Not everyone needs full-on CRM software — in fact, you’ve got a free CRM tool sitting in your browser already.

Google Sheets isn’t necessarily the first tool you’d think of when you think of a place to manage your customers and opportunities.

But until you absolutely need something more complex, using Google Sheets as your CRM is a practical, smart, cost-effective, and efficient option.

In fact, we know there are lots of GMass users who manage their customers out of Google Sheets — so many, in fact, that we even built a special, free Google Sheets CRM template made to work with GMass.

In this article, I’ll cover the main reasons why you should use Google Sheets as your customer relationships management tool — as well as the hesitations you might have about doing so.

And then I’ll share some of the best free Google Sheets CRM templates out there, including GMass’s, to get you started.

Google Sheets CRM: Table of Contents

• The 8 Reasons Why You Should Use a Google Sheets CRM
• The 5 Reasons Why People Are Still Hesitant to Use Google Sheets As a CRM
• 5 Free Google Sheets CRM Templates You Can Use
• Why a Google Sheets CRM and GMass Is a Great Combo for Sales Teams and Pros

The 8 Reasons Why You Should Use a Google Sheets CRM

If you’re running a gigantic sales team for a major corporation, you’re almost certainly too big for a spreadsheet-based CRM tool.

But if you’re a newer business, a small business, a small team, and/or someone who doesn’t need all the bells and whistles of expensive CRMs — Google Sheets is a fantastic option.

Here’s why.

#1. It’s free (or basically free)

Sure, you’re likely paying for a Google Workspace account, so Google Sheets isn’t 100% totally free.

But it’s about as low cost as any CRM tool can get.

In contrast, paid CRM tools often range anywhere from $20 to $200 and up per seat per month, making them a major expense.

#2. No learning curve

Odds are you’re already pretty comfortable in Google Sheets.

You’re probably not comfortable with tools like Salesforce and Hubspot. Training on those tools is an entire industry in and of itself.

So when you’re running your CRM out of Google Sheets, you can hop in without any delay — meaning you can focus on the more important job of actually selling.

#3. Unlimited customizations

You are in full control of every column header, every field, every tab, and every piece of data in a Google Sheet. You’re also in control of your reporting — create every chart and graph you want.

Other CRM software is usually more prescriptive — requiring you to adapt to its naming, organizational, and other conventions. And more customization might even require upgrading to an even more expensive tier.

#4. Fast setup

Later in this article I’ll share some free Google Sheets CRM templates. One thing they have in common is that they’re fast and simple. You start entering or importing customers and you’ll be rolling in minutes.

The setup process on a traditional CRM is significantly longer. Besides having to learn the software, it’s also less intuitive to import customers, build out automations, and figure out how to do the various things you want to do.

#5. Easy collaboration without extra costs

Google Sheets is built for collaboration (and also contains your history, in case you want to see the changes that other people made).

Plus, the “per user” seat is as cheap as getting another Google Workspace account — something everyone on your team likely has already.

#6. No restrictions on integrations

It can be tough integrating your other tools with a CRM. You may need to pay for a higher tier — and then figure out how to get the tools to work together.

With Google Sheets, you can use Google Apps Scripts or an automation tool like Zapier to integrate any other app you want however you want.

#7. Better data ownership and control

In a Google Sheets CRM, your data is yours — it’s all in front of you, and all ready to export, share, or copy.

With traditional CRMs it can be a lot harder to get at your data — especially if it’s locked into a proprietary format.

#8. No feature bloat

It’s almost guaranteed your fancy CRM will be bloated with some features you don’t want or need. You’re paying for those features anyway — but you don’t use them, and they’re in the way.

When you’re using a Google Sheets CRM, you can strip it down to contain exactly what you need.

The 5 Reasons Why People Are Still Hesitant to Use Google Sheets As a CRM

Even with all the advantages I’ve just shared about running a CRM from Google Sheets, you may still be skeptical.

I get it. Most of the people I spoke with as I was preparing to do this article had some skepticism.

Here are the five biggest reasons why people are hesitant to use a Google Sheets CRM — and my rebuttals to those reasons.

#1. It doesn’t have built-in automations

Traditional CRMs automate things behind the scenes like follow-up timing, lead scoring, and team assignments (among many others).

Google Sheets does not have any of those natively built in.

But… you can have Google Sheets do any of those things, using Google Apps Script. I can also tell you from experience, ChatGPT and co. are all well-versed in writing Google Apps Scripts. So if you need your Google Sheets CRM to do something automatically, you can build a solution — even if you’re not a coder.

#2. It doesn’t have native email/call/communication tracking

One aspect of traditional CRMs that you won’t find in Google Sheets is native communication tracking.

But… this, again, is something you can accomplish with Google Apps Scripts. Also, look for email tools like GMass that can write email data back to a Google Sheet.

#3. No built-in sales pipeline Kanban functionality

It’s nice to be able to drag and drop leads from one step on the sales funnel to the next to the next.

Google Sheets doesn’t have that drag and drop functionality and there’s no workaround to add it.

But… while that’s a nice feature, is it worth breaking the bank if you’d be stretching to fit a CRM tool into your budget? Or are dropdown menus and Google Sheets filters a fine enough step down to keep you satisfied as you grow?

#4. Limited security and access controls

Traditional CRMs have different role-based permission levels, so not everyone on the team is necessarily seeing everything nor being able to edit everything.

With Google Sheets, everyone on your team will have the same level of access — and there’s no way to restrict what anyone can see or what they can alter.

And, of course, something about having a CRM in a spreadsheet is less locked down than a CRM — especially one with two-factor authentication and all other sorts of security measures.

But… while permission levels make sense for larger teams and companies, it’s usually unnecessary on smaller teams.

#5. Other missing built-in features, like dashboards or customer profiles

The upside and the downside of using Google Sheets as a CRM is: There are a lot of things you’ll build yourself.

The upside there is that it removes feature bloat and makes sure everything, from fields to dashboards, are exactly to your specs.

The downside is that, again, you build them yourself. So if you don’t want to put in any time on customization, you won’t be able to have all the fancy features of an enterprise-level CRM.

But… you can still manage your customers and deals — beyond that, though, the responsibility falls to you.

5 Free Google Sheets CRM Templates You Can Use

You don’t have to build a Google Sheets CRM from scratch.

There are lots of free templates out there, and you can find one that’s best for you (either as a jumping off point, or to use without modifications).

#1. Free Google Sheets CRM Template from GMass

I built this Google Sheets CRM template for GMass after studying all the other Google Sheets CRMs on the market — as well as traditional software CRMs. My goal was to make something that was simple to use, easily expandable, and had special handy GMass integration features built in.

With the GMass Google Sheets CRM template, you manage all your customers and opportunities in a single sheet.

The best part? You can then create new worksheets for new GMass campaigns in a single click and easily copy over customers into those sheets.

#2. Zapier’s template

Zapier’s CRM template is pretty basic — the deal status isn’t even a dropdown — but that also makes it a nice simple canvas off which you can build.

They also have a well-designed dashboard as the primary tab of the template.

#3. Salesflare’s template

Salesflare put some clear thought into their Google Sheets CRM template. They have customers and opportunities all in one worksheet, then a nice insights tab as well.

This CRM isn’t doing anything particularly fancy — but it would absolutely be usable as-is for a small sales team.

#4. Hubspot’s free template

I’m pretty sure Hubspot designed this Google Sheets CRM template to make you NOT want to use Google Sheets as a CRM and to pay them instead.

This template is the most complex of the free options available. (For better or worse). There are separate worksheets for organizations, contacts, opportunities, and interactions.

Those sheets don’t really work together, though — again, Hubspot would rather you not use this and probably want you to realize quickly you’d rather use their software.

#5. OnePage’s template

I like OnePage’s CRM template a lot. Like GMass, they use a Google Sheets table for easier sorting and filtering. They also have a minimalist but handy dashboard built in.

This is another of the templates that feels like you could begin using it off the shelf, without needing to make many modifications.

Why a Google Sheets CRM and GMass Is a Great Combo for Sales Teams and Pros

If you aren’t familiar with GMass, it transforms your Gmail or Google Workspace account into an email platform.

Sales teams, outreach pros, and almost 400,000 others use GMass every day to send campaigns faster and easier than anywhere else.

And GMass is a perfect fit for a Google Sheets CRM.

The most popular way to bring contacts into a GMass campaign is using Google Sheets. It’s simple to use mail merge features, and GMass can even create recurring campaigns that send every time you add someone to your Google Sheet.

If you’re curious, you can give GMass a try for free — with no credit card required. Just install the Chrome extension to get started.

Test it out and see how it works with your Google Sheets CRM — and why we have an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars across more than 10,000+ reviews.