Best free CRM software and trials

Your support team is made of experts who build and maintain customer 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 richer customer 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?
• Comparison chart of the top 21 free CRM tools and free trials
• 21 best free CRMs and free trials
• Features of free CRM software
• Benefits of free CRM tools
• How to choose a free CRM system
• Free CRM FAQ
• Try CRM software for free

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.

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

Picking the right customer relationship management 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

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 lead management system 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 the sales cycle without 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:

• Email integration with alerts, templates, and automatic tracking
• Prospecting tools
• Customized email sequences and automated tasks for outreach
• Custom sales dashboards
• Call and text logging and recording
• Smart lists and templates
• Power dialer
• Full pipeline visibility
• Sales triggers
• Reporting and analytics

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 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:

• Contact 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 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:

• Contact 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 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.

Paid versions of the Zoho CRM have features including 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

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 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’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
• Contact 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 is a modern CRM that aims to help scaling 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 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:

• AI capabilities
• View of all customer interactions
• Built-in email, chat, and phone capabilities
• Dynamic forecasting

Pricing:

• Growth: $11 per user/month
• Pro: $47 per user/month
• Enterprise: $71 per user/month

Free trial:

• 21 days

Free plan:

• Available for three users for Growth

10. Microsoft Dynamics 365

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 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:

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

Pricing:

• Basic: $29 per user/month
• Professional: $69 per user/month
• Business: $134 per user/month

Free trial:

• 14 days

Free plan:

• Not available

12. Really Simple Systems

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 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:

• Contact 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 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 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.

With the free account, users can also take advantage 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 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

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 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’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:

• Contact management
• Appointment scheduling
• 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

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 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
• Contact 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

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.

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

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.