Free CRMs are free the way a free puppy is free. The software costs nothing. The missed callback, the seller who never got a text, and the Monday spent re-entering contacts cost plenty. Here is exactly what each free plan caps, and the point where free starts costing your team contracts.
Key points
- A free CRM for real estate investors is a contact and deal tracker with a no-cost plan, usually capped on users, contacts, automation and calling, and almost never including business texting.
- We scored five CRMs with real free plans on the same five criteria, using only their own pricing pages opened in November 2026. EngageBay Free scored highest at 11 of 15.
- None of the five free plans includes SMS. To text sellers from a business number, you must register for A2P 10DLC through a messaging provider, which costs $4.50 to $46 for the brand and $15 per campaign up front, plus monthly campaign fees.
- Free stops making sense for a team when you pass two users or about 1,000 contacts, or the day you need automated texts on a new inquiry. For most operators that is month one.
How we scored each free CRM
We scored every free plan from 0 to 3 on five criteria, for a maximum of 15. Each criterion is something that breaks first when a team of four to eight runs seller inquiries through the CRM. If a vendor does not publish a limit, it scores 0 on that row, because you cannot plan around a number you cannot see.
| Criterion | What earns a 3 | What earns a 0 |
|---|---|---|
| Seats on the free plan | 5 or more users free | Seat limit not published |
| Contact or record cap | 2,500 or more records published | Cap not published |
| Automation on the free plan | Workflow automation included | None listed |
| Calling and texting on the free plan | Calling and SMS both included | Neither included |
| Published upgrade price | A paid tier at $15 or less per user per month, published | Paid price not published |
We only scored CRMs with a permanent free plan. Investor CRMs like REsimpli, Invelo and GoHighLevel offer free trials, not free plans, and they are covered further down.
The scorecard (as of November 2026)
EngageBay Free leads at 11 of 15, mostly because it allows 15 users and includes automation. Its 250-contact cap is the catch, and for an active team it is a big one.
| Free CRM | Seats | Contact cap | Automation | Calling/SMS | Upgrade price | Total /15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EngageBay Free | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 11 |
| HubSpot Free | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Zoho CRM Free | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Bitrix24 Free | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Agile CRM Free | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Every score is a snapshot of what each vendor published between October 31 and November 1, 2026. Free plans change often. Check the live page before you move your pipeline.
What each free CRM caps (as of November 2026)
Every free plan caps at least two of the four things a team needs: seats, contacts, automation and texting. This table shows where each one stops.
| Free CRM | Free users | Contacts or records | Automation | Calling / SMS | Cheapest paid tier (as of November 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EngageBay | Up to 15 | 250 contacts | Included, no cap listed | 15 calling credits; SMS on paid plans only | Basic $14.99 per user/mo |
| HubSpot | Up to 2 | 1,000 contacts | 1 automated email action | None listed | Starter $20 per seat/mo standard; new-customer promo $10 monthly or $7 annual |
| Zoho CRM | 3 | Not published | Workflow automation included | Calling on Standard only | Standard price not readable on the page we opened |
| Bitrix24 | 1 to 2 (plan card); FAQ says unlimited | 5 GB storage | Not listed | Telephony on paid plans only | Basic $69/mo monthly or $49/mo annual, 5 users |
| Agile CRM | Up to 2 | 1,000 contacts, 500 emails | Not listed | Not clear on the page | Paid price not readable on the page we opened |
1. EngageBay Free (11/15)
Model: An all-in-one marketing and sales CRM for small businesses. The pricing page says the free plan is "Free for teams of up to 15 members."
Free plan caps (as of November 2026): 250 contacts, 1,000 branded emails, automations included with no cap listed, and 15 calling credits with call reports and recordings. SMS marketing starts on the Basic plan.
Upgrade: Basic is $14.99 per user per month, or $13.79 billed annually. For six users that is about $90 a month.
Best for: A team that wants everyone in one shared pipeline while testing whether a CRM habit sticks.
Watch out for: 250 contacts is two months of inquiries for many operators (see the math below). The page labels the Basic monthly price "paid yearly" in one place, so confirm billing terms before you upgrade.
2. HubSpot Free (6/15)
Model: A general sales and marketing CRM with a large free toolset. The pricing page says it is "Free for up to 2 users."
Free plan caps (as of November 2026): 1,000 contacts and 1,000 records on other standard objects, 10 dashboards with 50 reports each, email automation limited to 1 automated action, and HubSpot branding on chat, email and meeting tools. No calling minutes or SMS are listed on the free plan.
Upgrade: Starter is $20 per seat per month at standard price. A new-customer promotion lists $10 month to month or $7 paid annually. Starter adds 500 calling minutes, one HubSpot phone number and up to 50 workflows.
Best for: An owner and one acquisitions rep who want clean deal stages and reporting, and who text from another tool.
Watch out for: Two users. The day you add a lead manager, a closer and a TC, you are paying.
3. Zoho CRM Free (5/15)
Model: A general CRM with a long feature list. The pricing page says "Forever free, for 3 users."
Free plan caps (as of November 2026): Workflow automation is included, with up to 10 custom email templates, up to 10 data exports and 5,000 API calls a day. Record limits are not published. Built-in calling appears only on Standard.
Upgrade: Standard adds built-in calling, multiple pipelines, web forms and mass email. The Standard price sits behind a monthly and annual toggle that did not load in our check; confirm on the live page.
Best for: A three-person team that wants automation rules without paying, and has someone who likes building them.
Watch out for: Multiple pipelines and calling start on Standard. If your acquisitions rep calls from a personal cell, the CRM never sees the call.
4. Bitrix24 Free (4/15)
Model: A workspace suite with a basic CRM, tasks, calendars and chat. The plan card says "100% free for 1 to 2 users," while the FAQ on the same page says you can "add an unlimited number of users." Ask which applies to you.
Free plan caps (as of November 2026): 5 GB storage and "Basic CRM (deals, contacts)." The FAQ says telephony and Bitrix24 Market apps are paid-only. Automation is not listed for free.
Upgrade: Basic is $69 a month, or $49 a month billed annually, for the whole organization with 5 users included.
Best for: Small teams that want tasks and chat in the same place as a simple deal list.
Watch out for: No telephony and no listed automation on free. It is a shared to-do list with contacts, not a follow-up engine.
5. Agile CRM Free (3/15)
Model: A small-business CRM with sales, marketing and service modules. The pricing page says "FREE for up to 2 Users."
Free plan caps (as of November 2026): 1,000 contacts, 500 emails and 1 campaign. Automation is not listed for free, and the page is unclear on telephony.
Upgrade: Paid per-user prices did not load in the page content we opened; confirm on the live page.
Best for: A solo operator or partner pair who wants a contact database with email.
Watch out for: Two users and no listed automation. You will outgrow it before your first hire.
What no free CRM gives you: texting sellers
None of the five free plans includes business texting. To text sellers from a business number, your messaging provider has to register your brand and campaign for A2P 10DLC, the carrier system for application-to-person texts on local numbers. These are the fees Twilio lists.
| Item | Fee (as of November 2026) | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| Brand registration, Sole Proprietor or Low Volume Standard | $4.50 one time | You, through your SMS provider |
| Brand registration, Standard (includes secondary vetting) | $46 one time | You |
| Campaign vetting | $15 per campaign | You |
| Monthly campaign fee | $1.50 (low-volume mixed), $2 (sole prop), $10 (standard) per month | You |
| Outbound SMS, Twilio base rate | $0.0083 per segment | You |
| Carrier fee per outbound long-code SMS | $0.0035 (AT&T) to $0.005 (Verizon) | You |
| Local number lease | $1.15 per month | You |
Sources: Twilio's A2P 10DLC fee article (brand fees updated August 1, 2025) and Twilio's US SMS pricing page. Other providers and CRMs that resell texting may charge their own markup on top.
The money is small. The time is not. Twilio's vetting FAQ says registration "currently takes up to 5 business days for standard use cases," and that you can only send on the A2P route "once the Campaign is fully approved" (Twilio campaign vetting FAQ). Rejections restart that clock. Register before launch day, not after the first inquiry sits unanswered.
Keep inbound and outbound texting apart, too. Hesel builds client follow-up on GoHighLevel, but for cold texting to lists Esteban says, "I don't really recommend that you use go high level for cold SMS because they're not really made for that specific thing," and points to tools like Launch Control (watch at 27:55).
Texting also needs consent. The FCC says telemarketers must "obtain prior express written consent from consumers before robocalling them" (FCC on telemarketing and robocalls). Put a consent checkbox on every form and have your attorney review your scripts and opt-in language.
The point where free costs your team contracts
Free costs contracts the moment your inquiry volume or headcount passes the caps, because that is when follow-up moves back into personal phones and spreadsheets. Here is the math with public numbers.
One Hesel client, Tanner Todd, spent $25,000 on Meta ads for 361 seller inquiries at about $70 each, which Esteban Andrade walks through in this breakdown. That was one of our best results, not a typical one. Outcomes depend on market, budget, offer and follow-up speed.
At that one client's rate (an example, not a benchmark), $7,000 to $15,000 a month would buy roughly 100 to 215 inquiries a month.
- 250-contact cap (EngageBay Free): full in about two months.
- 1,000-contact cap (HubSpot, Agile): full in roughly five to ten months, and sooner once you import old leads.
- 2-user cap (HubSpot, Agile, Bitrix24 plan card): full on day one for a team of four to eight.
- No texting (all five): breaks a cadence like Hesel's 6x6x6, which pairs six call attempts in six hours, for six days, with texts and a missed-call text-back. Check your state's call limits before you copy any cadence.
Now the break-even, as example math you should redo with your own numbers. Say 1 in 30 inquiries becomes a signed contract and your average fee is $15,000. If slow or missing follow-up loses just 10% of 150 monthly inquiries, that is 15 inquiries, or half a contract, about $7,500 a month.
A paid plan for six users on the cheapest upgrade above runs about $90 to $120 a month. Free is the most expensive line in that budget.
Hesel's inside sales team handled a median of 21 inquiries per client per month from January to October 2026, with the middle half of clients between 12 and 33.
Free trials of investor CRMs (the better kind of free)
Investor-built CRMs do not offer free plans, but most offer a free trial long enough to run a real test. These terms come from each vendor's pricing page as of November 2026.
- REsimpli: 14-day free trial, cancel anytime, free onboarding. Unlimited calling and SMS under a fair use policy.
- GoHighLevel: 14-day free trial, month to month. Phone and SMS are usage-based. Hesel builds client follow-up on this platform.
- Invelo: 7-day free trial on all plans.
- DataSift (formerly REISift): 7-day free trial.
- CarrotCRM (formerly InvestorFuse): refund of the plan charge if requested within 30 days; the set-up fee is non-refundable.
We scored all of them on speed to lead and cost-per-contract tracking in our CRM for real estate investors comparison. Use a trial to time how fast a test inquiry reaches a rep's phone. That one number tells you more than any feature grid.
What about spreadsheets, Trello or Airtable?
A spreadsheet or board works for one person working a few inquiries a week. It fails as soon as two people touch the same seller, because nobody knows who called last and nothing fires automatically.
Esteban grades that ladder in a September 2026 Short: sticky notes F, a spreadsheet D, and a free CRM "built for outside sales, not real estate" B, because "It can track contacts fine, but it's not as specific to your niche" (watch at 0:31). A real estate CRM with automated follow-up earns an A, and the same CRM tagged by motivation and timeline earns an S.
Airtable's free plan is pitched for "individual users, very small teams, or those with lightweight needs," and its pricing page does not publish the free limits. Team starts at $20 per user per month billed annually. If you go this route, track the same fields a real CRM would: source, spend, inquiry date, first-call time, appointment, offer, contract and close.
Our guide to real estate investment metrics for scaling lists which of those numbers to review weekly.
How Hesel sets up the CRM side for clients
Hesel builds client follow-up on a paid GoHighLevel account, not a free plan, because texting and automation are the point. During onboarding the team loads a CRM snapshot, sets up the settings and calendar, connects a phone number for calls and texts, and maps every ad form so a new inquiry triggers the right workflow.
The texting number is a common source of onboarding friction. One client asked us, "Can you tell me what Twilio is in layman's terms?" That is a fair question, and it is why the registration step should start before launch, not after.
Once the CRM is live, Hesel's inside sales team works new inquiries inside it and books appointments for the client's acquisitions rep. See how that works on our appointment setting page and our automation services page.
See how the motivated seller system works
A free CRM can hold names. It cannot call a seller at 7:40 on a Tuesday night, text her when she does not pick up, and book her with your closer for the next morning.
Hesel runs motivated seller campaigns on Google, Meta and YouTube, builds the CRM and texting behind them, and puts an inside sales team on the new inquiries to turn them into booked appointments.
If you want to see what that looks like for your market and your team, book a strategy call. If the numbers do not work in your market, we will say so on the call.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a 100% free CRM for real estate investors?
There are 100% free CRMs that real estate investors can use, including HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Bitrix24, Agile CRM and EngageBay. Each caps something: users, contacts, automation or calling. None of the five includes business texting on the free plan as of November 2026, so investors who text sellers will pay somewhere.
What is the best free CRM for real estate investors?
The best free CRM for real estate investors in our November 2026 scoring was EngageBay Free, at 11 of 15, because it allows up to 15 users and includes automation. Its 250-contact cap is the trade. HubSpot Free suits a two-person team that needs up to 1,000 contacts.
Can I text sellers from a free CRM?
You cannot text sellers from any of the five free CRM plans we reviewed, because SMS is a paid feature on each. To text from a business number you also need A2P 10DLC registration through your messaging provider, which Twilio prices at $4.50 to $46 for the brand plus campaign fees.
How much does A2P 10DLC registration cost?
A2P 10DLC registration costs $4.50 one time for a Sole Proprietor or Low Volume Standard brand, or $46 for a Standard brand, per Twilio as of November 2026. Each campaign adds a $15 vetting fee and a monthly fee from $1.50 to $10. Messages and carrier fees are billed per text.
When should a real estate investor upgrade from a free CRM?
A real estate investor should upgrade from a free CRM when a third person needs access, when contacts approach the cap, or when you need automatic texts on new inquiries. For a team spending $7,000 or more a month on marketing, that point usually arrives in the first month.
Is a spreadsheet good enough as a CRM for investors?
A spreadsheet is good enough as a CRM for one investor working a handful of inquiries a week. It breaks when two people share sellers, because nothing records who called last and nothing triggers follow-up automatically. Teams lose inquiries in the gaps between tabs.
Do investor CRMs like REsimpli or GoHighLevel have free plans?
Investor CRMs like REsimpli and GoHighLevel do not have free plans as of November 2026. Both offer 14-day free trials, while Invelo and DataSift offer 7-day trials. Use the trial to time how fast a test inquiry reaches a rep's phone before you commit.
Sources
- EngageBay pricing and free plan
- HubSpot CRM pricing and free tools limits
- Zoho CRM pricing and free edition
- Bitrix24 pricing and free plan FAQ
- Agile CRM pricing
- Airtable pricing
- Twilio, A2P 10DLC registration fees
- Twilio, A2P 10DLC campaign vetting FAQ
- Twilio, US SMS pricing and carrier fees
- FCC, telemarketing and robocalls
- REsimpli pricing and trial terms
- GoHighLevel pricing and trial terms
- Invelo pricing and trial terms
- DataSift pricing and trial terms
- CarrotCRM and InvestorFuse pricing and refund terms
- Hesel Media Agency TV, client cost per contract breakdown
- Esteban Andrade Short: ranking CRM setups for wholesalers (September 2026)
- Esteban Andrade on YouTube: A2P registration and cold SMS tools (May 2025)
.ico)
.webp)
.webp){kind=small}