Bitrix24 vs Flowlu
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
The short answer
Both sides assessedBitrix24 compared with Flowlu
Flowlu covers a similar CRM-plus-projects-plus-invoicing surface at $6 to $16 per user per month annually, with a cleaner interface and a client portal. Bitrix24 is far broader (telephony, Open Channels, intranet, e-signature, HR) and cheaper once headcount rises, because Flowlu is per user and Bitrix24 is not. Small service businesses under ten people usually prefer Flowlu; larger, channel-heavy businesses prefer Bitrix24.
Flowlu compared with Bitrix24
The direct all-in-one rival, and the arithmetic flips with headcount. Bitrix24 charges per account ($99 a month for fifty users) and adds telephony, Open Channels, an intranet, and a website builder. Flowlu charges per user ($11 on Advanced) with a cleaner interface, better project management, and stronger invoicing. Under about ten people Flowlu is cheaper and far more pleasant; above twenty, Bitrix24's flat fee wins decisively.
Choose Bitrix24 if
Cost-sensitive small and mid-sized companies of roughly ten to a hundred people who want to consolidate CRM, telephony, projects, documents, and an intranet into one bill, and who will accept a dense interface and a real learning curve in exchange for very low cost per head.
Choose Flowlu if
Small service businesses, agencies, and consultancies of two to about twenty-five people who sell projects rather than products, and who want one affordable subscription covering the pipeline, the delivery work, and the invoice instead of three separate tools.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | Bitrix24 | Flowlu |
|---|---|---|
| Category | CRM | CRM |
| Starting price | $0 for unlimited users on the free plan, then $49 a month (Basic, 5 users) on annual billing (free plan available) | $0 for two users, then $6 per user per month on annual billing (Essential) (free plan available) |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly plans per account that include a fixed number of users, rather than per-seat pricing, plus a separately licensed self-hosted on-premise edition. | Per-user subscription across a free plan and three paid tiers, billed monthly or annually, with annual billing published at roughly half the monthly rate. |
| Free plan | Unlimited users with 5GB storage, basic CRM (deals, contacts), kanban and Gantt tasks, shared calendars, chat, and video calls. Sales pipelines, automation, and telephony are not included. | Free forever for 2 users with 100 contacts, one pipeline, lead capture forms, and core project and task management. |
| Free trial | Free plan serves as the evaluation path; paid plan trials are available | 7 days on paid plans with no credit card required, on top of the permanently free plan |
| Best for | Cost-sensitive small and mid-sized companies of roughly ten to a hundred people who want to consolidate CRM, telephony, projects, documents, and an intranet into one bill, and who will accept a dense interface and a real learning curve in exchange for very low cost per head. | Small service businesses, agencies, and consultancies of two to about twenty-five people who sell projects rather than products, and who want one affordable subscription covering the pipeline, the delivery work, and the invoice instead of three separate tools. |
| Setup time | A day to have the CRM module usable, and considerably longer to configure the wider suite properly. Realistically, a two to six week part-time project to set up pipelines, automation rules, telephony, permissions, and the modules you actually intend to use. | A working CRM in under an hour. Setting up the project side properly, with templates, billable rates, invoice formats, and the automation that turns a won deal into a project, is a one to two week part-time job. |
| Learning curve | The steepest in this batch. The interface exposes a great deal of functionality at once, terminology is idiosyncratic, and staff who are used to modern SaaS often push back. Budget for structured training rather than assuming discovery. | Moderate, mostly because of breadth. Each module is straightforward, but a new user meeting CRM, projects, finance, and the knowledge base at once takes a while to orient. Sales-only users learn it in an afternoon. |
| Platforms | Web, Windows and macOS desktop apps, iOS, Android, Self-hosted on-premise edition | Web, iOS, Android |
| Compliance | GDPR, HIPAA compliance options on the on-premise edition, SOC-aligned controls on Enterprise cloud tiers | GDPR, Standard data processing agreement available |
| Founded | 2012 | 2016 |
| Headquarters | Alexandria, Virginia, United States | Distributed team, with origins in Chelyabinsk, Russia |
| Ownership | Privately held; grew out of 1C-Bitrix and has not taken significant outside investment | Privately held and bootstrapped |
Strengths and limitations
Bitrix24
Strengths
- Per-account pricing with bundled users produces a cost per head nothing else in this category can match once you pass ten or fifteen people.
- Genuinely broad: CRM, telephony, Open Channels, tasks and Gantt, documents, website builder, e-signature, booking, and HR in one subscription.
- A free plan with unlimited users, which no other serious CRM offers, making evaluation and light use cost nothing.
- Built-in telephony and multi-channel messaging attach conversations to CRM records without a third-party phone system or contact centre tool.
Limitations
- The interface is dense, menu-heavy, and dated, and adoption resistance is the most common reason Bitrix24 implementations fail.
- Feature gating between tiers is complicated, and working out which module capability sits on which plan takes real effort before purchase.
- Every module is adequate rather than excellent; each one loses a head-to-head against a focused competitor.
- The learning curve is steep enough that many buyers end up engaging a partner, which adds cost the sticker price does not show.
Flowlu
Strengths
- The CRM, project management, and invoicing genuinely share one client record, so a won deal becomes a project becomes an invoice without retyping anything.
- Pricing is exceptional: $11 a user on Advanced for a feature set that normally requires three or four separate subscriptions.
- A permanently free two-user plan makes it viable for freelancers and costless to evaluate properly.
- Project management is real rather than token: Gantt charts, dependencies, sprints, workload views, templates, and billable time tracking.
Limitations
- The CRM is competent rather than sophisticated; there is no custom object model, no advanced forecasting, and no lead scoring of consequence.
- Automation, email tracking, and the client portal are all withheld from the $6 Essential tier, making the headline price unrepresentative for teams.
- No native dialer, so telephony is an integration and call recording depends on the provider.
- The native integration list is short, and much of the long tail runs through Zapier rather than first-party connectors.
Pricing compared
Bitrix24
Flat monthly plans per account that include a fixed number of users, rather than per-seat pricing, plus a separately licensed self-hosted on-premise edition.
- Free$0
- Basic$49
- Standard$99
- Professional$199
- EnterpriseFrom $399
On raw cost per head Bitrix24 is unbeatable in this category and the gap is not close: fifty users across CRM, telephony, projects, documents, and an intranet for $99 a month is arithmetic no per-seat vendor can answer. The question is whether you will actually use it. Bitrix24's value is realised through consolidation, so a company replacing four subscriptions gets an enormous win, while a company that only wants a sales pipeline pays less and gets a worse experience than Bigin or Pipedrive would give them. Factor in a real implementation effort and some adoption resistance, and the honest verdict is that Bitrix24 is exceptional value for the buyer who commits to it as a platform and mediocre value for anyone treating it as just a CRM.
Flowlu
Per-user subscription across a free plan and three paid tiers, billed monthly or annually, with annual billing published at roughly half the monthly rate.
- Free$0
- Essential$6
- Advanced$11
- Ultimate$16
At $11 a user annually, Advanced buys a CRM, a project management system with Gantt charts and time tracking, quoting and recurring invoicing, financial reporting, a client portal, and a knowledge base. Priced individually those are four subscriptions and would run five to ten times as much. Against pure CRMs the comparison is less flattering: Bigin does sales better for $7 and Pipedrive does it much better for $39. So the buying question is simple. If you sell projects and deliver them, Flowlu is one of the best value purchases in this entire directory. If you only sell, you are buying software you will not open.
Editorial verdict on each
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is the value argument in this category taken to its logical conclusion: fifty users across CRM, telephony, multi-channel messaging, projects, documents, and an intranet for $99 a month is a number no per-seat vendor can answer. The catch is equally clear. Every module is adequate rather than excellent, the interface is dense and dated, and the learning curve is steep enough that plenty of small businesses buy it, fail to implement it, and quietly go back to spreadsheets. Buy it if you are consolidating several tools, have ten or more people to spread the flat fee across, and can commit to a real implementation with a champion or a partner. Do not buy it if you only want a sales pipeline, if your team judges software by how it feels, or if you were hoping self-hosting would be the cheap way in.
Read the full Bitrix24 profileFlowlu
Flowlu is one of the best value purchases in this directory, provided you are the buyer it was built for. An agency or consultancy paying $11 a user gets a CRM, a real project management system with Gantt charts and billable time tracking, recurring invoicing, financial reporting, a client portal, and a knowledge base, which is four subscriptions replaced by one and a client record that finally stays in one place. Do not buy it as a pure CRM: the sales tooling is competent, not exceptional, there are no custom objects, no native dialer, and no AI, and Bigin or Pipedrive will serve a sales-only team better. Budget for Advanced rather than Essential, because automation and the client portal are the features that make the consolidation work, and take the annual billing, because monthly costs roughly double.
Read the full Flowlu profileBitrix24 profile last reviewed 2026-08-22; Flowlu last reviewed 2026-08-22. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.