In short
You can get a free CRM from Bitrix24, Zoho CRM, CentralStationCRM and HubSpot Sales Hub – with limits on users, contacts or features. Paid CRM for one person starts at €9 a month (Freshsales, Growth); for a team of 5, Freshsales is cheapest at €45 (Growth). Entry plans differ widely in features, especially e-mail sync and automations.
Bitrix24 and CentralStationCRM state a data centre in Germany. All prices net per month, as of 12 November 2026.
What a CRM should do
A CRM (customer relationship management) bundles contacts, conversations, quotes and opportunities in one place. For small businesses the key points are:
- Pipeline: opportunities as cards you move from stage to stage – all providers compared offer this.
- E-mail integration: mails from Gmail or Outlook land with the contact automatically. With Pipedrive, full sync comes only from Growth.
- Automations: tasks and follow-ups are created automatically. Often limited in entry plans.
- Contact limit: free and basic plans cap contacts (e.g. HubSpot Free 1,000, monday Basic 1,000, CentralStation Starter 200).
- Integrations: accounting, telephony, newsletter and calendar should connect.
Pricing models: per user or flat
Most CRMs cost per user per month; annual billing is often 20 to 40% cheaper. Bitrix24 and CentralStationCRM instead use package prices covering a set number of users – this pays off if many colleagues use the CRM only occasionally. Also watch minimum users: monday CRM sells at least 3 seats, TecArt at least 5 users.
Hidden costs come from add-ons (lead generation, campaigns, AI features), mandatory onboarding in higher plans (HubSpot Professional) or transaction fees (according to Salesforce's pricing page). With Brevo, sales is only bookable as an add-on to a marketing plan.
Data protection with CRM software
A CRM holds personal data of customers and prospects. You therefore need a data processing agreement (DPA) with the provider and should know where data is stored. US providers often let you choose an EU data centre – ask before starting whether this applies to your plan. If you want data kept only in Germany, look at CentralStationCRM, Bitrix24 (Frankfurt) or TecArt on your own server.
How we compared
All prices come from the providers' pricing pages or the price data these pages load (retrieved 12 November 2026). We show net prices per month and assume annual billing where offered; for HubSpot we use the regular Starter price, not the temporary new-customer price. Cost examples use the cheapest paid plan for each team size – features therefore differ. Cards are ordered by monthly cost for 5 users. Not included: weclapp (CRM only in the ERP package) and Teamleader (no published price).