Free CRM for small businesses: plans, limits and selection
A free CRM can suit a small business when its ongoing free plan covers the required workflow: customer records, deals, tasks and staff access. Before migrating data, check the specific plan limits and confirm that essential features remain available after the trial ends.
Below are Russian and international products from our previous review, with terms checked against official pages on 12 October 2026. This compares published plans; we have not tested new account registration or service availability in individual countries.
Three types of free access
Ongoing Free plan: a subscription with no stated end date, subject to user, data and feature limits. These plans appear in the main table.
Trial access: temporary use of an enhanced plan. Features available during a trial should not be treated as features of the ongoing Free plan.
Open Source: software with source code available under a licence. Running it yourself requires infrastructure, configuration and maintenance.
For example, Bitrix24 automatically enables a 15-day Professional plan trial when an account is created. Repeat your workflow test on the ongoing plan you intend to use. The official help describes the trial separately from the free version.
Comparing free CRM plans
The limits below apply to the cited pages and product editions. Bitrix24 uses its Russian .ru terms; other products use the listed international pages. Regional offers may have different terms.
| CRM / plan | Users | Confirmed limits |
|---|---|---|
| Bitrix24, Free (.ru) | No user count limit | 25 GB cloud storage |
| HubSpot Free | Up to 2 | 1,000 contacts; no expiry date |
| Zoho CRM Free | Up to 3 | Ongoing Free plan; further limits are listed in the edition comparison |
| Capsule Free | Up to 2 | 250 contacts |
| EngageBay, CRM & Sales Bay Free | Confirm the seat count for this package with the provider | 250 for the Contacts & Companies category |
| Planfix Free | Up to 5 | 1,000 contacts; 1 GB storage |
| Flowlu Free | Up to 2 | 100 contacts; 1 pipeline |
| Agile CRM Free | Up to 10 | 1,000 for the Contacts & Companies category |
Contacts & Companies is the wording used by EngageBay and Agile CRM. Do not assume that each record type has its own full allowance. When estimating your data volume, confirm which objects consume that allowance.
A missing numerical limit in this table means that we have not confirmed it here. It does not imply unlimited records, API access, automation, telephony or every feature of the paid product. Links to each provider’s terms are listed in the sources.
Limits that deserve particular attention
HubSpot currently states 1,000 contacts and up to two users. If your working database is larger, check the storage terms and required edition before importing it. Our previous claim of one million contacts has been corrected.
Bitrix24’s Russian Free plan increased its storage allowance from 5 GB to 25 GB, announced by the provider on 17 August 2026. An unlimited user count does not remove limits on individual tools.
Flowlu confirms one pipeline and 100 contacts on Free. If sales and customer service need separate pipelines, check this requirement before migrating. With Planfix, assess the contact limit, storage and required process configuration as well as its five-user allowance.
Why Freshsales is listed separately
Freshsales help, updated on 16 February 2024, describes switching to a Free plan for three users. Its current pricing page lists Growth, Pro and Enterprise. Together, these documents do not clearly confirm a free plan for new accounts on our check date, so Freshsales is not included as a confirmed ongoing Free option in the main table.
If you are considering Freshsales, ask the provider to confirm whether Free is available for your account, how many seats it includes and which features remain after the trial. The absence of Free from the pricing page alone does not establish that previously issued plans have been discontinued.
Shortlisting by business requirements
Start with mandatory requirements. If an ongoing free plan fails one of them, compare a suitable paid edition or remove the product from your free shortlist. The names below identify candidates to test; they do not guarantee implementation outcomes.
| Purpose | Initial filter | Account test |
|---|---|---|
| Two staff members and a small customer database | Compare HubSpot, Capsule and Flowlu by record count | Add both staff members and check how they share customer work |
| Three to five staff members | Check Zoho for three users and Planfix for five | Confirm that the seats are available on the ongoing Free plan |
| More than five staff members | Check Bitrix24; consider Agile CRM within its ten-user limit | Check the permissions and tools each participant needs |
| Website enquiries and returning customers | Check the specific enquiry transfer method | Create a repeat enquiry and check the customer, owner and history |
| Multiple sales processes | Confirm the number of pipelines in the chosen plan | Process deals for different sales activities without mixing their stages |
For an international service, separately confirm whether your organisation can register, the supported language, account region, data hosting location and payment options for required features. A brand’s country of origin does not establish where your database will be hosted or whether it meets your company’s requirements.
A free CRM pilot: seven checks before migration
Use a small anonymised dataset with defined expected outcomes. For each step, record the plan, date, user role, actual result and any limitation. Repeat the checks on the ongoing Free plan after the trial ends.
Customer and repeat enquiry. Create a test customer, a deal and another enquiry with the same phone number. Check whether you can find the existing record and link enquiries while keeping their history. Do not assume that automatic duplicate merging is included in Free.
Work handover. Assign a task to another staff member, set a deadline and change the deal owner. The recipient should see the relevant context and next action.
Access separation. Sign in as a salesperson and a manager. Compare access to other users’ deals, editing and exports against your rules. If a required restriction is unavailable, record it as a reason to consider another edition.
Integration. For a website enquiry, check fields, source, repeat submissions and failure notifications. Confirm that the API, app or form is available on Free, and check any third-party service charges.
Capacity limits. Compare users, contacts, companies, pipelines and files with your current database and growth plan. Confirm what happens when each limit is reached.
Exit test. Export the test data and open the file. Check IDs, customer-to-deal relationships, owners, custom fields and available history. Keep the test result rather than just a screenshot of the export button.
Daily use. Ask a future user to complete the agreed workflow without an administrator. Record manual workarounds and their frequency; this helps determine whether the free plan is sufficient.
For enquiry transfer tests, see our guide to website–CRM integration. If a ready-made connector does not cover a mandatory workflow, compare its capabilities with a custom integration.
Costs that remain with a free subscription
The budget may include data preparation and migration, field and permission setup, training, integrations, telephony, third-party apps and maintenance. For each item, specify who is responsible, the deliverable, the one-off cost and the recurring cost. Calculate the total using your project’s actual terms.
List the conditions that would require a paid upgrade: another staff member, more records, an extra pipeline, automation or a required integration. This lets you compare a free start with a paid option that covers the essential workflows from the outset.
SuiteCRM and Odoo Community: self-hosting
SuiteCRM is released under AGPLv3. Odoo Community is the free, open-source edition under LGPLv3; Odoo Enterprise capabilities must be checked separately. Open source does not mean that the paid edition, hosting or every add-on is included for free.
For a self-hosted installation, assign responsibility for updates, backups, recovery tests and access. Our separate guide to Open Source CRM or SaaS includes a comparison and a cost worksheet. This review focuses on whether free access limits fit your team’s work.
What to prepare for selection and implementation
Prepare staff numbers by role, database size, sales processes, required integrations and the pilot results. Share this with the implementation provider to obtain a proposal with clear deliverables and plan limitations. If needed, NBM-IT can discuss CRM implementation based on these requirements.
Are you losing leads due to poor integration?
Order an audit of your current CRM system (Bitrix24, amoCRM) and receive a plan for its automation.
FAQ
Which free CRM suits a small business?
Choose one whose ongoing free plan has enough seats and resources and supports your required workflow. Use the table to shortlist options, then test repeat enquiries, handover, permissions and exports. There is no universal winner for every company.
Is there a free CRM with unlimited users?
Bitrix24’s Russian help states that its free cloud plan has no user count limit. Resources and individual tools still have their own terms. Check the features required by each participant before migrating data.
Are a free CRM plan and a trial the same?
An ongoing Free plan has no stated subscription end date but limits resources and features. A trial temporarily provides a different feature set. Base your implementation decision on tests of the plan you will actually continue using.
Can a CRM be connected to a website for free?
It depends on the plan and connection method. Separately confirm form, API or app availability, data exchange limits and any third-party charges. A zero-cost CRM subscription does not establish that integration setup and operation are free.
Should you choose Open Source purely to save money?
First assess the work involved and who will operate the system. Your own installation needs infrastructure, updates and recovery arrangements. Compare total costs and verified workflows over the same period.
Corrections to this review
On 12 October 2026, we updated HubSpot and Russian Bitrix24 limits, clarified other plan restrictions and separated trials from self-hosting. Freshsales is flagged as requiring confirmation for new accounts. Generalised legal advice and assumptions about data hosting based on a brand’s country of origin were removed. The original publication date and URL have been preserved.