team reach its full potential, especially when your CRM is a centralized hub for data, communication, and support. Zendesk has a robust library of over 1,000 integrations, so you can create a custom tool for your teams.

What is the time to value and total cost of ownership?

Just because something is free doesn’t mean you should suffer through a time-consuming setup. To ensure fast and efficient installation, seek out free platforms with cloud-based capabilities and 24/7 support. Zendesk works right out of the box, meaning your team can acclimate to the interface faster, so you can start streamlining your top-tier customer services.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free CRM software?

The best free CRM software depends on the business and its needs. Consider details like the features you want to try, the benefits you’d like to reap, and which integrations will help you create the best experience for your teams. Zendesk software has the ability to scale and sync with service efforts, making them one of the best free CRM trials for small businesses.

How much will a free CRM cost down the road?

It depends. For scaling businesses or large enterprises that need to manage a massive amount of data and communication, making an investment that doesn’t come with the limitations of free software can help you reach your goals faster. Always check out pricing tiers of best free sales CRMs before continuing with the trial to ensure the package options align with your business projections and budget.

What kind of support will I need?

If you’re new to CRM software, you most likely have some questions. Unless your entire business operates in a single time zone, you’ll want to look for a CRM platform with a wide range of support options, including phone support and 24/7live chatcapabilities.

Additionally, because business is constantly evolving, you’ll want to find a free CRM system provider that offers clear and proactive support, so you’re not caught off-guard by necessary updates.

Does free CRM software come with any strings attached?

In many cases, free really does mean free, and CRM software providers come in all shapes and sizes. If you want to try asimple CRMwithout time constraints, some providers offer packages that home-based businesses can use for as long as they want to, so long as they have only one or two users. Other providers may allow for unlimited users and access to the full suite of features for a limited number of days.

Will a free CRM tool integrate with other apps?

With your business already up and running, your reps are likely already accustomed to using certain customer service orsales apps. It’s important to know if your free trial software will integrate easily with your most commonly used applications or if you’ll have to pay for that upgrade.

Some of the most common integrations you’ll see offered with free CRM apps are:

  • Google Workspace
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Mailchimp
  • Intuit Quickbooks

When trying certain CRMs for free, your integrations may carry over when you upgrade, making for an easy transition.

Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group (KOJ)

KOJ Group + Zendesk: Speedy implementation, near immediate savings

“With so many tasks flying around across the business in different formats, it was almost impossible to track progress and issue resolution. With Zendesk, we can track everything from a single platform and have much better visibility.”

Phillip Smith

Group Head of Digital

Read customer story

Try CRM software for free

Zendesk Sell ranks among the best CRM software. It’s a powerful interface that’s intuitive to use and easy on the eye. Your team is just as important as your customers. A happy team makes for happy customers—you'll see it in your bottom line. If you like saving your reps precious time while still delivering stellar customer service, start your 14-day free trial of Zendesk Sell today.

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