Instantly vs Close CRM

Choosing the right CRM for your business can be challenging with so many options available. Instantly and Close CRM stand out as popular choices, each offering distinct features tailored to different business needs. Instantly focuses on automating email outreach and maximizing lead generation, making it ideal for outbound sales teams. Close CRM, on the other hand, emphasizes efficient communication and sales processes, catering to businesses looking to enhance their sales pipelines. In this blog post we'll compare their features, pricing, and benefits, helping you determine which CRM aligns best with your organizational goals. We'll also explore folk as a viable alternative.

What is Instantly?

Instantly is a newer player in the market that focuses on automation and email outreach, helping teams send high-volume personalized emails and track responses. Instantly CRM is geared more toward businesses looking to maximize lead generation and email outreach campaigns, often used by outbound sales teams and marketers.

Key features of Instantly

• Email outreach automation: One of Instantly’s standout features is the ability to automate and send thousands of personalized cold emails at scale.
• Advanced email warm-up: Instantly ensures that your emails land in inboxes rather than spam by providing email warming and reputation management tools.
• AI-based insights: Use AI-powered analytics to gain insights into the success of your outreach and optimize future campaigns.
• Multi-account management: Run multiple email accounts and campaigns seamlessly from one dashboard.
• Performance tracking: Track open rates, click rates, and other key metrics to measure campaign performance in real time.
• Integrations: Instantly CRM integrates with tools like Zapier, Google Sheets, and other productivity apps to help streamline workflows.
  

What is Close CRM?

Close CRM is a sales-focused platform designed to eliminate the complexity of traditional CRMs, offering a streamlined and user-friendly experience tailored for small businesses with ambitious growth goals. Known for its intuitive design, Close provides robust features like automation to reduce manual work, built-in communication tools for faster follow-ups, and powerful integrations to fit seamlessly into any tech stack. Whether you’re managing leads, collaborating with a team, or scaling sales efforts, Close is built to save time and help small businesses succeed.

Key features of Close CRM

• Fast setup: Simple and quick to implement, allowing teams to start using the platform without delay.
• Intuitive interface: Easy-to-navigate dashboard tailored for speed and productivity.
• Built-in communication: Integrated calling, email, and SMS tools for seamless interaction with leads and clients.
• Automation tools: Includes workflows, smart views, and task automation to streamline repetitive tasks.
• Powerful reporting: Customizable sales and activity reporting for actionable insights into team performance and revenue trends.
• Team collaboration: Features like shared inboxes and task assignments to keep teams aligned and efficient.
• Secure and scalable: Designed with robust security and scalability for growing businesses.
• Integrations: Offers over 100 native integrations and Zapier compatibility to sync seamlessly with existing tools.

Instantly vs. Close CRM: Feature Comparison

Let's break down the key features of Instantly and Close CRM and take a closer look at their sales automation, email marketing tools, and contact management.

1. Sales pipeline management

Instantly lacks a clear kanban view for managing deals. While you can track lead status within email campaigns, a comprehensive pipeline management view is missing. Close CRM offers a streamlined, visual approach to managing sales processes. Its Powerful Pipeline View provides a clear snapshot of all active opportunities, enabling teams to focus on what matters most. With features like drag-and-drop deal management, users can easily update the status of leads.

2. Ease of use

Instantly CRM offers a user-friendly interface with intuitive navigation, making it easy for users to manage contacts and campaigns efficiently. Close CRM, known for its straightforward design, provides seamless access to essential features, allowing teams to quickly adapt and utilize its functionalities without a steep learning curve.

3. Contact enrichment

Instantly CRM offers contact enrichment features by leveraging a large database of verified contact information. The platform can automatically enhance contact records by adding details such as company names, job titles, and more. Close CRM does not provide its own contact enrichment feature. You can only access this using a third party application, which might incur an additional cost.

4. Outreach

Instantly provides a strong cold outreach solution, allowing users to connect unlimited email addresses, rotate them for better deliverability, and send multiple emails in campaigns. Close CRM's outreach features integrate built-in calling, email, and SMS tools, enabling seamless multi-channel outreach without external apps.

5. Automation

Instantly CRM focuses on automating email outreach and follow-up processes, enabling personalized bulk emails and automatic follow-ups based on recipient behavior. Close CRM's automation features streamline workflows with custom workflows and Smart Views, automating repetitive tasks and prioritizing leads to ensure no opportunity is missed.

6. Integration

Instantly CRM integrates with various third-party applications primarily through Zapier, enabling connections with tools like Google Workspace, Slack, and Salesforce. Similarly, Close CRM also offers integrations with various tools to enhance sales workflows and streamline data management.

7. Artificial Intelligence

Instantly CRM integrates AI to optimize email outreach by automating tasks such as personalization and scheduling based on engagement patterns. Close CRM does not appear to have an AI integration.

Price and plans comparison

Let's take a closer look at the price and plans of both Instantly and Close CRM.

Instantly prices

Instantly offers a few types of plans depending on whether or not you're after its CRM product, leads generator, or outreach campaign product. Their CRM price plan comes as either a monthly or annual subscription. Their yearly subscription plan is as follows.

• Growth CRM: Starts from $37.90 per user, per month.
• Hyper CRM: Starts from $77.60 per user, per month.

Close CRM prices

Close CRM offers a monthly and annual payment option. The annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Startup: $49/user/month.
• Professional: $99/user/month.
• Enterprise: $139/user/month.

Introducing folk CRM: the best alternative to Instantly and Close CRM

Looking for an affordable alternative? We recommend folk. A multiple award-winning CRM platform loved for its easy-to-use, plug-and-play CRM system. folk can support multiple teams including sales, marketing, recruitment and more. You can also use folk as a solopreneur, small to mid-size team, and large enterprise.

Key features

• Contact management: Bring all your contacts into one place seamlessly, from social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and X to multiple inboxes including Gmail and Outlook.
• Notes and reminders: Attach notes directly to a contact's profile in folk, and access them on the go. And assign reminders so you know exactly when to follow-up.
• Sales pipeline dashboard: Manage your entire sales cycle and leads with a highly customizable sales pipeline dashboard that can be used in Kanban-board view or listicle.
• Ease of use and customization: Easily customize the pipelines, dashboards, automation, email sequences, so that you can use it across your sales cycle and pipeline management – and other business functions such as recruitment, marketing, and more.
• Social media integration: Import people and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, and X within a click thanks to folk’s Google Chrome extension.
• Contact sync from Gmail and Outlook: Full email sync enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Find email addresses in a click: Contact enrichment powered by Apollo, and Dropcontact so you can fill in missing data points with 1-click.
• Email sequences: Send email sequences with reminders if your leads don’t reply to your first emails. It includes an AI integration allowing you to personalize email at scale.

Price and plans

folk has a 14-day free trial. After that, there are affordable monthly or annual subscription plans. The annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $80 per user, per month.

Instantly vs. Close CRM: What's the verdict?

Not sure whether or not you should go for Instantly or Close CRM? One thing's certain: each offer something unique. Instantly excels in automation and high-volume email outreach, making it ideal for outbound sales teams. Close CRM, on the other hand, provides robust features for managing sales pipelines and customer interactions. However, for companies seeking a more personalized and flexible approach, folk CRM emerges as a standout alternative. Its user-friendly interface and customizable features cater to diverse business functions, from sales to recruitment. Try folk today, free