Comparison
Bigin vs CiviCRM
Side-by-side comparison of Bigin and CiviCRM. See pricing, features, ratings, and more.
| Feature | Bigin | CiviCRM |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 3.7 / 5 |
| Reviews | 1 | 1 |
| Categories | Small Business CRM, Pipeline Management, Contact Management | Contact Management, CRM Customization, CRM Integrations |
| Pricing | From $7 | From $0 |
| Pricing Model | freemium | free |
| Pros | Real free-forever plan (1 user, 500 records) and $7/user/month Express — among the cheapest CRMs that includes automation and telephony, Connected Pipelines move deals from sales into onboarding/renewal without duplicating records — rare at this price, Built-in phone with IVR, recording, and auto-logging on every plan, plus 100+ third-party telephony providers, Mobile-first apps (iOS/Android/macOS) with offline read, one-tap call logging, and a working card scanner, No lock-in: cancel anytime, 30/45-day refunds, prorated downgrade credits, 15-day trial with no card | $0 license with no per-user, per-contact, or per-donation fees — unbeatable economics for large or complex constituent databases, Deepest nonprofit feature set available: contributions, pledges, memberships, events, grants, case management, advocacy, Runs inside WordPress/Drupal/Joomla/Backdrop so website activity and CRM records share one database with no sync layer, Actively developed (6.19 released October 2026, monthly releases, ESR line supported to April 2027); full data ownership under AGPL, CiviSpark hosted option from $15/month per instance with unlimited users removes the ops burden for small organizations |
| Cons | Hard ceilings: max 5 pipelines on Premier / 15 on Bigin 360; escaping means migrating to full Zoho CRM with a new UI to learn, Reporting is dashboard-shallow — no multi-object reports, calculated fields, or time-series analysis without CSV exports, No marketing automation at all: no drip campaigns, lead scoring, or landing pages (Zoho Campaigns is a separate app), No bulk stage moves or bulk user invites; pick-list values can only be deleted, not deactivated, Workflow automations stop silently when trials expire; occasional sync glitches with non-Zoho tools per user reviews | Requires technical capacity: PHP/MySQL/CMS admin skills or a paid partner ($100-200/hr consultants, $25-200/mo managed hosting), Dated interface and steep learning curve — dozens of config screens, scattered documentation, no native mobile app, No commercial support team; extension quality is inconsistent and upgrades/patching are your own responsibility, Total cost of ownership can exceed hosted CRMs for small organizations that must pay partners for setup and upkeep, Wrong tool for sales-driven commercial use; can be slow on very large datasets without tuning |
| Best For | Solo operators and small teams (up to ~15 people) with a straightforward pipeline who want an affordable, mobile-friendly CRM that can grow into the Zoho ecosystem. | Nonprofits, membership bodies, and civic organizations with in-house technical capacity or a partner budget, that need deep donor/membership/event management and want full data ownership without per-seat licensing. |
| Launch Year | — | — |
| HQ Country | IN | US |