15 Best Close CRM Alternatives in 2026: Cheaper Seats, Calling Still Built In

The cheapest Close CRM alternative that keeps a real dialer inside the CRM is Freshsales, at $9 per user a month on annual billing against Close's $99 Growth seat. Salesmate sits in the middle at $23 for Basic, with calling and texting included. Attio is the pick if you want a free tier for a team of three and don't need a phone at all.

Here's what the other roundups skip. Close includes AI credits per user, but the shared pool stops at a fixed monthly ceiling. On the $99 Growth plan you get 1,500 credits per user, up to 15,000 a month for the whole organization. That cap lands at 10 seats. Rep number 11 costs another $99 a month and brings zero extra credits with them.

What the seat price leaves out

A 20 person team on Close Growth pays $23,760 a year. That team still shares the same 15,000 monthly credit pool as a 10 person team, which works out to 750 credits each. Half the number on the plan card. Credits refresh monthly and do not roll over, so a slow month is money gone. Essentials has the same shape (1,000 per user, 10,000 ceiling) and so does Scale (2,000 per user, 20,000 ceiling).

Calling is metered on top. Close's own pricing page says it plainly in the FAQ: "Most outbound calls cost around $0.02/minute, and phone numbers start at about $1/month." Fair rates, but they sit outside the seat price, and the full usage breakdown is a separate document.

Then the add ons. Call Assistant, which records, transcribes and summarises calls, costs $50 a month per organization plus $0.02 per minute. That applies at every tier, including the $139 Scale plan. Premium phone numbers with call routing run $19 a month per line.

How I got to this list

A January 2026 thread on Hacker News asking whether anything beats HubSpot filled up with people describing CRM moves that went sideways. One poster tried to switch away twice, introduced data errors both times, and watched sales performance dip while the team cleaned it up. That thread is why I stopped guessing at what leaving Close would cost.

Over two weeks I pulled the official pricing page for all 15 tools below and rebuilt the same 42 lead outbound list inside four of them. The number that mattered was never the seat price. It was what a 10 person team pays in year one once calling, recording and AI usage are counted.

Why teams start looking at Close CRM Alternatives

Close is an inside sales CRM where the phone, the inbox and the pipeline share one screen, so a rep works a list without switching tabs. That design is why people buy it and why they leave it.

The jump from Essentials at $35 to Growth at $99 is the usual breaking point. Automated workflows, the power dialer, bulk email, and custom activities all sit behind that wall, with no middle step. A five person team that needs workflows goes from $2,100 a year to $5,940 overnight.

Recording retention is the other one. Solo and Essentials keep call recordings 30 days, Growth 90, and only Scale keeps them without a limit. Teams that need call history for coaching usually find that out in month four.

The rest are ordinary reasons. Reps who live in email don't need a power dialer. Relationship sellers want cleaner contact records, not activity throughput. Anyone shopping for open source CRM software or a lighter sales pipeline tool has options below.

The Close CRM Alternatives Explained

Cheaper seats, calling still built in

Freshsales Entry price: $9 per user a month, annual Free plan: yes, up to 3 users Calling: native dialer from the entry tier

Freshsales is a sales CRM from Freshworks with a phone dialer, email sequences and AI lead scoring inside the product. It is the closest thing here to Close's core promise at a tenth of the Growth seat price. Pro at $39 adds multiple pipelines and deeper automation. Calls bill per minute, same as Close, so budget usage separately.

Salesmate Entry price: $23 per user a month (Basic) Pro tier: $39 per user a month Calling: built in calling and texting, numbers from $1.10 a month

Salesmate bundles calling, SMS, email campaigns and workflow automation into one seat. Its pricing page publishes per minute rates and number costs openly, which makes modelling a real bill easier than most. Sandy, its AI assistant, starts at Pro rather than Basic.

Nutshell Entry price: $13 per user a month, annual Range: $13 to $79 by tier Calling: click to call with recording on paid tiers

Nutshell is a CRM for small outbound teams that includes unlimited contacts and accounts on every plan, with no setup or implementation fee. Its marketing add on runs $49 a month if you want campaigns alongside the pipeline. Reporting is lighter than Close, so heavy call metrics teams should look further down.

Zoho CRM Entry price: $14 per user a month (Standard, annual) Professional: $23 per user a month Calling: through Zoho Voice, billed separately

Zoho CRM is a full sales CRM with pipelines, automation, and its own AI assistant, Zia. Telephony comes through Zoho Voice rather than being native, so it is one more thing to switch on. The trade is price: Professional at $23 costs under a quarter of a Close Growth seat and includes quoting tools Close doesn't have at all. We cover it in more depth in our Zoho CRM alternatives guide.

Pipeline first, bring your own dialer

Pipedrive Entry price: $14 per seat a month (Lite, annual) Growth tier: $39 per seat a month Calling: add on or third party dialer

Pipedrive is a pipeline management CRM built around a visual deal board most reps understand in an afternoon. Automation starts at Growth, not Lite, so treat $39 as the real floor. Pair it with a VoIP tool for volume dialing. Premium is $49 and Ultimate $79 on annual billing. For a full breakdown of where it fits against other pipeline tools, see our Pipedrive alternatives guide.

HubSpot Sales Hub Entry price: free CRM, Starter from $15 per seat, Professional: around $90 per seat plus a $1,500 onboarding fee. Calling: included, with per minute limits by tier

HubSpot Sales Hub sits on top of HubSpot's free contact database and connects to its marketing and service tools. The free tier is the most generous here and the reason many teams land on it. The Professional onboarding fee is mandatory and doesn't appear next to the seat price, so add $1,500 to any year one estimate.

Monday CRM Entry price: from about $12 per seat a month. Annual seat minimum: 3 Calling: through integrations only

monday CRM is a sales CRM built inside monday.com's wider work platform, so pipelines sit beside project boards. It suits teams where the handoff from deal to delivery matters more than dial volume. Seats sell in blocks, so a 4 person team often pays for 5. Check that before comparing per seat numbers.

Insightly Entry price: $29 per user a month (Plus, annual) Professional: $49 per user a month Calling: add on

Insightly is a CRM with project management alongside the pipeline, aimed at teams that keep working with a customer after the deal closes. Enterprise runs $99. Marketing automation and the integration layer are priced separately, which draws the most common complaint. Good for services businesses, poor for pure outbound.

AI native and modern

Attio Entry price: free up to 3 seats. Plus: $29 per seat a month, annual Pro: $69 per seat a month, annual

Attio is a data first CRM where you shape objects and fields around your own sales motion instead of fitting a template. Monthly billing adds roughly 24 percent over annual. Its AI and enrichment features draw from credit pools that refill each month, so the ceiling question that applies to Close applies here too.

folk Entry price: from about $20 per user a month Best for: solo founders and small teams Calling: none native

folk is a lightweight relationship CRM closer to a shared workspace than a sales tool. Contact records, light pipelines and email sit in an interface people keep updated. It will not replace a power dialer. For a founder having 20 conversations a week rather than 200 calls a day, that is fine.

Breakcold Entry price: $59 a month flat, plus $10 per extra seat Best for: multichannel outbound Calling: yes, alongside LinkedIn and WhatsApp

Breakcold is a sales CRM built around one inbox pulling email, calls, meetings, LinkedIn and WhatsApp against each contact. The flat base price is the interesting part: a five person team pays $99 a month here against $5,940 a year on Close Growth. Fewer reporting options, smaller integration library.

Relationship and inbox led

Copper Entry price: from $29 per user a month (Basic); Professional: $69 per user a month; Calling: through integrations

Copper is a CRM designed to live inside Google Workspace, so records update from Gmail and Calendar without a separate app. Adoption is fast for teams already in Google all day. Contact limits are tighter than most competitors at each tier, and the entry plan leaves out workflow automation.

Nimble Entry price: $24.90 per user a month, annual Monthly billing: $29.90 Calling: none native

Nimble builds contact records from your inbox and social profiles, aimed at people selling on relationships rather than call volume. One plan, no tier ladder, which removes a lot of decisions. Extra contacts and storage cost more. For consultants and small agencies it is often enough on its own.

Messaging and self hosted

Kommo Entry price: $15 per user a month (Base) Best for: WhatsApp and Instagram sales Calling: through integrations

Kommo is a messaging first CRM that puts WhatsApp, Instagram and other chat channels into one shared inbox with a pipeline behind it. If your buyers message instead of answering the phone, the whole Close model is the wrong shape and this is the right one. Reporting is thinner.

EspoCRM Entry price: free, self hosted Cloud: from about $15 per user a month Calling: through VoIP integrations

EspoCRM is an open source CRM you run on your own server with no per seat licence at all. That makes it the cheapest option here by a wide margin, if you have someone who can maintain it. Budget for hosting, updates and setup time instead of seats. Teams without technical help should skip it.

The 15 Close CRM Alternatives Side by Side

Methodology Note

Every price above came from the vendor's own pricing page or, where a page wasn't reachable, from at least two independent sources reporting the same figure. Pricing and features verified 5 August 2026. Annual figures are shown because that is what most teams end up on. Monthly billing runs 20 to 50 percent higher: Close is $99 annual against $109 monthly on Growth, $139 against $149 on Scale.

I did not test all 15 at production volume. I rebuilt the same 42 lead list in Freshsales, Salesmate, Pipedrive, and Attio, and priced the rest from documentation.

How to Pick Close CRM Alternatives, and What Switching from Close CRM Actually Costs

If your reps make more than 40 calls a day each, the shortlist is short. Freshsales and Salesmate are the only two here that keep dialing inside the CRM at a price meaningfully under Close. Freshsales wins on cost, Salesmate on being clear about what a call costs. Breakcold is worth a look if your outbound runs across LinkedIn and WhatsApp as much as the phone, since the flat base price stops punishing you for hiring.

If calling is a small part of the week, stop paying for a dialer. Pipedrive or HubSpot will cost less and annoy your reps less. HubSpot's free tier is the sensible landing spot for a team under five that mostly sells over email, and you can add paid seats later without a migration.

If you sell on relationships rather than volume, Copper and Nimble are built for that and Close is not. Copper if your day happens in Gmail, Nimble if you want one plan and no upgrade decisions.

The switching cost is the part people underestimate. Close ships importers for HubSpot, Pipedrive and HighLevel, which means moving into Close is easy by design and moving out is your problem. Budget two to four weeks for data cleanup and rebuilding sequences. Export your call recordings before you cancel, because on Essentials they are only kept 30 days anyway.

Questions People Ask About Close CRM Alternatives

Is there a free alternative to Close CRM?

Yes. HubSpot's free CRM, Freshsales' free plan for up to 3 users, and Attio's free plan for up to 3 seats all cost nothing to start. EspoCRM is free forever if you self host it. None include free calling minutes, so a phone heavy team still pays for usage somewhere.

What is the cheapest Close CRM alternative with calling built in?

Freshsales, at $9 per user a month on annual billing, with the dialer included from the entry tier. That is 91 percent less per seat than Close Growth at $99. Calls bill per minute on top, roughly in line with Close, so compare usage rather than assuming the gap holds at volume.

Which is the best Close CRM alternative for a small team switching over?

For five people doing outbound calls, Freshsales. It matches how Close works, the CSV import path is short, and the annual bill drops from $5,940 to $540. If calling is incidental, HubSpot's free tier costs nothing and scales with paid seats when you need them.

My picks

If I were replacing Close tomorrow for a small outbound team, I'd install Freshsales and give it a fortnight against a real list. Same job, a fraction of the seat price, and the free tier for three users means you can run it beside Close before committing.

Teams that have outgrown pure dialing should look at Pipedrive or HubSpot instead and spend the saved money on a calling tool that fits. And if more than 10 people sit on your Close plan, go read the AI credit line on your invoice. The per user number stopped applying a while ago.