Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Does this mean that you should stay clear of any CRM solution that is offered free? Not necessarily. As with anything that involves your business, you should do your due diligence and very carefully check everything out. Seek out others who have used the software and ask them what their experiences have been. In short–be very careful!

There is another possible CRM solution for those who do not have a large budget, and that is open source CRM. At least one company offers this solution, and being open source, the underlying software program code is transparent to all. This is a much safer way to implement a low cost CRM solution, but it might require some work from a competent software programmer, which rather negates the whole ‘low cost’ idea.

Many of the free CRM solutions being offered online are hosted on the parent server. This means that you do not have ultimate control. To be fair, this is no different to paid for online CRM solutions, and many of the free ones offer professional upgrades; the free solution is often nothing more than a lure to get you in, and once in you will probably realise that you need more features than you have. Of course, the only way to get those features is to pay for the professional version, which is not free.

Microsoft CRM Software Provider