Review of Freshsales CRM: Is It the Right CRM for You?

Joanne Thompson

• 13 min read
Review of Freshsales CRM: Is It the Right CRM for You?

If you came here looking for a review on Freshworks CRM, the first thing you should know is that the system has been rebranded as Freshsales and now incorporates both CRM and sales capabilities. Don't worry about it; our evaluation of Freshsales will walk you through some of the key distinctions that exist between this platform and the other Freshworks offerings.

In this evaluation of Freshsales, we are going to discuss the various price options, as well as do a comparison between the free version and the premium plans. First, we'll go over a list of the most important feature modules, and then we'll discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using Freshsales according to the findings of our tests, research, and other internet evaluations.

Let's get down to business and learn everything there is to know about Freshsales CRM by Freshworks, which is currently one of the most popular customer relationship management (CRM) solutions available on the market today. If you are prepared to update your knowledge of one of the most popular CRM solutions available, then read on.

Freshsales CRM review. Does the Freshworks CRM product operate well?

The Freshsales CRM is a contact management and sales tool that, according to this Freshsales review, is a fantastic choice for startups, small enterprises, and other companies searching for a decent CRM on a budget. Freshsales is an excellent customer relationship management solution for businesses who want to expand.

Our previous post on the best CRM software, which you are free to read, included a cursory discussion of Freshsales. On that page, you'll find a comparison of Freshsales to other excellent customer relationship management (CRM) products such as Pipedrive, Dynamics, and Zoho. You might also be interested in reading our articles titled sales CRM or top CRM for Mac users if you're seeking for more specific comparisons to utilize with Freshsales.

One further reason why Freshsales is an excellent CRM system for businesses of every size is that the firm offers a variety of price levels. It is less important what size of business you begin with while using Freshsales because the platform is designed to accommodate expansion. There are three tiers of pricing: basic, premium, and enterprise.

Pricing plans for Freshsales products

First things first, how much does it cost to use Freshsales? First, let's go over the pricing structure of FreshSales:

Plan — Growth

  • Pricing per Month — $18 /user/month.
  • Pricing per Year — $15 /user/month.

Plan — Pro

  • Pricing per Month — $47 /user/month.
  • Pricing per Year — $47 /user/month.

Plan — Enterprise

  • Pricing per Month — $83 /user/month.
  • Pricing per Year — $69 /user/month.

Plan — Suite Growth

  • Pricing per Month — $18 /user/month.
  • Pricing per Year — $15 /user/month.

Plan — Suite Pro

  • Pricing per Month — $47 /user/month.
  • Pricing per Year — $39 /user/month.

Plan — Suite Enterprise

  • Pricing per Month — $83 /user/month.
  • Pricing per Year — $69 /user/month.

What is the cost of Freshsales for nonprofits?

Although it would appear that Freshsales is beneficial for nonprofit organizations and that it provides helpful resources and suggestions for nonprofits that are utilizing the Freshsales system, unfortunately there are no discounts or other special offers available for nonprofit organizations at this time. Having said that, you should always get in touch with the vendor for further information.

Overview of Freshsales: What is Freshsales CRM and how is it used?

First and foremost, you need to be aware of the fact that Freshsales is the sales and CRM platform for the larger Freshworks brand of business software as a service (SaaS). Other Freshworks apps include Freshmarketer, which automates email marketing and provides additional tools; Freshdesk, which provides customer support; Freshteam, which focuses on human resources; and Freshservice, which caters to information technology.

If you opt for the Freshsales Suite, which includes not only all of the sales tools but also many of the marketing module's tools, Freshsales will meet the majority of your company's requirements. This is especially true if you take advantage of Freshsales's many features.

Free versus paid fresh sales: what distinguishes them?

The fact that Freshsales does, in fact, offer a free plan is very encouraging news. Contact management is included in the free version of Freshsales; however, advanced contact enrichment is not available. In addition, there are a lot fewer customization options available to you with the free plan.

Deal management is included in the free version, but there is no option to view visual sales pipelines. You have access to the most fundamental communication tools, such as phone and chat, but none of the more advanced social media features. Classic webforms are included in the free plan, but there is no user tracking or smart webform functionality. Last but not least, the free plan does not include access to Freddy, the artificial intelligence toolkit offered by Freshsales.

Freshsales features list

  • The primary characteristics of Freshsales are as follows:
  • Management of contacts and administration of accounts.
  • Automatic contact profile enrichment.
  • Innovative CRM-based tools for customization.
  • Sales pipeline management.
  • Innovative methods of automating the sales force.
  • Email features.
  • Feature set of the phone.
  • Features pertaining to chatting.
  • Tools for texting and social media platforms.
  • AI-driven insights.
  • Featured products in marketing.
  • Instruments for integrating websites.
  • Reporting and analytic tools.
  • Mobile apps.
  • Integrations, add-ons, and a public application programming interface.

Management of contacts and administration of accounts

Freshsales starts where one would expect it to, with contacts, given that customer relationship management is all about contacts. You will have no trouble organizing contacts, adding new ones, editing existing ones, or deleting old ones. Accounts most commonly refer to entire companies, which may consist of a number of contacts, and you receive the same functionality in this context. In addition to this, a detailed activity timeline is provided for each contact, which includes a history of engagement as well as communication.

Automatic contact profile enrichment

Freshsales has the ability to automatically scan and capture public information, such as that found on social media pages, in order to provide you with the most recent activity that may have been done by your contacts in relation to their public profiles. This can include a change of job or company, relocating to a new city, or moving to a new location, in addition to providing basic contact information. After that, it will make use of automation to revise the contact information stored in your CRM software.

Innovative CRM-based tools for customization

The information fields that are pre-populated in the Freshsales CRM system are not the only fields available to you. You have a lot of different options for customizing the app, and you can even make your own fields to further organize your contacts. These may take the form of text fields, drop-down menus, or numbered fields. Keeping your contacts engaged with automated follow-ups is possible with the assistance of other advanced CRM tools.

Sales pipeline management

The teams responsible for making sales are the first ones in line to receive benefits from pipeline management. This provides salespeople with a comprehensive view of the entire sales process, from the management of early lead opportunities to the closing of deals further down the sales funnel. You are provided with a large number of options for the visual sales pipelines, each of which can be customized. Notifications will be sent to you when a deal is getting close to falling through, and they will also help you stay on track with your sales goals. Last but not least, there is predictive lead scoring and sales forecasting, which provides the best-case scenario estimates.

Innovative methods of automating the sales force

Not to be confused with salesforce, sales force automation refers to the practice of seriously leveraging workflow automations in order to build highly precise and efficient funnel journeys. This should not be confused with salesforce. The goal here is to release some of the time and effort that your sales reps would normally spend on performing these tasks repeatedly. It works exceptionally well for both cross-selling and up-selling, in addition to referral sales.

Email features

For sales CRM platforms, email is an essential communication channel. To avoid having to switch between different platforms, you can sync your regular email directly with Freshsales. After that, you can assist your sales team in nurturing leads by establishing email sales sequence workflows that are built with automation. Freshsales also provides bulk email services, which maintain the dynamic fields necessary for the delivery of personalized greetings. It is possible to set up and tag email templates for sales representatives to easily reuse them. Last but not least, sales teams have access to a shared email inbox for furthering their ability to collaborate.

Features pertaining to chatting

Chat is an additional fantastic communication feature that is a component of the CRM tools that you have access to. A chat widget is available for use with Freshsales, and it can be configured to allow for real-time interaction with new website visitors. There is also the option of pre-written responses, as well as rules for chat assignments that are based on automated triggers. Agents have the ability to add private notes to chats and can even use chat in conjunction with frequently asked questions features.

Tools for texting and social media platforms

If a business software solution does not permit you to interact with contacts using social media and other channels, then it is not a complete solution. There are integrations available with Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Apple Business Chat when you use Freshsales. SMS texting can also be integrated directly into your CRM platform if you so choose.

AI-driven insights

Freddy is the name of the artificial intelligence tool that is owned and operated by Freshjsales. Freddy provides insights from artificial intelligence on topics such as predictive contact scoring, which indicates the likelihood that each contact will result in a deal. In addition to that, you can use it to manage leads and generate new leads, which can assist you with things like scheduling meetings. Freddy will go through your network of contacts and get rid of any duplicates he finds. When you get down to business with Freddy, you'll find that he has a lot more business insights and predictive abilities to offer.

In most cases, you will be required to subscribe to Freshmarketer rather than Freshsales in order to gain access to marketing tools. However, there is an option called the Freshsales Suite that expands Freshsales with some fundamental marketing functions. These include landing page templates, email marketing reply trackers, email marketing template, and other marketing automation functionality. Email marketing templates.

Instruments for integrating websites

A lot of the best customer relationship management software gives you the option to use your website as an additional source for gathering contact information. You are able to set up webforms with Freshsales, and when visitors fill them out, those forms are automatically converted into contacts in your CRM. There are even more advanced smart forms available, each with an increased number of functions. You are also able to do website tracking with Freshsales, which reveals information about things like frequently visited pages and links that were clicked.

Reporting and analytic tools

You can make use of the reporting features provided by Freshsales in order to get the most out of all the data and metrics at your disposal. You are provided with out-of-the-box reporting that is standard and is based on fundamental analytics to provide the most important insights. You are also able to create individualized reports, which can be saved and shared with others. Delivered emails, clicked links, and closed deals are examples of some of the more advanced metrics that are available here.

Feature set of the phone

The use of telephony is still an integral part of the sales process. Within their customer relationship management (CRM) solution, Freshsales includes a built-in phone dialer. You are provided with the ability to use both local and toll-free numbers. In addition to caller ID and call masking, call recording is also an option. Create standard and advanced call queues, in addition to queue callback, which functions in a manner analogous to a virtual hold. Finally, there are excellent tools for holding conference calls.

Mobile apps

There are mobile apps available for both iOS and Android for Freshsales. You can take care of your contact, account, and deal management tasks regardless of where you are. You are able to log calls automatically and add voice memos using this feature. Additionally, the mobile application can be used as a mobile document manager. In addition to that, there are features like integrations with Google Maps and even a caller for Uber.

APIs, integrations and supplements

Freshsales makes its library of application programming interfaces (APIs) available to its users. These APIs enable you to access and update your data as well as build additional functionalities on top of the Freshworks platform. After that, you will have access to the Freshworks Marketplace, which will allow you to integrate Freshsales with other applications such as Trello, Xero, HubSpot, MailChimp, and Quickbooks. Slack and Microsoft Outlook Contacts are both available. You can integrate Freshsales with Zoho by using Zoho Flow, or you can integrate it with Salesforce by using the Salesforce Connector. You can also integrate Freshsales with a wide variety of other platforms by using integration tools such as Zapier, such as LinkedIn. In a similar vein, there is an add-on for Gmail called Freshsales.

Freshsales pros and cons

The following is a list of advantages and disadvantages associated with Freshsales:

Freshsales advantages

The simplicity of Freshsales' interface stands out as the platform's most significant advantage. This is a very user-friendly platform, and it is almost entertaining to learn how all of its features and functions work.

The next advantage that Freshsales provides is a variety of pricing plans, which enables young businesses to begin with more cost-effective plans and then scale up to premium packages as their company's requirements require it. The fact that it's free to use is, of course, another significant advantage.

Using this software has additional benefits, one of which is provided by Freddy, the artificial intelligence component of Freshsales. It provides an incredible wealth of insights and suggestions without overwhelming you with an excessive amount of complex or technical information.

Last but not least, Freshsales provides the genuine advantage of actually improving your sales performance. This is accomplished not only by assisting in the generation of new leads, but also by assisting in the movement of existing deals further along in the conversion process.

Freshsales disadvantages

The fact that Freshsales divides its many modules up into their own distinct packages can be considered a drawback of the platform. This indicates that the Freshsales basic package does not include much in the way of marketing, whereas the Freshsales Suite provides you with the ideal combination of features for sales and marketing.

The second drawback of Freshsales is a problem that is common in the industry: they advertise a wide range of incredible sales tools, but when you sign up for their service, you find out that the majority of the best tools are only available in their premium packages. Even though it's awesome that they offer a free version, it's likely that it, along with the basic Growth plan, will have restrictions placed on it very soon.

Freshsales complaints & praise

Based on actual customer reviews for Freshsales

The reviews of Freshworks CRM that can be found online are, for the most part, favorable. As was just stated, a multitude of users and reviewers have lauded Freshsales for how simple it is to use. The steps that must be taken in order to configure Freshsales are remarkably uncomplicated and quick.

Next, the collection of features that Freshsales offers for managing the sales pipeline has garnered a lot of praise. It is of great assistance to salespeople who are not particularly proficient in technical matters in the process of nurturing their leads down the sales funnel.

There is a wide variety of opinions expressed by customers who have provided Freshsales with negative feedback. When compared to other platforms, such as Salesforce or HubSpot, larger companies, such as enterprises, have discovered that Freshsales is not as competitive as the alternatives.

In a similar vein, some users have complained that the functionalities of using Freshsales with social media, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, do not deliver as promised. However, it is likely that this is because users do not take the time to fully master the features. However, the majority of customers continue to express satisfaction with Freshsales.

Evaluation of Freshsales support

When it comes to their customer support, Freshsales has received generally positive feedback. You can get in touch with their support team whenever you need it, day or night, seven days a week, no matter which plan you are on. Their customer service team can be reached by phone, online chat, or email.

If you subscribe to the Freshsales Enterprise plan, the support includes a dedicated account manager who will personally assist you with problems and relay all of the information regarding your issue back to the Freshworks team to ensure that these problems do not recur or continue to exist.

Is it worthwhile to use Freshsales?

In the end, the question that you want answered is, "Is Freshsales worth it?" You could always consult our review of other CRM software options if you'd like to see how Freshsales stacks up against the competition. Our research has led us to the conclusion that yes, Freshsales is an excellent sales and CRM solution that is absolutely worthwhile, particularly for less established businesses and new ventures.

FAQs

Does the CRM program go by the name "Freshsales" or "Freshdesk"?

The customer relationship management (CRM) component of Freshworks is known as Freshsales. This is a complete solution for CRM as well as sales. Freshworks is the name of the brand that encompasses not only the Freshsales platform but also other platforms for marketing, customer service, human resources, and information technology management. For example, customer support can be handled through Freshdesk.

What sort of organization is Freshworks?

Freshworks is a company that develops numerous business software as a service (SaaS) applications for a wide range of modules. One of them is Freshsales, which is a customer relationship management (CRM) and sales system. Over 50,000 businesses worldwide, ranging in size from startups to enterprise level, use products from Freshworks today. These businesses come in all shapes and sizes.

Is it simple to use Freshsales?

Yes, Freshsales by Freshworks is very easy to use, and its user friendliness is one of its stronger selling points, especially when compared to platforms such as Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365. Freshsales was created by Freshworks, which is a company that specializes in building software for businesses. Freshsales has received a lot of positive feedback from customers regarding how easy it is to use, which translates to less time spent onboarding.