The 5 best monday.com alternatives

We think there’s plenty to sing about monday CRM. As a project management tool, it’s considered one of the best around. And, as a sales CRM, it performs exceptionally well for organisation and customisation – which is why we ranked it as one of our best small business CRM systems overall.

But there are some users who struggle to have their needs met by monday CRM. The brand is thin on marketing tools, and our testers also scored it just 1.5 out of 5 for integrations.

Luckily, the CRM market is very crowded. If you are not a fan of monday CRM, or just want to try something new, there are plenty of other providers out there.

Our results found that the leading monday CRM alternatives in 2024 are:

• Zoho CRM for Customer Service
• Freshsales Suite for Usability
• ClickUp for Customisation
• HubSpot Free for Marketing tools
• Pipedrive for Integrations

Below, we’ll outline the pros and cons of the top five monday CRM alternatives for small businesses.

monday alternatives: comparison table

If you’re after a rival project management software tool to monday, there are a number to consider.

We’ve gathered top competitors to monday in the table below, capturing key features and costs to help you decice:

Swipe right to see more

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monday CRM	Zoho CRM	Freshsales	ClickUp	Hubspot	Pipedrive
Price per month (billed annually): £10 per seat	Price per month (billed annually): £12 per user	Price per month (billed annually): Free plan, or £7 per user	Price per month (billed annually): £3.80 per user	Price per month (billed annually): Free Plan, or from £18 (flat rate)	Price per month (billed annually): £14 per user
Free trial? ✓	Free trial? ✓	Free trial? ✓	Free trial? ✓	Free trial? ✓	Free trial? ✓
Features: Huge range of CRM board templates Message board for dashboard collaboration Widgets available for bespoke metrics Unlimited contacts and dashboards	Features: 21 features available on free plan Automated reports included on free plan User permissions available for larger teams	Features: Freddy AI tool gives you insights ready-made Communication, ecommerce, and accounting integrations Big library of preset templates	Features: Unlimited CRM tasks Unlimited users Unlimited dashboards Real-time chat	Features: Send 2,000 emails per month 5 active contact lists for outreach Thorough 12-step onboarding process Chatbots, campaigns, and webforms	Features: Unlimited contacts permitted Communication, ecommerce, and accounting integrations Allows unlimited custom fields
Storage: 5GB per user	Storage: 200MB per organisation	Storage: 2GB per user	Storage: 1ooMB per user	Storage: 5 documents per user	Storage: N/A
Start Free Trial	Start Free Trial	Start Free Trial	Try ClickUp	Start Free Trial	Start Free Trial

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4.5 out of 5

• Usability
  4.5
• Customisation
  4
• Functionality
  4.5
• Pricing
  3
• Help and Support
  3

• Zoho CRM scores 5 out of 5 for customer service, while monday gets just 1 out of 5
• monday CRM does not permit social media integrations, unlike Zoho

According to data from Salesforce, 89% of consumers say they are more likely to make another purchase if they have a positive customer experience. That makes resolving issues or dealing with complaints an important way to ensure brand loyalty.

For this purpose, Zoho is a much better CRM alternative to monday CRM.

Zoho CRM has a dedicated section called ‘Cases’ where a list of all recorded customer service queries is held. You can even create segmented lists. For example, if you only want to tackle customer service cases for businesses over 50 people, you can do so by adding a quick filter.

monday CRM, in comparison, has no established ticketing system. It also offers no case management tools.

As we highlighted in our monday CRM review, the platform is a very customisable software, so you can create these yourself using a workaround. Nonetheless, it’s still a significant drawback.

In terms of pricing, the two are on even ground. monday CRM is cheaper than Zoho CRM (£7 per seat, per month compared to £15) – but this is balanced out by the latter’s feature-rich free plan.

If you’re a small business in a particularly complex sector – such as equipment rental or IT support – we recommend Zoho CRM as the best monday CRM alternative. monday just isn’t set up to handle customer service enquiries.

4.5 out of 5

• Usability
  4.5
• Customisation
  3
• Functionality
  4
• Pricing
  3.5
• Help and Support
  3

• We found Freshsales has a much quicker setup time to monday CRM
• Unlike monday CRM, Freshsales boasts a free plan with unlimited users

Freshsales Suite is a product from CRM software company Freshworks CRM. It combines both sales and marketing strategies and is billed as one easy-to-use platform for small businesses.

If you’ve already used monday CRM, you’ll know that the platform is well reviewed for usability. Surprisingly, our testing revealed this is an area in which Freshsales does so much better.

The Freshsales interface is not only smartly laid out, it is also very intuitive to use. Each step within the user’s setup journey is signposted clearly thanks to Freshsales’ artificial intelligence tool, ‘Freddy’.

Freddy effectively guides users through the main points of the setup process, including data import, adding users, and connecting to email software.

For those wanting to get started quickly, there is also a big library of preset dashboards to choose from – whereas monday CRM requires users to design their own.

Freddy also provides insight into your contact list without you needing to ask it to first. Any issues or opportunities will be flagged for you, so you’ll literally be creating sales opportunities in your sleep.

Freshsales is on par with monday CRM, costing £7 per user, per month.

Due to its excellent usability, we recommend Freshsales as the best monday CRM alternative for startups. Users can get up and running quickly, and also don’t need much tech knowledge or experience to use the platform.

4.2 out of 5

• Usability
  3.9
• Customisation
  2
• Functionality
  3.5
• Pricing
  3.7
• Help and Support
  2

• Unlike monday CRM, HubSpot can integrate with accounting software
• HubSpot Free boasts an email design editor, which monday CRM lacks

The main difference between HubSpot and monday CRM can be put simply: if the latter is focused on the management aspect of CRM software, then HubSpot Free prioritises the relationship with your customers.

This is immediately apparent from HubSpot’s feature list. Specialising in marketing and outreach, it offers users website visitor tracking, chatbots, and social media integration – something 31% of B2B professionals say allows them to build deeper relationships with their clients. monday CRM, in comparison, has none of these benefits.

Because of this, you’ll be able to build your brand far more easily with HubSpot. As we outlined in our full review of HubSpot, this makes it a great option for SMEs in more competitive markets, like ecommerce.

HubSpot doesn’t scrimp on functionality in other areas, however. We awarded it double the amount of marks monday CRM received for customer service, and triple the amount for integrations. monday CRM has around 200 integrations, but HubSpot has over 400.

Plus, we couldn’t leave without mentioning HubSpot’s price. As one of our top free CRM systems, its free-forever plan easily defeats monday CRM (£7 per seat, per month) for affordability.

4.3 out of 5

• Ease of use
  4.5
• Features
  4.5
• Integrations
  4.0

• Pipedrive costs £14 per user, per month – more expensive than monday CRM
• Pipedrive is more powerful than monday CRM, and has a much cleaner user interface

Because of its huge range of third-party applications, Pipedrive is the best monday CRM alternative for integrations.

CRM software is a substantial investment for your business. But you’ll likely already own a lot of other business tools – so it makes sense to find a piece of kit that complements, rather than steals their focus.

Pipedrive can definitely fulfil this requirement. While it boasts a similar number of integrations to monday, the former’s are much more strategic. That’s because, unlike monday, Pipedrive integrates with communication tools (Slack, Microsoft Teams) accounting software (Xero, Quickbooks) and ecommerce builders (Shopify).

Another bonus is that Pipedrive is brilliant for data analytics. In particular, it has excellent reporting tools – a feature that monday CRM users like and probably want to keep.

You’ll be able to make deal reports, activity reports, revenue reports and, unlike monday CRM, revenue forecasts. This makes it a good option for SMEs with strict budgets, such as marketing teams running client campaigns.

Best free monday CRM alternative

You might be looking to find the best free CRM systems for small businesses, or maybe you’re just getting started and want to test out a freemium platform before purchasing.

We recommend HubSpot as the best free alternative to monday CRM. It’s a full-featured solution that is particularly popular with budget-conscious SMEs, and is also 100% free forever.

If you think it sounds too good to be true, we don’t blame you. But HubSpot Free isn’t a superficial offering. Our researchers found it’s really beginner-friendly, easy to set up, and boasts a lot of sophisticated features to rival even paid-for competitors.

This is particularly beneficial when compared to monday CRM pricing. The platform’s convoluted pricing structure is based on ‘seats’, which cost £7 at the lowest tier. The number of seats equates to the size of your team, and increases in the following increments:

• 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 100, 200+

This can be confusing to understand and end up costing more. Against HubSpot Free, there’s no competition.

Customers get an unlimited number of users for absolutely £0 charge. That means you’ll spend no money on a platform that provides a huge range of marketing, sales, and service tools for your business.

How we test CRM systems for UK small businesses

At Startups, it's important to us that the product recommendations we make to small UK businesses are useful, accurate, and based on thorough product testing.

We tested 13 CRM systems across seven main categories of investigation and 13 subcategories – all in all, we covered 84 areas of investigation. Next, we gave a ‘relevance weighting' to the final product category scores - this ensures the products' final ratings perfectly reflect the specific needs and requirements of Startups readers.

Our main testing categories for CRM systems are:

Features: the functionalities and capabilities provided by the CRM software, including contact management, lead and opportunity tracking, and task and activity management.

Help and Support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using the CRM software.

Customisation: the ability to tailor the CRM software to suit the specific needs and processes of the organization, including customising fields, layouts, and workflows.

Scalability: the ability of the CRM software to accommodate the growth and changing needs of the organization, such as the capacity to handle a growing customer database.

Price: the cost associated with using the CRM software. It includes factors such as licensing fees and subscription plans.

Team Structure – Sales CRM: determining if a platform makes it easier to manage large sales teams, including team dashboards and team hierarchies.

Usability – Small Business CRM: assessing the simplicity of the interface, the ease of navigating through menus and options, and the overall user experience.

The Startups product testing process

Next steps for choosing a monday CRM alternative

We think ClickUp is the best alternative to monday CRM for small businesses. 

Customisation is monday CRM’s best feature – but ClickUp gives it a run for its money and then some. Every one of its features can be tailored to your unique ways of working, which is really handy for those with established sales processes or working with long-term clients.

Plus, unlike monday CRM, there’s a ‘free forever’ ClickUp free plan that’s suitable for any size business team.

Our recommendation is based on over five years of research, carried out by our team of experts and an independent analyst. But still, we know it won’t be right for absolutely everyone.

That’s why we’ve also designed a specialist online CRM comparison tool, to help you find the solution that best fits your unique business strategy. Just tell us a few general facts about your company and its goals, and we’ll match you with the most suitable provider.