---
title: "CRM: ranked reviews and comparisons"
description: "CRM software compared on the price you will actually pay, not the entry tier: the plan a small team needs, its seat minimum and onboarding fee, what the contract allows at renewal, how much you can set up yourself, and the features that matter (sequences, marketing automation, quotes, phone, EU data hosting, an MCP server). Also: when a spreadsheet and Mailchimp are all you need."
canonical: "https://saaskly.com/category/crm"
last-updated: "2026-09-09"
---

# CRM: ranked reviews and comparisons

> CRM software compared on the price you will actually pay, not the entry tier: the plan a small team needs, its seat minimum and onboarding fee, what the contract allows at renewal, how much you can set up yourself, and the features that matter (sequences, marketing automation, quotes, phone, EU data hosting, an MCP server). Also: when a spreadsheet and Mailchimp are all you need.

- Last updated: 2026-09-09

## Ranking

Ranked by Saaskly's editorial score (0–5). Ties share a rank. Method: https://saaskly.com/editorial-policy.md

1. **1. [HubSpot](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/hubspot.md)**: 4.4/5. The CRM we pick after a decade of client work: sales, marketing, service and content in one platform, with a free tier that is genuinely usable, two MCP servers, and the most transparent price ratchet in the category, from a £7 Starter seat to the £77 Professional seat you will actually need, plus a mandatory £1,310 onboarding fee and a renewal clause that lets the price rise to list.
2. **2. [Pipedrive](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/pipedrive.md)**: 4.2/5. The sales-pipeline specialist, Estonian-born and now Vista-owned: no seat minimum, no onboarding fee, transparent GBP tiers from £14 a seat, the features a team needs at £39 on the Growth tier, EU or UK data hosting by signup location, SSO on every plan, a native MCP server and the best Trustpilot record of the big names.
3. **3. [Capsule](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/capsule.md)**: 4.0/5. The Manchester-built small-business CRM: a usable free plan, £14 a user on Starter, £27 on the Growth tier a team needs, no setup fees, cancel with immediate effect, an MCP server in beta, and the honest caveats that the data sits on AWS in the United States and nobody answers a phone.
4. **4. [Attio](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/attio.md)**: 3.9/5. The London-founded CRM the startups moved to: a data model you shape rather than a form you fill in, a free plan for three seats, an official MCP server, sequences and advanced reporting on the £59 Pro tier, and the caveats of a young product: five Trustpilot reviews, chat support in Pacific hours, and no published data-residency option.
5. **5. [Less Annoying CRM](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/less-annoying-crm.md)**: 3.7/5. One price, one feature set, no tiers, no contracts: $15 a user a month has changed exactly twice since 2009, phone support is included even during the trial, and the trade is a deliberately narrow product with no sequences, no marketing automation, no AI, US-only hosting and a bill in dollars.
6. **6. [Freshsales](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/freshsales.md)**: 3.6/5. Freshworks' CRM, a HubSpot-shaped suite at a third of the price: a free plan for three users, phone and chat built in from the £7 Growth tier, sequences and scoring on the £29 Pro tier, a choice of EU hosting at signup, and a renewal clause that lets fees rise for "delivered innovation, general cost inflation, and other relevant factors".
7. **7. [monday CRM](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/monday-crm.md)**: 3.5/5. monday.com's CRM product: boards, automations and dashboards a team will actually enjoy, sequences and mass email on the £24 Pro tier, quotes on every plan, official MCP servers, and three things to know first: a three-seat minimum sold in blocks of five, no mobile app on Basic, and a Trustpilot score of 2.2.
8. **8. [Salesforce](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/salesforce.md)**: 3.4/5. The product every CRM is measured against, priced to prove it: Starter Suite at £20 a user is the only tier sold monthly, Pro Suite is £80 a user on an annual contract, Enterprise £140, and the Main Services Agreement renews you yearly at the list price in force, with a Trustpilot record of 1.3 that says how the exit goes.
9. **9. [folk](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/folk.md)**: 3.3/5. A lightweight relationship CRM built for agencies and consultancies that sell through people they know: a Chrome extension that lifts contacts from LinkedIn, campaigns and an MCP server on every plan, sequences and dashboards on the $48 Premium tier, and three honest caveats: no GBP pricing, US-only hosting, and terms with no price-change clause at all.
10. **10. [Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/dynamics-365-sales.md)**: 3.2/5. The CRM for a Microsoft 365 estate: Sales Professional at £50 a user, Sales Enterprise at £80.70 for the sequences and customisation a team needs, all annual-only, SSO and audit included through Entra ID, official MCP servers, and a buying reality that is partner-led, with UK-only data residency depending on a separate Microsoft 365 add-on.
11. **11. [Odoo](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/odoo.md)**: 3.1/5. The open-source business suite whose CRM is free to self-host and, on Odoo Online, £22 a user a month for every app at once: the best value in the category for a company with a developer or a partner, and the wrong choice for one without, with a subscription agreement that allows 7% a year at renewal and 25% a year for running an old version.
12. **12. [Zoho CRM](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/zoho-crm.md)**: 3.0/5. The broadest CRM for the least money: a free plan for three users, £12 a user on Standard, £18 on the Professional tier a team needs, sequences from the entry tier, an MCP offering, EU hosting, and a monthly-billing premium of 56% on the real tier; first-party, and ranked last because in our experience the software feels a grade below its rivals.

## Comparison table

| Provider | Rating | Month-to-month (entry plan) | Annual commit, per month | Monthly premium | Real tier, per user* | Real tier, month-to-month | Seat minimum (real tier) | Onboarding fee | Renewal terms** | Pricing pattern | Free tier | How you get live | Built for | Owner | Marketing automation | Email marketing built in | Quotes & invoicing | Built-in phone | AI assistant | API | MCP server | SSO | EU data residency | UK data residency | Open source | Trustpilot (reviews) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [HubSpot](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/hubspot.md) | 4.4/5 | £18/mo | £7/mo | 157% | £77/user/mo (Sales Hub Professional) | £85/user/mo | None | £1,310 | Increase allowed, uncapped | Entry tier, then a cliff | Usable free plan | Self-serve + paid onboarding | Small business (10 to 50) | Independent | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | 1.5 (1,164) |
| [Pipedrive](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/pipedrive.md) | 4.2/5 | £24/mo | £14/mo | 71% | £39/user/mo (Growth) | £49/user/mo | None | None | Increase allowed, uncapped | Transparent tiers | Trial only | Self-serve | Small business (10 to 50) | Vista Equity Partners (majority) | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 4.4 (3,447) |
| [Capsule](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/capsule.md) | 4.0/5 | £17/mo | £14/mo | 21% | £27/user/mo (Growth) | £32/user/mo | None | None | Increase allowed, uncapped | Transparent tiers | Limited free plan | Self-serve | Micro (1 to 10) | Independent | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | 4.4 (67) |
| [Attio](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/attio.md) | 3.9/5 | £34/mo | £27/mo | 26% | £59/user/mo (Pro) | £74/user/mo | None | None | Increase allowed, uncapped | Transparent tiers | Usable free plan | Self-serve | Small business (10 to 50) | Independent | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | 3.2 (5) |
| [Less Annoying CRM](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/less-annoying-crm.md) | 3.7/5 | $15/mo | Same price | 0% | $15/user/mo (Everything (single plan)) | $15/user/mo | None | None | Increase allowed, uncapped | Flat | Trial only | Self-serve | Micro (1 to 10) | Independent | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | 4.3 (8) |
| [Freshsales](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/freshsales.md) | 3.6/5 | £9/mo | £7/mo | 29% | £29/user/mo (Pro) | £35/user/mo | None | None | Increase allowed, uncapped | Transparent tiers | Limited free plan | Self-serve | Small business (10 to 50) | Freshworks Inc. | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | 1.3 (120) |
| [monday CRM](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/monday-crm.md) | 3.5/5 | £13/mo | £10/mo | 30% | £24/user/mo (Pro) | £31/user/mo | 3 | None | Increase allowed, uncapped | Transparent tiers | Trial only | Self-serve | Small business (10 to 50) | monday.com Ltd | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | 2.2 (3,430) |
| [Salesforce](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/salesforce.md) | 3.4/5 | £20/mo | Same price | 0% | £80/user/mo (Pro Suite) | Annual only | — | — | Increase allowed, uncapped | Entry tier, then a cliff | Trial only | Partner-led | Mid-market | Independent | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 1.3 (648) |
| [folk](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/folk.md) | 3.3/5 | $30/mo | $24/mo | 25% | $48/user/mo (Premium) | $60/user/mo | None | None | Not published | Transparent tiers | Trial only | Self-serve | Micro (1 to 10) | Independent | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | 4.1 (21) |
| [Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/dynamics-365-sales.md) | 3.2/5 | Not published | £50/mo | — | £80.70/user/mo (Sales Enterprise) | Annual only | None | None | Not published | Transparent tiers | Trial only | Partner-led | Mid-market | Microsoft Corporation | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | — |
| [Odoo](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/odoo.md) | 3.1/5 | £28/mo | £22/mo | 27% | £22/user/mo (Standard (all apps)) | £28/user/mo | None | None | Increase allowed, capped | Transparent tiers | Usable free plan | Partner-led | Small business (10 to 50) | Independent | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 3.1 (1,254) |
| [Zoho CRM](https://saaskly.com/category/crm/zoho-crm.md) | 3.0/5 | £16/mo | £12/mo | 33% | £18/user/mo (Professional) | £28/user/mo | None | None | Increase allowed, uncapped | Transparent tiers | Limited free plan | Self-serve | Small business (10 to 50) | Zoho Corporation | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | 3.9 (6,118) |

*Real tier: the plan a 10-seat business with a pipeline, email sequences, basic automation and reporting actually needs, because CRM entry tiers are deliberately thin. Prices are per user per month on annual commitment, as shown to a UK visitor on the research date, in the currency the vendor bills UK customers in; see each profile for the VAT basis and for what the entry tier leaves out.

**Renewal terms: what the vendor's published customer terms allow it to do to your price when an annual contract renews. "Fixed" means the terms contain no uplift clause; "capped" means an increase is allowed up to a stated percentage; "uncapped" means the vendor may set a new price on notice. Read with the profile, which quotes the clause.

## Articles

- [Best CRM Software for UK Small Business in 2026: HubSpot Wins, Pipedrive Runs It Close, and the £7 Seat You Will Never Stay On](https://saaskly.com/comparisons/best-crm-software-2026.md): Comparison. We compared twelve CRMs on the price a small team actually pays: not the entry tier, but the plan with sequences, automation and reporting, plus its seat minimum, its onboarding fee and what the contract lets the vendor do at renewal. HubSpot wins on scope; Pipedrive is the cleaner buy for a sales team; Capsule is the UK one to try first. We explain why Less Annoying CRM ranks above bigger names, why Salesforce and Dynamics are here as benchmarks, where Odoo and Zoho sit after a decade of deploying them for clients, and when a spreadsheet and Mailchimp are all you need.

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Researched and drafted with AI assistance; reviewed and approved by Tim Meredith. See https://saaskly.com/ai-transparency.md and https://saaskly.com/editorial-policy.md.

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