CRM setup cost: what you'll actually pay
The software runs from free (HubSpot's free CRM) to $97 a month flat for GoHighLevel, $14 to $99 a user for Pipedrive, or $800 a month plus a $3,000 onboarding fee for HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional. The setup is your time or someone's quote, and it mostly comes down to how messy your data is and how much has to connect.
My take is that most small businesses buy more CRM than they need, so I'll also tell you when I'd skip one. Hope this helps.
Founder, Handled. Greenville, SC. Updated October 2026, 7 min read.
What the software costs
Prices checked October 2026. These companies change plans a lot, so double-check before you sign.
HubSpot
Free CRM for up to 2 users, then Marketing Hub Starter at $20 a seat billed monthly. Marketing Hub Professional is $800 a month on a yearly plan ($890 paid monthly) with 3 seats, plus a required $3,000 onboarding fee.
Fits: Brand-new businesses (the free CRM), and teams whose CRM has to connect to a lot of other software.
GoHighLevel
$97, $297 or $497 a month, flat, with unlimited contacts. Texting, calls and AI cost extra as you use them.
Fits: Local and service businesses that want texting, booking and follow-ups in one place.
Pipedrive
From $14 a user a month (Lite, paid yearly) up to $99 a user (Ultimate, paid monthly). Growth is $39 a user, Premium $49.
Fits: Teams where the sales pipeline is the whole point.
Salesforce
Starter Suite at $25 a user a month, Pro Suite at $100 a user.
Fits: Bigger teams, or businesses that know they'll grow into it. A lot for most small shops.
What makes setup cheap or expensive
Freelancer and agency quotes vary too much for me to hand you an honest average. These are the things that move the quote.
The most common thing I find is a business running off an Excel sheet. A clean sheet imports in an hour. Duplicates, mixed-up columns and notes crammed into one cell take a lot longer.
One pipeline with five stages is quick. Separate pipelines for different services, locations or teams take real thought about how work actually moves.
Follow-up emails, reminders and review requests each need to be written, built and tested. Start with one or two. You can always add more once you trust them.
Your calendar, your forms, your accounting, your website. Every connection is something to set up and something that can break later. This is also the best reason to pick a big CRM in the first place.
Per-seat pricing means every person on the CRM costs money. Count who actually needs to log in, budget those seats, and set aside time to show each of them the pipeline.
A quick example: one year of software for 4 people
A made-up 4-person team, real list prices, software only.
| Plan | Per month | First year |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot free CRM, 2 of the 4 (the free cap is 2 users) | $0 | $0 |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter, 4 seats | $80 | $960 |
| GoHighLevel Starter | $97, plus usage | $1,164, plus usage |
| Salesforce Starter Suite, 4 users | $100 | $1,200 |
| Pipedrive Growth, 4 users | $156 | $1,872 |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional, 3 seats plus 1, yearly plan | $845 | $13,140, with the $3,000 onboarding |
The gap between the top and bottom of that table is the whole point. Pay for the top row only if your team will use what's in it.
The order I'd go in
1Learn what you have
Your booking tool, your email tool or your point of sale might already track customers well enough. Check before you add another bill.
2Pick a CRM if one really fits
Start on the free or cheapest tier, set up one pipeline and one automation, and use it for a month before you upgrade anything.
3Build what's missing
If every CRM you try makes you bend your business around it, a system built for how you work can be the better deal. That's a Custom Platform build for us, from $5,000 with a fixed quote after a free scoping call.
Questions people ask me
Got one that isn't here? Ask me on a free call →
How much does it cost to set up a CRM?
Two parts. The software runs from free (HubSpot's free CRM) to $97 a month flat for GoHighLevel Starter, $14 to $99 a user for Pipedrive, or $800 a month for HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional, which also has a required $3,000 onboarding fee. The setup itself is either your own time or someone else's quote, and that depends mostly on how messy your data is and how many automations and connections you need.
Do I even need a CRM?
Maybe not. I'd argue most small businesses don't. A big CRM earns its price when it has to connect to a lot of other software. If you mostly need to track customers, follow-ups and a pipeline, learning the tool you already have, or a simpler system built around how you work, is usually the better fit.
What's the cheapest CRM to start with?
HubSpot's free CRM. It's free for up to 2 users, handles contacts, deals, forms and basic email, and a small business can run on it for a long time. When you outgrow it, compare what the next tier actually costs for your number of seats before you upgrade.
Should I pay someone to set up my CRM?
Only if the setup is more than an afternoon of importing a spreadsheet. If you have messy data, several pipelines, automations, or other tools to connect, getting help can save you weeks. If it's a clean contact list and one pipeline, do it yourself with the vendor's help docs.
What does Handled charge to set up a CRM?
We don't sell CRM setup on its own. When a business needs a system shaped around how it works, that's a Custom Platform build, from $5,000 with a fixed quote after a free scoping call. If the right answer is a tool you can set up yourself, I'll tell you that instead.
When you don't need me
Plenty of businesses set up a CRM just fine on their own.
You're just starting. Sign up for HubSpot's free CRM, import your list, and run your pipeline on it until it can't do something you need.
Your data is one clean spreadsheet. Every CRM on this page imports a spreadsheet. The vendor's help docs will get you there in an afternoon.
You already have one and haven't really learned it. Work every deal through it for a month, then decide if it's the CRM or the habit.
What changed
- October 12, 2026: HubSpot's free CRM is capped at 2 users, so the 4-person example now says so. Marketing Hub Professional's $800 a month is the yearly-plan price; the $890 monthly-billing price is shown next to it.
- October 2026: rewritten top to bottom. Removed setup price ranges, timelines and lost-revenue math we couldn't source, plus the example businesses, and replaced them with a made-up example priced from vendor pages. HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional now includes 3 seats and has a required $3,000 onboarding fee. Pipedrive prices reflect its January 2026 price change. Keap removed because we couldn't verify current pricing.
- April 2026: first published.
Sources
Every price and outside fact on this page comes from the sources below, checked October 12, 2026. Prices change often, so check before you buy.
More from the resource library
Best CRM for Small Business
Which one fits, if you need one.
GoHighLevel vs HubSpot
The two I see owners overpay for most.
What a CRM Migration Costs
If you're switching instead of starting fresh.
GoHighLevel vs Pipedrive
If the sales pipeline is the whole point.
GoHighLevel vs Keap
Another all-in-one matchup.
What Small Businesses Spend on Software
What the rest of the stack runs.
Start with what you have. Build what's missing.
Tell me how your week actually goes and what you're tracking now, spreadsheet and all. I'll tell you honestly whether you need a CRM, a better setup on the tool you have, or something built for you.
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