There really is no single CRM that can be put on a pedestal. An esteemed and objective reputation as THE BEST CRM is unlikely to be granted to just one of the numerous platforms available to business owners. The features, capabilities, and cost of a CRM should match perfectly to your business model and should be the lifeblood of your sales team — otherwise, it’s going to be an expense that only brings misery instead of sales. The value of a CRM is relative to the needs of the business, as is the value of everything else.
With that in mind, which is the better fit for your business? Is it Pipedrive, or Freshsales? Understanding what these platforms offer will help you attain a better perspective of what works best for your business.
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Pipedrive vs Freshsales Comparison Chart
| Model | Pipedrive | Freshsales |
 |  | |
| Price | Check Price at Pipedrive | Check Price at Freshsales |
| Trial | 14 days | 21 days |
| Payback period | 13 months | 6 months |
| Average months to go-live | 1.3 months | 0.9 months |
| Statistics | Yes | Yes (higher plan) |
| Forecasting | Yes (all plans) | Yes (higher plan) |
| Leads, contacts, accounts and deal management | No (Pipedrive does not have Leads module) | Yes |
| Users limit | Unlimited, all plans | Unlimited, all plans |
| Records limit | Unlimited, all plans | Unlimited, all plans |
| Custom fields | Yes (all plans) | Yes (higher plan) |
| Mailchimp integration | Yes | Yes (higher plan) |
| Email integration | Yes | Yes (higher plan) |
| Smart Contact Data (Augmented data) | Yes (in Advanced plan & above) | Yes (higher plan) |
| Products (inventory) | Yes (in Advanced plan & above) | No |
| Built-in phone | Yes (Professional plan and above) | Yes |
| Free phone, email & chat support | Yes (Phone support available only for Enterprise plan) | Yes |
| Data Center in Europe | Yes | Yes (highest plan only) |
Lead Management
Defying the urge to pile on the features, Pipedrive’s kanban-style visual pipeline makes it so easy to monitor the progress of ongoing deals.
Okay, let’s be honest. Pipedrive isn’t exactly known for innovations on lead management. There are no distinctions between leads and contacts. A neglectful sales team that couldn’t respond immediately to leads that come in would be catastrophic. Adding a lead field to contact forms is one way to improve on it, but it’s an extra action you won’t have to take when compared to other CRM tools. Separating leads from clients after closing a deal can also be problematic.
Generating new leads is also not a strong suit of Pipedrive’s. It allows you to easily set up web forms but doesn’t allow you to combine the CRM software with social media or automatically retrieve contact details from email signatures. Pipedrive’s Leadbooster chatbot can generate leads from your site automatically, which boosts the sales process. The caveat? You have to pay extra for Leadbooster since its considered an add-on.
However, Pipedrive’s visual sales funnel is just a joy to look at. It allows you to see the status of deals in progress effortlessly. Alert icons on the visual display show deals that are on time, ahead, delayed and deals with meetings scheduled. Most importantly, the sales funnel display is highly customisable — you can add as many columns as you need to match it more to how your company conducts transactions with soon-to-be clients. Moving a deal into the next stage of your pipeline is as easy as Click & Drag. Sales teams separated into different geography or clients can even show different displays specific to their team’s deals.
Similarly, Freshsales CRM has an easy to navigate contact display that shows plenty of the data you need. Inputting a contact into the system automatically populates the screen with information about their website and social media posts. You’ll be able to assess the value of contacts to your company, as well as check on correspondence and social media activity immediately.
Freshsales makes it easy to automatically assign a rating to each existing contact based on their past arrangements with your business. Prioritising communication obligations is simpler since contacts can be filtered and sorted by their filters. Freshsales also has an auto-assign feature that allocates leads to the right salesperson, regardless of territory.
Just like Pipedrive, Freshsales tends to be somewhat limited when it comes to tools for lead generation. Other CRM platforms make it easy to get leads from social media and websites — but with this platform, you’ll need to import data and input in yourself. On-field salespeople can add contacts by simply taking a photo of a business card, which is already a standard feature in other CRM mobile apps —not for Freshsales, it isn’t.
Communication Channels and Contact Management
The Freshcaller widget’s Recent Activities feature gives you full context to start the conversation right from where you left it last time.
Pipedrive offers both email and phone calls as communication channels. Using the email function only requires syncing to your work email address. Sending and receiving emails through Pipedrive makes it more efficient because of real-time notifications informing you that a contact has opened your email. Furthermore, Pipedrive already has a various range of email templates available for use, saving you the time you’ll have to spend on writing an email from scratch.
Hands-free phone calls allow your sales team to take notes while they’re on the phone — after that, Pipedrive automatically saves your call record and adds it to the pipeline as a completed task. Contacts can be imported using another platform and saved as either individuals or organisations.
Essentially, Freshsales also offers the same Pipedrive has to offer, but with a slight edge: their built-in phone, Freshcaller, comes with all of their plans whereas Pipedrive’s only come with the Professional Plan onwards. Freshcaller has additional functions like the ability to add customer numbers to each user and manual call logging.
Interface and Ease of Use
Pipedrive has automated, behaviour-based hints on how to boost your results so you’re constantly upskilling without lengthy training or consultancy.
Pipedrive and Freshsales are both quite user-friendly, adding much to their appeal. Their platforms take no time at all to set up, and after a number of personal adjustments, salespeople can immediately add current deals to the sales funnel with a click of a button. Creating contacts, setting up follow up reminders, and other management tasks are direct and on point.
Visual cues that keep you and your team on task are always visible in both platforms’ sales funnel — allowing you to quickly see if you need to do something for a specific deal, or if a deal’s progressing or being delayed. The overall look of Pipedrive and Freshsales is minimalistic without feeling overly simplistic. Both CRM platforms also have mobile apps that are as easy to use as their desktop counterpart, making it uncomplicated to track deals and schedules even when on the go.
Verdict
Pipedrive and Freshsales both feature a visual display that makes contact management and tracking deals simple and straightforward.
To sum it up, Freshsales makes more sense when you’re already in the Freshworks suite of products such as Freshchat, Freshdesk, etc. Freshsales is fully integrated with the rest of Freshworks’ products, making it easier for you to switch between different tools you need to get the job done.
However, Pipedrive is your best choice (if we’re comparing just these two platforms) if you’re not using the Freshworks suite of products and unable to migrate your data pool and software to it. Valuing ease of use, Pipedrive makes it convenient for users to integrate their platform with other applications, which is an advantage if you’re not looking to purchase an entire suite of products that may or may not work for you and your company.
FAQs
Pipedrive is available in four SMB and enterprise pricing plans. All payment plans offer a free 14 days trial, and provide you with the possibility to use the app free for 2 months is you decide to pay on an annual basis.
Pipedrive pricing starts at $15.00 per month, per user. They do not have a free version. Pipedrive offers a free trial.
Freshsales pricing starts at $12.00 per month, per user. There is a free version. Freshsales offers a free trial.
CRM helps businesses build a relationship with their customers that, in turn, creates loyalty and customer retention. Since customer loyalty and revenue are both qualities that affect a company’s revenue, CRM is a management strategy that results in increased profits for a business.