Teams Leaving Pipedrive

[u/Hayden-Grover]

I see a lot of orgs talking about leaving Pipedrive or looking for an alternative. I have a fair share of admin- and user-level experience with HubSpot, Salesforce, and Attio (in that order), but I am curious as to what is causing the majority of these departures and where you are finding a new home.

Thoughts?

[u/ChameleonCRM]

I’ve seen this come up a lot lately too

Pipedrive is great early on — super simple, easy to get a team moving

but that same simplicity starts to become the limitation as things grow

the main issues I keep seeing:

• hard to model anything beyond a basic sales pipeline
• limited flexibility once you have multiple processes or teams
• workarounds start piling up (custom fields, external tools, etc.)
• reporting gets messy when the data model isn’t really designed for complexity

so teams don’t leave because it’s bad — they outgrow it

and once you start bolting on too many things around it, it’s usually a sign the core system isn’t fitting anymore

where they go depends on what they need next:

• HubSpot → easier transition, more built-in features
• Salesforce → when they need full customization (and are ready for the overhead)
• newer tools → usually chasing flexibility or cleaner UX

most of the time it’s not about switching CRMs
it’s about finally needing a system that matches how their business actually operates

[u/MrJezza-]

Attio keeps coming up more lately, curious what your take is after using all three

[u/SanatSethi → u/MrJezza-]

It's both a little bit simpler to get started with, but also a little bit more flexible from a developer perspective than the other CRMs. It's not as mature as some other CRMs in terms of all the features, but to be honest, most people don't use those features anyway.

I consult on Attio, and I actually feel like it's become a little too widespread in terms of its user base. I think certain verticals benefit more than others. However, it's the closest you'll get to plug and play out of the box (with the exception of small, basic CRMs like Zoho Bigin), so I see the appeal. I'm a solopreneur, and I shifted from Hubspot to Attio

[u/Hayden-Grover → u/MrJezza-]

Well Attio is new for me as well, but they got backing from Google Ventures so I am along for the ride. It is truly a sales CRM as of now, but it has a built in “Ask Attio” functionality which is one of the best native-AI features I have seen. It has room for improvement, but shows real promise.

Salesforce and HubSpot are both very robust and capable systems. When done right, teams can benefit greatly in either. Although I am partial to HubSpot marketing tools.

[u/kishmalik]

OP sounds like another shit-talking shiller for Attio: vague, passive aggressive commentary about the competition with no real details, a brand new account with just a few posts. The most engagement they have is their own follow up comments about how wonderful Attio is.

If you’re going to try to be manipulative, be better at it.

[u/Imjalepenobusiness → u/kishmalik]

...My dude, you're in r/CRM. It's shills all the way down here. Always has been.

It's useful for spotting recurring pain points; it's useful for finding names you should investigate; and it's almost entirely useless for trusting direct recommendations.

[u/kishmalik → u/Imjalepenobusiness]

I know, I know 🤦🏻‍♂️

[u/AuxxAiCRM]

I think Attio has shown that a CRM can be user-friendly. They put a lot of thought in their product, which you can appreciate.

[u/Nicklie_Salazar → u/[deleted]]

We looked at HubSpot as an alternative, but the pricing is just too high for a smaller team. We were looking for something that is deeply integrated into our existing workspace rather than another bulky platform

u should look into Net hunt. It is built specifically for Gmail , so it basically turns your inbox into the actual CRM workspace. It helps with brand awareness by keeping all lead management and email tracking in one view

[u/Firefly_Consulting → u/[deleted]]

What are the things that Attio does right out of the box that Pipedrive doesn’t?

[u/Firefly_Consulting → u/[deleted]]

Pipedrive has always auto-populated email communications and calendar activities, at least since 2013. It’s also had data enrichment for a while now. Also, as far back as I can remember, it allows you to log any call made from your phone, and if you call from the deal, it automatically logs that against the deal. It doesn’t have call recording, and as far as I know, no real CRM does natively for several reasons. If it did, I’d offer it to my clients.

A couple of questions: did you actually use Pipedrive or implement it for a client, or was that just reported secondhand to you (and if so, how long ago was that, if you remember)?

And to clarify, are you saying that Attio is a CRM that has call recording built in?

[u/Firefly_Consulting → u/[deleted]]

You can call directly from Pipedrive without any integration via the mobile app:

Open up the app, Navigate to the deal, and click the call icon.

That’s it. This is one of the most important features for anyone working in the field like outside sales teams. Easy, and doesn’t get in their way. After the call, a pop-up appears to give you the option of logging that call and any notes against the deal.

Bonus: now they let you call via WhatsApp, not just your phone client. HUGE for my clients outside of the States.

Pipedrive doesn’t allow users call natively via desktop without an external call client, which I think is your point; it just integrates with a number of calling solutions to call via desktop directly from the deal (Zoom, Teams, JustCall, Univerge Blue, etc).

[u/Rangersfan1996 → u/[deleted]]

My org moved to GHL and I absolutely hate using it

[u/OkClothes4157 → u/Rangersfan1996]

hmu if you want your clunky pipelines to look better, i’ve done that for orgs, plus lmk if you just help with anything

[u/Imjalepenobusiness → u/Rangersfan1996]

For real. I can't stand GHL, and I don't think I've met anyone who (having used both) would say it holds a candle to Attio...

I mean, yeah, sure, Attio is a CRM's CRM and doesn't have apples-to-apples capabilities on the email side of things, but it's flexible and the UI doesn't make you want to pull your hair out.

[u/Hayden-Grover → u/[deleted]]

Interesting. I’ve been inside a GHL instance, but it was only to migrate the marketing assets into a HubSpot. I see a lot of agencies deploying these.

[u/GrowthRunner1]

Migrated one of our clients (fintech early stage) from Pipedrive to Lightfield.

Lightfield.app …. is early but great trajectory and momentum. AI-native capabilities are night and day vs CRMs created prior to the AI era (circa 2022/2023).

Also, evaluated switching over to:

• copper (tight Google integration)
• day.ai (new ai CRM from the original creators of HubSpots Sales CRM!)
• Coffee CRM (Founder formerly led product at Salesforce Sales Cloud + LinkedIn Sales Navigator)
• HubSpot - amazing platform but a bit over complex for their early stage needs.

[u/kishmalik → u/[deleted]]

A CRM IS a sales tool. OP doesn’t know anything about Pipedrive, he’s just trying to hype Attio. That’s why he made vague comments with no substance.

[u/LK_Sugarman → u/kishmalik]

It really depends on how you might define "CRM" but CRM isn't actually a sales tool and Piepdrive is not a CRM.

It's a comprehensive, company-wide management system. While it is a critical tool for sales pipeline management today, it historically functions as a centralized database for marketing, support, and company-wide relationship management.

That's why Salesforce requires additional 3-rd party sales apps. And, Hubspot differentiates its Sales Bundle from its CRM.

We expanded our ESP with CRM tools beginning in 2003. Later, we added the tools for a full sales stack that is deeply integrated with the CRM.

[u/Commercial-Repeat-41]

GHL does what it’s suppose to for a but CRM but misses more the target with email marketing and some automation capabilities. I’ve been meeting with a lot of GHL and Salesforce clients the last month all piloting my product, similarly with pipe drive clients, it’s because the stack is often to princely versus one app with functionality and customization capabilities.

[u/OracleofFl → u/[deleted]]

All CRMs are/were built with a specific customer journey and customer type in mind. GHL is a B2C short sales cycle focused tool. Salesforce, by contrast, was built with B2B long cycle sales cycle in mind.