Did you know that businesses that use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software see an average return on investment of $8.71 for every dollar spent? More and more companies are embracing this technology, leading to the market size for CRM software growing to an estimated US$89.03 billion in 2024. Additionally, there is a wide range of offerings available, tailored to all kinds of industries, companies, and use cases.
This is all great news for companies looking to put a CRM system in place, as there is certainly something for everyone. With this large selection pool, there are some great affordable or even free options that offer very comprehensive features—not just the bare minimum with the intent to entice you to upgrade to a paid plan (though there are plenty of those as well).
Ranking criteria
Before we explore all the CRM options, here is a brief description of the dimensions we used to evaluate the products:
Price: How much the product costs is an important factor but what is considered cheap is arbitrary. For the sake of simplicity, only plans that offer a starting price of $15 or less per user per month will be evaluated.
Free plan availability: It doesn’t get cheaper than free! Any products with a free forever plan (not a free trial) will be evaluated unless the features on offer are so limited as to make CRM unviable.
Feature availability: We’ll examine features for the free plan and the lowest tier paid plans and whether they provide good value for money.
Ease of use: The design of the product needs to focus on usability and simplicity to ensure a positive user experience.
Based on these criteria, some well-established players, such as Salesforce, do not make the cut due to its relatively hefty price tag. So without further ado, here are our top picks for the best cheap CRM tools that offer great value for money.
Top cheap CRM software at a glance
1.Lark: Best for all-in-one collaboration
Lark is an all-in-one super app for collaboration, combining messaging, calendar, document, email, task, data management, and video meeting capabilities onto a single platform. Teams can use the data management platform, Base, to build their very own CRM system based on their specific business needs. The process of building in Base is very straightforward: Simply add the metrics you want to record and keep track of as fields.
Bringing all these features onto one platform also means the sum is greater than its parts. When there is an update in Base, for example, relevant team members can receive real-time notifications in their messenger. They can then discuss in a chat, collaborate in documents, and schedule meetings directly within the platform. All of this means team members won’t have to constantly switch between apps for different tasks, boosting productivity and minimizing distraction. Advanced automation capabilities also free team members from tedious and time-consuming tasks, and put their focus on more important matters.
Free Plan: Available for up to 20 users
Access to built-in messenger, email, and calendar features.
Access to multiple document types including Docs, Sheets, Slides, Base, and Wiki
5000 automated workflow runs per month
Custom business email
100 GB cloud storage + 200 GB email storage
Cheapest Paid Plan: $12/month per user
All features in the free plan
50,000 automated workflow runs per month
AI fields in Base and templates
1 TB cloud storage + 5 TB email storage
2. HubSpot CRM: Best for user-friendliness and scalability for small businesses
Image source: capterra.com
HubSpot CRM is a powerful, user-friendly, and cost-effective solution designed to help businesses manage customer relationships, streamline sales processes, and improve marketing efforts.
Known for its free plan, which includes robust features like contact management, deal tracking, email templates, and reporting dashboards, HubSpot CRM is perfect for small to medium-sized businesses on a budget. It provides seamless integration with other HubSpot tools, as well as popular apps like Gmail, Outlook, and Slack, ensuring smooth workflows. HubSpot’s intuitive interface makes it easy for teams to adopt and customize the CRM to fit their needs. With affordable paid plans that unlock advanced features, HubSpot CRM offers scalability and value, making it an excellent choice for businesses looking for a budget-friendly, all-in-one platform.
Free Plan: Available for up to 2 users
2000 emails per month
Forms with limited features
1 deal pipeline per account
3 email templates
Up to 2 dashboards, with 5 reports per dashboard
Cheapest Paid Plan: $12/month per user (free trial available)
Higher email send limits per month
Forms with more advanced features
2 deal pipelines per account
5000 email templates
Up to 10 dashboards, with 10 reports per dashboard
3. Zoho CRM: Best for customization and scalability
Image source: capterra.com
Zoho CRM is another standout option for businesses looking for affordability without sacrificing features. It offers tools for managing leads, automating workflows, and delivering personalized customer experiences. Zoho also provides AI-powered assistance through its virtual assistant, Zia, which helps with lead scoring and predicting sales outcomes.
Zoho integrates seamlessly with the broader Zoho ecosystem, including Zoho Mail, Zoho Books, and Zoho Projects, making it an all-in-one solution for businesses already using Zoho products.
Free Plan: Available for up to 3 users
Leads, contacts, and accounts management
Tasks, events, call logs, and notes
Page customization
Custom list views
Workflow management
Integration with social media
Cheapest Paid Plan: $14/month per user (free trial available)
All features in the free plan
Support for mass email sending
Sales forecasting
Syncing with Google Calendar
Office 365 integration
Custom reports
4. Freshsales: Best for sales automation and AI-powered lead management
Image source: g2.com
Freshsales, part of the Freshworks suite, is an affordable and user-friendly CRM designed for businesses to manage their sales and customer relationships effectively. It offers powerful features like AI-driven lead scoring, email tracking, contact management, and customizable pipelines, all within an intuitive interface.
Freshsales allows businesses to automate repetitive tasks, track customer interactions, and gain valuable insights with built-in reporting and analytics tools. It integrates seamlessly with popular apps like Zapier, Slack, and Shopify, enhancing productivity. With a free plan and competitively priced paid options, Freshsales provides excellent value for businesses on a budget. Ideal for teams focused on sales growth, Freshsales simplifies lead management and helps businesses close deals faster without overspending.
Free Plan: Available for up to 3 users
Kanban views
Limited email templates
Built-in phone and live chat
Cheapest Paid Plan: $9/month per user (free trial available)
Kanban view for contacts, accounts, and deals
Contact life stages management
Email templates
Built-in chat, email, and phone
Curated reports
5. Pipedrive: Best visuals and ease of use
Image source: capterra.com
Pipedrive is an affordable, sales-focused CRM designed to help businesses streamline their sales processes and improve deal management. Known for its intuitive, visual pipeline interface, Pipedrive enables teams to easily track leads, manage deals, and monitor sales performance in real-time. Its automation tools simplify repetitive tasks like follow-ups and email reminders, allowing sales teams to focus on closing deals.
With customizable pipelines, activity tracking, and integration options with popular tools like Slack, Zapier, and Gmail, Pipedrive adapts to various business needs. Its competitive pricing and ease of use make it an excellent choice for budget-conscious businesses. Pipedrive is ideal for teams looking for a CRM that prioritizes simplicity, efficiency, and sales growth without breaking the bank.
Free Plan: Not available
Cheapest Paid Plan: $14/month per user (free trial available)
Visual lead, calendar, and pipeline management
Customizable sales stages
Integration with over 400 apps, including Trello and Slack
Reports for activity, deals, and contacts
Personalized onboarding
6. Agile CRM: Best for sales, marketing, and sales automation
Image source: capterra.com
Agile CRM is an affordable, all-in-one CRM platform tailored for small and medium-sized businesses. It combines sales, marketing, and customer service tools into a single, easy-to-use interface.
With features like contact management, deal tracking, email marketing, social media integration, and helpdesk support, Agile CRM helps businesses streamline workflows and improve customer interactions. Its automation capabilities allow users to simplify repetitive tasks, such as follow-ups and lead scoring, saving time and boosting productivity. Agile CRM offers a free plan for small teams, making it a budget-friendly option for startups. Its paid plans are competitively priced, offering advanced features like analytics, custom reports, and third-party integrations.
Free Plan: Available for up to 10 users
1000 contacts and companies
Email campaigns, web engagement, Contact Level Analytics
Email tracking
Google sync
Basic reports
Cheapest Paid Plan: $8.99/month per user (free trial available)
10,000 contacts and companies
Email campaigns, web engagement, Contact Level Analytics
Email tracking and 2-way email integration
Marketing automation
Social monitoring
Google/Shopify/Stripe sync
Basic reports, email reports
7. Monday.com: Best for project management with CRM
Image source: monday.com
Monday.com is a versatile and affordable CRM solution designed to help businesses manage customer relationships, sales pipelines, and workflows in one centralized platform. Known for its user-friendly, highly visual interface, Monday.com allows teams to customize workflows, track leads, automate repetitive tasks, and collaborate effectively. Its drag-and-drop functionality and customizable templates make it easy to tailor the CRM to fit unique business needs.
Monday.com integrates seamlessly with popular tools like Gmail, Slack, and Zoom, further streamlining operations. While it’s not a traditional CRM, its flexibility and competitive pricing make it an excellent choice for small to medium-sized businesses seeking a budget-friendly option. With scalable plans and robust features, Monday.com is ideal for teams looking to stay organized without overspending.
Free Plan: Not available
Cheapest Paid Plan: $9/month per user (free trial available)
Unlimited boards
Kanban view and embedded forms
Can create 1 dashboard based on 1 board
200+ templates
8. Vtiger: Best for teams that prefer open-source software
Image source: capterra.com
Vtiger is an affordable, open-source CRM software designed for small to medium-sized businesses. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools for sales, marketing, and customer support, making it an all-in-one platform to manage customer interactions efficiently.
Vtiger stands out with features like lead and contact management, email marketing, project management, and helpdesk ticketing, all within a highly customizable interface. Its cloud-based and on-premise deployment options provide flexibility, while its integration with third-party apps, such as Mailchimp and Zapier, enhances productivity. With competitive pricing and a free version available, Vtiger is an excellent choice for businesses seeking a cost-effective CRM solution without compromising on functionality or scalability. It’s ideal for organizations looking to streamline workflows on a budget.
Free Plan: Available for up to 10 users
Lead and contact management with profile scoring
Contact engagement, such as email and phone integration
Internal collaboration features, such as DMs, comments, and @mentions
Marketing automation for lists, email campaigns, and more
Basic sales pipeline features
Cheapest Paid Plan: $12/month per user for up to 10 users (free trial available)
All features in the free plan
Salesforce automation
Marketing automation for campaigns
Invoicing and sales order for inventory management
Customizable dashboards and schedule reports
How to Choose the Right Cheap CRM for Your Business
Choosing the right CRM depends on your business needs and priorities. Here are a few tips to help you decide:
Identify your goals: Are you looking to improve sales tracking, streamline marketing, or enhance customer support? Different CRMs excel in different areas.
Consider your budget: Look for a CRM that fits your financial constraints while providing the features you need. If you’re a small business, look for options that include a wider variety of tools so you don’t need to pay for third-party tools as you scale.
Check for integrations: Ensure the CRM integrates seamlessly with the tools you already use, such as email platforms, accounting software, or project management tools.
Lark: The Affordable and Powerful CRM Solution
Choosing the right CRM can feel like a tough trade-off between affordability and functionality. Premium solutions come with steep price tags, while budget-friendly options often lack the essential features you need. Lark changes the game by offering a powerful, all-in-one CRM solution that simplifies sales management, automates workflows, and enhances collaboration—without the hefty price tag.
But Lark isn’t just a CRM—it’s a fully integrated ecosystem designed to streamline your sales process from start to finish. With tools like Lark Base, Lark Docs, Lark Mail, Lark Messenger, and Lark Tasks, everything you need to manage your sales pipeline—from lead capture to deal closure—lives in one seamless platform. And best of all, there’s no need for expensive third-party integrations.
Customizable dashboards for full sales visibility
Lark Base puts your sales data front and center with customizable dashboards. Visualize key metrics such as customer lifetime value, average deal size, and revenue updates in one place. This helps you gain valuable insights into client relationships, team performance, deal progress, and more. With real-time visibility, you ensure your team stays aligned, focused, and on track to close deals faster.
AI-powered automation to save time
Lark Base eliminates manual work with intelligent automation features, allowing you to:
Trigger actions based on email interactions
Automatically assign and prioritize tasks as leads move through the pipeline
Update contact statuses dynamically
Send reminders for key sales milestones
Sync contact details automatically
These smart automations free up your team’s time so they can focus on high-value, strategic work.
Stay organized to close deals faster
Tracking leads shouldn’t be a hassle. Lark Base makes pipeline management simple with customizable views that allow you to:
Track lead progress and opportunities with a structured, visual approach
Create a calendar to stay on top of scheduled sales activities and follow-ups
Organize accounts, leads, and contacts in a way that fits your sales workflow
With customizable fields, teams can track critical sales data—from revenue and industry details to invoice status and lead scores—ensuring you have the insights needed to close deals faster and make data-driven decisions.
Smarter messaging and seamless collaboration
Lark takes CRM communication and collaboration to the next level by integrating powerful tools directly into the chat feed. With Lark Messenger, you can:
Chat with teammates and share emails effortlessly, ideal if you’re communicating with clients by email or are involved in email marketing.
Schedule meetings, reply to approval requests, and access dashboards and documents—all without switching apps.
Built for global teams, Lark ensures collaboration is smooth, no matter where your team is located.
Multi-language support: Auto-translation and translate-as-you-type features remove language barriers, enabling effective communication across regions.
Time zone-friendly tools: Schedule messages and meetings based on shown time zones to ensure you’re communicating with your global team at the right time.
Extensive language capabilities: Lark supports 16 interface languages—more than double the languages Microsoft Teams offers—and translates messages and documents across 100+ languages into 24 target languages within the app.
By integrating smarter messaging and collaboration tools into its CRM, Lark keeps your communication organized, actionable, and optimized for teams of any size and location.
Flexible CRM data management
Lark Base gives you powerful data management tools that adapt to your sales needs:
Custom Fields: Track unique sales data, like company revenue, invoice status, or lead scores.
Formula Fields: Automate lead scoring or calculate order costs.
Customizable Forms: Easily capture new leads with tailored forms or questionnaires.
Mobile-first experience
Lark is designed with a mobile-first approach, making it the ideal CRM solution for teams that need to stay productive on the go. Whether you're in the office, working remotely, or traveling, Lark ensures a seamless experience across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.
With Lark, your team can:
Update leads, manage projects, and track pipelines effortlessly from any device.
Edit documents and collaborate in real-time, ensuring tasks move forward no matter where you are.
Attend virtual meetings and communicate seamlessly with teammates while staying connected to your CRM tools.
Lark’s mobile-friendly design ensures your team remains aligned, productive, and empowered to manage sales and customer relationships anytime, anywhere.
Why overpay for CRM software when you can have it all with Lark? Whether you’re a small business owner, a large enterprise, or part of a sales team, start using Lark today to transform your sales process—without breaking the bank.
Free CRM templates to get started
Setting up a CRM doesn’t have to be complicated. With free, ready-made templates, you can get started in minutes—no complex setup required. Whether you need a Sales CRM template to track deals or a Standard CRM template for customer management, there's a solution tailored to your needs.
For example, this simple, no-frills free CRM template is designed for managing deals and contracts. It includes a sales dashboard to visualize key metrics, making it ideal for small teams that want:
An easy way to track progress.
Improved collaboration.
A streamlined sales process with minimal setup.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a CRM, and why does my business need one?
A CRM system is software that helps businesses manage customer interactions, track sales, and organize operations. It’s essential for improving customer relationships, increasing sales efficiency, and streamlining workflows.
Is a cheap CRM reliable?
Yes. Affordable CRMs like Lark, Zoho, and HubSpot, are trusted by thousands of businesses worldwide and offer excellent reliability.
Can I get a good CRM for free?
Absolutely! CRM software like Lark and HubSpot offer free plans with robust features. While free plans may have limitations, they’re perfect for startups and small businesses.
Which cheap CRM is best for startups and small businesses?
Lark is an excellent choice for startups due to its free plan that comes with many features.
Can a CRM help my business grow?
Yes. A CRM helps businesses manage and nurture leads, improve customer satisfaction, and optimize sales processes, all of which contribute to growth. According to a study, companies can see an average return on investment of $8.71 for every dollar spent on CRM software.
Conclusion
Investing in a CRM doesn’t have to mean draining your budget. The CRMs highlighted in this list all deliver excellent value for free or at affordable prices, making them ideal for startups, small businesses, and growing teams. Besides traditional CRM systems like HubSpot, collaboration platforms that offer flexibility and robust capabilities, such as Lark and Monday.com, are worth considering.
It’s impossible to know whether a CRM is the right fit for your business from reading reviews and product descriptions. You can try out the product first, like this Lark CRM template, to get a real sense of suitability. And since the free plan of Lark is packed with features, you’ll likely be able to use it for a long time before needing to upgrade.
