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Close
The No BS CRM for small, scaling businesses
VS
Freshsales
Sell smarter and close deals faster
The Economics
Pricing Model
per-seat
per-seat
Starting Price
$19/user/mo
$9/user/month (annual)
Price per Seat
$19/user/mo
$9-$59/user/month (annual)
Cost at Scale
$99-139/user/mo
$9-59/user/month; very affordable at scale
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
The GTM Utility
Category
CRM
CRM
Workflow Stage
Engage → Close
Close
Key Features
- • Built-in calling with Power Dialer and Predictive Dialer
- • Email, SMS, and calling from CRM
- • AI Notetaker for call transcription
- • AI Enrich for prospect data
- • AI Email Rewrite
- • Workflow automation
- • Meeting Notetaker (free in beta)
- • Pipeline management
- • Custom Objects and Activities
- • Call coaching (listen/whisper/barge)
- • AI-powered lead scoring (Freddy AI)
- • Built-in phone, email, and chat
- • Visual sales pipeline (Kanban)
- • Sales sequences
- • Freddy AI email writing
- • Territory management
- • Deal insights and forecasting
- • 360° customer view
- • Workflow automation
Platforms
Web, iOS, Android
Web, iOS, Android
Ease of Use
Easy — designed to be simple, sign up and start selling in an hour
Easy — much simpler than Salesforce with intuitive UI
The AI Edge
AI Features
AI Notetaker for call transcription/summaries, AI Enrich for lead data, AI Lead Summaries, AI Email Rewrite
Freddy AI for lead scoring, deal insights, email writing, text enhancement, sales forecasting
Market Position
Tagline
The No BS CRM for small, scaling businesses
Sell smarter and close deals faster
Best For
Small sales teams that want a CRM with built-in calling, email, and SMS — everything needed to sell without extra tools.
Small to mid-size sales teams that want an affordable, AI-powered CRM without the complexity of Salesforce.
Not Great For
Enterprise teams needing deep customization, marketing automation, or complex reporting.
Large enterprises needing deep customization or teams already invested in the Salesforce ecosystem.
Team Size
small team (2-10)
small team/mid-market
Intelligence
Pros
- • Built-in calling, email, and SMS — truly all-in-one for small teams
- • 50% faster than competing CRMs
- • Power and Predictive Dialer included
- • AI features (notetaker, enrichment, email rewrite) are genuinely useful
- • 14-day free trial, no contracts
- • Incredibly affordable starting at $9/user/month
- • Freddy AI is genuinely useful for lead scoring
- • Built-in phone/email/chat reduces tool sprawl
- • Easy to set up and use
Cons
- • Limited marketing automation features
- • Not suitable for large enterprise needs
- • Custom Objects only on Growth+ plans
- • Call recording retention limited on lower tiers
- • Smaller integration ecosystem than HubSpot/Salesforce
- • Less customizable than Salesforce
- • Limited third-party integrations compared to HubSpot
- • AI features require Pro plan ($39/user)
- • Part of Freshworks ecosystem — can push upsells
Reddit Sentiment
positive
Mixed-to-negative. Users report increasing bugginess and reliability issues. Seen as budget CRM option but with growing quality concerns. Part of Freshworks suite which gets mixed reviews.
Integrations
- • Zoom
- • Segment
- • Zapier
- • Calendly
- • HubSpot
- • Mailchimp
- • Slack
- • Zapier
- • Freshdesk
- • Freshchat
- • Google Workspace
- • Microsoft 365
- • Mailchimp
Editorial Face-off
The Case for Close
“Close is the best CRM for small sales teams that prioritize speed and simplicity. The built-in multichannel communication (call, email, SMS) is a genuine differentiator. AI features are practical and well-integrated. If you're a small team that mostly does outbound, Close should be your first CRM.”
The Case for Freshsales
“Freshsales is the best CRM value proposition on the market for SMBs. Starting at $9/user/month with AI capabilities on the Pro plan, it offers 80% of what Salesforce does at a fraction of the cost. Ideal for growing sales teams that want simplicity without sacrificing intelligence.”
Your next call is real. So is your prep.
Drop your prospect's LinkedIn. Rehearse the actual call before the meeting.