6 Best Analytical CRM Software for Salespeople

Learn about the top analytical CRM solutions for salespeople and marketing professionals in 2022, including the best use case for each.

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Analytical CRMs are software that help you collect, manage, and analyze your data so you can forecast sales and other key metrics and better understand your customers. The best options offer robust data management, comprehensive analytics, advanced forecasting, and customizability to measure the details that matter most to your business. In this article, we compare the top analytical CRM options to help determine the one that's best for you.

Here are the top six analytical CRMs for salespeople in 2022:

  • Freshsales: Best overall analytical CRM for pricing and features (free starting price)
  • Salesforce Essentials: Best CRM for advanced custom reporting (30-day free trial)
  • Zoho CRM: Best analytical CRM for predictive scenario analytics (free starting price)
  • HubSpot CRM: Best free CRM to analyze marketing channels (free starting price)
  • Pipedrive: Best analytical CRM to identify and track website leads (14-day free trial)
  • Insightly CRM: Best CRM for project management analytics (free starting price)

How We Evaluated the Best Analytical CRM Software

To assess the best options, we first split our scoring criteria into six weighted categories, each consisting of specific subcriteria. Next, we gave each CRM software on our list a score out of five for each category, then we added up the category scores to determine a total score for each software and an overall winner among all CRMs. Finally, we considered what each software does best and assigned primary use cases.

Evaluation Criteria

We first looked at the most significant category, analytical features, covering the tools that distinguish analytical CRMs from more general offerings. Ease of use is based on the overall usability of each entry, while expert score reflects our own experience with each platform along with that of the general public. Sales features cover the standard functionality of CRMs, with customization and pricing finishing off our criteria.

Analytical Features:
30%
Ease of Use:
20%
Expert Score:
15%
Sales Features:
15%
Customization:
10%
Pricing:
10%

Note: All per-user prices require a one-year commitment unless otherwise noted.

Overall, Freshsales offers the best combination of analytical features and pricing out of all the entries. It also earned the highest scores for analytical features, sales features, and our expert score. Take a look at our breakdown for specific details on all CRMs that made our list.

Freshsales: Best Overall Analytical CRM

Sales-focused CRM offering affordable, strong features plus upgrades for more advanced functionality like AI insights.

Price Range: Free to $69 per user, per month (21-day free trial)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Analytical Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Expert Score star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Sales Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customization star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full

Pros:

  • Free seats in Growth tier
  • Easy, customizable UI
  • Built-in phone, SMS, and chat

Cons:

  • No unlimited free tier
  • Customer support could improve
  • Few app integrations

Freshworks' Freshsales is a powerful sales CRM offering robust features for a reasonable price. Its most impressive analytical feature is its Freddy AI tool, which helps with predictive contact scoring, deal and forecasting insights, and more so you can use data to make decisions for each lead and deal. Also available is its sales forecasting feature, which allows you to set best-case estimates, then prioritize the activities that will likely bring about the best results.

Freshsales' forecasting and AI insights are highly useful and earned it our title as best CRM in general, but the tools and CRM are largely sales-focused. If you're looking for a CRM with strong sales and marketing features, consider Zoho CRM, which offers these insights at a similar price.

Freshsales Pricing

  • Growth: $15 per user, per month (free for 3 users)
  • Pro: $39 per user, per month
  • Enterprise: $69 per user, per month
  • Free Trial: 21 days
  • Integration with Freshworks' free marketing and service platform tiers

Freshsales Key Features

  • Sales Forecasting: In the Pro tier, forecast revenue for decision making.
  • Freddy AI: Starting at Growth, auto-score your leads and get other key insights.
  • Intuitive UI: Easily manage your pipeline, contact records, and more.
  • Free Sales Tools: Manage your contacts, deals, and data in the free level.

Freshsales analytical crm

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Salesforce Essentials: Best for Custom Reports

Sales CRM under the Salesforce Sales Cloud umbrella that offers core features plus advanced reports and dashboards.

Price Range: $25 per user, per month (30-day free trial)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Analytical Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Expert Score star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Sales Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customization star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full

Pros:

  • Highly customizable reports
  • Feature-rich sales tool
  • Multi-pipeline tracking

Cons:

  • Glitches can be common
  • UI isn't quick to learn
  • Customer service not timely

Salesforce Essentials is the most affordable Sales Cloud level but still carries much of the power that you'd expect from Salesforce, especially when it comes to custom analytical reporting. Essentials offers template reports that you can customize with your own CRM metrics, share with or hide from certain teams, translate into visual charts, and add to dashboards. This allows the right people to view the reports and make decisions based on real-time data.

Essentials' custom reporting is unmatched, but it doesn't offer a free tier and you'll have to upgrade to a higher Sales Cloud tier to access most of the features available. For a CRM that offers lots of great sales tools even in its free plan, take a look at Freshsales.

Salesforce Essentials Pricing

  • Essentials: $25 per user, per month (up to 10 users)
  • Free Trial: 30 days

Salesforce Essentials Key Features

  • Multiple Pipeline Views: Track leads and opportunities on separate pipelines.
  • Scalability Within Sales Cloud: Upgrade to higher tiers as you need more functionality.
  • Lightning App Builder: Use custom features and components to make your own apps.
  • Automated Lead Routing: Automatically assign leads to specific sales reps.

Salesforce Essentials analytical crm

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Zoho CRM: Best for Predictive Analytics

Sales and marketing platform that helps users make the right decisions via "what-if" analyses.

Price Range: Free to $52 per user, per month (15- to 30-day free trial)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Analytical Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Expert Score star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Sales Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customization star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full

Pros:

  • Analyze your entire sales pipeline
  • Gauge email campaign effectiveness
  • Forecast milestones and achievements

Cons:

  • Features are limited in the free version
  • Missing support for certain languages
  • Slow customer service response times

Zoho CRM is an analytical CRM great for both sales and marketing activities and data. You can analyze typical data like revenue, traffic, and trends, plus test hypothetical metrics via Zoho's "what-if" analyses. For example, if you're considering a certain discount, you can run an analysis to predict how that discount will affect your overall sales. This unique ability in addition to Zoho's other analytics and measurement functionality makes for a strong decision making tool.

Zoho's sales and marketing features are impressive, but many are only available in the paid plans. For a CRM that offers more robust free sales, marketing, and service tools, learn about HubSpot CRM.

Zoho CRM Pricing

  • Free Plan: Support for 3 users
  • Standard: $14 per user, per month
  • Professional: $23 per user, per month
  • Enterprise: $40 per user, per month
  • Ultimate: $52 per user, per month
  • Free Trial: 15 to 30 days for all paid plans

Zoho CRM Key Features

  • Lead Analytics: Track critical lead data like sources, status, conversion rates, and churn.
  • Sales Forecasting: Use historical data and trend info to accurately predict future sales.
  • Zia AI: Benefit from in-depth data analytics powered by Zoho’s AI-driven virtual assistant.
  • Custom Reporting: Mix-and-match data from various leads, contacts, vendors, or tasks.

Zoho CRM analytical crm

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HubSpot CRM: Best Free Analytical CRM

Free forever CRM that allows you to see which marketing channels are performing the best for your business.

Price Range: Free to $1,200 per month (Sales Hub)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Analytical Features star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Expert Score star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Sales Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customization star-fullstar-full star-fullstar-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full

Pros:

  • Analyze your live support chat
  • Upgrade to view detailed sales analytics
  • Track the entire customer lifecycle

Cons:

  • Limited customizability
  • Database filters need improvement
  • Expensive at higher pricing tiers

HubSpot CRM is a full-scale free solution for marketing, sales, and service with available upgrades. With the leading free version, auto-build standard dashboards in your account to analyze your marketing channels — your website, landing pages, blog posts, CTAs, emails, social accounts, and more. Once you understand each channel's sessions, conversion rates, and other key performance metrics, you can decide how best to allocate your resources.

HubSpot CRM includes most core features you'll need, but upgrading is expensive since you pay separately for Sales Hub and Marketing Hub to upgrade both sets of tools. To get both types of premium features in one package, start with Zoho CRM's free version and upgrade as needed.

HubSpot CRM Pricing

  • Free Plan: Support for unlimited users
  • Sales Hub Starter: $45 per month for 2 users
  • Sales Hub Professional: $450 per month for 5 paid users
  • Sales Hub Enterprise: $1,200 per month for 10 paid users
  • Additional users can be purchased for extra
  • Integration with HubSpot's free marketing, service, and operation platform tiers

HubSpot CRM Key Features

  • Sales Analytics: View all of your sales data in one place with a centralized dashboard.
  • Lifecycle Tracking: Analyze the customer lifecycle from prospecting to post-close.
  • Website Metrics: Track key web metrics, including referrals, sessions, and conversions.
  • HubSpot Academy: Access free courses on marketing, sales, service, and tutorials.

HubSpot CRM traffic analytics

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Pipedrive: Best CRM for Tracking Web Leads

Visual sales platform with a solid base of features plus the ability to add advanced website analytics.

Price Range: $14.90 to $99 per user, per month + add-ons (14-day free trial)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Analytical Features star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Expert Score star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Sales Features star-fullstar-fullstar-fullstar-full Customization star-fullstar-full star-fullstar-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full

Pros:

  • Over 300 integrations
  • Easy, intuitive UI
  • Tailored add-ons

Cons:

  • Lacks filters in reports
  • Not very customizable
  • Some bugs and glitches

Pipedrive is an easy-to-use sales CRM offering paid tiers plus a la carte upgrades. To transform it into a highly analytical CRM, use the Web Visitors add-on, which helps you closely track how your leads are finding you, how long they stayed on your website, and what they interacted with — this can improve your outbound sales by identifying the leads that are ready to buy. Then, you can even use Prospector within the LeadBooster add-on to find their contact info and reach out.

Pipedrive lets you pay only for what you need, but the absence of a free tier plus the expense of an add-on can get pricey. If you'd prefer to access robust sales tools in a free or low-cost tier, consider Freshsales instead.

Pipedrive Pricing

  • Essential: $14.90 per user, per month
  • Advanced: $27.90 per user, per month
  • Professional: $49.90 per user, per month
  • Power: $64.90 per user, per month
  • Enterprise: $99 per user, per month (minimum 10 users)
  • Free Trial: 14 days for all plans
  • Web Visitors Add-On: $41+ per user, per month
  • LeadBooster Add-On: $32.50+ per user, per month

Pipedrive Key Features

  • Advanced Add-Ons: Access LeadBooster, Web Visitors, Campaigns, or Smart Docs.
  • Visual Pipeline: Clearly see your leads via the drag-and-drop, kanban-style pipeline.
  • Industry-Specific Uses: Integrate or add what you need to perform best in your industry.
  • Sales Assistant: Get info on past performance plus suggestions to improve for the future.

Pipedrive analytical crm

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Insightly CRM: Best for Project Analytics

Project management and sales platform that comes with prebuilt dashboards to show real-time project analytics.

Price Range: Free to $99 per user, per month (14-day free trial)

Overall Rating star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Analytical Features star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Ease of Use star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Expert Score star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Sales Features star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Customization star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full Pricing star-fullstar-fullstar-full star-full

Pros:

  • Strong mobile app
  • Pipelines for leads and projects
  • Offers digital note-taking

Cons:

  • UI can be difficult
  • Customer support could improve
  • Integrations aren't intuitive

Insightly is a sales and project management CRM that uses separate pipelines for leads and projects. The most unique analytical tool offered by Insightly is its real-time projects dashboard. When you create an account, the platform will automatically generate a visual dashboard of four project-related reports — project pipeline funnel, projects by status, projects by rep and status, and projects completed by month — so you can analyze progress and improve delivery times.

Insightly is great for users that need both sales and project management, but it can seem clunky compared to other CRMs. If you're mainly focused on sales, it might be best to go with a more user-friendly sales CRM like Freshsales.

Insightly CRM Pricing

  • Free Plan: Support for 2 users
  • Plus: $29 per user, per month
  • Professional: $49 per user, per month
  • Enterprise: $99 per user, per month
  • Free Trial: 14 days for all paid plans

Insightly CRM Key Features

  • Milestones and Tasks: Track milestones, then assign and monitor related tasks.
  • Premium Sales Features: Insightly is good for lead routing, in-app calls, and more.
  • Business Intelligence Tools: Use built-in dashboards, custom insights, and more.
  • Team Collaboration: Use Google or Microsoft tools, plus Slack with an AI bot.

Insightly analytical crm

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Top 4 Analytical CRM Features

The analytical CRMs on our list share all four of the following features:

Data Warehousing

Data Mining

Advanced Forecasting

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

One of the most important functions analytical CRMs offer users is the ability to store data in its database and then search and extract certain metrics into reports. This allows you to use specific data when making calculated decisions for your business.

Related to data warehousing, data mining allows users to sort through a large amount of data to discover key correlations or patterns. This helps you to understand your customers' behaviors and how best to reach and engage them.

Analytical CRMs tend to offer artificial intelligence tools that can forecast sales and other key metrics. By forecasting these numbers, you can prioritize your time on certain leads or actions.

Through the OLAP computing method offered in analytical CRMs, you can easy extract and query certain data points to analyze trends, sales, budgets, and more. This feature is great when you're planning for the short- or long-term future of your business.

Bottom Line: Best Analytical CRM Software

It’s nearly impossible to gain a 360-degree view of sales, marketing, and customer data without an analytical CRM solution. Not only does this software make it easy to collect, organize, process, and manage data, but each one provides unique visualizations, reports, and actionable insight to help you make the most of this information. For more information on how analytical CRMs compare to the other main CRM types, check out our article on the four types of CRMs.

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