A free CRM for a small business holds each contact, the last conversation, and the next step, so a one-person shop does not lose a lead in an inbox. HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Bigin, Capsule, and Bitrix24 each publish a $0 plan. The caps differ, and two vendors’ pages disagree, so check the limit before you import.
If you run that shop with no employees, you are a solopreneur. A freestyle entrepreneur still keeps a record of the people who pay. The rest of this cluster is on AI Tools for Solopreneurs, and the wider stack is AI tools for small business.
Snapshot, dated October 27, 2026. Every figure below comes from that vendor’s own pricing or help page, fetched that day. Plans change without notice. We have no affiliate relationship with these CRM vendors. Confirm the number on the vendor’s site before you upload a client list.
Do you actually need a CRM?
You need one if a lead died in a thread you never reopened, if anyone else talks to your customers, or if you want repeat work to be a Friday habit. Twelve steady clients and a good memory can stay in a spreadsheet a while longer. The moment you are chasing quotes, that spreadsheet is where promises go to die. Which efforts bring the work is a separate question, covered in solopreneur marketing.
A CRM is a poor home for a newsletter. HubSpot’s free tools allow 2,000 marketing email sends a calendar month, with HubSpot branding. If the job is a list you write to on purpose, we like Kit for this: it’s free up to 10,000 subscribers. Partner link · T&Cs apply. Kit’s help center, updated September 23, 2026 and fetched again on October 27, 2026, says “The Free plan costs $0 per month” under that line, with “Up to 10,000 email subscribers” and “Unlimited email broadcasts.” Past the cap, the same page says “You’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to keep sending.”
The free plans, checked October 27, 2026
HubSpot free CRM
HubSpot’s product page says the free CRM has “no expiration date,” with up to two users and 1,000 contacts. The same sentence also says there are “no limits on customer data.” Plan on the stricter page. The technical-limits catalog caps contacts at “1,000 (free accounts).”
The free-tools catalog is the fine print that matters: up to two users; Gmail, Outlook, and Exchange connections; 2,000 branded marketing sends a calendar month; 3 sales email templates; 3 snippets; 1 branded personal meeting link; 1 automated action; 10 dashboards (50 reports each, history limited to 30 days); 10 custom properties; and Breeze Assistant. The product page lists deal pipelines on the free tier. One-to-one CRM emails carry HubSpot branding. Good for one person who wants email logging and will stay under 1,000 contacts. Watch the two-user ceiling and the slogan that waves away the contact cap.
Zoho CRM free edition
Zoho’s pricing page calls it “Forever free, for 3 users,” with contact management, follow-up reminders, workflow automation, tasks, meetings and calls, standard reports, mobile apps, up to 10 custom email templates, data import, and “5000 API calls/day.” The card says you can “Export data from Zoho CRM for up to 10 times for free.” The storage help doc is tighter: the free edition is “5,000 records (10MB),” notes and the recycle bin included, and you cannot buy extra users. The export help doc lists 10 module exports a day. Gmail and Outlook integration is on the Standard edition, not on the free list. Good for an owner who may add one more login. Watch the missing email log, and treat 5,000 as storage, not 5,000 clean contacts.
Bigin by Zoho
Bigin’s pricing FAQ says the free plan “allows only 1 user” and stores “up to 500 records.” A record is a row in Contacts, Companies, Pipelines, Activities, Products, or Notes. The free card lists one pipeline, 3 automations, a built-in phone, a standard dashboard, mobile apps, one booking page, and no-code forms. Email and WhatsApp sit on Express, the paid edition. The trial does not become a surprise bill: Bigin does not ask for a card, and after 15 days “you won’t be charged automatically. You will be moved to the Free plan.” Good for a consultant or tradesperson with one pipeline. Watch logged calls and notes. They eat the 500 without a single new customer.
Capsule CRM
Capsule’s free plan allows a maximum of 2 users, 250 contacts, 5 custom fields, and 1 sales pipeline, plus custom milestones and task categories. Mail on that plan lets you “Use your Gmail or Outlook account to send emails now.” The FAQ also includes a single project board. Automations and Capsule’s AI tools are on the paid editions. Good for a short list of high-value clients. Watch the 250-contact ceiling, the tightest stated cap here. It is a client list.
Bitrix24
Read Bitrix24 twice. The price card says the free plan is “100% free for 1–2 users,” with 5 GB and “Basic CRM (deals, contacts),” plus tasks, calendars, and chat. The FAQ on that page says you can add “an unlimited number of users,” and that telephony and Market apps are paid. The help desk article on user counts, updated October 5, 2026, also says the free plan “supports an unlimited number of users.” The free-features article from the same day says you can move “unlimited deals” and create “unlimited invoices,” use CoPilot in chat, and store “up to 5 GB.” If nobody signs in for 50 days, a free account “is marked as inactive and deleted automatically.” Email integration is listed on Basic, not on the free card. The pricing page publishes no contact cap. Good for an owner who wants CRM, tasks, and chat in one login and will open it every few weeks. Watch the user-count clash if anyone else will log in, and the 50-day deletion if you take a month off. Confirm the user limit on your Subscription screen before you invite someone.
DIY options: Notion and Airtable
A general database can be a CRM if you will build the reminders yourself.
- Notion. Free is $0 per member per month, with file uploads up to 5 MB, 7-day page history, 10 external guests, and a trial of Notion AI. One member gets unlimited blocks. Two or more owners hit “1,000 blocks per workspace,” and deleting blocks does not lower the count. A person you add to a free workspace joins as an owner, so the second person turns the cap on.
- Airtable. The plans overview lists 1,000 records per base (tables share that total), 1,000 API calls per workspace per month, 1 GB of attachments per base, 2 weeks of history, 5 Editor or Creator collaborators, and 500 AI credits per editor and above, per month. The first workspace starts on a 14-day Team trial. Past a record or attachment limit, Airtable keeps the data and blocks new rows until you upgrade. Each table exports as its own CSV.
Neither tool files your email unless you build that. If you hate setup, use a purpose-built CRM above.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Free users | Published cap | Email on the free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | 2 | 1,000 contacts | Yes. Marketing sends: 2,000 a month, branded. |
| Zoho CRM | 3, and you cannot buy more | 5,000 records (10 MB), notes included | On Standard, not on free |
| Bigin | 1 | 500 records, activities and notes count | On Express, not on free. Phone is included. |
| Capsule | 2 | 250 contacts | Send from Gmail or Outlook |
| Bitrix24 | Price card: 1–2. Help desk: unlimited | No contact cap published. Unlimited deals and invoices. | On Basic, not on the free card |
| Notion | 1 member for unlimited blocks | 1,000 blocks after a second owner | You build it |
| Airtable | 5 editors or creators | 1,000 records per base | You build it |
Among purpose-built plans with a published cap, Zoho’s 5,000 records is the highest figure and Capsule’s 250 contacts is the lowest. Bitrix24 publishes no contact cap, and its user limit depends on which of its own pages you trust.
How to choose
- Count logins and rows, then leave room. A second person knocks you off Bigin’s free plan and, on Notion, turns on the block cap. Notes shrink Bigin’s 500 and Zoho’s 5,000.
- Name three jobs. A list with reminders, a pipeline of quotes, or email that files itself. If email logging is one of the three, HubSpot and Capsule do it on the free plan. Zoho CRM, Bigin, and Bitrix24, on the pages above, put it on a paid edition.
- Check the exit. Zoho’s free edition allows 10 module exports a day. Airtable exports one table at a time as CSV.
- Load 20 real contacts and live with it for a week.
- Read where the data sits. If your customers are in the EU, the UK, or a US state with a privacy law, read the vendor’s terms before you upload the list.
Set it up so you actually use it
A free CRM you never update is worse than the spreadsheet. It lets you believe the follow-up happened.
- Keep the fields few. Name, how to reach them, source, status, next step, date.
- Write the next step every time. A contact with no next action is finished, whether you meant that or not.
- Put 20 minutes on Friday. Clear what is overdue, then make the calls. Successful phoning is the habit. The CRM is the list.
- Log one human detail. How they like to be reached, or a date they asked you to wait. That is part of making customers feel special.
- Merge duplicates once a quarter.
You decide which contacts are real and what the next step is. HubSpot’s free tools include Breeze Assistant. Bitrix24’s free plan includes CoPilot in chat. Airtable’s free plan includes 500 AI credits per editor and above, per month, and Notion’s free plan includes a trial of Notion AI. Any of them can draft a note from the record. You still check the name, the promise, and the date before it sends. The draft does not know the client asked you to wait until Friday. The standard is still a sales professional. The software only keeps the habit from slipping.
When to leave the free plan
Pay when a cap costs you a deal or an hour: the record limit is full, you need email logging the free edition does not include, you need a second pipeline, or a second person needs a login the free plan will not give them. Compare that paid step with one rival before you upgrade. Both prices move.
Takeaway
Pick one free CRM this week on three tests: how many people will log in, how many records you will have after notes, and whether the free plan logs email. Import the twenty contacts that matter, give each a next step and a date, and put a 20-minute review on Friday. Outgrowing the free plan means the work showed up.
Grab the free One-Person Business AI Stack checklist when you want a one-page list of what you decide, what software drafts, and what you still check yourself.
Sources
Fetched October 27, 2026.
- HubSpot, Free CRM. “No expiration date,” up to two users, 1,000 contacts, and, in the same sentence, “no limits on customer data.” Deal pipelines are on the free tier.
- HubSpot, technical limits. Contacts: “1,000 (free accounts).”
- HubSpot, free tools catalog. Two users; Gmail, Outlook, and Exchange; “2,000 email sends per calendar month, with HubSpot branding”; 3 email templates; 3 snippets; 1 meeting link; 1 automated action; 10 dashboards; 10 custom properties; Breeze Assistant.
- Zoho CRM, pricing. “Forever free, for 3 users”; 10 custom email templates; “5000 API calls/day”; export “up to 10 times.” Gmail and Outlook integration is listed on Standard.
- Zoho CRM, storage help. Free edition: “5,000 records (10MB).” Extra user licenses cannot be purchased.
- Zoho CRM, export help. Free edition: 10 exports a day.
- Bigin, pricing. Free: 1 user, 500 records across contacts, companies, pipelines, activities, products, and notes. Email is on Express. After the 15-day trial, “you won’t be charged automatically.”
- Capsule, pricing. Free: 2 users, 250 contacts, 5 custom fields, 1 sales pipeline, Gmail or Outlook send. FAQ adds one project board.
- Bitrix24, pricing. Free card: “100% free for 1–2 users,” 5 GB, basic CRM. FAQ on the same page: “an unlimited number of users.” Email integration is on Basic.
- Bitrix24 Helpdesk, user counts and free plan features, both updated October 5, 2026. Unlimited users, unlimited deals and invoices, CoPilot, 5 GB, deletion after 50 days with no sign-in.
- Notion, pricing and block usage. Free: $0, 5 MB uploads, 7-day history, 10 guests, a Notion AI trial. One member: unlimited blocks. Two or more owners: 1,000 blocks, and deleting does not lower the count.
- Airtable, plans overview and pricing. Free: 1,000 records per base, 1,000 API calls a month, 1 GB of attachments, 2 weeks of history, 5 editors or creators, 500 AI credits per editor and above per month, a 14-day Team trial on the first workspace. Past the cap, data stays and new rows wait on an upgrade.
- Kit, The Kit Free plan, updated September 23, 2026. “$0 per month” under 10,000 subscribers, unlimited email broadcasts, and an upgrade to keep sending past the cap.