Jump to what is on this page
Menu

One to ten people · seat prices read 24 September 2026

Your first customers deserve better than a phone's contact list

Firstclient prices the CRMs a one-to-ten-person business can actually run — free tiers by the cap that ends them, paid seats with the billing term attached, and the date every figure was read off the vendor's own page.

A shop counter with a desk bell and an open guestbook, whose ruled entries rise from the page and become a fan of contact cards landing in a tray
names in a booksomeone walks infiled, and findable
See the rankingStart with the free ones

Notes from the counter

Every note →

Setting Up a CRM: What the First 30 Days Should Actually Look Like

Most small-business CRM projects fail in week three, not week one, and never for technical reasons. A month-long plan built around habit rather than configuration.

Sep 6, 2026 · read it →

CRM Contact Management for Small Teams, Done Properly

Contact management is the part of a CRM every small team actually uses, and the part they set up badly. Here is the structure that survives a second person joining.

Aug 30, 2026 · read it →

CRM With Invoicing: What That Phrase Actually Buys You

Almost no small-business CRM issues invoices itself. What they sell is a bridge to accounting software — here is which ones name one, what it costs, and when a free invoicing tool beats both.

Aug 23, 2026 · read it →

Spreadsheet vs CRM: When a Sheet Is Still the Right Answer

A spreadsheet is a perfectly good customer system until three specific things happen. Here is where the line actually is, and what it costs to cross it.

Aug 16, 2026 · read it →

CRM Software Examples: 8 Real Tools and What Each One Is For

Eight named CRMs a small business can actually open, sorted by the job they are built for rather than by feature count, with the free tier and seat price of each.

Aug 9, 2026 · read it →

EngageBay Review: A CRM With the Mailing List Already Attached

EngageBay bundles CRM, marketing email, live chat and a helpdesk into one subscription, and its cheapest number needs a two-year commitment. Here is the ladder, on all three billing terms.

Aug 2, 2026 · read it →

Nobody buys their first CRM because they want software. They buy it the week a quote goes quiet, or a second person needs to know what was said to a customer, or somebody comes back after eight months and the history is spread across two inboxes and a phone. Firstclient exists for that week: it covers the CRM a business of one to ten people opens first, and nothing else.

What this site does differently

Every price here was read on the vendor's own pricing page and is printed with two things most comparisons leave off: the billing term it belongs to, and the day it was read. Those two details change the answer more often than features do — Zoho CRM's Standard edition is $14 per user per month on the annual term and $20 on the monthly one, and only one of those will be on your invoice.

Free tiers get the same treatment. A free CRM is not a trick, it is a plan with a wall somewhere, and this site describes each one by the wall rather than the adjectives: three users, 250 contacts, 500 records, two seats. Knowing which wall is nearest to your business is most of the decision.

What you will not find here

No invented measurements. Firstclient has not benchmarked anybody's software, timed anybody's onboarding or surveyed anybody's users, so there are no percentages, no adoption rates and no claim to have tested forty CRMs. Where a vendor makes a claim, the claim stays theirs and is attributed — and where the vendor's own numbers contradict its banner, we say so.

No pay-to-rank. Some of the CRMs covered here pay us a referral share if you start a paid plan through a link; several pay nothing and are recommended anyway, including HubSpot's free tier, which earns us exactly zero, and Less Annoying CRM, which has no programme we can reach. The disclosure page names every one of them so a reader can audit a recommendation against the money behind it.

No forms. There is no newsletter, no sign-up and nowhere on this site to leave an email address, which is why the privacy page is short and true.

Where to start

If you already know you need a CRM and want the comparison, the best CRM for small business ranking prices eight of them in one table, per seat, with the term named. If budget is the whole question, the free CRM page takes the five free plans one cap at a time.

If you are earlier than that, start with what a CRM actually is, or with the least profitable article on this site: the case for keeping your spreadsheet a while longer.

Questions people actually ask

What is a CRM, in one paragraph?
A CRM is one shared record of every person and company you sell to, and of what has passed between you: calls, emails, quotes, the next thing you promised to do and the date you promised it for. The letters stand for customer relationship management, but the working definition is narrower than the marketing suggests — it is the filing cabinet your business keeps instead of the one in your head. Everything else a CRM vendor sells you, from email campaigns to forecasting, is built on top of that one record.
Is any CRM genuinely free, or is it all a trial?
Several are genuinely free with no end date, but each free tier is capped on something that eventually bites. Read on 24 September 2026: Zoho CRM's free edition states 3 users, HubSpot's pricing page says its free tools are free for up to 2 users, Capsule's free plan states a maximum of 2 users and 250 contacts, Bigin's free plan states a single user and 500 records, and EngageBay's free plan states 250 contacts. Those are the numbers that decide whether a free CRM is a starting point or a permanent home.
What does a small-business CRM cost per seat?
The entry paid plans for a small team sit roughly between $7 and $18 per seat per month, and the billing term moves them more than the feature list does. Read on 24 September 2026: Bigin's Express is $7 per user per month billed yearly and $9 billed monthly; Zoho CRM's Standard is $14 annually and $20 monthly; Pipedrive's Lite is $14 per seat per month billed annually, charged as one payment of $168 per seat per year; Capsule's Starter shows $18 per user per month on the annual term; Less Annoying CRM charges one flat $15 per user per month. Multiply by your seat count before you compare anything else.
Do I need a CRM at all, or will a spreadsheet do?
A spreadsheet is a perfectly honest answer while one person holds the whole customer list in their head and nothing is waiting on a follow-up. It stops being the answer at three specific moments: when a second person needs the same view, when you start losing track of who you owe a reply to, and when the history of a deal matters more than its current status. A CRM's real product is the reminder and the trail, not the storage — and if you do not need either yet, the cheapest CRM is still more expensive than the sheet you already have.
Does Firstclient get paid for the CRM it recommends?
Sometimes, and never by the tool that wins a page. Some vendors here run referral programmes that pay us a share if you start a paid plan through our link, which is marked sponsored and nofollow every time. Others pay us nothing and are still recommended: HubSpot pays nothing at all on a free signup, Salesforce runs no publisher programme, and Less Annoying CRM's affiliate pages do not resolve. The disclosure page names every one of them so you can check a recommendation against the money behind it.