1. Directory snapshot
We actively track 27 crm & support tools across 20 sub-categories.
5 CRM & Support statistics & trends (2026)
This is our 2026 read on crm & support: how the field is priced, where the tools cluster, and which way buying behaviour is moving.
The headline figures below are derived directly from the 27 tools in our crm & support directory, so they're verifiable against the pages they summarise. For wider market sizing we link out to independent research rather than inventing numbers.
Key crm & support statistics
2. Free-tier availability
About 37% of the tools we track (10 of 27) offer a free plan or free tier.
3. Trial availability
A free trial is on offer from 10 of the 27 tools here (37%).
4. Entry pricing range
Entry-level paid plans across these tools span roughly $0.99 to $249 per month, with a typical (median) starting price around $19..
5. Category density
By tool count, the busiest corners of crm & support are sales CRM (4), customer support / helpdesk (3), all-in-one CRM (2), ecommerce helpdesk (2), work-OS CRM (1).
What the crm & support tools reveal
Aggregated from our crm & support tool research, these are specific, sourced facts rather than market estimates:
- Pipedrive: No free plan; 14-day trial only.
- Zoho CRM: Free plan limited to 3 users.
- Close: AI Call Assistant add-on ~$50/mo plus ~$0.02/min transcribed.
- Freshsales (Freshworks): Free plan capped at 3 users.
- monday CRM: 3-seat minimum on all plans.
- Copper: Starter capped at 3 users.
- Salesflare: Enterprise requires 5 users minimum.
- Keap: Entry plan includes 2 users and ~1,500 contacts.
- Nutshell: Marketing Pro (~$49/mo flat) requires a Sales subscription and bills monthly.
- OnePageCRM: 21-day trial.
- Insightly: AppConnect priced $249-$1,899/account/mo plus ~$3,000 setup.
- Capsule CRM: Free plan: 2 users, 250 contacts.
Sources
The tool-level facts above are drawn from these independent reviews and vendor pages:
- pipedrive.com
- g2.com
- research.com
- zoho.com
- costbench.com
- theravenlabs.com
- close.com
- g2.com
- authencio.com
- freshworks.com
- crm.org
- businessnewsdaily.com
- monday.com
- crm.org
- sonary.com
- copper.com
- zeeg.me
- efficient.app
- crm.org
- capterra.com
- authencio.com
- keap.com
- encharge.io
- business.com
- checkthat.ai
- capterra.com
- sonary.com
- capterra.com
- g2.com
- begindot.com
- insightly.com
- aeroleads.com
- costbench.com
- capsulecrm.com
- g2.com
- techradar.com
Qualitative trends to watch in 2026
Consolidation and feature-bundling are the defining trends in crm & support right now. A few directional patterns we're seeing, framed as trends rather than precise figures (we don't publish numbers we can't source):
- Trials are doing more of the selling: 10 of 27 tools here lean on a free trial rather than a permanent free plan to win buyers.
- Free tiers are increasingly used as an acquisition funnel: 10 of 27 tools here lead with one.
- Pricing is drifting from flat monthly fees toward per-seat and usage-based models, which makes total cost harder to compare at a glance.
- AI features are being folded into existing plans rather than sold as separate add-ons, raising the baseline of what an 'entry' plan includes.
Related buyer's guides
Sources & further reading
For hard market-size and adoption figures, these independent sources publish regularly updated, citable research:
The data-derived figures above are computed from the tools we track and are accurate to this directory; the external reports cover broader market numbers we don't estimate ourselves.