Salesforce Alternatives for Small Business (2027)

Why small teams look for a Salesforce alternative

Salesforce Starter Suite is $25 per user a month, billed monthly or annually, with no user maximum and a 30-day free trial, per Salesforce's small business pricing. It includes built-in sales flows, lead routing and guided onboarding.

The step after Starter is the reason most small teams shop around. Custom objects, a sandbox and complex workflow automation need Pro Suite, per Salesforce's Starter page. Pro Suite is $100 per user a month, billed annually, with a contract required: $6,000 a year for 5 users.

Beyond Pro Suite, Sales Cloud runs $195, $395 and $550 per user a month billed annually, per Salesforce's sales pricing.

There are smaller costs too. Starter includes 2,000 emails a month, and more cost $10 per 1,000. There's also more to learn than in tools built only for small teams. G2 doesn't list Starter on its own, so the 4.4/5 rating covers all of Sales Cloud.

The 6 alternatives

HubSpot

HubSpot suits a team that wants to start free and add tools later. The free plan covers 2 users and 1,000 contacts with no time limit. Starter is $20 per seat at the normal price, with up to 15 pipelines and 50 workflows, per HubSpot's sales pricing. That's $1,200 a year for 5 users.

The trade-off: Professional, where sequences and lead scoring live, costs $90 per seat billed annually plus a required $1,500 onboarding fee, with an annual commitment. That's $6,900 for 5 users in year one, close to Salesforce Pro Suite.

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM suits a team that wants many features for little money and no contract. Standard is $14 per user billed annually ($20 monthly) with 5 pipelines and workflow rules, per Zoho's pricing. Professional is $23. A free plan covers 3 users.

The trade-off: like Salesforce, it has a lot of settings to learn, and faster Premium support costs 20% of your subscription, per Zoho's support plans.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive suits a sales team that wants a pipeline it can set up quickly. Every plan can be billed monthly with no setup fee, per Pipedrive's pricing. Growth adds full email sync, tracking and automations at $39 per seat billed annually or $49 monthly: $2,340 a year for 5 users.

The trade-off: there's no free plan, and lead capture tools (LeadBooster) cost extra, from $32.50 a month per company.

Freshsales

Freshsales suits a team that wants the lowest price for a plan with workflows. Growth is $9 per user billed annually ($11 monthly) with basic workflows, chat, email and phone, per Freshworks' pricing. For 5 users that's $540 a year.

The trade-off: during a term you can't reduce users or downgrade, per its terms, and payments are non-refundable.

Capsule

Capsule suits a small team that wants far less to configure. It's free for 2 users and 250 contacts, Starter is $18 per user billed annually, and there's no setup or onboarding fee, per Capsule's pricing. It rates 4.7/5 on G2.

The trade-off: workflows, email sync and multiple pipelines start on Growth at $36 per user billed annually, and support is by email.

Pipeline CRM

Pipeline CRM suits a sales team that wants a deal tracker with a person to ask. It has US-based live chat support on every plan, per Pipeline CRM's features. Develop is $33 per user billed annually ($39 monthly), and onboarding is optional: $1,980 a year for 5 users.

The trade-off: payments are non-refundable and cancelling takes 30 days' written notice, per its terms.

Side by side

Year-one cost for 5 users, billed annually, on the plan with email sync and some automation.

CRM	Plan	Per user/mo	5 users, year one	Contract
Salesforce	Starter Suite	$25	$1,500	Monthly or annual
Salesforce	Pro Suite	$100	$6,000	Annual contract required
HubSpot	Starter (list)	$20	$1,200	Can be month to month
Zoho CRM	Standard	$14	$840	None
Pipedrive	Growth	$39	$2,340	Monthly or annual
Freshsales	Growth	$9	$540	Can't cut users mid-term
Capsule	Growth	$36	$2,160	Monthly or annual
Pipeline CRM	Develop	$33	$1,980	30 days' notice to cancel

When to stay with Salesforce

Stay if you expect to grow into the full Salesforce platform. Starter is the way in, and you upgrade to Pro Suite (which adds AppExchange access) and the larger Sales Cloud editions later without moving to another CRM.

Stay if Starter's built-in sales flows and lead routing cover your process. At $25 per user with monthly billing, guided onboarding and no user maximum, Starter costs $1,500 a year for 5 users, which sits in the middle of this list.

Stay if you're a nonprofit. Salesforce's Power of Us program gives eligible nonprofits 10 Nonprofit Cloud licenses at no cost.

Look elsewhere if you'd need Pro Suite within the first year and don't need the wider platform. Its $100 price and annual contract are where the alternatives above save the most.

How we checked

We compared each vendor's pricing, terms and product pages and its G2 reviews, checked on Nov 12, 2026. This is research-based: we did not run these CRMs ourselves.