Pros & Cons
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- App-based platform enables superb flexibility
- Easily customizable dashboards
- Extremely detailed lead profiles
- Robust deal creation tools
- Extensive analytics
- Integrates with relevant third-party services
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- Interface could be streamlined in places
- No AI tools
Apptivo CRM Specs
| 24-Hour Support | |
| Analytics | |
| Custom Dashboards | |
| Document Library | |
| Integrated Email Marketing | |
| Live Chat | |
| Multi-Currency Support | |
| Phone Support | |
| Pipeline Management | |
| REST API |
Apptivo differs from most customer relationship management (CRM) software we've reviewed in that its sales tools are just one part of a broader app suite that covers finance, HR, inventory management, and marketing for your business. We focus here on Apptivo's core CRM experience, which impresses us with its flexible dashboards, deep lead profiles, and excellent deal creation capabilities. It also provides detailed analytics and integrates with plenty of first- and third-party tools. Apptivo has a somewhat steep learning curve, but its abundance of features and endless customization options nonetheless make it our Editors’ Choice winner in this category.
Pricing: Relatively Affordable, App-Centric Plans
Apptivo offers three main subscription plans. The differences between the plans aren't just related to specific features but also the number of apps and customizations you can use. In Apptivo parlance, an "app" is a modular unit of specific functionality. Essentially, you need several apps (such as Leads, Customers, and Contacts) to have a usable CRM.
The Lite plan is the cheapest at $15 per user per month (billed annually). This plan includes 18 apps (more than enough to create a fully functional CRM) with 100 custom fields per app, 25 workflows, and eight custom dashboards. It allows you to set up integrations with a handful of business tools, including Dropbox, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365.
The next tier, Premium, costs $25 per user per month (billed annually). Premium supports 46 apps with 250 custom fields per app, 75 workflows, and 25 custom dashboards. This tier also offers more third-party integration options than Lite, including PayPal, Slack, and Stripe.
Apptivo's priciest plan, Ultimate, costs $40 per user per month (billed annually). It unlocks access to 57 apps with 350 custom fields per app, 150 workflows, and 50 custom dashboards. You also gain the ability to set up integrations with accounting apps, including QuickBooks and Xero. For Enterprise plan pricing, you must contact Apptivo.
For comparison, Zoho CRM starts at $14 per user per month (billed annually). This Standard tier includes all the basic CRM features and grants you access to the Zoho Marketplace. You have to upgrade to Zoho CRM's Enterprise plan ($40 per user per month, billed annually) to use Zia AI. If you’re running a very small business, you should consider more affordable options like Freshsales (starting at $9 per user per month, billed annually) or Bigin by Zoho (which has a decent free plan).
Support: Excellent Options With Every Tier
All Apptivo plans include 24/7 customer support via email and live chat, as well as 24/5 phone support. That gives it a clear advantage over Zoho CRM, which charges extra for a similar level of support. Pipedrive (starting at $14 per user per month, billed annually), meanwhile, restricts chat and phone support to higher-tier plans. However, many other CRMs, including Freshsales, match Apptivo's level of support, often at a lower price.
Getting Started and Ease of Use: Less Intimidating Than It Seems
During Apptivo’s onboarding process, it suggests industry-appropriate apps you can use to customize your dashboard. This helps prevent the decision paralysis you might feel when choosing from the full range of 65+ apps. You can also schedule a demo with an Apptivo specialist to help you determine which apps you need.
I installed Contacts, Customers, Invoicing, Leads, and Proposal/Price Quote to test Apptivo’s CRM capabilities. From there, Apptivo directed me to a task-oriented calendar screen. A sidebar menu here includes quick links to sections like your Apptivo inbox, call log, and task list. Other apps, like Leads and Contacts, are accessible via the top menu. This creates a highly focused experience within each app while still allowing you to quickly switch between them.
I changed the home page's Default App View to the CRM option to help me focus on lead management and opportunities (Apptivo’s version of deals). You can also modify the menu’s appearance and rearrange the apps to your preference. This level of customization is excellent, especially since Apptivo makes these options more accessible than Zoho CRM.
Importing Customers and Employees: The Process Could Be Smoother
Next, I headed to the Leads area, where I encountered a bit of trouble. This section has a Create button but no Import button. Selecting Create opens a contact profile where you can add a full set of details, information about their behavior (including hobbies), and social media profiles. However, I still didn’t see an option to import leads.
I finally found the Import option by clicking the More button at the top right of the interface. From there, I was able to import a CSV. I didn't like having to manually map the spreadsheet to Apptivo fields, since other CRMs, such as Freshsales and Zoho CRM, automate this. Nonetheless, the fields were easy to navigate, and I completed the process in under two minutes. You can also import contacts from Gmail or Yahoo, but not from Outlook or other CRMs. This is mildly disappointing, since competing apps such as Freshsales and Zoho CRM let you import contacts from a broader range of sources.
Finally, I went to the Employees app to add team members. An employee profile consists of their name, email address, and department. You can also assign security roles to manage permissions.
Leads: Detailed Profiles That Enable Easy Management
Leads appear in a table view by default, but you can use the Display menu to modify the information. However, I had some trouble figuring out how to switch to the Kanban view. This wasn't the only time I had to turn to Apptivo’s documentation to figure out something that should have been intuitive. Here's how to enable that view for Leads.
Once I set up the Kanban view, I could see lead information and drag leads into new sections of the board based on their interactions. Apptivo automatically adds Leads to the Kanban board once you assign them a status, which is easy to do in the lead profile. This is a simpler process than in Zoho CRM.
Clicking on an individual lead opens a profile overlay with relevant contact information. You also see several icons at the top for tasks like emailing the lead and scheduling a follow-up. You can view more information about your interactions with a lead by clicking the More button. The level of information here is excellent, especially since you don’t have to leave the page. However, you do need to open a new page to view scheduled events and other notes, so this overlay makes for only a mild advantage over other CRMs.
Note that Apptivo distinguishes between Leads and Customers. Leads (and Contacts) are individuals, while Customers are businesses. You can connect multiple Leads or Contacts to a single Customer, which makes it easier to track interactions with several employees at a business you’re negotiating with. B2C companies can ignore the Customers app and focus on Leads and Contacts.
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Opportunities: All the Information You Need to Process Deals
The Opportunities section of Apptivo is where you create and manage deals. Like Leads, this area uses a table view by default, but you can switch to a Kanban view via the settings.
Opportunity creation options are extensive, with fields for things such as connected PDFs and relevant campaigns, but you need only to fill in three: Name (the name of the deal), Close Date (when you aim to close the deal), and Assigned To (the employee who will work on this opportunity). Opportunities show up automatically on the Kanban board, and you can drag and drop them to new areas as they move through your sales pipeline.
Clicking an opportunity opens a profile similar to the Lead profile, with details such as the close date and the relevant contact. Buttons at the top of the profile let you add notes about your last call or schedule a follow-up. This information all appears in an overlay, but again, you need to open a new page to view details of past interactions.
Tasks you create here—and in other areas of Apptivo—automatically appear in your Agenda, which you can sync with Google Calendar and integrate with Google Tasks. If you use Office 365, you can sync events to Outlook's calendar.
Email and Campaigns: Better Tools Than Most Other CRMs
The lack of clear options for emails initially confused me, but I eventually found them in the Settings section of the Opportunities app. Here, you can build templates for emails and SMS messages. The email template creator uses a fairly standard rich-text format rather than the visual editors of dedicated email marketing tools, which is common among CRMs I’ve tested (with the exception of Freshsales).
You can send template messages manually or connect them to automated workflows in a few clicks using the Triggers function. It's also possible to create automated multi-email sequences and send them either to individual contacts, special groups, or your entire contact list.
You can add the Contact Center app to schedule and conduct calls within Apptivo. It automatically logs calls and analyzes notes to evaluate each sales representative’s time spent on calls, success rate, and other metrics. The Contact Center app is also useful for streamlining support calls for existing customers and running a tech support line.
Apptivo's dedicated Emails app lets you manage individual and team inboxes and sync them with your Gmail or Outlook inbox. I would appreciate additional integration options here, such as with Yahoo, but these options work for most businesses. Once you configure this function, the Apptivo inbox works pretty much like similar tools I’ve tested in other CRMs, like SugarCRM.
The Campaigns and Direct Campaigns apps allow you to create scheduled bulk emails using templates you create in the Emails area. The tools you get here are simpler than those in Freshsales or separate email marketing tools like Mailchimp, but still more versatile than email marketing tools in most CRMs.
The one thing missing is an option to generate emails with AI. However, in my experience, most AI generation tools in CRMs produce bland, generic content that requires significant editing. As such, writing emails from scratch won’t cost you much time and might actually be more efficient.
Reporting and Analytics: Granular Control Over Data Visualizations
Analytics are accessible via the Opportunities app's sidebar menu. The first area shows the dollar value of all the deals in your pipeline, how much you’ll earn from completed deals, and other basic information about your company’s performance.
The Pipeline by Stage report shows the value of deals at each pipeline stage, along with a breakdown of each sales rep’s pipeline. This can help you understand the tasks individual sales representatives should focus on.
Other areas include Sales Funnel (pipeline stages in a sales funnel format) and 12 Month Pipeline (a graph of deals closed/profits earned each month). You can also see detailed analyses of your wins, losses, and lead management, helping you identify your top-performing sales reps and who needs support to improve.
Apptivo limits your ability to control how information appears here, but you can add other report types via the settings. As such, you get near-complete control of the data you’re tracking at any given time. You also have full control over how the platform visualizes each data point, including bar graphs and pie charts. You can't export these charts to a PDF like in Zoho CRM, but you can export tables as spreadsheets.
Additional Features: A Decent Range of Integrations, But No AI
Apptivo has an app for almost every business task imaginable. Among the most relevant are those for finance, product/inventory management, and project management. Just keep in mind that some apps require higher-tier plans.
You don’t need to move your entire workflow to Apptivo, though. It integrates with around 30 third-party business apps across the accounting, communication, file storage, payment processing, and productivity categories. Competing apps, including Freshsales and Insightly, offer more options.
As mentioned, Apptivo lacks the modern AI content-generation tools of others like Freshsales and Zoho CRM. I don’t consider this a huge drawback—most AI-generated content is too generic to be useful. However, you might find other AI features helpful. Zoho CRM's Zia AI, for example, can predict outcomes based on previous deals, generate estimated sales goals, and more.