Determining CRM Pricing, What Leading CRMs Cost, and Much More

This guide explores 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.

In this guide

• How much does CRM cost?
• Factors that impact CRM costs
• How much does CRM implementation cost?
• Determining your CRM’s return on investment (ROI)
• Overview of popular CRM system pricing
• Monthly billing vs annual billing cost breakdown
• Key features to consider in a CRM
• Choosing the right CRM

How much does CRM cost?

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, price for CRM software 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 software prices can vary even more when you include CRM implementation costs, training, maintenance, and other potential costs.

Factors that impact CRM software price

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 software price are:

• • Features: Each tier includes different features, and you may be able to add additional features to your package. Consider your business’s needs and goals when comparing features and packages.

• • Number of users: CRMs typically charge based on the number of users. Some CRMs have a minimum or maximum number of users for each plan they offer.

• • Number of contacts: Some CRMs charge by number of contacts. (All Nutshell plans allow unlimited contacts.)

• • Data storage: Some CRMs place a cap on data storage and charge additional fees for higher storage limits. (All Nutshell plans come with unlimited data storage.)

• • Usage limits: Some CRM tiers include usage limits for certain features, such as the number of pipelines or automated workflows.

• • Customizations: Customizing your CRM may involve additional costs, whether you go through your CRM provider, a third party, or in-house developers to set up customizations.

• • Integrations: Setting up certain integrations can also involve additional costs. You can often set up these integrations through your CRM provider, a third party, or in-house developers.

• • Implementation: The initial implementation of your CRM may involve additional costs for setup, data migration, training, and other elements. Some CRMs charge an initial setup fee. More complex CRMs may require hiring a third party to assist with implementation.

• • Ongoing maintenance: You should also consider the costs of maintaining your CRM system on an ongoing basis. Ongoing maintenance may include expenses related to data management, customization, training new employees, and technical support.

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How much does CRM implementation cost?

Understanding the ongoing monthly or annual cost of a CRM is essential, but you also need to know what initial implementation costs to expect. 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 for a small company may require hardly any additional costs besides the CRM’s price and the time spent implementing the new system. Nutshell, for example, includes live support in all 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.

Factors that impact CRM implementation costs

• Outside consulting
• Setup and data migration fees
• Training
• Integrations
• Time

Outside consulting

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. However, for specific, complicated, and difficult-to-use CRMs, 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.

Setup and data migration fees

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 mainly applies to enterprise companies. Most users don’t need large-scale customization.

At Nutshell, all 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.

Training

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 one. It’s helpful to have access to support even with a relatively simple CRM.

Integrations

Integrations are another potential cost factor in CRM implementation.

There are various integration options, 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.

Time

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.

Determining your CRM’s return on investment (ROI)

Looking at all the costs that could be associated with CRM implementation can be intimidating. Still, it’s crucial to consider the return on investment (ROI) when evaluating your costs. 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.

Measuring your ROI after implementing your CRM to ensure you’re driving value is a good idea. Consider your goals when determining which metrics to track, but some common ones include:

• • Sales volume

• • Time to close

• • New revenue

• • Upsell rate

• • Lead volume

• • Close rate

• • Customer acquisition cost

You can also examine factors such as how much time your sales team spends on administrative tasks rather than selling. But we’ll take a closer look below.

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.

How to calculate the ROI of a CRM system

One of the best ways to compare a CRM’s cost versus benefits is to calculate its return on investment (ROI). Essentially, you look at the CRM’s cost and compare it to its revenue contribution. The higher your ROI, the more profitable the CRM.

The ROI formula is:

ROI = [(total revenue brought in by CRM – total cost of CRM) / total cost of CRM] x 100

This formula easily shows the overall financial benefit of your CRM. If your CRM ROI is negative, it means you’re spending more than you’re earning, which is bad news. Even if you have a positive ROI, though, it still may not be desirable if it’s a low number.

Assessing CRM’s impact on revenue

ROI allows you to conduct a financial comparison of CRM benefits and costs. Some of the most significant benefits of a CRM system include:

• • Improved customer engagement and loyalty

• • Increased leads and sales

• • More efficient internal processes

When you consider your CRM’s overall usefulness and balance it against the costs, it’s important to consider all the benefits and how they might impact revenue.

To get the most accurate estimate of your CRM’s impact on revenue, factor multiple metrics into your assessments.

Consider metrics such as revenue, sales cycle length, average deal size, and deals or leads closed per salesperson. Compare these numbers before and after you started using your CRM.

It’s also important to consider other factors that may have impacted your revenue, such as changes in team size, the introduction of new products, and market fluctuations.

Identifying areas for improvement

When comparing your CRM benefits and costs, you’ll likely find at least one area where you could further increase your ROI.

For example, maybe the sales automation features in your CRM are driving improvements, but you don’t see a significant impact from the email automation features. In that case, you know that’s an area you’ll want to reoptimize.

As for how to optimize your CRM, the answer is data. You can view marketing and sales reports to help you see how your CRM is performing. Then, you can make improvements based on what the data tells you. For example, from your data, you can tell which types of emails specific customers are most likely to open, enabling you to segment your audience to improve results.

Data-driven improvements will always be more efficient than guesswork since they can accurately identify the source of the problem.

Overview of popular CRM pricing comparison

According to G2, 688 (!) CRM software solutions are 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 of CRM pricing comparison and explore a more detailed breakdown below.

Monthly billing vs. annual billing cost breakdown

Cost breakdown per CRM

• Nutshell
• Copper
• Pipedrive
• Monday
• HubSpot
• Salesforce
• Zoho
• Insightly
• SugarCRM
• Act!
• ActiveCampaign
• Agile
• Apptivo
• Capsule
• Clarity
• Close
• Commence
• Freshsales
• Keap
• InStream
• Less Annoying CRM
• Maximizer
• Nimble
• Pipeliner
• Spotler
• Relenta
• Salesflare
• Sage
• Thryv
• Vtiger
• Zendesk

How much does Nutshell cost?

Here’s the Nutshell annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • 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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How much does Copper cost?

Here’s the Copper annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Copper Professional

• • Cost when billed annually: $59 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $69 per user per month

How much does Pipedrive cost?

Here’s the Pipedrive annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Pipedrive Professional

• • Cost when billed annually: $49 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $59 per user per month

How much does Monday CRM cost?

Here’s the Monday CRM annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Monday Pro CRM

• • Cost when billed annually: $28 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $33 per user per month

How much does HubSpot CRM cost?

Here’s the HubSpot CRM annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: HubSpot Starter

• • Cost when billed annually: $15 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $20 per user per month

Important points to 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 $1,080 to $1,200 per month.

• • HubSpot also offers a free CRM that includes basic functionality. Its Starter and Professional plans include customer service, content management, and operations features.

How much does Salesforce cost?

Here’s the Salesforce annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Salesforce Professional

• • Cost when billed annually: $80 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: n/a

How much does Zoho CRM cost?

Here’s the Zoho CRM annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Zoho Enterprise

• • Cost when billed annually: $40 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $50 per user per month

How much does Insightly cost?

Here’s the Insightly annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Insightly Professional

• • Cost when billed annually: $49 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: n/a

How much does SugarCRM cost?

Here’s the SugarCRM annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: SugarCRM Advanced

• • Cost when billed annually: $85 per user per month (3 user minimum and 5 user maximum)

• • Cost when billed monthly: n/a

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How much does Act! cost?

Here’s the Act! annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • 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

How much does ActiveCampaign cost?

Here’s the ActiveCampaign annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • 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

How much does Agile CRM cost?

Here’s the Agile annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • 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

How much does Apptivo cost?

Here’s the Apptivo annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Apptivo Ultimate

• • Cost when billed annually: $40 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $50 per user per month

How much does Capsule cost?

Here’s the Capsule annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Capsule Growth

• • Cost when billed annually: $36 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $38 per user per month

How much does Clarity CRM cost?

Here’s the Clarity annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Clarity Accelerator

• • Cost when billed annually: $59 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: n/a

How much does Close cost?

Here’s the Close annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Close Professional; includes three users

• • Cost when billed annually: $99 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $109 per user per month

How much does Commence cost?

Here’s the Commence annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • 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

Note that marketing features such as marketing automation, drip marketing, mass email distribution, and custom reports come at an additional $12 per user per month, billed annually.

How much does Freshsales cost?

Here’s the Freshsales annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Freshsales Pro

• • Cost when billed annually: $39 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $47 per user per month

How much does Keap cost?

Here’s the Keap annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Keap Pro; includes 1500 contacts and 2 users; additional users are $29 each

• • Cost when billed annually: $159 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $199 per user per month

How much does InStream cost?

Here’s the InStream annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: InStream Premium

• • Cost when billed monthly: $49 per user per month

How much does Less Annoying CRM cost?

Here’s the Less Annoying CRM annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Less Annoying CRM only offers one CRM package.

• • Cost when billed monthly: $15 per user per month

How much does Maximizer cost?

Here’s the Maximizer annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Maximizer Base Edition; three-user minimum

• • Cost when billed annually: $65 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: n/a

How much does Nimble cost?

Here’s the Nimble annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Nimble Business; additional charges for additional contacts and data storage

• • Cost when billed annually: $24.90 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $29.90 per user per month

How much does Pipeliner cost?

Here’s the Pipeliner annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Pipeliner Business

• • Cost when billed annually: $85 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $100 per user per month

How much does Spotler CRM (Formerly Really Simple Systems) cost?

Here’s the Spotler CRM annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Spotler Enterprise

• • Cost when billed annually: $50 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $64 per user per month

How much does Relenta cost?

Here’s the Relenta annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • 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

How much does Salesflare cost?

Here’s the Salesflare annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Salesflare Pro

• • Cost when billed annually: $49 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $55 per user per month

How much does Sage cost?

Here’s the Sage annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Sage CRM; custom packages available

• • Cost when billed annually: $39 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: n/a

How much does Thryv cost?

Here’s the Thryv annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • 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

How much does Vtiger CRM cost?

Here’s the Vtiger CRM annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Vtiger One Professional

• • Cost when billed annually: $30 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $42 per user per month

How much does Zendesk Sell cost?

Here’s the Zendesk Sell annual vs. monthly pricing comparison:

• • Full feature package: Zendesk Sell Growth

• • Cost when billed annually: $55 per user per month

• • Cost when billed monthly: $69 per user per month

Learn more about how Nutshell compares to popular CRM software in our comparison page.

Key features to consider other than CRM price

When choosing the right CRM for your business, you’ll need to consider more than just the quoted CRM price tag. These additional factors can impact the CRM pricing, resulting in extra costs either during implementation or over the long term.

CRM features to look out for

• Flexibility for business growth
• Customizable to your needs
• Training and support
• Long-term CRM costs

Flexibility for business growth

It’s vital to source a CRM with the flexibility to scale as your company grows. In other words, your core features should allow for a certain level of adaptability with the capabilities to provide more than your initial needs. However, absolute alignment with your current business requirements is a must so you have the tools you need to succeed and make informed decisions now.

Customizable to your needs

You’ll want a CRM solution you can tailor to your specific business needs, making customization essential. Think about the CRM features you may need to customize and look for a CRM that lets you modify those crucial elements with ease. But bear in mind that customization may come at an additional cost.

Training and support

Perhaps you’re purchasing your company’s first CRM solution, or maybe your company requires advanced integration with your current system. Either way, you’ll likely need a great support team to guide you through the process and possibly even some additional training to get your team up and running.

In fact, having an excellent support team with the option to request additional training over the long term is highly beneficial. Assess the CRM provider’s customer support and training options, look for reviews to determine the level and quality of support received, and double-check to establish whether you need to pay anything extra for these services.

Long-term CRM costs

Your long-term CRM software costs will depend on how you use your CRM solution and whether your company’s needs change in the future. Business and system expansion will add to the cost of your CRM over time.

This could include upgrading to another plan, adding new features, or incorporating additional integrations to meet your tech requirements. While these may add to the CRM cost, it’s vital to remember that they will also improve your team’s productivity and increase the ROI of your CRM system.

Choosing the right CRM

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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