#image_title
With college enrollment trending downward and experts anticipating a “demographic cliff” in 2025 — having a higher education CRM is absolutely vital to ensuring a thriving institution. A CRM is key to attracting and retaining students, ensuring enrollee success, and fostering relationships with alumni and donors.
The University of Wyoming boosted enrollment by using HubSpot Smart CRM, with 60% of one year’s incoming class having come through a HubSpot landing page somewhere along their journey, proving just how powerful the right CRM can be.
Below, we’ll explore four higher education CRMs, providing you with feature comparisons, pricing details, and implementation guidance. To quickly bring you this comprehensive guide, we used AI tools for research and drafting. All content has been thoroughly reviewed, fact-checked, and revised by a HubSpot staff writer to ensure accuracy and completeness.
Read on to discover which CRM can best improve your institution’s enrollment and engagement strategies.
Table of Contents
A customer relationship management (CRM) system for higher education is a specialized platform that helps colleges and universities manage interactions with prospective students, current students, alumni, donors, and other stakeholders throughout their entire journey with the institution.
From tracking prospect interactions and automating personalized outreach to supporting student success initiatives and alumni engagement, these platforms serve as the central hub for all constituent data and communications. HubSpot’s CRM can help enrollment teams work smarter by automating routine tasks while providing the insights needed to make data-driven decisions.
CRM | Best For | Key Features | Pricing | Free Trial Available |
HubSpot | Institutions wanting an all-in-one platform that unifies recruitment, student success, and advancement with AI-powered automation | 360-view of contacts, Breeze AI agents, marketing automation for enrollment growth | Free CRM; paid plans start at $15/seat/month | Yes (free tier available) |
Salesforce Education Cloud | Large universities with resources for comprehensive digital transformation and enterprise-grade solutions | Education-specific data model, Agentforce AI capabilities, modular SIS capabilities | Starts at $81.25/user/month | Yes, 30-day free trial |
Ellucian CRM | Institutions that want a higher ed software suite that has CRM products (Recruit, Advise, and Advance) and an SIS solutions in the same ecosystem | Student portal, application management, seamless Ellucian ecosystem integration | Contact for pricing. | No |
Slate | Institutions seeking a purpose-built admissions and enrollment management platform | Unified admissions and enrollment platform, SIS integrations, AI-driven features | Starts at $30,000 per year | No |
Selecting the right CRM can transform how your institution engages with students throughout their educational journey as well as optimize donations and sponsorships. Let‘s examine four leading solutions that can meet higher education’s unique needs.
Source
Best for: Institutions wanting an all-in-one platform that unifies recruitment, student success, and advancement with AI-powered automation
Source
Best for: Large universities with resources for comprehensive digital transformation and enterprise-grade solutions
Please note that the following Salesforce Education Cloud pricing is for non-profit institutions and is billed annually. View the pricing for for-profit institutions. There is a 30-day free trial available.
Source
Best for: Institutions that want a higher ed software suite that has CRM products (Recruit, Advise, and Advance) and an SIS solutions in the same ecosystem
Ellucian has three CRM products: Recruit, Advise, and Advance, but it does not publicly list its pricing. Contact Ellucian for pricing. No free trial available.
Source
Best for: Institutions seeking a purpose-built admissions and enrollment management platform
Slate CRM pricing has different license tiers: Admissions, Student Success, and Advancement.
Modern CRMs help institutions deliver personalized experiences at scale. By tracking prospect behaviors and interests, you can send targeted communications that resonate with each student’s unique needs. The University of Wyoming leveraged HubSpot’s Marketing Hub to increase lead volume by 26%.
Automate routine tasks like application status updates, document reminders, and event confirmations. CRMs unify data from multiple sources, freeing admissions staff to focus on helping students thrive. HubSpot can automate inquiry follow-ups and nurture leads, reducing manual workload.
Track student engagement across academic and social dimensions to identify at-risk students early. CRMs enable coordinated intervention strategies by connecting advisors, faculty, and support services around shared student data. For example, HubSpot’s ticketing system can help manage student support requests.
Build lifelong relationships with graduates through targeted engagement campaigns and personalized giving opportunities. CRMs help advancement teams track donor capacity, manage campaigns, and demonstrate ROI on fundraising initiatives. Howard University’s School of Business used HubSpot to raise over $100,000 for its Center for Career Excellence.
Your CRM must seamlessly connect with your SIS to maintain data consistency and eliminate duplicate entry. Look for pre-built integrations with popular systems like Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft, and Jenzabar. HubSpot offers over 1,900 integrations through its App Marketplace, including Zapier middleware that you can use to connect to many SIS soluations, plus robust APIs that enable custom integrations for real-time data synchronization.
Today’s students expect to engage through their preferred channels, whether email, text, chat, or social media. A robust CRM should support omnichannel communications while maintaining a unified conversation history. HubSpot’s shared inbox consolidates email, live chat, and Facebook Messenger communications in one place.
From open houses to admitted student days, events play a crucial role in recruitment. Your CRM should streamline event registration, automate confirmations and reminders, and track attendance to measure event ROI. Look for features like QR code check-in, capacity management, and post-event survey automation. HubSpot’s forms and landing pages can handle event registrations, while marketing automation can send confirmation emails and reminders.
Modern CRMs leverage AI to identify best-fit students, predict enrollment likelihood, and recommend optimal communication strategies. HubSpot’s Breeze AI provides intelligent insights across the platform, from content creation suggestions to lead scoring that can help prioritize recruitment efforts.
Create an inventory of all systems currently in use across admissions, student services, advancement, and other departments. Document pain points, data silos, and manual processes that a CRM could address. Consider which systems must integrate with your new CRM and which might be replaced.
Establish clear objectives for your CRM implementation. Are you primarily focused on increasing applications, improving yield rates, boosting retention, or growing advancement revenue? Set specific, measurable goals like “increase completed applications by 15%” or “reduce time-to-decision by 3 days.”
Gather input from all stakeholder groups who will use the CRM. Admissions may prioritize application management, while advancement focuses on donor tracking. Create a requirements matrix that weights must-have versus nice-to-have features for each department.
Assess your team’s technical capabilities and available resources for implementation. Some platforms like HubSpot offer intuitive interfaces and extensive free training through HubSpot Academy, while others may require significant IT involvement and external consultants. Factor in ongoing support and training needs.
Narrow your list to a few top contenders and request comprehensive demos tailored to higher education use cases. Ask to see real workflows like processing an application or running an email campaign. Many vendors offer trials where you can test the system with a small group before full implementation.
HubSpot’s platform scales from small colleges using free tools to large universities requiring enterprise features. The University of San Diego started with one school using HubSpot and expanded to five graduate schools as it discovered the platform’s ease of use.
The best CRM depends on your institution‘s specific needs, size, and resources. HubSpot customers love its user-friendly interface, comprehensive free tier, and powerful automation capabilities that scale with growth. The platform’s flexibility allows institutions to start small and expand usage across departments.
Essential features include SIS integration, multi-channel communications, event management, application processing, and robust reporting. Look for platforms offering AI-powered insights, mobile accessibility, and strong security features. HubSpot excels in all these areas while maintaining an intuitive interface that encourages user adoption across departments.
Yes, HubSpot provides an excellent solution for higher education institutions of all sizes. Its free CRM offers powerful features for smaller schools, while paid tiers provide advanced automation and AI capabilities for larger universities.
CRM costs vary significantly based on features and user count. HubSpot’s CRM is always free, with paid features starting at $15/seat/month. Enterprise solutions like Salesforce Education Cloud start at $81.25/user/month. Total costs should factor in implementation, training, and ongoing support. Annually, you might be looking at tens of thousands of dollars to license a higher education CRM.
HubSpot stands apart as a fantastic CRM solution for higher education institutions seeking to boost their enrollment and engagement strategies. By combining powerful automation, intuitive design, and comprehensive features in one unified platform, HubSpot empowers institutions to build meaningful relationships throughout the student lifecycle.
Ready to transform your institution’s approach to student recruitment and engagement? Get started with HubSpot’s free CRM today and discover why leading colleges and universities choose HubSpot to power their growth.
As a digital marketing consultant, I spend a lot of time promoting website content on…
The newsletter platform and social media site, Substack, has become one of the hottest spaces…
When I spoke to this week’s master in marketing, I was surprised at how seamlessly…
Spreadsheets and manual processes can hold back your wholesale business from growing. As wholesalers face…
Managing relationships across healthcare professionals (HCPs), healthcare organizations (HCOs), and complex regulatory requirements makes choosing…
There‘s more to healthcare than the visit itself. Whether you’re a doctor’s office, dental practice,…