Which CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool to use to help organize and run your small business? As it depends on a number of factors, we thought we’d share some key distinctions that might help with your decision.
| Hubspot | ActiveCampaign | Zoho CRM | |
| What is it at its core | Leading CRM (40% market share) with a great interface that also has email marketing and other integrations. | Email marketing tool with great automation and solid CRM features. | Solid CRM (only FB and Gmail integration in the free version) with email marketing and many other integrations. |
| Why use it? | Best CRM integration with Outlook and has a great free starter plan (integrates with Gmail, Microsoft 365, Outlook). Easy-to-use drag-and-drop features and easy-to-follow systems. | Provides more advanced automation (e.g., email split testing and list segmentation) for reasonable prices. CRM starts at $39 per month. | Cost-scalable CRM, with 3 users for free and capping out at $65 per user per month. Integrates with ZohoSuite, offers sales forecasting, and strong social media integrations. |
| Why not use it? | Price scales quickly. Excellent free plan spikes from $30 per user to $1600 for 5 users per month. Tech support has to be paid for and A/B testing requires higher tiers. | CRM isn’t available until the “Plus” plan, but then all basic CRM features are included. Sales automation will require the “Professional” Plan. | Lacks in-depth and detailed reporting compared to peers. No task management features (which Hubspot has). Not best tutorials for beginners. |
| Best fit for who? | 1- Budget not a big issue OR 2- Only want a CRM, and the free version Hubspot offers is sufficient 3- High-value conversions 4- Tie inbound marketing with your CRM | 1- Budget is important 2- Outbound and email marketing is critical 3- You need advanced sales and marketing automation 4- Deep e-commerce insights and AI assistance | 1- Budget is important 2- Highly customizable to meet any industry-specific need (e.g., insurance agency needing specific lead fields to track policy types) 3- Strong third-party and Zoho ecosystem integrations 4- Multi-language options |
Also, if you’re curious as to what their free plans offer, here is a good article we found on financesonline.com, and if you can do with a lighter CRM, Zoho Bigin is another option to consider.
