What is the 10,000-lead cap on Close Solo?

Close's Solo plan is listed at $9 per user per month billed annually, or $19 monthly, and caps at 10,000 leads, with contacts unlimited. That distinction matters: a lead is the record a deal hangs off. If you import a large prospecting list as leads, you will hit the ceiling far sooner than the contact count suggests.

Is Close's built-in calling actually cheaper?

It is convenient rather than cheap, and convenience is worth something. Calling and SMS bill on usage at roughly two cents a minute as of September 2026. Buying telephony directly from a carrier is cheaper per minute; having it already wired to the record, with the call logged and the disposition captured, is what you are paying the difference for.

Why do teams leave Close?

Usually growth in one of two directions. Either the lead ceiling arrives, which is a tier problem rather than a product one, or the team needs marketing, forms and attribution that Close deliberately does not do. Close is narrow on purpose, and narrow tools get outgrown rather than found wanting.

How good is Close's MCP server?

It is the most carefully scoped one in this comparison. Close splits access into three scopes: read, safe writes and destructive writes, so an AI client can be given permission to read and update without being able to delete. Most vendors offer a single permission level, so this is a real difference if you plan to let an agent operate the CRM.

Close CRM alternatives

Close is the cheapest serious sales CRM on this list and the most deliberately narrow. Six alternatives compared on lead ceilings, calling and AI permissions.

app.salescrew.io/deals

Pipeline with weighted forecast and stage breakdown

Switch if you are approaching the 10,000-lead ceiling on Solo, or if you need marketing, forms and attribution beside the pipeline. Stay if calling and email are the job and you want the cheapest tool that does them properly.

The short answer

Close Solo is $9 per user per month billed annually, or $19 monthly, and includes a 14-day trial with no card and $5 of calling credit. It is the cheapest credible sales CRM in this comparison by a clear margin.
The ceiling to watch is leads, not contacts: Solo caps at 10,000 leads while contacts are unlimited. A large prospecting import will find that limit faster than the headline suggests.
Close's MCP server splits permissions three ways: read, safe writes and destructive writes. If you intend to let an AI client operate your CRM, that granularity is the most useful thing on this page.

How we compared these

Prices, ceilings and permission scopes below come from each vendor's own pricing and developer pages, checked in September 2026. Nothing is sourced from a review site. Two vendors could not be priced from their own sites at all: Pipedrive returns a 403 to automated requests, and Zoho's pricing page serves rupees. Their cells say that instead of carrying a number from elsewhere.

Evaluated from Close's own documentation and pricing, September 2026. We have not run it in production. What follows is verifiable against Close's site rather than an account of using it, and it is worth reading with that in mind.

The comparison is built around ceilings and permissions rather than feature lists. Close competes by being narrow and cheap, so a feature grid flatters every broader tool on the page and tells you nothing about whether the narrow one is the right pick.

Close and its alternatives, compared

	Close	Pipedrive	HubSpot	Attio	Copper	Monday CRM	SalesCrew
Entry paid price	Solo $9 per user/mo annual, $19 monthly	Not published to automated checks; pages return 403	$20 per seat/mo annual, $7 monthly	Plus $35 per seat/mo annual, $44 monthly	Basic $23 per seat/mo annual, $29 monthly	Basic $12 per seat/mo annual, 3-seat minimum	$299/mo flat, unlimited seats
Record ceiling on entry	10,000 leads; contacts unlimited	Not confirmable	Free tier 1,000 contacts; Starter not stated	250,000 records on Plus	2,500 contacts and 25 companies	1,000 contacts and deals	Your own Postgres project. No vendor row cap
Calling included	Yes, billed on usage at around $0.02/min	Not confirmable	On higher tiers	No	No	No	Outbound calls through Vapi today; numbers and softphone on the roadmap
Real cost of a 5-person team	$45/mo annual	Not confirmable	$100/mo annual	$175/mo annual	$115/mo annual	$60/mo annual	$299/mo, and the same at 50 people
Marketing, forms, attribution	No, by design	Limited	Yes, its main strength	No	No	Via the wider Monday platform	Marketing collectors and channel economics on Agency
MCP permission granularity	Three scopes: read, safe write, destructive write	Native server; scopes not detailed on its page	Read and write	Hosted with OAuth	No MCP. Read-only ChatGPT app on upper tiers	Two servers with OAuth	Scoped by channel, profile and area, same as the UI
Free entry	14-day trial, no card, $5 credit	Not confirmable	Free tier, 2 users	Free tier, 3 seats	Trial, no card	14-day trial, no card	14-day trial, card required

Figures checked on vendor pricing pages, September 2026.

The field, ranked for a team leaving Close

1. Pipedrive

The most similar product in spirit: pipeline-first, sales-focused, not trying to be a marketing suite, and now shipping a native MCP server that sits in Claude's connector marketplace. We could not verify its pricing because its pages return 403 to automated requests, so get the number yourself. Best for: teams who liked Close's shape and hit its ceiling.

2. HubSpot

The move when the reason for leaving is marketing rather than scale. $20 a seat annually, a free tier for two users, forms and attribution built in. Best for: teams whose next problem is inbound. Not for: cold outbound, which its policy restricts.

3. SalesCrew

The answer if the lead ceiling is the issue and per-seat pricing is the next one: unlimited seats at one flat price, your own Postgres project with no vendor row cap, a data bank and cadences beside the pipeline, and every action available to an AI client behind an approval queue. Best for: teams whose list has outgrown a per-seat CRM. Not for: a two-person team, where $299 against Close's $18 is impossible to justify. New product, no third-party reviews, no mobile app, phone numbers on the roadmap. Disclosure: SalesCrew is our product.

4. Attio

250,000 records on Plus and a flexible data model, at $35 a seat annually. Best for: teams whose database has grown past what Close's Solo tier holds. Not for: teams heading past ten seats on Plus, and it does no calling at all.

5. Monday CRM

$12 a seat annually, but with a three-seat minimum and a 1,000-contact cap on Basic, so the practical entry is $36 a month for a tighter ceiling than Close's. Best for: teams already running Monday boards. Not for: anyone leaving Close because of a record limit.

6. Copper

Google Workspace-native at $23 a seat annually. The caps are the catch: 2,500 contacts and 25 companies on Basic, which is well below Close. It also ships no MCP server, only a read-only ChatGPT app on upper tiers. Best for: small Google-centric teams. Not for: growth.

When to stay on Close

Stay if calling is your motion. Close was built around the phone in a way most CRMs were not: the dialler is part of the record rather than an integration, calls log themselves, and dispositions are first-class. Every alternative on this page either bolts calling on through a separate provider or does not do it at all, ours included, since our own phone numbers and softphone are still on the roadmap.

Stay for the price. Nine dollars a user annually for a real sales CRM with calling included is the best value in this comparison, and it is not close. A five-person team pays $45 a month. Nothing here matches that, and any argument for switching has to clear that gap before it clears anything else.

Stay because narrow is a feature. Close does not do marketing, forms, portals or funnels, and that is why it is fast and why nobody needs training to use it. Teams that replace it with something broader often discover the breadth was never the constraint, and that they have traded a tool their reps liked for a platform they avoid.

Questions

What is the 10,000-lead cap on Close Solo?: Close's Solo plan is listed at $9 per user per month billed annually, or $19 monthly, and caps at 10,000 leads, with contacts unlimited. That distinction matters: a lead is the record a deal hangs off. If you import a large prospecting list as leads, you will hit the ceiling far sooner than the contact count suggests.
Is Close's built-in calling actually cheaper?: It is convenient rather than cheap, and convenience is worth something. Calling and SMS bill on usage at roughly two cents a minute as of September 2026. Buying telephony directly from a carrier is cheaper per minute; having it already wired to the record, with the call logged and the disposition captured, is what you are paying the difference for.
Why do teams leave Close?: Usually growth in one of two directions. Either the lead ceiling arrives, which is a tier problem rather than a product one, or the team needs marketing, forms and attribution that Close deliberately does not do. Close is narrow on purpose, and narrow tools get outgrown rather than found wanting.
How good is Close's MCP server?: It is the most carefully scoped one in this comparison. Close splits access into three scopes: read, safe writes and destructive writes, so an AI client can be given permission to read and update without being able to delete. Most vendors offer a single permission level, so this is a real difference if you plan to let an agent operate the CRM.