Best CRM for agencies: 6 tools compared for client work

Short answer: If you want each client's deals, projects, hours, invoices and portal on the same client record, look at Teamo. If you want budgets and margins per client with deeper finance reports, Productive fits, and Teamwork.com suits delivery-heavy agencies with many projects at once. If your team already delivers in ClickUp, a CRM list there may be enough. Pipedrive is the simplest sales pipeline when delivery lives in another tool, and Agiled is the lowest-priced bundle of CRM, projects and invoices.

Many agencies start with HubSpot. Its free CRM is strong for inbound marketing, but it has no time tracking, Starter has only limited workflows, and fully customizable workflows and forecasting sit on Professional ($90 a seat billed yearly, plus a required $1,500 onboarding fee). Starter is from $7 a seat for new customers. If that's why you're looking, see HubSpot alternatives.

What does an agency need from a CRM?

An agency needs a CRM that keeps working after the deal is signed. A sales CRM is built around the deal: a lead comes in, moves through stages, and is won or lost. At an agency, that is where the real work starts, and the client keeps coming back with new projects. So check four things beyond the pipeline:

1. One client, many projects. A client signs a website project, then a retainer, then a campaign. All of it should sit under one client record, not as three unrelated deals.
2. Retainers and hours. If you sell hours, the CRM, or the tool next to it, should show hours paid against hours worked for each client.
3. Client access. Clients ask "where are we on this?" every week. A portal or guest access answers that without a status email.
4. Handover from sales to delivery. What sales promised has to reach the people doing the work.

At Opsters, our automation agency, our handover document has six sections, from who the client is to the agenda for the first delivery meeting. A Claude routine generates it after a deal is closed, using what's already on the client record. That only works because the deal, the emails and the client's details live in the same place as the project.

Which CRMs do agencies compare?

Disclosure: I co-founded Teamo, one of the tools below, and Opsters, the agency Teamo was built out of. Prices were checked on each vendor's own pricing page on 9 November 2026, except Pipedrive's higher plans, which vary by region and are left out.

Prices are per user (seat) a month, billed yearly, with the monthly price in brackets where the page shows it, in US dollars unless noted. Agiled is priced per account with seats included.

Teamo

Teamo is client and project software for service businesses. Each client is a record, and its deals, tasks, invoices and contacts sit under it in groups, so a won deal and the work that follows stay together. Sales gets a pipeline board, delivery gets a timeline, and both look at the same client.

What that gives an agency:

• Hours left on every client. Time is tracked with one-click timers on the client, a task, or a step under it. A roll-up adds the hours on paid invoices, and a formula column shows hours left.
• Clients check status themselves. Each client gets a portal: a live page of widgets filtered to them, such as their open tasks, the hours logged in a date range they pick, and a request form. They open it from a private link and take no seat, and your logo and colors are on it on every plan.
• Every message on the client. Connect Gmail or Outlook, WhatsApp and LinkedIn through the Inbox add-on (€10 / $12 per connected account a month), and messages show up on the client's record, or on the contact under it that the sender matches.
• The handover, automated. An automation can create the first project tasks under the client when a deal moves to Won, and column permissions keep deal values away from people who don't need them.
• Your own setup without building it. When you sign up, you answer a few questions about your agency, and Amo, Teamo's AI assistant, builds the modules, columns and views. You then change it by asking in plain words.

For an agency team, Pro is the plan to compare: €18 / $20 a seat a month billed yearly (€22 / $25 monthly), with a 3-seat minimum, 5 units of 10 modules each, 250,000 rows, 250 AI credits a seat and 20,000 automation runs a month. Max is €24 / $28 with a 5-seat minimum. Starter, from €10 / $12 a seat, suits a solo consultant or a very small team: it has up to 5 modules and 1,000 automation runs a month. Guests are free: 1 per paid seat on Starter, 2 on Pro, 4 on Max. The free trial runs 10 days on Max, with no card.

How we run our own agency in it: Inside an automation agency: from signed deal to paid invoice.

Fits: an agency on retainers or projects that wants each client's deals, work, hours, invoices and conversations in one place, and wants clients to check progress themselves. Limit: there is no free plan (the trial runs 10 days on Max, with no card), no built-in payments, and no built-in QuickBooks or Xero sync: you can connect them through the API yourself, or have a Teamo partner such as Opsters set it up. Portals stay on Teamo's address. App branding, which puts your logo and colors on Teamo's own navigation, is on Max and Enterprise only.

Teamo Pro is €18 / $20 a seat a month billed yearly (€22 / $25 monthly), 3-seat minimum. 10-day trial on Max, no card.

Productive

Productive is agency management software: a sales CRM with pipelines, projects, budgets, resource planning, time tracking and invoicing. Professional adds recurring budgets for retainers, rate cards, billable time approvals and three sales pipelines. All plans need at least 3 seats, and clients you invite are free.

Fits: an agency that wants to see budgets and margins for every client and has someone to own the setup. Limit: there is no free plan, Essential has a single pipeline and no recurring budgets, and Ultimate has no public price.

Teamwork.com

Teamwork.com is project management built for client work. Accelerate ($24.99 a user a month, billed yearly, 5-seat minimum) adds time budgets, retainers and invoicing from logged time, and connects to HubSpot. Its own pipeline that turns deals into projects is on Optimize. A free plan covers up to 5 users and 5 projects.

Fits: an agency with many projects running at once, where delivery needs more structure than sales. Limit: Optimize has no public price. With the 5-seat minimum, Accelerate costs at least $124.95 a month.

ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management tool, and agencies that already deliver in it often add a CRM as one more list: clients or deals as tasks, with custom fields for value and stage. Core costs $9 a user a month billed yearly and includes time tracking. Business ($17 yearly) adds timesheets, 10,000 automations a month and resource management. Paid plans have unlimited read-only guests, plus a set number of guests who can edit.

Fits: an agency that runs delivery in ClickUp and has a small, simple pipeline. Limit: the CRM is something you set up and maintain yourself, and clients see ClickUp's own interface as guests. White labeling is on Enterprise and Max only.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a pipeline-first sales CRM: deals move across stages on a board. Lite starts at $14 a seat a month billed yearly, and higher plans are priced by region. Email sync, group emailing and automations start on Growth. Pipedrive's Projects feature links a project to the deal, contact and organization, and a won deal can be marked "won and create a project". Projects is included on Premium and higher, and is a paid add-on on Lite and Growth (Pipedrive help).

Fits: a small agency with a founder or salesperson who wants a clear pipeline and reminders, and runs delivery elsewhere. Limit: Lite has no email sync or automations, and Projects needs Premium or the paid add-on. Pipedrive shows prices by region, so check the page in your currency.

Agiled

Agiled bundles a CRM, projects, invoices and payments, and a client portal, priced per account with seats included. Starter is $24 a month billed yearly for 1 seat, Pro $59 for 3 seats, and Business $99 for 7 seats; extra seats are $20 each on Pro and up. Contacts and clients don't take seats.

Fits: a small agency or freelancer collective that wants sales, projects and invoicing in one low-priced subscription. Limit: Starter allows 500 contacts, 10 projects and 1 pipeline. A branded client portal with your own domain is on Business, or a $15 a month add-on (billed yearly) on Starter and Pro. For 5 people, Business costs the same as Pro plus 2 extra seats.

How much does an agency CRM cost for five people?

For a five-person agency, the tools here cost between $85 and $125 a month billed yearly, on the plan an agency would most likely need. This is what each one costs for 5 seats:

Prices are for 5 seats, billed yearly, before tax. Pipedrive isn't in this table: its email sync and automations start on Growth, and its prices vary by region. Productive isn't either, because its page shows two different prices for Professional. As a sales CRM it would still need a time tracker next to it.

Is a sales CRM enough for an agency?

A sales CRM is enough while each client buys one short project and one person sells. Once clients pay a monthly retainer and come back for a second and third project, the hours and the work need to sit under the client too, or someone ends up copying client details from the CRM into the project tool by hand.

How did we pick these tools?

We picked the CRMs and agency tools agencies most often compare, and checked each one on:

• The plan you need for a pipeline, email sync and automations, not the cheapest plan on the page
• Whether one client can hold several projects or deals
• Retainers, budgets and time tracking, in the tool or not
• Client access: a portal, client users or guests
• Seat minimums that change the real price for a small team

We read each vendor's own pricing and help pages, and we use Teamo daily at Opsters. All prices are from those pages on 9 November 2026, before tax.

FAQ

What is the best free CRM for an agency? Teamwork.com has a free plan for up to 5 users and 5 projects, without retainers or invoicing, and ClickUp's Free Forever plan has unlimited members. Productive has no free plan and offers a 14-day trial. Teamo has no free plan either; its trial runs 10 days on Max with no card.

What is the best CRM for a small marketing agency? If the same people sell and deliver, and clients buy hours every month, a tool that keeps deals, tasks and hours on one client record, such as Teamo, Productive or Agiled, saves copying between tools. If you mostly need to win work and deliver it in another tool, Pipedrive is the simplest pipeline.

Which agency CRM lets clients see their projects? Teamo portals show live tasks and logged hours from a private link with no login. Agiled includes a branded portal on Business or as an add-on, Productive invites clients free of charge, Teamwork.com has client users, and ClickUp has guests. Our comparison of client portal software covers this in depth.

Do agencies need a CRM and a project management tool? Most agencies need both jobs done: winning clients and delivering the work. They can be two tools linked by an integration, or one tool where the project sits under the client, which avoids copying client details by hand.

How much does a CRM cost for a five-person agency? Between about $85 and $125 a month billed yearly for the tools here, on the plan an agency would most likely need. Seat minimums matter: Productive starts at 3 seats, Teamwork.com Accelerate at 5, and Teamo Pro and Max at 3 and 5.