Best Freshsales Alternatives in 2026
Freshsales lists at $9 per user per month billed annually with a dialer built in. Compare seven CRMs on integration reach, reporting depth and entry price.
HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM, Copper, Monday CRM, Pipedrive, Close and Salesforce are the main Freshsales alternatives. HubSpot and Zoho both offer free entry points and add marketing to the same record, Copper captures Google Workspace activity natively, and Salesforce is the configuration platform.
Key takeaways
- The Freshworks pricing page lists Freshsales from $9 per user per month billed annually, making it the cheapest full CRM in this comparison.
- Built-in email and phone with call recording means an inside sales team gets a dialer without buying a second product.
- The integration list is shorter than HubSpot or Salesforce, and one missing connector can cost more than years of the licence difference.
- HubSpot CRM's free tier and Zoho CRM's free edition for three users both cover contacts and pipeline at no licence cost.
Reviewed and updated August 28, 2026
Best Freshsales Alternatives in 2026
Freshsales lists its lowest plan at $9 per user per month billed annually on the Freshworks pricing page, which makes it the cheapest genuine CRM in this comparison and puts a dialer with call recording in the core product at that price. The reasons teams leave are rarely about the price, and almost always about the ecosystem around it.
Cheap Licences, Expensive Gaps
Licence cost is the easiest thing to compare and the least useful. What separates the CRMs in this roundup is where the gaps land once the tool is in daily use.
Freshsales puts email and phone with call recording in the product, so an inside sales team gets a dialer without a second subscription. That is a genuine saving over buying a CRM and a calling tool separately, and it is the argument for the price.
The gap is the ecosystem. HubSpot and Salesforce have integration catalogues and consultant markets that mean almost any tool in a stack already has a connector somebody maintains. A shorter list is invisible right up to the day a piece of the stack has no connector, and then it is a custom integration nobody budgeted for.
The second gap is reporting across functions. Freshsales reports well on sales. A question that joins marketing consent status to a support history to a deal is a platform question, and platform is what the larger tools sell.
Neither gap is a reason to avoid it. Both are reasons to check your specific stack before the price decides the purchase.
Why Consider Alternatives to Freshsales
Freshsales is good value and the reasons to look elsewhere are specific rather than general.
The integration list is shorter. An unusual stack finds the gaps, and a custom connector costs more than several years of the licence difference.
Cross-functional reporting is the requirement. Sales reporting is solid; joining marketing, support and sales in one report is a platform job.
Google Workspace is the workplace. Copper's native Gmail and Calendar capture removes manual logging in a way an integration does not.
A free tier would do. For a small team, HubSpot CRM's free tier or Zoho CRM's free edition for three users covers contacts and pipeline at no licence cost at all.
Top Freshsales 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
- Native Google Workspace integration
- Automatic contact and activity capture from Gmail
- Visual pipeline management
- Task automation and workflow builder
- 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 Freshsales:
- 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 Freshsales:
- 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. 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 Freshsales:
- Unique capabilities: Native Google Workspace integration, Automatic contact and activity capture from Gmail, Visual pipeline management
Considerations:
- Higher starting price ($29/seat/mo vs $9/user/mo billed annually)
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
4. 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 Freshsales:
- Unique capabilities: Customizable deal pipeline boards, Lead and contact management, Sales automations and workflows
Considerations:
- Higher starting price ($12/mo vs $9/user/mo billed annually)
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
5. 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 Freshsales:
- Unique capabilities: Visual deal pipeline management, Activity-based selling methodology, Email sync with templates and tracking
Considerations:
- Higher starting price ($14/mo vs $9/user/mo billed annually)
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
6. Close
Starting Price: $19/mo | Website: www.close.com
A CRM built specifically for inside sales teams, with built-in calling, SMS, and email functionality. Close focuses on reducing manual data entry and increasing sales velocity with features like Power Dialer, predictive dialing, and workflow automation.
Key Advantages over Freshsales:
- Unique capabilities: Built-in calling with Power Dialer, Native SMS messaging, Email sequences and templates
Considerations:
- Higher starting price ($19/mo vs $9/user/mo billed annually)
Notable Features: Built-in calling with Power Dialer, Native SMS messaging, Email sequences and templates, Automated workflows, Predictive dialing
Integrations: Zapier, Slack, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Zoom, HubSpot, Segment, Calendly
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 Freshsales:
- Unique capabilities: Lead, account, and contact management, Opportunity and pipeline tracking, Einstein AI-powered analytics and predictions
Considerations:
- Higher starting price ($25/mo vs $9/user/mo billed annually)
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freshsales (original) | $9/user/mo | 8 features | 8 integrations |
| HubSpot CRM | Free | 8 features | 8 integrations |
| Zoho CRM | Free | 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 |
| Close | $19/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.
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.
Close is built for inside sales teams that spend the day on the phone, with a power dialer, native SMS and email sequencing in the core product rather than as add-ons. Its pricing page lists Solo at $19 per user per month. A team whose motion is not calling pays for a dialer it will not use.
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.
- HubSpot CRM: free, no credit card, paid Starter from $15/month per seat
- Zoho CRM: a free edition for up to three users
- Caps arrive as seats or features rather than as a bill
- Upgrade path is priced per seat and per module
- Freshsales: $9 per user per month billed annually
- Close: Solo at $19 per user per month
- Both include calling in the core product
- Narrower integration ecosystems than the platforms
- Copper: Basic at $29 per seat per month, $23 annually
- Salesforce: Starter Suite at $25 per user per month
- Copper buys native Google Workspace capture
- Salesforce buys a configuration surface and an ecosystem
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 Freshsales Is Worth It
The stack outgrew the connector list. One missing integration and a custom build erases years of licence saving, so check the specific tools rather than the count.
Marketing needs the same record. HubSpot CRM and Zoho CRM both put marketing and sales in one system, and both have free entry points.
Google Workspace is where the work happens. Copper captures activity natively rather than through a sidebar.
The process needs shaping. Salesforce is the configuration surface, at $25 per user per month for Starter Suite plus the implementation behind it.
When Staying on Freshsales Wins
If your stack's integrations are covered and the sales reporting answers the questions being asked, staying is correct. Freshsales is the cheapest full CRM here with calling included, and no alternative in this list beats it on that combination.
Staying is also right when the complaint is that reps do not log activity. That travels with the team to the next CRM, and it arrives there with a migration bill attached.
Running the Migration Without Losing the Record
A CRM migration is a data project wearing a software purchase's clothes.
Decide what has to move before comparing tools. Accounts, contacts and open opportunities do; deep closed history usually does not, and refusing to draw that line is what turns a two-week job into a two-month one.
Check call recordings and call outcome data specifically, since Freshsales holds them and they are the hardest thing to carry across. Export a full backup while the subscription is live, custom fields and report definitions included.
Rebuild the outbound suppression export early, because the next list build depends on knowing who is a customer or in a live deal. 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 a free tier would genuinely do, HubSpot CRM and Zoho CRM both offer one and both scale into a platform. If Google Workspace is the workplace, Copper captures activity with the least manual effort, at a higher seat price. If the process needs real shaping and there is an admin to do it, Salesforce is the platform answer. If the motion is phone-first and heavy, Close is the specialist.
If the integrations you actually need are covered, staying on the cheapest full CRM with a dialer built in is the sensible default.
Related Reading
- Freshsales vs Salesforce: CRM Platform Comparison
- Freshsales vs HubSpot CRM: CRM Platform Comparison
- Freshsales vs Pipedrive: CRM Platform Comparison
- Close vs Freshsales: 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- Does Freshsales have a free plan?
- The Freshworks pricing page for Freshsales lists three paid plans starting at $9 per user per month billed annually, with a free trial rather than a free tier. For a genuinely free CRM, HubSpot CRM offers a free tier with no credit card required, and Zoho CRM publishes a free edition for up to three users.
- What is the cheapest CRM with a built-in dialer?
- Freshsales, at $9 per user per month billed annually, which includes email and phone with call recording. Close is the specialist option at $19 per user per month, with a power dialer and native SMS built around a high-activity calling motion rather than added to a general CRM.
- When is a shorter integration list a real problem?
- When your stack contains something unusual. A missing connector means a custom integration somebody has to build and maintain, and that cost typically exceeds several years of the licence difference. Check the specific tools you depend on rather than comparing integration counts, since the count tells you nothing about coverage.
- Which alternative handles marketing and sales in one record?
- HubSpot CRM and Zoho CRM are the two designed for it, and Salesforce is the third at a higher configuration cost. All three hold contact consent status, campaign membership and lifecycle stages alongside deals, which is what a question spanning marketing and sales needs in order to be answerable from one system.
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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