CRM Software

What is CRM software?

CRM (customer relationship management) software is a shared database of the people and companies you sell to, plus the deals, conversations and tasks connected to them. Instead of contacts living in inboxes and spreadsheets, everyone on the team sees the same record: who the customer is, what was last said, and what happens next.

Most CRMs are built around a pipeline: a set of stages a deal moves through from first contact to closed. That gives managers a forecast and gives reps a daily to-do list.

Who needs one: any business where more than one person talks to the same customers, or where deals take more than one conversation to close. Typical buyers are sales teams, founders doing their own selling, agencies managing client relationships, and support teams that need customer history.

Quick comparison: six CRMs we have researched

These six CRMs each have a full SoftPilot profile. The table compares how each one is priced, not which is “best”: the right choice depends on your team.

CRM	Free plan	Entry paid price listed	Trial	Pricing basis
HubSpot	Yes, up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts	From $7/seat/mo (promotional; regular $20), annual	Not verified	Per seat; Marketing Hub by contact volume
Salesforce Sales Cloud	Yes, Free Suite for up to 2 users	Starter Suite $25/user/mo	30 days (Starter Suite)	Per user; editions above Starter billed annually
Pipedrive	No	Lite US$14/seat/mo, billed annually	14 days	Per seat
Zoho CRM	Yes, up to 3 users	Standard $14/user/mo, billed annually ($20 monthly)	Yes (length not stated)	Per user
Freshsales	None listed	Growth $9/user/mo, billed annually	21 days	Per user
monday CRM	No	Basic $12/seat/mo, yearly; minimum 3 seats	14 days	Per seat

How to choose a CRM

1. Write down your sales process first. List your pipeline stages, who owns each step and what information you need at each stage. A CRM should fit that process, not replace it with a vendor’s template.
2. Count real users, not just sellers. Include managers, marketers and support staff who need access. Some CRMs offer free view-only access (HubSpot does on paid plans), others charge for every login, and some have minimum seat counts (monday CRM starts at 3).
3. Decide whether marketing lives in the same system. An all-in-one platform avoids syncing two tools, but marketing features are often priced by contact volume, which grows faster than headcount.
4. List must-have integrations. Email and calendar, your phone system, billing or accounting, and any product database. Check each integration’s listing for who maintains it and which plan it needs.
5. Price your exact configuration for year one and year two. Include onboarding fees, add-ons and the tier you will need once automation matters, not just the entry tier.
6. Trial with your own data. Import a few hundred real records and run a week of real deals through the pipeline before you sign an annual contract.

Features to evaluate

Feature	Why it matters	Question to ask the vendor
Pipelines and stages	Different products or sales motions often need separate pipelines.	How many pipelines does my tier allow?
Email and calendar sync	Activity is logged automatically instead of by hand.	Is two-way sync included, and with which providers?
Workflow automation	Routes leads, creates tasks and updates stages without manual work.	How many active workflows does my tier allow, and which triggers?
Reporting and forecasting	Managers need pipeline value and win rates they can trust.	Are custom reports included, or only standard dashboards?
Permissions	Controls who can see or edit which records as the team grows.	Are field-level or team-based permissions on my tier?
Data import and deduplication	Bad migrations create duplicate records that are hard to clean.	Is duplicate management included, and is import help free?
Mobile app	Field and travelling sellers update deals on the go.	Does the app support offline use and call logging?

CRM pricing and total cost

Headline prices are per user per month, often only when billed annually. The real cost depends on four things:

• Billing basis: per seat, per user, by contact volume, or a mix. HubSpot’s Marketing Hub, for example, is priced by marketing contacts while its Sales Hub is priced by seat.
• Annual versus monthly: monthly billing usually costs more. monday CRM’s Basic plan, for example, was $12 per seat yearly versus $18 monthly on 20 Oct 2026.
• One-time fees: some vendors require paid onboarding on higher tiers. HubSpot listed $1,500 for Sales Hub Professional and $3,500 for Enterprise.
• Usage add-ons: AI credits, calling minutes, extra storage or extra contacts can be billed on top.

Worked example for a 5-person sales team, year one, list prices on 20 Oct 2026: Pipedrive Growth at US$24 per seat/month billed annually comes to 5 × 24 × 12 = US$1,440. HubSpot Sales Hub Professional at $90 per seat/month plus required onboarding comes to 5 × 90 × 12 + 1,500 = $6,900. The two are not equivalent products, which is the point: compare what you need at the tier you will actually use.

Which CRMs to shortlist, by situation

• You want to start free: HubSpot (free for up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts), Salesforce Free Suite (up to 2 users) or Zoho CRM (free edition for up to 3 users).
• Sales and marketing should share one system: HubSpot, whose Hubs share one CRM database. Budget for contact-based marketing pricing.
• A small sales team that lives in the pipeline: Pipedrive, which is organised around a visual pipeline and listed from US$14 per seat/month.
• Complex processes and dedicated admin capacity: Salesforce Sales Cloud, with editions from Starter Suite up to Max.
• Your team already plans work in monday.com: monday CRM, keeping in mind the 3-seat minimum.
• Lowest listed per-seat entry price: Freshsales Growth at $9 per user/month billed annually.

Common CRM buying mistakes

• Buying for the entry tier you will outgrow in six months. Check which tier includes the automation and reporting you will need, and price that.
• Ignoring promotional pricing. Discounts for new customers can end at renewal. Ask what you will pay in year two.
• Migrating messy data. Deduplicate and agree on field definitions before import, not after.
• No owner. Someone has to maintain pipelines, fields and permissions. Without an owner, adoption drops and data quality follows.
• Paying for seats nobody uses. Review seat assignments quarterly, and use free view-only access where the vendor offers it.

CRM FAQs

How we researched this page

This guide is desk research by the SoftPilot Editorial Team. We have not tested these CRMs hands-on. Prices and plan facts were read from each vendor’s official pricing page on 20 October 2026. No vendor paid for inclusion, and SoftPilot earns nothing from the links on this page.

• HubSpot Sales Hub pricing and Marketing Hub pricing
• Salesforce Sales Cloud pricing
• Pipedrive pricing
• Zoho CRM pricing
• Freshsales pricing
• monday CRM pricing