Close CRM Alternatives: 10 Sales CRMs Compared for 2026

Close CRM Alternatives: 10 Options Compared for 2026

Short answer: Apollo.io if you want prospecting data, sequences and a dialer in one tool. HubSpot if you want a free start and room to grow into marketing. Freshsales if you want built-in calling for far less per seat. Pipedrive if your team is more pipeline than phone. Attio if your motion doesn't fit Close's lead-centric model. Twenty or EspoCRM if you want to self-host.

Close is built for one thing: reps who sell on the phone and by email, fast. Its pricing reflects that. Solo is $9/user/month billed annually ($19 monthly) for a single user. Essentials is $35 ($49 monthly). Growth, where the power dialer and automated workflows start, is $99 ($109). Scale, with the predictive dialer, custom objects and unlimited call recording, is $139 ($149).

Here's the catch for a growing team. The dialer is the reason most people buy Close, and it starts on Growth. For 8 reps that's 8 x $99 x 12 = $9,504 a year, before calling minutes (billed by usage, around $0.02/minute outbound) and phone lines (from about $1/line/month). Add Call Assistant and it's another $50/month per org plus $0.02/minute.

Is Close still the right tool for how your team sells? Every price below comes from vendor pricing pages, checked October 2026. Where we couldn't load a price, we say so.

Weighing more CRMs? See our Pipedrive alternatives, Freshsales alternatives, and HubSpot alternatives.

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TL;DR: Quick Picks for 2026

Need	Top pick	Price
Prospect data + sequences + dialer	Apollo.io	Free, paid from $49/seat/mo (annual)
Free start, grows into marketing	HubSpot	Free for 2 users, Starter from $7/seat/mo
Built-in calling, low per-seat cost	Freshsales	From $9/user/mo (annual), 21-day trial
Pipeline-first selling	Pipedrive	From $14/seat/mo (annual)
Custom data model	Attio	Free for 3 seats, Plus $35/user/mo (annual)
Enterprise ecosystem	Salesforce	Starter Suite $25/user/mo
Free for 3 users, huge suite	Zoho CRM	Free for 3 users
Open source, modern stack	Twenty	Free self-host, cloud from $9/user/mo
Open source, mature	EspoCRM	Free self-host, cloud from $15/user/mo
Sales tools inside your product	Build it	$165+ one-time

What Close Actually Does Well

Close does calling better than almost every CRM. Calling and SMS work on every plan with no third-party phone tool. Growth adds a power dialer that moves reps through a list without clicking around, and Scale adds a predictive dialer for teams that dial at volume. Call recording runs from 30 days on the lower plans to unlimited on Scale.

AI comes in the box. Chloe, Close's AI agent, is on every plan, along with a monthly pool of AI credits per user (500 on Solo up to 2,000 on Scale). There's a 14-day trial with no card and a 30-day money-back guarantee after purchase.

If your reps make dozens of calls a day, Close is hard to beat. The alternatives below win when your motion is something else.

When to Leave Close

1. Your reps don't actually dial much. If deals close over email and meetings, you're paying $99+ per seat for a dialer nobody opens.
2. You buy lead data separately. Apollo.io bundles a prospecting database (it advertises 240M contacts) with sequences and a dialer, so one bill can replace two.
3. Inbound and marketing matter. Close is outbound-first. HubSpot and Zoho cover inbound and marketing in the same suite.
4. You want custom objects without Scale pricing. They're Scale only at $139/user/month annually.

1. Apollo.io

Prospecting database, sequences and a dialer in one place.

Strengths:

• Contact and account data built in, so reps can find leads and work them in the same tool
• Unlimited sequences from Basic, plus a US dialer (credits apply)
• Call recording: 150 minutes on Basic, 4,000 minutes with AI insights on Professional
• Free plan with 2 sequences and 900 credits per seat per year

Weaknesses:

• Credits drive real cost, and they expire if unused
• CRM features are lighter than Close's for pipeline management
• Organization needs a 3-seat minimum

Pricing: Free. Basic $49, Professional $79, Organization $119 per seat/month, billed annually (monthly billing costs more). 14-day trial on paid plans.

Best for: Outbound teams that buy lead data separately today and want one bill.

2. HubSpot

Free CRM with a path into marketing and service.

Strengths:

• Free for up to 2 users, no card
• Starter includes 500 calling minutes and sequences
• Professional raises that to 3,000 calling minutes

Weaknesses:

• Professional has a required $1,500 onboarding fee; Enterprise $3,500
• No power dialer to match Close's
• Costs rise fast past Starter

Pricing: Free for 2 users. Starter $7/seat/month annual ($20 monthly), Professional $90 annual ($100 monthly), Enterprise $150/seat/month.

Best for: Teams that sell both inbound and outbound and want one platform. More in our HubSpot alternatives guide.

3. Freshsales

Built-in phone, email and chat for a fraction of Close's dialer price.

Strengths:

• Phone, email and chat from the $9 Growth plan
• Sequences and territory management on Pro
• Kanban pipeline that's quick to learn

Weaknesses:

• No free plan anymore, only a 21-day trial
• Freddy AI Agent is pay-as-you-go: $49 per 100 sessions after an initial 500
• No dialer on the pricing page to match Close's power or predictive dialers

Pricing: Growth $9, Pro $39, Enterprise $59 per user/month, billed annually.

Best for: Teams that call regularly but not at SDR volume. See our Freshsales alternatives too.

4. Pipedrive

For teams that sell through the pipeline more than the phone.

Strengths:

• Best-in-class deal pipeline view
• 500+ integrations in its marketplace
• 14-day free trial, no card

Weaknesses:

• No power or predictive dialer built in like Close's
• Add-ons (LeadBooster, Campaigns, Smart Docs) raise the real bill
• No free plan

Pricing: Lite $14, Growth $24, Premium $49, Ultimate $69 per seat/month, billed annually.

Best for: Consultative sales teams where deals move through meetings. Compared in detail in our Pipedrive alternatives post.

5. Attio

A flexible CRM for teams whose model isn't lead-centric.

Strengths:

• Free for up to 3 seats
• Build your own objects, lists and views
• Pro adds call intelligence, sequences and advanced reporting

Weaknesses:

• No built-in dialer like Close's
• Plus is capped at 10 seats
• You design the process yourself

Pricing: Free (3 seats), Plus $35/user/month annual ($44 monthly), Pro $79 annual ($99 monthly), Enterprise custom.

Best for: Startups running partnerships, account-based sales, or anything that isn't a dialing queue.

6. Salesforce

The enterprise default, with a cheap first step.

Strengths:

• Starter Suite at $25/user/month, billed monthly or annually
• The deepest ecosystem of apps, admins and consultants
• Scales to almost any process

Weaknesses:

• Pro Suite jumps to $100/user/month billed annually
• Sales Cloud editions run $195 to $550 per user/month
• Needs admin time even at small sizes

Pricing: Starter Suite $25, Pro Suite $100 (annual), Sales Cloud Core $195, Advanced $395, Max $550 (annual).

Best for: Teams that will end up on Salesforce and want to get there early. See our Salesforce alternatives guide.

7. Zoho CRM

A full CRM with a free plan for 3 users.

Strengths:

• Free edition for up to 3 users, including workflows, reports and a mobile app
• Paid editions run from Standard to Ultimate
• Part of the wider Zoho suite if you want one vendor

Weaknesses:

• Busier UI than Close
• Setup takes time to get right
• Prices are shown by region

Pricing: Free for 3 users. The pricing page only showed us local-currency prices for paid editions, so we couldn't verify US dollar figures this month.

Best for: Teams that want sales, marketing and support in one suite at a lower price. More in Zoho CRM alternatives.

8. Twenty

Open-source CRM with a modern UI.

Strengths:

• Self-host the open-source core for free
• Custom objects and a clean interface
• Cloud option with a 30-day trial

Weaknesses:

• No built-in calling
• Fewer integrations than hosted CRMs
• Self-hosting means you own upgrades and backups

Pricing: Self-hosted free. Cloud Pro $9/user/month (yearly), Organization $19/user/month, Enterprise from $50K a year.

Best for: Developer-led teams that want to own the data and wire in their own phone stack.

9. EspoCRM

The mature open-source CRM.

Strengths:

• Free and open source (AGPL-3.0)
• Full CRM coverage: accounts, contacts, opportunities, cases, calendar
• Cloud plans include the Advanced Pack (reports, workflows, BPM)

Weaknesses:

• PHP stack and a dated UI
• No native dialer
• Cloud seat minimums (3, 5 and 10 users)

Pricing: Self-hosted free. Cloud Basic $15/user/month (min 3), Enterprise $25 (min 5), Ultimate $69 (min 10).

Best for: Teams that want a traditional CRM on their own servers.

10. Build Your Own (or Keep Close and Build the Dashboard)

Two build paths here, and they solve different problems.

If the CRM is part of your product:

• The CRM Dashboard Kit gives you the UI: Kanban pipeline, contacts and companies, deals, four analytics dashboards, team reports and an email inbox with sequences, 42 screens in Next.js + Tailwind + shadcn/ui
• The Full-Stack CRM Kit adds a Supabase backend with auth and 19 tables under row-level security, from $332
• Calling stays an integration you add (Twilio or similar)

If reps love Close but managers want better reporting:

• Keep Close as the system of record and pull activity and deal data through its API
• The Sales Dashboard Kit gives you 20 screens for the manager's view: pipeline, quota targets, territories, commissions and a rep leaderboard, from $131

Be realistic: either way, the data plumbing is your job. For which numbers belong on the dashboard, see our CRM dashboard examples.

Recommendation by Profile

You	Pick
SDR team that also buys lead data	Apollo.io
Inbound + outbound, want free to start	HubSpot
Some calling, tight budget	Freshsales
Deals move through meetings	Pipedrive
Non-standard motion	Attio
Heading to enterprise	Salesforce
Want one suite for sales and marketing	Zoho CRM
Want open source, modern	Twenty
Want open source, mature	EspoCRM
Heavy dialing, happy with Close	Stay on Close
CRM or sales dashboard is your product	Build it

Pricing at a Glance (8 Reps, Annual Billing)

Product	Setup that fits	~Annual cost (8 reps)
Close (Growth, power dialer)	$99/user/mo	$9,504 + calling usage
Close (Scale, predictive dialer)	$139/user/mo	$13,344 + calling usage
HubSpot Sales Hub (Professional)	$90/seat/mo	$8,640 + $1,500 onboarding
Salesforce (Pro Suite)	$100/user/mo	$9,600
Apollo.io (Professional)	$79/seat/mo	$7,584
Attio (Pro)	$79/user/mo	$7,584
Pipedrive (Premium)	$49/seat/mo	$4,704
Freshsales (Pro)	$39/user/mo	$3,744
EspoCRM Cloud (Enterprise)	$25/user/mo	$2,400
Twenty Cloud (Pro)	$9/user/mo	$864
Twenty or EspoCRM self-hosted	Free	Hosting only
CRM Dashboard Kit	Build path	$165+ one-time + backend work

List prices from each vendor's page in October 2026, before calling minutes, phone numbers and add-ons. Zoho CRM isn't in the table because we couldn't load its US prices.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does Close CRM cost in 2026?

Billed annually: Solo $9/user/month (1 user), Essentials $35, Growth $99, Scale $139. Billed monthly: $19, $49, $109 and $149. Calling is billed by usage on top, and Call Assistant is $50/month per org plus $0.02/minute.

What is the cheapest alternative to Close?

HubSpot's free CRM (2 users), Zoho CRM's free edition (3 users) and Attio's free plan (3 seats) cost nothing. On paid plans, HubSpot Starter is $7/seat/month annually and Freshsales Growth is $9, both with calling built in.

Which Close alternative has the best dialer?

None of the CRMs here match Close's power and predictive dialers out of the box. Apollo.io comes closest, with a US dialer, unlimited sequences and call recording. HubSpot includes calling minutes from Starter.

Is Close better than Pipedrive?

For phone-heavy outbound, yes. For pipeline-driven sales where deals move through meetings, Pipedrive is cheaper ($49 Premium vs $99 Growth, annually) and has the cleaner pipeline view.

Is there an open-source alternative to Close?

Yes. Twenty and EspoCRM are both open source and self-hostable. Neither has a built-in dialer, so you'd connect your own phone provider.

The Honest Take

If your reps dial all day, Close is still one of the best tools you can buy. The power and predictive dialers, built-in SMS and included AI justify the price for that team.

It's a worse fit when the phone isn't the center of the job. Apollo.io gives outbound teams data and sequences in one bill. HubSpot and Zoho cover inbound. Freshsales gives you calling for $9. Pipedrive gives you the better pipeline. Attio gives you a flexible model, and Twenty and EspoCRM give you the keys.

Match the tool to how your team actually sells. And if the sales tooling is part of your product, build it.