Pipedrive has been popular with early-stage startups and solopreneurs.

With over 100,000 loyal corporate users globally, the CRM helps sales teams to excel at their work and convert more leads.

Ease of implementation and use appeals to small and midsize companies, and pricing doesn’t bite either.

However, Pipedrive, like any other SaaS CRM, simply cannot be a silver bullet for every single case and business.

Being rather universal and comprehensive, Pipedrive, however, can be less deep in some niche things. Depending upon specific user needs, other CRMs may be a better fit in such scopes.

Read this article to better understand the pros and cons that other CRMs have when compared to Pipedrive.

Pipedrive in a nutshell

Both mature SMBs and newly minted sales teams love Pipedrive for how newcomer-friendly the CRM is.

The no-strings-attached free trial, a couple of tutorials, and a bunch of courses allow any user to successfully set up the system and start tinkering with the available features.

CRMs have always been about managing your sales pipeline. And with Pipedrive, it’s as easy as it gets.

Any sales rep can drag and drop stages and figure out how to optimize the sales pipeline for a specific segment, product type, or scenario.

Multiple pipelines live well together and allow easy switching between them.

Reporting is another highlight with Pipedrive — a deep nomenclature of data types and filters allows one to create, analyze, and share reports with a high level of detail.

Streamlined and easy-to-perform processes for data generation and effective ways to analyze performance appeals to small and midsize businesses.

On top of the core features, Pipedrive jibes well with third-party integrations and offers several powerful add-ons, including Microsoft Power BI, Slack, and Zapier.

Upgrading your plan might be required to fully access those additional features, but, as an emerging sales team with a small business, your best bet is to start with a bare-bones setup and keep building out from there on.

PandaDoc plus Pipedrive

A few more words before the start

Lastly, before we begin our comparison, it’s important to highlight that we speak from experience here.

The integration between Pipedrive and PandaDoc helps teams to align, finalize and sign documents much faster.

PandaDoc offers a suite of powerful features for easier processing of your documents, including:

  • Quickly build up and create fully personalized documents
  • Share and track changes in documents without leaving Pipedrive
  • Align and implement changes with ease, working cross-company and with cross-functionality
  • Deep-automate your document flows, creating a better experience for your sales team and leads

Why do people look for Pipedrive alternatives?

As we said before, sometimes there is a need for something more specific than the universal like Pipedrive.

The CRM would be a perfect fit for a coalescing sales team that wishes to avoid getting bogged down into complex automation and high-stakes monthly plans.

Is there a free version of Pipedrive?

Pipedrive does not have a free version, only a free 14-day trial.

The company offers four plans, including Essential at $18 per user per month, Advanced at $33 per user per month, Professional at $59 per user per month, and Enterprise at $199 per user per month.

Among the main differentiators between the plans is how many operations can be automated, which email marketing features are present, and how many open deals you can work with in parallel.

Our approach to sourcing data

PandaDoc’s subject matter experts work hard, and we want to shed some light on how they deliver the goods.

We’ve been collaborating with all major CRMs and other SaaS platforms for years, and are obsessed with ferreting out the smallest of details that will help your sales team determine picking this or that system.

To capture both professional reviews and opinions from real users, we actively interact with up to 30 various sources of data. Among these are:

In our analysis, we truly seek to dissect and analyze each software from the standpoint of end-users so that we can identify the distinct pros and cons, as well as comparative advantages.

CRMs can be hard to wrap your head around, as there are a lot of competing platforms in the market and their pricing plans aren’t always easy to compare.

Using the numerical data and objective descriptions of the available features, we help small and midsize businesses to enjoy a non-biased analysis of the market of CRMs, and the integrations possible between platforms.

01. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM screenshot

Our rating: 4.1/5

Ease of use: 3.5/5

Pricing: Standard ($14/user/month), Professional ($23/user/month), Enterprise ($40/user/month), Ultimate ($52/user/month)

Customer support: help center, email; extra support is paid additionally

Free trial: yes, 14 days + free version

Zoho CRM is a viable alternative to Pipedrive. It’s usually a step up for a growing small business or robust midsize sales team.

The sales reps will enjoy pretty straightforward processes for creating records and moving leads through the process.

The learning curve can be steep, and that’s why Zoho CRM usually is a transition destination for growing teams.

The standard plan is offered completely for free with three users enabled.

Teams can hit the ground running in minutes, enjoying a fully-fledged environment geared for lead and sales management.

Customization is tiered also, with users able to have a bigger say in views, screens, and elements with higher plans.

Sales reps can pick between the Kanban board, lists, and thumbnails. Ascetic and down-to-business formatting and design help maintain focus on all core duties.

Zoho CRM can have some forms that are bloated with a multitude of fields, but reps are welcome to adjust them as they like and trim down the unneeded elements.

One of the value propositions is Zia, the Intelligent Assistant (ZIA IA) that helps find novel ways to streamline and bolster sales processes.

With Zoho filling the space between small businesses and larger enterprises, hiring consultants may be warranted, as they’ll help guide your team’s journey toward fully uncovering all of the capabilities and strengths the software offers.

Compared with Pipedrive, Zoho CRM delivers much more extensive coverage across such sectors as lead management, VoIP integrations, data mining, and data enrichment with the help of Zia IA, customizations, and various automation pieces.

Automation rules might take some time to wrap your head around, but the CRM delivers a high degree of granularity and texture of its processes, enabling both small and midsize businesses to map out their sales flows with precision.

With so many third-party integrations and its apps, Zoho CRM can be the cornerstone of your sales operations for years to come as you continue growing.

A weakness that we’ve identified through our conversations with sales reps is that homegrown apps lack good project management tooling.

Upon conversion, teams usually hand off leads externally to customer success managers and KAMs.

The growing businesses that are seeking a more holistic approach will find Salesforce a more enticing option for end-to-end coverage of their needs.

Bottom line: Zoho CRM vs Pipedrive

Zoho CRM offers a free plan that allows users to “get their feet wet” with the basic CRM features.

And as the needs of your growing team increase, you can likewise level up with the appropriate pricing plan to meet that demand.

Gradually, you’ll be able to empower your sales with Zia Assistant, in-depth automation, invoicing integrations, email marketing, and customizations for internal views.

Zoho CRM lacks powerful built-in capabilities for marketing automation and post-conversion project management, but it might serve as a successful step up from more sales-focused software like Pipedrive.

Pipedrive Zoho CRM
Calendar
Document storage
Email marketing
Internal chat integration
Lead generation X
Marketing automation
Mobile access
Quotes and estimates
Segmentation
Social media integration X
Task management
Territory management
Free trial
Free version X
24/7 customer service

02. Salesforce Sales Cloud

Salesforce Sales Cloud screenshot

Our rating: 4.2/5

Ease of use: 4.0/5

Pricing: Essentials ($25/user/month), Professional ($75/user/month), Enterprise ($150/user/month), Unlimited ($300/user/month)

Customer support: case management, support portal, email, knowledge base, chat

Free trial: yes, 14 days

Salesforce leads the pack in the CRM market. A pioneer in cloud-based solutions, the vendor leverages its wealth of experience and wide acceptance by salespeople.

The CRM offers a wide suite of options covering not only contact and lead management but many other scopes, including:

  • pipeline forecast and management
  • process automation
  • opportunity management
  • lead management
  • reporting and dashboards.

Though Salesforce was originally focused on small and medium businesses, compared to some of its alternatives, it has reached a leading position in this market, with more than 150,000 customers globally.

The main value proposition is the ability to fully customize all business processes, views, and adjacent workflows.

The default mechanics are not highly intuitive and easy to wrap your head around.

In stark contrast to the ready-to-go ethos of Pipedrive, your team might need to invest several weeks into fleshing out the needed implementation.

Salesforce CRM enables your company to leverage CSS, custom coding, and no-code if-then charts to build your own CRM on top of the given default templates.

Once the implementation has been ramped up, onboarding your sales and lead generation teams won’t pose many difficulties thanks to the sophistication of the underlying mechanics.

Being at the top of the heap, Salesforce sets a comparatively high price for its product. Although the base tier is $25 per user per month, it’s hardly a viable lineup.

Businesses may invest up to $500 per user per month, gradually stringing together both homegrown add-ons as well as integration with favorite apps.

Pricing-wise, competitors Pipedrive and Zoho CRM may be a much better fit. The CRM works best for those SMBs who are ready for a major upgrade in their journey.

Users can take advantage of effective productivity tools for pipeline management, scheduling, and assignment.

Artificial Intelligence is making headway within the ecosystem, helping companies better manage leads through scoring, intelligent recommendations on next actions, and adjustments to pipelines.

“Zero inbox” is more achievable even if your team tackles hundreds of concurrent interactions with leads that come from various sources.

Surprisingly, customer support is questionable, based on multiple reviews.

Higher tiers come with phone support and a dedicated manager.

Trailblazer Community helps you learn the product faster and highlights new ways to streamline the dynamics of your sales.

Bottom line: Salesforce vs Pipedrive

Salesforce CRM will best suit fast-growing small and medium-sized companies that are ready to invest heavily in implementation, onboarding, and training.

Pipedrive and other solutions may deliver a more easy and more cost-effective experience for small and midsize businesses.

The lack of free plans calls for sufficient research into feasibility and suitability for your sales team’s needs.

Coaching and working with an advisor are a given in the world of Salesforce adaptation. Professional certifications are available for Salesforce-specific products and development solutions.

As your business continues to grow, Salesforce CRM will always have just the right tools on offer for more effective sales and lead generation processes.

But keep in mind that each new increment comes with a price tag.

Pipedrive Salesforce Sales Cloud
Calendar
Document storage
Email marketing
Internal chat integration
Lead generation X
Marketing automation
Mobile access
Quotes and estimates
Segmentation
Social media integration X
Task management
Territory management
Free trial
Free version X X
24/7 customer service X

03. Monday.com CRM

Monday.com CRM screenshot

Our rating: 4.3/5

Ease of use: 4.0/5

Pricing: Individual ($0/user/month), Basic ($10/user/month), Standard ($14/user/month), Pro ($24/user/month)

Customer support: email, help desk, forum, knowledge base, phone, 24/7, chat

Free trial: yes, 14 days + free version

Originally envisioned as a project management system, Monday.com has quickly expanded into lead management and adjacent disciplines.

The Monday.com CRM is widely seen as the most customizable solution on the market, empowering small businesses to implement a truly bespoke environment without going overboard budget-wise.

While Pipedrive offers a suite of ready-to-use features, the Monday.com CRM blows our minds with the complete end-to-end customization of all the workflows, views, and connections.

Sales teams can quickly customize their workspace and automate tedious repetitive work through automation.

The simple and human-language if-then statements enable non-coding talent to easily implement highly complex workflows and dependencies.

Other competitors that offer such a deep level of automation and customization charge a much higher price — and often require highly qualified programmers to do so.

Solopreneurs might not like a unique approach to pricing, as Monday.com charges in stepped levels for 5, 10, 15 users, and so on.

Small businesses that look for a set number of seats might be better suited with Pipedrive or Zoho CRM.

The bottom tiers suffer from significant limitations, as email-related triggers and other automation capabilities are only offered to start with the mid-tier.

Realistically, teams should budget no less than $30 per user per month, with the free plan being no more than a guided tour of the system.

Just like Pipedrive, onboarding and training are made easy with the Monday.com CRM.

The wealth of materials online, including the extensive knowledge base, allows users to quickly locate answers to any query.

Customer support is lacking in speed and courteousness, as many reviews online point out.

Expert assistance from a facilitator might help small businesses to experience a more effective migration to the Monday.com CRM.

Growing companies can take advantage of the expandable capabilities enabled by the Monday.com CRM, with robust features across sales, customer success, and maintenance fields, thanks to templates and build-from-scratch options.

Special attention is paid to the visualization tools, with users being able to access Kanban, Gantt charts, and various reporting formats on KPIs.

Visibility into the sales and post-sale processes is added thanks to guest access, which is provided to hands-on clients and other external collaborators.

Just like Pipedrive, CRM enjoys a large number of external integrations.

Should users fail to find the one they need, it’s easy to use Zapier for integrations and business mechanics across many apps.

Bottom line: Monday.com vs Pipedrive

The Monday.com CRM boasts a powerful suite of features that cover sales and lead management as well as post-sale operations.

SMBs will find it easy to migrate significant chunks of their operations to the system without incurring exorbitant fees seen in competitors like Salesforce.

Customization is the key value proposition, which can also result in a huge headache for new teams who need clarity and guidance.

Pipedrive is much easier to implement thanks to the pre-built pipeline and adjacent processes.

Though Monday.com actively leverages an ultra-simple approach to automation, the AI assistant hasn’t been as widely accepted within the communities around Salesforce and other CRM systems.

Pipedrive Monday.com CRM
Calendar
Document storage
Email marketing
Internal chat integration
Lead generation X
Marketing automation X
Mobile access
Quotes and estimates
Segmentation
Social media integration X
Task management
Territory management
Free trial
Free version X
24/7 customer service

04. HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM screenshot

Our rating: 4.6/5

Ease of use: 5.0/5

Pricing: Free, Sales Hub Starter ($45/month), Sales Hub Professional ($450/month), Sales Hub Enterprise ($1,200/month)

Customer support: email, in-app, phone (for Professional plan only)

Free trial: Unlimited, freemium model

HubSpot CRM is a good fit for small businesses and solopreneurs. The free plan allows users to take advantage of a wide roster of useful features, so teams can enjoy a quick implementation process.

HubSpot hosts several hubs, with Marketing and Sales being the key ones. Teams can start up with the free plan for the Sales hub and add on other hubs as they scale.

Any such additions will require higher payments, and your subscription cost can snowball fast.

Smaller businesses would likely benefit from talking with HubSpot consultants and figuring out the full cost before taking the plunge.

Sales and contact management is made easy through fully customizable sales pipelines, a combination of lead generation, and sales-related features.

Templates help “one-man-band” operations and small businesses quickly set up a full range of assets for their marketing purposes, including a website, email sequences, and more.

Just like Pipedrive, HubSpot CRM will help a new team to launch their operations fast while also delivering a wide coverage across marketing, customer support, email campaigns, and lead generation operations.

The customer support at HubSpot CRM has garnered a lot of positive reviews online, thanks to their willingness to deliver demos and thoroughly consult potential buyers, in addition to their extensive learning assets base.

Those who’ve chosen HubSpot can be assured of its quality, as the vendor is accredited with the BBB and has decent ratings.

Learning CRM is easy and rewarding; self-starter types of users will enjoy the HubSpot Academy with versatile materials covering not only product features but the general topics of marketing and sales as well.

However, a need to take deep dives and get your hands dirty might pose difficulties for diverse teams with various requirements and tasks, those who operate without a central administrator in place.

Bottom line: Pipedrive vs HubSpot CRM

Just like Pipedrive, the vendor enables small and midsize companies to set up complex processes in email marketing, automation, and collaborations between sales and marketing.

The free plan with HubSpot CRM is usable, unlike other competitors. It allows teams to set up their sales processes in days and start processing more leads.

The overall team will find it easy to stay with the basic plan across all personnel and buy paid subscriptions for specialist users among them.

Integrations with over 300 external apps help sales/marketing teams quickly create a bespoke CRM mesh on top of HubSpot CRM.

However, pricing requires special care, as a convoluted pricing structure at HubSpot might push teams into paying hundreds of dollars per month per user if they aren’t careful about picking specific hubs and plans.

Pipedrive HubSpot CRM
Calendar
Document storage
Email marketing
Internal chat integration
Lead generation X
Marketing automation
Mobile access
Quotes and estimates
Segmentation
Social media integration X
Task management
Territory management
Free trial
Free version X
24/7 customer service

05. Zendesk Sell CRM

Zendesk Sell CRM screenshot

Our rating: 4.3/5

Ease of use: 4.4/5

Pricing: Team ($19/user/month), Growth ($49/user/month), Professional ($99/user/month), Enterprise (starting from $150/user/month)

Customer support: email, in-app, phone, forum, knowledge base, chat, 24/7

Free trial: yes, 14 days

Zendesk Sell is an extension of the famous helpdesk platform. Fully delivering on the needs of your sales team, it also creates a cohesive link with Zendesk.

It should be noted, however, when comparing with Pipedrive and other similar CRMs, Zendesk Sell charges up to 3x higher prices at the premium tiers.

Zendesk Sell has recently undergone a major upgrade that introduced the “Explore” and “Reach” modules for more effective lead scouting and reporting.

Your sales team will enjoy easy management of contacts and leads, and closing deals with the CRM’s standard mechanics and views.

Training and onboarding Zendesk Sell will be easy thanks to a smooth UX and standard components that are found in competing CRMs.

Smart Lists are the core element within the management approach and help quickly set up the needed formats for your sales team.

On the downside, Pipedrive offers many more ways to customize the processes, views, and cards, helping to make the pipeline truly yours.

Automations are enabled through the use of Sequences and Triggers.

Sequences allow users to set up groups of actions, built around the various stages in their conversations with customers.

This approach goes back to the CRM’s roots and empowers visibility into tickets and conversations.

Lead generation, email marketing, and post-sale management aren’t as powerfully enabled as with Pipedrive, HubSpot, or Zoho.

Integrations may be leveraged to make up for the lacking native capabilities here.

Bottom line: Pipedrive vs Zendesk Sell CRM

Zendesk Sell is a fully-fledged CRM system that extends Zendesk to cover the sales side of your business.

Those teams that already use Zendesk may find a lot of benefits in this union.

Prices start at $19 and top up at $150 per user per month. Pipedrive and other competitors like Zoho CRM offer the same bang for a much lower buck.

While Pipedrive focuses on the pipelines and their customizations, Zendesk Sell lags in this regard and has serious issues in personalization for sales processes.

However, it might bring a fully satisfactory experience for those teams that already use Zendesk for their help desk operations.

Pipedrive ZenDesk Sell CRM
Calendar
Document storage
Email marketing
Internal chat integration
Lead generation X
Marketing automation
Mobile access
Quotes and estimates
Segmentation
Social media integration X
Task management
Territory management
Free trial
Free version X X
24/7 customer service

06. Freshsales from Freshworks

Freshsales from Freshworks screenshot

Our rating: 4.5/5

Ease of use: 4.4/5

Pricing: Free ($0/user/month), Growth ($15/user/month), Pro ($39/user/month)

Customer support: email, in-app, phone, forum, knowledge base, 24/7

Free trial: yes, 14 days + free version

Freshsales is a CRM solution offered by Freshworks, an umbrella brand that offers other solutions for marketing, IT services, and HR.

The CRM will be a perfect fit for those small and midsize businesses that look for in-depth reporting and analytics.

Sales managers can create and peruse reports not only by individual sales reps but also by territory and team.

Purchasing access to the Freshsales Suite allows users to use both the Sales and Marketing hubs for more granular insights into the overall lead generation or lead conversion process.

Freshsales also offers an AI tool named Freddy that will help better score your leads, recommend the next steps and notify “at-risk” leads in the sales pipeline that requires your attention.

The vendor is unique among other CRMs like Pipedrive in that it offers an easy way to integrate with your Shopify store via an API and CPQ module for easier quoting.

A holistic approach to communications is enabled through combined access to all interactions via telephone, chat, and email.

In addition, automation helps effectively route leads to matching sales reps and teams.

Just like Pipedrive, Freshsales charges attractive rates within the range of $16 to $69 per user per month depending on the selected plan.

Even though the vendor offers a free plan, it’s significantly limited in capabilities.

Freshsales might not be a good pick for those teams who don’t require a highly granular look into their sales metrics.

For such a small business, Pipedrive or Zoho CRM are likely better choices, as these systems offer easy implementation and onboarding.

Even though Freshworks fully covers many scopes, your document-related processes aren’t always at their best.

Bottom line: Freshsales vs Pipedrive

Just like Pipedrive, Freshsales brings forward an intuitive way to set up and manage your sales pipeline.

For an appealing rate, your sales team will obtain access to a robust suite of tools, including contact and lead management, combined storage for all phone, chat, and email communications, as well as AI-powered scoring and recommendations.

Freshsales is a good pick if your business will likely benefit from gradually extending the CRM with additional services, including those covering marketing, HR, and IT.

Compared to Pipedrive, Freshsales seems to make much more active use of the AI tool named Freddy.

Pipedrive Freshsales
Calendar
Document storage
Email marketing
Internal chat integration
Lead generation X X
Marketing automation
Mobile access
Quotes and estimates X
Segmentation
Social media integration X
Task management
Territory management
Free trial
Free version X
24/7 customer service

07. Insightly

Insightly screenshot

Our rating: 4.2/5

Ease of use: 4.0/5

Pricing: Plus ($29/user/month), Professional ($49/user/month), Enterprise ($99/user/month)

Customer support: email, in-app, phone, forum, knowledge base, 24/7

Free trial: yes, 14 days

Insightly fully delivers on simplicity, assuring an easy roll-out process for small and midsize businesses.

In this way, it’s similar to Pipedrive. Zoho CRM, Salesforce, and HubSpot onboarding offer much steeper learning curves.

Ease of implementation and onboarding is a highly influential factor, as it’s a key determinant of how the CRM is received.

Insighly will surely find love and loyalty among all of your sales reps and managers, paving the way to a successful implementation and continuous use.

It won’t turn into just another hoop that sales teams need to pointlessly jump through.

The main view can be customized with the help of a drag-and-drop visual editor, offering an advantage over certain other CRMs that make this process much more convoluted.

Contacts, Leads, and Organizations feature pretty similar UI architectures, including segments for details, associated items, and timelines, while Organizations automatically pull in the data from online sources to inform you about the latest news in the lead company’s life.

Sales managers will find useful tools for reporting via the dashboard. However, only a limited number of prebuilt reports are available.

A one-click export feature helps to generate reports in other specialized reporting engines like Microsoft Power BI.

Small businesses can take advantage of the out-of-the-box task manager and set up Projects to run multi-stage sales processes virtually.

Although these features won’t be a fully-fledged substitute for a good project management software suite, it helps keep your sales in order.

Just like Pipedrive, Insightly features an ultra-clean UI, which makes the CRM stand apart from more complex systems such as Salesforce and Zoho CRM.

Insightly can integrate with various external apps so that sales teams can flesh out a fully customized process to better manage contacts and leads.

Bottom line: Insightly vs Pipedrive

Just like Pipedrive, Insightly aims to deliver ease of implementation and use. Your team will successfully onboard here without much training required.

Though Insightly might have higher prices for the top tiers, there are a lot of potential customizations and native integrations with marketing and help desk systems.

Insightly is much easier to wrap your head around when compared to Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and similar competitors.

In addition, importing and exporting data with Insightly is as easy as at Pipedrive, so users are free to tinker and parallel-test several platforms at once.

Pipedrive Insightly
Calendar
Document storage
Email marketing
Internal chat integration
Lead generation X
Marketing automation
Mobile access
Quotes and estimates
Segmentation
Social media integration X
Task management
Territory management
Free trial
Free version X
24/7 customer service X

Conclusion: The best CRM alternatives to Pipedrive

Pipedrive is well known for its ease of use and streamlined UX.

Perfection from your sales team is paramount, and Pipedrive has gained a lot of love from users thanks to easy ways to manage, customize and fill out all of its views and forms.

However, in some cases, small and midsize businesses might look for more in-depth capabilities to customize and integrate.

Pipedrive is perfect for most of the cases small and medium businesses can face.

Salesforce, in their turn, packs many more features, including coding-level features, though this comes with a hefty price at the top tiers.

Teams who like the apps they currently use and want to integrate with a powerful CRM will admire how Zoho brings together a bevy of in-house apps and integrations with all popular SaaS options.

Small and midsize businesses are enticed by the prices that the middle-tier plans go for.

HubSpot allows your team to take your marketing/sales operations to the next level. Email marketing and lead generation operations receive much more attention in this CRM.

Zendesk Sell and Freshsales open the doorway into their respective multi-hub ecosystems.

In particular, businesses with a heavy workload in help desk-related activities will love Zendesk Sell and how it seamlessly integrates with Zendesk Main.

Whichever CRM you pair up with, remember that an effective approach to managing document flows makes for higher conversions.

PandaDoc offers out-of-the-box integration with all the CRMs presented above and helps your sales team to shine in document processing, as you can quickly draw proposals, quotes and contracts, share them with stakeholders, and sign with legally binding electronic signatures.

Disclaimer

PandDoc is not a law firm, or a substitute for an attorney or law firm. This page is not intended to and does not provide legal advice. Should you have legal questions on the validity of e-signatures or digital signatures and the enforceability thereof, please consult with an attorney or law firm. Use of PandaDocs services are governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.