# What's the best CRM software for small businesses with a two to five person sales team?

<p class="elv-tracking-normal elv-text-default elv-font-figtree elv-text-base elv-leading-base elv-font-normal" elv="true">I've been looking into what's the best CRM software for small businesses with a two to five person sales team, and the honest answer is that most of the CRMs that dominate the conversation are built for orgs ten times that size. At two to five reps you have nobody to administer the thing, so setup time and daily friction matter more than feature depth. Here's what I found looking through the <a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/categories/crm">CRM category on G2</a>.</p><ol>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/pipedrive/reviews"><strong>Pipedrive</strong></a>  Pipeline-first design where the deal board is the main screen, so reps can work out of it without training. Best for teams who want a visual pipeline and nothing more.</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/bigin-by-zoho-crm/reviews"><strong>Bigin by Zoho CRM</strong></a>  Deliberately stripped-down version of Zoho CRM aimed at small teams, with pipelines, telephony, and email in one place. Best for very small teams on a tight budget.</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/nutshell/reviews"><strong>Nutshell</strong></a> Combines CRM with email sequences and forms, which saves a small team from buying a second tool. Best for teams doing their own outbound and marketing.</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/copper/reviews"><strong>Copper</strong></a> Built to run inside Google Workspace, so contacts and deals update from Gmail rather than a separate tab. Best for teams already living in Gmail and Google Calendar.</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/freshsales/reviews"><strong>Freshsales</strong></a>  Includes built-in phone, email, and scoring at the lower tiers, plus a path into the wider Freshworks suite later. Best for teams who want calling included.</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/close/reviews"><strong>Close</strong></a>  Calling and emailing are the primary interface rather than add-ons, which suits reps who work the phone all day. Best for high-activity inside sales teams.</li>
</ol><p class="elv-tracking-normal elv-text-default elv-font-figtree elv-text-base elv-leading-base elv-font-normal" elv="true">Worth saying that the bigger platforms are not automatically wrong here. <a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/hubspot-sales-hub/reviews"><strong>HubSpot Sales Hub</strong></a>  has a free tier a two-person team can genuinely run on, the catch being what it costs later once you're attached to it.</p><p class="elv-tracking-normal elv-text-default elv-font-figtree elv-text-base elv-leading-base elv-font-normal" elv="true">If you run a sales team of five or fewer, which CRM did you pick, and how long was it before the team was actually using it every day? Also curious whether anyone regrets starting on a free tier?</p>

##### Post Metadata
- Posted at: 8 days ago
- Net upvotes: 1


## Comments
### Comment 1

&lt;p&gt;Your framing about nobody being there to administer it is the part that tends to get skipped. One pattern that shows up a lot in reviews of this segment is that adoption stalls on data entry rather than on features, which is why Copper updating from Gmail and Close putting calling and emailing at the front both land well with small teams. On the free tier question, the thing worth thinking about isn&#39;t the price step, it&#39;s how much of your process gets shaped around the tool in those first months.&lt;/p&gt;

##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: 7 days ago
- Author title: Tech Consultant





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