How much does a CRM cost for one person? (prices checked September 2026)

For one person, a CRM costs anywhere from $0 to over $100 a month. Free plans from HubSpot and Zoho Bigin cover the basics, the cheapest paid plans run $7 to $44 a month, and the price jumps once you need automated follow-up — from $9 a month on Groundbase to $99 a month on Close, or $90 a month plus a required $1,500 onboarding fee on HubSpot.

Every price below was checked on each vendor's own pricing page on 16 September 2026, in US dollars, before tax, for a single user. Prices move, so treat the date as part of the answer.

I build Groundbase, which is in this table. I've included the cases where something else is cheaper.

The sticker price

The cheapest paid plan each company sells, for one person:

Two of those need a footnote straight away. HubSpot's Starter normally costs $20 a seat; the $7 and $10 prices are an offer HubSpot describes as for new customers and "for a limited time". And Pipedrive's pricing page shows annual prices by default, adding that annual billing saves "up to 42%" — so paying monthly costs noticeably more than $14.

The price once you need automated follow-up

The sticker price is rarely the plan you end up on. For most one-person businesses, the feature that forces an upgrade is automated follow-up: emails that go out on a schedule without you remembering to send them. Here is the cheapest plan that includes it, using each company's own name for the feature:

Two honest exceptions, because they change the answer for some people:

• Zoho Bigin's Express plan — $7 a month billed annually — includes 30 automations. It doesn't list email sequences, but if simple automation is enough, that's $84 a year and cheaper than Groundbase.
• HubSpot Starter includes "up to 50 workflows with restricted triggers and actions." Sequences are a Professional feature, but light automation starts on the cheap plan.

Five things that change what you actually pay

1. Annual versus monthly billing. The gap is bigger than most people expect. Close's Solo plan is $9 a month billed annually and $19 billed monthly — more than double. Folk is $24 versus $30. If you're not sure a CRM will stick, the monthly price is the honest number to compare, because it's what you pay while you find out.

2. Introductory offers. HubSpot Starter is normally $20 a seat, and the $7 and $10 prices are a limited-time offer for new customers. Check whether the discount carries into your second year before you budget on it.

3. Required fees. HubSpot's Professional and Enterprise plans carry a required one-time onboarding fee — $1,500 for Professional. For one person on Professional, that fee is larger than the first year of seats.

4. Plans built for one person have limits built in. Close's Solo plan is "Limited to 1 user", "Limited to 10k leads", and "Workflows not included." Zoho Bigin's free plan is capped at 500 records and doesn't include email integration — that arrives on Express. Neither is a problem until the day it is.

5. Texting and calling are usually billed outside the subscription. Close says calling and SMS are "usage-based and passed through at cost." HubSpot's texting needs a separate Marketing SMS add-on. Groundbase doesn't include texting either: you connect your own Twilio account, which costs $1.15 a month for a US number and $0.0083 per text segment, plus carrier fees and — if you text US numbers — A2P registration. What Twilio SMS actually costs adds it all up; for light US texting it's roughly $13 a month, mostly fixed fees.

Per-seat pricing is the sixth thing, and it doesn't hurt one person yet — every price above multiplies the day you add a second seat. It's also the joke in the comic How Many Seats.

Which is cheapest for you

• You only need somewhere to keep contacts and deals: HubSpot's free plan or Zoho Bigin's. Both cost nothing. Not for: anyone who needs email connected on Bigin — that's the paid plan.
• You want the cheapest paid plan with email built in: Zoho Bigin Express, at $7 a month billed annually. Not for: anyone who needs email sequences, which it doesn't list.
• You make a lot of calls: Close's Solo plan, at $9 a month billed annually. Not for: anyone who needs automated workflows, which start at $99 a month on Growth.
• You want automated follow-up and texting on your own Twilio, for one flat price: Groundbase, at $9 a month. Not for: teams, anyone who wants an annual discount, or anyone who wants texting included without setting up Twilio.
• You want a newer, more design-led CRM: Attio or Folk. Not for: one person on a tight budget who needs sequences — that's $48 to $79 a month.
• You're already committed to HubSpot: Starter — and check what it costs once the introductory offer ends. Not for: one person who needs sequences — Professional's first year is $2,580.

Where Groundbase fits

Groundbase is a CRM for one-person businesses that sends email and texts through your own accounts and connects to the AI assistant you already use. It's $9 a month, billed monthly, with no tiers: workflows, campaigns, invoicing, booking links and the web, desktop and Android apps are all on the same plan, with unlimited contacts. The trial is 14 days; a card is required to start, and you're not charged until day 15.

What it costs on top is whatever you use of your own accounts: Twilio for texts and calls, and Resend if you send email campaigns beyond its free 3,000 a month. The billing help article covers the details, and CRMs that let you use your own Twilio account explains why texting is set up that way.

If you're weighing it against one of these specifically, there are longer comparisons with HubSpot, Pipedrive, Close and Zoho Bigin. And if you're not sure a CRM is worth paying for yet, when a spreadsheet stops working as a CRM is the honest version of that question.

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Spot a price that's changed, or a CRM that should be here? Tell me: blog-crm-cost@groundbasecrm.com — I read every one.