Globally, the customer relationship management (CRM) market is expected to reach $57 billion by 2025, reflecting the growing importance of effective contact management in business strategy. This is where contact management software comes in.
The best contact management software reduces input errors, saves time, and helps your team collect and organize accurate customer data.
We’ve curated a list of the 11 best contact management software, highlighting their key features, benefits, and suitability for different business needs. Whether you’re looking to upgrade your current system or implement a new one, our guide will help you navigate the contact management landscape and find the perfect solution for business growth.
Let’s start with the fundamental question.
What is contact management software?
Contact management software is a digital tool designed to help you organize and manage your business contacts more efficiently.
It offers a much more dynamic solution than traditional address books or manual systems, where you simply store basic information like names and phone numbers. It holds all your contact details in one place and helps you maintain a clear record of your business relationships.
Contact management software includes several core features.
- Contact storage: This allows you to store complete details about each contact in one place. This includes names, phone numbers, addresses, and social media profiles.
- Organization: You can categorize and group your contacts based on different criteria. This makes it easier to find and manage them according to your needs.
- Communication tracking: You can track all customer interactions, including emails, calls, and meetings, giving you a complete view of your communication history.
In addition to its core features, contact management software offers some more advanced functionalities that can improve customer interactions.
- Note-taking: You can add notes for each contact, enabling you to keep track of essential details like meeting summaries, personal preferences, or follow-up actions.
- Tagging: You can label contacts based on specific attributes or activities. This makes it easier to segment your customers and quickly filter or search for specific groups.
- Integration with other tools: Contact management software can integrate with other business tools, such as CRM systems, email platforms, and scheduling apps.
Contact management vs. CRM
Contact management and customer relationship management (CRM) are both tools businesses use to store and organize contacts. However, there are some key differences between the two.
Contact management focuses on managing individual contacts, which means keeping track of their personal information, communication history, and interactions with your business. CRM is designed to manage broader customer interactions. This means tracking and analyzing customer data, sales activities, and marketing campaigns across channels.
Contact management is great for businesses that need a simple way to store and organize contact details. For example, a small business may use it to keep track of customer emails, phone numbers, and notes. It’s also useful for freelancers who want to stay organized without too many extra features.
On the other hand, customer relationship management tools are better for businesses that need more than just contact information. For instance, a sales team might use a CRM to track leads and manage sales pipelines. CRMs are ideal when managing relationships on a larger scale and diving deeper into customer behavior.
☯️ Contact management software works hand-in-hand with CRM systems to streamline your operations. This integration allows for a more efficient workflow, with contact management feeding accurate information into the CRM. As a result, your CRM becomes even more powerful, allowing better tracking of customer journeys.
The benefits of contact management software
Whether you’re a small business owner or part of a large enterprise, contact management software can help you stay on top of your connections. Here’s a closer look at some of its key advantages.
- Enhanced communication: This kind of software facilitates quick and effective communication, giving you all the details you need to interact with contacts on time.
- Efficiency in networking: It helps you manage contact details, follow-ups, and reminders, making your networking and outreach efforts more efficient.
- Data security and privacy: It ensures that your contact information is stored securely and complies with data protection regulations.
- Scalability: A customer contact software can adapt to an increasing volume of contacts and more complex needs.
The 11 best contact management software in 2024
We tested most of the contact management software available on the market. We looked for software that’s easy to use, offers the right features for your business, fits your budget, and provides great support when you need it.
Here are our top 11 picks for the best contact management software, selected to help you grow your business.
1. Best contact management software for small businesses: Textmagic
Features
- Allows you to categorize and group your contacts based on various criteria
- Offers customizable message templates that save time and ensure consistency
- Our application programming interface allows you to integrate it with other tools
Why it’s the best
- It’s cost-effective, providing a budget-friendly solution to handle messaging needs
- You can send personalized messages to your contacts using their names, titles, and other custom fields
- Our automated follow-up feature allows you to set up customized workflows that send reply messages to your contacts
Pricing
- A free trial is available
- It uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model, with as little as €0.01 per text sent
2. Best account management software: Salesforce
Features
- Provides a 360-degree view of customer interactions, history, and preferences
- Integrates with various third-party applications (marketing platforms, ERP systems)
- Offers customizable dashboards that display your business’s most relevant information
Why it’s the best
- It provides scalable solutions for businesses of all sizes
- Its unified platform combines CRM, sales, service, and marketing functions into a single solution
- It uses AI tools like Einstein Analytics to predict customer actions and help you improve sales strategies
Pricing
- A free trial is available
- Paid plans start from $25 per user per month
3. Best free contact management software: Zoho ContactManager
Image source: zoho.com
Features
- Offers a free tier with essential features
- Includes basic automation features, such as follow-ups and reminders
- Allows you to easily add contacts by pasting data, dragging and dropping files, or from various other sources (local storage, URLs, cloud services)
Why it’s the best
- It’s easy to use, with simple tools for managing customer communications
- While the free tier is feature-rich, you can upgrade for more features as your business expands
- It integrates with other popular tools and apps you may already be using (Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, etc.)
Pricing
- A free trial is available
- Paid plans start from €14 per user per month
4. Best sales contact management software: Nimble
Features
- Includes customizable tags and fields
- Provides detailed insights into interactions and customer engagement
- Integrates with various social media platforms to ease customer interaction on social
Why it’s the best
- Sales teams can tailor contact records to track important details
- The intuitive dashboard consolidates all relevant information (contact details, communication history, sales activities) into a single view
- It provides a clear view of the sales pipeline with stages like qualification, decision-making, and quotes, helping you manage and prioritize high-value deals
Pricing
- A free trial is available
- Paid plans start from $24.90 per user per month
5. Best online contact management software: Google Contacts
Features
- Integrates with Gmail and Google Workspace
- Automatically syncs your contacts across all your Google apps
- It’s cloud-based, allowing you to access your contacts from any digital device
Why it’s the best
- You can organize your contacts with labels and groups for better categorization
- Being accessible on any device makes it a convenient choice for people on the go
- It offers an easy-to-use contact database, simplifying the storage and management of a high volume of contacts
Pricing
- Free
6. Best contact capture software: Freshworks
Image source: crmsupport.freshworks.com
Features
- Integrates with popular apps like Gmail, Slack, and Zapier
- Boasts powerful features like lead scoring and email tracking
- Automatically captures contact details from emails, web forms, and social media
Why it’s the best
- It simplifies capturing and managing contact information, saving time and reducing errors
- Its real-time insights into customer interactions allow for more timely and personalized business emails
- It’s well-suited for service-based businesses, as it offers options for managing client relationships, appointments, and customer service interactions
Pricing
- A free plan is available
- Paid plans start from $15 per user per month
7. Best email contact manager: Mailchimp
Image source: blog.coupler.io
Features
- Allows contact segmentation based on behavior, preferences, and demographics
- Lets you track your campaigns to access valuable insights (open rates, click-through rates, customer success metrics)
- Integrates smoothly with e-commerce platforms, making it simple to send targeted product recommendations or confirmation emails
Why it’s the best
- It combines easy-to-use contact management with powerful email marketing tools
- It is often considered among the best contact management software for small businesses, thanks to its generous free plan
- Its automation features save you time by handling repetitive tasks, so you can focus on growing your business while staying connected with your audience
Pricing
- A free plan is available
- Paid plans start from $13 per month
8. Best client data management software: Monday.com
Image source: monday.com
Features
- Offers customizable workflows that are easy to adjust
- Provides data visualization tools for a clearer picture of data trends and metrics
- Includes contact tracking for a better overview of client interactions and engagement
Why it’s the best
- Given its range of features and interfaces, it’s earned its reputation as one of the best contact and project management software
- It promotes productivity and collaboration in the workplace by ensuring that everyone is aligned and updated on tasks and projects
- It integrates with other popular tools, such as Slack, Google Workspace, and Microsoft Teams, keeping your work streamlined and organized
Pricing
- A free plan is coming soon
- Paid plans start at €12 per user per month (minimum three users required)
9. Best open source contact management software: SuiteCRM
Image source: suitecrm.com
Features
- Can be adapted to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes
- Offers the flexibility to customize every aspect of customer contact management
- Integrates with third-party applications like email platforms or social media support tools
Why it’s the best
- Thanks to its open-source contact database, you have full control over your contact data, including its storage, management, and security
- It has a large and active community of developers and users who contribute to its ongoing development, offer support, and share solutions
- It can also be used as a sales database management software, with features that help sales teams manage leads, track interactions, and close deals more quickly
Pricing
- Free
10. Best overall contact management software: HubSpot
Image source: hubspot.com
Features
- Helps you manage your sales process with its sales pipeline management feature
- Connects easily with Gmail and Outlook, automatically saving and organizing emails
- Offers website themes and search engine optimization recommendations to help you optimize digital customer touchpoints
Why it’s the best
- It offers record customization, smoothly adapting to diverse business needs
- You can score your contacts based on their interactions in order to prioritize leads
- It combines one of the best contact management software with marketing and sales tools, creating an all-in-one business platform
Pricing
- A free plan is available
- Paid plans start from $15 per user per month
11. Honorable mention — best personal contact management software: Cloze
Features
- Allows you to personalize contact profiles with tags, notes, or relationship details
- Offers artificial intelligence-driven reminders to help you reach out to key contacts
- The contact manager app connects with social media platforms, gathering updates and interactions from your contacts
Why it’s the best
- It prioritizes the most important connections based on your interaction history
- Customizable profiles let you manage both your personal and professional relationships
- It merges all your communication history (emails, calls, messages) into one timeline, simplifying the review of past interactions
Pricing
- A free trial is available
- Paid plans start from $17 per month
How to pick your contact management software
A good contact management system can help you stay organized, automate tasks, and provide a 360-degree view of your interactions. With so many choices available, picking the right one can feel overwhelming.
Consider the following tips to choose the best contact management software for your goals.
Assess your needs
Consider the size of your business and set a budget for the software, including costs for implementation, training, and ongoing maintenance. If money is tight, consider using an open-source contact management database with customizable solutions at the beginning and upgrading as your business grows.
Evaluate features
Make a list of key features, like contact importing, communication tracking, and reporting tools. Separate the “must-haves” from the “nice-to-haves” to ensure that your contact manager system meets your core business requirements.
Test and compare
Take advantage of free trials to experience the software firsthand. Research user reviews and ratings to determine the software’s performance and support.
Keep scalability and growth in mind
If you’ve decided to use paid software for contact management, assess its pricing structure and flexibility. Consider cloud-based solutions for scalability, reliability, and accessibility.
The best contact management software fits your needs
Contact management software can transform how you handle your business relationships, so finding a tool that aligns with your goals is key. Whether you need advanced CRM features, simple contact storage, or SMS capabilities, there’s a solution out there that’s perfect for you.
Take some time to consider the features that will support your business goals. Consider your budget and the size of your team, then try out a few different tools before deciding. Most offer free trials, so you can see what works best.
Choose the best fit for your business, and watch it boost your productivity and strengthen your customer relationships.
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