Tried switching our whole CRM to that free open source one last quarter

Figured we'd save $400 a month, but after three weeks of fighting with the setup and missing basic reporting, we moved back to the paid version. Has anyone else found a cheap CRM that actually works for a 5 person team?

4 comments

4 Comments

emeryj6615d ago

Tbh we went through the exact same thing. Ended up on HoneyBook for our team of 4 and it's been solid for tracking leads and basic reporting without needing a degree to set up. @pat_stone nailed it, the hidden time cost is way bigger than any subscription fee for a small crew. We tried Zoho too but the free tier felt like it was missing half the features we actually needed day to day.

pat_stone15d ago

I mean, I used to be the guy pushing for free open source everything. Thought we were throwing money away on subscriptions. But after watching our team spend 40 hours just trying to get the damn thing to run custom reports, I totally get why you went back. That hidden time cost is brutal for a small team. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather pay $400 a month than lose two weeks of productivity every quarter. We ended up on a mid-tier plan from one of the bigger guys and it's boring but it just works. The free stuff is great if you have a dedicated IT person, but for 5 people it's usually a trap.

lewis.mila14d ago

...and then we spent another week convincing ourselves it wasn't Stockholm syndrome with the interface. Look, I got so deep into the weeds with that open source one I started dreaming about SQL queries at 3am. Ended up on Pipedrive for $15 a seat and honestly I do not miss spending my Friday nights trying to figure out why our pipeline wouldn't sort by closing date.

evahenderson14d ago

$15 a seat and I do not miss spending my Friday nights" - oh man, this hit way too close to home. I once spent an entire Saturday trying to make a free CRM sync with our email and ended up crying over a bowl of cereal at 2pm. The worst part was I kept convincing myself "next weekend I'll fix it for good" like that was a normal thing to say about software. Pipedrive sounds like a solid rescue plan, honestly anything that lets you sleep through the night and not dream about database schemas is a win.