Just a few years ago, “managing customer relationships” often meant using an Excel spreadsheet, a shared email inbox, and a lot of good will. For a small business or a freelancer with about ten active clients, this was manageable. As the business grows, however, this makeshift approach ends up costing a lot in lost time, missed opportunities, and sometimes even lost customers.
Today, customer relations encompass a much broader scope than is often realized. It’s not just about “responding to support requests.” It also involves tracking the sales pipeline, following up at the right time, centralizing multichannel interactions, automating recurring communications, and maintaining a consistent view of each contact, regardless of which team member handled the last message.
The problem is that the proliferation of tools has had the opposite effect of what was intended. An email system here, a CRM there, a chat tool on top of that, a ticketing platform running in parallel... Information becomes fragmented, teams get lost, and customers notice inconsistencies. Having too many poorly integrated tools is often worse than having too few.
That is precisely why choosing a solution that fits your organization and your needs is worth taking the time to consider. It’s not about finding “the best tool on the market” in absolute terms, but about identifying the one that fits your specific situation: team size, volume of contacts, types of interactions, and available budget.
This article reviews seven solutions that cover most of the customer relationship spectrum, from pure sales CRM to conversational support. Each has its own strengths, positioning, and ideal user profile. The goal: to help you see the big picture and make an informed choice.
You can also check out our selection of CRM and lead management software, as well as tools designed to enhancethe customer experience, to further your exploration.
HubSpot is probably the name that comes up most often when discussing CRM solutions for startups and small and medium-sized businesses. And for good reason: it’s one of the few platforms to offer a comprehensive ecosystem encompassing CRM, marketing, sales, customer service, and a CMS-all within a single, cohesive interface.
HubSpot’s promise is to break down silos between teams. When a contact is added to your database, every interaction-whether it’s an opened email, a completed form, a sales call, or a support ticket-is automatically added to their profile. Everyone on the team sees the same information, at the same time.
Pipedrive starts with a simple observation: most CRMs were designed for managers who want reports, not for salespeople who need to act quickly. As a result, sales teams don’t update their tools, information gets lost, and the CRM becomes a ghost system.
Pipedrive was designed with the user in mind: first and foremost for those who manage sales opportunities on a daily basis. The interface features a highly visual pipeline view where deals move from one stage to the next via drag-and-drop. Simple, intuitive, and effective.
Folk stands out clearly from its competitors thanks to its philosophy. While HubSpot and Pipedrive are designed for formalized sales processes, Folk is built to manage relationships, not just deals. This is an important distinction that makes all the difference in practice.
The tool is particularly popular among freelancers, consultants, content creators, recruiters, and anyone whose work relies on a dense and active network. Folk is a bit like a very powerful version of Notion combined with a CRM, with an interface that’s easy to use.
Zendesk stands out in this comparison. It isn’t a CRM in the traditional sense: it’s primarily a customer support platform. Tickets, live chat, emails, social media, phone calls… Zendesk centralizes all the channels through which your customers can contact you and turns them into tickets that your team can manage.
For a company that receives a significant volume of customer inquiries and needs to prioritize, assign, track, and measure their resolution, Zendesk is often the go-to solution.
Intercom popularized the concept of real-time customer support through chat features built directly into products and websites. But since then, the tool has evolved significantly: today, it is a comprehensive platform that covers support, product marketing, and customer engagement.
Intercom's greatest strength is its ability to provide context. When a customer messages you, you instantly see who they are, what they're doing in your product, and their previous interactions. No more guessing.
Crisp may be less well-known than its American competitors, but it clearly deserves a spot in this comparison. It’s a French solution (based in Nantes) that offers an all-in-one approach to customer support, with pricing that’s much more affordable than Zendesk or Intercom.
The tool brings together the following features in a single interface: live chat, email, a chatbot, a lightweight CRM, a knowledge base, and even a co-browsing module. For a small team looking to professionalize its customer service without breaking the bank, it’s a solid choice.
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) takes a different approach to customer relations than the other tools on this list. It is not a CRM in the strict sense, nor is it a customer support platform. It is primarily a marketing automation and email marketing platform, with CRM features that allow it to handle a significant portion of customer management.
For companies whose customer relationships rely heavily on proactive communication (newsletters, transactional emails, follow-up campaigns, text messages), Brevo is often the most logical tool to implement first.
⚠️ The prices listed below are for reference only. They are subject to change at any time depending on publishers' offers. Please check the official websites for current prices.
| Tool | Type | Admission price | Free | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | CRM + Marketing + Support | €15 per month per user | ✅ Yes (CRM) | Startups and Growing SMEs |
| Pipedrive | Sales CRM | €14 per month per user | ❌ (14-day trial) | B2B Sales Teams |
| Folk | Relationship Management CRM | $20/month/user | ✅ Limited | Freelancers and active networks |
| Zendesk | Customer Support & Tickets | €55 per month per agent | ❌ (14-day trial) | Small and medium-sized business with a dedicated support team |
| Intercom | Conversational support | $29/month/agent | ❌ (14-day trial) | SaaS and app publishers |
| Crisp Chat | Chat multichannel support | Free / €25/month | ✅ Yes (2 agents) | Small Businesses and Startups on a Tight Budget |
| Brevo | Email Marketing + CRM | €8/month | ✅ Very generous | E-commerce and marketing automation |
Each tool has its own strengths; it all depends on your business, the size of your team, and your priorities.
HubSpot is particularly well-suited for organizations that want to avoid fragmentation from the start. If you have marketing, sales, and support teams that need to share customer data, HubSpot helps you avoid using multiple incompatible tools.
The free CRM is fully functional-it’s not a stripped-down version. For a small team just starting to organize its sales management, it’s a solid starting point with no financial commitment.
Even when working alone, Pipedrive helps you stay on track. Automatic follow-ups, activity reminders, and conversation tracking: everything you need to make sure no opportunities slip through the cracks.
Pipedrive is more focused and easier to get started with. If your main need is sales management (rather than marketing automation or comprehensive customer support), Pipedrive covers the essentials with less hassle.
Folk is perhaps the CRM best suited for entrepreneurs don’t want a complex tool but need to keep track of hundreds of contacts. Its LinkedIn import feature, customizable settings, and AI-powered messages make it an incredibly effective tool for this type of user.
No rigid processes, no pointless required fields. Folk adapts to the way you work-not the other way around. Perfect for agencies, creative studios, or consulting firms that want to centralize their operations without losing flexibility.
Once you have multiple agents handling customer requests simultaneously, Zendesk provides a system that saves a significant amount of time. Automatic assignment, SLAs, and performance dashboards are major advantages.
Black Friday, which generates 500 tickets in 48 hours? Handling product returns? Zendesk is designed to handle spikes in activity and maintain consistent service quality.
Intercom was born in the world of SaaS and remains its undisputed leader. The ability to send context-driven messages based on in-app behavior (onboarding, upsells, feature announcements) is a real competitive advantage for digital products.
The combination of real-time support, onboarding messages, and behavioral analytics makes it a tool that is particularly well-suited for product and support teams working together.
Crisp's free plan is a great way to get started, and the Pro plan-at €25/month for four agents-offers one of the best values on the market. For a small business looking for a robust tool without breaking the bank, it's hard to beat.
Live chat with mobile notifications, targeted messaging campaigns, and co-browsing make it an ideal tool for online stores or services that need to be easily reachable.
Brevo's free plan is one of the most generous on the market: unlimited contacts and up to 300 emails per day. For someone just starting to build a list and send out a newsletter, it's an ideal starting point with no commitment required.
The combination of transactional emails, abandoned cart automations, and SMS marketing makes it a very comprehensive tool for e-commerce businesses. Brevo integrates natively with Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, and most e-commerce CMS platforms.
Here are a few frequently asked questions to help you think things through before making your decision.
Not at all. An entrepreneur 50 active clients has just as much to gain from organizing their communications as an 80-person small business. The tools presented here cater to a wide range of needs, and many offer free or very affordable plans. The question isn’t “Do I need this?” but rather “What level of organization fits my current situation?”
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is primarily used to manage the sales lifecycle of a contact: from prospecting to closing the deal, including follow-ups and ongoing support. A customer support tool handles incoming requests after the sale: tickets, questions, complaints, and after-sales service. Some tools, such as HubSpot, combine both functions, while others, such as Zendesk or Crisp, specialize in support.
Yes, and that’s actually what more advanced teams often do: a CRM for sales, a support tool for customer service, and an email platform for marketing. The key is to ensure these tools are well integrated to avoid duplication. HubSpot is particularly well-suited for those who want to avoid this kind of piecemeal setup.
Not entirely, but it’s already changing the way things are done. AI agents like Intercom’s Fin or those integrated into Zendesk can independently resolve simple, repetitive requests. This frees up time for complex cases that require empathy and human judgment. AI is a tool for improving efficiency, not a replacement.
Zendesk is generally better suited for organizations with formalized processes, SLAs, a high volume of tickets, and a need for advanced reporting. Intercom is a better fit if you’re a software company or app developer looking to combine responsive support with proactive product communication. Both are excellent tools: the choice depends on your specific situation.
Folk is often described as a "relationship-based CRM" rather than a sales CRM in the strict sense. It doesn't offer a sophisticated sales pipeline or quota management. However, when it comes to managing a network, tracking contacts, sending personalized messages at scale, and never losing track of a relationship, it's one of the most effective tools on the market.
Brevo is first and foremost a marketing automation platform. It does have a CRM module, but it remains relatively basic compared to HubSpot or Pipedrive. On the other hand, if your main priority is proactive communication with your customers (email marketing, automated campaigns, SMS), Brevo is hard to beat in terms of value for money.
Three options stand out for offering a truly usable free plan: HubSpot for basic CRM, Crisp for chat-based customer support, and Brevo for email marketing. Depending on your priorities, one of these three tools can help you get started at no cost and upgrade to a paid plan when your business needs it.
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