Freshsales is the CRM that most often surprises people on a shortlist. It has the clarity of Pipedrive with more of the capability of Zoho, a usable free tier, and built in telephony that nobody else in this price range offers without an add on.
The telephony matters more than it sounds. Being able to call from inside the record, with the call logged and recorded automatically, removes a category of admin that sales managers otherwise spend their time policing.
Where it lands well
Contact scoring is built in rather than a premium feature. The visual workflow builder is easy enough that a sales manager can build automations without help. Email, chat and phone all sit in the same timeline on the contact record, which is the thing every CRM promises and few deliver cleanly.
The free tier supports a small team properly, which makes it a low risk trial.
Where it falls short
The reporting is adequate rather than good, and teams with a strong analytics culture will find it limiting. The integration catalogue is smaller than Zoho's or HubSpot's, and there is no local accounting integration to speak of, so a link to Sage or Xero means Zapier or a developer.
Support quality in our review set is inconsistent, with several reviewers reporting slow escalation on technical issues.
South African considerations
Billed in dollars. Support hours are broad because the company operates across time zones, which works well from here. Telephony numbers are not available in South Africa on every plan, so confirm local number provisioning during the trial if that is part of why you are buying it.
Who should buy it
Small to mid sized sales teams that make a lot of calls, businesses that want automation without Zoho's density, and anyone who wants to trial properly on a free tier before committing budget.
NK
South AfricaDurbanSole trader
