Tried and Tested: The Best CRM Software of 2025

Picture this: You’ve been out on the water for hours and finally – a strike. You’re reeling in a big fish. You can feel it fighting, the line is taut, and you’re giving it everything you’ve got. Then, as you’re about to land it, you drop the rod and turn away.

All that effort – just to let it slip away at the last second.

Over my career, I’ve watched businesses invest heavily in marketing, all in the pursuit of generating high-quality leads. Then, when it comes to supporting their sales teams with the right tools, they drop the rod (so to speak).

In 2025, sales teams need CRM software that builds trust with customers, delivers hyper-personalized experiences, and eliminates tedious administrative work.

There are a lot of companies making a lot of big promises out there. To cut through the marketing jargon, we’ve tested the industry’s top CRM platforms head-to-head to see how they perform. Here’s what we found.

Testing the Best CRMs – The Methodology

Any good test is only as strong as the methodology, so – before we dive into the results – here are the criteria we used.

Ranking the top CRM platforms required a clear, objective rating system. All the CRMs on this list have their strengths and weaknesses, and assigning numerical values allowed for a direct comparison of their performance.

Here are the five metrics we used to assess each platform:

1. Core sales features (40%): Does the software offer the features you’d expect in a state-of-the-art CRM? 
2. Ease of use (20%): How long will it take your team to learn the software and how simple is it to use on a daily basis?
3. AI and automation (20%): Does the platform implement AI and automation in a way that adds value?
4. Integrations (10%): Does it possess all the integrations teams need to manage their sales, marketing, customer success, and more?
5. Customer support (10%): What is the quality of support and onboarding?

Now – let’s see how the top CRMs of 2025 stack up.

Comparing the Best CRMs of 2025 

The top five CRM platforms were chosen based on the number of users and reviews. Here’s how they compare. 

	Core Features (40%)	Ease of Use (20%)	AI and Automation (20%)	Integrations (10%)	Customer Support: (10%)	Total ratings	Price in USD (not including free trials)	Customer ratings from G2 (March 2025)
Salesforce	38	18	18	10	8	92	Starts from $25/user/month	4.4 from 23,244 reviews
Hubspot	36	20	8	10	10	84	Starts from $50/user/month	4.4 from 12,376 reviews
Monday CRM	34	18	10	9	8	79	Starts from $10/user/month	4.6 from 918 reviews
Zoho CRM	36	17	12	7	6	78	Starts from $14/user/month	4.1 from 2,738 reviews
Pipedrive	34	18	8	9	8	77	Starts from $15/user/month	4.3 from 2,354 reviews

Based on features, usability, AI, integrations, and customer support, the top CRMs are as follows:

1. Salesforce 
2. Hubspot
3. Monday CRM
4. Zoho CRM
5. Pipedrive

With the top CRM platforms identified, we next wanted to examine their strengths, weaknesses, and unique offerings to discover the data behind their rankings.

The top five CRM software options: Strengths and weaknesses 

While some CRMs boast extensive features, the right choice for your business will come down to a mixture of functionality, price, and practical application. The system needs to integrate seamlessly with your workflow, enhance productivity, and deliver on its promises.

We road-tested these five CRMs to see how they perform in real-world conditions, cutting through the marketing noise to help you find the best fit. 

Let’s start with Salesforce, the highest-rated CRM software on our list.

1. Salesforce: An AI Powerhouse and a Global Leader in CRM

As the CRM with the largest market share, it’s clear that Salesforce has invested heavily in raising the AI and automation bar. That investment helped Salesforce earn the #1 spot. Here’s why:

Salesforce Strengths

• Feature-rich with deep customization: Salesforce includes everything you’d expect from a CRM, plus deep customization to structure pipelines, workflows, and reporting. 
• Predictive AI: Salesforce’s Agentforce (its built-in AI) ranks leads based on conversion likelihood, suggests next steps, and helps automate follow-ups so sales reps spend less time on manual work and more time closing deals.
• Full workflow automation: The platform can handle everything from automated lead follow-ups to real-time status updates based on customer interactions with your brand.
• User-friendly design takes center stage: It’s easy to visualize deals in progress, customize stages, see probability percentages, and drag and drop deals throughout the pipeline.
• AI revenue forecasting: AI in Salesforce is lightyears ahead of others on the market and this helps it shine. Its AI analyzes past sales data and current pipeline activity to predict your exact revenue. The AI predictions were surprisingly accurate and would be useful for businesses wanting to understand their future financials.
• Plenty of training materials: Salesforce offers well-organized live training, certification programs, and a free training platform to help teams get up to speed. Despite Salesforce’s size, you still feel well taken care of when you sign up.

Weaknesses

• Learning required for advanced features: The basics of Salesforce are easy to pick up, but due to its deep customization, mastering workflows, reporting, and automation takes time and effort.
• Support level depends on your plan: 24/7 support is available, but dedicated success managers are only included in higher-tier plans.
• Performance over aesthetics: There are more ‘beautiful’ CRM platforms on this list—looking at you, Monday CRM—but if you want to have your team working at their peak performance, Salesforce is still leading the pack. 

Final Verdict

It’s hard to fault Salesforce. Using their platform, it’s clear they have refined their features to meet customer needs. They offer plenty of customization and have heavily reduced the amount of manual admin for their users through their investment in AI. Overall, Salesforce is a powerful CRM designed for high-performing teams.

2. Hubspot: Beginner-friendly CRM with a Connected Ecosystem

Hubspot has built its reputation on being user-friendly and having an extensive app marketplace that helps you connect your ecosystem. Here’s how it performed in the testing and why it nabbed the silver CRM medal.

HubSpot Strengths

• Simple pipeline management: From the moment you start using the HubSpot pipeline, it’s clear how it works. The UI is clean, modern, and intuitive. You could comfortably have a new SDR come in and use it without training. 
• Strong sales automation: Teams can set up workflows, email sequences, and task automation with minimal effort. This is particularly helpful for teams that do large sales outreach or marketing teams who want to nurture their prospects.
• A connected marketplace: Its well-developed app marketplace makes it easy to add connections and functionality through integrations. However, not all integrations are created equal, as most are built by third parties, but there are still many that work well. 
• Engaged customer support: Hubspot offers 24/7 chat, phone support, a knowledge base, the HubSpot Academy, and an active community. Plus, when you start a free trial, you might get a call that day from a sales rep to see how your experience is going. 

Weaknesses

• Poor AI integration: In most of HubSpot, there is no built-in AI. There are some AI-powered insights available on higher-tier plans, but it’s basic, there’s no predictive AI, and the insights are fairly simple. 
• Lack of customization: While easy to use, HubSpot doesn’t allow for customization, limiting flexibility for businesses with complex sales processes. One place this stings is trying to set up customized marketing and sales emails or forms, and you get locked into using their style.
• Unexpected costs: Some users have raised concerns about HubSpot’s pricing structure. Costs are tiered based on the number of marketing contacts, and exceeding the threshold has reportedly resulted in unexpected charges, in some cases amounting to thousands of dollars. Additionally, features like lead scoring and forecasting require manual setup and come with additional costs per user.

Final Verdict

HubSpot ranks number two on this list for a reason. Their platform is easy and intuitive to use. Anyone could pick up HubSpot and start to track deals and send out marketing material. Hubspot is behind the curve in terms of customization, predictive metrics, and lack of AI. However, all of this can be overlooked if you are looking for a simple CRM that gets the job done. 

3. Monday CRM: Modern and Customizable UI

Monday CRM, our bronze medallist, is a product under the company Monday.com. It’s relatively new to the CRM scene, but it’s already making waves with its modern UI and highly customizable approach to sales management. Here’s why we like it.

Monday CRM Strengths

• Modern pipeline and lead management: The drag-and-drop features in Monday CRM make it easy to organize and track deals visually. The app as a whole feels like they have invested a lot into making it a stylish and enjoyable platform to use.
• Highly customizable workflows: The platform offers plenty of customization, and one place this shines is in the workflows. Sales teams can tailor pipelines, dashboards, and workflows to create a unique sales process.
• Easy to use and customize: Monday CRM might be the fastest platform to get onboard with. The process was easy, and you’re guided through creating customizable dashboards to see the data that matters to you most.
• Automation for repetitive tasks: The software facilitates automated follow-ups, lead assignments, and pipeline updates, saving sales teams time on manual work.
• Helpful support that’s available when you need it: The support team is available on their chat 24/7 and is also available by email. The knowledge base is detailed, and training materials are available for self-service learning.

Weaknesses

• Lacks advanced CRM features: Monday CRM was launched at the end of 2022, so it’s still playing catch-up. It doesn’t offer as much as companies that have been building their platforms since 2000. Most noticeably, it’s missing forecasting tools and it only has basic lead scoring.
• Navigation can be confusing: Some of the features are spread across multiple views, which can make it hard to find the data you are looking for.
• Limited marketing tools: Due to the lack of marketing tools, it’s best used alongside third-party integrations if you want to connect your marketing.

Final Verdict

Monday CRM is a strong choice for teams that want a modern, highly customizable platform. It’s aesthetically pleasing and makes for an enjoyable UI experience. However, it’s still playing catch-up with more established platforms and doesn’t have some of the key features you’d expect in a world-class CRM.

4. Pipedrive: A Visual Sales Pipeline with Simple Automation

Pipedrive is known for its intuitive, visual sales pipeline and ease of use. It’s a great choice for teams that want a straightforward CRM with automation tools to handle repetitive tasks. 

Pipedrive Strengths

• The pipeline is center stage: Pipedrive’s deal tracking is clear and easy to navigate. Sales teams can quickly see where leads stand in the pipeline and move deals through stages with minimal effort.
• Lead tracking and managing: The software offers plenty of built-in tools to help store, track, and manage leads, with the ability to add custom fields to fit different sales processes.
• Automate repetitive tasks: Pipedrive offers automation for manual work like email follow-ups and lead assignments. 
• Large integration marketplace: The platform supports 400+ integrations, making it easy to connect with existing tools.

Weaknesses

• Limited AI capabilities While it has an ‘AI Sales Assistant’, it provides general suggestions rather than predictive analytics or advanced automation.
• Less customization than enterprise CRMs: While easy to use, it doesn’t offer the same level of flexibility as platforms like Salesforce or Monday CRM, particularly when it comes to workflow customization.
• Some integrations require higher-tier plans: While there are many integrations available, some of the more useful ones require an upgrade to a more expensive plan.

Final Verdict

Pipedrive is a strong choice for teams that want a visual pipeline with automation tools to cut down on sales admin. However, if predictive analytics, lead scoring, and knowing that you’re going to make targets is important to your business, Pipedrive may fall short.

5. Zoho CRM: A Budget-friendly CRM Built for its Ecosystem

Zoho CRM is an affordable option that integrates well within the broader Zoho ecosystem. It offers some basic AI suggestions to support your sales team. Here’s how it performed in testing.

Zoho CRM Strengths

• Contact management: Zoho provides all the tools you need for tracking and organizing leads, with a structured system that keeps customer data well-organized.
• Well-connected to the Zoho ecosystem: If you’re already using Zoho apps like Books, Desk, or Campaigns, the integrations are seamless, making it easy to manage everything in one place.
• Affordable pricing compared to competitors: Zoho offers a lot of functionality for a lower price than most CRMs, making it a great option for businesses with lighter sales needs.

Weaknesses

• AI is basic and requires setup: The built-in ‘Zia AI’ provides predictive analytics and leads scoring, but its insights are fairly surface-level and require customization to be useful.
• Customization can be overwhelming: While Zoho is flexible, setting up workflows and dashboards takes time, especially for new users.
• Limited integrations outside the Zoho ecosystem: While it does integrate with some third-party apps like Gmail and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, it’s clear that Zoho would like to keep its users within its ecosystem.
• Support is locked behind paywalls: Live chat and email support are available, but premium support requires an upgrade and free users get limited access to help.

Final Verdict

Zoho CRM is a budget-friendly option that will work well for businesses already using Zoho’s suite of products. It has strong automation and decent customization, but its AI is still in its infancy, and setting up the system can take time.

Do You Need a CRM with AI?

Throughout the testing process, the AI capabilities of each CRM have been assessed, and there’s a reason for that. 

In the last two years, AI has advanced rapidly, moving beyond basic automation to powerful predictive analytics. Now, built-in AI can rank leads, automate follow-ups, and forecast revenue with accuracy that gives sales teams a clear edge. If your CRM isn’t using AI to support your sales team, it’s likely your competitors are. 

Sales reps are outgoing, motivated people who want to be out there selling. They want to be reeling in the big fish, not logging data on a spreadsheet. With AI built into your CRM, your salespeople will have extra hours to go above and beyond in their role. They can do what they do best.

Ultimately, if you aren’t using some form of AI in your CRM in 2025, you’re leaving money on the table. 

8 Questions to Help You Choose the Best CRM for Your Business 

After testing multiple CRMs, one thing is clear: The best ones balance features, usability, and AI automation. To choose the best CRM for your business, here are eight questions to ask.

1. Does this Platform Offer All the Core Features I Need?

A CRM should fit or enhance your workflow, not force you to change how you sell. Consider if you need lead tracking, pipeline management, workflows, marketing tools, reporting, or something else entirely. 

2. Is the Software Easy to Use?

A CRM packed with features is useless if your team doesn’t adopt half of them. A clean, intuitive interface ensures sales reps spend more time selling and less time struggling with software.

3. How is AI Used in this Solution?

Not all AI in CRM are created equal. Many platforms claim to include AI to ride the hype train but offer little more than a few lightweight suggestions. A modern system should have AI that ranks leads, automates follow-ups, and predicts revenue to save your team hours of manual work.

4. Does the Platform Integrate with My Existing Software?

A CRM should work seamlessly with your existing software, email, marketing tools, and communication platforms to prevent double handling. Most good CRM platforms have plenty of integration options, so you shouldn’t have to settle for less.

5. Will Customer Support be there When I Need Them?

When problems arise, fast and reliable customer support can mean the difference between a quick fix and hours of your sales team sitting around twiddling their thumbs. 24/7 chat support or the option to get on the phone are support options you should check for.

6. What’s the Price, and Does it Match the Value?

The price of a CRM is one thing, but there are two hidden costs to consider. First, what is the return on investment (ROI) likely to be? Second, are key features of the CRM system locked behind expensive plans? Or are they included in the initial purchase? It’s important to weigh the cost against the functionality your team needs to be successful.

7. What Do Other Businesses Like Yours Say?

Lots of software review websites will allow you to filter reviews. Search for features that matter to you (‘forecasting’, for example) and see what other businesses have to say about it. You can also filter by businesses in your industry, as sales operations can vary greatly depending on the market.

8. How Future-proofed is this CRM System?

You don’t want to invest in something that won’t grow with your business or (worse still) will be obsolete tomorrow. So – what do we know about the CRM systems of tomorrow?

The Future of CRM Software: AI All Day, Every Day

Tomorrow’s CRM will be inextricably entwined with AI. In a few years, we’ll look back and wonder how we ever managed without AI-driven automation. When it comes to AI use in CRM, these are the key trends we’re watching. 

Advanced Predictive Analytics

AI is already beginning to analyze large data sets to forecast sales trends and customer behaviors with pinpoint accuracy. This work (typically requiring multiple dedicated DevOps Managers) will soon be available, even to small teams. What does that mean? Very soon, thanks to improved predictive analytics, teams of all sizes can start punching above their weight.

Hyper-personalization

AI has begun to tailor interactions based on customer preferences, and it’s going to get more accurate with time. By making content and communication more relevant, businesses can quickly sway and convert customers.

Smart Automation

Machine learning is already beginning to help teams understand how their business can be more efficient through workflows and automation, allowing sales teams to focus on closing deals. This will get better in the coming years. Soon, automation will be able to make suggestions (such as changing an email header or developing a new workflow) that will lead to higher conversions. 

With AI at its core, the future of CRM is faster, smarter, and more personalized than ever before.

Summing Up

Each of the tested CRMs has its own strengths and weaknesses. Finding the right CRM will require you to understand what features matter most to you and your team.

In summary, for the five CRMs we assessed, here’s our recommendations:

• Salesforce leads the pack with powerful AI and automation.
• HubSpot offers an intuitive, beginner-friendly experience.
• Monday CRM is a rising star with strong customization.
• Zoho CRM is ideal for businesses already in its ecosystem.
• Pipedrive keeps things simple with a visual pipeline. 

As a final word to the wise: AI will continue to change the way that companies – particularly sales teams – interact with customers. Teams that drag their feet when it comes to learning to use AI in their day-to-day operations will risk being at a disadvantage compared to the companies leveraging it for their most mundane tasks. 

FAQs

What are the Key Features in a CRM?

As we discovered through the assessment, each CRM is different. However, there are some basic features you should expect to see in any CRM. These include:

• A dashboard where you can see a high-level view of your operations
• Contact/company management
• Pipeline visualization and tracking
• The ability to assign sales tasks
• Email marketing tools
• Social media posting tools
• Workflows and automation
• Integrations with the other software you use

How Does CRM Software Help a Business Grow?

CRM software is non-negotiable for businesses with sales teams. Running your sales operations on a spreadsheet is nearly impossible because of the collaborative and fast-paced nature of sales. Once you start using a CRM to organize leads, automate follow-ups, and send marketing emails, you’ll see increased conversions. With a more efficient sales team, you’ll be able to grow your business’s revenue and hire more talented people to join the team.

How Do AI-driven Lead Scoring and Sales Predictions Work?

AI lead scoring starts by using data from past customers, particularly those who are similar (like those in the same industry). It analyzes the history of this particular deal, which can include emails, calls, support requests, and engagement levels. It then ranks the leads by conversion likelihood and outlines the potential revenue for your business. This helps your sales team focus their effort in the right places.

What is Pipeline Management and Why is it Important?

A pipeline is a visual framework used by sales teams to track where prospects are in their buying journey. Teams can track things like free trials started, demos booked, sales calls held, and onboarding. 

Pipeline management is the job of looking over the deals at each stage, ensuring they are up to date and that the sales team is doing everything they can to move people down the pipeline to become customers.