Pick Freshsales if you want the cheapest way to get a CRM with a phone built in — free for up to 3 users, then $9 per user with no seat minimum; it scores 4.1. Pick monday CRM if you want board-level customization and a workspace that carries a deal from close into delivery; it scores 4.4 and starts at $12 per seat with a 3-seat minimum, so $36 a month at minimum.
Freshsales is a CRM first: a lifecycle pipeline, a phone system, and an AI assistant built specifically for reps who sell. monday CRM is a general work-management platform — the same boards, columns and automations that run monday.com's project tools — pointed at leads, contacts and deals. That single difference in origin explains almost every row below.
We price both at 1, 5 and 20 seats, including monday's 3-seat minimum and Freshsales' free tier, then compare ease of use, features, integrations and support. Facts come from our full Freshsales review and monday CRM review, scored with the same weighted rubric. Pricing verified Sept 2026.
| Freshsales | monday CRM | |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 4.1 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| G2 rating | 4.5 (1,223 reviews) | 4.5 (1,594 reviews) |
| Entry price | Free (3 users); $9/user/mo paid | $12/seat/mo, 3-seat minimum ($36 floor) |
| Free plan | Yes — 3 users, no expiry | No (14-day trial) |
| Built-in phone | Yes, from Growth ($9) | No native telephony |
| Project / delivery layer | None | Full boards after a deal closes |
| Best for | Phone-first small sales teams | Teams that deliver what they sell |
Pricing
Freshsales' tiers are Free (3 users), Growth $9, Pro $39 and Enterprise $59 per user per month billed annually, with a Freddy AI add-on at $49 per 100 sessions on every tier. monday CRM's are Basic $12, Standard $17 and Pro $28 per seat per month billed annually — $18, $25 and $41 month to month — with Enterprise on a custom quote. Every monday plan requires at least three seats; Freshsales has no minimum at any tier.
That combination — a real free tier on one side, a hard seat floor on the other — decides the comparison for anyone under about five people. A solo user or a three-person team pays $0 a month on Freshsales Free. The same three people on monday pay for three seats regardless of headcount: 3 × $12 = $36 a month, or $432 a year, before they have added a fourth feature. The gap narrows once teams outgrow Freshsales' free limits and monday's Basic constraints, but it never fully closes at the entry tier.
| Tier (annual, per seat/mo) | 1 seat | 5 seats | 20 seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freshsales Free $0 | $0 | — | — |
| Freshsales Growth $9 | $9 | $45 | $180 |
| Freshsales Pro $39 | $39 | $195 | $780 |
| Freshsales Enterprise $59 | $59 | $295 | $1,180 |
| monday Basic $12 ($18 monthly) | 3-seat minimum → $36 | $60 | $240 |
| monday Standard $17 ($25 monthly) | 3-seat minimum → $51 | $85 | $340 |
| monday Pro $28 ($41 monthly) | 3-seat minimum → $84 | $140 | $560 |
| monday Enterprise | Custom quote | Custom quote | Custom quote |
Freshsales Free tops out at 3 users, so 5- and 20-seat cells are marked "—"; a team past 3 people needs Growth or above.
Two caveats before you decide on the raw numbers. First, Freshsales Free is real but limited — no phone, no automation, no reporting beyond the basics — so most paying teams land on Growth, and Growth against monday's Basic ($45 vs $60 at five seats) still favours Freshsales. Second, the tiers that unlock each product's real strength are not the entry ones: Freshsales' AI and sequences live on Pro at $39, while monday's AI agents and automation arrive on Standard at $17. Compare Pro to Standard — $195 vs $85 at five seats — and monday is the cheaper way to get automation and AI in the box rather than bought separately.
Watch two things: Freddy AI in Freshsales is billed per 100 sessions on top of every tier, which can get unpredictable for a heavy user; monday's monthly billing runs about 50% above annual, and its automation actions are capped per month (250 on Standard, 25,000 on Pro).
Ease of use
Both tools scored 4.5 for ease of use in our testing, and both get a small team running fast — the difference shows up in week two, not day one.
In our Freshsales test account, connecting email and buying a phone number took minutes, and a small team could be calling from the CRM within an afternoon. The interface is uncluttered and second only to HubSpot and Pipedrive in our category testing. Complexity rises modestly on Pro with territories and sequences, but nothing here needs an admin to run.
monday is just as quick to start: pick the CRM template and leads, contacts and deals boards appear with sensible columns in minutes, and automation recipes are built by filling in a sentence — the most approachable builder we have tested. The challenge comes later, when the same flexibility that makes setup easy invites endless columns, views and boards until the workspace sprawls. Appoint someone to own board design before you customise past the template.
Features that matter
The pattern here is consistent: Freshsales wins wherever selling by phone is the job, and monday wins wherever the platform underneath — automation, customization, delivery — does the work.
| Feature | Freshsales | monday CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Phone / calling | Built-in softphone from Growth ($9); calls logged automatically | No native telephony; connect a dialer such as Aircall |
| Sync, tracking and templates from Growth | Gmail and Outlook sync from Basic; mass email on Pro | |
| Sales sequences | Calls, emails and tasks combined, from Pro ($39) | Outbound sequences from Pro ($28) |
| AI | Freddy AI: lead scoring, deal insights, email drafts — add-on, $49/100 sessions | AI agents for outreach, sourcing and meeting prep included from Standard ($17) |
| Automation | Workflow rules from Growth; deeper on Pro | Sentence-style recipes from Standard; 250 actions/month, 25,000 on Pro |
| Customization | Standard CRM fields and modules; custom objects on Enterprise only | Any column, view or board; complete flexibility at every tier |
| Quotes | CPQ available as a $19/user add-on | Quotes and invoices from Basic (capped), uncapped higher up |
| Project / delivery | None — Freshsales stops at the close | Won deals convert into delivery boards in the same workspace |
| Reporting | Basic reports on Growth; forecasting on Enterprise | Dashboards from any board; 5 on Standard, 50 on Pro |
| Free plan depth | Contacts, deals, lifecycle stages, Kanban — for 3 users, no expiry | None — 14-day trial only |
If your definition of a CRM is "the place reps dial and log calls," Freshsales' phone column matters most. If it is "the place a deal turns into delivered work," monday's does — and nothing in Freshsales replaces that hand-off.
Want the full field?
Our ranked guide compares Freshsales, monday and four other CRMs on price, ease of use and who each one is for, with pricing verified this month.
Integrations
monday scored 4.5 for integrations, Freshsales 3.5. monday's list runs deep: Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Teams, Zoom, Google Drive, DocuSign, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, Make and hundreds more, all wired into the same board-and-automation model used across the rest of monday.com. Its one real gap is telephony — you connect a dialer rather than pick up a built-in phone.
Freshsales covers the essentials — Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar, Slack, Mailchimp, QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier — and, for teams already on Freshdesk or other Freshworks products, shares data with that ecosystem natively. Its marketplace is smaller than HubSpot's or Salesforce's, so anything beyond core sales and support usually means a second vendor. What it has that monday doesn't need an integration for at all is the phone itself.
Support
monday scored 4.5 for support in our review; Freshsales scored 4.0. Freshsales includes email and chat support with a solid knowledge base at every tier; phone support and faster response times are reserved for higher plans. monday's standard support and extensive template library are available broadly, with prioritised 24/7 support and tailored onboarding reserved for Enterprise.
Who should pick Freshsales
- Phone-first sales teams — insurance, recruiting, real estate, B2B appointment setting — that want calling built into the contact record.
- Solo founders and small teams that want to pay nothing until they outgrow 3 users.
- Teams already on Freshdesk or another Freshworks product, for the shared data and single login.
- Anyone who wants a purpose-built sales tool rather than a general platform configured to act like one.
- Budget-conscious teams under five seats, where Freshsales' entry price beats monday's seat-minimum floor.
Skip Freshsales if you need deep customization, a project-management layer, or AI included in the plan price rather than billed per session.
Who should pick monday CRM
- Teams already running projects, operations or marketing in monday.com.
- Agencies, consultancies and contractors where a closed deal becomes a project to deliver.
- Sales processes that don't fit a linear pipeline and need custom boards and views.
- Teams that want AI agents included from $17 rather than metered per session.
- Service businesses that quote often, with quotes and invoices built in from Basic.
Skip monday if you're solo or budget-constrained and don't need a project layer — the 3-seat minimum and missing free tier work against you. For phone-first selling, Freshsales includes calling from $9.
Decision rule: if your team sells by phone and wants the cheapest possible start, buy Freshsales — free for three people, $9 after that, and calling built in from day one. If a closed deal becomes a project your team then delivers, or you already pay for monday.com, buy monday CRM and accept the $36 floor. Judge the products on the job they do after the sale, not just the price before it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Freshsales cheaper than monday CRM?
For a small team, yes, by a wide margin. Freshsales is free for up to 3 users, then $9 per user per month on Growth, with no seat minimum. monday has no free plan and enforces a 3-seat minimum, so its cheapest possible bill is $36 a month on Basic. At 20 seats the gap narrows but Freshsales Growth ($180) still undercuts monday Basic ($240); compare the tiers most teams actually need — Freshsales Pro ($780) against monday Standard ($340) — and monday is cheaper once you need automation and AI included rather than added on.
Does Freshsales or monday CRM have a free plan?
Freshsales does: free forever for up to 3 users, with contact management, lifecycle stages and a Kanban pipeline. monday CRM has no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and every paid tier carries a 3-seat minimum. For a team of one to three people that never wants to pay, Freshsales is the only option of the two.
Which is better for a phone-based outbound sales team?
Freshsales. A softphone is built into every paid tier from $9, so reps call, log and record from the contact record with no separate dialer. monday CRM has no native telephony at all; you connect a third-party dialer such as Aircall. For a team whose day is built around calls, Freshsales removes a whole line item monday doesn't.
Does monday CRM have built-in calling?
No. monday CRM has no native phone system on any plan. Email syncs with Gmail and Outlook, and you can connect a dialer such as Aircall through its integrations, but calling is never part of the base product the way it is in Freshsales from Growth at $9.
Can monday CRM handle projects after a deal closes?
Yes, and it's the feature Freshsales has no answer for. Because monday CRM sits on the same board-and-workspace platform as monday.com's project tools, a won deal can convert directly into a delivery board without leaving the product or connecting a second tool. Freshsales stops at the close; delivery happens somewhere else.
Conclusion
Freshsales and monday CRM solve different problems well. Freshsales is the sharper sales tool for a small, phone-driven team: free to start, a real dialer from $9, and an interface that gets reps calling within a day. monday CRM is the broader platform: higher overall score, deeper customization, AI and automation included in the price rather than metered, and the one feature Freshsales cannot match — turning a closed deal into delivered work without leaving the product.
Choose on what happens after the sale, not the sticker price alone. Selling by phone on a tight budget: Freshsales. Selling work you then deliver, or already living in monday.com: monday CRM. To see how both compare with HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho and Salesforce, read our best CRM software ranking.