Contacts in Excel, quotes in the inbox, the status of a deal only in the salesperson's head: this is how many SMEs work until the team grows and information gets lost. A CRM system brings this data together in one place. There's a lot of choice, and several vendors changed their pricing models in 2026. This comparison shows you what monday CRM, Salesforce, Pipedrive, HubSpot and Zoho CRM cost today, what the free plans can really do and what Swiss companies should look out for in terms of data protection.
What SMEs should look for when choosing a CRM in 2026
A CRM manages contacts, companies and deals and shows where each sales opportunity stands in the pipeline. All five systems in this comparison cover these basics. The differences lie elsewhere:
- Which plan includes automations, such as automatic follow-up tasks or status changes
- Which AI features are available and whether they're included in the base price
- How well the CRM connects with email, calendar, accounting and project management
- Where the data is stored
- What the system costs when the team grows from 5 to 20 people
The last point is often underestimated. For several vendors, the biggest price jump isn't between free and the first paid plan, but one tier above, where automations are unlocked.
The 5 CRM systems at a glance
Prices are per user per month with annual billing, as of September 2026. All vendors list their prices in USD and adjust them regularly. Check the current pricing page before you buy.
| CRM | Starting at | Free plan | AI features | EU hosting | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| monday CRM | 12 USD (Basic), min. 3 seats | No, trial only | Email drafts, summaries, agents | Yes (Germany) | SMEs that want sales and projects in one system |
| Salesforce | 25 USD (Starter Suite) | Free Suite for 2 users | Agentforce | Yes (Hyperforce EU Operating Zone) | Large sales teams with complex requirements |
| Pipedrive | 14 USD (Lite) | No, trial only | AI reports from Lite, more on higher plans | Yes (Frankfurt) | Small sales teams focused on the pipeline |
| HubSpot | 15 USD (Starter) | Yes, with limits | Breeze | Yes (Frankfurt) | Marketing-led teams |
| Zoho CRM | 14 USD (Standard) | Yes, up to 3 users | Zia from Enterprise | Yes, EU data centre available | Budget-conscious teams, users of other Zoho tools |
The five systems in detail
monday CRM
monday CRM runs on the same platform as the monday AI Work Platform. Deals, contacts and activities sit in boards that you can customise freely. That's its biggest strength: when a deal is won, it can automatically become a project that the delivery team continues in the same system. The pipeline can be adapted to your own sales process without any coding, even if it doesn't follow the standard lead, quote, close pattern.
On the AI side, monday CRM drafts emails with customer context, summarises communication histories and can use AI agents to qualify new leads, for example. For email marketing, there's monday campaigns.
The limits: there's no free plan for monday CRM, only a trial. Seats are sold in buckets, with a minimum of 3. The Standard plan includes 250 automation actions per month, which active teams use up quickly. For marketing automation, monday CRM doesn't go as deep as HubSpot.
Pricing
- Basic 12 USD
- Standard 17 USD
- Pro 28 USD per seat per month with annual billing.
The Ultimate plan is quoted individually.
Salesforce
Salesforce is the most comprehensive system in this comparison. Sales, service and marketing can be customised in depth, and the AppExchange offers thousands of extensions. With Agentforce, Salesforce provides AI agents that are built into the sales process. The Starter Suite for small businesses bundles core features for sales, service and marketing and includes Slack.
The limits: the jump from Starter Suite (25 USD) to Pro Suite (100 USD) is large, and many customisation and automation features are only available from Pro. Setup takes more effort than with the other systems, and larger installations usually need someone to administer Salesforce.
Pricing
- Starter Suite 25 USD
- Pro Suite 100 USD per user per month.
Higher editions cost considerably more. All editions can be trialled for 30 days. You'll find a more detailed comparison in our article monday CRM vs. Salesforce.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a pure sales CRM. The visual pipeline is at its centre, and sales teams get to grips with it quickly. Since its restructuring at the end of 2025, Pipedrive has four plans: Lite, Growth, Premium and Ultimate. AI features such as report creation are included from Lite.
The limits: automations are only available from the Growth plan at 39 USD. Lead generation and project features cost extra on the lower plans. There's no permanent free plan. Marketing and project work usually require additional tools.
Pricing
- Lite from 14 USD
- Growth from 39 USD per user per month with annual billing.
Figures for the higher plans currently vary between sources, so check them directly with Pipedrive.
HubSpot
HubSpot has the best-known free plan in the CRM market. Contacts, deals, forms and basic email marketing with HubSpot branding are free. Its strength lies in how marketing and sales work together: if you generate leads through your website, newsletter and social media, HubSpot keeps everything in one database. The AI features are branded Breeze.
The limits: in Sales Hub, workflow automations and email sequences are only available from Professional at around 100 USD per seat, plus a one-off onboarding fee of 1,500 USD. Costs therefore rise sharply as soon as a team needs more than the basics.
Pricing
- Starter from 15 USD per seat with annual prepayment
- 20 USD with monthly billing.
HubSpot regularly offers promotional pricing for new customers. More on this in our comparison monday CRM and HubSpot.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM offers a lot of functionality for little money. The free plan for up to 3 users is permanently free, and the Standard plan costs 14 USD. Zoho is particularly worthwhile if you already use other Zoho products such as Zoho Books or Zoho Desk, as everything comes from one provider.
The limits: the AI assistant Zia is only available from the Enterprise plan at 40 USD. The interface is less intuitive than monday CRM or Pipedrive. Reviews on G2 regularly mention the effort required to get up to speed.
Pricing
- Standard 14 USD
- Professional 23 USD
- Enterprise 40 USD
- Ultimate 52 USD per user per month with annual billing
Free CRM systems compared: what the limits mean
Three of the five vendors have a permanent free plan: HubSpot, Zoho and Salesforce. monday CRM and Pipedrive only offer a time-limited trial.
Zoho CRM Free allows up to 3 users with contacts, deals, tasks and standard reports. Salesforce Free Suite is limited to 2 users. HubSpot changed its limits for new free accounts in 2024, so check the current user and contact limits directly with HubSpot before you plan.
All free plans lack the features that make a CRM valuable day to day: automatic follow-ups, lead assignment and integrations with accounting. For one person or a team of two who want to record contacts and deals properly, a free plan is enough. As soon as several people work in sales, it's worth comparing the paid plans with automations.
CRM with marketing features: who offers what
If marketing and sales need to work closely together, HubSpot is the strongest. Email marketing, landing pages, forms and lead scoring use the same contact data as sales. Marketing automation, however, costs considerably more than the CRM alone.
Salesforce already includes basic email marketing features in the Starter Suite, while full marketing automation is a separate product. monday CRM covers email campaigns directly from the CRM with monday campaigns. Zoho connects marketing through other Zoho apps. Pipedrive is the most sales-focused and needs add-ons or external tools for marketing.
CRM for Swiss SMEs: hosting, FADP and accounting
All five vendors are headquartered outside Switzerland and the EU, but they all offer data storage in the EU: monday CRM in Germany, HubSpot and Pipedrive in Frankfurt, Salesforce through the Hyperforce EU Operating Zone and Zoho through a selectable EU data centre.
This matters under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP): the Federal Council recognises EU and EEA countries as providing an adequate level of data protection. Data in an EU data centre is therefore easier to handle than data in the US. With US vendors, you should also check whether they're certified under the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or offer standard contractual clauses. All five offer a data processing agreement (DPA).
Connecting to accounting also matters for Swiss SMEs. If quotes and invoices run through Bexio or Abacus, customer and order data shouldn't be maintained twice. Depending on the CRM, this works through a native integration or an automation platform such as Make. Find out more in our articles on Bexio and the comparison of monday.com and Abacus.
Which CRM suits which company?
If you want to manage sales, project delivery and tasks in one system and your sales process doesn't follow the standard pattern, monday CRM is a good fit. This applies especially to service providers, agencies and companies where a project starts after the deal is closed.
For a large sales team across several regions, with complex approvals and a budget for dedicated administration, Salesforce is the obvious choice.
If a small sales team mainly needs a clean pipeline and a quick rollout, Pipedrive is a good option.
If you mainly win leads through your website and content, HubSpot is strong, provided the budget for the Professional plans is there.
On a tight budget, or if you already use Zoho products, Zoho CRM is worth considering.
Whichever system you look at: test two or three candidates with a real workflow from your day-to-day work, for example from enquiry to quote. You'll quickly see which tool your team will actually use. We explain what a CRM should do in principle in our article What does a CRM do?
Rolling out monday CRM with Blinno
Blinno is the only monday.com partner in the DACH region with the official CRM Specialist Partner badge. We set up monday CRM for your sales process, connect existing tools such as email, accounting or website forms, and train your team. We show how a rollout works in practice in our article on monday CRM implementation. You'll find practical examples under monday CRM use cases.
Not sure which CRM is right for you? Book a free first call with us.
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