Capsule is a good, simple CRM. Here's when it's worth looking elsewhere, with real UK prices for a 5-person team checked in October 2026.
Capsule is a simple, easy-to-use CRM, and for many small businesses it's a good choice. People usually start looking for an alternative for one of three reasons: the free plan's 250-contact limit, the cost as the team grows, or needing to run the team's day-to-day work in the same place as their customers.
This guide compares four alternatives on real UK prices. I built one of them, Meira 16, so I'll be upfront about where it fits and where Capsule may still be the better pick.
Quick version: for a 5-person team on yearly billing, Capsule Growth costs about £135 a month. Zoho CRM Professional is about £90, Pipedrive Growth about £195, and Meira 16 Team about £44, because Meira 16 charges per team rather than per person.
Capsule's free plan allows 2 users and 250 contacts with one sales pipeline. Paid plans are per user, per month:
| Capsule plan | Yearly billing | Monthly billing | Contacts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | £14 | £18 | 30,000 |
| Growth | £27 | £34 | 60,000 |
| Advanced | £42 | £52 | 120,000 |
| Ultimate | £60 (5+ users) | £75 | 240,000 |
Capsule's own pricing page doesn't say whether VAT is added, so check at checkout.
Monthly cost on yearly billing, checked in October 2026. Other CRMs' prices are before VAT.
| CRM | Plan | How it's priced | Cost for 5 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capsule | Growth | £27 per user | £135 |
| Zoho CRM | Professional | £18 per user | £90 |
| Pipedrive | Growth | £39 per user | £195 |
| Meira 16 | Team | £530 a year for up to 10 people | £44 |
Offers change often, so check each provider's own pricing page before you decide.
Zoho CRM is free for up to 3 users, with paid editions from £12 per user a month on yearly billing. It can do almost anything if you're willing to set it up.
Good for: teams with someone who enjoys configuring software, or that already use other Zoho apps.
Watch out for: setup takes time, and the screens can feel busy compared with Capsule.
Pipedrive is built around a visual deal pipeline and is quick for a sales team to pick up. There's no free plan, but there is a 14-day free trial, and plans run from £14 to £79 per user a month on yearly billing.
Good for: businesses where new sales is the main job and someone owns the pipeline.
Watch out for: it's sales-focused, so client delivery and team tasks usually need another tool, and its Growth plan costs more per person than Capsule Growth.
HubSpot's free CRM allows up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts, four times Capsule's free allowance. It has a huge library of guides and integrations.
Good for: a founder or a pair who've hit Capsule's 250-contact free limit.
Watch out for: free features carry HubSpot branding, and the paid sales plans get expensive quickly as you add people.
Meira 16 is a CRM and team workspace for agencies and growing businesses. Every client has one page with their contacts, tasks, payments and emails. Work moves across a simple board with owners and due dates, departments show their progress, and a daily task log records what each person did. Clients get a free portal, and WhatsApp is built in.
There's no VAT added, your data is stored in London, and there's an 8-day free trial with no card needed.
Good for: agencies and service businesses of 3 to 30 people who want customers and the team's work together, without per-user costs.
Watch out for: Meira 16 is newer than Capsule, so it has fewer ready-made integrations. If you rely on a particular app connecting directly to your CRM, check that first.
If you're two or three people, you mainly need a clean contact list and a pipeline, and Capsule already connects to the apps you use, there's no strong reason to move. Switching takes time, and Capsule does its core job well.
It's worth looking around when your team is growing, when you're paying for logins people rarely use, or when you're running client work in a separate project tool alongside your CRM. Our page on affordable CRM software for UK small businesses shows how per-team pricing compares as you grow, and our guide to choosing a CRM for a small agency has a one-week trial plan.
Capsule lets you export your contacts and organisations as a spreadsheet. Most CRMs, including Meira 16 on the Business and Agency plans, can import that file. Run your new CRM alongside Capsule for a week with real clients before you cancel.
Prices checked on 24 October 2026: Capsule pricing, Capsule UK prices (ExpertSure), Zoho CRM UK prices (ExpertSure), Pipedrive UK prices (ExpertSure), HubSpot CRM pricing and Meira 16 pricing.
It depends on what you need. Zoho CRM gives lots of features for less, Pipedrive suits sales-led teams, HubSpot's free CRM allows more contacts for two people, and Meira 16 suits teams who want clients and the team's work in one place at one price per team.
Capsule's paid plans run from £14 to £60 per user a month on yearly billing, or £18 to £75 paying monthly. There's also a free plan for 2 users and 250 contacts.
For teams of about four or more, per-team pricing usually works out cheaper. Meira 16's Team plan is £530 a year for up to 10 people, about £44 a month, with no VAT added.
Yes. Capsule lets you export contacts as a spreadsheet, which you can import into most other CRMs.
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