A bad CRM choice costs you twice: once in license fees, and again when you rip it out.
There are hundreds of options, from simple to enterprise. The differences that decide whether it works for you are rarely the ones on the comparison page.
Start with what you need
Answer these before you look at a single product.
- Team size: 1–5 reps, 50, or 500? Small teams need simplicity, large ones need reporting
- Process complexity: closing deals, or multi-stakeholder with long cycles?
- Integrations: accounting, email, calendar, payment processors?
- Budget per user per month: $50, $200, more?
- Timeline: needed now, or is there 3 months to implement?
- Customization: are you shaping the tool, or adapting to it?
What to evaluate
Whether your team can use it without hiring an administrator. Hand someone a deal to log with no instructions. If they cannot work it out, it is too complex for them.
Whether the core features are actually there.
- Lead capture
- Pipeline visualization
- Forecasting
- Reporting
- Automation
- Mobile access
Whether it connects to what you already run. Look for native integrations, because we can connect via API often means hiring a developer.
Whether it still works at 50 reps when you started with 5, without becoming slow or expensive.
Whether the mobile app is real. Use it for 15 minutes. A read-only view of the website is not a mobile app.
Whether you can get your data out again. Ask about backups and export before you sign, not after.
Whether support answers. Email them a question during the trial and time the reply.
What it costs in total: users multiplied by per-user cost, plus setup, training and integrations. Put it in a spreadsheet before you decide.
Your industry narrows it
Different tools are built around different sales motions.
- SaaS. Best option: HubSpot, Salesforce or Ambivo (good for subscription tracking, ARR, churn)
- Sales and professional services. Best option: Salesforce, Pipedrive or Ambivo (good for forecasting, pipeline management)
- Real estate. Best option: Zillow, Follow Up Boss or Ambivo (good for listing management, buyer pipeline)
- Manufacturing and B2B. Best option: Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics or Ambivo (good for complex deals, multiple stakeholders)
Five ways this goes wrong
Picking the biggest name. Salesforce is powerful and complex, and most startups pay for capability they never switch on.
Picking the cheapest. A $10 per month CRM that reps refuse to use costs you 40 hours of re-keying. Compare the license plus your team's time.
Believing the pitch. Ask for customer references and actually call them. Ask whether they would choose it again, and listen for the pause.
Skipping the trial. Most vendors offer one. Have the team use it for a week, rather than you clicking round it for an afternoon.
Forgetting implementation. A product demos well and still takes months to roll out. Budget the time and the training.
Pricing models and timelines
Per user per month is the most common. Across the CRM market it usually runs $50–300 depending on features. It scales cleanly and gets expensive as you grow. Flat rate charges one price whatever the team size, which suits a small stable team. Freemium lets you try before paying. Volume pricing rewards buying more seats up front.
Implementation runs roughly 1–2 weeks for a simple CRM with a small team and little integration, 1–2 months for a standard rollout with a few integrations, and 2–6 months for a complex CRM with a large team and custom fields. This is where projects overrun.
Walk away if
- There is no free trial
- You cannot export your own data
- There is no real mobile app
- Support is slow during the trial, while they are still trying to win you
- Pricing is confusing, which usually means something is hidden
- There is no API
- A long contract is required up front
Written by the team at Ambivo, a business platform that keeps CRM, accounting and ERP on one customer record. This article is general guidance on the topic rather than a description of Ambivo features.