Hey, finding the perfect CRM tool is a lot like finding the perfect sneaker; you’ve got to try them on to know what fits just right.
Sometimes the shoe is too small, too big, too expensive, or cheaply made. Sometimes it’s a great fit until you break it in. Whatever the case may be, knowing when a change is necessary is important for you and your business.
Monday CRM isn’t what Monday.com was created to be. Don’t get us wrong, Monday.com is a great project management tool, but Monday CRM just provides project management with multiple templates that make it look like other tools.
From the outside, Monday.com presents a wide range of management tools from IT to creative to sales. When you get into the details, though, the software all revolves around the same project management features. Now, Monday.com isn’t necessarily trying to deceive or trick you, but when it comes to Customer Relationship Management, there are simply better options out there.
Getting the bang for your buck:
Everyone wants to get the most value for their dollar. While Monday appears to be decently-priced, if you’re looking for a CRM tool, you’re most likely overpaying. You want sales pipelines and marketing campaigns that work for you…not ones that create work for you. Customer Relationship Management isn’t something that can or should be left to a template…especially not a template that isn’t optimized for a sales process.
Here are some better Monday CRM alternatives:
Nutshell
Starting at $16/month
Why customers love it: “Nutshell has all the features of an expensive CRM, but you have the option to use them or not. Tracking all emails by lead keeps everything in one place and saves lots of time trying to remember OR FIND what you sent to a customer.” – G2 Review
Nutshell is an award-winning CRM and email marketing platform, known for being the small-business CRM that just works. No tricks or illusions here! Nutshell is easy to set up, easy to use, and easy to understand.
Nutshell’s customers rave about everything from simplicity to performance to stellar customer service (something that big companies can struggle with). Nutshell does everything that Monday CRM does with the added bonus of pulling the important data for you so that your time is spent growing your business.
An emerging leader in the growth software category, Nutshell gets your marketing and sales teams working together from the same data to grow smarter. Nutshell is reliable and affordable, and has earned its reputation with growing businesses for those reasons and more.
Features to look for:
Fast setup, with personal guidance from their support team
Powerful contact filtering tools
Opportunity and pipeline management (including map view and drag-and-drop lead board)
Why customers love it: “Straight forward platform suitable for all businesses regardless of size or years established. So much data available and easy to use. Cost effective with competitors too.” –G2 Review
ActiveCampaign has integrations galore, sets the standard for customer experience automation, and has a pretty good CRM if you’re willing to pay beyond the starting plan. It doesn’t quite fit the bill for a project management platform, but you’ll find some valuable similarities to the Monday.com CRM such as pre-built automations and task management.
ActiveCampaign also has some pretty solid machine learning to make your data work for you. Overall, ActiveCampaign does very well for small business clients who have well-established web pages and just want a CRM with impressive marketing and sales automation.
Why customers love it: “I like that we can integrate our Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service teams on the same platform, and that HubSpot is flexible enough to fit our changing needs without needing to be a software engineer.” – G2 Review
Hubspot is a great CRM for growth teams who are comfortable with HTML and want a powerful tool to create complex workflows. Hubspot has its downsides, like a steep price and limited features and seats, but it certainly does have its strengths.
Like the Monday.com CRM, Hubspot Sales Hub offers contact and task management, deal pipelines, and an easy-to-use reporting dashboard. It can get pricey pretty quickly, but you get what you pay for when it comes to this particular CRM
Why customers love it: “Hands down [the thing I like best is] the fee I pay per month to use Zoho CRM is excruciatingly low for the services. I get to use the CRM in addition to integrated mail templates, the daily quota for mails, contact management, invoice management and so much more.” – G2 Review
Zoho is a strong contender for your CRM needs if you don’t need too much storage and want good pipeline management features. It’s a strong replacement for the business that wants to lean into contact management and performance management. It’s comparable in ease-of-use and is a trusty tool with more maneuverability than Monday CRM.
Like Monday.com, you may run into trademark problems that come with a bigger “do-it-all” company, but Zoho is a far cheaper alternative that, for all intents and purposes, can do the same thing as Monday CRM.
Why customers love it: “The user interface is simple to use and ideal for rapidly recording contact information. The system records all contacts with consumers, including files delivered through email, to make the work of sales reps easier. The Report and Analysis tool gives vital indicators to help us plan and decide on our commercial initiatives. It is also really valuable since it has helped me to be a little more organized with all of the information it provides; it not only helps me to keep in touch with my customers, but it also allows me to keep in touch with my suppliers.” – G2 Review
If you’re a Google Workspace fan, Copper is the right CRM for you. If you aren’t…maybe look somewhere else. It’s a good option for those comfortable with Google apps and searching for a CRM that fits into that family of tools. Like Monday, it has a wide range of management tools that will make your sales and marketing processes run smoothly. Copper is focused on being the best Google workspace CRM and provides that specialized feel rather than being a “jack of all trades.”
Why customers love it: “Insightly’s ease of use is incredible. Everything is fully customizable to meet your specific needs which makes life way easier than clunkier crm’s. I would highly recommend them to any professional.” – G2 Seller Invite Review
Insightly is another highly customizable CRM that will give your team everything Monday CRM provides plus a little more. It’s known to be reliable and has some handy features like test environments, document generation, mobile and social collaboration tools, and social network integration on top of the expected marketing and sales workflows. Insightly can be a tad harder to set up, and is not as intuitive as some of the other options above, but it’s worth trying out for its filters, bulk-editing, and easy to navigate management suite.
Word of caution:
Insightly definitely works best for those who prefer Google Workspace.
Features to look for:
Customizable Graphic User Interface (GUI)
Seamless Google app integrations
Easy-to-share insights and metrics
Social profiles
Opportunity, task, and activity management
Wrap-up
Ultimately, any CRM built specifically to track relationship histories and sales opportunities will function better for those purposes than Monday CRM. Plus, if your team really needs project management features to manage efforts other than sales, customizable CRM pipelines can be set up to track everything from customer success outreach to backlink acquisition to donor relations. We suggest trying Nutshell free for 14 days, and comparing it side-by-side with Monday CRM. The affordable price and range of sales-focused features make it a much better alternative to a project management tool dressed up as a CRM.
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