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Monthly versus annual billing: the gap is 1.00 to 2.86 times

Paying month to month costs between 1.00 and 2.86 times the annual-commitment seat price, depending on the plan (checked 2026-08-25). HubSpot Starter sits at the top at 2.86; Salesforce Starter Suite sits at the bottom with no difference at all.

The price on a CRM pricing card is almost always the annual-commitment price. That is the figure this site ranks, and what a CRM costs explains why. But the annual price only applies if you pay for twelve months up front, or sign for twelve months. If you would rather pay monthly and keep the option to leave, the seat costs more, and the size of that "more" varies by a factor of nearly three across the dataset.

What does the multiple mean?

It is the monthly-billed seat price divided by the annual-billed seat price, both taken from the same vendor page on the same day. A gap of 1.00 means the two prices are identical. A gap of 2.00 means a monthly payer hands over twice what an annual payer does for the same seat in the same month. The dataset stores both prices per plan, and the generator computes the ratio, so every figure here is traceable to a published card (checked 2026-08-25).

Three things the multiple does not measure. It says nothing about which plan is cheaper in absolute terms; HubSpot Starter's 2.86 multiple applies to a $7 seat, so the monthly price is $20, still below most other vendors' annual prices. It does not include onboarding fees, which the onboarding fee article covers separately. And it does not tell you whether the vendor lets you leave an annual plan early. Only Close's page states a refund rule, a "30-day money-back guarantee", and it does not say whether that covers an annual plan (checked 2026-08-25).

Which plans have the widest gaps?

The eight largest, from 43 plans where both prices are published:

Brand and planAnnual priceMonthly priceGap
HubSpot Sales Hub Starter$7$202.86
Close Solo$9$192.11
Nutshell Foundation$7$131.86
Pipedrive Lite$14$241.71
monday CRM Basic$12$181.50
monday CRM Standard$17$251.47
monday CRM Pro$28$411.46
Close Essentials$35$491.40

^ Per seat per month, USD. Source: each vendor's pricing page as listed on the provider list, via data/dataset.json (checked 2026-08-25).

A pattern shows in that table. The widest gaps sit on the cheapest plans. HubSpot Starter, Close Solo, Nutshell Foundation, and Pipedrive Lite are all entry tiers priced at $7 to $14 on annual billing. The vendor's monthly price for the same tier is closer to a round $13 to $20, so the ratio balloons. Close Solo also carries a condition the others do not: the page says it is limited to one user, so it is not a ten-seat option at all (checked 2026-08-25).

Further down the list the gaps settle into a narrow band. Nutshell Growth is 1.39, Copper Business 1.35, Pipedrive Premium and Salesflare Growth 1.34, Bigin Express and Streak Pro+ are both 1.29, and Pipedrive Growth and Copper Basic are 1.26. Pipedrive Ultimate, Attio Plus and Pro, folk Standard and Premium, Bigin Premier, and Salesflare Enterprise all sit at exactly 1.25, which is what "Save 20%" on the annual price works out to. Freshsales Growth is 1.22, Freshsales Pro 1.21, and Freshsales Enterprise, Nimble, Streak Pro, and Nutshell Pro are at 1.20. Capsule Starter is 1.17 and Capsule Advanced 1.11. The lowest gaps in the dataset belong to the expensive plans: HubSpot Professional at 1.11 ($90 against $100), Close Growth at 1.10, Close Scale at 1.07, Capsule Growth at 1.06, and Capsule Ultimate at 1.04. Salesforce Starter Suite is at 1.00, where the page says $25 "billed monthly or annually" (checked 2026-08-25).

A five-seat team, one year, both ways

Take HubSpot Sales Hub Starter, the widest gap in the table. HubSpot's page on this site carries both prices; the vendor's page shows $7 per seat per month on an annual commitment and $20 per seat per month paying monthly (checked 2026-08-25). For five seats over twelve months:

Annual billing: $7 × 5 seats × 12 months = $420 Monthly billing: $20 × 5 seats × 12 months = $1,200 Difference: $1,200 − $420 = $780 Ratio: $20 ÷ $7 = 2.86

The monthly route costs $780 more over the year, which is 1.86 years' worth of the annual plan. The same arithmetic on Salesforce Starter Suite gives $25 × 5 × 12 = $1,500 either way, so the choice there is purely about whether you want to be able to cancel. Run your own seat count and plan through the calculator; it takes either price and shows the three-year total the way the effective-per-seat article lays out.

Which pages offer no monthly option at all?

Several plans in the dataset are marked annual-only, meaning the page states annual billing and shows no monthly price (checked 2026-08-25). Salesforce Pro Suite, Enterprise, and Unlimited are each labeled "Billed annually" at $100, $175, and $350; only Starter Suite offers a monthly contract. Insightly Plus, Professional, and Enterprise carry the line "All prices USD, billed annually" at $29, $49, and $99. SugarCRM's Standard, Advanced, and Premier plans are "billed annually" with a "15 user minimum" at $59, $85, and $135. HubSpot Enterprise "Starts at $150/mo/seat" on annual billing with a required $3,500 onboarding fee, and the page directs you to sales for anything else. On the UK side, Salesforce UK marks Pro Suite and above annual-only in the same way, and Workbooks states a 12-month minimum term.

For these plans the gap is undefined rather than 1.00. There is no cheaper-per-month route because there is no other route on the page. If you want to pay monthly for one of them, the price is not stated on the provider's published page (checked 2026-08-25), and you would have to ask.

Which pages leave the monthly price out?

Two vendors put the annual price in the page text and the monthly one behind a toggle, so our checker read only the annual figure and a browser was needed for the rest. Pipedrive's page shows $14, $39, $59, and $79 per seat per month, each with a line such as "One payment of US$ 168 per seat/year"; the monthly-billed figures, read in a browser, are $24, $49, $79, and $99 "Per user per month, billed monthly" (checked 2026-08-25). Freshsales shows "$9/user/month, billed annually" for Growth and $39 and $59 for the higher tiers with a "Save 20% Annually" badge; the toggle, read in a browser, gives $11, $47, and $71 "/user/month, billed monthly" (checked 2026-08-25). Both now carry a gap in the table, and the Freshsales figures show why a badge is not a price: "Save 20%" would imply 1.25, and the page's own numbers give 1.22, 1.21, and 1.20.

Less Annoying CRM is the mirror image. Its page lists "$15 per user per month" with "No contracts" and no annual price at all, so it is the one plan in the dataset priced on a monthly basis by default (checked 2026-08-25). Its ratio is also undefined, but from the other direction.

I chose to leave the remaining cells blank rather than infer a figure. A "Save 20%" badge usually means a 1.25 multiple, and the Attio and folk figures show that it often does. But "usually" is not a published number, and the site's rule, set out in Method, is that a figure with no page behind it does not go in the table. The cost of that rule is a few empty cells; the benefit is that every non-empty cell can be checked.

What the gap tells you about the contract

A high multiple is a strong push toward the annual plan, and a vendor that prices a 2.86 gap is telling you which one it wants you to choose. A gap near 1.00 is the opposite signal: the vendor is indifferent, and the monthly option is a real one rather than a decoy. Neither is good or bad on its own. What matters is whether you expect to keep the seats for twelve months. If a team of five is still deciding whether the tool fits, a 1.25 multiple for three months of monthly billing is a small price for the exit. At 2.86, three months of monthly billing on HubSpot Starter costs $300 against $105. The $195 difference buys more than five more months on the annual plan at $35.

The seat count changes this too. A minimum-seat rule, such as monday CRM's three-user floor or SugarCRM's fifteen, means the monthly-versus-annual choice is made on more seats than you may use; the minimum-seat article works through that case.

Where the answer changes

Who this article is not for

This article does not help a reader whose vendor publishes only one price. If your shortlist is Insightly, SugarCRM, or any Salesforce plan above Starter, the gap is either undefined or unpublished. The useful question for you is the three-year annual total, not the multiple.

Sources

How this article was made. Written by Kaz, an independent publisher with no commercial relationship with the companies named unless listed on the Disclosure page. All figures come from the companies' own published documentation or regulator publications; each figure carries the date it was last checked. I have not used these products, and nothing here is a personal test result. The arithmetic is shown so you can recalculate with your own numbers. Found an error? Use the contact form; corrections are logged on the Editorial policy page.

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Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.