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The best CRM for startups
11 compared, by what a small team needs.

The best CRM for a startup depends on who sells and how. If there's no budget yet, HubSpot, Attio, Day.ai and Clarify have free plans. If founders sell over email and calls and nobody has time to type up notes, Migaru (ours) files them on the right accounts and drafts the follow-ups. If the team lives on the phone, consider Close, for inside sales teams that make a lot of calls, with a built-in dialer, SMS, and sequences that send on their own.

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At a glance

Best CRM for startups: how each charges, where its prices start, and whether it has a free plan
CRMHow you payStarts atFree plan
MigaruFixed: per user or per workspace$35 per user per monthNo; 14-day trial
LightfieldUsage credits, unlimited seatsPay as you goFree credits to start
HubSpotPer seat, by hub and tierFree; Sales Hub from $20 a seatYes
SalesforcePer user, by edition$25 per user per monthNo; 30-day trial
AttioPer seat, plus AI creditsFree; Plus from $35 a seatYes, up to 3 seats
PipedrivePer seat, by plan$14 per seat per monthNo; 14-day trial
Day.aiPer AI agentFree; Turbo $25 an agentYes
ClarifyCredits, unlimited seatsFree; paid from $20 a monthYes
folkPer member$24 per member per monthNo; 14-day trial
ClosePer seat$9 a month for one seatNo; 14-day trial
CopperPer seat$23 per seat per monthNo; 14-day trial

Prices as each company lists them, checked .

What a startup should look for

  • What it costs as you hire

    A startup hires as it goes, so how a CRM charges matters as much as what it costs today. HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, Pipedrive, folk, Close and Copper charge per seat, so each hire adds to the bill. Lightfield, Attio and Clarify charge in credits for AI work, so the bill follows how much the AI does. Day.ai charges per AI agent. Migaru charges a fixed price, per user on Starter and one price for the whole workspace on Pro and Growth.

  • Whether you can start free

    HubSpot, Attio, Day.ai and Clarify have free plans, which suit a team that wants to start before it has budget. Lightfield, Salesforce, Pipedrive, folk, Close and Copper start with a free trial instead, and so does Migaru: Starter and Pro start with a 14-day free trial.

  • How long it takes to set up

    A CRM nobody has time to set up is a spreadsheet with a login. Migaru takes a few minutes. Accounts, contacts, deals, meetings, tasks and notes come ready, and Starter and Pro start from a card, with no onboarding fee. What the comparisons found about the others:

    • HubSpot: Onboarding is required, and charged for, on Professional and Enterprise.
    • Salesforce: A platform you configure, often with an admin or an implementation partner.
    • Copper: Install its Chrome extension in Gmail, which starts the trial.

  • Whether you can leave

    You may outgrow the CRM you start with, so check that every record exports and that there's an API for whatever comes next. In Migaru you can import CSV files of up to 50,000 rows each, export any view as CSV, Excel or JSON, and read and write every record through the API or the MCP server.

11 CRMs for startups

  1. 1.Migaru

    Migaru is an AI-native CRM that keeps itself: it files your email, meetings and calls on the right accounts and drafts follow-ups for you to approve.

    What it offers a startup

    • A CRM filled in from your email, calendar and calls, for founders and small teams with no time to type.
    • On every plan, a notetaker joins your Google Meet, Zoom and Teams calls once you turn it on, records video and audio, and files the transcript on the meeting.
    • One price for the whole team on Pro: $399 per month for the workspace, for up to 5 users.
    Starts at
    $35 per user per month
    Free plan
    No; 14-day trial

  2. 2.Lightfield

    An AI-native CRM that records your calls and can send sequences for you, priced on usage credits with unlimited seats.

    Best for

    • Teams that want calls recorded, LinkedIn activity synced, and sequences sent for them by email and on LinkedIn, paying for AI usage rather than for seats.
    Starts at
    Pay as you go
    Free plan
    Free credits to start

  3. 3.HubSpot

    The all-in-one customer platform: free CRM tools, then marketing, sales and service hubs priced per seat.

    Best for

    • Companies that want marketing, sales and service on one platform, starting from free CRM tools and adding paid seats later.
    Starts at
    Free; Sales Hub from $20 a seat
    Free plan
    Yes

  4. 4.Salesforce

    The enterprise CRM platform, now sold as Agentforce Sales in per-user editions, and customisable almost without limit.

    Best for

    • Large or complex sales organisations, with territories, quotes and approvals, and an admin or partner to build it out.
    Starts at
    $25 per user per month
    Free plan
    No; 30-day trial

  5. 5.Attio

    A flexible AI CRM for startups, with a free plan, per-seat pricing and monthly AI credits.

    Best for

    • Startups that want to model their own data and workflows, with a free plan for a team of up to three.
    Starts at
    Free; Plus from $35 a seat
    Free plan
    Yes, up to 3 seats

  6. 6.Pipedrive

    A pipeline-first sales CRM for small businesses, priced per seat, with the Nova meeting assistant on every plan.

    Best for

    • Small businesses that want a visual pipeline they move by hand, a meeting assistant on every plan, and a large marketplace of integrations.
    Starts at
    $14 per seat per month
    Free plan
    No; 14-day trial

  7. 7.Day.ai

    An AI-native CRM built around customer memory, with a meeting assistant and pricing per AI agent.

    Best for

    • Teams that think of the CRM as memory to ask, and want a free tier, paying only for the AI agents they deploy.
    Starts at
    Free; Turbo $25 an agent
    Free plan
    Yes

  8. 8.Clarify

    An autonomous CRM with its own meeting recorder, a free plan with unlimited seats, and AI priced in credits.

    Best for

    • Teams happy for the CRM to update the pipeline on its own, who want a free plan with unlimited seats.
    Starts at
    Free; paid from $20 a month
    Free plan
    Yes

  9. 9.folk

    A relationship CRM for small teams, with LinkedIn capture, email campaigns and AI assistants, priced per member.

    Best for

    • Relationship work with partners, investors, communities or agency clients, and people found on LinkedIn added in one click.
    Starts at
    $24 per member per month
    Free plan
    No; 14-day trial

  10. 10.Close

    A sales CRM for inside sales teams, with built-in calling, SMS and sequences, priced per seat.

    Best for

    • Inside sales teams that make a lot of calls, with a built-in dialer, SMS, and sequences that send on their own.
    Starts at
    $9 a month for one seat
    Free plan
    No; 14-day trial

  11. 11.Copper

    A CRM built into Google Workspace that captures contacts and email from Gmail and Calendar, priced per seat.

    Best for

    • Companies that live in Google Workspace and want their CRM inside Gmail.
    Starts at
    $23 per seat per month
    Free plan
    No; 14-day trial

Frequently asked questions

What is the best CRM for a startup?

It depends on who sells and how. HubSpot, Attio, Day.ai and Clarify are free to start. Migaru, which we make, suits founders and small teams who sell over email and calls and want the CRM filled in from them. Close is for inside sales teams that make a lot of calls, with a built-in dialer, SMS, and sequences that send on their own. HubSpot is for companies that want marketing, sales and service on one platform, starting from free CRM tools and adding paid seats later. Attio is for startups that want to model their own data and workflows, with a free plan for a team of up to three.

Is there a free CRM for startups?

Yes. HubSpot, Attio, Day.ai and Clarify have free plans, each described on its comparison with Migaru. Migaru has no free plan: Starter and Pro start with a 14-day free trial.

How much does a CRM cost a startup?

From nothing, on a free plan, upwards. Migaru's Starter plan is $35 per user per month, for 1 to 3 users, and Pro is $399 per month for the workspace, for up to 5 users. Where the others start:

Lightfield: Pay as you go. HubSpot: Free; Sales Hub from $20 a seat. Salesforce: $25 per user per month. Attio: Free; Plus from $35 a seat. Pipedrive: $14 per seat per month. Day.ai: Free; Turbo $25 an agent. Clarify: Free; paid from $20 a month. folk: $24 per member per month. Close: $9 a month for one seat. Copper: $23 per seat per month.

Should a startup use Salesforce?

Salesforce is for large or complex sales organisations, with territories, quotes and approvals, and an admin or partner to build it out. It starts at $25 per user per month, with no free plan and a 30-day trial. A startup without an admin or a partner may be better served by a CRM it can start the same day.

When should a startup start using a CRM?

When more than one person talks to customers, or when a deal depends on somebody remembering what was said. A spreadsheet works until two people edit it at once or a follow-up is missed, and a CRM that fills itself in from email and calls costs little time to start.

Updated

Sources

What each CRM costs and offers was checked against its own pricing, product and help pages, which its comparison with Migaru links to. Prices and plans change, so check theirs before you decide. Checked .

Alternatives to each CRM

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