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CRM requirements checklist and vendor scorer.

44 CRM requirements in plain words, each with the question to ask in a demo. Mark what you must have and what would be nice, see which of 23 CRMs meet the must-haves the index can check, on the cheapest plan for your team, and download the checklist or an Excel scoring matrix.

  • A vendor question on every line
  • Not published means ask
  • LiftUp sorted like the rest
Start from
Billing

8 must · 8 nice · 5 people · $250/mo

21 of 23 CRMs meet every checked must-have.

2 of 8 must-haves checked against the index. 19 of those CRMs fit the budget.

  1. HubSpot Sales Hub Starter$35/mo
  2. Zoho Bigin Express$35/mo
  3. Freshsales Growth$45/mo
See every CRM

Ask these in every demo

The index can’t check these 6 must-haves, so no CRM is marked for them:

  • Contact and company records
  • Notes, tasks and reminders
  • Visual pipeline board
  • Deal value and close date
  • Spreadsheet import
  • Full data export
Show

Contacts and leads

2 must · 2 nice

  • Contact and company records

    One record per person and per company, with their details, notes and history in one place.

    Ask: Show me one contact’s full history: emails, notes, deals and form submissions.

    Priority for Contact and company records

  • Custom fieldsIn the index

    Fields of your own on contacts and deals, such as industry or contract end date.

    Ask: Which plan lets us add custom fields, and how many can we add?

    Priority for Custom fields

  • Duplicate detection

    The CRM warns you or merges records when the same person is added twice.

    Ask: What happens when the same email address arrives from a form and from an import?

    Priority for Duplicate detection

  • Lead scoringIn the index

    Each lead gets a score, so the team knows who to call first.

    Ask: What does the score use, and can we change the rules ourselves?

    Priority for Lead scoring

  • Automatic lead assignment

    New leads go to the right person on their own, for example in turn (round-robin) or by territory.

    Ask: How are new leads assigned, and can it be round-robin?

    Priority for Automatic lead assignment

  • Notes, tasks and reminders

    Reps log what was said and set the next step with a due date.

    Ask: Show me where a rep sees today’s follow-ups.

    Priority for Notes, tasks and reminders

Pipeline and deals

2 must · 0 nice

  • Visual pipeline board

    Deals shown as cards on a board you drag from stage to stage.

    Ask: Can we rename, add and reorder the stages ourselves?

    Priority for Visual pipeline board

  • Multiple pipelinesIn the index

    Separate pipelines for different products, teams or sales processes.

    Ask: How many pipelines does each plan include?

    Priority for Multiple pipelines

  • Deal value and close date

    Each deal carries an amount, a probability and an expected close date.

    Ask: Which plan has deal amounts and close dates, and do they feed a forecast?

    Priority for Deal value and close date

  • Products and quotes

    A product list, and quotes or proposals made from a deal.

    Ask: Can we send a quote from the CRM, or do we need another tool for it?

    Priority for Products and quotes

Lead capture and website

  • Web formsIn the index

    Forms on your website that create a lead in the CRM directly.

    Ask: Do forms on our own site post straight into the CRM, and which plan includes them?

    Priority for Web forms

  • Spam protection on forms

    Forms stop bots, for example with reCAPTCHA, before a lead is created.

    Ask: How do you stop spam form submissions from becoming leads?

    Priority for Spam protection on forms

  • Lead source tracking

    Each lead records where it came from: the page, the campaign or the channel.

    Ask: Will we see the landing page and the UTM source on every lead?

    Priority for Lead source tracking

  • Several brands or products in one account

    Leads, pipelines and reports kept apart for each brand or product, without paying for separate accounts.

    Ask: Can one account hold several brands with their own leads and reports, and does that cost extra?

    Priority for Several brands or products in one account

  • Blog or website publishingIn the index

    Publish blog posts or pages from the same account as the CRM.

    Ask: Can we publish our blog from your product, or is that a separate product and price?

    Priority for Blog or website publishing

  • Website analyticsIn the index

    Website traffic numbers next to your leads, so you can see which pages bring them in.

    Ask: Where do website traffic numbers come from, and which plan shows them?

    Priority for Website analytics

Automation and follow-up

0 must · 1 nice

  • Workflow automationIn the index

    Rules that do steps for you, such as creating a task when a deal changes stage.

    Ask: Show me a rule that creates a task when a deal moves stage. What limits are there on rules or runs?

    Priority for Workflow automation

  • Unanswered lead alerts

    The CRM flags new leads that nobody has replied to within a set time.

    Ask: How do we see which new leads haven’t had a reply yet, and how fast?

    Priority for Unanswered lead alerts

  • Email sequences

    A series of emails sent over several days that stops when the contact replies.

    Ask: Can reps send sequences from their own inbox, and do they stop on a reply?

    Priority for Email sequences

Email and calendar

1 must · 2 nice

  • Email syncIn the index

    Emails to and from a contact appear on their record automatically.

    Ask: Which inboxes do you sync, Gmail, Outlook or both, and on which plan?

    Priority for Email sync

  • Email templates

    Saved emails that reps reuse and personalise.

    Ask: Can we share templates across the team and fill in the contact’s details?

    Priority for Email templates

  • Calendar sync and booking links

    Meetings show on the contact, and buyers can book a time from a link.

    Ask: Which calendars do you sync, and is a booking link included?

    Priority for Calendar sync and booking links

Reporting

0 must · 2 nice

  • Pipeline and stage reports

    How many deals, and how much value, sit in each stage.

    Ask: Show me deals by stage, filtered by owner and by month.

    Priority for Pipeline and stage reports

  • Sales forecast

    Expected revenue by month from deal values and probabilities.

    Ask: How is the forecast worked out, and can we change the stage probabilities?

    Priority for Sales forecast

  • Activity reports

    Calls, emails, meetings and tasks logged per rep.

    Ask: Which activities are logged automatically, and which by hand?

    Priority for Activity reports

  • Custom dashboards

    Charts you build yourself and share with the team.

    Ask: Can we build our own dashboard without help, and on which plan?

    Priority for Custom dashboards

Integrations, API and mobile

1 must · 0 nice

  • API accessIn the index

    A documented API, so your developers can read and write CRM data.

    Ask: Which plan includes the API, and what are its rate limits?

    Priority for API access

  • WebhooksIn the index

    The CRM calls a web address of yours when something happens, such as a new lead.

    Ask: Which events send a webhook, and does it retry when our end is down?

    Priority for Webhooks

  • Connections to tools you use

    Ready-made links to the accounting, chat or marketing tools you already have.

    Ask: Do you connect to the tools we use directly, or only through Zapier at extra cost?

    Priority for Connections to tools you use

  • Mobile appIn the index

    An iOS and Android app for reps away from a desk.

    Ask: What can a rep do in the mobile app, and does it work offline?

    Priority for Mobile app

Security and admin

  • Single sign-on (SSO)In the index

    Staff sign in through your company’s identity provider, using SAML or OIDC.

    Ask: Do you support SAML or OIDC SSO, which providers, and on which plan?

    Priority for Single sign-on (SSO)

  • User roles and permissions

    You control who can see, edit, export or delete records.

    Ask: Can we stop a rep from exporting or deleting contacts?

    Priority for User roles and permissions

  • Two-step sign-in

    A second step at sign-in, such as a code from an app.

    Ask: Can we make two-step sign-in compulsory for everyone?

    Priority for Two-step sign-in

  • Audit log

    A record of who changed or deleted what, and when.

    Ask: How far back does the audit log go, and which plan has it?

    Priority for Audit log

  • Where data is stored

    The country or region where the CRM keeps your data.

    Ask: Where is our data stored, and can we choose the region?

    Priority for Where data is stored

  • Consent and data requests

    Record consent, and find, export or delete one person’s data when they ask.

    Ask: Show me how we would delete everything about one person.

    Priority for Consent and data requests

Data import and export

2 must · 0 nice

  • Spreadsheet import

    Bring contacts and deals in from a CSV file, with columns mapped to fields.

    Ask: What are the row and file-size limits on an import, and does it catch duplicates?

    Priority for Spreadsheet import

  • Full data export

    Export all your data, notes and history included, whenever you want.

    Ask: Can we export everything, notes and history included, in a standard format?

    Priority for Full data export

  • Help moving from your old system

    The vendor or a partner helps move your data across.

    Ask: Who moves our data, what does it cost, and how long does it take?

    Priority for Help moving from your old system

Cost and contract

0 must · 1 nice

  • A free planIn the index

    A plan you can keep using without paying, to start small or to test properly.

    Ask: What does the free plan limit: users, contacts, features or history?

    Priority for A free plan

  • Price you can predict as you grow

    You know what you will pay at next year’s team size, whether it is per seat or flat.

    Ask: What would we pay at twice our team size, and is there a seat minimum?

    Priority for Price you can predict as you grow

  • Monthly billing

    Pay month to month without a yearly contract.

    Ask: Can we pay monthly, and what does the yearly discount cost us in flexibility?

    Priority for Monthly billing

  • No required setup fee

    No compulsory onboarding or setup fee on top of the plan price.

    Ask: Is onboarding compulsory, and what does it cost?

    Priority for No required setup fee

  • Support on your plan

    Help by email, chat or phone on the plan you buy, with stated response times.

    Ask: Which support channels does our plan include, and how fast do you reply?

    Priority for Support on your plan

Your own requirements

Anything the list misses: a language, a regulation, a tool you can’t drop.

Stays in this tab only. Your own requirements go in the CSV and the Excel file, but the index can’t check them.

Which CRMs meet your must-haves

Checked against the 23-CRM index: Email sync, Mobile app. Each CRM is priced on the cheapest plan that fits 5 people and has the most of those, billed yearly. 6 other must-haves are not checked: ask in the demo. Not published means the vendor’s pages don’t say, so it never counts as a yes.

Facts checked 18 Oct 2026. Each one links to the vendor’s page.

  1. 1. HubSpot Sales Hub Starter

    Meets every checked must-have

    $35

    a month · $420 year 1

    Within budget

    Limited-time price for new customers; the list price is $20 a seat.

    Pricing page: HubSpot Sales Hub (opens in a new tab)

  2. 2. Zoho Bigin Express

    Meets every checked must-have

    $35

    a month · $420 year 1

    Within budget

    Per user license, no user limit; 50,000 records, 3 team pipelines, 30 automations.

    Pricing page: Zoho Bigin (opens in a new tab)

  3. 3. Freshsales Growth

    Meets every checked must-have

    $45

    a month · $540 year 1

    Within budget

    Pricing page: Freshsales (opens in a new tab)

  4. 4. Agile CRM Starter

    Meets every checked must-have

    $50

    a month · $599 year 1

    Within budget

    Tooltip: 'Monthly: $14.99 / Yearly: $9.99 (34% off) / 2 Years: $8.99 (40% off)'. Headline 'as low as $8.99' is the 2-year rate

    Pricing page: Agile CRM (opens in a new tab)

  5. 5. Nutshell Foundation

    Meets every checked must-have

    $65

    a month · $780 year 1

    Within budget

    Limit of 100 open (active) leads; 1 pipeline; 10 custom fields

    Pricing page: Nutshell (opens in a new tab)

  6. 6. Zoho CRM Standard

    Meets every checked must-have

    $70

    a month · $840 year 1

    Within budget

    Pricing page: Zoho CRM (opens in a new tab)

  7. 7. GoHighLevel Starter

    Meets every checked must-have

    $81

    a month · $970 year 1

    Within budget

    Pricing page: GoHighLevel (opens in a new tab)

  8. 8. monday CRM Standard

    Meets every checked must-have

    $85

    a month · $1,020 year 1

    Within budget

    Pricing page: monday CRM (opens in a new tab)

Free, no signup. Every requirement with its priority and the question to ask.

Full report

Get the vendor scoring matrix in Excel.

Your must-haves and nice-to-haves with weights, the top 5 CRMs from the match with known facts filled in, a 0 to 2 score per vendor, weighted totals and a missing must-haves count that work in Excel and Google Sheets. Plus the checklist with every vendor question.

We keep your name and email in LiftUp’s CRM to follow up about this report. See the privacy policy.

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The short answer

What should a CRM requirements checklist include?

The things your team needs the CRM to do, one per line, grouped by area: contacts and leads, pipeline and deals, lead capture, automation, email and calendar, reporting, integrations, security, data import and export, and cost. Mark each line Must have, when there is no workaround without it, or Nice to have. Add the question you will ask every vendor in the demo. Then score each CRM on the same list, weight must-haves higher, and rule out any CRM that misses one.

How it works

How the checklist and the match work.

Each rule links to the page we read it on. The requirement wording, the 3 and 1 weights and the 0 to 2 scale are our own starting point; change them to suit you.

  1. 01

    Write each requirement so a vendor can show it

    NASA’s guide to writing requirements says to state what is needed, not how to provide it, to keep one thought per requirement, and to avoid words nobody can check, such as flexible, easy or adequate. Each line here names one thing a vendor can show you, with the question that makes them show it.

    Source: NASA Systems Engineering Handbook, Appendix C: How to Write a Good Requirement, checked 18 Oct 2026

  2. 02

    Must have means there is no workaround

    In the MoSCoW rules, a requirement is a Must Have when there is no point going ahead without it. If there is a way around it, even a manual and painful one, it is a Should Have or a Could Have. Keep the Must have list short, so it can rule CRMs out.

    Source: Agile Business Consortium: What is MoSCoW prioritisation?, checked 18 Oct 2026

  3. 03

    Weight the list, and say what rules a vendor out

    UK public buyers must set out how much each criterion counts, by weights or by ranking, and say in advance if failing a criterion disqualifies a bid. The Excel matrix does the same: Must have weighs 3 and Nice to have 1, each CRM scores 0, 1 or 2 per line, and every must-have scored 0 is counted as missing.

    Source: GOV.UK: Guidance on assessing competitive tenders (Procurement Act 2023), checked 18 Oct 2026

  4. 04

    Show me, don’t tell me

    The US Department of Veterans Affairs’ procurement office calls its demo-based evaluations “Show Me, Don’t Tell Me”, and says that when vendors must show required functions, most of the demo time should go there. Send your must-haves before the demo and score only what you see working.

    Source: VA Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics: Tips for conducting better technical demonstrations, checked 18 Oct 2026

  5. 05

    Only a published yes counts

    13 requirements map to a feature in the 23-CRM index, read on each vendor’s own pages. A feature counts only when the plan priced includes it. Not published is shown as one to ask and never counts as a yes. Each CRM is priced on the cheapest plan that fits your team and has the most of your checked must-haves: HubSpot lists lead scoring from Professional, so that is the plan it is priced on when lead scoring is a must-have.

    Source: HubSpot Sales Hub pricing, checked 18 Oct 2026

  6. 06

    Check you can take your data with you

    UK government guidance on lock-in says to pick software that uses open standards and formats, so you keep control of your data and can export it to a new system. That is why full data export is on the list: ask to see an export with notes and history, not only contacts.

    Source: GOV.UK: Managing technical lock-in in the cloud, checked 18 Oct 2026

Worked example

A small sales team of 5 with $250 a month.

Billed yearly. The checklist opens on this preset: 8 must-haves and 8 nice-to-haves.
Must-haves checked by the index
2 of 8: email sync, mobile app
CRMs that meet both
21 of 23
Lowest priced
HubSpot Sales Hub Starter and Zoho Bigin Express, $35 a month each
Next
Freshsales Growth, $45 a month
Over the $250 budget
EngageBay Pro, Keap
Miss a must-have
Less Annoying CRM (one-way email logging), LiftUp (no mobile app)

Six of the eight must-haves, such as contact records, deal values and full data export, aren’t in the index, so the match can’t rule a CRM in or out on them: ask each one in the demo. HubSpot’s Starter price is a limited-time offer for new customers. LiftUp is priced on Growth here, the cheapest plan with Gmail sync, and still misses the mobile app.

Good to know

What the checklist leaves out.

  • Only 13 of the 44 requirements are checked against the index. The rest, such as duplicates, roles or data export, depend on what you see in the demo.
  • Limits inside a feature. Two CRMs can both have workflow automation with very different caps on rules, runs or contacts.
  • The free plan requirement checks that the vendor publishes a free plan, not that it covers your team or your must-haves.
  • Prices are US list prices before tax, with no add-ons, extra contacts, regional prices or negotiated discounts.
  • Your scores. The Excel matrix fills in only what the index already says; the rest is yours to score after each demo.

More free tools

Tools that go with this one.

FAQ

CRM requirements questions, answered.

Something the tool gets wrong? Tell us and we fix it.

What is the difference between a must-have and a nice-to-have?

A must-have is something the team can’t work without: if a CRM lacks it, you won’t buy that CRM. A nice-to-have would help, but there is a workaround, even a slow one. A good test is to ask what you would do if the CRM didn’t have it. If the answer is “use a spreadsheet for that part”, it is a nice-to-have.

How many must-haves should I have?

Few enough that they tell CRMs apart. If almost everything is a must-have, most CRMs will miss one and the list stops helping you choose. Start with the presets, move anything with a workaround to Nice to have, and keep must-haves for what would make you walk away.

Why does a CRM show “to ask” instead of yes or no?

Its own pages don’t say whether the plan priced has that feature. The index never guesses, so the CRM can’t meet every checked must-have until you ask. The vendor may well have it: put the question to them in the demo and score the answer in the Excel matrix.

Why isn’t LiftUp at the top?

LiftUp is sorted like every other CRM: those that meet every checked must-have first, then by price. It is highlighted so you can find it, not moved up. When it misses a must-have, such as a mobile app or SAML single sign-on, the list says so.

How do I use the Excel scoring matrix?

It lists your must-haves and nice-to-haves with weights of 3 and 1, and the top 5 CRMs from the match, with what the index knows already filled in as 2 (yes) or 0 (no). After each demo, type 0, 1 or 2 in the blank cells. The weighted totals, the score, the missing must-haves count and the budget check recalculate in Excel and Google Sheets. You can rename vendors, change weights and add requirements in the spare rows.

Test LiftUp against your list.

LiftUp charges one flat price for the organization, never per seat. Start free with 2 users and check your must-haves yourself.

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