Snov.io
Snov.io's October update brings LinkedIn Prospect Finder 4.0 and an AI Assistant.
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Less Annoying CRM and Phorest — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
| Feature | Less Annoying CRM | Phorest |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | CRM | CRM |
| Velocity score | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | small-business-crm, customer-requests, contact-records, search | salon-software, booking, staff-management, pricing |
| Last editorial update | 4d ago | 2mo ago |
| Website | — | Visit → |
Less Annoying CRM lets users pin notes to the top of a contact
LACRM ships slowly and from user requests. Two weeks after October's bundle of six features (scratchpad widget, custom contact labels, event and task search, history filters), it added pinned notes that stay at the top of a contact or company record. Earlier in the year came configurable task views, rich text fields, undo merge and relative date filters.
Phorest keeps handing salon owners the settings they used to phone support about
Phorest is salon and clinic management software shipping small, well-scoped changes every week or two, written in the voice of the front desk. The recent run is dominated by giving owners control they previously had to request: adding product brands without contacting Phorest, per-staff-per-service pricing, per-staff online booking visibility, and finer permissions on who may edit service versus retail prices. Around that sit operational tools like geofenced clock-in on the mobile app.
LACRM ships slowly and from user requests. Two weeks after October's bundle of six features (scratchpad widget, custom contact labels, event and task search, history filters), it added pinned notes that stay at the top of a contact or company record. Earlier in the year came configurable task views, rich text fields, undo merge and relative date filters.
The work stays on the daily record view: making the current state of a client easier to see as history grows. No AI, pricing or integration moves appear in the entries.
More small record-view and search features, either one at a time or as another bundle, are the likely next step.
Phorest is salon and clinic management software shipping small, well-scoped changes every week or two, written in the voice of the front desk. The recent run is dominated by giving owners control they previously had to request: adding product brands without contacting Phorest, per-staff-per-service pricing, per-staff online booking visibility, and finer permissions on who may edit service versus retail prices. Around that sit operational tools like geofenced clock-in on the mobile app.
The through-line is decentralising configuration to the salon and making the booking model match how these businesses actually run. Nearly every recent release either removes a support ticket or lets one staff member be treated differently from another — different price, different online availability, different qualifications. The multi-service booking flow extends the same thinking to the client-facing side, where a visit involving two practitioners was previously modelled as an edge case.
Per-staff settings have now landed for price, online visibility and qualifications separately; the obvious next step is a single staff-level view that shows all three together, since the release notes already admit owners are hopping between screens to check them.
Other CRM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Less Annoying CRM or Phorest.
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See all Less Annoying CRM alternatives → · See all Phorest alternatives →
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Less Annoying CRM and Phorest are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Less Annoying CRM and Phorest are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other CRM products to evaluate alongside.
Top Less Annoying CRM alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Less Annoying CRM alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/less-annoying-crm for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
Top Phorest alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Phorest alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/phorest for the full list with editorial commentary on each.