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    Alternatives

    Best Close CRM alternatives in 2026

    Close is built around the phone, and it is priced accordingly. If your team stopped cold calling, most of what you pay for stopped being useful. This page compares the alternatives on current pricing.

    Tiago Ferreira
    Tiago F.
    Writer · 2 September 2026
    8
    alternatives to Close
    $194 to $720
    per month at 8 seats, billed annually
    From $7
    per seat, entry tier
    31 August 2026
    pricing last checked
    On this page

    Why teams leave Close in 2026

    The price is set for a calling team. Close sits at the top of the per-seat range in this comparison, and the reason is the built-in phone, the power dialler, and the calling workflow. A team that sells through referrals and inbound is buying a call centre and using it as an address book.

    It is deliberately narrow. Close is an inside sales CRM and does not pretend to be anything else. There is no account workspace after the sale, no delivery, no invoicing, and the reporting is built around activity volume rather than the shape of a client book.

    Contact-level features are thin for relationship selling. Close models a lead and a series of touches. Firms whose value is in a five-year relationship with four people at one company find the data model does not have much to say about that.

    Seat count is unforgiving. The per-seat rate applies to everyone who needs to look, so giving a delivery lead read access to their own client is an expensive decision.

    What to check before you switch

    • How many calls a day the team really makes, honestly counted
    • Whether the phone has to be in the CRM or can be a connected tool
    • What happens to the client record after the deal closes
    • Whether people who do not sell need to see the account
    • How much of the current bill is calling you no longer do
    • Whether sequences and reporting come with the plan or above it

    Compare 8 Close alternatives on price

    Every row on the same billing basis, at the same seat count, from each vendor own professional-band plan. Switch the basis to see how annual commitment changes the total, or use the CRM cost calculator at your own seat count.

    8 of 8 priced
    Best forFreePro / seat
    Lumenbase
    Complete
    $49.17 base, 2 seats included
    		Relationship-led B2B service firms$24.17$24.17$194
    Nutshell
    Growth
    		Sequences without the dialler$13$25$200
    Salesmate
    Pro
    		Calling, cheaper$18.40$31.20$250
    Freshsales
    Pro
    		Phone plus AI scoring$9$39$312
    Pipedrive
    Professional
    		The same pipeline for much less$14$49$392
    Salesflare
    Pro
    		Nobody logs anything$29$49$392
    Breakcold
    Breakcold Pro
    		Social-first outbound$59$59$472
    HubSpot
    Professional
    		When marketing is the next problem$7$90$720

    8 users, USD, list price, cheapest professional-band plan, pricing checked 31 August 2026. A vendor with no published price for that plan on this basis shows “Not published” rather than a price borrowed from a cheaper plan. Verify on the vendor own pricing page.

    The 8 alternatives, one by one

    What each one is, the kind of team it fits, what it costs to start, and the one thing that will annoy you. Cheapest first.

    Lumenbase

    From $24.17 per seat, $194 per month at 8 seats

    Our product. A full-funnel CRM that captures email, meetings, and LinkedIn on its own, ranks who needs attention with a reason attached, and carries a won deal into delivery and invoicing on the same client record.

    Fits: agencies, consultancies, and software firms where clients come back and referrals matter more than lead volume.

    The drawback: we are young. The app marketplace is small next to the platform vendors, and we do not do resource planning.

    Nutshell

    From $13 per seat, $200 per month at 8 seats

    A small-team B2B CRM with outbound email sequences and reporting included.

    Fits: teams whose outbound moved from the phone to email and want the bill to follow.

    The drawback: no serious calling, and nothing after the sale.

    Salesmate

    From $18.40 per seat, $250 per month at 8 seats

    A sales CRM with built-in phone, texting, and sequences at a lower seat price than Close.

    Fits: teams that genuinely do call all day and are leaving on cost alone.

    The drawback: a smaller ecosystem and a less polished calling experience than the category leader.

    Freshsales

    From $9 per seat, $312 per month at 8 seats

    Freshworks CRM with native phone, email, chat, and lead scoring.

    Fits: outbound teams that want the calling and also want the pipeline to prioritise itself.

    The drawback: the automation and AI worth having are in the upper plans.

    Pipedrive

    From $14 per seat, $392 per month at 8 seats

    A focused deal pipeline with a large app marketplace, and calling available as an add-on rather than as the centre of the product.

    Fits: teams that want the Close workflow without paying for the dialler.

    The drawback: a won deal leaves the board, so account work needs a second system.

    Salesflare

    From $29 per seat, $392 per month at 8 seats

    A small-team CRM that builds records from email and calendar traffic on its own.

    Fits: founder-led teams that liked how little admin Close demanded and want less still.

    The drawback: built for a handful of users. Permissions and reporting are thin above that.

    Breakcold

    From $59 per seat, $472 per month at 8 seats

    A prospecting CRM built around engaging on LinkedIn and X before the email goes out.

    Fits: teams whose outbound moved from calls to social touches.

    The drawback: narrow, and much lighter as a system of record than Close.

    HubSpot

    From $7 per seat, $720 per month at 8 seats

    One contact record across marketing, sales, and service, with calling included at the higher tiers.

    Fits: teams leaving Close because the next constraint is demand, not call volume.

    The drawback: the five-seat minimum on Sales Hub Professional, and hub pricing that steps up sharply.

    Getting your data out of Close

    Close has a well-documented API and CSV export, and it is one of the easier CRMs to leave, which is a point in its favour. The thing that does not travel neatly is call recordings and their transcripts: export them deliberately if there is any chance you will want them, because a link to a recording in a system you no longer pay for is not a record.

    Moving to Lumenbase runs through Portage, which scans the source, maps fields and owners, shows you a preview with record counts, then imports in the background with rollback. It comes with the plan rather than as a paid service.

    How we compared

    Prices come from each vendor's own pricing page, on whichever basis the table is set to: annual-billed or month-to-month. A basis is never calculated from the other, so a vendor publishing only one shows a dash on the other rather than an estimate. The 8-seat column always uses the cheapest plan in a vendor's professional band, and a vendor with no published price for that plan is left blank instead of being quoted from a cheaper tier. This page lists 8 CRMs, 8 of them priced on the default basis. Pricing was refreshed 31 August 2026. See the CRM feature comparison for the full method, capability data, and treatment of flat and quote-only plans.

    Frequently asked questions

    Close is a trademark of Elastic Inc. (close.com). Lumenbase is independent of the vendors named here.

    Lumenbase, Nutshell, Salesmate, Freshsales, Pipedrive, Salesflare, Breakcold, HubSpot, and other names are trademarks of their respective owners. Lumenbase is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by them. Prices describe the vendors as of 31 August 2026; products, pricing, and features change and vary by plan, so verify on each vendor's pricing page before deciding.

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