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Zendesk has announced it will retire Zendesk Sell on August 31, 2027. If your team is looking for a Zendesk Sell alternative before service ends, you’re not alone. Thousands of sales teams now need to find a new CRM, transfer their data, and continue operations—hopefully all without much disruption to their sales process.
Choosing a replacement can feel daunting, so we’ve done the homework for you. We researched dozens of CRMs and ranked the 5 best Zendesk Sell alternatives based on what matters most to transitioning teams:
Below, we evaluate and compare the five Zendesk Sell alternatives that scored highest, ranking them #1 (best) to #5, plus provide other tips for a smooth migration.
For a limited time, Zendesk Sell users migrating to Nutshell get 80% off for their first 6 months!
This incredible deal includes Nutshell’s easy 1-click data migration solution and assistance with setting up your account to ensure a smooth transition.
Zendesk Sell customers—sales reps, managers, marketers, and support pros alike—need a CRM that’s simple to adopt, painless to migrate to, and packed with functionality. To help you scan your options, here’s how our top picks stack up on the key criteria:
CRM Alternative | Ease of Use | Ease of Migration | Feature Set | Kundenbetreuung | Integrationen | Overall Score |
Nutshell – Best overall | 9/10 | 10/10 | 9/10 | 10/10 | 8/10 | 9.3/10 |
Pipedrive | 9/10 | 9/10 | 8/10 | 8/10 | 9/10 | 8.6/10 |
HubSpot | 8/10 | 7/10 | 10/10 | 7/10 | 10/10 | 8.3/10 |
Insightly | 7/10 | 8/10 | 8/10 | 8/10 | 9/10 | 7.9/10 |
Freshsales | 8/10 | 7/10 | 8/10 | 8/10 | 8/10 | 7.8/10 |
Nutshell earned the top spot as the most similar replacement for Zendesk Sell, with major advantages in integrated features and onboarding support. Pipedrive and HubSpot are strong runners-up, while Insightly and Freshsales shine for certain use cases. Next, we’ll dive into each of these CRM alternatives in detail—including who they’re best for, key features, pros and cons, and pricing.
Find the perfect CRM solution to improve your team’s efficiency, build stronger customer relationships, close more deals, and boost revenue.
Best for B2B teams needing an all-in-one CRM and smooth Zendesk Sell migration
Nutshell is ideal for B2B sales teams (small businesses up through mid-size enterprises) that want a seamless transition from Zendesk Sell with minimal headaches. If you loved Sell’s ease of use, you’ll feel right at home in Nutshell’s friendly interface. It’s especially suited for teams looking for an all-in-one sales and marketing platform without needing separate tools.
With Nutshell, you’ll also get hands-on help with migration and training, making it great for organizations that value personalized onboarding support. It’s also ideal for teams sticking with Zendesk for customer support—Nutshell’s native Zendesk Support integration unifies sales and support data.
Nutshell is a comprehensive CRM with built-in marketing and engagement tools, which sets it apart from Zendesk Sell and many other CRMs. In a nutshell (no pun intended), it provides everything a growing sales team needs in one place:
In short, Nutshell covers the same core CRM features as Zendesk Sell, plus built-in email marketing and easy integrations, giving you a single solution for managing and growing customer relationships.
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Nutshell offers 5 affordable CRM tiers. Paid plans start at $13 per user/month (billed annually) for the Sales Foundation plan, which includes contact management, one pipeline, basic reporting, and more.
Higher tiers like Sales Pro ($42/user/mo) add advanced features such as sales automation and multiple pipelines, and Sales Enterprise ($79/user/mo) provides unlimited customization and priority support.
All Nutshell CRM subscriptions include unlimited contacts, data migration assistance, and live support at no extra cost. There’s no free plan, but Nutshell does offer a 14-day free trial (no credit card required) to take it for a spin.
Want greater marketing and customer engagement capabilities, too? Nutshell also has Email marketing, Landing pages, webforms, SMS, and more built directly into the software.
It’s the closest thing to Zendesk Sell in terms of being easy-to-use and sales-focused, but it actually goes further by including marketing automation and superb support. With Nutshell, current Zendesk Sell users can continue their daily sales workflows almost unchanged, and also take advantage of features they didn’t have before (like email campaigns or texting)—all at a price often lower than competitors’ offerings. It’s a solution designed to grow with you, without the pain of juggling multiple tools.
Losing your CRM? That’s hard. Switching to Nutshell won’t be. When you make the switch from Zendesk Sell, you get:
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Best for sales teams that want a simple, visual pipeline CRM
Pipedrive is a great choice for sales teams that love a visual pipeline and want to hit the ground running quickly. If your priority is managing deals and activities through a simple drag-and-drop pipeline (and you don’t need built-in marketing tools), Pipedrive could be your ideal Zendesk Sell replacement.
Importantly, Zendesk themselves have partnered with Pipedrive as the recommended migration option. So if you value a solution officially endorsed by Zendesk, Pipedrive should be on your short list. It’s also well-suited for teams that plan to keep using Zendesk for customer support, since Pipedrive has a native integration to Zendesk Support to connect your sales and support data.
Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM known for its simplicity. Key features include:
One more selling point: Pipedrive developed migration tools specifically for Zendesk Sell customers. This indicates you can export from Sell and import into Pipedrive with minimal data cleanup.
Pipedrive’s pricing is tiered into four main plans (as of 2025): Lite, Growth, Premium, and Ultimate. There is a 14-day free trial available for any plan. Notably, Zendesk Sell customers can get free implementation support from Pipedrive (if you choose an annual plan over $400), which can save you setup costs.
All plans come with unlimited deals and contacts, and 24/7 chat support. Pipedrive also sells add-ons (like LeadBooster chatbot, web forms, and Smart Docs for proposals) at extra cost if you need them.
Best for teams who want to start out free and then invest a lot of $$$ in their CRM
HubSpot CRM is best for teams that want a free CRM to start with, and a far more expensive option when scaling up to cover their sales, marketing, and customer service tools. It’s a popular choice for startups because of its free version and the vast ecosystem of tools that HubSpot provides. However, HubSpot is also known for higher costs at scale, so it’s ideal for those prepared to invest in a platform as they grow (or those who will stay on the free/Starter tiers).
In short, choose HubSpot if you want a CRM that can do it all under one roof and you appreciate modern, well-designed software—but are okay with the trade-off of complexity and exponential cost as features expand.
HubSpot offers a comprehensive suite of CRM features and optional add-ons for marketing, sales acceleration, and service. Key capabilities include:
HubSpot’s pricing can be a bit complex because it offers several “Hubs” (Sales, Marketing, Service, etc.) and bundle options. Here’s a simplified breakdown relevant to CRM usage:
All paid tiers have a 14-day free trial available. Also, HubSpot does not charge for “read-only.”
Best for SMBs needing a CRM with built-in project management
Insightly is a good option for small-to-midsize businesses that not only need CRM functionality but also value project management capabilities within their CRM. Insightly also offers separate modules for CRM, Marketing Automation, and Customer Support (the “Insightly All-in-One” suite), so you can expand functionality as needed.
In summary, choose Insightly if you want a CRM+project management hybrid, and possibly the convenience of adding marketing or support capabilities later, while keeping things moderately affordable.
Insightly CRM includes all standard CRM features plus some extras that set it apart:
Insightly’s CRM is priced per user, with three main tiers (annual billing rates quoted):
Each plan comes with a 14-day free trial. Note that pricing is lower if you pay annually vs. monthly. Also, the Marketing Automation module is priced separately (starting at $99 per month for up to 2,500 contacts), and the Support module has its own pricing (starting around $29/user for Plus Service Desk). If you opt for the full Insightly All-in-One bundle, you might get better pricing than buying each module à la carte.
Best for teams wanting a modern CRM with AI and built-in calling/messaging
Freshsales (by Freshworks) is a strong alternative for teams looking for a modern CRM with AI capabilities and built-in communication tools. It’s especially fitting for sales teams that make heavy use of phone calls, SMS, or WhatsApp in their sales process—Freshsales has those channels natively integrated.
It’s also a good choice if your organization is already using other Freshworks products (like Freshdesk for customer support), since Freshsales will seamlessly integrate as part of that ecosystem.
Freshsales is a full-featured CRM with a focus on helping sales reps engage leads across multiple channels. Key features include:
Freshsales pricing ranges from free to enterprise, with three main paid tiers (pricing below is for annual billing per user):
All paid plans come with 24/5 support via email and phone (Enterprise may get faster SLAs). Also, Freshsales has add-ons like additional bot sessions or CPQ functionality, but those are more niche.
Any CRM switch can be challenging, but the retirement of Zendesk Sell also opens up an opportunity to upgrade how your team sells. Whichever alternative you choose, here are some parting tips:
Considering migrating to Nutshell? We mapped Zendesk Sell’s current tiers—Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise—to the closest-fit Nutshell Sales plans, weighing features, scalability, and total cost:
Unlimited contacts/storage, email and calendar sync, and free live support are available across all Nutshell Sales plans. In addition, every Sales plan now includes Marketing Foundation (forms, landing pages, basic email marketing) and Engagement Foundation (web chat and AI chatbot) at no extra cost—so you can consolidate tools as you migrate. If you need landing pages without branding, SMS, or advanced campaigns, add Marketing Pro or Engagement Pro later.
Remember that the end of Zendesk Sell doesn’t have to be a setback. With the right Zendesk Sell alternative CRM, you can equip your team with even better tools tailored to their needs. Evaluate the five alternatives above, involve your team in demos, and see which CRM feels like the best home for your data and processes. Good luck, and here’s to a successful switch to your new CRM!
Want to see if Nutshell is the right Zendesk Sell alternative for your team? Besides Nutshell’s full feature set, migrating from Zendesk Sell will also get you:
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