Best Pipedrive Alternatives 2026

Pipedrive built its reputation on a clean, visual sales pipeline that reps actually enjoy using. But as teams grow past 10-15 people, or start needing more than basic deal tracking, the cracks show. Reporting feels shallow, marketing features are bolted on rather than built in, and the per-seat costs at higher tiers start rivaling platforms that offer a lot more.

Why Look for Pipedrive Alternatives?

Reporting hits a wall. Pipedrive’s default reports cover the basics—deals won, activity completion, pipeline velocity. But if you need multi-touch attribution, custom report builders with cross-object reporting, or forecasting models beyond simple weighted pipeline, you’ll be frustrated. The Insights add-on helps, but it still can’t match what HubSpot or Salesforce offer out of the box.

Marketing is an afterthought. Pipedrive added Campaigns in 2023, but it’s a basic email tool. There’s no marketing automation, no lead scoring based on website behavior, and no way to build landing pages or track content engagement. If your sales process depends on nurturing leads before they hit the pipeline, you’ll need a separate tool—and that means another subscription, another integration to maintain, and data living in two places.

Pricing climbs fast for what you get. Pipedrive’s Essential plan at $14/user/month looks attractive, but most teams need Professional ($49/user/month) or Power ($64/user/month) to get features like email automation, custom fields beyond the basics, and phone support. A 20-person team on Professional pays $11,760/year. That’s the same ballpark as platforms with significantly deeper feature sets.

Customization has limits. Pipedrive works great if your sales process fits a standard pipeline model. But if you need custom objects (not just custom fields), complex approval workflows, or multi-currency quoting, you’ll run into walls. The platform was designed for simplicity, and that design choice becomes a constraint as your sales operations mature.

The integration ecosystem is broad but shallow. Pipedrive connects to 400+ tools via its marketplace, but many of those integrations are third-party built with inconsistent quality. Native, deep integrations with ERP systems, advanced accounting tools, or industry-specific software are limited compared to Salesforce or HubSpot.

HubSpot CRM

Best for: Teams that need marketing and sales in one platform

HubSpot is the most common destination for teams leaving Pipedrive, and the reason is straightforward: you get marketing, sales, and service tools in a single database. No syncing contacts between platforms, no wondering whether Marketing and Sales are looking at the same data. For teams where leads come through content, ads, or inbound channels, this integration isn’t just convenient—it changes how you measure what’s actually working.

The free tier is genuinely useful. You get contact management, email tracking, meeting scheduling, deal pipelines, and basic reporting for unlimited users. That’s not a trial; it’s a permanent free plan. For small teams testing the waters, this means zero risk. The Sales Hub Starter at $20/user/month adds simple automation, goals, and multiple currencies—features that require Pipedrive’s Professional tier at $49/user/month.

Where HubSpot falls short compared to Pipedrive is in the pure sales experience. Pipedrive’s drag-and-drop pipeline is faster and more intuitive for reps who live in the deal view all day. HubSpot’s pipeline works fine, but it doesn’t have that same tactile feel. And HubSpot’s pricing gets complicated at higher tiers. The Professional plan is $890/month as a flat fee (including 5 seats), and marketing contacts beyond 2,000 cost extra. A growing database can trigger surprise bills if you’re not watching the contact count.

For teams of 5-50 where marketing and sales alignment matters, HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional is the sweet spot. Smaller teams should start with Free or Starter and upgrade only when they need automation sequences or custom reporting.

See our Pipedrive vs HubSpot comparison

Read our full HubSpot CRM review

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Best for: Mid-market and enterprise teams needing deep customization

Salesforce is overkill for a 5-person sales team, and I’ll say that upfront. But if you’re leaving Pipedrive because you’ve outgrown its customization limits, Salesforce is the platform that will never box you in. Custom objects, complex workflow rules, approval processes, territory management, CPQ (configure-price-quote), and forecasting models that account for seasonality and rep performance—it’s all there.

The gap between Pipedrive and Salesforce is most obvious in reporting. Salesforce’s report builder lets you create cross-object reports, matrix reports with grouped summaries, and dashboards that pull real-time data from any corner of your CRM. If your VP of Sales wants a report showing deal velocity by lead source by territory by product line, Salesforce handles that without breaking a sweat. Pipedrive can’t touch it.

The honest downside: Salesforce takes real effort to set up and maintain. Plan for 2-4 months of implementation for a proper rollout, and budget for either a part-time admin or a consulting partner. The platform out of the box is mediocre—its value comes from configuration. I’ve seen teams spend $50,000+ on their first Salesforce implementation. I’ve also seen teams do it for $5,000 with a good freelance admin. The range is enormous and depends entirely on complexity.

Pricing starts at $25/user/month for Starter Suite, which is actually simpler than Pipedrive and fine for small teams. But most Pipedrive refugees need Professional at $80/user/month or Enterprise at $165/user/month. Add-ons like CPQ, Inbox, and Einstein AI features push costs higher. Budget for 20-30% above the license cost for add-ons and admin support.

See our Pipedrive vs Salesforce comparison

Read our full Salesforce review

Freshsales

Best for: Small teams wanting AI-powered lead scoring without complexity

Freshsales is the alternative I recommend most often to teams that like Pipedrive’s simplicity but need more built-in communication tools. It includes a phone dialer, email, live chat, and WhatsApp messaging natively—not as add-ons or third-party integrations. For teams doing outbound prospecting, having all those channels in one screen with unified contact history is a real productivity boost.

Freddy AI, Freshworks’ AI engine, is surprisingly capable for the price point. Starting at the Pro tier ($47/user/month), you get predictive lead scoring, deal insights that flag at-risk opportunities, and next-best-action recommendations. Pipedrive added AI features in 2024-2025, but they’re more limited and gated behind higher tiers. Freshsales gives you more AI functionality for roughly the same or lower cost.

The limitations are real, though. Freshsales’ third-party integration library is smaller—roughly 100 native integrations compared to Pipedrive’s 400+. If you rely on niche tools, check compatibility before committing. The reporting is better than Pipedrive’s default but still behind HubSpot and Salesforce. And the brand recognition is lower, which matters if you’re hiring reps who expect to see Salesforce or HubSpot on their desk.

Pricing is Freshsales’ strongest card. The free plan supports up to 3 users with basic contact and deal management. Growth at $11/user/month covers most small team needs. A 15-person team on Pro pays $8,460/year—about 28% less than the equivalent Pipedrive Professional setup.

See our Pipedrive vs Freshsales comparison

Read our full Freshsales review

Zoho CRM

Best for: Budget-conscious teams that want a full business suite

Zoho CRM’s value proposition is hard to argue with on paper. The CRM itself is feature-rich at every tier, and if you go with Zoho One ($45/user/month), you get 45+ business applications: CRM, email, project management, accounting, HR, helpdesk, and more. For small businesses currently paying for Pipedrive plus a handful of other SaaS tools, consolidating into Zoho can cut total software costs by 30-50%.

The CRM-specific features hold up well against Pipedrive. Zoho’s Blueprint feature lets you build guided selling processes that enforce specific steps—something Pipedrive can approximate with required fields but can’t truly replicate. The Canvas design studio lets you customize the CRM interface visually, dragging and dropping fields and sections to match your workflow. And Zoho’s Zia AI assistant handles lead scoring, anomaly detection, and even sentiment analysis on emails.

Where Zoho struggles is user experience. The interface has improved significantly over the past two years, but it still feels busier and less intuitive than Pipedrive’s clean pipeline view. New reps take longer to get comfortable. The mobile app is functional but not as polished. And while Zoho’s ecosystem is broad, individual apps within Zoho One are sometimes less capable than best-of-breed alternatives. Zoho Books is solid but isn’t QuickBooks. Zoho Desk works but isn’t Zendesk.

For the price-to-feature ratio, Zoho CRM Professional at $35/user/month is the tier that makes the most sense for Pipedrive switchers. You get workflow automation, inventory management, scoring rules, and web forms. Enterprise at $50/user/month adds Canvas, multi-user portals, and advanced customization.

See our Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM comparison

Read our full Zoho CRM review

Close

Best for: High-volume outbound sales teams running calls and email sequences

Close is the alternative that feels most spiritually similar to Pipedrive—it’s built by salespeople for salespeople, the UI is clean, and setup takes hours, not months. The key difference: Close is built around communication velocity. If your team makes 50+ calls per day and sends multi-step email sequences, Close has that infrastructure built in from the ground up.

The power dialer alone is worth the switch for phone-heavy teams. Pipedrive requires a third-party VoIP integration (Aircall, JustCall, etc.) that adds $30-50/user/month. Close includes a power dialer, predictive dialer (Enterprise tier), call recording, voicemail drop, and SMS—all native. For a 10-person outbound team, that’s $3,600-6,000/year in saved VoIP costs, which often offsets Close’s higher per-seat price.

Email sequences with A/B testing come standard on all paid plans. You can build multi-step sequences with automatic follow-ups triggered by opens, replies, or time delays. Pipedrive offers similar automation at Professional tier, but Close’s sequence builder is more purpose-built for outbound with better deliverability tracking and reply detection.

Close has clear limitations outside of outbound sales. There’s no marketing functionality—no forms, no landing pages, no blog tracking. The integration ecosystem is focused (about 50 native integrations) though the API is well-documented. And reporting, while adequate for activity and pipeline metrics, doesn’t offer the depth you’d get from HubSpot or Salesforce. Close is a specialist tool. If outbound sales is your engine, it’s excellent. If you need a broader platform, look elsewhere.

Pricing starts at $49/user/month for Startup, which includes the power dialer and sequences. Professional at $99/user/month adds custom activities, call coaching, and multiple pipelines. Enterprise at $139/user/month unlocks the predictive dialer and advanced permissions.

See our Pipedrive vs Close comparison

Read our full Close review

Quick Comparison Table

Tool	Best For	Starting Price	Free Plan
HubSpot CRM	Marketing + sales alignment	$20/user/month (Starter)	Yes — unlimited users
Salesforce Sales Cloud	Deep customization & enterprise scale	$25/user/month (Starter Suite)	No (30-day trial)
Freshsales	AI-powered selling with built-in comms	$11/user/month (Growth)	Yes — up to 3 users
Zoho CRM	Budget-friendly full business suite	$20/user/month (Standard)	Yes — up to 3 users
Close	High-volume outbound calling & sequences	$49/user/month (Startup)	No (14-day trial)

How to Choose

If marketing and sales alignment is your top priority, go with HubSpot. The shared database between marketing automation and CRM pipeline means you can track a lead from first website visit to closed deal without any middleware. No other option here does this as cleanly.

If you’ve outgrown simple pipeline management and need serious customization, Salesforce is the answer. Custom objects, complex approval workflows, and enterprise-grade reporting justify the higher cost and implementation effort. Just be honest about whether your team has the admin capacity to maintain it.

If you want Pipedrive-like simplicity with better built-in communication tools, Freshsales is the closest match. The AI features at the Pro tier punch above their price point, and the native multichannel communication saves real money on third-party tools.

If budget is the primary driver and you want to consolidate multiple tools, Zoho CRM—especially within the Zoho One suite—gives you the most functionality per dollar. Accept the trade-off in UI polish and you’ll save significantly.

If your team lives on the phone doing outbound sales, Close is the obvious pick. The built-in dialer and sequence tools are purpose-built for high-activity sales motions. Don’t choose Close if you need marketing features or broad customization.

Switching Tips

Export your Pipedrive data first. Pipedrive’s data export is solid—you can export deals, contacts, activities, and notes as CSV files directly from Settings > Tools and Apps > Export Data. Do a full export before you start and store it somewhere safe. I’ve seen migration issues where partial data gets stuck in limbo.

Map your fields before importing. Every CRM structures data slightly differently. Pipedrive’s “Organization” becomes “Company” in HubSpot, “Account” in Salesforce, or “Organization” in Freshsales. Create a spreadsheet mapping every Pipedrive field to its equivalent in your new CRM. Spend an hour on this before the migration—it’ll save you days of cleanup later.

Plan for 2-4 weeks of overlap. Run both systems simultaneously during transition. Reps should enter new activities in the new CRM while keeping Pipedrive read-only for historical reference. Trying to cut over in a single day creates chaos and data gaps.

Activity history is the hardest thing to migrate. Deal records and contacts transfer easily. But the full history of emails, calls, and notes is harder to move cleanly. Most tools import notes as a bulk text field, but you’ll lose the threading and timestamps. Set expectations with your team that historical activity detail might be limited.

Don’t replicate your Pipedrive setup exactly. A CRM switch is a chance to rethink your process. That custom field you added in 2023 that nobody fills out? Leave it behind. The pipeline stage that deals always skip? Remove it. Migrating is the perfect time to clean up your sales process—take advantage of the fresh start.

Watch your integrations. Make a list of every tool connected to Pipedrive (email, calendar, phone, Slack, accounting, etc.) and verify each one works with your new CRM before committing. The number one post-migration complaint I hear is “we didn’t realize our [critical tool] doesn’t integrate with the new CRM.” Check this during your evaluation, not after you’ve signed a contract.

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