Capsule CRM

Capsule is the CRM for businesses that tried a big platform, drowned in configuration, and just want to know who they spoke to, what was said and what happens next. Contacts, notes, tasks and a visual sales pipeline cover the core, and the Gmail and Outlook add ins capture email conversations against the right person without anyone changing how they work. South African consultancies, agencies and brokerages like it for exactly that reason: adoption happens by itself.

The free plan is genuinely useful rather than a teaser, covering two users, 250 contacts and one pipeline, which is enough for many owner run businesses to manage their entire sales effort. Paid plans are billed in US dollars: Starter at 18 dollars per user per month, about R330, lifts the contact cap to 30,000 and adds email templates. Growth at 36 dollars adds multiple pipelines, workflow automation and advanced reporting. Advanced and Ultimate stretch to larger teams with more automation and custom roles. Annual billing takes roughly 15% off, and every paid tier starts with a 14 day trial.

Know what it is not: there is no marketing automation suite, no quoting engine and no service desk. Capsule connects to Mailchimp, Xero, QuickBooks and hundreds of tools through Zapier for those jobs. For a South African small business the dollar billing moves with the exchange rate, which is worth watching, but even so the total cost lands far below the usual suspects while covering what a small sales team actually does all day.