CRM-Friedhof

Basecamp officially shut down Highrise in early 2024 after years of neglect. Once a beloved lightweight contact manager, it was left on life support for over a decade before finally being pulled. Tens of thousands of small businesses were left scrambling.

Contactually was built for relationship-driven sales and beloved by real-estate professionals. After being acquired by Compass in 2019, the product limped along until it was fully shut down in 2022. Another case of a niche tool getting swallowed by a larger platform that had no use for its users.

Batchbook positioned itself as a social CRM for small businesses long before that was a buzzword. It couldn't keep up with better-funded competitors and quietly closed its doors in 2018. A cautionary tale about building a tool without a clear upgrade path.

Infusionsoft didn't die — it just changed its name. In 2019 the company rebranded to Keap, shedding the reputation for being overly complex while keeping the same automation DNA. The rebrand was accompanied by a simpler product tier aimed at small businesses. Still alive and kicking.

Streak is still very much alive, but it's worth flagging: it is completely Gmail-dependent. If your team moves off Google Workspace — or Google ever changes its extension APIs — you lose your entire CRM. It's a deep integration that creates a single point of failure. Great tool with a major strategic risk.

Insightly was acquired by Unbounce's parent company in 2023. The product remains active, but acquisitions like this often signal a slow pivot or neglect of the original user base. Features have stagnated relative to competitors, and the roadmap feels frozen. Worth monitoring before committing long-term.

Nimble pioneered the social CRM concept, pulling in contact data from LinkedIn, Twitter, and beyond. But as social platforms locked down their APIs (thanks, Elon), Nimble's core differentiator eroded. The product still exists but feels like a shadow of its original vision. Features have been quietly scaled back over time.

Solve360 was a Google-integrated CRM that had a loyal following among small agencies and consultancies. It was shut down in 2021 with minimal warning, leaving customers to migrate on short notice. The abrupt closure highlighted the risk of building workflows around niche tools with no acquisition runway.