By Alpit Patel and the aibrevo team · October 22, 2026 · 10 min read
Zendesk Sell Alternatives: 7 CRMs Compared With Prices, Fit and Migration Effort
Zendesk Sell retires August 31, 2027. Seven alternatives compared on published prices checked October 22, 2026: Pipedrive, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Salesforce, Freshsales, Close and monday CRM, with who each fits, the limits that bite and how hard the move from Sell is.
Key takeaways
- Zendesk will retire Sell on August 31, 2027 and recommends Pipedrive. Pipedrive lists Lite at $14, Growth at $39, Premium at $59 and Ultimate at $79 per seat per month billed yearly (Pipedrive pricing page, checked October 22, 2026).
- For 10 users on each vendor's lowest multi-user paid tier, the yearly cost ranges from $840 (HubSpot Sales Hub Starter, from $7 a seat) to $4,200 (Close Essentials at $35). Salesforce Starter Suite is $3,000 and Pro Suite $12,000.
- Two free tiers exist: HubSpot for up to 2 users and Zoho CRM for up to 3 users. monday CRM has a 3-seat minimum and caps Basic at 1,000 active contacts and deals and 5 columns per board.
- Only Pipedrive publishes a Zendesk Sell migration article, with object mapping and import order. HubSpot's Smart Transfer source list names Zendesk but not Zendesk Sell, so a HubSpot move is a CSV import.
- The Sell export leaves out emails, call logs, activity history, appointments and documents, so the alternative you pick matters less than deciding how to keep that history.
Zendesk Sell stops on August 31, 2027, and the seven alternatives below cost between $840 and $4,200 a year for a 10-person team on their entry paid tiers, and up to $12,000 on Salesforce Pro Suite. The cheapest is not the best fit for everyone: monday CRM Basic, for instance, caps boards at 5 columns and contacts and deals at 1,000. This page ranks nothing. It sets out who each CRM fits, what its published limits are, and how much work the move from Sell is, with prices read from each vendor’s own page on October 22, 2026. The shutdown dates are in our Zendesk Sell shutdown report.
What are the best Zendesk Sell alternatives?
Seven, chosen because each has a published price page and a CSV import route: Pipedrive, HubSpot Sales Hub, Zoho CRM, Salesforce, Freshsales, Close and monday CRM. Prices are per user per month, in US dollars, billed annually unless a second figure is shown.
| CRM | Entry paid tier | Next tier | Free option | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pipedrive | Lite $14 | Growth $39 (Premium $59, Ultimate $79) | None listed | 14 days, no card |
| HubSpot Sales Hub | Starter from $7 ($20 shown for monthly billing) | Professional from $90 ($100 monthly), $1,500 onboarding fee | Free for up to 2 users | Not stated on the page we read |
| Zoho CRM | Standard $14 | Professional $23 (Enterprise $40) | Free for up to 3 users | Not stated on the page we read |
| Salesforce | Starter Suite $25 | Pro Suite $100 (Core $195, Advanced $395, Max $550) | Free Suite $0 listed | Not stated on the page we read |
| Freshsales | Growth $9 | Pro $39 (Enterprise $59) | None listed | 21 days |
| Close | Essentials $35 annual ($49 monthly); Solo $9, one user only | Growth $99 (Scale $139) | None listed | 14 days, no card |
| monday CRM | Basic $12 ($18 monthly), 3-seat minimum | Standard $17 (Pro $28) | None; monday CRM has a trial | Not stated on the page we read |
Sources: each vendor’s pricing page, checked Oct 22, 2026, prices at the time of writing: Pipedrive, HubSpot, Zoho, Salesforce, Freshworks, Close, monday. Zoho’s page has a monthly and annual toggle that did not show separately in the text we read, so the Zoho figures are the ones shown. Pipedrive’s page blocked a direct fetch; the figures come from a text extraction of the same page.
The second tier is where the gap opens. For the same 10 users, Pipedrive Growth is $4,680 a year, Freshsales Pro $4,680, monday CRM Standard $2,040, Zoho Professional $2,760, HubSpot Professional $10,800 plus the $1,500 onboarding fee, and Salesforce Pro Suite $12,000. Our CRM pricing comparison shows the same arithmetic for 5 and 25 users.
Which limits will stop you before the price does?
Each CRM has one or two published limits that decide whether the cheap tier is usable. Sell migrations tend to bring custom fields, tags and several pipelines, so read this table before the price table.
| CRM | Limit that matters | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| monday CRM Basic | 1,000 active contacts and deals, 1 workspace, 5 columns per board, 20 quotes and invoices a month | monday pricing page |
| monday CRM Standard | 10,000 active contacts and deals, 15 columns per board, 250 custom automations a month | monday pricing page |
| HubSpot free | 1,000 contacts, 1,000 records across other standard objects, 2 users | HubSpot CRM pricing page |
| HubSpot Starter | Up to 15 pipelines per account, up to 50 workflows with restricted triggers | HubSpot Sales Hub pricing page |
| Close Solo | 1 user, 10,000 leads, no workflows; 250 custom fields on every plan | Close pricing page |
| Zoho CRM Free | 3 users, 10 data exports, 5,000 API calls a day | Zoho pricing page |
| Freshsales Growth | Basic workflows; no contact scoring, deal insights or territory management | Freshworks pricing page |
| Salesforce Starter Suite and Pro Suite | 10 GB data storage per org; Pro Suite has 5 flows per org | Salesforce pricing page |
Checked Oct 22, 2026. A blank in this table means the vendor page we read did not state a limit, not that none exists. Storage and record limits across more vendors are on our record and storage limits by plan page.
The monday figures are the sharpest. If your Sell account holds 6,000 contacts and open deals, monday CRM Basic does not fit and Standard is the entry point.
Is Pipedrive the best Zendesk Sell alternative?
It is the one Zendesk points to. The announcement says Zendesk partnered with Pipedrive, “a market-leading sales CRM solution with a well-established Zendesk integration.” Pipedrive’s own page lists a 14-day trial, an onboarding specialist and migration support, and says migration has no hidden fees and no limits. That matters if your team keeps using Zendesk Support, because Pipedrive lists a native Zendesk Support integration.
Where it fits: a sales-only team that wants a pipeline, activities and email in one place, and wants a Sell-specific migration article. Pipedrive’s article maps Sell leads to Leads, contacts to Persons, companies to Organizations, deals to Deals, tasks to Activities and tags to Labels. Where it does not fit: teams that need marketing automation in the same system, or the deepest reporting and permissions. Moving there, the file limit is generous (200,000 rows, under 50 MB per spreadsheet import), so a typical Sell export imports in one pass. Our HubSpot vs Pipedrive, Zoho vs Pipedrive and monday vs Pipedrive pages cover the tradeoffs in depth.
Is HubSpot a good Zendesk Sell alternative?
Yes if you want one system for sales, marketing and service and can afford the step up. HubSpot’s free tools cover up to 2 users with 1,000 contacts. Starter is from $7 a seat. Professional is from $90 a seat with a $1,500 onboarding fee (see our HubSpot pricing and limits for the full ladder).
Migration effort is moderate. HubSpot’s Smart Transfer article lists Zendesk among its supported sources but does not name Zendesk Sell, so plan on a CSV import. HubSpot’s import rules are strict about identifiers: contacts need an email, companies a name or domain, and deals need a deal name, pipeline and deal stage that is valid for that pipeline. Files can be 512 MB and 1,048,576 rows on paid plans. The migration guide walks through the order.
Is Salesforce a good Zendesk Sell alternative?
For a Zendesk Sell team that outgrew simple CRM, it can be, but it is the most expensive route. Salesforce’s pricing page lists Starter Suite at $25, Pro Suite at $100, Core at $195, Advanced at $395 and Max at $550 per user per month. Storage is 10 GB per org on Starter and Pro Suite, 10 GB plus 20 MB per user on Core and 1 GB per user on Advanced and Max.
So Zendesk Sell versus Salesforce is mostly a question of what you will actually use: territories, approvals, sandboxes and flows come with Salesforce, and with them a bigger admin job. Migration is a CSV load: the Data Import Wizard takes up to 50,000 records at a time, per our import limits page, and Data Loader handles more. Compare the editions on HubSpot vs Salesforce and Pipedrive vs Salesforce.
Which cheaper CRMs should a small team look at?
Three are worth a trial: Zoho CRM, Freshsales and monday CRM.
- Zoho CRM lists Free for 3 users, Standard $14, Professional $23 and Enterprise $40. It fits teams that want low seat prices and a larger edition ladder. The free edition lists 10 data exports and 5,000 API calls a day. Imports are batched by edition: 1,000 records on Free up to 30,000 on Enterprise, per our import limits page.
- Freshsales lists Growth $9, Pro $39 and Enterprise $59 with a 21-day trial. Contact scoring, deal insights and territory management start on Pro. Enterprise adds custom modules, a sandbox and audit logs. Contact limits are not stated on the pricing page we read.
- monday CRM lists $12, $17 and $28 a seat with a 3-seat minimum. It fits teams already running work in monday boards, and our monday CRM alternatives page covers the other direction.
Is Close a good fit for a Zendesk Sell team?
Close lists Solo at $9 (one user, 10,000 leads, no workflows), Essentials at $35, Growth at $99 and Scale at $139 on annual billing, with unlimited leads and contacts from Essentials up and 250 custom fields on every plan. Call recording is kept for 30 days on Solo and Essentials, 90 days on Growth and unlimited on Scale. It is a sales-team tool priced per seat, and the price is higher than Pipedrive or Zoho at the same headcount. If your Sell team lives on the phone and email, Close deserves a trial; if you need marketing automation, it does not cover it as far as its pricing page shows. Close’s page does not state file storage limits.
How hard is the move from Zendesk Sell to each CRM?
The export is the same for all seven: a CSV from Settings > Data > Export covering leads, contacts, deals, notes and tasks. What differs is what the destination documents.
| Destination | Documented Sell route | Import limit per file | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pipedrive | Yes: Pipedrive article with object mapping and import order | 200,000 rows, under 50 MB | Lowest, one documented path |
| HubSpot | No Sell-specific article; Smart Transfer list does not name Sell | 1,048,576 rows, 512 MB (paid) | Medium, strict identifiers |
| Zoho CRM | Not checked this run | 1,000 to 30,000 per batch by edition | Medium to high on Standard |
| Salesforce | Not checked this run | 50,000 records in the Import Wizard | Medium, more setup first |
| Freshsales, Close | Not checked this run; both import CSV | Not read this run | Not rated |
| monday CRM | Not checked this run | Under 8,000 rows per import | Highest for large databases |
Import limits from vendor help pages checked October 6 and 21, 2026 and summarized on CRM import limits compared; Pipedrive and HubSpot rows rechecked October 22, 2026. “Not checked” means we did not read a Sell-specific page for that vendor.
Whichever you pick, three Sell-specific points apply. Emails, call logs, activity history, appointments and documents are not in the export. Parent Company fields are left out of a full export unless you export a smart list. And a Company ID that differs from the contact’s is dropped, so keep a name or email column to relink records.
How do I choose?
Start with what you must keep and what you can afford, in this order:
- Do you need email and call history? The Sell export will not carry it. Decide whether the new CRM’s email sync, an archive export or a developer extraction while Sell is still active will cover it.
- How many records and custom fields? Check the limits table against your export, especially monday’s column caps.
- Free or paid? Teams of 1 to 3 can start on HubSpot or Zoho free and upgrade later.
- Who else touches the data? If marketing or support need it, HubSpot or Salesforce reduce the number of systems.
- Is the pipeline simple? If yes, Pipedrive and its documented path is the shortest.
Our how to choose a CRM guide has the full checklist.
When to get help
If your Sell account has several pipelines, custom fields on every object, Zendesk Support wired in or an email history you cannot lose, a mapped and tested migration costs less than a rushed one. aibrevo implements Pipedrive, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Salesforce and monday.com, and moving a team off a retiring CRM is a common request; Freshsales and Close are quoted per project, and migration into one of the eight platforms is the usual route. Book a short call or see the Pipedrive, HubSpot, Zoho and Salesforce service pages.
Sources
All checked Oct 22, 2026.
- Zendesk Help Center, Announcing the retiring of Zendesk Sell: retirement date, Pipedrive recommendation.
- Zendesk Help Center, Exporting data from Zendesk Sell: what the export includes and omits.
- Pipedrive, pricing and Zendesk Sell landing page; Pipedrive Knowledge Base, Zendesk Sell migration and spreadsheet import.
- HubSpot, Sales Hub pricing, CRM pricing, Smart Transfer article and import file requirements.
- Zoho, CRM pricing; Salesforce, Sales pricing; Freshworks, CRM pricing; Close, pricing; monday.com, pricing.