10 Best Customer Database Software Systems in 2024

The journey from lead generation to client retention hinges on effective customer data management and its strategic utilization.

This brings forth the million-dollar question many businesses struggle with –

What is the perfect replacement for old-school techniques like spreadsheets and emails to manage customer records efficiently?

Customer database software is the answer!

Top 10 Customer Database Software for 2024

This list of the best customer database software is backed by my personal experience with these tools. Additionally, I’ve incorporated recommendations from experts in the field and trusted review sites.

1. BIGContacts – Best for Contact Management & Email Marketing

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BIGContacts is a simple and easy-to-use CRM software that helps me manage all my contacts, tasks, and calendars in one place.

I can easily add custom fields to store relevant information to my business, such as purchase history, preferences, and feedback. I can also track all my interactions with my contacts, such as emails, calls, meetings, and notes.

What I loved the most about BIGContacts are its contact management and email marketing capabilities.

I can create static or dynamic lists of contacts based on various criteria, such as location, industry, or stage in the sales pipeline. I can also automate email campaigns based on triggers, such as when a contact enters a new sales stage or completes a certain action.

What You’ll Like:

• 360° view of customers, including all tasks, events, files, notes, social media profiles, etc., in one place
• Improved data organization with lists, tags, comments, groups, and more
• Detailed reports to get a bird’s eye view of all your activity and improve business decisions
• Sales pipeline management to gain more visibility in your sales pipeline and track deals efficiently
• Workflow automation and recurring tasks to streamline and optimize your sales and marketing processes

What You May Not Like:

• Regular updates, although useful, require constant adaptation
• Stable internet connectivity is required for optimal performance

Pricing:

• Forever free plan for startups with all premium features. Paid plan starts at $9.99/month.

2. Freshsales – Best for Workflow Automation

Image Source: Freshsales

Freshsales is a cloud-based CRM solution that helps you manage your sales pipeline, engage with your customers, and automate your tasks. AI-powered features offered by this tool provide insights and assistance for smarter and easier selling.

One of the features that I liked the most was the workflow automation. It allowed me to create custom workflows for different stages of the sales process and trigger actions based on specific criteria.

For example, I could send automated emails, assign tasks, update fields, and more. This saved me time and effort and improved my productivity and efficiency.

What You’ll Like:

• AI-powered chatbot to engage and qualify leads
• Built-in telephony to make and receive calls from within the CRM
• Collaboration tools to share notes, files, and feedback with your team
• Smart segmentation to group your contacts based on their behavior and preferences
• Omnichannel communication to connect with your customers via phone, email, chat, and social media

What You May Not Like:

• Customer support response time is usually high
• Limited integration with applications other than those included in the Freshworks suite

Pricing:

• A free plan is available (without AI-powered contact scoring). Paid plan starts at $12.02/month.

3. Salesforce – Best for Business Analytics

Image Source: Mungfali

Salesforce helped me to track and optimize every interaction with my leads, prospects, and customers. I could easily access and update their information, preferences, and history from any device. Salesforce CRM also enabled me to collaborate with my team and share insights and feedback.

One of the most impressive features of Salesforce was its analytics capabilities. It provided me with real-time data and dashboards showing me how my sales performance was.

I could also customize and create my reports and charts to measure the metrics that mattered to me. It helped me identify trends, opportunities, and challenges in my sales pipeline and take action accordingly.

What You’ll Like:

• Makes it easy to stay up to date with a comprehensive social feed
• Lead scoring and nurturing to prioritize and convert your prospects
• Revenue Intelligence feature for actionable insights about the sales cycle
• AppExchange to integrate with hundreds of third-party applications and services
• AI functionality to provide insights and recommendations for your sales and marketing strategies

What You May Not Like:

• The setup process can be slightly complicated and time-consuming
• Most of the integrations and add-ons are paid, leading to considerable increase in the overall CRM cost

Pricing:

• Starts at $25/user/month.

4. Bitrix24 – Best for Unified Workspace

Image Source: Bitrix24 HelpDesk

If you need an efficient customer database system that offers a range of tools for managing projects, tasks, communication, and collaboration, Bitrix24 can be a reliable solution.

One of the best features of Bitrix is the unified workspace, which allowed me to access all the information and tools I needed in one place. I could create and assign tasks, chat with my team members, share files, track time, and monitor progress. I could also customize the workspace according to the preferences and needs of my team members.

Bitrix also integrates with popular apps and services, such as Gmail, Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, and Zoom. This made it easy for me to sync and transfer data across different platforms.

What You’ll Like:

• Project management tools to plan and execute your tasks and projects
• Document management to store and share your files and documents securely
• Video conferencing to communicate with your team and customers in real-time
• Invoicing and online payments to create and send invoices and accept payments online
• Social media integration to connect with your prospects on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

What You May Not Like:

• A steep learning curve for new users
• Limited reporting features as compared to other competitors

Pricing:

• Starts at $19.4/month.

5. Apptivo – Best for Sales Cycle Management

Image Source: Apptivo Knowledge Base

Apptivo CRM is a user-friendly and customizable solution that gave me a complete overview of customer interactions and activities.

One of the features I liked the most was the sales cycle management, which allowed me to track, nurture, and close deals quickly. I could create multiple sales cycles for different products or services and use workflow automation to assign tasks and send emails.

I also enjoyed the intelligent sales dashboard, which showed me the key metrics and insights of my sales performance. Apptivo also integrated well with other tools I used, such as Gmail, Outlook, and QuickBooks.

What You’ll Like:

• Marketing automation features to craft effective email and SMS campaigns
• Help desk integration to manage and resolve customer issues and requests from within the CRM system
• Sales pipeline to track and manage your sales opportunities and stages
• Inventory management to track and control your stock and inventory levels
• Contact management to store and organize your contact information and communication history

What You May Not Like:

• The customer support team can be unresponsive at times
• The tool has a steep learning curve

Pricing:

• Starts at $8/user/month.

6. Monday Sales CRM – Best for Deal Management

Image Source: Monday CRM

Monday Sales CRM is a powerful client database software that helped me manage my sales pipeline and close more deals. I used it to track the progress of each lead, assign tasks to my team, and communicate with my clients.

What I liked the most about Monday Sales CRM was its deal management feature. It allowed me to create custom stages for each deal, set deadlines and reminders, and see the value of each opportunity.

The tool also helped me manage multiple pipelines and customize dashboards to reflect the sales process. I also found the mobile app to be highly useful for managing clients on the go.

What You’ll Like:

• Boards and columns to organize and display your data and workflows
• Timeline and calendar to schedule and track your activities and events
• Forms and landing pages to collect and generate leads from your website
• Insights and dashboards to visualize and analyze your data and metrics
• Integrations to connect and sync your CRM with other tools and platforms

What You May Not Like:

• The reporting and analytics tools are not very advanced
• The customer service is not very responsive and sometimes unhelpful

Pricing:

• Starts at $12/user/month.

7. Kintone – Best for Inquiry Management System

Image Source: Software Suggest

Kintone is a cloud-based software with a customizable and centralized digital workspace to aid team collaboration and productivity. It empowers users with little or no technical skills to build automated workflows by themselves using a drag-and-drop technique.

One of the best features of Kintone CRM is its inquiry management system. It lets you track and manage your sales leads and activity in one place, using real-time data and notifications. You can also create custom forms, fields, and reports to suit your needs.

I was impressed by how easy it was to set up and use. It helped me streamline my sales process, improve customer relationships, and increase revenue. Kintone is an excellent sales data management software for any business that wants to grow and succeed in the digital age.

What You’ll Like:

• Drag-and-drop interface to design and build your forms and fields
• Data protection and security to ensure your data is safe and compliant
• Database and spreadsheet to store and manage your data and records
• Workflow automation to speed up your business processes and actions
• Notifications and reminders to keep you and your team updated and informed

What You May Not Like:

• Some users have reported concerns regarding data accuracy
• A complex user interface that might take time for users to understand

Pricing:

• Starts at $24/user/month.

8. noCRM.io – Best for Lead Management

Image Source: Software Suggest

noCRM.io is a simple and effective tool for managing leads and closing deals. It helped me organize my sales pipeline, track my progress, and follow up with prospects.

noCRM.io offers a robust lead management system. It allowed me to create leads from various sources, such as web forms, emails, or phone calls. I could also assign tags, categories, and statuses to each lead and set reminders and tasks.

The platform is easy to use, customizable, and affordable, making it suitable for SMBs looking to boost their sales productivity and efficiency.

What You’ll Like:

• Sales actions to define and execute your next steps and follow-ups
• Prospecting lists to import and organize your leads from various sources
• Sales pipeline to monitor and optimize your sales performance and conversion rate
• Team management to assign and distribute leads and tasks among your team members
• Mobile app and web extension to access and update your CRM from any device and browser

What You May Not Like:

• The software is buggy and often crashes or freezes
• Users have reported that the dashboard is a little complex to use

Pricing:

• Starts at $21/user/month.

9. Streak – Best for Gmail Integration

Image Source: Streak

Streak is a powerful tool that helped me manage my work and communicate with clients and team members from within Gmail. I used it to track leads, projects, tasks, emails, calls, and more in one place.

Streak also offers robust email tracking, making it easy to stay updated with email opens and clicks. It also offers an intelligent input-type feature that automatically fills in data such as dates, names, and formulas from your CRM, based on the context of the email.

Streak is an excellent solution for startups and small businesses that prefer working within Google Workspace and need a customer database management system to streamline their workflow.

What You’ll Like:

• Easy importing and exporting of data with Google Sheets
• Filters and search to find and sort your data and records easily
• Box view to see and edit your CRM data in a spreadsheet-like format
• Snippets and mail merge to create and send personalized and mass emails
• Shared pipelines to collaborate and share your data and workflows with your team

What You May Not Like:

• Issues with lead data tracking
• Occasional glitches can cause your CRM to get disconnected from Gmail

Pricing:

• A free plan is available (without a link tracking feature). Paid plan starts at $15/month.

10. Pipedrive – Best for Task Management

Image Source: GetApp

Pipedrive CRM is a cloud-based platform that helps sales teams manage their pipelines, leads, contacts, and activities.

One of the features that I liked the most about Pipedrive was task management. Pipedrive allowed me to schedule reminders for all my sales activities, such as calls, emails, meetings, and follow-ups.

I could also track the progress of each deal and see the entire history of all the interactions with every contact. This helped me stay on top of all my deals and never miss an opportunity.

Pipedrive offers several customization options. I could create my pipelines, stages, and fields to match my sales process. I could also integrate Pipedrive with other tools that I used, such as email marketing, web visitor tracking, and document management.

What You’ll Like:

• Deal management to track and manage your sales deals and stages
• Mobile app to access and update your CRM from any device and location
• Lead generation and qualification to find and attract your ideal customers
• Activity-based selling to plan and execute your sales actions and follow-ups
• Sales forecasting and reporting to predict and improve your sales outcomes and results

What You May Not Like:

• The chatbot functionality offered by Pipedrive is not very robust
• There can be issues while connecting multiple contacts to a lead

Pricing:

• Starts at $9.90/user/month.

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation of products or tools chosen for this article follows an unbiased, systematic approach that ensures a fair, insightful, and well-rounded review. This method employs six key factors:

User Reviews / Ratings: Direct experiences from users, including ratings and feedback from reputable sites, provide a ground-level perspective. This feedback is critical in understanding overall satisfaction and potential problems.

Essential Features & Functionality: The value of a product is ascertained by its core features and overall functionality. Through an in-depth exploration of these aspects, the practical usefulness and effectiveness of the tools are carefully evaluated.

Ease of Use: The user-friendliness of a product or service is assessed, focusing on the design, interface, and navigation. This ensures a positive experience for users of all levels of expertise.

Customer Support: The quality of customer support is examined, taking into account its efficiency and how well it supports users in different phases – setting up, addressing concerns, and resolving operational issues.

Value for Money: Value for money is evaluated by comparing the quality, performance, and features. The goal is to help the reader understand whether they would be getting their money’s worth.

Personal Experience/Expert’s Opinion or Favorites: This part of the evaluation criteria draws insightful observations from the personal experience of the writer and the opinions of industry experts.

Find the Best Customer Database Software in 2024

The right client database software can help you form long-lasting business connections. To make the selection process easier for you, I have listed my top 3 recommendations below –

Option A: BIGContacts

BIGContacts stands out as the best choice for contact management and email marketing. Its user-friendly interface, customizable contact fields, and robust email automation make it an invaluable tool to enhance customer engagement and marketing efforts.

Option B: Salesforce

For organizations in need of advanced sales analytics, Salesforce reigns supreme. Its customizable dashboards, sales forecasting, and lead management functionalities provide unparalleled insights to drive business growth and success.

Option C: Freshsales

Freshsales earns its place as one of the top contenders due to its exceptional workflow automation capabilities. With an intuitive interface, customizable pipelines, and task management features, it empowers businesses to optimize productivity and streamline processes.

Ultimately, selecting the right customer database software is crucial for efficient business management. Consider your specific needs, budget, and desired functionalities when making the final decision.

Learn More About Customer Database Software in 2024!

What is customer database software?

Customer database software is a tool that organizes and manages customer information. It stores details such as contact info, purchase history, and preferences, streamlining interactions and enhancing customer relationships.

Why is client database software important for small businesses?

Client database software is crucial for small businesses as it centralizes customer data, facilitates personalized interactions, improves customer satisfaction, and helps in targeted marketing, ultimately boosting overall efficiency and competitiveness.

What are the essential features of a customer database system?

Key features include data storage, accessibility, security, integration with other tools, analytics, and the ability to track customer interactions. These ensure efficient management and utilization of customer information.

How do you choose the best customer database software?

The best customer database software for your business should be easy to use and customizable. When making the selection, focus on the scalability, integration capabilities, security features, and vendor reputation. Also, check if the tool offers mobile access. Evaluate user reviews and seek recommendations to make an informed decision. This will help you find a solution that keeps your customer data well-organized and easy to access.

What are the three types of customer databases?

Customer databases can be operational (day-to-day transactions), analytical (for business intelligence), and collaborative (facilitating interactions among customers and businesses). Each serves a distinct purpose in managing and leveraging customer information.