Are you looking for top-rated alternatives to Nutshell CRM? In this article, we’ll examine a few alternatives—some of the best CRM software for manufacturing companies. Generally, we’re looking for CRMs that can be up and running quickly, meaning minimal downtime and transitional pain.
Why is this important? Well, the easier it is to get your manufacturing sales CRM up and running, the more likely your employees will use the platform. This focus means more deals won, more talent recruited and retained, and greater stability for your manufacturing firm. So, if you’re looking to choose the right CRM for your manufacturing company, here are five of the best alternatives to Nutshell CRM for manufacturing.
Pipeline: Best Nutshell Sales CRM Alternative to Drive Revenue
There’s a lot of pressure in manufacturing—you’re competing with other firms to attract new customers, working hard to support and retain current customers, and doing all this without the workforce needed.
You could use an assistant that covers:
- Action plans and reminders to chase down new opportunities
- Assistance to build a virtual bench of reliable employees-in-waiting (walk-offs and no-shows are always an issue)
- A system in place that identifies customers who are a fit for your business and are willing to work with your already razor-thin margins
- A platform that shows you why you’re winning or losing deals, opportunities, and people.
Running a successful manufacturing business is challenging. Supply chain headwinds, labor shortages, intense competition, and emerging tech trends make it difficult to choose the best CRM for sales. Pipeline CRM is a sales-driven, easy-to-use, automated, and uncomplicated platform that can be up and running in less than a day.
Is Pipeline Right for You?
Pipeline CRM may be a fit if you need an immediate option to start winning deals. Pipeline’s manufacturing sales CRM is simple, automated, and customizable. Your sales team can be up and running in less than a day.
The platform is optimized around a single goal—driving sales. Many other CRMs focus on secondary details like project management or collaboration (which we have), but the aim is to keep the focus on selling.
This sales CRM solution provides customization where it matters most, for example, actioning items in your workflow—updates and notifications, tasks, recurring deals, next-step recommendations, essential activities (e.g., emails), sales automation, workflows, and more. It’s a valuable tool that makes attracting A-player talent easier, winning and retaining new customers.
Pros and Cons
- Pipeline is scalable yet very affordable
- Heavily oriented toward selling with extensive sales management automation
- Integrates with a large list of software (e.g., Microsoft, QuickBooks, Google Apps, Zapier, Paycove, CallRail, etc.)
- Best-in-class, industry-leading customer support
- Best for small-to-medium organizations
- Limited enterprise options
- No on-premise options
- Moderate amount of integrations
- 14-day free trial, no free user tier
Reviews
- 4.4/5 star rating on G2 (904 reviews total)
- 4.4/5 star rating on Capterra (616 reviews total)
- 9.8/10 score via TrustRadius
- 4.2/5 star rating via Gartner (41 reviews total)
Pipeline CRM Pricing
- Start plan: $29 per user per month
- Develop plan: $39 per user per month
- Grow plan: $59 per user per month
Zoho CRM: Best NutShell Alternative for Manufacturing Teams that Need Complete Customization
Zoho’s platform depends on its software ecosystem.
They’ve built 55+ apps and serve more than 100 million customers worldwide. Their CRM tool is designed for solo, small, and medium-sized companies, and their products also integrate with more than 800+ commonly used apps.
Their CRM focuses heavily on collaboration and analytics, which makes sense for CRM software.
Is Zoho CRM Right for You?
Zoho’s CRM is geared toward collaboration, analytics, and heavy customization.
So, if you need a CRM to help you manage and expand your existing operations, Zoho is ideal. However, if we’re focusing mainly on manufacturing sales as the key purpose for needing a CRM, this may not be the best fit.
Pros and Cons
- Zoho is very affordable
- All plans include automation
- A low to moderate number of integrations are available
- Money-back guarantee
- AI features are only available on top-tier plans
- Limited customization options are available
- No integrations are available for users on the free plan
- Limited email options
Reviews
- 4.1/5 star rating on G2 (2,596 reviews total)
- 4.3/5 star rating on Capterra (6,672 reviews total)
- 8.3/10 score via TrustRadius
- 4.3/5 star rating via Gartner (41 reviews total)
Zoho CRM Pricing
- Standard: $20 per user per month
- Professional: $35 per user per month
- Enterprise: $50 per user per month
- Ultimate: $65 per user per month
Thryv CRM: Best for Manufacturing Generalists
Thryv is another all-in-one solution.
Two Yellow page publishers, Dex Media and YP Holdings, merged in an effort to create a viable business post-bankruptcy. The merger enabled their combined business (now Thryv) to pivot to a new business. Their CRM is sold as part of their Business Center, a SaaS offering that includes:
- CRM
- Estimates and invoices
- Social media management
- Online reputation management
- Email and SMS marketing
- Digital payments
- Client portals
Thryv is especially useful for manufacturers who are interested in setting appointments or bookings with prospects and customers.
Is Thryv Right for You?
While Pipeline CRM, for example, is oriented towards selling and closing deals, Thryv is heavily oriented towards marketing and promotion. If your manufacturing firm needs help generating the marketing-qualified leads needed to grow, or your organization needs support managing its online reputation, Thryv may be a good fit.
However, the ease of use, 24/7 support, and all-in-one software suite make it an excellent value for brands—if you need all the tools they include. If these tools were purchased individually, they would be much more expensive.
Thryv’s CRM is simple; it doesn’t have most of the bells and whistles other platforms have.
Pros and Cons
- 24/7 support
- Easy to use (once trained)
- Exceptional customer support
- Part of an all-in-one suite of software
- Low to moderate issues with integration
- More expensive than comparable options
- Higher learning curve
- Part of an all-in-one suite of software
Reviews
- 4.6/5 star rating on G2 (367 reviews total)
- 4.2/5 star rating on Capterra (495 reviews total)
- 4.2/5 rating via GetApp
- 4.4/5 star rating via Product Reviews (161 reviews total)
Thryv CRM Pricing
- Plus: $199 per month per location
- Professional: $349 per month per location
- Unlimited: $499 per month per location
Sugar CRM: Best for Smart Manufacturing and Technology-Driven Companies
SugarCRM offers a variety of sales force automation (SFA) solutions, including Sugar Sell, Professional, and Enterprise. Sugar also provides multiple add-ons to extend the performance of its CRM, which is wonderful news if you know what you need ahead of time. However, prospects who are unsure of their needs struggle to identify which add-ons they need to boost performance.
That said, SugarCRM offers the customization, control, deep reporting, security, and access to data that bigger players like Microsoft or Salesforce do for a fraction of the price. If you’re looking for a comprehensive solution and you have a team that’s willing to invest in the training needed to maximize value, SugarCRM could be just the right option for your organization.
Is SugarCRM Right for You?
If you’re looking for high data granularity, heavy-duty customization, and marketing and sales automation, SugarCRM is what you need. Their slogan, “Let the platform do the work,” emphasizes their focus on automation and their platform’s ability to fill in the blanks for organizations.
One of their relationship products, Sugar Hint, searches the web for additional user information. You give Sugar some information on your prospects, and Sugar will do the rest, provided that the data Hint finds is accurate and up-to-date. SugarCRM is a more expensive option, but it’s a bargain compared to SaaS products like Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce. Their platform also has both cloud-based and on-premise options for users.
Pros and Cons
- Highly customizable—change views, fields, data,
- On-premise and cloud options are available
- Integrates with hardware (e.g., clicking buttons on office phones while on a call opens up lead contact cards)
- Scalable, made for businesses of all sizes
- Easily handles the heavy lifting required by enterprises
- Complex, can be difficult to learn/use
- Low data granularity
- Learning curve and transitional pain is high
- Portions of SugarCRM are very difficult to use
- Best for small-to-medium organizations
- More expensive than other CRMs in their category
- Minimum user requirements, no monthly payment options
Reviews
- 3.9/5 star rating on G2 (904 reviews total)
- 3.8/5 star rating on Capterra (406 reviews total)
- 7.9/10 score via TrustRadius (245 reviews total)
- 4/5 star rating via Gartner (241 reviews total)
Sugar CRM Pricing
- Essentials: $49 per user per month (3 users minimum, 5 maximum, billed annually)
- Advanced: $85 per user per month (3 users minimum, billed annually)
- Premier: $135per user per month (10 users minimum, billed annually)
- Add-ons are extra
ClickUp CRM: Best for Manufacturing Teams and Project Management
The team behind ClickUp views their offering as productivity software. To quote their about page, ClickUp was created “first [as] an internal tool, now as a way to fulfill our vision of making the world more productive.” While Microsoft Project requires a literal college course to learn, ClickUp is an intuitive platform you can use to get up and running quickly.
Use ClickUp to manage your internal communication, training, and updates.
Is ClickUp CRM Right for You?
ClickUp’s feature set further emphasizes its focus on collaboration and internal communication. Tasks, Docs, Whiteboards, Goals, Dashboards, and Chat (internal) all prioritize internal communication. If your manufacturing firm needs better team communication and consistent project management, ClickUp is a great option to consider.
Pros and Cons
- 24/7 support
- App part of an all-in-one suite of tools
- Heavily focused on project management
- View all activity in a single dashboard
- Helpful automation
- Affordable for both entry-level and power users
- Robust API interface
- Their mobile interface doesn’t match the desktop or web browser versions, creating challenges for users
- Heavy limits on the free tier; unlimited plans are not unlimited
- Advanced features require upgrades
- Heavily focused on project management
- Data glitches (e.g., tasks report the incorrect status, values in fields randomly are missing occasionally, users sometimes disappear, etc.)
- Cluttered UI can be difficult to read/understand
Reviews
- 4.7/5 star rating on G2 (9,428 reviews total)
- 4.7/5 star rating on Capterra (4,034 reviews total)
- 8.5/10 score via TrustRadius (1,194 reviews total)
- 4.3/5 star rating via Gartner (139 reviews total)
ClickUp CRM Pricing
- Free: $0
- Unlimited: $7 per user per month
- Business: $12 per user per month
- Enterprise: Call for quote
These Are the Top-Rated CRM Alternatives to Nutshell
Take some time to evaluate these options for yourself.
Find the areas that matter most to your business—sales, collaboration, analysis, or customization; and choose the CRM that best aligns with your goals and objectives for your manufacturing firm. The easier it is to get your sales CRM software up and running, the easier it will be for your employees to use the platform. More user adoption means more deals won and greater stability for your manufacturing firm, with no transitional pain required.
Pipeline helps 18,000+ companies like yours decrease time-to-close, increase productivity by 50% or more, and 10x sales. Let us show you how Pipeline can help you win more customers and deals.
