The typical searcher is a small inside sales team that chose Close for the built-in dialer and found that the price, the usage meter or the tier gating no longer fits. Automation sits on the third plan, calling and texting are billed on top, and an AI credit system now runs through the pricing page. They move to a cheaper seat-priced sales CRM, to a suite that also covers marketing and invoicing, or to a platform with a free entry tier.
AuthorHannah ReiterSenior Analyst, Business Applications
Short answer: The closest replacements for Close in our CRM ranking are Pipedrive, Freshsales and HubSpot. Choose Pipedrive if you want a pipeline-first sales CRM from a vendor that is not US-founded and will compare plan tables yourself. All 12 alternatives below are ranked products from Best CRM Software in 2026, and each says where it differs from Close.
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Pricing: Per user per month, published; call and SMS usage billed on top
Established in: United States
Built for: Inside sales teams making many calls and emails a day
Not for: Companies wanting marketing automation and a service desk alongside sales
01
Why buyers look past Close
01
Automation and the dialer start on the third plan
Close's pricing page lists four plans: Solo, Essentials, Growth and Scale. Workflows are marked as not included on Solo and Essentials, and the power dialer, bulk email and custom activities begin on Growth. On annual billing that is $99 per user per month for Growth, against $35 for Essentials, so a team that wants sequences and a dialer pays almost three times the entry price per seat.
02
A seat price is only part of the bill
The pricing page says calling and SMS usage is passed through at cost, with most outbound calls around $0.02 per minute and phone numbers from about $1 per month. Call Assistant, which records and summarises calls, is a separate add-on at $50 per month per organisation plus $0.02 per minute, and each extra organisation costs $50 per month. A high-volume calling team cannot read its forecast off the seat price alone.
03
AI credits and limits per plan
Each plan includes a monthly allowance of AI credits per user (500 on Solo up to 2,000 on Scale) that refreshes monthly with no rollover, and further credits are sold separately. Call recording retention is 30 days on Solo and Essentials, 90 days on Growth and unlimited only on Scale, and custom roles are Scale only. Teams that did not plan around these limits tend to meet them after the first year.
Per seat per month, published; add-ons and storage extra
The CRM for a company that has already bought Microsoft
your company runs on Microsoft 365 and wants the CRM inside that estate
#14
03
What each one does differently
1
Pipedrive
Estonia · Per seat per month, published; 14-day trial, add-ons extra
A sales CRM that grew out of an Estonian start-up in 2010 and is now backed by Vista Equity Partners, according to its own about page. The nearest like-for-like swap for a team that wants a pipeline first. We could not retrieve its plan table in this review, so check the dialer, sequences and seat prices yourself.
Switch from Close if you want a pipeline-first sales CRM from a vendor that is not US-founded and will compare plan tables yourself.
United States · 21-day trial; paid per seat per month, published
Publishes three paid tiers at $9, $39 and $59 per user per month on annual billing, which is well below Close's $35 to $139. Chat, email and phone sit on the lowest tier, and sales sequences and territory management start on Pro. The AI agent is an add-on at $49 per 100 sessions, and there is a 21-day trial.
Switch from Close if price per seat is the reason you are leaving and you still want phone and email in the CRM.
United States · Free plan for up to two users; paid per seat per month, published; Marketing Hub also billed by contact tier
Has a free CRM with no expiry for up to two users and 1,000 contacts, then Starter from $15 and Professional from $50 per seat per month. It is a sales, marketing and service suite, so it does far more than Close, but the marketing hubs are priced separately and the bill climbs with each hub added.
Switch from Close if you now want marketing and service in the same system as sales and can start on a free tier.
India · Free edition for three users; paid per seat per month, published
Offers a free edition for three users and paid Standard and Professional editions, with the Professional edition adding CPQ and automation and AI. It is a broad configurable platform rather than a calling-first tool, so expect to set up the pipeline and the telephony integration yourself. We could not confirm local prices from the page we received.
Switch from Close if you want a configurable CRM with a free entry edition and will set up telephony yourself.
United Kingdom · Free tier; paid per seat per month, published
Prices in euros, with a free plan for up to three seats, Plus at €39 monthly or €31 annual per user for up to 10 seats, and Pro at €93 or €74. Workspace credits for enrichment and AI are sold in add-on blocks. It is a configurable data-model CRM, so calling and SMS are not the built-in centre they are in Close.
Switch from Close if your sales process needs custom records and you can live without a native dialer.
United Kingdom · Free to two users; paid per seat per month, published
Free for a maximum of two users, 250 contacts and one pipeline. Paid plans start at Starter (30,000 contacts, shared mailbox, goals) and Growth (60,000 contacts, workflow automations, email sync, multiple pipelines), with a 14-day trial and no card. It is a contact and pipeline tool with no built-in dialer or SMS.
Switch from Close if a very small team wants a free or cheap pipeline and does not need calling inside the CRM.
United States · Per seat per month, published; add-ons extra
Starts with Starter Suite at $25 per user per month and Pro Suite at $100 on annual billing, then Sales Cloud Core at $195 and Advanced at $395. It models almost any sales process and ships with agents, but it costs more per seat than every Close plan from Pro Suite upward and generally needs an administrator.
Switch from Close if you are scaling past a simple pipeline and need territories, forecasting and deep customisation.
Israel · Per seat per month, published; three-seat minimum
A work-management platform with a CRM on top, priced per seat with Basic at €12, Standard at €17 and Pro at €28 on annual billing (€18, €25 and €41 monthly) for a 10-seat team. Basic caps at 1,000 active contacts and deals and five columns per board. Telephony is not its centre.
Switch from Close if sales shares boards with projects and operations and you want one tool across the team.
Belgium · Free for one app; per user per month for more, published
Odoo markets itself as an open source CRM and lists one app free with unlimited users, then paid plans from €19 per user per month for all apps. The CRM is one module of an ERP that also covers invoicing and inventory, so it replaces more than Close does, with more configuration to match.
Switch from Close if you want CRM, invoicing and operations in a single system and can run a larger implementation.
Teamleader Focus combines CRM, quotations, invoices, expenses and project management for small businesses, with a pricing page that starts at €37.5 per user per month and sells further modules as add-ons. It lists a 14-day trial with no card, and a 50% discount from the sixth user. It is a business suite, not a calling tool.
Switch from Close if you quote and invoice from the same place you sell and want one suite for a small business.
Norway · Per seat per month, published; no free plan, demo on request
Five published plans at €45, €65, €95, €130 and €160 per user per month, with Starter limited to five users and each plan carrying usage allowances. There is no permanent free plan, and the vendor says data stays in European data centres. It covers sales, marketing and service, not dialer-led outbound.
Switch from Close if you want a sales, marketing and service platform with European data hosting and a quoted plan ladder.
United States · Per seat per month, published; add-ons and storage extra
Listed at $65 (Professional), $105 (Enterprise) and $150 (Premium) per user per month, paid yearly, with Microsoft 365 integration as the main selling point. It targets organisations already standardised on Microsoft and needs more set-up than Close. The page we retrieved also noted that purchase was unavailable in our market.
Switch from Close if your company runs on Microsoft 365 and wants the CRM inside that estate.
Close remains the right choice for a small inside sales team that lives on the phone and in email, and wants calling, SMS, email, pipeline and reporting in one product without wiring them together. Its pricing page publishes every seat price, usage is passed through at cost and a 30-day money-back guarantee is listed. A team that only needs workflows and a dialer is better served paying for Growth than rebuilding the same stack from separate tools.
05
What moving off Close involves
01
Export leads, contacts and opportunities first
Close's help centre documents data export and import, and its pricing page lists import and export on every plan. Close organises records as leads with contacts attached, which is not how most CRMs structure accounts and people, so map each Close lead to an account and its contacts before you import elsewhere.
02
Calling, numbers and recordings do not move with the CRM
Phone numbers, call recordings and transcripts live in Close. Recording retention is limited on lower plans (30 days on Solo and Essentials), so download what you need before the account lapses, and plan how your numbers will be ported or replaced. Check that the new tool supports SMS in the countries you text, since Close lists a specific set and requires A2P 10DLC registration for US numbers.
03
Rebuild workflows and custom fields by hand
Workflows, custom activities and the up-to-250 custom fields per object are configuration, not data. List every workflow and what it triggers before cancelling, and decide whether the new product has an equivalent. Several alternatives put automation on a higher tier too, so check the plan you need, not the one you start on.
06
Questions about replacing Close
6 answers
How much does Close cost?
Close's pricing page lists four plans per user per month: Solo at $19 monthly or $9 annual, Essentials at $49 or $35, Growth at $109 or $99, and Scale at $149 or $139.
Calling and SMS usage is charged on top at cost, and most outbound calls are around $0.02 per minute.
Does Close have a free plan?
No. Close lists a free trial that needs no credit card and includes $5 of calling and enrichment credits, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, but no permanent free plan.
If your account pauses after the trial, the data stays available only for a limited period before deletion, according to its FAQ. HubSpot, Capsule, Attio and Zoho CRM do offer free tiers.
What is the cheapest alternative to Close?
Among the alternatives with a published price, Freshsales lists $9 per user per month on annual billing for its lowest paid plan.
Free tiers exist at HubSpot (two users), Capsule (two users), Attio (three seats) and Zoho CRM (three users), and Odoo lists one app free. Close's own cheapest plan is Solo at $9 per month annual, limited to one user and 10,000 leads.
Which alternative keeps calling and SMS inside the CRM?
Freshsales lists chat, email and phone on its lowest tier. HubSpot, Salesforce and Zoho CRM are broader platforms where telephony is normally an integration or add-on.
Check the exact dialer, local numbers and SMS countries on the vendor's page, because Close's own list of SMS countries is limited.
Where is Close based and where is my data held?
Close lists a mailing address in Austin, Texas, and describes itself as remote-first.
Its GDPR page says it provides a Data Processing Agreement with standard contractual clauses for transfers outside the EEA, and names Amazon Web Services among its sub-processors. SuperOffice, by contrast, says its data stays in European data centres.
Can I keep my call recordings if I leave?
Close's pricing page lists call recording retention of 30 days on Solo and Essentials, 90 days on Growth and unlimited on Scale.
Recordings on a lower plan may therefore be gone before you move, so export what you need first and confirm the process with Close support.
—
Sources
Checked 7 October 2026
Close pricing: Plan names, monthly and annual seat prices, plan gating of workflows, power dialer, recording retention, custom roles, AI credits, usage-based calling and SMS, add-on prices, trial and money-back guarantee.
Close about: Founding year, remote-first company, Austin Texas mailing address, customer-funded and profitable.
Close GDPR page: Data Processing Agreement, standard contractual clauses, AWS sub-processor.
