As companies look to streamline sales and marketing processes, many are looking to a new generation of cloud-based CRMs to facilitate increased productivity and ROI.

Modern CRM solutions extend beyond just customer management, and provide a robust suite of tools for things like ecommerce integration, customer segmentation, analytics reporting and integration with apps from Google, MailChimp, QuickBooks, POS systems and more.

Additionally, in the past several years CRM providers have focused on creating cloud-based, mobile-friendly platforms that eliminate on-premise hosting and frustrating access restrictions.

We’ve helped a number of companies transition from old, stodgy CRMs to powerful light-weight solutions with robust feature sets that have breathed new life into their businesses.

Here are the Top 5 Cloud CRM Software Solutions for 2015

Sugar CRM

Website

http://www.sugarcrm.com/

Overview

Sugar is a flexible open-source platform built for business of any size.

Main Selling Point(s)

– Sugar claims to have the “Lowest Total Ownership Cost” of any CRM in it’s class.
– “Value, Support, Loyalty, Service, Price”.
– Automation, Personalisation, Customisation
– Superior UX / ease of use
– Flexibility to extend capabilities without extra/hidden costs

Core Features

Customer Management, Sales and Marketing Automation, Mobile Versions

Core Users

Small businesses

Pricing

Professional
– $40/user/month (min of 10 licenses or $4,800/yr)
– Basic CRM features

Enterprise
-60/user/month (min of 10 licenses or $7,800/yr)
– Advanced features like Sales Forecasts, Advanced Reporting and Mobile Access

Ultimate
– $125/user/month (no minimums)

Pros/Cons:

Pros:
– Modern, flexible, great out-of-the-box feature set, great value.

Cons:
– No major conts

Base CRM

Website: http://www.getbase.com/

Overview:

“With amazing sales productivity tools for sales reps, the #1 web and mobile apps in the market and breakthrough visual reporting for sales leaders, Base is the complete and ultimate solution for any team that sells.”

Main Selling Point(s):

– “Working your sales pipeline has never been easier. Customize sales stages and enjoy an easy drag-and-drop interface. Invite your team to work with you on current opportunities and share deals, contacts, notes and tasks.”

– “You worked hard to build a relationship with your customer and you want to keep that relationship solid. Base stores all call records, call recordings, notes and emails between your company and the customer on one single card.

– “Your leads come from a variety of sources. Lead management in Base helps you organize leads and assign them to the right sales reps so they can be followed up on and qualified quickly. After being qualified, convert a lead in Base and all of the contact information you have about your lead is transferred your new customer contact card. Optionally, you can specify follow up tasks and even create a deal at the same time.”

– “Your CRM should be ubiquitous. The days of waiting to get back to the office to update your CRM are over. No matter where you go, Base is along for the ride. Access Base using dedicated, native mobile CRM apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone to complement the robust web application.“

Core Features

Sales & Customer Management, Lead Tracking, Reports & Analytics, Mobility, Call-from-CRM features, Email Automation

Core Users

<Small, Mid-Market, Enterprise

Pricing:

Starter
– $25/user/month (max of 5 users)
– Basic CRM features

Professional
– $75/user/month (no min/max)
– Advanced features like Sales Forecasts & Reports, Document Repository, Task Automation

Enterprise
– $125/user/month (no minimums)
– Call & Analytics Reporter, Auto Dialer, Team & User Based Permissions, Call Scripts

Pros/Cons:

Pros:
– Highly focused on improving Sales Processes, beautiful and user-friendly UX, light-weight and great for mobility.

Cons:
– Lacks advanced Marketing Automation tools and ecommerce functionality
– Not open source
– Not available in Spanish

ORO CRM

Website:

http://www.orocrm.com/

Overview:

– “OroCRM was created with marketers in mind. Multi-channel marketing automation tools make it easy for commerce companies to customize marketing activities across sales channels and campaigns.”

– A CRM system with a single view of customer across all sales channels and campaigns is the core of what we have built. Product flexibility matches OroCRM to your exact business process.

– OroCRM is completely flexible and open source. It is built on the Oro Business Application Platform. These qualities drive an innovative and vibrant ecosystem around Magento.

Main Selling Point(s):

– Built for selling online
– Includes advanced marketing, sales and ecommerce tools out of the box.
– Open source for future flexibility.

Core Features:

Marketing Features
– Customer Segmentation
– Multi-Channel Data Integration
– Dashboards & Custom Reporting
– Marketing Productivity

Sales Features
– Sales Management
– Multi-Channel Organization Management
– Commerce Sales Flows
– Customer Service Productivity Tools

Development Features
– Oro Extension Marketplace
– Built on the Oro Platform
– Open Source Ecosystem

Core Users

Small-Enterprise businesses

Pricing:

Professional
– $59/user/month (min of 5licenses or $3,500/yr)
– All available features

Pros/Cons:

Pros:
– Modern, flexible, great out-of-the-box feature set, great value.
– Lacks a tiered price structure and gives every customer ALL available features.
– Includes perhaps the most robust and all-inclusive combination of Sales and Marketing tools of any platform in its class.
– Includes Ecommerce functionality out of the box.

Cons:
– None that we know of

Zoho CRM

Website: http://www.zoho.com/crm/

Overview

“Zoho CRM gives you a 360-degree view of your complete sales cycle and pipeline. Identify trends, spot opportunities, increase efficiency and reduce costs with the right answers, right now.”

Main Selling Point(s)

– Sales and Marketing automation tools
– Pay as you go
– Fully customizable admin interface with drag-and-drop tools
– Email, Phone, Live Chat & Social Media management from CRM admin
– Integrates with Google Apps and Google AdWords

Core Features

Marketing Features
– Click to deal – track & measure all marketing activities, such as campaigns, mass emails, Ad performance within CRM and improve the return on investment.

– Intelligently track your visitor’s footprint, have a dialog, fascinate with a reliable service, measure and improve the sales conversion rates.

– Integration with Google AdWords

Sales Features

– Zoho CRM’s Opportunity Tracking tool gives you a current, comprehensive view of all your sales activities. Know where every customer is in the sales cycle, deal size, contact history, even competitor information to help craft more effective messaging. Dynamic Reports & Dashboards provide an easy, accurate read of everything going on.

– Gain instant insight on what’s happening in your sales pipeline. Use what you learn to refine and improve your sales efforts.

– Link deals with forecasting to effectively set sales targets, track progress, and allocate resources to achieve your goals.

– What’s the latest with your prospects and customers? Let them tell you. Link their Facebook and Twitter profiles into your Zoho CRM system. Associate profiles to contacts or leads, send invitations to connect, view updates and share your comments.

– Email, Phone, Chat features built-in

– Seamless Google Apps integration

– Mobile version available

Core Users

Small-to-Medium Size Businesses

Pricing

– From Free to $50/user/month (for complete package)
– Many options to explore – would need to closely review each plan.

Pros/Cons:

Pros:
– Modern, flexible, great out-of-the-box feature set, great value.
– Impressive set of Sales and Marketing tools.
– Greatest range of pricing options to serve businesses of any size.

Cons:
– No ecommerce out of the box

Insightly

Website

http://www.insightly.com/

Overview

“Zoho CRM gives you a 360-degree view of your complete sales cycle and pipeline. Identify trends, spot opportunities, increase efficiency and reduce costs with the right answers, right now.”

Main Selling Point(s)

– Focus on Sales and Customer management
– Extremely “current” platform that places high value on Social Media integration and Mobile friendliness
– Cheap pricing available
– Integrates with a variety of 3rd party apps (Google apps, Microsoft apps, Box.com, Evernote, Boomerang, DirectIQ, etc.)

Core Features

– Robust Sales reporting tools
– Built-in Social Media features
– Seamless integration with Google Apps and Office 365
– Mobile friendly

Core Users

Small Businesses to Enterprise

Pricing

– From $12/month/user to $99/month/user (Basic to Enterprise editions)
– Many options to explore – would need to closely review each plan.

Pros/Cons:

Pros:
– Great for basic Sales/Customer management
– Great tools for Social and Google integration

Cons:
– Lacks advanced Marketing features
– No ecommerce
– Not open source
– Not available in Spanish
– No built-in voice features
– No built in live-chat

CRM Comparison Matrix

The below chart is a comparison of the top 5 CRM platforms we just covered.