Plan details checked September 21, 2026 on each vendor's own site. US dollars, list price per user per month, before tax. Vendors change plans and promotions often, so confirm before you buy.
A CRM keeps your leads, customers and deals in one place so follow-ups don't slip. For a small team the headline seat price is only part of the cost. Onboarding fees, add-ons and promotional pricing change the real bill. This guide covers five widely used CRMs, starting with the free plans, and ends with a short method for choosing.
How this guide was built: it draws on each vendor's own pricing page. We have not hands-on tested every product, so we give no ratings or scores. Where a page doesn't state something, we say so instead of guessing.
1. Start with the free plans
HubSpot. Sales Hub has a Free plan for up to 2 users, with no credit card required.
Zoho CRM. The Free plan is free forever for 3 users. It includes contact management, follow-up reminders, workflow automation, custom email templates, tasks, meetings and calls, data import and export, standard reports, APIs and mobile apps.
2. Paid plans, tool by tool
Zoho CRM. On Zoho's annual view, Standard is $14 per user per month, Professional is $23 (marked Most Popular) and Enterprise is $40. Standard adds email integration and mass emails, built-in calling, multiple sales pipelines and sales forecasting. Professional adds AI agents, process management, inventory management and unlimited reports. Zoho says it is pay-as-you-go, monthly or yearly, with no contracts.
Pipedrive. Lite is $14 per seat per month billed annually, Growth is $39, Premium is $59 and Ultimate is $79. There is a 14-day free trial with no credit card. Lite covers lead and pipeline management and includes Pipedrive Nova meeting intelligence (see our meeting note-taker guide). Growth adds full email sync, automations and email sequences, and Premium adds lead routing and e-signatures.
Freshsales (Freshworks). Growth is $9 per user per month billed annually, Pro is $39 and Enterprise is $59. Freshworks lists a 21-day trial. Growth includes a Kanban view, lifecycle stages and basic workflows, Pro adds contact scoring and sales sequences, and Enterprise adds forecasting insights and audit logs.
HubSpot Sales Hub. Starter starts at $7 per seat per month, shown against a crossed-out $20, and HubSpot says its special Starter pricing is for new customers only and for a limited time. Professional is $90 per seat per month (crossed-out $100) and Enterprise is $150. Watch the footnote: HubSpot's page says the cost shown excludes a required one-time onboarding fee of $1,500 for Professional and $3,500 for Enterprise.
Salesforce. Starter Suite is $25 per user per month, billed monthly or annually, and covers lead, contact and opportunity management, built-in sales flows and lead routing, and email marketing. Pro Suite is $100 billed annually and adds sales quoting, forecasting and more automation. Core (Sales Cloud) is $195 billed annually.
Watch the extras
- Onboarding fees: HubSpot Professional and Enterprise require one-time fees of $1,500 and $3,500.
- Add-ons: Freshsales lists Branded documents at $19 per user per month and its Freddy AI Agent at $49 per 100 sessions. Salesforce lists Premier Support as a Pro Suite add-on.
- Promotions: HubSpot's Starter price is a limited-time offer for new customers, so check what the price becomes after the offer ends.
- Billing basis: most of these pages show annual prices. Compare monthly and annual on the same footing.
If you sell across borders
- Languages: Zoho says its CRM supports 28 languages.
- Currency: Salesforce's pricing page has a currency converter offering USD, AUD, GBP, EUR, JPY and SEK. Freshworks says it accepts Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express cards across currencies, with exceptions for some cards in its FAQ.
- Payment methods: Zoho accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express and PayPal, plus bank transfer or check for yearly subscriptions.
- Not stated: the HubSpot and Pipedrive pages we read don't state language or currency coverage, so check before you buy.
How to choose
- Try a free plan first. HubSpot's covers 2 users and Zoho's covers 3, which is enough to test your process before paying.
- Add up the whole first-year cost. Include onboarding fees, add-ons and the end of any promotion, not just the seat price.
- Match the tier to a real need. Sequences, scoring and forecasting sit in the middle tiers on most of these, so don't buy the top tier for features you won't use.
- Check billing and currency. Compare annual against monthly prices and confirm you can pay in your currency.
- Test the trial with real deals. Pipedrive offers 14 days and Freshworks 21, so load a week of actual leads.
Quick math for a 5-person team, at each page's displayed price:
- Entry paid tier: Freshsales Growth is 5 × $9 = $45 a month. HubSpot Starter is 5 × $7 = $35 with the promotion (5 × $20 = $100 at the crossed-out price). Pipedrive Lite and Zoho Standard are each 5 × $14 = $70. Salesforce Starter Suite is 5 × $25 = $125.
- Middle tier: Zoho Professional is 5 × $23 = $115. Pipedrive Growth and Freshsales Pro are each 5 × $39 = $195. HubSpot Professional is 5 × $90 = $450 plus the $1,500 one-time onboarding fee. Salesforce Pro Suite is 5 × $100 = $500.
Most pages show annual pricing, and HubSpot's has a monthly and annual toggle, so treat these as list-price comparisons.
FAQ
Is there a free way to start? Yes. HubSpot's Free plan covers up to 2 users and Zoho CRM's covers 3.
Which one is cheapest? It depends on tier and promotions. At the entry paid tier, Freshsales and HubSpot's promotional Starter price are lowest, but HubSpot's price is for new customers for a limited time.
This guide contains no affiliate links.