A Full Freshsales Review for 2024

Why Trust Techopedia
Our Verdict

Freshsales is a top choice for sales teams looking for integrated VoIP capabilities

Freshsales has a stellar reputation for being a solid CRM for sales teams looking for integrated VoIP functionality, powerful automation, and robust integrations at an incredibly affordable price.

It’s a great option for businesses of all sizes, and the affordable entry-level plans are great for startups. We also found its ease of use noteworthy. You’d really need to nitpick to find flaws.

That said, there are mixed opinions on the customer support provided, and unlike some that offer unlimited functionality on their highest plan, Freshsales’ Enterprise plan has limits.

Pros

  • Very easy to set up
  • Offers 1,000+ integrations
  • There's built-in VoIP functionality
  • Ample AI-powered automations
  • A good all-in-one solution for sales, marketing, and customer support

Cons

  • Only 10 sales pipelines
  • Mixed customer support reviews
  • The Enterprise plan has limits

In this Freshsales review, we explore one of the most popular CRM platforms, discussing its pros and cons, features, and how it stacks up against its competitors. It’s a top choice for businesses of all sizes, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best option for everyone.

Freshsales Pricing

Freshsales offers three paid plans which you can trial for free for 21 days. Here’s a quick look at what you can expect from each plan:

Growth Pro Enterprise
Starting Price $9/user/month $39/user/month $59/user/month
User Limit
Free Trial Period 21 days 21 days 21 days
Collaboration
Lead Management
Opportunities Management
Lead Scoring
Automation
Team Collaboration
Integrations 1,000+ 1,000+ 1,000+
Support 24/5 phone, chat, email 24/5 phone, chat, email 24/5 phone, chat, email + dedicated support manager
Growth — $9/user/month

Growth — $9/user/month

This plan offers an intuitive sales dashboard, 20 workflows, an activity home dashboard, rotten deal management, and Slack integration for collaboration.

However, as we saw in our Monday CRM review, it costs $12/user, and offers unlimited pipelines and 5GB storage. In comparison, Freshsales offers 2GB storage and 1 pipeline in this plan.

On the flip side, Freshsales offers far more calling functions, such as parallel calling, call recording, and call masking, on this plan, which we explore in more depth later in this Freshsales review.

It all boils down to what you’re looking for.

Pro — $39/user/month

Pro — $39/user/month

Besides the features of the Growth plan, this plan also offers time-based workflows, auto-assignment for deals and contacts, and conferencing calls — all must-haves for sales reps.

Other features include 10 sales pipelines, 50 workflows, a team inbox, private notes, and AI-based deal insights. When compared to CRMs like HubSpot, for example, Freshsales is more affordable.

However, HubSpot’s Starter plan ($18/month for 2 users) offers 5,000 email templates and email tracking — meaning HubSpot is a better choice if you’re looking for the best email marketing CRM.

Enterprise — $59/user/month

Enterprise — $59/user/month

The Enterprise plan offers everything Freshsales has to offer. You can design 100 workflows, and you’ll get 100 auto-assignment rules per module alongside 10 simultaneous sales pipelines.

Plus, you can have up to 100 members in your sales team and get 100GB of storage per user. This is far cheaper than Salesforce, for example, whose intermediate-level plan costs $80/user.

This makes Freshsales ideal for large businesses looking for the best CRM features on a budget.

Freshsales CRM’s Key Features

Having given the tool a test run for this Freshsales review, we can confidently say that it offers a lot to like. Here are some of the main USPs we found related to its functionality:

VoIP Functions

Freshsales Cloud Telephony

Communication features are common in most CRM platforms, but Freshsales does this pretty well. For instance, it comes with a built-in VoIP phone, so you won’t need to buy a separate business phone.

Other CRM providers like HubSpot provide limited calling minutes, for example, and often features like these are missing:

  • Call recording and queuing
  • Parallel calling (put one customer on hold and attend to another)
  • Call masking (hide your identity during a call)

These are features you’ll usually find in the best VoIP services — it’s rare and commendable for a CRM product to offer such a diverse range of calling capabilities.

In fact, you can also set up a chat widget on your website that’ll automatically engage with your visitors when your team is busy.

Deal Management Features

Freshsales deal pipeline

We found that managing deals is ridiculously easy with Freshsales’ deal cards. It reminded us a lot of Monday CRM, as you have the option to choose between Kanban, timeline, and funnel formats.

With this, you can see where each deal stands. Better yet, let’s say you want to see each deal’s estimated revenue and completion date. Opening each deal card to view this is time-consuming.

With Freshsales, you can simply select up to four deal properties to show up on the card face. We liked the Rotten Deals feature, too. This lets you set a time limit on every deal.

Once that time (for example, 30 days) passes, the deal will appear in red in the pipeline. From here, you can choose to either delete the deal or move it to the “lost deal” stage.

Automation Features

Freshsales's AI Freddy finds duplicate entries

We were impressed with how much Freshsales can automate. For instance, its AI chatbots can talk to customers while your agents are busy. These bots are multilingual, too.

It’s also worth noting that these bots can easily detect the intent of each customer before responding, but what we found most impressive was Freddy, the AI-powered assistant.

Freddy offers valuable (and instant) insight into your deals, plus, it’ll identify duplicate entries, remove them, and detect out-of-office emails from leads, so you know when best to follow up.

You can even set up sales sequences—a flow of steps that would be automatically followed after the first contact with a client, and auto-assignment rules for deals and contacts.

Analytics & Insight Tools

Freshsales analytics

We found that Freshsales is thorough with its analytics. You can auto-generate reports for almost every activity. For instance, agent availability reports offer insight into your agent’s availability.

Put simply, this advanced dashboard collates all team performance-related data in one place. You can also keep an eye on the quality of client conversations your agents are having.

This is made possible with the Conversation Overview report, which tells you things like how responsive your team is and how well they handle the call volume.

Freshsales Integrations

Freshsales CRM is just one of the many products offered by Freshworks. Naturally, you can connect to all Freshworks apps—Freshdesk, Freshmarketer, Fresh, Freshconnect, and Freshcaller.

Apart from that, you’ll also have 1,000+ third-party integrations, including Google Calendar, MailChimp, Hubspot, Quickbooks, and Xero. Plus, there’s Zapier, which offers a further 6,000+ options.

Only Salesforce (3,000+) offers more integrations than Freshsales. Other competitors like Monday and Agile CRM fall behind at 200+ and 40+ integrations, respectively.

Freshsales Customer Reviews

Freshsales reviews are predominantly very positive across all leading sites. For example, it’s rated 4.5/ 5 on G2 (1,110+ reviews), Capterra (600+ reviews), and GetApp (600+ reviews).

It’s safe to say that Freshsales CRM is incredibly reliable. Upon further analysis, we found that users appreciated the helpful customer support and detailed documentation.

The interface is another highlight in many Freshsales reviews, where many boast that it’s quite easy to use, even for those who aren’t very technically adept.

Freshsales G2 customer reviews

Some customers have also praised its tracking tool. Whether it’s a new deal, a bulk email that you sent out, or an upcoming event, you can track it at every step.

However, we did find a few complaints about the customer service. For starters, it’s not 24/7, like Salesforce, for example. Plus, users have pointed out that ticket statuses aren’t updated.

That said, overall, Freshsales has a solid market reputation and has easily secured itself as one of the best enterprise CRMs out there.

What is Freshsales Good For?

Freshsales is designed for all kinds of businesses. If you’re a small business, the affordable entry-level plan Grow should offer all you need without breaking the budget.

If you’re a midsize or large business, you can opt for Freshsales’s higher-end plans, which are more affordable than rivals like HubSpot ($450/month for 5 users), for example.

Freshsales does a good job in the automation domain as well. Its AI bot, Freddy, analyzes heaps of data in seconds and provides valuable insight—it’s like having your own virtual business advisor.

Freshsales Vs Top Competitors

Freshsales, despite being feature-rich, affordable, and scalable, isn’t the best option for every business. If you’re still unsure, here’s how it compares to the market’s top Freshsales alternatives:

CRM Freshsales Monday CRM Salesforce Pipedrive HubSpot Act! CRM
Best For Affordable large business plans Startups Large organizations Pipeline management Enterprise-level features SMB needs
Starting Price $9/user/month $12/user/month $25/user/month $9.90/user/month $18/month $30/user/month
Free Version 21-day trial 14-day trial 30-day trial 14-day trial Free plan 14-day trial
Compatibility iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, browser iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, browser iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, browser iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, browser iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, browser iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, browser
Top 3 Features Contact lifecycle stages, rotten deals, built-in phone Unlimited free viewers, 200+ templates, mass email tracking 3,000+ integrations, automated activity capture, AI automation Contact mapping, 10,000 open deals per company, meeting scheduler Free tools, 200 shared inboxes, email scheduling Relationship timeline, Mail merge, automated workflows

Freshsales Vs Salesforce

Freshsales and Salesforce are both automation-heavy, but if you’re looking for a more affordable CRM platform, we recommend Freshsales. The most expensive plan costs just $59/month.

That said, as our Salesforce review outlined, enterprises should consider Salesforce if they’re after an all-in-one CRM.

You get Einstein AI with valuable deal, lead, and email insights and forecasting—plus advanced pipeline management and unlimited flow builders for automation.

Freshsales Vs Hubspot

HubSpot is a better choice if you’re looking for a completely free CRM software, but if your focus is more on analytics and automation, choose Freshsales.

You get detailed auto-generated reports on your team, deals, and customer satisfaction. Plus, you can use Freddy for automated suggestions based on these reports.

On the other hand, as we saw in our HubSpot review, it’s the better option if you’re after robust email marketing — it offers email automation, tracking, reports, and suggestions for improvement.

Freshsales Vs Pipedrive

Freshsales and Pipedrive are similar in many ways, especially in terms of their deal management tools and AI assistants. That said, when it comes to call capabilities, Freshsales is best.

It comes with a built-in VoIP phone with features like call recording, call masking, and advanced call queues. You also get an AI-powered chatbot to answer customer queries.

Pipedrive, on the other hand, is ideal if you have a larger client base since it offers unlimited pipelines right from the basic plan. Freshsales limits this to just 10, even on the most expensive plan.

Plus, with Pipedrive, you get 24/7 live chat support, which isn’t available at Freshsales. So, a business that needs more touchpoints with the CRM provider will find Pipedrive better.

Related: A Full Pipedrive Review for 2024

Verdict: Is Freshsales CRM Worth It?

Freshsales delivers the most value for mid-sized and large businesses that need an affordable solution.

Plus, you get several VoIP functions at a cheaper price than competitors like Salesforce and HubSpot. Powerful automation features and the AI assistant, Freddy, are the cherry on top.

However, if you have an extensive client list, Freshsales’s 10 sales pipelines, 100 workflows, and 5,000 emails can be insufficient—for this, we recommend HubSpot.

How We Test CRM Services

With over 13 years of experience in the industry, Techopedia’s team of software experts tests every CRM service thoroughly, evaluating various aspects over a 2-week period.

During this, we analyze the efficiency of its features, the usability of its apps, the support, and how it compares to others — this is easier for us, as we’ve tested all the leading CRM solutions on the market.

We also consider the feedback shared by long-term customers online to ensure that we offer an unbiased, solid overview of what you can expect from the platform.

How to Choose the Best CRM Solution

Choosing a CRM is hard work, given the number of options and how they all vary considerably in terms of pricing and features, for example. To help, here are key factors to consider when deciding:

PriceFeaturesScalabilityEase of UseIntegrationCustomer Support

Setting a budget is vital to ensure that you don’t overspend on a CRM. That said, it’s more crucial to consider the value you’re getting for the price.

It’s important to note what features you need, as some may be reserved for higher-end plans. Some may be lacking in terms of VoIP features for sales teams, for example, or on the collaboration front.

Always choose a CRM provider that can accommodate your growing needs so that it remains an ideal fit for you even in the future. At the same time, consider the cost of scalability. Switching CRMs can be a nightmare.

Any platform you choose for your team should be easy to use. There’s no better way to know this than to try the platform yourself using any free trials, plans, or guarantees on offer.

The CRM you choose should offer enough integration options to help you centralize your business. Also, check if the integrations you need are locked behind paywalls.

A CRM platform is only as good as its customer support. Pick a service that has multiple modes of communication (phone, email, and chat) and ample documentation to assist if you ever need the aid.

FAQs

Is Freshsales easy to use?

How does Freshsales work?

Is Freshsales free forever?

Krishi Chowdhary
Tech Expert
Krishi Chowdhary
Tech Expert

Krishi Chowdhary has half a decade of experience writing buying guides and product reviews for numerous leading technology websites. He spent two years writing for Business2Community.com before joining Techopedia.com. He has a degree in Commerce and extensive experience in the technology industry. He's also the key driver behind TechReport.com's news content, delivering expertise insight into the latest tech and cybersecurity news daily.