7 Best Lead Management & Tracking Software + Feature Comparison

Learn what features to expect & how each platform stacks up

If you’re selling B2B, the main reason you need sales software is to better manage and track your leads.

Even a small sales team (3 people) I recently talked to reported earning $1 million per year more (💵!) after getting proper lead management software in place.

With all the different lead tracking platforms out there however, it can be hard to figure out exactly what you need to up your success rate and productivity. So first, I’ll tackle that for you and give you a list of useful features to look out for. 👀

After this, I’ll use this same feature list as well as review scores from G2 to compare 7 different top lead management software platforms in detail, including pricing.

Let’s dig in! 👇

What is lead management software?

Lead management software helps you organize and track new leads throughout the sales process. It ensures that every potential customer is properly managed, from their first contact to a successful sale. By organizing leads within a funnel, it makes it easier to prioritize follow-ups, manage tasks, and keep things moving efficiently.

Core features of lead management software

Here are 10 core features a lead management & tracking software platform can offer to help you better follow up leads:

1. Visualize your leads in multiple drag-and-drop pipelines
2. Send automated email sequences until leads reply
3. Automatically enrich leads from both publicly available info and email signatures
4. Track the source (and lost reason) of your leads and analyze it
5. Get reminded to follow-up automatically when leads go inactive
6. Track leads with integrated email & website tracking
7. Get a live overview of what your leads are doing in an in-app notification center
8. Digitize business leads with a built-in business card scanner
9. Use email templates within your Gmail inbox to manage leads more productively
10. Manage your leads fully from your inbox with a handy email sidebar

There’s a lot of useful features in there that you won’t be able to get just from an Excel sheet 😄 I’ll detail below which of these features come with each lead management software.

Ranking lead management software: our methodology

If you’re looking for good software to manage and track your leads, the above set of features can significantly boost your success rate and up your productivity.

To compile this ranking, I went through a list of around 600 possible apps to make a pre-selection. Then I tested every one of the 7 selected lead management software platforms first hand and researched which of them offer which features and detailed this for you below.

Next to this, it is important to keep the bigger picture in mind when comparing software, because you need to make sure your team will actually use the system as well. Getting lead management software that nobody uses is pretty useless 😏

Because of that, I’ve included the current scoring for each software on G2 so you get a better idea of how they each stack up. It’s broken down as follows:

• Ease of Use
• Ease of Setup
• Meets Requirements
• Quality of Support
• Ease of Doing Business With
• Ease of Admin

I’ve then taken the average of the G2 review score, and combined it with the lead management feature score, to calculate… the final score! 🥇

The 7 Best Lead Management & Tracking Software ranked

Don’t want to read the whole comparison? 🤓

The top 7 best lead management software in 2024 are:

1. Salesflare: 9.8/10 🏆
2. HubSpot CRM & Sales Hub: 8.3/10
3. Pipeliner CRM: 7.2/10
4. Freshworks CRM: 7.0/10
5. Pipedrive: 6.3/10
6. Salesforce: 6.1/10
7. Zoho CRM: 5.9/10

Want to dig into the details with me? Read on!

1. Salesflare: best for B2B sales [9.8/10] 🏆

If I ask our customers what they’re essentially using Salesflare for, the answer is usually: to better follow up our leads.

Our goal at Salesflare is to make following up leads super easy for you, without you having to input data to keep the system alive. And with a ton of built-in automation to make you more productive.

Salesflare (founded in 2014) is used by thousands of small and medium-sized businesses who sell to other businesses (incl. agencies, consultancies, development houses, tech companies, …). It’s top ranked across review platforms and is the #1 CRM software on Product Hunt, the leading community for product enthusiasts.

It’s very tightly integrated with Gmail (also within Google Workspace) and Outlook, so you don’t need to switch between your inbox and sales software while tracking leads. Plus it adds some handy features like integrated email and website tracking, email templates, and email sequences.

And, on top of that, it’s great for lead generation too, as it has a series of handy lead generation tools built in!

“Salesflare has all the tools I need to track my sales without extra features I don’t use. It’s easy to use and has great customer support. I like how it integrates with Gmail and Google Calendar so I can easily track my contacts with my leads.” writes Suzanne D., founder of a coaching company, about Salesflare.

Testing it out

When you test out Salesflare, the first thing you notice is how intuitive and automated the system feels. Upon connecting your email and social media accounts, Salesflare starts pulling in data, creating comprehensive profiles for each lead without any manual input. The automated data entry is seamless, instantly gathering contact information, company details, and social media profiles.

Email and meeting tracking are equally impressive. Salesflare logs every email you send and receive, tracking opens and link clicks, giving you a clear view of lead engagement. Scheduled meetings are added to the timeline automatically, complete with notes and action items, ensuring you never miss a follow-up. The platform’s tight integration with Gmail and Outlook means you can manage leads directly from your inbox, making your workflow more efficient and productive.

Scoring

Without further ado, here’s an analysis of how Salesflare stacks up:

Features Salesflare offers: 10/10

• Visualize your leads in multiple drag-and-drop pipelines
• Send automated email sequences until leads reply
• Automatically enrich leads from both publicly available info and email signatures
• Track the source (and lost reason) of your leads and analyze it
• Get reminded to follow-up automatically when leads go inactive
• Track leads with integrated email & website tracking
• Get a live overview of what your leads are doing in an in-app notification center
• Digitize business leads with a built-in business card scanner
• Use email templates within your Gmail inbox to manage leads more productively
• Manage your leads fully from your inbox with a handy email sidebar

Features Salesflare doesn’t offer: none

G2 review scoring:

• Ease of Use: 9.5
• Ease of Setup: 9.5
• Meets Requirements: 9.3
• Quality of Support: 9.7
• Ease of Doing Business With: 9.9
• Ease of Admin: 9.5

Final result:

• Lead management feature score: 10/10
• Average G2 review score: 9.6/10
• FINAL SCORE: 9.8/10

Pricing

Pricing to get all of the above (10 of 10 features) on the Salesflare Pro plan:

$49/user/month (billed annually)
$55/user/month (billed monthly)

Try Salesflare

Want to see it all in action? You can try Salesflare for free. 👈

It only takes a few minutes to sign up and get started with a Salesflare trial.

I guarantee you won’t find easier and more automated lead management software! 👌

2. HubSpot CRM + Sales Hub: best for marketing [8.3/10]

HubSpot is a marketing automation platform turned everything platform. It was founded in 2005 to make marketing automation easier.

Nowadays, HubSpot’s main selling point is offering an all-in-one solution, including marketing, sales, service and operations. If you don’t like using different apps and integrating them (using tools like Zapier and native integrations), then HubSpot might be what you’re looking for.

“It’s easy to find the leads and to track the lead’s progress for sales. It is also easy to integrate all the leads from our pipeline to the HubSpot.” writes Izzaidi M., financial advisor at an insurance company, about HubSpot CRM & Sales Hub.

To get functionality that is comparable to what you’re getting with the other lead management software in this ranking, you need to get two HubSpot products: its CRM and its Sales Hub.

That makes the pricing to get all this handy functionality (8 features) quite steep, starting at $90-100/user/month plus an extra required fee of $1470 for onboarding.

Testing it out

When I tested HubSpot CRM and Sales Hub, the seamless integration of marketing, sales, and service tools stood out. Setting up the system was straightforward, and I appreciated how it visualized leads in customizable drag-and-drop pipelines. Sending automated email sequences until leads responded was easy, allowing me to maintain consistent communication without manual effort.

Although HubSpot’s interface was clean and user-friendly, I found some advanced features like automatic follow-up reminders and live activity tracking missing, which could have further enhanced my lead management experience.

Scoring

Features HubSpot CRM + Sales Hub offers: 8/10

• Visualize your leads in multiple drag-and-drop pipelines
• Send automated email sequences until leads reply
• Automatically enrich leads from both publicly available info and email signatures
• Track the source (and lost reason) of your leads and analyze it
• Track leads with integrated email & website tracking
• Digitize business leads with a built-in business card scanner
• Use email templates within your Gmail inbox to manage leads more productively
• Manage your leads fully from your inbox with a handy email sidebar

Features HubSpot CRM + Sales Hub doesn’t offer:

• Get reminded to follow-up automatically when leads go inactive
• Get a live overview of what your leads are doing in an in-app notification center

G2 review scoring:

• Ease of Use: 8.6
• Ease of Setup: 8.3
• Meets Requirements: 8.5
• Quality of Support: 8.5
• Ease of Doing Business With: 8.7
• Ease of Admin: 8.6

Final result:

• Lead management feature score: 8/10
• Average G2 review score: 8.5/10
• FINAL SCORE: 8.3/10

Pricing

Pricing to get all of the above (8 of 10 features) on the HubSpot Sales Hub Professional plan:

$90/user/month (billed annually)
$100/user/month (billed monthly)
+ an extra required fee of $1470 for onboarding

3. Pipeliner CRM: best for sales management [7.2/10]

Pipeliner CRM (formerly Pipelinersales) is a software company founded in 2009 with the goal of building better software for salespeople.

Although Salesflare hardly ever gets compared to Pipeliner by people who want to follow up their leads in a better way, I decided to include them in this comparison because of their clear dedication to lead management and sales management.

The software is relatively feature rich compared to the other platforms in this comparison, although also a little dated and not too easy to use.

Pipeliner’s pricing rises quite steeply as you need more functionality, which probably makes it a better fit for mid-sized companies with deep pockets.

“[I like] being able to move customers along the sales pipeline with a drag and drop interface. The raft of features for contacts, including social media profile connectivity. [And] being able to see where every one of my customers in my sales pipeline.” writes Jon T., a communication coach, about Pipeliner CRM.

Testing it out

Testing Pipeliner CRM was a mixed experience. On the positive side, the software provided robust lead visualization through its drag-and-drop pipelines. Tracking the source of leads and analyzing lost reasons was straightforward, helping me understand where my leads were coming from and why some didn’t convert.

However, the interface felt dated, and navigating through its features was less intuitive compared to other platforms. Despite its rich feature set, the absence of automated email sequences and lead enrichment from public sources was noticeable. Overall, Pipeliner CRM required a bit more effort to manage leads effectively, especially for someone used to more modern, automated systems.

Scoring

Features Pipeliner CRM offers: 5/10

• Visualize your leads in multiple drag-and-drop pipelines
• Track the source (and lost reason) of your leads and analyze it
• Get a live overview of what your leads are doing in an in-app notification center
• Digitize business leads with a built-in business card scanner
• Manage your leads fully from your inbox with a handy email sidebar

Features Pipeliner CRM doesn’t offer:

• Send automated email sequences until leads reply
• Automatically enrich leads from both publicly available info and email signatures
• Get reminded to follow-up automatically when leads go inactive
• Track leads with integrated email & website tracking
• Use email templates within your Gmail inbox to manage leads more productively

G2 review scoring:

• Ease of Use: 9.4
• Ease of Setup: 9.2
• Meets Requirements: 9.3
• Quality of Support: 9.3
• Ease of Doing Business With: 9.4
• Ease of Admin: 9.3

Final result:

• Lead management feature score: 5/10
• Average G2 review score: 9.3/10
• FINAL SCORE: 7.2/10

Pricing

Pricing to get all of the above (5 of 10 features) on the Pipeliner Business plan:

$70/user/month (billed annually)

4. Freshworks CRM: best for feature depth [7.0/10]

Freshworks CRM (formerly known as Freshsales) is a sales CRM from Freshworks, the company behind / initially called Freshdesk. Freshworks was founded in 2010 to provide a better, cheaper solution for customer service teams.

Freshworks’ main selling point is its feature depth. It has also managed to offer this range of functionality through an easier to use interface than its competitor/predecessor from the same city, Zoho.

What makes Freshworks strong is also its weakness: the interface is full of so many little buttons that common side-effects of using the platform include a mild headache, fatigue and dizziness. 😅

Testing it out

Using Freshworks CRM, I found the platform packed with features but somewhat overwhelming. The lead visualization in drag-and-drop pipelines was efficient, and sending automated email sequences helped maintain lead engagement. The CRM tracked lead sources and provided a live overview of lead activities, which was useful for timely follow-ups.

However, the interface was cluttered with numerous buttons and options, making it challenging to navigate. Freshworks did not offer automatic lead enrichment or reminders for inactive leads, which are crucial for efficient lead management. Despite its feature depth, the user experience felt less streamlined compared to other platforms.

Scoring

Features Freshworks CRM offers: 5/10

• Visualize your leads in multiple drag-and-drop pipelines
• Send automated email sequences until leads reply
• Track the source (and lost reason) of your leads and analyze it
• Get a live overview of what your leads are doing in an in-app notification center
• Manage your leads fully from your inbox with a handy email sidebar

Features Freshworks CRM doesn’t offer:

• Automatically enrich leads from both publicly available info and email signatures
• Get reminded to follow-up automatically when leads go inactive
• Track leads with integrated email & website tracking
• Digitize business leads with a built-in business card scanner
• Use email templates within your Gmail inbox to manage leads more productively

G2 review scoring:

• Ease of Use: 9.1
• Ease of Setup: 8.9
• Meets Requirements: 8.9
• Quality of Support: 9.0
• Ease of Doing Business With: 9.1
• Ease of Admin: 9.4

Final result:

• Lead management feature score: 5/10
• Average G2 review score: 9.0/10
• FINAL SCORE: 7.0/10

Pricing

Pricing to get all of the above (5 of 10 features) on Freshsales Enterprise plan*:

$59/user/month (billed annually)
$71/user/month (billed monthly)

* Sequences with stricter limits also available on Pro plan

5. Pipedrive: best for small startups [6.3/10]

Pipedrive is an easy-to-use and easy-to-setup lead management software for small businesses and startups, and is therefore compared to Salesflare very often.

The company was founded in 2011 to launch a counterreaction to enterprise systems like Salesforce, which are built more for enterprise needs than they are for sales teams. Pipedrive set out to change that.

While the company is focused on helping you manage your leads in a better way, it keeps missing some of the more modern functionality offered by other platforms in this area.

Testing it out

When I tried Pipedrive, its simplicity and ease of use immediately stood out. The drag-and-drop pipelines made visualizing and managing leads straightforward. Tracking lead sources and analyzing lost reasons helped in refining my sales strategies. The email sidebar integration (only for Gmail, not for Outlook) allowed me to manage leads directly from my inbox, enhancing productivity.

However, Pipedrive lacked some advanced features like automated email sequences and actual lead enrichment from public sources. The absence of reminders for inactive leads and live activity tracking meant I had to be more vigilant in following up with leads. While Pipedrive excelled in basic lead management, it missed out on automation that could save significant time.

Scoring

Features Pipedrive offers: 4/10

• Visualize your leads in multiple drag-and-drop pipelines
• Track the source (and lost reason) of your leads and analyze it
• Get a live overview of what your leads are doing in an in-app notification center
• Manage your leads fully from your inbox with a handy email sidebar

Features Pipedrive doesn’t offer:

• Send automated email sequences until leads reply
• Automatically enrich leads from both publicly available info and email signatures
• Get reminded to follow-up automatically when leads go inactive
• Track leads with integrated email & website tracking
• Digitize business leads with a built-in business card scanner
• Use email templates within your Gmail inbox to manage leads more productively

G2 review scoring:

• Ease of Use: 8.9
• Ease of Setup: 8.7
• Meets Requirements: 8.4
• Quality of Support: 8.4
• Ease of Doing Business With: 8.7
• Ease of Admin: 8.6

Final result:

• Lead management feature score: 4/10
• Average G2 review score: 8.6/10
• FINAL SCORE: 6.3/10

Pricing

Pricing to get all of the above (4 of 10 features) on the Pipedrive Professional plan:

$49/user/month (billed annually)
$64/user/month (billed monthly)

6. Salesforce Sales Cloud: best for large enterprises [6.1/10]

Salesforce is by far the biggest CRM company in the world, controlling about 24% of the market in 2024. It was founded in 1999 in California by an ex-Oracle executive.

Salesforce offers a huge platform to enterprises that basically consists of a set of building blocks with which you can build anything, gives the possibility to customize everything, and the promise to connect to whatever other software you’re using.

A Salesforce implementation typically requires a consulting company to map the business needs and workflow, build all this in Salesforce, connect with other software, train the employees and follow up with additional changes afterwards.

While the software is not a great match for small and medium-sized businesses nor really built for lead management, no comparison is complete without mentioning the market leader.

Testing it out

Testing Salesforce Sales Cloud was an extensive process, reflecting its enterprise-level capabilities. The platform allowed for detailed customization and integration with other software, making it highly adaptable to specific business needs. Visualizing leads in drag-and-drop pipelines and managing them through the email sidebar were effective features.

However, the complexity of Salesforce required a significant investment in time and possibly consulting services to set up and optimize. Features like automated email sequences and automatic lead enrichment were missing, which are standard in other platforms. Salesforce’s strength lies in its customization, but for smaller teams or those seeking out-of-the-box solutions, it might feel overwhelming.

Scoring

Features Salesforce Sales Cloud offers: 4/10

• Visualize your leads in multiple drag-and-drop pipelines
• Track the source (and lost reason) of your leads and analyze it
• Manage your leads fully from your inbox with a handy email sidebar
• Use email templates within your Gmail inbox to manage leads more productively

Features Salesforce Sales Cloud doesn’t offer:

• Send automated email sequences until leads reply
• Automatically enrich leads from both publicly available info and email signatures
• Get reminded to follow-up automatically when leads go inactive
• Track leads with integrated email & website tracking
• Get a live overview of what your leads are doing in an in-app notification center
• Digitize business leads with a built-in business card scanner

G2 review scoring:

• Ease of Use: 8.1
• Ease of Setup: 7.5
• Meets Requirements: 8.8
• Quality of Support: 8.2
• Ease of Doing Business With: 8.3
• Ease of Admin: 8.0

Final result:

• Lead management feature score: 4/10
• Average G2 review score: 9.6/10
• FINAL SCORE: 6.1/10

Pricing

Pricing to get all of the above (4 of 10 features) on the Salesforce Sales Cloud Professional plan:

$80/user/month (only billed annually)

7. Zoho CRM: best for all-in-one business software [5.9/10]

Zoho is a true household name in the CRM industry, so I couldn’t omit them from this ranking.

Zoho launched its small business CRM product in 2005 and has historically been positioning itself as a cheaper alternative to Salesforce. That is immediately its main selling point.

If you’re looking for a CRM solution, Zoho has many tiers (and products even: Zoho CRM, Zoho CRM Plus, Zoho One, …). Most of the four features below come on Zoho CRM’s Professional plan, which offers the lowest pricing of the platforms in this comparison.

Scoring

Features Zoho CRM offers: 4/10

• Visualize your leads in multiple drag-and-drop pipelines
• Track the source (and lost reason) of your leads and analyze it
• Digitize business leads with a built-in business card scanner
• Manage your leads fully from your inbox with a handy email sidebar

Features Zoho CRM doesn’t offer:

• Send automated email sequences until leads reply
• Automatically enrich leads from both publicly available info and email signatures
• Get reminded to follow-up automatically when leads go inactive
• Track leads with integrated email & website tracking
• Get a live overview of what your leads are doing in an in-app notification center
• Use email templates within your Gmail inbox to manage leads more productively

G2 review scoring:

• Ease of Use: 8.1
• Ease of Setup: 7.6
• Meets Requirements: 8.2
• Quality of Support: 7.4
• Ease of Doing Business With: 7.9
• Ease of Admin: 7.8

Final result:

• Lead management feature score: 4/10
• Average G2 review score: 7.8/10
• FINAL SCORE: 5.9/10

Pricing

Pricing to get all of the above (4 of 10 features) on Zoho CRM Professional plan:

$23/user/month (billed annually)
$35/user/month (billed monthly)
+20% if you want to get “Premium support” (i.e. comparable support to what you get in other places)

That’s all I have for the 7 best lead management & tracking software platforms!

Want to dig deeper into the differences? Just ask our team using the chat on salesflare.com. We’re here to help 😄

I hope you liked this post. If you did, spread the word!

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• Author
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Jeroen Corthout

Co-Founder & CEO at Salesflare

I'm Co-Founder & CEO at Salesflare, the intelligent sales CRM for small and medium-sized businesses selling B2B. I love automating sales, building beautiful products, and writing about all of these topics.

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