A small business rarely needs the biggest CRM. It needs one that the whole team will actually open every day, that holds every customer and every deal in one place, and that costs a sensible amount once five or ten people log in. This guide is about the paid plans, the ones you move to when a free plan runs out, and which of them fits which kind of team. Every price comes from the vendor's own pricing page, in US dollars, and the chart shows what 5 and 10 users pay in a year.
If you are not ready to pay yet, start with our guide to free CRM for small business, which compares every free plan's limits.
Small-business CRMs at a glance
| CRM | Entry paid plan | Billed monthly | Best known for | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bigin by Zoho | Express: $7 a user, billed annually | $9 | A simple pipeline at the lowest price | 15 days |
| Freshsales | Growth: $9 a user, billed annually | $11 | Email, phone and chat in one cheap plan | 21 days |
| monday CRM | Basic: $12 a seat, billed yearly, from 3 seats | $18 | Teams that already work in monday.com boards | 14 days |
| Zoho CRM | Standard: $14 a user, billed annually | $20 | The most features per dollar | Free plan for 3 users |
| Pipedrive | Lite: $14 a seat, billed annually | $24 | A visual sales pipeline | 14 days |
| Less Annoying CRM | One plan: $15 a user | $15 | Simplicity: one price, everything included | 30 days |
| Capsule | Starter: $18 a user, billed annually | $22 | A tidy contact manager for small service firms | 14 days |
| HubSpot | Starter: $20 a seat (from $7 for new customers) | $20 list | Marketing and sales on one platform | Free plan for 2 users |
| Salesforce | Starter Suite: $25 a user | $25 | Room to grow into the biggest CRM | 30 days |
| Close | Essentials: $35 a user, billed annually | $49 | Calling and email for inside sales | 14 days |
What 5 and 10 users pay in the first year on each CRM's entry paid plan
- 5 users
- 10 users
Show the numbers
| 5 users | 10 users | |
|---|---|---|
| Bigin Express | $420 | $840 |
| Freshsales Growth | $540 | $1,080 |
| monday CRM Basic | $720 | $1,440 |
| Zoho CRM Standard | $840 | $1,680 |
| Pipedrive Lite | $840 | $1,680 |
| Less Annoying CRM | $900 | $1,800 |
| Capsule Starter | $1,080 | $2,160 |
| HubSpot Starter | $1,200 | $2,400 |
| Salesforce Starter Suite | $1,500 | $3,000 |
| Close Essentials | $2,100 | $4,200 |
The chart prices each CRM's cheapest paid plan, so it shows where each one starts rather than what each plan includes. The spread is wide: ten users pay $840 a year on Bigin and $4,200 on Close. The cheaper plans also leave more out, so check the "What to watch" notes below before you compare totals.
Zoho CRM: best for a growing team that wants depth for less
Zoho CRM is the default recommendation for a small business that expects to grow. Standard costs $14 a user a month billed annually, or $20 month to month, and it includes email integration with mass email, built-in calling, multiple sales pipelines, calendar integration, lead capture forms, sales forecasting, data enrichment and custom modules. Zoho's edition comparison sets the data storage at 100,000 records on Standard, and Zoho lists HIPAA compliance on this plan too.
Professional, at $23 billed annually ($35 monthly), adds process management, inventory management with quotes and invoices, CPQ, unlimited reports and customer portals. Enterprise is $40 ($50 monthly) and Ultimate $52 ($65 monthly).
What to watch:
- Mass email is capped. Standard sends 250 mass emails a day per organization and Professional 500. For newsletters you still need an email marketing tool.
- There are many settings. Zoho CRM does a lot, and that takes setup time. Zoho offers free onboarding.
Choose it if you want one CRM that will still fit at 20 people, at a per-user price that stays low. Our Zoho CRM pricing guide covers every edition.
HubSpot: best for marketing and sales in one place
HubSpot is free for up to 2 users, and many small businesses start there. The first paid step, Starter, lists at $20 per seat a month. HubSpot also shows special pricing from $7 a seat for new customers only, which is a promotion, not the list price. Starter removes HubSpot branding from emails, live chat and meeting links, raises the email template limit and adds 500 HubSpot Credits, calling and task queues.
What to watch:
- The jump to Professional is steep. Sales Hub Professional starts at $90 per seat a month, plus a required one-time onboarding fee of $1,500. Sequences and forecasting are on Professional, not Starter.
- The promotion ends. Budget at $20 a seat, so a renewal at list price does not surprise you.
Choose it if you want forms, email, live chat and the CRM on one platform, and you are happy on Starter for now. See HubSpot CRM pricing for the full tier list.
Pipedrive: best for a sales team that works from its pipeline
Pipedrive is built around the deal pipeline: every deal sits in a stage, and the team sees the whole pipeline on one screen. Lite costs $14 a seat a month billed annually, or $24 monthly. It covers lead, calendar and pipeline management, AI report creation, more than 500 integrations and meeting intelligence.
Most sales teams end up on Growth, $39 a seat billed annually ($49 monthly), because that is where full email sync with open and click tracking, automations and nurturing sequences start. Premium is $59 ($79 monthly) and Ultimate $79 ($99 monthly).
What to watch:
- Lite has no email sync. If your deals live in email, budget for Growth.
- Marketing is an add-on. Campaigns starts from $13.33 and LeadBooster from $32.50 on Pipedrive's pricing page.
Choose it if you have two or more salespeople and want them looking at the same pipeline every morning. More detail in our Pipedrive pricing guide.
Bigin by Zoho: best for the cheapest paid pipeline
Bigin is Zoho's pipeline-first CRM for very small businesses, simpler than Zoho CRM. Express costs $7 a user a month billed annually, or $9 monthly, the lowest price here. It includes 3 team pipelines, 50,000 records, 30 automations, email and WhatsApp integration, mass email, a booking page and QuickBooks integration.
Premier, at $12 billed annually ($15 monthly), raises the limits to 5 pipelines and 100,000 records. All paid plans include a free onboarding session and phone, email and chat support.
What to watch: Bigin counts every row across pipelines, contacts, activities and notes as a record, so 50,000 goes less far than it sounds.
Choose it if you have two to five people, a simple sales or service process, and want the lowest bill.
Less Annoying CRM: best for a simple CRM with one price
Less Annoying CRM has one plan at $15 per user a month, plus applicable tax. There are no tiers, so nothing is locked behind an upgrade: unlimited contacts and companies, unlimited pipelines and custom fields, task management, email logging, user permissions, 25GB of file storage per user and HIPAA compliance. Support by email and phone is free.
What to watch: the page lists one monthly price and no annual discount, and the vendor's rule of thumb is to stay below about 50,000 contacts and companies in total.
Choose it if you want a CRM that a non-technical team can learn in an afternoon, at a price that never changes with features. A 30-day trial needs no credit card.
monday CRM: best for teams already on monday.com
monday CRM uses the same boards as monday.com's work management tool. Basic is $12 a seat a month billed yearly ($18 monthly), Standard $17 ($25) and Pro $28 ($41). Seats are sold in bundles, starting at 3; the team-size menu offers 3, 5, 10, 15 seats and up.
What to watch:
- Basic is tight. It allows 1,000 active contacts and deals and 5 columns per board. Standard raises that to 10,000 and adds 250 custom automations a month.
- Mass email starts on Pro. So do email sequences.
Choose it if your team already plans its work in monday.com and wants the CRM in the same place. See monday CRM pricing.
Freshsales: best for a cheap all-channel start
Freshsales Growth costs $9 a user a month billed annually, or $11 monthly. It includes a Kanban deal view, contact lifecycle stages, chat, email and phone, email templates, custom fields and basic workflows. Pro, at $39 billed annually ($47 monthly), adds contact scoring, deal insights, territory management and sales sequences.
What to watch: the jump from Growth to Pro is more than four times the price, and the page lists branded documents at $19 a user a month as an add-on.
Choose it if you want email and phone on a low per-user price, and expect to stay on the basic plan.
Capsule: best for a small service business
Capsule is a clean contact manager that suits agencies, consultants and other service firms. Starter is $18 a user a month billed annually ($22 monthly), with 30,000 contacts, email templates, a shared mailbox, basic reporting and integrations such as Xero. Capsule describes Starter as for businesses with one to five employees.
What to watch: workflow automations, multiple sales pipelines and email sync start on Growth, $36 billed annually ($40 monthly).
Choose it if your work is relationships and projects rather than a high-volume sales funnel.
Salesforce Starter Suite: best if you expect to outgrow the rest
Salesforce's Starter Suite costs $25 per user a month, billed monthly or annually. It covers lead, account, contact and opportunity management, built-in sales flows and lead routing, email sync and email marketing, and Salesforce includes the free Slack plan with it. You can try it free for 30 days with up to 10 users.
What to watch: the next step, Pro Suite, is $100 a user a month billed annually, four times Starter. Our Salesforce alternatives guide compares that jump with the other CRMs.
Choose it if you expect to need Salesforce's ecosystem later and would rather start there than migrate.
Close: best for phone-heavy inside sales
Close is built for teams that sell by calling and emailing. Essentials costs $35 a user a month billed annually ($49 monthly) and includes unlimited contacts and leads, built-in forms, email, calling and SMS, and a centralized inbox and task list. Calls are charged by usage; Close says most outbound calls cost around $0.02 a minute and numbers start at about $1 a month. A Solo plan, $9 billed annually, is limited to 1 user.
What to watch: workflows are not included on Essentials. Automated workflows, the power dialer and bulk email start on Growth, $99 billed annually ($109 monthly).
Choose it if your reps spend most of the day on the phone and you want calling built into the CRM rather than a separate business phone system.
What five users pay once they need automation
The entry plans in the chart are not equal: several leave out automation. Here is what five users pay, billed annually, on the cheapest plan of each CRM that lists workflow automation. Less Annoying CRM does not list automation and is left out.
| CRM and plan | First-year cost, 5 users | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Bigin Express | $420 | 5 × $7 × 12; 30 automations |
| Freshsales Growth | $540 | 5 × $9 × 12; basic workflows |
| Zoho CRM Standard | $840 | 5 × $14 × 12 |
| monday CRM Standard | $1,020 | 5 × $17 × 12; 250 automations a month |
| HubSpot Starter | $1,200 | 5 × $20 × 12 at list price; up to 50 workflows with restricted triggers |
| Salesforce Starter Suite | $1,500 | 5 × $25 × 12; built-in sales flows |
| Capsule Growth | $2,160 | 5 × $36 × 12 |
| Pipedrive Growth | $2,340 | 5 × $39 × 12 |
| Close Growth | $5,940 | 5 × $99 × 12 |
How to choose
- Count the people who will log in. One to three people can start free on HubSpot or Zoho CRM. From four or five, a paid plan is usually cheaper than working around free limits.
- Name the main job. Selling from a pipeline: Pipedrive or Bigin. Marketing and sales together: HubSpot. Calling all day: Close. Keeping client relationships in order: Capsule or Less Annoying CRM. A bit of everything with room to grow: Zoho CRM.
- Price the plan you will really need. If you want email sync or automation, compare Pipedrive Growth, Capsule Growth and monday CRM Standard, not their entry plans.
- Try before you commit annually. Every CRM here has a free trial or a free plan. Commit to annual billing only once you are sure; Pipedrive, for one, says it saves up to 42%.
Some trades have their own CRMs. If you work in property, nonprofit fundraising or insurance, read our guides to CRM for real estate, CRM for nonprofits and CRM for insurance agents. A newly founded company should also see CRM for startups, which covers the startup discounts.