Freshsales CRM Review In 2024: Features & Alternatives
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Freshsales tools are some of the most comprehensive in the digital space.
Pros
- Simplified CRM platform
- Highly customizable
- Proactive AI
Cons
- The free plan doesn’t include reporting
- Plans can be confusing
- Small business friendly
- AI Assistant feature
- Free version, paid plans start at $15 per month per user
From Freshworks Customer Support to sales process development, we review what works best at Freshsales.
While there are many positives to the Freshsales infrastructure, and their overall pricing is competitive in the market, larger businesses may struggle to feed their employees the data needed to improve customer support relationships. The pricing structure can be difficult to navigate, which may mean the business doesn’t immediately have access to the wealth of information and contacts it needs. On the reverse of that, some smaller businesses may have too many tools, many of which will lay dormant and unused, because they sign on for a plan which is too big for their existing infrastructure.
Read more: Best CRM Software
Freshsales CRM Advantages
For small businesses, CRM software offers many robust tools for customer data collection and analysis, mobile app functionality, and a simplified dashboard. The tools are highly customizable and include an AI assistant which can be invaluable in setting up what your whole sales team needs to improve customer loyalty. With its AI capabilities, forever free and affordable paid tiers, and workflow automation, Freshsales can help small to medium-sized marketing teams or a customer support team increase their productivity and provide better customer-facing engagement opportunities. The platform is intended for use by sales and marketing, primarily, but by integrating with other Freshworks products a business can access more collaborative tools that can connect marketing with administrative, sales, support, and other organizational silos.
User-friendly
Freshsales has many options that make it a great fit for smaller or remote teams. The platform is fully accessible from either a browser or mobile app, simplifying how sales reps input customer support information. The platform also offers customizable dashboards, and has a forever free plan that doesn’t limit the number of users your business has; this is invaluable as businesses are starting out. The system also includes options like mail and calendar integration, email templates, e-signature options, and intuitive analysis.
Email Tracking
Through the platform, teams can track emails including open and click-through rates, and it also includes tools like email sync and integrations with other email clients. This means teams can send and receive emails from inside the CRM infrastructure using a separate email client seamlessly.
Event Tracking System
The platform also includes sales and event tracking features. These activity timelines allow teams to see how customers are interacting and engaging with messaging content, from email to social media and other formats.
Freshsales CRM Packages
Free | Growth | Pro | Enterprise | |
Monthly Fee | Free | $15 | $39 | $69 |
Contact Management | ||||
Auto Profile Enrichment | ||||
Custom Sales Activities | ||||
Product Catalog | ||||
Time-based Workflows | ||||
Sales Teams | ||||
Agent APIs |
Free Plan
Freshsales Free tier focuses on contact management. From a view of the customer’s lifecycle to account management, teams can use email templates, phone calls, and chat features to engage with customer support. These major enterprise features are available within the free tier.
Growth Plan
The Growth Plan adds to the free tier by adding customizable sales activities and product catalog options. Starting with Growth, users can also access contact scoring features and begin sequencing messaging for the best effect. This plan begins at $15 per month.
Pro Plan
The Pro plan includes all of the offerings from the Free and Growth plans and begins adding more productivity tools including Agent APIs, time-based workflow management, multiple sales pipelines, and AI tools. This tier starts at $39 per month.
Enterprise Plan
Starting at $69 per month, the Enterprise Plan is the most expensive and offers the most integrations and tools. This includes the addition of custom modules, AI forecasting models, up to 5,000 chatbot sessions per month, and dedicated account management tools.
Freshsales CRM Quick Overview
Best Overall Value
- Small business friendly
- AI Assistant feature
- The free version and paid plans start at $15 per month per user
Freshsales CRM Customer Reviews
Overall, users say Freshsales provides a lot of bang for their marketing buck, including optional integrations and the use of marketing CRM and email templates, chatbot sessions for customer support, and sales workflows.
What I like most about this software is its ease of use that makes the whole experience work.
User Review
A powerful, but approachable CRM.
CrazyEgg
Highly functional forever-free plan and affordable paid plans are just one reason why Freshsales is a great option for small to mid-sized businesses.
Forbes
Freshsales CRM Service Review
Review of Freshsales CRM
Overall Pricing and Value | 95%
| 95% |
Cost Value | 95%
| 95% |
Customer Support | 95%
| 95% |
Ease of Use | 95%
| 95% |
Included Features | 95%
| 95% |
For small businesses, the CRM tool tools are highly customizable and at higher pricing tiers include an AI assistant which can be invaluable in setting up exactly what your sales reps need to improve customer loyalty. However, the platform is most useful for sales reps, and to create a cross-department, collaborative environment additional integrations will be needed. This may drive up the price.
Is This Brand Right For You?
For smaller businesses that are just beginning to scale, Freshsales may offer the right combination of messaging tools, sales forecast tools, sales team integrations, and customer management. The sales department can customize the user interface to send emails from outside clients, sales campaigns are customizable and utilize AI for forecasting, and host many alternative sales tools. The platform boasts multiple tools to simplify how the team interacts with clients, including built-in phone call abilities, lead generation, and a more understandable sales pipeline.
Cost Value
Freshsales has an always-free version, which is quite robust and usable for many teams, and even at higher prices, the CRM is cost-effective compared to many other platforms. What Freshsales lacks in outside integrations it makes up for with access to other tools under the Freshsales umbrella. These include calendar features for task reminders, contact records, and predictive contact scoring. We are a huge fan of the platform’s ability to track deals and add sales sequences because when combined with the platform’s robust reporting tools can build higher revenue.
Customer Service
The platform does limit some customer support interfaces, with AI chatbot sessions limited to between 3,000 and 5,000 per month and only at the higher tiers. However, other customer service tools are available which may help to bridge this gap.
Ease of Use
Freshsales is easy to use, highly customizable, and offers tools like manual task management, lead generation, and major premium features like sales forecasting. Using the same earlier support structure, users can access other Freshworks tools to create a collaborative workspace across departments. Their sales manager is simple to understand and includes customized modules, mobile app integration, and sales service.
Included Features
Major premium features for the platform are built upon the same support structure and include a sales funnel view, email templates, a customer support team, an easy campaign manager, and lead management and task management. The CRM tool makes it simple for teams to begin tracking interactions and creating custom reports. This reporting system makes it easier to see the customer engagement actions that are most important in building sales opportunities. However, their limited integration modules may limit how much teams can do within the immediate Freshsales platform.
Overall
Freshsales was created to be used immediately with a very little learning curve. As such, it is a good solution for small businesses and smaller sales reps. The always-free version has many options that will work for smaller teams, but as your team grows, you’ll need to snag a larger, paid plan, and their paid plans do get pricey. On the plus side of this, the process of changing plans is simple and even with a paid plan, you can choose which options are the best fit. This ensures that there aren’t too many features at once that aren’t usable by your team. This customization level is key as the business scales because you can add on as needed rather than adding in options for which your staff aren’t ready. A few more awesome features that set Freshsales apart are the ability to differentiate and rearrange contact and accounts page details. You know best the information your teams need, and can arrange them so that the pieces of data that are most important to your sales team are at the top of that customer’s profile. This kind of lead management helps to build trust and engagement. Information can also be divided up into territories, which is important for those with teams covering different parts of a region, country, or even hemisphere. This will ensure that teams and customers build a strong relationships because they are always dealing with one another.
2 Top Freshsales CRM Alternatives
Zendesk Sell | Monday CRM | Freshsales CRM | |
Overview | Integration with Zendesk’s help desk Robust reporting features Pricing begins at $19 per month per user | List and timeline views Highly integrated Pricing starts at $8 per user per month, for up to 3 users | Small business friendly AI Assistant feature The free version and paid plans start at $15 per month per user |
Award | Most Versatile | Best Collaboration Tools | Most Comprehensive |
Rating | 5/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 |
Link |
Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell has many great options, perhaps the highlight is its integration into Zendesk Support. However, companies in need of advanced customer relationship management may be disappointed in the offerings. The platform is focused on streamlining the sales pipeline and development side so that teams can focus on the customer.
Monday CRM
The Monday CRM platform is a robust suite of project management, sales and marketing team collaboration tools, and customer management systems. This may not be a big deal compared to the best CRM software options, but it lands in our top five for functionality, customization, and data options.
Conclusion
The best free software for your business will fulfill specific needs. These may be focused on team management, sales sequencing, customer retention, and contacts management. A CRM solution should integrate with other applications to simplify the process of creating marketing CRM materials, managing campaigns, and improving customer loyalty.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Some platforms begin with free CRM software and offer paid platforms after the free trial period. This trial is a good way to “try before you buy” to make sure the CRM is the right fit for your needs.
When choosing a CRM system, most businesses must consider how the platform will integrate marketing campaigns, sales automation, reporting capabilities, and customer service agents with the CRM services industry so that business sales strategies are always in focus.
CRM business solutions are beneficial for both small businesses and large sales reps. Business management software solves the problems of data collection across multichannel marketing campaigns, offers a better understanding of consumer satisfaction, and helps to define your business needs. This, in turn, results in teams saving time, increasing productivity, and higher revenue for business owners.
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ABOUT THE REVIEWER
+ 2 sources
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Freshsales. Accessed October 18, 2022. https://www.freshsales.com
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Trustpilot. Trustpilot. Published 2019. Accessed October 18, 2022. https://www.trustpilot.com