Best Close Alternatives in 2026
Close is a CRM built around the telephone, so the decision is whether your motion is still phone-led. Compare seven alternatives on scope, price and fit.
HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM, Freshsales, Copper, Monday CRM, Pipedrive and Salesforce are the main Close alternatives. Freshsales keeps a dialer at $9 per user per month, HubSpot and Zoho add marketing to the same record with free entry points, and Copper captures Google Workspace activity natively.
Key takeaways
- Close's pricing page lists Solo at $19 per user per month, and the product is arranged entirely around high-activity calling.
- The power dialer and native SMS are most of the value, so a team whose pipeline now arrives by email is paying for a feature it does not open.
- Freshsales is the middle ground at $9 per user per month billed annually, keeping built-in phone with call recording at a lower price.
- Call recordings, call outcomes and SMS threads are the hardest data to export, so check portability before cancelling rather than after.
Reviewed and updated August 28, 2026
Best Close Alternatives in 2026
Close lists Solo at $19 per user per month on its pricing page, and what that buys is a CRM arranged entirely around the telephone: power dialer, native SMS and email sequencing in the core product rather than as add-ons. That focus is why phone-led teams love it and why teams whose motion changed find themselves paying for a dialer nobody opens.
A CRM Built Around One Motion
A CRM is usually neutral about how you sell. Close is not, and that is the point of it.
The product assumes a high-activity inside sales team: reps working a list by phone, logging outcomes in seconds, moving on. The power dialer, the SMS, the tight call logging and the sequencing all serve that loop, and a team running it will do more calls a day here than on a general CRM with a dialer bolted on.
The cost of that design is scope. Marketing automation, service ticketing and the wider customer record live somewhere else, and the reporting is built for activity and pipeline rather than cross-functional questions.
So the decision is less about features than about whether the motion is stable. A team that is phone-led and will stay phone-led is buying the right specialist. A team drifting toward email-led outbound or a longer consultative cycle is buying a tool for the motion it used to have, and that drift is the most common reason people arrive at a page like this one.
Why Consider Alternatives to Close
Close is a strong product with a narrow brief, and the reasons to leave follow from the brief.
The motion moved away from calling. The dialer is what the price buys, and a team not dialing pays for it anyway.
Marketing needs the same system. Contact consent status, campaign membership and lifecycle stages are platform features, and Close is not a platform.
Seat cost at a larger headcount. Per-user pricing with a specialist feature set gets harder to justify as the team grows and the proportion actually dialing falls.
Free tiers cover the basics. HubSpot CRM's free tier and Zoho CRM's free edition for three users both handle contacts and pipeline at no licence cost.
Top Close Alternatives
- Contact and company management
- Deal pipeline and tracking
- Email tracking and notifications
- Meeting scheduling
- and 4 more listed below
- Lead, contact, and deal management
- Sales automation and workflow rules
- Zia AI assistant with predictions and suggestions
- Multichannel communication (email, phone, social, live chat)
- and 4 more listed below
- Contact, account, and deal management
- Built-in email and phone with call recording
- Freddy AI lead scoring and deal insights
- Visual sales pipeline management
- and 4 more listed below
1. HubSpot CRM
Starting Price: Free | Website: www.hubspot.com
A popular all-in-one CRM platform with a generous free tier that includes contact management, deal tracking, and email marketing. HubSpot offers separate Hubs for marketing, sales, service, and content, making it ideal for growing businesses that want a unified platform.
Key Advantages over Close:
- Lower starting price ($9/user/mo billed annually vs $19/mo)
- Unique capabilities: Contact and company management, Deal pipeline and tracking, Email tracking and notifications
Considerations:
- Requires evaluation to see if it fits your specific workflow
Notable Features: Contact and company management, Deal pipeline and tracking, Email tracking and notifications, Meeting scheduling, Live chat and chatbot builder
Integrations: Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, Salesforce, Zapier, Shopify, WordPress, Zoom
2. Zoho CRM
Starting Price: Free | Website: www.zoho.com/crm/
A feature-rich and affordable CRM from the Zoho ecosystem, offering sales automation, multichannel communication, analytics, and AI-powered predictions via Zia. Known for competitive pricing and deep integration with 45+ other Zoho products.
Key Advantages over Close:
- Lower starting price ($9/user/mo billed annually vs $19/mo)
- Unique capabilities: Lead, contact, and deal management, Sales automation and workflow rules, Zia AI assistant with predictions and suggestions
Considerations:
- Requires evaluation to see if it fits your specific workflow
Notable Features: Lead, contact, and deal management, Sales automation and workflow rules, Zia AI assistant with predictions and suggestions, Multichannel communication (email, phone, social, live chat), Advanced analytics and custom dashboards
Integrations: Zoho Suite (45+ apps), Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Zapier, Mailchimp, Shopify, QuickBooks
3. Freshsales
Starting Price: $9/user/mo | Website: www.freshworks.com/crm/sales/
An AI-powered CRM by Freshworks that combines contact management, deal tracking, and communication tools in one platform. Features Freddy AI for lead scoring, deal insights, and next-best-action recommendations, with built-in phone and email capabilities.
Key Advantages over Close:
- Lower starting price ($9/user/mo billed annually vs $19/mo)
- Unique capabilities: Contact, account, and deal management, Built-in email and phone with call recording, Freddy AI lead scoring and deal insights
Considerations:
- Requires evaluation to see if it fits your specific workflow
Notable Features: Contact, account, and deal management, Built-in email and phone with call recording, Freddy AI lead scoring and deal insights, Visual sales pipeline management, Workflow automation and sequences
Integrations: Freshworks Suite, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, Zoom, Zapier, Segment, Shopify
4. Copper
Starting Price: $29/seat/mo | Website: www.copper.com
A CRM built specifically for Google Workspace users, offering deep integration with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive. Copper automatically captures and organizes contacts and activities from Google apps, minimizing manual data entry and providing a familiar interface.
Key Advantages over Close:
- Higher starting price ($29/seat/mo vs $19/mo)
- Unique capabilities: Native Google Workspace integration, Automatic contact and activity capture from Gmail, Visual pipeline management
Considerations:
- Requires evaluation to see if it fits your specific workflow
Notable Features: Native Google Workspace integration, Automatic contact and activity capture from Gmail, Visual pipeline management, Task automation and workflow builder, Contact enrichment
Integrations: Google Workspace, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, Zapier, Mailchimp, Zendesk
5. Monday CRM
Starting Price: $12/mo | Website: monday.com/crm
A flexible CRM built on the monday.com Work OS platform, offering highly customizable pipelines, automations, and dashboards. Ideal for teams that want a CRM tightly integrated with project management and collaboration workflows, with a visual and intuitive interface.
Key Advantages over Close:
- Lower starting price ($12/mo vs $19/mo)
- Unique capabilities: Customizable deal pipeline boards, Lead and contact management, Sales automations and workflows
Considerations:
- Requires evaluation to see if it fits your specific workflow
Notable Features: Customizable deal pipeline boards, Lead and contact management, Sales automations and workflows, Email tracking and templates, Activity management and logging
Integrations: Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, Zoom, Zapier, Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, DocuSign
6. Pipedrive
Starting Price: $14/mo | Website: www.pipedrive.com
A sales-focused CRM designed by salespeople for salespeople, built around a visual deal pipeline. Pipedrive emphasizes simplicity and ease of use with powerful automation features, AI-powered sales assistance, and activity-based selling methodology.
Key Advantages over Close:
- Lower starting price ($14/mo vs $19/mo)
- Unique capabilities: Visual deal pipeline management, Activity-based selling methodology, Email sync with templates and tracking
Considerations:
- Requires evaluation to see if it fits your specific workflow
Notable Features: Visual deal pipeline management, Activity-based selling methodology, Email sync with templates and tracking, Workflow automation builder, AI-powered sales assistant
Integrations: Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, Zoom, Zapier, Mailchimp, Trello, Asana
7. Salesforce
Starting Price: $25/mo | Website: www.salesforce.com
The world's leading CRM platform offering a comprehensive suite of sales, service, marketing, and commerce tools. Known for extensive customization, AI-powered insights via Einstein, and a vast ecosystem of third-party integrations through AppExchange.
Key Advantages over Close:
- Unique capabilities: Lead, account, and contact management, Opportunity and pipeline tracking, Einstein AI-powered analytics and predictions
Considerations:
- Higher starting price ($25/mo vs $19/mo)
Notable Features: Lead, account, and contact management, Opportunity and pipeline tracking, Einstein AI-powered analytics and predictions, Sales forecasting and territory management, Workflow automation and approval processes
Integrations: Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook, Mailchimp, DocuSign, Zapier, Tableau, MuleSoft
Quick Comparison Table
| Tool | Starting Price | Features | Integrations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close (original) | $19/mo | 8 features | 8 integrations |
| HubSpot CRM | Free | 8 features | 8 integrations |
| Zoho CRM | Free | 8 features | 8 integrations |
| Freshsales | $9/user/mo | 8 features | 8 integrations |
| Copper | $29/seat/mo | 8 features | 8 integrations |
| Monday CRM | $12/mo | 8 features | 8 integrations |
| Pipedrive | $14/mo | 8 features | 8 integrations |
| Salesforce | $25/mo | 8 features | 8 integrations |
Reading the Roster: What Each Option Trades
The roster above lists what each tool does. What follows is what each one costs you in something other than money. Prices come from each vendor's own pricing page, read on the day of writing and kept as a dated snapshot; where a page carries a billing toggle both figures are given, and where a vendor localises its pricing page by region the currency is named rather than converted.
HubSpot CRM has the most generous free tier here, and its product page says so plainly: free, no credit card, with contact management, deal pipelines and reporting. Its pricing page puts paid Starter at $15/month per seat. That free tier is an on-ramp to a suite priced per seat and per hub, so budget for where the team will be in a year.
Zoho CRM publishes a free edition for up to three users, which its pricing page carries in the page title itself. Beyond that it is the value play: a deep feature set well under enterprise prices, with the Zoho suite alongside. The trade is interface density and setup effort, a real cost that never appears on the invoice.
Freshsales lists its lowest plan at $9 per user per month billed annually on the Freshworks pricing page, the cheapest genuine CRM in this group. Built-in email and phone with call recording means an inside sales team gets a dialer without a second purchase. The integration list is shorter than HubSpot's or Salesforce's, which an unusual stack will notice.
Copper is built for teams living in Google Workspace, capturing contacts and activity out of Gmail and Calendar without manual entry. Its pricing page lists Basic at $29 per seat per month, or $23 paid annually, which puts it above several rivals rather than below them. Off Google Workspace, most of the argument for it evaporates.
Monday CRM sits on the monday.com work platform, so pipelines are boards and the CRM inherits the automation and view flexibility of a general work tool. That suits teams already running projects there. It also means the CRM is a configuration rather than a finished product, and somebody has to own that configuration.
Pipedrive is the pipeline-first option, built around a visual deal board and activity-based selling, and it is the easiest tool here to adopt without training. Its billing help article lists four plans: Lite, Growth, Premium and Ultimate. The trade is scope, since marketing automation and service ticketing live somewhere else.
Salesforce is the platform answer, and its pricing page puts Starter Suite at $25 per user per month. That figure hides the shape of the purchase: Salesforce is a configuration surface rather than a finished product, and the depth enterprises buy it for is why implementation is a budgeted project rather than an afternoon.
- Yes: Reps still spend most of the day on the phone
- No: Most pipeline now starts from email or inbound
- No: Marketing needs contact and consent state in the same system
- No: Cross-functional reporting is a regular request
- Yes: SMS is part of the working sequence
- No: Headcount grew and fewer of them dial
What an Outbound-Led Team Actually Needs From a CRM
Most CRM comparisons are written for a team whose pipeline arrives through inbound and referral. A team running cold outbound needs a shorter list.
It needs the meeting recorded against the account with enough structure to join it back to the campaign that produced it, because a stage existing only as a word in a notes field cannot be counted later.
It needs to be the source of truth about who is off-limits: current customers, live opportunities, accounts somebody has asked you not to touch. That is what the next build suppresses against, and a CRM that cannot export it cleanly turns every list build into manual reconciliation. It also needs to deduplicate against the sending tool, so nobody is enrolled twice under two spellings of one company.
What it does not need to be is the sequencer. Several tools here bundle email sequencing, and a sequencer built around multi-step cadences is a poor fit for a programme that sends one message per campaign and never bumps. Judge the CRM on the record it keeps rather than the sending it offers.
When Moving Off Close Is Worth It
Calling stopped being the motion. This is the whole decision. Once the pipeline arrives by email or inbound, the specialist advantage is gone and the scope limits remain.
Marketing needs to be in the same record. That is HubSpot, Zoho or Salesforce territory, and no amount of integration matches one system.
Freshsales covers the middle ground. It lists at $9 per user per month billed annually and includes built-in email and phone with call recording, which keeps a dialer without the specialist price.
The team runs on Google Workspace. Copper captures Gmail and Calendar activity natively, which removes most manual logging for an email-led team.
When Staying on Close Wins
If reps are on the phone all day, staying is obviously right. The dialer, the SMS and the call logging are a daily experience the generalist CRMs do not match, and a migration trades measurable rep productivity for features nobody has asked for.
Staying is also right when the complaint is pipeline volume. That is a list and offer problem sitting upstream of the CRM entirely, and changing the CRM will not add a single conversation.
Running the Migration Without Losing the Record
A CRM migration is a data project wearing a software purchase's clothes, and leaving a calling-first tool has one extra wrinkle.
Decide what call data has to survive. Recordings, call outcomes and SMS threads are the hardest things to export and the easiest to assume will come across, so check before cancelling rather than after.
Otherwise the usual discipline applies. Move accounts, contacts and open deals, leave deep closed history behind, and export a full backup including custom fields and report definitions while the subscription is live. Rebuild the outbound suppression export early, then run both systems in parallel for a short fixed window with one team writing to the new one, and cut over rather than letting the overlap drift.
The Short Version
If the motion moved to email and inbound, HubSpot CRM or Zoho CRM gives you a platform with a free entry point. If you want to keep a dialer without the specialist price, Freshsales lists at $9 per user per month billed annually with phone and recording built in. If the pipeline is simple and adoption matters most, Pipedrive is the easiest to get running. If Google Workspace is where the work happens, Copper logs it with the least effort.
If the phone is still the job, none of the above is an upgrade, and staying is the correct call.
Related Reading
- Close vs Salesforce: CRM Platform Comparison
- Close vs HubSpot CRM: CRM Platform Comparison
- Close vs Pipedrive: CRM Platform Comparison
- Close vs Copper: CRM Platform Comparison
If you would rather have this run for you, RevenueFlow books qualified meetings on a pay-per-meeting basis and publishes client results.
Pricing and features are taken from the vendors' own pages. Verify current terms with the vendor before relying on them.
Frequently asked questions.
Frequently asked questions- What is the best Close alternative for a team that still calls?
- Freshsales, which lists at $9 per user per month billed annually and includes built-in email and phone with call recording. It keeps a dialer in the core product at a lower price than Close, with the trade being a shorter integration list and less depth in the calling workflow itself.
- Does HubSpot CRM replace Close?
- Partly. HubSpot adds marketing, service and lifecycle reporting to the same record, which Close does not do, and its free tier costs nothing to try. What it does not match is the calling workflow: the power dialer, native SMS and the speed of logging outcomes are what Close is built around.
- How much does Close cost?
- Its pricing page lists Solo at $19 per user per month, with higher tiers above that and some capabilities such as call routing priced as add-ons per line. Read the add-on lines carefully when comparing, because the headline seat price does not cover everything a calling team typically switches on.
- Will my call recordings come across in a migration?
- Usually not cleanly, and this is the one thing to check before cancelling. Recordings, call outcome data and SMS threads are the hardest records to export from any calling-first CRM, and they are the easiest to assume will transfer. Confirm the destination accepts them while the subscription is still live.
About the author.
Tim Carden is CMO / CTO at RevenueFlow, which builds and operates outbound revenue engines for B2B companies. Studied at McGill University.
Tim Carden · CMO / CTO
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