Top 8 Education CRM Options in 2024 | The Ultimate Guide

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

– Nelson Mandela

But sometimes, even the most powerful weapon needs the right fuel to be truly effective!

Are you dealing with countless emails, lost student records, and an admission process that just feels like never ending? Many schools and educational institutions are stuck with outdated systems that simply can’t handle the demands of modern student engagement and administrative tasks.

This is where an Education CRM comes into play, offering a streamlined solution to these challenges.

With the right CRM, you can turn those chaotic processes into a smooth, efficient operation, giving you more time to focus on what truly matters — educating and inspiring your students.

In this blog, I’ll explore the top 8 Education CRM options in 2024, helping you find the perfect CRM tool to elevate your institution’s operations and student experience.

For those new to contact management, here’s a quick video detailing the benefits of a CRM:

Which Is the Best Education CRM?

If you’re short on time, here’s a quick look at my top 3 picks for the best education CRM:

Option 1: BIGContacts

This is the best contact management and email marketing solution for small and large institutions. It offers advanced contact management, seamless integrations, and powerful email marketing features, making it an excellent choice for educational institutions.

Option 2: Meritto

Meritto is ideal for enrollment management. It excels at streamlining the entire enrollment process, ensuring that your institution efficiently manages student admissions from start to finish.

Option 3: Ellucian

Ellucian is best for student lifecycle management. It provides comprehensive tools for managing every stage of a student’s journey, from recruitment to alumni relations, making it a top choice for larger educational institutions.

8 Best Education CRM

I’ve gathered a list of top tools that provide advanced features to help you enhance your customer relationships. With these tools, the education industry can achieve higher efficiency and customer loyalty.

1. BIGContacts – Best for Contact Management & Email Marketing for Startups & Small & Medium Businesses

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I found BIGContacts to be a powerful tool for managing contacts and executing email marketing campaigns seamlessly. Its straightforward interface helped me to keep all my customer interactions in one place, making it easier to personalize my outreach.

One feature I really appreciated was the ability to automate email campaigns, which saved me a ton of time and ensured my messages reached the right people at the right moment. BIGContacts also provided detailed reporting, helping me track engagement and improve my marketing strategies.

As an education CRM, BIGContacts stood out because of its ability to handle large volumes of student data, track interactions, and automate follow-ups. This made it easy to manage enrollment processes and stay connected with students. Additionally, its integrations with other tools simplified administrative tasks, making it a perfect fit for educational institutions.

What You’ll Like:

• A comprehensive 360° customer view that centralizes tasks, events, files, notes, and emails for seamless management in one place
• Enhanced data organization with lists, tags, comments, and groups, ensuring more efficient management and easy retrieval
• Advanced reporting tools that provide deep insights into activities, empowering better business decisions
• Streamlined workflow automation and management of recurring tasks to boost the efficiency of sales and marketing efforts
• 24/7 awesome human support via phone, chat, and knowledge base
• The interface is user-friendly and helps in navigating easily

What You May Not Like:

• No downloadable or on-premise version
• No dedicated account manager for the free plan, unlike the paid

Pricing:

• Forever free for small teams. Paid starts at $9.99/month.

2. Meritto – Best for Enrollment Management

Image Source: Meritto

Meritto distinguished itself as a unique CRM for managing student enrollment. It offered innovative features that made the entire process more streamlined and efficient.

I particularly liked its effective tracking system, which helped me to monitor each applicant’s progress through different stages. The ability to segment leads based on various criteria helped in targeting communications effectively.

In my experience, Meritto stood out as one of the best Edtech CRM tools due to its specialized features tailored for education businesses. Its analytics and reporting tools provided deep insights into enrollment trends, helping in making data-driven decisions.

What You’ll Like:

• Automated lead nurturing with AI-driven personalized communication for each prospect
• Dynamic segmentation for creating targeted campaigns based on specific lead criteria
• Custom workflows to automate repetitive tasks and improve operational efficiency
• Multi-channel engagement capabilities to interact with leads via email, SMS, and WhatsApp

What You May Not Like:

• The initial setup and customization process can be complex and time-consuming
• Integration with other software systems sometimes faces challenges, leading to data synchronization issues

Pricing:

• Custom pricing.

3. Telecrm – Best for Telemarketing & Customer Engagement

Image source: Telecrm

Telecrm proved to be an exceptional tool for managing telemarketing campaigns and customer engagement. I found it particularly useful for tracking leads and automating follow-ups, which saved me a lot of time.

What stood out to me was its powerful calling features, allowing me to make and record calls directly from the CRM. This feature, combined with detailed analytics, made it easier to gauge campaign performance.

As an Edtech CRM, Telecrm proved invaluable for managing student inquiries, tracking their progress, and automating follow-up reminders, making it ideal CRM software for schools.

What You’ll Like:

• Customizable call workflows to streamline Tele-calling operations and improve efficiency
• Bulk SMS and email campaigns help reach a larger audience effortlessly
• Call recording feature to enhance quality control and agent training processes
• Lead scoring system prioritizes high-potential prospects for targeted follow-ups

What You May Not Like:

• UI can be unintuitive and difficult to navigate for new users
• Customer support response times are sometimes slow

Pricing:

• Starts at $10.1/user/month.

4. Slate CRM – Best for Application Tracking

Image Source: Technosolutions

Slate CRM is an incredible asset for managing the complex processes involved in higher education admissions. The system offered effective application tracking, allowing me to effortlessly monitor each applicant’s journey from start to finish, ensuring no detail was overlooked.

What I liked most was its tailored features specifically designed for educational institutions, such as communication management, event scheduling, and detailed applicant analytics. It wasn’t just about tracking applications; Slate CRM also integrated well with our existing systems, making data transfer easy and reducing manual workload.

As a CRM for higher education, it proved invaluable for handling large volumes of data while maintaining a personalized approach to student interactions, ultimately enhancing our ability to engage with prospective students effectively.

What You’ll Like:

• Ability to batch upload and verification of student transcripts and other materials for multiple universities
• Customizable application tracking to suit specific admission processes
• Event management features for organizing campus events and tours
• Allows real-time tracking of admissions decisions, with the ability to upload necessary enrollment materials

What You May Not Like:

• Occasional system lags during peak admission periods
• Limited mobile optimization might hinder on-the-go access

Pricing:

• Custom pricing.

5. Ellucian – Best for Student Lifecycle Management

Image source: Creatio

Navigating the complexities of educational management became remarkably easier with Ellucian CRM. It was particularly effective in streamlining the student lifecycle, handling everything from admissions to alumni relations seamlessly.

As an Education CRM, it offers features like personalized communication and data-driven insights, which are essential for enhancing student engagement and retention. It’s integration capabilities with various academic systems made it a top choice for any educational institution. This CRM for teachers also stood out for its ability to automate administrative tasks, allowing educators to focus more on teaching and less on paperwork.

Ellucian’s analytics and reporting features were invaluable for tracking student progress and institutional performance. Overall, it proved to be one of the best CRMs for education businesses, helping to build stronger connections with students throughout their academic journey.

What You’ll Like:

• Advanced financial aid management features, simplifying student support processes
• Customizable workflows for specific institutional needs and processes
• Integrated data analytics for actionable insights and strategic decision-making
• Recruitment tools to streamline admissions and applicant tracking

What You May Not Like:

• Integration with non-Ellucian products may require additional customization
• Custom report creation can be time-consuming and complex

Pricing:

• Custom pricing.

6. Element 451 – Best for AI-Powered Student Recruitment

Image Source: Dribbble

When I used Element 451, its ability to anticipate student needs through AI immediately caught my attention. This unique feature made it a powerful College CRM and a helpful tool for the education industry. The AI-driven tools stood out, making student recruitment and engagement seamless.

It allowed me to personalize communication at scale, ensuring each prospective student felt valued. The integration of data analytics helped identify the best-fit students and streamline the admission process. What I liked most was how Element 451 automated many time-consuming tasks, freeing up more time to focus on strategic initiatives.

In my experience, it’s one of the best CRM tools for the education industry. It offers features like event management, automated email campaigns, and comprehensive student profiles, which are particularly beneficial for education businesses aiming to enhance their recruitment processes and student interactions.

What You’ll Like:

• AI-driven insights to streamline student engagement and communication efforts with personalized messaging
• Integration with event management for attendee-managed registrations and real-time updates
• Comprehensive student portal to provide a unified experience from inquiry to enrollment
• Pre-built content and design packs to help institutions maintain consistent branding across platforms

What You May Not Like:

• Transferring data from legacy systems to Element 451 can be cumbersome and time-consuming
• The AI campaigns are powerful but might not offer enough customization for specific needs

Pricing:

• Starts at $14,000/year.

7. Leadsquared – Best for Lead Management

Image Source: Leadsquared

From the moment I started using Leadsquared, it was clear that it wasn’t just another CRM—it was tailor-made for lead management. In my experience, Leadsquared excelled as a CRM for Education. It was specifically designed to streamline lead management, making tracking, nurturing, and converting leads incredibly easy.

The automation features saved me a lot of time by automatically segmenting and prioritizing leads based on their behavior. What I liked most was the comprehensive reporting that provided clear insights into lead performance and conversion rates.

This tool also stood out for the education sector because of its ability to manage student inquiries efficiently, track their progress, and automate follow-ups, making the entire admission process smoother. Integrating this CRM into an education business made managing student data, communication, and conversions seamless.

What You’ll Like:

• Automated lead capture from multiple channels to ensure seamless lead tracking
• Dynamic form builder to support customized lead capture forms for various needs
• Drip marketing campaigns nurture leads automatically through predefined workflows
• Sales pipeline management offers clear visibility into deal progress

What You May Not Like:

• The email marketing feature had limited design templates, which could restrict creativity
• Customization of dashboards and reports may require additional technical knowledge or support

Pricing:

• Starts at $29.8/user/month.

8. Hubspot – Best for Centralizing Sales, Marketing, and Support Operations

Image Source: Hubspot

When I started using HubSpot CRM, it felt like a well-designed tool to simplify every aspect of customer relationship management. Its seamless integration of sales, marketing, and support tools made it incredibly efficient to track leads, automate marketing campaigns, and handle customer queries—all within a single platform.

What impressed me most was its adaptability. The CRM in admission processes became much more streamlined, helping to manage inquiries, automate follow-ups, and personalize communication with prospective students.

Features like automated email workflows, detailed analytics, and the ability to segment contacts based on their journey make it one of the best CRM tools for education businesses. It provided the right mix of functionality and ease of use, making complex processes simple and effective.

What You’ll Like:

• Tracks and logs emails automatically, saving time on manual entry
• Includes AI-powered email templates to boost response rates
• Enables customized deal stages to match specific sales processes
• Facilitates cross-functional collaboration through shared contact records

What You May Not Like:

• The reporting dashboards, while powerful, offer limited customization options without upgrading to higher-tier plans
• Exporting data can be restrictive, especially when dealing with large datasets, requiring workarounds for complete exports

Pricing:

• Starts at $20/user/month.

Read more: 10 Best HubSpot Alternatives Worth Trying in 2024

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation of products or tools chosen for this article follows an unbiased, systematic approach that ensures a fair, insightful, and well-rounded review. This method employs six key factors:

1. User Reviews / Ratings: Direct experiences from users, including ratings and feedback from reputable sites, provide a ground-level perspective. This feedback is critical in understanding overall satisfaction and potential problems.
2. Essential Features & Functionality: The value of a product is ascertained by its core features and overall functionality. Through an in-depth exploration of these aspects, the practical usefulness and effectiveness of the tools are carefully evaluated.
3. Ease of Use: The user-friendliness of a product or service is assessed, focusing on the design, interface, and navigation. This ensures a positive experience for users of all levels of expertise.
4. Customer Support: The quality of customer support is examined, taking into account its efficiency and how well it supports users in different phases – setting up, addressing concerns, and resolving operational issues.
5. Value for Money: Value for money is evaluated by comparing the quality, performance, and features. The goal is to help the reader understand whether they would be getting their money’s worth.
6. Personal Experience / Experts’ Opinions: This part of the evaluation criteria draws insightful observations from the personal experience of the writer and the opinions of industry experts.

Elevate Educational Experiences With a Powerful CRM Solution

When it comes to enhancing educational experiences, selecting the right CRM can play a crucial role in the success of your institution. A CRM tailored for the education sector can streamline administrative tasks, improve communication with students and parents, and keep all your academic records organized in one place.

One CRM that stands out for educational institutions is BIGContacts. It offers powerful features like student tracking, automated communication, and customizable reporting, making it an excellent choice for managing educational workflows. The tool integrates seamlessly with other essential software, ensuring that every aspect of your institution’s operations runs efficiently.

What makes BIGContacts even more appealing is its cost-effective plans, including a forever-free plan. This allows you to explore its features without any initial investment. If you’re looking for a reliable and efficient CRM for education, BIGContacts is definitely worth considering.

Learn More About the Best College CRM Software

What is EdTech CRM?

An EdTech CRM is a customer relationship management tool designed specifically for educational technology companies and institutions. It helps manage everything from student inquiries to enrollment, making the CRM in admission processes smoother and more efficient. It’s incredibly effective for streamlining communication and improving student engagement.

Read more: What Is CRM? [The Ultimate Guide for Businesses]

Do schools use CRMs?

Yes, schools use CRMs, and they’ve become essential for managing everything from admissions to communication with parents and students. A good school CRM helps streamline processes, making it easier to track student progress and engage with the school community. It’s a smart tool that keeps everything organized and efficient.

How a CRM for education can help your institution grow?

A Student CRM can be pretty helpful for your institution’s growth. It helps streamline admissions, track student progress, and automate communication with ease. By keeping everything organized and personalized, you can focus more on enhancing the student experience, leading to higher enrollment and retention rates. It’s a smart way to support your institution’s growth.

Read more: Benefits of CRM: Why CRM Is Important for Your Business

What are the features of an education CRM?

An education CRM offers features like student tracking, automated communication, email marketing, sales pipeline management, and customizable reporting to streamline processes. Tools like these are invaluable for managing student inquiries and follow-ups. A CRM in admission helps personalize communication, making it easier to guide students through their educational journey.

How to choose the best educational CRM?

Choosing the best education CRM starts with understanding your institution’s needs. Look for features like student tracking, automated communication, and customizable reports. It’s also essential to choose a user-friendly platform that integrates well with your existing tools. In my experience, finding a CRM that simplifies processes makes all the difference.