Free CRM pages are usually compared by feature checklists, which is the one comparison the vendor controls. The number that decides anything is the limit: how many people can log in, how many records you can store, how many pipelines you can run, and — less visibly — how many API calls and data exports the account gets before a wall appears.
We read those limits off six vendor pricing pages in October 2026 and priced the step after them. Four vendors publish a perpetual $0 tier; two do not. The differences are large enough to change which vendor a small team should start on, and the cost of crossing each limit differs by a factor of four.
| Vendor | $0 tier | Published user limit | Other published limits | What ends it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho CRM | Free edition | 3 users — "Forever free, for 3 users" | 5,000 API calls/day; 10 data exports; 10 custom email templates | The 4th user; paid tiers carry no free allowance |
| HubSpot | Free tools | 2 users — "$0/mo. Free for up to 2 users" | No credit card required; branding shown | The 3rd user moves the account to Starter |
| monday CRM | Free plan | 2 seats — "Free forever plan, up to 2 seats" | Free tier is shared across monday's products | The 3rd seat; paid plans start at 3 seats |
| Bigin (Zoho) | Free | 1 user | Up to 500 records; single pipeline | The 2nd user moves the account to Express |
| Pipedrive | none | — | 14-day trial, no credit card | Day 15, or the first paid seat |
| Freshsales | none | — | 21-day trial; description tag still says "free plan" | Day 22, or the first paid seat |
Vendor pricing pages checked October 2026: zoho.com CRM pricing, hubspot.com pricing for CRM, monday.com pricing, bigin.com pricing, pipedrive.com pricing, freshworks.com CRM pricing. Verbatim limit wording is quoted from each page. All figures exclude tax.
Below is the smallest paid step at each vendor, priced at the seat count that crosses the free limit, on annual rates. The monthly-billed column shows what the same account costs if you refuse the annual commitment — it is the clearest measure of how much a vendor charges for flexibility.
| Vendor | Crossing seats | Cheapest paid tier | Billed annually | Billed monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho CRM | 4 users (free ends at 3) | Standard — $14/seat/mo annual, $20 monthly | $672/yr ($56/mo) | $960/yr ($80/mo) |
| HubSpot | 3 users (free ends at 2) | Starter — $7/seat/mo promotional, $20 list | $252/yr at $7 ($21/mo) | $720/yr at $20 list ($60/mo) |
| monday CRM | 3 seats (free ends at 2; 3-seat floor) | Basic — $12/seat/mo annual, $18 monthly | $432/yr ($36/mo) | $648/yr ($54/mo) |
| Bigin (Zoho) | 2 users (free ends at 1) | Express — $7/seat/mo yearly, $9 monthly | $168/yr ($14/mo) | $216/yr ($18/mo) |
| Freshsales | 1 user (no free tier) | Growth — $9/seat/mo billed annually | $108/yr ($9/mo) | Not published on the rendered page |
| Pipedrive | 1 seat (no free tier) | Lite — $14/seat/mo billed annually | $168/yr ($14/mo) | Not published — the page prints no monthly rate |
Annual rates as printed on each vendor's pricing page, checked October 2026; totals are our arithmetic. Monthly-billed rates: Zoho CRM from the monthly position of its billing toggle, monday CRM from the crossed-out figure on each plan card, HubSpot Starter from its published list price, Bigin from its monthly-billed card. Freshsales and Pipedrive are left blank because those pages do not print a monthly-billed per-seat figure we can point to.
A three-person sales team is the smallest group that usually outgrows a single-user tool. Priced at annual rates, the same headcount produces a spread from nothing to five hundred dollars a year:
| Vendor, entry paid tier | 3 users / month | 3 users / year | vs Zoho CRM's free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho CRM (free edition) | $0 | $0 | — |
| Bigin Express ($7) | $21 | $252 | +$252 |
| HubSpot Starter ($7 promotional) | $21 | $252 | +$252 |
| Freshsales Growth ($9) | $27 | $324 | +$324 |
| monday CRM Basic ($12, three-seat floor) | $36 | $432 | +$432 |
| Pipedrive Lite ($14) | $42 | $504 | +$504 |
Annual billing, entry paid tier at each vendor, three seats, checked October 2026. HubSpot's $252 uses the $7 promotional per-seat rate; at its $20 list price the same three users bill $720 a year. Tax excluded everywhere.
Zoho CRM is the only vendor in this set whose free tier is measured in people rather than a single seat, which makes it the default starting point for a small sales team — and the priciest place to add the fourth person. Its monthly-billed rates are the widest gap we have measured between the two cycles: Standard costs 43% more per seat paying monthly. The full ladder, including the two implementation projects the page mentions without a price, is in Zoho CRM's pricing and hidden costs.
HubSpot's free tier is the best-known free CRM, and its current pricing page puts a number on it: "$0/mo. Free for up to 2 users. No credit card required." Above that sits Starter, listed at $7 per seat per month against a $20 list price, with monthly and annual billing options. The gap between those two figures is the whole risk in this tier: at the promotional rate three users cost $252 a year, and at list they cost $720 — a 186% difference on the same plan. Because Starter is priced per seat with no floor, a team of three is the smallest account that pays, which makes it the closest structural match to monday's free cap. Details on the paid tiers are in HubSpot's pricing and hidden costs.
monday.com describes its free plan as a "Free forever plan, up to 2 seats", and the CRM product is priced on the same cards as its work management product: Basic $12, Standard $17 and Pro $28 per seat per month billed annually, with the monthly-billed rates printed beside them as crossed-out figures ($18, $25 and $41). Paid plans start at three seats, so the step out of free lands exactly on the floor: a three-person team is billed $36 a month, $432 a year. Nothing is wasted at three seats, which is unusual — but the floor also means a two-person team that wants any paid feature pays for a third seat it cannot use. The head-to-head is in monday CRM vs Pipedrive.
Bigin is Zoho's budget CRM, and its free plan is the most tightly bounded of the six: the pricing FAQ states that the free plan "allows only 1 user and up to 500 records", with a single pipeline. Paid editions are per-user licences with no user cap: Express $7, Premier $12 and Bigin 360 $18 per user per month billed yearly, against monthly-billed rates of $9, $15 and $21. A second user therefore costs $14 a month on annual billing, or $18 if you pay monthly. The free plan is a single-seat trial by another name, and the record cap is the limit that arrives first in practice. We work through those licences seat by seat, including what the second and third users add, in Bigin's pricing and hidden costs.
Pipedrive's page lists four paid tiers and no free plan; the entry offer is a 14-day trial with no credit card required. Its published rates are per seat per month billed annually — Lite $14, Growth $39, Premium $59, Ultimate $79 — with no monthly-billed per-seat figure printed anywhere on the page, which is why the monthly column above is empty rather than estimated. One seat is the smallest account, at $168 a year. Its add-on layer is charged per company rather than per seat, which changes the arithmetic substantially as headcount grows; see Pipedrive's pricing and hidden costs.
Freshsales shows Growth, Pro and Enterprise in its plan grid and no $0 tier: $9, $39 and $59 per user per month billed annually, against a page toggle that reads "Save 20% Annually". Growth at $9 is the cheapest single paid seat of the six vendors here, $108 a year, which makes Freshsales the least expensive way to own a CRM account outright — provided the team can live without a perpetual free option. The trial runs 21 days. The page's own description tag still advertises "a free plan", a claim its plan grid no longer supports. The tier steps are in Freshsales' pricing and hidden costs.
The same test applied to project plans instead of CRMs — four $0 tiers capped by people, by storage and by one sentence with no number in it — is in the free project management tiers guide.
Teams migrating from another CRM. Free tiers are where data models get set, and the cheapest tiers put limits on custom fields, pipelines and imports. Migrating into a free tier usually means migrating again when you outgrow it, and paying a second setup cost.
Teams that need automation on day one. Free plans include the feature that gets you started and omit the one that saves the hours. If workflow automation is the reason you are buying, price the paid tier at your headcount before the free trial ends — the three-user spread above runs from $252 to $504 a year.
Teams that need one account to span sales and support. Free editions are usually single-product. The moment a second product is involved, the free tier stops being free in practice, which is the argument for paying from the start rather than migrating mid-year.
By published user allowance, Zoho CRM's: its free edition is "Forever free, for 3 users" with 5,000 API calls a day, ten free data exports and ten custom email templates (checked October 2026). HubSpot's free tools state $0 for up to 2 users, monday.com's free plan is "up to 2 seats", and Bigin's free plan is one user with 500 records. Pipedrive and Freshsales publish no $0 tier.
Pipedrive and Freshsales. Pipedrive lists four paid tiers and no $0 plan, leading with a 14-day trial; Freshsales shows Growth, Pro and Enterprise only, with a 21-day trial, even though its description tag still reads "with a free plan". Both were checked in October 2026.
At Zoho CRM, three users cost $0 forever and the fourth converts the whole account to a paid edition: $56 a month, $672 a year, on Standard's annual rates, or $80 a month and $960 a year paying monthly. Paid editions price every seat, so the free allowance does not survive the upgrade.
Freshsales Growth at $9 per user per month billed annually — $108 a year for a single seat. Bigin Express is $7 per user per month billed yearly and bills per user licence, so one seat is $84 a year and two are $168; Pipedrive Lite is $14 per seat per month billed annually, $168 a year. monday CRM's smallest purchasable account is three seats, $432 a year.
The perpetual tiers do, within their published limits — HubSpot's free tools, Zoho CRM's free edition, monday.com's free plan and Bigin's free plan carry no expiry in the wording we checked in October 2026. What changes is scope: Bigin's free plan caps at one user and 500 records, and usage allowances reset monthly rather than accumulating.
When a published limit blocks work you already do — users, records, pipelines or exports — not when a feature list looks better. The crossing points differ by a factor of four: three users cost $0 at Zoho CRM but $432 a year at monday CRM's three-seat floor, and four users on Zoho CRM Standard jump to $672 a year.