close.comcontributed by Samuele Ongaro
The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying.
A CRM for teams that sell by phone and email: calling, SMS and sequences are built in, so a salesperson works from one screen instead of switching apps.
Do not build this if your team sells by phone. The telephony is the product. Calling with recording and transcription, local presence numbers, and the carrier relationships behind them is not something you assemble. You can rent a provider's API, but you take on per-minute costs, number provisioning, regulatory registration in several countries, and the recording consent rules that differ by jurisdiction — and in some places by which end of the call you are on. WHEN TO KEEP PAYING - Salespeople who live on the phone all day - Local presence numbers, which measurably change answer rates - Anybody who wants call recording without becoming an expert in call recording law WHAT YOU CAN BUILD, AND SHOULD, IF CALLS ARE OCCASIONAL The CRM half is ordinary, and it is covered under Pipedrive elsewhere in this catalogue. The two rules that matter most: - **Stage history as an append-only table.** Every stage change recorded, because conversion rates and time-in-stage are computed from it and it cannot be reconstructed later - **Email filed automatically against the right deal.** Read-only mailbox sync, matched to a person by address and to a deal by thread, storing the address, direction, subject, timestamp and a short snippet — never the body. Nobody maintains a CRM by hand for long, and this is what keeps it true AND THE ONE ACTIVITY RULE WORTH COPYING Every deal must have a next activity scheduled, and a deal with nothing planned is shown prominently. Combined with a rotting period per stage — flag anything sitting longer than that — it does more for a pipeline than any forecast, and it is two queries. IF YOU DO ADD CALLING - Rent numbers from a provider, log every call against the deal with its duration - Announce recording before it starts, record that you did, and check the rules at both ends of the call. In several places recording without the other party's consent is a criminal matter, not a policy question THE ONE-LINE VERSION Buy the phone system. Build the pipeline and the email filing, and never let a deal sit with nothing planned.
What you lose
- Built-in calling with recording, transcription, local presence numbers and the carrier relationships behind them
- Sequences that pause automatically when a prospect replies, across mail and phone
- Reporting on activity and pipeline that sales managers already know how to read
If you would rather not build
- Pipedrive, for a cheaper hosted pipeline
What it costs
read from their page 15 Aug 2026
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Last read |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | $19/mo | — | 15 Aug 2026 |
Their pricing page is where these came from. Seeing a different price? Tell us.
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
Twenty
$0An open-source CRM you can host, with a flexible data model.
twentyhq/twentyfree · open source
EspoCRM
$0A mature self-hosted CRM with sales reporting already built.
espocrm/espocrmfree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
30/100
Verdict no at 30. Pipeline and sequences are ordinary; telephony with recording and compliance is not something to assemble yourself.
History
tracked since 10 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Questions about Close
answered from the record above
Is Close free?
No — the plan we track is $19 a month. Solo at $19 per user per month billed monthly, $9 annually; Essentials is $49 monthly. Calling is billed on top.
Can you replace Close by building your own?
KEEP IT. The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying. Replacement score 30 out of 100, build time longer than it saves. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Close cost?
$19 a month on Base — $228 a year. Recorded 14 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Close?
Built-in calling with recording, transcription, local presence numbers and the carrier relationships behind them; Sequences that pause automatically when a prospect replies, across mail and phone; Reporting on activity and pipeline that sales managers already know how to read. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Close?
Yes: Twenty, EspoCRM. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
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