Features, advantages, disadvantages and prices

Close is a sales CRM solution with modern and simple features. Its main goal is to help marketing and sales teams increase sales efficiency and reduce enterprise technology stacks by offering a multitude of integrated tools. Examples include omnichannel communication, calendar synchronization, video meetings, and reporting.

Close is touted as an ideal solution for startup or small business teams looking to improve their remote CRM strategy. While its premium tiers can be considered pricey, it does offer onboarding assistance and guided setup of the platform. If your company can allocate a budget for Close, it can facilitate sales productivity improvements in agile-style teams.

Close CRM Pricing

• Free trial: 14 days.
• Start-up: $49 per user per month billed annually. $59 per user per month billed annually. This plan offers integrated calling, texting, and email solutions, plus workflow reporting and account management.
• Professional: $99 per user per month billed annually. $109 per user per month billed annually. This plan includes all of Startup's features, plus custom activities, follow-up automations, and multiple pipeline views.
• Company: $139 per user per month billed annually. $149 per user per month billed monthly. This tier includes all pro features plus a predictive dialer, call guidance, and enhanced custom reporting.

Key Features of Close CRM

Workflow Automations

Close allows users to implement automations throughout their CRM sales cycle. Businesses can get started with multi-channel communication by automating emails, calls, and SMS. From there, reps can identify and optimize communication strategies with a KPI-based reporting dashboard. Automations that work best can be cloned into templates for easy access.

AI Call Assistant

Close’s AI toolset includes a built-in call assistant. This feature automatically transcribes and summarizes all phone calls. Reps can focus on the conversation and trust Close to produce an accurate, searchable summary with generated action items. This tool also has support for over 20 languages ​​and can work via desktop or with Close’s mobile app.

Video meetings

Close’s video tool works through an integration with Zoom. Businesses can connect their Zoom account and previous cloud recordings will come to Close automatically. Close will notify sales reps 5 minutes before their next Zoom call, they will join the Zoom call directly from the leads view in Close, and then save the call recording. This is the best option for remote sales teams that have to sell via video.

Smart Search and Views

Combining search with the Smart Views feature can help reps prioritize leads and begin nurturing them from the same screen. The built-in search feature helps reps find contact information by searching for important phrases, contract mentions, past conversations, and more. This will create a Smart View of the lead’s key data, such as recent email opens, renewal updates, or other firmographic data. Outreach workflows can then be automated around those saved views.

Closing the pros of CRM

• Offers easy-to-customize templates.
• Real users report effective reminders and notifications.
• SOC2 Type 2, GDPR and CCPA compliant.

Closing the disadvantages of CRM

• Real users report a learning curve with the interface.
• Expensive compared to other similar solutions.
• Users report minor bugs with the platform.

Alternatives to closed CRM

Pipe unit

Pipedrive is an intuitive CRM provider that focuses on creating clear, simple sales pipelines that sales reps can follow. Compared to Close, Pipedrive’s reporting dashboards offer more collaboration and custom field reporting. And while both Pipedrive and Close offer email syncing and broadcast automations, Pipedrive’s marketing tools are more advanced with email analytics and segmentation.

For more information, check out this Pipedrive review.

HubSpot

HubSpot offers a suite of business tools, including a popular CRM software option. It has the ability to integrate with over 1,500 tools for maximum customization. HubSpot’s software itself isn’t open source, but its integrations are developer-friendly. While it doesn’t have the option of a free trial like Close does, HubSpot does offer a permanent free tier as well as an enterprise plan, making it a more scalable platform.

To learn more about this alternative, check out our full HubSpot review.

Monday CRM

monday CRM is another flexible and customizable CRM software with advanced project management features. It offers a free version, but only for nonprofits or students, once approved. Compared to monday CRM, Close offers more built-in communication features, such as calling and SMS tools.

Read Monday CRM review for more details.

Review methodology

To analyze Close, I used our internal rubric that has defined criteria around the most important evaluation points when considering the best CRM vendors. I compared Close’s key features, pricing, and benefits to industry standards. All of this helps me identify standout features and ideal use cases.

These are the exact criteria I used to rate Close's CRM software:

• Cost: Weighted 25% of the total score.
• Main features: Weighted 25% of the total score.
• Customizations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
• Integrations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
• Ease of use: Weighted 10% of the total score.
• Customer Service: Weighted 10% of the total score.

For a more detailed breakdown of these criteria, read TechRepublic's review methodology page.