Freshsales vs Close CRM: Features, Pricing and Verdict

Freshsales starts at $9 per user per month with a free plan. Close team plans start at $35. We compare pricing, calling, automation, and AI.

By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-13T22:21:12+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-13T22:21:12+00:00

Freshsales vs Close CRM: Features, Pricing and Verdict

Freshsales and Close CRM both serve small sales teams, but they solve different problems. Freshsales is the cheaper, broader CRM. It starts at $9 per user per month on annual billing and covers contacts, deals, email, chat, and phone in one place. Close starts at $9 per user per month for a single user, but its real team plans start at $35. Close is built for teams that sell by phone. Its dialers, call coaching, and workflow automation sit at the centre of the product. If your team lives on the phone, Close is the stronger pick. If you want a low-cost CRM with marketing tools and a free plan, Freshsales wins. This comparison covers pricing, features, and fit so you can choose with confidence.

Freshsales vs Close CRM at a Glance

Freshsales Pricing and Plans

Freshsales is the sales CRM from Freshworks. Its pricing is simple. Four tiers cover most teams, and the paid prices are monthly equivalents under annual billing. A free plan covers up to three users. It suits a very small team that needs contacts, accounts, and a basic pipeline. Growth costs $9 per user per month billed annually. It adds a Kanban pipeline, lifecycle stages, built-in chat, email, and phone. Basic workflows and email templates are included. Pro costs $39 per user per month billed annually. It adds contact scoring, deal insights, territory management, and sales sequences. Multiple pipelines are included. Enterprise costs $59 per user per month billed annually. It adds forecasting insights, custom modules, a sandbox, audit logs, and field-level permissions. Every paid plan starts with a 21-day trial of the full CRM. Two add-ons sit outside the plan prices. Branded documents cost $19 per user per month. The Freddy AI Agent costs $49 per 100 sessions. Paid plans include 500 marketing contacts. For a team of ten, Growth costs $90 per month before tax. Pro costs $390 per month. Enterprise costs $590 per month. The gap between Growth and Pro is wide. Most teams should test whether Growth covers their needs before paying for Pro. Check the current pricing page before you buy, because Freshworks updates its rates from time to time.

Close Pricing and Plans

Close publishes four plans, all priced per user per month. Solo costs $9 per month billed annually, or $19 billed monthly. It allows one user only and up to 10,000 leads. It includes 500 free AI credits per month. Essentials costs $35 per user per month billed annually, or $49 billed monthly. It allows unlimited users and leads. It includes 1,000 AI credits per user per month. Growth costs $99 per user per month billed annually, or $109 billed monthly. It includes 1,500 AI credits per user per month. Scale costs $139 per user per month billed annually, or $149 billed monthly. It includes 2,000 AI credits per user per month. There is no free plan. A 14-day free trial needs no credit card. Calling and SMS are billed separately on every plan. Most outbound calls cost around $0.02 per minute. Phone numbers start at about $1 per month. That usage billing matters. A team that makes many calls will pay more than the seat price. The plan prices cover the CRM and its sales tools. They do not cover call minutes, text messages, or extra AI usage. For a team of ten on Growth, the seat cost is $990 per month billed annually. Add calling usage on top. Close also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Compare that with Freshsales, where the entry team price is far lower but the dialer features are thinner.

Features Compared: Calling, Automation, and AI

Calling is the biggest difference between the two products. Close was built around the phone. Every plan includes built-in calling, email, and SMS. Reps call from the lead record, and the conversation is logged automatically. Growth adds the Power Dialer, which calls through lead lists automatically. Scale adds the Predictive Dialer, which dials several prospects at once and connects a rep when someone answers. Scale also adds live call coaching, so a manager can listen, whisper, and join calls in real time. Freshsales includes built-in phone, email, and chat on its paid plans. It covers the basics well. It does not list a power dialer or predictive dialer as core features. A team that makes a few calls a day will not miss them. A team that makes hundreds of calls a day will feel the gap quickly. Automation is the second difference. Close keeps workflows behind the Growth plan. Essentials has no workflows. That means a small team on Essentials must do follow-up by hand. Freshsales includes basic workflows on Growth, its cheapest paid plan. Pro adds sales sequences and more automation. On automation alone, Freshsales gives more for less money. AI is the third difference. Close includes a monthly AI credit allowance on every plan. The credits power its Chloe assistant, AI Agents, lead enrichment, and AI actions inside workflows. Credits do not roll over. Freshsales uses Freddy, its AI layer, for contact scoring on Pro and forecasting insights on Enterprise. The Freddy AI Agent is a paid add-on at $49 per 100 sessions. Both products now lean on AI. Close bundles the allowance into the seat price. Freshsales charges extra for its agent sessions. Reporting is close. Both offer dashboards, custom reports, and pipeline views. Close adds a leaderboard and custom reports in its Explorer tool. Freshsales adds deal insights on Pro and forecasting insights on Enterprise. Neither product needs a separate reporting tool for a small team.

Which CRM Fits Which Team?

Choose Freshsales if budget is the main constraint. A team of five pays $45 per month on Growth billed annually. The same team pays $175 per month on Close Essentials. That gap grows as the team grows. Freshsales also fits teams that want one tool for sales and light marketing. The 500 marketing contacts on each paid plan support simple campaigns without a second subscription. Small businesses, startups, and teams moving off spreadsheets will find Growth covers the basics. Choose Pro when you need sequences, territory management, and contact scoring. Choose Enterprise when you need a sandbox, audit logs, and field-level permissions. Choose Close if your team sells by phone. The dialers, call recording, and coaching tools are built for outbound work. Growth is the plan most outbound teams land on, because workflows and the Power Dialer start there. Essentials suits a small team that needs shared calling and email but not automation. Solo suits a single founder working a finite lead list. Note the Solo cap. The second hire moves you to Essentials at $35 per user per month. Migration help is available from Close, and the trial needs no credit card. That makes it easy to test Close with real leads before you commit. Test both products with your own workflow. A trial shows whether the dialer saves time or whether the cheaper CRM covers your process.

Bottom Line

Freshsales wins on price and breadth. It offers a free plan, a $9 entry tier, built-in phone and email, and basic automation at the lowest paid level. Close wins on outbound selling. Its dialers, workflows, call coaching, and bundled AI credits are built for teams that live on the phone. For most small teams that want a general CRM, Freshsales is the better value. For outbound sales teams, Close is worth the higher seat price. Pick the tool that matches how your team actually sells.