HubSpot vs Pipedrive vs Salesforce: what each really costs a small team
For a team of three, Pipedrive Lite is the cheapest CRM that is still a CRM you can run a pipeline in: $14 a seat a month on annual billing, $504 in year one. HubSpot is cheaper to start ($7 a seat on the annual promotion) and far more expensive to grow into: the Professional tier is $800 a month on annual billing for three seats plus a one-time $3,000 onboarding fee. Salesforce starts at $25 a user and its real sales tier, Professional, is $100 a user. If you are under five people, the deciding number is not the monthly price, it is what the next tier costs when you outgrow it.
The year-one cost, for 3 and 10 people
List prices, annual billing where the vendor offers it, in USD. Year one includes sign-up fees, not taxes. Extra seats priced at the vendor's stated per-seat rate.
| Vendor and tier | Per seat / month | 3 seats, year 1 | 10 seats, year 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter (annual promo) | $7 | $252 | $840 |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter (monthly) | $20 | $720 | $2,400 |
| Pipedrive Lite (annual) | $14 | $504 | $1,680 |
| Pipedrive Growth (annual) | $39 | $1,404 | $4,680 |
| Salesforce Starter Suite | $25 | $900 | $3,000 |
| Salesforce Sales Cloud Professional | $100 | $3,600 | $12,000 |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional (3 core seats included) + $3,000 onboarding | $800 / mo | $12,600 | $16,380 |
Sources: hubspot.com/pricing/marketing, pipedrive.com/en/pricing, salesforce.com/sales/pricing. Read 28 October 2026. The HubSpot Starter figure is a promotional rate for new customers and will not be the renewal price.
What you get at each tier
HubSpot
The free tier is genuinely free (two users, no card) and it is the reason HubSpot wins most head-to-heads with small teams: you can try the whole shape of the product before paying. Starter is a bundle of light versions of marketing, sales, service and content tools. Professional is where the automation and reporting live, and it is priced for a marketing department: three seats included, $45 for the next one, plus onboarding.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a pipeline with a calendar attached. Lite covers leads, deals, contacts and prompts for reports. Growth adds the email automation most small sales teams end up wanting. It is the cheapest plan here that does not feel like a demo.
Salesforce
Starter Suite is Salesforce trying to be simple, and $25 a user is honest for what it is. Sales Cloud Professional at $100 a user is the real product, and the price only makes sense when you have a sales process that already exists and a team that follows it.
The trap: the jump between tiers
Every one of these vendors sells a cheap tier that is missing the thing you will want in six months. HubSpot Starter to Professional is a jump from $7 a seat to a $800-a-month floor. Pipedrive Lite to Growth is a jump from $14 to $39 a seat. Salesforce Starter to Professional is a jump from $25 to $100 a user.
That jump is the number worth planning around. If you expect to need automation inside a year, the cheap tier is a bridge, not a destination, and the honest year-one cost is somewhere between the two rows in the table.
Questions people actually ask
Which CRM is cheapest for a 3-person team?
Pipedrive Lite on annual billing: $504 for three seats in year one. HubSpot Starter is cheaper on the current annual promotion ($252) but the promotion does not renew at that price. Salesforce Starter Suite is $900.
Is HubSpot Professional really $890 a month?
On monthly billing, yes. Annual billing brings it to $800 a month with three core seats included and $45 a month for extra seats. A one-time $3,000 onboarding fee is required on top, which is the line most comparisons leave out.
How much does Salesforce cost per user?
Starter Suite is $25 a user a month. Sales Cloud Professional is $100 a user a month billed annually. Core is $195, Advanced $395, Max $550.
Does the free tier count?
For testing, yes. For running a business, no: HubSpot's free tier caps at two users and the paid tier is the one that includes the tools you were evaluating.
What we would do
Three people, pipeline-first: Pipedrive Lite. Three people, marketing-first: HubSpot Starter, knowing the renewal price is higher than the promo. Ten people with a sales process that is already written down: Salesforce Professional, and budget for it properly. Ten people who mostly need email automation around a small pipeline: Pipedrive Growth is the cheapest thing that does the job.
Next: the full CRM price list for October 2026, with every tier and the seat math behind these totals.