How to Set Up Google Sheets as Your Free CRM with n8n

Quick answer: Replace $50-300/month CRM with Google Sheets + n8n. Tracks customers, purchases, and automates segmentation.

Total cost: $0 (Google Sheets free, n8n free if self-hosted).

Why Google Sheets as CRM?

Traditional CRM costs:

• HubSpot: $50/month (2 users)
• Salesforce: $25/user/month
• Pipedrive: $15/user/month

Google Sheets + n8n:

• Cost: $0
• Unlimited records
• Custom fields
• Full control of data

Trade-offs:

• Less polished UI
• Manual reporting (unless automated)
• No built-in email sequences (use n8n)

Best for: Businesses with less than 1,000 customers or tight budgets.

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What You’ll Build

CRM features:

1. Customer database (name, email, phone, etc.)
2. Purchase history tracking
3. Last contact date
4. Customer tags/segments
5. Automated data entry from website/store
6. Automated follow-up triggers

Example use cases:

• Track all customers from DashNex store
• Log interactions automatically
• Segment by purchase behavior
• Trigger win-back campaigns for inactive customers

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Step 1: Set Up Google Sheet Structure

Create new Google Sheet:

Sheet 1: Customers

Column	Type	Example
Customer ID	Auto-number	1
Email	Text	[email protected]
Name	Text	John Doe
Phone	Text	+1-555-0123
First Purchase Date	Date	2025-03-15
Last Purchase Date	Date	2025-10-20
Total Orders	Number	5
Total Spent	Currency	$487
Tags	Text	VIP, Newsletter
Last Contact	Date	2025-11-01
Source	Text	Website Form
Status	Dropdown	Active, Inactive, Churned
Notes	Text	Prefers email contact

Sheet 2: Orders

Column	Example
Order ID	ORD-1001
Customer Email	[email protected]
Date	2025-10-20
Amount	$97
Product	Course Bundle
Status	Completed

Sheet 3: Interactions

Column	Example
Date	2025-11-01
Customer Email	[email protected]
Type	Email Sent
Notes	Welcome sequence - email 2

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Step 2: Build n8n Automation Workflows

Workflow 1: New Customer from Website Form

Trigger: Webhook (form submission) Actions:

1. Check if customer exists in Sheet
2. If new: Add row to Customers sheet
3. If existing: Update last contact date
4. Send welcome email
5. Notify Slack

n8n nodes:

Webhook → Google Sheets (Lookup) → IF node → Google Sheets (Append/Update) → SendGrid → Slack

Workflow 2: New Order Tracking

Trigger: Webhook (new order from store) Actions:

1. Add order to Orders sheet
2. Update customer’s Total Orders and Total Spent
3. Update Last Purchase Date
4. Check if qualifies for VIP tag (>$500 spent)
5. Log interaction

n8n nodes:

Webhook → Google Sheets (Append to Orders) → Google Sheets (Update Customer) → Function (Calculate totals) → Google Sheets (Update tags)

Workflow 3: Inactive Customer Detection

Trigger: Schedule (weekly) Actions:

1. Find customers with Last Purchase > 90 days ago
2. Tag as “At Risk”
3. Add to win-back campaign list
4. Send Slack notification

n8n nodes:

Schedule → Google Sheets (Read all) → Function (Filter inactive) → Google Sheets (Update Status) → Slack

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Step 3: Customer Segmentation

Automated tags:

By Spending:

• VIP: Over $500 total
• Regular: $100-500
• New: Under $100

By Activity:

• Active: Purchased in last 30 days
• At Risk: 30-90 days since purchase
• Churned: >90 days since purchase

By Source:

• Organic: Direct website
• Paid: Ad campaigns
• Referral: Referred by existing customer

n8n Function node to calculate tags:

const totalSpent = $json.totalSpent;
const daysSinceLastPurchase = Math.floor((Date.now() - new Date($json.lastPurchaseDate)) / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24));

let tags = [];

// Spending tags
if (totalSpent > 500) tags.push('VIP');
else if (totalSpent > 100) tags.push('Regular');
else tags.push('New');

// Activity tags
if (daysSinceLastPurchase < 30) tags.push('Active');
else if (daysSinceLastPurchase < 90) tags.push('At-Risk');
else tags.push('Churned');

return [{
  json: {
    email: $json.email,
    tags: tags.join(', ')
  }
}];

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Step 4: Automated Reporting

Daily Summary Email

n8n workflow:

Schedule (Daily, 8am)
→ Google Sheets (Count customers by status)
→ Calculate metrics
→ Format HTML email
→ Send via SendGrid

Metrics to track:

• New customers (last 24 hours)
• Total active customers
• At-risk customers needing follow-up
• Total revenue (last 24 hours)
• Top customers by spend

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Step 5: Advanced Features

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Calculation

Add column to Customers sheet:

= Total Spent / (TODAY() - First Purchase Date) * 365

This estimates annual customer value.

Churn Prediction

Flag customers likely to churn:

• No purchase in 60+ days
• Only 1 purchase ever
• Low engagement with emails

RFM Analysis (Recency, Frequency, Monetary)

Score customers 1-5 on:

• Recency: How recently they purchased
• Frequency: How often they purchase
• Monetary: How much they spend

Best customers: High scores in all three.

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Real Cost Comparison

Google Sheets CRM + n8n

Year 1 costs:

Google Sheets: $0 (free up to 15GB)
n8n hosting: $60/year (self-hosted on VPS)
Total: $60/year

Traditional CRM

HubSpot CRM:

Free plan: Limited features
Starter: $50/month = $600/year
Professional: $890/month

Pipedrive:

Essential: $15/user/month = $180/year
Advanced: $29/user/month = $348/year

Savings: $120-840/year

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Limitations & Workarounds

Limitation 1: No built-in email sequences → Build with n8n (wait nodes + SendGrid)

Limitation 2: Manual data entry → Automate everything with n8n webhooks

Limitation 3: No mobile app → Use Google Sheets mobile app (decent)

Limitation 4: Limited to 5 million cells → Upgrade to Google Workspace ($6/user/month) for 10 million cells

Limitation 5: No deal pipeline visualization → Use Trello integration or stick with simple status column

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When to Upgrade to Real CRM

Upgrade when:

• ✅ >1,000 active customers
• ✅ Need sales pipeline management
• ✅ Multi-person team (>5 people)
• ✅ Complex sales cycles
• ✅ Need built-in phone/email tracking

Stick with Sheets when:

• ✅ less than 1,000 customers
• ✅ Solo or small team
• ✅ Simple sales process
• ✅ Budget-conscious

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FAQ

Q: Can Google Sheets handle 10,000 customers?

Yes, but it gets slow. Under 5,000 customers is comfortable. Over that, consider Airtable (better for large datasets).

Q: What about data privacy/GDPR?

Google Sheets is GDPR compliant. Ensure you:

• Have customer consent to store data
• Can delete data on request
• Encrypt sensitive data
• Limit team access

Q: Can I migrate to real CRM later?

Yes. Export as CSV, import to any CRM. Most CRMs support CSV imports.

Q: Is this better than Airtable?

Airtable has better UI and performance for large datasets. But costs $20/user/month. Google Sheets is free.

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Related posts:

• Deploy n8n for Free
• 5 Essential n8n Workflows

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About the author: I’m Mike Holownych, an automation consultant. I help entrepreneurs replace expensive SaaS with smart automation. Learn more →