Agile CRM

Agile CRM brings sales, marketing automation and customer service into one platform. It is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses that want connected customer workflows, including teams starting with a free tier. Its breadth is the draw; contact caps, daily API quotas and a privacy policy effective only through May 24, 2018 deserve close attention.

Overview

Agile CRM combines sales enablement, campaign work and helpdesk functions rather than focusing on a single part of customer management. Contact and deal tools sit alongside marketing campaigns and service ticketing, which can suit a small business seeking one system for these jobs. The plans make that consolidation less straightforward as usage grows: contact capacity, integrations and API calls change by tier, and several telephony capabilities are reserved for higher plans.

The company says Agile CRM launched in 2013. Its privacy policy describes confidential handling of customer and lead information and SSL encryption while data is transmitted, but the policy is marked effective up to May 24, 2018. Paid plans have a stated 99.5% uptime guarantee. Businesses handling sensitive customer information should weigh that dated policy against their current requirements.

Key features

• Sales management: Contact and deal management, lead scoring, appointment scheduling, telephony and sales reporting cover several steps of a sales workflow. A visual pipeline helps teams track deals, while email sync connects email to the CRM; two-way email integration is a Starter-plan feature.
• Marketing: Campaign automation, email campaigns and tracking, landing pages, web engagement and mobile marketing give teams ways to coordinate outreach from the same platform as their sales records. The value is strongest for businesses that want those activities connected, rather than a standalone campaign tool.
• Customer service: Helpdesk ticketing includes groups, labels, canned responses, views, activities and reports. That makes Agile CRM broader than a sales-only database, though the service tools share the same plan and contact considerations.
• Extensions and development: Integrations include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Zendesk, HelpScout and LiveHelpNow. REST and language APIs, webhooks and single sign-on integration give developers ways to connect systems, but the daily API allowance rises from 500 calls on Free to 25,000 on Enterprise.
• Mobile and support: Android and iOS apps support contact management, campaign sending and calls. Support includes email service 24/5, weekday phone support, scheduled calls and weekly training workshops.

Pricing

Agile CRM uses a freemium model, with a free plan and paid plans starting at $8.99 a month. The free tier allows up to 10 users and 1,000 contacts and companies, with unlimited deals, tasks and documents, email tracking, marketing automation and helpdesk. It is a meaningful starting point for a small team, but the contact ceiling and 500 API calls per day can constrain a growing database or connected workflow.

Starter costs $8.99 a month and raises the contact-and-company cap to 10,000. It adds two-way email integration, marketing automation, three plugins or integrations and 5,000 API calls per day. This is the practical step up for teams needing more records and email synchronization, but the three-integration allowance is narrow if the CRM must connect to several other services.

Regular costs $29.99 a month. Its 50,000 contacts and companies, two-way telephony, post-call automation, more than 50 plugins or integrations and 10,000 daily API calls better suit teams with larger databases or phone-based sales workflows. Enterprise costs $47.99 a month and offers unlimited contacts and companies, call recording, automated voicemails, unlimited campaign workflows and 25,000 API calls per day. It is the tier for teams that need those specific capabilities and higher capacity; otherwise its added limits may be unnecessary.

Platforms

Agile CRM is available on the web and through Android and iOS apps, with API and extension support. That mix accommodates mobile work and system connections, while its core platform remains suited to teams managing sales, marketing and service together.

Who it's for

Agile CRM is most compelling for small and medium-sized businesses that want contact and deal management, marketing automation and helpdesk work in one CRM. A small team can start on Free; teams that need two-way email, broader integrations or telephony should compare paid tiers against their actual record counts and API use. It is a weaker fit for businesses that require a current privacy commitment they can evaluate against a policy dated through 2018, or whose needs exceed the stated Enterprise API quota.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Sales, campaign and helpdesk functions share one platform, which can reduce the need to manage separate systems for these workflows.
• Pro: The free tier supports up to 10 users and includes marketing automation and helpdesk, making it useful for a small team exploring an integrated CRM without a subscription.
• Pro: Paid tiers expand integration options and add telephony functions, so teams can match greater capacity to more involved workflows.
• Con: Free caps contacts and companies at 1,000, while Starter caps them at 10,000; businesses with larger databases must move to a higher tier.
• Con: API quotas range from 500 to 25,000 calls per day, so integrations may become a plan-selection constraint.
• Con: The privacy policy's effective date runs only through May 24, 2018, a material consideration for businesses assessing present-day data commitments.

Alternatives

For sales gamification, compare sales gamification software. Bitrix24 Sales Gamification may suit a very small team that wants a permanently free option for one or two users, with basic CRM, tasks, shared calendars, chat and video calls; it also has a free trial. Gametize is a freemium alternative whose Basic plan allows up to 10 players at no charge, while its Starter plan is $45 a month when billed annually or $50 monthly. RepCard offers a free individual plan with a QR code, 30 smart notifications, up to three personal reviews and three referrals, with RepCard branding. BoardQ may fit a team focused on leaderboards: its free Basic plan supports up to two leaderboards, real-time updates, custom columns, embeds and exports. Leaderboarded has a free web plan with two boards and the top 25 participants shown publicly. SmartWinnr is an enterprise sales enablement alternative. Incenteev is another alternative. MakeTheBoard is a freemium alternative.

For voicemail-focused needs, browse voicemail drop software. For a broader comparison of customer-management products, see CRM software.

Verdict

Agile CRM is a sensible choice for a small or medium-sized business that wants sales, marketing and helpdesk workflows together, especially if a free starting point matters. Its strongest case is breadth across those functions and plan tiers that add contacts, integrations and telephony. Look elsewhere if the dated privacy policy is not adequate for your data requirements, or if your expected API use exceeds the Enterprise allowance.