Koban

Koban is a French CRM for small and midsize businesses whose marketing module sends email campaigns and SMS, runs automated marketing and lead nurturing scenarios, and collects leads through web forms, all inside the same software that handles sales, invoicing and customer service. The homepage presents it as a fully French CRM and says the team is "basée près de Lyon" (based near Lyon). The company's blog says the software was developed in 2012 and started as a sales tool for salespeople before growing into a complete customer relationship platform, with the marketing module one of the later additions.

For a reader choosing an email platform, that history matters. Koban is not a standalone newsletter service. It is a CRM in which email marketing is one module, and its selling point is that the marketing team and the sales team work from the same contact records.

What a sender gets

The blog lists what the marketing module does: segment contacts by targeted criteria, create and send email campaigns, run SMS campaigns, track the behavior of website visitors, build marketing automation and lead nurturing scenarios, and generate web forms. The homepage summarizes the same module as a drag-and-drop email editor ("Editeur emailing drag and drop"), web forms, automated marketing scenarios and SMS campaigns, under the promise that all marketing actions now happen from the CRM, for better targeting and a better return on investment.

The scenario builder gets the most praise on the company's own pages. The blog says there is great flexibility and freedom in building marketing automation scenarios, and that the available steps are numerous and powerful.

The main argument is shared data. Because Koban handles sales as well as marketing, the blog says marketing teams can see everything the sales team records: the details salespeople enter, segmentation data, completed sales and how mature each lead is. That lets them build tightly targeted, personalized campaigns. In the other direction, salespeople see the signals marketing generates, such as an email open, a click on a link or a completed web form, so they can call the right prospect at the right time. A customer testimonial on the homepage from a sales manager at Ateliers Ragots says the newsletters are very simple to use, instant and practical.

The rest of the CRM surrounds the email tools. The sales module centralizes and segments data, tracks opportunities, follows up on open quotes and automates repetitive work, with an email inbox connection, a pipeline view, automatic quote reminders and online signature. The invoicing module runs from quote to accounting export, including purchase orders and purchasing, with payment tracking, automatic reminders for unpaid invoices, contract and subscription management, and purchasing and stock management. The customer service module centralizes incoming requests from any channel, with customizable processes, SLA management, tickets on the customer record and real-time exchanges through a customer portal. That portal, the newest module, can be branded in the business's colors and lets it choose which documents customers see, such as invoices, open quotes, tickets and equipment records.

Koban also sells industry setups: subscription businesses (recurring billing, retention and contracts), franchise networks (one CRM for the head office and the franchisees), manufacturing (machine fleet management and a link to production management software) and service companies. The site lists integrations and an API among its resources, and the homepage promises advanced customization, smart automations and room to scale.

The blog is frank about limits. It says Koban is not dedicated exclusively to marketing automation, which makes it less suited to some users, and that it needs setup work beforehand so that all data is entered correctly and can be used, so a buyer should plan time for implementation.

Prices, trial and data location

The company's blog compares marketing automation tools in a table, and its row for Koban gives "Entre 65€ et 85€ / mois / utilisateur" (between 65 and 85 euros per month per user), for software covering sales, marketing and invoicing, at a level from beginner to expert, with customer support and the Koban Academy. The blog presents price as a competitive advantage, saying specialized marketing automation tools are often very expensive while Koban remains affordable. The site also has a pricing page and offers personalized demonstrations.

The free trial is stated plainly: "Testez gratuitement Koban pendant 14 jours" (try Koban free for 14 days), described as 100% free, with no commitment and no credit card required.

On data, the homepage says: "Vos données sont hébergées en France et protégées selon les normes RGPD et les dernières obligations légales" (your data is hosted in France and protected according to GDPR standards and the latest legal obligations). The demo form adds that the information collected there is kept for 3 years and used by the marketing department, with access and correction rights under the French data protection law.

The company figures on the homepage are more than 2,300 users, a satisfaction score of "4,8/5" (4.8 out of 5) and the whole team based in France, and "+ de 370 PME déjà convaincues" (more than 370 SMEs already convinced). The demo section elsewhere says more than 3,000 users have adopted Koban. Koban's founder and technical lead is named as Guillaume Lecanu.

Support and training

Support is one of the main promises. The homepage describes local, highly responsive support from the team near Lyon, with no impersonal hotline: "vous parlez à des experts qui comprennent vos besoins et votre métier" (you talk to experts who understand your needs and your business). The team offers personalized guidance through every stage of setting up the CRM, including advice on structuring data and the processes to put in place.

For self-service, Koban provides user guides, tutorials, support articles, video training, webinar replays, documentation and the Koban Academy. It runs training courses and lists a Qualiopi certification. The product roadmap is described as co-built with users, with regular updates based on their feedback. The site, its support pages and its resources are in French.

Who it suits

Koban suits a French small or midsize business that wants its email and SMS campaigns to run from the same system as its sales pipeline, quotes and invoices: a service company, a subscription business, a franchise network or a manufacturer with a sales team. Such a business can target campaigns on sales data, hand hot leads to salespeople on the strength of email opens and form fills, and keep customer data hosted in France. The per-user price makes sense when several people in sales and marketing all use the CRM.

It fits less well a business that only needs to send newsletters, since a per-user CRM with invoicing and ticketing is a lot of software for that job, and the company's own blog says Koban is not a pure marketing automation tool. A team that does not work in French should note that the site, support and resources are written for a French audience.