Three months ago you moved your customers out of a spreadsheet and into a free CRM, and it worked. Now the HubSpot vs Zoho vs Pipedrive question is back on your desk: a second person needs to log in, you want a separate pipeline for a new service, and the feature you need sits behind an upgrade button.
All three handle contacts, deals and tasks well enough for a small team. The differences show up in what you pay as you add people, and in which plan unlocks extra pipelines, email sync, automation and reports.
This guide compares the free and paid plans side by side, using only the vendors’ official pages, and shows what each costs for 1, 3 and 5 users.
HubSpot vs Zoho vs Pipedrive: the short answer
Pick HubSpot if one or two people need a free CRM now and you can accept higher per-seat prices on paid plans. Pick Zoho CRM if you want email integration, several pipelines and workflow rules on the first paid plan. Pick Pipedrive if your team works from the sales pipeline and you’re ready to pay from day one.
- Solo or two-person business with no budget: HubSpot’s free tools (2 users) or Zoho CRM Free (3 users).
- Small sales team that wants email sync and automations: Pipedrive Growth or Zoho CRM Standard.
- Lowest listed price per user: Zoho CRM Standard and Pipedrive Lite, both $14 billed annually. Lite doesn’t include email sync or automations.
| HubSpot | Zoho CRM | Pipedrive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: 2 users, 1,000 contacts | Yes: 3 users, 5,000 records | No |
| Entry paid plan | Sales Hub Starter, $20 | Standard, $14 (annual) | Lite, $14 (annual) |
| Next plan up | Sales Hub Professional, $100 plus one-time $1,500 onboarding | Professional, $23 (annual) | Growth, $24 (annual) |
| More than one pipeline | From Starter | From Standard | Customizable on all plans, no count published |
| Email sync | All plans | From Standard | From Growth |
| Automation | Simple from Starter, full workflows from Professional | Workflow rules on every edition | From Growth |
| Free trial | 14 days of sales tools | 15 days | 14 days, no credit card |
Prices are per user (seat) per month in US dollars, with sources in the sections below.
Free plans in one minute
HubSpot’s free CRM page calls it “100% free with no expiration date,” for up to two users and 1,000 contacts, with no credit card required. Zoho’s pricing page lists a free edition for 3 users, and its edition comparison caps it at 5,000 records across all modules. Pipedrive has no free plan; its pricing page offers a 14-day trial with no credit card required.
Our guide on how to set up a simple CRM for a small business compares the free tiers and walks through the setup. This post covers the paid plans you’ll move to next.
Paid plans and what they cost as you grow
| Plan | List price per user per month | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Sales Hub Starter | $20 | Monthly or annual commitment |
| HubSpot Sales Hub Professional | $100, plus a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee | Annual commitment |
| Zoho CRM Standard | $14 billed annually, $20 billed monthly | Monthly or yearly |
| Zoho CRM Professional | $23 billed annually, $35 billed monthly | Monthly or yearly |
| Pipedrive Lite | $14 billed annually, $19 billed monthly | Monthly or annual |
| Pipedrive Growth | $24 billed annually, $34 billed monthly | Monthly or annual |
HubSpot’s product and services catalog lists these per-seat prices with no seat minimums, and its renewal guide sets the commitment terms. HubSpot’s product pages sometimes show lower new-customer prices; this post uses the regular list price.
Zoho’s pricing FAQ describes its plans as pay-as-you-go, monthly or yearly, with no contract. Pipedrive’s higher plans are Premium at $49 and Ultimate at $69 per seat billed annually, and the page says annual billing saves up to 26%.
Prices checked in October 2026. Plans and prices change, so confirm on the official pricing page before you buy: HubSpot Sales Hub, Zoho CRM and Pipedrive.
Here’s the monthly cost by team size: price per user times the number of users. Zoho and Pipedrive use their annual-billing prices; HubSpot uses its catalog list price.
| Plan | Price per user | 1 user | 3 users | 5 users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Sales Hub Starter | $20 | $20 | $60 | $100 |
| HubSpot Sales Hub Professional | $100 | $100 | $300 | $500 |
| Zoho CRM Standard | $14 | $14 | $42 | $70 |
| Zoho CRM Professional | $23 | $23 | $69 | $115 |
| Pipedrive Lite | $14 | $14 | $42 | $70 |
| Pipedrive Growth | $24 | $24 | $72 | $120 |
HubSpot Professional also has the one-time $1,500 onboarding fee, which isn’t included in the monthly figures above.
Pipelines and deals
A second pipeline helps when you sell two things with different steps, such as projects and retainers.
- HubSpot: every account has a default pipeline, but free accounts can’t add custom ones. HubSpot’s pipeline guide lists 15 custom pipelines on Starter and 100 on Professional for seat-based plans, shared across all objects (deals, tickets and others).
- Zoho CRM: the edition comparison gives Free the default pipeline only, Standard 5 deal pipelines and Professional 10.
- Pipedrive: its multiple pipelines guide covers running sales processes in parallel, and the pricing table lists customizable pipelines on every plan, with no number. It does cap active leads and deals: 2,500 per seat on Lite and 5,000 on Growth, up to 300,000.
Record limits differ too. Zoho Standard holds 100,000 records (200 MB) and Professional about 5 million. HubSpot’s catalog sets a 15 million contact record limit for paying customers.
Email and calendar sync
Syncing your inbox logs each email on the right contact, so nobody copies conversations by hand.
- HubSpot: you can connect an individual work email on all plans, including free, with Gmail, Outlook, Exchange or IMAP. You can also connect one Google, Office 365 or Exchange calendar.
- Zoho CRM: the edition comparison shows email integration (IMAP, POP3, Gmail API or Graph API) and Google Calendar sync starting on Standard. On Free, each user can send 50 individual emails a day, up to 150 per organization.
- Pipedrive: email sync is available on Growth and higher, with Gmail, Office 365/Outlook, Exchange or IMAP. Growth syncs one email account per seat and Premium three. Calendar sync with Google and Microsoft is on every plan.
Automation
Automation handles small repeat jobs, like creating a follow-up task when a deal moves.
- HubSpot: free tools get one automated action for email automation. Starter adds simple automations built from your contact, company, deal or ticket lists (up to 50, with restricted triggers and actions, per the catalog). The full workflows tool needs Professional, which allows up to 300.
- Zoho CRM: workflow rules come with every edition. Free allows 10 rules per module (5 active), Standard 30 (15 active) and Professional 80 (40 active). Professional also adds Blueprint for step-by-step processes.
- Pipedrive: automations are available on Growth and higher. The pricing table allows 50 per company on Growth and 150 on Premium; Lite has none.
To send leads from a website form into your CRM, a connector can help: compare Zapier vs Make.
Reports and mobile apps
- HubSpot: the catalog gives free accounts 10 dashboards. Sales Hub Starter allows 30 dashboards with up to 50 reports each, and custom reports (up to 100) plus forecasting start on Professional.
- Zoho CRM: per the edition comparison, Free has standard reports only. Standard adds dashboards and up to 100 custom reports, and Professional makes reports unlimited.
- Pipedrive: the plan comparison allows 15 reports per seat on Lite and 50 on Growth. Lite and Growth get the default visual dashboards only, and forecast view starts on Growth.
All three offer iOS and Android apps on every plan, including the free tiers (see Zoho’s mobile app page, HubSpot’s catalog and Pipedrive’s plan comparison).
Which one should you choose?
There’s no single winner in HubSpot vs Zoho vs Pipedrive. Match the plan to your team:
- You’re one or two people with no budget: start with HubSpot’s free tools. If a third person needs access, or you’ll pass 1,000 contacts, Zoho CRM Free allows 3 users and 5,000 records.
- You run a small sales team with its own pipeline: Pipedrive Growth adds email sync and automations at $24 per seat billed annually. Zoho CRM Standard gives you 5 pipelines and email integration for less per user.
- You want the lowest cost per user: compare Zoho CRM Standard and Pipedrive Lite at the same $14, then check whether you need email sync and automations, which Lite doesn’t include.
- You need custom reports and full workflows: HubSpot Sales Hub Professional covers both, but budget for $100 per seat, the onboarding fee and a yearly commitment.
Frequently asked questions
Is HubSpot CRM really free?
Yes. HubSpot’s catalog describes a single free edition with up to two free users and up to 1,000 contacts, and the free CRM page says it doesn’t expire. You only pay when you need paid features or more seats.
Does Pipedrive have a free plan?
No, every Pipedrive plan is paid, but you can try them free for 14 days. Pipedrive’s trial expiry article says access is restricted when the trial ends until someone with billing access adds payment details. If you added billing details during the trial, the account converts to a paid one automatically.
Which is cheaper, Zoho or Pipedrive?
At the entry level, the annual price is the same: $14 per user per month for Zoho CRM Standard and Pipedrive Lite. On monthly billing, Pipedrive Lite costs $19 and Zoho Standard $20. One plan up, Zoho Professional is $23 and Pipedrive Growth is $24 billed annually, per the Pipedrive pricing page and Zoho’s pricing page.
How much does HubSpot cost for a small team?
For two people on Sales Hub Starter, the list price is $40 a month (2 x $20). Two seats on Professional come to $200 a month (2 x $100), plus the one-time $1,500 onboarding fee, according to HubSpot’s catalog. HubSpot also offers a 14-day free trial of its sales tools.
Sources
- HubSpot: Free CRM Software
- HubSpot: Sales Software
- HubSpot: Product & Services Catalog
- HubSpot: Review your HubSpot renewal
- HubSpot: Set up and manage object pipelines
- HubSpot: Connect an individual work email
- HubSpot: Connect your calendar to HubSpot
- HubSpot: Create automations from the automation side panel
- HubSpot: Create workflows
- Zoho CRM: Pricing and Editions
- Zoho CRM: Feature-wise comparison of editions
- Zoho CRM: Sign up for a 15-day free trial
- Zoho CRM: Mobile app for Android and iOS
- Pipedrive: CRM Pricing Plans
- Pipedrive: Create multiple sales processes
- Pipedrive: Email sync
- Pipedrive: Automations, first steps
- Pipedrive: What happens when my trial expires?
Your Next Step
Today, write down how many people need to log in and which feature you need next (a second pipeline, email sync or automation), then start the matching free plan or trial from this HubSpot vs Zoho vs Pipedrive comparison. For more help, browse our CRM & Email Marketing guides.
Fernando Pompeu is a journalist and digital content writer with more than 8 years of experience in media outlets and news portals. He writes to explain things clearly and without jargon. At PlainSetup, he publishes step-by-step guides to the everyday tools small businesses run on, based on each tool’s official documentation and written for owners without an IT team.