Free Nutshell CRM Alternative

Using Bitrix24 as Free Nutshell CRM alternative

Nutshell CRM is a web-based CRM service known for its relatively simple and straightforward approach to sales. Many people in their Nutshell CRM review point out its simplicity (again!), affordability ($19 per user per month), and excellent mobile apps.

Yes, Nutshell CRM may not have complex business processes automation tools (only sales), but its intuitiveness and user-friendliness make up for the missing features. However, that doesn’t mean that Nutshell is perfect - far from it.

Nutshell appears to be available in the cloud only, meaning there is no way to 'own it', self-host it on your own server, or alter the source code. If you are looking for a free Nutshell CRM alternative and want these missing features, consider Bitrix24.

In Nutshell CRM, you can organize and structure your contacts easily. While other tools use complicated structures like leads that convert to opportunities at arbitrary points in time, Nutshell offers something different. Here, you organize three things: people, companies, and leads.

With Nutshell CRM, you track the people you communicate with, the companies they work for, and you bundle those all together into a lead, which represents the process from the first contact to the final sale. That being said, Nutshell is also great at helping you to automate your sales processes and quickly surfaces useful information when you need it.

This last ability is arguably their strongest feature. Nutshell CRM allows you, based solely on a contact’s name and email, to get more info on that client by scouring the web for additional information: their job title, location, even the weather, and current time.
As you hold an email conversation with a contact, Nutshell's email sync keeps all sides of the conversation organized into a single timeline. 

As great as it may seem, Nutshell CRM does feature a few cons, most of which come not even from the functionality department but rather from the implementation and usage departments. For example, you will probably be disappointed to find out that Nutshell does not have a free plan - it’s a 14-day trial and then “pay to play.” Also, there is no such thing as a self-hosted option. Not a deal-breaker for smaller companies but rather critical for the bigger ones.

The biggest advantage of Bitrix24 CRM is that it gives you not only a CRM brimful of features but also powerful marketing automation, sales intelligence, advanced project management, invocing, online store and order management, customer service tools all of which you can very well use to increase your sales and productivity.

Plus, there are also really useful marketing analytics tools that will allow you to control your spendings, calculate ROIs automatically, and optimize your marketing budget. That’s not to mention a self-hosted version with the ability to edit the source code so that you can customize the product to your exact needs. 

Here is a table with a side-by-side comparison of Bitrix24 and Nutshell CRM pricing and features to give you the full picture and help to make the right choice.