Cheapest CRM for Small Business (2026): Free and Low-Cost

The cheapest CRM depends on how many people need a login. For one person, several CRMs are free. For a team of three, Zoho CRM's free edition still costs nothing. Once you need paid features, Bigin by Zoho CRM has the lowest price per user of the seven we compared, at USD $7 per user per month billed yearly.

This guide is built around price: what each free plan includes, what the first paid plan costs at 1, 3 and 5 users, and how much you save by paying yearly. Prices are in US dollars unless marked otherwise, and every currency is labelled where the vendor labels it. If you are in Canada, the If you're in Canada section has Canadian dollar prices, tax notes and data-hosting details. For a broader comparison that weighs features and growth plans, not just price, see our full best CRM for small business roundup.

The quick answer

• Cheapest paid CRM: Bigin by Zoho CRM. Express is $7 per user per month billed yearly, or $9 monthly.
• Best free plan for a small team: Zoho CRM, free for up to 3 users and 5,000 records.
• Best free plan to grow from: HubSpot, free for 2 users and 1,000 contacts, with paid hubs you can add later.
• Low-cost paid plan with workflows: Freshsales Growth, $9 per user per month billed annually.
• Simplest pricing: Less Annoying CRM, one flat price of $15 per user per month with every feature included.

How we evaluated

This is a research-based review. We did not use these products hands-on. We compared seven CRMs using each vendor's official pricing pages, feature comparison pages, sign-up pages and help centre articles, all checked in October 2026.

We looked at:

• Free plan: whether there is one, and its user, contact and record limits
• Entry paid plan: the list price per user per month, billed monthly and billed annually
• Cost at 1, 3 and 5 users: the price per user times the number of users, before tax
• What the low tiers include: pipelines, automation, email integration, mobile apps and reports
• Trial and terms: trial length, and whether a card is needed to start

We ranked on price first, then on how much each free or entry plan includes for that price. Affiliate relationships play no part in the order.

A note on currency. Pricing pages change by location, and we loaded them from Canada. HubSpot's currency selector let us switch to US dollars. Zoho CRM and Bigin showed Canadian dollars, so their US dollar figures come from the US dollar price list that their pricing pages load. Pipedrive's pricing page showed only Canadian dollars, so its US dollar figure comes from Pipedrive's own comparison page, which gives the annual Lite price only. Capsule and Less Annoying CRM label their prices in US dollars. Freshworks shows a $ sign with no currency label. All prices exclude sales tax.

What each CRM costs at 1, 3 and 5 users

Each row uses the vendor's cheapest paid plan, at regular list prices, per month, before tax. Annual billing is shown as the monthly equivalent of a yearly payment. The arithmetic is the per-user price times the number of users.

CRM and entry plan	Billing	Per user	1 user	3 users	5 users
Bigin Express	Yearly	$7	$7	$21	$35
Bigin Express	Monthly	$9	$9	$27	$45
Freshsales Growth	Annually	$9	$9	$27	$45
Freshsales Growth	Monthly	$11	$11	$33	$55
Zoho CRM Standard	Annually	$14	$14	$42	$70
Zoho CRM Standard	Monthly	$20	$20	$60	$100
Pipedrive Lite	Annually	$14	$14	$42	$70
Less Annoying CRM	Monthly only	$15	$15	$45	$75
Capsule Starter	Annually	$18	$18	$54	$90
Capsule Starter	Monthly	$22	$22	$66	$110
HubSpot Starter Customer Platform	Monthly or annually	$20	$20	$60	$100

Prices checked October 2026. Freshsales prices are shown with a $ sign and no currency label. Pipedrive's US dollar monthly price was not shown to us; in Canada, Lite is C$34 per seat billed monthly. HubSpot's row uses its regular Starter price; HubSpot was advertising Starter from $7 per seat per month (annual) or $10 (monthly) for new customers for a limited time.

Over a full year, five users on annual billing come to $420 on Bigin Express ($35 × 12), $540 on Freshsales Growth, $840 on Zoho CRM Standard or Pipedrive Lite, $1,080 on Capsule Starter and $1,200 on HubSpot Starter. Less Annoying CRM is $900 a year for five users billed monthly ($75 × 12).

Free plans change the math for very small teams. One person can use Bigin, Zoho CRM, HubSpot or Capsule for $0. Two people can stay free on Zoho CRM, HubSpot or Capsule. Three people can stay free on Zoho CRM. Past that, every CRM here charges per user.

1. Bigin by Zoho CRM: best for the lowest paid price

Bigin is Zoho's simpler pipeline CRM, aimed at small businesses moving off spreadsheets. It has the lowest paid price per user of the seven CRMs here.

Bigin's plans, per user per month:

• Free: $0 for a single user, with 1 pipeline, 500 records, 3 automations, built-in phone, a standard dashboard, and apps for iOS, iPadOS, Android and macOS.
• Express: $7 billed yearly or $9 billed monthly. Adds 3 team pipelines, 50,000 records, email and WhatsApp Business integration, 30 automations, mass emails, customizable dashboards, and integrations with Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Google Workspace and Microsoft Outlook.
• Premier: $12 billed yearly or $15 billed monthly. Adds 5 team pipelines, 100,000 records, 50 advanced automations, multiple currencies and AI writing tools.
• Bigin 360: $18 billed yearly or $21 billed monthly. Adds 15 team pipelines, 1 million records and 100 automation rules.

Bigin says yearly billing saves up to 35%. Its FAQ says Express and Premier have no user limits and are charged per user licence, while the Free plan allows 1 user. In Bigin, a record is any row in Contacts, Companies, Pipelines, Activities, Products or Notes.

Bigin's paid plans have a 15-day free trial with no credit card required. Bigin says that when the trial ends you are moved to the Free plan rather than charged. It also offers a full refund if you are dissatisfied within 30 days on monthly billing or 45 days on annual billing, and says every paid plan includes a free onboarding session and help with data import.

Bigin fits a small team that wants a clean sales pipeline, email integration and simple automations for the lowest price per seat. If you outgrow it, Zoho CRM is the same company's fuller CRM. Bigin also connects to Zoho Books, which we cover in our Zoho Books review.

2. Zoho CRM: best free plan for a team of three

Zoho CRM's free edition covers up to 3 users, the most free seats of the CRMs here. Zoho lists leads, deals, contacts and accounts, tasks and events, standard reports, web forms (1 per module), a mobile app, and up to 5,000 records with 1 GB of file storage on the free edition. It also includes workflow rules, with up to 5 active per module, so simple follow-ups can run on their own.

The free edition uses the default pipeline only, and some tools start on the paid editions. Per Zoho's feature comparison, email integration (IMAP, POP3, Gmail and Microsoft Graph), custom reports and mass email start on Standard.

Zoho CRM's paid editions, per user per month in US dollars:

Edition	Billed annually	Billed monthly
Standard	$14	$20
Professional	$23	$35
Enterprise	$40	$50
Ultimate	$52	$65

Standard includes 5 sales pipelines, 100,000 records, 100 custom reports, email integration, mass email (250 a day per organization), workflows and assignment rules, cadences (automated follow-up sequences), dashboards and sales forecasting. Zoho says its contracts are pay-as-you-go, monthly or yearly, and that you can change plans at any time. Paid editions have a 15-day free trial.

Zoho CRM fits a team of up to three that wants a real CRM for free, or a growing team that wants a deep paid CRM at $14 per user per month billed annually.

3. HubSpot: best free CRM with room to grow

HubSpot's free CRM covers up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts, with no time limit. HubSpot's FAQ says free accounts are also limited to 1,000 records across the other standard object types, such as companies and deals. HubSpot lists contact management, deal pipelines, a reporting dashboard (10 dashboards), email tracking, live chat, the HubSpot mobile app, and Gmail and Outlook integration among its free tools. Free emails and meeting links carry HubSpot branding.

The first paid tier is the Starter Customer Platform, which bundles the Starter editions of HubSpot's Marketing, Sales, Service, Content and Data hubs, including 1,000 marketing contacts. Its regular price is $20 per seat per month. Starter adds sales automation (up to 50 workflows), up to 15 pipelines, 500 calling minutes and 30 dashboards, and removes HubSpot branding.

When we checked, HubSpot was advertising "Save up to 65% on Starter": from $7 per seat per month on annual billing, or $10 on monthly billing, for new customers only, with offers available for a limited time. We use the regular $20 price in our cost table.

HubSpot fits a one- or two-person business that wants a polished free CRM and expects to add marketing or service tools later, all in one system.

4. Freshsales: best low-cost paid plan with workflows

Freshsales is Freshworks' sales CRM. Its pricing page lists three plans, per user per month:

• Growth: $9 billed annually or $11 billed monthly. Kanban view, contact lifecycle stages, chat, email and phone, email templates, custom fields and basic workflows.
• Pro: $39 billed annually or $47 billed monthly. Adds contact scoring, deal insights, territory management and sales sequences.
• Enterprise: $59 billed annually or $71 billed monthly. Adds forecasting insights, custom modules, a sandbox and audit logs.

Freshworks says annual billing saves 20%. Freshworks offers a 21-day free trial of the full CRM, after which you pick a plan and pay to continue. The pricing page did not list a free plan when we checked. Freshworks shows these prices with a $ sign and no currency label; its FAQ says it accepts cheque payments in US dollars from customers in the US and Canada.

Freshsales fits a small team that wants chat, email and phone in one place, plus basic workflows, at the second-lowest entry price here.

5. Less Annoying CRM: best flat price

Less Annoying CRM has one plan: $15 USD per user per month, billed monthly, with no tiers and no contracts. It includes unlimited contacts and companies (the company suggests staying below about 50,000 in total), unlimited pipelines, unlimited custom fields, task management, email logging, mobile access, user permissions and 25 GB of file storage per user. Every feature and future upgrade is included, and email and phone support is free.

There is a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. Less Annoying CRM's help centre says it does not offer discounts for paying in advance or for volume, so the price is the same for every customer. Sales tax is added based on your billing location.

Less Annoying CRM fits a small business that wants predictable pricing and every feature from day one, without comparing tiers.

6. Pipedrive: best for a visual sales pipeline

Pipedrive is a sales pipeline CRM with four plans: Lite, Growth, Premium and Ultimate. Pipedrive's comparison page puts them at $14 (Lite) to $79 (Ultimate) per seat per month billed annually in US dollars. Its pricing page shows prices in local currency, and its help centre says your location decides your billing currency. Pipedrive says annual billing saves up to 44%.

Lite includes customizable pipelines, lead and calendar management, AI-assisted report creation, the Android and iOS apps, and more than 500 integrations. Pipedrive's plan comparison puts email sync, email templates, open and click tracking, the meeting scheduler and automations on Growth. Every plan has a free 14-day trial with no credit card required. Pipedrive charges per seat, whether or not a seat is assigned to a user.

Pipedrive fits a sales-led team that wants a clear visual pipeline. If you want email sync and automations, budget for Growth, which was C$49 per seat per month billed annually in Canada.

7. Capsule CRM: simple contact management with a free plan

Capsule's free plan covers up to 2 users, 250 contacts, 5 custom fields and 1 sales pipeline, with Gmail or Outlook connected for sending email. Capsule describes it as a way to test the product before upgrading.

Capsule's paid plans, per user per month in US dollars:

• Starter: $18 billed annually or $22 billed monthly. 30,000 contacts, email templates, a shared mailbox, basic reporting and premium integrations such as Xero.
• Growth: $36 billed annually or $40 billed monthly. 60,000 contacts, workflow automations, multiple sales pipelines, email sync, reporting dashboards and AI tools.
• Advanced: $54 billed annually or $60 billed monthly. 120,000 contacts and up to 50 pipelines.

Capsule's paid plans have a 14-day free trial with no card required, there are no setup fees, and you can cancel at any time. Its pricing toggle says annual billing saves up to 18%.

Capsule fits a two-person business that wants a straightforward contact list and pipeline for free, or a team that values Capsule's integrations such as Xero.

Free CRM plans compared

Four of the seven CRMs have a free plan. Zoho, HubSpot and Bigin describe theirs as forever free or with no time limit. The other three CRMs offer free trials.

Feature	Zoho CRM	HubSpot	Capsule	Bigin
Users	Up to 3	Up to 2	Up to 2	1
Contacts or records	5,000 records	1,000 contacts	250 contacts	500 records
Pipelines	Default pipeline only	Deal pipelines	1	1
Automation	Workflow rules, 5 active per module	Not on free (Starter adds workflows)	Not on free (Growth adds it)	3 automations
Email	Email integration starts on Standard	Gmail and Outlook integration	Gmail or Outlook for sending	Integration starts on Express
Mobile app			Not listed on pricing page
Reports	Standard reports	10 dashboards	Not listed on pricing page	Standard dashboard

Trials instead of a free plan: Freshsales (21 days), Pipedrive (14 days, no card) and Less Annoying CRM (30 days, no card). Bigin, Zoho CRM and Capsule also offer trials of their paid plans: 15, 15 and 14 days.

Two more names come up in searches for cheap CRMs. Salesforce's Starter Suite starts at $25 USD per user per month, billed monthly or annually, which puts it above every entry plan in our table. GoHighLevel starts at $97 a month; it bundles a CRM with funnels, email and SMS and is built for marketing agencies managing several clients rather than as a budget CRM. Our full CRM roundup covers GoHighLevel in detail.

How to keep CRM costs low

Start on a free plan or trial. Zoho CRM, HubSpot, Capsule and Bigin all have free plans, so you can test with real contacts before you pay.

Pay yearly once you are sure. Annual billing lowers the per-user price by about 30% on Zoho CRM Standard ($14 against $20), 22% on Bigin Express ($7 against $9), 18% on Freshsales Growth ($9 against $11) and 18% on Capsule Starter ($18 against $22). Less Annoying CRM has one price either way. Zoho and Bigin say you can change plans later, and Bigin gives credit for unused value if you reduce licences mid-term.

Buy seats only for people who use the CRM. Every CRM here charges per user or per seat. Pipedrive charges for each seat whether or not it is assigned. Someone who only needs to see a report now and then may not need their own seat.

Know which features push you up a tier. The common ones:

• Email integration: Zoho CRM Standard, Bigin Express, Pipedrive Growth, Capsule Growth (email sync). HubSpot's free plan includes Gmail and Outlook integration.
• Automation: Pipedrive Growth and Capsule Growth. HubSpot's sales automation starts on Starter. Zoho CRM and Bigin include some automation on their free plans.
• More than one pipeline: Zoho CRM Standard (5), Bigin Express (3), Capsule Growth. HubSpot Starter allows up to 15. Less Annoying CRM includes unlimited pipelines.
• More contacts: Capsule's free plan stops at 250 contacts and Bigin's at 500 records; HubSpot's free plan at 1,000 contacts.

Check for promotional pricing. HubSpot's Starter offer was for new customers and for a limited time. Budget with the regular price, since that is what applies once an offer ends.

If you're in Canada

Four of the seven show Canadian dollar prices. A browser in Canada saw Canadian dollar prices from Zoho CRM, Bigin, HubSpot and Pipedrive in October 2026. Pipedrive's help centre says your location decides your billing currency. Capsule and Less Annoying CRM list US dollar prices, and Freshworks showed a $ sign without a currency label. When a Canadian card is charged in a foreign currency, the issuer converts it to Canadian dollars and adds a foreign currency conversion charge; the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada uses 2.5% as its example and says to check your card agreement for your rate.

What the entry plans cost in Canadian dollars, per month, before tax:

CRM and entry plan	Billing	Per user	1 user	3 users	5 users
Bigin Express	Yearly	C$9	C$9	C$27	C$45
Bigin Express	Monthly	C$11	C$11	C$33	C$55
Zoho CRM Standard	Annually	C$19	C$19	C$57	C$95
Zoho CRM Standard	Monthly	C$25	C$25	C$75	C$125
Pipedrive Lite	Annually	C$19	C$19	C$57	C$95
Pipedrive Lite	Monthly	C$34	C$34	C$102	C$170
HubSpot Starter Customer Platform	Monthly or annually	C$26	C$26	C$78	C$130

Prices checked October 2026. HubSpot was advertising Starter from C$10 per seat per month (annual) or C$13 (monthly) for new customers for a limited time; the table uses the regular C$26. Other Canadian dollar prices we saw: Bigin Premier C$15 yearly or C$19 monthly, and Bigin 360 C$23 or C$26; Zoho CRM Professional C$31 annually or C$44 monthly; Pipedrive Growth C$49 annually or C$69 monthly.

GST/HST is extra. Zoho's and Bigin's pricing pages say local taxes such as GST are charged on top of the listed prices. Less Annoying CRM says its payment processor, Paddle, calculates sales tax from your billing location. Check each invoice so you can claim input tax credits if you are registered for GST/HST. Our GST, HST and PST rates by province guide lists the rate for each province, and the sales tax calculator works out the total.

Canadian data hosting. Zoho CRM and Bigin both told us on their sign-up pages, opened from Canada, that "Your data will be stored in the CANADA data center." Zoho's developer documentation lists the Canadian data centre at accounts.zohocloud.ca and says each data centre holds only the data of users who registered there. Bigin notes that some features and integrations may not be available in every data centre. Less Annoying CRM says it is hosted on Amazon Web Services in North Virginia. If Canadian storage matters to you, confirm the region with the vendor before you sign up.

Anti-spam rules apply to CRM email. Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) generally requires consent before you send commercial electronic messages. If you use a CRM's mass email, sequences or campaigns, record how and when each contact agreed to hear from you. Our email marketing guide covers CASL basics for newsletters.

Sources

• Bigin pricing (monthly and yearly toggles, plan limits and FAQ; checked October 2026)
• Bigin sign-up page (data centre notice; checked October 2026)
• Zoho Bigin price list (USD and CAD), loaded by Bigin's pricing page (checked October 2026)
• Zoho CRM pricing and editions (annual and monthly toggles, FAQ; checked October 2026)
• Zoho CRM price list (USD and CAD), loaded by Zoho CRM's pricing page (checked October 2026)
• Zoho CRM feature comparison by edition (checked October 2026)
• Zoho CRM free edition (users, records, storage, workflows and data centre notice; checked October 2026)
• Zoho CRM sign-up page (15-day trial; checked October 2026)
• Zoho CRM multi data centre support (checked October 2026)
• HubSpot free tools and Starter Customer Platform pricing (USD and CAD, monthly and annual; FAQ on free limits; checked October 2026)
• HubSpot Sales Hub pricing (checked October 2026)
• HubSpot free CRM features (checked October 2026)
• Freshsales pricing (annual and monthly toggles, trial and payment FAQ; checked October 2026)
• Less Annoying CRM pricing (checked October 2026)
• Less Annoying CRM: Pricing and billing (checked October 2026)
• Less Annoying CRM: Sales tax and LACRM (checked October 2026)
• Less Annoying CRM: Discounts for advance payments or volume licensing (checked October 2026)
• Pipedrive pricing plans (CAD, monthly and annual toggles; checked October 2026)
• Pipedrive vs HubSpot (USD plan range; checked October 2026)
• Pipedrive: How does pricing work in Pipedrive? (checked October 2026)
• Pipedrive: What features do the Pipedrive plans have? (checked October 2026)
• Capsule CRM pricing (annual and monthly toggles, FAQ; checked October 2026)
• Salesforce small business pricing (checked October 2026)
• HighLevel pricing (checked October 2026)
• Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: How credit cards work (checked October 2026)
• Government of Canada: Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (checked October 2026)