CRMs for Higher Education and Schools
CRMs for universities, colleges, and K-12 institutions — admissions funnels, student lifecycle management, alumni relations, and the cross-department coordination most education-specific platforms struggle to do well at the institution scale.
A higher-ed CRM has to handle three things general CRMs treat as edge cases: an admissions funnel that runs from inquiry → application → enrollment over 12–18 months with hundreds of touchpoints; a student lifecycle that doesn't end at enrollment (advising, retention, graduation, alumni, donor); and the cross-department coordination challenge that sees the average university running 35+ disconnected systems for recruiting, engagement, and advancement. The vendors below are the general-purpose CRMs commonly deployed at colleges and universities — Salesforce Education Cloud and Microsoft Dynamics 365 lead the enterprise end, with mid-market platforms like HubSpot and Zoho CRM filling the gap for community colleges, professional schools, and continuing-ed programs. Most institutions still pair the CRM with a dedicated student information system (Banner, Workday Student, PeopleSoft Campus Solutions) and an admissions-specific tool (Slate by Technolutions is dominant at the four-year level) — the CRM owns the prospect-and-engagement layer; the SIS owns the system of record for enrolled students.
Bigin by Zoho CRM
CRMBigin is Zoho's pipeline CRM for small businesses of 1 to 20 people. It combines contacts, deals, email, calls and WhatsApp, with a free plan for one user and paid plans from $7 per user per month.
Glassix
Customer MessagingContact center platform where AI agents resolve customer conversations across messaging, WhatsApp and voice. Built for small and mid-sized service teams.
HappyFox
Help DeskHelp desk, IT service desk and CRM products from one vendor, with AI agents for ticket resolution. Built for support and IT teams, including education, ecommerce, healthcare and real estate.
Re:amaze
Help DeskHelp desk for e-commerce and online businesses that combines email, live chat, social, SMS, voice and video in one inbox, with an AI agent and Shopify integration.
Request Tracker (RT)
Help DeskOpen-source ticketing and request tracking software from Best Practical, available as Cloud RT, on-premise or self-hosted. Includes optional AI features.
Salesforce Service Cloud
Help DeskSalesforce's customer service product, with case management, omnichannel support, knowledge management and Agentforce AI agents. Sold in five editions from $25 to $550 per user.
Salesmate
CRMCRM with pipeline management, marketing automation, ticketing and AI agents in one platform. Serves 8,500+ businesses and lists 700+ integrations.
SherpaDesk
Help DeskHelp desk and PSA software for small IT teams and MSPs, with ticketing, time tracking, invoicing, projects and asset management. The first agent is free.
Sobot Omnichannel Suite
Customer MessagingCustomer contact platform with AI agents, a human agent workspace and voice, covering 20+ channels such as WhatsApp, web chat and marketplaces. Quote-based pricing.
vCita
CRMClient management software with online scheduling, invoicing, payments, email/SMS marketing and AI receptionists, for solo and small service businesses.