CRM, free tiers

Which free CRM can a small business actually live in?

Free CRM tiers hide their limits in three places: email logging, automation and the API. The contact cap is rarely the problem. This table shows where each vendor draws those lines and what the first paid seat costs.

Checked against each vendor's own pages on October 14, 2026. Every cell links to its source. Prices and plans change often, so click through before you buy.

	HubSpotHubSpot	Zoho CRMZoho	FreshsalesFreshworks	folkfolk	PipedrivePipedrive
Free plan	Free forever: up to 2 users and 1,000 contactsCaps come from the FAQ on the CRM product page. The pricing page itself returns navigation only.HubSpot CRM product page	Yes: forever free for 3 users. Contact record cap is 5,000 records (10 MB storage) per the feature list; the free-edition page conflicts with itself on records (5,000 vs 1,000).3-user cap confirmed on pricing and feature pages. Record cap: feature list shows 5,000 records (10 MB); free-edition page says 5,000 in one place and mentions 1,000 elsewhere.Zoho CRM pricing Zoho CRM complete feature list	Not confirmed: current pricing page lists no free plan (Growth, Pro, Enterprise only; 21-day trial). A Feb 2024 help article describes a Free plan limited to 3 users.Conflict between sources. The current pricing page shows only Growth, Pro and Enterprise, while a help article (modified Feb 16, 2024) and the API limits table still name a Free plan. The pricing page metadata also mentions a free plan. The 3-user cap is the only cap published; no contact or record cap was found.Freshsales pricing How to activate the Free plan	No free plan, 2-week trial of PremiumThe pricing page and trial help article describe only a free trial; after it you are blocked unless you sign up for a paid plan. One FAQ mentions a free plan when downgrading but none is described.folk help: start your free trial folk pricing	No free plan, 14-day trialNo credit card required for the trial.Pipedrive pricing
Logs email from Gmail or Outlook	Yes: logs sent and received Gmail or Outlook mail; no log cap statedArticle availability reads 'All products and plans', so free is implied, not named. No monthly cap is stated on the page.HubSpot help: log sent and received emails	No on Free. Gmail and Outlook integration starts on Standard, $14 per userThe pricing page lists Gmail and Outlook integration under Standard, not under the free edition.Zoho CRM pricing	Gmail and Outlook 365 sync supported (plus IMAP custom servers); article names no plan requirement and no cap on logged emailsThe article does not say which plan includes Email Sync or whether the free plan has it, and it states no cap.Email Sync Overview	Paid plans only: Standard syncs Gmail/Outlook email and calendar, 1 account per member; Standard shows max 30 interactions per contact (3 years history)No monthly cap on logged emails is published for Standard. No free plan exists, so the cheapest plan (Standard) is assessed.folk help: track interactions folk pricing	No on Lite. Email sync is on Growth and higher plans. No free plan was found, so Lite is treated as the cheapest.Email sync article states Growth and higher and no monthly cap, only up to 40 email actions per minute per company. Usage limits article lists 1 email account per user from Growth.Email sync support article Usage limits article
Workflow automation	No on Free: workflows are listed for Professional and Enterprise plans only. Price of those plans not confirmed on the page we checked.The workflows help article lists Professional and Enterprise as the subscriptions; Free and Starter are not listed. The pricing page returned navigation only, so the cheapest workflow plan's price is not published here.HubSpot help: create workflows	Workflow rules on free plan, capped at 5 active per moduleFeature list: 10 rules per module, maximum 5 active. Free-edition page says five active workflow rules (up to five).Zoho CRM complete feature list Zoho CRM free edition guide	No free plan on the pricing page. Growth ($9/user/month, billed annually) lists basic workflows; sales sequences start on Pro ($39/user/month, billed annually)Pricing page lists 'Basic workflows' under Growth and 'Sales sequences' under Pro. All prices are annual billing.Freshsales pricing	Not clearly published; Workflow Assistant is listed at 1,500/month on StandardThe pricing page has no row named workflow automation or sequences. The Workflow Assistant row (1,500/month Standard, 10,000/month Premium) may not be automation, so this is unconfirmed.folk pricing	Not on Lite. Automations are listed from Growth (50 per company), Premium 150, Ultimate 250. The Growth price is not published on the page we checked.Usage limits article gives per-company automation counts for Growth, Premium and Ultimate only, with none for Lite. The pricing article calls Automations a top-up available from Growth. Growth price could not be confirmed.Usage limits article How does pricing work article
API access	Yes: 250,000 calls per account per day (Free and Starter)Per-app burst limit is 100 requests per 10 seconds. The daily pool is shared by all private apps in the account.HubSpot developers: API usage guidelines	Yes, 5,000 API calls per day on the free planPricing page: 5000 API calls/day; feature list: allowed credits 5,000. Paid-plan caps not checked.Zoho CRM pricing Zoho CRM complete feature list	REST API limits documented for all plans, including Free: 1000 calls per hour and 400 per minute on Free and Growth (Pro 2000/hour, Enterprise 5000/hour). No daily limit published.The help article table lists a Free row at 1000 per hour and 400 per minute, same as Growth. The article does not say whether API access is included on the free plan, and no per-day limit is mentioned. Free plan existence is disputed (see freeTier).API request limits FAQ	No free plan. API access is listed on Premium ($48 per member per month billed yearly); no daily call limit publishedThe pricing page lists API access under Premium and Enterprise includes everything in Premium. The Zapier & Make / Rest API table columns are not clearly labeled. The hard-limits help page lists no API rate or daily limit.folk pricing folk help: hard limits	No free plan found. Lite gets 30,000 API tokens x seats per company, up to 100 million. No daily call limit is published on the page we checked.Page gives a token budget, not a daily call count. REST API availability on the free plan cannot be confirmed because no free plan was found.Usage limits article
Cheapest paid seat	Starter: $7/month per seat billed annually, or $10/month per seat billed monthly (discounted new-customer pricing)Footnote: discounts for new customers only, limited time offer. The CRM product page separately shows 'Starts at $15/month per seat'; the Starter page shows the $7/$10 prices. Quote with the billing basis and the new-customer caveat.HubSpot Starter page HubSpot CRM product page	Standard: $14 per user per monthThe pricing page shows $14 on both the monthly and the annual toggle. Bigin Express, a lighter product, is $7.Zoho CRM pricing	$9 per user per month, billed annually (Growth plan)Pricing page shows annual-billing prices only (Pro $39, Enterprise $59). A monthly toggle exists but no monthly prices were shown. No future effective date seen.Freshsales pricing	$24 per member per month, billed yearly (Standard). $30 per member per month billed monthly.Yearly billing saves 20 percent ($288 per year per member). Only credit cards are accepted.folk pricing	Lite: $14 per seat per month, billed annuallyOne payment of $168 per seat per year. Monthly billing is available at a higher rate.Pipedrive pricing
Export your data	Yes: CSV or XLSX export from the All view, no support callAvailability reads 'All products and plans', so free is implied, not named. Limit of 300 exports per rolling 24 hours, 3 at once. CSV, XLS and XLSX supported.HubSpot help: export records	Yes: Free plan can export data as CSV (ZIP) from Settings > Data Administration > Export Data, limited to 10 exports per day; feature list says 200,000 records per module.Help page names CSV format and the 10 exports/day limit for Free/Trial. It does not say who may export or mention XLS. Whether self-serve covers all contacts and deals is implied by module export but not stated outright.Zoho CRM export help Zoho CRM complete feature list	Yes, self-service from Admin Settings, Account Settings, Export data button; delivered as a zip file by emailCapped at five exports a day, and a full time range can be exported only once. The article lists Free, Growth, Pro and Enterprise tiers and names no support requirement, but does not say which tier is required. It does not state CSV or Excel format.How do I export all required data from the CRM?	CSV export one group at a time (zip of contacts and notes CSVs); no whole-workspace export, no ExcelExcludes interactions, reminders, contact custom fields and others. The article names no plan requirement.folk help: export data	Partial. People and deals export to Excel or CSV from Export data, but only for global admins or users with export permission. No free plan was found. The page states a plan requirement only for Projects exports.Export by data type is limited to global admins. Free-plan availability is not confirmed.Exporting data article
Our pickOpinion, not a vendor claim	The default for a team that lives in Gmail. Email logs itself and the free plan never expires. Budget for Professional the day you want a workflow.	The free plan with workflow rules and an API at $0. The catch is email, which needs the $14 Standard seat.	Fine at $9 a seat if you want email sync on day one. No free tier on the current pricing page.	For a relationship list, not a sales pipeline. The Gmail-native feel is the point; the $24 seat is the price of it.	The cleanest pipeline view here, but email sync starts on Growth, above the $14 Lite plan. Pick it when the team sells all day.

HubSpot

Free plan: Free forever: up to 2 users and 1,000 contactsCaps come from the FAQ on the CRM product page. The pricing page itself returns navigation only.HubSpot CRM product page
Logs email from Gmail or Outlook: Yes: logs sent and received Gmail or Outlook mail; no log cap statedArticle availability reads 'All products and plans', so free is implied, not named. No monthly cap is stated on the page.HubSpot help: log sent and received emails
Workflow automation: No on Free: workflows are listed for Professional and Enterprise plans only. Price of those plans not confirmed on the page we checked.The workflows help article lists Professional and Enterprise as the subscriptions; Free and Starter are not listed. The pricing page returned navigation only, so the cheapest workflow plan's price is not published here.HubSpot help: create workflows
API access: Yes: 250,000 calls per account per day (Free and Starter)Per-app burst limit is 100 requests per 10 seconds. The daily pool is shared by all private apps in the account.HubSpot developers: API usage guidelines
Cheapest paid seat: Starter: $7/month per seat billed annually, or $10/month per seat billed monthly (discounted new-customer pricing)Footnote: discounts for new customers only, limited time offer. The CRM product page separately shows 'Starts at $15/month per seat'; the Starter page shows the $7/$10 prices. Quote with the billing basis and the new-customer caveat.HubSpot Starter page HubSpot CRM product page
Export your data: Yes: CSV or XLSX export from the All view, no support callAvailability reads 'All products and plans', so free is implied, not named. Limit of 300 exports per rolling 24 hours, 3 at once. CSV, XLS and XLSX supported.HubSpot help: export records
Our pick: The default for a team that lives in Gmail. Email logs itself and the free plan never expires. Budget for Professional the day you want a workflow.

Zoho CRM

Zoho

Free plan: Yes: forever free for 3 users. Contact record cap is 5,000 records (10 MB storage) per the feature list; the free-edition page conflicts with itself on records (5,000 vs 1,000).3-user cap confirmed on pricing and feature pages. Record cap: feature list shows 5,000 records (10 MB); free-edition page says 5,000 in one place and mentions 1,000 elsewhere.Zoho CRM pricing Zoho CRM complete feature list
Logs email from Gmail or Outlook: No on Free. Gmail and Outlook integration starts on Standard, $14 per userThe pricing page lists Gmail and Outlook integration under Standard, not under the free edition.Zoho CRM pricing
Workflow automation: Workflow rules on free plan, capped at 5 active per moduleFeature list: 10 rules per module, maximum 5 active. Free-edition page says five active workflow rules (up to five).Zoho CRM complete feature list Zoho CRM free edition guide
API access: Yes, 5,000 API calls per day on the free planPricing page: 5000 API calls/day; feature list: allowed credits 5,000. Paid-plan caps not checked.Zoho CRM pricing Zoho CRM complete feature list
Cheapest paid seat: Standard: $14 per user per monthThe pricing page shows $14 on both the monthly and the annual toggle. Bigin Express, a lighter product, is $7.Zoho CRM pricing
Export your data: Yes: Free plan can export data as CSV (ZIP) from Settings > Data Administration > Export Data, limited to 10 exports per day; feature list says 200,000 records per module.Help page names CSV format and the 10 exports/day limit for Free/Trial. It does not say who may export or mention XLS. Whether self-serve covers all contacts and deals is implied by module export but not stated outright.Zoho CRM export help Zoho CRM complete feature list
Our pick: The free plan with workflow rules and an API at $0. The catch is email, which needs the $14 Standard seat.

Freshsales

Freshworks

Free plan: Not confirmed: current pricing page lists no free plan (Growth, Pro, Enterprise only; 21-day trial). A Feb 2024 help article describes a Free plan limited to 3 users.Conflict between sources. The current pricing page shows only Growth, Pro and Enterprise, while a help article (modified Feb 16, 2024) and the API limits table still name a Free plan. The pricing page metadata also mentions a free plan. The 3-user cap is the only cap published; no contact or record cap was found.Freshsales pricing How to activate the Free plan
Logs email from Gmail or Outlook: Gmail and Outlook 365 sync supported (plus IMAP custom servers); article names no plan requirement and no cap on logged emailsThe article does not say which plan includes Email Sync or whether the free plan has it, and it states no cap.Email Sync Overview
Workflow automation: No free plan on the pricing page. Growth ($9/user/month, billed annually) lists basic workflows; sales sequences start on Pro ($39/user/month, billed annually)Pricing page lists 'Basic workflows' under Growth and 'Sales sequences' under Pro. All prices are annual billing.Freshsales pricing
API access: REST API limits documented for all plans, including Free: 1000 calls per hour and 400 per minute on Free and Growth (Pro 2000/hour, Enterprise 5000/hour). No daily limit published.The help article table lists a Free row at 1000 per hour and 400 per minute, same as Growth. The article does not say whether API access is included on the free plan, and no per-day limit is mentioned. Free plan existence is disputed (see freeTier).API request limits FAQ
Cheapest paid seat: $9 per user per month, billed annually (Growth plan)Pricing page shows annual-billing prices only (Pro $39, Enterprise $59). A monthly toggle exists but no monthly prices were shown. No future effective date seen.Freshsales pricing
Export your data: Yes, self-service from Admin Settings, Account Settings, Export data button; delivered as a zip file by emailCapped at five exports a day, and a full time range can be exported only once. The article lists Free, Growth, Pro and Enterprise tiers and names no support requirement, but does not say which tier is required. It does not state CSV or Excel format.How do I export all required data from the CRM?
Our pick: Fine at $9 a seat if you want email sync on day one. No free tier on the current pricing page.

folk

Free plan: No free plan, 2-week trial of PremiumThe pricing page and trial help article describe only a free trial; after it you are blocked unless you sign up for a paid plan. One FAQ mentions a free plan when downgrading but none is described.folk help: start your free trial folk pricing
Logs email from Gmail or Outlook: Paid plans only: Standard syncs Gmail/Outlook email and calendar, 1 account per member; Standard shows max 30 interactions per contact (3 years history)No monthly cap on logged emails is published for Standard. No free plan exists, so the cheapest plan (Standard) is assessed.folk help: track interactions folk pricing
Workflow automation: Not clearly published; Workflow Assistant is listed at 1,500/month on StandardThe pricing page has no row named workflow automation or sequences. The Workflow Assistant row (1,500/month Standard, 10,000/month Premium) may not be automation, so this is unconfirmed.folk pricing
API access: No free plan. API access is listed on Premium ($48 per member per month billed yearly); no daily call limit publishedThe pricing page lists API access under Premium and Enterprise includes everything in Premium. The Zapier & Make / Rest API table columns are not clearly labeled. The hard-limits help page lists no API rate or daily limit.folk pricing folk help: hard limits
Cheapest paid seat: $24 per member per month, billed yearly (Standard). $30 per member per month billed monthly.Yearly billing saves 20 percent ($288 per year per member). Only credit cards are accepted.folk pricing
Export your data: CSV export one group at a time (zip of contacts and notes CSVs); no whole-workspace export, no ExcelExcludes interactions, reminders, contact custom fields and others. The article names no plan requirement.folk help: export data
Our pick: For a relationship list, not a sales pipeline. The Gmail-native feel is the point; the $24 seat is the price of it.

Pipedrive

Free plan: No free plan, 14-day trialNo credit card required for the trial.Pipedrive pricing
Logs email from Gmail or Outlook: No on Lite. Email sync is on Growth and higher plans. No free plan was found, so Lite is treated as the cheapest.Email sync article states Growth and higher and no monthly cap, only up to 40 email actions per minute per company. Usage limits article lists 1 email account per user from Growth.Email sync support article Usage limits article
Workflow automation: Not on Lite. Automations are listed from Growth (50 per company), Premium 150, Ultimate 250. The Growth price is not published on the page we checked.Usage limits article gives per-company automation counts for Growth, Premium and Ultimate only, with none for Lite. The pricing article calls Automations a top-up available from Growth. Growth price could not be confirmed.Usage limits article How does pricing work article
API access: No free plan found. Lite gets 30,000 API tokens x seats per company, up to 100 million. No daily call limit is published on the page we checked.Page gives a token budget, not a daily call count. REST API availability on the free plan cannot be confirmed because no free plan was found.Usage limits article
Cheapest paid seat: Lite: $14 per seat per month, billed annuallyOne payment of $168 per seat per year. Monthly billing is available at a higher rate.Pipedrive pricing
Export your data: Partial. People and deals export to Excel or CSV from Export data, but only for global admins or users with export permission. No free plan was found. The page states a plan requirement only for Projects exports.Export by data type is limited to global admins. Free-plan availability is not confirmed.Exporting data article
Our pick: The cleanest pipeline view here, but email sync starts on Growth, above the $14 Lite plan. Pick it when the team sells all day.

Yes
With conditions
Not yet
Not confirmed

Pick the free CRM by the first thing you will outgrow

Every free tier is fine for a contact list. The question is which gate you hit first, because that gate is the price you will actually pay.

01Email firstIf the team lives in Gmail or Outlook, the free plan must log email automatically. Manual logging rarely lasts.
02Automation secondA reminder that fires itself is the first thing worth paying for. Check what the cheapest seat with workflows costs.
03Export alwaysMake sure you can take your contacts out on the free plan. A CRM you cannot leave is not free.

One habit that beats any feature: one pipeline, one owner per deal, and a close date on everything. Free tiers cannot fix a messy pipeline.

Spearworks AI

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Nathan Spear · spearworksai.com

Spearworks Labs · All comparisons · Checked October 14, 2026. Not affiliated with any vendor listed.