Close CRM vs. InsideSales Playbooks

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Close CRM
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Close.io is a customer relationship management (CRM) software with call management and sales workflow automation capabilities.
$49
per month includes 1 user
InsideSales Playbooks
Score 6.9 out of 10
N/A
InsideSales Playbooks (formerly XANT Playbooks) aims to help SDRs and AEs quickly build closeable pipeline, by helping salespeople get a hold of more of the right people. InsideSales.com uses their A.I.-platform called Neuralytics to target likely buyers combined with their cadence engine to help sales reps consistently engage all of their prospects in a personalized way. Just like Waze from Google helps drivers get to their destination quickly based on the data from other drivers,…N/A
Pricing
Close CRMInsideSales Playbooks
Editions & Modules
Startup
$49
per month Includes 1 user
Professional
$299
per month Includes 3 users
Business
$699
per month Includes 5 users
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Close CRMInsideSales Playbooks
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalRequired
Additional Details15% discount on annual pricing in addition to the month-to-month prices listed here.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Close CRMInsideSales Playbooks
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Close CRMInsideSales Playbooks
Sales Force Automation
Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Product A and Product B
Close CRM
8.9
8 Ratings
15% above category average
InsideSales Playbooks
-
Ratings
Customer data management / contact management8.18 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow management7.88 Ratings00 Ratings
Territory management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Opportunity management10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)9.48 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Interaction tracking8.48 Ratings00 Ratings
Channel / partner relationship management9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer Service & Support
Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of Product A and Product B
Close CRM
8.5
6 Ratings
12% above category average
InsideSales Playbooks
-
Ratings
Case management8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Call center management7.55 Ratings00 Ratings
Help desk management10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Marketing Automation
Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Product A and Product B
Close CRM
9.1
6 Ratings
19% above category average
InsideSales Playbooks
-
Ratings
Lead management8.86 Ratings00 Ratings
Email marketing9.45 Ratings00 Ratings
CRM Project Management
Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Close CRM
8.0
6 Ratings
5% above category average
InsideSales Playbooks
-
Ratings
Task management8.45 Ratings00 Ratings
Billing and invoicing management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting5.65 Ratings00 Ratings
CRM Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Close CRM
7.6
6 Ratings
0% below category average
InsideSales Playbooks
-
Ratings
Forecasting10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Pipeline visualization8.16 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable reports4.64 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Close CRM
8.6
8 Ratings
13% above category average
InsideSales Playbooks
-
Ratings
Custom fields10.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom objects10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Scripting environment8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
API for custom integration6.57 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Close CRM
8.1
8 Ratings
3% below category average
InsideSales Playbooks
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.16 Ratings00 Ratings
Social CRM
Comparison of Social CRM features of Product A and Product B
Close CRM
10.0
1 Ratings
31% above category average
InsideSales Playbooks
-
Ratings
Social data10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Social engagement10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrations with 3rd-party Software
Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Product A and Product B
Close CRM
6.5
4 Ratings
10% below category average
InsideSales Playbooks
-
Ratings
Marketing automation6.54 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform
Comparison of Platform features of Product A and Product B
Close CRM
10.0
1 Ratings
29% above category average
InsideSales Playbooks
-
Ratings
Mobile access10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Close CRMInsideSales Playbooks
Small Businesses
Salesmate
Salesmate
Score 9.8 out of 10
Salesmate
Salesmate
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
Mixmax
Mixmax
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
Groove, a Clari company
Groove, a Clari company
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Close CRMInsideSales Playbooks
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
(8 ratings)
1.3
(127 ratings)
Usability
8.8
(3 ratings)
3.3
(101 ratings)
Support Rating
9.4
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Close CRMInsideSales Playbooks
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
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Aurea
It is well suited for any sales department, to try to get ahold of the person you are trying to get ahold of. Playbooks has increased the number of decision makers that I can get ahold of on a day to day basis. This tool would probably be less suited for people that do not have calls to make outside of the company.
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Pros
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.
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Aurea
  • Playbooks does a great job of letting reps know when phone numbers are not a working number.
  • Playbooks does a great job being able to be tailored to your specific organization or business.
  • Playbooks does a great job of having a very friendly user experience.
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Cons
Close
  • Make it so one can set the time at which the emails go out.
  • Make it easier to set up my workflow.
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Aurea
  • The ability to filter specific plays or pieces of information so that it's more user-friendly for the overall organization. Essentially, more room to customize the organization of accounts and how you're working them.
  • The initial onboarding process of accounts results in high levels of tasks - the ability to break these down in an easier way to help with time management would be helpful.
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Usability
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.
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Aurea
It only took a day to get comfortable with Playbooks. The ease of use and overall usability is fantastic in the sense that it's pretty straightforward once you get enough repetitions in the tool. I also like all of the videos and resources available if support is needed
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Support Rating
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.
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Aurea
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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.
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Aurea
The Insidesales Playbooks is by far more intuitive and organized than other programs I have used in the past. Unfortunately I have not had experience with other products that are available out there. I would hope we will see more improvements from the ISDC tool as we all use it more and provide feedback
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Return on Investment
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.
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Aurea
  • 100's of hours back in our week due to Salesforce Integration!
  • We have more clients answering the phone due to creative caller ID solutions.
  • We can standardize our messaging by partnering with Marketing to help build plays and auto-enroll certain contacts based on messaging.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Close CRM Screenshots

Screenshot of All-in-one Close inboxScreenshot of Sales Funnel Report in CloseScreenshot of Call Assistant automatic transcription and summaryScreenshot of Built-in calling in Close

InsideSales Playbooks Screenshots

Screenshot of Playbooks DashboardScreenshot of Editing a RecordScreenshot of Creating an EmailScreenshot of Adding NotesScreenshot of Scheduling a CallScreenshot of Viewing Task List