I’m Shajeer A M, and I built this site because I’ve watched too many small business owners pick the wrong CRM.

I’m a product manager working for a UK-based network products vendor. Over the last 13 years — starting as an engineer in 2013, moving through senior product engineering, and into product management — I’ve evaluated, selected, and lived inside more business software than I can comfortably count.

The CRM and ERP-class tools I’ve worked with hands-on include Oracle, Baan (now Infor LN), SAP Business One, and Zoho. I’ve also been part of specifying and helping build a custom in-house CRM — taking the best features from leading tools and adding the things they consistently missed.

That last project taught me something most CRM reviewers never see: what actually goes into building one. Why some tools feel coherent and others feel bolted together. Where the real engineering trade-offs sit. It’s a perspective I bring to every review on this site.

Why SAMReviews exists

Every CRM evaluation I’ve sat through at work surfaced the same problems:

  • Marketing-to-reality gap. Features that demo beautifully but fall apart in real use.
  • Surprise feature gaps. Established CRMs missing basics you took for granted from a previous tool.
  • Hidden lifetime cost. A CRM that’s cheap on day one but expensive after 18 months, especially as your team grows.
  • Generic reviews that don’t help you decide. Most CRM review sites are content farms that paraphrase each other. None of them tested anything.

For a small or medium business, getting this decision wrong is expensive — in subscription fees, in switching costs, in months of lost productivity. And SMBs need efficient CRMs without paying enterprise pricing, especially in the early years.

That’s the gap SAMReviews exists to fill. I review CRMs the way I’d evaluate them for my own employer: actually using each one, paying attention to where they fall short, and being honest about who they suit and who they don’t.

How I work

I sign up for every CRM I review. I use it for at least four weeks before publishing — long enough for the demo magic to wear off and the real friction to surface. I test on the actual plan a small business would use, not a press account with everything unlocked.

I publish what I find. If a CRM is expensive, I say so. If a “free” plan has paywalls that matter, I say so. If a CRM is genuinely good, I say that too — clearly, with reasons.

My approach is simple: learn deeply, share what’s useful, and grow alongside the people I’m trying to help.

How this site makes money

SAMReviews earns affiliate commissions when readers sign up for a CRM through links on this site. This is the business model — and it’s fully disclosed on every page.

Critically, affiliate relationships have zero influence on my reviews, scores, or recommendations. No CRM company pays for a positive review or a higher ranking. I’d rather lose a commission than mislead a reader. Read the full Affiliate Disclosure and Editorial Policy for the detail.

Get in touch

Questions, corrections, or just want to tell me a CRM I missed? Email me at hello@samreviews.com, or use the Contact page. I aim to reply within two business days.

— Shajeer A M, Founder, SAMReviews