5questions, no email step
Which CRM actually fits how you work
Most comparison pages answer "which is best". That question has no answer. This one answers "which fits the shape you're in" — and when the honest answer is a tool I earn nothing from, that's what it says.
Answer five questions
Five questions. Nothing is collected, and there's no email step.
| If this is you | Start with |
|---|---|
| Clients see your forms or emails | A paid tier — free-plan branding can't be removed |
| Email sequences are the core | ActiveCampaign |
| You need 2+ pipelines, or 3+ people | A paid tier of either |
| One person, under 10 active deals | Streak or OnePageCRM — I earn nothing from these |
| Anything else | HubSpot free |
How this decides
In order: anything client-facing outranks everything else, because free-tier branding can't be removed. Then whether email is the core of the work. Then the structural limits — one pipeline, two users. Then size: a one-person operation with a small pipeline usually loses time to a full CRM rather than saving it.
Every number behind those rules comes fromHubSpot's official product catalog, checked against an account I set up and ran.