How far can a free CRM plan take you before it gets in the way?
Summary
The first limits you hit are usually the ones your customers can see. HubSpot's free tools put HubSpot branding on live chat, one-to-one email, meeting links, and forms, and cap marketing email at 2,000 sends a month. Zoho CRM's free edition has no custom fields and no second pipeline, and Salesforce's Free Suite stays free only if someone logs in at least once every 60 days.
The branding problem
On HubSpot's free tier, the pricing page marks live chat, one-to-one email, and meeting scheduling "Includes HubSpot branding," and the product catalog says the same of forms. Marketing email is limited to 2,000 sends per calendar month, also branded. The Starter tier's feature list includes "No HubSpot branding," which is the first paid step.
Salesforce's Free Suite lets you send up to 100 emails a month from its built-in templates.
HubSpot's smaller ceilings
HubSpot's free tools also stop at:
- 3 email templates and 3 snippets per account
- 1 personal meeting link and 1 shared inbox
- 200 email-tracking notifications a month
- 10 dashboards with up to 50 reports each
- 1 automated email action, and 1 automated email per form
There is no calling on the free tier; Starter includes 500 minutes. Sales workflows also start at Starter, which allows up to 50 of them. HubSpot's free tools include a deal pipeline but can't create a custom one.
Zoho: no custom fields
Zoho CRM's free edition leaves these columns blank in Zoho's own edition comparison: sales forecasting, scoring rules, assignment rules, multiple pipelines, custom fields, custom modules, and page layouts. The free edition can automate up to five tasks. In practice that means anything your business tracks beyond the standard fields, a renewal date or a referral source, ends up in a notes box.
Bigin, Zoho's lighter CRM, gives its free plan a single pipeline and three automations. The paid Express plan moves that to three team pipelines and 30 automations.
The Salesforce login rule
Salesforce's Free Suite comes with two user licenses and no expiration date, "as long as you log in at least once every 60 days." It covers lead, opportunity, and case management and simple email. Salesforce lists storefronts, multi-email campaigns, and payment links as what the $25-per-user Starter Suite adds. The Free Suite pages don't publish a record or storage limit.
For user and record caps on each free plan, and what three paid seats cost for a year, see the small-business guide. HubSpot's product page puts its free plan at two users and 1,000 contacts.
Sources
- https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/crm
- https://www.hubspot.com/products/crm
- https://legal.hubspot.com/hubspot-product-and-services-catalog
- https://www.zoho.com/crm/free-crm.html
- https://www.zoho.com/crm/comparison.html
- https://knowledge.hubspot.com/object-settings/set-up-and-customize-pipelines
- https://www.bigin.com/pricing.html
- https://www.salesforce.com/crm/free-crm/
- https://www.salesforce.com/small-business/crm-suites/
Related on this site
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- How should you set up deal stages so the pipeline forecast means something?
- Is the top-ranked CRM on a review site the right one for my team?
- Seat cost calculator
- Every provider, with published prices
Written by Kaz (pen name). Published September 27, 2026. The figures above come from the vendor and review-site pages listed under Sources. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.