The cheapest CRM that connects to your email and runs automations is Bigin Express, at $7 a seat billed yearly. That is $84 a year for one person.
Freshsales Growth costs $9 and adds a phone and basic workflows. The same job costs $432 a year on Capsule Growth.
Read the vendors' own pages side by side and they disagree with themselves. HubSpot shows Starter at $7, $10, $15 and $20 across two pages.
Freshworks' free CRM page says paid Freshsales starts at $15 a month, while its pricing page lists $11.
Bitrix24's pricing page says Free covers 1 to 2 users, and its help center says unlimited. Every price below comes from the vendor's own page, with the billing label kept.
TL;DR
Cheapest seat that does the job: Bigin Express, $7 billed yearly or $9 monthly. Bigin Free is 1 user and 500 records.
Cheapest with a phone and basic workflows: Freshsales Growth, $9 billed yearly or $11 monthly.
Flat price with a user cap: Bitrix24 Basic, $588 a year for up to 5 users. Bigin still costs less until 15 users.
Worst deal for one person: monday CRM, which bills 3 seats, or $432 a year.
Pricing and features verified 29 September 2026 from each tool's official pricing page.
Why does a cheap CRM cost more after a few months?
Four things move the bill after you sign up.
The first is the plan step. Pipedrive Lite lists no email sync. Growth adds full email sync, automations, and sequences, and costs $24 against $14, a rise of 71%.
Capsule's Starter at $18 leaves workflow automations and email sync to Growth at $36.
Freshsales sequences start on Pro at $39, more than four times Growth's $9.
The second is the billing label. Every headline price here is billed yearly, and paying by the month adds 20% to 111%.
The third is seat rules. monday CRM sells from 3 seats. Bitrix24 sells a flat account price with a user cap.
The fourth is the promotion. HubSpot's low Starter price is a discount for new customers, and the company says it can end at any time.
Older advice adds to the confusion. The most visible answer on Quora's cheapest CRM question is four years old and shows 2 upvotes, so every price in it predates the figures here.
What does the cheapest CRM cost for 1, 5 and 10 seats?
The cheapest CRM for small business teams depends more on seat count than on sticker price.
The table shows each vendor's first paid tier, billed yearly, at list price.
CRM and first paid tier | Price per seat a month | 1 user a year | 5 users a year | 10 users a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Bigin Express | $7 | $84 | $420 | $840 |
Freshsales Growth | $9 | $108 | $540 | $1,080 |
Pipedrive Lite | $14 | $168 | $840 | $1,680 |
Less Annoying CRM | $15 | $180 | $900 | $1,800 |
Capsule Starter | $18 | $216 | $1,080 | $2,160 |
monday CRM Basic (3 seat minimum) | $12 | $432 | $720 | $1,440 |
Bitrix24 Basic ($49) and Standard ($99), flat per account | n/a | $0 on Free | $588 | $1,188 |
monday CRM's pricing page says plans start from 3 users, and its seat picker starts at 3 seats, then 5, 10 and 15. A solo buyer pays $432 there against $84 on Bigin, or 5.1 times as much.
The monday CRM pricing guide shows how the seat steps hit a 6 person team.
Bitrix24 flips the seat math. Bitrix24's price list puts up to 5 users on Basic at $49 a month billed yearly, and up to 50 on Standard at $99.
Bigin still wins below 15 users. At 14 seats it costs $1,176, and at 15 it costs $1,260, so the flat $1,188 wins from 15 users up.
For a ranked best of list instead of a cost list, see the best CRM software for small business. For a full tier ladder across six vendors, the CRM pricing comparison has it.
What is the cheapest CRM that syncs email and automates?
Bigin Express, at $7 a seat billed yearly. Bigin's pricing page lists email integration and 30 automations on Express. The Free plan lists 3 automations and no email integration.
Here is the cheapest tier that adds both, for each CRM that lists them.
CRM | Plan that adds email and automation | Price per seat a month | 5 users a year | What sits below it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Bigin | Express | $7 | $420 | Free: 1 user, 3 automations |
Freshsales | Growth (basic workflows) | $9 | $540 | Sequences need Pro at $39 |
Less Annoying CRM | One plan, email logging included | $15 | $900 | No tiers |
monday CRM | Standard (250 automations a month) | $17 | $1,020 | Basic lists none; mass email needs Pro at $28 |
Pipedrive | Growth | $24 | $1,440 | Lite lists no email sync |
Capsule | Growth | $36 | $2,160 | Starter does not list them |
At 5 users the gap between the cheapest and the dearest row is $1,740 a year.
Capsule and Pipedrive charge for the same two features that Bigin bundles at $7.
The 10 cheapest CRM systems, grouped by what they suit
These are the cheapest CRM options on each vendor's own page, sorted by the job they do best.
Cheapest paid seats that do the job
Bigin by Zoho CRM
Express is $7 billed yearly and $9 monthly, and Free is 1 user with 500 records. Bigin is Zoho's small business CRM for teams leaving spreadsheets.
Express lists 3 team pipelines, 50,000 records, email integration and 30 automations.
Free includes a built in phone. I'd start here for any team under 15 seats.
Freshsales
Growth is $9 billed yearly and $11 monthly, and Pro is $39 and $47. Freshsales is Freshworks' sales CRM. Growth lists email, chat and phone in one seat, plus Kanban view and basic workflows.
Contact scoring and sales sequences start on Pro.
Less Annoying CRM
One plan at $15 per user per month. Its pricing page lists no tiers and no contracts, with unlimited pipelines, email logging, mobile access and a 30 day trial without a card. It costs $96 more than Bigin for one person.
The flat price means there is no upgrade step to plan for.
Free plans and the tools around them
HubSpot
Free covers up to 2 users, and Starter is $7 billed yearly and $10 monthly for new customers only. HubSpot's free CRM is the easiest place to start with two people. The Starter price needs its own section, below.
Capsule
Free covers 2 users and 250 contacts, Starter is $18 billed yearly, and Growth is $36. Capsule's plan page puts 30,000 contacts, email templates, a shared mailbox and basic reporting on Starter.
Growth adds workflow automations and email sync, which doubles the seat price.
Cheap on the label, costlier in use
Pipedrive
Lite is $14 billed yearly and $19 monthly, Growth is $24 and $34, and there is no free plan. Pipedrive is a sales CRM built around a deal board.
On Pipedrive's pricing page, Lite lists lead and pipeline management, AI reports and 500+ integrations, and email sync starts at Growth. Add ons such as Campaigns are listed as starting from $13.33.
Close
Solo is $9 billed yearly and $19 monthly, and Essentials is $35 and $49. Close's pricing page limits Solo to 1 user and 10,000 leads, with no workflows.
Built in email, calling and SMS are listed as additions on Essentials, so the dialer starts at $35.
monday CRM
Basic is $12 billed yearly and $18 monthly, with a 3 seat minimum. Basic caps at 1,000 active contacts and deals, 5 columns per board and 20 quotes and invoices a month. There is a 14 day trial and no free plan.
Streak
Pro is $49 billed yearly and $59 monthly. Streak's pricing page puts its CRM inside Gmail.
Its free plan lists Gmail email tools and no CRM pipelines, so it is listed here as a warning.
One flat account price
Bitrix24
Free is for 1 to 2 users, and Basic is $49 billed yearly and $69 monthly for up to 5 users. Sales pipelines, email integration, WhatsApp integration and telephony integration start on Basic.
Standard is $99 and $144, up to 50 users.
Which free CRM plans are still there?
HubSpot's free plan covers up to 2 users. Bigin Free is 1 user and 500 records, and Capsule Free is 2 users and 250 contacts. All three are clear on the vendors' own pricing pages. Others are harder to find or read differently.
Freshsales lists no free tier on its pricing page. Freshworks' support article on the free plan explains the route: inside an existing account, open Admin Settings, then Account Settings, then Plans and Billing, and choose Change Plan.
The free plan there is limited to 3 users. That article was last modified 16 February 2024.
monday CRM offers a 14 day trial and says a purchase is needed after it. Streak's free plan has no pipelines.
Bitrix24 is the odd one. The pricing page says Free is for 1 to 2 users, while a help center article updated 6 May 2026 says the free plan supports an unlimited number of users.
Another help article, updated 26 June 2026, says a free account nobody signs in to for 50 days is deleted and cannot be restored. Paid accounts are exempt.
Why does HubSpot Starter show $7, $10, $15 and $20?
Four numbers appear across two HubSpot pages on the same day. HubSpot's CRM pricing page shows Starter at $7 a seat billed yearly and $10 billed monthly.
Both sit next to a struck $20, under a banner offering up to 65% off Starter for new customers. The HubSpot CRM product page says Starter starts at $15 a month per seat.
The two pages also disagree on how long the offer lasts. The pricing page says the offers run for a limited time. The product page footnote says: "Offer has no set end date and can be discontinued at any time."
Neither page shows what a discounted seat costs when the offer ends.
At 5 seats the yearly bill is $420 at $7, $900 at $15 and $1,200 at $20. That is a $780 spread on one product.
The HubSpot pricing guide covers the tiers above Starter.
What does monthly billing add to the cheapest plans?
Every plan below costs more when billed monthly, except one.
Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Extra a seat each year | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Streak Pro | $49 | $59 | $120 | 20% |
Freshsales Growth | $9 | $11 | $24 | 22% |
Bigin Express | $7 | $9 | $24 | 29% |
Pipedrive Lite | $14 | $19 | $60 | 36% |
Bitrix24 Basic (per account) | $49 | $69 | $240 | 41% |
Pipedrive Growth | $24 | $34 | $120 | 42% |
HubSpot Starter (offer price) | $7 | $10 | $36 | 43% |
monday CRM Basic | $12 | $18 | $72 | 50% |
Close Solo | $9 | $19 | $120 | 111% |
Less Annoying CRM | $15 | $15 | $0 | 0% |
Close Solo more than doubles when you leave yearly billing. Less Annoying CRM stays flat at $15.
Which cheapest CRM fits you?
You are the only user. Bigin Free covers 500 records, and Express at $84 a year adds email and automation. Skip monday CRM, which bills 3 seats.
Two or three people share one pipeline. HubSpot Free and Capsule Free each cover 2 users. Freshsales Free covers 3, but only through a plan change inside an account.
Five to ten seats. Bigin Express runs $420 to $840 a year. Bitrix24's flat account price only wins from 15 users.
You want an email CRM. Bigin Express at $7 or Freshsales Growth at $9. Pipedrive Growth costs $24 and makes sense only if the deal board is the reason you want it.
You need a CRM with a dialer. Bigin lists a built in phone on Free, and Freshsales Growth lists phone. Close lists calling from Essentials at $35.
You want a CRM for startups with two founders. HubSpot Free covers both. Price again when a third person joins.
You cannot commit to 12 months. Less Annoying CRM stays at $15, and Bigin costs $24 more a seat a year when billed monthly.
FAQ
Is monthly or annual billing better for a small team?
Monthly billing adds 20% to 111% per seat on every plan above except Less Annoying CRM. For a short first month, Bigin's monthly premium is only $24 a seat a year, so paying monthly to try it costs little.
What is the cheapest CRM software for one user?
Bigin Free costs $0 for 1 user with 500 records. The cheapest paid seat is Bigin Express at $84 a year billed yearly, or $108 billed monthly.
Can I get a CRM for under $20 per user a month?
Yes. Bigin, Freshsales, Pipedrive Lite, Less Annoying CRM, monday CRM Basic, Capsule Starter and Close Solo all list a price under $20 billed yearly.
Bigin Express and Freshsales Growth are the cheapest that list email and automation together.
Is a free CRM enough?
For one or two people with a short list of contacts, yes. Caps arrive at 500 records on Bigin and 250 contacts on Capsule.
Bigin's email integration and 30 automations start on Express, and Capsule's workflow automations start on Growth.
How much does a small business CRM cost a year?
For 5 seats on a plan with email and automation, between $420 and $2,160 a year across the tables above. Pipedrive Growth sits at $1,440.
Which cheap CRM has a built in phone?
Bigin lists a built in phone on Free. Freshsales Growth lists phone on the $9 plan. Close lists built in calling from Essentials at $35.
Which one to pick
Pick Bigin Express if you need email and automation for up to 15 seats. Pick HubSpot Free or Bigin Free if you are one or two people who can live with the caps, and price again when a cap arrives.
Before you pay for a HubSpot promo seat, ask what it renews at. Neither HubSpot page says.