As the saying “Customer is the king” comes first of all other factors for a business, you have to serve them with your heart and soul. That said, using a CRM or Customer Relationship Management can be a key idea to nurture your leads and paid customers so as to satisfy them.
Fortunately, you will get a host of CRM plugins out there in the market to manage your customers the right way. Although most of the plugins have all the bells and whistles to manage your customer resources, you may have to tune up your business needs with the tool you are going to pick up.
In this regard, the WP ERP CRM and the ZERO BS CRM can be a good choice for you. Both of these tools are great, but you may have to think twice to choose the one that fits better to your business requirements. Therefore, I will be breaking down these two great CRM tools so that you can choose the more suitable one for your business.
Without further ado, let’s dig deeper. And here we are going to cover-
- A Brief Introduction to the WordPress CRM
- A Brief Introduction to the Zero BS CRM
- WordPress CRM & ZERO BS CRM Comparison
3.1 When to Use the WP ERP CRM
3.2 When to Use the ZERO BS CRM - ZERO BS CRM & WP ERP CRM: Common Features
- Unique Features of WP ERP CRM over the ZERO BS CRM
- Unique Feature of the ZERO BS CRM over the WP ERP CRM
- WP ERP CRM Integrations
- ZERO BS CRM Integrations
- WP ERP CRM Pricing
- ZERO BS CRM Pricing
- WP ERP CRM VS ZERO BS CRM at a Glance
A Brief Introduction to the WordPress CRM
WordPress CRM (also known as WP ERP CRM) is basically a WordPress Plugin that lets you save your contact list according to their life stages, find contacts using the filter option and nurture the leads until they are converted to paid customers.
It is the first CRM tool that runs on WordPress. It’s scalable with a fleet of premium extensions to align the increased business requirements over time.
With this CRM system, you can also nurture your paying customers by mailing them in order to retain them by sending the newsletters or storing their data in groups.
The tool has already achieved two prestigious awards and has an amazing 4.4 rating out of 5 on WordPress.org. As of today, (5 December 2019), the plugin has more than 10000 active installations.
The CRM tool is available in both free and pro versions.
A Brief Introduction to the ZERO BS CRM
The ZERO BS is another CRM solution that runs on WordPress. Like the WP ERP, it is also available on both free and pro versions. When the plugin had just over 1000 active installations, Automattic, the WordPress mother company, acquired it seeing the potential of this plugin.
As of 5 December 2019, the tool has over 2000 active installations.
Like WP ERP CRM, ZERO BS CRM also enables you to use a ton of extensions to scale up with your growing business needs.
Initially, it was founded by a two-person-team which includes Mike Stott and Woody Hayday.
WordPress CRM & ZERO BS CRM Comparison
Now that, I have introduced you with the two CRM tool, let’s explore their utilities from different view-points:
When to Use the WP ERP CRM
WP ERP CRM is designed to meet the requirements of small and medium-sized businesses, for example, eCommerce sites, agencies, startups, nonprofit businesses, and many more.
However, that does not limit its usage from large companies. In fact, large corporations can also take the opportunity to keep their costs low utilizing this solution.
In addition, the tool is a no-frills solution that is intuitive and user-friendly even for beginners.
When to Use the ZERO BS CRM
The ZERO BS CRM is mainly fit for small and nonprofit businesses. But it can also be used to streamline the customer relationship management process of eCommerce sites, agency, and freelancers.
The software interface is also cognitive and intuitive making it ideal for beginner level users.
ZERO BS CRM & WP ERP CRM: Common Features
As I said, WP ERP comes of all the bare necessities along with some advanced aspects when it comes to the features.
On the other hand, ZERO BS CRM includes a great number of features like marketing, sales, contact management, social integration, team email, activity log and many more.
The common standout features of these two CRM solutions include:
SMS Notification
Sometimes you will feel that the emails and system email messages are not enough for some of your clients. In this case, the SMS notification of the WP ERP CRM and the ZERO BS CRM will take you to the rescue!
With the SMS integration of the WP ERP CRM, you can use the famous SMS gateways like Twilio, Clickatell, Nexmo, SMS Global and many more to send mobile text messages to your companies or contacts.
Activity Log
In ZERO BS CRM, you can see all the activities going inside the system, such as the time when you created a contact, the time when you met a contact, sales history, etc.
You can also see when you were paid for the invoice or you paid for a quote and all the other transaction history.
In WP ERP CRM, you can view all the activities including schedules, emails, tasks, and notes for all the contacts and companies you have created.
File Management for Contacts
In both CRM solutions, you can attach different types of files for your contacts and companies.
In WP ERP CRM, you will find everything to manage your documents.
Managing files and documents is a must to maintain a sound relationship with the clients.
Dynamic Contact Segmentation
You can create customer segmentation in both CRM tools to give your customers better-personalized service. You can segment by using tags and creating different groups.
Social Integration
To win the heart of your customers, you often have to reach them through their social networking accounts. The ZERO BS CRM and the WP ERP CRM both will allow you to add multiple social networking platforms for each contact.
Adding Tags
With this little yet powerful tool, you can find your desired contacts with just a single click! All you have to do is to add tags for certain contacts. For instance, you can add tags like ‘important’, ‘VIP’, ‘blacklisted’ etc.
Company Management
If you want to manage your company separately the ZERO BS CRM and the WP ERP CRM both have got you covered. That’s because you can manage your companies separately. This makes both of these tools B2B friendly.
Quotations
You may need to send quotes to your customers. The ZERO BS CRM has some premade quotation templates that will help you choose and send templates in the easiest and quickest way.
Managing as a Team
The ZERO BS CRM also supports multiple user roles required to manage your contacts as a team. The Zero BS CRM system has user roles such as:
- Admin
- Customer Manager
- Quote Manager
- Transaction Manager
Scheduling
The ZERO BS CRM does have a scheduling feature that lets you set appointments for specific contacts. For this purpose, you have to create a task, assign the task to a user, set the date. It’s also possible to send a reminder to the owner of the task.
Multi-language and multi-currency
Both the CRM systems support multi-currency and are translatable through the classic .po and the .mo file extensions.
Export, Import & Delete
Both CRM will help you to export & import contact data in CSV formats. You can also dump all your contact data if you want to.
Developer Ready
The core version of the two plugins is free and open source. So, you will be able to view the source code and change it two add newer functionalities on your own.
Setup Wizard
After installing, out of the box, the ZERO BS CRM and the WP ERP CRM both show an intuitive Setup Wizard. Using this setup wizard, you can quickly configure and tune up the systems for your business requirements.
Invoices
Invoicing is one of the most important building blocks of a customer relationship management tool. You will have to
System Emails
In ZERO BS CRM, you can send out emails in different events like:
- Welcome to the client portal
- You have received an invoice
- You have received a new proposal
WooCommerce Integration
With the ZERO BS CRM, you can connect multiple, WooCommerce store through API connection integration and thus synchronize contacts from those stores.
When you make a sell on your WooCommerce store the associated customer information will automatically be imported in the CRM System.
Quick Filter
HubSpot integrates smoothly with several business social systems to access and capture contact information. For example, connect HubSpot with G Suite, Gmail, Outlook, or Office 365 for Windows to easily add contacts to the CRM. Users can also create lead ads for Facebook and Instagram to capture contact information that automatically syncs with HubSpot. Zoho’s free plan only offers integrations with Gmail and Facebook.
Unlimited Custom Fields
The default fields of the WP ERP CRM and the ZERO BS CRM might not be enough for your exclusive business needs. Luckily, using the Custom Field integration, you can enhance the number of fields of companies and contacts in both of the CRM solutions.
WooCommerce Sync
In WP ERP, with WooCommerce sync, you can see the details of a contact. For example, you can see how many items did a contact purchased or how many orders a contact has placed.
You can also specify the type of contacts before saving them. For example, you can set ‘Lead’ when a visitor registers as a customer or you can set ‘Opportunity’ when a visitor places an order and much more.
Like, WP ERP CRM, ZERO BS CRM also does come up with integration with WooCommerce.
Reporting
The ZERO BS CRM includes a comprehensive collection of reports. These reports are also customizable according to the viewer and date range. Apart from the individual customer activity log, some of the other reports include Summary Dashboard, Sales Reports, Growth Reports, Average Revenue Per Customer, New Customers Per Period, etc.
Customer support
As a business owner, every investment is vital for you. This is why you may desire robust customer service support from your CRM provider. Fortunately, both of these CRM solution providers will help you to give you the best customer support.
Ease of use
When we are comparing these two CRM tools, we are not just comparing their features but also how easy and intuitive they are to use. Fortunately, both of these CRM tools have amazing user interfaces.
Online Payment
Both WP ERP CRM and the ZERO BS CRM support direct online payment through gateways like PayPal, Stripe and many more.
However, the ZERO BS CRM support payment directly in their CRM as it is a standalone CRM tool. But the WP ERP CRM supports these payment systems through the Accounting module.
In ZERO BS CRM, using the Secure Client Portal you can make online payments via stripe payment gateway. You can also add custom pages by using shortcodes from the WordPress page-interface.
Unique Features of WP ERP CRM over the ZERO BS CRM
Now that I have shown you the similarities, let’s take a look at the features that make the WP ERP CRM distinguished from the ZERO BS CRM:
Advanced Contact Filtering
In WP ERP CRM, you can use search segments to create numerous parameters and conditions. This way you can quickly get the contact you are looking for. You can also save your searches to use them in the future.
Project Management
As opposed to the ZERO BS CRM, the WP ERP CRM comes with a full-fledged project management system integrated with it. With the project management tool, you can assign the
To use the Project Manager, you have to download and install the tool separately like any other WordPress tool.
Workflow
You can create a trigger-based workflow to manage your emails, contacts, employee creation & more using this systemic solution.
Deals
If you want to track and manage your deals in the easiest manner then nothing can beat this feature of the WP ERP CRM. With this feature, you can see deal progress, lost deals, won deals and many more.
Unique Feature of the ZERO BS CRM over the WP ERP CRM
Here are the features that make the ZERO BS CRM unique while compared to the WP ERP CRM:
Conversion Rate Tracking
The ZERO BS CRM has embedded contact forms you can use on your website. This form will help you calculate the conversion rate that is the number of visitors converting to leads. Comparing the conversion rate, you can stick to the best converting contact form.
On the other hand, in WP ERP CRM, you will need to use integrations like the weForms to calculate the conversion rate to use the same feature.
AKA and Aliases
You can store contacts and manage their aliases even with several emails for the same contact.
WP ERP CRM Integrations
Like the ZERO BS CRM, WP ERP CRM has also a ton of integrations aimed to manage your customers with ease. The integrations supported by the WP ERP CRM are Zendesk, Helpscout, Awesome support, WooCommerce Integration, Email Campaign, Custom Field Builder, Salesforce Contacts Sync, Document Manager, SMS Notifications, Deals, Hubspot Contacts Sync, Workflow, Gravity Forms Sync, MailChimp Contacts Sync.
ZERO BS CRM Integrations
The ZERO BS CRM supports all the important integrations that facilitate the purpose of the optimized customer management process. Currently, the plugin supports integration like Aweber, Automation, Awesome Support, Contact Form 7, Convert Kit, Google Contacts, Gravity Forms, Groove HQ, Mail Chimp, Member Mouse, Twilio, Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce and many more.
WP ERP CRM Pricing
WP ERP CRM is free to use. But it has paid extensions. So, you can purchase only the extensions that you need to minimize expenditures.
However, the extensions are also available in bundles keeping the growing requirements of business during different phases. The basic plan starts at $149. Here are the different pricing plans:
Starter ($12.42/permonth) | Essential ($33.25)/per month | Business ($49.92)/per month |
Awesome Support Sync | Awesome Support Sync | Awesome Support Sync |
Hubspot Sync | Custom Field Builder | Custom Field Builder |
MailChimp Sync | Email Campaign | Deals |
SMS Notification | Gravity Forms | Email Campaign |
Help Scout Sync | Gravity Forms | |
Hubspot Sync | Help Scout Sync | |
MailChimp Sync | Deal | |
SMS Notification | Hubspot Sync | |
WooCommerce | MailChimp Sync | |
Salesforce Sync | ||
SMS Notification | ||
WooCommerce | ||
Workflow | ||
Zendesk Integration | ||
Custom Field Builder |
ZERO BS CRM Pricing
There is a free core version of the ZERO BS CRM. However, it is scalable with four pricing plans.
Unlike WP ERP CRM, it has four pricing plans. You can pick any plan that corresponds to your particular business requirements:
The basic plan starts at $11. Here are the other pricing plans:
Freelancer($11) | Entrepreneur($17) | Elite($30) | Reseller($5.40) |
Access to 4 CRM extensions | Access to ALL CRM extensions | Access to ALL CRM extensions | Access to ALL CRM extensions |
Basic Support | Priority Support | Mail Campaigns | Mail Campaigns |
Single Site License | Single Site License | Priority Support | Priority Support 10 Site Licenses Free 30 minute concierge call White Label / Rebrander Access to Slack Community 12 months support and updates |
Access to Slack Community | Access to Slack Community | Single Site License | 10 Site Licenses |
12 months support and updates | 12 months support and updates | Free 30 minute concierge call | Free 30 minute concierge call |
*includes Mail Campaigns | Access to Slack Community | White Label / Rebrander | |
12 months support and updates | Access to Slack Community | ||
12 months support and updates |
WP ERP CRM VS ZERO BS CRM at a Glance
WP ERP CRM | ZERO BS CRM | |
Starting Price | $12.42/per month (Billed Yearly) | 11$/Per month (Billed Yearly) |
Contact Management | Yes | Yes |
Email Templates | Yes | Yes |
Email Integration | Yes | Yes |
Reporting | Yes | Yes |
Live Chat | Yes | Yes |
Workflow Rules | Yes | Yes |
Inventory Management | Yes (Via Accounting Module) | Yes |
Social Integration | Yes | Yes |
Advanced Contact Filtering with Saved Search | Yes | No |
Order Management as Project | Yes | No |
Deals | Yes | No |
Workflow | Yes | No |
Conversion Rate Tracking | No | Yes |
AKA and Aliases | No | Yes |
Secure Client Portal | Yes | Yes |
Sales Dashboard | No | Yes |
Number of Extensions | 14+ | 14+ |
Overall Score | 8/10 | N/A * |
More Information | WP ERP CRM | ZERO BS CRM |
Conclusion
Though these two CRM tools are very close in features when they are compared to each other they are different only by a few factors.
If you go for the WP ERP CRM, you will get two free integrated modules for Accounting and Human Resource Management. It does also have a free Project Management extension that will let you manage your sales orders as projects.
However, if you would like to manage your customer resources with cheaper CRM software, then the ZERO BS CRM can be a good fit for you.
If you are already using any of these CRM, don’t forget to mention it in the comment section below.
* We have not found any score rating for ZERO BS CRM by any reviewer. In my opinion, it is a great CRM tool and I would like to give a 7.5 out of 10.
I’ve tried both of them. Not too deep, but enough to get a feel as a beginner.
ZBS CRM
This is a good solution, but I had trouble getting used to the way it is designed.
Design is very important to me and ZBS CRM was too far away from the standard WP back-end Design.
Also, the way it was structured, wasn’t convincing to me.
Why the design is important?
If I want to provide a solution to my own clients, which are using WordPress, they shouldn’t be confused with a totally different design.
WP ERP
I compared this solution through online media with ZBS CRM at the beginning and I did go with ZBS because it was promising.
Now I switched to WP ERP and I’m happy that I did.
The free version is already a great start. It provides me everything I need to process my clients and to get used the way it is designed.
Regards,
Nikolaj Woroschilow
It’s really nice that you made a tour in both of the tools. They are both great tools to be honest. And I also agree the fact that the design of the ZERO BS CRM is a little different compared to that of WordPress Dashboard. Thanks.