What Is the Best Mobile CRM Platform for Small Businesses?

Whether you’re visiting sales prospects or just somebody who likes to take work out of the office, having a good mobile app will be a key factor in your CRM (customer Relationship management) decision. While most CRM systems offer both a browser and mobile version, the mobile app often gets the short end of the stick. It may lack key CRM features or have more bugs than the desktop version. This is no good for the small business owner or solo entrepreneur who needs a full-featured and reliable CRM at their fingertips.

We looked at all the top CRMs and came up with the three best mobile solutions. Each of these apps support iOS and Android. They also work offline, so you can access your records even when you don’t have service.

Base CRM: For the small businesses with an "in the field" sales team

Being both feature-loaded and user friendly, Base CRM is hands-down the best mobile CRM for small businesses. Not only do you get full access to your contacts, deals, tasks and reports, there’s a Google Maps integration that makes Base a charm to use. Each contact profile includes a map of their location. Or, you can view all clients on a single map, which is perfect if you need to figure out who is nearby.

There’s also a handy call logging feature that makes it easier to track client interaction. Each time you text or a call one of your contacts on Base, the system will log the interaction and give you the option to write a note about it. This is perfect for salespeople who like to track their conversations, but might forget when they’re out of the office.

Starting at $25/user/month, Base is not the cheapest, but hardly the most expensive CRM option. For the price, however, you get a very easy-to-use and reliable app. I did not find any bugs or lagginess that can plague mobile apps. Read user reviews for Base CRM.

SugarCRM: For the tech-savvy small business

If there’s one area Base CRM falls short, its the lack of advanced features and customizations. For one, you won’t find marketing automation, invoicing, or customer service tools. You also won’t be able to build custom “pages” (like Contacts or Deals), which is something more tech-savvy users may wish to do in order to personalize the system for their business.

SugarCRM, on the other hand, offers this functionality. You can configure the CRM to operate exactly how you want it to. You can remove unnecessary features and add entire new pages that mirror your business processes. SugarCRM is open source, so you can modify it down to the program’s code.

With the mobile app, likewise you can add or remove features to get exactly what you need on the road. The downside is that its a bit more expensive than Base, starting at $40/user/month, and takes a lot more time to set up.

Insightly: For the minimalist mobile user

SugarCRM is not for everyone. If you don’t need advanced features or customizations, you can save yourself some trouble by choosing a more basic CRM—one that’s ready to go out of the box. Insightly, like Base, is a user-friendly system that requires minimal set up. It’s also my company’s recommended CRM, and comes at a fraction of the cost (only $7/user/month), although the mobile app is not as sophisticated as Base.

What Insightly offers is a basic mobile app for managing your contacts, deals, tasks, and projects. You can view, edit, or create new records, although you cannot set or edit workflow automation rules. That’s something you can with the desktop version. The mobile app is also missing the calendar and reporting tools.

While you don’t get all the mobile features you get with Base and Sugar, this is not necessarily a bad thing. If you just need to check and update records on the go, then Insightly gives you a simple and uncluttered interface to do so. Just note that you’ll need to log onto the browser app now and then to use the  full set of features.

Conclusion

Whether you need a high-powered CRM that works entirely off your phone, or just want to check contacts on the go, you can find a mobile app that will suite your needs. Other mobile CRMs apps can integrate your contact book with social media accounts, or give you tools to collaborate with coworkers on projects.