The Best CRM Software in the UK

The right CRM software can be a game-changer, transforming a disorganized trove of customer data into an efficient, clear-cut process. You can go from sifting through a chaotic pile of customer information to navigating a streamlined dashboard where everything is accessible with a single click. 

Yet with so many options available in the UK, making an informed choice can be challenging.

In this article, we’re here to simplify your decision-making process. We dive into a comprehensive analysis of the best CRM software in the UK, assessing its unique features, advantages, and potential drawbacks. From the versatile Zoho CRM to the user-friendly Freshsales, we provide the facts you need to choose the tool that best fits your business requirements. Let’s dive in and learn more about these platforms and what they can do to optimize business efficiency.

CRM	Free Plan or Free Trial	Starting Price (GBP/ month)
Zoho CRM	15-day free trial	£8 seat/month
Freshsales	Yes, 21-day free trial	£25 seat/month
Salesforce	30-day free trial	£20 seat/month (billed annually)
Pipedrive	14-day free trial	£14/month
Monday Sales	Free Plan	£11 seat/month
Bonsai	Free Trial	£24/month
Zendesk Sell	Free Trial	£15/month
Hubspot CRM	Free Plan	£27 seat/month (billed annually)
Maximizer CRM	30-day free trial	£30/month
Less Annoying CRM	30-day free trial	£13.25/ month
Keap	14-day free trial	£106.00 annually

1. Zoho CRM

Best Overall

Often cited for its user-friendly interface and robust tool set, Zoho CRM’s comprehensive range of features, customization options, and extensive integration capabilities makes it clear that Zoho CRM has been designed to cater to businesses of different sizes and across various sectors. It’s exceptional automation and seamless G-suite integration make it a reliable tool for managing sales processes, justifying its reputation as the ‘Best Overall’ CRM choice for UK businesses.

Key Features and User Experience

• Customization and Integration: Zoho CRM can be tailored to fit the unique needs of your business. The software’s seamless integration with G-suite enables users to combine Google’s functionality with the advanced features of Zoho CRM.

• Automation Capabilities: Zoho CRM stands out for its advanced automation features. By streamlining repetitive tasks, the software allows your team to concentrate on work that requires a personal touch. The lead routing feature is particularly notable, ensuring leads are matched with the best-suited sales representative.
• Unified Customer Interaction: With Zoho CRM Plus, all customer-facing teams can be unified on a single platform. This facilitates consistent engagement across multiple channels, keeping the customer at the heart of all interactions.
• Artificial Intelligence Assistance: Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant, provides valuable predictive insights, customer contact suggestions, and sentiment analysis, among other features.
• Analytics: Zoho CRM consolidates data from various teams (marketing, sales, customer service) and presents it in an accessible format. The software’s dashboards can be customized for an in-depth analysis of every customer interaction and business decision.
• Partner Portal: Zoho CRM includes a partner portal designed to aid associates in closing deals. It hosts comprehensive customer information and enables task creation and internal information sharing.

Zoho CRM is an all-around CRM software that excels across various aspects, earning it the title of ‘Best Overall’ CRM choice in the UK. Its wide range of features, adaptability, and advanced capabilities provide businesses with an essential tool for effective customer relationship management. From small teams to large enterprises, Zoho CRM is capable of catering to varying needs and growing your business.

2. Freshsales

Best Easy-to-Use Option

In as much as CRM tools are built to make things easier for businesses, new technology can still be daunting, particularly for newcomers. But with Freshsales, this transition becomes smooth and stress-free. Perfectly blending complex data management with an intuitive interface, Freshsales offers a CRM platform specially tailored for the needs of businesses who are new to CRM technology, but not at the expense of functionality. Through its suite of easy-to-use tools – ranging from customizable dashboards to robust lead generation capabilities – Freshsales eliminates the intimidating complexities often associated with CRM systems. Its impressive multilingual and multicurrency support, combined with AI-driven contact scoring and mobile app functionality, make it an ideal option for UK businesses aiming for global outreach.

Key Features and User Experience

• User-Friendly Interface: Freshsales takes pride in its simple, straightforward interface, enabling beginners to manage sales processes with relative ease. Customizable pipelines, dashboards, and automation processes make it even easier to adapt the system to the business’s specific needs.
• 24/7 Support: Freshsales provides round-the-clock phone and email support, ensuring quick resolution of any user queries, thereby reducing potential interruptions to your business operations.
• AI-Powered Contact Scoring: This innovative feature analyzes demographic and behavioral data to help users optimally time their outreach to leads.
• Mobile Accessibility: The platform’s robust mobile app and WhatsApp integration extend its functionality beyond the desktop, providing businesses with the ability to maintain client contact on the go.
• Multilingual and Multicurrency Support: With support for ten languages and over 150 currencies, Freshsales serves as a versatile choice for UK businesses interacting with international clients or operations.

Freshsales‘ user-friendly approach provides an accessible, uncomplicated entry point to CRM, without compromising on growth and scalability. For UK businesses seeking a dependable, simple-to-use CRM platform with robust multilingual and multicurrency support, Freshsales stands as a solid choice. It prioritizes creating personalized experiences for leads and customers, ultimately fostering loyalty and facilitating business growth.

3. Salesforce 

Best for Customization

A forerunner in cloud-based CRM systems, Salesforce has long been a game-changer since its inception in 1999. This platform offers an impressive array of tools for managing and nurturing leads and facilitating sales and marketing. Salesforce’s definitive advantage lies in its extensive customization capabilities. This allows businesses to mold the platform according to their distinct operational needs. With an astounding 4000+ integrations, Salesforce goes above and beyond the conventional CRM framework, becoming a comprehensive solution for UK businesses looking for a bespoke CRM that addresses their unique processes.

Key Features and User Experience

• Lead and Account Management: Salesforce equips businesses with robust management tools for leads and accounts, delivering end-to-end tracking of a customer’s sales journey.
• Sales and Marketing Tools: Salesforce boasts a rich suite of sales and marketing tools, including automation, a content management system (CMS), a visual automation editor, and mobile messaging. All these components contribute to creating a holistic customer engagement platform.
• Integration Capabilities: Salesforce’s expansive integration capabilities are noteworthy. With over 4000 integrations, businesses can seamlessly connect Salesforce to various marketing platforms, email marketing tools, and lead generation applications.
• Mobile Access: Salesforce’s mobile app enables secure information access and sharing from anywhere. This functionality can be particularly advantageous for UK businesses with remote or mobile teams.

As an undisputed leader in cloud-based CRM systems, Salesforce’s emphasis on customization sets it apart. Its comprehensive feature set, paired with extensive integration capabilities, makes it an attractive proposition for businesses of all sizes. For UK businesses that seek a customizable CRM solution offering seamless mobile access, Salesforce emerges as a compelling choice. With its ability to manage complex business processes with remarkable flexibility, Salesforce is poised to address the unique needs of businesses and enhance operational efficiency.

4. Pipedrive

Best for Sales Teams

Finding the right balance between a feature-rich CRM and user-friendly simplicity can be a challenge. Pipedrive, however, masterfully bridges this gap. This sales-focused CRM tool, popular with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) globally, brings together a suite of powerful features in an easy-to-use package. Whether it’s in the UK or elsewhere, Pipedrive is renowned for its intuitive design that empowers sales teams to excel at what they do best – selling, and notably, collaborative selling.

Key Features and User Experience

• Customizable Pipeline Stages: Pipedrive provides a high degree of personalization in the sales pipeline stages, accommodating the specific sales process of each business. This feature contributes to a user-friendly visual representation of sales progress, simplifying the sales tracking process.
• Sales Activities Focus: Pipedrive prompts users to concentrate on crucial sales activities rather than just the end goal. By scheduling and actioning these strategic steps, salespeople can collaboratively drive the deal towards closure, fostering efficient sales process execution.
• Goal Tracking: Pipedrive, functioning as a digital sales coach, offers real-time reports and calculates conversion rates. This enables sales teams to collectively track their performance and adjust their strategies as needed, promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
• Automation and Integrations: Pipedrive excels in the area of automation and integration. Routine administrative tasks can be automated, and the software can be integrated with popular tools. This allows teams to collaborate more effectively by saving time on manual tasks and focusing on strategic planning.
• Revenue Prediction: Pipedrive offers a unique feature – revenue forecasting. This tool prioritizes deals, tracks performance, and predicts potential revenue. This valuable insight facilitates collaborative strategic planning among the sales team.

Pipedrive’s reputation as a simplified yet comprehensive CRM tool is well deserved. By offering an array of impactful features without the burden of unnecessary complexity, it perfectly caters to the needs of sales teams very well. For UK businesses seeking a CRM that supports collaborative decision-making, aligns with their unique sales process, and facilitates goal tracking, Pipedrive is a compelling option. Its focus on team collaboration and its user-friendly design makes it a go-to tool for sales teams, enabling them to work together effectively and drive their business toward success.

5. Monday Sales 

Best for Project Management

In a competitive market, a CRM solution that not only keeps up with customer relationships but also adeptly handles project management is critical. Monday.com proves its mettle in this respect, making it the ideal choice for businesses that value a CRM solution that combines robust project management capabilities. This software is far more than a simple contact and lead manager; it’s an all-encompassing tool designed to fuse CRM with project management, assisting businesses in automating various elements of their operations for enhanced productivity.

• Comprehensive Automation: Monday.com offers a highly intuitive system for setting up a vast array of automated tasks, ranging from simple notifications to complex process automation. This transformative efficiency could be a game-changer for UK businesses looking to boost their productivity.
• Centralized Communication: The platform ensures no detail is overlooked by logging all sent emails and maintaining a record of customer interactions. This centralized approach offers a comprehensive view of customer relationships, helping businesses maintain robust and consistent communication.
• Scalable Personalization: Monday.com’s standout feature is its ability to scale personalization. Even with a large audience, businesses can send personalized emails at scale, keeping their communication relevant and engaging, no matter the size of their customer base.
• Performance Visualization: With innovative tools like the leaderboard widget and the visual funnel chart, Monday.com allows businesses to visualize their performance, aiding data-driven decision making.
• Seamless Email Integration: Monday.com integrates seamlessly with Gmail and Outlook, allowing businesses to send and receive emails directly from the platform. Furthermore, real-time email tracking keeps businesses informed and ready to respond promptly.
• Activity and Sales Management: Beyond managing customer relationships, Monday.com provides tools for activity tracking and sales forecasting. This allows businesses to log any lead or contact-related activity and track sales performance over time, offering a more holistic approach to CRM.

Monday.com sets the bar high for CRM solutions by delivering an expansive suite of features focused on user experience and versatility. For UK businesses seeking to seamlessly integrate CRM with project management, Monday.com is a great option. Its comprehensive capabilities, coupled with its dedication to user-friendly interaction, make it an optimal choice for businesses of varying sizes. By delivering more than a typical CRM, Monday.com sets a new standard, proving that power and ease of use can coexist in a CRM, securing its position as the ‘Best CRM for Project Management’.

6. Bonsai 

Best for SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) typically have no choice but to multitask and manage diverse aspects of their operations–so a multi-faceted tool like Bonsai comes in very handy. Bonsai, unlike conventional CRM solutions, provides an all-encompassing platform that extends its capabilities to cover accounting, task and project management, and more. It’s no surprise that over 500,000 SMEs and freelancers worldwide have chosen Bonsai to help streamline their businesses. Notably, Bonsai stands out for its ability to facilitate collaboration, enabling users to onboard contractors and external parties without the need for multiple apps. This function is especially relevant for UK businesses that value seamless integration and organized project management.

Key Features and User Experience

• Client Portal: Bonsai’s Client Portal offers clients a comprehensive view of their projects, enabling them to track progress and manage contracts and payments independently. This transparency enhances client trust and ensures smooth operations.
• Collaboration: One of Bonsai’s distinguishing features is its focus on collaborative efforts. You can onboard clients to a project for free, assign tasks, and track the progress together, making it an inclusive platform that brings all stakeholders onto the same page.
• Workflow: Bonsai allows users to track each lead and client’s status in the sales funnel and view any outstanding payments or details related to their status. This feature is particularly valuable for SMEs looking to monitor their sales process meticulously.
• Automation: Beyond the standard CRM functionalities, Bonsai offers automation, such as automatic lead tagging when a lead contacts you through your online form. This feature frees up time and resources for SMEs, which often operate with limited resources.

For SMEs looking for an all-in-one solution that does more than just CRM, Bonsai is the go-to platform. Its multifaceted approach and a broad range of features make it a fitting choice for SMEs in the UK and beyond. By easing the burden of juggling multiple applications and facilitating seamless collaboration, Bonsai sets itself apart from the others in this space.

7. Zendesk Sell 

Best for eCommerce

Consumer expectations are continually evolving in eCommerce, which means having a reliable, intuitive CRM solution is essential if you want to stay ahead of the competition. Zendesk Sell fulfills this need with a suite of features designed to streamline the sales process, from lead generation to lifelong customer relationship management. Renowned for its comprehensive prospecting tools and account management capabilities, Zendesk Sell integrates seamlessly with Zendesk Support to provide a complete picture of the customer journey. Further, its mobile app enables sales teams to perform their tasks from any location, making it an excellent choice for eCommerce businesses, including those in the UK, that require flexibility and efficiency.

Key Features and User Experience

• Smart List: Within Zendesk Sell’s client record, you can categorize prospects and clients based on any parameter. For instance, narrowing down prospects based on a specific region and transaction value, or prioritizing deals nearing expiration. If frequently used, these search criteria can be saved as templates for future reference, enhancing efficiency.
• Zendesk Sales Engagement Tools: Zendesk Sell keeps users updated on lead activities with automatic status updates and notifications when leads respond or when there’s any activity. This instant access to lead information allows for prompt actions and strategic decision-making.
• Pipeline View: Zendesk Sell’s pipeline view offers an overview of deal progression across different stages. This visualization tool is crucial for identifying bottlenecks and growth opportunities—an essential capability for eCommerce businesses operating in competitive markets.
• Automation: Automated actions such as creating tasks, adding notes, or updating the status of a deal based on predefined conditions are integral parts of Zendesk Sell. These automation features save time and ensure a smooth-running sales process, a boon for eCommerce businesses where timely responses and efficiency are crucial.

Zendesk Sell is easy to deploy, simple to maintain, and focuses on daily sales activities making it an appealing choice for eCommerce businesses. Furthermore, its adaptability to the ever-changing nature of eCommerce, particularly in a dynamic market like the UK, solidifies its position as a reliable CRM solution that can help boost productivity and improve pipeline visibility and revenue.

8. Hubspot CRM 

Best Scalable Option

HubSpot stands out as one of the most scalable CRM solutions available that align with the needs of growing businesses. Its comprehensive suite of tools is designed not just to cater to a company’s current needs but also to grow alongside it, offering robust solutions for sales, marketing, customer service, CMS, and operations. The breadth and depth of HubSpot’s offerings make it a suitable choice for businesses that anticipate growth and require an adaptable, all-encompassing platform. With seamless integration across its tools, HubSpot enables efficient contact management, performance tracking, and more—vital factors for businesses in growth mode, including those in the dynamic UK market.

Key Features and User Experience

• Broad Spectrum of Tools: HubSpot’s toolkit extends beyond a basic CRM. It caters to various business aspects, including lead generation, email marketing, and customer communication. This comprehensive suite not only improves the user experience but also facilitates effective scaling.
• Unified Ecosystem: One of HubSpot’s standout features is the seamless integration of its marketing, sales, and service tools. This feature allows for efficient data transfer and insights, which are essential for growing businesses needing to streamline operations and enhance customer relations.
• Performance Tracking: HubSpot provides robust performance monitoring capabilities. Users can track key metrics such as form submissions, website activity, and enriched contact data from various sources. These features support businesses in evaluating their performance and planning for growth.

Though HubSpot’s pricing may seem high when incorporating additional features, its value proposition as a comprehensive, scalable platform is compelling, especially for small enterprises. Hubspot’s free plan is more than enough to get you started, requires little setup time, and equips businesses with powerful CRM capabilities. It’s a ‘one-stop-shop’ solution that can grow with businesses, which is especially relevant for UK businesses that operate in a rapidly changing market. 

9. Maximizer CRM 

Best Cost Effective Option

Maximizer CRM is a powerful and cost-effective option for businesses looking for a comprehensive suite of tools without compromising their budget. Known for its customizability and all-inclusive feature set, Maximizer CRM caters to essential business aspects like administration, contact management, opportunity tracking, email campaigns, and customer service handling. The platform’s flexibility allows it to adapt to specific business needs, making it especially attractive for small to medium enterprises, including those operating in the UK’s competitive business environment.

Key Features and User Experience

• Marketing Automation: Maximizer CRM boosts marketing efforts with an array of features like multi-phase campaign scheduling, online forms, and ROI calculators. These tools, geared towards improving marketing efficiency, are ideal for businesses looking to maximise their marketing ROI while keeping costs in check.
• Sales Automation: The platform aids in establishing profitable connections through sophisticated lead monitoring and sales opportunity management. Its sales forecasting features and visual dashboards simplify sales funnel tracking, promoting responsibility and focus within sales teams.
• Customer Service: Maximizer CRM provides robust tools for managing customer support interactions. Its user-friendly interface showcases all customer contact details, interaction histories, and open cases, promoting more effective customer service.
• Customization: One of Maximizer CRM’s strengths is its high level of customization. Businesses can tailor the software to match their specific needs, omitting unnecessary features and focusing on what’s crucial for their operations. This adaptability extends to the creation of targeted lists for marketing campaigns and integrated CRM Campaign Managers for monitoring campaign metrics.

Balancing comprehensive capabilities with affordability, Maximizer CRM truly stands out as a cost effective option for businesses. It combines a wide range of features with a customisable, user-friendly interface—all at a reasonable price point. For UK businesses seeking a CRM solution that delivers maximum value without straining their budget, Maximizer CRM is definitely a compelling choice.

10. Less Annoying CRM

Best All-In-One Platform

Less Annoying CRM (LACRM) is a top choice for businesses searching for a CRM platform that strikes the perfect balance between functionality and user-friendliness. This all-in-one platform, widely adopted in the UK market, presents a simple yet comprehensive tool that can manage customer data, sales, marketing activities, and more. Equipped with an intuitive dashboard and a suite of powerful features, LACRM eliminates the complexity usually associated with CRM software, thereby making it an optimal solution for businesses wanting to avoid tech overload while still gaining the full benefits of a CRM system.

Key Features and User Experience

• Integrations: LACRM’s strength lies in its ability to integrate with a host of popular business applications, such as Google Apps and MailChimp. This ability to unify various software under one umbrella aids in efficient data management and mitigates the need for constant app-switching, thereby creating a streamlined user experience.
• Contact Management: LACRM’s contact management feature provides a comprehensive view of customer interactions across multiple channels, including emails, phone calls, and social media. This unified view assists businesses in maintaining a consistent approach to customer engagement and keeping track of customer touchpoints effectively.
• Leads and Pipeline Management: A vital feature in any CRM software, LACRM’s lead and pipeline management capability allows tracking of potential customers, their contact information, and their current stage in the sales process. This visibility empowers businesses to strategically focus their sales efforts, leading to more closed deals.
• Mobile Access: With LACRM, businesses aren’t tethered to their office workstations. The platform’s mobile app ensures that customer data is accessible anytime, anywhere, facilitating quick updates and on-the-go client interactions.

By offering a comprehensive suite of features within a user-friendly interface, Less Annoying CRM has positioned itself as an all-in-one platform that seamlessly combines CRM  usability with robust capabilities, provides businesses, including those in the UK, with the tools they need to optimize their customer relationship management without overcomplicating their operations.

11. Keap 

Best for Sales and Marketing Automation

Keap, previously known as Infusionsoft, is a powerful, all-in-one CRM platform designed with an emphasis on automation, making it a smart choice for small businesses or those new to CRM software. Specifically, for UK-based businesses, Keap offers an efficient solution to streamline their sales and marketing tasks. Its robust automation capabilities range from handling checkout cart processes to managing various payment options and an easy-to-use invoicing system. But where Keap truly shines is its ability to automate routine tasks like sending follow-up communications and logging new leads. This focus on automation not only saves valuable time but also allows businesses to enhance their operational efficiency and drive growth significantly.

Key Features and User Experience

• Sales Pipeline: Keap provides a dynamic view of the sales process, including a drag-and-drop functionality to seamlessly manage deals and stages. This feature enhances the user’s ability to keep an accurate track of the sales journey, thereby facilitating proactive decision-making.
• Deals: With Keap, creating, managing, and tracking deals become effortless. Customizable fields, statuses, and notes ensure each deal can be tailored and monitored to align with the unique needs of the business.
• Activity Stream: The Activity Stream feature in Keap keeps users updated on all customer activities. From deal updates to task assignments and contact interactions, this stream ensures no critical customer interaction slips through the cracks.
• Reports: Keap equips its users with the ability to generate insightful reports on sales and marketing activity. These insights are instrumental in tracking progress, identifying growth opportunities, and refining performance strategies.

Keap provides a unique blend of comprehensive features within an easy-to-navigate interface. Its fusion of sales and marketing automation, coupled with robust capabilities like dynamic deal management and insightful reporting, enables businesses to streamline their operations effectively. 

How to Choose the Best CRM Software in the UK

Choosing the right CRM software is crucial for any business, and the decision-making process can be particularly nuanced for companies operating in the UK, which boasts a highly competitive and diverse market landscape.

Understand Your Business Needs

Before you start exploring various CRM options, it’s essential to identify your business’s specific requirements. Do you need a simple tool for managing customer data and tracking sales, or are you looking for a comprehensive solution that includes marketing automation, customer service, and analytics?

Consider the Size and Nature of Your Business

The size and nature of your business significantly impact the choice of CRM. If you’re a small business, you might prefer an easy-to-use, affordable CRM with basic functionalities. On the other hand, larger businesses might need a more robust system with advanced features and customization options.

Integration Capabilities

The ability of the CRM to integrate with other software used in your business is crucial for improving efficiency. This is especially important if you are using multiple software solutions for different aspects of your business operations.

User-Friendly Interface

A user-friendly interface is key for ensuring quick user adoption and maximizing the value of your CRM investment. Your team should be able to easily navigate and use the software without extensive training.

Customer Support

A CRM software provider with excellent customer support can make the difference between success and failure. Make sure your chosen vendor offers reliable and timely support to resolve any issues that might arise.

Interestingly, recent statistics indicate that in the UK, 77% of businesses are small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that would significantly benefit from the efficiency that comes with automation. As we observe a growing trend toward digitalization, the adoption of CRM systems, particularly those with automation features, is likely to surge. By choosing CRM software that aligns with your specific business needs and goals, you can be part of this transformative wave.

The Best CRM Software in the UK – FAQs

Choosing the Best CRM Software in the UK 

Finding the best CRM software in the UK is a pivotal decision that can significantly enhance the efficiency and productivity of your business. The key is to identify a solution that corresponds to your unique business needs, including assessing your operational scale, required features, budget constraints, and the level of customer support the software vendor provides.

This decision should be viewed as an investment, with a focus on simplifying business processes, improving customer relationships, and ultimately, driving business growth. The most beneficial CRM software should not only provide a return on investment but also become an indispensable component of your business operations.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of a CRM system is determined by its proper integration within your business. Findstack offers a useful comparison tool and a comprehensive database of software reviews to help you make that informed decision. These resources simplify the task of comparing different CRM solutions, understanding their offerings, and gauging their potential impact on your business.