Pipedrive Review

Pipedrive is a sales-focused customer relationship management (CRM) software for sales teams. At its core, Pipedrive helps businesses visualize their entire sales process. The CRM includes useful features, including email syncing, activity reminders and updates, filters, and much more. 

Despite its useful features, Pipedrive remains affordable for most small and medium businesses. It’s also easy to use, with a sales pipeline-based interface that is easy to understand even with little to no prior CRM experience. 

Pipedrive logo

Pipedrive Compared 

Pipedrive made it to our list of the best CRM software for its ability to simplify the sales process. However, we think HubSpot and Salesflare are the best CRM software for most people. 

HubSpot offers some of the best sales, marketing, and customer service CRM features on the market, making it perfect for an all-rounded approach to customer relationship management. Try HubSpot’s free-forever plan and access premium features at no cost

Or are you more interested in a CRM focused on prospect management? With Salesflare, you can automate repetitive tasks like collecting data,  populating contacts, and email, giving you more time to focus on mission-critical tasks. Claim your Salesflare 30-day free trial and access all of the CRM’s features

  • HubSpot – Best for Varying CRM Needs
  • Salesflare – Best for Prospect Management 
  • Zoho CRM – Best for a Customizable CRM
  • Freshsales – Best for Managing Sales Leads
  • Insightly – Best for Project Management Features 
  • Apptivo – Best for Adding Services As You Need Them 
  • Pipedrive – Best for Simplifying the Sales Process 
  • EngageBay – Best for Automating Customer Service Tasks 
  • Salesforce – Best for Integrating Multiple Services 

Check out our top list of the Best CRM Software to read the full reviews for our top picks. 

About Pipedrive 

Pipedrive was founded in 2010 with the ambitious goal of creating a CRM for salespeople, developed by salespeople. The company has since served more than 100,000 users in 179 countries. In 2020, Pipedrive received a majority investment from Vista Equity Partners, a global investment firm with more than $58 billion in capital commitments. 

Pipedrive primarily focuses on helping users to manage complex sales processes. To this end, the CRM combines lead and deal management, communication tracking, automation, and insights and reporting features to create the ultimate sales-focused platform for sales teams. 

Pipedrive Health and Stability 

Pipedrive is a reputable global sales-first CRM with over a decade in the tech industry. Its founders boast more than four decades of combined sales experience. Pipedrive has more than 20 investors, having raised more than $90.2 million in funding to date. 

Pipedrive is also serious about user security. The software incorporates world-class security infrastructure and offers numerous privacy and security features. Pipedrive has also earned multiple security certificates, including SOC 2 & 3, ISO/IEC 27001:2-13, and the US-EU Privacy Shield. The software is rated 4.8/5 by Trustpilot and 4.5/5 by Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice.

Pipedrive Pricing 

Unlike most CRM software, Pipedrive doesn’t offer a free plan. However, it is an affordable service, with prices starting at $9.90 per user per month for the Essential plan. The cheapest plan offers decent value, including lead, deal, calendar, and pipeline management. 

Pipedrive offers four different paid plans depending on what you need from your CRM. The most expensive plan costs $59.90 per user per month. However, it’s still very affordable for an enterprise-grade CRM. In addition, you can enjoy unlimited active deals, custom fields, and reports which are capped on the cheaper plans. 

You can try the Enterprise plan or any Pipedrive plan for free for 14 days, with no credit card required. 

Pipedrive Pricing Structure 

All Pipedrive packages charge a per-user per-month fee. You’ll need to pay a monthly subscription for each user who uses the software. You can opt for annual billing to enjoy discounted prices. 

However, each pricing tier has different features and limitations. For instance, you’ll need to upgrade to the Advanced plan to enjoy extra features like full email synchronization, workflow builder, and group emailing with open and click tracking. In addition, this plan costs $19.90 per user per month, up from $9.90 per user per month for the Essential Plans. 

Additionally, you increase your active deals, custom fields, and reports limit as you move up the tiers. For example, the Advanced plan offers 10,000 active deals, 100 custom deals, and 30 reports up from 3,000 active deals, 30 custom fields, and 15 reports in the Essential Plan. 

Pipedrive also offers add-ons for an extra price. For instance, the LeadBooster starts at $32.50 per user per month, billed annually. The lead booster is a lead generation tool that includes a chatbot, live chat, web forms, prospector, and scheduler. 

Pipedrive Pricing Comparison 

Pipedrive is one of the more affordable CRMs on the market, despite having additional pipeline management capabilities built on its CRM. You can start with basic lead and deal management for just $9.90 per month. 

Most other competitors charge more for features. For example, HubSpot’s pricing starts at $45 per user per month for the Sales Hub, which is comparable to what Pipedrive offers. Similarly, you’ll need to pay at least $12 per user per month for Zoho CRM entry-level plan and at least $29 per user per month for a similar plan from Salesflare. 

Overall, Pipedrive offers terrific value for businesses with a tight budget. The only exception is that Pipedrive doesn’t have a free plan. The best you can hope for is the 14-day free trial. Otherwise, Pipedrive isn’t an option if you have a $0 budget. 

Conversely, HubSpot offers one of the most feature-rich free CRMs. You get a deal pipeline, contact management, list segmentation, email templates, email scheduling, email tracking and notifications, and more. So you could get more from HubSpot for free compared to Pipedrive’s cheapest plan, as long as you don’t mind keeping the HubSpot branding. 

Similarly, FreshSales has a free plan. It offers contact management and contact lifecycle stages. It’s similar to Pipedrive’s pipeline-style approach. It also provides incredible value that doesn’t cost a dime. 

Finally, Pipedrive has fewer features than HubSpot and many other alternatives. However, given the low price, it’s a worthwhile tradeoff. Most small businesses don’t want to pay for excessive and complex features they’ll never use in the first place. Pipedrive is hard to beat regarding value for money, especially if you know what you’re getting vs. what you have to sacrifice.

Pipedrive Trials and Guarantees  

Pipedrive is conspicuously missing a free tier. However, you get a 14-day free trial for all plans, including the Enterprise plan. The free trial also offers excellent perks. 

For example, you can invite as many people as you like to the free trial. You can also switch between the plans as much as you like during the trial period. There are also no free trial usage limits for the Advanced and Professional plans. 

Pipedrive CRM Software Review 

Pipedrive doesn’t offer the most extensive, complex, or customizable CRM features. However, the available CRM features center around activity-based selling. So whatever you do on Pipedrive, rest assured you’ll keep returning to the tasks and actions that drive sales. 

The best part is you don’t have to break the bank to eliminate repetitive administrative tasks that don’t generate sales. Instead, you can easily automate these tasks with Pipedrive, leaving you sufficient time to focus on exploiting opportunities for growth and assessing threats. 

Check out our top list of the Best CRM Software, where we review more options for your consideration. 

What Makes Pipedrive CRM Software Great 

Screenshot of the Pipedrive interface pipeline view
Pipedrive sports a simple and intuitive UI that’s easy to understand.

Straightforward User Interface (UI): Complex CRMs are challenging to implement, especially among salespeople. Pipedrive sports a simple and intuitive UI that’s easy to understand. Plus, you can customize your pipeline to fit your unique sales process. 

Additionally, Pipedrive ensures that your sales process is front and center. You can easily view all leads, deals, communications, progress, ownership, and activity history on a unified platform. 

Custom columns and filters: Pipedrive is an industry-agnostic CRM. So you don’t have to worry that your sales process doesn’t follow conventional procedures for any industry. Pipedrive lets you add and remove columns, so you only capture the sales data that makes sense for your business. 

Additionally, the CRM lets you create custom filters to review the most critical information at a glance. You can set up custom filters with up to 16 conditions for leads, deals, activities, contacts, or products. 

Email templates: Like any good CRM, Pipedrive lets your team efficiently manage emails. The platform offers numerous email templates out of the box, so you don’t have to write sales emails from scratch. You can also import your tried and tested custom email templates. 

Pipedrive also lets you connect your email to your account so you can view all client communication from Pipedrive’s Deal Detail or Contact views. The integration supports major providers, including Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, and Microsoft Exchange. 

Workflow automation: Pipedrive eliminates repetitive tasks and ensures crucial tasks don’t fall through the cracks. You even get 18 workflow automation templates out of the box. As a result, you can automate creating activities, sending emails, adding deals, moving deals to new stages, and converting leads to deals in just a few clicks. 

You can customize the templates or create new workflows from scratch to fit your sales process. You’ll be able to create complex workflows to improve efficiency and productivity. 

Visualize Pipeline Stages: There’s a reason why Pipedrive is one of the most popular opportunity management tools. The CRM lets you visualize every stage of the sales process from start to finish. For example, you can quickly view which opportunities are pending, need to be qualified, require a proposal, etc.

Where Pipedrive Falls Short  

No Free Plan: Although Pipedrive is affordable, it doesn’t offer a free-forever plan. Competitors like HubSpot and FreshSales provide a free plan. 

Limitations on Cheaper Plans: You’ll need to pay more to unlock Pipedrive’s most valuable features. For example, you’ll need to pay for the Advanced plan to unlock workflow automation. Even then, you’re limited to 30 active workflows.

You’ll need to upgrade to the Professional plan to raise the limit to 60 active workflows. Similarly, You’re limited to 10 workflow actions with all plans. In short, you’ll most likely need Professional or Enterprise plans to harness Pipedrive’s true power. 

Limited Features: Pipedrive has a strong focus on sales features. However, you’ll be losing out on marketing and customer support tools. In addition, Pipedrive is simply not the all-in-one CRM that many businesses crave. 

You’ll likely need more paid integrations to enhance the platform’s marketing and customer service features. Fortunately, the platform easily integrates with the most popular business tools. 

Pipedrive CRM Software Compared

Pipedrive is an ideal choice for sales-focused teams on a tight budget. However, HubSpot and Salesflare offer more advanced CRM features, additional integrations, and customer service features. 

Here’s how Pipedrive compares to other CRM software on the market:

  • HubSpot – Best for Varying CRM Needs
  • Salesflare – Best for Prospect Management 
  • Zoho CRM – Best for a Customizable CRM
  • Freshsales – Best for Managing Sales Leads
  • Insightly – Best for Project Management Features 
  • Apptivo – Best for Adding Services As You Need Them 
  • Pipedrive – Best for Simplifying the Sales Process 
  • EngageBay – Best for Automating Customer Service Tasks 
  • Salesforce – Best for Integrating Multiple Services 

Pipedrive Small Business CRM Software Review

Pipedrive also made it to our list of the best small business CRM software. The software is most useful for small businesses looking for robust email marketing capabilities at an affordable price. Additionally, the software is straightforward, making it a terrific choice for a small company implementing CRM for the first time. 

Pipedrive is a top contender for a small business that wants to streamline its sales process. It’s an operation CRM, meaning you can automate most repetitive sales tasks. For example, Pipedrive does a terrific job of automating email marketing, keeping track of customer interactions, and identifying prospects. 

Pipedrive also simplifies managing people and the daily tasks they’re responsible for. You can easily track important performance metrics, including your team’s deals won, activities completed, and new deals. 

However, Pipedrive is limited to sales-focused tools, with fewer marketing tools and features. Furthermore, customer service features are conspicuously missing from this CRM. For example, HubSpot offers sales, marketing, and customer service bundles. Similarly, Salesflare has a good mix of sales, marketing, and customer service features. 

Pipedrive Small Business CRM Software Compared 

While Pipedrive is a budget-friendly sales-focused CRM, many small businesses may require a more robust solution. Other options that made it on our list of the best small business CRM software include: 

Pipedrive Contact Management Review 

It can be challenging to distinguish between customer relationship management and contact management. While CRMs typically offer contact management features, the reverse isn’t always true. So naturally, Pipedrive offers basic contact management capabilities. 

Again, Pipedrive’s contact management is focused on sales teams. You get all the crucial features, including custom contact management, contact communication tracking, insights and reporting, and a contact manager app. Check out our full review of the best contact management software on the market. 

What Makes Pipedrive Contact Management Great 

Screenshot of Pipedrive’s meeting scheduler.
Pipedrive’s meeting scheduler is simple and intuitive. 

Automatically retrieve contact data: Pipedrive has an opt-in app called Smart Contact Data. The app automatically retrieves publicly available information from your contact’s email address or domain name. 

You can view Google+ and LinkedIn contact data from the apps information section. The feature also pulls data 200 times every eight hours, and you always have up-to-date information about your valuable contacts. 

Easily import customer data: You don’t have to worry about populating customer data from scratch. Pipedrive lets you easily import customer data from web forms, email, social media platforms, and SMS. Then, you can easily manage all customer information in one place. 

Customize contact management: Pipedrive lets you segment contacts using unlimited custom labels. The software also has robust filters to help you track performance across all your contacts. 

Map contacts: You can integrate Pipedrive with Google Maps to get granular information about your contacts’ locations. For example, you can sort contacts by city, state, or country. The maps view is also helpful for gathering this information at a glance. 

Where Pipedrive Contact Management Falls Short  

Expensive for stand-alone contact management: The lack of a free plan has been a consistent theme. While Pipedrive is helpful for its CRM, it is costly for simple contact management. Alternatives like Bigin offer a free version. 

Bigin’s free version also includes the basic features you’d want from a contact management tool. These include 500 records, one pipeline, and three workflows. You can also make and receive calls, route calls, and set up automated voice responses with the free Bigin plan. 

Pipedrive Contact Management Software Compared 

Pipedrive has decent contact management features. However, you can get a cheaper solution with more contact management features and high-level customization elsewhere. Our top picks for the best contact management software include:

  • Bigin – Best Overall Contact Manager Software 
  • Streak – Best Contact Management Software for Gmail Users 
  • Pipedrive – Best Contact Management Software for Sales Teams 
  • Maximizer CRM – Best Custom Contact Management Software 
  • Metrilo – Best Contact Management Software for Ecommerce Sites 
  • Nutshell – Best Easy-to-Use Contact Management Software 

Pipedrive Lead Management Review 

Pipedrive is a sales-oriented CRM, so you can expect built-in lead management features. The software doesn’t disappoint and offers most of the features you need to capture, track, score, route, and nurture your leads. 

Most contact and lead management feature overlap. Still, you get the essential lead management features to make Pipedrive a worthwhile investment. Remember to check out our top picks of the best lead management software. 

What Makes Pipedrive Lead Management Great 

Screenshot of Pipedrive Web Forms
Pipedrive’s web form makes lead management easy.

Activities tracking: Pipedrive’s activity tracking is one of its most robust features. The software lets you keep an eye on your progress for everyday tasks. For example, you can track the number of activities added, completed,  or planned. 

You can also track activities within your preferred timeframe, such as daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. You can add custom activities, use a template, and view your activity data as a scorecard, pie chart, or column chart.  

Leads inbox: Your CRM can quickly get cluttered with prequalified leads that aren’t ready for the sales pipeline. Pipedrive offers a handy lead’s inbox where you can store potential leads until you’re ready to move forward. Then, you can add them to your pipeline when you’re prepared to proceed. 

Deal rotting: Again, Pipedrive ensures that no leads fall through the cracks. The Deal Rotting feature lets you define a timeframe for inactivity. Then, any rotting details will appear red in your Pipeline view. 

It is a handy feature for keeping track of neglected deals. You can restore the deal in your pipeline by scheduling a new activity. 

Where Pipedrive Lead Management Falls Short 

Lead capture as an add-on service: Lead capture is a rudimentary feature many tools offer for free. However, you’ll need to purchase the LeadBooster to create, share, and embed lead capture forms on your website. 

Similarly, you’ll have to pay for the LeadBooster if you want a live chat, chatbot, and prospector functionality. But, again, this add-on costs at least $32.50 per company per month, on top of your paid Pipedrive subscription. 

Lacks native lead scoring: Lead scoring is a primary lead management feature that is conspicuously missing from Pipedrive. You don’t get lead scoring even with the most expensive plan. Instead, you’ll need to use a third-party tool that will likely increase your software stack’s cost. 

Pipedrive Lead Management Software Compared 

Pipedrive offers most of the features you need to manage your leads. However, most of these features are either behind a paywall or require add-ons and third-party integrations. Our top picks for the best lead management software include: 

  • HubSpot CRM – Best free lead management software for solopreneurs and growing sales teams 
  • Zoho CRM – Best lead management software for marketing automation 
  • Pipedrive – Best lead management software for real estate professionals 
  • noCRM.io – Best standalone lead management software for small businesses and startups
  • Salesforce Sales Cloud – Most robust lead management softwareforce.com/eu/products/s for large enterprises 

Pipedrive Sales Tools Review 

Pipedrive’s sales tools span CRM, contact management, and lead management. It’s not surprising since Pipedrive is specially developed for sales teams. Overall, it’s a valuable sales CRM with multiple noteworthy features. 

Pipedrive’s star feature is its pipeline view. The software comes prepopulated with the expected sales stages, including Deals In, Contact Made, Needs Defined, Proposal Made, and Negotiations Started. However, you can customize these columns to reflect your unique sales process. 

You can also create multiple pipelines. You can customize the stages for each pipeline. You can also edit your pipelines. It’s a terrific tool for organizing and visualizing complex sales processes. 

Pipedrive also offers robust automation. For example, you can automate most sales process stages, including email marketing, scheduling sales calls, and moving deals along the pipeline. The software also provides personalized tips for automating your workflows. 

You also get additional sales tools like contact management, reporting dashboard, integrations, and security. Although Pipedrive offers fewer features and less customization than HubSpot and other Sales CRM, it is still an excellent choice for sales teams that don’t want to get bogged down with complex features and incomprehensible workflows. 

Pipedrive Sales Tools Compared 

Pipedrive offers the essential sales tools you need to drive more sales and automate repetitive daily tasks. However, the platform lacks advanced customization, in-depth reporting and analytics, and numerous native integrations. 

Here’s a quick look at how Pipedrive compares to our top picks of the best sales tools:

  • Salesforce – Best for automating the sales process
  • HubSpot – Best for email marketing 
  • Pipedrive – Best for pipeline management 
  • Salesloft – Best for multi-channel messaging 
  • Clearbit – Best for B2B data activation 

Final Verdict  

Pipedrive is a decent sales-first CRM that simplifies complex sales processes. It is affordable, easy to use, and offers all the primary features you need to increase sales. Its pipeline view also keeps sales-driven tasks and activities foremost in your mind. 

You can get more complex workflows and automation with alternatives like HubSpot. Still, Pipedrive is a terrific entry-level CRM for small businesses and sales reps. You can always upgrade to a more robust tool when you outgrow Pipedrive’s functionality. 


Source: quicksprout

Pipedrive Review