If you think customer relationship management (CRM) and contact management are the same thing, you're almost right.
Contact management is a subset of CRM. CRM systems attempt to track all customer interactions and then tie that data into the sales pipeline, digital marketing campaigns, and even your supply chain. Pure contact management systems are much more focused. These systems generally work to maintain rock-solid addressing data, along with a summary of sales and associated sales rep information (especially any open contracts). They may also include an overview of other touchpoints with that customer, such as verbal communications or help desk calls.
So why not simply deploy a CRM if you want contact management features? Because no matter how beautifully it's designed, a fully functioning CRM, even one built as a small business CRM, is more than just a software implementation. It's also an overhaul of your sales and pipelining process and usually requires evaluations of how and why your company gathers data as well as your business intelligence strategy. For most tiny businesses and startups, that's too much overhead. These organizations want a tool that will help them find customers and sell. Now.
Starting with a standalone contact management service gets that job done. It gets your early sales operation off the ground quickly and smoothly, ensuring that any later expansion into CRM is not only easier but also has a good data pool at the outset. That's especially true if your contact management platform already has CRM capabilities built-in, as do many of the top players we list below.
And because these systems are essentially slick databases with purpose-built front-ends, you can also apply creative uses to them. During the pandemic, for instance, companies can use separate contact management systems to track employees, third-party vendors, and even regular customers. That's information that can be shared with or brought in from other systems, like an employee monitoring solution or a shift scheduling platform.
Before you invest in a full-fledged CRM solution, check out the contact management systems below to see if they may fill your needs.
Zoho CRM Professional Edition
This is another CRM tool with contact management features that may be a little too much for those seeking a basic contact database. However, Zoho CRM's strength is its versatility and range. It offers a lot of functionality for the money and an abundance of pricing tiers for various business needs. This is one of the most developed and mature CRM SaaS solutions we've tested, and, while it's certainly got more muscle than a basic contact manager, it's also aimed at small business users. That means it's fairly easy to learn, versatile, and highly customizable.
Zoho CRM also integrates well with Zoho's large stable of other small business software solutions. From digital marketing to point of sale and accounting, Zoho has a software platform for it and they're usually at or near the top of their market. If your business is just starting out, then giving this whole stable a close look with an eye on the next five years might be a very good idea.
If you're absolutely sure that contact management is all you need, Zoho has more to offer than just its flagship CRM. There's also Zoho ContactManager, a tool strictly focused on handling contact data but with good export hooks to Zoho CRM, should you move that way in the future. Additionally, the company recently released Bigin by Zoho. This is a streamlined CRM designed specifically for small and microbusinesses, but with good contact management capabilities also built in.
Contacts+
Sold in a software as a service (SaaS) model, Contacts+ begins with a free tier aimed at solo users. From there, microbusinesses and slightly larger small businesses or teams have their own versions, which can be accessed via a web browser and also as local apps on a desktop or mobile device.
Contacts+ is aimed primarily at customers looking for a reliable gathering tool and repository for contact data. The software is designed to make inputting contact data easy. It also has a number of data migration features when customers need to share that information with third-party CRMs or marketing apps. Furthermore, it has some integration with Google Gmail, though it's mostly a standalone app.
Its only caveat is its mission. Contact management is what this tool focuses on exclusively, so if you're looking to expand into a full-blown CRM later on, you'll be shopping for additional software.
Freshsales CRM is another simple CRM solution that starts customers off with a solid set of contact management features. Because this is a lightweight CRM, buyers won't face a big learning curve—which many sales teams will appreciate, since it'll allow them to start using the app quickly and focus on their jobs.
However, if you anticipate requiring more sophisticated CRM functionality, you should evaluate Freshsales from this perspective and not just its contact management capabilities, just in case you're looking to avoid a platform shift later on.
Even if you do, however, the product is priced well enough that this won't be a big hurdle to many. For example, small firms that need a simple solution can take advantage of a free plan. However, if you need a platform with a long list of third-party software compatibility or an open API, you'll want to be careful.
HubSpot CRM is designed for those new to CRM, which means it provides a good path from basic contact management on up to full CRM functionality. It's especially useful to customers who already use HubSpot's other sales or marketing tools, but it's also good as a standalone solution especially for smaller companies. Next to contact management, it offers outstanding email and calendar integration and removes a lot of the tedious data entry and management that many competitors require to get up and running.
As your company grows, you can move easily to HubSpot CRM's more full-featured and premium products, but the free version works well for first-timers.
Insightly CRM
If you're looking for a way to streamline and organize a disparate array of customer data, Insightly CRM is a great choice. However, this isn't intended as a beginners' tool, even for those just interested in its contact management features. Insightly CRM has all the contact data features you need and then some, but its strengths lie more in the CRM arena with special attention paid to pipeline and deal management as well as data analysis.
Insightly CRM is also evolving into other functional areas—most recently project management and digital marketing automation—which is notable for companies thinking of running their sales process off a CRM while keeping it tightly integrated with their marketing campaigns.
Monday.com
Monday.com is trying to put a lot of eggs in a single software basket. On the surface, it's an online collaboration app, meaning small businesses and teams can use it to organize and track tasks. But because the software has a slick and flexible interface along with rudimentary tracking and database capabilities, the company bills Monday.com as a project manager, a small business customer relationship management (CRM) system, and a contact manager, too.
Because it's really a collaboration and work management tool, you'll probably be reminded of services like Asana (our Editors' Choice winner in the project management space) when you open Monday.com for the first time. While it's got some weaknesses in the project management and CRM categories, having some of those capabilities in a contact manager could make it one of the best solutions for that kind of work as long as you can match your contact tracking requirements to the project-driven work process that Monday.com uses.
Not only can you store and retrieve contacts easily with Monday.com, but you can also customize the interface somewhat so it better accommodates your business. And since it has task tracking and room for additional data attached to each contact record, you can combine contact tracking with whatever tasks you have associated with that contact. That could make it a very attractive, "quick and dirty" contact and pipeline solution depending on how your sales process works.
Will it hold your business forever in that regard? Probably not if your firm grows beyond a few hundred contacts. But for small businesses, that kind of customizable and quickly configured contact tracking could work well for quite a while. The real question is whether Monday.com's tools and work method will work for your company. Fortunately, there's a free tier usable by two people so you can take your time finding out.
Pipedrive CRM is both reasonably priced and one of the most straightforward CRM services available. You'll be able to get it up and running quickly, and the simple UI will let you spend less time working with the software and more time working on your next sale.
However, for those that like its look and feel, be aware that this is an entirely sales-focused tool. While its contact management features are good, the software doesn't differentiate between leads and contacts, for example. Everything is a deal, so be sure this workflow is what you're looking for. If you're a small sales outfit, it almost certainly is, but for companies with other contact data needs it might be a hurdle.