The best CRM for freelancers, sorted by the job you need done

The short answer

Choose by the job, not the brand.

• You keep losing track of leads: HubSpot's free CRM or Bigin's free plan. Both cost nothing for one person and give you a proper pipeline.
• You juggle many business-to-business deals: Pipedrive, from $14 per seat a month billed yearly.
• Your work runs on proposals, contracts and invoices: HoneyBook if you live in the US, Canada, the UK or Australia. Dubsado or Bonsai almost anywhere else.
• You also need a website, bookings and maybe a shop under one login: WebNewBiz, but only if that is worth $79 a month to you, because its CRM starts on the Growth plan.

If a pipeline is all you need, a free tool is a perfectly good answer.

What a freelancer actually needs from a CRM

Big sales CRMs are designed for teams with managers and forecasts. A freelancer's problem is simpler: work arrives by email, contact form, social media and referral, and things slip through. Check these points against how you really work.

1. Enquiries in one place. A form on your website should create a contact automatically.
2. A short pipeline. Five or six stages are plenty: enquiry, call booked, proposal sent, won, lost.
3. Follow-up reminders. A lot of freelance work is won on the second or third nudge.
4. Proposals and contracts. If you quote on most jobs, templates and e-signatures save hours.
5. Invoices and payments. Look for deposits, payment plans and automatic reminders.
6. Booking. A booking link for discovery calls saves a round of emails.
7. It works in your country. Some popular freelance tools only operate in a handful of countries.
8. A price that suits one person. Check what the cheapest plan leaves out.

The seven options at a glance

Prices are in US dollars at the time of writing (October 2026), billed yearly unless stated. Card processing fees are extra on every tool.

If you mainly need a pipeline: HubSpot, Bigin or Pipedrive

HubSpot's free CRM is the usual starting point for good reason. It allows up to two users and 1,000 contacts with no time limit, and includes a deal pipeline, tasks, email tracking, a meeting scheduler, lead capture forms, live chat, quotes and payment links. The catches: free tools carry HubSpot branding (removing it is a paid Starter feature), Starter is listed from $15 per seat a month as a new-customer price, and the tiers above that are priced for sales teams, not one person. Choose it if you expect to grow into a small team.

Bigin by Zoho is the tidiest cheap option. The free plan covers one user, 500 records, one pipeline, three automations, a booking page and web forms. Express, at $7 per user a month billed yearly ($9 monthly), raises that to three pipelines, 50,000 records and 30 automations. It also adds email and WhatsApp integration, payment links, e-signatures through Zoho Sign and a connection to QuickBooks or Zoho Books. When the 15-day trial ends, you drop back to the free plan rather than being charged. Watch the 500-record cap: it fills quickly if you import your whole address book.

Pipedrive is built around the pipeline view. It suits consultants and fractional marketers who juggle many business-to-business deals with long sales cycles. Lite costs $14 per seat a month billed yearly ($24 monthly) and includes custom pipelines, a basic meeting scheduler, calendar sync and an AI sales assistant. Two-way email sync, templates, open tracking and workflow automations start on Growth at $39. It has no built-in invoicing, so you connect an accounting app. For a designer with four projects a month, it is more sales machinery than you need.

If your work runs on proposals, contracts and invoices: HoneyBook, Dubsado or Bonsai

These are client-flow tools rather than sales CRMs. They follow a job from enquiry to proposal, contract, invoice and payment, which is how most freelance designers and consultants actually work. Our guide to CRMs with invoicing covers more options in this group.

HoneyBook is the most polished. Starter ($29 a month billed yearly) includes unlimited clients and projects, proposals, contracts, invoices, payments, a client portal, two live lead forms and HoneyBook's AI. For the scheduler, automations, SMS reminders, QuickBooks Online and removal of the Powered by HoneyBook line, you need Essentials at $49 a month. Card fees of roughly 3% apply to each payment, and bank transfers cost 1.5%. The big catch for a global audience: HoneyBook is only available in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Freelancers in India, Brazil and elsewhere can only join a waitlist.

Dubsado is the power user's choice. Its detailed forms and workflows reward a weekend of setup. Starter costs $335 a year (about $28 a month) or $35 monthly and includes invoicing with payment plans, a client portal, templates and one active lead capture form. Automated workflows, public proposals and advanced scheduling are on Premier at $525 a year (about $44 a month) or $55 monthly. Both plans include three users, which helps if you work with a virtual assistant, and the 21-day trial gives full Premier access without a card. Its Stripe-based payments support sellers in a few dozen countries.

Bonsai feels most like a freelancer's back office. Read the plans carefully: Basic ($9 per user a month yearly) covers the CRM, tasks and time tracking but leaves out proposals, contracts, invoicing and the client portal. Essentials, at $19 a month yearly or $25 monthly, is the real starting point. It adds all of those, plus scheduling and income and expense tracking. Premium ($29) adds the deals pipeline and QuickBooks, Xero and Zapier integrations. Bonsai invoices in over 100 currencies, but its own payment service covers only the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Elsewhere you connect Stripe. The trial lasts seven days.

If you want the website, bookings and CRM in one place: WebNewBiz

Many freelancers pay for a website builder, a booking tool, a CRM and an invoicing app, then copy names between them. WebNewBiz puts them in one place. You describe your business in plain language, the AI drafts the whole website (pages, layout and copy), and you change it by chatting with the AI Copilot. Hosting, SSL and 24/7 chat support come with every plan.

The WebNewBiz AI CRM sits behind the site. Website enquiries land in it automatically, the AI reads and scores each lead, and you manage deals, tasks and bookings in the same place. Invoices chase themselves, so you can skip the awkward reminder emails, and you can connect your own email. There is also an AI funnel builder: describe the offer and it drafts a landing page, opt-in and thank-you page, or you can start from one of 26 templates. Workflow automations run on triggers such as a form submission. If you sell templates or prints, the online store takes cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and buyers become contacts.

Now the honest part. The CRM starts on Growth at $79 a month (first month $1), with 3,000 contacts, three team members, basic SEO tools, backups and a free domain for a year. Lite ($9) and Starter ($29) have no CRM, and there is no free plan. If all you want is a CRM, Bigin or Bonsai is far cheaper, and if your current website works, one of them is the sensible fix. WebNewBiz is also a young platform with a much smaller app ecosystem than the big names, and the AI's first draft still needs your own words, photos and facts. If polished proposals and signed contracts are how you win work, HoneyBook, Dubsado and Bonsai are built around exactly that.

It makes sense when you need a better website anyway, take bookings or sell something, and want one login and one contact list instead of four. If you are still comparing site builders, see our guide to the best website builder for freelancers.

Check this before you choose: does it work where you live?

Most roundups skip this, and it matters if you live outside North America.

• HoneyBook: US, Canada, UK and Australia only.
• Bonsai: works worldwide for proposals and invoices. Its built-in payments cover four countries, and elsewhere you use Stripe. The interface is English only, and the tax features are aimed at the US.
• Dubsado: Stripe-based payments in supported countries, with Square and PayPal as other options. Your clients can be anywhere.
• HubSpot, Bigin and Pipedrive: sold worldwide. Bigin shows prices in dollars, rupees, euros and pounds.
• WebNewBiz: payments run through Stripe, Apple Pay and Google Pay, so check that Stripe works in your country.

Cards issued abroad and currency conversion usually cost more to process, which can quietly take several percent off a cross-border invoice. During any trial, send a small real invoice to a friend in another country and see what reaches your bank.

What each setup costs in the first year

A rough guide for one person, using yearly billing where it is offered and leaving out card fees.

The last two rows are the fair comparison. A separate website plus a client-flow tool costs about the same as WebNewBiz Growth, and paying yearly brings the WebNewBiz figure down further. So the choice is not really about price. It is one login and one contact list against the most complete contract and proposal tools. Decide which matters more to you.

Set up a freelance CRM in one afternoon

1. Write your stages first. Five or six, named the way you talk.
2. Import selectively. Bring in clients from the last year and every open enquiry, not your whole address book. This matters on plans with contact or record limits.
3. Connect email and calendar so conversations attach to the right person.
4. Put the enquiry form on your website and send a test to confirm it creates a contact.
5. Write three templates: a reply to new enquiries, your standard proposal and a polite follow-up.
6. Add one automation, such as a reminder when a proposal has had no reply for three days. Start with one rule, not twenty.
7. Book 15 minutes every Friday to move deals forward and close dead ones. A CRM only works if you trust what is in it.

When you stop being solo

Many freelancers end up subcontracting, hiring a virtual assistant or becoming a small studio. Then seats, shared inboxes and client permissions start to matter. Dubsado's three included users and HubSpot's two free seats cover the first step. If you are heading towards a proper agency, our guide to the best CRM for marketing agencies covers tools built for teams and client accounts.

Quick answers

What is the best free CRM for freelancers?

HubSpot's free CRM suits most freelancers: up to two users and 1,000 contacts with no time limit, plus a pipeline, meeting scheduler, forms and quotes. Bigin by Zoho's free plan is simpler, with one user, 500 records and one pipeline.

Is HoneyBook or Dubsado better for freelancers?

HoneyBook is quicker to set up, and its Starter plan ($29 a month billed yearly) covers proposals, contracts and payments, but it only operates in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Dubsado works in more countries and has deeper workflows, though automated workflows need Premier at $525 a year.

Which CRM for freelancers includes invoicing?

HoneyBook, Dubsado and Bonsai (from its Essentials plan) include invoices and payments. HubSpot's free CRM has quotes and payment links, Bigin Express has payment links, and WebNewBiz Growth has invoices that chase themselves. Pipedrive needs a connected accounting app.

Do I need a CRM if I only have a few clients?

Not always. With a handful of conversations at a time, a spreadsheet can work. Once you start forgetting who needs a reply or who owes you money, try a free CRM: it costs nothing to find out.

Does WebNewBiz include a CRM on every plan?

No. The AI CRM starts on the Growth plan at $79 a month, with the first month at $1. Lite ($9) includes the website builder and Starter ($29) adds the online store, but neither includes the CRM.

Related guides

• The best website builder with a CRM for consultants

Where to start

If a pipeline is all you need, open a free HubSpot or Bigin account today. It costs nothing. If you would rather have your website, bookings and clients under one login, try the free AI Website Preview first: describe your freelance business in one sentence and it designs a homepage, free. If you like the result, our AI website builder builds the full site, and you can start for $1 for the first month and cancel any time.