Overview
Close is a sales-team CRM built around the idea that the contact record and the communication channel should be the same screen. Its defining feature is native calling, SMS, and email inside every lead view, with a Power Dialer and Predictive Dialer that let a single rep work through a list without leaving the record. That makes Close unusual in the category: where most CRMs treat telephony as a third-party integration, Close treats it as a core object, which is why the product is most often chosen by outbound and inside-sales teams that live on the phone rather than by marketing-led organisations.
The company, founded in 2013 and operating as a remote-first, privately held business, has deliberately stayed narrow. Close targets startups and small-to-mid sales teams rather than the enterprise, and it does not attempt the marketing-automation and service breadth of HubSpot or the customisation depth of Salesforce. That focus is both its strength and its ceiling: a five-to-fifty-rep team can be productive on day one, but an organisation that needs complex territory management, CPQ, or a wide partner ecosystem will hit the edges. There is no permanently free tier, so the entry cost is higher than HubSpot's free CRM.
Key Features
- Built-in calling with one-click dial from any lead record
- Power Dialer for sequential outbound through a list
- Predictive Dialer (Scale tier) for higher-volume calling
- Native SMS and email in the same activity timeline
- Workflows for multi-step email and call sequences
- Customisable pipelines and deal stages
- Call coaching, recording, and barge or whisper monitoring
- AI email assistant for drafting and reply suggestions
- Reporting on activity, pipeline, and rep productivity
- Role-based access controls (higher tiers)
- Bulk email sending with per-user sending limits
- REST API, Zapier, and a focused set of native integrations
Pricing
| Plan | Monthly (billed monthly) | Per user (billed annually) | Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo | $19/user | $9/user | Calling, SMS, email; capped lead volume |
| Essentials | $49/user | $35/user | Unlimited contacts, leads, pipelines |
| Growth | $109/user | $99/user | Workflows, Power Dialer, AI email assistant |
| Scale | $149/user | $139/user | Predictive dialer, role-based access, call coaching |
Pricing verified June 2026. Annual billing discounts the monthly rate by roughly a third. Calling and SMS usage is metered separately on top of the subscription. Enterprise pricing requires a quote.
Strengths
- Native telephony and SMS in the lead record remove the need for a separate dialer integration
- Power and Predictive Dialers materially raise connect rates for outbound teams
- Fast onboarding; a small sales team can be productive within a day
- Activity and rep-productivity reporting are tuned for sales managers rather than analysts
- Transparent published per-user pricing across all four tiers
Limitations
- No permanently free tier; entry cost is higher than HubSpot's free CRM
- Marketing automation is minimal compared with HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Customisation and extensibility trail Salesforce; no equivalent of Apex or a large app marketplace
- Calling and SMS usage is metered, so heavy-dialing teams see costs above the headline subscription
- Not designed for enterprise complexity such as territory management, CPQ, or multi-division hierarchies
Buyer Considerations
Close is the right default for an outbound or inside-sales team of roughly five to fifty reps whose day is dominated by calls and follow-up sequences. The decision usually comes down to whether telephony is central: if reps dial all day, the native dialer pays for the metered usage in connect-rate gains; if the motion is inbound and marketing-led, HubSpot's free CRM and marketing depth are a better fit. Buyers should model calling and SMS consumption alongside the per-seat price, because metered usage, not the subscription, is where a high-volume team's bill actually lands. Start on Essentials and upgrade to Growth only when workflows and the Power Dialer are genuinely needed.