Pipedrive alternatives for small business: choose by your reason for leaving

What Pipedrive costs, and why people leave

Pipedrive charges per seat, meaning per user. Its own pricing page shows different prices depending on where you are, so these are the US prices that recent reviews agree on:

There is a 14-day free trial but no free plan. To be fair to Pipedrive, its strengths are real: a clear visual pipeline that is easy for salespeople to keep up to date, a long list of integrations and years of polish. If that is what you value and the bill does not worry you, staying is a reasonable choice.

The complaints that come up most often are these:

1. No free plan. A sole trader tracking 30 deals still pays at least $14 a month.
2. Add-on costs. On Lite and Growth, LeadBooster (chatbot, live chat and web forms) and Smart Docs (documents and e-signatures) are extras from about $32.50 a month each when billed yearly. Campaigns, the email marketing add-on, starts at about $13.33 a month and rises with your contact count. Premium and Ultimate include some of these, but at a higher seat price.
3. Limited automation. Lite has no workflow automation, so the cheapest plan is a manual pipeline.
4. No website or store. Pipedrive tracks deals. Your website, your shop and the forms that bring leads in all live somewhere else and need connecting.

The real bill for a three-person team

Headline prices hide the maths, so here is a simple example: three people on Pipedrive Growth, billed yearly, who also want web forms and a chat widget on their site and send a monthly newsletter.

• Growth, 3 seats at $39: $117 a month
• LeadBooster for forms and chat: from about $32.50 a month
• Campaigns for the newsletter: from about $13.33 a month
• A website builder to host those forms, for example Squarespace Core at $29 a month on yearly billing

That is roughly $190 a month before anyone adds a fourth seat or an online store. None of this is unfair, it is simply how modular software is sold. But add up your own version before you compare, because the alternatives below differ more in what is included than in their headline price.

If the problem is no free plan: HubSpot or Zoho Bigin

HubSpot has the best-known free CRM. It is free for up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts with no time limit, and the free tools include forms, live chat and landing pages, all carrying HubSpot branding. When you outgrow it, Starter is $20 per seat per month at list price. New customers are often offered much less for a limited time, but budget at the list price, because promotions end.

The catch is the step after Starter. Starter allows up to 50 workflows with restricted triggers and actions. Full workflow automation sits on Sales Hub Professional at $90 per seat per month on yearly billing, plus a one-off $1,500 onboarding fee. For three people that is $270 a month and the setup fee, well above Pipedrive Growth.

Zoho Bigin is Zoho's simpler CRM for small teams, and the cheapest paid option in this guide. The free plan covers 1 user, 1 pipeline, 500 records and 3 automations. Paid plans cost, per user per month on yearly billing (monthly billing in brackets):

• Express: $7 ($9), 3 pipelines, 50,000 records, 30 automations
• Premier: $12 ($15), 5 pipelines, 100,000 records, 50 automations including date-based rules
• Bigin 360: $18 ($21), 15 pipelines, 1 million records, 100 automations

Local taxes such as VAT or GST may be added on top. Bigin is deliberately plain, which is a strength if Pipedrive felt like more than you needed. Like Pipedrive, it is a CRM only, so your website and shop remain separate jobs.

If the problem is add-on costs: check what is in the box

If extras made the bill grow, look for a tool that includes the things you were paying for separately, and read the small print on minimums.

Salesmate is the closest like-for-like swap: a visual pipeline similar to Pipedrive's, with more communication tools in the plan. It has built-in calling and texting (paid for with usage credits), email sequences and its Smart Flows automation. Its pricing page lists Basic at $23, Pro at $39 and Business at $63 per user per month, and says yearly billing saves up to 20%. There is a 15-day trial and no free plan. Sequences are capped per user: 5 on Basic, 10 on Pro and 20 on Business. It suits teams that sell by phone and want calls, texts and follow-ups in one tool.

monday CRM looks cheap per seat: Basic $12, Standard $17 and Pro $28 per seat per month on yearly billing ($18, $25 and $41 monthly). The catch is that every paid plan starts at 3 seats, and above that seats are sold in set bundles, so a team of four can end up paying for five. A sole trader still pays for three seats. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. It makes most sense for teams already running their projects on monday.com who want sales on the same platform.

It is also worth knowing that HubSpot's free tools cover forms and live chat, two of the jobs people buy LeadBooster for, as long as you can live with the branding.

If the problem is limited automation: where it really starts

'Includes automation' means very different things from one tool to the next. This is the cheapest plan on each tool with rule-based automation, at the time of writing:

Copper deserves a proper mention here because it is the pick for teams that live in Gmail and Google Calendar. It syncs email, contacts, calendar and Drive files, and its Chrome extension lets you work from the inbox. Basic is $23 per seat per month on yearly billing ($29 monthly) with 2,500 contacts. Workflow automation and bulk email arrive on Professional at $59 ($69 monthly) with 15,000 contacts, and Business at $99 ($134 monthly) adds email series and unlimited contacts. There is a 14-day trial and no free plan. For a Google-based team the fit is very good, but at $59 a seat it is not the move if saving money is the goal.

On a tight budget, monday CRM Pro (25,000 actions a month for $28 a seat) and Bigin Premier (date-based rules for $12 a user) give the most automation for the money. If what you really want is follow-up that happens without anyone having to remember it, our guide to lead follow-up automation covers what to automate first.

If the problem is no website or store: keep it in one place

This reason gets overlooked. For many small businesses the CRM itself is not the hard part. The hard part is that enquiries arrive from a contact form, a booking page, an online shop and the phone, and someone has to copy them into the pipeline. With Pipedrive that means a website builder, a store, a forms tool and connectors between them, each with its own bill and login.

WebNewBiz takes the opposite approach: the website, an online store and an AI CRM in the same account. You describe your business and the AI drafts the site, then you change it by chatting. Website enquiries land in the CRM automatically and store buyers become contacts. The CRM reads and scores leads, tracks deals, tasks and bookings, and sends invoices that chase themselves. You can connect your own email, set workflow automations on triggers such as a form submission, a date or a birthday, and build funnels from a description or from one of 26 templates.

Be clear on the price. The CRM starts on the Growth plan at $79 a month. The cheaper plans, Lite at $9 and Starter at $29, do not include a CRM. Growth covers hosting, the website, the store, the CRM with 3,000 contacts and 3 team members, basic SEO tools, backups and a free domain for a year. Pro at $149 adds email campaigns, social media tools and 10,000 contacts with 5 team members. Because the price is per account rather than per seat, three people on Growth pay $79 a month, compared with $117 to $147 for three Pipedrive Growth seats (yearly or monthly billing) before any website. Every plan is $1 for the first month, yearly billing is cheaper and you can cancel any time. The pricing page lists what each plan includes.

The honest weaknesses: WebNewBiz is a young platform with a much smaller app ecosystem than Pipedrive, so if your sales process depends on a particular integration, check it first. There is no free plan. The AI's first draft of your site still needs your own photos, facts and edits. And if your team lives in the pipeline all day while the website belongs to someone else, a dedicated sales CRM is the better fit.

There are other routes too. HubSpot's free website and landing page tools sit next to its CRM, and Wix and Squarespace include basic customer lists. Our guide to website builders with a CRM compares them.

Side-by-side comparison

How to choose in ten minutes

1. Name your reason for leaving. Price, extras, automation or the website. Start from the matching section above. If you are choosing a CRM from scratch rather than replacing one, our guide to the best AI CRM for small business is a better starting point.
2. Count seats honestly. Include part-timers who only need to look at deals. Per-seat pricing grows with every hire, while per-account pricing has a team limit you can outgrow.
3. Add up the real monthly cost. Seats, plus add-ons, plus your website and store if they are separate. Use the price after any promotion ends.
4. Write down three automations you need. For example 'remind me when a deal has not moved for 7 days' or 'send a thank-you email after a purchase'. Check which plan on each tool can do them.
5. Check your integrations. Accounting, calendar, email and phone. A cheaper CRM that cannot talk to your accounting software costs you in admin time.
6. Trial with real data. Import 50 real deals rather than demo data, and use the trial for a full working week.

Moving off Pipedrive without losing anything

Admins can export data from the account menu under Tools and apps, then Export data. You can export leads, deals, organisations, people, products, activities, notes and files as Excel or CSV. A few things catch people out:

• Activities, notes and files linked to deals and contacts export separately, so download each type.
• Files stored in Google Drive are not included in the global export.
• Only global admins can export by data type, and other users can only export records they are allowed to see.
• Generated exports are available for 28 days, so download them straight away.

Set up your pipeline stages in the new tool before importing, then match Pipedrive's columns to the new fields. Run both side by side for a week or two, and cancel Pipedrive once nothing new lands there. Leave time before your renewal date, especially on yearly billing.

Quick answers

What is the best free alternative to Pipedrive?

HubSpot's free CRM, which covers up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts with no time limit. For one person who wants a few automations, Zoho Bigin's free plan (1 user, 500 records, 3 automations) also works.

What is the cheapest paid alternative to Pipedrive?

Zoho Bigin Express at $7 per user per month on yearly billing ($9 monthly), against $14 for Pipedrive Lite. monday CRM starts at $12 per seat but needs at least 3 seats.

Which alternative gives the most automation for the money?

monday CRM Pro includes 25,000 automation actions a month for $28 per seat on yearly billing, with a 3-seat minimum. Bigin Premier adds date-based rules for $12 per user. Full HubSpot workflows start at $90 per seat plus a $1,500 onboarding fee.

Is there a Pipedrive alternative with a website and online store included?

Yes. WebNewBiz puts a website, an online store and an AI CRM in one account. The CRM starts on the Growth plan at $79 a month with 3,000 contacts and 3 team members. The Lite and Starter plans do not include it.

Can I export my data from Pipedrive?

Yes. Admins can export leads, deals, people, organisations, activities, notes and more as Excel or CSV under Tools and apps, then Export data. Activities, notes and files linked to deals export separately.

Is Pipedrive still worth it?

For a sales-led team that wants a polished pipeline and plenty of integrations, yes. It is weaker value if you need a free plan, would pay for several add-ons, or want your website and store in the same place as your leads.

Related guides

• Pipedrive vs HubSpot for small business: which CRM fits your team

Try it before you decide

If the real reason you are leaving Pipedrive is that leads, the website and the shop live in different places, testing the alternative costs very little. Try the free AI Website Preview, which designs a homepage from one sentence, or read how the AI website builder fits together with the store and CRM. When you are ready, start for $1, remembering that the CRM is on Growth and above. If a dedicated sales CRM suits your team better, that is a perfectly good answer too.