Buyer guide
Compare CRMs for marketing, creative and software agencies. Start with the picks below, then check plan prices and the work each tool covers. Lumenbase is our product.
Pick for your agency’s sales process, client work and budget. These are editorial picks based on published product and pricing information.
Small or lean agencies on a budget
Zoho combines a low seat price with broad customization. HubSpot Free can cover a solo team. Its paid plans rise quickly.
Check before choosing: Check the limits of each edition and the cost of other Zoho apps.
Also consider: Bigin, Freshsales, Capsule
Marketing agencies
HubSpot has a large integration marketplace and connected campaign tools. Zoho offers more configuration at a lower entry price.
Check before choosing: Sales Hub, Marketing Hub and onboarding can have separate charges.
Also consider: monday CRM, EngageBay
Creative and retainer agencies
Shared contacts, sales pipelines and project boards keep client work in one place.
Check before choosing: Growth is needed for workflow automation and advanced reporting.
Also consider: Capsule, folk
Software and outsourcing agencies
it connects long sales cycles, referrals, renewals, delivery, and invoicing on the same account record.
Check before choosing: Lumenbase is our product. It does not replace resource planning or utilization tools.
Also consider: Pipedrive, HubSpot
Agencies that resell software to clients
it offers a white-label platform that agencies can rebrand and resell under a flat agency fee.
Check before choosing: Check usage charges and which tier includes the white-label features you need.
Also consider: Bitrix24
Teams that want a simple pipeline
its focused deal management is quick to set up and easy for a small sales team to run.
Check before choosing: Check Projects and other add-ons if you need delivery work in the same system.
Also consider: Capsule, Less Annoying CRM
Agencies needing heavy customization
it offers deep configuration for teams with the budget and admin capacity to maintain it.
Check before choosing: Budget for setup, administration and the integrations you need.
Also consider: Microsoft Dynamics 365
Delivery-led agencies (a PSA may fit better)
a PSA puts resource planning, utilization, time tracking, and invoicing at the center of the system.
Check before choosing: A PSA manages professional services work. Check its sales tools as well as its project tools.
Also consider: Insightly, Copper
Prices below cover 8 users. Choose annual billing or month-to-month, then filter and sort.
| Best for | Free | Compared / seat | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pro Source record: 28 September 2026 | Open source, no seat cliff | $9 | $9 | $72 | |
Premier Source record: 15 September 2026 | The smallest paid step up | $7 | $12 | $96 | |
Standard Source record: 15 September 2026 Flat plan with a seat ceiling | One flat bill for everything | Flat | Flat plan | $99 | |
Standard Source record: 14 September 2026 | Visual work management | $13.04 | $18.48 | $148 | |
Business Source record: 15 September 2026 | A next action on everything | $9.73 | $19.51 | $156 | |
Professional Source record: 15 September 2026 | Budget and customization | $14 | $23 | $184 | |
Complete Source record: 7 September 2026 | Software and outsourcing agencies | $24.17 | $24.17 | $193 | |
Nimble Business Source record: 15 September 2026 | Context on the people | $24.90 | $24.90 | $199 | |
Keap Pro Source record: 15 September 2026 | Marketing automation with a CRM attached | $24.90 | $24.90 | $199 | |
Premium Source record: 21 September 2026 | CRM plus the back office | $15 | $25 | $200 | |
Standard Source record: 14 September 2026 | Open-source suite with delivery | $27.07 | $27.07 | $217 | |
REGULAR Source record: 14 September 2026 | Cheap all-in-one | $8.99 | $29.99 | $240 | |
One Professional Source record: 15 September 2026 | All-in-one with an open-source lineage | $12 | $30 | $240 | |
Growth Source record: 15 September 2026 Priced in EUR, converted | Contacts and projects | $16.30 | $30.43 | $243 | |
Unlimited Source record: 15 September 2026 Flat agency plan, unlimited users | Agencies that resell | Flat | Flat plan | $248 | |
Essentials Source record: 15 September 2026 | Inside sales and calling | $35 | $35 | $280 | |
Pro Source record: 15 September 2026 | Value all-in-one | $9 | $39 | $312 | |
Growth Source record: 15 September 2026 | Simple sales pipeline | $14 | $39 | $312 | |
Pro Source record: 15 September 2026 | Affordable and full-featured | $13 | $42 | $336 | |
Premium Source record: 5 October 2026 | Lightweight relationships | $24 | $48 | $384 | |
Pro Source record: 15 September 2026 | Auto-capture for SMBs | $29 | $49 | $392 | |
Professional Source record: 12 October 2026 | CRM plus projects | $29 | $49 | $392 | |
Pro Source record: 15 September 2026 | Pipelines as Gmail labels | $49 | $49 | $392 | |
Professional Source record: 15 September 2026 | Google Workspace teams | $23 | $59 | $472 | |
Dynamics 365 Sales Professional Source record: 15 September 2026 | Agency groups on Microsoft | $65 | $65 | $520 | |
Pro Source record: 15 September 2026 | Flexible, build-your-own | $35 | $79 | $632 | |
Breakcold Source record: 15 September 2026 | Social-first prospecting | $79.20 | $79.20 | $634 | |
Sales Hub Professional Source record: 15 September 2026 Free CRM: up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts | Marketing agencies in its ecosystem | $7 | $90 | $720 | |
Advanced+ Source record: 5 October 2026 | Configurable mid-market | $59 | $98 | $784 | |
Pro Suite Source record: 15 September 2026 | Enterprise customization | $25 | $100 | $800 | |
Everything included Source record: 5 October 2026 | One price, no upsell path | n/a | n/a | ||
Enterprise Source record: 14 September 2026 Priced in EUR, converted | Self-hosted and cheap | n/a | n/a | ||
Pro Source record: 14 September 2026 | Calling and sales follow-up | n/a | n/a | ||
Team Source record: 15 September 2026 | Structured sales process | n/a | n/a | ||
Growth Source record: 14 September 2026 | Marketing and CRM on one bill | n/a | n/a | ||
Business Source record: 15 September 2026 | Living inside Gmail | n/a | n/a | ||
Business Source record: 14 September 2026 Priced in GBP, converted | Mid-market services firms | n/a | n/a | ||
Advanced Source record: 5 October 2026 | Selling over messaging | n/a | n/a | ||
Professional Source record: 20 July 2026 Priced in GBP, converted | Small B2B teams | n/a | n/a | ||
SuiteCRM Hosted Premium Source record: 14 September 2026 Priced in GBP, converted | Free, if you host it | n/a | n/a |
USD list prices for the named plan in our professional category. These categories do not guarantee equal features. Taxes, onboarding, usage charges and add-ons are excluded. Unverified means we could not confirm that price. Each vendor name links to its source.
Everything above is quoted at 8 seats so the rows stay comparable. The calculator drops that assumption.
Feature entries come from automated reads of plan pages. An unrecorded feature needs a check with the vendor. Entries are leads for your trial, not a complete feature audit.
Pick the features you need. The bars show how often each feature appears in our records. A low count can mean incomplete data.
Separate pipelines for new business and existing clients, running over the same company record. Splitting them across two tools is how an account director pitches a client that new business already approached that month.
Check: Put a current client into the new business pipeline. If you end up with a second copy of that client, the model is wrong.
A won deal starts the account, it does not end it. Renewals, repeat scopes and live retainers have to stay on screen after the signature, with a way to see which ones have gone quiet.
Check: Mark a deal won, then look for that client without searching for it. If it has dropped out of every view, the pipeline is the only thing the tool really models.
Email and calendar sync that files the relationship against the company rather than in one inbox. A CRM a ten-person agency has to feed by hand is abandoned within a quarter, and the client history then leaves with whoever was keeping it.
Check: Connect one mailbox during the trial and count how much of last month appears without anyone typing it in. Ask what happens to that history when the seat is removed.
Revenue by client, by service line and by referral source, not only a forecast of open deals. Agency planning questions are about the book of business, and the answers usually need a report nobody wrote for you.
Check: Try to build "revenue per client, last 12 months" yourself in the trial. Note whether it needs a higher plan.
Custom reporting: recorded for 15 of 40 vendors; 5 at entry.
Freelancers, contractors and client-side collaborators pass through an agency constantly, and competing clients should not be able to read each other. Per-record and per-team access matters more here than in a single-product sales team.
Check: Invite a test user at the lowest role and confirm what they can see. Price the plan that role actually requires.
Roles and permissions: recorded for 30 of 40 vendors; 6 at entry.
Either the delivery and invoicing sit on the same client record, or the handoff to a PSA is a real integration. Retyping a won deal into a second system is where scope, dates and owner quietly stop matching.
Check: Walk one won deal all the way to an invoice in the trial, and count how many times you retype something.
Projects: recorded for 7 of 40 vendors; 4 at entry.
We reviewed the pricing sources on 15 September 2026. The table uses the named CRM plan, its billing term and its user allowance. We keep unconfirmed prices blank. The row dates show the oldest source record still used for that vendor; they are not a claim that every feature was tested.
Euro prices use the fixed conversion rate shown in the full method. Get a current quote before buying. We have not run hands-on trials of every product.
source record dates: 20 July 2026 to 12 October 2026
Zendesk Sell is excluded from this buying list because Zendesk will retire it on 31 August 2027. Zendesk’s retirement notice
Check the fit, trade-off and pricing source for each product.
Recorded from $9 per seat; $72 per month at 8 seats
An open-source CRM with a modern interface, run on their cloud or on your own server.
Fits: agencies with a developer who would rather host it than pay per seat forever.
The drawback: young, and self-hosting is a job somebody has to keep doing after the person who set it up gets busy.
Recorded from $7 per seat; $96 per month at 8 seats
Zoho's own lightweight CRM for small teams: pipelines, contacts, and a free tier, with almost none of the configuration work full Zoho asks for.
Fits: a three or four person agency that wants a real CRM and not a project.
The drawback: deliberately limited. Growing out of it means moving into full Zoho, which is a second migration.
Flat $99 per month, billed annually
A suite on a flat plan: CRM, tasks, chat, telephony, a document store and a company intranet, for a fixed number of users rather than per seat.
Fits: agencies of ten to fifty who want one subscription instead of five and will put up with a busy interface.
The drawback: a great deal on screen at once. Onboarding a team takes real training, and the parts are each lighter than the specialist tool they replace.
Recorded from $13.04 per seat; $148 per month at 8 seats
The CRM product built on the monday.com work platform, so deals are boards and columns and the same workspace can run production tasks.
Fits: an agency that already runs client delivery on monday boards and wants new business next to it rather than in a separate tool.
The drawback: it is a work platform first. Sales-specific things like sequences, call logging, and forecast quality lag behind a purpose-built CRM.
Recorded from $9.73 per seat; $156 per month at 8 seats
A CRM built on one rule: every contact carries a next action with a date, or it drops off the list.
Fits: small agencies whose real problem is follow-through rather than storage.
The drawback: its next-action approach needs a trial with your team. Check how repeat client work fits the activity list.
Recorded from $14 per seat; $184 per month at 8 seats
A full CRM inside a suite of about fifty business apps, with heavy customization at a low seat price. Modules, layouts, and workflow rules can be reshaped without a developer.
Fits: a cost-sensitive agency that is willing to spend a week configuring, and that wants books, desk, and campaigns from the same vendor later.
The drawback: the parts you end up needing are often separate apps with separate bills, and the admin work never really stops.
Recorded from $24.17 per seat; $193 per month at 8 seats
Our product. A CRM with email and meeting history, a browser capture extension, deal tracking, delivery and invoicing.
Fits: agencies where the same client comes back, work arrives through referrals, and nobody has time to feed a CRM by hand.
The drawback: we are young, so the app marketplace is small next to HubSpot or Zoho, and we do not do resource planning or utilization.
Recorded from $24.90 per seat; $199 per month at 8 seats
A relationship CRM that enriches contact records from social and web sources, with a browser extension for working from a profile.
Fits: agencies whose new business runs on knowing who someone is before the first call.
The drawback: light on pipeline discipline and reporting, so it fits the prospecting half and not the forecast.
Recorded from $24.90 per seat; $199 per month at 8 seats
A small-business platform built around automated follow-up and campaigns, with a CRM and payments underneath it.
Fits: marketing agencies who run client nurture and resell the platform, which is a large part of its partner base.
The drawback: expensive for its size, and the automation-first design is heavy if all you wanted was a pipeline.
Recorded from $15 per seat; $200 per month at 8 seats
A small-business suite with CRM, projects, invoicing, and procurement in one subscription.
Fits: a small agency that wants the won deal to become a project and an invoice without a second vendor.
The drawback: broad rather than deep. Each module is serviceable and none of them is best in class.
Recorded from $27.07 per seat; $217 per month at 8 seats
The CRM app in the Odoo suite, sitting next to projects, timesheets, and invoicing that are all real applications rather than tabs.
Fits: agencies that want deal to delivery to invoice in one system and have someone to configure it.
The drawback: check which subscription covers your apps, hosting and custom modules. Implementation and maintenance can add to the bill.
Recorded from $8.99 per seat; $240 per month at 8 seats
A small-business all-in-one with sales, marketing, and service features and a free tier for a handful of users.
Fits: a very small agency that wants breadth and is buying on price.
The drawback: check the billing commitment behind the advertised rate, plus contact and automation limits.
Recorded from $12 per seat; $240 per month at 8 seats
A broad CRM covering sales, marketing, help desk, and projects, with an open-source edition behind the cloud product.
Fits: agencies that want one tool across the whole client lifecycle and can live with breadth over polish.
The drawback: check the user roles, app limits and support level included in the exact edition you buy.
Recorded from $16.30 per seat; $243 per month at 8 seats
A small, calm CRM with contacts, a pipeline, and projects, priced in clear tiers with a free plan for two users.
Fits: a small agency that wants a tidy shared address book and one pipeline, and nothing more.
The drawback: workflow automation, advanced reporting and multiple project boards start on Growth. Marketing is a separate add-on.
Flat $248 per month, billed annually
A white-label marketing and sales platform an agency rebrands and resells to its own clients, with sub-accounts, funnels, and messaging built in.
Fits: agencies whose product IS the software: lead generation shops and marketing agencies billing clients for a platform.
The drawback: it is built to run your clients, not your own agency. Using it as the internal CRM for your new business is fighting the design.
Recorded from $35 per seat; $280 per month at 8 seats
An outbound CRM with the phone, SMS, and email sequences native, built around working a call list rather than reading a dashboard.
Fits: agencies that cold call, where the number of conversations per day is the metric that matters.
The drawback: calling and SMS usage can add to the subscription. Check the usage rates for the countries your team contacts.
Recorded from $9 per seat; $312 per month at 8 seats
Freshworks CRM, with built-in phone, email, chat, and AI scoring at a lower price than the platform vendors.
Fits: an agency doing real outbound volume that wants calling in the same tool as the pipeline.
The drawback: the useful automation and the AI sit in the upper plans, so the entry price is not the price you end up paying.
Recorded from $14 per seat; $312 per month at 8 seats
A focused deal pipeline that is quick to set up and easy for a small team to keep current, with a large app marketplace around it.
Fits: an agency whose problem is only new business, and who wants everyone using the same board by Friday.
The drawback: check Projects and other add-ons when pricing delivery work. The base sales subscription does not cover every agency workflow.
Recorded from $13 per seat; $336 per month at 8 seats
A sales CRM with pipelines, email and calendar sync, reporting and automation across its tiers.
Fits: a new business team of three to ten that wants outbound email and a pipeline from one bill.
The drawback: marketing, engagement, quotes and invoices have separate add-ons. Include the ones your agency needs in the total.
Recorded from $24 per seat; $384 per month at 8 seats
A contact-first CRM with a LinkedIn extension, shared lists, and light pipelines, built for relationship-led work rather than volume selling.
Fits: a small creative or consulting shop where new business comes from a network, not a lead list.
The drawback: deals, reporting, and post-sale tracking are shallow, so it runs out of room as the agency grows past a few sellers.
Recorded from $29 per seat; $392 per month at 8 seats
A small-team CRM that builds records from email and calendar traffic on its own, so the pipeline stays current without manual entry.
Fits: a founder-led agency where nobody will reliably log anything.
The drawback: it is built for a handful of users. Permissions, reporting, and client confidentiality controls are thin for a larger agency.
Recorded from $29 per seat; $392 per month at 8 seats
A CRM with project management attached, so a won deal converts into a project with tasks and milestones in the same tool.
Fits: agencies that want the deal-to-delivery handoff inside one product and do not need a full PSA.
The drawback: each half is weaker than a tool that only does that half, and the marketing and service pieces are priced separately.
Recorded from $49 per seat; $392 per month at 8 seats
The lightest Gmail CRM: pipelines rendered inside the inbox, with almost nothing to learn.
Fits: a two or three person studio that wants tracking without adopting an application.
The drawback: it runs inside Gmail. Check user permissions and reporting needs before choosing a plan.
Recorded from $23 per seat; $472 per month at 8 seats
A CRM that lives inside Gmail and Google Calendar, so records are edited in the side panel rather than in a separate tab.
Fits: an agency that runs entirely on Google Workspace and wants the CRM where the email already is.
The drawback: tie yourself to Google and you inherit its limits. Outlook is not the point here, and the reporting is basic.
Recorded from $65 per seat; $520 per month at 8 seats
The Microsoft sales platform, sharing identity, Teams, and Office with the rest of a Microsoft estate.
Fits: agency groups with several offices, a Microsoft tenant, and someone whose job includes the CRM.
The drawback: it assumes an administrator and a licensing conversation. A twelve-person studio will use a fraction of it.
Recorded from $35 per seat; $632 per month at 8 seats
A data-model CRM. You define the objects, the attributes, and the automations, and the interface follows what you built.
Fits: an agency with someone who enjoys building systems and wants the CRM to match an unusual delivery model exactly.
The drawback: it ships as a blank shape. Two agencies with the same problem end up with two different builds, and whoever built yours owns it.
Recorded from $79.20 per seat; $634 per month at 8 seats
A prospecting CRM built around engaging on LinkedIn and X before the email goes out, with sequences attached.
Fits: agencies whose new business is founder-led social selling rather than a call list.
The drawback: narrow. It is a prospecting tool with a pipeline, not a system of record for a client book.
Recorded from $7 per seat; $720 per month at 8 seats
A multi-hub platform with marketing, sales, service, and CMS products that share one contact record, plus the largest app marketplace in the category.
Fits: marketing agencies that already run client campaigns on HubSpot and are in its partner program.
The drawback: Sales Hub Professional requires paid onboarding. Marketing Hub and other products can add separate charges.
Recorded from $59 per seat; $784 per month at 8 seats
A long-established mid-market CRM with deep configuration and both cloud and self-hosted options.
Fits: larger agencies with an unusual process and the appetite to model it properly.
The drawback: configuration-led, so it carries the same admin cost as the enterprise tools without their ecosystem.
Recorded from $25 per seat; $800 per month at 8 seats
The category standard. Anything can be configured, and there is an ecosystem of consultants and apps to do it.
Fits: agency groups with several offices, real compliance requirements, and someone whose job is the CRM.
The drawback: it needs an admin. The list price is the start of the bill, not the end of it, and small agencies rarely use what they pay for.
price unverified
A deliberately plain CRM at a single flat per-user price with no tiers and nothing to upgrade to.
Fits: a small agency that wants to make this decision once and never revisit it.
The drawback: test the reports and integrations your agency needs. The single plan gives you no higher tier to unlock extra tools.
price unverified
An open-source CRM you can host yourself or buy as a cloud plan, with a wide feature set for the price.
Fits: agencies with a technical founder and a reason to keep client data on their own infrastructure.
The drawback: the interface shows its age, and self-hosting means you own the upgrades and the backups.
price unverified
A sales CRM with built-in phone, texting, and sequences at a mid-market seat price.
Fits: agencies that genuinely cold call and cannot justify the top of the calling market.
The drawback: check calling charges, automation limits and the handoff to your delivery tools.
price unverified
An SMB sales CRM with a strong emphasis on stages, activity discipline, and pipeline reporting.
Fits: agencies trying to impose a repeatable new business process on a team that has been improvising.
The drawback: priced like a mid-market tool without a mid-market ecosystem, and it stops at the sale.
price unverified
An all-in-one for small businesses: marketing automation, CRM, and a help desk on one subscription with a free tier.
Fits: small marketing agencies that would otherwise buy a CRM and an email tool separately.
The drawback: each part is lighter than the specialist it replaces, and the upper tiers close the price gap it was chosen for.
price unverified
A CRM that runs inside the Gmail interface, deeper than the other inbox tools, with pipelines and automation in the side panel.
Fits: agencies where every relationship starts in email and nobody will open a second application.
The drawback: it depends on Gmail, so test the setup with your team’s email accounts before you buy.
price unverified
A CRM aimed at mid-market business services, with order management and reporting built for firms that bill projects.
Fits: established agencies of fifty and up that have outgrown a pipeline tool and do not want Salesforce.
The drawback: a smaller ecosystem than the names above it, and priced well past what a small studio would pay.
price unverified
A messenger-first CRM that puts WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram conversations into a pipeline.
Fits: agencies in markets where client conversations happen on WhatsApp rather than email.
The drawback: built around chat volume. Long, document-heavy agency sales cycles are not what it is shaped for.
price unverified
A long-running small-business B2B CRM, now sold as Spotler CRM, with marketing and service modules alongside it.
Fits: small agencies looking for sales, marketing and service tools from one supplier.
The drawback: the rename means older documentation and reviews are under a different name, which makes it harder to research.
price unverified
A mature open-source CRM, free to run on your own server, with paid hosting and support available.
Fits: agencies with infrastructure people and a strong reason to keep client data in house.
The drawback: the licence is free and the running is not. Somebody owns the upgrades, the backups, and the security patches.
HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho, Microsoft, Zendesk, and other names are trademarks of their respective owners. Lumenbase is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by them. Pricing source records span 20 July 2026 to 12 October 2026; products, pricing, and features change and vary by plan, so verify on each vendor's pricing page before deciding.
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