What CRM Software Is The Best In 2025 For Beginners?

All right, so if you're a small business owner like me in 2025, I bet you're drowning in spreadsheets, you're losing track of customers, you're missing follow-ups, and you're leaving a lot of money on the table. I've been there. I once lost a $10,000 deal, and it's just because I forgot to follow up. It's that simple. One simple email could have saved it, and that's when I knew that I needed a CRM. But here's the problem. Most CRM reviews are written by tech experts, not real business owners like us. So today, I'm going to fix that, and I'll show you exactly which CRM will transform your business. And I'm going to go over which CRMs are better for which situations and different types of people. And this will be without breaking the bank and without needing a tech degree. Oh, and without all the headaches as well. So here's what we'll cover. First, I'll explain what a CRM actually is in plain English. Then we're going to review around 10 popular CRM options, and we're going to go over the pricing. I'm going to show you the features, the pros and cons of each. And at the end, I'll reveal the number one CRM for your specific situation. So why does this matter right now? Because the CRM market has exploded. There are literally hundreds of options. Prices are changing constantly. Features get added and removed left and right, and making the wrong choice costs you time and money. But the right CRM can double your sales efficiency. So let's go ahead and dive in with one that's very common, very well known, and that is HubSpot. Now, I really like HubSpot, and they're the 800-pound gorilla of CRMs. But what exactly is HubSpot? Well, it's the most popular free CRM out there, and they're known for their forever free plan and their amazing educational resources through HubSpot Academy. And I really like their free resources. I really like the free studies that they put out, and I think their content game is on point. But let's talk pricing. See, the free plan obviously costs zero. You get unlimited contacts, but there's only two users. The starter plan is $15 per user per month, and professional jumps to $800 per month. And then enterprise, it starts at $2,000 a month. Now, by the way, when I'm going over all of these, obviously, you know, things can change in the time that it takes to edit this video and post the video. So double check all of these yourself. But the pros here are it is truly free forever. It does have substantial features, and they have excellent learning resources. Plus, it's pretty much an all-in-one marketing suite, and the mobile app is great. The cons? There's an expensive jump from free to paid. The higher tiers require mandatory onboarding fees. We're talking like $1,500 to $3,500. And it can feel overwhelming with all of the features. It is a very robust CRM, so it does have a lot of features. So my rating? 4.5 out of 5. It's the best for those that are wanting to start completely free, but be ready for the sticker shock when you see the upgrade price. Now, by the way, comment down below what your favorite CRM is, and also comment the other ones you've used and why you liked them or you didn't like them. And then we can all learn from it. All right, CRM number two is ClickUp. Now, this is a CRM that my team has used in the past for customer success management, and it's primarily a project management tool. But it's something that many teams do try to use as a CRM, and it is a favorite of operations managers and project managers, including mine, Kat. She really likes ClickUp. Now, the pricing? Free forever, $0 for up to 100 uses. Then there's unlimited, which is $7 per user per month. Then you've got the business plan, which is $12 per user per month. Then you've got the enterprise plan, which is custom pricing, which will end up being in the high hundreds to thousands a month. So what do you get? Well, the free plan includes 100 megabytes of storage, unlimited tasks, basic views, unlimited plan ads, and unlimited storage, unlimited integrations, dashboards, custom fields. Then business ads, advanced features like timelines, workload management, advanced automation. And the pros is that it is very flexible, and it can be customized for almost anything. Plus, it is great for project management, and it has strong collaboration features. The cons, and here's where it gets frustrating, it's not built as a CRM, right? So you're forcing a square peg into a round hole. Let me give you a real example. A few weeks ago, I needed to move a column on a Kanban board that we had. Simple task, right? I should just be able to drag the column over. Well, I had to go through four different settings just to move one column over. So the point here is it's not very intuitive or user-friendly. And generally speaking, the more intuitive and user-friendly a CRM or project management tool is, the less stuff you can do with it, right? Because you can either make it super simple and easy to use, intuitive, user-friendly, or you can make it have really complex features, but it's going to be much more complicated to use, right? And I'm fairly good with technology, but ClickUp is pretty complicated, and in my opinion, it's overly complicated for very simple tasks. Now, additionally, there's no built-in sales features, no pipeline visualization designed for sales, and you basically need an IT team to make it work, or you need a project manager or operations manager that you can call at any time. Now, my rating as a CRM, I'm going to give it a three out of five, right? It's great for projects, not ideal for beginners who need a project management software or a CRM, but it is a favorite of a lot of operations managers and project managers. Now, I do know some people who basically use it as a CRM. All right, next is Close.io, which I think they recently rebranded to Close.com. And this is another one that we have used. Now, I really like Close.io if you are basically like a coach, a consultant, an agency owner, or a online service provider. So for a small business that's not doing like, you know, tens of thousands of leads, Close.io is great. And a lot of sales people that I've talked to, like sales managers, etc., they love Close. Now, when it comes to the pricing, I think they recently changed it, so I'll just go ahead and put it up on the screen. It is pretty reasonable, and it does really just organize everything, and it makes it super easy to follow up with people. You know, you can call people straight from your dashboard, you can text people straight from your dashboard, you can set up automations, email people, etc., just everything straight in the dashboard. So it is pretty freaking awesome. But the problem comes when you try to integrate it with other tools. So we had a lot of issues integrating this with text messaging tools, email automation tools, and stuff like that. Zaps would break, there'd be a lot of duplicates that happened, and just some headaches like that. And of course, if you're just using a pure CRM that doesn't have any other tools integrated, you're kind of going to expect that to happen. But with that being said, I really like this one for like coaches, consultants, online service providers, that kind of thing, especially people who sell high ticket, obviously. I'm going to give this one a 4.5 out of 5. All right, CRM number four is Pipedrive. So what is it? It's a visual sales-focused CRM, and it has a drag-and-drop pipeline. So it makes it very easy and user-friendly. So this is significantly simpler than other tools like HubSpot or Salesforce. It's a very simple tool, and it's probably something that a small business would use, very similar to Close. And it is very visual and intuitive, and it mirrors how salespeople would actually work. Now, when it comes to the pricing, Essential is $14 per user per month, Advanced is $39 per user per month, Professional is $49 per user per month, Power is $79 per user per month, and Enterprise is $99 per user per month. So what's included in each tier? Well, the Essential tier gives you the visual pipeline, contact management, and mobile apps. The Advanced tier adds email sync, templates, and automation. And Professional and above, revenue forecasting, advanced automation, and more. Now, the pros, extremely intuitive visual interface. I have a friend who does all kinds of different B2B-related marketing, and he does a lot of networking as well. And the reason for that is because he works in the finance industry. And he basically stores all of his contacts, including WhatsApp and many other things, on Pipedrive. And he tried a lot of different CRMs out, and Pipedrive was the only one that worked for him. It was the only one where he was able to store everything in one place, and it didn't break. So yeah, very intuitive, very useful. It also has a pretty quick setup. You can set it up in hours, not days, has an excellent mobile app, and there's strong automation even on lower tiers. Now, the cons, there's no free plan, limited marketing features, and it can get expensive as your team grows. So my rating here, 4 points out of 5. This one is really good if you're doing a lot of cold outreach on a bunch of different messaging platforms and you need to keep everything organized. All right, CRM number 5, Monday.com. These guys, I see their advertisements everywhere. Now, Monday.com is colorful and visual, and it's a CRM that evolved from a project management software. And this is actually a recurring theme. You'll see a lot of software that kind of starts off as a CRM, or they start off as a project management software, and then they try to kind of evolve and do other things as well. So this one is pretty good for teams who want both capabilities. Now, here's the pricing. Basic is $10 per user per month, but there's a catch. There's a three-user minimum. So it's really $30 per user per month. Standard is $14 per user per month. Pro is $24 per user per month. And Enterprise is custom pricing. And whenever you see custom pricing, think in the high hundreds of dollars a month range or even low thousands of dollars a month. So what do you get? Basic includes unlimited pipelines, unlimited contacts, and dashboards. Standard adds AI features, email integration, and automation. Pro gives you advanced analytics, forecasting, and 25,000 actions per month. Now the pros, it's really intuitive. It's a very intuitive interface. It's great for project management plus a CRM. It does have strong collaboration features, and there's an 18% annual discount. At least there was when I checked. Now the cons, the three-user minimum increases costs. There's limited CRM specific features. There's no free plan. And my rating overall, I will give this one a four out of five. And I'd say it's very good if you enjoy visual learning, right? Keeping things organized visually. All right, next is Zoho. And this is a very affordable option. So what is it? It's a CRM with strong multi-channel communication and extensive customization options. Now for the pricing, the free plan is $0 for three users. Standard is $14 per user per month. Professional is $23 per user per month. Enterprise is $40 per user per month. And ultimate is $52 per user per month. Now what's included? Free plan has a basic CRM, mobile apps, and five gigabytes of storage. Standard adds custom reports, workflows, and email templates. And then professional and above, advanced automation, AI assistant, and inventory management. Now the pros is good free plan with free users, very affordable pricing, and strong integration with the Zoho suite. Plus multi-channel communication. And the cons, steeper learning curve, interface feels outdated, and a complex setup for advanced features. My rating for this one is a 3.5 out of five. However, if you're plugged into the Zoho ecosystem, this obviously could be a really good option for you. All right, next is Agile CRM. Now you might have heard of Agile before. It's kind of a buzzword in the corporate world. And this is a pretty good affordable all-in-one platform. It combines sales, marketing, and support. And it has a 10 user free plan. Yes, 10 users. So the pricing breakdown here is the free has $0 for 10 users, but it is limited to only 1,000 contacts. Starter is $8.99 per user per month. Regular is $20.99 per user per month. And enterprise is $47.99 per user per month. So what do you get for that? Well, free includes the core CRM, email integration, and one workflow. Starter gives you 10,000 contacts, five workflows, and landing pages. And then regular above, built-in calling, SMS, and unlimited integrations. Now the pros, best free plan with 10 users, extremely affordable. It's an all-in-one platform, and it does have gamification features, which is pretty cool. The cons, there's limited support on lower tiers. The interface can feel cluttered, and there are occasional bugs reported. So my rating, I'm going to give this one four out of five. I think this one is a really solid option for startups that are on a shoestring budget, because there is a lot of free seats before you have to pay. All right, next is Nutshell. And this is a B2B focused CRM. So that means it is for businesses that sell products and services to other businesses. And it does emphasize a human-only design. There's also unlimited contacts on all plans. Now when it comes to the pricing, I think they recently changed it, so I'll just go ahead and put it up on the screen. So what's included? Well, Foundation has unlimited contacts, one pipeline, basic CRM features, Pro adds five pipelines, automation, email sequences, and lead scoring. And then business and above, AI features, transcription, and advanced tools. So the pros are unlimited contacts on all plans, reportedly exceptional customer support, a user-friendly interface, and strong B2B features. The cons, it is a higher starting point, there's limited customization, and the marketing features cost extra. So for this one, I'm also going to give it a four out of five. And there's a good chance that this might be the best option if you're like a B2B software company. All right, next is Salesforce. So this is one of the biggest CRMs in the world. And I'm not going to go into too much detail on this, because I think that only like 0.1% of the people that watch this, Salesforce would actually be a good option for. But yeah, Salesforce is for like big companies, right? A lot of big companies use it, and that's what it's designed for. It's not very intuitive. In fact, there are people that get hired literally just to use Salesforce, because it's so difficult to use, right? And if you can learn how to use Salesforce, you can actually work for big companies and make a ton of money. So as an employee, it's a great idea to use it. But if you're a business owner, unless you own like a startup that's growing insanely fast, and you've got like thousands of employees, Salesforce may not be the option for you. So I'll give it a 3.5 out of 5. Unless you own a big business, then it's probably like a 5 out of 5. All right, next one is GoHighLevel, also known as HighLevel. Now, this one is different. You can almost think of it like the Swiss Army knife of business software. It's a true all-in-one platform, right? It literally replaces like five to eight separate tools, right? So instead of having to buy like five to eight separate tools and pay thousands of dollars a month, you can literally use GoHighLevel and pay like $97 a month. Now, this one is really good for agencies, coaches, consultants, basically small businesses, right? If you're tired of duct taping different software together, like we were, having to use Zapier to like, you know, put eight different software together and just hope that the zap doesn't break and hope they all communicate with each other, then this might be a great option for you. Now, the pricing, starter plan is $97 per month. So this is great for beginners. Because again, if you were paying for like all eight different types of tools, we're talking like a website, a landing page software, an email software, a calendar booking software, a CRM, a project manager, a community software, et cetera, et cetera, you're going to be paying thousands of dollars a month. And sometimes it's a lot more than that. But with this one, it's all-in-one, right? So starter plan, $97 a month, great for beginners. Then you've got unlimited, that's $297 per month. And then you've got this other tier that's called pro or SaaS, which is $497 per month. And this basically has white label capabilities. So you can basically make your own software and then it's really just go high level, but you can call it your own software and you can white label it. Now, the annual discount here is 16.6%. That's basically two months free. Plus there's a free trial, which is 14 to 30 days. And with the starter plan, you get unlimited contacts, not 1000, not 10,000, unlimited. Plus you get a full CRM with pipeline management, email and SMS marketing automation, website and landing page builder, sales funnel builder, unlimited funnels, online booking system, workflow automation, call tracking and recording, reputation management, forms and surveys, payment processing, and 24 seven support. And actually go high level has probably the best customer support I've ever used. They literally have a 24 seven zoom call that you can just get into anytime and you'll be put in a room and then immediately connected with someone who can literally look at your screen and help you. And it's all for $97. So for all of those things that I just mentioned, it was actually more than what I mentioned before. You would literally be paying thousands of dollars a month with just about any other CRM, right? Like a decent CRM costs $50 a month to $500 a month, depending on how many team members you have. Email marketing is like 30 to 300. With active campaign and an email list like mine, for instance, you're going to be paying like 1500 to $2,000 per month. Landing pages is like 25 to $200 a month. Funnel builders are 97 to $300 a month. Phone system is 50 to $200 a month. Booking system is 20 to $100 a month. And that's not even mentioning all of its capabilities. So the total for all of those at the upper limit would be like $1,600 a month. Go high level though is $97. So you save 500 to a thousand dollars every month. And remember my ClickUp story where I needed to use four different settings just to move a column? Well, that's exactly why go high level wins. With go high level, everything is drag and drop. It's super simple. There's no it needed. There's no complex settings. Just click, drag and done. It's built for busy business owners, not tech experts. And if you do run into a problem, like I said, their customer support is phenomenal. They actually help beginners. Unlike some tools that assume you have a computer science degree. Now the pros here save hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month using multiple tools. There's one login for everything. You don't have to stitch everything together with Zapier. There's drag and drop builders. There's lots of templates available. For instance, there's lots of amazing landing page templates available. There's also a mobile app for on the go management. There's white label options for agencies, and it is an incredible value at $97 per month. Plus there's amazing customer support for beginners. Now the cons, there is a learning curve, right? Because you have like 10 freaking software that they put together, but that's just because it has so many features. It also takes time to set up properly. Some features aren't as deep as specialized tools, but for beginners, it has everything you need. So my rating here is a perfect five out of five. And this is a clear winner for beginners. As long as you're willing to pay $97 a month, but you can check it out completely free and get somewhere between 14 and 30 days free depending on what plan you sign up for. And you can check the link down in the description and the pin comment below for that. All right. So the verdict, let's recap quickly. Best free option, probably HubSpot, but it's limited. Most visual option, probably monday.com, but it does have limited CRM features. Most frustrating option for beginners, click up. Unless you love going through four settings to move a column, best all-in-one value, it's got to be go high level at the $97 a month mark with pretty much unlimited everything. And while others will nickel and dime you with contact limits and user fees and all that crazy stuff, go high level gives you everything for one flat rate. And it's the only platform offering true all-in-one functionality. And despite having so many features out of all the platforms that do have all those features, it's definitely the easiest to use. So this is a platform that you can use as a beginner and you can keep using it for years and years into the future. And I also think it's really good for like coaches, consultants, online service providers, agency owners, basically like small business owners. Plus, in the agency, coaching, consulting, etc., like small business owner space, it's very common for people to have experience with it. So people can just come into your business and they either already know how to use it or very quickly, they're going to be able to learn how because there's so many tutorials online. Right. And it's much easier than juggling multiple tools or needing an I.T. team like with ClickUp. And unlike others where you outgrow the platform, go high level scales with you. Now, some other ones that I like, I do like Close.com. I think they're phenomenal, especially if you're selling high ticket and you're like a coach. You don't have that many contacts, but you really want to be able to keep them organized and keep on contacting them for months into the future. Pipeline can also be really good depending on your needs. It does integrate a lot of chat platforms, which is great. So if you're doing a lot of appointment setting and like WhatsApp, Telegram, a bunch of different chat platforms, basically Pipe Drive can be really good. And of course, you've got to love HubSpot. Overall, for most small businesses, a.k.a. people that would be watching YouTube or people that are trying to launch businesses from YouTube, go high level is the way to go. Now, check out this video right here, because for some reason, YouTube thinks that you should watch it. And I'll see you in the next one.