A genuinely free CRM
Contacts, companies and deals without paying. To get started, hard to beat.
Plaanly vs HubSpot
Plaanly vs HubSpot for small businesses
HubSpot has a very good free CRM and a world-class marketing platform. The question is how much of that platform an 8-person company uses — and how much it pays as it grows.
Let's be fair
What HubSpot does well
Marketing automation
Landing pages, forms, email marketing, lead scoring — all integrated. If you sell by inbound at scale, it's the standard.
Ecosystem and training
Academy, marketplace, thousands of integrations, a giant community.
The problem
Where it breaks in a small business
HubSpot is designed to grow with you — and to charge for every step.
Free ends at the first useful feature
Sequences, proposals with acceptance, automations, custom reports — each lives in a paid “Hub”, in dollars, per seat.
It doesn't deliver what you sell
After the deal closes, projects, tasks, costs and team leave don't exist in HubSpot. You'll need two more tools.
Too much for 8 people
Menus, hubs, properties, workflows. A small business needs someone to configure it — and that someone is the person who sells.
Side by side
What changes
| HubSpot | Plaanly | |
|---|---|---|
| CRM and pipeline | Very complete; free for the essentials. | Kanban with value per stage, alerts, interaction feed — the essentials, fast. |
| Marketing | Marketing Hub: landing pages, email marketing, lead scoring. | No mass marketing. 1:1 follow-up sequences, yes. |
| Proposals | Quotes in Sales Hub; rich proposals via integrations. | Native: branded templates, price packages, public link, online acceptance. |
| Projects and tasks | Not covered (simple CRM tasks only). | Real-time kanban, sprints, timeline, costs and margin. |
| Email and WhatsApp | Email via inbox connection; WhatsApp on higher plans. | IMAP webmail included; native WhatsApp or via Bitrix24. |
| Team and HR | Not covered. | Leave, payroll, recruitment, team calendar. |
| Price | Free to start; paid hubs per seat, in dollars. | Per user, everything included, no lock-in. |
HubSpot features as per the product's public information at the time of writing; always confirm on their site.
Migrate
Bringing the CRM from HubSpot
Contacts, companies and deals export to CSV. Custom properties become custom fields.
- 1
Export contacts, companies and deals
Three CSVs from HubSpot. Keep the email, phone and VAT number columns.
- 2
Map stages and fields
HubSpot pipeline stages become Plaanly stages; important properties become custom fields.
- 3
Connect email
After that each client's feed builds itself.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Do I need marketing automation?
If your business lives on inbound at scale, HubSpot is the right one. If you sell by relationship (proposals, meetings, follow-up), Plaanly covers what you use.
Can I keep HubSpot for marketing and Plaanly for the rest?
You can. There is no direct sync today — contact migration is via CSV.
Does Plaanly have website forms?
No. Your website's contact form can send to an email that Plaanly reads and links to the contact.
What about reports?
CRM and HR dashboards included. For custom analysis, export to CSV.
Shall we put your company in one place?
Tell us what you're using today. We'll show you how it looks in Plaanly.