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| Starting price | Free for up to 2 users; Starter $18 per user/month billed annually ($22 monthly) |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: 2 users, 250 contacts, 1 sales pipeline, 5 custom fields, no expiry |
| Upper tiers | Growth $36 ($40 monthly) · Advanced $54 ($60) · Ultimate $72 ($75), per user/month |
| Free trial | 14 days on any paid plan, every feature, no card required |
| Best for | Founders, freelancers and sales or account teams of roughly 2 to 15 people |
| Not ideal for | Teams that need email marketing, calling or deep customization inside the CRM |
| Standout feature | A fast, uncluttered interface that stays the same as you move up tiers |
| Biggest drawback | Automation, email sync and advanced reporting all wait for Growth at $36 a seat |
Capsule CRM Review: Our Take
Capsule earns its reputation as one of the easiest CRMs to get a team using. There is no long setup wizard. Connect Gmail or Outlook, import a spreadsheet of contacts, and a small team can log activity and move deals the same day. The free plan is a real product rather than a countdown trial, and Capsule charges no setup or onboarding fee on any plan.
The trade-offs are scope and where the useful features sit. Capsule has no built-in email marketing; campaigns live in Transpond, its separate marketing product. It has no native dialer. And the features that turn a contact list into a sales system, namely workflow automation, automatic email logging, multiple pipelines, permissions and advanced reporting, all start on Growth at $36 per user per month. For a founder or a team of up to about fifteen people who mainly need contacts, a pipeline and a shared history, none of that is a deal-breaker. For a large sales floor that needs territory rules, a dialer and heavy customization, Capsule will feel thin.
Bottom line: if your last CRM died because nobody kept it updated, Capsule is the fix, and Growth is the tier to budget for. If you need marketing email and sales on one record, start with HubSpot instead.
What Is Capsule CRM?
Capsule is a cloud CRM made by Zestia Ltd, a software company registered in England. It is aimed at small businesses that want contact management, a sales pipeline and light project tracking without a steep learning curve. The core records are people and organisations, sales opportunities, and projects. Each contact record collects the history of emails, notes, tasks, files and related opportunities in one timeline, and each opportunity moves through milestones you define on a Kanban-style pipeline.
Where Capsule stands out is restraint. It does not try to be a marketing platform, help desk and CRM at once. Marketing campaigns belong to Transpond, a sister product built by the same company that syncs engagement back to Capsule contacts. Inside the CRM, the paid tiers add capacity and process rather than new modules: more contacts, more pipelines and project boards, workflow automations, team permissions and AI tools for enrichment and summaries.
Who Capsule CRM Is a Good Fit for
A Good Fit If...
- You are a solo founder, freelancer or small sales or account-management team of roughly 2 to 15 people
- You want a CRM everyone will use because it takes an afternoon to learn, not a week of training
- You live in Gmail or Outlook and want email history on each contact
- You want a permanent free plan to start on, with a clear path up as you grow
- You manage delivery work as well as sales, and like having project boards next to the pipeline
Consider Another Option If...
- You need email marketing, forms and landing pages inside the CRM (see HubSpot)
- You want the most refined visual pipeline and sales automation for a sales-only team (see Pipedrive)
- Your business needs custom objects that do not fit people, companies and deals (see Attio)
- You need a built-in dialer, or phone and live-chat support as standard
Pricing and Plans: Free vs Starter vs Growth vs Advanced vs Ultimate
Capsule prices per user per month. Paying annually saves up to 18% against monthly billing. Every paid plan starts with a 14-day free trial that includes every feature of the plan, lets you add your whole team and needs no card. Capsule charges no setup or onboarding fee and lets you cancel at any time. Prices below are USD list prices from capsulecrm.com, checked in November 2026.
| Plan | Annual (per user/mo) | Monthly (per user/mo) | Contacts | Pipelines / project boards | Key features added |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 250 | 1 pipeline | Max 2 users, 5 custom fields, custom sales milestones, custom task categories |
| Starter | $18 | $22 | 30,000 | 1 pipeline | Email templates, shared mailbox, premium integrations (Xero, Zendesk, Import2), AI pipeline generator, custom activity types |
| Growth | $36 | $40 | 60,000 | 5 / 5 | Workflow automations, advanced reporting and dashboards, Gmail and Outlook email sync, team and access controls, AI connectors, AI enrichment and summaries |
| Advanced | $54 | $60 | 120,000 | 50 / 50 | Higher limits across the board |
| Ultimate | $72 | $75 | Not listed on the plan card | Not listed | Expert support, your own account manager, custom training |
Capsule labels Starter "ideal for teams of 1-5" and marks Growth as its recommended plan. Email marketing is not part of any tier: it is Transpond, priced separately by contact count on transpond.io.
What a Real Bill Looks Like at 2 and 5 Seats
| Plan | 2 seats, annual | 2 seats, monthly | 5 seats, annual | 5 seats, monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | Not available (2-user cap) | Not available |
| Starter | $36/mo ($432/yr) | $44/mo | $90/mo ($1,080/yr) | $110/mo |
| Growth | $72/mo ($864/yr) | $80/mo | $180/mo ($2,160/yr) | $200/mo |
| Advanced | $108/mo | $120/mo | $270/mo ($3,240/yr) | $300/mo |
The arithmetic is seats multiplied by the per-seat price, with no seat minimum and no onboarding fee. Five people on Starter: 5 × $18 = $90 a month billed annually. The same five on Growth: 5 × $36 = $180. Monthly billing adds $4 a seat on Starter and Growth, and $6 on Advanced.
The number that matters most is the jump from Starter to Growth. It doubles the per-seat price, and it is where automation, automatic email logging, extra pipelines and permissions all switch on. A team that needs any one of those is really a Growth customer, so compare Capsule at $36 rather than $18 against other CRMs.
Which Tier Should You Actually Buy?
Free works for one or two people with a small client list. Starter suits a team of up to five that wants templates, a shared mailbox and room for 30,000 contacts, but can live without automation. Growth is the tier most small sales teams should budget for, because workflow automations, email sync, multiple pipelines, permissions and the AI tools all start here. Advanced is about volume: 120,000 contacts and up to 50 pipelines and project boards, with no new sales features. Ultimate adds people rather than features: expert support, an account manager and custom training.
Watch out for: the Starter-to-Growth jump and the separate marketing product. A 5-person team that budgets $90 a month for Starter and then wants automation is really looking at $180. If you also want email campaigns, add a Transpond plan.
Capsule's Free Plan: The Limits You Will Hit
Capsule's free plan is one of the simplest free CRMs available: two users, one pipeline and a clean contact timeline, with no expiry. It is a good fit for a freelancer or a two-founder business that has outgrown a spreadsheet. Here are the walls, in the order a growing team usually meets them.
- 250 contacts. This is the first limit most users reach. A consultant with a few dozen clients and prospects is fine; anyone importing a mailing list or event leads is not. Starter lifts the cap to 30,000.
- Two users. A third teammate means a paid plan for everyone, because Capsule prices every seat.
- Five custom fields. Enough for industry, source and a couple of qualifiers. Not enough for a detailed sales process.
- One pipeline. New business and renewals share a single board until Growth adds five.
- No templates or shared mailbox. You can send email from your connected Gmail or Outlook account, but reusable templates and a shared sales@ inbox start on Starter.
The "simplest free CRM" scenario: a two-person design studio with 120 active clients and prospects. Capsule Free holds every contact, logs calls and notes, tracks open proposals on one pipeline and sets follow-up tasks, all for $0. When the studio hires a third person or passes 250 contacts, Starter costs 3 × $18 = $54 a month billed annually. For other free options, including HubSpot's 2-user plan and Bigin's single-user plan, see our ranking of the best free CRM tools.
Key Features and How They Work
Contacts, Organisations and the Timeline
Every person and organisation record shows a single history of emails, notes, calls, tasks, files and related opportunities and projects. Tags and custom fields segment the list, and saved filters build working lists such as "clients without a touchpoint in 60 days". The record layout is the reason people find Capsule easy: there is one obvious place for everything.
Sales Pipeline and Milestones
Opportunities move across a Kanban board of milestones you name, each with a value and win probability, and the board shows pipeline value and recent closes at the top. The free plan includes one pipeline with custom milestones. Growth allows five pipelines, which is useful for separating new business from renewals or running two product lines. Advanced allows 50.
Workflow Automations
From Growth, workflow automations let you define a repeatable process as a series of tasks, email notifications or stage changes on a pipeline or project board. When an opportunity reaches "Proposal sent", for example, Capsule can create the follow-up tasks and notify the owner. It is simpler than the visual canvases in Attio or HubSpot Professional, and that is the point: a small team can set it up without a consultant. It will not run branching, multi-channel nurture sequences.
Email and Calendar
Every plan can send email through a connected Gmail or Outlook account. Starter adds email templates and a shared mailbox, so several people can answer from one address such as sales@ or info@. Growth adds email sync, which logs emails from Gmail or Outlook against the matching Capsule contacts automatically. Calendar integration with Microsoft 365 and Google covers meetings and tasks.
Projects
Project boards sit beside the pipeline and track delivery work after a deal is won, such as onboarding a client or running an engagement. Growth includes five boards and Advanced 50. For agencies and consultancies, this removes the need for a separate light project tool.
Reporting
Every plan includes basic reports. Growth adds advanced reporting and dashboards that track forecast, pipeline, conversions, lost sales, team activity, projects and contact health. That covers what a small sales manager needs each week. It is not the forecasting depth of Salesforce or HubSpot Professional.
AI Features
Starter includes an AI pipeline generator that drafts a pipeline structure for your kind of business. Growth adds AI enrichment, which fills in details such as job title and LinkedIn profile, and AI summaries of the last 50 activities on any record. Growth also adds AI connectors that reach your Capsule data from ChatGPT or Claude, and Capsule states it does not use customer data to train AI models. These are built into the plans rather than sold as a separate AI add-on, which is unusual at this price.
Marketing (Transpond)
Capsule itself only includes email templates for one-to-one writing. Campaigns run in Transpond, which adds email campaigns, web forms, social scheduling, marketing analytics and automations, and shows campaign engagement on each Capsule contact. Because both products come from the same company, the connection is native. It is still a second subscription to budget for.
Mobile
iOS and Android apps cover contacts, opportunities, tasks and notes, so you can check a record before a meeting or log a call afterwards. Building pipelines and reports remains a desktop job.
Ease of Use and Setup
Capsule scores 4.5 for ease of use, near the top of the CRMs we cover. Onboarding is a short in-app setup with no fee, and the help centre is organised around the tasks a new user actually has: importing data, connecting a mailbox, setting up a pipeline. The interface looks the same on Free and Advanced, so upgrading adds options without moving anything. Import from a spreadsheet covers contacts and opportunities. Planning a switch? Our CRM data migration guide covers the clean-up first. The limit on the score is depth: permissions, automation and reporting are deliberately simple, so a complex sales process outgrows them.
Integrations and API
Capsule lists more than 100 integrations, plus Zapier for everything else. The most used, by Capsule's own account, are Transpond, Mailchimp, Xero, QuickBooks, Gmail and Office 365. The marketplace also includes Slack, FreeAgent, FreshBooks, Typeform, Shopify, Squarespace, LinkedIn and WhatsApp. Some integrations, including Xero, Zendesk and Import2, are "premium" and need Starter or above. A documented developer API covers custom work. The catalogue is far smaller than HubSpot's 2,000-plus apps, but its accounting connectors are strong, which matters to the small service firms Capsule targets.
Support and Customer Service
Support runs through Capsule's help centre, video tutorials and a message form for the support team. We found no phone number or live chat listed on Capsule's support or pricing pages, so plan on written support. Ultimate adds expert support, a named account manager and custom training. User reviews on G2, where Capsule is rated 4.7, often mention helpful support, but if a phone line matters to you, confirm what your plan includes before you buy.
Pros and Cons
What We Like
- One of the fastest CRMs to learn and roll out to a small team
- Permanent free plan for 2 users, plus a 14-day full-feature trial with no card
- No setup or onboarding fees on any plan
- Project boards next to the pipeline for post-sale work
- AI enrichment, summaries and ChatGPT or Claude connectors included from Growth
- Strong accounting integrations with Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent
What Could Be Better
- Free plan caps at 250 contacts
- Automation, email sync and permissions wait for Growth at $36 a seat
- Email marketing is a separate product (Transpond)
- No built-in dialer
- No phone or live-chat support listed below Ultimate
- Much smaller integration catalogue than HubSpot or Salesforce
How Capsule Compares with Other Options
| Tool | Free plan | First paid step | Choose it over Capsule when… |
|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot CRM | Yes (2 users, 1,000 contacts) | Low-cost Starter plan | You want more free contacts and marketing tools on the same record |
| Bigin by Zoho | Yes (1 user, 500 records) | Express $7/user annual ($9 monthly) | You want the cheapest paid pipeline and may grow into Zoho apps |
| Less Annoying CRM | No (30-day trial) | $15/user, one plan | You want one simple flat price with every feature included |
| Pipedrive | No (14-day trial) | Lite $14/user annual | Your team is sales-only and wants the strongest pipeline tools |
| Attio | Yes (3 seats) | Plus $35/user annual | You need custom objects and inbox-built records |
Competitor prices were checked on each vendor's pricing page in November 2026. We have not published full reviews of Bigin or Less Annoying CRM; those rows are based on vendor documentation and published pricing.
Capsule vs HubSpot is the question most small teams ask. HubSpot's free plan holds four times as many contacts (1,000 against 250) and puts marketing tools on the same record. Capsule is calmer to use, and its paid tiers have no onboarding fee, while HubSpot Professional costs $90 a seat plus $1,500 once. Pick HubSpot if marketing matters as much as sales; pick Capsule if you want a quiet, tidy CRM that the team keeps current.
Capsule vs Pipedrive is closer on price. Pipedrive Lite is $14 against Capsule Starter at $18, and Pipedrive Growth is $24 against Capsule Growth at $36. Pipedrive has no free plan, but its pipeline, deal automation and mobile app are stronger for a sales-only team. Capsule wins when the CRM also has to hold client relationships and project work after the sale. For the wider field, see our ranking of the best CRM for small business, or the full list of the best CRM software.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Capsule CRM cost?
Capsule has a free plan for 2 users. Paid plans are priced per user per month: Starter $18, Growth $36, Advanced $54 and Ultimate $72 billed annually, or $22, $40, $60 and $75 billed monthly, as checked in November 2026. There is no setup fee, and each paid plan starts with a 14-day trial.
Is Capsule CRM free?
Yes, with limits. The free plan covers up to 2 users, 250 contacts, 1 sales pipeline and 5 custom fields, and it does not expire. Email templates, a shared mailbox, workflow automations, email sync and advanced reporting need a paid plan, with automation starting on Growth.
Is Capsule good for small businesses?
Yes. It is built for fast onboarding, with a short in-app setup and no onboarding fee, and suits teams of roughly 2 to 15 people. Teams that need marketing email in the CRM, a dialer or deep customization will outgrow it sooner. See our best CRM for small business guide for alternatives.
Does Capsule CRM have workflow automation?
Yes, from the Growth plan at $36 per user per month billed annually. Workflow automations run a series of tasks, email notifications or stage changes when a record moves on a pipeline or project board. Free and Starter have no workflow automations.
Capsule vs Pipedrive: which is better?
Pipedrive is stronger for a sales-only team: Lite is $14 and Growth $24 per user billed annually, with richer deal automation. Capsule has a permanent free plan, project boards and a calmer interface. Pick Pipedrive if the pipeline is the whole job, and Capsule if the CRM must also hold client relationships.
Does Capsule CRM include email marketing?
No. Capsule includes email templates for one-to-one emails. Email campaigns, web forms and marketing automations run in Transpond, Capsule's separate marketing product, which syncs engagement back to each Capsule contact. Transpond is priced separately by contact count.
Our Final Take
Capsule earns its 4.0 by doing less, on purpose, and doing it well. It will not out-feature Salesforce or out-market HubSpot, and it is not trying to. For a founder or small team that wants a CRM everyone keeps updated, it is one of the easiest recommendations we make. Start on Free, move to Starter when you pass 250 contacts or two users, and budget for Growth at $36 a seat as soon as you need automation. Teams that want marketing email, a dialer or phone support should look at HubSpot or Pipedrive first.