Highrise

What Highrise does

Highrise is a simple, shared CRM and contact management product originally launched in 2007 by 37signals as a lightweight alternative to enterprise CRMs. It delivers core contact-management functionality — collaborative contacts, notes, emails, tasks, reminders, bulk email, and basic lead tracking — through a cloud-based web application with native iPhone and Android companions. The product is built around ease-of-use and minimal onboarding, targeting small businesses that need shared team access to contacts without the complexity of large CRM suites.

The product is operated by 37signals LLC (the parent entity behind Basecamp), headquartered in Chicago, and integrates with dozens of third-party tools across email marketing (Mailchimp, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign), live chat and customer support (Olark, Help Scout, Talkdesk, LiveChat, FreshBooks), forms (Wufoo, JotForm, Formstack), and general automation (Zapier, PieSync, Cyclr, Appmixer). It also exposes data via CData drivers and migration tools such as Trujay and Import2, indicating ecosystem coverage as a defining historical design choice.

The business model is recurring subscription revenue derived from a legacy book of more than 10,000 small-business accounts. On August 20, 2018, Basecamp stopped accepting new signups, and Highrise has been operated in maintenance mode since — no feature updates have been shipped, and only periodic mobile reliability fixes (most recently Android in September 2024 and iOS in November 2018) have been issued. The product is monetized exclusively through ongoing fees from the existing customer base, with no growth investments in product, sales, or marketing.

Name

Highrise

Legal name

37signals LLC

Website

https://highrisehq.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Highrise is a simple, shared CRM and contact management product for small businesses, operated by 37signals LLC (Basecamp) and headquartered in Chicago. Since August 2018 it has been in maintenance mode — no new signups, no feature updates — serving its existing 10,000+ business customers on a recurring subscription basis.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

CRM Software

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Customer Success & Account Management CRM (HDAEAFAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

CRM Data Quality, Enrichment & CDP-Adjacent CRM (HDAEAFAJ), Customer Engagement & Messaging (Email, SMS, Push, In-App) (BPAFAFAI)

Keywords

• CRM software
• Contact management
• Lead tracking
• Small business CRM
• Sales pipeline

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. Subscription (Legacy): Highrise generates revenue from subscription fees paid by its existing customer base. The platform stopped accepting new customers in 2018, so revenue comes from maintaining and supporting the existing 10,000+ business accounts that continue to use the service.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Highrise is a simple, cloud-based CRM and contact management platform that helps small businesses track leads, manage follow-ups, and collaborate on contacts, emails, notes, and tasks across teams. The product is delivered as a web application with companion iOS and Android mobile apps and has been in maintenance mode since August 20, 2018, with the company committed to keeping it secure, reliable, and fast for its existing 10,000+ business customers.

Product overview

Highrise is a single, unified simple CRM product offered by 37signals (Basecamp). The product portfolio consists of the core Highrise web-based CRM platform and companion mobile apps for iPhone and Android. Highrise helps teams stay organized by managing contacts, tracking tasks, and collaborating on follow-ups. As of August 20, 2018, Highrise stopped accepting new customers and has received no feature updates since then, though existing users (10,000+ businesses) continue to be supported with security, reliability, and performance maintenance. The product integrates with numerous third-party tools for email marketing, accounting, customer support, live chat, data sync, form collection, sales/marketing, productivity/reporting, proposal management, and mobile access.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Highrise CRM Web-based simple CRM and contact management tool that helps small businesses track leads, manage follow-ups, and collaborate on contacts, emails, notes, and tasks. Maintained in maintenance mode for existing 10,000+ business customers since August 20, 2018.
• Highrise iPhone App Native iOS application that allows Highrise CRM users to collaborate on contacts, notes, and tasks from their iPhone. Requires iOS 9.0 or later.
• Highrise Android App Native Android application that allows Highrise CRM users to collaborate on contacts, emails, notes, and tasks from Android devices.

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration65 records

Feature5 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights1 record

Direct peers

• HubSpot: HubSpot's free CRM and paid CRM Hubs target the same small-business segment Highrise was built for — simple contact management, deal tracking, and integrations — but with continuous feature development and far larger scale.
• Pipedrive: Pipedrive is a sales-focused SMB CRM with pipeline management, contact records, and integrations aimed at the same small-business buyer that Highrise historically served.
• Capsule CRM: Capsule is a simple, easy-to-use CRM aimed at small businesses and teams — almost the same positioning (ease of use, minimal setup) that Highrise has historically promoted.
• Insightly: Insightly offers a CRM built for SMBs with contact management, pipeline tracking, and project linking — closely overlapping Highrise's feature set and small-business customer base.
• Copper: Copper (formerly ProsperWorks) targets small and mid-sized businesses needing simple contact management and Gmail-integrated CRM workflows, directly competing with Highrise's positioning.
• Nimble: Nimble is a relationship-focused CRM for small businesses emphasizing contact management and integrations — the same core use case and customer profile as Highrise.
• Agile CRM: Agile CRM offers contact management, sales automation, and basic help-desk functionality for SMBs, overlapping Highrise's contact and basic support integration footprint.

Broad incumbents

• Zoho CRM: Zoho CRM is part of the broader Zoho suite, serving SMBs and mid-market with a much wider feature footprint than Highrise but overlapping on the simple-CRM-for-small-business category.
• Salesforce: Salesforce is the broadest incumbent in CRM, and Salesforce Essentials (along with Starter Suite) is targeted at very small businesses — the same horizontal entry point that Highrise occupies.

Emerging players

• Freshsales (Freshworks CRM): Freshsales targets SMBs and mid-market with contact management, built-in phone/email, and AI features — competing with Highrise in the same simple-CRM-for-small-business category with a more modern product.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/highrise
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/highrise-hq

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Highrise