Spreadsheet or CRM: how the small business chooses a customer register without drowning

A customer register is basically a list: who, what, when did we last speak, what is the next step. The problem is that almost every tool that sells the list also sells forecast engines, lead scoring and “revenue intelligence”. A business with three employees will never use that. This guide is about buying the list, not the machinery around it.

The spreadsheet lasts longer than the industry wants to admit

If you are solely responsible for customers and have fewer than about thirty active customers you probably do not need a CRM at all. A well-maintained spreadsheet with columns for last contact and next step beats a half-used system every time. It also costs nothing.

In the TechSoup forum practitioners describe the switch as a question of pain rather than number of contacts. It hurts when the data needs more than about ten columns. It hurts when several people need to share the work. It hurts when reports become impossible to produce, or when an incorrect sorting can destroy the relationships in the data. There is no exact breaking point in number of customers. The same discussion lands on the conclusion that the right time is different for everyone. The clearest signal is instead the day a second person starts sharing customer responsibility. Until then the money is better spent elsewhere.

Five candidates, flaws and all

folk is the nicest to use. The tool is French and fast. The Chrome extension folkX picks up name, title, company and public contact details from a LinkedIn profile with one click. Standard costs USD 24 (approx SEK 230) per user and month with annual billing.

Read the fine print. Deal management, email sequences and dashboards require Premium at double the price. Reporting is basic even then. Sales forecasts are missing entirely. Opens and clicks are only tracked when you send via folk’s own sender, not from your ordinary Gmail account.

The biggest objection is still where the data lives. folk itself writes that the platform runs on AWS in Northern Virginia. An EU company putting your customer data in the USA, with no EU alternative in the security documentation, is an odd combination. Can you accept that for your particular register — and many sales teams can — you get the market’s smoothest LinkedIn workflow. The trial is 14 days with full Premium access and no credit card: try folk (affiliate link, aivalet receives commission).

Pipedrive was founded in Estonia and hosts EU customers in Frankfurt and Dublin. They have ISO 27001 and SOC 2 in place. The Lite plan at EUR 14 (approx SEK 155) is cheap but hollowed out. Automations, sequences and full email sync require Growth at EUR 39 (approx SEK 430).

Two more things. The head office is now in New York. The majority owner is American Vista Equity Partners. The company is therefore EU-hosted rather than EU-owned. Pipedrive’s own knowledge base also warns that accounts can end up in other data centres due to IP mapping. Ask support to confirm where your account actually sits.

HubSpot has the most generous entry. It is free for two users and 1,000 marketing contacts, with no time limit. EU data centres in Frankfurt exist, but you must choose them when the account is created.

The free tier is however a recruitment channel into a steep price ladder. The Starter campaign price of USD 7 only applies to new customers. The regular price is USD 20. Marketing Hub Professional costs USD 800–890 per month plus USD 3,000 in mandatory onboarding. That is roughly 40 times the Starter regular price.

Use the free tier as a test bench. But decide in advance where your pain threshold is, and how you will export the data.

Lime CRM is the established Swedish choice. Operations are at AWS data centres in Sweden. They have ISO 27001 certification and immutable backups as protection against ransomware. It costs accordingly.

The Start plan is EUR 55 (approx SEK 605) per user, with tight ceilings. The marketing module starts at EUR 290 per month extra. The contract binds you for twelve months.

User criticism on Capterra points to a weak mobile experience, a desktop client that does not work for Mac, and a consultant dependency that drives up the total cost when something needs to be rebuilt. Lime suits the team that knows it will grow into the system. It does not suit those who want to experiment.

Upsales is also Swedish. It is listed on Nasdaq First North in Stockholm. The company is the clearest of all on the sovereignty issue. During 2026 an AI workspace with EU-hosted models is being launched. It is explicitly aimed at CLOUD Act exposure.

At the same time the company publishes no price list at all. The pricing page gives a 404. Everything goes via sales contact. Third-party data points to around SEK 600–800 per user and month plus a negotiated platform fee. Cancellation requires three months’ notice. The terms allow annual index increases. The processing agreement also permits sub-processors with connections outside the EU/EEA. So the door is not fully closed even here.

How to land the decision

Do the pain test first. If it still does not hurt, keep the spreadsheet. If you want to try the workflow before paying, HubSpot’s free tier is the right entry.

• folk suits the team that lives on LinkedIn and can accept the USA storage.
• Pipedrive Growth is the middle way with EU operations and predictable pricing.
• Lime or Upsales become the choice when Swedish operations and a Swedish agreement are requirements, not just wishes.

All five have their own reviews in the catalog. There, data storage and CLOUD Act status are reported per tool.