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6 Best Contact Management Software for Sales 2023

Name: Zoho CRM
Item: Zoho CRM
Rating: 4.4
Author: Alison Barretta

Written By

Alison Barretta

Aug 24, 2023

2 minute read

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Contact management software is a tool that stores and organizes lead and customer data in a centralized location. The best contact management software are typically CRMs that allow users to create segmented lists, track interactions, and easily update contact information so they can better engage new leads and keep current customers happy. To help you find an efficient way to store and access contact data, we’ve evaluated the top six contact management software.

Here are the best contact management software solutions:

Zoho CRM: Best overall software for features and customization (free starting price)
Freshsales: Best software for AI-powered contact management (free starting price)
Bitrix24: Best CRM software option for sales team collaboration (free starting price)
EngageBay: Best CRM software for contact behavior tracking (free starting price)
monday sales CRM: Best option for visual contact management (14-day free trial)
HubSpot CRM: Best free CRM software with premium upgrades (free starting price)

Overall, we found that Zoho CRM is the top contact management software, winning first place for core features, advanced features, and customization. Continue reading to learn more about each contact management CRM tool’s primary use case, pricing plans, and key features, or skip down to see how we scored each option across six categories.

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

Zoho CRM: Best Overall Contact Management CRM

Offers advanced CRM tools and customization to manage contacts across multiple channels.

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

Overall Rating

4.4

Cost

4.4

Core Features

4.6

Ease of Use

3.6

Customization

5.0

Advanced Features

4.8

Customer Support

3.5

Pros

Great social media integration
Omnichannel communication tracking
Flush with sales & marketing tools

Cons

Limited storage space
Reports can seem clunky
Difficult to set up & use

Zoho CRM is a contact management solution known for its tight social media integration and customization. Engage with your leads and prospects on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram and other channels via email, telephony, and third-party applications. Sync their information automatically to your database and tailor how you view your contacts with custom lists and views so you can identify which marketing strategy is effective for each contact.

Even though Zoho CRM has great multichannel contact management functions, its customer service can be improved. If your team is looking for great user support, check out EngageBay, which won in this category.

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

Omnichannel: Integrate Zoho CRM with email, telephony, live chat, and social media.
Social Tab: View contacts’ conversations from Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms.
Record Tagging: Create tags based on your defined criteria to help segment contacts.
Mobile Check-In: Log your meetings with customers and sync their data to your system.

Freshsales: Best for AI-Powered Features

Helps you capture, score, and engage with contacts with the power of artificial intelligence.

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

Overall Rating

4.3

Cost

4.4

Core Features

4.2

Ease of Use

4.3

Customization

4.2

Advanced Features

4.5

Customer Support

3.9

Pros

AI scores & engages contacts
Basic & advanced segmentation
Centralized contact activity timeline

Cons

Limited marketing features
Add-ons are useful but costly
Multiple pipelines require upgrade

Freshsales is our top-rated CRM software with built-in AI automation features. Known as Freddy, this AI assistant engages with contacts, scores leads, and deletes duplicate contact data. It also automates email sends, invoicing, and general data entry. Sales reps can segment their contacts using demographics and behavioral patterns and create compelling and personalized email marketing campaigns with the help of Freddy’s content generation feature.

While Freshsales has great AI-powered tools, it lacks robust marketing features and customizations in its lower paid tiers. If having these functions is important for you, try Zoho CRM, which won for core features and customization.

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

Freddy AI: Utilize machine learning to score contacts and engage with leads.
Activity Tracking: View every contact interaction through an activity timeline.
Segmentation: Sort contacts by demographics or by their typical behaviors.
24/5 Support: Access live support via chat, phone, or email five days a week.

Bitrix24: Best for Team Collaboration

Allows reps to share contact information and company updates with their team on one platform.

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

Overall Rating

4.1

Cost

5.0

Core Features

4.3

Ease of Use

2.5

Customization

4.0

Advanced Features

3.8

Customer Support

4.2

Pros

Unlimited contacts & users
Free online workspace
Affordable paid plans

Cons

No free customer support
No built-in AI assistant
Steep learning curve

Bitrix24 is cloud-based CRM software that helps customer-facing teams centralize internal communication and share information on leads and customers on a unified platform. Track your appointments and scheduled events with contacts via shared calendars that everyone in your team can access. Managers can also view their team’s attendance at work and daily plan and check call recordings to see how sales reps perform with the built-in VoIP phone system.

Bitrix24 is a great choice for teams that work closely together, but it lacks an AI sales assistant for robust workflow automation. For AI-powered CRM software with team management capabilities, look into Freshsales.

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
Ultimate: $399 per user, per month for 250 users
Free Trial: 30 days
Access to Bitrix24.Market

Bitrix24 Key Features

Contact Center: Track your contact communication from various channels in one place.
Virtual Presence: Know which reps are online and which have already finished working.
Bitrix24.Drive: Create, edit, and share your documents using customized permissions.
Workgroups: Set up virtual departments and invite internal or external users to a group.

EngageBay: Best for Behavior Tracking

Provides a holistic view of your contacts’ profiles, interests, and engagements on a single page.

Price Range: Free to $73.59 per user, per month

Overall Rating

4.0

Cost

3.8

Core Features

3.7

Ease of Use

3.6

Customization

3.9

Advanced Features

4.7

Customer Support

4.3

Pros

Free appointment scheduler
Offers biennial subscription discount
Robust customer support

Cons

Limited contacts across paid tiers
Free plan only supports 2 lists
Phone support requires upgrade

EngageBay is a user-friendly CRM with robust features for contact management and customer behavior tracking. Build comprehensive profiles for your contacts from multiple touch points like email, social media, and communication history, and track them individually on a single page. When your contacts open or reply to your email campaigns, this interaction is updated in your database, so you can use this info to segment them into lists or to personalize your content.

While EngageBay has a great customer tracking tool, you need to upgrade to more expensive tiers for advanced contact management features. For an affordable option with tight multichannel tracking functions, try Zoho CRM.

EngageBay Pricing

CRM & Sales Bay Free Version: Supports up to 15 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

360-Degree Customer View: Access each contact’s info and interactions on one page.
Contact Segmentation: Group your contacts based on their profile, behavior, and more.
Smart Scheduling: Automate appointments with your contacts using a free scheduler.
Contact Tracking: Monitor your contact’s real-time interactions across touch points.

monday sales CRM: Best for Visual Contact Management

Offers a limitless contact database with color-coded boards and an intuitive interface.

Price Range: $10 to $24+ per user, per month (14-day trial)

Overall Rating

3.9

Cost

3.6

Core Features

4.2

Ease of Use

4.3

Customization

4.1

Advanced Features

2.7

Customer Support

4.3

Pros

Highly-customizable dashboards
Easy import from Excel or Sheets
Segment contacts with tags

Cons

Limited free & basic activity logs
Can be expensive for larger teams
Lacking live support options

monday sales CRM is customizable and user-friendly software by monday.com that lets you build and organize an unlimited database of contacts using its kanban-style visual boards. Store your contacts' data like deals, priority tags, and phone numbers, and add more info like meeting notes, appointment schedules, or project tasks to each board. You can also create color-coded tags to associate keywords with a contact or labels that help you track your tasks and projects.

Even though monday sales CRM is an excellent visual contact management tool, it lacks robust workflow automations. If you’re looking for a user-friendly platform with strong automations, try Freshsales, which also features kanban-style boards.

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

Unlimited Contacts: Build and visually track a limitless database for your contacts.
Customizable Boards: Choose from over 200 templates and over 30 column types.
Tags: Segment contacts and organize multiple boards by creating color-coded tags.
Data Import: Transfer spreadsheets from Excel or Google Sheets with a few clicks.

HubSpot CRM: Best Free Software With Upgrades

Helps you track your contacts’ website activity and auto-updates list segments in a free plan.

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

Overall Rating

3.8

Cost

3.6

Core Features

3.8

Ease of Use

3.6

Customization

4.6

Advanced Features

3.7

Customer Support

3.9

Pros

Syncs with Service & Marketing Hubs
Automatically updated contact lists
Free platform supports unlimited users

Cons

Reports could be more in-depth
Free plan lacks automation rules
Upgrades may be costly

HubSpot CRM is our top-rated free CRM software that offers a solid suite of free contact management tools. Monitor your contact’s website activities with its free tracker, or export contacts from Gmail or Outlook via data extraction and automatically segment them into lists. You can also send notification emails to your contacts about form submissions or marketing campaigns. Upgrade for advanced tools like predictive lead scoring and workflow automation.

Although HubSpot’s free plan has powerful sales and marketing features, its higher tiers are pricey and you might have to pay extra for additional users. If you need a robust free plan with less expensive paid upgrades, look into Zoho CRM.

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
Integration with HubSpot's free marketing, service, and other tools
Access to HubSpot App Marketplace

HubSpot CRM Key Features

HubSpot Ecosystem: Take advantage of free service, marketing, and operations tools.
Inbox Insights: Sync your CRM with Gmail or Outlook for detailed contact information.
Email Tracking: Get notifications every time a recipient opens an email or clicks a link.
List Segmentation: Generate segmented lists to aid in automated email campaigns.

Top 4 Contact Management Software Features

The best contact management CRM software includes these functions:

Monitor and record engagements with your contacts at multiple touch points and at every stage of the sales process.

How We Evaluated the Best Contact Management Software

In our evaluation of the top options for contact management, we first defined six weighted categories based on factors that tend to be the most important to users. Then, we used a list of key subcriteria to assign every option a score out of five in each category. Finally, we used that information to determine an overall score for all software on our list and identify use cases.

Evaluation Criteria

We prioritized each software’s cost and CRM features like activity tracking, profile enrichment, and lead management. Next, we considered ease of use and customization since the best option is accessible and allows you to tailor the CRM to your industry’s needs. We then reviewed each software's advanced features and customer support, rounding out our evaluation.

Methodology weights

Cost 25%

Core Features 25%

Ease of Use 15%

Customization 15%

Advanced Features 10%

Customer Support 10%

Bottom Line: Best Contact Management Software

If you’re still relying on spreadsheets to manage your contacts, consider any of the options above to help organize and streamline your data. What’s more, the best contact management software options are also CRMs, which means you’ll be able to avail of other functions that will make your overall sales process even more efficient. If you’re specifically trying to manage your leads, see our independent review of the best lead management software for salespeople.

Alison Barretta

Alison is a Philadelphia-based technology writer for Selling Signals. She has 15 years of experience in the digital space, and her specialties include comparison guides and reviews across CRM, ecommerce, and various SaaS products. In her free time, Alison has received two HubSpot certifications plus a TEFL certification, as well as leads an online martial arts learning program.

6 Best Contact Management Software for Sales 2023

Top 4 Contact Management Software Features

How We Evaluated the Best Contact Management Software

Evaluation Criteria

Bottom Line: Best Contact Management Software

Alison Barretta

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