Best CRM for SaaS

As a SaaS team, managing customer relationships, tracking subscription lifecycles, and scaling your sales efforts are key to growing your business. The right Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can help you streamline these processes by organizing customer data, automating follow-ups, and providing valuable insights into customer behavior.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the best CRM options for SaaS teams like yours, focusing on tools that will help you manage customer relationships effectively and scale your SaaS business smoothly.

Why you need a CRM

In the busy SaaS landscape, having a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is essential for streamlining operations and driving growth. A CRM can transform how you manage customer interactions, data, and sales processes.

Challenges without a CRM

Without the right CRM in your tech stack, a lot of challenges can go unnoticed and start having a negative impact on your team.

• Disorganization: Managing customer data across multiple platforms leads to confusion and inefficiency.
• Missed opportunities: Without a centralized system, follow-ups and leads can easily slip through the cracks.
• Inefficient processes: Manual data entry and fragmented workflows slow down operations.
• Lack of insight: Inadequate reporting tools hinder data-driven decision-making.
• Inconsistent communication: Disjointed communication channels result in poor customer experiences.

Benefits of a CRM

A good CRM can help you address these challenges and bring with it some extra benefits.

• Centralized information: All customer data is stored in one place, making it easily accessible.
• Enhanced efficiency: Automated workflows streamline processes and reduce manual tasks.
• Improved customer relationships: Personalized interactions foster stronger customer loyalty.
• Better decision-making: Advanced analytics provide actionable insights for strategic planning.
• Increased sales: Efficient lead management and follow-up processes boost conversion rates.
• Consistent communication: Integrated communication tools ensure seamless interactions with customers.
  

How to evaluate and choose a CRM

With a lot of CRMs on the market to choose from, it can be hard to figure out which one fits your needs. To help you with your decision making process, we've put together these tips,

1. Define your requirements

Before doing some research, it's important to identify the key features that will drive your SaaS business forward. Are you looking for robust customer support capabilities, detailed analytics, or seamless integration with your existing tools? Or an all-in-one CRM that can support multiple business functions? Make a list of must-have features and nice-to-have features. For SaaS teams, features like automated onboarding, customer segmentation, and subscription management can be particularly valuable.

Key features of a CRM for SaaS

• Automated processes: Streamlines tasks by automating repetitive workflows.
• Contact enrichment: Automatically finds Leads, Customers, Investors email addresses and contact information, enhancing efficiency.
• Structured pipeline: Tracks Leads, Customers, Investors through defined stages, ensuring process clarity and effectiveness.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Increases communication efficiency with follow-up templates and automated sequences.
• LinkedIn connection: Seamlessly imports Leads, Customers, Investors from LinkedIn and tracks conversations within the CRM.
• Analytics: Provides essential data analysis and predictive insights for better planning.

2. Budget considerations

Balancing cost and return on investment is essential when choosing the best CRM for SaaS. While it's tempting to go for the most feature-rich option, consider what you actually need at your current growth stage. Look for affordable CRM for SaaS that offers scalability, so you can start small and expand as your business grows. Remember, the right CRM should not just be an expense but a tool that enhances customer retention and drives revenue growth.

3. Selection process

Choosing the right CRM vendor involves thorough research. Start by reading reviews and testimonials from other SaaS companies. Reach out to vendors directly to ask about their experience with SaaS businesses and request case studies. Look for vendors who offer strong customer support and have a proven track record in the SaaS industry. Don't forget to check if they offer a free trial or a demo to test the waters before making a commitment.

4. Get a demo

Once you've shortlisted potential CRM platforms, it's time to evaluate them hands-on. Take advantage of free trials or demo versions to see how each CRM performs in real-world scenarios. Pay attention to the user interface, ease of integration, and the quality of customer support. Compare the features and pricing side by side to find the best CRM tools for SaaS that align with your business goals. Ultimately, the decision should be based on which platform provides the most value and supports your long-term growth strategy. Get started with a demo of folk to see how it can support you.

3 tips for implementing a CRM

At this stage – it's time to get excited about your brand new CRM system. To ensure a smooth implementation stage and get to know your new CRM as quickly as possible, we suggest making sure you follow these tips the first few weeks.

1. Import your data in your new CRM

Transitioning to a new CRM can be seamless if you import your existing data correctly. Start by exporting your data as a CSV file from your current CRM. This way, you won't have to manually add new contact information.

2. Create your first pipeline

Setting up your first pipeline is essential to streamline your sales process. For SaaS companies, this could include stages like Lead Generation, Demo Scheduled, Trial Started, Negotiation, and Closed Won/Lost. Customizing these stages to fit your SaaS sales cycle will provide clarity and improve efficiency.

3. Onboard your team

Effective CRM implementation requires team buy-in. Conduct training sessions to familiarize your team with the new system. Highlight its benefits, demonstrate how to use key features, and encourage regular usage to ensure everyone is on the same page. This will maximize the CRM's potential and drive your SaaS growth.

The 5 best CRMs for SaaS

1. folk

folk is a modern CRM platform for managing contacts, workflows, and relationships, offering customizable pipelines, AI-driven tools, and integrations to enhance deal management and prospecting.

Key features

• Contact enrichment: Automatically enriches contact details by finding emails and LinkedIn URLs, enabling efficient outreach without manual data entry or additional costs for email services.
• Social media integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, X and more to track contacts within folk, and use templates for quicker, streamlined communication.
• Notes and reminders: Create and attach notes directly to a contact's profile page so your team can make collaborative notes. And assign reminders so that the right person follows-up seamlessly.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Full email sync compatible with Gmail and Outlook, with access to templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• AI-powered features: AI tools assist in managing contacts and relationships, automating routine tasks, and suggesting actions to improve productivity.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Pros

• Ease of use: folk is praised for its intuitive interface, making it accessible even to non-technical users with quick onboarding and a minimal learning curve.
• Workflow automation: folk streamlines your workflow by allowing you to import contacts from LinkedIn, automatically find their emails, reach out through customizable email sequences, and track interactions in a pipeline, eliminating the need for multiple tools and saving time and money.
• Full customizability: Make folk work for you through its custom fields, pipelines, dashboards automation and workflows. It can support multiple business functions including sales, marketing, recruitment and more.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Cons

• Reporting: Currently lacks reporting features, but there are plans for future implementation.
  

Price and plans

You can try folk for free with a 14-day free trial. After that, a monthly or annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $60 per user, per month.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot CRM is a user-friendly, scalable platform offering integrated tools for managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations efficiently.

Key features

• Marketing Hub: Includes email marketing, ad tracking, landing pages, and lead generation tools, essential for attracting and nurturing leads in a SaaS environment.
• Sales Hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting, helping SaaS companies convert leads into paying customers efficiently.
• Service Hub: Offers customer service tools like ticketing, live chat, and knowledge bases, crucial for maintaining high customer satisfaction and retention.
• Operations Hub: Syncs and automates business processes across different systems, ensuring seamless operations and data consistency.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring to improve sales efficiency, allowing SaaS companies to focus on high-potential prospects.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: The intuitive and easy-to-use interface makes it accessible for users of all skill levels, perfect for SaaS startups with limited CRM experience.
• Comprehensive free plan: Offers a robust free version that includes essential CRM features, making it ideal for small SaaS businesses and startups.
• Seamless integration with Marketing Tools: Integrates smoothly with marketing, sales, and service hubs, creating a unified platform for inbound marketing and customer management.
• Automation capabilities: Provides powerful automation tools for tasks like email marketing, lead nurturing, and sales workflows, helping SaaS businesses save time and improve efficiency.
• Extensive learning resources: HubSpot Academy offers a wealth of free courses, certifications, and resources to help users get the most out of the platform.

Cons

• High cost at higher tiers: HubSpot’s pricing can become expensive as you move to higher tiers, which may be prohibitive for small SaaS businesses as they scale.
• Limited customization in free plan: The free plan and lower tiers have limited customization options, which can restrict flexibility for growing SaaS businesses.
• Complexity in advanced features: Some advanced features, such as custom reporting and workflows, have a steep learning curve and may require additional training.
• Email marketing limits: Email marketing functionality in the free plan is restricted by limits on the number of emails you can send, which can be a drawback for SaaS businesses with larger lists.
• Additional costs for add-ons: Many useful features, like advanced CRM capabilities and integrations, come as paid add-ons, increasing the overall cost.
  
  

Price and plans

Prices and plans on the CRM suite for an annual subscription are as follows.

• Starter: $15 per user, per month.
• Professional: $450 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $1,500 per user, per month.

3. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a web-based CRM for small businesses, offering lead management, automation, email integration, and customizable pipelines to optimize sales.

Key features

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage leads, customers, and investors, ensuring all interactions and data are easily accessible and actionable.
• Sales automation: Automate repetitive tasks such as lead routing, follow-ups, and email sequences, allowing your sales team to focus on closing deals and engaging with customers.
• Email integration: Sync emails, use templates, and track communications directly from the CRM, ensuring seamless interaction with leads and customers.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Gain real-time insights with custom reporting tools to track sales performance, forecast revenue, and make data-driven decisions.
• Customization and security: Customize pipelines, fields, and user permissions to fit your specific SaaS needs, with robust security measures to protect sensitive data.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: The intuitive and visually appealing interface makes managing sales pipelines easy, even for those new to CRM systems.
• Sales pipeline focus: Designed specifically for managing sales pipelines, offering a visual approach that helps track leads, customers, and investor interactions effectively.
• Customization: Tailor the platform to your SaaS sales processes with custom fields and workflows, ensuring it meets your unique needs.
• Affordability: Competitive pricing makes it accessible for SaaS startups without sacrificing essential CRM features.
• Automation features: Streamline repetitive tasks like follow-up emails and deal progression, saving time and boosting productivity.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Lacks some advanced CRM features like extensive marketing automation and AI capabilities available in other platforms.
• Basic reporting in lower tiers: The basic plans offer limited reporting and analytics features, requiring upgrades for more in-depth insights.
• No built-in email marketing: Requires integration with third-party email tools for email marketing functionality.
• Limited customer support hours: Customer support is not available 24/7, which can be inconvenient for businesses needing immediate assistance.
• Price increases with add-ons: Costs can increase quickly when additional features or integrations are added, making it less cost-effective for growing businesses.
  

Price and plans

Pipedrive's annual subscription plan basis is as follows.

• Essential plan: Starts from $24 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $44 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $79 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

4. Salesforce

Salesforce is a robust CRM platform for large enterprises, offering tools for sales, marketing, service, and analytics, with extensive scalability.

Key features

• Comprehensive ecosystem: A unified platform offering CRM, marketing automation, customer service, and custom app development, suitable for managing leads, customers, and investors.
• Customization and scalability: Highly customizable and scalable, allowing SaaS companies to tailor the platform to their specific workflows and manage growth effectively.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) integration: Salesforce Einstein provides AI-driven analytics and automation, helping SaaS businesses optimize their strategies and make data-driven decisions.
• Extensive integration capabilities: Integrates with a wide range of third-party applications via Salesforce's AppExchange, ensuring seamless operation across different business systems.
• Enterprise-grade security and compliance: Offers robust security measures and compliance features, critical for handling sensitive customer and investor data.

Pros

• Comprehensive feature set: Covers sales, service, marketing, and more, making it a powerful tool for managing all aspects of SaaS customer relationships.
• Highly customizable: Allows SaaS businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs with custom fields, objects, and workflows.
• Extensive integration capabilities: Integrates with a vast array of third-party applications and its own ecosystem, enabling seamless data flow across platforms.
• Scalability: Suitable for SaaS businesses of all sizes, with the ability to grow with your business.
• Advanced analytics and reporting: Provides powerful analytics and reporting tools, allowing SaaS businesses to gain deep insights into their data and make informed decisions.

Cons

• High cost: Can be expensive, especially for small to medium-sized SaaS businesses, with high licensing fees and additional costs for add-ons and customization.
• Steep learning curve: Requires significant time and training for users to become proficient due to its extensive feature set and complexity.
• Complex setup and customization: Initial setup and customization can be challenging and often require expert help or certified consultants, adding to the overall cost.
• User interface: Some users find the interface to be outdated and not as intuitive as other modern CRM platforms, which can hinder usability.
• Overwhelming for small teams: Robust features may be overkill for smaller SaaS teams, leading to underutilization of the platform’s capabilities.

Price and plans

On an annual subscription plan, Salesforce's Service Cloud plan is as follows.

• Starter suite: Starts from $25 per user, per month.
• Pro suite: Starts from $100 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: Starts from $165 per user, per month.

5. Zoho

Zoho is a CRM system with a strong sales focus. It has journey orchestration, sales process management, and workflow automation features. There's also something for marketing teams, including event management and customer segmentation.

Key features

• Sales automation: Automates sales tasks like lead management, deal tracking, and follow-up actions, crucial for nurturing SaaS leads and customers.
• Customizable dashboards and reports: Allows users to create and customize dashboards and reports for in-depth analytics, helping SaaS companies track KPIs and investor metrics.
• Multi-channel communication: Integrates with email, phone, social media, and live chat to manage customer interactions, ensuring seamless communication with leads and customers.
• Lead and contact management: Manages customer information, tracks interactions, and segments contacts for targeted campaigns, essential for converting leads into paying customers.
• Workflow automation: Automates routine tasks and processes to improve efficiency and reduce manual effort, streamlining operations for SaaS startups.

Pros

• Affordability: Zoho CRM offers competitive pricing with various tiers, making it accessible to startups and growing SaaS businesses.
• Customization: Extensive customization options allow SaaS companies to tailor the CRM to their specific needs, including custom fields, modules, and workflows.
• Integration with Zoho suite: Seamless integration with other Zoho products (like Zoho Books, Zoho Projects, and Zoho Campaigns) creates a comprehensive ecosystem for managing different business functions.
• Multi-channel communication: Zoho CRM supports email, phone, social media, and live chat, enabling SaaS businesses to manage all customer interactions from a single platform.
• AI-powered features: Zia, the AI assistant, provides intelligent insights, predictive analytics, and task automation, helping to improve sales and marketing efficiency.

Cons

• Steep learning curve: The extensive customization options can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a significant time investment to master the platform.
• Complex setup: Initial setup and configuration can be complex, particularly for businesses without technical expertise or dedicated IT resources.
• Performance issues: Occasional reports of slow performance, especially with large datasets or complex operations, can hinder productivity.
• Limited third-party integrations: While Zoho integrates well with its own suite of products, integration with third-party applications can be limited or require additional effort.
• Data migration challenges: Migrating data from other CRMs to Zoho can be difficult and time-consuming, often requiring manual adjustments.
  

Price and plans

Free plan limited to three users suitable for small businesses. After that, an annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Professional: $35 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $50 per user, per month.

Conclusion

Choosing the best CRM for your SaaS company is a crucial step in driving growth and streamlining operations. Whether you are looking for affordability, advanced features, or seamless integrations, there's a CRM out there that fits your specific needs. Platforms like Folk offer modern, AI-driven tools that enhance deal management and prospecting, while HubSpot provides a comprehensive suite for marketing, sales, and customer service. Pipedrive excels in user-friendliness and sales pipeline management, and Salesforce offers robust scalability and extensive features for larger enterprises. Zoho stands out for its affordability and customization options, making it ideal for startups and growing businesses. Evaluate your requirements, budget, and long-term goals to make an informed decision. Try folk for free here.

Need a helping hand? Use our free tool to find your perfect CRM match.

‍

Frequently Asked Questions

What do SaaS companies use as a CRM?

SaaS companies often use CRMs like folk, Hubspot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zoho. These platforms offer a range of features tailored to the needs of SaaS businesses, such as contact management, sales automation, and detailed analytics.

Do I need a CRM?

Yes, depending on the complexity of your process. A CRM can streamline your operations, improve customer relationships, and provide valuable insights, making it essential for managing leads, customers, and investors efficiently.

How much does a CRM cost?

CRM costs can vary widely. Entry-level plans typically start around $15 per user per month, while more advanced plans can go up to $1500 per user per month. The price depends on the features and scalability you require.

Does folk’s CRM respond to SaaS needs?

Yes, folk’s CRM is well-suited for SaaS needs. It offers ease of use, all-in-one functionality, seamless LinkedIn integration, customizability, and extensive integrations with over 6,000 apps, making it a comprehensive tool for managing contacts, workflows, and relationships.