The Best Small and Midmarket CRM Suite: The 2024 CRM Industry Leader Awards

The Market

Small and midsize businesses can’t survive if they don’t nurture their customer relationships, but only about a quarter of them currently use CRM systems, and only 10 percent of non-users are considering implementation. One of the biggest barriers to adoption has been a lack of expertise with these tools among users. They might not need all of the bells and whistles that come with enterprise CRM systems, but SMBs shouldn’t have to sacrifice quality to get what they want.

For them in particular, affordability, ease of use, and scalability are key concerns. So it’s no surprise, then, that many more vendors today have begun to offer affordable versions of their enterprise software, sell purpose-built tools for smaller businesses, or offer free and limited versions of their software for small-business use.

The Top Five

Flexibility is a key consideration for SMBs when it comes to their CRM systems, and this is where Creatio shines, according to analysts. Kate Leggett, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, says Creatio’s SMB CRM product “is a uniquely composable CRM” that lets users choose which capabilities to deploy, pointing out that its solution “helps provide unique experiences that are supported and extended via a low-code platform.” Rebecca Wettemann, founder and CEO of Valoir, agrees. “Creatio continues to be an attractive choice for SMBs because of its ease of use, competitive pricing, and no-code capabilities,” she says.

HubSpot has its roots in the SMB space, and so its offering for that market is a low-cost option with a strong focus on ease of use and integration, according to Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting. But its appeal goes far beyond that: HubSpot, Fluss says, is becoming “more feature-rich without adding a lot of cost.” Leggett agrees, noting that HubSpot “offers a unified SMB CRM that shares the same data, content, automation, channels, and reporting.” The company, Leggett says further, “supports full CRM operations, from web lead to customer service,” and packs in “highly usable, well-presented functions, with AI thoughtfully introduced in the product.”

Salesforce, more known for large, all-encompassing technologies, has put a lot of effort into moving downstream, and with its new Starter package, it has succeeded, analysts agree. “Salesforce continues to invest in making CRM easier and cheaper for SMBs with Starter, reducing the cost and time to implement and adding new capabilities,” Wettemann maintains. Another nice thing about Salesforce Starter, which was released in August 2023, is that it grows with smaller, growth-oriented companies. As they scale, they can add more customization, automation, and integration solutions to fit their growing needs.

SugarCRM started small, and though it has moved upmarket in recent years, it never forgot what’s important to the SMB market. “Folks still like being able to start with SugarCRM and scale out as they grow,” says Ray Wang, founder and chairman of Constellation Research. And when they do, Sugar offers “a straightforward, full-featured CRM,” according to Leggettt, who particularly appreciates SugarCRM’s sales process support, pipeline inspection tool, customer journey visualization, and support for renewals and subscriptions.

Zoho also has its roots in the SMB space, and so it has focused on ease of use, but it also prioritizes customization for the lower end of the market, according to Fluss. Wettemann says its “integrated capabilities and full complementary suite of products with integrated business intelligence and artificial intelligence across the platform make it an attractive choice for SMBs.” Leggett hails Zoho CRM’s “mature product-led growth motion with freemium editions for its small customers and a more traditional sales motion for larger customers.” Wang’s praise is even more emphatic, calling Zoho “the undisputed leader” in SMB CRMs.

Niche Players

Analysts in this year’s voting also identified several key niche players in the SMB CRM space. They are Monday CRM, Freshworks, and Pipedrive.