If you use social media or digital forums, you’ve probably met a few people online, started building relationships, taken their contact details, and promised to keep in touch.

But life gets in the way and you end up losing that contact amid a sea of other networking opportunities. Trying to remember their LinkedIn name or finding their comment in an endless message thread seems impossible.

Having a personal CRM app—or shall we say personal relationships management (PRM)—is a must if you want to follow up on those really interesting conversations. Let’s say PRM software is the 2023 version of saving business cards in your Rolodex.

This article will show you everything you need to know about personal CRMs and help you choose the best one for you.

What is a personal CRM?

A personal CRM (or PRM) is a relationship management tool that allows individuals, creators, and entrepreneurs to reach out and manage their personal contacts through a specialized web app. Unlike marketing CRMs that connect brands to potential leads, personal CRMs connect you with friends, family, colleagues, customers, or potential clients.

Top features of personal CRM software

Personal CRMs are packed with features that allow you to keep on top of your contact data management. Those features include:

• Access to your online address book with tags and statuses
• Search and filtering functionality to easily find entries within your contacts
• Status labels or tags
• Track answers and actionable tasks
• Keep a log of interactions with your professional network
• Accessible from multiple devices

Why should you use a personal CRM?

Every creator, entrepreneur, or busy individual should use a personal CRM to keep an organized contact management system. Here’s why you should start using one:

1. Keep track and follow up on your professional networking efforts
2. Get all your contacts organized in one place
3. Remind you of important friends, family, and potential clients’ milestones (birthdays, anniversaries, graduation dates)
4. Keep track of emails, reminders, and touchpoints metrics in the same place
5. Take the conversations out of social media and formalize them (or even host in-person gatherings)

What are the benefits of using a personal CRM?

Personal CRMs have multiple benefits, such as

1. Improved contacting efforts and increased networking
2. Better relationship building and maintenance
3. Increased personal productivity
4. Better personal brand perception in your niche
5. Less manual and repetitive work
6. Increased outreaching outcome

What can you do with a personal CRM?

Personal CRMs can let you do anything that you’d do with a marketing or operational CRM but with your personal contacts. That means you’ll be able to:

1. Review and update your contacts, groups, and deals
2. Keep a log of interactions with those contacts
3. Keep visibility of your personal interactions and agreements
4. Reach out to your contacts via different channels
5. Analyze the metrics of your interactions (which is especially useful if you’re a budding entrepreneur or looking for work)

5 Best personal CRM tools that could change your life

Most CRM tools can be used as personal CRMs. These are some of the best ones in the market.

1. Softr

Softr isn't a dedicated CRM software but that shouldn’t put you off. It’s a powerful no-code app builder that allows you to create tailored software solutions (like CRMs) by using simple building blocks without needing to write a single line of code. We also have a sales CRM template that can be modified for personal use.

Main features:

• It’s fully customizable to your needs
• Lets you use your Airtable data, filters, and views
• Allows you to set granular level access in case you want to share access with your family or assistant
• Users can create unlimited apps for the same price (the free version lets you create unlimited applications up to 200 Airtable records)
• It’s accessible on the web through different devices: tablets, phones, and laptops.

Main drawbacks:

• Since it’s a no-code app builder, you’ll need to dedicate some time to customize your CRM to your needs and import your information to Airtable.
• Only integrates with Airtable databases, but will soon be able to connect with Excel and Google Sheets.

Is Softr a good personal CRM?

Softr is not a dedicated CRM, but since it’s a no-code web app builder, it can be anything you want. The CRM template is highly customizable and it’s more affordable than most CRM solutions, so it’s perfect for adapting for personal CRM use on the free plan.

2. HubSpot CRM

HubSpot is one of the most famous sales CRM, it allows you to automate emails, set reminders, review metrics, and create landing pages all in the same place.

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Main features:

1. Superb email marketing practices, templates and features
2. Easy to use if you’ve used other CRMs
3. Allows you to create customizable dashboards, email templates, and landing pages
4. A free-forever version that allows you to add unlimited contacts

Main drawbacks:

1. There’s no customer support on free plans
2. The free plan has a sent email limit
3. Gets expensive as your requirements grow

Is HubSpot a good personal CRM?

Yes, HubSpot might be a good personal CRM app, but is an overly specialized tool and might be expensive for personal use.

3. Zoho CRM

Zoho is one of the most complete web-based tools for business. You can get different Zoho products like Emails, Campaigns, CRM, Projects, and Docs.

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Main features:

• You can manage your personal email, projects, documents, and contacts using Zoho
• It’s easy to use
• It allows you to connect with your contacts through different channels (phone, emails, chat, social media)
• Gives you access to advanced analytics and automation.

Main drawbacks:

• The pricing strategy is confusing, they charge for every product, feature, and extra emails
• It has a limited storage capacity

Is Zoho CRM a good personal CRM?

Zoho CRM is a great tool to use for personal relationship management, but it’s better suited for all-in-one enterprise solutions.

4. UpHabit

This CRM is less popular than those previously mentioned but was built for managing personal relationships and saving contacts information.

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Main features:

• It’s accessible through web and mobile apps (Android and Apple iOS versions available)
• Offers templates for online introductions
• You can connect and import your Google, Microsoft, and local contact book information
• Allows you to set reminders to get in touch with others
• Lets you create notes and set tags
• Allows simple data exporting

Main drawbacks:

• It can be expensive compared to other options
• It’s still new and some features are in the beta version

Is UpHabit a good personal CRM?

This app was built for doing personal networking, however, if you need to keep track of deals, leads, and other sales-related workflows, you might want to use a sales CRM for personal reasons.

5. Monica

This CRM solution is designed for people who are always busy and don’t want to jeopardize their relationship with their friends and family.

Main features:

• It offers eye-catching dashboards to have upcoming tasks and events at-a-glance
• Allows you to tag favorite contacts
• It has a note-taking feature that allows you to review easily during phone calls
• Lets you set automatic reminders and notifications
• It’s open-source which means that if you have coding experience, you can edit it to your preferences

Main drawbacks:

• You can’t import contacts in bulk
• It’s only accessible through the web
• It may not be the best option for scaling your creator’s business

Is Monica a good personal CRM?

If you’re using it for personal relationships, then Monica is a great option. But if you ever want to use the same platform for personal networking or entrepreneurship, you’ll probably need to change platforms to a more specialized one.

How to build a personal CRM to improve your professional relationships

Building a personal CRM system with Softr is quite straightforward since there’s a CRM template that you’ll just need to customize. Here’s how to do it:

1. Create Softr and Airtable accounts
2. Click on “New application” and look for the CRM template

3. Connect your Airtable database using the API key

4. Edit the text boxes, adjust blocks distribution, and change colors as you wish

5. Replace the mock data with your actual information and contacts

6. Invite family members or your assistant and restrict their access if necessary

7. Once you’re ready, publish it and start using it.

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Do your personal relationships need CRM software?

Every person you meet represents an untapped opportunity. They might be your next partner, best friend, employer, angel investor, or customer. Don’t let your busy life get in the way.

Personal CRM systems help you organize your contacts and improve your personal and professional relationships. If you’ve decided to build your own personal CRM, Softr is a great option because it’s not expensive, it’s easy to use, and will help you build a stunning web app without an inch of coding experience.

Frequently asked questions about personal CRM

What does CRM stand for?

CRM stands for customer relationship management. It’s a platform that allows you to keep all your contacts in the same place, reach out to them through email, phone, or chat, and keep track of communication analytics.

What is CRM and how does it work?

A CRM is a software solution that lets you manage your contacts or leads and work them throughout your sales funnel to close deals. Depending on the CRM platform, you’ll be able to reach out via different channels (email, phone, social media, chat).

What are the 4 types of CRM?

There are four different types of CRM platforms:
- Operational CRM: helps you streamline administrative and client-facing tasks.
- Analytical CRM: uses your internal and external business data to come up with insights and AI forecasted predictions.
- Marketing CRM: one of the most common ones. Helps brands connect with online leads through different marketing channels.
- Collaborative CRM: this is an all-in-one solution that allows users to keep and manage sales, support, and marketing log together.