7 Best Customer Database Software in 2024

and how to pick the one that’s best for you

Are you looking for the best customer database software platform?

There are 600+ out there today (!), so it can be hard to pick the right one.

That’s why I’ll clearly explain when to go with which customer database software. 👈

I’ll also compare the top choices by combining their review scores on several independent platforms. 🥇

Here we go 👇

Choosing and ranking customer database software: methodology

There are a three questions to consider when choosing a great customer database software:

Does it work for your use case and business?
Does it fit with the rest of your sales toolset?
Is it a good customer database software?

To answer question 1, start from your exact use case and your type of business:

Are you a small or medium-sized business (SMB) actively selling B2B? Salesflare will probably be best for you.
Are you in real estate instead? Check out our review of Propertybase in this article.
Are you in another type of B2C business and need something for sales? Have a look at Pipedrive or Freshworks CRM. (Or you can also check out these full lists of the best sales CRMs and best lead tracking software.)
Are you an SMB but more focused on marketing automation? Have a look at HubSpot or ActiveCampaign.
You want something that can do literally everything and is not built for anything in particular? Sounds like Zoho CRM Plus.
Are you working for a company with 200+ employees? You’ll probably need an enterprise software like Salesforce.

To answer question 2, consider whether the customer databases / CRMs you are looking at are a great fit for your sales toolset. I have written dedicated breakdowns for the following:

And finally, for question 3, you can look for platforms that are well rated by their users across platforms. For this, check out the customer database software in this list and their global review ratings.

These global review ratings are obtained by combining three ratings into one:

Product rating, from the #1 B2B software review site (G2)
Mobile app rating, from the #1 mobile app store (Google Play)
Email plugin rating, from the #1 email plugin marketplace (Google Workspace Marketplace)

That way you know you get a customer database that performs on all fronts. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The 7 best customer database software ranked

To compile this ranking, I went through a list of around 700 possible platforms to make a pre-selection. Then I tested every one of the 7 selected customer database software platforms first hand and researched them in detail for you below.

Don’t want to read the whole comparison? 🤓

The top 7 best customer database software in 2024 are:

Salesflare: 9.7/10 🏆
Salesforce: 8.7/10
HubSpot CRM & Sales Hub: 8.6/10
ActiveCampaign: 8.5/10
Freshworks CRM: 8.3/10
Zoho CRM Plus: 7.7/10
Pipedrive: 6.6/10

Want to dig into the details? Read on! 👇

1. Salesflare [9.7/10] 🏆

Manage your leads like a pro through a visual pipeline ✨

Salesflare is a dedicated sales CRM that was built from the ground up to help your sales team build better relationships and sell more, while requiring very little of that dreaded data input.

It’s made to pull all the data together from where it already is (your Office 365 or Google email, calendar, phone, social media, company databases, email signatures, email & web tracking, …) and uses that to help you follow up your leads in a better way.

The flip side is that some companies are not used to sharing this much information within the team, although this has been changing dramatically in recent years, and Salesflare has introduced a new permissions system for companies who want to limit some of that newly created transparency.

"I have examined several CRMs. Signed up for Hubspot. Seemed good, but many limitations, and much less automation. Actually purchased a subscription for Salesforce. Seemed so cool, but a difficult integration with my Outlook for Mac Office 365, and a very large learning curve. Labor intensive data entry, compared to Salesflare. Salesflare seems much more intuitive and taking advantage of AI at tremendously affordable costs.” writes Rocco D., business developer at a building product company, about Salesflare.

Testing it out

When you start using Salesflare, the first thing you’ll notice is how little manual input is required. You connect your email, calendar, and social media accounts, and the customer database starts pulling in data automatically. Customer profiles are populated without you lifting a finger, from contact details to company information, and even social media insights.

You’ll appreciate how all your emails, meetings, and interactions are logged effortlessly. Every time you send an email or schedule a meeting, Salesflare tracks it, giving you a clear timeline of all communications. You can even see when leads open emails and click links, so you always know who’s engaging and when.

The interface is clean and intuitive, making it easy to see what’s happening with each lead. The automated follow-ups and reminders help keep you on top of your tasks without the usual clutter. Salesflare's ability to automate repetitive tasks lets you focus on building relationships and closing deals, not data entry.

Scoring

Salesflare’s G2 review scoring:

Ease of Use: 9.5
Ease of Setup: 9.5
Meets Requirements: 9.3
Quality of Support: 9.7
Ease of Doing Business With: 9.9
Ease of Admin: 9.5

Salesflare’s review ratings:

Product (G2): 9.6/10
Mobile app (Google Play): 4.8/5 → 9.6/10
Email plugin (Google Workspace): 5/5 → 10/10
FINAL REVIEW SCORE: 9.7/10

Pricing

Price of the Pro plan:

$49/user/month (billed annually)
$55/user/month (billed monthly)

Try Salesflare

If you don’t sell B2B (aka to other businesses) and don’t do active sales, one of the below customer databases might then be a better fit for you. But, if you do actively sell B2B, give Salesflare a try.

It only takes a few minutes to start a Salesflare trial and follow up your leads in a better way.👈

I guarantee you won’t find any better customer database software! 👌

Some of the awards Salesflare has received for its ease of use, ease of setup, support, and return on investment.

2. Salesforce [8.7/10]

Salesforce is the biggest CRM company in the world, controlling about 20% of the market. Its stock ticker is even “CRM” and it was the pioneer in bringing CRM and customer databases to the cloud, so I definitely can’t compile a list of customer database software without mentioning it.

While, in the first few years of its existence, Salesforce was focused on small businesses, it has since shifted its focus on enterprises. This also immediately explains why it’s forte is extreme customizability (provided you pay a team of consultants to do that) and why it has positioned itself to be the one business software vendor that offers a solution to all your business needs.

Salesforce does still offer a solution to small businesses today, called Salesforce Essentials, a limited version of the full customer platform. Compared to other customer database software in this list however, it lacks in user friendliness and is not really customized for sales teams.

This frustration with Salesforce is actually one of the reasons why we started building Salesflare, and – perhaps not surprisingly – why many of our customers find Salesflare while looking for a better alternative.

If extreme customizability is however your thing, or you’re working at a corporate, Salesforce might still be the best choice for you. But before signing any contract, read this guide to the small print first.

“[I like the] simple and effective way of using Sales Cloud to manage our new business opportunities all in one place. Being able to link this to our Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud apps as well provides a full, 360 view of our customers, regardless of how and when they want to contact us.” writes Michael B., implementation manager at a national postal company, about Salesforce Sales Cloud.