Top 11 Free Database Software
- 19 Min read
“I love spending all my waking hours sending emails to my clients”, said no one ever. We’re sure you can relate. How many times have your clients “lost” emails with important files (a.k.a. pending invoices)? Far too many, right? Well, that ends today! If clients want to play dumb with us, we will become client management wizards, or shall we say… Dumb-ledores? (wink, wink) And the best way to do that is to use client portals.
Client portals, though not the mystical kind of portal (shame!), allow you to manage the flow of information and communication between you and your clients. And since there are so many options out there to get lost in, in this article, we’ll explore the best client portal software you should be considering, so you can find the perfect match for your business needs and keep They-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named happy.
A client portal is an online environment designed to provide a secure and convenient way for clients and customers to access information, manage and share files, and communicate with you and your business. To continue with the Harry Potter analogy, a client portal is like Gringotts Bank for business communication; it serves as a secure vault to store and manage information and interactions between clients and service providers (a.k.a. you).
In today’s digital age, a client portal has become an essential tool for businesses to improve customer engagement, increase customer satisfaction, and streamline operations without the need for direct human interaction (Phew, thank God for that!).
Client portals are usually accessible through websites or mobile apps, and they provide collaboration tools in a secure and personalized experience for each customer.
There are several reasons why you might need to implement one of the best client portal software for your business. So let’s take a quick look at some situations in which your business can benefit from having a dedicated, private space for each of your customers:
If you find yourself thinking about and wishing for some of the observations above and many more, you definitely need to start using a client portal software.
There are several benefits to having a client portal, which we can summarize into:
Let’s just say that with a great customer portal, your clients will be in awe of your client wizarding skills! Remember, you’re a wizard, Harry!
A customer portal should include several key features to ensure an optimal customer experience, including:
Basically, a client portal is like the Room of Requirements. If you’re a Harry Potter buff like us, you know what we mean. (wink, wink!)
As you must know by now (if you’ve been paying attention to this awesome article!), having a robust and user-friendly customer portal can streamline communication, enhance customer engagement, and improve the overall customer experience. But with so many options available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. So to help make your decision easier, we’ve compiled a list of the best client portal software to use based on key features, user experience, and customer reviews, where we’ve included some big, industry-standard players and some new rising stars in the field. Whether you’re looking to increase efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, or gain valuable insights into customer behavior, these client portal software options are sure to meet your needs.
Solution | Starting price | Trial | Core features | Best for |
FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) | Starts at $38/month | Free trial is available | Affordable, built-in chats, project management features, easy data collection, fully branded portals, integrated with FuseBase products. | Businesses seeking an affordable client portal solution with comprehensive features. |
Zendesk | Starts at $55/month | Free trial is available | All-round customer support solution, live chat, native integrations with major CRMs, knowledge base creation. | Organizations in need of a versatile customer support platform with client portal features. |
Client Portal (WordPress) | Starts at $199/year | Not specified | Flexibility, WordPress-based, clean UI, easy setup. | Businesses looking for an easy-to-use WordPress plugin to create dedicated client portals. |
SuiteDash | Starts at $19/month | Free trial is available | All-in-one customer and project management solution, client portal template library, comprehensive documentation. | Companies requiring an integrated solution for customer relations, project management, and more. |
Clinked | Starts at $119/month | Not specified | Easy to use, private cloud for secure file management, task management features. | Teams and businesses looking for secure collaboration with features like file storage and task management. |
SuperOkay | Starts at $12/month | Free trial is available | Neat UI, easy setup, integrations with major apps like Airtable, Miro, or Figma. | Digital agencies, software studios, and freelancers aiming to better manage client interactions. |
Freshdesk | Starts at $15/month | Free trial is available | All-round customer support solution, built-in analytics, native integrations, built-in automations. | Businesses requiring a comprehensive customer support platform with automation and analytics features. |
Planhat | Custom price | Not specified | Insights and workflow management, customer-centric approach, user-friendly interface. | Companies focusing on customer success and aiming to align business strategies with customer-centric approaches. |
Zoho CRM | Starts at $20/month | Free trial is available | Integrates well with other Zoho products, e-commerce features, customizable portals. | Businesses looking for a CRM software that also serves as a client portal, especially focused on sales and customer management. |
SupportBee | Starts at $15/month | Free trial is available | Affordable support solution, accessible support tickets history, branded portals. | Small businesses seeking an affordable customer service solution with a focus on support ticket management. |
MyDocSafe | Starts at $24/month | Free trial is available | Customizable portals, secure cloud for file storage, efficient document management. | Companies requiring a secure and customizable client portal for document management and e-signatures. |
Moxo | Custom price | Not specified | Accelerated workflows, collaborative project workspaces, diverse industry applicability. | Businesses engaged in external projects involving customers, vendors, and partners, looking for streamlined collaboration. |
Knack | Starts at 49$/month | Free trial is available | A no-code database for project management, a user-friendly interface to create custom portals, an automated workflow, easy to build custom apps. | Businesses that need to keep a lot of data. |
Let’s now look at each solution in more detail.
FuseBase Portals (formerly Nimbus) transforms client portals, prioritizing simplicity, efficiency, and security. With a code-free interface, it seamlessly integrates essential tools, enhances collaboration, and ensures data protection. The platform’s White Label solutions offer a professional look, and by leveraging Search Analytics, it anticipates client needs, shapes strategies, and fosters trust. From communication to task management, FuseBase Portals is a concise, innovative solution for businesses.
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Experience successful business outcomes with FuseBase!
Zendesk is a customer service and support platform that provides a full-blown helpdesk solution with tools that can be tailored to meet the unique needs of any organization. Among other things, Zendesk allows you to build customizable customer portals, robust knowledge bases, online community forums, etc. This client portal software also includes live chat functionality, making it easy for customers to get in touch with support teams. Additionally, Zendesk integrates with a wide range of popular business applications, such as Salesforce and Google Analytics, which enables organizations to streamline their customer service operations.
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Client-portal.io is an intuitive, easy-to-use WordPress plugin designed to help you create a dedicated client portal within your own website. It offers a range of features to create a secure dashboard where your clients can access whatever you choose: purchase details and downloads, customer data, customer requests, self-service resources, brand assets, payment details and invoices, etc. As it is WordPress based, it is a really flexible and customizable solution to create customer portals.
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SuiteDash is an all-in-one solution for businesses that need to manage their customer relations, client communications, project management, and invoicing. This client portal lets you customize the look and feel of their customer interactions, so it matches yours or your customer’s brand, restrict customer access, as well as delegate responsibilities and monitor progress through clear reporting and tracking systems.
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Clinked is a cloud-based all-in-one collaboration platform that helps teams, project groups, and business clients work more efficiently. This client portal software offers secure file storage, sharing, and management, customizable branding features, mobile access, powerful search, integrated messaging, and task management tools. Its users claim that it’s easy to use and perfect for businesses of all sizes, allowing internal teams to collaborate effectively and solve customer queries efficiently with its secure environment and self-service options.
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SuperOkay is a relatively new platform designed to help digital agencies, software studios, and freelancers better manage their clients. It offers a customizable client portal interface where internal users can share project links, assets, connected apps, and more. The platform also helps users to increase their efficiency by providing an easy-to-use and unified client portal experience.
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Freshdesk is one of the most prominent customer support platforms and client portal software on the market, and is part of a larger platform called Freshworks. Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support software that provides businesses with the ability to manage their customer service, including the creation of client and customer support portals. With multiple support channels available, Freshdesk provides a comprehensive suite of features designed to help businesses quickly and efficiently handle customer inquiries.
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Planhat is a comprehensive customer platform designed to provide valuable insights, streamline workflow, and elevate the overall customer experience. Catering to a diverse range of users from Customer Success Managers to the C-Suite, the platform serves as a central hub for modern technology companies globally. Its primary focus is on aligning business strategies with customer-centric approaches to optimize both customer success and lifetime value.
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Zoho CRM is an online Sales CRM software that helps businesses of all sizes build excellent customer relationships and manage their sales, marketing and support in one single repository. This CRM software also acts as a client portal software, allowing you to create client portals, especially focused on client and sales management. Due to its range of features, Zoho CRM can be a great tool for businesses looking to maximize their customer relationships and increase sales. However, it might not be the best option for you if you’re simply looking for a client portal solution.
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SupportBee is an innovative web-based email support tool designed to help small businesses streamline their customer service efforts. It offers an easy-to-use ticketing system that enables support agents to prioritize, collaborate and organize customer support emails. This customer portal software also allows you to create client portals focused on support tickets and communication, delivering friendly customer service with greater efficiency. The only major issue with Supportbee’s client portals is that they are entirely focused on support tickets and nothing else, so if you need customer portals for other purposes, this might not be for you.
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MyDocSafe is a secure and comprehensive digital document security and e-signature platform designed for businesses of all sizes. This client portal software enables companies to design and deploy their own client onboarding processes, virtual data rooms, automated forms, client portals, file requests, etc. This client portal solution helps businesses to quickly onboard customers with a personalized experience, focusing on security measures, e-signature and approval processes.
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Moxo is a versatile platform designed to streamline external projects involving customers, vendors, and partners. It offers an accelerated workflow, spanning from account acquisition and onboarding to ongoing servicing. With Moxo, users can efficiently coordinate with external stakeholders to achieve joint deliverables, track milestones, exchange documents, and obtain approvals seamlessly.
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Knack is a platform for building portals, databases, and customized apps. With simple tools, users can create a cloud-based client portal. So don’t worry if you have minimal tech experience. Knack allows you to build customer portals without writing any code! In addition, clients can pay using self-service payment portals. With Knack client portals, you can centralize data and file sharing, enhance collaboration, and facilitate effective communication between your team and clients.
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When choosing a customer portal software, there are several factors to consider, especially the following:
We are sure that one of the client portal software provided in this article will fit your business needs, but if you ask us, you’ll be happiest with FuseBase (formerly Nimbus).
If you’re looking for a comprehensive project management tool on your own domain that allows you to manage content, create knowledge bases, store and share files securely, manage tasks, communicate in real-time with clients, collaborate with clients and staff, and many other things, well, stop looking, because you’ve already found us!
With FuseBase (formerly Nimbus), you can create the best client portals, completely branded by customizing all the look and feel, embedding widgets, choosing what your clients can do and see on it, etc.
Revolutionize your customer portals with FuseBase!
Create an account today and set up your online portal in minutes!
Disclaimer
Parties other than FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) may provide products, services, recommendations, or views on FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) site (“Third Party Materials”). FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) is not responsible for examining or evaluating such Third Party Materials, and does not provide any warranties relating to the Third Party Materials. Links to such Third Party Materials are for your convenience and do not constitute an endorsement of such Third Party Materials.
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