How much does a CRM cost in 2026?

HubSpot is still the cheapest way into a real CRM: the Free plan covers 2 users with no credit card, and Starter begins at $7 per seat billed yearly ($20 month to month). Keep in mind that $7 is a "starts at" price for new customers, on a limited-time offer, so re-read the grid before you sign. We compared it for a small sales team: to track contacts, deals and emails, Starter is plenty. It also includes 500 HubSpot credits a month for the AI features.

For 5 reps on Starter, budget $35 a month billed yearly, or $100 a month with no commitment. Everything changes at Professional: $90 per seat, plus a mandatory $1,500 onboarding fee. For 5 reps, year one lands at $6,900. Enterprise climbs to $150 per seat and $3,500 of onboarding. In forums, this is the number one complaint: the jump from Starter to Pro feels brutal for small teams.

The trick that changes the math: view-only seats are free and unlimited on paid plans. Your CEO, your accountant or your support team can read records without costing you a seat. They can't edit anything or log activity, though. For the full picture, read our HubSpot review.

Pipedrive starts at $14 per seat billed yearly with Lite, then $39 (Growth), $59 (Premium) and $79 (Ultimate). Annual billing saves up to 42%, the biggest gap in our dataset. On short B2B sales cycles, you learn its deal board in an hour. For 5 reps, Lite costs $70 a month and Growth $195.

The catch is the add-ons. Lead capture (LeadBooster) starts at $32.50 a month, website visitor tracking at $41, email campaigns at $13.33, documents (Smart Docs) at $32.50. A team of 5 on Growth that turns on four add-ons goes from $195 to roughly $325 a month, 67% above the base price.

Our advice: list the add-ons you actually need before picking a tier, and add them up. All Pipedrive prices exclude tax. The tier-by-tier breakdown lives on our Pipedrive pricing page.

Close lists $9 a month billed yearly on Solo ($19 monthly), but Solo allows a single user and stops at 10,000 leads, with no workflows. The day you hire, you move to Essentials: $35 per seat billed yearly ($49 monthly). That's why we count Close at $175 a month for 5 people.

Close is built for selling over the phone: most outbound calls cost about $0.02 a minute, and the call assistant with transcription adds $50 a month per organization, plus $0.02 a minute. Reviews keep coming back to that seat-plus-calling stack: pricey for an early startup, worth it for a team that spends the day on calls.

Our tip: a rep who spends 20 hours a month on the phone adds about $24 in calls (1,200 minutes at $0.02). Put a number on that time before you compare Close with a CRM that has no dialer. The 14-day trial doesn't ask for a card.

folk costs $24 per member per month on Standard billed yearly, $30 month to month, and Premium goes to $48. In Europe it shows its own euro price, €22, slightly lower. We compared it for managing a network of partners and leads coming from LinkedIn: you're productive on day one.

Standard includes 500 email lookups a month and a shared history capped at the last 30 interactions. For 5 members, budget $120 a month billed yearly. A team prospecting at volume hits the lookup cap mid-month.

Our tip: if your company bills in euros, pick the euro price, it's lower and you skip your bank's FX fee. The 2-week trial needs no card. Our folk review covers the rest.

Salesflare costs $29 per user per month on Growth billed yearly, $39 month to month. Its edge: it builds records from your email, your calendar and signatures. In our comparison, it's the CRM that asks a rep for the least manual data entry.

Growth includes 5 lead enrichment credits a month, which is thin. For 5 people, budget $145 a month billed yearly. Pro costs $49, and Enterprise ($99) requires 5 users minimum.

Our tip: the 30-day no-card trial is one of the longest in the dataset. Connect your real inbox on day one to check the sync holds up before you pay anything.

Attio gives you 3 seats and 50,000 records for free, one of the widest free plans around. The first paid tier, Plus, costs $35 per seat billed yearly ($44 monthly): the highest entry price in our dataset.

The free plan mostly limits sending: 200 emails a month. Plus raises that to 1,000 emails and caps at 10 seats; past that, Pro costs $79. For 5 people on Plus, budget $175 a month billed yearly.

Our tip: stay on free while the team is three people and sends little from the tool. We recommend it to startups that want to shape their CRM like a database, not to teams hunting the lowest price. Our Attio review goes deeper.

Salesforce now has a Free Suite: 2 users max, no card and no time limit, as long as you log in regularly. It covers accounts, contacts, leads and opportunities, with 10 GB of data. A third user means moving to paid.

Starter Suite costs $25 per user per month, and it's the only edition you can pay monthly. For 5 people, budget $125 a month. Pro Suite ($100), Core ($195) and Advanced ($395) are billed annually, and AI only comes as an add-on from Core up.

Our tip: Salesforce raised average list prices by 9% in 2023, then about 6% in 2025 on Enterprise and Unlimited. Get a renewal cap in writing before you commit to Pro Suite or above.

Bigin is Zoho's starter CRM. Express costs $7 per user per month billed yearly ($9 monthly), Premier $12, Bigin 360 $18. The Free plan stops at 1 user, 500 records, 1 pipeline and 3 automations. For 5 people on Express, budget $35 a month, the same as HubSpot Starter.

When Bigin gets too small, Zoho CRM takes over: its free edition covers 3 users, with 5,000 API calls a day and 10 data exports. Its paid editions only show up in the price calculator, in your currency, and local taxes come on top.

Our tip: start on Bigin alone, then get your Zoho CRM quote from the calculator before you hire. Our Zoho review compares the two.

monday CRM lists $12 per seat per month on Basic billed yearly ($18 monthly), then $17 (Standard) and $28 (Pro). The pricing page shows 33% off for annual. But billing starts at 3 users: solo, you pay $36 a month.

Seats are sold in buckets (3, 5, 10, 15): a team of 4 pays for 5 seats, $60 a month on Basic. Basic also caps at 1,000 contacts or deals. And the price depends on your billing country.

Our tip: if you sit between two buckets, compare with a CRM billed per user. The 14-day trial needs no card. Our monday review covers the rest.

At HubSpot, view-only seats are free and unlimited on Starter, Professional and Enterprise. A CEO who checks the pipeline, an accountant who looks up a customer, a support team reading history: none of them needs a paid seat.

Run an inventory before you sign: who creates deals, who logs calls, who sends email from the tool? Only those people pay. On a team of 8 where 3 people only read, you save over $250 a year on Starter, and more than $3,000 on Professional.

monday CRM bills 3 seats minimum, then in buckets: 3, 5, 10, 15. A team of 4 pays for 5 seats, $60 a month on Basic instead of $48. Solo, you pay $36 a month for a tool advertised at $12.

If you sit between two buckets, compare with a CRM billed per user, like Pipedrive or Less Annoying CRM, or with a flat plan like Bitrix24 ($49 a month for 5 users).

Annual billing saves 20% (folk, Attio) up to 42% (Pipedrive). On 5 Pipedrive Growth seats, that's several hundred dollars a year. But an annual commitment locks the budget even if the team never adopts the tool.

Our method: use the free trial (14 days at Close or monday, 21 at Freshsales and OnePageCRM, 30 at Salesflare and Less Annoying CRM), then pay one or two months monthly. Switch to annual once every rep uses it daily.

HubSpot for Startups gives up to 90% off in year one, 50% in year two and 25% in year three, to startups at seed through Series A (not Series B), affiliated with a program partner or a verified fund. Companies tied to a partner entrepreneur organization get 30% in year one, then 15%.

The fine print: the discount only applies to a net-new purchase of Professional or Enterprise. If you already pay for those editions, ask HubSpot before you count on it.

On small teams, fixed fees weigh more than the per-seat price. HubSpot charges $1,500 of mandatory onboarding on Professional. Insightly stacks $1,500 of onboarding, mandatory support at 20% of the license with a $3,000 yearly minimum, and $3,000 for AppConnect setup. For 2 users on Plus ($29 each), year one passes $5,000, while the license alone is under $700.

These fees are negotiable, especially at quarter end, when the vendor's reps have a number to hit. Ask for free months rather than a discount: they're easier to grant.

Price hikes usually land at renewal. Salesforce raised average list prices by 9% in 2023, then about 6% in 2025 on its Enterprise and Unlimited editions. Users also report jumping tiers at Zoho, with a monthly bill that quadruples when the seat count changes.

On an annual contract, ask for a clause that caps the increase at renewal. Put the renewal date in your calendar two months ahead: that's when you compare and negotiate.

Seven CRMs in the dataset have a free plan: HubSpot and Salesforce (2 users), Zoho CRM and Attio (3), Bigin (1), Capsule (2 users and 250 contacts) and Bitrix24. A solo founder or a pair can run for months without paying.

Move to paid when you need automated follow-ups or a new rep. To compare on more than price, read our best CRM ranking.

Across the 13 CRMs in the median, on the entry plan, billed yearly, before tax:

• 1 user: from $0 (HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, Attio) to $35; monday CRM bills $36 because it requires 3 seats.
• 5 users: about $115 a month at the median, from $35 (HubSpot Starter, Bigin Express) to $175 (Attio Plus, Close Essentials).
• 10 users: about $230 a month at the median, from $70 to $350.
• 20 users: about $460 a month at the median. Attio Plus stops at 10 seats: at 20, you need Pro, $1,580.

Add sales tax where your state applies it to software. A flat plan like Bitrix24 changes the math: $49 a month for 5 users, $99 for 50.

• Per user: the default (Pipedrive, HubSpot, Salesforce). The price follows headcount.
• By seat bucket: monday CRM sells 3, 5, 10, 15 seats. You pay the bucket, not the person.
• Flat rate: Bitrix24 charges a fixed price for 5, 50 or 100 users.
• By contact volume: Capsule caps each tier (250 contacts free, then 30,000, 60,000, 120,000).
• By usage: Close calls by the minute, Freshsales AI agent sessions, HubSpot credits.

Always compare like for like: a flat plan that's cheap at 5 can cost more than per-seat pricing at 3.

The subscription is one line of the budget. For a team of about 10 people with simple needs, one widely cited guide puts year one around €16,700: roughly €2,500 of training, €5,000 of setup and €2,500 of yearly maintenance, the rest in licenses. Year two drops to about €4,500.

For a company of about 50 users that wants real lead management, the same guide counts €76,000 in year one. These numbers come from firms that sell those services: treat them as an order of magnitude, and get two quotes on a tight scope.

Then add the mandatory fees some vendors charge: $1,500 at HubSpot Professional, $3,500 on Enterprise, $1,500 at Insightly, plus its support at $3,000 minimum a year.

AI rarely comes inside the seat price. HubSpot includes monthly credits (500 on Starter, 3,000 on Professional, 5,000 on Enterprise) and sells the rest in packs or pay-as-you-go. Freshsales bills its Freddy AI agent at $49 per 100 sessions. At Salesforce, AI only comes as an add-on from Core, at $195 per user.

Our advice: check how many credits your usage burns during the trial, before you pick a tier for its AI.

SuiteCRM is open source under the AGPLv3 license: the software costs nothing, but you pay for hosting, updates and the time of someone who can run it. Odoo offers "One App Free": a single app, like CRM, free for unlimited users. Add a second app and you move to the paid Standard plan, priced per user.

A custom-built CRM quickly costs more than ten years of an off-the-shelf subscription. Keep it for workflows no tool covers.

• Solo or a pair, zero budget: HubSpot Free or Salesforce Free Suite (2 users), Zoho CRM free for three.
• 5 reps, small budget: HubSpot Starter or Bigin Express, $35 a month for five, billed yearly.
• Your team sells by phone: Close Essentials, counting call minutes.
• Your team lives in its pipeline: Pipedrive, adding up the add-ons before picking a tier.
• You want a simple, flat price: Less Annoying CRM at $15 a user, no tiers.

To choose on more than price, read our best CRM ranking or the HubSpot vs Pipedrive matchup.