For an agency, a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a central component of the operation, where sales, accounts, projects, and profitability intersect and support one another. When the lead-to-delivery flow is smooth, the margin grows, and the team can focus on what truly generates cash flow. In 2025, the number of CRM options available is enormous, and considering a tool that allows us to align lead capture and execution with automation and effective AI to reduce manual interactions, prioritize opportunities, and measure account health in real-time is essential.
The ideal CRM should unite pipeline, projects, and billing, and do so with agile implementation, like modern service-oriented suites do. At The CRM Club, we have tested dozens of tools, evaluating their connection between sales and project, advanced payment management, and automation, and we have narrowed the list of the best options to seven. HubSpot CRM, Accelo, Teamwork, and monday.com are the benchmarks, closely followed by Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, and Copper. Let’s discuss all of them in depth to see which CRM platform to choose for marketing agencies in 2025.
Which option to choose?
Comparison Table: The Best CRM Software for Agencies
Before diving in, we will present the tools in a summarized format. We have evaluated their features, prices, and ease of use, and have also considered the most relevant opinions from those who already use them daily to create the following table.
| Tool | Most Relevant | Pros and Cons | Price and Ideal For |
|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot CRM Suite | Ecosystem with integrated Marketing, Sales, Service, and CMS | Pros: all-in-one, powerful free plan, easy scaling — Cons: high cost at upper tiers, learning curve | From €0.00; ideal as scalable all-in-one |
| Accelo | CRM + projects, time tracking,* *advances, and billing | Pros: clear profitability, time automation — Cons: dense interface, less marketing focus | From €50.00; ideal for services with recurring billing |
| Teamwork | From PM to CRM with direct transfer from opportunity to project | Pros: solid PM, client portals — Cons: basic CRM, module-based pricing | From €9.99; ideal for project-centric agencies |
| monday.com | Visual Work OS to create CRM and PM | Pros: flexibility, automations — Cons: initial design needed, cost per seat grows | From €9.00; ideal for creative visual workflows |
| Zoho CRM | Lots of features for price, access to Zoho One | Pros: omnichannel, AI, customization — Cons: less modern interface, demanding setup | From €14.00; ideal for maximum value on a low budget |
| Pipedrive | Sales CRM focused on activity and pipeline | Pros: quick adoption, sales assistant — Cons: limited projects and billing | From €14.90; ideal for new business |
| Copper CRM | Native integration with Gmail, Calendar, and Drive | Pros: Google integration, automatic capture — Cons: less complete outside Google | From €29.00; ideal for 100% Google Workspace teams |
Our evaluation criteria
How did we compile the list in the table above? We started, of course, from years of experience testing and evaluating a wide variety of business tools. From there, we consulted the official documentation of each CRM, tested their free and paid plans in real-world environments, and gathered feedback from users who utilize them daily.
We have valued the ease of use and onboarding, which is key when we don’t want to waste time configuring the tools. We also analyzed whether the CRM provides real value to the business, specifically whether it improves efficiency, helps close more sales, and enables us to grow without the need to migrate to another platform.
The price-to-performance ratio has been another key factor in this ranking, particularly since we are comparing quite similar alternatives. To validate our conclusions, we interviewed marketing professionals, sales consultants, and automation experts to include their viewpoints and present information supported by a vision from all angles.
HubSpot CRM Suite
HubSpot CRM is a market reference for its ability to integrate marketing, sales, and service in one place. All this with an excellent free CRM and scalable modules. It allows us to align campaigns, pipeline, and tickets, which reduces maintenance tasks and improves forecast visibility, thanks to its very flexible workflows and a great catalog of integrations.
The CMS Hub facilitates the organization of content-focused campaigns with integrated SEO, and ABM helps coordinate key accounts between marketing and sales. Permissions are granular, and auditing allows us to maintain order and security with ease, even as the team grows and we share data with partners.
Main Features of HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM supports the daily operation of an agency from day one. It stands out in the following:
- Free CRM with contacts, deals, and templates
- Sales and service workflows
- Marketing Hub and Service Hub with attribution reports
- Integrations with more than 1,500 apps
- Highly customizable dashboards
Pros and Cons of HubSpot CRM
The balance between functional breadth and scalability of HubSpot is remarkable, although we must consider other factors, among which we find the following variables:
| Advantages of Hubspot | Disadvantages of Hubspot |
|---|---|
| All-in-one with a database that reduces tools and operational silos | Considerable cost in Professional and Enterprise plans with large teams |
| Useful free CRM from day one for SMEs | Steep learning curve in automations and reporting |
| Marketplace and connectors in abundance (Slack, PandaDoc, etc.) | Less flexibility than a fully configurable Work OS |
| Attribution and forecasts that help plan capacity | Data governance and permissions require initial design |
HubSpot Plans and Pricing
HubSpot offers a completely free CRM for agencies, as well as specialized hubs dedicated to marketing, sales, content, etc. This free version is very basic and may not be enough for some businesses. Instead, it is possible to access a much more comprehensive sales CRM through its enterprise platforms. The plans and pricing of their platform are as follows:
- Starter: (€15/month/license). Includes Marketing Hub Starter (includes 1,000 marketing contacts), Sales Hub Starter, Service Hub Starter, Content Hub Starter, Operations Hub Starter, and Commerce Hub.
- Pro: (€1,430/month for 5 licenses). Includes everything in the Starter plan plus the Pro versions of all its platforms.
- Enterprise: (€4,610/month for 7 licenses). Includes everything in the Pro plan plus the Enterprise versions of all its platforms.
Is HubSpot CRM easy to use?
HubSpot features a user-friendly interface and a gentle learning curve at the start of its CRM. However, it is more demanding in the more advanced automation and reporting functions.
Accelo
Project-focused CRM, tickets, time tracking, and advances, with the ability to unite presales, execution, and billing in a single flow. Excellent visibility of margins and simple period control thanks to project templates and budgets planned vs. actual.
The management of your timesheets is automatic from email and the calendar, increasing cost accuracy and reducing team oversights with great ease.
Main features of Accelo
Its proposal covers the entire client cycle, including automations for services and advances. It also stands out in the following:
- CRM connected with projects and tickets
- Management of advances with SLAs
- Automatic time capture
- Profitability reports
- Milestone and hour billing
- Integrations with Google, Microsoft, Xero, QuickBooks, and Slack
Pros and cons of Accelo
Accelo’s strength lies primarily in project operations and finances, although other variables should also be considered.
| Advantages of Accelo | Disadvantages of Accelo |
|---|---|
| Profitability and visible margins per client and project | Dense interface that requires familiarization |
| Advance management with periods, budgets, and SLA | Less depth in marketing automation |
| Automatic and accurate time capture | Starting price higher than a pure sales CRM |
| Billing aligned with milestones and hour consumption | Requires detailed initial configuration of roles and permissions |
| Complete cycle without leaving the platform | Moderate customization compared to visual Work OS |
Accelo Plans and Pricing
Accelo has 3 plans: Professional, Business, and Advanced. The company does not disclose its prices publicly; however, after requesting information, we know they range from €50.00/user/month, with high returns in control and predictability when the business relies on advances. Support is available through the help center via email and phone, as well as guided training and deployment assistance.
Is Accelo easy to use?
Sales and projects are adopted quickly, while invoicing and advances require some practice to fine-tune periods and templates. From there, the visibility of margins more than compensates for the initial onboarding.
Teamwork
Teamwork provides us with an excellent project management foundation, complemented by a CRM that enables us to manage sales and deliveries effectively, ultimately converting opportunities into projects with their own unique context. Client portals enable us to approve deliverables, comment, and track all progress without leaving the tool, which reduces the need for emails and communications and speeds up the decision-making process.
Main features of Teamwork
Teamwork combines excellent PM, a client collaboration system, and time tracking to connect commercial aspects with execution. It stands out in the following:
- Transfer of opportunities to projects
- Gantt, dependencies, workload
- Customizable client portals
- Time tracking and budgets
- Capacity and profitability reports
- Integrations with Google, Microsoft, Slack, Zapier, and Harvest
Pros and cons of Teamwork
Teamwork allows us to optimize delivery and handoff, but other variables must be considered.
| Advantages of Teamwork | Disadvantages of Teamwork |
|---|---|
| Very complete PM for campaigns with multiple milestones | CRM less deep than sales-focused suites |
| Client portals that reduce back and forth | Price conditioned by active modules |
| Immediate transfer from sale to project | More basic commercial reporting |
| Integrated times and budgets | Templates and standards require initial design |
Teamwork Plans and Pricing
Teamwork offers a completely free plan (Free) as well as various paid subscription options with features tailored to each company’s size and needs. Below, we outline the various platform pricing options.
- Free: (Free, up to 5 projects and 5 users) Designed for small teams and startups that are just starting. Includes Teamwork AI, basic features for project management and client work, integrations, and 100 automations per month.
- Deliver: (€13.99/month) Provides more robust client management functions. Includes everything in the Free plan plus Teamwork AI, project status and health reports, teams, request forms, reports comparing all planned vs. actual, integrations, 20 project templates, 5,000 automations/month, 100 GB of storage.
- Grow: (€25.99/month) Offers more advanced client and project management features. Includes everything in the Deliver plan plus Teamwork AI, budgets, time and finance management, HubSpot integration, resource and workload planner, advanced reports, 50 project templates, 20,000 automations/month, 250 GB of storage, up to 600 projects.
- Scale: (Custom pricing per company) Designed to maximize benefits for your clients. Includes everything in the Grow plan plus Teamwork AI, unlimited premium features, profitability reports, resource scheduling, customized and scheduled reports, advanced management, expense budgeting, and task list budgeting, 100,000 automations/month, 500 GB of storage.
Is Teamwork easy to use?
Adoption is quick mainly due to the clarity of its interface and client portals. ## monday.com
monday.com offers us a visual work OS to build our custom CRM and PM by integrating boards, automations, and multiple views to orchestrate sales and execution. Column permissions, shareable views, and Workdocs enable us to coordinate creatives, account teams, and *partners *within the same system, resulting in a single thread per campaign.
Main features of monday.com
The combination of customizable boards and automation recipes offers us enormous flexibility. Additionally, monday.com stands out in the following:
- Customizable boards for contacts, opportunities, and projects
- Automations for hand-off
- Kanban boards, timeline, calendar
- Aggregated dashboards
- Internal forms
- Integrations with Slack, Google, Microsoft, Make, and Zapier
- Collaborative Docs
Pros and cons of monday.com
Excellent flexibility and visualization, yes, but with some extra considerations.
| Advantages of monday | Disadvantages of monday |
|---|---|
| Visual flexibility to reflect real processes | Initial design time to behave like a full CRM |
| Automations to reduce tasks | Cost per seat increases with users and add-ons |
| Multiple views to read data in context | Less deep financial management and advances |
| Integrations with the creative stack | Advanced permissions requiring careful configuration |
Price of monday.com and support
monday offers the following plans and prices:
- Free Plan: up to 2 users, basic features.
- Basic: from 9 €/user/month. Project management without automations.
- Standard: from 12 €/user/month. Includes timeline, Gantt, and limited automations.
- Pro: from 19 €/user/month. Ideal for advanced management and complex dashboards.
- Enterprise: custom pricing based on size and needs.
Is monday.com easy to use?
Yes, due to its excellent board-style interface design; however, the learning curve increases when real processes are added, along with templates and permissions.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM offers the maximum value for the price, with its AI and integration with the Zoho One ecosystem, providing access to sales, projects, invoicing, and support. The budgeting and CPQ modules simplify even the most complex offers, and conditional fields help us maintain a clean data model, even when managing multiple service lines.
Main features of Zoho CRM
Zoho offers us a wide range of functions, including AI and omnichannel capabilities to prioritize opportunities and standardize follow-up. It stands out in the following areas:
- Omnichannel with unified timeline
- Zia AI for predictions and alerts
- Very comprehensive customization
- Scoring and follow-up automations
- Integration with Zoho Projects, Books, Desk
- Marketplace with a wide range of applications
Pros and cons of Zoho CRM
With its great balance between power and cost, there are other factors that we also have to consider.
| Advantages of Zoho | Disadvantages of Zoho |
|---|---|
| Outstanding value-for-money ratio | Demanding initial setup to get the most out of it |
| Zoho One ecosystem for finance, projects, and support | Interface is less modern than UX-focused competitors |
| AI to prioritize and detect risk | Learning curve in complex customizations |
| Omnichannel with traceability by account and contact | Support with variable pacing depending on the plan |
| Complete marketplace and APIs | Requires data governance for good consistency |
Zoho CRM Plans and Pricing
Zoho CRM offers a free plan for up to 3 users, as well as various paid subscriptions starting at €14.00/user/month. It is also possible to access Zoho One for as low as €37.00, with discounts available for annual billing and volume purchases. The platform offers support with a help center, email and phone, community, and plans with SLA for the best guarantees.
Below we detail its plans and prices for 2025:
- Free: free for up to 3 users, with basic CRM functions.
- Standard: €14/user/month, includes custom modules, workflows, sales forecasting, and integration with Office 365.
- Professional: €23/user/month, adds CPQ, inventory management, and integration with Google Ads.
- Enterprise: €40/user/month, includes Zia (AI assistant), territory management, and custom functions.
- Ultimate: €52/user/month, adds advanced AI/ML, customization, and augmented analytics.
We remind you that Zoho CRM offers a 15-day trial version (no need to share a credit card number), during which you can try the platform without any commitment.
Is Zoho CRM easy to use?
The basic operation is quickly mastered. Then we can deepen our understanding over time through configuration using plans and models (blueprints), rules, and custom modules, and from there, productivity grows rapidly.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive, as its name indicates, focuses on the pipeline and activity. With an interface that drives continuous action and an AI sales assistant, we can add add-ons such as forms and a chatbot for inquiries, lead capture, and conversion, all from your website.
When connected with an external PM, the sales-delivery circuit is resolved while keeping Pipedrive as the capture platform.
Main features of Pipedrive
Very clear pipeline, lightweight automations, and excellent practical reporting to sell with rhythm and precision. It also stands out in the following:
- Very visual pipeline
- Activity-based methodology
- Simple but powerful automations
- AI sales assistant
- Integrations with Google, Microsoft, Slack, and e-signature, among others
- Capable and well-designed mobile apps
Pros and cons of Pipedrive
Adoption is very fast and the commercial focus is intense, but there is more to consider.
| Advantages of Pipedrive | Disadvantages of Pipedrive |
|---|---|
| Very intuitive and action-oriented interface | Limited project and advance management |
| Clear pipeline that maintains momentum | Less deep marketing and attribution |
| Lightweight and useful automations | Less customization than in Work OS |
| AI assistant to prioritize and rescue opportunities | Advanced features require add-ons |
| Fast mobile apps for hybrid work | More basic granular permissions |
Pipedrive Plans and Pricing
Pipedrive offers the following plans and pricing (2025):
- Lite: (€14/month per user, billed annually) Includes lead management, calendars and pipelines, AI-powered report creation, real-time sales input, over 500 integrations, and personalized onboarding.
- Growth: (€39/month per user, billed annually) Includes everything in the Lite plan plus full email sync with tracking, automations and nurturing sequences, subscriptions and forecast reports, meeting scheduler and contact timeline, plus live chat support.
- Premium: (€49/month per user, billed annually) Includes everything in the Growth plan plus lead generation and transfer, custom scoring and company data enrichment, multiple AI-powered email tools, contracts and e-signatures, enhanced team customization, reports, and data fields.
- Ultimate: (€79/month per user, billed annually) Includes everything in the Premium plan plus enhanced account security with rules and alerts, email and phone data enrichment, maximized usage limits, and a Sandbox trial account.
Is Pipedrive easy to use?
Yes, the team can adapt within two days, and the tool facilitates maintaining next-action discipline with ease. It is ideal for SDRs and AEs.
Copper CRM
Copper CRM provides a seamless integration with Google Workspace, which takes the form of a CRM integrated within Gmail and an automated data capture system to streamline manual interventions. Synchronization with Drive and the ability to create documents from templates in Docs speed up both proposals and briefs, while Sheets gives us access to quick reports without leaving the ecosystem we already know.
Main features of Copper CRM
It lives where we work —in email and calendar — and records the context without intervention, improving data quality without requiring any additional effort from us. It also stands out in the following:
- Extension in Gmail and Calendar
- Automatic contact capture
- Email and event synchronization
- Customizable visual pipeline
- Integration with Drive, Docs, and Sheets
- Automations and basic reporting
Pros and cons of Copper CRM
Copper CRM gives us a simply outstanding experience in Google, but it also has some points to consider.
| Advantages of Copper | Disadvantages of Copper |
|---|---|
| Native integration with Gmail, Calendar, and Drive | Loses value proposition outside of Google Workspace |
| Almost zero manual entry due to automatic capture | More limited project and finance functions |
| Very short learning curve | More limited advanced customization |
| Sufficient pipeline and reporting to manage sales | Performance tied to browser and Gmail load |
| Quick deployment with minimal configuration | Less extensive extensions ecosystem |
Copper Plans and Pricing
Copper CRM offers the possibility to try its platform before committing to a paid subscription. Its different plans and pricing are as follows:
- Starter: (€10.24/seat/month) Includes a limit of 1,000 contacts, integration with Google Workspace and Zapier, tasks + activity feed, and forms.
- Basic: (€24.74/seat/month) Includes everything in the Starter plan, plus a limit of up to 2,500 contacts, task automation, workflows (Pipelines), project management, and contact enrichment.
- Professional: (€58.87/seat/month) Includes everything in the Basic plan, plus a limit of 15,000 contacts, workflow automation, mass email sending, report generation, and integrations.
- Business: (€114.32/seat/month) Includes everything in the Professional plan, plus unlimited contacts, email sequences, custom reports, multi-currency, and premium support.
Is Copper CRM easy to use?
Very much so, because the team works where it already is —Gmail—, and the pipeline stays updated with minimal friction. In 100% Google agencies, productivity increases appear from the first week.
Other perspectives: Applied AI, hybrid flows, and ecosystems
When AI is combined with the tools we have seen, it brings enormous value in scoring, account summaries, and next activity suggestions, and it also takes the lead for contextual automation connected to the creative stack. For SMEs, this frees up hours of work that can be dedicated to strategy and delivery quality.
With a CRM that understands stages, risks, and the team’s capacity, it can recommend next steps, completely changing the planning process. In our analysis, we have found that integrated suites, such as HubSpot and Accelo, coexist with configurable platforms like monday.com and ClickUp, which often include CRM modules. The choice will depend, above all, on whether we want a personalized solution or one that is ready to work from the outset.
And are we not talking about other tools?
Have we left out any platform? Yes, definitely. The list of options on the market is vast, and not all can reach the top. Let’s look at those that came close.
Close CRM stands out in internal sales with integrated calls and SMS, Freshworks offers us a truly modern CRM with very practical AI, and Bitrix24 combines communication, CRM, and tasks in one package.
Meanwhile, SugarCRM, Keap, Insightly, Salesflare, and Nextiva fit into very specific niches and may not appear on the list of more general solutions. However, if we have specific needs for automation, telephony, or simplicity, it’s good to keep them in mind.
Which option to choose?
And what about other tools?
Have we left out any platform? Yes, definitely. The list of options on the market is vast, and not all can reach the top. Let’s look at those that came close.
Close CRM stands out in internal sales with integrated calls and SMS, Freshworks offers us a truly modern CRM with very practical AI, and Bitrix24 combines communication, CRM, and tasks in one package.
Meanwhile, SugarCRM, Keap, Insightly, Salesflare, and Nextiva fit into very specific niches and appear among the more general solution lists. However, if we have specific needs for automation, telephony, or simplicity, it’s good to keep them in mind.