Pipedrive

pipedrive.com

ALMOST

A weekend of work, and real gaps remain.

A sales CRM organised around a pipeline: deals move through stages, activities are scheduled against them, and the reporting answers what will close and what has gone quiet.

Promptfree, for everyone, and the only version there is
Build me a pipeline CRM for a small sales team, with the email problem solved honestly.

STACK
- Astro with a Node adapter, SQLite via better-sqlite3
- IMAP for reading mail, SMTP for sending

THE MODEL
- Organisation, person, deal, activity — four tables, related by id
- A deal has a stage, a value, an expected close date and one owner
- Stages defined in config with a probability each; pipeline value is the weighted sum

EMAIL, THE PART THAT MATTERS
- Poll IMAP, match messages to people by address, and file them against the person's open deal
- Ambiguous matches go to a review queue rather than being guessed
- Store message id, subject, direction and a body snapshot; never delete on the server

ACTIVITIES
- Call, meeting, task — each with a due date and an owner
- A deal with no future activity is marked as rotting after a configurable number of days, and that is the main list on the dashboard

HISTORY
- Every stage change appended with who and when, so time-in-stage is computable
- Never overwrite a field: the previous value goes to a revision table

REPORTS
- Deals won and lost per month, average time in each stage, and pipeline by stage
- All computed at query time from the history

Include a README on the IMAP credentials, the matching rules, and how to export everything as CSV.

What you lose

  • Two-way email sync that files every message against the right deal without anyone remembering to
  • Call logging, dialling and recording from inside the record
  • Lead sources and deal-rotting rules that surface what has gone quiet
  • Reporting that sales managers already know how to read
  • Mobile apps that work on the road, which is where the job is done

If you would rather not build

  • Close — paid, calling and email built into the record

The escape hatch

open source · no votes, no paid placement

Twenty

$0

Open-source CRM with pipelines, custom objects and a modern interface.

twentyhq/twentyfree · open source

EspoCRM

$0

Mature self-hosted CRM covering contacts, deals and email integration.

espocrm/espocrmfree · open source

Why this verdict

our own opinion · changed only by a person

54/100

Verdict kinda at 54: the pipeline and the history are a weekend, and the rotting-deal list is the one report that changes behaviour. Email sync is where builds get thin — matching messages to deals reliably is fiddly, and everything else depends on it being right.

History

tracked since 9 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten

Interest · last 30 days

Nothing recorded yet. This chart fills in once the page has visitors, votes or prompt copies — it will not draw a flat line to look busy.

Questions about Pipedrive

answered from the record above

Is Pipedrive free?

No — the plan we track is $24 a month. Growth at about $24 per seat per month billed monthly, less annually; email sync and automations sit on higher tiers.

Can you replace Pipedrive by building your own?

ALMOST. A weekend of work, and real gaps remain. Replacement score 54 out of 100, build time a weekend. Read what you lose before you decide.

How much does Pipedrive cost?

$24 a month on Growth — $288 a year. Recorded 9 Aug 2026.

What do you lose by replacing Pipedrive?

Two-way email sync that files every message against the right deal without anyone remembering to; Call logging, dialling and recording from inside the record; Lead sources and deal-rotting rules that surface what has gone quiet; Reporting that sales managers already know how to read; Mobile apps that work on the road, which is where the job is done. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to Pipedrive?

Yes: Twenty, EspoCRM. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.

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