Best CRM for Marketing – Which Is Best for Attracting New Customers?

The best CRM for marketing teams is HubSpot, thanks to its unparalleled marketing functionality, solid support and training features, and its competitively priced plans. Even better, HubSpot offers a very impressive free forever option, which led our expert testers to crown HubSpot as one of the best small business CRM providers, too.

HubSpot certainly isn’t the only CRM for marketing on the market. Other tools like Freshmarketer are more geared towards small businesses, with less functionality but far more accessible pricing. Luckily, our in-depth research on marketing CRM has yielded some results that work for businesses of all sizes and necessities when it comes to customer relationship management, so you can find one that fits your needs.

In this guide, you’ll learn about all the best CRM for marketing, including how much they cost and what they can do, as well as some information about choosing the right CRM and why it’s important to the long-term success of your marketing business. You can also take some of the pain out of planning with our handy CRM cost comparison tool which can give your custom quotes for your business.

In this guide:

• Best CRM for Marketing Compared
• How CRM Software Can Improve Your Marketing
• Buyer’s Guide: Finding the Best CRM for Your Marketing Team
• About Our CRM Research
• Verdict: Which CRM Is Best for Marketing?

Top Marketing CRM Software

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a digital business tool that aims to consolidate, automate, and organize a wide range of company functions to improve productivity, increase efficiency, and generally make your day-to-day operations a little bit easier. And if you’re looking for a provider that can help you with marketing, you’ve come to the right place.

Based on Tech.co’s industry research, we’ve rated the best CRM software for marketing below, with more in-depth reviews. Keep scrolling to get a better idea of what you’re looking for. We’ve analyzed feature catalogues, pricing guides, and customer reviews in the hope of providing you with the most comprehensive breakdown of how these CRM software providers operate.

1. HubSpot Marketing Hub – Best for growing businesses
2. Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Best for marketing analytics
3. Freshmarketer – Best for small businesses
4. Sugar Market – Best for multiple marketing channels
5. Keap – Best for email marketing

HubSpot Marketing Hub – Best for Growing Businesses

Price: $15 per user, per month
Free plan: Yes

HubSpot takes the crown as the best marketing CRM available today, and honestly, it’s the obvious choice given our research. For one, we found that it offers an incredibly robust set of marketing features, from email and content to social and paid, so we were able to handle all our marketing from a single hub. Combine all those features with the many reasonable price points, including a surprisingly impressive free plan, HubSpot easily provides the best value on this list.

Where HubSpot really shines is its AI features for marketing.  There’s the social media inbox insights that can provide in-depth analytics of trends and sentiments to better inform your long term strategy. There’s also the Breeze social agent which will analyze performance and generate content for your various social media channels. Both of these features are reserved for the Professional and Enterprise plans, though, so they will cost quite a bit.

HubSpot email marketing offers helpful tools to generate copy such as subject lines. Source: Tech.co testing

HubSpot also offers some solid help and support options, so we didn’t have to worry about newbies taking on the platform. It even provided us with product onboarding, so we could get all the important information directly from HubSpot itself, although onboarding fees are expensive, costing between $3,000 and $7,000 depending on your plan.

We’ll be the first to admit that HubSpot does cost a bit more than the average, particularly if you want the advanced features beyond the starter plan. However, there are virtually no barriers to entry given the free plan, and the cheapest plan is only $15 per user, per month, offering plenty of functionality for your average business. Then, if you need to scale, it likely means you have the funds to invest, and HubSpot easily provides the best option for the price.

HubSpot pricing

The Marketing Hub is available via three different price plans: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. The pricing varies substantially from plan to plan, with the Starter plan coming in at $15 per month, the Professional at $800 per month, and the Enterprise at a whopping $3,600 per month. HubSpot also has a great free plan to try out the platform before committing to it.

Unfortunately, most of the social and content marketing features aren’t available until the Professional plan, which means you’re going to pay a pretty penny. Still, if you don’t need them right now but might want them down the road, HubSpot aims to provide great scalability for growing businesses.

Learn more in our full guide to HubSpot pricing and plans

Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Best for Marketing Analytics

Price: $25 per user, per month
Free plan: No

Obviously, Salesforce is a mammoth competitor when it comes to CRM. Salesforce’s CRM market share is just under 20%, which is more than its next four competitors combined. Subsequently, its Marketing Cloud is popular, offering some of the most robust marketing analytics available from a CRM in our research.

We were able to email leads directly from Salesforce, but we did have to connect our Gmail or Outlook account beforehand. Source: Tech.co testing

Salesforce Marketing Cloud really shines in some other areas, too. We were able to take advantage of virtually every email marketing feature we could imagine, except for transactional emails, which aren’t available on any plan. We were also able to access email, social, and paid marketing campaigns with great omnichannel features.

There’s no way around it, Salesforce Marketing Cloud is Expensive. Beyond the Starter Suite and Pro Suite plans, the cheapest plan (Growth) starts at $1,500 per month, which is staggeringly high for the average small business. Still, if you can handle the cost, Salesforce is the most popular CRM in the world for a reason.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud pricing

There are a few pricing options when it comes to the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. For starters, there are a lot of marketing features in the Starter Suite and Pro Suite plans, which cost $25 per user, per month and $100 per user, per month, respectively.

Beyond that, you’re going to pay a pretty penny for advanced marketing features. The dedicated Marketing Cloud plans are the Growth and Advanced editions, which cost $1,500 per month and $3,250 per month, respectively, so hopefully your budget is flexible enough to handle this kind of expense.

Learn more in our guide to Salesforce Marketing Cloud pricing and plans

Freshmarketer – Best for Small Businesses

Price: $15 per month
Free plan: Yes

The marketing arm of the Freshworks CRM is called Freshmarketer, and it’s really only aimed at businesses in need of email marketing. With no other features for paid, social, or content marketing, the ability to scale is limited.

Still, at this price and with these email marketing features, you could make an argument that it’s one of the better options for small-budget operations.

The Freshworks Automation builder can streamline operations to automatically be performed with simple if/then actions. Source: Tech.co testing

For one, it offers a 21-day free trial for all plans. On top of that, we were able to use the free forever plan, which provides access to the platform for only 100 contacts, but is still a good place to start for small businesses. On top of all that, Freshmarketer does offer a whole bunch of website tracking features, so we were able to see how our customers are engaging with our page to make adjustments.

Freshmarketer pricing

Freshworks as a whole offers a lot of different pricing plans for its various CRM options, but Freshmarketer only offers one paid plan to choose from. The Enterprise plan will cost you $15 per month for up to 500 contacts, which is why it’s best for smaller businesses.

Freshworks also offers a free plan that allows for up to 100 contacts, but you’ll get fewer monthly email sends and no access to third-party integrations or generative AI features.

Sugar Market – Best for Multiple Marketing Channels

Price: Custom
Free plan: No

SugarCRM offers one marketing plan, dubbed Sugar Market. This automation-driven platform features built-in social and advertising tools, with SEM and SEO functionality to make sure you’re attracting the right people. Plus, with modern analytic and reporting tools, you can see what’s working and what’s not using a stylish interface that doesn’t confuse more than it informs.

This slightly less expensive option offers a wide range of marketing channels, like social, paid, and content, so you can really scale with it for a reasonable price. Still, it doesn’t offer the same level of functionality that HubSpot does while trying to do the same, so we’d still recommend our top choice. If you’re looking to save a little though, Sugar Market is a solid option.

The SugarCRM home dashboard was simple for our team to understand. Source: SugarCRM

Sugar Market pricing

SugarCRM offers publicly available pricing for its sales CRM, called Sugar Sell, but for Sugar Market, you can’t find out how much you might pay without getting a custom quote and providing information about your business.

On top of that, there is no free plan or free trial, so you won’t be able to test it out yourself before you buy. However, there is a free demo that can give you an idea of what you’re in for before you sign a contract.

Learn more in our full guide SugarCRM pricing and plans

Keap – Best for Email Marketing

Price: $249 per month
Free plan: No

Keap is a dual threat when it comes to CRM. With sales and marketing functionality paired together, it allowed us to offer both services in tandem to improve communication. Still, it does have some limitations when it comes to scalability, as it offers few team infrastructure features, so it was not easy to manage our larger team.

Keap also offers some great customer support options, so when our team was struggling with the new platform, we were able to quickly get a bit of help. That combined with the lower prices makes Keap a good option for small businesses on a budget. There are probably better values out there though, so be sure to check out what you can make happen.

The Keap dashboard kept track of leads, clients, and everything else we need for marketing. Source: Tech.co testing

Keap Pricing

Keap used to offer a wide range of feature-based plans that can get you started for cheaper, but the company has since adjusted its pricing model, offering a single plan that includes all the functionality of the platform. Subsequently, Keap pricing now starts at $249 per month for 2 users and 1,500 contacts.

However, if you want to add users or contacts, the price does increase. For 5 users and 650 contacts, for example, Keap will cost your business $465 per month.

Read our Keap pricing guide to learn more

How CRM Improve Your Marketing

There’s no point in installing CRM software if it can’t help your marketing team, which is why understanding the benefits of marketing CRM is so important. Here are a few reasons why CRM can assist in your marketing needs:

• Segmentation – the ability to segment marketing lists by location, demographic, or anything else has proven to be effective in reaching new and repeat customers
• Project management – tracking project progress will help you improve productivity, and keep employees accountable to measurable statistics
• Automation – by saving you time on small projects, CRM automation features are designed to truly improve productivity
• Personalized content – the majority of customers value personalization, and CRM software can help you tailor your customer experience to each and every individual

There’s no denying the value of CRM software when it comes to marketing, which is why finding the right one for your particular business is so important to the success of your company.

Buyer’s Guide: Finding the Best CRM for your Marketing Team

There’s a lot to consider when it comes to finding the right CRM for your marketing team. Luckily, we’ve done plenty of research to provide you with a bit of information about narrowing down your search to a provider that fits your needs.

In this buyer’s guide, we’ll cover some of the criteria you should be considering when it comes to making a decision for your marketing business in regard to a CRM platform, including:

• What to Consider Before Picking CRM for Marketing 
• Essential Features & Benefits of Marketing CRM
• How Much Does CRM Software Cost?
• CRM Integrations for Marketing
• Signs Your Marketing Team Needs CRM Software

What to Consider Before Picking CRM for Marketing

Given the vast selection of CRM available in 2025, it’s important to understand some basic essentials before you dig too deep. Here are some of the primary criteria you should nail down before even looking at feature catalogs and pricing pages.

Team size

The size of your company, and more specifically your marketing team, will very much indicate which CRM provider you should go with. Larger companies would be better suited to robust software like Salesforce or HubSpot, as it’s designed to do a lot for a wide range of companies and industries.

Conversely, smaller companies would likely want to opt for software like monday.com or Freshworks CRM, as they’re easier to use for beginners and softer on the budget.

Budget

Speaking of budget, that’s another big decider in which software you should go with. Prices range dramatically from provider to provider and plan to plan, which means you could spend as little as $15 per month or as much as $4,000 per month.

Even if you’re a big company, a small budget could seriously hamper your ability to afford the robust software you need, so make sure you get those numbers nailed down ahead of time.

Business needs

Particularly when you’re looking for marketing features, understanding exactly what your business needs and what these providers offer is vital. In fact, there are many popular CRM software providers with no marketing features at all, so be sure to do your research ahead of time.

Luckily, all the CRM on this list are decked out with marketing features, so there’s nothing to worry about there.

HubSpot offers a comprehensive list of marketing contacts to keep track of our progress. Source: Tech.co testing

Essential Features & Benefits of Marketing CRM

Now that you’ve got a better idea of what kind of providers are out there, you need to understand what you’re looking for. Fortunately, we’ve broken down some of the key features associated with marketing CRM, so you can make sure the one you pick is solid enough to take you to the next level. Essential features include:

• Landing pages
• Ad and SEO management
• Data Reporting & Analytics
• Workflows & Automation
• Customer conversation histories
• Lead form integration
• Customer filtering
• Automated email nurturing

So what are these features working towards? It can be easy to install new software without taking stock of how it’s specifically improving your business. But with marketing CRM, it’s important to know that you’re building something to improve productivity, and increase efficiency from top to bottom. Key benefits include:

• A central hub for audience data
• The ability to test, learn, and iterate on campaigns
• A connection to your key marketing channels

This is just the tip of the iceberg, however – there are many reasons why businesses need CRM. With the right set of features and the ideal provider, you should be able to get some serious insight into how your business runs. Now the real question: how much is this all going to cost?

We were able to create and thoroughly customize data dashboards in the analytics tab of Salesforce. Source: Tech.co testing

How Much Does CRM Software Cost?

Like most business resources, the cost of CRM software is based on a wide range of criteria. For one, the size of your company is paramount in deciding cost. Naturally, larger companies are going to need more features to get the job done, while smaller companies need fewer so larger companies are going to be paying more.

Additionally, the number of users you need on the platform will factor in heavily. In fact, many providers have pricing plans that are specifically increased and decreased depending on how many users will be on the platform, so you can figure out the price on the spot.

Finally, the types of features you’re looking for are a big decider on price. Prices can get pretty steep if you’re looking for plans with marketing features built in, as these features are a bit more robust and, fortunately, have a much better return on investment.

Check out our CRM Pricing Guide for more information

The price of CRM software can vary dramatically from business to business. Source: Tech.co

CRM Integrations for Marketing

Perhaps one of the most convenient aspects of CRM software, particularly when it comes to marketing, is its ability to integrate with popular third-party apps. This will help cut down on double work, and will keep your records organized and accurate. Some frequent third-party integrations for marketing found within CRM software include:

• Mailchimp
• Autopilot
• GoSquared
• Marketo
• ActiveCampaign
• Customer.io

Additionally, CRM software often integrates with G-Suite, Outlook, Slack, and other communication tools, so that you can keep your whole team connected throughout the customer journey.

Salesforce offers a wide range of integrations for its service. Source: Tech.co testing

Signs Your Marketing Team Needs CRM Software

By now, you’ve taken in a lot of information about CRM software for marketing but how do you know that you actually need it? If you can afford it, CRM software is proven to have a positive affect on your bottom line, so that’s a good indicator right there. But if you think the return on investment just might not be worth it, here are a few signs that a marketing team is in need of some guidance:

• Inefficient marketing processes
• Lack of data
• Reports of bad customer service
• Customers get lost between departments
• Sub-optimal campaign results
• Lack of engagement from target market

Simply put, if your business is suffering in any of the important business facets listed above, the right CRM software could have a big impact on your business by automating, organizing, and generally improving your day-to-day operations.

How We Rank CRM Software