PIPEDRIVE CRM PRICING
Features, and Comparison
Best CRM Software (Or Not)?
Looking to connect with customers and boost revenue? Of course, you are—and so is every sane marketer or business owner. The solution lies in customer relationship management software (CRM). One such tool is Pipedrive—which is designed to help medium or small-sized businesses and marketing teams with their sales needs. | Pipedrive Pricing
Pipedrive is rich in features that allow users to identify and monitor opportunities in their sales process. The Pipedrive pricing plans start at $12.50/month billed annually—all the way to $99/month with the most advanced offering. There’s also a “LeadBooster add-on” upsell that’ll set you back an extra $32.50 every month. (PS: Pipedrive offers a 14-day free trial—and it doesn’t demand a credit card).
Now that you have an overview of what Pipedrive is all about, let’s walk farther into the ocean as we dive into the nitty-gritty of the CRM software. What are its exact features? What comes with the different Pipedrive pricing plans? How does it compare with other CRM software companies out there? And most importantly, does Pipedrive offer value for money – i.e., is it worth it?
Understanding the Importance of CRM Software
The life of a marketer in today’s digital era is a bitter-sweet affair. Yes, it’s exciting; it’s interesting; you have access to significantly more resources, and you have more opportunities to succeed. But there’s also a dark side (*cuing a Darth Vader theme song).
The landscape is increasingly competitive and the variety of options can easily overwhelm you—not to mention the never-ending sprint to keep up with the trends and evolving best practices. And if you’ve noticed, the challenges I’ve just highlighted are external.
Internal challenges are just as stressful—if not more. Think about it; people in top management (or you, if you’re a solo entrepreneur) expect a considerable return on investment (ROI). But this is not possible if you’re not converting leads into customers. This in itself is a huge challenge—owing to the risk of leakage (drop-outs) in your sales funnel if the leads are not qualified or ready.
Then there’s the universal issue of capturing and keeping the attention of consumers, despite their increasingly short attention spans—and you can’t really blame them. Consumers (including you) are bombarded with a near-endless stream of sign-up requests, promotional emails, and banner ads that spring out from every corner on the internet. What I’m trying to elaborate on is that consumers are overloaded with marketing information daily. Capturing their attention amid the sea of other offers is the modern version of pulling a rabbit from a hat.
In short, it’s a delicate chain reaction: attract prospects = leads/customer = ROI = happy or disgruntled business owner. And it can either burn or propel you to greater heights.
So, where does CRM software come in? Well, for starters, industry data by Nuclear Research suggests that CRM has an ROI of 871% – i.e., $8.71 returns for every dollar spent on CRM efforts. CRM also increases customer retention/satisfaction by 47%, conversion rates by 300%, and sales by 29%.
CRM software bridge marketing and sales—hence facilitating a well-oiled ‘machine’ whereby the process of generating traffic, nurturing leads, and closing the deal is as seamless as possible.
Best CRM Software
By now I bet you’re sold on the idea that CRM software are game changers—and you cannot afford to miss out. Unsurprisingly, demand for customer relationship management software has grown tremendously over the last couple of years.
According to statistics by Gartner, the CRM market experienced a 15.6% growth in 2018. This is a testament to the increasing demand for the service. And where there’s demand, supply soon follows. For this reason, there are dozens of CRMs—each claiming to offer a unique experience from the competition. To narrow down your search, below are 5 of the best CRMs today:
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is arguably one of the best sales-focused customer relationship management software for small and medium-sized businesses. It manages to balance advanced capabilities with ease of use.
All factors considered; Pipedrive’s user interface is its main selling point. It’s clean, intuitive, and it allows you to visualize the entire sales process as it unfolds. Pipedrive is also proactive in that the software automatically organizes emails and calls while synchronizing schedules across multiple devices.
HubSpot CRM
HubSpot is widely admired as a pioneer in the inbound marketing movement. Among its expansive pool of digital marketing solutions is a tool known as HubSpot CRM. It’s an innovative software that allows users to build landing pages, manage leads, automate marketing, split test, and other capabilities.
HubSpot is widely admired as a pioneer in the inbound marketing movement. Among its expansive pool of digital marketing solutions is a tool known as HubSpot CRM. It’s an innovative software that allows users to build landing pages, manage leads, automate marketing, split test, and other capabilities.
SALES FORCE
A list of the best CRM software would not have been complete without mentioning one of the titans of the industry – i.e., Salesforce. The software solution has built quite a rapport for its ever-increasing eco-system and affinity for innovative features.
Salesforce It’s a great option for people looking for an advanced CRM capability such as AI-driven automation, streamline lead management, interoperability with the company’s partners, and comprehensive customization option, to name a few.
The pricing structure of Salesforce is a bit confusing and includes several tiers—with the lowest (Essentials Plan) available at $25 per month and the full-feature plan (Lighting Unlimited) priced at $300/month.
Zendesk Sell
If you’re looking for a simple and easy-to-use CRM solution, then Zendesk Sell is a strong candidate. The CRM—formerly known as Base CRM—is integrated into the suite of Zendesk messaging, chat, analytics, and support solutions. The user interface is dialed down and easy on the eye, hence flattening the learning curve.
Zendesk Sell is an ideal CRM solution for users who already use other Zendesk products and those who lack the technical capabilities to run other more complex CRMs. As for the cost, it’s competitively priced—starting at $19 per month for the Team plan and $199 for the Elite plan.
Zoho CRM
With tens of SaaS (Software as a Service) products and a raving community, Zoho CRM is widely recognized as a leading player in the industry. Much of the software’s admiration arises from its great mix of relatively affordable prices and an excellent mix of features. Some of Zoho CRM’s capabilities include omnichannel interactions, contact management, sales force automation, lead management, and analytical options. You also gain access to Zoho’s eco-system of other software such as Zoho Books and Zoho Projects.
Zoho CRM has six price plans—including a free version and 4 paying options, starting at $9/month billed monthly. The most expensive offer is the Ultimate plan, which is priced at $55 per month.
What is Pipedrive?
Pipedrive is a CRM platform that was created in 2010 by 5 salespeople—Martin Henk, Martin Tajur, Ragnar Sass, Timo Rein, Urmas Purde—based on their frustrations on the lack of a relevant sales management tool.
What started as a modest software solution for salespeople grew into one of the main CRM platforms in the industry. Currently, Pipedrive has a presence in up to 170 countries—where it’s used by over 90,000 teams.
In a nutshell, the intuitive software allows you to visualize your sales pipeline. It helps organize leads in a manner that gives you a clear view of the sales process—hence allowing you to differentiate between priority deals and hot leads without wasting time.
Oh, and it’s a rather versatile software—supporting more than 10 languages and integrating with a truckload of popular third-party systems such as Google Calendar, Zapier, MailChimp, and Dropbox, among others.
Pipedrive Pricing
The Pipedrive pricing structure has four subscription tiers with a monthly or yearly billing option. The plans are designed to meet the needs of different users depending on the growth stage of their business.
As I’ll highlight below, the main difference between the Pipedrive pricing options lies in the access to premium features such as revenue forecasting, contact data enrichment, and workflow automation. The number of live dashboards also differs.
It’s also worth noting that Pipedrive offers a 14-day free trial with the Essential, Advanced, and Professional price points. To be honest, I appreciate the offer as it’s a sign of their confidence in their product—but its nothing unique in the CRM industry. If anything, Pipedrive falls behind other competitors that offer 30-day FREE trials or lifetime FREE offers as is the case with HubSpot CRM.
In addition to the standard plans, Pipedrive also offers an optional ‘LeadBooster add-on’ as an up-sell. This feature allows you to leverage live chat and chatbots to connect with your site visitors and qualify leads. This add-on might significantly bolster your lead generation and conversion—as long as you’re willing to pay an extra $39 every month (billed monthly).
Read on for a brief breakdown of each of the pricing options:
Essential Pipedrive Pricing Plan
This is the most basic plan and as the name suggests, it only includes essential customer relationship management tools. This entry-level offering includes sales insights, automation of the sales pipeline, integrations, deal management, and some mobile app features.
Keep in mind that Pipedrive periodically updates it’s features and pricing options. As of August 2020, they introduced a new feature (an AI-powered sales assistant) and improved customization options to the Essential plan.
The obvious downside to the Essential Pipedrive pricing plan is that it lacks some of the more advanced workflow automation and email tracking tools. While it still serves the core functions of a CRM software, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of capabilities.
It costs $15 per month (billed monthly) or $12.50 (billed annually). It’s a great option for lightweight users looking for a solution to easily and quickly manage their sales performance.
Advanced Pipedrive Pricing Plan
The Advanced plan offers the same features like the Essential plan—but with a few additions. These new features include access to customizable email templates, merge fields, email open/click tracking, 2-way email sync, product catalog, and an ability to use social platforms to enrich your contact data. You’ll also notice that the formerly branded web forms are now unbranded.
One of the best additions in this Pipedrive pricing category is the workflow automation feature that gives you the power to automate important and recurring tasks. The Pipedrive pricing plan also supports ‘Single Sign-On’—which is a neat feature that swats away the annoying hassle of creating new accounts for new team members. This is available at $29/month (billed monthly) or $24.90/month (billed annually).
Professional Pipedrive Pricing Plan
Again, this is similar to its precursor, the Advanced Pipedrive pricing plan—but with a few additions to improve its functionality. My most notable feature in this subscription option has to be the cumulative revenue forecast. It allows a comparison of your revenue forecasts with company, team, and individual goals.
Other additional features in the Professional offer include customizable dashboards, team reports, advanced meeting schedulers, group emailing, security dashboard, sales insights & reports, call tracking, and increased allocation for automated workflows. It’s priced at $59/month (billed monthly) or $49.90/month (billed annually).
Enterprise Pipedrive Pricing Plan
This is the most advanced Pipeline pricing plan and it offers the full scope of features—including increased automated workflows, unlimited user permissions, customized onboarding support, and 24/7 phone support. Whether you subscribe monthly or annually, the Enterprise plan costs $99/month per user. Pipedrive also demands at least 10 users before signing up successfully. This is a great option for large teams looking for premium features such as access to an Account and Implementation Manager or ongoing technical support that’s literally a call away.
How to Subscribe/Buy a Pipedrive Pricing Plan
Make the Most of the 14-day free trial:
Anything free is meant to be milked—not to mention the fact that it’s a great way to give Pipedrive a test drive before you invest your hard-earned money. The CRM software’s free trial gives you access to a ton of features and tools—all without a limit to the number of users you can add. And contrary to the norm of most online software solutions (*cough Netflix*), Pipedrive does not demand your credit card information. You can subscribe comfortably without the risk of finding a deduction in your account after missing the cancelation window by mere seconds.
Choose your Ideal Pipedrive Pricing Plan:
Here’s where you take a step back to reflect on the needs and unique circumstances in your organization. Which plan is best for you in terms of features and pricing?
Determine your Level of Commitment:
You only have two options—but this does not make the decision any less challenging. Choosing between monthly or annual billing is a classic case of risk vs reward investing. Taking the longer route is relatively cheaper but you also run the risk of mishaps or second thought along the way. On the other hand, monthly billing means you pay more, but you get the luxury of pulling out at will if a better option comes along.
Subscribe:
With the pricing plan and level of billing commitment decided, the only step remaining is to actually pay for the CRM solution. If you’re still enrolled in the 14-day trial, you’ll be charged after the complimentary period. (Quick Tip: Make sure you export your data while transitioning from the Free to the paid subscriptions to avoid data loss).
There you have it—a breakdown of the impact of Pipedrive on your budget! Next up is an overview of the products and features offered by Pipedrive.
Review of the Features – Is the Pipedrive
Pricing Warranted?
Pipedrive may not be the most feature-rich option out there but it can definitely hold its own. The CRM software solution offers a ton of CRM tools to help grow your business. Some of the key features include:
Visual Pipeline of Deals
Pipedrive doesn’t skimp on the visual side of their UX/UI design! The company somehow manages to makes the sales pipelines attractive, yet functional. It’s relatively easy to create sales stages and align them with your processes. Pipedrive allows you to drag and drop deals in the sales stages with ease.
Lead Generation – LeadBooster add-on
Leads are at the center of online business. Without effective lead generation, your business is doomed to fail. To reduce lead leakage from your sales funnel, Pipedrive offers intuitive features to automatically capture new leads or warm-up cold ones with the help of chatbots and live chat. Whereas humans are susceptible to fatigue and unpredictable emotional responses, bots can run 24/7, handle a truckload of queries consistently, reduce customer service costs, personalize customer service experiences, and they’re easily scalable.
Contact Management
Pipedrive has an impressively simple and straightforward interface for contact management. You can quickly search for information, add contacts, and keep track of customers/leads. The CRM automatically links the contacts to accompanying sales opportunities.
Workflow Automation
The CRM offers a workflow automation feature whereby you define events and trigger responses. This is especially applicable to recurring tasks that would otherwise take too much time and effort. For example, you can set up specific follow-up calls to align with the movement of a lead in the pipeline. When triggered, an automatic and relevant message is sent to the prospect—nurturing them further down the sales funnel.
Pipeline Management
Pipeline management gives you and your team an avenue to interact seamlessly and strategize on ways to increase conversions. It draws attention to your sales processes and lead generation—courtesy of the intuitive Pipedrive dashboard. This allows you to focus your marketing efforts on priorities. Some of my favorite pipeline management features include the option to customize any level of the pipeline, spot trends with just a quick glance, and add activities/deals easily into the visual layout.
Email Integration
Disorganized lead flow is a remedy for disaster. You’re at risk of being caught unprepared by a client—not to mention the financial loss. With this in mind, Pipedrive provides several features to connect your contacts and emails. It also allows you to track conversions and the status of your prospects.
The CRM offers real-time notifications on the interaction of prospects with your emails, allows you to sync your data in a centralized and easily accessible manner, and the ability to send emails directly from the software. This is further enhanced by Pipedrive’s AI sales assistant technology that provides hints on how and when to close deals based on the behavior patterns of prospects.
Activities and Goals
With Pipedrive, you can easily assign specific tasks to different team members, identify missed opportunities by using the “deal rotting” feature, and understand what is likely to follow in your sales flow or pipeline. This gives you insight into the happening inside your business—and as they say; knowledge is power.
Reporting
What are the implications of your data? It’s clear that information is a key weapon in every marketer’s arsenal. Knowing how your initiatives are performing is the cornerstone of an effective marketing strategy. Pipedrive seems to understand this assertion as evidence by their reporting features. The CRM allows you to visualize key performance indicators and present the information in gorgeous graphs/charts. With this information, you’re in a better position to chart the way forward and build stronger relationships.
Forecasting
Small business owners are typically on the run trying to handle a near-endless stream of business activities and operations. When this is the case and you barely have time for yourself—let alone additional business activities—it’s important to make the most of the little time you have.
Pipedrive’s sales forecasting features empower marketers and help them make the most of their scarce time. It allows you to zero in on deals with the highest chance of success.
Pipedrive Integrations
Pipedrive’s marketplace has hundreds of paid and free integrations to extend the capabilities of the CRM and enhance your experience. Some of the popular integrations include MailChimp, Google Drive, Google Calendar, QuickBooks, Zapier, Dealbot for Slack, Trello, and Sychbot, to name a few.
Customer Support
There are several ways to reach out to Pipedrive’s customer service—including live chat, emails, social media accounts, or a phone call if you’re signed up for the Enterprise Pipedrive pricing plan. I tend to prefer the online live chat option for immediate answers at any time of the day. You can also find useful resources from its knowledge base of blogs, webinars, and forums. I’d love to commend Pipedrive’s customer service—but I can’t help but feel disappointed by the lack of a call feature for all Pipedrive pricing plans.
Pros and Cons of Pipedrive CRM
As impressive at face value as Pipedrive sounds, it’s not all roses and sunshine for the CRM software. As the thorough guy I am, I combed through the depths of the internet and my own experience to uncover any drawbacks to using the software. Here are the pro and cons of Pipedrive:
PROS
USER INTERFACE:
The simple UI is easily one of the standout perks of Pipedrive. It’s easy on the eye, hence it creates a good first impression.
Pipedrive Pricing:
At a starting price of 
$12.50/month and a 14-day free trial in the deal, Pipedrive is one of the cheapest CRM software around.
Ease of Use:
The features are well-designed and organized to facilitate a smooth onboarding process—taking care not to overload the user with too much information at once.
cons
The email and reporting features are uninspiring
The functionality of Pipedrive is not the best. It’s offering may not meet the needs of advanced users.
The lack of phone support across the board is a letdown.
Real User Reviews and Testimonials
A dig into online review platforms showed that users have mixed reactions regarding Pipedrive. Below are some reviews by real users to help rate Pipedrive.
Positive Reviews
A large number of people appeared to be satisfied and impressed with Pipedrive’s user interface, ease of use, and integrations. Here’s what some of them had to say.
Negative Reviews
As with any establishment, some users had an undesirable experience with Pipedrive—citing several reasons such as a lack of features and limited reporting capabilities.
Comparison of the Best CRMs – Top 3
Alternatives to Pipedrive | Pipedrive Pricing
As with any establishment, some users had an undesirable experience with Pipedrive—citing several reasons such as a lack of features and limited reporting capabilities.
Pipedrive vs Zoho
If you’re looking for the closest alternative to Pipedrive, look no further than Zoho. The two CRM solutions are surprisingly similar—from their features, tools, sales-focused approach, and even pricing. All factors considered, I believe the two are a good match and the decision comes down to personal preferences. This also means that you can switch from one to the other will little-to-no onboarding challenges. And keep in mind that Zoho CRM has the advantage of interoperability—owing to a whole eco-system of software solutions.
Pipedrive vs HubSpot CRM
The main difference between HubSpot CRM and Pipedrive lies in their free offerings. On face value, HubSpot’s ‘free forever’ version seems like the best choice—especially due to HubSpot’s reputation in the industry. But if you dig deeper, you’ll realize that Pipedrive is in fact a better deal in terms of features covered. As much as HubSpot is free, its capabilities are slashed down to the roots—and you’ll likely be tempted to buy the pricey up-sells. In other words, HubSpot may work for beginners but it’s applicability quickly fades as you scale—unlike Pipedrive.
Pipedrive Vs Salesforce
When it comes to popularity and adoption, Salesforce easily eclipses Pipedrive. It’s used by several multinationals and it enjoys an enviable reputation as the face of CRM. So if you prefer to bank on popularity and sophistication, turning to Salesforce is a no-brainer.
On the flip side, Salesforce is designed for large organizations and navigating the software can be a huge challenge. This is where Pipedrive with its simple, streamlined, and easy-to-use interface comes in.
You should also factor in the cost of each CRM. Whereas Salesforces starts at $25/month/user to $300/month/user, Pipedrive starts as low as $12.50/month to $99/month.
Takeaway – Worth it or Not?
All factors considered, Pipedrive is a straightforward CRM software solution. It’s clear that they put considerable effort into the design and usability of their software. The user interface is simple, clean, and even a beginner can easily find his or her way around the platform. Taking this into consideration—plus the competitive price—it’s easy to see why Pipedrive is one of the most in-demand CRMs. But while it excels in the interface part, there are a few things that they need to improve on—including sprucing their functionality and reporting features.
Would I recommend Pipedrive? Well, this depends on several factors such as your business’s needs and how they align with a particular CRM’s features. If you’re looking for advanced features, you’re better off with other options such as Salesforce.
“Discovering the unexpected is more important than confirming the known.”
— George E. P. Box
In line with the wise words of George E.P. Box, go on and give the Pipedrive 14-day free trial a try—you might discover the unexpected.
Affiliate Disclosure: Please note that the review or the Pipedrive Pricing contains affiliate links. I am an independent affiliate of Pipedrive products and not an employee. The review and opinion highlighted in this article are my own and they are in no way official statements by Etison LLC or Pipedrive.
Gary is the founder and owner at Digital Review Boss & Snappy Sales Video, a Brighton-based video production companies, who has a deep obsession with making videos as often as possible and how to optimise websites for brand awareness and conversions.