I originally acquired Capsule to keep track of customers, potential customers, task management, and event management for a coaching and education business. I continue to track coaching clients in the software, but now I primarily use it for event and task management for a grassroots nonprofit.
Pros
Capsule is a CRM system that delivers excellent support for a small cost. It is more customizable and has more features and greater ease of use than others in its price range. It was fairly easy to set up, customize, and learn using the provided guides and the responsive customer service team. It easily supports tracking of all actions related to an entity in one place. It has a number of built-in APIs for integration with email marketing tools and other applications. I really appreciate the task tracking, the ability to track potential customers through a customizable sales funnel, and the capacity for creating cases for tracking interactions with related to a particular person, organization, or project. I also like the ease with which I can create my own "tracks" for processes that I often repeat.
Cons
The things I would want in a CRM application that are not present in Capsule are all things for which I would expect to spend more money. For example, if I were to spend more money on a CRM, I would look for one that includes volunteer sign up forms and the ability for donors to manage their own profiles and track their own donations. It is a pretty simple tool, but again, very robust for the price.
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 10/10
I've used Capsule for several years, as both a free and paid subscriber. It fits like a glove. Does what I need, doesn't force me into a different way of working, has been reliable (if it's ever been down, it wasn't any time I accessed it.) The company is actively developing it. I have used at least a dozen small-business CRM systems. Capsule is like my favorite pair of jeans -- it fits, never gets in the way, and makes me look good!
Pros
Capsule is a good fit for my business. I'm a sole prop. consultant. I need to stay on top of my relationships with each customer to exceed their expectations. With Capsule on my laptop and phone, I can refer to past interactions and update with new ones in real time. With Capsule, I can create my own custom "tracks", action step lists to follow for any process in my sales or support functions. I can create my own custom fields and color-coded tags.
There are a good number of integrations with other web apps, you just have to see if yours is on the list. I use it with Harvest for time recording and Xero accounting. They also offer a good API. It took me an evening to write a script to copy every action logged in Harvest into the customer notes in Capsule.
I have no use for the team collaborative aspects of Capsule so can't comment on them.
Cons
The only complaint I have is a minor one - I liked the calendar task view better before the recent update. Now I can't see all my tasks for the month at once, it truncates after 3 or 4 on any given date, and hides the rest. I can still view all the tasks for a day by clicking on it, but it's a slower way to reorganize on a grand scale.
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 8/10
It's our 2nd management tool - the first one was overly complicated and this is quite simple The Dropbox solution is a bit of a fudge but it works most of the time. The tasks system and visual customisation leave a lot to be desired.
Pros
It's fast and simple, a young British company. which we wanted to support.
Its online and accessible on an app
It does a lot of what we originally needed
Cons
The tasks and the layout - lack of customisation - colours or icons - fields can be hard to identify at a glance.
Starts to get expensive with more users - if I could role out viewing to my whole team (no input) it would be handy - but i can't justify £300 a month
We no longer use the sales side - that didn't really work for our company - now just use the contacts, tasks, recording of data
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 6/10
For last few years I had a problem with my comunication with old and new clients. Too many pressure and too much information noise casued a problem of following up possible new clients and opportunities. My first solution was standard PIM software. Soon I discovered that only part of my problems were solved. Problems that become so evident were following up new opportunities and contacts history. I found some other partial solutions for these problems but was necessary to work, mantain and balance with diferent solutions, multiple insertions of same data and so on. Looking for better solution I got to start with some offline CRM solutions, and I tested several ones. Every program had some part that were interesting to me but neither had all of options that I was looking for. Some prgrams were fantastic but expensive or they needed dedicatd servers. Most of them had so many options that I don't need for my work and can be applied in some other sectors. Finally, on one webpage that was doing reviews of buisiness software there was a list of several on-line CRM solutions and so I decided to try some of them. As 3rd, or 4th, started with CAPSULE CRM. Everything that I needed was there: database of contacts, history (well done), opportunities,...Also flexibility for procedures and all sorf of extra activities was there. PERFECT. Mobile apps is must have when You are out of the office. Today on my computers 2 web pages are always ON during work time: webmail and CAPSULE.
Pros
Free version is mostly perfect for my needs. Contacts database, contacts history, opportunities creating and following, procedure design and editor, flexibility.
Cons
Free version have a limit to 250 contacts.
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 10/10
Pros
Capsule does everything a CRM should:
- All of your organisation and contact information in one place
- Heaps of available integrations including MailChimp and Xero
- Mobile app for capturing new leads
- Customisable opportunity management
- Customisable case (ticket) management
- Email integration makes tracking email correspondence easy
- Custom fields allow you to update your
Cons
Capsule has several weaknesses you should be aware of:
- The opportunity management is customisable but fairly basic. Its great if you currently have no visibility of your pipeline, stages, value, probability or timeframes. There are apps out there that do these features better but not with all the other great stuff Capsule can do at the same price point.
- Capsule is not a marketing automation tool but will help with your marketing
- Capsule is not a sales pipeline tool but will improve your pipeline visibility
- Capsule is not an email client
- Capsule is not your accounts receivable management tool but will improve your collections
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 8/10
30-day free trial of any plan (requires credit card).
Free edition: up to 2 users, 10MB storage, and 250 contacts
Professional plan: $18 per user per month with 10GB storage per user and up to 50,000 contacts.
Teams plan: $36 per user per month with 20GB storage per user and up to 100,000 contacts.