Notion and ClickUp: Why Solopreneurs Choose Them As CRM Tools

"When I first started my solo consulting business, I had a clear goal: keep operations lean and efficient. But every CRM I tried—HubSpot, Salesforce, even Pipedrive—felt too bulky or expensive for a Solopreneur like me."

If you're running a solo business, you probably want to keep things lean and efficient. Traditional CRMs like HubSpot, Salesforce, or even Pipedrive can feel too much— when all you really want is a place to store contacts, track stages, jot down notes, and set follow-up reminders, these tools might be overkill.

That’s why so many solopreneurs turn to platforms like Notion and ClickUp. They’re flexible, familiar, and already part of your workflow. While not originally designed to function as CRMs, they give you the control to build something that fits exactly how you work. From Reddit threads to online communities, there's a growing trend of business owners creating custom CRM systems using the tools they already know and love.

This blog unpacks why that shift is happening, how these tools stack up, and what you need to know to decide if a custom-built CRM is right for your business—or if it’s time to move to something more powerful.

Why Solopreneurs Are Skipping Traditional CRMs

1. High Cost, Low Relevance

Traditional CRMs are built for multi-person sales teams. They come with dashboards for sales managers, performance tracking for SDRs, and quota-based reporting. But a solopreneur isn’t running a sales org—they are the sales org.

Spending $50 to $100 per month for features like lead scoring, deal velocity charts, and attribution modeling feels excessive when all you need is a place to store names and track follow-ups. It’s like buying a Tesla to drive in a village with dirt roads.

For instance, when I was using Notion and Zapier, I automated new contact intake via a form on my website that pushed directly into my Notion CRM board. No CRM subscription, no complex setup, and no need to learn five different modules. Reddit users echo this experience, often choosing simple, free setups that do 80–90% of what paid CRMs offer.

2. Feature Overload Becomes a Distraction

Full-featured CRMs offer a lot: email automation, lead scoring, AI forecasting, workflow builders. That’s great—if you’re managing a team or running complex campaigns. But if your day is mostly filled with doing the work and managing leads, too many features slow you down.

Solo founders generally just want:

• A way to log and access contact information
• A timeline of what’s been discussed or delivered
• Reminders to follow up
• A clear view of where each lead is in their pipeline

When I used Salesforce briefly, I spent more time updating fields and navigating menus than actually following up. It felt like I was working for the tool. That’s a common Reddit complaint: that CRMs require more from you than they return—until you hit team scale.

3. Ability to Personalize

Notion and ClickUp shine because they let you build your own process. That means less friction. You aren’t adapting your workflow to fit someone else’s idea of what a CRM should be.

In Notion, I built a table for leads, linked it to a company database, added last contacted dates, deal sizes, and priority tags. I created views like "Deals Closing This Week" and "Cold Leads Over 14 Days Old." This wasn’t just a database—it was a workspace that mirrored how I thought.

In ClickUp, I used tasks to represent leads. Each task had stages, value tags, and reminders. One automation I set up created a follow-up task two days after any lead moved to the "Proposal Sent" stage. It’s this kind of small personalization that gives solopreneurs an edge: your tool bends to your brain, not the other way around.

Reddit users repeatedly cite this control as the reason they stick with Notion or ClickUp longer than expected. You get to mould your tool to your mental model, which speeds you up—not slow you down.

Notion vs. ClickUp: A Practical Breakdown

After browsing all over Reddit, I had to say that these were among the top, most spoken about CRM. They allow you to create a makeshift solution to help you track your customers.

Notion: Total Freedom, No Guardrails

Using Notion as a CRM feels like drawing on a blank canvas. I built pipelines, linked databases, added tags for priority, and created a dashboard.

But that flexibility comes at a cost:

• No native automation
• No reminders without a workaround
• No real email/calendar integration

When my client list grew past 25, I started dropping the ball. Notion wouldn’t remind me who to follow up with unless I checked manually. And that became a problem.

ClickUp: Built-in Logic, Task-Centric

ClickUp isn’t a CRM either, but it’s built around tasks—which are the backbone of any sales motion.

Here’s what worked:

• Each contact = a task
• Each stage = a status
• Automations triggered reminders
• I sent emails directly from tasks (thanks to the Email ClickApp)

It felt like a simpler version of Pipedrive. Enough power, not too much clutter.

Why Some Use Both Together

Notion became my source of truth—client background, preferences, contracts. ClickUp became my to-do engine—when to follow up, what to send, and what to close next.

This dual system worked beautifully. And according to Reddit threads, I’m not the only one doing it.

What Other Solopreneurs Are Doing

If you're exploring how to make Notion or ClickUp work as your CRM, you're not alone. Reddit is packed with posts from solopreneurs who’ve built their own systems. These aren’t one-off hacks—they’re tested workflows being used daily to manage real business leads.

Here are some examples you might find helpful:

"I didn’t want to pay $60/month for a CRM when Notion already had everything I needed."

This user built a basic pipeline in Notion using the board view. You can do the same by creating columns for stages like "New Lead," "Followed Up," and "Closed." Inside each card, track details like company name, contact info, and deal status. You’ll be surprised how quickly this structure can come together.

"ClickUp has forms. I built an intake system, deal tracker, and follow-up reminders."

You can use ClickUp’s built-in form tool to capture new leads right from your website. The submissions go straight into your ClickUp workspace as new tasks. From there, automate task assignments, set follow-up due dates, and get notifications without lifting a finger.

"I pipe leads from my website form to Google Sheets, then into Notion. Zapier does the work."

If you already use Google Forms or Sheets, you can set up a Zap that pushes new data into your Notion database. This means fewer manual updates and a system that feels like a lightweight CRM tailored just for you.

What ties all these stories together? Four key themes:

1. Simplicity: You don’t need to learn a new system or adopt complex tools.
2. Cost Control: Most users stick to free tools and only pay for things like Zapier once automation needs grow.
3. Flexibility: You can customize everything—from pipeline stages to how you log interactions.
4. Ownership: You're not forced to work around clunky designs or features you don’t need. You shape your CRM around your exact workflow.

By following their lead, you can build a CRM system that’s lean, personal, and fully yours—without breaking the bank or locking yourself into software you’ll outgrow in six months.. They’re lean, high-impact tools custom-built by solopreneurs who know exactly what they need—and nothing more.

Limitations with Using Notion and ClickUp as a CRM

While Notion and ClickUp offer flexibility and low-cost entry, they come with serious trade-offs when used as a CRM—especially as your business scales.

1. Missing Core CRM Capabilities

Notion lacks many native features that standard CRMs provide out of the box. If you're using it as your primary system, you’ll notice the absence of:

• Email tracking and logging
• Automated lead scoring
• Built-in pipeline performance dashboards
• Web-to-lead form builders

ClickUp improves slightly with task automation and its Email ClickApp, but it still doesn't support features like call logging, auto-contact enrichment, or dynamic forecasting. If your workflow depends on these elements, you’ll need third-party tools like Zapier, Make, or custom scripts to fill the gap.

2. Manual Workload Adds Up

You have to move every deal manually between stages, input follow-up dates, and copy notes from emails or calls into task comments. There are no auto-triggers based on interaction history. You’ll rely on memory or separate reminders to keep up.

The more leads you have, the harder this gets. Miss one update, and suddenly you’re flying blind. And when updates become a chore, consistency breaks down fast.

3. Limited Scalability and Performance

As your lead list grows, these platforms start to lag. Notion becomes noticeably slower with large databases—especially those with linked tables or filtered views. ClickUp gets harder to manage as you add more custom fields, tasks, and automations. Some users experience UI slowdowns or errors when pushing it too far.

Plus, neither platform gives you scalable analytics. You can't slice and dice your pipeline by source, stage, or conversion rate without exporting data to Excel or Google Sheets. That makes sales forecasting, team reviews, and performance reporting harder to sustain over time.

4. Collaboration Gaps

These tools weren’t built for multi-user CRM workflows. If you bring in a VA, sales assistant, or teammate, you may find permissions, hand-offs, and process tracking clunky. ClickUp supports task assignment but lacks deep CRM user roles or access-based controls. Notion has shared databases but no role-based field visibility or team analytics.

For solo users, these gaps are minor. But if you're growing, they're hard to ignore.

In short, Notion and ClickUp can function as a lightweight CRM for a while—but once your pipeline grows, your team expands, or your need for automation increases, the cracks start to show.

Tips to Make Custom-Built CRMs Work

Start With Templates

Templates cut your setup time by 80% and give you a tested structure to begin with. Instead of creating your entire workflow from scratch, you can import prebuilt layouts designed by other solopreneurs or productivity experts.

For Notion:

• Search "Notion CRM template" on Google or within the Notion Template Gallery.
• Easlo’s Notion CRM template is a favorite for beginners—it includes a clean lead tracker, deal status board, and follow-up calendar.
• Once added, you can personalize fields such as deal size, source, and last contact date.

For ClickUp:

• Use the built-in Template Center to search for "Contact Pipeline" or "Sales CRM."
• The Contact Pipeline template lets you view leads in a Kanban board and assign them custom statuses like "Qualified," "Proposal Sent," or "Won."
• Modify task types to reflect contacts or companies and build subtasks for next actions.

Templates aren’t the final system—they’re your launchpad.

Automate With Zapier or Make

Manual data entry kills momentum. Automations help bridge tools and make your CRM work in the background. Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat) are no-code platforms that connect Notion, ClickUp, Gmail, Typeform, Google Sheets, and more.

Practical automation ideas:

• Website lead form to CRM: When a lead fills out your Typeform, send that data directly into a ClickUp task or a new row in your Notion CRM.
• Email tagging: Starring an email in Gmail can trigger an update in your Notion database (e.g., marking a lead as "Replied").
• Follow-up reminders: Create a Google Calendar event that also pushes a follow-up task to ClickUp.

These automations act like invisible assistants, reducing busywork and keeping your CRM current without effort.

Email Integration in ClickUp

The Email ClickApp in ClickUp allows you to manage your inbox from within the CRM.

How to set it up:

1. Go to your ClickUp Workspace settings and enable the Email ClickApp.
2. Connect your Gmail or Outlook account.
3. Now each task has an email panel where you can send, receive, and thread conversations.

Why this helps:

• You can view past conversations directly on the lead’s task.
• Every email becomes context-aware—no more switching tabs.
• You avoid forwarding or CC’ing yourself to stay in the loop.

For Notion, there’s no native email integration. However:

• Use tools like Tally (form builder) + Zapier to bring in new contacts.
• Paste key email exchanges manually under a "Last Communication" field for context.

Use Filters & Views Smartly

Notion and ClickUp allow filtered views, which are essential once your CRM has more than a dozen leads.

In Notion:

• Use the database filter feature to create smart views like "Follow-ups due this week" or "Leads from LinkedIn."
• Set sorting by "Next Action Date" to prioritize outreach.

In ClickUp:

• Add custom fields like Lead Status, Source, and Deal Value.
• Create filtered views: e.g., "Deals > $2,000" or "Cold Leads Over 7 Days."
• Use Dashboards to track pipeline progress visually with pie charts or bar graphs.

When used well, these views become your daily control panel for outreach and closing. They keep you focused on what matters now.

When to Move to a Traditional CRM

There comes a point where the simplicity of Notion or ClickUp starts working against you instead of for you. While they’re great starting points, growing solopreneurs eventually run into friction that signals it's time to move to a dedicated CRM.

If you’re:

• Managing more than 100 leads: When your lead list grows, it’s harder to track activity across all prospects. You need pipeline automation, contact history, and performance dashboards.
• Needing reporting and analytics: Visualizing sales velocity, conversion rates, or forecasting upcoming deals becomes essential as your revenue grows. Notion and ClickUp can’t easily offer that level of insight.
• Looking for email and call tracking: CRMs like HubSpot log emails, track opens/clicks, and even offer call recording. That context improves follow-ups and prevents lost information.
• Collaborating with others: If you’ve added a VA, cofounder, or intern, you’ll need better access control, shared dashboards, and assignment logic that traditional CRMs are built for.

Signs It’s Time to Upgrade

• You spend more time updating your system than closing deals
• You’re copying and pasting the same info across Notion, Gmail, and spreadsheets
• You’ve missed a follow-up—or three—because nothing reminded you
• You feel like you’re manually stitching your workflow every week

At this stage, a real CRM isn’t a luxury—it’s a time-saver.

Recommended Tools for Solopreneurs Ready to Scale

• Pipedrive: Perfect for solo or small teams who want an intuitive pipeline view and strong automation without too much complexity.
• Zoho CRM: Great for those wanting customization and feature depth at a lower price point.
• HubSpot CRM: The free tier includes contact management, email tracking, and pipelines. It's easy to scale as your needs grow.

All three offer trial versions—so test them with your real data and workflows before making a final move.

Conclusion

Notion and ClickUp weren’t built as CRMs—but for solopreneurs seeking control, speed, and affordability, they’ve proven to be powerful building blocks for custom CRM systems. With the right templates, views, and automation glue, you can run an entire sales operation without spending hundreds on traditional platforms.

You gain:

• Control: Customize your CRM around your workflow—not the other way around.
• Cost Savings: Stick to free or low-cost tools while covering 80–90% of your needs.
• Clarity: Stay focused on leads, follow-ups, and pipelines without noise or bloat.

Still, it’s important to be pragmatic. These tools have limits. They lack CRM-native capabilities like predictive insights, historical reporting, and automated handoffs. And as your business scales—more leads, more collaboration, more data—the cracks begin to show.

Until that point, however, Notion and ClickUp offer a practical middle path. They empower you to build a lightweight CRM that works today, evolves over time, and grows with your ambition. Test, iterate, refine—and when the time’s right, transition with clarity.

Try it. Tweak it. Then scale with confidence.