What is the crux activity – the crucial defining point – of the way a business is run? Well, if you are smart then you would know that the answer lies in the quality of the relationships that you nurture and the community of loyal vendors, customers, and stakeholders that you build. Customer Relationship Management or CRM is one of the fastest-growing terms that you may have heard very often while conducting your business activities. So what is CRM really?

 CRM or Customer Relationship Management is the activity that revolves around collecting information about your ideal customers and then collating it on a database that can be used to organize your various departments and the efforts that each department puts into servicing and retaining customers.

It is basically a technology or a tool that many businesses use in order to create a strategy that goes from finding to converting and retaining customers and managing their expectations by organizing the various departments of the business in an appropriate manner.

 A small business usually has a small team that needs to do it all – and free CRM software is the best solution! In order to help businesses carry out CRM, there are a number of CRM software available in the market. Now, the good news is that many of these are free which makes it ideal for small businesses.

The basic role of CRM in any and every business is to build better relationships with existing customers and potential customers as well. So, this would be a very important investment for most businesses. Yet, several small and bootstrapped businesses do not have the wherewithal or the resources to actually invest in such software at the get-go. So, to begin with, a good CRM software which is free would be ideal.

Best CRM Software For Small Business That is Free Too:

HubSpot

HubSpot has been on the scene for the longest time in terms of CRM. In fact, it has been known as one of the foremost and top CRM software which is also free until you want to invest to make use of its advanced features. Some of the basic features that you get with the free version of this top CRM software include tracking of all content-related activities.

You can easily keep track of your strategy and the content that you post as per this strategy on various platforms like your social media pages, your blog, and even your website and with your email marketing campaign. With added features like the management of your contacts and the leads that you generate, this software was the first of its kind when it was first launched.

Automation is one of the main features that still helps Hub Spot retain its leadership position in this market as the top CRM software. The sales automation and the automation of the customer servicing part as well helps in keeping a hold over the basic functions of your business while you go about producing and creating services or products that are within your core competency.

If you do go ahead and invest in the software for its advanced features, what you also get includes features like the automation aspects which have been basically designed as separate Hub Spot products that give a push to the basic software and its functioning.

Fresh Sales

This is one of the top CRM software which is also free. It comes with features that can fit any and every size of business. One can easily track sales, manage leads, and even add on email marketing to the entire gamut of things.

This is a freemium top CRM software that you can upgrade for even higher features. In fact, some of its very advanced features include support for multi-currency transactions and even for an app for your small business. It also helps you create tickets and track them with ease so that you seamlessly get your customer servicing sorted.

Suite CRM

Among the top CRM software in the market today for small businesses, you would Suite CRM to be one of the most valuable open source resources there is. While it does help you run your business irrespective of the size of the same, it is of special importance for small businesses for the simple reason that its solutions are designed in open sources for small businesses and startups as well.

Apart from the management of contacts, you can also manage the billing and ticket management to render seamless customer acquisition, retention, and overall customer servicing as well.

Vtiger CRM

Among the top CRM software, this is one of the most evolved because it is not only an open-source CRM software, but it is also a cloud-based solution that helps you get unlimited access to solutions and space to manage those databases and solutions.

This is unlike most other CRM software that only allows you to use contacts in a list up to a certain period like a week or so before you have to start from scratch all over again.

With this software, you can create various modules that deal with a different part of customer support even as you lock in your databases for contact management and the smooth running of your content and marketing related activities.

This would be one of the most evolved CRM software out there and hence upgrading to the paid version would also stand you in good stead eventually as your business grows.

Yetiforce

This is not as mysterious as its name, and actually quite simple to use with its simple to understand and straight-laced features. As of the top CRM software in the market, for small businesses, this software helps you manage your contacts in a seamless way and even store them in an unlimited manner.

You can even schedule and track your activities and other tasks on the calendar feature that this software offers you, and you can also send out emails as per an entire campaign that you can easily create and track over here with the simple interface and easy to use features of this top CRM software.

Zoho CRM

Among some of the best and the top CRM software for small businesses out there especially for small businesses that are being run by compact teams, Zoho CRM is fast gaining a foothold in this industry. With the Zoho CRM software, you can actually track and monitor a number of functions and departments and even create a workflow for your entire team.

This is best suited for smaller teams that need to communicate and get the tasks done in a few steps. This is ideal for smaller businesses and startups that usually use the same team of people for a number of different tasks and departments. With Zoho CRM, you actually get the option of setting a professional front that handles everything from lead generation to contact management and even emails.

Apptivo

If you are one of those startup owners who need to wing it and do everything by yourself, then this is the app or the software for you. With this top CRM software, you get to generate purchase orders, maintain contact databases, and send out emails as per a properly charted strategy.

With Apptivo, you will forget that you do not have the resources to maintain an entire team to take care of such small tasks because you will not need anything beyond this software while your business is still small.

It will keep things organized for you so that you can focus on your core competency and thus focus on the growth of your business and its unique selling point or USP. Apptivo gives you a number of features that can help you especially if you are a solo entrepreneur with a small team and a startup.

Insightly

From finding prospective customers to actually managing the various functions that go towards acquisition and retention, there are a number of advantages of turning to Insightly which is one of the best CRM software for small businesses.

Managing projects becomes easy with this software because the workflow can be defined and customized and thus can be broken down so that each member of your team knows exactly what he or she needs to be doing at any given point of progress during the ongoing project. You can handle and schedule multiple functions within multiple projects on the same platform.

FlowLu

If you are looking for a CRM software that can help you manage your leads as wells as your contact list with ease, then FlowLu would be the ideal top free CRM software for your small business. This one comes loaded with a number of features including automation of a number of functions like marketing, finance, and even customer servicing.

If one actually invests in this software, then there are a number of additional features available including API integration, cash flow management, and many others where you are even given the advanced option of building a knowledge base.