When is a free CRM plan enough, and what ends it?

A free CRM plan is enough while everyone who needs a login fits under its user cap and your data fits under its other limits. Every one of them has a user cap, and it’s the first number to check: Bigin’s free edition fits 1 user, HubSpot’s 2 users, Capsule’s 2 users, Zoho CRM’s 3 users, and Freshsales’s 3 users. So five free plans fit one person, four fit two, and two fit three.

Then check your list, because four of the five also publish a limit on your data: Capsule’s stops at 250 contacts, Bigin’s at 500 records, HubSpot’s at 1,000 contacts, and Zoho CRM’s free edition stores 5,000 records (10 MB) in all. Freshworks publishes no contact allowance for Freshsales’s, which isn’t the same as unlimited.

Which free plans fit your team?

Start with headcount: every free plan here has a user cap, and it’s the one number you can count tonight. Count everyone who’ll need to log in during the next six months, including the hire you’re already planning.

• Just you: all five fit: HubSpot’s, Zoho CRM’s and Bigin’s, Freshsales’s, and Capsule’s. Zoho sells two separate CRMs, Zoho CRM and the lighter Bigin, and each has its own free edition.
• Two of you: four fit. Bigin’s free edition is for 1 user only.
• Three of you: Zoho CRM’s (3 users) and Freshsales’s (3 users). HubSpot’s and Capsule’s have ended at the third user.
• Four or more: none of the five fits. What a CRM costs for 1, 3, 5, and 10 people shows the paid bill at your size.

If the headcount leaves you a choice, the next cap decides it.

Which cap will you hit first?

After users, each free plan has one or two limits that matter for a small business. Find the situation that sounds like yours.

• You have a big contact list. Count it before anything else, because three free plans stop at a contact or record count you can pass on import. Capsule’s stops at 250 contacts. Bigin’s stops at 500 records, where every contact, company, activity, and note counts as one, so a few hundred customers with their companies and a note each can pass it. HubSpot’s stops at 1,000 contacts. Zoho CRM’s free edition has more room, with data storage of 5,000 records (10 MB) counted across everything you keep, notes included; an account that needs to keep more than that no longer fits the free edition. Freshworks publishes no contact or record allowance for Freshsales’s free plan, so confirm it inside the account before you import. A list in the thousands may still fit Zoho CRM’s, but its storage is finite and notes count toward it: add up everything you’d import (contacts, companies, deals, and their notes) and check the total sits under 5,000 records (10 MB) with room to grow before you count on it.
• You send the same emails again and again. HubSpot’s free plan caps email templates (Up to 3 per account) and canned snippets (Up to 3), and either cap can end it before the user cap does. Zoho CRM’s free edition holds 10 templates. Freshsales’s free plan lists sales email templates without a stated number. Capsule lists email templates as a Starter feature, so its free plan isn’t the one for this.
• You track a lot of detail on each customer. Capsule’s free plan allows 5 custom fields. Freshsales’s allowance isn’t confirmed: one of its help articles gives the free plan a few custom fields per module and a newer one gives it none, so check inside the account before you count on any. Count the columns in your lead sheet beyond name, email, and phone: that’s roughly your custom-field count.
• You sell two kinds of work. Capsule’s free plan has 1 pipeline and Bigin’s has 1 pipeline. If you’d want a separate pipeline for, say, one-off jobs and retainers, either free plan ends there.
• You copy your list into a spreadsheet. Zoho CRM’s free edition limits data exports to 10 a day. That’s a daily limit, not a lifetime one, so a regular backup won’t end the plan.
• You want things to happen on their own. Bigin’s free edition allows 3 automations. Zoho CRM’s free edition lists workflow automation and follow-up reminders.

Say you’re a solo wedding and portrait photographer with about twelve hundred past clients in a spreadsheet, and six emails you send over and over: the enquiry reply, the pricing guide, the booking confirmation, the prep notes, the gallery delivery, and the review request. All five free plans fit one person, but your list rules out three on import: Capsule’s stops at 250 contacts, Bigin’s at 500 records, and HubSpot’s at 1,000 contacts. That leaves two, and only one publishes a number you can check your list against. Zoho CRM’s free edition holds 10 templates and stores 5,000 records (10 MB), so your list fits with room for notes and new enquiries, and it fits 3 users if a second shooter joins later. Freshworks publishes no contact allowance and no template number for Freshsales’s free plan, so you can’t check your list against it, and whether it gives you any custom fields isn’t confirmed, and shoot date, venue, package, and gallery link are details you’d want in fields. Your two known numbers, the list and the six emails, both sit inside Zoho CRM’s stated caps, so that’s the one that lasts longest for you. Watch the storage as the years of history pile up: once you need to keep more than it holds, the free edition no longer fits.

Who should stay on a free plan, and for how long?

Stay free while three things hold:

1. Everyone who needs a login fits, with room for the next person you’re planning to hire.
2. The data cap you’d hit is months away. If you’re at three quarters of a contact, record, or template cap, it’s closer than it looks: one import or one busy season takes you past it.
3. Nothing you need sits behind the paywall. The usual one is email inside the CRM. On Zoho CRM, email integration starts on Standard; on Bigin, on Express. HubSpot’s free plan sends your one-to-one emails with HubSpot branding on them. If you’re happy to keep email in your inbox and log what matters, free is fine.

How long: as long as those three hold. Zoho calls both of its free editions forever free, HubSpot says its free CRM has no expiration date, and on all five what ends the plan is a cap, not a date. Our view is that you look again each time someone joins and every three months in between; the thirty-day test works for this too.

What the first paid step costs

The bill that matters is the one at the size that ended your free plan. Each figure here is the whole monthly bill on the product’s lowest paid plan, billed monthly.

If the user cap ended it:

• Bigin, at a second person: Express for two is $18 a month.
• HubSpot, at a third: Starter for three is $60 a month at the regular price ($30 a month for new customers, for a limited time).
• Capsule, at a third: Starter for three is $66 a month.
• Zoho CRM, at a fourth: Standard for four is $80 a month. Bigin Express for four is $36 a month, but that’s a move to a different product, not an upgrade: you’d set it up again and import your data.
• Freshsales, at a fourth: Growth for four is $44 a month.

If a data cap ended it while you’re on your own, the first paid month is one seat. Capsule Starter at $22 a month lifts the contact cap to 30,000 contacts, and Bigin Express at $9 a month lifts the record cap to 50,000. HubSpot Starter at $20 a month at the regular price ($10 a month for new customers, for a limited time) lifts the template cap; this guide doesn’t record how many contacts Starter holds, so if HubSpot’s contact cap is what stopped you, confirm that number with HubSpot before you pay (its pages don’t state it), and price Zoho CRM’s free edition beside it, since its published storage allowance is larger.

There’s a second answer at three people: on HubSpot’s or Capsule’s free plan, a third person can also mean moving to Zoho CRM’s or Freshsales’s free plan, which still fits three. That costs nothing in fees and an evening or two in moving; what switching CRMs costs helps you count the hours. On HubSpot specifically, when HubSpot’s free CRM stops being enough weighs the upgrade against the move.

What not to pay for yet

• A paid plan before a cap stops you. Paying “to be ready” buys months of a bill for a limit you haven’t reached.
• A higher plan for a longer feature list. Price the first paid plan against the cap that ended your free one. Move higher only for a feature you’ve missed in practice.
• Yearly billing on your first paid plan. Pay monthly until you’ve used it through one full sales cycle.
• A seat for someone who only reads the pipeline. A weekly summary from you costs nothing; a login past the user cap ends the free plan for everyone.
• Your way out of a cap you can trim. Two templates that say nearly the same thing can be one. Old leads that went nowhere can be archived outside the CRM before you import. Fix that first, then pay if you’re still at the cap.

Every free plan, cap by cap

What each free plan includes and exactly what ends it, as each vendor states it.

HubSpot

Zoho CRM

Bigin (by Zoho)

Freshsales

Capsule

Your next step

Pick the free plan whose caps you’ll hit last. This week, write down three numbers: the people who’ll need a login in the next six months, the contacts you’d import, and the emails you send from a saved draft. Match them against the caps above, start the free plan that has the most room on all three, and import your list the same evening. If that’s Freshsales’s, sign up and then switch the plan to Free under Admin Settings, Account Settings, Plans and Billing, since it isn’t offered on the pricing page. If you’re the only one selling, do you need a CRM if you’re the only person selling? may save you the setup; if the plan you’d pick is HubSpot’s or Zoho CRM’s free edition for a small team, HubSpot free or Zoho free compares the two head to head.