Freshsales vs. Highrise CRM (discontinued)

If you are a smaller organization you are probably ok to use [Freshworks CRM (formerly Freshsales)] vs Salesforce - you will save money and still get some great features. I would not recommend for a very large enterprise. It is also challenging to have the support come from another region although they do try to be very responsive.

Incentivized

We chose to work with the Basecamp product and along with it came Highrise. They're a great 37 signals package together. So we chose to work with Highrise because of Basecamp

Incentivized

• It helps you automate your onboarding process for new leads.
• It has lots of integrations with other apps, so you can interact with other things like calendars and calls.
• It's pretty easy to set sequences so the platform automatically follows up with people for you. This is not only helpful for your sales pipeline, but also for client communication when working on a project that requires their input.

Incentivized

• Easy batch upload of new contacts - if you gathered names and contact info for a bunch of people at an event or conference or what have you, put it in a spreadsheet and upload it for easy and efficient adding to the database.
• Simple communication and outreach tracking - each user has an individualized dropbox email address; you can BCC:, CC:, or forward an email to or from a client or contact, and Highrise automatically associates and records that email with the contact in the database.
• Task assignments - users can create and task assignments associated with specific contacts (ie - Send Suzy J. a gift box on Oct 1; Follow Marla K. and Billy Z. on Twitter & Facebook; Get an updated address from Nathan R.)
• Tags - easily create lists of contacts who fit certain needs (I need a: food blogger, in TX, who has a Facebook page - we have "food blogger", "TX," and "Facebook" tags in our system) that is then exportable; also useful for knowing the important associations of a particular contact.

Incentivized

• Persistent and pervasive down time
• Lack of scalable integrations with data source (e.g., their Segment integration is barely functional and they won't improve it)
• Slow and unhelpful customer service
• Account management doesn't understand our business or what we're trying to accomplish
• Email campaign feature is barely functional and only allows you to have 10 campaigns, even with the most expensive plan
• Lead and contact records have gone missing and FreshSales is unable to recover data

• Im actually pretty happy with the system as it is. The best aspect of Highrise is that it is very easy to work with - no need to struggle with manuals and lengthy training.
• Not really a problem I suppose but I pay for Highrise as part of a suite which includes other products - Basecamp, Backpack and Campfire. It would be nice to see more integration between these products.

Highrise is easy to use, has a nice UI overall, quick to load, and does most of what we need.

Incentivized

I would give Freshworks CRM's overall usability a 7 out of 10. Although the software has improved since we first obtained it, it still could use improvements to make functionality more intuitive and easier for the average user. It is not that challenging but there is definitely a learning curve

Incentivized

It's quick and easy to setup and use. There isn't any feature "bloat". Nothing to struggle with

When you initially log in to Freshworks, you get snippets to guide you on how to set up. You have a chat option on every page so you can reach out to the support agent and get your issues resolved in real time. The agents are fast, responsive, and experienced in handling even a person who introduced CRM to the world...

They are quick and SO nice. They are very friendly and are eager to help.

Incentivized

Close.io has less features, costs more, and equally has an inside sales team focus, rather than being just as suitable for both inside and outside sales. Having said this, Close.io has important features and smart automations, a cleaner interface (easier for non-techs to use), and has very strong integrations using Zapier, plus SMS-based support. Where Freshsales won for us is that it ended up being nearly half the cost of Close.io, as well as included telephony support for our local country (Australia), whereas Close.io comes with USA/Canada numbers and requires the top pricing tier to include calls to other countries. We needed a telephony system that worked well for making and receiving from Australia. Freshsales won for us because their pricing is at a good point, had the telephony requirements we needed, and all the features that we required were good enough, or we found a workaround.

Incentivized

Highrise is simple to use and is run by the same folks who build Basecamp and 37Signals. We wanted something that would do the essentials without the cumbersome bells and whistles. Salesforce is almost too complicated if you don't have a whole sales operation and analytics division. One day we will probably outgrow Highrise, but not yet.

Incentivized

• It is too soon to make a determination on ROI, but I do think it will help me be more efficient.
• The reporting functions help me stay on track of sales opportunities.
• The task reminders help me accelerate how quickly deals come together.

• Better customer service, I am able to look up client info in a more organized way
• I feel that our efficiency has really increased. Highrise is a lot faster than our old program
• Highrise keeps us very organized. but it would be helpful if there was a project management section we could implement

Incentivized