15 best contact management software & tools of 2025

Customers are the lifeblood of any business, so it’s important to keep their information organized and easily accessible. Modern contact management software decreases input errors, saves time, and helps your team procure and organize up-to-date customer information.

In this guide, we’ll review some of the basic features of this useful sales technology, and how they help lead to higher sales.

• What is contact management software?
• Benefits of contact management tools
• Key features of contact manager tools
• How to choose the best contact management software for your business
• Top 15 contact management software solutions
• Frequently asked questions
• Try a contact management solution for free

Contact management software is a digitized address book that allows sales and customer service teams to store and organize contact information. Disorganized or incomplete contact information causes massive headaches, delays, and missed opportunities. Well-organized and accessible customer data, on the other hand, is easy to search, up-to-date, and, most importantly, scales sales performance.

Sales teams of all sizes use contact management software to keep their contact lists organized, current, and remotely accessible by all departments. Because of their simplicity, many contact management systems are already integrated with other useful business software, such as customer relationship management (CRM) and project management systems.

Using the right contact database software and customizing it for your sales process can lead to several benefits for your sales team.

Broadens insight into customer behavior

Contact management tools let you store more customer information than an address book or spreadsheet. With it, you can view a contact’s entire history, keep in-depth notes about their interactions with you, and easily identify purchasing patterns. All this data means better insights into your current and future customers.

Improves data organization and accessibility

Maintaining organized, mobile, and up-to-date contact information means everyone in your company can be sure they’re looking at the same data. Data visibility keeps everyone on the same page and can help increase sales.

by reducing information gaps and speeding up follow-ups. Teams can work cross-departmentally with confidence, knowing that they’re never wasting time looking at last month’s information.

Enhances sales and marketing outcomes

Never allow a lead to fall through the cracks because of mishandled, lost, or incorrect information. Keeping contact data current and organized means more customers can move through the sales pipeline and make meaningful purchases.

Plus, developing an organized sales process based on actual customer information and trends is guaranteed to translate into more sales.

Heightens productivity and efficiency

A well-designed contact management system dramatically reduces employees' time spent on manual administrative tasks throughout the sales process. Team members can redirect their energy toward more strategic and revenue-generating activities with tedious tasks taken off their plates. Plus, the system's centralized database eliminates the need to switch between multiple tools, creating a streamlined workflow that minimizes distractions and potential errors.

Achieves scalability

As businesses grow, contact management systems provide the technological backbone needed to handle increasing volumes of customer and prospect information. Systems that provide sophisticated permission settings and user role management enable you to add team members and expand operations without compromising customer data protection or creating operational bottlenecks. They also help to see trends in customer data and use those trends to inform and tweak sales efforts and marketing campaigns.

Here are the best contact management features you can expect to be included with your contact management software.

Contact database

A contact or customer database tool gives you a single place to store all of your important contact information. You can save details like names, email addresses, phone numbers, and even social media profiles all in one spot.

This makes it easy to find and update contact information quickly without searching through different places. The best systems even help you avoid duplicate contacts and keep your information clean and up-to-date.

Data analysis

A strong contact management solution allows you to tag and group your contacts in ways that make them easier to find, access, and manage for your sales team. You might categorize people by their age, where they live, what they're interested in, or what type of business they work in.

By understanding your contacts better, you can make smarter decisions about how to reach out and connect with them. When you create more personalized messages and marketing, you speak more directly to specific groups of people.

Lead management software

With a lead management tool, you can track potential customers from the moment they first show interest until they become paying customers. The system automatically tracks each lead, giving them a score that shows how likely they are to buy something.

Lead management means your sales team can focus on the most promising potential customers. They won’t have to waste time on contacts who aren't likely to become sales.

Prospecting tools

These tools make finding and connecting with new potential customers much easier. The software can automatically find contact information, schedule meetings, and even help qualify whether a potential customer might be a good fit for your business.

Your sales team can save time that they would normally spend on boring, repetitive sales prospecting techniques like searching for email addresses or checking if a contact meets your basic requirements. The most advanced systems can even suggest the best way to reach a new potential customer based on past successful connections.

Integrations

A great contact management system can work seamlessly with all the business and sales apps you already use, like Google Workspace, Outlook 365, Zapier, social media channels, and others. You won't have to manually enter the same information over and over again in different systems.

These connections make it much easier for your entire team to access and use contact information, no matter what tool they're working with. Some tools, like Zendesk Sell, can even integrate with many custom tools specific to your business, making everything work together smoothly without needing to build complex, custom APIs.

Here are some of the things to consider when you’re shopping around for the right solution.

Consider the total cost of ownership

Contact database tools are included in many more robust CRM software packages, so prices can vary wildly. Take a good look at your budget and determine exactly what tools will help you achieve your business goals.

Opt for the most scalable solution

As your business grows, so will the length of your contact list and the complexity of your sales strategy. Pick a contact manager that can grow with you to avoid messy switches down the road. It should be able to handle sales prospecting, qualifying, and converting at any stage, whether you’re a solopreneur or an enterprise team.

Prioritize mobile capabilities

Nowadays, life is mobile. The best sales CRM will live in the cloud and include an app for quick and easy access to customer data, no matter where you are.

These 15 tools each have different features, pros, and cons—explore them in more detail below, and try the best solution for free.

• Zendesk Sell
• HubSpot CRM
• Zoho CRM
• Contact Boss
• Streak
• Pipedrive
• ActiveCampaign
• Freshsales
• Nimble
• Monday CRM
• Keap
• Agile CRM
• Capsule CRM
• Insightly
• Bitrix24

Zendesk Sell

Best for: Omnichannel support and seamless ticketing.

Zendesk Sell is a sales CRM software that offers some of the most useful contact management tools available today. It provides a comprehensive ecosystem of sales tools designed to streamline the sales process from initial lead capture to conversion and beyond—meaning you get 360-degree customer views. With omnichannel support, mobile access, and a customizable and intuitive user interface, Zendesk Sell is easily integrated into daily workflow no matter where your team is or what their IT capabilities are.

Zendesk Sell boosts sales teams’ efficiency by letting your team convert more leads with conversational and consultative selling. That frames your reps as advisors as opposed to salespeople. They’ll also save time by automating repetitive daily tasks.

Robust features also include a powerful CRM database where you can track and manage customer interactions in detail. With the native ticketing system, you can tag and segment prospects and customers to help teams target the most promising prospects. You also gain integrated customer service analytics plus referral and sales tracking software for real-time and historical insights into team performance.

Features

• Contact database
• 360-degree customer view
• Lead capture
• Sales pipeline management
• Lead generation software
• Customer service analytics
• Segmentation
• Prospecting tools
• Referral and sales tracking software
• Performance metrics and KPI sales dashboard

Pros	Cons
Easy to set up, easy to use Strong third-party integrations	More comprehensive and expensive than some simpler tools

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per agent/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

HubSpot CRM

Best for: Inbound marketing professionals.

HubSpot Sales Hub is a sales tool and customer relationship management platform with a dedicated contact hub, offering a drag-and-drop editor, SEO recommendations, and website themes. This sales contact program can integrate with Gmail and Outlook and schedule and track emails and contact activity.

This software includes a free CRM that integrates with the larger HubSpot ecosystem, making it a contact management option for inbound marketing professionals. Along with contact functions, HubSpot offers other business apps like Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub. While it is well-reviewed by customers, it does not support languages other than English.

Features

• Standard SSL certificate
• List segmentation
• Landing pages
• Contact scoring
• Content delivery network (CDN)
• Record customization

Pros	Cons
Workflow automation Easy-to-use interface	Expensive add-on costs Spotty customer support

Pricing: Paid plans start at $15 per seat/month, billed annually. A free plan is available.

Zoho CRM

Best for: Companies with complex sales processes.

Zoho CRM is a software platform designed to manage customer relationships and sales processes. It offers sales pipeline management capabilities that allow teams to track leads and opportunities through various stages. The system includes lead generation tools and features for lead qualification and segmentation.

Users can create drip campaigns and leverage marketing automation functionalities to streamline communication workflows. The platform provides a standard SSL certificate to help ensure data security during interactions. Sales teams can use the software to organize contact information, monitor sales activities, and document interactions with potential and existing customers across different stages of the sales cycle, making it a choice to consider for businesses with long or complex sales cycles.

Features

• Sales pipeline management
• Lead generation software
• Lead qualification and segmentation
• Standard SSL certificate
• Drip campaigns
• Marketing automation

Pros	Cons
Customization Third-party integrations	Steep learning curve Limited mobile app

Pricing: Paid plans start at $14 per user/month, billed annually. A free plan and a 30-day free trial are available.

Contact Boss

Best for: Companies with complex sales processes.

Contact Boss is a business contact software for managing smaller networks. It offers a “Quick Create” function that allows agents to input new contacts quickly and fill in further details later. It also has features for organizing and searching contacts and eliminating accidental duplicates. Its Legacy Data Support function allows users to upload existing contact databases to reduce manual entry.

The software provides contact reports, auditing functions, and security tools to protect confidential information. It integrates with Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail, as well as common marketing applications such as MailChimp, iContact, and Constant Contact. Some users note that it has limited stakeholder collaboration functionality, making it a possible option for solo entrepreneurs without large sales teams.

Features

• Contact database
• Lead management
• Segmentation
• Data import/export
• Search/filter
• Shared contacts

Pros	Cons
Call log management Easy to use	Limited stakeholder collaboration Slow loading time

Pricing: Plans start at $11.67 per user/month, billed annually. A month-long free trial is available.

Streak

Best for: Gmail power users.

Streak is a lightweight CRM for small to mid-sized businesses, and is fully integrated with G Suite applications. It includes features such as social media integration, task management, and email marketing. Live and shareable pipeline information and tasks allow for instant collaboration across teams. Visual reports can track pipeline and individual contributor data.

A tool called “Snippets” can insert commonly repeated text into emails in order to save time. Streak works through G Suite, and is advertised as a useful tool for any number of business needs, including: sales, project management, fundraising, support, hiring, real estate, and business development.

Features

• Pipeline management
• Gmail integration
• Zapier integration
• Mobile for Android & iOS
• Customizable workflows
• Reporting

Pros	Cons
Gmail integration Easy to use	Lack of a shared inbox Limited reporting capabilities

Pricing: Plans start at $49 per user/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial of the Pro+ tier is available.

Pipedrive

Best for: Visual pipeline management enthusiasts

Pipedrive is a CRM software for sales teams that focuses on lead generation and contact management. It allows reps to visualize and customize the naming of their pipeline stages to fit within a preexisting sales process, and it uses simple drag-and-drop features to track business contacts and lead progress.

Automation tools include one-click contact data collection, webhooks, open API, and an AI-powered sales assistant. It provides tools to help with goal setting, activity tracking, lead qualification, and smart communications. Pipedrive features numerous integrations with other contact software apps, including Zapier, Pandadoc, and Leadfeeder.

Features

• Call recording
• Contact database
• Lead nurturing
• Calendar/reminder system
• Chatbox
• Reporting/analytics

Pros	Cons
Reliable integrations Easy to use	Limited automation Lack of scalability

Pricing: Plans start at $14 per seat/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Learn more about how Zendesk integrates with Pipedrive

ActiveCampaign

Best for: Email marketing integration

ActiveCampaign is a CRM platform that allows users to personalize messaging, segment customer populations, and automate workflow. This sales CRM software can automate lead prioritization, task creation, lead nurturing, and contact management. ActiveCampaign can close deals automatically and build branching automations to track the customer journey through various customizable pipelines.

The centralized platform migrates old data for free, and automatically updates contact details. Its email and marketing automation tools include a full email template library and integration with over 300 other commonly used sales tools.

Features

• Analytics/ROI tracking
• Calendar/reminder system
• Contact database
• Lead management
• Landing pages/web forms
• Drip campaigns

Pros	Cons
Easy to navigate Scalability	Steep learning curve Expensive pricing model

Pricing: Plans start at $15/month for one user, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Learn more about how to integrate Zendesk Sell with ActiveCampaign

Freshsales

Best for: Freshworks integration

Freshsales, Freshworks’ sales tool and customer contact management system, markets itself as an intuitive customer engagement platform with a straightforward user interface. Sales reps can view prospect details, social profiles, contact info, and all recent activity from a centralized contact management database.

The tool has an AI-powered assistant named Freddy. This assistant can provide predictive contact scoring, analyze historical data for sales insights, and recommend next steps. It offers salesforce automation, marketing automation tools, segmentation, and automated personalized email campaigns. It may be more for tech-savvy teams, as some users note a disjointed experience and a lack of customer support, with free 24-hour support available only on weekdays.

Features

• Calendar/reminder system
• Reporting/analytics
• Internal chat integration
• Data import/export
• Analytics/ROI tracking
• Auto-responders

Pros	Cons
360-degree customer view Email marketing	Slow lead management Limited social media integration

Pricing: Plans start at $9 per user/month, billed annually. A 21-day free trial is available.

Nimble

Best for: Social media-integrated contact management

Nimble is a “relationship-focused” CRM featuring Office 365 and G Suite integration, as well as social media connections with popular channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Nimble’s tools can pull contact information from over 160+ apps and has integrations with Zendesk’s Customer Service software.

The various features allow users to segment prospects, send group messages, and set follow-up tasks. With Nimble, users can build out detailed customer profiles as well as track team tasks, events, and calls. Automated email marketing campaigns let users pull from templates to send personalized group emails with tracking, analytics, and reporting capabilities.

Features

• Lead capture
• Sales pipeline management
• Contact database
• Data import/export
• Mobile access
• Prospecting tools

Pros	Cons
Easy to use Mobile app interface	Limited search functionality Lack of reporting capabilities

Pricing: Plans start at $24.90 per seat/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Monday CRM

Best for: Project management with CRM capabilities

The Monday CRM tool hails from monday.com and can manage projects, sales processes, and customer relationships. It provides sales pipeline management functionality that enables lead- and opportunity-tracking through different stages. The system supports data import and export capabilities, allowing integration with existing databases and other business systems.

Users can access the platform through mobile applications for Android and iOS devices. It offers Gmail integration for email communication and includes internal chat features to facilitate team collaboration. The platform allows for customizable workflows, enabling sales teams to adapt the system to their specific operational requirements.

Features

• Sales pipeline management
• Data import/export
• Gmail integration
• Mobile for Android and iOS
• Customizable workflows
• Internal chat integration

Pros	Cons
Team collaboration Easy to use	Difficult customizations Limited tracking options

Pricing: Plans start at $12 per seat/month, billed annually. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.

Learn more about how Zendesk integrates with Monday

Keap

Best for: Small businesses needing light customization

Keap is a CRM for sales and marketing teams with workflow automation that offers features like pre-built reminders, automated emails, and predictive email sending. Lightly customizable processes, automation, and reports are among the solution’s offerings.

The tool uses a central contact database to organize leads. It can qualify leads, tag them, and create customizable segmentation and activity triggers. It has over 230 native integrations, including Zapier, PayPal, Outlook, JotForm, and Instapage.

Features

• Contact database
• Customizable templates
• Analytics/ROI tracking
• Calendar/reminder system
• Lead qualification
• Marketing automation

Pros	Cons
Flexible interface and applications Campaign creation	Complex user interface Limited search functionality

Pricing: Plans start at $249/month for up to two users and 1,500 contacts, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Agile CRM

Best for: Teams seeking gamification elements

Agile CRM serves as a system for managing sales interactions and customer relationships. The platform includes lead generation tools that track potential business opportunities through software interfaces. Its referral and sales tracking capabilities enable teams to monitor conversion pathways and performance metrics via a KPI dashboard. Plus, teams can use gamification to entice higher performance by comparing individual goal progress, closed deals, revenue earned, and more.

Marketing automation features support the creation of drip campaigns with customizable templates to sequence communication. A standard SSL certificate provides security for data transactions. Representatives can use the system to document customer interactions, segment prospect information, and navigate different sales process stages.

Features

• Contact database
• Customizable templates
• Analytics/ROI tracking
• Calendar/reminder system
• Lead qualification
• Marketing automation

Pros	Cons
Flexible interface and applications Campaign creation	Complex user interface Limited search functionality

Pricing: Plans start at $8.99 per user/month, billed annually. A free plan is available.

Capsule CRM

Best for: Small to medium businesses wanting minimal complexity

Capsule CRM is a platform for organizing sales interactions and customer information. The system enables sales pipeline management through interfaces that track business opportunities across different stages. Users can import and export data and then search and filter it, facilitating information transfer between systems.

Shared contact features enable collaborative access to customer information from different reps or teams. The platform provides reporting tools for monitoring sales activities and performance metrics. Customizable templates help standardize communication and documentation processes. Sales representatives can use the system to track customer relationships, document interaction histories, and navigate various stages of client engagement.

Features

• Sales pipeline management
• Data import/export
• Search/filter
• Shared contacts
• Reporting
• Customizable templates

Pros	Cons
Simple setup Customer support	Disorganized user interface Limited user permissions

Pricing: Plans start at $18 per user/month, billed annually. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.

Insightly

Best for: Project-oriented businesses

Insightly CRM is a tool for tracking customer relationships and managing sales workflows. The platform maintains a contact database that stores information about potential and existing clients. Teams can capture leads through integrated systems and transfer data using import and export capabilities. Call recording functions allow the preservation of communication records.

The tool’s project management capabilities include a calendar and reminder system that helps organize scheduled interactions and follow-up activities. Internal chat features enable communication between team members. Through the platform's interface, representatives can document customer interaction histories, segment contact information, and monitor different stages of client engagement.

Features

• Contact database
• Lead capture
• Data import/export
• Call recording
• Calendar/reminder system
• Internal chat integration

Pros	Cons
Customization Intuitive dashboards	Expensive with add-on costs Steep learning curve

Pricing: Plans start at $29 per user/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Bitrix24

Best for: Large enterprises needing internal communication platforms

Bitrix24 CRM operates as a system for tracking sales interactions and managing customer relationships. The platform supports lead management through interfaces that organize potential business opportunities. Agents on large sales teams can communicate internally to collaborate on leads and share data.

Mobile access allows interaction with Bitrix24’s contact manager from multiple device types, supporting flexible work approaches. Sales representatives can use the platform to document customer communication histories, monitor interaction pathways, and navigate different stages of client engagement through structured organizational mechanisms.

Features

• Contact database
• Lead capture
• Shared contacts
• Zapier integration
• Customizable workflows
• Mobile access

Pros	Cons
Integrations Team collaboration	Limited features for small teams Restrictive user interface

Pricing: Plans start at $61 per organization/month for five users, billed annually. A free plan with limited features is available.

You’re ready to start looking for the best contact management app for your business, but it’s likely you still have a few questions. Here are the answers to common FAQs concerning CMS software.