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As your business grows, spreadsheets, sticky notes, and scattered inboxes stop being enough to manage customer relationships. That’s where a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system steps in. It’s more than just software—it’s a single space for organizing leads, automating marketing, tracking deals, and ensuring no opportunity slips through the cracks.

Today, a CRM isn’t optional—it’s the backbone of efficient, data-driven growth. Whether you’re a freelancer, startup, or established company, a CRM helps you connect your sales, marketing, and customer service into one smooth flow.

But with dozens of options on the market, finding the right CRM can feel overwhelming. So, we’ve done the homework for you. Below is a breakdown of five standout CRMs—SendPulse, Constant Contact, Pipedrive, and Brevo – comparing their features, pricing, and overall usability to help you find your perfect match.

Pricing & Plans

SendPulse is incredibly flexible in how it prices access.

  • Free Plan: Includes the account owner + up to 4 invited users, 2 pipelines/boards, and 1 GB of storage. You get 5 flows, 1 event, and 50 elements in Automation 360—enough for small teams to manage leads and automate basic workflows.
  • Lite Plan: $12/month (billed annually) for 1 user per account. Includes 2 sales pipelines, 8 flows, 5 events, and 50 elements in Automation 360, plus 2 boards, 3 GB storage, 1 email inbox, and 8 saved segments.
  • Basic Plan: $37/month (billed annually) for up to 10 users (account owner + 9 invited users). Includes 5 sales pipelines, 8 flows, 5 events, and 50 elements in Automation 360, plus 5 boards, 5 GB storage, and 1 email inbox.
  • Standard Plan: $108/month (billed annually) for up to 20 users (owner + 19 invited users). Offers 10 sales pipelines, 10 flows, 10 events, 70 automation elements, 10 boards, 20 GB storage, up to 3 inboxes, and 10 saved segments.
    All plans allow unlimited contacts, deals, and tasks, and extra users can be added without upgrading your entire plan.

Lead & Opportunity Management

You can create multiple pipelines to track leads at different stages, assign tasks, and manage communication. Its drag-and-drop interface simplifies deal management, making it easy for small teams to stay on top of opportunities.

Pipeline & Deal Tracking

Sales teams can monitor performance with real-time analytics and conversion insights. Pipelines are customizable, allowing segmentation by product, region, or customer type.

Sales & Marketing Automation

The Automation 360 feature is the star. It lets you design visual workflows combining email, SMS, web push notifications, and chatbots. You can automate follow-ups, onboarding, or cart recovery—saving hours of manual effort.

Communication Channels

SendPulse is truly omnichannel: you can chat with customers via email, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. Each message syncs with your CRM profile, ensuring a full customer view. Their WhatsApp CRM integration makes it easy for businesses to stay connected with their customers who primarily use WhatsApp.

Ease of Use & Onboarding

Setup takes minutes. The interface is beginner-friendly, and the 24/7 live chat support ensures help is always available. The learning center, webinars, and community forum make onboarding effortless.

Best For

Small and mid-sized teams that need a complete marketing and sales ecosystem—with automation, CRM, and chat tools—all under one affordable plan.

2. Constant Contact: Marketing-Focused Simplicity

Constant Contact started as an email marketing platform, and its CRM capabilities expand naturally from there. It’s perfect for teams that prioritize customer communication over heavy sales tracking.

Pricing & Plans

Constant Contact’s Lead Gen & CRM doesn’t list specific dollar amounts on its site—it’s quote-based. Plans are customized by tier, depending on your number of leads and email volume. Each tier includes a base lead limit and email allotment, and pricing increases as your list grows. While you’ll need to contact sales for exact pricing, this approach offers flexibility for unique business models, though it can make budgeting harder for startups that prefer clear pricing.

Lead & Opportunity Management

Constant Contact’s CRM tools center around list segmentation and campaign targeting. It’s more about managing relationships through marketing than tracking deals.

Pipeline & Deal Tracking

Unlike SendPulse or Pipedrive, there’s no dedicated pipeline management. Instead, you track engagement through email metrics—opens, clicks, and responses.

Marketing Automation & Customer Journeys

Automation focuses on email: send welcome messages, re-engagement series, or behavior-based campaigns. It’s simpler but effective for marketing-led teams.

Ease of Use & Onboarding

Setup is almost instant, with templates and guided steps. Its drag-and-drop email builder makes campaign creation painless.

Best For

Businesses that rely primarily on email marketing and want a light CRM layer without managing deals or complex automation trees.

3. Pipedrive: Visual Sales Management for Hands-On Teams

Pipedrive is built around one simple concept: visibility. Every deal, every contact, every next step is clearly laid out. Its visual pipelines make managing sales as intuitive as moving sticky notes on a board.

Pricing & Plans

There’s no free plan, but Pipedrive offers a 14-day free trial with full functionality. Paid plans are billed per user per month, with discounts for annual billing:

  • Lite Plan: €14/seat/month (billed annually) — Includes lead, calendar, and pipeline management, real-time sales feed, AI-powered report creation, and over 500 integrations.
  • Growth Plan: €39/seat/month (billed annually) — Adds full email sync, automation workflows, forecast reports, subscriptions, meeting scheduler, and live chat support.
  • Premium Plan: €59/seat/month (billed annually) — Offers lead generation and routing, company data enrichment, multi-email tools, contracts, and team-level customization.
  • Ultimate Plan: €79/seat/month (billed annually) — Adds sandbox testing, advanced security alerts, extended phone support, and deeper customization for large teams.

Lead & Opportunity Management

At its core, Pipedrive is about leads. You can capture, qualify, and move opportunities through a visual drag-and-drop board. Each stage gives a clear overview of deal health.

Pipeline & Deal Tracking

Deals are easy to customize with weighted values, stages, and expected close dates. Reports help visualize progress and highlight bottlenecks.

Task & Activity Management

You can log calls, set reminders, and track every meeting. The platform sends notifications to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Ease of Use & Onboarding

Pipedrive’s interface is intuitive, requiring little training. You’ll get personalized onboarding help and an active user community.

Best For

Sales-focused teams that want clarity and structure—without distractions. It’s a pure sales CRM, perfect for visual thinkers.

4. Brevo: Affordable CRM + Marketing Automation

Previously known as Sendinblue, Brevo is a cost-effective option that merges CRM, marketing automation, and communication tools. It’s great for small teams that want to automate customer journeys without enterprise-level complexity.

Pricing & Plans

  • Free CRM Plan: $0/month — Includes access to core CRM tools like contact management, meetings, live chat, and up to 50 open deals and 1 pipeline.
  • Professional Plan: $449/month (billed annually) — Adds lead scoring, advanced marketing automation, and team-based permissions.

Brevo’s pricing model isn’t per user—it’s based on features and email volume, making it flexible for scaling teams.

Lead & Opportunity Management

Brevo’s CRM provides an all-in-one contact view, where sales and marketing data converge. Leads can be tagged, segmented, and followed through custom pipelines.

Pipeline & Deal Tracking

You can monitor deals visually, assigning probabilities and tracking value. It’s not as sales-centric as Pipedrive but offers practical flexibility.

Marketing Automation & Journeys

Brevo’s visual workflow builder lets users trigger actions based on contact behavior—like email opens or website visits. It supports email, SMS, and WhatsApp automations.

Ease of Use & Onboarding

User-friendly and intuitive, Brevo’s interface requires no training. Built-in guides and templates help even first-timers automate campaigns quickly.

Best For

Businesses seeking an affordable, marketing-focused CRM that combines communication and automation under one roof.

Conclusion

Each CRM here shines in its own right:

  • Constant Contact is perfect for teams centered on email marketing.
  • Pipedrive brings clarity and focus to sales pipelines.
  • Brevo balances affordability with automation flexibility.

But when it comes to value, simplicity, and completeness, SendPulse stands out as the most balanced choice. It bridges sales, marketing, and communication into one intuitive platform—at a price point that makes sense for small and medium teams. Its free plan is actually useful (not a teaser), and its paid tiers unlock advanced automation without ballooning costs.

SendPulse helps you do everything—capture leads, nurture them through automation, chat across channels, and analyze results—all from one dashboard. It’s the CRM that saves you money, time, and complexity while giving your team the tools to grow smarter.

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