In this article we're going to be taking a look at the best CRMs for freelancers. A CRM, or customer relationship management tool helps you track your sales funnel, ongoing projects, finances, communications, and more.

It's an essential tool for any freelancer to have, so choosing the best one for your workflow is incredibly important

What Should A CRM Do For Freelancers?

Client management is an important yet overlooked aspect of digital business. All too often, freelancers believe that they don't need these type of "enterprise level tools" because they're a one-man operation.

This couldn't be further from the truth. CRM software is incredibly helpful for project management, documenting your sales process, email correspondence, and even finance and accounting.

These tools are a cheat code for productivity, and it's important that you implement it for your business, whether you're a website designer, copywriter, author, or anybody else who freelancers in the digital services industry.

The beauty about CRM's in 2022 is that they have a ton of features for freelancers. They are also incredibly customizable, meaning that you can generate custom dashboards, workflows, document management, and more… Completely optimized for your specific workflow.

Before we get into our list of the best CRM's for freelancers, here's what I think any customer relationship management tool should have:

• Project management

Managing client projects through your CRM is an essential feature that gives you a good understanding of where a specific project is at any point.

• Contact management

Having contact management for both organizations and points of contact within is one of the most valuable aspects of a CRM.

• Marketing and Sales processes

Documenting and automating marketing and sales processes are important. You should be able to create sequences, and more.

• Email marketing / pipeline management

Your CRM should integrate with your email marketing tool, allowing you to have a good understanding of what has been sent to a specific prospect or client over the lifetime of your relationship

• Invoicing (nice to have)

Having an invoicing and finance/accounting feature is a nice to have, but not a necessity. However, many of the CRM's outlined in this article do you have invoicing built in, which saves you time and money as you won't need to go and get another platform to do this.

The Best Freelance CRM software In 2024

Now, without any further do let's take a look at some of the best freelance CRM software available in 2024.

Honeybook

Honeybook is and all in one platform for small businesses and individual freelancers to run their companies from. It has a few more features than a traditional CRM, but we've included it in this list because it has CRM features and more for the same price as other options out there. Therefore, it's definitely something worth checking out because it might help you save money as it includes a ton of marketing features, business apps along side a basic CRM.

Keap

If you're looking for a good freelancer CRM that focuses on automation tools, Keap definitely an option worth checking out. It has all the key features that you need, but helps you be more efficient with your time by automating key workflows.

For example, you can easily collect and prequalify leads, create appointment booking and follow up sequences, nurture leads, accept payments, onboard new clients and manage the projects, and also request referrals and testimonials.

Monday.com

You've definitely seen an advertisement for Monday, and it's a CRM that's worth checking out if you're a freelancer. That's because it's incredibly customizable, meaning that you can really build it out to your own unique workflows, services, and client interactions.

Something that's nice about this tool is that while it is very customizable, it's not complicated, unlike other offerings on the market. So it's really easy to build it into something that matches what you do.

Perfex CRM

Perfex CRM is probably a tool that you've never heard before, and it doesn't show up on many "CRMs for freelancers" lists.

That's because it's actually a PHP script that you install and host on your own server. With this, there are several pros and cons. Because you're hosting it on your own server, you're not paying an expensive monthly fee.

However, there's no support for the platform because of this. It's an open source solution.

But, for a low one time payment, you get a ton of features such as invoicing, document management, contact management, sales management, project management, and more. And, it's an actively developed project meaning that bug fixes, support for six months, and unlimited lifetime updates are included.

It's worth checking out if you're more technical and not worried about hosting it yourself (it can be done for under $5/mo at Bluehost). But if installing and maintaining this worries you, and maybe it's worth checking out a hosted SaaS solution.

Bonsai

Another all in one solution marketing exclusively for freelancers, this tool has a ton of unique features like contract management, tasks, time tracking, accounting, taxes, and more. It's really an all in one platform for freelancers, I can save you a ton of time because it pushes you through a pre-built workflow.

HubSpot CRM

Hubspot is one of the most popular CRM's out there, and it's used by everybody from small freelancers to local businesses to fortune 500 companies. It has many different pricing plans, add-ons, features, and services, making a good solution for many different types of users.

For freelancers, it's worth noting that this is a much more sales oriented piece of software. But, if you're in the industry of web design, SEO, or another service that requires you to sell a lot, this can really help you systemize your processes, document them, and give you a good log of previous contacts.

Zoho CRM

Over the past couple of years, Zoho CRM has made a come back from being a outdated service to industry-leading. It has a ton of CRM tools, like marketing automation, unlimited users, a free plan, sales reporting, custom email templates, and more.

It even includes AI to help you build out dashboards quicker, market more effectively, and close new leads.

It's one of the more expensive examples on this list, but it also has some of the most important features for freelancers, and modern aspects that really help you out. If you're somebody who does a lot of business outside of freelancing platforms like Upwork, a tool like this could save you a ton of time and money in the long run.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales focused CRM. That's definitely his bread and butter, and if you're not looking for something like this, keep reading to this list. However, if you want a freelancer CRM to help with your sales pipeline, generate new leads, and convert those leads into paying customers, Pipedrive is one of the best options available.

Agile CRM

Agile CRM markets itself as a tool that helps freelancers to unlock 3 core things: Sales Enablement + Marketing Automation + Customer Service.

There are an unbelievable amount of features built into this tool from the get-go, and you can even extend it further with a library of third-party applications.

Harlow

Harlow is purpose built for freelancers. It has all the features that you would need, because it was built for freelancers by freelancers.

Included is client management, debility to generate in San proposals in contracts, invoicing, and task management. It's meant to be the digital headquarters for your freelancing operation.

It's definitely not like some of the other CRM's here, and that it is really focused on individual freelancers. While the other CRM's can be customized to suit anybody's needs, this tool is really only for an individual leveraging their skills to make money by offering a digital service online.

Conclusion

We hope that this article was helpful in your search for a freelance CRM. Incorporating a CRM into your daily workflow will save you a ton of time and money in the long run. It's definitely worth trying out many of these tools and figure out which one works best for you. The beauty is that all of them offer moneyback guarantees, a free trial period, or a demo where you can explore the platform.