Best Free CRM Software 2026: 8 Options Compared

A free CRM is usually free in one of two ways, and the difference decides which one you should pick. Hosted products such as HubSpot and Zoho give you a polished app at no charge but cap the number of users or contacts, so the free plan is really a trial of how big you can get before paying. Open-source products such as SuiteCRM, EspoCRM and Twenty have no seat cap at all, but you run the server, install updates and keep backups, and that time is the price. If you are one to three people tracking a few hundred leads, a hosted free plan is almost always the right start because you can be working in an afternoon. If you have a team of ten, a mid-sized contact list and someone who is comfortable with Docker or a PHP stack, self-hosting avoids the per-seat step that arrives the day you add a fourth person. Whichever route you take, test an export before you load real contacts, because moving customers between CRMs is the part vendors make slow. This list covers eight tools with free plans or free code, with the limit that applies to each, so you can see where the free ride ends before you commit your pipeline to it.

HubSpot CRM

The easiest hosted start: a hosted CRM that works out of the box, but the free plan stops at 2 users and 1,000 contacts. Starter at $7 a seat is the next step, so a small team hits the wall quickly.

Price: Free (2 users, 1,000 contacts, no time limit); paid from $7 per seat/month (Starter) (HubSpot CRM pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.

Best for: Solo founders and two-person sales teams.

Compare: HubSpot CRM alternatives

Zoho CRM

Free for up to 3 users, one more seat than HubSpot's free plan, and it sits inside the wider Zoho suite. Check the pricing page for the first paid plan before you plan an upgrade.

Price: Free (3 users) (Zoho CRM pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.

Best for: Three-person teams already using Zoho apps.

Compare: Zoho CRM alternatives

Salesforce

Salesforce lists a Free Suite tier in its plan comparison, which gets you the best-known CRM data model for learning or light use. The next step up, Starter Suite, is $25 per user per month, so budget for it.

Price: Free (Free Suite tier listed in the plan comparison); paid from $25 per user/month (Starter Suite, billed monthly or annually) (Salesforce pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.

Best for: Teams that expect to grow into Salesforce.

Compare: Salesforce alternatives

Odoo

The One App Free plan on Odoo Online allows unlimited users but only one app, so CRM alone is free. The Community edition is LGPL-3.0 if you self-host and want to add other modules later.

Price: Free (One App Free plan on Odoo Online, unlimited users) (Odoo pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. LGPL-3.0 (Community edition) (open source).

Project activity: 55.4k GitHub stars · last commit Oct 28, 2026

Best for: Small teams that want one app now and an ERP later.

Compare: Odoo alternatives

SuiteCRM

A full open-source CRM under AGPL-3.0 with no user cap. You pay for hosting and support; managed hosting starts at 50 GBP a month.

Price: Free (free open-source download; you pay for hosting and support); paid from £50 per month (fully managed hosting, from) (SuiteCRM pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0 (open source).

Project activity: 5.8k GitHub stars · latest release v7.15.2 (Jul 31, 2026) · last commit Oct 23, 2026

Best for: Teams with a sysadmin who want enterprise-style CRM.

Worth knowing: Licence checked on the SuiteCRM 7 repo; SuiteCRM 8 is a separate repo.

EspoCRM

Open-source under AGPL-3.0 and free to self-host. Its hosted cloud starts at $15 per user per month with a 3-user minimum, so self-hosting is the free route.

Price: Free (free self-hosted download); paid from $15 per user/month (Cloud Basic, 3-user minimum, billed per 6 months or 1 year) (EspoCRM pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0 (open source).

Project activity: 3.5k GitHub stars · latest release 10.0.11 (Oct 23, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026

Best for: Small teams who want a clean self-hosted CRM.

Worth knowing: 30-day free trial for cloud.

Twenty

An open-source CRM, self-hostable for free under AGPL-3.0 with a few enterprise files under a commercial license. Cloud Pro is $9 per user per month billed yearly.

Price: Free (self-host the open-source core for free); paid from $9 per user/month, billed yearly (Cloud Pro) (Twenty pricing, checked 2026-10-22).

Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0 (some files under a commercial Enterprise license) (open source).

Project activity: 59.9k GitHub stars · latest release twenty/v2.52.0 (Oct 27, 2026) · last commit Oct 28, 2026

Best for: Developer-friendly startups.

Dolibarr

GPL-3.0 ERP and CRM in one package, free to download, with invoicing, stock and contacts next to the CRM. It needs PHP and a database, and commercial cloud hosting is sold separately.

Price: Free (Free software; commercial cloud hosting is sold separately) (Dolibarr pricing, checked 2026-10-23).

Platforms and license: Web (self-hosted), Windows, Linux. GPL-3.0 or later (open source).

Project activity: 7.8k GitHub stars · latest release 24.0.1 (Sep 7, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026

Best for: Small businesses that want CRM, invoices and stock together.

Worth knowing: Needs PHP and MariaDB, MySQL or PostgreSQL; DoliWamp, DoliDeb, DoliRpm and Docker packages exist.

Which one to pick

• You are solo or a pair and want to start today: HubSpot CRM
• You have three users and live in Zoho already: Zoho CRM
• You have more than five users and can host a server: SuiteCRM
• You want a modern interface and are comfortable with Docker: Twenty