Freshsales Alternatives: 11 CRMs Compared for 2026

Freshsales Alternatives: 11 Options Compared for 2026

Short answer: HubSpot if you want a real free CRM (up to 2 users). Pipedrive if your reps live in the pipeline view. Close if calling is the job. Less Annoying CRM if you want one flat $15/user price with nothing gated. Attio if your sales motion doesn't fit a standard pipeline. Twenty or EspoCRM if you'd rather self-host.

Freshsales has three paid plans: Growth at $9/user/month, Pro at $39 and Enterprise at $59, all billed annually. The free plan is gone. You now get a 21-day trial, and after that you pick a plan or the account is suspended.

Growth is a good deal. Phone, email and chat are built in, and $9 is the cheapest paid start among the big names. The jump comes when you need sales sequences or territory management, because both start on Pro. That's a 4x step, from $9 to $39 per user. For a 10-rep team it's the difference between $1,080 and $4,680 a year. And Freddy AI Agent isn't in any plan: every paid plan gets 500 AI agent sessions once per account, then it's $49 per 100 sessions.

So why are you leaving, and who does that job better? Every price below comes from the vendor's live pricing page, checked October 2026. Where we couldn't load a price, we say so.

Comparing more broadly? We've also covered Pipedrive alternatives, HubSpot alternatives, and Zoho CRM alternatives.

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If you're an agency building a CRM for a client, or a product team adding sales features to your own app, the CRM Dashboard Kit gives you 42 screens of frontend: a drag-and-drop Kanban pipeline, contact and company records with import, four analytics dashboards, team performance reports, and an email inbox with sequences. Next.js 16 + Tailwind CSS v4 + shadcn/ui. $165 solo. Live demo. Want the backend too? The Full-Stack CRM Kit wires it to Supabase with auth and 19 tables under row-level security, from $332.

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TL;DR: Quick Picks for 2026

Need	Top pick	Price
Free CRM for 1-2 users	HubSpot	Free for 2 users, Starter from $7/seat/mo
Best pipeline UX	Pipedrive	From $14/seat/mo (annual)
Free CRM for 3 users, big suite	Zoho CRM	Free for 3 users
Calling and outbound	Close	From $9/user/mo (Solo, annual)
Salesforce on a small budget	Salesforce Starter	$25/user/mo
Easy CRM with growth tiers	Nutshell	From $13/user/mo (annual)
Flexible data model	Attio	Free for 3 seats, Plus $35/user/mo (annual)
One flat price, every feature	Less Annoying CRM	$15/user/mo
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
CRM inside your own product	Build it	$165+ one-time

What Freshsales Actually Does Well

The Growth plan is honestly strong for $9. You get a Kanban pipeline, contact lifecycle stages, email templates, custom fields, basic workflows, and phone, email and chat built in. Most CRMs at that price make you bolt on a dialer or an email tool.

Pro adds the things a growing sales team asks for next: sequences, territory management, contact scoring, deal insights and custom sales activities. Enterprise adds custom modules, forecasting insights, field-level permissions, a sandbox and audit logs. And if support runs on Freshdesk, staying inside Freshworks keeps customer context in one vendor's world.

Plenty of teams should stay. The rest of this post is for the ones who've hit a specific wall.

When to Leave Freshsales

1. You need sequences but not $39/user. Sequences start on Pro. HubSpot Starter and Pipedrive's lower tiers handle follow-up automation for less.
2. You expected a free plan. It's gone. HubSpot (2 users), Zoho CRM (3 users) and Attio (3 seats) still have one.
3. AI is a big part of the plan. Freddy AI Agent is pay-as-you-go after the first 500 sessions. Close includes its AI agent, Chloe, and a monthly pool of AI credits on every plan.
4. You want to own the CRM. Twenty and EspoCRM let you self-host. Or build your own on a kit.

1. HubSpot

The most-used free CRM, with a well-trodden upgrade path.

Strengths:

• Free for up to 2 users, no card
• Starter includes 500 calling minutes and sequences (5,000 per account)
• Huge ecosystem and plenty of people who already know it

Weaknesses:

• Professional needs a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee; Enterprise needs $3,500
• Per-seat costs climb steeply past Starter
• The more HubSpot hubs you adopt, the harder it is to leave

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

Best for: Small teams that want to start free and might grow into marketing tools later. Our HubSpot alternatives post covers what happens after the free tier.

2. Pipedrive

The pipeline-first CRM that Freshsales is most often compared with.

Strengths:

• The cleanest deal pipeline in the category
• Big marketplace of 500+ integrations
• 14-day free trial, no card
• Works with Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP assistants on every plan

Weaknesses:

• No free plan
• Add-ons (LeadBooster, Campaigns, Web Visitors, Smart Docs) raise the real bill
• Entry price is above Freshsales Growth

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

Best for: Teams whose reps work the pipeline view all day. We compared the two head to head in our Pipedrive alternatives guide.

3. Zoho CRM

The deepest feature set per dollar, with a free plan for 3 users.

Strengths:

• Free edition for up to 3 users, with leads, deals, workflows, reports and a mobile app
• Four paid editions from Standard to Ultimate
• Sits inside the wider Zoho suite (Books, Desk, Campaigns)
• Bigin, Zoho's simpler pipeline CRM, is an option if you only need deals

Weaknesses:

• Busier UI than Freshsales; new reps take longer to settle in
• Configuration depth means it's easy to build a mess
• Pricing is shown by region, so check the page from your location

Pricing: Free for 3 users. Paid editions are priced by region, and the page only showed us local-currency prices, so we couldn't verify US dollar figures this month.

Best for: Cost-conscious teams that will spend a week on setup. See our Zoho CRM alternatives for the other side.

4. Close

The CRM for teams that sell on the phone.

Strengths:

• Calling and SMS on every plan, billed by usage
• Power dialer on Growth; power and predictive dialers on Scale
• Chloe, Close's AI agent, is included on every plan
• 14-day trial, no card, and a 30-day money-back guarantee

Weaknesses:

• The dialer plans cost far more than Freshsales Pro
• Built for outbound, so it can feel wrong for inbound-heavy teams
• Custom objects are Scale only

Pricing: Solo $9/user/month annual ($19 monthly, 1 user), Essentials $35 ($49), Growth $99 ($109), Scale $139 ($149).

Best for: SDR teams and founders who make lots of calls. Our Close alternatives post covers it from the other side.

5. Salesforce Starter Suite

A small door into the Salesforce world.

Strengths:

• Starter Suite is $25/user/month, billed monthly or annually
• Clear upgrade path to Pro Suite and Sales Cloud
• The ecosystem and admin talent pool are the biggest in CRM

Weaknesses:

• Prices rise sharply after Starter: Pro Suite is $100/user/month billed annually
• Sales Cloud editions run $195, $395 and $550 per user/month
• Even small setups tend to need an admin or consultant

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

Best for: Teams that expect to end up on Salesforce and want to start there. Our Salesforce alternatives guide has more.

6. Nutshell

An easy CRM with five steady price steps.

Strengths:

• Unlimited contacts and email and calendar sync from the first tier
• Custom pipelines from Pro (5), Business (10) and Enterprise (unlimited)
• Sales automation, advanced reporting and a meeting scheduler on Pro
• 14-day free trial, no card

Weaknesses:

• No free plan
• Foundation is limited to 100 open leads
• Two-way SMS and a unified inbox are a $16/user/month Engagement add-on

Pricing: Billed annually: Foundation $13, Growth $25, Pro $42, Business $59, Enterprise $79 per user/month. Monthly billing costs $6-10 more per tier.

Best for: Small teams that want simple setup and room to grow without a 4x jump.

7. Attio

The CRM for teams whose process doesn't fit a fixed pipeline.

Strengths:

• Free for up to 3 seats, with contact syncing and data enrichment
• Data model you shape yourself: custom objects, lists and views
• Pro adds call intelligence, sequences and advanced reporting

Weaknesses:

• Plus is capped at 10 seats
• You design your own process, which takes thought
• Not self-hostable

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

Best for: Startups and partnership or account-based teams.

8. Less Annoying CRM

The flat, no-tiers option.

Strengths:

• One price with every feature: unlimited contacts, pipelines and custom fields
• 30-day free trial, no card
• Free email and phone support
• HIPAA compliance, with a BAA available

Weaknesses:

• No built-in calling like Freshsales Growth
• Fewer automation features than Freshsales Pro
• Simple by design, so big teams may outgrow it

Pricing: $15/user/month, no tiers, no contracts.

Best for: Small businesses that want a CRM people actually use and a bill that never surprises them.

9. Twenty

A modern open-source CRM you can host yourself.

Strengths:

• Self-host the open-source core for free
• Modern stack and UI, with custom objects
• Cloud option if you don't want to run servers, with a 30-day trial

Weaknesses:

• Younger than the hosted CRMs above, so fewer integrations
• No built-in phone like Freshsales
• 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 their CRM data.

10. EspoCRM

The mature open-source CRM.

Strengths:

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

Weaknesses:

• PHP stack, and the UI feels dated
• Cloud plans have seat minimums (3, 5 and 10 users)
• Cloud Basic and Enterprise bill for 6 or 12 months up front

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.

11. Build Your Own CRM

Sometimes the CRM needs to live inside your product. Maybe you sell to sales teams, or your client wants a CRM shaped exactly around how they work.

What that looks like:

• The CRM Dashboard Kit gives you the UI: Kanban pipeline with drag-and-drop, contacts and companies, deal records, 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 the backend: Supabase Auth with social login and a 19-table schema with row-level security
• Calling, email sending and data enrichment are integrations you add yourself
• One-time $165 solo for the UI kit, or $332 solo for full-stack

Be realistic: it's a build. It pays off when the CRM is part of your product or a client deliverable. Try the demo or read How to Build a CRM in Next.js.

Recommendation by Profile

You	Pick
1-2 people, want free	HubSpot
Reps live in the pipeline	Pipedrive
Up to 3 people, want a big suite	Zoho CRM
Phone-heavy sales	Close
Heading toward Salesforce anyway	Salesforce Starter
Want easy setup and steady tiers	Nutshell
Non-standard sales motion	Attio
Want one flat price	Less Annoying CRM
Want open source, modern	Twenty
Want open source, mature	EspoCRM
CRM is part of your product	Build it

Pricing at a Glance (10 Reps, Mid Tier, Annual)

Product	Mid-tier price	~Annual cost (10 reps)
Freshsales (Pro)	$39/user/mo	$4,680
HubSpot Sales Hub (Professional)	$90/seat/mo	$10,800 + $1,500 onboarding
Salesforce (Pro Suite)	$100/user/mo	$12,000
Close (Growth)	$99/user/mo	$11,880
Attio (Pro)	$79/user/mo	$9,480
Pipedrive (Premium)	$49/seat/mo	$5,880
Nutshell (Pro)	$42/user/mo	$5,040
EspoCRM Cloud (Enterprise)	$25/user/mo	$3,000
Less Annoying CRM	$15/user/mo	$1,800
Twenty Cloud (Pro)	$9/user/mo	$1,080
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. Zoho CRM isn't in the table because we couldn't load its US prices. Less Annoying CRM's page doesn't say whether billing is monthly or annual, so treat that row as approximate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Freshsales have a free plan?

No. Freshsales now offers a 21-day trial with full access, then you choose Growth ($9), Pro ($39) or Enterprise ($59) per user/month, billed annually. If you need a free CRM, HubSpot (2 users), Zoho CRM (3 users) and Attio (3 seats) still have free plans.

What is the cheapest alternative to Freshsales?

Free options: HubSpot for 2 users, Zoho CRM for 3, Attio for 3 seats, or self-hosted Twenty and EspoCRM. On paid plans, HubSpot Starter is $7/seat/month annually and Close Solo is $9 for a single user. Less Annoying CRM is a flat $15/user with every feature.

Which Freshsales alternative is best for calling?

Close. Calling and SMS come on every plan, Growth adds a power dialer and Scale adds a predictive dialer. HubSpot Starter includes 500 calling minutes.

Is Pipedrive better than Freshsales?

For pipeline UX and marketplace depth, usually yes. On price, Freshsales Growth ($9) undercuts Pipedrive Lite ($14), and Freshsales includes phone, email and chat from Growth. At the mid tier, Freshsales Pro is $39 against Pipedrive Premium's $49.

Is there an open-source alternative to Freshsales?

Yes. Twenty has a self-hostable open-source core and a modern UI. EspoCRM is AGPL-3.0, older and more complete. Both remove per-seat fees if you run the server.

The Honest Take

Freshsales Growth at $9 with built-in phone, email and chat is one of the better deals in CRM. If that covers you, stay.

The pressure shows at Pro. Sequences and territories cost 4x as much per seat, AI is metered, and the free plan has gone. HubSpot and Zoho give you a free start. Pipedrive gives you the better pipeline. Close gives you the better dialer. Less Annoying CRM gives you a flat bill. Attio gives you a flexible model, and Twenty and EspoCRM give you the keys.

Pick the one that fixes the wall you hit. And if the CRM is really part of your product, build it.