Using Bitrix24 As Free Nimble CRM Alternative
Nimble CRM is a cloud-based social CRM service founded by Jon Ferrara, one of the most famous people in the CRM community. This CRM is probably most well-known for its simplicity and relative affordability.
Nimble falls right there in that spot between huge, full-featured CRM systems by giants like Salesforce or Zoho and smaller CRM solutions like Act! CRM - giving not too much but not too little.
The more or less recent decision by LinkedIn to limit access to its network to all CRM vendors except Salesforce and MS Dynamics has somewhat diminished Nimble usefulness, but it remains one of the best social CRM solutions on the market, especially considering its low price of $19-25 per user per month (although may be costly if you have large sales team).
Nimble is, however, can seem lighter on advanced CRM features - sales intelligence, advanced marketing automation, invoicing, sales project management, inventory and sales order tracking, online store, document management, and telemarketing features are either absent entirely or are available in limited capacity via integrations. If you are looking for free Nimble CRM alternatives that have these features available, Bitrix24 makes a perfect choice. Let’s take a closer look.
Unlike Nimble, Bitrix24 is more than just a powerful CRM system (although CRM is still the centerpiece of the product). Bitrix24 is more like a collaboration software platform that provides tools not only for sales but also for communication, project management, and customer support.
If you're looking for both a collaboration software system and CRM, you should definitely consider Bitrix24 first. Bitrix24 lets you and your team collaborate using different communication tools - it features the social internet portal that lets people start conversations with the option to reply and react with likes and dislikes. Here, you have a built-in messaging system where you can create public and private chat rooms to chat one-on-one or with a group.
You can even create a company chat channel, convert a conversation into a task for your sales reps, search history and chat across devices using a browser desktop or mobile app. To plan your sales and client meetings, you can create events in the Bitrix24 Calendar (easily synced with other calendars), share public and private events.
Personal, group, and company calendars, use an event scheduler, automated invitations, settings appointment scheduling, and two-way sync with Outlook and Google calendars. Bitrix24 is also integrated with VoIP phone systems to provide employee extensions, voicemail, and call forwarding.
You can give external users limited access through extra network groups and chat. Using the tasks and project management features, you can give tasks start and end dates and assign tasks to team members.
Bitrix24 also provides you with supervision and control features such as deadline control, task counters, reminders, notifications, reports, and efficiency ratings (KPIs). But most importantly, Bitrix24 includes a customer relationship management (CRM) system where you can view and analyze your entire sales process. Bitrix24 CRM allows you to customize sales stages, qualify leads, automate processes with rule-based triggers, and improve conversion rates.
The CRM also comes with booking and scheduling tools that feature a built-in calendar, appointment scheduling, resource booking, and notifications and reminders. As a result, you get a 360-degree view of contact cards that also feature timeline views. The system has pre-built and custom reports as well as repeat sale and subscription management.
Nimble is an easy-to-use CRM that works in Office 365, G Suite, and pretty much anywhere else you may work. What Nimble does well is automatically combining your contacts, communication histories, email inboxes, and calendar appointments.
Nimble also features plenty of integrations with social media and over 200 different apps, including MailChimp, Xero, QuickBooks Online, etc. Here are some of the key advantages of Nimble CRM:
As good as it is, Nimble CRM does not come without its flaws - like limited sales workflow automation, basic project management and lack of team collaboration tools.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of Bitrix24 and Nimble CRM pricing and features to give you the full picture.