Choosing CRM software can be tricky, especially with many options offering “free” plans. Once you start exploring the list of features and their limitations, you quickly discover that these “free” plans come with hidden limitations that can drive up the cost.
While basic features might be free, essential tools like reporting, automation, and support are usually locked behind paid tiers. In this post, we’ll explore these hidden costs and why “free” CRM plans may not offer the best value for growing businesses.
Implementation and Setup Costs
You may be inclined to go for a free CRM, but that unfortunately comes with a cost too. But additional features for CRM implementation like customizations, integrations, and external support can quickly add up. These extras, such as custom workflows, tool integrations, and hiring consultants, can significantly increase the overall investment, turning a basic CRM into a much larger expense over time.
Setting up a CRM is rarely a plug-and-play experience, especially if your business has specific workflows or tools that need to be integrated. While many CRM providers offer out-of-the-box solutions, customization is often needed to tailor the system to your business, which leads to additional costs. Moreover, integrating the CRM with other tools in your tech stack can become complicated and time-consuming, leading to further expenses. So in summary, there is no average CRM cost.
- Customization: Adapting the CRM to your business processes often requires custom development or configuration, which can increase initial costs.
- Integrations: Connecting your CRM with other tools (like email, eCommerce, or accounting systems) often requires additional setup, and in some cases, third-party software or developer support.
- External Assistance: Businesses may need to hire consultants or developers to handle advanced configurations, leading to unexpected expenses.
Training and Onboarding
So, if you want to learn more about your CRM, that’s going to cost you too! Even for CRMs that promise an easy user experience, training your team to fully adopt the platform can be time-consuming and costly.
- Employee Training: Salesforce is known for being highly customizable, but its sheer complexity means you’ll likely need extensive training. While Salesforce provides an extensive library of training materials, many businesses still opt for paid training sessions to ensure their teams can use the system effectively.
- Ongoing Training: Zoho CRM offers a lot of functionality, but updates and new features can require constant retraining of staff. As Zoho rolls out updates, businesses often find themselves needing to schedule additional training sessions or purchase training materials, adding to the total cost of ownership.
Extra Costs for Support
While many CRMs offer basic customer support, more advanced or premium support packages often come at a higher cost for CRM. For businesses that require faster response times or more technical assistance, these hidden costs can quickly add up.
- Premium Support: CRMs like Salesforce offer different tiers of support, with premium plans providing faster response times or dedicated account managers at an additional cost.
- Third-Party Consultants: If your CRM is heavily customized or if you run into complex technical issues, the standard support offered by the CRM provider may not be sufficient, leading to the need for external consultants.
- Extended Hours: If you need 24/7 support, you’ll often have to pay extra for extended help desk services. For example, Salesfroce and HubSpot have services plans where you choose your level of support.
Maintenance Costs: Data Migration and Cleanup
The cost of CRM software is more than just fancy features and upgrades, it also includes data migration and cleanup! Transferring data from your old system to a new CRM is rarely as simple as uploading a file. Many businesses underestimate the complexity and cost of data migration, especially when dealing with large volumes of data or systems that don’t align perfectly with the CRM’s structure.
Free Guide
The ABCs of CRM
A Beginner's Guide to Understanding &
Using a CRM
Download Free
All fields are required.
You’re All Set!
DownloadGet the most out of this guide by starting your free 14-day trial of Nimble today.
- Data Transfer: The process of importing contacts, deals, and other records into the new CRM often requires time and technical expertise.
- Data Cleansing: Before migration, data often needs to be cleaned to remove duplicates, outdated information, or inconsistencies.
- Third-Party Tools: In many cases, businesses need to use external tools or services to ensure their data is migrated properly, which adds to the cost.
Factors that Impact CRM Costs
Many CRMs don’t come with all the features businesses need out of the box, and key features that should ideally be included, like contact enrichment, advanced reporting, and workflow automation, often come as extra add-ons. For instance, platforms like Copper CRM may require external tools like ZoomInfo for contact enrichment or custom integrations, which often involve developer fees. Even with open APIs, these additional costs can quickly add up, making the total CRM investment higher than anticipated.
In many cases, businesses find that their CRM doesn’t come with all the features they need right out of the box. While some CRMs offer robust functionality, they might lack essential tools such as contact enrichment, which is critical for sales and marketing efforts.
Businesses using Copper CRM, for instance, may find they need to invest in external platforms for contact enrichment or hire developers for custom integrations with their proprietary software, adding to the overall CRM cost.
- Additional Platforms: If your CRM doesn’t have built-in contact enrichment, you’ll likely need to invest in external platforms, like ZoomInfo or Clearbit, to fill in missing data about leads and customers.
- Custom Integrations: Sometimes, your CRM may not natively support the tools or workflows you rely on, requiring custom integrations to bridge the gap, which can be costly.
- Developer Fees: Even if your CRM offers open APIs, you’ll still need to budget for developers to build and maintain these custom features.
Factors that Determine Subscription and Upgrade Costs
What seems like an affordable CRM subscription at first can become more expensive as your business grows. Many CRMs use tiered pricing models, where the cost increases as you add more users or need advanced features.
For example, Salesforce is known for locking some of its most valuable features behind higher-priced plans. Businesses often start with the basic plan but quickly find themselves upgrading as they need access to more robust functionality.
- Tiered Pricing: As your business expands, you may find yourself needing to upgrade to higher-tier plans to access additional features, users, or storage.
- Feature Upgrades: For instance, advanced analytics, marketing automation, or AI features are often locked behind premium pricing tiers. What starts as a small subscription can balloon as your needs evolve.
Monthly vs. Annual Plans: When choosing between monthly and annual billing for your CRM, the cost structure can vary significantly. Monthly billing offers more flexibility, allowing businesses to adjust or cancel their subscription without long-term commitment, but it often comes with higher rates. In contrast, annual billing typically provides a discount, with savings ranging from 10% to 30%, making it a more cost-effective option for businesses confident in their long-term CRM usage. However, annual plans require upfront payment, which may tie up more capital initially but results in overall lower costs over the year. Businesses should weigh their cash flow, flexibility needs, and commitment level when deciding between these two billing options.
| CRM | Pricing Plans | Support/ Training Costs | Other Limits/ Costs |
| Salesforce | Essentials: $25/user/month Professional: $75/user/month Enterprise: $150/user/month Unlimited: $300/user/month | Standard Support: Included Premier Support: 30% of net license feesSignature Success: Custom pricing | Depends on add-ons for Marketing Cloud or Pardot (Starting at $400/month for 10,000 emails) |
| HubSpot | Free: $0 Starter: Starts at $20/month for 2 users Professional: $1,600/month for 5 users Enterprise: $5,000/month for 10 users | Basic Support: Included Professional Support: $750/month Enterprise Support: Custom pricing | Marketing Hub Starter: 1,000 emails/month included Email Marketing Add-ons: Higher tiers include larger send limits |
| Zoho CRM | Free: $0 (up to 3 users)Standard: $14/user/month Professional: $23/user/month Enterprise: $40/user/month Ultimate: $52/user/month | Basic Support: Included Premium Support: 20% of subscription cost (min $100) Enterprise Support: 25% of subscription cost (min $1,000) | Zoho Campaigns: $6/month for 500 emails, scalable by number of emails |
| Copper CRM | Basic: $29/user/month Professional: $69/user/month Business: $129/user/month | Support: Online & Email Support, Support Center, Daily Live Q&A Sessions, 1:1 Video Calls, and Weekly Training Webinars all Included for free | Marketing Integration Needed (Copper doesn’t have native email marketing but integrates with tools like Mailchimp) |
| Nimble | Nimble Business: $24.90/user/month (billed annually) or $29.90/user/month (billed monthly) | Support: Online & Email Support, Support Center, Daily Live Q&A Sessions, 1:1 video Calls, and Weekly Training Webinars all Included for free | Email Send Limits: 100 group messages per user per day (can increase with add-ons starting at $10/month for an extra 100 messages) |
Determining Your CRM’s Return on Investment (ROI)
To assess your CRM’s return on investment (ROI), it’s important to consider both the tangible and intangible benefits. Start by calculating the upfront and ongoing costs, such as licensing fees, customization, integrations, training, and maintenance. Then, measure the direct impact the CRM has on key metrics like sales growth, customer retention, and productivity improvements.
A CRM’s ROI often comes from improved efficiency in managing customer relationships, automating repetitive tasks, and providing better insights for decision-making. For example, a CRM can help sales teams close deals faster by streamlining communication and improving lead tracking, ultimately leading to increased revenue. Additionally, improved customer service through timely and personalized interactions can boost retention rates, reducing the cost of acquiring new customers.
Beyond financial gains, a CRM can save time and reduce human error, contributing to overall operational efficiency. To calculate the ROI, compare the value of these gains against the total costs of implementing and maintaining the CRM. If the value exceeds the costs, your CRM is delivering a positive ROI. Over time, as the system becomes more integrated into your processes, the benefits often grow, making the investment increasingly worthwhile.
Choosing the Right CRM
Selecting the right CRM is crucial to ensure it aligns with your business needs and long-term goals. Start by evaluating the core features your business requires, such as sales tracking, customer management, automation, or reporting capabilities. It’s important to choose a CRM that not only fits your current needs but can also scale with your business as it grows. Look for transparent pricing models that include all necessary features upfront, helping to avoid hidden costs down the road. Additionally, consider how easily the CRM integrates with your existing tools and processes to maximize efficiency. A good CRM should deliver a clear return on investment (ROI), streamlining your operations and improving customer relationships without unnecessary complexity or expense.
Nimble: Your Simple CRM
When evaluating CRMs, it’s essential to look beyond the initial price tag to understand the full cost of ownership. Many free or low-cost CRM options may seem affordable but often lack core functionalities, like email tracking, sequences, or advanced integrations, which businesses later find essential for growth. As your business scales, these “free” CRMs typically require pricey add-ons, developer fees, or entirely separate platforms to meet your needs—quickly turning an affordable CRM into a costly investment.
Nimble is different. Designed as a growth engine for small businesses, Nimble offers a complete set of tools out of the box, allowing you to grow your relationships without facing hidden expenses. Nimble provides advanced features like:
- Email Sequences: Stay on top of follow-ups with customizable email sequences, a tool typically reserved for paid plans or third-party platforms.
- Email Tracking: Understand your outreach impact with built-in email tracking—often an extra expense with other CRMs.
- Social Media Integration: Nimble connects to social platforms directly, helping you capture and engage leads from various channels without the need for additional software.
- Automated Data Enrichment: Nimble automatically enriches your contact profiles, so you have a full view of your connections without the hassle of manual data entry.
Fortunately, with Nimble, you won’t encounter these hidden expenses. Nimble is designed to be a simple, all-in-one solution for relationship management, offering the essential tools you need without the extra costs or complexity. Nimble keeps it simple, so you can focus on building and nurturing relationships instead of managing CRM overhead.
