Best CRM For Consultants: Top 7 Picks For 2025

There is no doubt that consulting is a business of trust. And how do you usually trust a business? You trust it when it delivers exactly what it promises, meets deadlines without excuses, and remembers every detail you discussed, even months later.

And in fact, there’s no way any business can consistently deliver that without the right tools in place. Even if you’re not using one now, the moment your business starts to scale, you’ll need a CRM that matches your demands and fits your budget.

For your convenience, we’ve reviewed the seven best CRMs for consultants that can generate better revenue and trust for their business in 2025. Each has its strengths, its gaps, and the type of consulting business it suits best. This guide is based on how these tools perform in real-world use — not just what the marketing brochures claim. Let’s dive in!

1. Salesforce

Salesforce remains one of the most established names in CRM, and for good reason. While it doesn’t offer a special ‘Consulting Cloud,’ its core platform is so customizable that consulting firms of all sizes mold it to fit their client pipeline and project oversight needs. Salesforce can track long sales cycles (common in consulting) and then help manage ongoing client relationships in the same system. With extensive integration capabilities (through the AppExchange marketplace), consultancies can even connect Salesforce to project management or professional services automation tools to bridge the gap between selling an engagement and delivering it.

Another big plus is analytics. Salesforce’s Einstein Analytics (CRM Analytics) can crunch data from your activities to spot trends or forecast revenue. For example, you could identify which types of leads are most likely to turn into high-value consulting projects, or flag a drop in client engagement early. Many of the world’s top professional services firms rely on Salesforce’s analytics and customization. In fact, Panasonic uses Salesforce’s CRM Analytics to unify sales and service data, powering AI-driven tools that resolve the majority of customer queries without human intervention.

Well-known 150,000 companies, including Goodyear, LIV Golf, OpenTable, and PepsiCo, are among its users. That speaks to the platform’s ability to handle complex relationship management at a global scale.

Best For: We do not recommend Salesforce for solo consultants or very small teams, but for large consulting firms with complex sales cycles, it can deliver significant improvements.

Pricing

Salesforce offers the following subscription plans for its Sales Cloud:

• Starter Suite: $25/user/month (Billed monthly or annually)
• Pro Suite: $100/user/month (Billed annually)
• Enterprise: $175/user/month (Billed annually)
• Unlimited: $350/user/month (Billed annually)
• Agentforce 1 Sales: $550/user/month (Billed annually)

Disclaimer: The pricing is subject to change.

2. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 is a serious competitor to Salesforce, especially for enterprises. In fact, Lenovo’s (technology company) move from multiple Salesforce systems to Dynamics 365 gave 70% of its global sales team one CRM, boosted potential annual sales by $1.3 billion.

It’s actually a suite that spans both CRM and ERP, which is a big deal if your consulting business wants to tie client relationship management directly with operations, finance, or resource planning. For example, a consulting firm using Dynamics 365 could have sales activities (like proposals and pipeline) connected to project delivery and billing in one ecosystem. That means less manual data transfer between your CRM and, say, your project accounting system – everything lives under the Microsoft umbrella.

What we would like to highlight here is its tight integration with Microsoft’s ecosystem. If your team lives in Outlook and Teams, Dynamics 365 integrates directly with them. Emails in Outlook can be automatically tracked to client records; you can collaborate on deals and projects via Teams without leaving the CRM; and with Power BI you get powerful analytics dashboards built right into your workflow.

Best For: Any mid-sized to large consulting firms, especially those already using Microsoft Office 365 or Azure, will get the most out of Dynamics 365.

Pricing

Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a range of subscription plans and modules. Key plans relevant to consulting include:

Dynamics 365 Business Central (all billed yearly):

• Essentials – $70.00/user/month
• Premium – $100/user/month
• Team Members – $8.00/user/month

Dynamics 365 Project Operations:

• $135.00/user/month (billed yearly)

Dynamics 365 Sales (all billed yearly):

• Professional – $65.00/user/month
• Enterprise Edition – $105.00/user/month
• Premium – $150.00/user/month
• Microsoft Relationship Sales – Custom pricing

Disclaimer: The pricing is subject to change.

3. monday.com CRM

Monday.com software made its name as a work management tool, and its CRM offering (built atop the same platform) is a natural fit for consultants who manage projects. Unlike traditional CRMs that are oriented purely around sales pipelines, monday CRM lets you manage the journey from initial lead all the way through project delivery in a highly visual way. You can use it to track consulting engagements with boards that show each project’s status, timeline, and team members.

The interface uses kanban boards, Gantt-style timelines, and calendar views that make complex projects easy to grasp at a glance. For a consulting firm, this means your sales team and project team could literally use the same system – leads convert to projects, and all the details (proposals, client communications, tasks) can live on one platform.

The platform is exceptionally customizable (built for users without coding skills). You can tailor the boards to your specific process – edit deal stages, add columns for things like project phase or probability, create automations that automatically assign tasks when a deal moves to ‘Closed Won.’

Another plus: monday.com is highly intuitive. As Luca Pope, Global Client Solutions Manager at Black Mountain, put it, ‘What grabbed our attention was the design and how simple it was to use.’ Apart from this, the platform has its own credibility, which is why more than 245,000 customers worldwide rely on it.

Best For: We don’t recommend it for teams that want a rigid, plug-and-play CRM. It’s made for project-focused consulting firms that want something highly visual and customizable.

Pricing

monday.com CRM offers four pricing tiers, billed monthly. Pricing varies depending on the number of seats:

• Basic Plan: Starts at $15/seat (total $150 for 10 seats)
• Standard Plan: Starts at $20/seat (total $200 for 10 seats)
• Pro Plan: Starts at $33/seat (total $330 for 10 seats)
• Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing

Disclaimer: The pricing is subject to change.

4. HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM software earned its fame by being extremely user-friendly and offering a robust free version, which is why it’s often the first CRM many small businesses (consulting firms included) try. While it’s not a consulting-specific system, it has become a viable option for professionals who need a straightforward way to manage contacts and sales pipelines – especially if you appreciate built-in marketing tools.

HubSpot essentially gives you a combined CRM + marketing automation platform: you can track your deals and also run email campaigns, build landing pages, and even manage a blog or ads, all from one interface, once you upgrade to the Marketing Hub. This all-in-one nature is great for a small consulting outfit that may not have separate tools for everything. Even one company, Loop & Tie, used HubSpot’s all-in-one setup with the Twilio Segment App and saw 51% more users plus a 600% return on ad spend.

When it comes to numbers, HubSpot offers 1,700 integrations with tools like Gmail, Outlook, calendars, Slack, accounting software, and webinar platforms. And in terms of credibility, it’s trusted by over 258,000 customers across 135 countries.

Best For: If you want a free or affordable CRM to manage contacts, track deals, and maybe run some marketing campaigns, it delivers a ton of value.

Pricing

HubSpot offers different pricing plans across its Sales Hub and Marketing Hub, billed monthly. Both products have options for individuals and small teams as well as for businesses and enterprises. The plans listed below are for individuals and small teams:

Sales Hub (USD):

• Free – $0/month (up to 2 users)
• Starter – $15/seat/month
• Starter Customer Platform – $15/seat/month
• Professional – $100/seat/month

Marketing Hub (USD):

• Free – $0/month (up to 2 users)
• Starter – $15/seat/month
• Starter Customer Platform – $15/seat/month
• Professional – $890/month

Disclaimer: The pricing is subject to change.

5. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM software is part of the Zoho ecosystem of 50+ business applications, and it’s earned a reputation for being both affordable and surprisingly powerful. By powerful, we mean that it helped companies like MindNation unify sales, sell smarter with AI, and pull a 60% ROI in just two years. That ROI came from automating lead assignment and using Zia AI to optimize follow-up timing. And consulting firms can apply the same setup to keep pipelines moving and close deals without letting leads slip.

We would not call Zoho CRM as ‘consulting CRM,’ but many consulting and professional services businesses use it successfully. A big reason is its affordability and integrations. Zoho CRM can integrate with Zoho Projects (for project management), Zoho Books (for invoicing), and many third-party apps (Google Workspace, Office 365, Slack, etc.). For example, if you win a deal in Zoho CRM, you could push that data into Zoho Projects to kick off project execution – a handy flow for a consulting engagement.

Notable 300,000+ users span from small startups to mid-market names like Disney+ Hotstar and Bose (as publicly cited by Zoho), showing that it can scale up in capability.

Best For: We recommend it for consultancies that want an affordable CRM compared to pricier options like Salesforce but still need many of the same core functions.

Pricing

Zoho CRM offers the following budget-friendly monthly subscription plans (billed monthly):

• Free Edition: $0 – Includes up to 3 users
• Standard: $20/user/month
• Professional: $35/user/month
• Enterprise: $50/user/month
• Ultimate: $65/user/month

Disclaimer: The pricing is subject to change.

6. Pipedrive

Pipedrive CRM is a well-known CRM, true to its name with a pipeline-first design. Many consultants, especially those in business development or sales-oriented consulting roles, appreciate Pipedrive for its simplicity and effectiveness in managing leads and deals. When you log in, you’re greeted with a visual pipeline of your deals presented like a Kanban board. You can literally ‘drive’ the deals through your pipeline stages by dragging and dropping. This visual approach quickly points out where your attention should be. For example, you might have columns for Prospects, Proposal Sent, Negotiation, and Closed – and you can see exactly how many opportunities (and dollar value) are in each stage at a glance.

There’s a part worth highlighting for consulting businesses in recruitment, real estate, or sales-focused consulting: it integrates well with WhatsApp. For example, one company, Motor Mart, used it to cut response times and boost revenue by 25%.

Not only that, but over 100,000 companies use Pipedrive as their CRM, including well-known organizations like AI bees and Combat Ready. This shows its credibility in the market.

Best For: This one is good for consultants who need a straightforward, visual tool to manage their leads and deals – basically, small to medium businesses.

Pricing

Pipedrive offers four monthly pricing plans for individuals and businesses, with a 14-day free trial:

• Lite – $19/seat/month
• Growth – $34/seat/month
• Premium – $64/seat/month
• Ultimate – $89/seat/month

Disclaimer: Pricing is subject to change.

7. Freshsales (Freshworks CRM)

Freshsales is the CRM product by Freshworks (known for Freshdesk in customer support). It markets itself as an AI-powered sales CRM that’s friendly to small and mid-sized teams. For consulting businesses that have ‘outgrown the spreadsheet’ and don’t find value in Salesforce or HubSpot Enterprise, Freshsales can be an attractive middle ground. It offers a lot of modern CRM features – like lead scoring, email sequences, built-in phone dialing, and even a Freddy AI assistant – at a comparatively affordable price.

Freshworks, as a company, emphasizes usability – and it shows in its interface, which is clean and not too cluttered. If you’re also using other Freshworks products (for example, Freshdesk for support tickets or Freshservice for internal IT, if relevant), there’s a benefit that these can tie together. A consulting firm that provides ongoing support or has a helpdesk could see all those interactions in one place. Many users choose Freshsales specifically for its value for money. In fact, some users pick Freshsales over competitors largely due to its pricing and ease-of-use.

It’s trusted by more than 73,000 businesses worldwide, including big names like IDrive, Blue Nile, DVV Media Group, Avanse, and Sify.

Best For: If you find tools like Salesforce or Dynamics overcomplicated or overpriced for your scale, Freshsales is worth a look.

Pricing

Freshsales, part of Freshworks’ CRM lineup, offers three monthly plans under its CRM and this pricing is for the Freshsales product. All plans include a 21-day free trial, no credit card required, and 24×5 support.

• Growth – $11/user/month
• Pro – $47/user/month
• Enterprise – $71/user/month

Disclaimer: The pricing is subject to change.

The real need for any consulting business depends on what it needs the most. What we would recommend is that if your need is deep customization, advanced analytics, and enterprise-level integrations, then Salesforce or Dynamics 365 are worth considering. If your work is project-heavy and you want full control over your process, monday.com will serve you better. And if you are starting small and want something affordable, HubSpot or Zoho are solid picks. At last, Pipedrive is best if speed and simplicity in moving deals matter most, while Freshsales offers strong value if you want modern features without the enterprise price tag.

We recommend testing these out first, but if you are still not sure, head to our resource center for detailed guides and clear recommendations.