Macy is a marketing writer with over five years of experience creating content for dozens of industries including food and beverage, home services, and education. She also specializes in creating SEO and PPC content. Her work has been featured by Search Engine Journal, HubSpot, Entrepreneur, Clutch, and more. In her free time, Macy enjoys trying new crafts and reading comic books.
Did you know that 69% of businesses say converting contacts into customers is their top marketing priority? That means your success with converting contacts starts with the right contact management tool.
On this page, we’ll dive into everything you need to know about contact management tools, including:
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What is contact management software?
Contact management software is a tool that helps businesses manage important customer information in one central location. It tracks data like addresses, sales history, and employment information.
This tool serves as a resource of information about your contacts that you can use for better lead qualification.
Contact management tools vs. customer relationship management tools
When looking into contact management tools, you’ll see people mention customer relationship management (CRM) tools. While these tools serve similar purposes in terms of data management for customers, there’s one big difference.
Contact management software manages individual data about customers, while CRM tools manage the customer journey. CRM software enables you to manage your sales funnel and track how people interact with your marketing as they progress through the funnel.
So, CRMs are like a contact management system with the bonus of sales funnel optimization.
4 quick benefits of using contact management tools
So, why use software to manage contacts? There are numerous benefits to investing in contact management software, including:
Saving time: Instead of your team slogging through files, multiple spreadsheets, or something similar, all the information remains in one place. That means it’s easily accessible and saves your team time.
Everyone has access to the same information: You want your sales and marketing teams to be on the same page and have the same information on your contacts. Using software to manage contacts ensures all teams work with the same data, solidifying your marketing and sales efforts.
Centralized area for information: Instead of storing all your information across different files or tools, contact management software enables you to keep it in one place for easy access.
Improving the sales process: Having your data in one area enables your sales team to analyze sales performance and track sales activities. As a result, you can improve the sales process and earn more revenue.
These are just a few benefits you’ll reap by investing in a contact management system.
Expert insights from
Kevin RandolphInternet Marketing Analyst at Nutshell
“With a system in place for managing and organizing your contact data, you can create a much more seamless customer experience, helping you to close more deals, improve customer satisfaction, and build relationships. Contact management tools enable you to personalize your outreach and keep your entire team on the same page, ultimately creating better experiences for your leads and customers.”
17 best contact management tools for managing data
If you want to invest in a contact management platform, you must find the right one. Below, we’ll highlight different contact management tools you can use and the features they offer to make managing data a breeze.
To kick off this list of the best contact management tools, let’s look at Nutshell. Nutshell is a contact management platform that helps business-to-business (B2B) companies better manage their contacts.
Here are some of the contact management features you’ll enjoy with Nutshell:
Easy data importing: Import data, like contacts and emails, from any source. Nutshell provides you with assistance in importing data from multiple sources.
Contact syncing: Nutshell enables you to sync phone contacts, scan business cards, and more, to add new contacts to your CRM software. Nutshell makes it easy to import new leads, no matter where you get them.
Contact enrichment: When you add a contact to this contact management software, Nutshell automatically scours the Internet to find information about them. From their job title to location, Nutshell will help you build a full profile.
Notations: Nutshell lets you pin notes about contacts at the top, so your sales team doesn’t miss any crucial reminders about those leads.
Nutshell is an excellent option if you’re looking for an easy tool to help you manage your contact data.
Expert insights from
Kevin RandolphInternet Marketing Analyst at Nutshell
“With Nutshell, your entire team has access to the latest information about your leads and customers, including information about each contact, their company, and their interactions with your team. We also make it easy to keep your contact data up to date with features like simple activity logging and automatic data enhancement. You can even use our AI-powered timeline summary feature to quickly surface the most important information about your relationship with a customer.”
2. Contact Boss
Prices starting at: $12+ per user per month
Another one of the best contact management systems is Contact Boss. This contact management platform seamlessly integrates with programs like Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail to import contacts into the system.
Here’s what you get with Contact Boss:
Smooth data transfers: Worried about transferring your data into Contact Boss? Contact Boss preserves your data and uses a simple transfer method to avoid complications. It also enables you to customize your data transfers.
Contact searching: Need to pull up information but don’t have a lot of details? Contact Boss’s robust search function helps find contacts with minimal input. It’s easy to find prospect information even if you can’t remember all the details.
Contact capturing: Earning new leads for your business? Contact Boss will capture their contact information and add it to your list to enable you to start contacting that lead sooner.
Customization: Contact Boss gives you control over how you manage your contact data. You can create groups, lock and unlock accounts, change contact types, and more. It enables you to customize your contact database to your liking, so your team can be more efficient.
Contact Boss is a great option if you need a simple contact management tool.
3. Keap
Prices starting at: $159+ per month
Keap is another top-notch contact management system to help you manage your information. This tool offers automation features that help you organize and manage contact data.
Keap offers stand-out features like:
Automated lead capturing: Need help capturing leads for your business? Keap offers automated lead capturing that enables you to collect and organize contact data with ease.
Personalized follow-ups: Keap allows you to send personalized follow-ups to your contacts based on their activity and client data. This feature enables you to keep leads moving down the sales funnel toward conversion.
Contact syncing: Keap enables you to integrate and sync contacts from multiple sources, including Gmail, Quickbooks, and more!
Data migration: Have your data stored somewhere else? Keap makes it easy to migrate your data from other tools to theirs, so you can start putting your data to work.
Keap is the best contact management tool for businesses that want to automate their contact management process.
4. Pipedrive
Prices starting at: $15+ per user per month
Looking for one of the best contact management tools that works with your sales pipeline? Check out Pipedrive! This contact management software enables you to set up a sales funnel and track your contacts’ progress through the funnel toward conversion.
With Pipedrive, you get great features like:
Lead segmentation: Pipedrive makes it easy to segment your leads to target them with the right information. You can filter, categorize, and sort your leads to create a more organized contact database.
Contact history: Pipedrive enables you to keep track of your history with a contact. You can see details on all emails, calls, and meetings with contacts.
Activity reminders: Staying on top of sales activities is crucial for boosting revenue. Pipedrive enables you to schedule reminders to ensure your team stays sharp.
Pipeline customization: Pipedrive lets you create a custom pipeline for your sales team. You can create a pipeline that matches your brand’s unique sales cycle to help you drive results.
Pipedrive is an excellent solution for businesses that want software to manage contacts and their pipeline.
5. Jotform
Prices starting at: $34+ per month (Free plan available)
If you’re looking for a basic contact management system that only helps you capture contact information, try Jotform. This tool is an online form builder that will organize form data for you.
With Jotform, you can:
Create custom forms: Jotform enables you to create custom forms that integrate seamlessly into your website. You can control the data you collect on contacts by tailoring your forms.
Organize your form data: If someone completes one of your custom forms, Jotform will automatically process the data and organize it in a spreadsheet.
If you want a simplified contact management tool, Jotform is a simple solution.
6. Nimble
Prices starting at: $25 per user per month
If you’re looking for a simple contact management tool, check out Nimble. Nimble enables you to have 25,000 contacts with their easy-to-use contact management platform.
Here’s what else Nimble offers:
Contact unification: One of the best features of Nimble is that it builds itself around you. It can take your siloed contacts and organize them in one place. It helps you combine data so that your sales and marketing teams can work more efficiently.
Contact segmentation: With Nimble, you can segment your contacts into related groups to help send them the information they care about most.
Integration with popular platforms: From Microsoft to Google, you can integrate Nimble with popular platforms. This feature helps you sync your email, calendar, and contacts all in one place.
Note-taking: With Nimble, you can take notes on your client interactions, which helps everyone on your team stay updated on progress with contacts.
If you’re looking for software to manage contacts that’s simple without the frills, Nimble is the solution you need.
7. Zoho CRM
Prices starting at: $14+ per user per month
If you want a contact management tool that also helps you manage your customer journey, check out Zoho CRM. This platform offers everything you need to capture contact information and use it to deliver a better experience.
With Zoho CRM, you get great features like:
Artificial intelligence (AI) support: Zoho CRM offers its AI assistant, Zia, to help you with decision-making. It can help you discover the best time to contact leads, understand customer sentiment, and more.
Unified analytics: You have tons of customer data from your sales and marketing teams. Zoho CRM unifies data in one place, helping you create a more complete picture of your contacts.
Relationship nurturing: Zoho CRM enables you to segment your audience to deliver the information they want, so you can nurture them towards conversion.
Automated workflows: This contact management tool enables you to save time by automating your workflows, so your team can focus on more pressing tasks.
Zoho CRM is a great solution for businesses that want contact management and pipeline optimization in one tool.
8. Contacts+
Prices starting at: $10+ per month (free plan available)
Contacts+ is another contact management tool to help you manage your leads. This platform will help you sync up to 25,000 contacts and use it to build relationships with your leads.
Contacts+ also comes with great features like:
Syncing with top platforms: Contacts+ syncs with Apple Mail, Gmail, and Microsoft Outlook to enable you to gather all your contacts in one place.
Contact tagging: Contacts+ offers manual tagging and Smart Tags for your contacts. You can add tags to your contacts to automatically segment your audiences, or use Smart Tags and let Contacts+ do the work for you.
Contact activity tracking: Keep notes on every interaction you have with contacts in one place.
Contact enrichment: Contacts+ helps you create fuller contact profiles by importing publicly available data to fill the gaps. It will also help you eliminate duplicate entries, add profile pictures, and more.
Contacts+ is an excellent option if you want a simple contact management system that helps you manage contacts more efficiently.
9. Streak
Prices starting at: $15+ per user per month (free plan available)
If you need software to manage contacts, try using Streak. Starting at $15 per user per month, this tool is built directly into Gmail to make it easy to manage and reach out to contacts.
If you choose Streak as your contact management system, you’ll get features like:
Custom views: Want to look at your sales pipeline to gain insight? Streak enables you to create custom views of your pipeline, so you can see the information that matters most.
Notations: Streak enables your team to leave notes about clients, so everyone stays in the know. You can leave notes about key details from clients to help you close more sales.
Timeline tracking: Want to see your progress with a contact? Streak provides a timeline of every interaction you have with a prospect, so you can see what steps to take next to turn them into a client.
Dual information presentation: Getting ready to send an email to a prospect? Streak provides a dual view where you can see pipeline information next to the emails you write. It helps you use your contact details and notes to empower your outreach.
If you’re looking for contact management software that helps you manage information directly through your email platform, Streak is a great option.
10. BIGContacts
Prices starting at: $5+ per user per month
While you hunt for software to manage your contacts, make sure you check out BIGContacts. BIGContacts is a platform that enables you to manage contacts, streamline communication, and more.
So, what do you get with BIGContacts?
Streamlined contact information: BIGContacts keeps your contact info, tasks, and calendars in one place. It enables you to stay organized as your team schedules meetings with contacts.
Documentation organization: If you take notes, add files, or track emails, BIGContacts is the perfect solution for you. It does all these tasks within the software, enabling your team to stay organized.
Social media integration: BIGContacts takes your contact profiles a step further by integrating social media profiles with your BIGContact contacts. You can track prospects’ social media activity to help you make that final pitch to turn them into a sale.
Custom data fields: Want to refine tracking to data that matters most to your business? BIGContacts enables you to create custom data fields to accomplish this task.
BIGContacts is a great contact management system for businesses that want to enrich their contact profiles and do more with their contact data.
11. Bigin
Prices starting at: $7+ per user per month (free plan available)
Looking for a simple contact management tool? Check out Bigin. Bigin is a contact management platform that provides additional support, like sales optimization and customer onboarding, to help you close more deals.
Here’s what you get with Bigin:
Tailored CRM setup: Bigin provides the option to tailor your CRM to fit your business. They offer templates for different industries to help you get started, or you can start from scratch and build the CRM how you want it.
360-degree customer view: Want a full overview of your contact profiles? Bigin provides a comprehensive breakdown of how contacts interact with your business. It helps you better understand your contacts, so that you deliver more relevant materials to them.
Built-in integrations: Bigin makes it easy for you to connect all your systems. It also can paid up with over 5000 apps through Zoho and Zapier to help you create a contact management powerhouse.
Routine automation: If your team feels bogged down by time-consuming workflows, Bigin enables you to create workflow automations that make it easy to manage your contact data.
Bigin is the solution you need if you want to create a custom solution to manage your contacts.
12. Copper
Prices starting at: $25 per user per month
Looking for more software to manage contacts? Try Copper. This platform enables you to get your contacts organized with ease.
With Copper, you’ll get excellent features like:
Syncing with Google: Copper integrates with Google Workspace to make your life easier. You can track your Gmail activity, access Google Calendar, and view files you send to customers. It creates an all-in-one space for you to manage contacts better.
Sales pipeline visualization: Copper CRM enables your team to visualize your sales process from end to end. You can analyze your sales pipeline to add new steps and track your contacts’ steps from one to the next.
Create automation workflows: With Copper, you can create automated workflows to keep your leads moving down the pipeline. Set up automatic triggers to reach out to leads at the right moment.
Contact enrichment: Missing some key information? Copper will fill in the gaps using public data to help you build richer contact profiles.
If you want contact management software that seamlessly integrates with Google, Copper may be a great fit.
13. Insightly
Prices starting at: $29 per user per month
Are you looking for a scalable CRM to manage your contacts? If so, Insightly is the contact management system for you. This tool grows with your business as your team earns new contacts, so you don’t have to search for a new tool later.
Here’s what you get with Insightly:
Sales pipeline optimization: With Insightly, you can build your sales pipeline to earn more sales. This tool makes it easy to manage every step of your pipeline, so you can grow your business.
Lead tracking: Want to keep track of how leads interact with your business? Insightly offers lead tracking to make it easy to see how people engage with your business and what you can do to boost engagement.
Workflow automation: Like many other tools, Insightly also offers workflow automation. You can eliminate the risk of human error by automating tasks for your business.
Data accuracy: Insightly enables you to set up parameters to capture the right data. You get the data you need most, so you can use it to empower your business’s decisions.
Insightly is a basic contact management system that will help you manage contacts down your sales pipeline.
14. SugarCRM
Prices starting at: $49 per user per month
Looking for a sweet contact management tool with all the bells and whistles? If so, SugarCRM is the platform for you. It combines contact management with sales automation to help you turn more contacts into customers.
SugarCRM provides you with tons of great features, including:
Integration with popular platforms: From Dropbox to Quickbooks, SugarCRM connects to popular platforms you already use.
AI-powered predictions: This tool uses AI to make data-backed predictions about your contacts, so you can better serve them.
Leaf qualification: SugarCRM is a great tool to use for lead qualification. It can optimize your lead qualification process to help you get better leads and grow your business.
Workflow automation: With this tool, you can automate mundane processes to save your team time and create custom workflows that help your business grow.
SugarCRM is another contact management system you can use for your contacts.
15. ActiveCampaign
Prices starting at: $19+ per user per month
Another of the top contact management systems is ActiveCampaign. This platform offers everything you need to manage and convert contacts.
ActiveCampaign offers numerous features, like:
Contact migration: Easily transfer your contacts from another source to ActiveCampaign without losing data.
Lead scoring: Want to know which contacts you should focus on first? ActiveCampaign provides lead scoring to help you convert leads while they’re hot.
Workflow automation: ActiveCampaign automates mundane tasks for you, like lead scoring, pipeline monitoring, task tracking, and more.
Contact segmentation: ActiveCampaign will segment your leads automatically to help you deliver the right information to the right people at the perfect time.
If you want contact management software that helps you automate tedious lead management tasks, ActiveCampaign is the tool for you.
16. Nextiva
Prices starting at: $19+ per user per month
If you’re looking for contact management software that offers sales support, Nextiva is our top pick. This tool helps you gain intelligence on your prospects to be more productive and increase sales.
Here’s what you get from Nextiva:
Sales process tracking: Want to see how your team is working to make sales? Nextiva enables you to track your entire sales process in one place and see what your team is doing to push contacts toward becoming clients.
Contact tracking: Nextiva enables you to track contacts as they interact with your business. It enables your team to work cohesively to make deals with prospects.
Sales pipeline customization: Nextiva enables you to create a sales pipeline that fits your business. You can prioritize custom stages and make changes to help your business succeed.
Automation customization: With Nextiva, you can automate steps of your process to ensure you keep contacts moving towards converting.
Use Nextiva if you’re looking for a sales-focused contact management tool.
17. Freshsales Suite
Prices starting at: $15+ per user per month
To wrap up this list of best contact management tools, let’s look at Freshsales Suite, the tool that blends sales and marketing in one powerful contact management platform.
Here’s what you get with Freshsales Suite:
Kanban views: View all your important contact information in one place with Freshsales’ Kanban view. This feature enables you to organize and manage account and contact information to get key details at a glance.
Lifecycle tracking: Want to track your contacts through every stage of the lifecycle? Freshsales Suite enables you to monitor contacts as they progress through each stage.
Contact scoring: Freshsales Suite harnesses the power of AI to score your contacts based on demographics and behaviors.
Custom reports: Freshsales Suite creates custom reports on contacts to help keep your team focused on what steps they need to take next.
Freshsales Suite is an excellent option if you’re looking for software that provides everything you need to manage your contacts.
Looking for reliable contact management software?
The best contact management tools are reliable and offer the features you need to manage your contact data. If you want a contact management platform that offers everything you need and more, WebFX has the solution for you.
Our contact management software, Nutshell, is the perfect solution for managing your customer data. From streamlining your lead tracking to scoring your contacts, our tool will help you organize your data better, so you can focus on nudging your contacts towards becoming customers.
If you want to learn more about our software to manage contacts, contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist!
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Macy is a marketing writer with over five years of experience creating content for dozens of industries including food and beverage, home services, and education. She also specializes in creating SEO and PPC content. Her work has been featured by Search Engine Journal, HubSpot, Entrepreneur, Clutch, and more. In her free time, Macy enjoys trying new crafts and reading comic books.
