CRM platforms are software tools for managing customer lifecycles—from lead generation to marketing, sales, and aftersales customer service. They mainly support the sales process and help internal and external coordination and communication between a company and its customers. The market for regular CRM platforms became the largest enterprise software market by revenue in 2017 and was valued at USD 69.3 billion as of 2020, with the top five companies holding 35.6% of the market share, led by Salesforce (market share of 19.5%), followed by Oracle (4.4%) and SAP (5.2%). According to Gartner, by 2022, the worldwide CRM market was estimated to have grown to USD 96.3 billion (14% YoY growth).

CRM platforms for SMEs form a subsegment of the larger CRM market and cater to smaller companies (often defined as having less than 500 employees). SMEs often steer away from traditional enterprise CRM software due to reasons such as cost and difficulty of use due to complexity. These SME-focused CRM platforms (SME CRMs) offered mostly by relatively small vendors are differentiated by their affordability and wide range of free features, focusing on essentials such as interaction tracking, prospect tracking, contact management, pipeline management, email and calendar integrations, basic customization, and simplicity. Some SME CRM vendors focus on providing automation tools in the operational areas of sales, marketing, and after-sales service for customer interaction-heavy SMEs (e.g., Keap, Copper), while some provide tools to analyze customer data to generate actionable insights (e.g., Pipedrive, Insightly). For SMEs with multiple offices, departments, and stakeholders with a greater requirement of data transparency and accessibility, some SME CRM platforms offer solutions to analyze customer interactions to proactively identify issues and collect, organize, and share valuable customer data across multiple teams within the company (e.g., Podium, Weave).

SME CRM penetration for SMEs stands at around 44% versus around 91% for regular CRMs for all enterprises with more than 10 employees. While bigger players such as Salesforce and Freshworks have tried entering the SME market (e.g., Salesforce launched SME-focused Salesforce Essentials in March 2018 and Salesforce Easy in August 2022, while Freshworks launched Freshstack, a CRM suite for startups in November 2021), smaller CRM vendors tend to lead this market, being more attuned with SMEs’ requirements and demands.