CRM can produce a massive return on investment over time, but it’s important for small business sales teams to choose a CRM that’s affordable from the start and the right fit for your business.
Many different factors can affect the cost of a CRM, so it’s important to understand CRM pricing when evaluating your options. In this guide, we’ll explore how CRM pricing works and the factors that impact it. We’ll also compare the starting prices for over 30 of the top-ranked small business CRMs.
The average price for a full-featured plan from a top CRM is $67 per user per month based on the prices for the top CRMs listed below. However, costs can range from about $15 to over $300 monthly per user, depending on a wide range of factors.
CRM pricing varies widely depending on the CRM and package you choose. Many CRM companies offer various packages, from low-cost or free versions that only include basic features to enterprise plans with advanced features and extensive customization.
CRMs are generally priced per user, per month. In other words, you have to multiply the base cost of your CRM by the number of people on your team who will be using it to calculate your total monthly CRM investment.
Overall CRM costs can vary even more when you include CRM implementation costs, training, maintenance, and other potential costs.
Many different factors affect both the initial and ongoing costs of a CRM. While the base price provides a good starting point when comparing options, you’ll want to calculate your costs based on your business’s unique needs to get the most accurate numbers to compare.
The main factors impacting CRM costs are:
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Understanding the ongoing monthly or annual cost of a CRM is essential, but you need to know what initial implementation costs to expect as well. Like overall CRM costs, CRM implementation costs can vary significantly depending on factors like the company you work with, the complexity of the CRM you choose, and the complexity of your setup.
Rolling out a user-friendly CRM to a small company may require hardly any additional cost besides the price of the CRM and the time spent implementing the new system. Nutshell, for example, includes live support in all of our plans and is easy to learn, so you can get set up quickly and cost-effectively.
For a large company rolling out a complex CRM such as Salesforce that requires hiring consultants, paying setup fees, and setting up customizations, implementation may cost $5000 to more than $100,000.
Here’s a look at the main factors affecting CRM implementation cost.
Some businesses hire third-party consultants, who often specialize in specific software, to assist them with CRM implementation.
For most CRMs, this isn’t necessary. For certain complicated and difficult-to-use CRMs, however, hiring a consultant is the norm. Salesforce users, for example, often need to hire outside consultants to help with implementation.
The cost of hiring a third-party consultant can significantly add to the cost of your implementation.
Some CRMs charge fees for setup and data migration.
Before choosing a new CRM, carefully check the pricing page for information about setup fees and ask about any fees in your communications with the company.
If you need extensive customization, your setup will likely involve extra costs. However, this mostly applies to enterprise companies. Most users don’t need large-scale customization.
At Nutshell, all of our plans include free live support, and we’ll even import your data for you at no cost. Plus, we prioritize user-friendliness, so it’s easy to get started.
Another potential cost is training. Some CRMs may charge you for training, or you can purchase third-party training services. Again, this is typically only necessary for more complicated CRM systems.
For many CRMs, you can learn how to use the software with the CRM’s knowledge base and the help of the customer support team.
That’s why it’s important to consider whether a CRM charges for support and what their support includes when selecting a CRM. It’s useful to have access to support even with a relatively simple CRM.
Integrations are another potential cost factor in CRM implementation.
There are various options for integrations, including native integrations, integrations through middleware like Zapier, integrations through APIs, and custom integrations.
Before choosing a CRM, research what integrations they offer, how those integrations are set up, and whether those integrations require any additional costs. The most common integrations are often free, but more niche ones may involve extra costs to set up.
Explore the software integrations our team has developed and validated to help your sales and marketing teams work more efficiently.
While this might not affect your costs directly, another factor to consider is the time it takes to set up and start using your CRM. You might experience a decrease in productivity during the time it takes your team to migrate to your new CRM and learn how to use the new system productively.
When you choose a CRM that is easy to use and that your team can learn quickly, you minimize these costs. With a user-friendly CRM like Nutshell that offers free customer support, you can start driving value with your CRM right away.
Looking at all of the costs that can be associated with CRM implementation can be intimidating, but it’s important to consider return on investment (ROI) when evaluating your costs as well. Of course, the goal of any CRM implementation is to drive ROI.
So, how much ROI can you drive with a CRM? The number will vary from organization to organization, but one study found that the average is $8.71 for every dollar spent.
It’s a good idea to measure your ROI after implementing your CRM to ensure you’re driving value. Consider your goals when determining which metrics to track, but some common ones include:
You can also look at factors such as how much time your sales team is spending on administrative tasks versus selling.
To maximize your ROI, you’ll want to choose a CRM that doesn’t have excessive costs, has the features you need, and is user-friendly so that your team can easily adopt it and start driving value quickly. High adoption rates are key to driving high ROI with your CRM.
According to G2, there are 653 (!) CRM software solutions currently on the market. To help narrow it down for you, we’ll explore the starting prices for the 30+ top-ranked small business CRMs based on their full-feature packages (when available).
For the purposes of comparison, we chose the CRM packages that were closest to Nutshell Pro in terms of included features, user/data limits, and technical support. (All of Nutshell’s CRM packages offer unlimited contacts, no data caps, and free live support.)
See the chart below for an overview and explore a more detailed breakdown below.
| CRM System | Popular Features | Range of Costs (per user) | Relevant Details | |
| Nutshell | Intuitive interface, automation features, team collaboration | $16 to $79 | Free Trial | |
| Copper | G Suite integration, sales pipeline visualization, email tracking | $25 to $129 | ||
| Pipedrive | Customizable pipeline, sales forecasting, deal management | $14.90 to $119 | ||
| Monday | Highly customizable, workflow automation, collaboration tools | $10 to Custom | ||
| HubSpot | Free tier available, all-in-one marketing suite, extensive integrations | $0 to $1781 | Upper Tiers have minimum seat limits. | |
| Salesforce | Multiple dashboards, pipeline management, third-party integrations | $25 to $300 | Annual contract required | |
| Zoho | Scalable pricing plans, AI-driven sales assistant, project management | $14 to $65 | ||
| Act! | Contact management, order management, marketing automation | $30 and up | Additional charges for certain features | |
| Agile CRM | Pipeline management, email marketing, third-party integrations | Free to $79.99 | ||
| Apptivo | Pipeline management, task management, email marketing | $8 to $25 | ||
| Capsule | Contact management, workflow automation, reporting | $18 to $75 | ||
| Clarity | Lead management, relationship linking, knowledge base | $39 to $69 | All tiers have minimum seat limits | |
| Commence | Workflow automation, sales analytics, lead management | $12 to $32+ | ||
| Freshsales | Omnichannel communication, AI-based lead scoring, sales analytics | $0 to $83 | ||
| ActiveCampaign | Email marketing, automation, CRM with sales and marketing features | $19 to Custom | ||
| Keap | Marketing automation, ecommerce tools, lead capture forms | $159 to $289 | All tiers have minimum seat limits | |
| InStream | Contact management, task management, reporting | $9 to $49 | ||
| Maximizer | Contact management, pipeline management, reporting | $65 to $79 | All tiers have minimum seat limits | |
| Less Annoying CRM | Easy-to-use, affordable pricing, solid customer support | $15 | ||
| Close | Built-in calling, email automation, lead prioritization | $49 to $749 | Upper Tiers have minimum seat limits | |
| Pipeliner | Visual pipeline management, social selling, sales performance metrics | $65 to $165 | First tier has a minimum seat limit | |
| Relenta | Contact management, email marketing, lead management | $39 to $49 | ||
| Insightly | Relationship linking, project management, advanced reporting | $29 to $99 | ||
| Thryv | Small business focus, appointments scheduling, online reputation management | $199 to $499 | ||
| Nimble | Social media integration, contact management, smart AI suggestions | $24.90 to $29.90+ | ||
| Sage CRM | Contact management, pipeline management, forecasting | $39 and up | ||
| Really Simple Systems | Contact management, pipeline management, reporting | $0 to $64 | ||
| Salesflare | Collaborative work management, Gantt charts, real-time updates | $29 to $99 | Upper Tiers have minimum seat limits | |
| SugarCRM | Automated data entry, email integration, mobile app access | $49 to $135 | All tiers have minimum seat limits | |
| Vtiger | Pipeline management, email marketing, customizable dashboards | $12 to $58 | ||
| Zendesk Sell | Pipeline management, call tracking, reporting | $19 to $149 |
Our interactive worksheet compares the benefits offered by Nutshell, your existing contact management solution, and any other CRMs you’re currently evaluating.
Full feature package: Nutshell Pro
Cost when billed annually: $42 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $49 per user, per month
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per user per month
per user per month
Nutshell
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Full feature package: Copper Professional
Cost when billed annually: $59 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $69 per user, per month
Full feature package: HubSpot Starter
Note: HubSpot Starter is the closest tier to our comparison plan, although it has restrictive usage limits and lacks certain features such as sales automation. The next tier up is Professional, which ranges from $1,600 to $1,780 per month. HubSpot also offers a free CRM that includes basic functionality. HubSpot includes customer service, content management, and operations features in its Starter and Professional plans.
Cost when billed annually: $30 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $50 per user, per month
Full feature package: Monday Pro CRM
Cost when billed annually: $24 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $30 per user, per month
Full feature package: Insightly Professional
Cost when billed annually: $49 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $59 per user, per month
Full feature package: Pipedrive Professional
Cost when billed annually: $49.90 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $59.90 per user, per month
Full feature package: Salesforce Professional
Cost when billed annually: $80 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: n/a
Full feature package: Sell Essentials
Cost when billed annually: $49 per user, per month; 3 user minimum and 5 user maximum
Cost when billed monthly: n/a
Full feature package: Zoho Enterprise
Cost when billed annually: $40 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $50 per user, per month
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Full feature package: Act! Premium
Cost when billed annually: $30 per user, per month, additional charges for features such as advanced marketing automation, additional cloud storage, and enhanced support
Cost when billed monthly: n/a
Full feature package: Agile CRM Regular
Cost when billed annually: $39.99 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $49.99 per user, per month
Full feature package: Thryv Plus; Thryv also offers various capabilities and tools in addition to CRM
Cost when billed annually: $199 per location, per month
Full feature package: Apptivo Ultimate
Cost when billed annually: $20 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $25 per user, per month
Full feature package: Capsule Teams
Cost when billed annually: $36 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $38 per user, per month
Full feature package: Clarity Accelerator
Cost when billed annually: $49 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: n/a
Full feature package: Close Professional; includes three users
Cost when billed annually: $299 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $329 per user, per month
Full feature package: Commence Enterprise CRM; three-user minimum; includes sales features and marketing, customer service, and project management features are available for an additional cost
Cost when billed annually: $32 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: n/a
Full feature package: Keap Pro; includes 1500 contacts and 2 users; additional users are $29 each
Cost when billed annually: $159
Cost when billed monthly: $199
Full feature package: InStream Premium
Cost: $49 per user, per month
Full feature package: Less Annoying CRM only offers one CRM package.
Cost: $15 per user, per month
Full feature package: Maximizer Base Edition; three-user minimum
Cost when billed annually: $65 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: n/a
Full feature package: Freshsales Pro
Cost when billed annually: $39 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $47 per user, per month
Full feature package: Salesflare Pro
Cost when billed annually: $49 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $55 per user, per month
Full feature package: ActiveCampaign Plus Marketing Automation and Sales CRM Bundle; Starts with 5 users and 1,000 contacts
Cost when billed annually: $93 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $116 per user, per month
Full feature package: Nimble Business; additional charges for additional contacts and data storage
Cost when billed annually: $49 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $24.90 per user, per month
Full feature package: Pipeliner Business
Cost when billed annually: $85 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $100 per user, per month
Full feature package: Really Simple CRM Enterprise; additional charge for additional automated workflows
Cost when billed annually: $64 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $50 per user, per month
Full feature package: Relenta offers a single CRM package
Cost when billed annually: $39 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $49 per user, per month
Full feature package: Sage CRM; custom packages available
Cost when billed annually: $39 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: n/a
Full feature package: Vtiger One Professional
Cost when billed annually: $30 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $42 per user, per month
Full feature package: Zendesk Sell Growth
Cost when billed annually: $55 per user, per month
Cost when billed monthly: $69 per user, per month
Of course, pricing is just one factor to consider when choosing a CRM solution. You’ll also want to evaluate features, customer support, reviews, and the value your team members will get from the CRM. However, understanding CRM pricing is essential to ensure you choose the right software platform for your business needs.
Looking for an affordable, full-featured CRM? Consider Nutshell! All Nutshell plans come with live support, unlimited contacts, and unlimited data storage. Explore our plans to learn more.
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