(First created 10/23/19. Updated 4/12/25)
A comparison of Capsule CRM vs. Infusionsoft—now, CRM vs. Keap—was requested by my Infusionsoft Certified Consultant peers back in 2019.
I must admit I hadn't heard of Capsule CRM until this request was made, and I have not really followed the platform. (There are just too many to keep up with, and now, with AI exploding (and imploding) everything it touches, it's impossible to know every tool out there.)
My first impression of their website back then was positive, and today they look like every other SaaS platform, really. It's not a knock on them. I think most marketers are mediocre, and few managers want to rock the boat with anything they do, so they form a committee, research the competition, each vote on a feature they like from a competitor's website, and then add it to their own.
But, hey, I don't care if a website is ugly or pretty or "me too." I just need accurate information and either a free trial and/or a good demo, and I'm good to go.
I like the look and feel of what Capsule CRM is doing for the SMB user.
They still offer a free edition—not quite as generous and robust as HubSpot's truly free CRM—but it's tucked away at the bottom of their pricing columns, and it's limited to two users with up to 250 contacts.
It's better than nothing...kinda...sorta. I mean, Keap did away with their free option, so there's that.
But most of these SaaS CRMs are only worth paying for if you can automate actions off of the data in them, and if you're new to sales automation, marketing automation, building workflows/campaigns, etc., a 14-day trial or a stripped-down free app won't move the needle.
Keap never offered a free trial or free edition for over a decade after I became a partner in 2008.
Then Keap rolled out the free trial years ago, which has remained, so it's obviously a net positive, and that's cool, especially with their rebranding and rebuilding of the platform from the ground up.
Keap is much more intuitive and easier to use than ever, as it should be, and as it should've been years earlier, but mistakes were made, which necessitated the rebuild, the rebranding, and then the acquisition by Thryv at the end of 2024, but that's another story.
Turning back to Capsule CRM, they offer
- a limited free account,
- a 14-day free trial,
- an affordable Starter Edition—$21/month/user, which gets you 30,000 contacts and some other basics.
If you want,
- a dedicated account manager,
- custom training,
- priority support,
- contact enrichment,
- workflow automations (AHHH, YEAH?!),
- advanced reporting,
- more than one sales pipeline (this is more important than you think),
then you have to upgrade to their higher packages, which will run you up to $75/user/month.
Still not expensive, but not free, and not $21/mo.
You can pay as you go so they don't lock you into a one-year contract like "Salesforce vs. Keap" and "HubSpot vs. Keap." So AMEN to that!
So good so far.
The features they offer are normal for a CRM:
- Detailed Contact View
- Sales Pipeline (which is not normal for all CRMs, so that's cool)
- To-do lists and calendar tasks
- Ability to customize categories with tags to tweak vendor, lead, and customer settings
- Segment your contacts with lists
- Import contacts from Outlook or CSV or vCard
- Integration with Dropbox (nice touch that is not available everywhere...but with their limited storage you need it. Keap offers unlimited storage.)
Then Capsule CRM offers "Addons," which seems to be a nice word they give to API functionality.
For those of you unfamiliar with APIs—Application Programming Interfaces—it's basically a translator between applications that helps them stay in synch.
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They appear to have a robust API, nice mobile capability and their dashboard upon login looks a lot like the project management platforms, Basecamp or Asana.
Development and support seem to be based out of the United Kingdom.
Those chaps are just fine, I just always chuckle a bit when I see "Colour Scheme" and "recognise." (I've grown quite fond of the support Keap provides from their Arizona headquarters, but they do have some chat and after-hours support handled out of Texas and the U.K. as well.)
Capsule CRM's support seems to be limited to an online repository and forum at https://capsulecrm.com/support/. If you need more, you must email them.
In a nutshell, Capsule CRM looks like a perfectly fine, adequate, and sufficient CRM for people who need a simple, basic, reliable, and affordable CRM.
As you evaluate CRMs, please keep this in mind:
- Storing names and appointments in the cloud is no big deal.
- Storing some company records and files in the cloud is no big deal.
- Storing deals you're working on in the cloud is no big deal.
- Sending emails from the cloud is no big deal.
Tying this all together, and collecting leads and nurturing them and converting them and WOWing them and securing referrals and testimonials and repeat sales is a big deal.
Doing all of the above automatically is how you become a big deal.
If you're new to CRMs and just need somewhere to go to cut your teeth on this type of technology, Capsule CRM looks like a fine platform.
Start with the free version and play around. But,...
- If you need to grow your sales without growing your staff,
- If you need to grow on auto-pilot,
- If you need to grow in a consistent, predictable manner,
- If you would like help and support and a proven roadmap to grow like that instead of figuring it out on your own, then...
insofar as Capsule CRM vs. Keap CRM is concerned, Keap is still your best bet.
Wanna discuss it? Schedule a free call with me here.
Or take my free CRM Quiz, then schedule time on the thank you page.
Market like you mean it.
Now go sell something.