In any business, your clients are your foundation. Nurturing those relationships is the secret to not just surviving, but thriving. But as your business grows, keeping track of every conversation, every need, and every follow-up can feel like an impossible task. Sticky notes get lost, spreadsheets become chaotic, and valuable client details fall through the cracks. This is where a dedicated client management app becomes less of a luxury and more of a necessity.
Finding the best client management app can feel overwhelming with so many options available. You need more than just a digital address book; you need a powerful tool that helps you build stronger relationships, streamline your processes, and make smarter decisions. This is not just another piece of software to keep track of clients; it's the central hub for your entire customer lifecycle.
In this guide, we'll break down everything you need to know. We will explore what a client management app is, why it’s a critical investment for your business, and review the top contenders for 2025 to help you find the perfect fit.
What is a client management app?
At its core, a client management app is a software solution designed to help businesses organize, manage, and analyze all their client interactions and data in one central place. You might also hear it called a client management system (CMS) or, more commonly, a customer relationship management (CRM) system. While the names might differ slightly, their fundamental purpose is the same: to provide a single source of truth for every client relationship.
Think of it as the brain of your client-facing operations. This client tracking software goes far beyond a simple contact list. It's a dynamic client record management software that allows you to:
Centralize client information: Store everything from contact details and communication history to past purchases and personal preferences.
Track all interactions: Log every email, phone call, meeting, and message, creating a complete timeline of your relationship with each client.
Manage your sales pipeline: Visualize where every lead and potential deal stands, helping your team prioritize efforts and forecast revenue.
Automate routine tasks: Set up automated reminders for follow-ups, send templated emails, and streamline data entry to save time and reduce manual errors.
Modern client management tools have evolved significantly. They are no longer just a program to keep track of customers. They now often include advanced features like integrated communication tools (chat and video calls), robust analytics dashboards, and powerful automation engines that can handle complex workflows. They provide the structure needed to deliver consistent, personalized experiences that build loyalty and trust.
A truly effective platform, like Lark, centralizes this even further. Its highly customizable database, Lark Base, acts as a single hub for all client data, seamlessly connecting it to integrated communication and collaboration tools.
Why you need the best client management app
Adopting a client management app isn't just about getting organized; it's a strategic move that can fundamentally transform how your business operates and grows. Juggling client information across emails, spreadsheets, and notepads is inefficient and risky. The best client management app eliminates this chaos and provides a clear path to stronger relationships and better business outcomes.
Here’s why investing in the right program to keep track of clients is crucial:
It creates a single source of truth. When all client information is in one place, everyone on your team—from sales to support—has access to the same up-to-date context. This eliminates conflicting information and ensures that every team member can provide a consistent and informed experience. No more digging through old emails to find a client’s phone number or last conversation.
It enhances client relationships and retention. With a complete history of interactions at your fingertips, you can personalize your communication and anticipate client needs. A good client follow up software ensures that no opportunity is missed. By understanding your clients on a deeper level, you can build trust, improve satisfaction, and significantly boost client retention.
It boosts team productivity and collaboration. Client management tools streamline workflows by automating repetitive tasks like data entry and follow-up reminders. This frees up your team to focus on what they do best: building relationships and closing deals. Features like shared tasks, internal notes, and activity logs ensure everyone is aligned and working efficiently toward common goals.
It provides data-driven insights for smarter decisions. The best apps come with powerful reporting and analytics features. You can track key metrics like sales performance, team productivity, and customer behavior. These insights allow you to identify trends, pinpoint what’s working, and make informed decisions that drive strategic growth instead of relying on guesswork.
It scales with your business. As your client base grows, a manual system will quickly become a bottleneck. A scalable client management solution grows with you, effortlessly handling an increasing volume of data and users without sacrificing performance. This ensures you have a robust system in place to support your business for the long term.
Lark exemplifies these benefits by embedding its powerful CRM within a collaborative suite, allowing teams to manage clients, communicate, and track projects in one seamless flow, boosting productivity and alignment.
8 best client management apps for your business in 2025
Choosing the right client management app is a big decision, so we've done the heavy lifting for you. We evaluated the top platforms based on their core functionality, ease of use, integration capabilities, and overall value. Here are the 8 best apps to consider for managing your client relationships in 2025.
1. Lark: The all-in-one app for client management and collaboration
Overview
Lark stands out from the competition because it’s not just a client management system; it's a complete, all-in-one platform designed to be the single hub for all your work. It seamlessly integrates a powerful and fully customizable client tracking software with essential daily tools like messenger, video conferencing, documents, and project management. This unified ecosystem eliminates the constant need to switch between different applications, which not only streamlines workflows but also significantly reduces software costs. At its heart is a flexible database that can be tailored to be the perfect client record management software for any industry. It allows teams to manage the entire client lifecycle, from initial lead tracking to ongoing relationship nurturing, all within the same environment where they communicate and collaborate on projects. This holistic approach ensures that client management is an integral part of your team's daily operations, not a separate task.
Key features
Fully customizable client database: At the center of Lark's CRM capabilities is a no-code database that anyone can use. You can create custom fields to track any information you need, from contact details to deal stages. Visualize your data with different views like Kanban boards for pipeline management, grids for detailed lists, and calendars for scheduling.
Integrated collaboration suite: This is Lark's greatest strength. You can discuss a client in a chat, instantly pull up their record, co-edit a proposal document in real-time, and schedule a follow-up meeting in the calendar—all without ever leaving the app. You can even convert a message from a colleague into a task with a single click, ensuring no action item gets lost.
Powerful workflow automation: Automate repetitive tasks to save time and reduce human error. You can set up workflows to send automated reminders for follow-ups when a deal stage changes, notify team members of new assignments, or update records automatically. These automations are intuitive to build, requiring little to no technical experience.
Seamless mobile and desktop experience: Whether your team is in the office or on the go, Lark provides a consistent and powerful experience across its desktop and mobile apps. You can access and update client information, join meetings, and collaborate with your team from anywhere, making it a true mobile CRM.
Built-in reporting and analytics: Create custom dashboards to get a real-time overview of your sales pipeline, team performance, and other key metrics. These visual reports help you make data-driven decisions and track progress toward your goals.
Why Lark Base stands out for client management
The true power of Lark as a client management app comes from Lark Base, its no-code database platform. It’s designed to be incredibly flexible and user-friendly, allowing you to build a custom CRM that perfectly matches your workflow, without writing a single line of code.
Total customization for your data: You can build your client list software from the ground up. Add custom fields to track anything—deal size, last contact date, client tier, or specific product interests. This ensures you capture the exact information that matters to your business.
Multiple views for every task: Visualize your client data in the way that makes the most sense. Use the Kanban view to create a dynamic sales pipeline, dragging and dropping deals as they progress. Switch to the Calendar view to see upcoming appointments and follow-ups. The Grid view gives you a powerful, spreadsheet-like overview for deep-diving into your client tracking system.
Data-driven insights with dashboards: Create real-time dashboards with charts and graphs to monitor your most important KPIs. Track your sales funnel, monitor team activity, and analyze client demographics at a glance. These visual reports empower you to make informed, strategic decisions quickly.
Intelligent workflow automation: Go beyond simple reminders. Within Base, you can design powerful automations. For example, automatically assign a new lead to a sales rep based on territory, send a personalized follow-up email when a client’s status changes, or create a task for your finance team once a deal is marked as "won."
Deep integration with the Lark ecosystem: Lark Base doesn't operate in a vacuum. When a client record is updated in Base, your team can get an instant notification in Lark Messenger. You can link a client's profile directly in a shared document when drafting a proposal or meeting agenda. This interconnectedness ensures that your client data is always at the center of your team's conversations and actions, making your processes seamless and highly efficient.
Pricing
Starter: A generous free plan for up to 20 users that includes access to 11 powerful tools. This makes it the best free app to keep client information for small teams and startups.
Pro: $12 per user/month, offering unlimited message history, more storage, and advanced automation capabilities.
Enterprise: Custom pricing for larger organizations needing advanced security and compliance controls.
Best for
Businesses of all sizes looking for a powerful, all-in-one solution that combines client management tools with communication and collaboration to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
2. Salesforce CRM: The enterprise leader for deep customization and scalability
Image source: salesforce.com
Overview
Salesforce is a giant in the CRM industry, renowned for its incredible depth and scalability. It is one of the most powerful client management programs available, designed to handle the complex needs of large enterprises. Its platform can be extensively tailored to fit unique business processes, and it offers some of the most advanced data collection and analytics tools on the market. While its complexity can present a steep learning curve, its ability to manage massive amounts of client data and provide deep insights is unparalleled.
Key features
Advanced customization: Tailor almost every aspect of the software, from custom objects and fields to complex workflows and reports.
Robust analytics: Leverage AI-driven insights and detailed dashboards to understand client behavior and market trends.
AppExchange marketplace: Access thousands of third-party integrations to connect Salesforce with virtually any other business tool you use.
Pricing
No free plan; offers a free trial.
Starter suite: Starts from $25/user/month.
Pro suite: Starts from $100/user/month.
Best for
Large enterprises with complex operational needs and the resources to invest in implementation, training, and support.
3. HubSpot CRM: The user-friendly choice for inbound marketing and sales
Image source: hubspot.com
Overview
HubSpot CRM is a popular choice, especially among small to medium-sized businesses, largely due to its powerful free tier and strong focus on inbound marketing. It provides a very approachable entry point into the world of client management. The platform is known for its intuitive interface, making it a great simple client management software. It integrates seamlessly with HubSpot's other marketing, sales, and service hubs, offering a convenient, unified solution for companies looking to align their sales and marketing efforts.
Key features
Generous free tools: The free plan offers essential functionalities like contact management, email tracking, and deal pipelines.
Marketing automation: Excellent for lead generation, with tools for email marketing, landing pages, and social media management.
User-friendly interface: Its clean design makes it easy for teams to get started with minimal training.
Pricing
Free tools: Up to 2 users.
Marketing hub starter: Starts from $9/seat/month.
Starter customer platform: Starts from $9/seat/month.
Marketing hub professional: Starts from $800/month, includes 3 core seats.
Marketing hub enterprise: Starts from $3600/month, includes 5 core seats.
Best for
Small to medium-sized businesses and startups, particularly those focused on inbound marketing and looking for a free app for client management to get started.
4. Pipedrive: A visual sales pipeline for activity-based selling
Image source: pipedrive.com
Overview
Pipedrive is a client management app designed by salespeople, for salespeople. Its core philosophy revolves around activity-based selling, prompting users to focus on the actions that drive deals forward. The standout feature is its highly visual and intuitive sales pipeline. This drag-and-drop interface makes it incredibly simple to track the progress of leads and manage deals. Pipedrive prioritizes simplicity and ease of use over an exhaustive feature list, making it an excellent client tracking system for teams who want a straightforward tool without unnecessary complexity.
Key features
Visual sales pipeline: Easily manage deals with a clear, drag-and-drop interface that helps you visualize your sales process.
Activity-based selling: Prompts you to schedule your next activity for every deal, ensuring no opportunity is forgotten.
Simple reporting: Track key sales metrics with straightforward and easy-to-understand reports.
Pricing
No free plan; offers a free trial for 14 days.
Essential: Starts from $14/seat/month.
Advanced: Starts from $39/seat/month.
Professional: Starts from $49/seat/month.
Power: Starts from $64/seat/month.
Enterprise: Starts from $99/seat/month.
Best for
Sales-focused teams and small businesses that need an easy-to-use tool for visualizing and managing their sales pipeline.
5. Zoho CRM: The cost-effective suite for existing Zoho ecosystem users
Image source: zoho.com
Overview
Zoho CRM is part of a massive ecosystem of business applications, making it a compelling option for companies that already use or plan to use other Zoho products. It offers a broad range of features at a very competitive price point, striking a balance between functionality and affordability. This makes it an accessible program to keep track of clients for businesses of all sizes. While its interface can sometimes feel less modern than competitors, its deep customization options and seamless integration with the Zoho suite create a powerful, unified business operating system.
Key features
Comprehensive integration: Works seamlessly with over 40 other Zoho apps for finance, marketing, HR, and more.
Affordable pricing: Offers a free plan and competitively priced tiers that provide advanced features without breaking the bank.
Sales and marketing automation: Includes tools for workflow automation, email marketing, and social media management.
Pricing
No free plan; offers a free trial.
Standard: Starts from $14/user/month.
Professional: Starts from $23/user/month.
Enterprise: Starts from $40/user/month.
Ultimate: Starts from $52/user/month.
Best for
Businesses of any size, especially those already invested in the Zoho ecosystem or looking for a cost-effective yet feature-rich CRM.
6. Nimble CRM: The social media CRM for building strong relationships
Image source: nimble.com
Overview
Nimble carves out a unique niche by focusing on relationship building through social media. It automatically pulls contact information from various social platforms like LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter), enriching your client profiles with valuable context. This allows sales teams to engage with leads and clients on a more personal level. Nimble is designed to be a simple client management software that acts as a relationship-focused overlay to your existing workflows, particularly for those who leverage social selling in their strategy.
Key features
Social media integration: Automatically builds rich contact profiles by syncing with social media and other data sources.
Relationship management: Provides context on contacts, including shared interests and social activity, to facilitate warmer outreach.
Simple interface: Organizes contacts and communications in an easy-to-navigate dashboard.
Pricing
Nimble Business: $24.90 per user/month.
There is no free plan available, offering a 14-day free trail.
Best for
Individuals and teams that rely heavily on social media and networking to build and maintain client relationships.
7. Freshsales: An intuitive CRM with built-in AI sales automation
Image source: freshworks.com
Overview
Freshsales, part of the Freshworks suite, is a client management app designed for speed and simplicity, particularly for small and mid-sized businesses. It boasts an intuitive interface and powerful, AI-driven features that help automate sales processes. One of its key differentiators is its built-in phone and email capabilities, which allow teams to communicate with clients without leaving the CRM. The AI-based lead scoring helps teams prioritize their efforts on the most promising prospects, making it an efficient client list software.
Key features
AI-powered lead scoring: Freddy AI automatically scores leads based on their engagement, helping you focus on the hottest prospects.
Built-in communication tools: Make calls, send emails, and chat with clients directly from the CRM interface.
Visual sales pipeline: Get a clear overview of your deals and track their progress through customizable stages.
Pricing
No free plan; offers a free trial.
Growth: Starts from $9/user/month.
Pro: Starts from $39/user/month.
Enterprise: Starts from $59/user/month.
Best for
Small and mid-sized businesses looking for an intuitive CRM with powerful, built-in AI and communication features to streamline their sales process.
8. Bitrix24: The free CRM with unlimited users and collaboration tools
Image source: bitrix24.com
Overview
Bitrix24 is a unique offering in the market, primarily because its free app for client management supports an unlimited number of users. This makes it an incredibly attractive option for large teams or growing businesses on a tight budget. Beyond its CRM capabilities, Bitrix24 is a broad collaboration platform that includes tools for project management, internal communication, and document sharing. While the interface can feel crowded due to the sheer number of features, it provides an extensive, all-in-one free online client record system for companies that need a wide range of tools without the per-user cost.
Key features
Unlimited users on free plan: Its most significant selling point, allowing entire organizations to use the platform at no cost.
Core CRM functions: Includes lead and contact management, sales funnel visualization, and invoicing.
Integrated collaboration tools: Features project management, chat, video calls, and file sharing.
Pricing
Free: For unlimited users with core features.
Standard: Starts from $99 per month for 50 users.
Professional: Starts from $199 per month for 100 users.
Enterprise: Starts from $399 per month for 250 users, with options to scale.
Best for
Startups and growing businesses that need a free CRM that can accommodate an unlimited number of users and provides a wide array of collaboration tools.
Tips for selecting client management apps
Choosing the best client management app for your business requires careful consideration. With so many options, it's easy to get swayed by a long feature list. Instead, focus on what will actually move the needle for your team. Here are some practical tips to guide your selection process:
Assess your primary needs first. Before you look at any software, define what you need it to do. Are you primarily focused on tracking sales deals (pipeline management)? Do you need robust marketing automation? Or is your biggest pain point disorganized communication and collaboration? Identifying your main goal will help you narrow down the options significantly.
Prioritize ease of use and team adoption. The most powerful software in the world is useless if your team doesn't use it. Look for an intuitive interface and a logical workflow. A simple client management software with a gentle learning curve will ensure quick adoption and a better return on your investment. Take advantage of free trials to see how the app feels in practice.
Check for essential integrations. Your client management tool shouldn't live in a silo. Make sure it can connect with the tools your team already relies on, like your email provider, calendar, and accounting software. Or, better yet, find a solution that has these essential business tools already built-in to create a truly unified workspace.
Consider scalability and future growth. The app you choose today should be able to support your business tomorrow. Look at the different pricing tiers and the features they unlock. A system that can scale with your growing client base and evolving needs will prevent you from having to migrate to a new platform down the road.
Don't overlook security and data control. You are entrusting the software with your most valuable asset: your client data. Ensure the platform has robust security measures, such as data encryption and role-based access controls, to keep that information safe and confidential.
Finding a tool that balances these factors is key. Lark simplifies this choice by offering built-in collaboration tools, robust security, and scalable plans, making it an adaptable and future-proof solution.
Conclusion
Finding the right client management solution is a pivotal step toward building stronger customer relationships, streamlining your internal processes, and unlocking sustainable growth. From the deep customization of an enterprise-level system to the straightforward simplicity of a sales-focused tool, there is a platform designed to meet every business need. The key is to look beyond the feature list and choose a tool that truly aligns with how your team works.
By implementing the best client management app—one that is tailored to your unique operations—you empower your team to be more organized, responsive, and efficient. It allows you to automate routine tasks, foster seamless collaboration, and leverage data to make smarter decisions. This not only leads to happier, more loyal clients but also paves the way for long-term business success.
For businesses seeking to break free from the limitations of juggling multiple applications, Lark stands out as the ideal choice. It offers more than just a CRM; it provides a single, unified platform where client management, communication, and collaboration converge. Ready to see the difference an all-in-one solution can make? Try Lark for free and discover a smarter way to manage your client relationships.
FAQs
What is the best app to keep track of clients?
The best app to keep track of clients is one that integrates seamlessly into your team's daily workflow. Lark is an excellent choice because it’s an all-in-one platform that combines a powerful client tracking system with communication and collaboration tools, ensuring all client information is always accessible and actionable.
What is the best client management system?
The "best" client management system truly depends on your business's specific needs. However, for most businesses seeking a balance of power, flexibility, and ease of use, Lark stands out. It offers a fully customizable CRM within a collaborative suite, making it adaptable for teams of any size.
What is a good free program to keep track of clients?
Lark offers the most robust free program to keep track of clients. Its free plan supports up to 20 users and includes not just a customizable CRM but also a full suite of 11+ integrated tools for collaboration, making it a powerful and truly cost-free solution for small businesses and startups.
Is an all-in-one client management app better?
For most businesses, yes. An all-in-one app like Lark streamlines workflows by eliminating the need to switch between different software for CRM, chat, and project management. This reduces costs, improves efficiency, and ensures your entire team is working from a single source of truth for all client-related activities.
