Most CRM recommendations are based on what worked for someone else's business. This one is based on yours.
12 questions · Under 5 minutes · No signup required
400+ SME founders and operators
have used StaqPilot to make this decision
Platforms we evaluate
We ask about how your revenue flows, who you sell to, and which tools you depend on — not which features sound appealing. Most selection processes skip these questions. They're the ones that determine whether a platform can represent your commercial reality in 18 months' time.
Every platform scored across 11 dimensions that determine success 18 months from now — including the ones that are hardest to fix if you get them wrong. Not a popularity ranking. Not a feature checklist. A diagnosis with rationale.
The report tells you what fits, why it fits, and what to watch out for. If your results suggest a conversation would be useful, a free 15-minute validation call is available for qualified results.
Every score explained. You'll know why a platform ranked where it did, not just that it did.
No platform is perfect. The report names what each recommendation costs you, not just what it gives you.
15 minutes with someone who has done this 40+ times. Free for qualified results. No obligation.
"Vendor demos are best-case scenario as a service — they're selling Year 3 in Year 1. StaqPilot evaluates running reality, not promised capability."
G2 is built for vendors. StaqPilot is built for buyers. We score against your business shape, not platform popularity.
Features can be added. Architecture usually can't. We weight the things that are hardest to recover from if you get them wrong.
We ask how your revenue actually flows — one-off, recurring, staged, partner-linked. A platform that can't represent your commercial model will fail you structurally, not just functionally.
We name your team size, technical confidence, and budget before we rank a single platform. Constraints set the frame within which comparison is meaningful.
Entire platform categories are excluded before scoring begins. Enterprise-first, zombie, closed, and DIY platforms are filtered at stage one — not compared and then quietly deprioritised.
The score tells you what fits. The report tells you what to do about it — including when the right platform needs implementation support to succeed.
There are five ways SMEs evaluate CRM platforms. Most produce a confident answer to the wrong question.
| G2 / Capterra | Gartner / Forrester | Vendor Demo | Spreadsheet | Consultancy | StaqPilot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor-funded | — | — | — | |||
| Specific to your business | — | — | — | — | ||
| Revenue model-aware | — | — | — | — | ||
| Architecture over features | — | — | — | — | ||
| Curated shortlist | — | — | — | — | ||
| Scored with rationale | — | — | — | |||
| Free | — | — | ||||
| Done in minutes | — | — | — | — | — |
The consultancy column shares StaqPilot's methodology rigour — without the self-serve speed or the price tag.
The martech landscape has over 15,000 tools. We exclude entire categories before scoring begins — platforms that create more risk than value for SMEs, regardless of how well-known or well-reviewed they are.
Narrowing the field isn't a limitation. It's the methodology.
Read the methodology →
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G2 and Capterra rank platforms by popularity and user reviews — they tell you what other people experienced, not whether a platform fits your specific business. StaqPilot scores against the structural shape of your business: how your revenue works, what your team looks like, what tools you use, and what you actually need the platform to do. Reviews tell you what a platform felt like to use. We tell you whether its data model can represent your commercial reality.
Because this is where the most expensive CRM mistakes happen. A platform that can't represent your commercial model — staged payments, partner commissions, multi-stream revenue — will fail you structurally, not just functionally. No amount of good email automation compensates for a data model that can't express how your business actually makes money. We ask because most evaluations don't.
We currently score platforms that represent the realistic field for SMEs. We deliberately exclude entire categories that create more risk than value for small and mid-sized businesses — enterprise-first platforms, zombie and sunset-risk platforms, closed systems, and DIY tools. More platforms are being added. See the Evaluated Platforms page for the full picture, including who didn't make it and why.
Yes. The diagnostic, the scored results, and the full report are free. StaqPilot is built by Fly, a martech consultancy. If your results suggest a conversation would be useful, we offer a free 15-minute validation call. There's no obligation and no upsell during the diagnostic.
Under 5 minutes. 12 core questions, with a small number of follow-up questions that only appear if they're relevant to your situation — a first-time selector with a simple setup sees fewer inputs than a business migrating from an existing platform. Most users complete it in 3–4 minutes.
StaqPilot is built by Fly, a martech strategy consultancy. The scoring model encodes the same methodology Fly uses in bespoke client engagements — evaluating platforms against how the business actually works, not against feature checklists or market rankings.
Scored across 11 dimensions. Revenue model-aware. No signup. No sales pitch.
Consultant-grade rigour. Self-serve speed.