The typical searcher started on HubSpot's free tier, grew into it, and then saw what marketing automation and proper reporting cost once they left that tier. Some only ever needed a pipeline. They move to a sales-only CRM with a published seat price, or to a configurable platform that does not bill by contact.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderShort answer: The first three alternatives to HubSpot in our CRM ranking are Pipedrive, Freshsales and Attio. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Choose Pipedrive if the sales team only needs a pipeline and marketing runs elsewhere. All 11 alternatives below are ranked products from Best CRM Software in 2026, and each says where it differs from HubSpot.
Vendors can pay for visibility on this site; it never changes what we say about a product. How that works.
HubSpot is the easiest CRM to start on, though the free plan stops at two users and 1,000 contacts. The cost arrives when marketing wants automation or someone requests a report the free reporting cannot build. From there it climbs faster than any other product in this category.
Marketing pricing is per contact, so a list full of people who never open anything is billed at the same rate as real buyers. An imported database of old leads can move the bill more than hiring salespeople does, which is why the contact list needs an audit before every renewal.
HubSpot is designed for a sales and marketing team that wants one system and has budget to grow into it. A team that will never touch the marketing side is carrying a platform it does not use, and a pipeline-first tool does the daily job with less around it.
| Alternative | Headquarters | Free option | Pricing | Key difference | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pipedrive | Estonia | No free tier | Per seat per month, published; 14-day trial, add-ons extra | Pipeline-first CRM that salespeople actually update | the sales team only needs a pipeline and marketing runs elsewhere | #2 |
| Freshsales | United States | No free tier | 21-day trial; paid per seat per month, published | CRM with the telephony and chat built in rather than bolted on | your sellers live on the phone and you want telephony inside the CRM | #7 |
| Attio | United Kingdom | Yes | Free tier; paid per seat per month, published | A CRM you model yourself, built on objects rather than modules | your pipeline does not look like classic sales and you want to define your own objects | #5 |
| Zoho CRM | India | Yes | Free edition for three users; paid per seat per month, published | Deep functionality at a price the enterprise vendors cannot match | cost is the reason you are leaving and someone is willing to configure the replacement | #11 |
| Close | United States | No free tier | Per user per month, published; call and SMS usage billed on top | Sales CRM with calling, email and SMS built in for inside sales | you run an inside sales team and never used the marketing side | #6 |
| Salesforce | United States | No free tier | Per seat per month, published; add-ons extra | The enterprise standard, with the implementation cost to match | you have outgrown HubSpot with a large sales organisation and complex territories | #12 |
| Capsule CRM | United Kingdom | Yes | Free to two users; paid per seat per month, published | A contact database that does not pretend to be a platform | a small team wants a shared contact history without a platform attached | #9 |
| Teamleader | Belgium | No free tier | Per seat per month, published | CRM, quoting and invoicing for small European agencies | you quote, invoice and track time for clients and want it in the same system as the pipeline | #3 |
| Odoo CRM | Belgium | Yes | Free for one app; per user per month for more, published | One free app that turns into a full business suite | you want to start free on a pipeline and may later add accounting, inventory or other apps from the same vendor | #8 |
| monday CRM | Israel | No free tier | Per seat per month, published; three-seat minimum | A work platform with a CRM template on top | your team already runs projects on boards and wants the pipeline to look the same | #13 |
| SuperOffice | Norway | No free tier | Per seat per month, published; no free plan, demo on request | Nordic CRM built around relationships rather than reporting | data residency in Europe and a vendor based in Norway are requirements | #4 |
Estonia · Per seat per month, published; 14-day trial, add-ons extra
Sales-only by design, where HubSpot is a suite. Everything is arranged around moving a deal one stage, pricing is per seat and published, and marketing exists only as add-ons. Reporting is shallower than HubSpot's once revenue attribution is the question.
Switch from HubSpot if the sales team only needs a pipeline and marketing runs elsewhere.
United States · 21-day trial; paid per seat per month, published
Also starts free, but spends its effort on a built-in phone system and chat instead of a marketing suite. Pricing is published per seat. The reservation is that the vendor repackages and renames its tiers often, and the AI features sit on a separate tier.
Switch from HubSpot if your sellers live on the phone and you want telephony inside the CRM.
United Kingdom · Free tier; paid per seat per month, published
A CRM you model yourself from objects, where HubSpot hands you a set structure. It has a free tier and published seat prices, and syncs from email and calendar. Forecasting and reporting are less mature than HubSpot's, and the data model needs designing first.
Switch from HubSpot if your pipeline does not look like classic sales and you want to define your own objects.
India · Free edition for three users; paid per seat per month, published
Packs forecasting, territory management and a workflow engine into a published per-seat price, without HubSpot's contact-based marketing tiers. It asks for someone to configure it, the interface is denser, and it fits best alongside other Zoho applications.
Switch from HubSpot if cost is the reason you are leaving and someone is willing to configure the replacement.
United States · Per user per month, published; call and SMS usage billed on top
Builds calling, email sequences and SMS into the CRM so activity is logged without a connector. It has almost nothing for marketing or service and plainer reporting than HubSpot, and its dialers and workflow automation sit on the higher plans.
Switch from HubSpot if you run an inside sales team and never used the marketing side.
United States · Per seat per month, published; add-ons extra
Moves in the other direction: more extensible than HubSpot and able to model any sales process, but quoted instead of self-serve, and dependent on an administrator and usually an implementation partner. Its bill also grows, through add-ons where HubSpot's grows through contacts.
Switch from HubSpot if you have outgrown HubSpot with a large sales organisation and complex territories.
United Kingdom · Free to two users; paid per seat per month, published
Contacts, pipeline and tasks, and nothing more. It is free to two users with a published price above that, and needs no configuration. Against HubSpot it has no marketing, thin reporting and no forecasting, which is the reason to choose it.
Switch from HubSpot if a small team wants a shared contact history without a platform attached.
Belgium · Per seat per month, published
Treats the CRM as one part of running a small business, with quotes, time tracking, e-invoicing and Peppol sending included in all three packages. It is built in Belgium and priced per user, not by marketing contact. It offers no free plan, only a 14-day trial.
Switch from HubSpot if you quote, invoice and track time for clients and want it in the same system as the pipeline.
Belgium · Free for one app; per user per month for more, published
Sold as one app in a modular business suite, and that app is free for unlimited users. Paid plans are per user and cover every app, and the Custom plan adds a choice of Odoo Online, Odoo.sh or on-premise hosting. It needs more setup than HubSpot.
Switch from HubSpot if you want to start free on a pipeline and may later add accounting, inventory or other apps from the same vendor.
Israel · Per seat per month, published; three-seat minimum
A work-management board adapted into a CRM, priced per seat with limits on active contacts and deals per plan (1,000 on Basic, 10,000 on Standard). It suits teams who already think in boards and automations. It has a 14-day trial instead of a free plan, and its contact caps mean growth is metered here as well.
Switch from HubSpot if your team already runs projects on boards and wants the pipeline to look the same.
Norway · Per seat per month, published; no free plan, demo on request
A Norwegian vendor that bundles sales, marketing and service tools into per-user tiers from Starter to Super, with European data residency stated on its pricing page. There is no permanent free plan, only demos and prices rise by tier from Starter at EUR 45 per user per month on annual billing.
Switch from HubSpot if data residency in Europe and a vendor based in Norway are requirements.
HubSpot remains the right choice when sales and marketing genuinely want one system and there is budget for the tiers above the entry plan. Its free tier is the most generous in the category, the app ecosystem is large, and marketing works from the same records as sales. Splitting into a pipeline tool plus a separate email platform recreates a join that HubSpot already gives you.
HubSpot holds deals and marketing contacts in one database. A sales-only replacement will not want the whole list, so decide which contacts are customers and live prospects and which belong in an email tool or an archive. That split is the main design decision of the move.
Email sends, automation and attribution reporting may all be running inside HubSpot without anyone thinking of them as separate products. List each before cancelling. Pipedrive treats marketing as an add-on and Close barely covers it, so those jobs need a named replacement.
Part of HubSpot's appeal is its large app ecosystem, and whatever you connected through it has to be reconnected on the other side. Check that each one exists for the new CRM before committing, because an integration missing on day one becomes manual data entry for the sales team.
Yes, for a team that sells by conversation and does not need marketing automation in the same system.
Pipedrive is lighter on marketing and service than HubSpot on purpose, its pricing is per seat and published, and its reporting becomes shallow once you want revenue attribution.
Attio has a free tier, Capsule CRM is free for up to two users, and Zoho CRM has a free edition for three users.
Odoo CRM is free for a single app. None of these free plans comes with HubSpot's marketing tools, so compare them on the pipeline alone.
Two mechanisms. Marketing automation and fuller reporting sit outside the free tier, and marketing pricing is based on contacts, so stored records that never convert are billed like buyers. Zoho CRM and Pipedrive charge per seat instead, which makes the bill follow headcount.
Only with the staff for it. Salesforce suits a large sales organisation with complex territories and needs an administrator and usually an implementation partner. If the complaint about HubSpot is cost, Salesforce rarely fixes it, because its own bill grows through add-ons.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed 9 October 2026. How we review.
