Close CRM Review 2023: Close Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons

Formerly Close.io, and today Close.com, this is a CRM with a serious focus on sales and closing deals. So it’s time we did our latest Close CRM review. We’ll look at the various pricing plans for this CRM software, dig into the features, and go over the Close CRM reviews, including online reviews from other Close users. 

Close CRM review 2023: Is Close.io CRM any good?

You want a quick answer to the Close review question, if it’s any good? Well, that sort of takes the wind out of the sails of this incredibly in-depth Close.com review article. Short answer: Sure it’s good. But why is it good, how, and for whom? These are the answers we’ll be uncovering as we go through the ins and outs of this contact management tool.

So, before we crack open this review of Close.com (formerly Close.io), a word to the wise: Customer relationship management is a booming biz, with gazillions of platforms and softwares crowding out the market. Most of them try to be the one-CRM-to-rule-them-all solution. This is one area where Close is either winning the game, or losing it, depending on your needs. As we’ll see, the answer to the question, is Close CRM any good, is far from straightforward.  

Close CRM pricing plans

First of all, how much does Close CRM cost? Let’s review Close CRM prices:

Are there any Close CRM coupon codes or promo discount vouchers?

Like many of the best CRM and other business SaaS, you can always find Close CRM coupon codes or other promotional vouchers online from 3rd party sources. These coupon vouchers can range from anywhere from 20% off to 50% off, yet it is up to the user to be responsible in researching 3rd party discounts for Close CRM and other customer relationship management systems.

At the moment, Close CRM does not offer any discount vouchers, however, one can regularly check back on Close’s website and pricing page to see if there will be any promotions in the future.

What is Close CRM?

Like the name suggests, Close CRM is all about helping salespeople “close” more deals. It provides a range of tools and functionalities for sales teams to help them grow their networks, win more leads, convert more leads into customers, and foster longer-lasting relationships with loyal contacts.

Unlike other top CRM software which tries to spread their functionalities over several departments, like marketing and customer support, Close is unabashedly geared for the sales department of your company. 

There is a strong emphasis on outreach, whether via phone calls, SMS or other avenues. Close CRM also includes intuitive dashboards that let salespeople stay on top of all their open deals inside the sales process. Analytics and reporting are also very robust, tracking many useful metrics.

This is merely a quick introduction into the many CRM tools you get with Close.

Close free vs paid: what’s the difference?

Popping on over to Close.com’s pricing page, and you’ll see that there is sadly no free version of the CRM platform. That shouldn't be too much of a discouragement, however, as the starter plan is quite affordable, at $29 per user per month. 

On the other hand, there is a free trial of Close. It’s a 14-day free trial, and no credit card is required for it. You can do a Close free trial on any of their plans.

Close CRM features list

The main features of Close CRM are

• Lead management

• Contact management

• Custom fields

• Multichannel inbox

• Pipeline management

• Task management

• Email tools

• Phone call tools

• SMS tools

• Video tools

• Analytics and reporting

• Integrations

1. Lead management

Inside the Close platform, leads are considered companies and organizations. You can store up to 25,000 leads with the basic plan and an unlimited number of leads in the other plans. Then there are Smart Views: where Close also uses automation to help you find new leads and prioritize them based on custom metrics. There are also filters and segmentations to use with leads. 

2. Contact management

Contacts are the individual people associated with leads. In other words, this is the bread and butter of any CRM system. The basic plan lets you store up to 50,000 contacts, with an unlimited number of contacts in the more premium plans. Of course, you can search, filter and segment contacts, as well as access total saved communication histories with each. Smart Views also helps with dull tasks like data entry.

3. Custom fields

When organizing your leads and contacts, you aren’t stuck using all the set fields that Close has initially laid out in its database. You can create your own custom fields based on your specific needs or areas of work. Customization is also a great way to streamline your sales workflow.  

4. Multichannel inbox

Close aims to save sales reps time by organizing all the ways we communicate with contacts in one simple dashboard. This is the multichannel inbox. It unifies communications from phone calls, emails and SMS. 

5. Pipeline management

It’s key to have good overviews of everything happening in the sales pipeline. Close gets you opportunity management and pipeline management for this. Track both the expected and total value of each opportunity in the pipeline. You can also create custom opportunity pipelines for specific products, customers, demographics or sales reps.

6. Task management

Not only does Close give you good task management, along with reminders and other organizational tools to help you plan your day, but there is also great task delegation management too. This is ideal for sales managers and team leaders to dole out tasks to their team members based on skill or availability, and stay on track.

7. Email tools

Emailing is increasingly the salesperson’s main outreach tool. Close has loads of features for emails. These include bulk emailing, to send out newsletters and stuff. Email sequences are like workflows which send out a series of emails based on the recipient’s actions. There are also great email templates for email marketing purposes. Follow-up notifications are also a good tool.

8. Phone call tools

Sales call features, called VoIP (voice over IP) are incredibly important to the Close CRM platform. The power dialer lets you call through your contacts without having to dial. You get call recording to save all your calls. A predictive dialer automates calling multiple numbers at once until; someone answers. The VoIP tools also get you voicemail drop, all forwarding, call transferring, multiple phone numbers, and custom voicemail greetings.

9. SMS tools

You get a built in texting feature which means you don’t have to keep your phone out while you work with Close. This includes one-click SMS that sends texts from your Close phone number. You can also use your own existing phone number. All texting activity gets logged into the unified inbox. Texting with Close only cost $0.01 for every outgoing SMS to the United States of America and Canada. 

10. Video tools

Close is getting into the video scene as another invaluable outlet for contact outreach and selling. For this purpose, Close has teamed up with Zoom for video calls and interactive sales pitching. You can take Zoom calls directly inside the Close system. Then, Close will log all the details of the video call in your database.

11. Analytics and reporting

Like all the best CRMs out there, Close does its data good! Analytics features include real-time sales activity reports, which show the sales teams’ calls, emails and success rates. A team leaderboard serves as a good motivator. Automation kicks in for notifications when a lead, contact or opportunity has a status change. You can also do custom graphs for your reports.

12. Integrations

Since Close focuses so much on just sales, it does have a good set of integrations if you need other functionalities. These include Zapier, Zoom (as mentioned) and Zendesk integrations (to name three Zs), as well as Gmail integration and API access for devs.

Close CRM pros and cons

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of Close CRM.

Close advantages

The benefits of Close CRM are many, but they are particularly beneficial for sales reps, teams and sales managers. 

First off, the platform scores points for its ease of use. The interface is user-friendly and intuitive, and you don’t feel overwhelmed by too many bells and whistles. On top of that, onboarding is quite easy.

Secondly, the telephony and VoIP options are really premium stuff. If you are a sales rep who loves gabbing on the phone or cold calling through a list, Close is a great CRM for you.

Finally, Close has some serious advantages for some specific industries. These include financial planning services, insurance companies and the real estate world. If you’re a salesperson in these fields, Close is more pro than con.

Close disadvantages

The first drawback of Close is the lack of a free version. Not everyone is going to get the full experience with a 14-day free trial, especially when one must migrate at least some data first.

This next con is sort of the flipside of one of Close’s pros: the lack of features for other departments. While there are some good email marketing tools, this is hardly a marketing CRM. Customer support features are almost all lacking.

Close CRM complaints & praise (from real Close customer reviews)

Far be it for this one review to claim to be the only voice chiming in on the pros and cons of Close. So we’ve scoured the online scene to check out all the Close CRM reviews out there.

Lots of online reviewers dig the customizability of Close, often comparing it to Salesforce which is considered more rigid. All the calling features, like call recording and the power dialer, get high marks. Team collaboration is another part of the Close platform that gets good reviews, especially among startups and small businesses.

Some less favorable Close CRM reviews mention things like automation, whether it is too complicated, or not robust enough. 

Review of Close support

All the Close plans come with basic email support. There have been complaints that it sometimes takes too long to get a response, though that complaint is hardly consistent. There is also a self-service help center for all users to check out, though that can be limited with very specific issues or problems. 

Only when you sign up for the most expensive Business plan do you get full customer support from Close. This includes the much coveted screen-share support.

Is Close CRM worth it? Our conclusion

So, is Close CRM worth it? When it comes to a tight but powerful sales tool for startups, small business and other SMBs, the CRM Close has built is definitely worth it. But, if you’re looking for something a bit more robust like HubSpot, Pipedrive or Zoho, perhaps that’s because you need more than just a sales CRM system, although there is a new HubSpot integration. Also, while Close does get compared to Pipedrive quite a bit, we think Close edges out Pipedrive for specifically sales purposes.

In conclusion, we ought to remind ourselves of the old adage: A tool is only as good as its user. Or in the case of CRM, its user and its data. Every platform, no matter how simple or minimal, requires some time and effort to mount that learning curve, and Close CRM is hardly an exception.

Our final Close CRM rating

So, what is the final rating of Close.com’s CRM solution (formerly Close.io)? If you’re a salesperson, we give it a 4.8 out of 5 stars. If you’re at a  startup where you might need a bit of everything, the rating drops to more like a 4.2 out of 5 stars. But in the end, you know best how to rate your own tools based on your own needs.