Decide whether the CRM must share a database with your ERP
If sales quotes need to see live stock and production data, look first at CRM built into an ERP: SYSPRO CRM (inside SYSPRO), Acumatica CRM (inside Acumatica), Oracle NetSuite CRM (inside NetSuite) and Odoo, which bundles CRM with its own Manufacturing and Inventory apps. The cost of this route is lock-in: you are choosing the ERP and the CRM as one purchase. If you run a different ERP already, a connector-based CRM like SugarCRM (integrates with SYSPRO) or Prospect CRM (ERP sync) may fit better without forcing an ERP switch.
Decide your pricing model before you compare seat counts
Six of these listings publish a per-user subscription price: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales ($65/user/mo), SugarCRM ($59), HubSpot Sales Hub ($20), Zoho CRM ($14), Method CRM ($35) and Pipedrive ($14). Odoo publishes $24.90/user/mo with a free Community edition. Prospect CRM publishes a flat €205/mo for a 4-user Start-Up tier rather than a per-seat rate. The remaining seven (Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud, Oracle NetSuite CRM, SAP Sales Cloud, Creatio, SYSPRO CRM, Acumatica CRM, Sage CRM) quote only, which means you cannot compare their cost to the published ones until you get a proposal in hand.
TODO(editor): verify how many of the fifteen listings publish a per-seat price versus flat or quote-only, and confirm the count before stating it as an observation.
Decide who administers the system day to day
A plant with no dedicated CRM admin does better with a configurable-but-simple tool (Zoho, Pipedrive, HubSpot) than with a no-code platform like Creatio that rewards a dedicated administrator willing to build process automation. Method CRM's two-way QuickBooks sync suits a small manufacturer whose finance system is already QuickBooks and who wants quote-to-cash without a separate integration project.
Decide what it has to talk to beyond the ERP
List the systems the CRM must exchange data with: accounting (QuickBooks for Method CRM), the ERP (SYSPRO, NetSuite, Acumatica, SAP, Sage each pair with their own ERP by name in the listings), and any e-commerce or quoting tool. Odoo documents an external API (JSON-RPC or XML-RPC) for connecting outside software, which matters if you plan to keep some point solutions rather than move everything into one suite.
TODO(editor): confirm which listings beyond Odoo publish a documented API or integration list, since most entries here only name the ERP they pair with.
Decide what implementation costs beyond the licence
Odoo's cons note that Odoo.sh hosting for custom development is billed separately from the subscription, and that implementation services (project management, data import, customization) are additional. None of the other fourteen listings publish an implementation cost, which does not mean there isn't one; it means it is not in this record.
TODO(editor): check whether any of the quote-only vendors (Salesforce, NetSuite, SAP, Creatio, SYSPRO, Acumatica, Sage) publish implementation or onboarding fees anywhere before saying implementation cost is unknown across the board.
Decide deployment last, not first
Cloud-only options here include Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Oracle NetSuite CRM, SAP Sales Cloud, Acumatica CRM, HubSpot, Zoho, Method CRM and Pipedrive. Hybrid deployment is listed for SugarCRM, Creatio, SYSPRO CRM, Sage CRM and Odoo. If a plant floor requirement forces on-prem, none of these fifteen listings state an on-prem-only option, so confirm directly with the vendor rather than assuming hybrid covers it.
