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6 Best Analytical CRM Software for 2024

Name: Freshsales
Item: Freshsales
Rating: 4.3
Author: J.R. Johnivan

Written By

J.R. Johnivan

Dec 1, 2023

3 minute read

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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 2024:

Freshsales: Best overall analytical CRM for pricing and features (free starting price)
Zoho CRM: Best CRM software for predictive scenario analytics (free starting price)
Salesforce: Best analytical software solution for custom reporting (30-day free trial)
Bitrix24: Best analytical CRM for analyzing marketing channels (free starting price)
Microsoft Dynamics 365: Best business intelligence and analytics (30-day free trial)
Pipedrive: Best analytical CRM to identify and track website leads (14-day free trial)

Although some CRM options scored highly in one category or another, we found that Freshsales offers the best overall value for those needing a cost-effective analytical CRM. Keep reading to learn more about each CRM platform, including their primary use cases, pricing plans, and key features. Otherwise, skip down to see how we evaluated the top analytical CRM options.

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

Freshsales: Best Overall Analytical CRM

Offers 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

4.3

Core Features

4.6

Cost

4.6

Advanced Features

4.3

Customization

4.4

Ease of Use

4.1

Customer Support

4.1

Pros

Free plan for up to 3 users
Easy, customizable interface
Built-in phone, SMS & chat

Cons

Free version lacks workflows
Missing some marketing tools
Limited Google 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. For a CRM with strong sales and marketing features, consider Zoho CRM, which offers these insights at a similar price.

Freshsales Pricing

Free Version: Supports up to 3 users
Growth: $15 per user, per month
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
Access to Freshworks Marketplace

Freshsales Key Features

Sales Forecasting: Set best-case estimates and forecast revenue for decision-making.
Freddy AI: Leverage artificial intelligence to auto-score leads and get other key insights.
Intuitive UI: Monitor your deals and streamline workflows with its user-friendly platform.
Free Sales Tools: Manage your contacts, deals, activities, and tasks at the free level.

Zoho CRM: Best for Predictive Analytics

Helps you understand business metrics and 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

4.2

Core Features

4.5

Cost

4.6

Advanced Features

4.4

Customization

4.5

Ease of Use

3.7

Customer Support

3.0

Pros

Analyzes your entire sales pipeline
Gauges email campaign effectiveness
Forecasts milestones & achievements

Cons

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

Zoho CRM is leading pipeline software 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 features, makes for a strong decision making tool.

Zoho's predictive analytics features are impressive, but learning about the platform can be challenging for newbies. If you’re looking for a user-friendly CRM with robust predictive analytical tools, consider Freshsales.

Zoho CRM Pricing

Free Version: Supports up to 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
Access to Zoho One Marketplace Apps

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.

Salesforce: Best for Custom Reports

Provides a robust suite of core CRM features plus advanced reports and dashboards.

Price Range: $25 to $330 per user, per month (30-day trial)

Overall Rating

3.9

Core Features

4.6

Cost

2.3

Advanced Features

4.4

Customization

4.9

Ease of Use

3.4

Customer Support

4.0

Pros

Highly customizable reports
AI-powered sales features
Multi-pipeline tracking tool

Cons

Glitches can be common
Has a steep learning curve
May require tech expertise

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a highly customizable CRM that offers intelligent sales features and custom reporting tools that help you make decisions with real-time data. Salesforce offers template reports that you can tailor with your own CRM metrics, share with or hide from certain teams, translate into visual charts, and add to dashboards. Upgrade to its Unlimited plan to harness Einstein GPT’s generative technology, AI-driven forecasting, and sales analytics.

Salesforce’s 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 Sales Cloud Pricing

Starter: $25 per user, per month
Professional: $80 per user, per month
Enterprise: $165 per user, per month
Unlimited: $330 per user, per month
Free Trial: 30 days
Access to Salesforce AppExchange

Salesforce Sales Cloud Key Features

Multiple Pipeline Views: Monitor your 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: Assign incoming leads to specific sales reps or departments.

Bitrix24: Best to Analyze Marketing Channels

Allows you to see which marketing channels are performing the best for your business.

Price Range: Free to $399 per month (15- to 30-day free trial)

Overall Rating

3.8

Core Features

4.4

Cost

4.6

Advanced Features

3.3

Customization

3.6

Ease of Use

2.7

Customer Support

3.7

Pros

Online & offline ad tracking
Unlimited contacts & users
Cost-effective pricing plans

Cons

Setup can be challenging
Clunky & complicated UI
No built-in AI assistant

Bitrix24 is an online workspace that helps reps and teams track their online and offline marketing campaigns. Its sales intelligence tool lets you test out different channels, such as email, SMS messaging, and robocalling, to see which one yields the most conversions. Users can also identify which social platform or Google Ads keywords generate the most traffic and monitor various offline campaigns, including local radio ads, billboards, and TV commercials.

While Bitrix24 is a great tool for your multichannel marketing efforts, its user interface can be difficult to use. For a more intuitive platform that lets you monitor your campaigns, try Freshsales, which won in this category and has campaign tracking features.

Bitrix24 Pricing

Free Version: Supports unlimited users
Basic: $49 per user, per month for 5 users
Standard: $99 per user, per month for 50 users
Professional: $199 per user, per month for 100 users
Enterprise: $399 per user, per month for 250 users
Free Trial: 15 to 30 days
Access to Bitrix24.Market

Bitrix24 Key Features

Customer Journey: Track your customer’s touch points from awareness to purchase.
Segment Marketing: Monitor results of your email campaigns, SMS blasts, and more.
Lookalike Audiences: Launch ads for leads who match the parameters in your CRM.
Offline Ads: Monitor the impact of your local radio ads, billboards, and TV commercials.

Dynamics 365 Sales: Best for Business Intelligence

Offers enterprise-level BI and collaboration tools for faster decision making.

Price Range: $40 to $162 per user, per month (30-day free trial)

Overall Rating

3.7

Core Features

4.5

Cost

1.5

Advanced Features

4.6

Customization

4.3

Ease of Use

3.2

Customer Support

3.7

Pros

Syncs with Microsoft Office
Robust customer support
Self-service analytical tools

Cons

Pricing can be expensive
Entry-level tier is barebones
Marketing tools are limited

Dynamics 365 Sales is a high-powered CRM solution offered by Microsoft that helps you share, interact with, and collaborate on business intelligence (BI) reports. Dig deeper into your data with advanced data modeling and easily find patterns via forecasting and clustering tools. Users can also access a self-service option that transforms data into BI data and share these reports and insights with colleagues in resource hubs, on the web, in apps, or via Microsoft Teams.

Although Dynamics 365 Sales offers advanced BI tools for larger teams and enterprises, you need to upgrade to its higher tiers for robust features. If you need a cost-effective analytical CRM with BI tools, look into Zoho CRM.

Dynamics 365 Sales Pricing

Microsoft Sales Copilot: $40 per user, per month
Dynamics 365 Sales Professional: $65 per user, per month
Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise: $105 per user, per month
Dynamics 365 Sales Premium: $150 per user, per month
Microsoft Relationship Sales: $177 per user, per month
Free Trial: 30 days

Dynamics 365 Sales Key Features

Power BI: Create reports for real-time business data with AI-driven visualizations.
Azure Analysis: Get access to enterprise-grade data models available in the cloud.
Microsoft Office Integration: Open, edit, and save documents in the Office Suite apps.
Interactive Reports: Track performance and key metrics with data modeling features.

Pipedrive: Best CRM for Tracking Web Leads

Provides a solid base of features plus the ability to add advanced website analytics.

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

Overall Rating

3.7

Core Features

4.3

Cost

3.2

Advanced Features

3.1

Customization

4.0

Ease of Use

4.0

Customer Support

3.9

Pros

400+ integrations
Easy, intuitive UI
Tailored add-ons

Cons

Lacks filters in reports
No free-for-life version
Some bugs & 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. Users 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 per user, per month
Advanced: $29 per user, per month
Professional: $49 per user, per month
Power: $64 per user, per month
Enterprise: $99 per user, per month
Free Trial: 14 days
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: Sync or add what you need to perform best in your industry.
Sales Assistant: Get info on past performance or suggestions to improve for the future.

Top 4 Analytical CRM Features

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

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

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

The best software option offers analytical and essential CRM tools and reasonably priced plans. Hence, we prioritized scoring core features and cost for this review, followed by advanced features. We also looked into each option’s customization capabilities and ease of use. Lastly, we considered the quality of the support solutions available.

Methodology weights

Core Features 25%

Cost 25%

Advanced Features 20%

Customization 10%

Ease of Use 10%

Customer Support 10%

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What Is Analytical CRM & How Does It Differ From Traditional CRM Software?

Analytical CRMs are designed to systematically gather and analyze customer data so teams and companies can make strategic decisions based on behavior and trends. While traditional CRMs focus mainly on customer-facing processes or the operational aspects of businesses, analytical CRMs emphasize robust data analysis planning and performance management, as well as data mining tools for forecasting deals.

How Can I Determine Which Analytical CRM Software Is the Best Fit for My Business’s Needs?

To determine the ideal analytical CRM for you, start by outlining your specific needs, goals, and objectives. After identifying these factors, narrow down options based on the core analytical functions they offer, customization capabilities, and scalability. Also leverage free versions or trials or browse through expert and user feedback from certified review sites to see which one aligns best with how your business operates.

What Are the Key Features & Capabilities I Should Look for in Analytical CRM Software?

The best analytical CRM platforms offer robust data management, advanced analytics features (such as customer insights and sales forecasting), OLAP tools, and flexible reports and dashboards. Analytical software solutions should also provide core CRM functionality, including contact management, pipelines, and workflow automation, as well as customization capabilities or third-party app integrations so businesses can tailor the system to their needs.

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.

This article was written by J.R. Johnivan and updated by Kezia Jungco.

J.R. Johnivan

JR Johnivan is a contributing writer for Selling Signals and a self-identifying tech nerd with a background in programming and hardware. He uses his understanding of tech to help people make SaaS- and software-related decisions through comparative guides. For Selling Signals, JR writes about CRMs and related software to help readers choose the best option for their business.