Best Free CRM Alternatives to HubSpot: Free-Tier Limits, Upgrade Costs and Evaluation

A shortlist of the best free CRM alternatives to HubSpot is built from two headline numbers, free users and free contacts, and the choice it produces fails on a limit neither number mentions. A two-person firm moves to a free edition admitting three users and finds on the first afternoon that it has no custom fields. A second firm stays on HubSpot's free tools and learns in month nine that its third hire puts every user on a paid seat. A third picks a free tier whose record cap looks generous and fills it within a month, because the vendor counts every logged call and note as a record.

This article sets out what "free" means across CRMs and how to test a free tier before committing data to it. It starts with the caps in HubSpot's free tools, sets nine free editions side by side, and runs a sample team through all nine to find when each stops being free and what follows. Later sections trace the result to record units and field allowances, name where the alternatives win, and cover upgrade costs, an evaluation procedure, symptoms and the limits of the evidence. Replacing HubSpot with paid products is a separate decision, covered in HubSpot alternatives.

A free edition is a permanent plan with no charge and documented caps, such as HubSpot's free tools or Zoho CRM Free. It differs from a free trial, which lends a paid plan for a fixed number of days, and from open-source software such as SuiteCRM, which charges no licence fee but runs on a server that someone pays for and maintains. A cap is a documented maximum on users, records, fields or another count, and a record unit is whatever a vendor counts toward its record cap: contacts alone in one product, every row including notes in another.

HubSpot CRM Free: Caps in the Free Tools

HubSpot's free tools are a single free edition for up to two users, and the product and services catalog sets their caps. A free account holds up to 1,000 contacts and up to one million records of each other standard object, so companies and deals are not what fills it. Custom properties are limited to ten in total rather than ten per object, while the default contact properties and default deal properties draw on none of that allowance. Each object has one HubSpot-provided pipeline, and the pipelines documentation allows the free tools no custom pipelines, against fifteen on Starter.

Automation and reporting are reduced: one automated email per form, one automated action in email automation, and ten dashboards of up to fifty reports each. Marketing email runs to 2,000 sends per calendar month with HubSpot branding, beside forms, thirty landing pages, live chat, ticketing and one shared inbox.

Two caps concern what a free account shows and who supports it. In free accounts created on or after 4 February 2025, a record's timeline shows only activities from the last 30 days, notes, tasks and pinned activities excepted. Older activities stay on the activity index pages, and a paid tier restores them to the timeline (HubSpot, filter activities on a record timeline). Support on the free tools is the knowledge base and the community, and chat and email support begin at Starter (HubSpot, get help with HubSpot).

Export carries no tier gate, up to 300 exports a day in a free account, but a record export holds property values and associations only; calls, emails and notes leave through contact exports, activity reports or the engagements API (HubSpot, export records). The free tools are the free edition of HubSpot Smart CRM, the database under every hub, so their records carry into a paid hub without a migration.

Free CRM Alternatives to HubSpot: Free-Edition Caps Compared

Seven other vendors publish eight free editions whose terms could be read on 27 September 2026, and each row below comes from the vendor's own pages, linked in the paragraphs that follow. Where a page states nothing about a capability, the table states nothing either.

Zoho CRM's free edition guide states the users, workflow rules and email allowance, and its record management FAQ allows 5,000 records per account with no limit per module. Its custom fields article excludes custom fields from the Free edition, and its pricing page allows export "up to 10 times" without naming a period. Bigin, from the same vendor, defines its unit on its pricing page: each row entered across pipelines, contacts, activities and notes is a record.

Salesforce lists the Free Suite caps in its edition allocations, and its support article keeps the edition available while users log in every sixty days, without the Standard Support plan. The free CRM page allows 100 emails a month, and the storage allocation table gives no figure for Free Suite.

Attio's plan documentation adds 250 workspace credits a month for AI features and workflow automation, with no option to buy more, and states that the whole free workspace is visible and editable by every user. The terms of Capsule, Vtiger's One Pilot and Agile CRM come from their pricing pages, and Vtiger's names a 3,000-record cap without defining a record.

Bitrix24 states its user allowance two ways: its help centre, updated in May 2026, says unlimited, while its pricing page says "for 1–2 users". Its free plan article sets out the 50-day deletion rule.

Some names on free-CRM shortlists publish no free edition. Pipedrive's pricing page offers a 14-day trial (capture of 26 September 2026), monday CRM a 14-day trial, with free access only for qualifying nonprofits, and Freshsales a 21-day trial; Streak's free plan omits CRM pipelines.

Free-Tier Lifespan on a Sample Team

The team below is sample data, invented for the arithmetic, and it describes no client. Two people edit records from month 0 and a third joins in month 9. The team imports 400 contacts, 150 companies and 60 open deals in month 0, then adds 50 contacts, 15 companies, 10 deals, 100 logged calls, emails and meetings, and 30 notes in every month that follows. It records seven fields that no CRM supplies by default, three on contacts and four on deals, and it runs one sales pipeline. Reporting, permissions, automation and email volume sit outside the sample, which measures four counts: people, records, custom fields and pipelines.

After m months the team holds 400 + 50m contacts, and the other counts grow the same way. At month 12 it holds 1,000 contacts, 330 companies, 180 deals, 1,200 activities and 360 notes, which is 1,510 records of the three objects, or 3,070 once activities and notes are counted.

Costs use each vendor's per-user list price on annual billing, per month: $20 for a HubSpot Starter Core Seat, $25 for Salesforce Starter Suite, $14 for Zoho CRM Standard, $7 for Bigin Express, $18 for Capsule Starter, $9.99 for Agile CRM Starter and $12 for Vtiger One Growth. HubSpot's figure is fifteen months of three seats at $20, and Zoho's is nine months of two licences at $14 plus fifteen months of three, or $252 plus $630. Each paid plan lifts the cap that ended its free edition on the vendor's own pages, except that Capsule's Starter card states no custom-field allowance. No pricing page read describes a paid plan on which some users stay free, so every editing user is priced, and the figures exclude tax and the upfront timing of an annual payment.

Record Units and Field Allowances Behind the Headline Numbers

The finding is that headline caps do not rank free editions for a given team. What ends free use is the first cap that the team's data model or record mix crosses, and three of the nine editions end on the first day for the sample. Zoho CRM Free admits more users than HubSpot's free tools and ends nine months earlier, because seven custom fields exceed an allowance of none. The mechanism is independent of size: a team recording one field the vendor does not supply leaves an edition without custom fields on the day it imports.

Record caps mislead for a second reason: the unit differs between vendors. HubSpot counts contacts alone against its 1,000 and holds companies and deals under a separate million each. Agile CRM counts contacts and companies together, and Bigin counts every row entered across pipelines, contacts, activities and notes. Zoho CRM and Vtiger cap records without stating which modules count, and Attio's cap applies to the records in its objects.

Vtiger shows the unit mattering more than the number. Counting object records, the sample uses 50% of the 3,000 cap at month 12 and lasts past month 23; counting activities and notes as well, it uses 102% and leaves in month 12. Neither vendor page settles the reading, so an evaluation has to establish it with test data before the full list is imported.

Free HubSpot Alternative Selection: Where Each Free Edition Wins

The firm publishing this article implements HubSpot as a Solutions Partner and has an interest in teams starting on HubSpot's free tools and later buying its paid tiers, so the comparison rests on each vendor's own pages, where it can be checked without trusting that interest.

Four axes favour an alternative on the documentation. On people, Vtiger and Agile CRM admit ten users and Zoho CRM and Attio three, against HubSpot's two, and Bitrix24's help centre states no limit. On records, Attio's 50,000 and Zoho CRM's 5,000 exceed HubSpot's 1,000 contacts for a team whose list is its asset. On fields, Salesforce Free Suite allows 25 custom fields for standard objects, where HubSpot's ten are shared across every object. On support and history, Attio's free plan includes chat and email support, and HubSpot's free timeline hides most activities older than 30 days, a restriction none of the other pages read describes.

HubSpot's free tools win elsewhere. Their ten custom properties exceed Zoho CRM Free's none and Capsule's five, and their 2,000 monthly marketing sends exceed Salesforce Free Suite's 100 and Attio's 200 per user. Their user permissions are configurable, where Attio Free makes every record editable by every user, and forms, landing pages, live chat and ticketing sit in the same free edition.

Each edition has conditions that select it, and none of them is a ranking. HubSpot's free tools suit two people with fewer than 1,000 contacts, no more than ten custom fields and a marketing email programme. Zoho CRM Free suits three people who can work within the default fields, and Attio Free three people with a large list, three or fewer reports and no need to restrict what colleagues see. Vtiger and Agile CRM suit teams of up to ten whose records stay under 3,000 and 1,000 in the vendor's own unit. Salesforce Free Suite suits two people who need more custom fields than HubSpot's ten and will log in at least every sixty days.

Upgrade Costs When a Free Tier Is Outgrown

A free edition defers the licence cost and fixes the terms on which it arrives, and the user who crosses a cap brings every editing user onto the invoice. The sample's third HubSpot user means three Core Seats at $60 a month, and a fourth Zoho CRM user would mean four Standard licences at $56. Bitrix24 prices its Basic plan for the organisation instead, at $49 a month on annual billing or $69 monthly, with five users included (Bitrix24 pricing).

HubSpot softens the step in one respect. Its paid tiers include unlimited free View-Only Seats, which can view records, dashboards and reports but cannot edit records (HubSpot, manage seats), so if the sample's third person only reads, the bill is two Core Seats at $40 a month. Starter also lifts the caps the sample was approaching, since the catalog states the 1,000-contact cap for free accounts only and gives Starter 1,000 custom properties per object and fifteen pipelines. What Professional adds, and at what seat cost, is set out in HubSpot Starter vs Professional.

Two costs sit outside the licence. A move to another vendor goes by export, and HubSpot's record export leaves calls, emails and notes behind unless they are exported separately, the problem taken up in CRM data migration: a method. An account that downgrades to HubSpot's free tools keeps custom properties above the limit but cannot create new ones (HubSpot, create and edit properties).

The case for staying on a free edition is strongest for two or three people whose data model fits the default fields and whose records, counted in the vendor's unit, grow slowly. It is weakest where the business records its own fields from the first day, plans a hire within the year, or works from each record's history, which a 30-day timeline hides and an inactivity rule can delete. A three-person construction firm's minimum record is set against HubSpot's and Zoho's free editions in best CRM for small construction business.

Free-Tier Evaluation Procedure

1. List every field the business records, mark each one the CRM supplies by default, and count the remainder per object and in total; HubSpot's ten are a total, Zoho CRM Free allows none, and Salesforce lists twenty-five for standard objects without saying whether per object.
2. Count the processes that need different stages. Each one beyond the first needs a second pipeline, which HubSpot's free tools, Zoho CRM Free, Bigin Free and Capsule Free do not offer.
3. Count the people who will edit records in the next twelve months, and separately those who will only read them.
4. Project twelve months of records in each vendor's unit: contacts alone for HubSpot, contacts and companies for Agile CRM, every row including activities and notes for Bigin, and both readings where the unit is undefined.
5. Read each candidate's conditions on inactivity, support and export, and record the month in which each cap is crossed.
6. Price every month after the first crossing with every editing user, at both the annual and the monthly rate.
7. Open a free account, load fifty real records with every custom field filled in, log a call and a note on five of them, and export everything the vendor allows.
8. Verify the export before importing anything else: the file must hold fifty rows with every custom field populated, and the five calls and notes must be recoverable through the route the vendor documents.

Symptoms of an Outgrown Free Tier

New contacts stop saving in a HubSpot free account while companies and deals still save. The catalog caps contacts at 1,000 in free accounts and allows a million of each other object; deleting unused contacts buys room once, and a paid tier removes the stated cap.

Calls and emails older than a month vanish from HubSpot contact records. Free accounts created on or after 4 February 2025 show 30 days of activity on the timeline, notes and tasks excepted, and the older activities remain on the activity index pages until a paid tier returns them to the record.

An eleventh custom property cannot be created in HubSpot's free tools. Contacts, companies and deals share the ten, so a field on one object spends the allowance of every other.

Zoho CRM Free offers no way to add a field. Custom fields are not available in the Free edition, so the data waits for a paid edition or goes into a default field whose meaning it then distorts.

A Bigin free account reports its record limit while the contact list is still small. Activities and notes count as records, so a team that logs its calls exhausts 500 records faster than its contact list grows.

A Bitrix24 free account has disappeared after a quiet period. The free plan deletes an account in which nobody signs in for 50 days, and Salesforce Free Suite stays available only while users log in every sixty days.

Boundaries of the Evidence, September 2026

Every cap, price and condition here is as documented in September 2026, read on 27 September 2026 from the vendors' pages, which are authoritative over this text. The Salesforce and Zoho help articles cited render only in a browser and were read in one. Pipedrive's and Agile CRM's pricing pages refuse automated requests, so both were read on 27 September 2026 through a rendering service and are linked through web.archive.org captures, of 26 September and 16 May 2026, whose terms match that reading. Insightly's and Apptivo's pricing pages refused automated requests and were not read, so neither product is assessed.

The evidence has four limits. Bitrix24 gives its free plan unlimited users in its help centre and "1–2 users" on its pricing page, and Zoho's edition comparison page, which agrees with the $14 Standard price on its pricing page, carries a footer dated 4 June 2022. Zoho CRM and Vtiger do not define a record, so the sample reports both readings. Salesforce publishes no storage figure for Free Suite, so its record capacity is unknown. No source consulted measures how businesses fare on free editions, so the sample shows arithmetic on documented caps and says nothing about outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which are the best free CRM alternatives to HubSpot?

No edition is best in general, because each ends on a different count. Among fixed limits, Vtiger and Agile CRM admit ten users, Attio holds 50,000 records, Salesforce Free Suite allows 25 custom fields for standard objects, and HubSpot's free tools carry 2,000 marketing sends a month with forms, landing pages and live chat.

Is there a free HubSpot alternative with more than two users?

Several publish one: Zoho CRM Free and Attio Free admit three users, Vtiger's One Pilot and Agile CRM's free plan admit ten, and Bitrix24's help centre states no user limit, although its pricing page says one to two.

Are free HubSpot CRM alternatives free forever?

The free editions compared carry no end date, but two attach conditions to continued use: Salesforce Free Suite requires a login every sixty days, and Bitrix24 deletes a free account after 50 days without a sign-in. Pipedrive, monday CRM and Freshsales offer trials instead of free editions.

Which HubSpot free CRM limitations matter against alternatives?

Two users, 1,000 contacts, ten custom properties in total, one pipeline per object, a 30-day activity timeline in accounts created since February 2025, and support limited to the knowledge base and community.

Can HubSpot CRM alternatives for freelancers stay free?

A single user fits every free edition compared. Bigin Free is built for one user, but its 500-record cap counts activities and notes, while HubSpot's free tools suit a freelancer with fewer than 1,000 contacts who sends marketing email.

In Summary

HubSpot's free tools allow two users, 1,000 contacts, ten custom properties across objects and one pipeline per object, with marketing email, forms, landing pages and live chat in the same free edition. The alternatives offer more users at Vtiger, Agile CRM, Zoho CRM and Attio, more records at Attio and Zoho CRM, and more custom fields at Salesforce.

Those headline caps do not predict when free use ends. For the sample team, Zoho CRM, Capsule and Bigin end on the first day, Agile CRM in month 7, HubSpot and Salesforce in month 9 on the third user, and Attio and Bitrix24 outlast month 23 on the four counts measured. Record caps count different units, so the same month-12 data fills HubSpot's cap exactly and Bigin's more than five times over.

An evaluation therefore starts from the field list and the vendor's record unit rather than the user count, and it ends with an export. A free edition that returns fifty test records with every field intact, and the calls and notes logged against them, has shown before any commitment what its pricing page cannot: that the data can leave.