If you’re looking for a solid customer relationship management (CRM) platform that won’t break the bank, Pipedrive is a definite contender. While it’s not the best CRM for everyone, Pipedrive CRM packs a lot of value into a very affordable price point that makes it an appealing option for many users.

Pipedrive CRM Strengths & Weaknesses

Every CRM platform has strengths and weaknesses, and Pipedrive is no exception. Knowing the potential pros and cons of the CRM you’re looking to purchase is an essential part of the research process. Read on to learn what we’ve discovered as experienced Pipedrive users.

Pipedrive strengths:

Pipedrive offers the best value of any CRM

Pipedrive’s Advanced and Professional tiers provide significantly more value than other CRMs at that price point. Pipedrive’s Professional tier (~$60 user/month) includes workflow automations, webhooks, custom fields, quotes, e-signatures, email sequences, custom reporting, scheduling, a dialer, and more. The majority of these features are either not included with other CRMs or are priced upwards of $100 per user per month.

Pipedrive’s UI/UX is excellent

It’s tough to pack a lot of features in a CRM while keeping it streamlined and easy to navigate. Many people leave CRMs like Salesforce, Zoho, and ActiveCampaign because the user interface is too confusing and difficult for sales reps to navigate. Ease of use is important in a sales CRM solution. Pipedrive is user-friendly, visually appealing, and easy to learn, and it maintains the difficult balance of containing lots of data without being visually overwhelming.

Pipedrive Weaknesses:

Limited scalability

Because Pipedrive has many of the same features as enterprise CRMs, it’s easy to feel like you’ll never grow out of it, but features are different from capabilities. Anytime you see a feature advertised by Pipedrive, know that it will have fewer capabilities and be less customizable than the same feature in premium tiers of HubSpot or Salesforce.

This is a tradeoff many are willing to make, as the cost of Pipedrive is 10-20 times lower than a premium tier enterprise CRM software. However, changing CRMs is such a big job that ability to scale provides a lot of reassurance — and not everyone will find that in Pipedrive.

Some key features require paid add-ons

There are features you’ll find in other full-suite CRMs that aren’t included with Pipedrive and must be purchased as add-ons. Depending on how you look at it, this could be a strength or a weakness, since a trimmed down core product helps keep the price down for those who don’t need these features.

However, many of these features are very basic and really shouldn’t be behind a paywall. For example, it’s an additional $32/month for a meeting scheduler, live chat, and web forms, which are all included in HubSpot’s completely free tier. Document library, document tracking, proposals and quotes, and e-signatures cost another $32/month. The list goes on.

Pipedrive Features for Sales Team Success

To be successful, sales reps must have a written, enforceable, transparent, and efficient sales process. The last two qualities, transparency and efficiency, are not possible without CRM functionality like the features we’ve listed below.

Pipedrive features that create efficiency:

Efficiency is the effort required from sales reps when moving deals through the sales process, from lead scoring to the moment you close deals. Too often, salespeople end up spending too much time on repetitive or even unnecessary tasks. By becoming more efficient, your reps will be able to spend more time actually selling. Time and time again, we’ve seen that increased sales team efficiency translates into increased revenue.

Pipedrive offers multiple sales tools to improve sales team efficiency. Below, we’ve listed a few of our favorites.

1. Workflow automation

Use workflow automations to email new leads, and set reminders for follow-ups and deal management. While Pipedrive’s workflow automations aren’t sophisticated, they’re enough to automate routine tasks. Also, Pipedrive integrates with many other software platforms, including third-party automation apps like Zapier for complex sales automation.

2. Smart contact data

Researching leads is an all too easy way for sales reps to waste time, but with Pipedrive’s Smart Contact Data there’s really no excuse for spending hours on inefficient lead research. Smart Contact Data uses publicly available information from the web and social sources, allowing reps to auto-populate lead information in just one click.

3. Two-way email sync

It’s important to log all communication in your CRM, and connecting your email inbox to Pipedrive via two-way email sync means you can put email logging on autopilot. Two-way email sync also enables transparency by providing visibility into conversations and negotiations in real time, making it easy to stay in the loop or quickly get up to speed as needed. Users who have synced their Gmail or other email accounts can also access email templates.

More Pipedrive features worth noting:

• Sales forecasts – a comprehensive view of your predicted revenue.
• Multiple sales pipelines – gives you the ability to separate your sales pipelines by product, team, or sales process for better visibility into each one.
• Lead management – a complete overview of each lead and deal, with detailed communication and activity history.
• Email open and click tracking – get notified when leads open your emails or click on a link you’ve sent them.
• Native mobile apps – make changes to contacts, deals, and activities from your smartphone, whether on Android, iOS, Microsoft, or other operating systems.
• Web-to-mobile calls – outgoing calls can be made from your desktop or you can send them to your phone.

Bottom line:

Pipedrive is a solid budget CRM that provides a lot of value for the price point. However, you may end up paying extra for basic features that are only available as add-ons. Still, it’s a great CRM platform, especially for small businesses that don’t need a lot of bells and whistles.