Freshworks Freshsales vs Monday.com Monday CRM
Side-by-side comparison — pricing, features, ratings, use cases. Find which Crm fits you best.
🔍 Independently researched ·
📊 Data-driven
· ⭐ Ratings from G2 (real user reviews)
60/100
Free tier
Freshsales is best for small to mid-size B2B sales teams that want an easy-to-use CRM with built-in communication featur
💰 Pricing
🆓 Free tier available
Starting at 36 zł
🔧 Features
✓ Free Tier✓ Integrations✓ Analytics✓ Automation✓ Team Collaboration✓ Mobile App
📋 Assessment
💪 Strengths
- Built-in phone, email, and live chat are included in every paid plan, which eliminates the need for third-party integrations. This is a major cost and time saver. Reps can make calls via click-to-call, send emails with templates, and chat with website visitors all from one screen. The integration is seamless—call logs and email interactions are automatically attached to the contact record, giving a complete history without manual entry.
- Freddy AI lead scoring is a powerful feature available on the Pro plan. It uses historical data and engagement signals to rank leads by likelihood to convert. This helps sales teams prioritize follow-ups, increasing efficiency. For example, a lead that opens emails, visits pricing pages, and engages with chat will score higher than one that only occasionally opens an email. This data-driven approach can significantly improve win rates.
- The visual pipeline manager is highly customizable. You can create multiple pipelines, adjust deal stages, and use drag-and-drop functionality to move deals. This flexibility allows sales managers to tailor the pipeline to their sales process, whether they follow a short transactional cycle or a longer enterprise sales cycle. The ability to add custom fields and formulas helps track metrics that matter to your business.
- The user interface is clean, modern, and intuitive. With a short learning curve, new users can get up to speed quickly. Navigation is logical, and essential information is easy to find. The mobile app is also well-designed, allowing reps to manage deals on the go. This reduces the time spent on training and increases adoption rates among sales teams.
- Freshsales offers excellent value for money on the Growth plan. At $9 per user per month (annual billing), you get a full-featured CRM with built-in phone and email, which is significantly cheaper than buying a base CRM and paying extra for telephony integrations. For small to medium-sized teams with outbound sales focus, this is an affordable entry point.
⚠ Watch out for
- The free tier is extremely limited. It caps at 3 users and lacks essential features like built-in phone, multiple pipelines, and automation. For a startup that plans to grow, the free plan is just a trial—you'll need to upgrade almost immediately to get real utility. This can be a barrier for small teams with tight budgets.
- Advanced features are locked behind the Pro and Enterprise tiers. Territory management, email sequences, and AI lead scoring are only available on the Pro plan (at $39 per user per month). For a team of 20, that's an additional $600 per month compared to Growth. This is a significant jump, and the cost can be prohibitive for smaller businesses that need those features.
- Customization options are more restricted than competitors like Zoho CRM or HubSpot. For example, custom modules and advanced validation rules are limited. This can be frustrating for businesses with complex processes or unique data models. If you need deep customization, Freshsales may force you to work around its predefined structures.
- The AI lead scoring is not available on the Growth plan. While that's a common upsell, it means basic users miss out on a key differentiator. This could be a dealbreaker for teams that rely on predictive analytics to prioritize their outreach. Without AI scoring, you're basically using a standard CRM with communication tools, which might not justify the cost over competitors.
🎯 Best for
Freshsales is best for small to mid-size B2B sales teams that want an easy-to-use CRM with built-in communication features and AI-assisted lead scoring at a reasonable price.
🚫 Who should skip
Sales teams that require deep customization, complex territory hierarchies, or a robust free plan for unlimited users should skip Freshsales, as they might be better served by Salesforce, Zoho CRM, or HubSpot.
📚 Learning curve
Moderate — most sales reps can adapt within a few days due to the user-friendly interface, but understanding AI lead scoring and setting up advanced automation sequences takes some time and configuration.
🧑⚖️ Verdict
Freshsales is a solid CRM for outbound sales teams that want built-in communication tools and AI-driven lead scoring. It's a great fit for small to mid-sized B2B companies with a clear sales process. If you need advanced customization or have a tight budget, look at Zoho CRM or HubSpot. But if you v
77/100
Free tier
Small to mid-sized sales and account teams that want a visual, customizable, collaborative pipeline tool without heavy I
★ Best
💰 Pricing
🆓 Free tier available
Starting at 47 zł
🔧 Features
✓ Api Available✓ Free Tier✓ Mobile App✓ Open Source✓ Gdpr Compliant✓ Integrations✓ Analytics✓ Automation✓ Team Collaboration✓ Hipaa Compliant
📋 Assessment
💪 Strengths
- Highly Visual and Intuitive Pipeline: The drag-and-drop deal pipeline is a standout. Sales reps can easily move deals between stages, visualize the entire sales process at a glance, and focus on closing. This visual approach is especially effective for onboarding new team members, as it minimizes the learning curve and makes sales management more accessible compared to less visual CRMs.
- Deep Customization: monday CRM allows users to customize virtually everything—boards, columns, automations, and views. You can create columns for custom fields, automate routine tasks like lead assignment and follow-up emails, and switch between Kanban, Gantt, or calendar views. This flexibility means the CRM can adapt to your unique sales process rather than forcing you into a rigid structure.
- Strong Integrations: With native integrations for Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Zoom, and over 100 other tools, monday CRM fits into your existing workflow. For example, you can sync emails directly to deal cards, start video meetings from a deal, and get Slack notifications when a deal changes. This connectivity reduces context switching and keeps all sales data in one place.
- Sales Automation: On Standard and Pro plans, you get access to automation recipes that can handle repetitive tasks. You can automate email sequences, notification triggers, and even lead routing. This helps sales teams scale their efforts without adding manual work, freeing up time for building relationships and closing deals.
- Real-Time Collaboration: Built on monday.com's Work OS, the CRM features real-time collaboration tools like mentions, file sharing, and activity feeds. This makes it easy for sales teams to work together on deals, share notes, and stay aligned. The Comments section on deals allows for quick internal discussions, which is particularly useful for remote teams.
⚠ Watch out for
- 3-Seat Minimum: All paid plans require a minimum of 3 seats, which can be frustrating for solo entrepreneurs or very small teams. You end up paying for unused licenses, increasing your monthly cost unnecessarily. This is a significant barrier for those who just want a simple, personal sales tracking tool.
- Essential Features Gated: Email sequences and advanced reporting are only available on Standard or Pro plans. On the Basic plan, you're limited to deal tracking and basic workflows. This means if you need email automation—a core CRM feature for many—you'll have to pay more, making the entry-level plan less attractive than competitors like HubSpot, which offers email templates on free tiers.
- Pricing Can Escalate: With a per-seat model and a 3-seat minimum, costs increase with your team. Compared to flat-rate CRMs like Pipedrive (which also has per-seat pricing) or Capsule CRM, monday CRM can become expensive for larger teams. Monthly billing adds ~18%, so long-term costs require careful budgeting. The cheapest plan comes to $36/month minimum, but to get useful features, you'll likely need Standard at $51/month.
- Learning Curve for Advanced Features: While the visual pipeline is intuitive, the heavy customization options can present a learning curve. New users may feel overwhelmed by the number of board types, column types, and automation options. It may take time to configure the CRM to your liking, and some users might find the sheer amount of options distracting.
- Limited Reporting on Lower Tiers: The Basic plan offers basic dashboards, but for more detailed sales forecasting and advanced reporting, you'll need to upgrade. On the Pro plan, you get advanced analytics like funnel charts and team performance. If reporting is crucial to your sales process, you'll need to budget for the more expensive tiers.
🎯 Best for
Small to mid-sized sales and account teams that want a visual, customizable, collaborative pipeline tool without heavy IT support.
🚫 Who should skip
Budget-conscious solo users or very small teams (under 3 people) who need a free or low-cost CRM, and enterprises needing deep sales force automation or advanced B2B reporting.
📚 Learning curve
Moderate — the interface is easy to pick up, but configuring custom fields, automations, and workflows takes time and practice.
🧑⚖️ Verdict
Monday CRM is an excellent choice for teams that value visual, customizable sales management and are already invested in the monday.com ecosystem. However, the 3-seat minimum and gating of key features make it less appealing for solo operators or small teams on a budget. If you need robust email aut
📊 Use Case Suitability
Higher score = better fit. Scores from editorial review.
Use CaseFreshworks FresMonday.com Mond
Small Business Sales Pipeline Management92—
Freshsales offers intuitive drag-and-drop pipelines in the free plan and multipl
AI-Powered Lead Scoring for B2B Sales88—
The Pro plan's Freddy AI lead scoring uses contact and deal data to prioritize h
Outbound Sales with Built-in Phone and Sequences85—
Paid plans include built-in telephony and email sequences on Pro, making Freshsa
Collaborative CRM for Growing Sales Teams78—
Team collaboration features like shared timelines, @mentions, and territory mana
Visual Sales Pipeline Management—92
The board-based interface makes it easy to drag deals across stages, track progr
Small Business CRM—85
Flexible workflows and quick setup are great for small teams, though the 3-seat
Team Collaboration on Sales Deals—88
Comments, file attachments, and shared boards keep sales and account teams align
Custom CRM Workflows for Niche Processes—80
Automation recipes and customizable fields allow tailoring to specific processes
🧭 Which One Should You Pick?
Choose Freshworks Freshsales if...
- You are: Freshsales is best for small to mid-size B2B sales teams that want an easy-to-use CRM with built-in communication featur
- 👍 Built-in phone, email, and live chat come with every paid plan, reducing the need for separate commu
- 👍 AI lead scoring and predictive analytics via Freddy AI are powerful, especially on the Pro plan, giv
- 👍 The interface is clean and modern, with a short learning curve for reps who are used to modern CRM t
- 💰 From $9/mo
- ⚠ Trade-off: The free plan is too limited for growing teams, capping at 3 users and lacking e
Choose Monday.com Monday CRM if...
- You are: Small to mid-sized sales and account teams that want a visual, customizable, collaborative pipeline tool without heavy I
- 👍 Highly visual and intuitive drag-and-drop deal pipeline that reduces training time for new sales rep
- 👍 Deeply customizable boards, columns, and automations, letting you adapt the CRM to unique sales proc
- 👍 Strong third-party integrations with Gmail, Slack, Zoom, and over 100 other tools.
- 💰 From $12/mo
- ⚠ Trade-off: All paid plans require a 3-seat minimum, forcing small teams to pay for unused l
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Is Freshsales really free? What does the free plan include?
Yes, there is a free plan that supports up to 3 users with basic CRM features like contact and deal management, pipelines, and email integration. However, advanced features like built-in phone, live chat, AI lead scoring, and multiple pipelines are only available on paid plans.
Is there a free trial for the paid plans?
Yes, all paid plans come with a 21-day free trial, so you can test the Growth, Pro, or Enterprise features before committing. The trial includes full access to the respective plan's features.
What are the main limitations of the free plan compared to paid plans?
The free plan is limited to 3 users and lacks built-in phone, live chat, and some advanced automation and customization options. You also only get one pipeline, and you miss out on AI lead scoring and email sequences, which are key for scaling sales teams.
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