CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management - in plain terms, a searchable home for customer data: names, phone numbers, purchase history, conversations and appointments in one place instead of scattered across hundreds of LINE chats, a notebook and your memory. That definition is the same everywhere. The answer to "which one should a Thai business use" is not, because Thai customers message shops on LINE rather than email. Prices below were checked against official pages in September 2026.
CRM vs ERP vs Excel
The most common follow-up to "what is CRM" is how it differs from ERP. Shortest answer: CRM looks outward at customers, ERP looks inward at operations. Mid-sized businesses usually run both and connect them.
| System | What it manages | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| CRM | Customer relationships | Track leads, follow-up reminders, purchase history |
| ERP | Internal resources | Inventory, accounting, procurement, manufacturing |
| CEM / CX | The whole customer journey | Satisfaction scores, NPS, post-sale reviews |
| Excel / Google Sheets | A blank grid | Stores names, but no reminders and no pipeline |
A workable threshold: once you have more than 20-30 customers needing follow-up at the same time, memory starts failing and scrolling LINE costs more time than typing the data in.
CRM Pricing You Can Actually Buy in Thailand
List prices verified from official pages in September 2026, shown in each vendor's own published currency rather than converted, since exchange rates move and most of these bill in USD anyway.
| System | Entry price | What the free tier gives | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| LINE OA (MyCustomer CRM) | ฿1,780/mo (Pro) | Free: 300 broadcasts/month | Thai businesses whose customers live on LINE |
| HubSpot CRM | $20/seat/mo (Starter, annual) | Free: 2 users, 1,000 contacts | SMEs selling mainly over email |
| Zoho CRM | Varies by signup country | Free: 3 users | Budget-conscious SMEs |
| Salesforce | $25/user/mo (Starter Suite) | No permanent free tier | Organisations needing deep customisation |
| Google Sheets + n8n | Free (hosting only) | Entirely free | Under ~500 customers |
Do not budget from Salesforce's $25 figure - that is Starter Suite only. Actual Sales Cloud starts at $195/user/month (Core) and runs to $550 (Max).
How Usable Are the Free CRM Tiers?
"Free CRM" is heavily searched and heavily out of date online. What is actually true as of September 2026:
- •HubSpot Free - 2 users and 1,000 contacts. Many articles still claim "1 million contacts, unlimited users", which no longer matches the current pricing page. Deal pipeline and email templates are included, so it is genuinely usable for a team of two.
- •Zoho CRM Free - 3 users with contact management and basic workflows.
- •LINE OA Free - 300 broadcast messages per month, down from 500 since August 2024. You can tag customers, but it is not a full CRM.
- •Google Sheets - unlimited and free, but no reminders until you wire up n8n yourself.
The ceiling you hit first is almost never the contact limit - it is the user limit. A sales team of three outgrows HubSpot Free long before it outgrows 1,000 contacts.
CRM on LINE OA - Where Thailand Differs
Most "what is CRM" articles are translated from English sources and assume customers arrive by email. In Thailand they arrive on LINE, which changes the answer. Since August 2024, the ฿1,780/month LINE OA Pro package bundles MyCustomer | CRM (previously sold separately at ฿369/month). Businesses already paying for LINE OA to send broadcasts may have a CRM tool sitting unused in their account.
| LINE OA plan | Price/month | Included broadcasts | Extra messages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | ฿0 | 300 messages | Cannot send more |
| Basic | ฿1,280 | 15,000 messages | ฿0.10/message |
| Pro | ฿1,780 | 35,000 messages | ฿0.06/message + MyCustomer CRM |
The number to run before upgrading: past roughly 5,000 extra broadcasts a month, Basic's ฿0.10 overage costs more than the ฿500 gap to Pro - and Pro includes the CRM.
Wiring LINE OA to Google Sheets as a First CRM
Under a few hundred customers you do not need to buy a CRM. Connect what you already have:
- 1.Customer messages your LINE OA
- 2.Chatbot collects the essentials (name, interest, budget)
- 3.n8n writes the row to Google Sheets automatically
- 4.Tag the customer in LINE OA by stage - interested / quoted / closed
- 5.n8n raises a follow-up reminder based on stage and days since contact
Cost is near zero and you keep an exit: the data lives in Sheets and exports any time. Move to a real CRM past ~500 customers. How to connect n8n and LINE OA or the n8n guide
Which Businesses Need CRM?
CRM is not only for large companies - each type uses a different part of it:
| Business Type | CRM Use Case | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Online Store | Manage orders, track repeat buyers | VIP customer bought 5 times, send special promo |
| Clinic / Spa | Appointment history, services used, birthdays | Send birthday promo, remind next appointment |
| Real Estate | Track leads, interest level, viewings | Lead A interested in 2BR, budget 3M |
| Agency / Freelance | Manage projects, send quotes | 10 clients each at a different stage |
| Restaurant | Regulars, favourite dishes, feedback | Customer A orders Japanese every Friday |
Build It Yourself or Hire Someone?
Do it yourself if you have under 500 customers, a team of three or fewer, and you mainly want storage plus follow-up reminders. LINE OA + Google Sheets + n8n covers that and you can maintain it. Hire someone once several systems have to talk to each other - LINE OA plus point of sale plus accounting - or the automation logic gets complex enough to fail silently. The real cost of a CRM is rarely the licence; it is the time lost to a system that was set up wrong and nobody dares touch.
- •CRM on LINE OA - meet Thai customers on the channel they already use. CRM Automation
- •n8n connected to what you already run - no rip-and-replace (n8n automation service)
- •AI chatbot collecting customer data 24/7 AI Chatbot for business
Want a CRM shaped around how Thai customers actually get in touch? Automation services or a free 30-minute consultation - we work out whether you should build or buy before you spend anything.
Arm - chercode
Full-Stack Developer & Founder
Software developer with 5+ years of experience in Web Development, AI Integration, and Automation. Specializing in Next.js, React, n8n, and LLM Integration. Founder of chercode, building systems for Thai businesses.
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