Pipedrive and Sales are fantastic platforms for sales teams, but how do you narrow it down?
If you pick the wrong one, it can feel like a kick in the sales pipeline with lost time, leads, and, worst of all—money.
I’m AJ—here to cut through the noise. I’ve spent the past decade building my business, using just about every sales tool under the sun.
After a successful multiple seven-figure exit with my company, my mission is to help you get to where I am (without the same hurdles).
So, let’s get into the nitty gritty of Pipedrive vs. Salesmate. Only one CRM can take the grand prize of the best CRM for your business.
Bonus points if you can guess who won (it was really close)!
Pipedrive: Some of the best pipeline management in the game.
Salesmate is a fantastic CRM for scaling your business and making life easier across the board!
My team and I put Salesmate and Pipedrive through their paces.
We examined the following:
Pricing & Free VersionTop FeaturesCustomer ServiceIntegrationsEase of UseBest Mobile AppKnowledge and Learning CenterLimitationsWhich One We Think is Best for Small Businesses
How We Objectively Test Each Platform:
AJ’s got a knack for kick-starting businesses, putting them on autopilot, and setting them up for acquisition. Over the past decade, he’s been right in the thick of things with hundreds of small businesses, helping them with just about everything under the business sun. If you need advice on software suites and choices? AJ’s your guy.
We roll up our sleeves and dive into the top CRM features we think are pretty crucial for small businesses. Stuff like reports and analytics, options to customize your pipelines, and the ability to link up with other apps and services. We know what makes small businesses tick, so we know what features they need to get the job done.
Money matters, folks! When it comes to picking a CRM system, price is usually the deal-breaker. We give a big thumbs up if a provider charges $30 or less per user each month for their starter plan. Extra brownie points for throwing in a freebie plan or trial, options to scale up or down as needed, and the freedom to pay monthly or yearly. We’re looking for flexability for small businesses.
We all know support is mega important when you’re choosing a CRM platform. This is especially true for those smaller businesses or sales teams who can’t afford to have tech wizards on their payroll. We put our detective hats on to see if these companies offer round-the-clock support, and we looked at the different ways you can get help. We’re talking live chat (like, real-time convo), email tickets, a good old-fashioned phone call, and self-service tools (for the DIY-ers out there).
When you’re in the business of picking a CRM, integrations are like the secret sauce that takes your burger from ‘meh’ to ‘mind-blowing’. Imagine, all your favorite apps and tools, working together in perfect harmony, making your workflow smoother than a fresh tub of Nutella. When we review a CRM, we look at the integrations most SMB owners are looking for.
When you’re reviewing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, it’s essential to pay close attention to its ease of use. After all, a CRM is as beneficial as its usability. A simple, intuitive interface saves you and your team a great deal of time and headache. When we’re reviewing each CRM, this is a crucial aspect that we look for.
The importance of Mobile CRM cannot be overstated in today’s digital age. It’s essential for fostering strong customer relationships and managing business activities. Mobile access to CRM makes it possible for sales teams to update and access customer information in real time, improving efficiency and ensuring up-to-date data. Mobile CRM can have a massive impact on SMBs, so thoroughly testing it is essential for each one of our reviews.
Here’s how Pipedrive fared against Salesmate overall.
Let’s see how Pipedrive stacks up against Salesmate when it comes to cost.
Salesmate CRM offers four pricing plans.
They are the following:
Starter – $15/MonthGrowth – $30/MonthBoost – $50/MonthEnterprise – Custom Pricing
Pipedrive offers a free plan in addition to three paid plans:
Essential: $21.90/MonthAdvanced: $37.90/MonthProfessional: $59.90/MonthPower: $74.90/MonthEnterprise: $119.00/Month
Check out our complete Pipedrive pricing guide.
AJ’s Take: Both platforms offer affordable, scalable pricing plans. However, Salesmate is the more affordable platform across the board. For example, Salesmate’s starter plan is $15/month, compared to Pipedrive’s essential plan at $21.90/month.
Advanced features can be the difference between good CRM software and great CRM software.
Let’s see how Pipedrive and Salesmate compare.
Pipedrive offers many core features to help everyone (from small businesses to enterprise sales teams) succeed.
Let’s break down a few of our favorite features.
Pipedrive offers some of the best sales pipeline management in the game for a few reasons.
They are the following:
Ease of use: Their drag-and-drop interface makes managing your pipeline quick and intuitive.Customizable pipelines: You can customize this platform to fit any sales process, making it a perfect fit for nearly any business.Visuals: Pipedrive’s visual representation of your pipeline with color-coding for deals allows you to see the status of every deal at a glance.
To really test this feature out, we added in some of our affiliate marketing deals at Small Business Bonfire.
Here’s how it looked to add a new deal to our pipeline.
Within each card, we had access to a ton of information, including the following:
Contact personOrganizationTitleValuePipelineStageProbabilityExpected close date
Once our deals were put in, here’s how our visual pipeline looked.
We especially liked the drag-and-drop interface, which allowed us to easily move our deals from each stage (without a second thought).
Overall, if you want to step your pipeline management up a notch, Pipedrive is a fantastic choice.
For an extra $8/month, Pipedrive provides powerful project management tools to help your project managers succeed.
Some of the most helpful tools include:
Project calendars: Easily track deadlines and milestones with this visual tool.Task management: Assign tasks to team members, set due dates, and track progress, all within Pipedrive.File sharing: Keep your files organized and accessible to everyone on your project team. Project templates: Save time setting up projects with pre-made templates for common project types.
We added and managed tons of projects during our sixth-month testing period.
We especially loved the ability to create project templates and easily duplicate them.
This saved us a ton of time in setting up new projects.
Here’s how the project template creation process looked on our end.
Overall, we were impressed with Pipedrive’s project management features, especially for the affordable price point.
Pipedrive also stands out with its workflow management feature, which enables you to automate repetitive tasks and maintain a smooth sales process.
Here’s how this feature works:
Custom workflows: Pipedrive lets you customize your workflows to suit your business needs. You can create specific stages and gateways that align with your sales process, making sure no detail gets overlooked.Notifications: With Pipedrive’s workflow management, you’ll receive timely notifications to remind you of any pending tasks or next steps. This helps you stay on top of things and never miss out on any opportunities.Progress bar: Pipedrive also offers a visual progress bar that gives you a quick overview of where you are in your sales process. It helps you track your progress and spot any bottlenecks in your sales pipeline.
Our take: Pipedrive’s workflow automation capabilities ensure that your sales team stays efficient, organized, and, most importantly—focused on closing deals.
Great email campaigns can make all the difference in turning leads into customers.
Luckily, for an extra $16/month, Pipedrive offers a robust email campaign management system.
They offer the following powerful features:
Intuitive interface: Pipedrive’s email campaign management is intuitive and easy to navigate, even for beginners.Customizable templates: You can create professional-looking email campaigns with Pipedrive’s customizable templates.Advanced analytics: With built-in analytics tools, you can track the performance of your email campaigns and make data-driven decisions to improve results.
We created all sorts of email campaigns using Pipedrive. Some of these included:
Newsletter rolloutFollow up with affiliate contactsCold email promotionsWebinar announcements
Let’s walk you through our process of creating a campaign to showcase our Small Business Bonfire newsletter.
First, we selected from one of Pipedrive’s gorgeous email templates (shown below).
Next, we were taken to the intuitive drag-and-drop email editor, where we could fully customize our first email.
Here’s how it looked (during our testing period).
We were able to easily add the following to each email:
ImagesButtonsVideoCustom codeSocial linksText
Once our email was customized to our liking, we could easily schedule and send them to our clients (directly from Pipedrive CRM).
The CRM offered custom reports on our campaign metrics, giving us insight into the success of each email.
In a nutshell, Pipedrive’s marketing automation capabilities are advanced and immensely helpful for small businesses looking to take their email marketing game up a notch.
The efficiency of a CRM platform is largely dependent on its customer data management capabilities.
In fact, superior contact management can revolutionize how a business interacts with its customers, fostering stronger relationships and driving business growth.
Here’s how it looked to add one of our B2B affiliate marketing contacts to Pipedrive.
Here are some things we loved about Pipedrive’s contact management:
Easy import and export: Pipedrive makes it super easy to import and export contact data. You can effortlessly update and manage your database without any hassle.Contact segmentation: We loved how Pipedrive lets you categorize and segment your contacts based on various criteria. It really helps in targeting our communication more effectively.Custom dashboards & fields: One of the most important aspects of Pipedrive is the ability to create custom dashboards and fields for our contacts. It’s perfect for capturing specific information relevant to our unique business needs.Interaction tracking: Pipedrive makes it a breeze to keep track of every interaction with a contact. From calls and emails to meetings and notes, everything is neatly organized.Integration with Google Contacts: The seamless syncing with Google Contacts ensures that our database is always up-to-date and accessible from any device.Activity reminders: Thanks to Pipedrive, we never miss any follow-ups. The timely reminders keep us on track and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
The breakdown: Pipedrive’s Contact Management is a powerhouse offering a suite of advanced features that make handling contacts a smooth and efficient process.
As you scale your business, your schedule will get busier, making it harder to keep track of all your sales activities.
Pipedrive CRM offers the ability to manage your day-to-day like a boss with its activity tracking capabilities.
Don’t just take our word for it, though; let’s get into it.
With each activity card (shown below), you get access to a ton of information.
Here’s everything you can access and edit with just a click:
Activity typeDate & timeLocationGuestsNotesOwnerAssociated deals & contacts
We especially liked the ability to see our calendar view within each activity card.
This made sure we didn’t double-book our activities and were able to prioritize our tasks effectively.
The bottom line: Pipedrive’s activity tracking capabilities are some of the best on the market.
It’s no wonder Pipedrive is one of our favorite sales CRMs to recommend for SMBs.
Pipedrive really stands out with its comprehensive LeadBooster feature.
This powerful tool provides several lead generation and management capabilities to propel your business toward success.
Here’s how you can access the following functions under the LeadBooster feature:
Live chat: Deploy live chat on your website to interact with your visitors in real time. By having direct contact with potential customers, you can answer queries promptly, improving customer satisfaction and increasing conversion rates.Prospector: A highly potent tool, Prospector scours multiple databases, identifying and drawing in valuable leads for your business.Chatbots: Utilize chatbots to engage visitors when your team isn’t available. By providing automated responses to basic inquiries, they keep your leads engaged, ensuring you don’t lose potential customers due to delayed responses.Web forms: Use web forms to gather information about your visitors. This can help you understand their needs better, allowing you to personalize your interactions and improve your chances of conversion.
Being massive fans of automation and efficiency (I mean, who isn’t?), we absolutely loved Pipedrive’s LeadBooster.
This feature truly packs a punch in lead generation and management. The only downside is that it’s available for an additional $39/month (though we believe it’s a worthy investment).
Salesmate is a powerful platform for sales teams looking to boost their efficiency and productivity.
Here are some key features that set Salesmate apart from other CRM tools.
Great pipeline management can be the key to scaling your SMB.
Thankfully, Salesmate delivers a fantastic offering to help you close more deals.
We started testing this feature by adding some of our affiliate marketing deals at Small Business Bonfire.
We could switch between our list and board view with just a click.
Here’s an example of our list view (during our six-month testing period).
This view was awesome because we could see a ton of information simultaneously.
We had access to the following info:
Deal nameAssociated contactValueStageStatus Deal ownerRecent activity
Our board view, on the other hand, gave us a fantastic drag-and-drop layout to help us visualize and track deals.
This is a great way for teams to collaborate and monitor their progress against deals.
Here’s our board view (for reference).
With Salesmate, we had a visual pipeline layout that was easy to manage and navigate.
We also loved the ability to create custom stages for our deals, ensuring we had complete control over our sales process.
The breakdown: Salesmate’s pipeline management is top-notch, providing multiple views and customization options to improve your sales process.
Managing your daily activities as you scale your business can be a nightmare without the right tools.
If you’re still relying on spreadsheets or sticky notes, Salesmate’s activity tracking feature can be a night and day difference.
With this tool, you can:
Log all your tasks and follow-ups in one placeSet reminders to ensure you never miss important deadlines or meetingsTrack the progress of your activities with visual representation through graphs and charts
We tested Salesmate’s activity tracking capabilities by adding some typical tasks at Small Business Bonfire.
Here’s how a “new activity” card looked (for reference).
Within each card, we could edit the following info:
Type of activityDate & timeAvailabilityNotesOwnerTagsAssociated contacts
Once we put in our tasks, we could easily view everything with the sleek, uncluttered dashboard view (shown below).
We could switch between this view and our Calendar view, giving us a comprehensive look at all of our tasks each day.
While this might not seem like the flashiest feature of a sales CRM, it’s honestly one of the most helpful for keeping us organized and on top of our tasks.
Communication is key in any organization, and Salesmate understands this perfectly.
Their team inbox feature allows you to easily create separate inboxes for all your teams.
This feature is especially beneficial for keeping everyone in the loop, even when working remotely.
Here’s what we found (based on our six months of testing):
Ease of creation: We were able to set up a team inbox in just a few clicks. The process is user-friendly and designed for quick setup, making it easy for anyone on the team to do.Integration with Gmail: We integrated our Gmail account just as easily. All our emails were instantly accessible in Salesmate’s team inbox, ensuring a seamless transition.Keeps everyone in the loop: With a shared inbox, every team member can see the same set of emails, which promotes transparency and ensures that everyone is on the same page.Improves team communication: This feature significantly boosted our team’s communication. Queries were solved faster, ideas were shared more efficiently, and everyone stayed updated on project status.
Here’s a sneak peek of the creation process.
After integrating this feature into our daily workflow, we noticed an immediate improvement in team collaboration and efficiency.
Put simply—Salesmate’s team inbox is a tool that empowers your team to succeed.
Tracking each customer journey (from prospecting to post-sales) can be a daunting task.
Salesmate takes all of the headaches out of the equation with automated workflows.
We tested this feature (over six months) by creating tons of automation.
Some aspects of our customer journey we were able to automate include the following:
Creating new leadsMoving leads through your sales pipeline based on specific triggers and criteriaUpdating contact and company infoNotifying team members of important actions or changes
We could create powerful sequences within minutes (no coding experience needed).
Here’s a quick look at our automation creation process.
The colorful drag-and-drop interface made it a breeze to design complex workflows with different triggers and actions.
The inside scoop: Salesmate’s automation journeys take the guesswork out of customer journey tracking, ensuring you never miss a beat as you nurture leads toward conversion.
Great email marketing campaigns are at the heart of every successful marketing strategy.
Salesmate provides the ability to create, schedule, and send campaigns with ease!
Let’s walk you through our experience (over the six-month testing period).
For starters, we could create email templates (so we didn’t have to type the same message a thousand times).
Here’s an example of an affiliate marketing follow-up template we created ( in less than 5 minutes).
Salesmate also offers some fantastic pre-made templates to help beginners get started.
We selected one and were able to fully customize it to our liking for a newsletter campaign (shown below).
Salesmate’s drag-and-drop email editor allowed us to customize the following with ease:
TextImagesButtonsVideoSocial links
From there, we were able to send off our emails and track their performance with the campaign analytics feature.
Here’s what we could track:
Open rates: This helped us understand which subject lines and email copy resonated best with our audience.Click-through rates: We discovered which links were clicked on the most, giving us insight into what content interested our readers.Bounce and unsubscribe rates: These stats allowed us to optimize our email list and ensure that we were targeting engaged subscribers.
Salesmate’s email campaigns proved to be a valuable addition to our marketing efforts, helping us reach more potential customers (and nurture existing ones).
In today’s digital landscape, connecting with your customers in real time is essential.
That’s where Salesmate swoops in to help with its live chat creation.
With Salesmate, we could easily create and customize live chat (in a matter of minutes).
Here’s what we could customize:
LogoColors Custom messaging
Here’s a snapshot of the creation process (about halfway through).
Once we had our live chat customized to our liking, we could easily embed it on our site with code (courtesy of Salesmate).
From there, we were connecting with clients left and right, increasing our customer satisfaction and conversions.
AJ’s Take: Salesmate and Pipedrive both offer robust features designed to help SMBs scale. Each platform has its perks, making it tough to declare one a clear winner over the other.
After testing, we compiled a thorough list of our favorite CRMs for Small Businesses. Check it out now! The list might surprise you.
We compared Pipedrive and Salesmate in terms of the following:
Availability & responsive supportKnowledge baseTraining
Pipedrive delivers stellar customer service from start to finish.
Let’s break it down:
Availability & responsive support: Pipedrive CRM offers live chat, phone, and email support. They were available (usually within seconds) any time we needed them. Knowledge base: The platform has an extensive knowledge base, complete with helpful articles and videos. We were able to quickly troubleshoot any issues we encountered.Training: Pipedrive offers comprehensive training resources with Pipedrive Academy. We learned more about the platform and its features at our own pace (which is great for beginners).
Salesmate offers fantastic customer service.
Let’s look at the following:
Availability & responsive support: Salesmate offers live chat, email, and phone support. We never waited longer than 5 minutes to hear back from them.Knowledge base: Salesmate’s knowledge base is well organized and easy to navigate. The articles were thorough and helped us solve any issues we encountered.Training: Salesmate offers personalized one-on-one training sessions with their experts. This was a great opportunity to learn more about the platform and its features in-depth.
AJ’s Take: Pipedrive and Salesmate offer excellent customer service options, making it difficult to pick a clear winner.
Integrations are a crucial component of any sales CRM, as they allow you to connect and sync your data across different tools and platforms.
Let’s see how Pipedrive and Salesmate compare in terms of integrations.
Pipedrive boasts several great native integrations.
Some of our favorites are the following:
SlackTrelloZoomIntercomMailChimp
Pipedrive also offers a fantastic Zapier integration that allows for thousands of additional third-party apps.
Salesmate also offers a wide variety of native integrations.
Some noteworthy ones include:
ZapierQuickBooksSlackZoomXero
Salesmate’s Zapier integration also provides a ton of additional third-party platforms.
AJ’s Take: Once again, we’ve come up against another stalemate. Both platforms offer fantastic integrations worth checking out.
Pipedrive and Salesmate are both easy-to-use CRM platforms worth considering.
Let’s see how they do against each other.
Pipedrive is a very user-friendly CRM.
Here’s what we liked:
Clean interface: Pipedrive has a modern and clean interface that is easy to navigate.Drag-and-drop functionality: The drag-and-drop feature made it simple for us to move deals through our sales pipeline. Customization options: We appreciated the ability to customize fields, pipelines, and more to fit our specific sales process.
Salesmate offers a user-friendly interface that’s perfect for beginners.
Here’s what we liked:
Modern interface: We appreciated the clean and modern interface that was easy to navigate.Drag-and-drop functionality: Salesmate also offers a drag-and-drop feature for managing deals in your pipeline. Customization options: We could easily customize fields and pipelines to fit our sales process.
AJ’s Take: We’ve got ourselves yet another tie. These platforms are both incredibly easy to use and offer a ton of templates and other resources to help beginners get started (with virtually no learning curve).
Most cloud-based CRM platforms worth their salt offer a mobile app.
That’s true for both Salesmate and Pipedrive, so let’s see how they stack up.
Pipedrive’s mobile app (available on iOS and Android) is user-friendly and offers all the essential features of the desktop version.
Here are some noteworthy features:
Deal managementContact management Email marketing Campaign trackingTask management
Pipedrive’s mobile app is basically like having the full CRM on the go. The only downside is that the pipeline management isn’t quite as comprehensive on mobile.
Salesmate offers a fantastic mobile app on iOS and Android.
Some of our favorite features include:
Pipeline managementContact managementEmail and SMS marketingCall tracking and recording
Salesmate’s mobile app is extremely comprehensive, with all the features you’d find on the desktop version.
AJ’s Take: While both platforms offer excellent mobile, Pipedrive’s app falls short regarding pipeline management capabilities. Salesmate’s app is comprehensive and offers a sleek, user-friendly interface.
The importance of a knowledge center cannot be overstated. It’s crucial to have easy access to resources and support (especially when learning a new CRM platform).
Let’s see how Pipedrive and Salesmate compare.
Pipedrive’s knowledge center offers a wealth of helpful resources for users.
We were always able to find the help we needed in the following areas:
Video tutorialsWebinarsArticles and guidesCommunity forum
Pipedrive’s knowledge center is well-organized and easy to navigate, making it simple to find answers to any questions.
Salesmate’s knowledge center is equally as impressive.
Some of our favorite features include:
Video tutorials Articles and guidesCommunity forum
Salesmate also offers regular webinars on various topics to help users get the most out of the platform.
Their articles and guides are thorough and easy to understand, making it simple for users to learn the ins and outs of the CRM.
AJ’s Take: This round has no clear winner, as both platforms provide awesome knowledge centers for great self-service.
As with any software, there are always some limitations to consider before making a purchase decision.
Let’s see what limitations Pipedrive and Salesmate may have.
Even Superman is weak to Kryptonite, just like Pipedrive has a couple of weaknesses.
These include the following:
No free plan: Pipedrive doesn’t offer any kind of free plan, which can be a barrier to entry for startups.Limited customer journey view: The platform doesn’t provide a visual representation of the customer journey, making it difficult to track progress.
AJ’s Take: This round is a good old-fashioned tie! Neither platform offers a free plan, and each has its own blindspots regarding features.
Our winner (by an incredibly narrow margin) is Salesmate.
If you’re looking for a sleek, affordable platform chock-full of features to help you scale, our money is on Salesmate.
However, if you need fantastic Pipeline management, great marketing features, and a beginner-friendly user interface, try Pipedrive.
Both platforms offer comprehensive free trials, so give each one a try today!
The post Pipedrive Vs. Salesmate 2023: What’s Best for Business? appeared first on Small Business Bonfire.
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