Best CRM for Startups: Free Plans, Startup Deals and the Cost at 10 Seats

An early-stage startup needs a CRM for a different reason than an established small business. The founders do the selling, the team changes size every few months, and every dollar of runway counts. So the useful questions are what you can run for free, which vendors give startups a discount, and what the bill looks like when you reach five and then ten people. Every price below comes from the vendor's own pricing page, in US dollars.

The startup CRMs at a glance

HubSpot: best for starting free and growing into a discount

HubSpot's free CRM covers up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts, with no time limit and no credit card. It includes 2,000 marketing email sends a month carrying HubSpot branding, which is enough to run a founder's first pipeline and a small newsletter.

When you need more seats, Starter is listed at $20 a seat a month. HubSpot is currently running a promotion that gives new customers Starter from $7 a seat on a monthly or annual subscription; the chart and table below use the list price. The large step is Sales Hub Professional, from $90 a seat a month plus a required one-time onboarding fee of $1,500.

That step is where HubSpot for Startups comes in. Startups that have raised pre-seed, seed or Series A funding (not Series B or later) and are affiliated with an approved HubSpot for Startups partner, or have verified venture funding, can get up to 90% off the first year, 50% off the second and 25% off the third. A second tier gives 30% off year one and 15% off year two to startups linked to one of HubSpot's approved entrepreneurial organizations.

What to watch:

• The discount does not cover Starter. It applies only to net-new Professional or Enterprise products, with an annual commitment.
• The terms are not fully consistent. HubSpot's own FAQ calls the discount period "typically two years", while the offer lists three. Get the schedule in writing before you sign.
• Contacts are the second limit. The free plan stops at 1,000 contacts. See HubSpot CRM pricing for what each paid tier allows.

Choose it if you want to start at $0 today and you expect to raise money and need marketing automation within a year or two.

Zoho CRM: best for the lowest cost per seat as you hire

Zoho CRM's free edition is "forever free, for 3 users", one more than HubSpot or Salesforce. Standard costs $14 per user a month billed annually, or $20 billed monthly, and adds mass email, built-in calling, multiple sales pipelines, web forms for lead capture, sales forecasting and integrations with Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Zoom and Teams.

Professional, at $23 per user a month billed annually ($35 monthly), adds process management, CPQ quoting, inventory management and unlimited reports. Enterprise is $40 billed annually. That makes Zoho the cheapest way to put ten people on a paid CRM: $1,680 a year on Standard.

Zoho runs a Zoho for Startups credit program, but its page lists the countries it accepts applications from and the US is not among them, so a US startup pays list price. At these prices that matters less than it would elsewhere.

What to watch:

• Pay for the edition you need, not the one you might need. Moving from Standard to Professional is a 64% increase per seat on annual billing ($14 to $23).

Choose it if you want a full sales CRM for as little as possible per head. See Zoho CRM pricing for every edition.

Attio: best for a venture-backed team that wants a flexible CRM

Attio prices its plans partly by objects, the record types you track, so a startup can keep deals, investors or hires as separate lists in one workspace. The Free plan covers up to 3 seats, 3 objects and 50,000 records. Plus costs $35 a seat a month billed annually ($44 monthly) for up to 10 seats and 5 objects. Pro costs $79 a seat billed annually ($99 monthly), with unlimited seats, 12 objects and 1 million records. Annual billing saves 20%, and there is a 14-day trial of Pro.

Attio's startup program has the clearest published terms here, and the only ones that apply to a plan under $100 a seat: 80% off the annual Pro plan for the first year, plus credits, and 30% off the second year. That puts five Pro seats at $948 for the first year instead of $4,740. The terms:

• The startup must be venture-backed or affiliated with one of Attio's startup partners.
• It must have been incorporated less than 10 years ago and have signed up for Attio within the last 90 days.
• The discount is valid for workspaces of up to 10 seats.

What to watch:

• The 90-day window. Sign up and apply in the same quarter, or the discount is gone.
• Plus stops at 10 seats. An eleventh person means moving to Pro at $79 a seat.
• Year three is full price. Ten Pro seats are $9,480 a year at list price once the discount ends.

Choose it if you have raised money, expect to stay under 10 seats for a while and want one tool for sales, fundraising and recruiting pipelines.

Close: best for founder-led outbound sales

Close is a sales CRM built around calling and email, for teams that make a lot of outreach. Solo costs $9 a month billed annually, or $19 monthly, for 1 user and up to 10,000 leads, and Close describes it as for "founders and solo reps who need a real CRM, not a spreadsheet". There is no free plan; the trial lasts 14 days with no credit card, and Close offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Once a second person joins, you need Essentials at $35 per user a month billed annually ($49 monthly), which adds unlimited contacts and leads, team collaboration, a shared inbox and built-in forms, email, calling and SMS. Workflows, the power dialer and bulk email start on Growth at $99 per user a month billed annually ($109 monthly).

What to watch:

• Automation costs extra. Neither Solo nor Essentials includes workflows, so automated sequences mean paying for Growth.
• No startup program is listed. The only discount is for annual billing, which Close says saves up to 50%.

Choose it if a founder spends the day on calls and emails to prospects and wants the dialer and inbox in the CRM, not bolted on. If what you really need is a business number that rings on several phones, start with a virtual phone system instead.

Salesforce: best if you expect to end up on Salesforce

Salesforce now has a free plan too. Free Suite covers up to 2 users with lead, opportunity and case management, simple email marketing of up to 100 emails a month, and connected Slack conversations. That email allowance covers follow-ups, not a newsletter; for that, see email marketing for small business. Free Suite stays free with no expiration date, as long as you log in at least once every 60 days.

At three users you move to Starter Suite at $25 per user a month, billed monthly or annually, which adds sales flows, lead routing and email marketing. Pro Suite is $100 per user a month, billed annually.

Salesforce Launchpad is its startup program. Salesforce says it offers free and discounted products, including Starter Suite and Pro Suite, to venture-backed startups that can show proof of funding, but it does not publish the discount or how long it lasts. Treat any figure you see elsewhere as unconfirmed until Salesforce puts it in writing.

What to watch:

• The jump after Starter is large. Pro Suite is four times the Starter price per user; our Salesforce pricing guide has every edition. Our Salesforce alternatives guide compares that step with other CRMs.
• Free Suite needs regular use. It stays free only if you log in at least once every 60 days.

Choose it if your investors, buyers or future sales hires already work in Salesforce and you would rather not migrate later.

Pipedrive and monday CRM

Pipedrive and monday CRM are both popular with small sales teams, but neither has a free plan, and both show prices by location, so we do not quote them here. Our Pipedrive pricing and monday CRM pricing guides list their US dollar prices, checked from the US.

What 10 seats cost in a year

Free plans are left out because none of them covers more than 3 users. Our free CRM for small business guide compares the free plans themselves, and CRM for small business compares the paid plans for an established team.

How to choose

1. Two founders, no budget? HubSpot's free plan or Salesforce Free Suite. Three people: Zoho CRM's free edition or Attio Free.
2. Hiring and watching every dollar? Zoho CRM Standard, at $14 a user billed annually.
3. Raised a pre-seed to Series A round? Apply to Attio's program (within 90 days of signing up) or HubSpot for Startups before you pay list price for a Pro tier.
4. Founder doing outbound all day? Close: Solo for one person, Essentials once you add a rep.
5. Selling to companies that run on Salesforce? Start on Salesforce Free Suite and ask Launchpad for its terms.