Alternatives
Salesforce Alternatives for Small Business
Quick answer: For most small businesses, HubSpot's free tier or Pipedrive's simple pricing get you most of what Salesforce offers without the setup project; Close is the better fit specifically if your team sells by phone.
Why small businesses look past Salesforce
Salesforce is designed to be configured by a dedicated admin, extended through a marketplace of paid add-ons, and rolled out with help from a certified partner — a setup that makes sense for a 200-person sales org and very little sense for a five-person team. The per-user list price is only part of the real cost; implementation time and ongoing admin work are the part that catches small businesses off guard. These alternatives get you a working, organized pipeline without the implementation project.
Salesforce alternatives at a glance
| CRM | Best for | Setup effort | Starting price tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | Free-forever starting point | Low | Free tier available |
| Pipedrive | Simple visual pipeline | Low | Budget |
| Close | Phone- and email-heavy sales | Low–Medium | Mid |
| Zoho CRM | Broader feature set on a budget | Medium | Budget–mid |
| Attio | Startups wanting a flexible database | Medium | Mid |
1. HubSpot — best free starting point
Unlike Salesforce's "Free Suite" (capped at two user licenses and clearly a funnel toward paid tiers), HubSpot's free CRM is usable well beyond a trial — unlimited users, basic deal tracking, and email logging with no expiration date. For a small business not ready to commit budget to a CRM at all, it's the lower-risk starting point of the two.
Pros
- Free tier has no user cap and no time limit
- Room to grow into marketing and service tools later
- Large template and integration library
Cons
- Paid tiers climb quickly once you need automation
- Can feel like more platform than a small team needs
2. Pipedrive — best for a simple, visual pipeline
Pipedrive skips Salesforce's object-and-permission model entirely and gives a small team a pipeline board they can set up themselves in an afternoon. There's no admin certification required to add a field or change a stage, which matters when nobody on a five-person team has the bandwidth to become a part-time Salesforce administrator.
Pros
- No admin role or certification needed to manage it
- Clean pipeline view, minimal training required
- Reasonably priced at entry tiers
Cons
- Less depth for complex, multi-team sales processes
- Marketing features are limited or require add-ons
3. Close — best for phone- and email-heavy sales
If a small business's sales motion is mostly outbound calls and email follow-up, Close bakes calling and sequencing into the core product instead of requiring a paid Salesforce add-on for dialing. For a small team, that's one less integration to configure and one less line item to budget for.
Pros
- Calling and email sequences included, not bolted on
- Fast interface built for high call volume
- No admin overhead to maintain
Cons
- Less useful if your business doesn't sell by phone
- No free tier
Other solid options
Zoho CRM is worth considering if you want more feature depth than Pipedrive offers — marketing, service, and analytics modules — without Salesforce's price tag, though expect a steeper learning curve to configure it well. Attio fits startups and small teams that want a CRM with a more flexible, developer-friendly data model than either Salesforce or the more traditional tools on this list.
Pricing (entry-level plans)
| CRM | Starting price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | Free $0 · Starter from ~$15–20 · Professional/Enterprise Suite bundles from ~$1,000+/mo | HubSpot prices per "Hub" (Marketing/Sales/Service/etc.) and by contact tier, so the total varies a lot by what you bundle. |
| Pipedrive | Lite $14 · Growth $39 · Premium $59 · Ultimate $79 | Per seat/month, billed annually (monthly billing costs more). 14-day free trial. |
| Close | Solo $9 · Essentials $35 · Growth $99 · Scale $139 | Per user/month. Free 14-day trial, no credit card required. |
| Zoho CRM | Standard €14 · Professional €23 · Enterprise €40 · Ultimate €52 | Per user/month (EUR pricing shown; check your region for local currency). |
Prices above are current as of writing and shown for the entry-level tiers — always confirm the latest numbers on each provider's pricing page before buying, since SaaS pricing changes often.
“A cheaper CRM will likely mean less benefits... maybe you're currently paying for 'benefits' that you don't actually use.”
How to choose
The honest question isn't "which CRM has the most features" — Salesforce almost always wins that comparison. It's "which features will this team actually use in the next twelve months." A small business that outgrows a simpler tool can migrate later; a small business that pays for Salesforce's full stack from day one is usually paying for capacity it won't touch for years, if ever.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best CRM overall for this use case?
HubSpot is our top overall pick for this use case, based on ease of setup, pricing, and fit for typical workflows — though the right choice depends on team size and budget, covered in the sections above.
Do I need a paid CRM, or is a free plan enough?
A free plan is usually enough for a single user or a very small team just getting started. Growing teams typically outgrow free tiers once they need automation, reporting, or more than a couple of users.
How long does it take to set up a CRM?
Simple CRMs can be set up in under an hour. More full-featured platforms with custom pipelines, automations, and integrations typically take a few days to a few weeks to configure properly.