HubSpot Sales Hub is the best sales effectiveness software for most small teams, because the free plan covers up to 2 users and Starter costs $10 per seat a month with annual billing. Salesforce Sales Cloud is the pick for enterprises that need the deepest customization, with Starter Suite at $25 per user a month and listed rates up to $550. Freshsales Growth at $9 per user a month is the cheapest subscription plan in this set, while Gong, Outreach and Salesloft list no price at all.
Sales effectiveness software is the set of tools that turns rep activity into closed revenue: the CRM that holds the pipeline, the engagement tool that runs sequences, and the conversation intelligence that shows managers what actually happened on calls. The eight tools below cover all three jobs, and the prices come from official vendor pricing pages opened 12 November 2026, or are marked quote only where the vendor lists no figure. Five tools list a price you can check before a demo, and three sell only through a quote.
On this page
Best sales effectiveness software: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HubSpot Sales Hub | Small teams that want a free CRM with a low-cost upgrade path | $10 per seat/month | Yes | Visit |
| 2 | Salesforce Sales Cloud | Enterprises that want the deepest CRM customization | $25 per user/month | Yes | Visit |
| 3 | Pipedrive | Small sales teams that want a visual pipeline without admin overhead | $14 per user/month | Free trial (14 days) | Visit |
| 4 | Zoho CRM | Budget teams that want a free CRM for up to 3 users | $14 per user/month | Yes | Visit |
| 5 | Freshsales | Startups that want built-in calling and email at the lowest seat price | $9 per user/month | Yes | Visit |
| 6 | Gong | Enterprise revenue teams with a weekly deal-review habit | quote only | No | Visit |
| 7 | Outreach | Mid-market to enterprise teams that run multi-channel sequences | quote only | No | Visit |
| 8 | Salesloft | Revenue teams that want cadences, coaching and forecasting from one vendor | quote only | No | Visit |
The 8 best best sales effectiveness software tools, in detail
HubSpot Sales Hub
Best for: Small teams that want a free CRM with a low-cost upgrade path
HubSpot Sales Hub runs on per-seat pricing, and the pricing page we opened today lists the Starter product offer at $10.00, shown beside a $20 standard rate in recent checks. The free plan costs $0 for up to 2 users with unlimited contacts and companies and one deal pipeline. Starter adds up to 15 pipelines, up to 50 workflows with restricted triggers, 500 calling minutes and 500 HubSpot Credits a month.
- Professional costs $90 per seat a month with annual billing and adds 3,000 credits, 300 fully customizable workflows, 5,000 sequences, 750 hours of ca
- Enterprise costs $150 per seat a month with 5,000 credits and 1,000 workflows.
- The unique fact here is the credit meter: HubSpot AI runs on credits priced at $0.010 each, the credit allowance is separate from the seat price, and
- HubSpot suits a small team that wants to start free and grow inside one CRM.
Pros
- Free plan covers up to 2 users with unlimited contacts
- Starter adds up to 15 pipelines and 500 HubSpot Credits a month
- Professional adds 3,000 credits and 300 workflows
Cons
- AI features run on HubSpot Credits, and unused credits do not roll over
- Professional carries a required $1,500 one-time onboarding fee
- Enterprise onboarding is $3,500
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Best for: Enterprises that want the deepest CRM customization
Salesforce lists every Sales Cloud rate in the open, which already sets it apart from the quote-only tools in this set. Starter Suite costs $25 per user a month and can be billed monthly or annually, and it is the only edition with a monthly option. Pro Suite costs $100 per user a month with annual billing and adds quoting, forecasting, custom objects and more automation.
- Above that sit Core at $195, Advanced at $395 and Max at $550 per user a month, all billed annually.
- A Free Suite covers up to 2 users at $0, and every subscription plan carries a 30-day free trial.
- Agentforce for Sales is sold separately from $125 per user a month.
- One limit: API access on Pro Suite costs an extra $25 per user a month, and Pro Suite caps Flow Builder at 5 flows per org.
Pros
- Starter Suite includes sales flows, lead routing and email marketing for $25
- Pro Suite adds quoting, forecasting and custom objects for $100
- every edition above Starter has a listed rate up to $550
Cons
- API access on Pro Suite costs an extra $25 per user a month
- Pro Suite caps Flow Builder at 5 flows per org
- the Free Suite covers up to 2 users only
Pipedrive
Best for: Small sales teams that want a visual pipeline without admin overhead
Pipedrive is a sales-first CRM built around a visual pipeline, and it lists five tiers with per-user pricing: Essential at $14, Advanced at $29, Professional at $49, Power at $64 and Enterprise at $99 per user a month with annual billing. Monthly billing raises Essential to $24 a user a month. Essential covers the pipeline, contacts and basic deal management, while Advanced adds workflow automation, two-way email sync, group emailing and a meeting scheduler.
- Professional adds revenue forecasting, e-signatures, custom field visibility controls and revenue management.
- One limit: several useful features are add-ons priced per company rather than per user, including LeadBooster at $32.50 a company a month, Smart Docs
Pros
- Essential covers unlimited deals and pipelines from $14
- Advanced adds workflow automation and two-way email sync for $29
- Professional adds forecasting and e-signatures for $49
Cons
- No permanent free plan, only a 14-day trial
- LeadBooster, Smart Docs and Campaigns are add-ons priced per company
- Essential has no revenue forecasting
Zoho CRM
Best for: Budget teams that want a free CRM for up to 3 users
Zoho CRM is the stable low-cost leg of this set. The free edition costs $0 for up to 3 users with no time limit, and it includes core contact, lead and deal management, 5,000 contact records, 150 emails a day, five active workflow rules and seven native app integrations. Standard costs $14 per user a month with annual billing, or $20 billed monthly, and adds scoring rules, workflows and custom fields.
- Professional costs $23, Enterprise costs $40 and Ultimate costs $52 per user a month with annual billing.
- One useful warning comes from a September 2026 check of Zoho’s own licence calculator, which found a $1,534 gap between the sticker price and the real
- Ten Standard seats list at $1,680 a year, so run the calculator before you present a budget.
Pros
- Free edition covers up to 3 users with 5,000 records
- Standard adds scoring rules and custom fields for $14
- Professional and Enterprise add forecasting and Zia AI
Cons
- Support tier, storage, backup and training are priced separately
- Ultimate is not priced on the main pricing page
- the fourth user forces every user onto a subscription plan
Freshsales
Best for: Startups that want built-in calling and email at the lowest seat price
Freshsales, from Freshworks, bundles the communication tools most CRMs make you integrate: phone, email and chat work inside the CRM from the start. The free plan costs $0 for up to 3 users with core contact and deal management. Growth costs $9 per user a month with annual billing, or $11 month to month, and adds Kanban views, contact lifecycle stages, chat, email, phone, templates, custom fields and basic workflows.
- Pro costs $39 and Enterprise costs $59 per user a month with annual billing, and both add Freddy AI scoring, advanced automation and deeper forecastin
- A 21-day trial covers the subscription plans.
- One limit: the step from Growth to Pro is a 4.3 times jump, from $9 to $39, so a team that outgrows Growth should budget for Pro rather than assume a
Pros
- Free plan covers up to 3 users
- Growth at $9 includes phone, email and chat in one place
- Freddy AI adds lead scoring and deal insights on higher tiers
Cons
- Growth to Pro jumps from $9 to $39, a 4.3 times step
- AI scoring and advanced automation sit on higher tiers
- free plan limits integrations
Gong
Best for: Enterprise revenue teams with a weekly deal-review habit
Gong is the category benchmark for revenue intelligence, and it lists no prices at all. Its pricing page describes the model rather than the price: licenses are priced per user, a platform fee is charged on top based on the number of users supported, and buyers select a team-size band and receive a custom proposal. There is no self-serve tier and no free trial, and contracts run annually.
- The platform covers conversation intelligence, deal boards, pipeline forecasting and engagement in one place, with three product lines: Conversation I
- Seats are sold per product, so a rep with a conversation intelligence seat does not automatically get every other Gong app.
- Third-party procurement data from Vendr puts the median Gong contract at $55,359 a year across 1,151 purchases, with reported per-seat figures of $1,2
Pros
- Records, transcribes and analyzes calls, then turns them into coaching and deal inspection
- Engage and Forecast extend the platform from the same data
- integrations are included at no extra cost
Cons
- No listed price and no free tier or trial
- per-user licenses plus a platform fee set by users supported
- reported seat minimum near 15, so small teams pay for seats they do not use
Outreach
Best for: Mid-market to enterprise teams that run multi-channel sequences
Outreach is an AI agent platform for revenue teams, and it does not list prices on its website. Its pricing page says cost combines two models: seat-based access, where you pay per user, and consumption-based AI credits for agent work such as research, personalization, sequencing automation, conversation analysis and forecasting. Every package leads to a request-pricing button, so a demo and a sales conversation are the only route to a number.
- The four Amplify packages are Essentials with 10,000 AI credits, Core with 25,000, Plus with 50,000 and Pro with 100,000.
- Essentials covers conversation intelligence and coaching, Core adds multi-channel sequences and the dialer, Plus adds a Meeting Prep agent, live coach
- Third-party estimates put Core near $100 per user a month.
Pros
- Four Amplify packages from 10,000 to 100,000 AI credits
- Core adds multi-channel sequences, dialer and reporting
- Plus adds live coaching cards and deal health alerts
Cons
- No listed prices and no advertised free trial
- cost combines per-seat licenses with consumption-based AI credits
- contracts are annual with no monthly option
Salesloft
Best for: Revenue teams that want cadences, coaching and forecasting from one vendor
Salesloft is Outreach’s perennial rival, and the honest difference is time to value: teams get running faster than on heavier platforms, and the coaching layer is built in rather than added on. Salesloft sells two packages, Advanced and Elite, both quote-only and both on annual contracts with no monthly billing and no free trial. Both packages share Cadence, Rhythm, Conversations, Deals, coaching, automation, calendaring, mobile access, CRM sync and analytics.
- Four capabilities sit outside both packages as add-ons: the Dialer, Forecasting, Account Agent and Coaching Agent, so calling costs extra even on Elit
- The unique fact here is the merger: Salesloft merged with Clari in December 2025 and has run as one company under the Salesloft name since September 2
- Third-party procurement data from Vendr puts the median Salesloft contract at $30,740 a year across 710 purchases.
Pros
- Cadence, Rhythm, Conversations, Deals and forecasting now sit under one roof after the Clari merger
- coaching is built in rather than added on
- Rhythm prioritizes each rep's day from buyer signals
Cons
- No listed prices and no free trial
- Dialer, Forecasting, Account Agent and Coaching Agent are add-ons outside both packages
- the Clari merger is still settling, so packaging can shift
How we chose
We picked products that do one of the three sales effectiveness jobs, CRM, sales engagement or conversation intelligence, with an official pricing page we could open. Prices and plan limits come from official vendor pricing pages and docs opened 12 November 2026, and we wrote quote only where the vendor lists no figure. We did not test any tool hands-on. We ranked nothing by customer counts, awards or review scores. The unique fact in this article is the credit meter: HubSpot AI and Outreach AI both charge for agent work on top of the seat price, so the seat rate alone does not predict the bill.
Which tool fits your team size and budget
| Team size | Pick | Monthly cost at list |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 users, $0 budget | Zoho CRM Free or Freshsales Free | $0 |
| 5 users, cheapest subscription plan | Freshsales Growth | $45 (5 x $9) |
| 5 users, pipeline CRM | Pipedrive Essential | $70 (5 x $14) |
| 10 users, low-cost CRM | HubSpot Starter | $100 (10 x $10) |
| 10 users, CRM with automation | Zoho CRM Standard | $140 (10 x $14) |
| 10 users, enterprise CRM | Salesforce Starter Suite | $250 (10 x $25) |
| 50 plus sellers, quote only | Gong, Outreach or Salesloft | quote only |
Frequently asked questions
What is the best sales effectiveness software for most teams?
HubSpot Sales Hub is the best pick for most small teams, because the free plan covers up to 2 users and Starter costs $10 per seat a month with annual billing. Salesforce Sales Cloud is the pick for enterprises that need the deepest customization, starting at $25 per user a month.
What is the cheapest sales effectiveness software?
Freshsales Growth at $9 per user a month with annual billing is the cheapest subscription plan in this set. Zoho CRM, Freshsales and HubSpot all have free plans, covering up to 3 users at Zoho and Freshsales and up to 2 users at HubSpot.
Does Gong list its pricing?
No. Gong lists no prices at all. Its pricing page describes per-user licenses plus a platform fee based on the number of users supported, and buyers receive a custom proposal. Third-party procurement data puts the median Gong contract near $55,000 a year.
What is the difference between Outreach and Salesloft?
Both are quote-only sales engagement platforms with no free trial. Outreach prices by per-seat licenses plus consumption-based AI credits across four Amplify packages, while Salesloft sells two packages, Advanced and Elite, with the Dialer and Forecasting as add-ons. Salesloft now includes Clari Forecast after the Clari merger.
Which sales CRM has a free plan?
HubSpot Sales Hub is free for up to 2 users, Zoho CRM is free for up to 3 users with 5,000 records, and Freshsales is free for up to 3 users. Salesforce has a Free Suite for up to 2 users, while Pipedrive, Gong, Outreach and Salesloft have no permanent free plan.
How much does Salesforce Sales Cloud cost?
Starter Suite costs $25 per user a month and can be billed monthly or annually. Pro Suite costs $100, Core costs $195, Advanced costs $395 and Max costs $550 per user a month, all with annual billing. Agentforce for Sales is sold separately from $125 per user a month.
Sources
- https://www.hubspot.com
- https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/sales
- https://www.salesforce.com
- https://www.salesforce.com/sales/pricing
- https://www.pipedrive.com
- https://www.pipedrive.com/en/pricing
- https://www.zoho.com
- https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html
- https://www.freshworks.com
- https://www.freshworks.com/crm/pricing/
- https://www.gong.io
- https://www.gong.io/pricing
- https://www.outreach.io
- https://www.outreach.io/pricing
- https://salesloft.com
- https://salesloft.com/pricing
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.