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The spreadsheet worked when it was just you. Then a second person started adding rows, someone sorted one column and not the others, and the quote you promised a customer on Tuesday is sitting in a sent folder nobody else can see. A CRM is the usual fix, but the price on the pricing page is rarely what a growing team pays, and on 1 October 2026 HubSpot changed how it charges new UK customers (The Growth Agency, October 2026).
What is a CRM?
CRM stands for customer relationship management. In practice it's a shared address book with a memory: every customer and lead gets a record of their emails, calls, meetings and quotes, and every sale in progress (a "deal") sits on a board showing its stage. The better ones log emails by themselves, remind you when a follow-up is due and send emails in bulk, and the whole team sees the same history.
Do small UK businesses actually use a CRM?
Fewer than you might expect. Among UK firms with staff that used business software in 2024, 42% of small businesses (10 to 49 staff) used a CRM, against 26% of micro businesses with fewer than ten (Department for Business and Trade, Longitudinal Small Business Survey, September 2025). Free plans make the first step easy, which is why "free crm" is searched about 880 times a month in the UK (Google Keyword Planner, October 2026).
What does a CRM cost, and what's the catch?
Anything from nothing to several thousand pounds a year. Free plans cover two or three users, and paid plans start at £5 a user a month for Zoho's Bigin, billed annually, before VAT, in October 2026.
The catch is that the cheapest plans tend to leave out what makes a CRM worth having: emails that file themselves and follow-ups that happen on their own. Pipedrive's Lite plan has neither two-way email sync nor automations, and HubSpot keeps workflows for Professional at £81 a seat, with onboarding it makes compulsory (HubSpot).
The short answer: for a small team that sells, Pipedrive is the easiest CRM to live with and hosts new UK accounts in London, at £39 a user a month billed annually for email sync and automations. For the most features for the least money, Zoho CRM is free for three users and £12 on Standard. Gmail businesses are best served by 
CopperCopperCopper is a CRM built for Google Workspace: it runs inside Gmail and Google Calendar and tracks contacts, deals and projects for small service businesses such as agencies and consuBuying guide · View store →, from $23 a seat billed annually, and Capsule is the plain, Manchester-made option from £14. HubSpot's free plan suits two people, but its jump to Professional is the steepest here. More tools are on our CRM software page.
The best CRMs for a small UK business side by side
Prices are per user a month, billed annually, before VAT, in October 2026.
| CRM | Suits | Free plan | Paid from | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pipedrive | Small sales teams | No, 14-day trial | £14 | Email sync and automations from £39 |
| Zoho CRM | Most features for the money | Up to 3 users | £12 | Busy screens, a learning curve |
| Bigin by Zoho | Moving off a spreadsheet | 1 user, 500 records | £5 | Fewer features |
| HubSpot | Marketing and sales together | Up to 2 users | £18 | Workflows need Professional, £81 |
| CopperCopperCopper is a CRM built for Google Workspace: it runs inside Gmail and Google Calendar and tracks contacts, deals and projects for small service businesses such as agencies and consuBuying guide · View store → | Gmail and Google Workspace teams | No, 14-day trial | $23 | No Microsoft 365; US hosting only |
| Capsule | A simple, UK-made CRM | 2 users, 250 contacts | £14 | Automation and email sync from £27 |
| Attio | Startups wanting a flexible database | Up to 3 seats | £27 | AI and automation share one credit pool |
 folkfolk CRMfolk is a CRM for small teams that sell through relationships. It gathers contacts and conversations from LinkedIn, Gmail, Outlook and WhatsApp into shared lists and pipelines, witBuying guide · View store → | Relationship-led work, LinkedIn | No, 2-week trial | $24 or €22 | Dollars or euros only |
The email your team uses narrows the choice before price does, so I'd like to know which readers run on.
When does a spreadsheet stop being enough?
Usually when a second person needs it. A spreadsheet makes a decent CRM for one person with a few dozen customers. It strains when two people edit it at once, when nobody can see the emails behind a row, and when every follow-up depends on someone remembering. Zoho pitches its cheaper Bigin at exactly that moment, "for small businesses moving from spreadsheets" (Zoho). If it's just you keeping in touch with people rather than selling to them, our guide to personal CRM apps may suit better. I'd like to know where readers keep customer details now.
What will a CRM cost a team of three, or ten?
More than the headline price suggests. These are a year's costs on the plans that add email sync or automation, billed annually, before VAT, in October 2026.
| CRM | Plan | What it adds | 3 people | 10 people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bigin by Zoho | Express | 30 automations | £180 | £600 |
| Zoho CRM | Standard | Workflows, follow-up sequences | £432 | £1,440 |
| HubSpot | Starter | Email marketing, simple automation | £648 | £2,160 |
| Capsule | Growth | Workflows, email sync | £972 | £3,240 |
| Attio | Plus | More records and emails | £972 | £3,240 |
| Pipedrive | Growth | Email sync, 50 automations | £1,404 | £4,680 |
| CopperCopperCopper is a CRM built for Google Workspace: it runs inside Gmail and Google Calendar and tracks contacts, deals and projects for small service businesses such as agencies and consuBuying guide · View store → | Professional | Workflows, bulk email | $2,124 | $7,080 |
| HubSpot | Professional | Workflows, custom reports | £2,916 | £9,720 |
HubSpot's Starter figure is its list price before any introductory offer, and Starter stops at ten paid seats (HubSpot). Copper bills in dollars and folk in dollars or euros, so the pound cost moves with the exchange rate. If you're VAT-registered and the supplier is abroad, HMRC's reverse charge has "no net cost" when you can reclaim in full (HMRC, Notice 741A); a business that isn't registered can't reclaim 20% VAT where it's charged.
Pipedrive: the easiest CRM for a small team that sells
Pipedrive is here because it does one job, moving deals through a pipeline, and reviewers keep calling it the easiest to pick up. Zapier picked it "for ease of use" in June 2026, warning that it "can become expensive quickly" (Zapier), and it scores 4.4 from 3,462 reviews on Trustpilot (Trustpilot, October 2026).
Lite is £14 a user a month billed annually or £24 monthly, Growth £39 or £49 and Premium £59 or £79, the same figures as in dollars (Pipedrive). Lite lacks automations and two-way email sync, so Growth is the realistic start, and LeadBooster lead capture, Projects and Smart Docs are paid add-ons until Premium. Every plan has a Gmail extension and Google or Microsoft calendar sync, and new UK sign-ups are hosted in London (Pipedrive).
Startups.co.uk says businesses wanting marketing automation "may find Pipedrive lacking" (Startups.co.uk, September 2026). EmailTooltester's review shows the pipeline, the "deal rotting" alerts that turn stalled deals red and the reports, and says plainly that add-ons push the bill up (its description carries affiliate links).
Who it suits: teams of two to ten who sell. Less suited to: businesses that mainly need email marketing, which newsletter platforms are built for.
Zoho CRM and Bigin: the most CRM for the money
Zoho CRM gives a small business more for less than anything else here. The free edition covers three users, "Free forever" in Zoho's words, and Standard at £12 a user a month billed annually (£16 monthly) already has workflows, cadences (automatic follow-up sequences), reports and forecasting (Zoho).
The price is complexity. Zapier calls it the pick "for all-in-one value" but found some screens "very cluttered" (Zapier), and Startups.co.uk notes a learning curve and a limit of 250 emails a day on Standard (Startups.co.uk). European data sits in Amsterdam and Dublin (Zoho); Zoho announced a UK data centre for the second quarter of 2026 (Intelligent CIO, April 2026), but its own page didn't list one on 12 October 2026.
Bigin, Zoho's simpler CRM, is free for one user and 500 records, then £5 a user a month billed yearly for Express, which connects to Google Workspace and Outlook.
Who it suits: businesses that want automation cheaply and will spend a few evenings setting it up. Less suited to: anyone who wants to be running in an afternoon.
HubSpot: is the free CRM still worth starting on?
For two people, yes; for a team, the sums change fast. HubSpot says its free CRM covers "up to two users, 1,000 contacts" with "no expiration date", and the free edition can send 300 marketing emails a month (HubSpot).
Since 1 October 2026, new customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa buy seats plus monthly credits; existing customers keep their old pricing for now (The Growth Agency). Starter is £18 a seat a month at list price, with 5,000 credits and a ten-seat limit. Professional is £81 a seat billed annually, or £90 monthly on a yearly commitment, and requires onboarding (HubSpot). Every email HubSpot sends except one-to-one messages uses credits, so do workflow actions, and unused credits don't roll over (HubSpot). Data can sit in Germany, set by your location at sign-up; there's no UK data centre (HubSpot).
Stewart Gauld's walkthrough shows what the free CRM includes and where it stops. It dates from May 2025, before the new pricing, so its email allowance is out of date, and he links HubSpot as an affiliate.
HubSpot scores 1.5 from 1,178 reviews on Trustpilot (Trustpilot, October 2026), and Startups.co.uk found the free plan "has basically no customer support options aside from forums" (Startups.co.uk). The far end of the cliff shows in an August 2026 r/CRM thread from a consulting business with no sales team paying $26,000 a year. The top reply, from someone who runs a rival CRM, called it "a 'leave entirely' problem not a tier problem".
Who it suits: two-person businesses, and teams that want marketing emails, forms and the CRM together. Less suited to: teams of three or more on a tight budget.
Copper: the best CRM for Gmail and Google Workspace
CopperCopperCopper is a CRM built for Google Workspace: it runs inside Gmail and Google Calendar and tracks contacts, deals and projects for small service businesses such as agencies and consuBuying guide · View store → is the one to beat if your business runs on Google Workspace, and a non-starter on Outlook. A Chrome extension puts it inside Gmail and Google Calendar, and it syncs Gmail emails, contacts and files and connects to Drive and Sheets (Copper). Copper calls itself a "Recommended for Google Workspace app" and says it "does not currently offer a native integration with Microsoft 365" (Copper).
Zapier picks it "for Google Workspace users"; its reviewer found their email threads already on Copper's feed straight after connecting, and called it "not a clunky bolted-on piece of software" (Zapier). It scores 4.3 from 335 reviews on Trustpilot (Trustpilot, October 2026).
Prices are in US dollars before tax. Basic is $23 a seat a month billed annually or $29 monthly, capped at 2,500 contacts; Professional, $59 or $69, allows 15,000 and adds workflow automation, bulk email and reporting; Business is $99 or $134 (Copper). Data stays in the US, and Copper is "unable to accommodate requests to store data in other locations", though it's certified under the UK Extension to the Data Privacy Framework (Copper).
Tool Finder's review shows the Gmail sidebar, emails and meetings logging themselves and the deal boards, then lists customers' complaints: no Outlook, low contact limits on cheaper plans and big price steps between them.
Who it suits: agencies, consultancies and service firms that live in Gmail. Less suited to: Microsoft 365 users, and teams that need UK or EU hosting.
Capsule: the simple CRM made in Manchester
Capsule is the British pick, made by Zestia Ltd in Manchester (Capsule), and it stays deliberately plain. The free plan allows two users, 250 contacts and one pipeline. Starter at £14 a user a month billed annually allows 30,000 contacts and connects to Xero; Capsule aims it at "businesses with 1-5 employees". Growth at £27 adds workflow automation, email sync and several pipelines (Capsule).
Being British doesn't mean British hosting: customer data sits with Amazon Web Services in the US, with the encryption key held in the EU (Capsule). It scores 4.5 on Trustpilot, though from only 68 reviews (Trustpilot, October 2026).
Who it suits: small service businesses that want a tidy pipeline with little setting up. Less suited to: heavy automation on a budget, where Zoho goes further.
Attio: a CRM you shape like a database
Attio is built in London (Attio) and lets you design your own record types; Zapier, which picks it "for startups", gives investors, partnerships and hiring pipelines as examples (Zapier). It's free for up to three seats with 50,000 records and 200 emails a month, Plus costs £27 a user a month billed annually (£34 monthly) for up to ten seats, and Pro is £59 (Attio). AI and automations draw on one allowance of credits, a drawback Zapier flags. Data stays on Google Cloud in the EU (Attio).
Opinions split on whether it's ready for a busy sales team. In an August 2026 r/CRM thread, one user who had run both said they "liked Attio better in every way" than HubSpot, while another found its reporting "still thinner than HubSpot".
Who it suits: startups and data-minded teams. Less suited to: teams that want reports and sequences ready on day one.
Other CRMs worth knowing about
folkfolk CRMfolk is a CRM for small teams that sell through relationships. It gathers contacts and conversations from LinkedIn, Gmail, Outlook and WhatsApp into shared lists and pipelines, witBuying guide · View store → suits relationship-led work, syncing email, calendar and WhatsApp with a LinkedIn extension, from $24 or €22 a member a month billed yearly, though each member syncs one account on that plan, so email and WhatsApp together need Premium at $48. Its privacy policy says data is hosted in Ireland after a move announced in September 2026, with some sub-processors in the US (folk), and folk blocks your account if you don't upgrade after its two-week trial. monday CRM suits teams already on monday.com, but plans start at three seats. Salesforce Starter Suite is £20 a user a month, with Pro Suite at £80 on an annual contract. Startups.co.uk ranks Freshsales first; its Growth plan is $9 a user a month billed annually, with a 21-day trial rather than a free plan in October 2026.
Where is your customer data kept, and does UK GDPR mind?
It matters less than people fear, as long as the paperwork is in place. Your business is the controller and the CRM a processor, and the ICO says "there must be a written contract" between them (ICO), which a vendor's data processing agreement provides.
Pipedrive hosts new UK accounts in London, HubSpot and Zoho offer the EU, Attio is EU only, and folkfolk CRMfolk is a CRM for small teams that sell through relationships. It gathers contacts and conversations from LinkedIn, Gmail, Outlook and WhatsApp into shared lists and pipelines, witBuying guide · View store → hosts in Ireland with some sub-processors in the US. CopperCopperCopper is a CRM built for Google Workspace: it runs inside Gmail and Google Calendar and tracks contacts, deals and projects for small service businesses such as agencies and consuBuying guide · View store → and Capsule keep data in the US, which is lawful under the UK-US data bridge, in force since 12 October 2023, when the company appears on the Data Privacy Framework list under the UK Extension (DSIT).
Two rules bite once the CRM fills up. The ICO says "you must not keep personal data for longer than you need it" and expects a retention policy (ICO). And bulk email falls under PECR: the "soft opt-in" covers your own past customers but not bought-in lists, and sole traders count as individuals (ICO).
Questions people ask
Is HubSpot CRM really free?
Yes, for up to two users and 1,000 contacts with no time limit (HubSpot). A third user means Starter seats at £18 each a month at list price.
Is Zoho CRM free for 3 users?
Yes. The free edition covers three users with leads, documents and the mobile apps; workflows start on Standard at £12 a user a month billed annually (Zoho).
Is Pipedrive better than HubSpot?
For a small team that mainly sells, Pipedrive is cheaper and simpler: Growth at £39 a user a month billed annually against HubSpot Professional at £81. HubSpot does more for marketing.
What's the best alternative to HubSpot or Salesforce for a small business?
Zoho CRM for value, Pipedrive for a sales team, CopperCopperCopper is a CRM built for Google Workspace: it runs inside Gmail and Google Calendar and tracks contacts, deals and projects for small service businesses such as agencies and consuBuying guide · View store → for Gmail users and Capsule for something simple and British.
Does Copper CRM work with Outlook?
No. Copper says it's built only for Google Workspace and doesn't integrate with Outlook or Office 365 (Copper).
So which CRM should a small UK business use?
For most small teams that sell, Pipedrive's Growth plan comes first: easy enough that people use it, hosted in London and priced in pounds. If money is tight, Zoho CRM's free edition and £12 Standard plan give automation nobody else here matches at the price. CopperCopperCopper is a CRM built for Google Workspace: it runs inside Gmail and Google Calendar and tracks contacts, deals and projects for small service businesses such as agencies and consuBuying guide · View store → fits a Gmail business, Capsule anyone who wants a plain British tool, and HubSpot's free plan is worth starting on with the Professional price in mind. Importing real customers during the trial shows whether the team will keep it up to date.
Our CRM software page has more tools, the best AI note takers can send meeting notes into a CRM, and the Calendly alternatives cover booking those first calls.
