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Chris Neiger is a full-time freelance writer with more than 10 years' experience covering personal finance and investing-related topics. In addition to his work with The Ascent and The Motley Fool, he was also a writer for the BBC for three years and marketing manager for two non-profits.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software can be overwhelming to set up and use -- but not Capsule's. The platform takes a uniquely user-friendly approach to CRM, making its software an ideal choice for small businesses. You won't get as much customization as bigger CRMs, but you will get helpful features that won't bust your budget.
Free: --
Starter: $21/user/month
Growth: $38/user/month
Advanced: $60/user/month
Ultimate: $75/user/month
Capsule is best for small- and medium-sized businesses that need to manage their customers and sales but don't have large teams. Capsule has excellent features that are easy to use, but large companies may need more robust customization.
Smaller companies will appreciate that there's a free version to use, and even upgrading to the paid tiers will be affordable for many businesses. If you're looking for a reasonably-priced CRM with great features and don't want to spend a lot of time learning how to use it, Capsule is a great choice.
Capsule has well-built features that are easy to understand for new users. You won't find all the bells and whistles that more expensive CRMs offer, but most small businesses will likely get more than they need from Capsule's software. Here are a few standout features.
One of Capsule's core features is its contact management. If you've used a CRM before, you may notice that Capsule's layout is a little more user friendly than others. This can be a good thing for people and companies looking for a way to manage contacts that isn't overwhelming.
You can add people or companies to the CRM manually or by uploading them using a CSV file. Once you've added or imported your contacts, you can search for them in the system, add files to their profile, link them to an organization, view the opportunities your company has with them, and view their tasks and contact history.
Capsule's opportunities tool makes it easy for your business to track opportunities with clients. Within each client or company contact, you can select "opportunities" and list what the opportunity is (e.g., a product sale or business deal).
You can list details like the deal's value, when it's expected to close, what stage of the deal you're in (meeting, negotiation, contract, etc.), and what tasks are associated with the deal. Once a deal reaches the end of its life cycle, you can designate whether it was won or lost.
All of your opportunities are combined to create the sales pipeline feature in Capsule. Once you create an opportunity, the CRM automatically adds it to the sales pipeline feature so you can keep track of all of your opportunities and see their potential value in one place.
The sales pipeline dashboard shows you the total pipeline value, potential sales timeline, milestones each opportunity has reached, and your company's conversation rate over the past month, quarter, and year.
As with much of Capsule, the layout and design of the sales pipeline features is easy to understand. There is little guessing at what you're looking at or how to add information. You can also view your sales information as a pipeline, list, or dashboard view with charts.
Capsule's reporting tool lets you track sales made by team members and individuals. For example, you can view which team has the most sales wins/losses, the reasons why sales are won or lost, the average sales value, and much more.
You can also view other users' activity to keep track of their tasks, emails, meetings, calls, etc., related to sales projects. This can be helpful if you're monitoring which teams within your company are closing the most deals and how much communication they've had with clients to help make that happen.
This feature allows you and your team to create projects in Capsule that you can track so that everyone is on the same page. For example, if your company has an upcoming presentation with a big client, and there are a lot of people involved with it and lots of work to be done to get it right, tracking it in Capsule's projects tool is a smart idea.
You can specify the project's status with multiple stages of completion, designate users to participate in the project, and list tasks to be completed. You can also connect projects to specific sales opportunities so your team knows what to do with a client after you've closed a sale.
Another helpful Capsule feature is workflow automation, which allows you to automate processes for opportunities and projects. This feature allows you to assign a specific opportunity or project to a user or team when it reaches a certain milestone.
For example, you can build workflow automation that automatically tells your marketing team to begin working on a new email campaign once you close a deal with a new client.
One of the best things about Capsule is that it's straightforward to learn. I spent some time testing the software and found its core features easy to understand and intuitive. Not all CRMs are like this. If you're new to content management software or want a straightforward system for your company, Capsule is a great option.
Like most CRMs, Capsule has multiple tiers and add-on features that can raise the cost. The prices listed here are based on monthly costs, but you can choose to be billed annually, which will save you up to 15%.
You can also sign up for a 14-day free trial of any version, but you'll need to add a credit card.
Tip: There is a free version of Capsule that gives two users access to basic CRM features and the ability to add up to 250 contacts.
| Features | Starter$21/user/month | Growth$38/user/month | Advanced$60/user/month | Ultimate$75/user/month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contacts | 30,000 | 60,000 | 120,000 | 240,000 |
| Sales Pipeline | 1 | 5 | 50 | 100 |
| Project Board | 1 | 5 | 50 | 100 |
| Custom Fields | 50 | 150 | 300 | Unlimited |
| Email templates | 5 | 50 | 500 | 1,000 |
| Shared Mailbox | 1 | 3 | 5 | 10 |
| AI Content Assists | 10 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Activity Reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| App Integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Workflow Automation | -- | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom Activity Types | -- | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| User Roles and Permissions | -- | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dedicated Account Manager | -- | -- | -- | Yes |
| Ongoing Priority Support | -- | -- | -- | Yes |
This basic plan is good for businesses that want to organize their contacts and leads and manage conversations with them. Some reporting is available, and you can build one sales pipeline with this plan. You can also integrate about 50 different apps into Capsule with this plan, including QuickBooks, Zapier, and Gmail.
The Growth plan builds on the Starter plan and adds more customization, workflow automation, and detailed reporting. With this plan, you can add double the number of contacts as the Starter plan and have five sales pipelines instead of one. You can also assign user roles and permissions.
The Advanced plan has the same features as the Growth plan, but you get more of nearly everything. For example, you'll have double the contacts as the Growth plan, 50 sales pipelines instead of five, 50 project boards compared to five, and 500 email templates instead of 50.
This plan is for large companies with up to 240,000 contacts and includes 100 sales pipelines and 100 project boards. In addition to including all of the features from the lower tiers, the Ultimate plan also includes customer training, import assistance, a dedicated account manager, and priority customer support.
Capsule provides a form you can submit if you need customer support and says it will respond to requests between Monday and Friday. The company also lists an email address ([email protected]) for support and says you can send messages to its X social media account (@CapsuleCRM) for help.
If you sign up for the Ultimate plan, Capsule says your support requests will be considered a priority.
There are links to popular articles and a help page with documentation on how to use core features. The company's Resource Center also has instructional videos and walk-throughs if you need additional help.
Capsule is a great CRM for small- or medium-sized businesses that want to avoid the fuss of more complex offerings. Some competitors offer more robust features, but most companies won't miss them. Capsule can likely handle what many businesses are looking for in a CRM -- and for a reasonable price.
It's easy to start using Capsule. You can sign up for the free tier without providing credit card information. Or, choose any of the paid tiers, give your credit card info, and get a 14-day free trial. The software is cloud-based, so you won't have anything to download to your computer.
Once you create an account, there's a helpful 15-minute demo video that covers some of the top Capsule features. If you click on the company's logo in the bottom right-hand corner, you'll also see a Steps to Success feature that will walk you through setting up your account and using key features.
There's also a resource center with articles and videos on using the CRM and a support portal where you can find additional information about using the software.
If you're a small business owner looking for solid CRM features that won't break the bank, Capsule is right for you. Capsule won't give you the same level of customization as leading CRMs offer, but it's easier to use and much cheaper. Small businesses without large sales or marketing teams will likely find all the features they need in Capsule, as well as a user-friendly layout.
The ideal customer for Capsule CRM seems pretty clear: Based on the fact that there is a free version (and a low-cost paid version) and that the platform is very simple (and not feature-heavy), this is definitely the choice for a sales team of just a few individuals who only need some basic organizing.
If your team needs in-depth reports and analysis, lots of integrations with third-party apps, phone support, and extensive customization options, you're probably better off looking elsewhere.
Yes, and in fact it appears this is their strongest selling point. The dashboard is very simple and straightforward and perfect for teams -- or individuals -- who merely need a cloud-based platform that organizes their contacts and opportunities. However, the features and integrations aren't as strong as other CRM solutions.
Capsule has a limited list of integrations, and they are only available in the paid version. However, it works with Zapier, which links it up with many more third-party app integrations. If you're looking for a platform with a huge number of integrations, there are better options in our CRM software directory, but this platform will certainly cover the basics like G Suite.
This software offers an excellent app, which we've found is fairly rare for CRM software. As soon as you log in, you see all recent activity and you have five icons at the bottom that go to your dashboard, contacts list, calendar, pipeline, and cases. Everything is at your fingertips, and it's very easy to navigate.
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