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9 Best CRM for Call Center in 2024

Customer relationship management (CRM) call center software are contact and lead management solutions equipped with telephonic features like call analytics and reporting that help reps provide better customer support. We assessed the pricing, features, ease of use, and support of several call center CRM systems and came up with our top nine recommendations:

  • Best CRM for call center with affordable and easy-to-use options: Freshsales
  • Best for cloud-based sales calling and call tracking: Salesmate
  • Best all-in-one CRM with call prioritization tools: EngageBay
  • Best business phone integration and analytics: Zoho CRM
  • Best for workflow automation with automatic call logging: Pipedrive
  • Best for ecommerce omnichannel customer care: Bitrix24
  • Best for unlimited cold calling: Aircall
  • Best all-in-one dialer: JustCall
  • Best voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) with collaboration tools: Nextiva

Best CRM Call Center Software Compared

Freshsales: Best CRM for Call Center With Affordable & Easy-to-Use Options

Pros

  • Easy-to-use in-app caller, inbound caller ID, phone dialer, and access to buying toll-free and international numbers all in the free plan
  • Analytics feature measures the performance of individual sales reps based on outbound calls made, pipeline process, and customer interactions to measure engagement
  • Territory management feature for assigning phone numbers to reps or transferring a call to another without dropping the call

Cons

  • Calling features, queue transfer, call masking, and recording aren’t available in the free plan; only in the Growth plan at $9 per user, monthly
  • No call forwarding unless integrated with Freshcaller; call routing only available in the Enterprise plan at $59 per user, monthly
  • Only 24/5 customer support

  • You want easy-to-use and robust features in an affordable CRM: Freshsales has a simple yet intuitive interface that makes it easy to learn and use. The free plan includes built-in phone, local and toll-free numbers, and inbound caller IDs. It also offers robust built-in cloud telephony tools, such as automatic inbound call routing and click-to-call functions. Take calls on the go, log in, and link them with a contact using its mobile app.
  • You want a detailed activity history of your contact engagement: Freshsales’ analytics measures sales rep performance based on the number of outbound calls made and the pipeline process. You can add notes to contacts and view the activity history, providing a chronological view of a customer’s engagement. Users can also view website and email activities for complete visibility to help improve brand engagement.

  • You only need high-definition (HD) video calls and video conferencing tools: Freshsales offers a great price point for a robust CRM system with solid basic call center features at $9 per user, monthly. However, it’s not a practical choice if you don’t need robust CRM capabilities. Check out its Call Center Estimator to learn about potential operational costs.
    • Alternative: Consider Bitrix24 if you only need to engage in HD video calls and video conferencing tools. This call center CRM software provides unlimited HD video calls and videoconferencing up to 49 participants in its free plan.
  • You need a cloud-based voice solution: Freshsales is a robust call center software but the advanced call features, like holiday routing, is only available in the Enterprise plan at $59 per user, per month. If you don’t need the bells and whistles of a CRM, choosing an industry-specific CRM is highly recommended.
    • Alternative: If you need a pure cloud-based voice solution, Aircall is a smart choice. It offers call routing, call queueing, softphone for desktop and mobile, and forward-to-mobile features in its starting plan for $30 per user.

Freshsales Pricing Plan & Overview*

Cost:

  • $0 for unlimited users

Key Features:

  • Built-in phone or a fully equipped dialer in the CRM
  • Buy local and toll-free numbers
  • Inbound caller ID
  • Kanban view for contacts, accounts, and deals
  • Contact lifecycle stages
  • Email templates
  • Custom fields
  • Sales dashboard
  • Mobile app
  • 24/5 customer support

Cost:

  • $9 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Free
  • Parallel calling or placing an active call on hold and calling a new external number
  • Queue transfer
  • Call masking or masking your company number with your personal number
  • Call recording
  • Basic call queues or placing callers in wait queues
  • Leave voicemails or prerecord them (voicemail drop)
  • AI-powered contact scoring 
  • Sales sequences
  • One configure price quote (CPQ) license to optimize revenue

Cost:

  • $39 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Growth
  • Power dialer to automatically call a list of customer phone numbers 
  • Warm transfer
  • Advanced call queues or sending callers from one queue to another if agent is busy
  • Bring your own carrier (BYOC) or use phone numbers from an external carrier
  • Conference calling
  • Multiple sales pipelines 
  • Time-based workflows 
  • Auto-assignment rules for contacts, accounts, deals 
  • Sales teams and territory management to transfer calls without dropping
  • AI-powered deal insights and next best action

Cost:

  • $59 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Pro
  • Holiday routing or diverting calls to alternate lines and special queues for holidays
  • Call recording opt-in and opt-out or getting contacts’ consent before recording calls
  • Queue callback allows customers to request a callback instead of waiting in the queue
  • Custom modules
  • AI-based forecasting insights
  • Audit logs
  • Field-level permissions
  • Dedicated account manager
  • Sandbox

Freshsales Pricing Add-ons:

  • Workflows: $5 for 10 workflows
  • Phone Credits: Starts at $5
  • CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote): $19 per user, monthly
  • Additional Bot Sessions: $75 for 1,000 bot sessions per month

*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.

Freshsales Power Dialer sequentially auto-dials phone numbers from the list. (Source: Freshsales)

Our Expert Opinion

Freshsales is our top choice for the best platform for businesses looking for call center and CRM features in one platform at a very affordable price. Its essential CRM functionalities include account and contact management for effective and efficient customer communication management. This software is also notable for its intuitive, built-in cloud telephony tools like automatic inbound call routing, phone dialer, and click-to-call functions.

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Salesmate: Best Cloud-based Sales Calling & Call Tracking

Pros

  • Robust sales calling and call tracking tools like toll-free virtual numbers, click-to-call facility, prerecorded voicemails, and contact timeline and auto-logs
  • Customizable CRM platform for omnichannel customer service
  • With voice and text features plus forecasting and insights included in all plans

Cons

  • No free plan available
  • Only standard dashboard and reports on the Basic plan at $23 per user, per month
  • Power dialer, voicedrop, and lead scoring start with the expensive Business plan ($63 per user, per month)

  • You want the best CRM for sales calling and call tracking: Salesmate allows sales reps to close more deals with its extensive sales calling and call tracking features. Two of the best features include the click-to-call facility and Power Dialer, allowing a rep to take a call just by accessing the customer’s profile. Also, this sales call software allows voicemail recording and directly dropping it whenever prospects are unavailable.
  • You want a centralized platform for omnichannel customer service: Create personalized customer experiences across multiple communication channels like email, text, calls, chat, web, and ecommerce with Salesmate. This CRM also has text automation for leveraging text messaging’s high open rate.

  • You want to start with a free plan: Startup call centers with limited budgets want to take advantage of free CRM plans. However, Salesmate only offers a free trial after 15 days, allowing users to try built-in calling and text, workflow automation, email tracking, multiple pipeline management, and other basic features.
    • Alternative: If you prefer a free account to test the call center CRM before buying, try Bitrix24, EngageBay, Zoho CRM, or Freshsales. Bitrix24 offers a free plan for unlimited users and up to 15 users for EngageBay. Freshsales provides a free plan for three users, whereas Zoho CRM provides free plans for up to three users.
  • You need a more affordable plan with custom dashboard and reporting: Salesmate offers a standard dashboard and reporting tool in the starting plan. If you need to generate customized reports, you need to upgrade to Pro at $39 per user a month to use the customized version.
    • Alternative:  The Standard plan of Zoho CRM offers limited custom reports and dashboards, priced at $14 per user. Enjoy unlimited custom reports and dashboards by availing of its Professional plan, which is at the same price as Salesmate’s startup plan’s price at $23 per user, monthly.

Salesmate Pricing Plan & Overview*

Cost:

  • $23 per user

Key Features:

  • Built-in calling and text
  • Contacts, companies, and deals management
  • Email sync, tracking, and templates
  • Multiple pipeline management
  • Standard dashboard and reports
  • Workflow automation
  • Web forms
  • Layout builder for tailoring the arrangement of information on the CRM’s detail pages

Cost:

  • $39 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Basic
  • Product management
  • Goal management
  • Team inbox
  • Workflow automation
  • Custom roles for team members
  • Field based permissions
  • Custom dashboard and reports

Cost:

  • $63 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Pro
  • Team management
  • Custom module
  • Power dialer to call contacts in one click
  • More layouts
  • Formula fields
  • Internet protocol (IP) restriction for security
  • Increased workflow and sequence limits

Cost:

  • Contact provider for pricing

Key Features:

  • Everything in Business
  • Dedicated account manager
  • Personalized onboarding
  • Priority support
  • Dedicated instance
  • Dashboards unlimited
  • Increased workflow limits
  • Increased sequence limits
  • Advanced permissions

*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. Users can try Salesmate’s 15-day free trial without a credit card required. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.

Enabling built-in calling and text app on Salesmate (Source: Salesmate.io)

Our Expert Opinion

Salesmate is the best cloud-based sales calling CRM because of its powerful call tools CRM capabilities. These include call tracking and auto logging, text automation, calendar sync, and prerecorded voicemails to make and track calls for better deal closures effectively. The click-to-call facility eliminates manual dialing, and the Salesmate Power Dialer prevents jumping between screens when calling prospects.

Visit Salesmate.io

EngageBay: Best All-in-one CRM With Call Prioritization Tools

Pros

  • Has lead prioritization features so agents can focus on hot leads
  • Free help desk tools like ticketing, issue segmentation, and intelligent workflows
  • All-in-one CRM software for call center for marketing, sales, and service teams

Cons

  • Some features, like setting up email sequences, have a steep learning curve
  • Calling function not available in the free plan
  • Custom reporting for performance metrics are available on the Pro plan at $110.39 per user

  • You want to prioritize hot leads: EngageBay helps you receive or make calls from the system. It has call prioritization features that inform agents about which customers to call based on their website activity, such as page visits, time spent on a page, and form submissions. You can add call notes to help you keep track of past conversations with your contacts and record important calls to needed information from customers.
  • You want free help desk tools: This platform enables customer service collaboration between marketing, sales, and service teams. Track every customer interaction in a centralized platform using service features like ticketing, issue segmentation, and intelligent workflows to identify tickets needing urgent attention.

  • You need an intuitive CRM with a minimal learning curve: Some reviews about EngageBay say this CRM requires a learning curve. For example, some users encountered issues uploading contacts to email sequences.
    • Alternative: For popular CRM options known for their ease of use and navigation, consider Freshsales. This CRM also has a robust in-app caller in its free plan, making sales calls more cost-efficient and productive.
  • You need contact center CRM features without the hefty price: Scaling small businesses usually need calling features in a traditional CRM to handle customer correspondence, marketing, and sales in a centralized place. While EngageBay has a cheaper starter plan ($13.79 per user, monthly) there are alternatives that offer free plans with these capabilities in place.
    • Alternative: Freshsales and Bitrix24 can provide the communication, lead generation, and sales tools you need without spending much. These providers offer free plans and calling features with robust CRM tools like call recording and custom reporting on their low-priced plans.

EngageBay Pricing Plan & Overview*

Cost:

  • $0 for 15 users

Key Features:

  • 250 contacts
  • Email marketing tools like email templates and access to email template builder
  • Autoresponders for automatic messages sent to prospects and customers
  • Email broadcast for optimizing outreach campaigns
  • Maximum of two email sequences
  • Lead grabbers like social suite for lead research
  • Access to a landing page builder
  • CRM capabilities like a 360-degree contact view, deals and tag management, basic lead scoring, and reports dashboard
  • Contact management, ticketing management, and two maximum ticket views
  • Email support and live chat software with chat transcripts, customer tracking, email integration, and automation

Cost:

  • $13.79 per user

Key Features:

  • 500 contacts
  • Email templates
  • Web pop-ups
  • Landing page builder
  • Lead scoring
  • Short message service (SMS) marketing
  • Third-party integrations like Integrately, PieSync, Pabbly Connect, and Make (formerly Integromat)
  • Social suite Social suite supports Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for lead research and to organize and streamline your social media using its built-in marketing feature.
  • Tag manager

Cost:

  • $59.79 per user

Key Features:

  • 5,000 contacts
  • Marketing automation
  • Push notifications
  • Site messages
  • Broadcast A/B testing
  • Landing page A/B testing
  • Custom domain
  • Call reports
  • Service automation
  • Sales proposals refer to documents that outline a company’s products or services, supporting content, terms of sale, and costs

Cost:

  • $110.39 per user

Key Features:

  • Unlimited contacts
  • Call recordings
  • Marketing automation
  • Web analytics
  • Proposal analytics
  • Single sign-on (SSO)
  • Role management
  • Set up sales goals for prioritization and lead scoring
  • Custom reporting
  • Dedicated account manager
  • Uptime service level agreement (SLA)
  • Phone support

*Pricing based on annual billing on a per month breakdown of the EngageBay All-in-One plans, though monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Pricing is reflected at the time of this publication. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.

EngageBay CRM view showing contact details and telephony (Source: EngageBay)

Our Expert Opinion

EngageBay’s CRM is bundled with marketing and service bay in its All-in-One plan, making it the best all-in-one CRM with call prioritization tools. Sales agents can add call notes to monitor past conversations and record important calls, streamlining hot lead monitoring and scoring to boost conversion rates. Moreover, EngageBay is one of the few call center CRM solutions with free help desk tools for ticketing.

Visit EngageBay

Zoho CRM: Best for PBX Integration & Analytics

Pros

  • Integration with private branch exchange (PBX) systems provides precise analytics on sales calls-to-deals made, allowing call strategies to be adjusted for better performance
  • Call reporting analytics are displayed in an easy-to-understand format
  • Free access to Zoho Desk call center and customer service software within the Zoho ecosystem

Cons

  • Most of the CRM customization and all artificial intelligence (AI) features are only available in highest-priced plans starting at $23 per user, monthly
  • Free plan has few features and is limited to three users
  • Limited customer support; premium support requires separate purchase priced at 20% of your Zoho subscription fee

  • You want to connect your CRM to your PBX tool: Zoho CRM lets you buy local or toll-free numbers and assign unique outgoing numbers to your agents. It integrates with Zoho Desk to access email ticketing and help desk capabilities. When connected to PBX programs, such as Ring.io and Amazon Connect, you can extract data like your team’s productivity level, concerns that customers talk about, and call volumes.
  • You need an affordably priced traditional CRM calling software: Zoho CRM is the most scalable CRM solution on this list. You can start off with its free and low-priced plans starting at $14 per user, monthly. This CRM is a highly customizable system that can be used to track leads and accounts on its app, log notes, make calls, and communicate with contacts via email, text, and telephone.

  • You want a Call CRM software with low-cost customization and AI features: Zoho CRM system offers custom reports and dashboards beginning at the Professional plan at $23 per user. The AI features, like data enrichment, AI analytics, sales forecasting, conversational AI, and email intelligence, only start if you subscribe to the Enterprise plan at $40 per user a month.
    • Alternative: Freshsales offers custom fields in its free account and AI-powered contact scoring in its basic plan at only $9 per user, per month. On the other hand, JustCall offers AI-powered transcription and call summary in its Team plan at $29 per user, per month.
  • You need a free plan that supports unlimited users: Zoho CRM is packed with essential CRM features; however, its free plan is limited to three users. This free plan unavailability can be a downside for startup call centers needing more time to decide what CRM to invest in.
    • Alternative: Bitrix24 offers a free plan for unlimited seats, making it ideal for teams with limited budgets. Startup businesses can use unlimited HD video calls and unlimited deals and contacts for omnichannel communication.

Zoho CRM Pricing Plan & Overview*

Cost:

  • $0 for three users

Key Features:

  • Contact book
  • Email marketing
  • Leads generation and sales automation tools like scoring rules and sales forecasting
  • Reporting and analytics tools like predefined reports
  • Basic dashboard components and limited custom reports
  • Mobile app analytics
  • Customization tools
  • Marketing tools like email templates, email authentication, mass email, and social profile integration
  • Ecosystem to integrate Zoho Business apps and third-party apps
  • Security features like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance and CRM audit logs

Cost:

  • $14 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in the free plan
  • Tasks, calls, events to easily manage calls, follow-ups, meetings, and daily sales activities
  • Blueprint or step-by-step agent guide
  • Webhooks to connect third-party apps to sales operations
  • CRM for Google Ads to track Google ad performance
  • Field level security or manage fields securely with highly sensitive information

Cost:

  • $23 per user

Key Features

  • Everything in Standard
  • Macros to predefine and automation actions
  • SalesSignals for real-time customer interaction
  • Assignment rules
  • Blueprint to create a guide for sales reps
  • Webhooks to easily loop sales party apps into sales operations
  • Validation rules
  • Custom reports and dashboards (Unlimited)

Cost:

  • $40 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Pro
  • AI features like data enrichment, AI sales forecasting, and conversation intelligence
  • Automatic replies to enhance customer communications
  • Segmentation to categorize customers
  • Multiple scoring rules
  • Custom SalesSignals for creating customized signals
  • Process management features like record approval process for accountability
  • Advanced reports and analytics tools
  • Security features for territory management

Cost:

  • $52 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Enterprise
  • Zoho Analytics to leverage Zoho’s powerful business intelligence

Zoho CRM Pricing Add-ons:

  • Additional File Storage: $4 per month for 5GB (paid plans only)
  • Additional Data Storage (up to 200 users): $4 for 100MB per month (for Professional and up)
  • Additional Data Storage (>200 users): $2 for 100MB per month (for Professional and up)
  • Data Backup: $12 per request

*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Free trial is available for 15 days. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.

Our Expert Opinion

Zoho CRM lets you connect your CRM to your business phone. Connecting your CRM to PBX programs enables managers to quickly monitor productivity levels based on call volumes, first call resolution, and other call-related metrics to properly resolve customers’ concerns. This is the most scalable contact center CRM solution with free, low-priced, and high-priced plans, allowing you to upgrade anytime.

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Pipedrive: Best for Workflow Automation With Automatic Call Logging

Pros

  • Contact center enables workflow automation for calls
  • AI-powered sales assistant for seamless contact management
  • Basic plan includes mobile app, automatic call logging, and reporting and analytics

Cons

  • Marketing features cost extra with Campaigns as an add-on starting at $13.33 per company, monthly
  • Doesn’t offer a free plan
  • Calling features are available starting with the Professional plan at $49 per user, per month

  • You need to automate your call center workflow: Pipedrive has its own contact center that allows you to import contacts easily and automate your call management workflows. It automatically assigns incoming calls to specific agents and adds essential data to contact records. Sales reps can also schedule follow-up activities by tracking all sales calls with its automatic call logging feature.
  • You need an AI-powered sales assistant to manage your contact communications: Pipedrive’s AI-powered sales assistant lets you engage contacts better because it provides insights and advice on the best course of action to take with contacts, leads, and deals. The tool alerts you when to call a contact next by analyzing email opens, participation in community discussions, and their associated deals in the pipeline.

  • You need robust CRM telemarketing features for your ecommerce: While Pipedrive is a solid call center CRM software option, it lacks some native out-of-the-box sales and marketing features in its basic plan. Ecommerce businesses need to find a better CRM to handle customer complaints while tracking sales performance.
    • Alternative: Bitrix24 offers many sales tracking and marketing features, like unlimited HD video calls, company social network, and project management tools in its free plan. This telemarketing CRM is highly recommended if you have an ecommerce or retail business.
  • You want a free in-app phone to stay in touch with contacts: Pipedrive’s calling feature only starts in the Professional plan at $49 per user. Also, the in-app caller feature was made exclusively available to legacy users from October 2022—new users who signed up after that can no longer access this tool. If you’re a new user who still wants to use Pipedrive as your contact center CRM, you can integrate your third-party VoIP phone.
    • Alternative: Freshsales offers its in-app caller even in its free plan. The in-app calling is powered by VoIP technology, wherein calling works through the internet, transmitting audio and voice data between the users.

Pipedrive Pricing Plan & Overview*

Cost:

  • $14 per user

Key Features:

  • Automatic call logging
  • Caller ID linked to deals and activities
  • Real-time sync across all devices
  • People and organization management
  • Lead and deal management
  • Customizable pipelines
  • Sales assistant
  • Application programming interface (API) access
  • Webhooks A webhook triggers a notification to be pushed to a specified endpoint every time an event occurs such as an added deal.
  • Shareable dashboard links

Cost:

  • $29 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Essential
  • Full email sync with templates, open and click tracking, and group emailing
  • Automations builder, including email sequences
  • Meeting, email, and video call scheduling
  • Two-way email sync
  • Report collaboration
  • Web-to-mobile calls for sending calls to phone
  • Delay and wait for steps added to automation
  • Smart Contact Data to automate valuable lead insights from web and social media

Cost:

  • $49 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Advanced
  • Streamlined lead routing and account access controls for teams
  • Document and contract management with e-signatures
  • Revenue forecasts and deeper reporting capabilities
  • Extra deal and field customization options
  • Deal card customization
  • Multiple email accounts sync
  • Contacts timeline
  • Free Smart Docs add-on with e-signatures to sign documents electronically

Cost:

  • $64 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Professional
  • Project planning, tracking, and delivery
  • Phone support and CRM onboarding
  • Scalable control of account permissions and visibilities
  • Ideal for increasingly busy pipelines and complex team structures

Cost:

  • $99 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Power
  • Enhanced security preferences
  • Complete access to all features
  • Unlimited reports and customizations
  • Double the number of automations per user

Pipedrive Pricing Add-ons:

  • Projects Project management tools, free with Power and Enterprise plans : Starts at $6.70 per user, monthly
  • Campaigns Customizable email campaigns : Starts at $13.33 per company, monthly
  • LeadBooster Lead generation tool set (chatbot, live chat, prospector, web forms, and appointment scheduler) : Starts at $32.50 per company, monthly
  • Smart Docs Trackable quotes, proposals, and contracts; free with Professional, Power, and Enterprise plans : Starts at $32.50 per company, monthly
  • Web Visitors Web tracking and lead ranking : Starts at $41 per company, monthly

*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. A 14-day free trial is available without a credit card required. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.

Pipedrive lets you set up an automation that moves new deals to different pipelines. (Source: Pipedrive)

Our Expert Opinion

Pipedrive is a winner in call center workflow automation, allowing users to automatically assign or route calls to specific agents and schedule follow-up activities based on the last call. This call center CRM tool is also equipped with Smart AI, providing helpful lead generation insights and notifying sales reps when to call a prospect next by analyzing pipeline activities.

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Bitrix24: Best for Ecommerce Omnichannel Customer Care

Pros

  • Industry-specific CRM features for ecommerce like basic inventory management for product stock tracking, orders, and stock receipts
  • Call center software includes collaboration options that integrate well with the project management tools like inbound call assignment
  • Includes robust customer communications features such as call logging and email CRM integrations

Cons

  • No free email, CRM forms, and social media features
  • No free in-app calling features; telephony starts in the basic plan at $49 for up to five users
  • Does not offer any customer phone support

  • You need an industry-specific CRM for ecommerce: Bitrix24 offers ecommerce features, including basic inventory management for tracking product stock, stock receipts, and orders. This enables users to manage their online store and never miss orders or urgent customer queries.
  • You need a project management CRM with strong customer communication tools: Bitrix24 is a CRM system with free, integrated project management features that can be used for specific call center functions. Connect your phone to your CRM to link calls to deals. It can automatically log all the phone calls you make or receive from a specific contact. Also, users can save all email exchanges on the platform’s contact manager.

  • You need a simple CRM with free email features: While Bitrix24 is a powerful CRM, it can be confusing to navigate the platform for novice users as many features are displayed in the dashboard. Bitrix24 doesn’t offer email, CRM forms, and social media in its free plan. Users need to subscribe to the cheapest paid plan, for $49 for five users, monthly to activate these capabilities.
    • Alternative: Freshsales offers an intuitive, simple interface that is beginner-friendly. You can use Freshsales to create email templates for free so you can engage with your prospects quickly.
  • You need free in-app caller features: Bitrix24 doesn’t have a telephony feature to connect a phone to Bitrix24 CRM. You need this feature to record all incoming calls and add them to your CRM as new deals.
    • Alternative: Freshsales’ free plan includes a phone dialer and inbound caller ID. Plus, you can access other essential calling features like queue transfer, call masking, recording, and buying toll-free and international numbers in its Growth plan. This plan is cheaper than Bitrix24’s, which is only $9 per user, per month.

Bitrix24 Pricing Plan & Overview*

Cost:

  • $0 for unlimited users

Key Features:

  • Unlimited HD video calls
  • Videoconferencing (up to 48 people)
  • One-on-one chats for sending messages or files, and record voice notes
  • One-click video call from task, calendar, or chat
  • Personal/group drive or online storage for individual or group
  • Online storage up to 5GB
  • Chats and video calls with Task participants
  • Unlimited deals and contacts
  • Process orders in CRM deals
  • CRM contact center or ability to connect different communication channels to CRM

Cost:

  • $49 up to five users

Key Features:

  • Everything in Free
  • Edit and collaborate on documents using screen sharing, and audio/video call logging
  • Tasks and projects
  • CRM document templates, resource booking for appointment scheduling in CRM, and CRM analytics
  • Deal management features like convert deal to invoice and create a CRM deal from an email
  • Bitrix24 Sign Create documents and send them to your counterparty for electronic signature in a couple of minutes.
  • Contact Center
  • Website builder
  • Online store
  • 24GB storage

Cost:

  • $99 up to 50 users

Key Features:

  • Everything in Basic
  • Sales and marketing automation tools like automation rules and triggers and webhooks for rules/triggers to integrate third-party solutions
  • Online documents
  • Company drive or company cloud storage to make files accessible
  • 100GB storage

Cost:

  • $199 up to 100 users

Key Features:

  • Everything in Standard
  • Sales intelligence features like automatic ad management, custom traffic sources to track advertising campaign’s effectiveness, and analytical reports to determine best performing ads
  • Smart process automation capabilities, such as rules and triggers to save time on routine tasks
  • HR capabilities such as viewing employee profile reports and managing employee working hours
  • Administration capabilities include extended access rights to Drive, CRM, and other integrated systems with a maximum of 10 account administrators allowed
  • Custom account URL with own domain name instead of a Bitrix24 account URL
  • 1,024GB storage

Cost:

  • $399 up to 250 users

Key Features:

  • Everything in Professional
  • Multiple branches or a set of tools to manage regional offices, branches, or franchises
  • Enterprise pack for security wherein data is encrypted
  • Customer support
  • Administration capabilities include extended access rights to Drive, CRM, and other integrated systems with a maximum of 25 account administrators allowed
  • 3TB storage

*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.

Bitrix provides omnichannel customer service for ecommerce businesses. (Source: Bitrix24)

Our Expert Opinion

Bitrix24 is a highly recommended industry-specific CRM intended for ecommerce customer service transactions. It is equipped with basic inventory management capabilities, like tracking product orders and stocks to avoid missing orders. This call center CRM solution supports a fully featured telephony module and other communication channel integrations, like live chats, to deliver excellent omnichannel customer service.

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Aircall: Best for Unlimited Cold Calling

Pros

  • Beginner-friendly, customizable contact center platform with an unlimited cold calling features
  • Call handling and monitoring tools like call whisper to guide reps in prospect and customer conversations
  • Softphone powered by VoIP mimics a desk phone’s functionality on your desktop or smartphone (Android or iOS) screen

Cons

  • Startup plan at $30 per license, for a minimum of three licenses, has basic analytics and is costlier than others providers
  • Workflow automation requires integration
  • Allows up to five conference call participants only

  • You need unlimited cold calling contact center platform: Enjoy unlimited calling within the US and Canada with Aircall’s startup plan at $30 per license. Aircall’s power dialer automatically detects phone numbers from web pages, generating a customizable list where reps can create call-back reminders for up-to-date prospecting information. It also has an intuitive user interface so agents can answer calls more easily.
  • You want robust call handling and monitoring tools: Aircall CRM has live feeds, custom analytics, call tagging, and forward-to-phone and after-call work options to avoid missing important calls. Call whisper is another robust specific feature, allowing team leads to coach reps in real time while engaging with prospects to close more deals. Other robust call handling features include ring groups and queue callback.

  • You are looking for an affordable CRM system for call centers: Aircall’s basic plan costs $30 monthly per user with a minimum of three users, which is way more expensive than other providers. Additionally, workflow automation requires call center CRM integration, which can be a tedious process or extra work for some businesses.
    • Alternative: JustCall can be a great alternative to Aircall. JustCall’s starting plan costs $19 per user with one user minimum requirement only. Basic features of the Essentials plan include outbound calling, SMS, and unlimited inbound calling.
  • You need built-in workflow automation and advanced analytics: Aircall requires integration with CRM systems like HubSpot, Pipedrive, or Salesforce to automatically log calls and recordings directly into the CRM. The same holds true for activity tracking and generating leads. Advanced analytics tools are also included on higher-priced plans, starting with the Professional plan at $50 per license.
    • Alternative:  If you’re good with a standard dashboard and reports, Salesmate can provide you the built-in workflow automation on its startup plan, priced at $23 per user monthly. Zoho CRM, on the other hand, has built-in workflow automation, limited custom reports and dashboards, and analytics on mobile devices in its basic plan at only $14 per user per month.

Aircall Pricing Plan & Overview*

Cost:

  • $30 per license Three-user minimum requirement

Key Features:

  • Minimum of three licenses
  • Unlimited calls within the US and Canada Terms of use apply. Additional international calling bundles are available.
  • Essential telephony features including interactive voice response (IVR), call recording, and click-to-dial
  • Send and receive SMS
  • Softphone powered by VoIP mimics a desk phone’s functionality on desktop or smartphone screen
  • Unlimited simultaneous outbound calls

Cost:

  • $50 per license Three-user minimum requirement

Key Features:

  • Everything in Essentials
  • Salesforce integration
  • Mandatory call tagging
  • Advanced analytics and call monitoring
  • Advanced support features including queue call back
  • Advanced sales features including Power Dialer

Cost:

  • Contact provider

Key Features:

  • Everything in Professional
  • Minimum of 25 licenses
  • Unlimited calls worldwide Terms of use apply. Additional international calling bundles are available.
  • Custom analytics
  • Custom onboarding
  • Access to API developer support
  • SLA
  • SSO

Aircall Pricing Add-on:

  • AI Starter AI starter add-on is available for $9 per license per month, applied on all Aircall licenses. This add-on includes AI-powered call and voicemail transcription, transcription API, key topic recognition, and other AI-related capabilities, streamlining call center operations. : $9 per user, monthly

*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.

Our Expert Opinion

Aircall is the best CRM for cold calling, as it has unlimited calling in the US, Canada, and worldwide, depending on the plan you choose. This software has exceptional power dialer, call monitoring, and management features. These include call whisper, custom analytics, queue callback, and time-based routing for effective and efficient performance tracking and customer service call handling operations, ensuring excellent customer service delivery.

Visit Aircall

JustCall: Best All-in-one Dialer

Pros

  • All-in-one dialer combines autodialer, power dialer, and predictive dialer in one platform
  • The starter plan ($19 per user, monthly) includes outbound calling, SMS, and unlimited inbound calling
  • Robust team collaboration features include video calls, chats, daily reports, call summary and transcriptions, and insights shortcuts

Cons

  • Toll-free number and conversation intelligence are available on higher prices starting at Team plan for $29 per user, monthly
  • Advanced analytics and reporting and live call monitoring available on the highest-priced plans only starting at Pro plan for $49 per user, monthly
  • VoIP and CRM capabilities require third-party integrations

  • You are looking for an all-in-one dialer with affordable voice features: JustCall’s $19 per month Essentials plan includes caller ID, call hold, and voicemail features for seamless call management. The all-in-one dialer on its Professional plan at $49 per user, monthly has call scripts, contact tagging, notes, and ratings features after the call, boosting call handling performance.
  • Your sales or customer service team needs robust team collaboration tools: Sales and customer service teams need to brainstorm about sales and call performance. Quality assurance helps optimize sales or business revenue. JustCall includes video calls, chats, daily reports, call summaries and transcriptions, and insights shortcuts for this purpose.

  • You need a cheaper toll-free number and conversation intelligence: JustCall provides toll-free number and conversation intelligence starting on its Team plan. Growing telemarketing and customer service teams need these features to connect with more customers and analyze high-volume call performance. However, this plan costs $29 per user.
    • Alternative: Nextiva offers toll-free numbers on its basic plan at $17.95 per user. This also includes unlimited voice and video calling and internet fax.
  • You need more affordable sales call monitoring features with built-in CRM: JustCall offers live call monitoring (listen, whisper, and barge) on Pro and Business plans only. The Pro plan costs $49 per user, whereas the Business plan is custom priced.
    • Alternative: Freshsales has built-in chat, email, phone, and CRM features, like AI-powered contact scoring, sales dashboard, sales sequences, and custom sales activities at a cheaper startup plan cost at $9 per user, monthly.

JustCall Pricing Plan & Overview*

Cost:

  • $19 per user

Key Features:

  • One user minimum
  • Outbound calling and SMS included
  • Unlimited inbound calling
  • Local numbers
  • Basic call and SMS analytics
  • Essential calling features including voicemail, call forwarding and transfer, and call tracking
  • Integrations with productivity tools
  • Chrome extension, mobile, and desktop applications

Cost:

  • $29 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Essentials
  • AI-powered transcription and call summary
  • Toll-free numbers
  • 100-plus integrations—CRM systems and help desk tools
  • IVR or call menus
  • WhatsApp messaging
  • Team analytics
  • API and webhook access
  • JustCall workspace

Cost:

  • $49 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Team
  • Advanced analytics and reporting
  • User groups and roles and permissions
  • Sales dialer—auto dialer eliminates manual dialing
  • Sales dialer—predictive and dynamic dialers
  • Bulk SMS and SMS workflows
  • Live call monitoring (listen, whisper, and barge)
  • Queue callback
  • Intelligent routing
  • Salesforce integration

Cost:

  • Custom pricing

Key Features:

  • Everything in Pro
  • Custom bundled outbound calling and SMS packages
  • Dedicated customer success manager
  • Personalized onboarding support
  • Premium support
  • Higher API and webhook access thresholds
  • SLA
  • SSO

*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per user monthly breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. Fair Usage Policy applies to outbound calling and SMS. Inbound calling is subject to Fair Usage Policy limits, exclusive of toll-free. JustCall offers 14 days of free trial without a credit card required. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here

**JustCall offers an AI suite that includes advanced tools for call center team coaching and training. These include conversation intelligence, AI coaching, automatic call scoring, agent assist, SMS copilot, agent analytics, call transcription, and moment and sentiment analyses.

JustCall sales dialers provide agents with contact information. (Source: JustCall)

Our Expert Opinion

JustCall is an affordable cloud phone and SMS system that allows unlimited inbound calling for a minimum of one user, designed for small sales and customer support teams. This all-in-one dialer provides exceptional voice features, including outbound calling, SMS, and unlimited inbound calling on its basic plan. Reps can use these tools to prevent them from missing important calls and to boost their call handling performance.

Visit JustCall

Nextiva: Best VoIP Tools & Collaboration Features

Pros

  • Advanced VoIP calling features like call routing, holding, diverting, and blocking
  • Built-in collaboration tools like file search and sharing, group messaging, and meeting scheduling
  • Cost-effective, scalable phone system for expanding businesses

Cons

  • No traditional CRM features
  • Lacks international phone numbers and unlimited international calling
  • Too advanced features like multilevel attendant and session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking designed for enterprises

  • You need a powerful VoIP with advanced analytics: Nextiva offers advanced business tools to manage calls with contacts, including routing, holding, diverting, and blocking calls. Its analytics tools let you download historical data and track real-time data, including agent performance, call volume, and source.
  • You need team collaboration tools: While primarily a VoIP tool, Nextiva also offers collaboration features through Nextiva Cospace. This allows team members to message each other directly, send group messages, share and search documents, and schedule meetings. Moreover, this scalable phone system’s collaboration tools are ideal for expanding businesses that are handling high-volume customer inquiries and sales.

  • You want a traditional CRM: Nextiva has strong internet phone and collaboration features but has no traditional and fundamental CRM functionalities, like pipeline and opportunity management.
    • Alternative: If you want a conventional CRM with excellent in-app phone features, Freshsales is our top recommendation. Zoho CRM is another excellent choice, which is affordable and packed with call features like buying local or toll-free numbers and assigning unique outgoing numbers to agents.
  • You are not operating a call center for an enterprise business: Nextiva’s VoIP features are highly advanced and designed for teams that process a high volume of calls. It has advanced features like multilevel attendant and SIP trunking, which smaller businesses may not need.
    • Alternative: If you’re managing a small or mid-sized business and simply need a reliable in-app phone without all the extra features, Bitrix24 or Zoho CRM are great alternatives.

Nextiva Pricing Plan & Overview*

Cost:

  • $17.95 per user

Key Features:

  • Unlimited voice and video calling
  • Up to 45 minutes per video call
  • Up to 45 minutes per meeting
  • Voicemail
  • Toll-free numbers
  • Outlook/Google Contacts Integrations
  • Unlimited internet fax
  • Voicemail to email notifications
  • Integrations with MS Outlook and Google Contacts
  • 24/7 customer support

Cost:

  • $21.95 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Essential
  • Unlimited conference calls, 40 participants
  • Unlimited video conferencing
  • Screen sharing
  • Auto attendant (multilevel)
  • Mobile and Desktop SMS/MMS
  • Salesforce/HubSpot Integrations

Cost:

  • $31.95 per user

Key Features:

  • Everything in Professional
  • Unlimited participants on voice and video conferencing
  • Call recording
  • Unlimited video conference recording
  • Voicemail transcription
  • Microsoft Teams/ Enterprise Integrations
  • SSO

*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per user monthly breakdown for at least 100 users. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.

Nextiva all communications view showing messaging and call features (Source: Nextiva)

Our Expert Opinion

Nextiva is equipped with powerful VoIP and other call management tools like call routing, holding, diverting, and blocking calls. Team managers can easily monitor agent performance because of its advanced analytics capabilities for tracking call volume and other metrics. Nextiva Cospace takes team collaboration to the next level by allowing team members to send group messages, schedule meetings, and share and search documents.

Visit Nextiva

How We Evaluated the Best CRM Call Center Software

An excellent contact center CRM software provides features specific to phone calling activities within the platform or through a third-party app integration. When choosing a CRM system for call centers, we also considered its niche features and looked into reporting functionality to track call logs and call center activity, ease of use, pricing options, and call management tools.

Click the tabs below to see our criteria for ranking the best CRM call center software solutions.

25%

Niche/Advanced Features

25% of Overall Score

In addition to call center-specific and core CRM features, we looked at the overall functionality we feel is necessary for a CRM. This includes various CRM integration options, reporting and analytics tools, customizable sales pipelines, and a mobile app. We also evaluated other common capabilities in most CRM systems, such as task management and automated workflow options.

20% of Overall Score

Pricing considers free plan availability, various scalable pricing options that users can purchase affordably, and the availability for a subscriber to either pay monthly or save by paying annually. Additionally, we looked at the costs specifically for its call management features, which is a major consideration of people searching for CRM software used in call centers.

25% of Overall Score

The most important evaluation criteria involved the features relating directly to managing and tracking contacts, leads, and calls. For contact center CRMs, it is essential to have performance management, call center management, VoIP, and call recording for excellent customer support delivery.

15% of Overall Score

According to CRM statistics, personalized and extensive support and service help prevent poor customer experiences and outcomes that users may encounter while using any of these systems. Help and support were evaluated in terms of customer service hours and the availability of support via phone, live chat, and email. We also looked at online resources for users to review, like tutorials, forums, or training modules.

15% of Overall Score

In addition to firsthand experience with these contact center software systems, we evaluated what users say about each product. These criteria consider how customers feel, based on their reviews, to gain insight into platform popularity, ease of use, and overall value for the price.

*Percentages of overall score

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

A call center CRM system helps manage and track customer interactions across various channels, primarily through the phone. Other channels include email and live chat. It provides agents with customer data and call history, allowing them to deliver personalized assistance. It also lets managers monitor team performance. Its features typically include call recording, routing, scripting, automatic call distribution, and reporting.


Freshsales is the best cloud-based sales calling CRM because of its powerful call management features. This customer service CRM has intuitive, built-in cloud telephony tools such as automatic inbound call routing, phone dialer, and click-to-call functions. It is also equipped with account and contact management features. Additionally, there are specific software like help desk and ticketing systems that are used to manage customer service.


Call center CRM software helps improve overall customer satisfaction and boost agent productivity and efficiency through their automated call and performance management tools. These include telephony tools like automatic call dialers and call tracking. With these tools, customer service reps can assist prospects and customers better since they are equipped to quickly answer their queries and resolve complaints.


Bottom Line

Small businesses can use call center CRMs for inbound and outbound calling and to access other capabilities to enhance sales and customer service operations. Freshsales is our top pick for the best CRM for call centers because of its intuitiveness, affordability, and powerful built-in cloud telephony. We also recommend Salesmate and EngageBay for their robust sales calling and call tracking tools. But of course, your choice depends on your business needs and budget.

Visit Freshsales

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