CRM & SalesOur pick #1 of 4

HubSpot CRM

by HubSpot

4.4out of 5, from128 ratings

The broadest free CRM for a small business, and the one that grows into marketing and support without a migration.

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Free plan. Free plan available

Why HubSpot CRM is on the shortlist

HubSpot is on this list because its free tier is the most usable free CRM we found, not because it is the cheapest way to end up paying. You get contacts, companies, deals, a pipeline, email tracking and forms without a card, and you can run a real sales process on that for a long time.

It earns its slot for a second reason: it is one record of the customer that marketing and support can both work from later. If you can imagine wanting email campaigns, a help desk or a chat widget attached to the same contact next year, starting here saves you a migration.

Best for a one-to-ten-person business that wants a system of record now and might grow into marketing automation. Worth knowing before you commit: the jump from free to paid tiers is a real step, seats and contact tiers both push the bill, and the features that make HubSpot pleasant tend to sit one tier above the one you are on.

Skip it if you only want a pipeline. HubSpot is broad by design, and you will be paying for — and clicking past — marketing and service tooling you never asked for. A focused CRM will feel faster every day.

What readers say about HubSpot CRM

Ratings come from readers who use it, not from us, and they sit beside our pick rather than deciding it. Vendors cannot buy, edit or remove them.

Sample figures. Reader ratings open soon; the stars and counts shown are placeholders so you can see how the page will read, not measurements of anything.

4.4out of 5

128 reader ratings for HubSpot CRM

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How the votes fall

  1. 5 stars64
  2. 4 stars41
  3. 3 stars14
  4. 2 stars6
  5. 1 star3

Scored on

  • Ease of use4.3
  • Value for money4.0
  • Support4.2
  • Does the job4.6

89% of raters would recommend it to a business like theirs.

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How HubSpot CRM is priced

We describe the shape of the pricing rather than quoting a figure, because figures go stale within weeks. The number is on the vendor's own page, one click away.

Free plan
A genuinely usable free CRM: contacts, companies, deals, a pipeline, email tracking and forms, with no card required.
What you pay for
Tiered hubs (sales, marketing, service) sold as Starter, Professional and Enterprise, with seats on top, and marketing plans that also scale with contact count.
In one line
Free plan available
Check current pricing on HubSpot

Who HubSpot CRM is for, and who should skip it

Best for

  • Starting at zero cost
  • One customer record
  • Growing into marketing

Skip it if

  • You only want a pipeline
  • Budget-sensitive upgrades

Alternatives to HubSpot CRM

The other picks on our CRM & Sales shortlist, each with its own reason to be there.

  • Pipedrive

    A pipeline-first CRM that opens on your deals and keeps asking one question: what is the next action, and when.

    4.6out of 5, from97 ratings

  • Close

    A CRM with calling, SMS and email sequences built in, made for small teams that sell by picking up the phone.

    4.5out of 5, from41 ratings

  • monday CRM

    Sales boards for teams already running on monday.com, so the pipeline lives in the tool everyone already opens each morning.

    4.1out of 5, from36 ratings

Torn between two of them? Read HubSpot vs Pipedrive.

HubSpot CRM questions people ask

Is HubSpot CRM really free?

Yes. The core CRM — contacts, companies, deals, a pipeline, forms and email tracking — is free with no card and no time limit. What you pay for are the Starter, Professional and Enterprise tiers of the sales, marketing and service hubs, which add automation, reporting and sequences on top.

Is HubSpot good for a small business?

For a one-to-ten-person business it is one of the best places to start, because you can run a real sales process on the free tier and add marketing or support later against the same contact record. The caveat is that the features which make HubSpot pleasant tend to sit one tier above the one you are on.

HubSpot or Pipedrive?

Pipedrive if selling is the job and you want reps working a pipeline from day one. HubSpot if you need to start free or can already picture email campaigns and support conversations attached to the same customer record. We compare them directly on the HubSpot vs Pipedrive page.

What does HubSpot cost as you grow?

The bill has more than one axis: hub tier, number of paid seats, and for marketing plans the size of your contact list. Upgrading for a single feature is the usual surprise, because features are bundled into tiers rather than sold individually.

Is it hard to leave HubSpot later?

Contacts, companies and deals export cleanly. It gets harder the more of your marketing lives inside it — forms, landing pages, email campaigns and support content — so decide early how much of the platform you intend to use.

What this page is, and what it is not

This entry is desk research: HubSpot CRM's own pricing and documentation read on the day this page was written, and our editorial judgement of who it suits. The reader ratings are separate from that judgement and do not change our position. We have not run every tool here in a live business for a year, so treat the day-to-day claims as informed reading rather than a field test.