HubSpot vs Pipedrive vs Attio: the best CRM for a small sales team

Most small B2B teams end up choosing between three CRMs. HubSpot is the platform almost everyone has heard of, with the best-known free CRM and tools for marketing and service alongside sales. Pipedrive is built around a visual pipeline and is popular with sales teams that live in their deals. Attio is the newer, flexible CRM that many tech startups now pick first.

All three can run a small team's sales. They differ in price, in how much they do beyond sales, and in how they're designed to be used. This comparison covers cost at three and ten seats, what each free plan stops at, and who each fits.

Prices side by side

Published prices per seat a month, checked on October 7, 2026.

What three seats cost

A founding team of three people selling:

• Attio: $0 on the free plan, which covers three seats. On Plus, $105 a month billed annually.
• Pipedrive: from $42 a month on Lite, billed annually.
• HubSpot: the free CRM covers only two users. Three Starter seats are listed at $60 a month, less in the first year with new-customer discounts.

For a three-person team, Attio's free plan is hard to beat on cost. Pipedrive is the cheapest paid option for a team that wants a dedicated sales pipeline.

What ten seats cost

A small sales team of ten:

• Attio: $350 a month on Plus billed annually, or $790 on Pro.
• Pipedrive: from $140 a month on Lite billed annually, more on higher plans.
• HubSpot: listed at $200 a month on Starter. On Sales Hub Professional, $900 a month billed annually, plus the one-time $1,500 onboarding fee.

At ten seats, the plan you need matters more than the vendor. A team that needs automation, sequences and forecasting will likely be on a mid tier, where HubSpot Professional costs the most of the three.

HubSpot

HubSpot's free CRM is the most widely used free option, for up to two users, with contact and company records, a deal pipeline, email logging and tasks. Paid plans add automation, sequences, reporting and more users.

HubSpot's strength is breadth. Marketing, sales, service, content and data tools sit on one platform, sharing one contact database, so a team that wants email marketing, forms, a help desk and a CRM can buy them together. Starter seats are listed at $20 a month, with first-year discounts for new customers. Sales Hub Professional costs $90 per seat a month billed annually, or $100 monthly, plus a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee. Paid plans also include HubSpot credits for its AI features, which reset monthly.

Best for: teams that want sales and marketing on one platform, or a free CRM for one or two people. Watch for: the jump in cost from Starter to Professional, and the onboarding fees on higher tiers.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is designed around the sales pipeline. Deals sit on a visual board by stage, and the product pushes salespeople toward the next action on each deal. It's straightforward to set up and use, which is why many small sales teams like it.

There's no free plan, but there's a free trial. Its entry Lite plan starts at $14 per seat a month billed annually, with higher plans adding automation, email features, forecasting and more.

Best for: small sales teams that want a focused, easy pipeline tool. Watch for: add-ons for features such as lead capture, and the plan you'll need once you want automation.

Attio

Attio takes a different approach. Instead of fixed contact, company and deal records, it lets you model your own data, so you can track investors, partners, candidates or anything else alongside deals. It builds contacts automatically from your email and calendar, and enriches them with company data.

The free plan covers up to three seats, 50,000 records and three objects. Plus costs $35 per user a month billed annually, or $44 monthly, for up to ten seats, 250,000 records and five objects. Pro costs $79 billed annually, or $99 monthly, with unlimited seats, a million records, twelve objects, sequences and call intelligence.

Best for: early-stage tech startups that want a free, flexible CRM and use it for fundraising and hiring as well as sales. Watch for: the ten-seat limit on Plus, which pushes a growing sales team to Pro.

How each one feels to use

Prices aside, the biggest difference is design.

• HubSpot feels like a platform. There's a lot of it, and the CRM connects to everything else HubSpot sells. That's useful if you'll use the rest, and overwhelming if you won't.
• Pipedrive feels like a sales tool. It's centered on the pipeline and the next activity for each deal, with less around it.
• Attio feels like a modern database. It's flexible and quick, and suits teams that want to shape the CRM around how they work.

A free trial of each, with a few of your real deals, will tell you more than any feature list. Ask the people who'll use it every day to try it too. A CRM that a founder likes but salespeople avoid will be out of date within a month, whatever it costs, and a cheaper tool the whole team actually updates is worth more.

Automation and sequences

Automation is usually the reason a team moves off a free or entry plan. It covers things like creating a follow-up task when a deal changes stage, assigning new leads to the right salesperson, or sending a series of emails until someone replies.

• HubSpot reserves most automation and sequences for its paid tiers, with the fuller set on Professional.
• Pipedrive adds workflow automation and more email features on its higher plans.
• Attio includes sequences on its Pro plan.

If you already run outbound sequences in a cold email tool such as Instantly or Smartlead, you may not need sequences in the CRM at all. Connecting the two is often cheaper than upgrading the CRM to get the same feature twice.

Reporting and forecasting

A founder selling alone needs little reporting: what's in the pipeline, what closed this month and why deals were lost. All three handle that on their entry plans. Forecasting, quota tracking and detailed dashboards matter once there's a sales team with targets, and they generally sit on higher plans. Decide what your investors or board actually ask for before paying for more.

Beyond sales: fundraising, hiring and partners

Early-stage founders often run several pipelines at once: customers, investors, candidates and partners. A CRM that handles all of them saves a second tool. Attio's flexible objects are designed for this, which makes it a natural fit for running a fundraise next to sales. HubSpot and Pipedrive can do it with separate pipelines, though both are built primarily around customer deals.

Data and integrations

All three connect to Gmail and Outlook, log emails and meetings, and integrate with common tools. HubSpot has the largest marketplace of integrations. Pipedrive has a large marketplace too. Attio has a growing set of integrations and an API. If a specific integration matters, such as your cold email tool, billing system or support desk, check it before you choose.

All three let you export your data. Check that the export includes notes and activity history, not only contacts and deals, before you commit.

Moving later

Switching CRMs is work, not a disaster. Contacts, companies and deals move easily. Email history, notes, custom fields and automations take more effort. The cleaner your data is, the easier any move becomes, which is one more reason to start with few fields and clear stage definitions.

Questions to answer in the trial

• How quickly does it capture your email and calendar activity?
• How easy is it to set up your pipeline stages and required fields?
• Can a new salesperson use it on day one without training?
• Does it connect to your cold email tool and other key software?
• What will the plan you need in a year cost, at the team size you'll have?

Which one should you pick?

• Pick Attio if you're an early-stage startup with up to three people selling, want a free and flexible CRM, and value automatic data capture.
• Pick Pipedrive if you're building a small sales team that wants a simple, pipeline-first tool at a low price per seat.
• Pick HubSpot if you want marketing and sales on one platform, or a free CRM for one or two people with room to grow into a broad suite.

Our guide to choosing a CRM for a startup covers what a first CRM must do and how to set up a pipeline, whichever you choose.