Copper alternatives: 6 CRMs to assess for smooth-sailin’ sales teams
Jack Virag
Growth Marketing Manager, Nutshell
Jack Virag
Growth Marketing Manager, Nutshell
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Copper CRM is a good choice for sales teams that live and breathe G Suite, but what about those of us who prefer a bit of software freedom?
Copper CRM is a special CRM that is specifically designed to be used with Google products, like Gmail and Google Docs. Copper is used by around 12,000 companies, including some biggies like Shipt, Hello Fresh, and Atlassian. The reason it’s attractive to companies in the first place is because of its comprehensive integration with G Suite.
For sales teams who live and breathe the Google software suite, this integration makes total sense. For teams that prefer a dynamic range of software, it’s a tangled web of frustration, tying them to a specific and limited set of applications and functionality.
Using this comparison guide can help you guarantee you’re really choosing a CRM that offers what your team needs.
For the record: Nutshell has a powerful Gmail integration, as well as integrations with Office, Constant Contact, Quickbooks, Zapier, and many more.
Copper CRM
Copper has gone to great lengths to incorporate G Suite into its most basic operations to become a company’s one-stop shop for relationship-building. Copper CRM brings sellers, customer support specialists, account managers, and all “relationship makers” together under one Google-flavored hub.
Copper offers a healthy range of CRM features, including a drag-and-drop board view, email templates, task automation, and a meeting scheduler. Users especially love Copper’s intuitiveness, with countless customer reviews rating the software easy-to-use.
For G Suite organizations, the implementation process is usually straightforward, and only takes a short amount of time to adapt the system to a company’s specific needs.
The downside, obviously, is that companies who aren’t completely dialed into G Suite are practically disqualified from ever needing Copper. Most sales organizations prefer to use their own tools for various activities. Using a system that locks your company into a specific software suite has severe disadvantages, especially with that system breaks.
Google Syncing doesn’t actually sync. In my experience [Copper] Does not integrate as well with Google as some other CRMs… This is deceptive. We have been unable to get the data export function to work as well.
Sales goal tracking, one-click phone dialing, and customizable sales reports are only available in the $69/month version. The cheaper version, at $49/month, dials the features back, placing arbitrary caps on data and contact limit, and even withholds the much-needed sales process customization.
Most CRMs on the market integrate with Google, as well as tons of other software and tools, so a G Suite integration may not be groundbreaking enough to base an entire CRM around. Copper could end up simply being a pricier version of what you're looking for.
If you're considering Copper, you’ve probably heard of these others. Copper CRM offers limited features and is geared specifically towards G Suite users. Other CRMs on the market offer similar features, including the G Suite integration, each with their own pros and cons as well.
Summary: Nutshell is an all-in-one CRM and email marketing platform that helps B2B organizations work together to win more deals. Powerful enough to support any element of your business and simple enough to implement in less than a day, Nutshell is favored among small to medium-sized companies who know better than to overpay for software they’ll never use. Furthermore, Nutshell features often outshine the competitors’ in terms of both usability and comprehensiveness, according to customer reviews.
Watch out for: Some advanced features are hidden away under menus.
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Summary: Pipedrive has a cheapo version for $12.50 per month, which lacks most of the features salespeople are looking for in a CRM. In order to actually run a business, users need to jump for the $50 version at minimum.
The expensive versions have good reviews, portraying the product as a well-rounded and easy-to-use CRM, with a simple user interface that allows sales teams to stick to selling without extra hassles.
Watch out for: Even with the hefty price tag, users still express frustration with the phone support as well as the reporting features.
Zoho
Starter:$12/mo
Full package: $100/mo
Notable features:
Integration with other Zoho apps
In-CRM emailing (limited #/user)
Dashboards and reporting
Integrates with Microsoft and Outlook
Workflow management
Summary: Zoho CRM is one of many applications in Zoho’s application ecosystem, which is similar to Salesforce’s appexchange. The reporting in Zoho’s CRM is solid, allowing users to report across products, locations, and applications. The CRM offers basic contact management functions, as well as automation, like converting website visitors into leads.
Watch out for: Zoho’s apps are sold in bundles, making it difficult to get a quote without going through demos, trials, and stress. This makes it very frustrating for users who just want to use a CRM and a few other apps.
You're supposed to figure this out.
Salesforce CRM
Starter: $25/mo
Full package: $300/mo
Workflow customization tools
Analytics
Marketing leads management
Sales team communication
Summary: Salesforce is a versatile and flexible solution platform centered around its lead management and CRM functionality. Salesforce’s main application is its CRM, but its platform hosts over 3,500 applications, with varying levels of complexity and pricing.
With various combinations of Salesforce apps, it’s possible to do just about anything: Customer journey sales workflows, application builders, and email template creators, to name a few. Be warned that the basic setup fee starts around $5,000, but if you want the above-mentioned functionality, your setup might be much higher.
Watch out for: Most of Salesforce’s add-ons don’t apply to, or even make sense for small or medium-sized businesses. Furthermore, they charge double their enterprise price ($150/user) for the version with unlimited support, because users need a lot of it. Are you willing to pay an admin $77,500 a year just to manage your CRM?
Summary: HubSpot is a CRM with a built-in marketing automation tool and customer service hub. HubSpot allows users to create custom web pages, forms, and emails, and tie them together with its workflow automation capabilities. For instance, you can make a landing page using HubSpot’s page builder, and have all the information entered by users on that landing page populate the CRM, the same way Nutshell’s Unbounce integration works.
HubSpot is a good option for sales and marketing teams who can afford the big spend and don’t have the time, knowledge, or resources to integrate their CRM with other, cheaper tools.
Watch out for: The free version is basically an editable Excel workbook and serves little purpose beyond holding your contacts’ information. If you want to use all of HubSpot’s features, it’s going to cost a small fortune. Even worse, those who aren’t HTML pros will need to hire a developer when they want to change things.
Insightly
Starter: $29/mo
Full package: $99/mo
Notable features:
Integrates with Gsuite, Microsoft, Mailchimp, and more
Custom dashboards
Custom pipeline builder
Opportunity reports
Summary: Insightly is a CRM for companies with a straightforward and simple sales process. Their ergonomic user interface allows for the creation of custom pipelines and provides all the tools and functionality needed to manage them. Insightly’s filtering features are a user favorite, allowing large lists to be sorted into smaller, more manageable segments.
Purchasing a CRM is a big commitment, as you’re often making a decision that’s going to affect the entire year. If your sales team discovers issues after a month, you’ve got to start the process all over again, minus a month of missed sales and possibly a year of CRM budget.
Most mammoth CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce diabolically let users discover their shortcomings after they’ve already paid for the software. Ramp-up time, implementation costs, additional services/apps needed, and quality of customer support, are the hottest topics in software review sites, because they’re the ones the users end up getting stuck with.
In order to ensure you’re making the right choice, the best approach is to install a demo version and see if the CRM can really support all of your requirements without breaking the bank. Never pay for software without demoing it for at least a couple weeks.
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