Is HubSpot's free CRM really free?
It costs nothing for two users and 1,000 contacts. The caps sit on templates, tracking, automation and branding, and they decide when you pay.
The short answer
- HubSpot's free CRM is free to use with no time limit, for up to two users and up to 1,000 contacts, per HubSpot's Product & Services Catalog as of September 2026.
- The HubSpot free edition caps the tools around the records: 3 email templates, 3 snippets, 200 email-tracking notifications a month, one meeting link and one shared inbox.
- HubSpot branding stays on free forms, the free meeting link and free live chat.
- The first paid step, Smart CRM Starter, starts at $20 a seat a month, and email sequences need Sales Hub Professional at $90 a seat on annual billing, checked September 2026.
What is genuinely free
The records are free, and that part is generous. You get contacts, companies, deals, tasks and a deal pipeline, with Gmail and Outlook connected so emails log to the record. Up to 1 million records are allowed for standard objects other than contacts. There's no trial clock on any of it.
You also get lite versions of the marketing and service tools: forms, live chat, a basic bot, ticketing and one shared inbox. For a founder tracking a few dozen deals, that's a working CRM at no cost.
HubSpot free edition limits
The caps listed for HubSpot's free tools, and what they mean day to day.
| Feature | Free limit | What you'll notice |
|---|---|---|
| Users | Up to 2 | A third teammate needs a paid seat |
| Contacts | Up to 1,000 | A list over 1,000 contacts needs a paid plan |
| Other standard records | Up to 1 million | Companies and deals rarely hit it |
| Email templates | 3 per account | Reps retype the rest |
| Email tracking | 200 notifications a month | Open alerts run out after the first 200 |
| Meeting links | 1 personal link, HubSpot branding | One calendar for the whole team |
| Forms and live chat | HubSpot branding | The HubSpot logo shows to your buyers |
| Form automation | 1 automated email per form | No follow-up series after a sign-up |
| Reporting | 10 dashboards, 50 reports each | Enough for most small teams |
| Email sequences | Not in the free edition | Starts at Sales Hub Professional |
Checked on legal.hubspot.com/hubspot-product-and-services-catalog, Free Tools section, September 2026.
Where the free edition starts to cost you
The bill starts with people, not features. Add a third user and you need a seat. Smart CRM Starter lists from $20 a seat a month, checked September 2026. Most sales teams then want sequences, which live on Sales Hub Professional at $90 a seat a month on annual billing, plus a one-time onboarding fee of $1,500 on that tier as of September 2026.
The other cost is the contact cap. A team that imports a prospect list of 5,000 names is past the free limit on day one. Work out how many contacts you'll hold in a year, not this month, before you build your process on the free edition.
What SalesCrew charges instead
SalesCrew charges one flat price. Core is $299 a month with unlimited seats, so the price doesn't change when you hire. It includes the CRM, a unified inbox, cadences on your own mailbox pool, the data bank and the MCP server. You can try it for 14 days, with a card required, and cancel any time before the trial ends.
Each client gets its own database, and you can export all of it at any time as a full Postgres dump or CSV. That matters when you outgrow a tool: your data leaves with you.
Plan the upgrade before you need it
Questions
- How many users does HubSpot's free CRM allow?
- Up to two free users. HubSpot sells its free tools as a single free edition with up to two free users, per its Product & Services Catalog checked September 2026. A third person needs a paid seat.
- How many contacts can you store in HubSpot for free?
- Up to 1,000 contacts in a free account, and up to 1 million records for the other standard objects such as companies and deals. Both limits are listed in HubSpot's Product & Services Catalog, checked September 2026.
- Does HubSpot's free CRM include email sequences?
- No. Sequences start at Sales Hub Professional, which lists at $90 a seat a month on annual billing, checked September 2026. The free edition gives you 3 email templates and email open tracking capped at 200 notifications a month.
- Can you remove HubSpot branding on the free plan?
- No. HubSpot's catalog lists HubSpot branding on free forms, the free meeting link and free live chat, checked September 2026. Removing it means moving to a paid edition.