Best CRM for small business: 8 compared, with real prices

A CRM is where a business keeps track of the people it sells to: who they are, what was said, what was offered, and what happens next. For a small business the choice is less about features, since every serious CRM can store contacts and deals, and more about price per user, how much setup it needs, and whether it fits the way the team already works. We compared eight that small businesses actually use: HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Salesforce, Freshsales, monday CRM, Attio and Odoo. Every price below was read from the vendor’s own pricing page on 10 October 2026, from inside the EU, so most are in euros. None of the vendors paid to be on this list or reviewed it. Below the table you will find what each one does well, what a team of five would pay in a year, and how to choose.

8 CRMs for small business: free plans and prices (October 2026)

Prices read from each vendor’s pricing page on 10 October 2026 from Romania, excluding VAT. Annual billing unless stated; most vendors charge more month to month. HubSpot’s Starter price was a limited-time discount on that day. Prices change often, so check before you buy.

What a CRM is, and when a spreadsheet stops being enough

CRM stands for customer relationship management. In practice it is a shared database of contacts and companies, a list of deals moving through stages from first contact to signed, and a record of every email, call and meeting attached to them. Its value is that nobody has to remember: the next step on every deal is written down, and anyone on the team can pick it up.

A spreadsheet works until two things happen: more than one person sells, or deals take more than one conversation. Then follow-ups slip, two colleagues contact the same lead, and nobody knows which version of the sheet is current. That is the moment a CRM pays for itself, and for most small businesses it arrives at around two or three people in sales.

HubSpot: the free plan that grows into a full platform

HubSpot’s free plan is the most generous starting point on this list: contacts, companies, deals, tasks and an AI assistant for up to two users, with no credit card. The paid Starter plan was on offer at €7 per user per month when we checked, a limited-time discount on its usual €20, and adds email and chat support, simple automation, email campaigns and calling.

The catch is the step after Starter. Professional, where serious automation and reporting live, costs €90 per user per month. HubSpot suits a business that wants its CRM, email marketing and website forms in one system and expects to stay small for a while, or is ready to pay once it grows. Connecting it to your website is covered on our HubSpot page.

Pipedrive: built around the sales pipeline

Pipedrive is designed for people whose job is closing deals. Its main screen is the pipeline: columns for each stage, cards for each deal, dragged from left to right. It is quick to learn, which matters in a team that will not tolerate a tool that slows it down.

There is no free plan, but there is a 14-day trial. Lite costs €14 per user per month billed annually, and Growth, at €39, is where most teams end up, because it adds full email sync, automation and sequences. If your team sells and does little else, Pipedrive is the most focused choice here; see our Pipedrive page for connecting it to your site.

Zoho CRM: the most features per euro

Zoho CRM has a free edition for up to three users, and its paid Standard edition starts at €14 per user per month, with workflows, forecasting, reports and AI agents included. Professional, at €23, adds quoting, inventory and process automation that other vendors keep for much more expensive plans.

The trade-off is that so much choice takes longer to set up and to learn. Zoho suits a team that will invest a few days in configuring it, and especially one that already uses other Zoho apps for email, invoicing or support.

Salesforce: the enterprise standard, in a small-business size

Salesforce is the market leader for large companies, and Starter Suite is its version for small ones: €25 per user per month, billed monthly or annually, with a 30-day trial. It covers contacts, deals, email and simple marketing in a simplified interface.

Pro Suite costs €100 per user per month, and the full editions go much higher. Salesforce makes sense for a business that expects to grow into complex processes, territories, approvals and custom objects, and wants to avoid migrating later. For a team of three that will stay a team of three, it is more system than it needs. Our Salesforce page covers integration.

Freshsales, monday CRM and Attio

Freshsales, from Freshworks, prices in dollars: Growth at $9 per user per month billed annually, Pro at $39, with a 21-day trial. It is strong on built-in phone and email, which makes it a good fit for teams that sell by calling.

monday CRM is built on the same platform as monday.com’s project boards, which is its main advantage for a team that already plans its work there. Basic costs €12 per user per month billed annually, Standard €17 and Pro €28, sold in bundles of seats rather than one at a time, with a 14-day trial.

Attio is the newest of the eight and the most flexible: you model your own data, such as investors, partners or projects, not only contacts and deals. Its free plan covers up to three seats, Plus costs €31 per user per month billed annually and Pro €74. It suits start-ups and teams with an unusual sales process more than a classic sales team.

Odoo CRM: free for one app, and room to grow into an ERP

Odoo is an open-source business suite with dozens of apps: CRM, invoicing, inventory, accounting, website and more. Its One App Free plan gives you a single app, such as CRM, for unlimited users at no cost. The moment you install a second app, every user moves to a paid plan.

That makes Odoo the cheapest way to run a CRM for a larger team, and the natural choice for a business that will later want invoices, stock and the CRM in one system. It takes more setup than Pipedrive or HubSpot, and the step from one app to many is the point where it becomes an ERP system, with everything that implies.

What a CRM costs a team of five for a year

For a team of five, the cheapest paid entry plans cost between about €400 and €1,900 a year, and the licence is rarely the expensive part. On the prices above, at annual billing: HubSpot Starter €420 at its offer price or €1,200 at the normal one, monday CRM Basic €720, Pipedrive Lite and Zoho Standard €840 each, Salesforce Starter €1,500, Attio Plus €1,860, and Freshsales Growth $540. HubSpot’s free plan for two users and Odoo’s free CRM cost nothing.

What costs more is getting your data in and connecting the CRM to the rest of the business: importing contacts from spreadsheets and old inboxes, sending website enquiries straight into it, syncing email, and agreeing on stages the team will actually use. A CRM nobody keeps up to date is an expensive address book. Budget time for that first month, or have it done for you.

How to choose

Start from the team, not the feature list. If one or two people sell and money is tight, start on HubSpot’s or Zoho’s free plan and move up when you outgrow it. If you have a small team whose whole job is closing deals, try Pipedrive. If you want the most capability per euro and will spend time configuring it, choose Zoho. If you expect to become a much larger company, Salesforce avoids a migration later. If your work already runs in monday.com, use its CRM. If you will want invoicing and stock in the same place, start with Odoo.

Whichever you choose, the step that decides whether it gets used is the connection to where your leads come from. Our API integrations work connects website forms, shops and email to the CRM, and we offer fixed-price HubSpot Integration and Pipedrive Integration packages. Automating the follow-ups themselves is covered in Zapier vs Make vs n8n.

Sources

All prices were read on 10 October 2026 from each vendor’s public pricing page, from Romania, excluding VAT. Where a vendor showed both billing periods we give the annual price; where it showed only one, we say so.

• HubSpot — Pricing ↗

  Free plan for up to 2 users; Starter €7 per seat per month as a limited-time 65% discount; Professional €90 and Enterprise €175 per seat per month, billed annually.

• Pipedrive — Pricing ↗

  Lite €14, Growth €39, Premium €59 and Ultimate €79 per seat per month billed annually; 14-day free trial.

• Zoho CRM — Pricing ↗

  Free edition for 3 users; Standard €14, Professional €23, Enterprise €40 and Ultimate €52 per user per month; local taxes extra.

• Salesforce — Sales Cloud pricing (EU) ↗

  Starter Suite €25 per user per month billed monthly or annually; Pro Suite €100 billed annually; 30-day free trial.

• Freshworks — Freshsales pricing ↗

  Growth $9, Pro $39 and Enterprise $59 per user per month billed annually; 21-day trial.

• monday.com — monday CRM pricing ↗

  Basic €12, Standard €17 and Pro €28 per seat per month billed yearly (€18, €25 and €41 monthly); 14-day trial; sold in seat bundles.

• Attio — Pricing ↗

  Free for up to 3 seats; Plus €31 and Pro €74 per user per month billed annually (€39 and €93 monthly).

• Odoo — Pricing ↗

  One App Free: one app with unlimited users; installing a second app moves the account to a paid plan.