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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    BQE CORE

    Score8.8 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    BQE CORE is a business management solution built specifically for professional service firms. BQE CORE is a combination of a billing assistant, project management, and accounting solution. CORE is designed to do the hard work of delivering actionable insights directly to the user's dashboards or inbox. BQE CORE replaces the products Engineeroffice, Archioffice, and BillQuick; the functionality of these applications is now found in BQE CORE.N/A

    Close CRM

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AClose.io is a customer relationship management (CRM) software with call management and sales workflow automation capabilities.

    $19

    per month includes 1 user

    Outreach

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AOutreach is an agentic AI platform for revenue teams that infuses purpose-built agents, conversation intelligence, and assistive insights to power use cases across revenue motions, from new logo prospecting to expansions, deal acceleration, driving retention, and forecasting.N/A
    Pricing
    BQE COREClose CRMOutreach
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Solo
    $9
    per month (paid annually) per user
    Essentials
    $35
    per month (paid annually) per user
    Growth
    $99
    per month (paid annually) per user
    Scale
    $139
    per month (paid annually) per user
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BQE COREClose CRMOutreach
    Free Trial
    YesYesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptionalOptional
    Additional Details—The pricing listed here reflects up to a 35% discount for paying annually. Monthly billing is available at of $19 per user for the Solo plan (only 1 user allowed), $49 per user for the Essentials plan, $109 per user for the Growth plan, and $149 per user for the Scale plan.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BQE COREClose CRMOutreach
    Considered Multiple Products
    BQE Software Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    Close
    No answer on this topic
    Outreach
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    144 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Would buy again
    86 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    106 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    67 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    150 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    85 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    70 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    61 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    82%
    Implementation went as expected
    81 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    44 Answers
    Features
    BQE COREClose CRMOutreach
    Sales Force Automation
    Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of BQE CORE and Close CRM and Outreach
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Close CRM
    8.9
    8 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Outreach
    -
    Ratings
    Customer data management / contact management00 Ratings8.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow management00 Ratings7.78 Ratings00 Ratings
    Territory management00 Ratings8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Opportunity management00 Ratings10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)00 Ratings9.38 Ratings00 Ratings
    Contract management00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Interaction tracking00 Ratings8.38 Ratings00 Ratings
    Channel / partner relationship management00 Ratings9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer Service & Support
    Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of BQE CORE and Close CRM and Outreach
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Close CRM
    8.5
    6 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Outreach
    -
    Ratings
    Case management00 Ratings8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call center management00 Ratings7.45 Ratings00 Ratings
    Help desk management00 Ratings10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Marketing Automation
    Comparison of Marketing Automation features of BQE CORE and Close CRM and Outreach
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Close CRM
    9.0
    6 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Outreach
    -
    Ratings
    Lead management00 Ratings8.76 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email marketing00 Ratings9.35 Ratings00 Ratings
    CRM Project Management
    Comparison of CRM Project Management features of BQE CORE and Close CRM and Outreach
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Close CRM
    7.9
    6 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Outreach
    -
    Ratings
    Task management00 Ratings8.35 Ratings00 Ratings
    Billing and invoicing management00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting00 Ratings5.45 Ratings00 Ratings
    CRM Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of BQE CORE and Close CRM and Outreach
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Close CRM
    7.5
    6 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Outreach
    -
    Ratings
    Forecasting00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pipeline visualization00 Ratings8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable reports00 Ratings4.44 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of BQE CORE and Close CRM and Outreach
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Close CRM
    8.6
    8 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Outreach
    -
    Ratings
    Custom fields00 Ratings10.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom objects00 Ratings10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scripting environment00 Ratings8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    API for custom integration00 Ratings6.47 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of BQE CORE and Close CRM and Outreach
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Close CRM
    8.0
    8 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Outreach
    -
    Ratings
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social CRM
    Comparison of Social CRM features of BQE CORE and Close CRM and Outreach
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Close CRM
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    28% above category average
    Outreach
    -
    Ratings
    Social data00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social engagement00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrations with 3rd-party Software
    Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of BQE CORE and Close CRM and Outreach
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Close CRM
    6.4
    4 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Outreach
    -
    Ratings
    Marketing automation00 Ratings6.44 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform
    Comparison of Platform features of BQE CORE and Close CRM and Outreach
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Close CRM
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    27% above category average
    Outreach
    -
    Ratings
    Mobile access00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BQE COREClose CRMOutreach
    Small Businesses
    Autotask PSA
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Salesflare
    Score10 out of 10
    HubSpot Sales Hub
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Workday Professional Services Automation
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Kintone
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Mixmax
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Planview AdaptiveWork
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Oracle Sales
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Groove (legacy product)
    Score7.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BQE COREClose CRMOutreach
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.4
    (167 ratings)
    9.3
    (8 ratings)
    8.5
    (263 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    9.6
    (117 ratings)
    8.7
    (3 ratings)
    8.4
    (213 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.4
    (90 ratings)
    9.3
    (3 ratings)
    9.5
    (25 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    2.3
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (62 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BQE COREClose CRMOutreach
    Likelihood to Recommend
    BQE Software Inc.
    I would recommend this for our industry: architecture, engineering, or construction. I would recommend this for any larger firm with many employees or high number of projects. I would particularly recommend this for a company with projects that have budget constraints and where time tracking and expense tracking is very important. I would not recommend this complicated software for a small firm with a small amount of income or number of projects.
    Read full review
    Close
    Excellent software to increase sales and follow up with existing and new customers. Email and SMS handling are really easy for the sales team, managing leads is really great, and Close merges duplicate leads to help our Data Leads avoid repetitive and unnecessary calls. As mentioned in some comments before, must improve in reports, Close is not appropriate to handle or track agents' hours making it necessary to implement additional software to cover this area.
    Incentivized
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    Outreach
    Outreach is very useful for all aspects of work organization. I can keep my tasks organized and complete them quickly and efficiently. I'd like to see an app-based tracking feature to keep my tasks up-to-date with reminders, which would make things much more efficient and eliminate the need to constantly check the website. Outreach es muy útil en todo lo que refiere a organización de trabajo, puedo mantener un orden de actividades y me permite completarlas de manera ágil y rápida. Quisiera un seguimiento desde aplicativo para tener siempre al dia las tareas con recordatorios lo que haría mucho más eficiente y así no ingresar todo el tiempo a la pagina This review was originally written in Spanish and has been translated into English using a third-party translation tool. While we strive for accuracy, some nuances or meanings may not be perfectly captured.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    BQE Software Inc.
    • Invoice Collections within Billing is a great tool because of the ability to take notes and track contact.
    • Invoices are professional looking and easy for our clients to understand the overall progress within each phase of their project.
    • Dashboards are the best tool EVER!
    • The Contact List feature within Clients setup is the perfect way to track multiple project managers within a large company that also has multiple contracts with us.
    Incentivized
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    Close
    • Email sequences. Create and send a sequence of emails until the sequence finishes or the contact replies to your email. You can also pause the sequence manually.
    • Email sync. Syncs in real time with your email account, which is huge.
    • Zapier integration. We've automated a lot of our pipeline management through the Zapier integration. This saves us soooo much time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Outreach
    • Outreach is great at managing my data to day tasks and reminders for next steps with prospects
    • The click to dial works great from Salesforce, and I love the integration with Salesforce where I can upload contacts into Outreach to start a sequence
    • Outreach Kaia is perfect to capture calls and search provide actionable next steps. I also like going in and listening to other reps calls
    • I like the overview section for reports where I can see how I am doing compared to my peers. Especially on all metrics
    • The accounts tab is great to see at a glance which accounts have had the most engagement
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    BQE Software Inc.
    • Customizable Reporting
    • Linking Project to Payment all together
    • Assigning contacts to particular roles - such as Invoicing, Contracts, etc.
    • Accounting Functionality - they are basically a project management accounting software, so in my opinion, they could learn some things from other accounting software such as QuickBooks etc.
    Incentivized
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    Close
    • Make it so one can set the time at which the emails go out.
    • Make it easier to set up my workflow.
    Incentivized
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    Outreach
    • The Salesforce-to-Outreach connection can be weak if a record is converted; Outreach holds onto stake values.
    • Outreach can be hard for new hires to grasp, ongoing training in platform would help.
    • Customization in report views from Salesforce into outreach could be enhanced.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    BQE Software Inc.
    We have been using Core for a few years now, and honestly started to look at other software systems to see what was out there. What we chose was a nightmare for migration so we never left Core. Now we have added invoicing and payments from Core instead of double entry with QBO. Still only a few cycles in but looks like it will be up to speed soon and working smoothly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Close
    No answers on this topic
    Outreach
    It's a strong tool that helps our sales development team manage a large number of qualified leads. The sequence framework ensures that every lead receives enough contact attempts that we have confidence that we're not abandoning our prospecting too early without the overhead of managing those activities manually.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    BQE Software Inc.
    The foundation is awesome, like I have said before, however the house being built on it, the educational resources being provided to us (more of sales pitches that don't work), and flexible workflow opportunities, is making us look elsewhere for how much we will be spending on per user. It's crazy to think how flexible they are not when it comes to user settings. Lack of integration with other sources is awful.
    Incentivized
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    Close
    It's my favorite CRM to recommend to sales organizations. Robust Telephony options including a Power Dialer, SMS, and Voice Drop, are completely integrated into the CRM. The kicker is you can have "Unlimited" contacts where many platforms charge based on the number of users. This can make a huge difference in monthly billing.
    Incentivized
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    Outreach
    It's not as simple as it used to be -- getting pretty bloated, and I'm not a fan of the UI. I think it could be a far more usable product (and indeed, at one point it was) if the most important things for a seller were the most prominent. Take cold emailing, for example: the window where messages are being composed is tiny, and it's frustrating to use—maybe that's just me, though.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    BQE Software Inc.
    I can only remember a couple of times in 4 years that Core has been unavailable.
    Read full review
    Close
    No answers on this topic
    Outreach
    In our years as Outreach customers, I can count the number of outages we've experienced on one hand. Generally, outages have been very brief and have not completely frozen our access to the platform. Scheduled maintenance is always proactive communicated and the hours never interfere with standard business hours or scheduled sequences.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    BQE Software Inc.
    This is one area that does need some improvement. It can be slow at time, so we had our IT look at it from our side and we had no issues, so it has to be some slowness on their side.
    Read full review
    Close
    No answers on this topic
    Outreach
    Outreach's performance overall is very high quality. Pages load right away. Occasionally it might take a minute to generate a report, but not any slower than in other platforms I've used. Outreach is integrated into many of our other tools and seems to be a very clean integration. Everything runs very quickly.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    BQE Software Inc.
    As a new employee and CORE user, I talk to support on a weekly basis. I have never had to wait for more than 3 min to get connect with a support rep, and all my questions have been answered. The support representatives are polite and eager to help no matter how simple your question is.
    Incentivized
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    Close
    I haven't really had the need to use their support, but the only time I had an issue with the platform, the Close team was very attentive and responded in a short span of time. Also they take minimal time to solve issues. The only con here is there is no way to reach out to them apart from email.
    Incentivized
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    Outreach
    There is almost zero customer support. What they do offer is a live chat feature which is active during "normal" business hours which is nice for instant inquiries if someone is available. However, you do not have a dedicated representative to address questions or concerns and their billing process is confusing and messy without any support.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    BQE Software Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    Close
    No answers on this topic
    Outreach
    We were trained in person and it was very easy to understand. And if we missed any pointers there was more training given to us. So i always like this tool. The drafts were also prepared for us to sync outreach with our devices so it was straightforward. Highly recommend
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    BQE Software Inc.
    Make sure you have someone training you that fits your style of learning.
    Read full review
    Close
    No answers on this topic
    Outreach
    Lots of attention from the Outreach training team, with a great willingness to customize to our needs. To be clear, you get out what you put in. If you don't work with them, you'll get cookie-cutter training. But we asked for a lot of customization, and they delivered what we asked for.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    BQE Software Inc.
    It does take some time to understand the options and to find the best invoice template.
    Incentivized
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    Close
    No answers on this topic
    Outreach
    I expected more assistance in connecting Outreach with Salesforce. We have a basic connection, but many fields were left without a sync. We can apparently sync data without adding the app into Salesforce, but believe we could get more functionality with a better integration. The basics of setting up our sequences and using Outreac to run them was was fine.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    BQE Software Inc.
    Deltek Vision is far more advanced, more encompassing and offers more flexibility with what you want to do. However, it's also quite difficult to use, whereas BQE CORE is intuitive and user friendly. The trade off is worth it in some arenas but overall it's not suited for a larger fast paced company. Great for smaller companies.
    Incentivized
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    Close
    Pipedrive was great for us for a long time. We used it for over 4 years. Our product and process was simple. When things got more complex, we needed something that could handle our growing needs and Pipedrive kept falling short. We built our own custom solution in Airtable and though it worked, we spend a lot of time managing it. Close was able to solve all our issues and save us hours per week in admin work.
    Incentivized
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    Outreach
    They're not direct competitors, but they share many of the same functionalities. Gong has a greater focus on spoken communications, such as calls and demos, rather than emails. I think Gong also has stronger AI capabilities at the moment. However, I don't believe so, Gong would be ideal for prospecting and mass outreach, as Outreach is. Outreach is more suitable for exploration and outbound communications management, whereas Gong is better suited for deal and pipeline management and analysis.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    BQE Software Inc.
    This software works on a small and large scale.
    Read full review
    Close
    No answers on this topic
    Outreach
    As a business of 100+ people, we are on the smaller side. We took it on when we were 50 people overall with 15 sellers. We are now double that it has scaled brilliantly. We would completely trust the system to scale with us if we doubled in size
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    BQE Software Inc.
    • Quick setup of new tasks under a parent project, with immediate hourly billing to it.
    • Monitoring of details of non-chargeable efforts in appropriate detail
    • Validation of hourly cost, billing cost, benefit cost, profitability by person and role
    • Company tracking of write-off's included in corporate and project reporting, no data is "lost"
    • Can track excessive work time as +PTO in lieu of pay for use as future vacation
    Read full review
    Close
    • Positive - It's much easier now with Close.io to make sure that no deal falls through the cracks. Therefore helping us recover lost revenue.
    Incentivized
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    Outreach
    • Increase in meetings booked
    • Increase in call metrics as it is easy to make more calls using Outreach features. Basically cutting down admin work time before the call.
    • Prospect journey and experience has been a positive flowing through a set amount of emails and calls rather than just being blasted with random emails. Helps BDRS stay focused on more important parts of the job.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    BQE CORE Screenshots

    Screenshot of Core powered by BQE SoftwareScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Dashboard ViewScreenshot of BQE CORE 360* Firm Performance ViewScreenshot of BQE CORE Reporting & AnalyticsScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Time EntryScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Expense Tracking

    Close CRM Screenshots

    Screenshot of Close's Inbox, which keeps sales team's emails, calls, and follow-ups in one unified view, so nothing slips through the cracks and every lead gets the attention it deserves.Screenshot of Close's Sales Pipeline, which offers a visual overview of every deal in progress, so your team can track opportunities, forecast revenue, and stay focused on moving deals forward.Screenshot of Close's Predictive Dialer. This automatically connects sales reps to live answers back-to-back, eliminating manual dialing and maximizing talk time to reach more prospects in less time.Screenshot of Close's Lead Profiles, which gives team a complete, centralized view of every contact, communication, and activity.Screenshot of Close's Smart Views, which prioritize leads with dynamic, customizable filters that keep sales teams focused.Screenshot of Close's Workflows, which automate repetitive sales tasks and follow-up sequences.

    Outreach Screenshots

    Screenshot of Outreach’s pipeline management capabilities, which help sales and revenue operations leaders assess pipeline quantity, quality, and maturity. Built-in win modeling helps leaders spot risk early for every team and seller to ensure there is enough coverage to deliver on their goals.Screenshot of Kaia, Outreach’s conversation intelligence solution, used to automatically take notes, flag action items, summarize meetings, and receive in-the-moment product and competitive information so you can nail every sales meeting.Screenshot of Outreach Research Agent, which automatically uncovers targeting signals from conversations, engagements, and public sources to drive your account strategy and ensure every touchpoint is timely, relevant, and focused on the right accounts.Screenshot of the Revenue Agent, which helps sales leaders optimize team efficiency, generate more conversations and improve pipeline predictability.Screenshot of the Outreach Deal Agent, which eliminates the burden of manual updates by surfacing AI-recommended changes to opportunity fields. AI deal management helps maintain pipeline health while keeping reps focused and sales teams aligned.Screenshot of the Personalization Agent, used to turn research and buyer context into simple, effective messages that convert, then deliver messaging that resonates across every channel.