Pipedrive

Overview

Pipedrive was founded in 2010 by salespeople who were frustrated with CRMs built by engineers who had never sold. The result was a CRM built entirely around the visual pipeline — a drag-and-drop kanban board representing deals moving through sales stages. That core design decision made Pipedrive the most intuitive CRM for sales representatives who spend their days managing deal flow rather than running reports.

The platform has expanded to include email tracking, phone and meeting logging, workflow automation, a marketplace of integrations, and a reporting suite. But the pipeline metaphor remains the product's defining characteristic — and the reason small to mid-size sales teams consistently rate Pipedrive's ease of use above HubSpot and Salesforce.

Key Features

• Visual pipeline — drag-and-drop deals across configurable stages with activity prompts
• Activities system — structured follow-up scheduling (calls, meetings, emails, tasks) with automated reminders
• Email integration — two-way sync with Gmail and Outlook; email tracking with open notifications
• Automations — trigger workflow actions based on deal stage changes, activity completion, or date rules
• Deals and Contacts — unified history of all interactions linked to each deal and contact record
• Reporting — revenue forecasts, conversion rates, activity reports, and custom dashboards
• Sales Assistant — AI-powered guidance suggesting next best actions for open deals
• Marketplace — 400+ integrations including Slack, Xero, Zoom, and Pandadoc

Pricing

Pipedrive Essential ($14/user/month billed annually) includes the core pipeline, contacts, and basic reporting. Advanced ($29/user/month) adds email sync and automations. Professional ($59/user/month) adds advanced reporting, e-signatures, and revenue forecasting. Power ($69/user/month) adds project planning and phone support. Enterprise ($99/user/month) adds full customisation. A 14-day free trial is available. There is no free plan.

Best For

Pipedrive is ideal for small to mid-size sales teams (1-100 salespeople) that run a clearly defined pipeline and need their CRM to make the daily sales workflow easier rather than more complex. B2B sales teams with deal-based selling cycles, startups hiring their first sales reps, and agencies managing client acquisition will find Pipedrive's design maps naturally to how they work.

Limitations

Pipedrive is a sales CRM — it does not cover marketing automation or customer service as part of the core product. Teams wanting a unified CRM-marketing-service platform are better served by HubSpot. Reporting depth on lower tiers is limited, and revenue forecasting requires the Professional plan. There is no free plan, making trial evaluation time-bound.

Verdict

The best-designed CRM for sales teams who prioritise deal management over feature breadth. Its pipeline-first design makes it the easiest CRM to adopt and stick with. If your primary use case is managing an active pipeline and never missing a follow-up, Pipedrive is the right tool.