HubSpot's free CRM costs nothing and has no end date. That makes it a common first CRM for small businesses. It also has firm limits on users, contacts, branding and automation. Here is what they are as of October 2026, from HubSpot's own pages.
What the free CRM includes
According to HubSpot's CRM page, the free CRM includes:
- Contact, deal and task management
- Email tracking and notifications when someone opens an email
- Email templates and scheduling
- Document sharing
- Meeting scheduling
- Live chat
- Sales quotes
For a business of one or two people, that covers a lot of daily sales work.
The limits, one by one
These come from HubSpot's free CRM page, its Starter comparison and its email page, as of October 2026.
- Users: up to two.
- Contacts: 1,000 in total.
- Custom properties: 10. These are the extra fields you add to a contact, such as 'Industry' or 'Budget'.
- Branding: HubSpot branding shows on your emails, forms, live chat and meeting links.
- Automation: one automated action per email and one automated email per form.
- Marketing email: up to 2,000 emails per month.
- Sending domain: connecting your own domain to send marketing email needs a paid Marketing Hub plan.
- Support: community and knowledge base. Email and chat support start on Starter.
Which limits you will hit first
It depends on how you work.
If you are a team of three. The two-user cap is the first wall. A third person means paid seats.
If you collect leads from a website or event. 1,000 contacts can fill faster than you expect. Every form fill and every imported list counts.
If you send a newsletter. The branding on emails and the 2,000 monthly emails may matter. A list of 500 people gets four sends a month before you reach that cap.
If you want follow-ups to run on their own. One automated email per form is enough for a thank-you message. It is not enough for a series of follow-ups.
What Starter adds, and what it costs
As of October 2026, HubSpot Starter is normally $20 per seat per month. HubSpot often runs a lower price for new customers for a limited time, and its pages do not always show the same offer. Check the Starter page for the current offer before you plan around it.
Starter adds:
- No HubSpot branding
- Higher usage limits across features
- Email and chat support
- 1,000 custom properties
- Unlimited users, with a seat bought for each user
- More automation from contact, company and deal records, forms and emails
HubSpot also says your Starter bill can rise if you add seats, buy add-ons, or go past an included limit such as your marketing contact tier. Read that part before you plan your budget.
When the free plan is enough
- You are one or two people.
- You have fewer than 1,000 contacts and add them slowly.
- You send one-to-one emails more than bulk emails.
- You are fine with HubSpot branding on forms and meeting links.
When to look further
If the limits already pinch, you have two choices. Pay for HubSpot Starter, or move to a tool with a different shape of free plan. Zoho CRM's free edition allows three users, for example. See HubSpot alternatives for small business and is HubSpot worth it for a small business to compare.
Keep your contacts clean from day one
A contact cap rewards a tidy list. Delete test records and duplicates each month. Do not import a whole spreadsheet of people you will never email. If you are growing a list on purpose, the guide to building an email list covers how to do it with permission, so the contacts you keep are ones that want to hear from you.