Pipedrive is no longer the most innovative sales CRM like it used to be. It's getting left behind in the AI world, here the best 3 AI CRM alternatives to the famous sales CRM.

Why Pipedrive is no longer a viable CRM in the AI World?

"PipeDrive is arguably the best sales CRM for SMBs."

At least this is what everyone had in mind between 2010 and 2020 until the initial founders sold the company to a private equity firm.

Since then, PipeDrive never stopped going up-market and is no longer the easy sales CRM built by salespeople for salespeople.

The pace of product development has been slower since the acquisition too according to different testimonials, including G2 ones. Because of all those events, Pipedrive is no longer at the forefront of innovation to become AI native.

Secondly, the innovator's dilemma makes it hard for such companies to become AI native CRMs with all the technical debt that they accumulated for decades (Pipedrive was founded in 2010).

Alternative #1: Breakcold - The AI Native CRM for Modern Sales Teams

Breakcold's goal is to become the biggest alternative to Pipedrive as it also has a very strong sales DNA.

The first modern AI alternative to PipeDrive is Breakcold, for three main reasons.

Pros of Breakcold

Reason 1: Breakcold integrates not only with emails but also with B2B social media like LinkedIn, Telegram, and WhatsApp.

This allows salespeople to auto-sync their multi-channel convos in the CRM without manual data entry.

Modern salespeople aren’t closing deals only through email anymore. Social is key in a sales CRM.

From there Breakcold's AI is capable of using the information from all communication channels to perform multiple actions (see reason 2).

Reason 2: Breakcold removes all the boring admin work.

CRM tasks are created automatically if you're losing momentum with prospects.

Contacts move automatically in your pipeline depending on your interactions.

Long story short: the CRM updates itself. No more spending one-third of your day updating your CRM like with PipeDrive.

Reason 3: The majority of our new customers are ex-PipeDrive users

Breakcold has proved itself as a strong alternative to Pipedrive over the years since its inception in 2023.

In the screenshot below you can read

"I've been on the search for a CRM for AGESSSS and I've paid for a ton and my last was Pipedrive until I came across BC! So genuinely a big fan of what you guys have built!
Appreciate the great Customer Service :)"

The founder of Surfe (ex leadjet) even wrote me this on LinkedIn: "We have a few clients that switched from GSheets, Pipedrive or HubSpot to Breakcold"

Cons of Breakcold

Pipedrive was founded in 2010, not 2023 unlike Breakcold.

Because of that, Pipedrive still has an edge on advanced traditional CRM features and in-depth pipeline analytics.

From my experience, this is not a big deal breaker as most companies barely use Pipedrive's advanced set of features unless they hired a CRM expert, which doesn't happen every day.

Finally, when it comes to pricing, you can start for cheaper with Pipedrive while Breakcold starts at $29/mo.

Demo video of Breakcold

Here's a demo video of Breakcold's AI capabilities so that you can compare it to Pipedrive.

Alternative #2: Close - The AI CRM for Cold Callers

The second AI alternative to Pipedrive is Close.

Pros of Close

Close has always been known for one thing: its built-in calling and texting.

If your workflow is heavy on phone outreach and follow-ups, Close is basically your best friend.

What makes Close special compared to PipeDrive is that everything is designed around speed.

You can call, email, and manage your lead list without switching tabs every 10 seconds.

No overkill features. No bloated UI. Just pure selling.

When it comes to its AI features, Close destroys Pipedrive in the sense that:

• their AI generated summaries are better

• it has an AI note taker built-in (like Breakcold too) with good analytics

• AI enrichment is native

• it has a MCP server to make powerful automations using tools like Claude, ChatGPT or n8n

Cons of Close

The main downside is that Close is not super multi-channel.

You don’t have native LinkedIn or WhatsApp integrations, and the AI is not purely native.

What it means is that just like Pipedrive, Close has AI features on top of a CRM but by design, the CRM doesn't update itself so it's not a perfect AI alternative to Pipedrive, only partially imo.

Good features come at a price, Close starts at $49/mo per user while you can start at $19/mo per user with Pipedrive.

My review video of Close

In this video, I review Close on its traditional CRM features and AI ones.

Alternative #3: Attio - The AI CRM for PLG Startups

If you're a B2B startup handling a large volume of data going through your Segment account, Attio is the perfect replacement for PipeDrive.

Pros of Attio

The strength of Attio compared to PipeDrive is that you can build complex automations with AI decision layers (within their CRM workflow feature), something that's technically possible in PipeDrive but takes an eternity to set up.

Like Close, Attio also has an AI note taker built-in which allow to help its customer preparing for meetings with AI brief and also analyze their performance post-calls.

At Breakcold, we get some customers from them from time to time, but since Attio wants to be the next Salesforce, and we want to be the next PipeDrive, our paths don't cross that often.

Cons of Attio

Attio is better than Pipedrive on any levels when it comes to AI. The only problem can be related to moving leads in the CRM automatically as Attio doesn't sync with all communication channels - therefore it's not a source of truth and the AI can make mistakes if it doesn't have all the full context.

Like all CRMs on this list, Attio is more expensive than Pipedrive by starting at $36/mo/user.

Finally, it's important to mention that if Breakcold's mission is to be the modern alternative to Pipedrive, then Attio's one is to be the modern alternative to Salesforce according to this blogpost.

My review video of Attio

In this video, I review Attio on its traditional CRM features and AI ones.

Are there any other viable alternatives to Pipedrive with AI?

Yes there are plenty actually (Clarify, Zero, Folk, etc) but I tried to focus on the 3 BEST ones. I think it's important to take softwares that have a strong sales DNA like Pipedrive.