HubSpot's free CRM is designed around what it withholds: two users, no automation, AI locked to paid hubs. Plyto's free plan is smaller on raw caps and bigger on product: your whole team, an AI agent with real credit, and a $49 flat step when you outgrow it.
Brand-new businesses
First customers, first follow-ups, no budget line for software yet.
Startups pre-revenue
The system should exist before the spend does. Set it up free, grow into it.
Side businesses
Nights-and-weekends operations that still lose money when a lead goes cold.
Teams outgrowing the spreadsheet
Past the shared sheet, not ready for a three-figure monthly bill.
HubSpot's free tier is genuinely useful right up until it works. Then the walls appear where they hurt: the third teammate needs a paid seat, the first workflow needs a Professional hub, and the upgrade math turns into a spreadsheet of its own. The free plan's real job is moving you onto the per-seat ladder.
HubSpot's free plan caps new accounts at two users. Plyto never prices seats, on any plan, including the free one. The whole team works the same pipeline from day one.
The free plan includes $10 of agent credit every month: imports, list cleanup, email drafts, questions answered about your own pipeline. HubSpot gates its AI to paid tiers.
Contacts, companies, deals, pipelines, saved views, custom columns, lead forms and email sends. Not a stripped demo: the same product, at starter scale.
Outgrow 100 contacts and the next step is $49 flat for 1,000, unlimited seats included. No hubs, no per-seat multiplication, no sales call.
Both plans are free. What sits behind the caps differs:
| HubSpot Free | Plyto | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan caps | 1,000 contacts, 2,000 email sends, two users on new accounts | 100 contacts, 100 email sends, unlimited users |
| AI on the free plan | Locked to paid tiers | $10 of agent credit, refreshed every month |
| When you outgrow it | Per-seat Starter, then Professional hubs priced for ops teams | $49 flat for 1,000 contacts, seats still unlimited |
| Automation | Not on the free plan; lives in Professional-tier hubs | Not on the free plan either: it arrives at $149, drafted by the agent |
| Who operates it | You | The agent drafts and runs; you approve |
HubSpot's free caps apply to accounts created since late 2024 and their packaging changes often. Check their current pricing page against ours; both sets of numbers should be easy to find, which is part of the point.
An example first week on the free plan:
Import your first contacts (up to 100) and the agent maps the columns and builds your pipeline stages.
A lead form goes on your site; new submissions land as contacts with the deal created.
The agent drafts a monthly update email in your voice; you approve and send within the 100-send allowance.
Everyone on the team joins. Still $0, because seats are never the meter.
They are, and if 1,000 free contacts today outweighs everything else, HubSpot's free plan is the right call. The caps just sit on different products: theirs comes with two seats, no AI, and a hub ladder behind it; ours comes with your whole team, an agent doing the work, and one $49 step when you grow.
Contacts, companies, deals and pipelines, saved views, lead forms, 100 email sends a month, and $10 of AI agent credit refreshed monthly, with unlimited users. Automations, ad campaigns and the website builder live on paid plans, and the free trial shows you all of them.
Yes. $0, no card, no trial clock. The AI credit refreshes every month. It ends when you choose to upgrade, not when a timer runs out.
Contacts and deals import via CSV with agent-assisted mapping. If your list is over 100 contacts, the $49 plan holds 1,000; the import works the same either way.
No card, no seat cap, no hub ladder. $0.
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