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6 Best Sales Pipeline Software for People & Teams 2023

Written By
JS
Jen Sako
Jul 25, 2023
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Sales pipeline software are CRMs offering visual, customizable pipelines that help salespeople manage leads, opportunities, and customer relationships throughout the sales process. The top pipeline software also provide sales forecasting and analytics tools, basic marketing functionality, workflow automation, and more. To help you choose the right one, we’ve developed our list of the best pipeline software available, including an overall winner. 

Here are the six best pipeline software for sellers and teams: 

  • Zoho CRM: Best overall pipeline software for pricing and features (free starting price)
  • Freshsales: Best sales pipeline software for AI-powered sales tools (free starting price)
  • EngageBay: Best pipeline software for deal and milestone tracking (free starting price)
  • monday sales CRM: Best software for visual contact management (14-day free trial)
  • Pipedrive: Best sales pipeline software for robust add-ons upgrades (14-day free trial)
  • HubSpot CRM: Best free software option with premium upgrades (free starting price)

In our evaluation, we found that the overall best option is Zoho CRM, scoring the highest for core features, customization, and integrations while tying for cost. Check out how each software fared across all six categories below, including their primary use cases, pricing plans, and summary of features. To see how we assessed each option, jump down to our explanation.

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

thumbnail Zoho logo

Zoho CRM: Best Overall Sales Pipeline Software

Provides highly-customizable features focused on sales, marketing, and analytics.

Price Range: Free to $52 per user, per month (15- to 30-day free trial)
Overall Rating
4.4
Cost
4.6
Core Features
4.7
Customizations
4.7
Ease of Use
3.7
Integrations
4.9
Customer Support
3.2

Pros:

  • Customizable pipelines
  • Free forever plan
  • Robust marketplace integrations

Cons:

  • Limited customer support
  • Advanced features only in high tiers
  • Complicated interface

Zoho CRM is fully-featured sales and marketing software with a multichannel lead management system. Its smart web forms can capture leads from social media and landing pages, then place them into your sales pipeline and send them automatic, relevant nurturing emails. As you convert those leads into prospects and customers, track your progress using sophisticated but affordable pipeline tools such as list views, reporting dashboards, and AI sales forecasting.

Even though Zoho CRM takes our top spot, some of its tools are difficult to use. If you need more intuitive software with a good mix of pricing and features, check out Freshsales, which is our top-rated CRM software.

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

  • Digital Marketing: Enrich your pipeline through social media, email, and more.
  • Lead Management: Segment customer lists and manage follow-ups for your leads.
  • AI Analytics: Turn sales performance data into insights to focus on high-priority leads.
  • Inventory Management: Create price books, sales quotes, sales orders, and more.

Zoho CRM Sales pipeline software

thumbnail Freshsales logo

Freshsales: Best for AI-Powered Sales Tools

Helps you manage multiple sales pipelines efficiently through smart automation features.

Price Range: Free to $69 per user, per month (21-day free trial)
Overall Rating
4.3
Cost
4.3
Core Features
4.7
Customizations
4.2
Ease of Use
4.3
Integrations
4.4
Customer Support
3.9

Pros:

  • Robust AI sales assistant
  • Highly customizable pipelines
  • Great customer support

Cons:

  • Custom reporting needs upgrade
  • Free version lacks AI
  • Fewer integrations than competitors

Freshsales by Freshworks is a visual sales pipeline software that uses AI-powered sales tools to help you nurture leads and close deals faster. Freddy AI's deal insights help teams analyze historical customer data through email content, call transcripts, and interactions and assign prediction tags to automatically categorize leads. Using these tags, you can prioritize promising leads by identifying how and when to engage with them or by running tailored campaigns.

While Freshsales has excellent AI-powered sales tools, it offers a limited amount of unique AI interactions even in its highest tiers. If having more of these is essential for you, check out Zoho CRM for its Zia AI assistant.

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
  • Access to Freshworks Marketplace

Freshsales Key Features

  • AI Assistant: See rich insights into customers and future revenue using smart tools.
  • Automated Workflows: Schedule calls or send emails or texts to leads automatically.
  • Lead Management: Create drag-and-drop pipelines to view different buyers’ journeys.
  • Communication & Lead Gen: Use web forms, live chat widgets, and built-in dialers.

Freshsales Sales pipeline software

thumbnail EngageBay CRM Logo

EngageBay: Best for Deal & Milestone Tracking

Offers user-friendly tools for automating deals and customizing milestones in your pipeline.

Overall Rating
4.1
Cost
4.0
Core Features
3.8
Customizations
4.2
Ease of Use
4.4
Integrations
4.6
Customer Support
4.4

Pros:

  • Intuitive interface
  • Offers list & milestone views
  • Robust customer support

Cons:

  • No built-in AI assistant
  • Pricey higher tier plans
  • Customization requires upgrades

EngageBay is an intuitive CRM and sales platform that offers powerful tools for managing multiple deals and pipelines. Track various products or services and create milestones for each deal, then customize each stage by integrating information on deal value, probability, close date, and more. Monitor your sales process with its list and milestone views, and pull advanced metrics from your dashboard for real-time updates sorted by revenue, funnels, and milestones.

Although EngageBay offers a user-friendly system to track your sales pipeline, it doesn’t have a built-in AI sales assistant for powerful automations. If you need software with AI, try Freshsales, which offers list and kanban views plus certain sales functions via Freddy AI.

EngageBay Pricing

  • Free Version: Support for unlimited users
  • CRM & Sales Bay Basic: $11.95 per user, per month
  • CRM & Sales Bay Growth: $45.99 per user, per month
  • CRM & Sales Bay Pro: $73.59 per user, per month

EngageBay Key Features

  • Sales Force Automation: Trigger automated workflows when a deal is won or lost.
  • Deal Management: Add custom milestones and track your sales process automatically.
  • Multiple Views: Filter your pipelines and sort them by deal, revenue, owner, and more.
  • Separate Deal Pipelines: Create multiple pipelines for different products and services.

EngageBay Sales pipeline software

thumbnail monday sales CRM logo

monday sales CRM: Best for Visual Contact Management

Helps you store, track, and manage your contacts on a highly visual platform.

Price Range: $10 to $24+ per user, per month (14-day free trial)
Overall Rating
3.9
Cost
3.4
Core Features
3.8
Customizations
3.9
Ease of Use
4.3
Integrations
3.7
Customer Support
4.6

Pros:

  • Customizable visual dashboards
  • Easy to use & set up
  • Unlimited sales pipelines

Cons:

  • No free plan
  • Customizations need upgrade
  • Reporting could be better

monday sales CRM is a highly-customizable software offered by monday.com, featuring colorful boards that help teams keep track of leads and prospects. Its visual contact management tool provides a full picture of the sales process with an instant overview of contact details, deal progress, and more. Use its kanban-style boards to move deals into the next stage of your sales pipeline, then see each lead’s status and follow-up deadlines via color-coded status tags.

While monday sales CRM is a great sales pipeline tool, it lacks the customization and automation that other CRMs tend to have. If you need a CRM with powerful automation across all tiers, check out Freshsales, which is also one of our best contact management software.

monday sales CRM Pricing

  • Basic CRM: $10 per user, per month
  • Standard CRM: $14 per user, per month
  • Pro CRM: $24 per user, per month
  • Enterprise: Contact for quote
  • Free Trial: 14 days
  • Access to App Marketplace

monday sales CRM Key Features

  • Contact Management: Store and organize your contacts’ information in one place.
  • Visual Boards: Customize your board with various column types, templates, and colors.
  • Funnel Chart: Follow the flow of your deal stages using this built-in dashboard tool.
  • Customizable Dashboards: Organize custom reports for real-time deal insights.

monday sales CRM Sales pipeline software

thumbnail Pipedrive Logo

Pipedrive: Best for Robust Add-Ons

Provides powerful add-ons for sales pipeline management and lead generation.

Price Range: $14 to $99 per user, per month (14-day trial)
Overall Rating
3.8
Cost
3.2
Core Features
4.2
Customizations
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Integrations
3.8
Customer Support
4.1

Pros:

  • Unlimited customizable sales pipeline
  • Robust lead generation add-ons
  • Integrates with 400+ apps

Cons:

  • No free plan
  • Limited deal & activity reports
  • No phone support for lower tiers

Pipedrive is a visual software that includes visual pipeline management, lead generation, and sales automation features. One of its defining features is the ability to pay for add-on upgrades a la carte, such as LeadBooster, which captures high-quality inbound and outbound leads using chatbots, prospector tools, and web forms. Its Campaigns add-on then helps you create and send customizable email campaigns based on leads’ engagement with your previous emails.

Although Pipedrive doesn't offer a free plan, its most affordable tier includes customizable pipelines and an AI-powered sales assistant. However, lower tiers have limited reporting and forecasting features. For a robust free plan and affordable tiers, check out Zoho CRM.

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
  • Pay for sales and marketing add-ons
  • Access to Pipedrive Marketplace

Pipedrive Key Features

  • Add-On Upgrades: Pay for upgrades like LeadBooster, Campaigns, and Projects.
  • Deal Management: Track deals and anticipate close dates through pipeline stages.
  • Document Management: Create contracts and get them signed online with esignature.
  • Calendar & Email Sync: Integrate with Google, iCloud, Microsoft Office, and more.

Pipedrive Sales pipeline software

thumbnail HubSpot logo

HubSpot CRM: Best Free Sales Pipeline Software

Offers a free-for-life plan with robust sales and marketing features, among others.

Overall Rating
3.6
Cost
2.3
Core Features
4.0
Customizations
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Integrations
4.3
Customer Support
3.9

Pros:

  • Has a free forever plan
  • Easy integration process
  • Highly customizable deal pipelines

Cons:

  • Steep learning curve
  • Limited AI features
  • Cumbersome reporting tools

HubSpot CRM is a fully-featured free software for sales, marketing, and service. Add deals to a visual pipeline from contact records, then the CRM will autopopulate them with relevant info to eliminate manual data entry. Also included in the free tier are pipeline tools like custom fields, reports and dashboards, and email templates. If you upgrade into Sales Hub for more users or features, you’ll maintain access to its free marketing, service, CMS, and operation tools.

While HubSpot offers a robust free plan, its higher tiers and upgrades can get pricier than other softwares. For those needing more cost-effective yet feature-rich upgrade options, try Zoho CRM for sales and marketing tools or Freshsales for more sales-focused features.

HubSpot CRM Pricing

  • Free Version: Supports unlimited users
  • Sales Hub Starter: $18+ per month for 2 users
  • Sales Hub Professional: $450+ per month for 5 users
  • Sales Hub Enterprise: $1,200+ per month for 10 users
  • Additional users can be purchased for extra
  • Access to free tiers of its marketing and service platforms

HubSpot CRM Key Features

  • Email Management: Send personalized emails or create sequences and smart sends.
  • Web Forms: Build forms and banners to capture lead information from website visits.
  • Live Chat Widgets: Offer support to site visitors and collect their info to generate leads.
  • Free Feature Integrations: Integrate with free lead gen, help desk, and other key tools.

HubSpot CRM Sales pipeline software

Top 5 Sales Pipeline Software Features

The best sales pipeline software offer features such as:

Sales pipelines are visual representations of your sales process stages and where each lead is within them. Pipeline management tools help you track these stages and identify bottlenecks and opportunities to close more deals.

How We Evaluated the Best Sales Pipeline Software

To determine the best CRM software for salespeople needing to track their pipelines, we divided our scoring into six major categories, each of which included several weighted subcriteria. We then assigned scores for each subcriteria, which totaled an overall score out of five, and the sales pipeline software scoring the highest was identified as our winner. Finally, we determined a primary use case for each option that scored highly enough to make it onto our list.

Evaluation Criteria

For our scoring, we put the most emphasis on each option’s cost and core features offered since these tend to be the most important aspects for salespeople when choosing a sales pipeline software. We then reviewed each option’s customization, ease of use, and integrations with third-party apps. We also looked at the level of customer support offered by each CRM to round out our evaluation.

Cost: 25%
Core Features: 25%
Customization: 15%
Ease of Use: 15%
Integrations: 10%
Customer Support: 10%

We evaluated free trial periods, subscription plans, billing options, and features offered in a free plan when applicable.

Criteria Winner: Multiple winners

We assessed each sales pipeline software’s core offerings, such as pipeline management, lead management, account management, workflow automation, and sales forecasting.

Criteria Winner: Zoho CRM

This covers the different customizations for sales pipelines, deal stages, milestones, reports, and dashboards.

Criteria Winner: Zoho CRM

We evaluated any knowledge bases offered and read user reviews covering whether the sales pipeline software is easy to use on sites like Capterra, G2, and TrustRadius.

Criteria Winner: EngageBay

We assessed the different integrations often used by salespeople including email, calendar, accounting, and social media.

Criteria Winner: Zoho CRM

We checked real user reviews on G2 and Capterra and looked at the types of customer support solutions offered, such as live chat, phone, and email.

Criteria Winner: monday sales CRM

Bottom Line: Best Sales Pipeline Software

The ability to view your sales pipeline will change the way you do business. A visual sales pipeline tracks sales activities and helps you identify tasks that are most effective in getting a deal to close. Many CRMs include them as part of their suite of CRM features, but our list will help you find the one that will fit your needs. If you’re specifically looking for software to help you analyze sales activities and deal stages, read our review of the best sales tracking software.

JS

Jen is a Pittsburgh-based contributing writer for Selling Signals specializing in CRM software buyer's guides. As a freelancer, she also writes about hospitality and tourism sales, including sales and marketing tech and travel content. When she isn't on assignment, Jen catches up on her many newsletter subscriptions, watches no-code tutorials, and spends time with her family.

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