Pipedrive Review: Does This Popular CRM Live Up to the Hype?
Sales reps need to be able to juggle a lot of information—especially on high-velocity teams where they’re dealing with 400+ leads per month. How do they manage?
By using a reliable sales CRM to help them manage the work better.
One of the more popular CRM options out there is Pipedrive—but does it live up to the hype? In this Findstack review, we’re taking a deep dive to answer that very question.
What is Pipedrive?
Pipedrive describes itself as “the first CRM designed by salespeople, for salespeople”.
While it probably isn’t the first, the rest is true—it’s a CRM specifically designed to fit a sales team’s unique needs and processes. The software is designed to help teams better manage their sales pipelines, making it easier to track leads and opportunities, manage customers, and automate busywork—all in one place.
Getting Started with Pipedrive
Getting started with Pipedrive is a super easy process. Before diving into the tool’s actual features, there are only really three things you need to do:
- Set up your pipeline stages. Stages are fully customizable, so they can reflect the specific process you have in place.
- Add deals and contacts. You can add deals and contacts manually, import them via a CSV file, or import them from another tool.
- Invite your team and set access controls. You can invite users to the platform via bulk email invitations. You can also choose which team members will have access to certain data points.
Once you’ve completed these three steps, it’s time to start exploring the platform.
Pipedrive Key Features
Sales Pipeline & Deals
Pipelines and deals are Pipedrive’s (and every other sales CRM’s) bread and butter. They’re visual representations of your sales process, including stages, deal flow, and the status of your current deals.
In Pipedrive, pipelines are completely customizable. You can easily add new stages to the pipeline and adjust the order of stages by dragging and dropping—just click “Edit Pipeline” in the upper right-hand corner.
You can also easily add new deals and view existing ones from the pipeline view. The option to review every deal’s details is especially useful and accessible simply by clicking on it in the pipeline. This includes:
- Contacts
- Labels
- Notes
- Products
- Communication history
You also have the option to define custom fields for your deals. These can either be marked optional or required—perfect for helping your sales team prioritize key pieces of information in their talks. The “Deals” tab is also where your team will write notes, schedule sales activities, and track availability.
Communication Tracking
Pipedrive’s communication tracking features are great.
For starters, the underlying organizational system is super intuitive—contacts are organized by dividing them into “people” and “organizations”. You can then link these to the deals they’re associated with and easily check your history of calls, emails, and activities with any of your contacts or deals.
Pipedrive’s email inbox is sales-focused and super intuitive, too. It has a ton of features that speed up the process of managing and sending emails, including:
- Email synch
- Email tracking
- Email distribution groups
- Email scheduling
There’s also Scheduler—a feature that helps you set up meetings without annoying back-and-forths by sharing your availability and letting invitees book time slots that work for them. You can also automatically set up video calls for scheduled time slots on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.
Last, but (definitely) not least, Pipedrive integrates with a ton of great phone tools, so you can place calls from within the platform. This makes it easy to track your activity, record data, and even automate certain call-related processes—but more on automation in a moment.
Automation
One of Pipedrive’s main selling points is its automation features. There are quite a few to unpack here, but there are two main types:
- Sales automations
- Workflow automations
Sales automations are features designed to help you optimize your business’ sales process. Take Sales Assistant, for example—this automation tool creates custom behavior-based cards with performance tips, notifications, and progress updates for each team member on your roster. It also notifies everyone affected by changes to settings and deals, so no one’s left wondering where their recent deals went.
Smart Contact Data is another sales automation tool that pulls in data from sources like LinkedIn, Google, and Twitter to help you get a better understanding of your contacts.
On the workflow side, Pipedrive’s Automations let you create custom actions and processes that are triggered automatically when a certain action is taken (e.g., when a deal changes pipeline stage). These are great for cutting down on admin work and freeing up your team to focus on bigger and better things (like actually closing deals).
Insights & Reporting
Finally, it’s time to talk about Pipedrive’s reporting features.
Starting with the basics, Pipedrive’s sales reports are totally customizable. You can track whatever data points you need, and cut out the ones you’re not s interested in. Plus, there are a few pre-built reports you can use, including:
- Revenue forecasts
- Performance reports
- Conversion reports
Pipedrive’s Insights dashboard is great, too—you can turn all your data and metrics into beautiful, interactive charts and graphs that are easy to read (and share).
If you want to set goals for your team, Pipedrive has you covered there, too. You can create goals based on deals or activities, and specify them by adding key details like assignees, types, pipelines, durations, and intervals.
Oh, and if you’re looking for even more customization, Pipedrive has an open API. That means you’re free to build custom integrations that meet even the most specific of reporting requirements.
What Makes Pipedrive Stand Out from Other Platforms?
Time-Saver
Pipedrive is one of a select-few CRMs that genuinely feels like it’s saving you time. Its automation features and intuitive interface make it easier to manage contacts, deals, emails, calls, and activities—all without having to manually enter every single piece of data.
Visualization & Reporting
It always helps to see information presented visually—and that just so happens to be an area where Pipedrive excels. From the visual pipeline to the Insights dashboard and interactive reports, Pipedrive is packed with features that make it easier to interpret your data.
Impressive Integrations
Pipedrive’s Marketplace is massive. At the time of writing, there are more than 300 integrations available. Plus, the listed tools range from video calling platforms to lead generation tools, so you’re sure to find something that fits your needs.
Pipedrive Pricing
Pipedrive has four paid plans that you can choose from.
- Essential ($12.50/user/month) includes lead, deal, calendar, and pipeline management, simple data import and customization, and 24/7 support with over 300 integrations.
- Advanced ($24.90/user/month) offers all the features of Essential, plus full email synch with templates and scheduling, group emailing with open and click tracking, and customizable automations with an in-depth automation builder.
- Professional ($49.90/user/month) includes all the features of Advanced, plus the ability to create, manage, and eSign documents and contracts, revenue projections, forecasts, and enhanced custom reporting.
- Enterprise ($74.90/user/month) includes all the features of Professional, plus unlimited user permission and visibility settings, additional and heightened security preferences, an implementation program, phone support, and no feature usage limits.
Still on the fence? Don’t worry—all four plans come with a 14-day free trial. No credit card required.
It’s not all good news, though. In addition to the plans, you’ll also need to think about which add-ons you need. Quite a few great features (e.g., Scheduler) are pay-walled behind pricey add-ons that don’t come packaged with the base plans.
Pipedrive Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highly customizable pipelines and fields Highly visual dashboards Massive selection of integrations Easy-to-use automation builder Extensive reporting capabilities Affordable paid plans 14-day free trial (no credit card required) | No free plan for light users Automations not available on the Essentials plan The add-on system increases the cost dramatically No ticketing system and spotty customer support |
What’s the Verdict?
Pipedrive is one of the top sales CRMs for a reason—a few reasons, actually. It packs in a lot of features designed with sales teams in mind, and most features are executed well.
The only real downsides are the result of the company behind the product, not the product itself. If you can overlook them, you’re in for a great experience.
Overall, Pipedrive’s well worth considering if you’re shopping for a CRM—but it isn’t even close to the only option.
If you haven’t found the CRM you’re looking for, Findstack can help. We’ve compiled a list of the best CRMs (complete with reviews and comparisons), all in one place. Start browsing for your new CRM today!
