Customer relations are a big part of doing business, and the CRM market is growing rapidly. It is estimated that by 2024, it is expected to grow globally to $43.5 billion dollars.
CRMs have become an unavoidable part of businesses nowadays. CRM tools are seen to have brought greater ROI for companies, and the tools have helped further streamline internal communication. But how much does CRM cost?
With so many CRMs in the market, choosing the right one for your business is very important. There are a lot of factors that are to be considered when choosing CRM software for your business. One of the major factors is the budget, that is, how much your business can invest in CRM software.
You can find CRMs that are available for a fixed price monthly or yearly in packages. These packages include all essential tools and features that enable you to maintain customer relationships.
In this blog, we will go through the types of CRM pricing models and some of the best CRMs in the market, along with the details on pricing. Let us start by understanding the pricing models.
CRM Pricing Models
1. Flat-Free Pricing
Flat-fee pricing is a CRM strategy in which your company pays a predetermined flat fee, regardless of the number of users or features consumed. This CRM pricing model typically limits the number of people that can be on your plan or only gives sophisticated features and tools at a higher price tier.
You can determine your total cost by multiplying the monthly or annual subscription rate for your CRM provider by the setup fees. One of the most popular CRM that has a flat-free pricing plan is the HubSpot CRM.
2. Per-User Pricing
Per-user pricing is one of the most popular customer relationship management (CRM) software pricing models. This model determines the platform's price by the total number of people who will use it.
The price that is charged per user is determined by the CRM supplier and is typically on a monthly basis. When your company subscribes to a CRM, you will first establish how many seats it will require to get started. If additional users are required, you will then add them and pay for them individually.
To determine how much you will pay on a per-user basis, take the pricing that is being offered by the CRM provider and multiply it by the number of people in your company who will be using the system.
3. Tiered-Based Pricing
The usage of numerous subscription options, each with a different price that varies according to the number of users on the plan as well as the services contained inside it, is known as tiered pricing.
Depending on the requirements of your business, several customer relationship management systems offer customizable basic, premium, and enterprise subscription tiers.
When it comes to pricing, Salesforce is a good example of a CRM that follows tiered pricing with per-user charges. The lowest-tiered subscription provides businesses with basic CRM capability for managing and engaging with clients, while the highest-tiered plan offers mass customization and extensive automation tools.
Cost of Best CRMs in the Market
Here are the pricing features of 3 CRM software that are used widely and rank high in the market.
1. Salesforce Sales Cloud
Being ranked first in G2 Crowd rating for best CRM software, Salesforce is one of the most sought CRMs. It is one of the most favoured CRM solutions for small businesses as it is easy to use and has many useful features that help small and medium businesses grow effectively.
For pricing, Salesforce offers a variety of pricing levels. Essentials are for teams of five or fewer and apply only to the Sales and Service clouds. As you go up in pricing tiers, Salesforce becomes more customizable and adds higher levels of support.
It is to be noted that Salesforce does not have a free plan. Its basic pricing starts at $25/user/month. Salesforce sales cloud follows a tiered per-user pricing model.
Pricing Plan
Sales Essentials Edition: $25.00/month
Professional Edition: $75/user/month
Enterprise Edition: $150/user/month
Unlimited Edition: $300/user/month
2. HubSpot Sales Hub
The HubSpot CRM was founded in 2006 and is one of the most popular CRMs in the market. Since it's easy to use, HubSpot is often compared to more established CRM platforms like Salesforce and SugarCRM.
However, the price of HubSpot CRM is a major factor in business owners' decision to move their sales data there. To be more precise, the absence of it. For as long as you want to use it, it's completely free. Up to one million people and businesses can be saved.
It's important to note that HubSpot CRM isn't a “full functionality” CRM because it lacks reporting and other aspects of the sales process by default. The fee is zero. However, for $200 a month, you can add reporting.
HubSpot CRM Sales Hub follows a tiered base model with flat-free pricing. It also has a free plan with efficient free tools. The tiered pricing is as mentioned below:
Pricing Plan
Starter level: $50/month for 2 users and $25/month for additional users.
Professional level: $500/month for 5 users and $100/month for additional users.
Enterprise-level: $1200/month for 10 users and $120/month for additional users. This will also have an additional one-time fee of $3,000 for onboarding.
3. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a popular cloud platform because of its practical feature sets and cost-effective pricing strategy. The system allows you to handle leads, accounts, and contacts as different modules, as well as automate, analyze, and manage inventories.
Zoho follows a tiered per-user model of pricing. Zoho CRM has four different pricing options, ranging from free to $40 per month. There is also the option to test out Zoho CRM for free.
Here is the pricing list of the products:
Pricing Plan
Standard package: $14.00/ user/ month
Professional level: $23.00/ user/ month
Enterprise level: $40.00/ user/ month
Purchasing a CRM
Is that all to how much does CRM cost? No! There are many things to consider on a cost basis while purchasing a CRM.
Your company's size will determine how much it will cost to build a CRM system. You'll need extra user licenses if you have a huge workforce. There are many businesses that fail to grasp the fact that CRM is not a one-time purchase.
The purchase of a CRM system must include additional services to ensure a successful installation and a return on investment. In the absence of these services, companies are forced to utilize unusable software that no one on the team can figure out how to operate.
One thing that is important to do while planning a purchase is to make sure that you list out your business requirements. You will be able to spot potential problems and costs early on if you have a clear vision for your CRM and how it should serve your team.
Make sure you consider the setting up costs, CRM configuration for technical aspects, training and onboarding costs, and CRM support, which is crucial in case you face issues operating the CRM. Other costs to consider will include CRM integrations, custom fields and functions, and third-party applications.
The ongoing costs that you must not miss out on include renewal of the software according to your subscription packages, additional users, and license renewal costs.
Wrapping It Up
The answer to how much CRM costs highly depends on the type of business, your business goals and requirements, the number of employees, the size of your business model, and many other important factors.
This blog showed you how much a CRM costs, the pricing models, the cost of the best 3 CRMs in the market, and things to consider when purchasing a CRM. Hope this blog was able to help you figure out your budget for your business's or organization's CRM budget.
If you wish to know more about CRMs, contact us straight away!
