The best CRM for freelancers and solo consultants

This is for a freelancer or solo consultant choosing a first CRM, not a team of any size. If you're hiring a rep soon, go read the small-team comparison instead; the math and the plans change once you're buying more than one seat.

I'm comparing five tools that all publish a usable plan for one person: Capsule, Close, Pipedrive, folk, and HubSpot. I don't sell any of them. Each one has a link on this page; some are affiliate links and some go straight to the vendor's own site, and the disclosure above says which kind pays me.

If you want the one-line version: Capsule's free plan is the easiest way to start at zero cost, Close is the strongest pick once you're ready to pay and want built-in calling, and folk is worth a look if you live in email and LinkedIn.

Pipedrive is solid but its entry plan is built more for a small team's pipeline habits than a true one-person workflow.

HubSpot's free CRM is the other zero-cost starting point here. It allows more contacts than Capsule's free plan, and paid seats sit on top when you need them.

Capsule

Capsule's free plan is the place to start. Users: Up to 2 users. Limits: 250 contacts, 1 sales pipeline. That's enough to run a real solo book before paying anything. The Starter plan raises the ceiling to 30,000 contacts, and there's no setup fee on either plan (Capsule lists it as None).

Close

Close's Solo plan runs $9 per user per month, about $108 a year. What you get: 1 user, 10,000 leads, no workflows.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive's entry Lite plan is quoted as $14 per seat per month, billed annually, so you pay for the year up front rather than month to month.

folk

folk's Standard plan: $24 per member per month, billed yearly ($30 monthly). Premium: $48 per member per month, billed yearly, and that's the tier to watch, because Email sequences start on Premium.

HubSpot

HubSpot's free CRM covers up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts, and HubSpot describes it as free with no expiration date. Signup needs no credit card required. Paid seats begin with Starter, which starts at $15 per seat per month. HubSpot's CRM page doesn't publish the billing term next to that Starter price, so check it before you count on month to month.

Every one of these plans is priced for one seat, so the real question is which limit you'll hit first: contacts, leads, or features.

The table below checks all five against what a solo book actually needs: a free or low-cost plan, a contact limit that won't choke on a few hundred relationships, and a pipeline simple enough to update between client calls.

Capsule, Close, and HubSpot all clear the bar on price. Pipedrive clears it on pipeline simplicity but costs more than the free tiers out of the gate. folk clears it on simplicity too, with a relationship-first view of your contacts.

Capsule's free plan caps out at 250 contacts, 1 sales pipeline, which a busy freelancer can hit faster than expected once past clients get added back in. Close's Solo plan is priced well, but it comes with real limits (1 user, 10,000 leads, no workflows), so a consultant who runs workflows or sequences will have to upgrade sooner than the price alone suggests.

Pipedrive's Lite price looks competitive until you remember it's an annual commitment, not a month-to-month one, which is a bigger ask for a solo consultant than for a funded team. folk's trial (2 weeks, no credit card) is about the same length as the others, so plan your test before you start the clock.

HubSpot's free CRM stops at 1,000 contacts, and the jump to Starter is priced per seat, so check the current plan page before you plan your first paid year around it.

Start free on Capsule if you want to prove the habit of using a CRM before paying for one. Move to Close's Solo plan once calling or a bigger lead limit matters more than staying free.

Consider Pipedrive if you already think in pipeline stages and don't mind the annual bill. Look at folk if email and LinkedIn are where most of your client relationships actually live. Pick HubSpot's free CRM if you want a no-cost start that keeps more contacts than Capsule's free plan.