Salesforce Alternatives for Small Business: 6 CRMs Compared (2026)
Salesforce alternatives for small businesses compared: HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Freshsales, monday CRM and Attio. Pricing, contracts and who each suits.
Mythex Team · · 6 min read
For most small businesses, the best Salesforce alternatives are HubSpot for a free CRM and an all-in-one platform, Pipedrive for a simple sales pipeline, Zoho CRM for a broad feature set with a free edition, Freshsales for a low entry price with built-in phone and email, monday CRM for teams already on monday.com, and Attio for startups that want a flexible data model. Salesforce itself now has small-business bundles with a monthly option, so it's worth comparing rather than ruling out. The questions that matter most are total cost per user, contract terms and how much setup you're willing to do.
Prices below are as shown on each vendor's site as of September 2026. HubSpot, Zoho and monday.com show prices by region, so we describe their plans without quoting numbers.
What Salesforce offers small businesses
Salesforce sells two small-business bundles. As of September 2026:
- Starter Suite: $25 per user per month, billed monthly or annually. Salesforce lists assistive AI, email nurture campaigns, lead scoring, built-in sales flows and a connected Slack workspace. The page notes transaction fees apply.
- Pro Suite: $100 per user per month, billed annually with a contract. Adds quoting and forecasting, more customisation and automation, and access to AppExchange, Salesforce's app marketplace.
- Support: a Standard Success Plan is included. Premier Success, with 24/7 support and expert guidance, costs 30% of net licence fees.
- Trial: both suites offer a free trial. Prices are also shown in EUR, GBP, AUD, JPY and SEK.
Salesforce's strength is where it can take you: Pro Suite opens up AppExchange, and the wider platform goes all the way to enterprise editions. For a small team, the question is whether you'll use that.
Why small businesses look elsewhere
- Annual contracts above Starter. Pro Suite requires an annual contract.
- Add-on costs. Premium support is priced as a percentage of your licence fees, and some businesses also pay for setup help.
- Complexity. A platform built to scale to large companies has more settings than a five-person team needs.
- Free options exist. Several alternatives have a free tier to start on.
Salesforce alternatives at a glance
| CRM | Best for | Free option | Entry paid price (as of Sept 2026) | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce Starter Suite | Growing into Salesforce | No (free trial) | $25/user/mo | Monthly or annual |
| HubSpot | All-in-one, free start | Up to 2 users, 1,000 contacts | Varies by location | Monthly or annual |
| Pipedrive | Simple sales pipeline | No (14-day trial) | Lite US$14/seat/mo billed annually | Monthly or annual |
| Zoho CRM | Broad features, free edition | Up to 3 users | Varies by location | — |
| Freshsales | Low entry price, phone and email | No (21-day trial) | Growth $9/user/mo billed annually | Monthly or annual |
| monday CRM | monday.com teams | No (14-day trial) | Varies by location, 3-seat minimum | Monthly or annual |
| Attio | Flexible startup CRM | Up to 3 seats | Plus $35/user/mo billed annually | Monthly or annual |
| Mythex | A simple custom CRM | 10 credits a day | $25/mo (Pro), no per-seat fees | Monthly or yearly |
HubSpot: start free, grow into a platform
HubSpot says its free CRM covers up to two users and 1,000 contacts, with no expiry date. It includes contacts, deals, tasks and dashboards, plus free marketing, sales and service tools such as forms, email tracking, a meeting scheduler and live chat. Its AI, Breeze Assistant, can research companies and summarise records. Paid Starter, Professional and Enterprise tiers are priced per seat, and prices depend on your location.
- Pick it if you want marketing and sales in one place and a free way to start. Our HubSpot alternatives guide covers when it stops fitting.
Pipedrive: a pipeline you'll actually use
Pipedrive is organised around lead and pipeline management.
- Pricing (as of September 2026, per seat per month billed annually, in US dollars): Lite $14, Growth $39 (email sync, automations, sequences, forecasts), Premium $59 (lead routing, scoring, contracts and e-signatures), Ultimate $79 (security rules, enrichment, sandbox). A 14-day free trial needs no card. Its help centre says prices depend on location and currency.
- Pick it if your main job is moving deals from first call to close, and you want a CRM focused on that.
Zoho CRM: a broad feature set
Zoho CRM has a free edition for up to three users (contacts, reminders, workflow automation, email templates, reports, APIs and mobile apps) and paid Standard, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. Paid editions add forecasting, CPQ, process automation, territory management and customer portals. Prices were in local currency when we checked.
- Pick it if you want forecasting, automation and portals in one suite, can start on the free edition, and will invest time in setup.
Freshsales: low entry price
Freshsales lists Growth at $9, Pro at $39 and Enterprise at $59 per user per month, billed annually, as of September 2026. Growth includes a kanban view, lifecycle stages, chat, email and phone, and basic workflows; Pro adds scoring, sequences and territory management; Enterprise adds forecasting insights, custom modules, a sandbox and audit logs. There's a 21-day trial.
- Pick it if you want calling and email built in at a low price per user.
monday CRM: if your team already lives in monday.com
monday CRM has Basic, Standard, Pro and Ultimate plans with a three-seat minimum and a 14-day trial, as of September 2026. Higher plans add more contacts and deals, automations, email sequences and AI agents. Prices vary by billing country.
- Pick it if your projects and operations already run in monday.com and you want sales there too.
Attio: a flexible CRM for startups
Attio has a free plan for up to three seats, Plus at $44 per user per month ($35 billed annually, up to 10 seats) and Pro at $99 ($79 billed annually), as of September 2026. You can create custom objects to fit your business.
- Pick it if you're an early-stage team whose process doesn't match a classic sales pipeline.
When a simple custom CRM is enough
Many small businesses don't need forecasting or territory management. They need one shared list of customers, what stage each deal is at and who follows up next. If your process is unusual (a builder tracking quotes and site visits, a recruiter tracking candidates), a CRM shaped to it can be easier to keep up to date.
Mythex is an AI app builder: describe the app in chat, an agent writes the code and shows a live preview, and you publish it. A simple CRM with contacts, deals, stages and notes, stored in a Postgres database, is a good first project. Mythex Pro is $25/month with no per-seat fees for collaborators. Be clear about the trade-off: this is a simple CRM, not a Salesforce replacement. There's no built-in email sending, end-user login or dialer; the agent connects the providers you choose. See how to build a CRM and the CRM use case.
How to decide
- Write down your process in five or six steps, from first contact to paid.
- List the must-haves: email sync, calling, quotes, reporting, integrations.
- Count real users and multiply by the per-seat price on the billing term you'll actually choose.
- Check contract terms and what support costs.
- Trial two tools with your real data for a week.
If you're weighing a custom tool against these, read build vs buy for small businesses and how to replace expensive SaaS with your own tool.
How we compared
We compared the publicly stated features, prices and billing terms on each vendor's own website, pricing page and help centre as of September 2026. We did not do hands-on testing, and we left out anything we couldn't confirm on the vendor's own pages. Where a vendor showed prices in local currency (HubSpot, Zoho, monday.com), we described the plans without quoting numbers. Mythex facts come from our product documentation. Check each pricing page before you buy.
Questions
Is Salesforce too expensive for a small business?
Not necessarily. As of September 2026, Salesforce's Starter Suite is $25 per user per month and can be billed monthly. Costs rise with Pro Suite ($100 per user per month, billed annually with a contract), add-ons, paid support plans and setup help, so compare the total, not just the entry price.
What is the easiest CRM for a small business?
Pipedrive and Freshsales are focused sales CRMs with short free trials (14 and 21 days), so you can test them with real data quickly. HubSpot's free CRM is also simple to start with for up to two users.
Is there a free alternative to Salesforce?
Yes. HubSpot's free CRM covers up to two users and 1,000 contacts, Zoho CRM's free edition covers up to three users, and Attio's free plan covers up to three seats, as of September 2026.
Can a small business build its own CRM?
For a small team with a simple process, yes: contacts, deals and a pipeline are a common first app to build with an AI app builder. For email sequences, forecasting, dialers and deep integrations, a hosted CRM is less work.