What are your alternatives as a Highrise CRM customer?

37signals recently announced that they will change their name to Basecamp and focus the entire company on that one product.

That means that customers of Highrise will have to wonder what's going to happen next and if they should consider changing their core CRM platform to a company that's fully focused on them.

37signals is an amazing company with tremendous impact in the world. They have inspired and influenced many SaaS businesses, including us.

If you're a Highrise customer you might ask yourself, "What are some good alternatives to Highrise and how should I evaluate what to do next?"

Despite my bias, I hope to share some insights/thoughts that might be helpful for you in this post.

Some questions you might be asking yourself:

1. We have all our customer data in Highrise? Holy crap! We need to get off that platform ASAP!!!

Calm down. There is no reason to panic. Highrise will be supported by Basecamp (formerly known as 37signals) and they will make sure to keep their promises like they have always done in the past.

2. They are going to sell Highrise to Salesforce and then we're going to be locked in to a service and product we don't like and that's super expensive!

Nope. Not likely! Even if they sell Highrise, they would not sell it to anybody that would want to kill the product and just take over the users. They don't need the money. Basecamp is a super profitable business that has always had their priorities straight and their long-term reputation in mind.

If they decide to sell, they will try make sure to sell to someone who would want to support the product and make it better. There is a lot of risk involved in any transaction like that so it's unclear if there is anyone out there who could accomplish that task. I honestly doubt it, since in most cases, acquired products die and don't flourish. Let's see if this is going to be different.

3. If Highrise CRM is sticking around, should I be looking for alternatives right now?

Although the Basecamp team would like to say no, the answer is probably yes.

In software, you either grow and improve or you stall and decline. There is no "maintaining" by giving minimal viable support to existing products and customers. Whenever a company tries to do that, it leads to a product and service that is falling behind while the organization keeps milking the existing cash cow for as long as possible.

So what should you do? I suggest looking for alternatives to Highrise right now.

Here are 3 key alternatives to Highrise CRM as far as I'm concerned

Spreadsheet or whiteboard: If you're a single user managing less than 50 leads, re-evaluate if you really need a CRM. How about a whiteboard or simple spreadsheet?

Pipedrive: If you're a small team (less than 5) and you manage a small pipeline (less than 100 leads per year) and have no need for email and calling integration, you should check them out. Super simple pipeline view and affordable pricing.

Close: If you're 5+ team, manage tons of leads and want email integration as well as the option of doing calls right from the app, we've built something you'll love. We're probably the right fit for startups and high growth business that are currently using Highrise CRM.

Over the past few months, we had a constant stream of Highrise customers migrate over to Close, usually startups that were scaling and looking for a CRM solution that was as simple and beautiful as Highrise but more powerful and scalable.

If you check out our product and decided it's a good fit, we'll help you migrate your data from Highrise and make the transition smooth and fast.

We're fully focused on a single mission: to build the most powerful sales software in the world that will empower you to close more deals and make more sales.

Check out more here: https://close.com/highrise