Free CRM for small business: what MaviBot includes

Most small businesses don't need a CRM that costs $50 per user per month and requires three weeks to set up. They need something that tracks where each lead is, reminds the team to follow up, and shows all customer conversations in one place.

MaviBot includes a full CRM as part of its platform — not as a paid add-on, not as a separate integration. It's built around the channels where small business conversations actually happen: WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Facebook Messenger. Every conversation, deal, and task is in the same place as the automation that drives them.

This article covers what's inside — based on how MaviBot has built its CRM to serve small businesses that run their sales and support through messaging channels.

Sales funnel: visualise your pipeline

MaviBot's funnel feature structures your entire sales process into stages, from first contact to closed deal. Each funnel represents the path a potential client takes, and you define what those steps look like for your business.

Custom stages for your sales process

You create the stages that match how you actually sell. A service business might use: New Inquiry → Consultation Booked → Proposal Sent → Closed. An online retailer might use: Interest Shown → Order Placed → Payment Received → Fulfilled. There are no rigid templates — you name the stages and set them in the order that reflects your workflow.

Each funnel has a name and a currency, so if you work across multiple markets or product lines, you can run separate funnels with different currencies.

Board view and list view

Deals appear as cards arranged in columns by stage — the classic kanban board. You can switch to list view if you prefer a table format. Both views show the same data; the choice is about how your team prefers to work.

Automatic deal stages

Every funnel includes four system stages that are always available: successful deals, archived deals, lost deals, and unsorted (for deals not yet assigned to a stage). These can be shown or hidden depending on what your team needs to see day to day.

When you move a deal to "Lost" or "Archived", MaviBot asks for a reason. That reason becomes a deal variable you can use later — for reporting, for re-engagement campaigns, or for understanding where deals typically fall off.

Deals created automatically from chatbot conversations

One of the practical advantages of MaviBot's CRM being built into the same platform as the chatbot: deals can be created automatically when a lead reaches a certain point in a conversation. A chatbot flow can call create_order() to generate a deal in the funnel with the client's name, phone, email, budget, and description — all captured during the automated conversation. No manual data entry required.

Deals: manage every opportunity

Each deal in MaviBot is a card that holds all the relevant information about an opportunity: the client, the deal title, a description, and the monetary value. You can add custom fields to capture anything specific to your business — project type, source, priority level, or any other variable your team needs.

Creating and moving deals

Deals can be created three ways:

• Manually: click "Create a deal", fill in the details
• Quickly: use "Add quickly" to capture a lead fast without filling in every field (the deal lands in your Unsorted stage and gets organised later)
• Automatically: via chatbot flows when a lead qualifies themselves through a conversation

Moving a deal between stages is a drag-and-drop action on the board. Stage transitions trigger notifications that can activate automated bot responses — for example, automatically sending a payment link when a deal moves to "Ready to pay", or sending an onboarding message when a deal reaches "Closed".

You can restrict which stages deals can be moved to, preventing premature stage changes or skipping required steps in your process.

Helpdesk: all conversations in one inbox

The helpdesk is the daily working view for anyone on your team who handles customer conversations. It consolidates messages from every connected channel — WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and website chat — into a single unified interface.

What's in the client card

When you open any conversation, the right sidebar shows the complete client profile:

• Contact details: name, messenger handles, phone, email
• Conversation history: the full thread across all channels, including system notifications
• Internal comments: notes visible only to your team, not to the client
• Linked deals: the deals associated with this client, with current stage visible
• Tasks: any follow-up tasks attached to this client
• Custom variables: any data captured through chatbot flows or added manually

The distinction between client owner and deal owner matters in team environments: one person can be responsible for the relationship (client owner) while another handles a specific transaction (deal owner). Both are tracked in the same card.

Communication tools in the helpdesk

From within the helpdesk, team members can send messages with attachments, use quick reply templates for common responses, schedule messages to send at a specific time, and use AI-powered text generation to draft replies faster. Everything happens in the same interface — no switching between apps.

Tasks: track follow-ups and team work

The tasks feature in MaviBot's CRM handles the operational side of client management — the reminders, follow-ups, and internal work that keeps deals moving.

Creating and managing tasks

Each task has a name, description, deadline, priority level, and an assigned team member. Tasks can be linked directly to a client or a deal, so when you open a client's card you immediately see any open tasks related to them.

Calendar and Kanban views

Tasks display in two formats depending on how your team prefers to plan:

• Calendar view: the default, showing the week ahead with tasks laid out by deadline. Useful for individual daily planning.
• List/Kanban view: tasks organised into columns by status (Planning, In Progress, Completed, or any custom grouping). Each row shows deadline, assigned team member, status, and priority.

Files can be attached to tasks — useful for attaching a brief, a document, or a reference before a client call.

Permission controls

Administrators can control which team members are allowed to edit overdue tasks, preventing accidental changes to historical records.

Automation: distribute incoming leads to your team

When multiple team members handle incoming messages, MaviBot's CRM automation manages how new customers get assigned. The system distributes incoming leads equally among operators who are currently online and active.

How the distribution works

If five operators are on shift and 55 new customers arrive, each operator gets 11. The distribution is equal and automatic — no manual assignment queue, no one person getting overwhelmed while others are idle.

The system respects working hours. You can configure whether the automation runs 24/7 or only during specific periods. Operators on break are excluded from new assignments. Customers who arrive outside business hours are queued and distributed to the first operators who start their shift.

Manual override

Operators can self-assign free customers from the queue at any time. The automation handles the default flow; manual assignment handles exceptions.

Customers who are already being handled by a chatbot can be excluded from the auto-distribution, so operators don't receive assignments for conversations that are still running automatically.

How the CRM connects to everything else

The value of MaviBot's CRM being built into the same platform as the chatbot and messaging tools is that everything talks to each other without integration work.

A lead messages on Instagram → the chatbot qualifies them → a deal is automatically created in the funnel → the deal moves to the right stage → a task is created for follow-up → the assigned operator sees the conversation and the task in the helpdesk → when the deal closes, a confirmation message fires automatically.

That entire flow runs inside one platform. No Zapier connecting five tools. For the complete WhatsApp automation guide, see how to automate WhatsApp for small businesses. No data sitting in a CRM that's out of sync with your actual conversations. In MaviBot's experience, this integration is where small businesses gain the most time back — the manual work of copying lead data from a chat into a CRM, and then back again when following up, is often the biggest hidden cost in a small sales team's day.

Who MaviBot's CRM works best for

Small sales teams handling inbound leads from WhatsApp or Instagram who need a visual pipeline without the overhead of a full CRM platform. Pair with a WhatsApp AI sales agent to qualify and respond automatically.

Service businesses that need to track client relationships, book follow-ups, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks between first contact and completed service.

Solopreneurs and small operators who want a lightweight way to see where every lead stands without managing a separate CRM tool.

Teams that use chatbots for lead capture. The chatbot and CRM share the same data, so leads flow from conversation to deal automatically without manual input. In MaviBot's experience, this is the use case where the value becomes obvious fastest: the first time a deal appears in the pipeline with all fields filled in because the chatbot collected them, the team stops questioning whether they need a separate CRM. For the AI sales configuration that drives those deals, see how to make AI close deals.

Frequently asked questions

Is MaviBot's CRM actually free?

MaviBot has a free plan that includes CRM functionality — funnel, deals, helpdesk, and tasks. Paid plans unlock higher message volumes, more team members, and additional channels. The CRM features described in this article are available from the free plan.

Can MaviBot replace a dedicated CRM like HubSpot or Pipedrive?

For small businesses whose primary sales channel is messaging (WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram), yes — MaviBot's CRM covers the core workflow. In MaviBot's experience, the businesses that benefit most are those where conversations and deals happen in the same place: the CRM isn't a separate system to update, it's an automatic byproduct of the conversation. For businesses that need deep reporting, complex multi-stage enterprise pipelines, or tight integration with email marketing platforms, a dedicated CRM may be a better fit alongside MaviBot.

Can deals be created automatically without manual entry?

Yes. Chatbot flows can create deals automatically using the create_order() function, capturing client name, phone, email, budget, and description from the conversation — no manual entry needed.

How many team members can use the CRM?

The number of operators depends on your plan. Check current limits at mavibot.ai. All team members share the same helpdesk inbox, funnel, and task system.

Does the CRM work across all connected channels?

Yes. All conversations from WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and website chat appear in the same helpdesk. Client cards aggregate history across all channels, so you see the full relationship regardless of where each conversation started.

A CRM that's already in the platform you use

Most free CRM tools are separate products you connect to your messaging channels and hope the sync works. MaviBot's CRM is built into the same platform as your chatbot, your messaging channels, and your payment processing — so deals, conversations, tasks, and automations all work together from day one.

Start with MaviBot for free. No credit card required.