The honest version of this list
Most "cheap CRM" articles quietly compare per-user prices against team prices and let you draw the wrong conclusion. A ₹490/user CRM and a ₹999/team CRM are not in the same category, even though the first number looks smaller.
So this guide does the maths at four team sizes. That is the only way the comparison means anything.
What under ₹1,000/month actually buys, by team size
| CRM | 1 user | 3 users | 5 users | 10 users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salesvora Pro (flat, up to 3) | ₹499 | ₹499 | — | — |
| Salesvora Max (flat, up to 15) | ₹999 | ₹999 | ₹999 | ₹999 |
| Zoho Bigin Express (~₹490/user) | ₹490 | ₹1,470 | ₹2,450 | ₹4,900 |
| Zoho CRM Standard (~₹800/user) | ₹800 | ₹2,400 | ₹4,000 | ₹8,000 |
| Freshsales Growth (~₹999/user) | ₹999 | ₹2,997 | ₹4,995 | ₹9,990 |
| HubSpot Sales Starter (~US$45/seat) | ~₹3,800 | ~₹11,400 | ~₹19,000 | ~₹38,000 |
Read the columns, not the first row. At one user, four options qualify. At five users, exactly one does.
That is the entire argument for flat pricing, and it is why this keyword is worth taking seriously: businesses searching "CRM under ₹1000" are almost never solo — they are small teams who have discovered per-seat maths the hard way.
The options that genuinely stay under ₹1,000 for a team
Salesvora Max — ₹999/month, up to 15 members
The only plan in this list that keeps a 5, 10 or 15-person team under ₹1,000 a month, and it is the most capable tier rather than a stripped entry plan.
Included: unlimited leads, all six AI agents (lead qualifier, FAQ, follow-up, appointment booker, post-sale, selector), automations and playbooks, knowledge base with sync, WhatsApp/Telegram/email, Meta Ads lead ingestion, unlimited web forms and campaigns, handoff API, priority support. ₹9,999/year on annual billing.
Salesvora Pro — ₹499/month, up to 3 members
Half the price for a small team that does not need the AI suite. Unlimited leads, WhatsApp, Meta Ads ingestion, unlimited web forms, projects module, FAQ AI agent capped at 50 responses/month, webhooks, custom branding. ₹4,999/year annual.
Salesvora Free — ₹0, one user
Pipeline, follow-ups, reports, one web form, CSV import. Capped at 50 leads/month and 150 lifetime.
Zoho Bigin Express — ~₹490/user/month
Genuinely good for a single operator, and a trustworthy brand. Crosses ₹1,000 at two users, so treat it as a solo tool.
Where "cheap" becomes expensive
Three costs that do not appear in the headline price:
1. GST. Indian SaaS is typically quoted excluding GST, with 18% added at checkout. A ₹999 plan bills around ₹1,179. If you are GST-registered you can generally claim input credit, so the effective cost returns to ₹999 — but budget for the cash-flow difference. Check the provider's checkout page rather than assuming either way.
2. WhatsApp conversation charges. This one catches people. Meta charges per-conversation fees for the official WhatsApp Business API, and those are separate from your CRM subscription. Any vendor implying unlimited free WhatsApp messaging is either absorbing that cost somewhere or not using the official API. Ask directly.
3. Add-ons. Email automation, calling, extra forms and reporting are add-ons on some platforms. Get the all-in price for your actual use case before comparing.
Is a sub-₹1,000 CRM good enough?
For a business of 1-15 people: yes, comfortably. Everything that generates return in this category is available under ₹1,000 — lead capture, renameable pipeline stages, follow-up reminders, WhatsApp, source tracking, reporting, and increasingly AI agents.
What you give up is enterprise machinery: territory management, multi-currency forecasting, complex approval chains, RBAC audit logs, dedicated implementation. Small teams do not use these. If a salesperson insists you need them at your size, they are quoting a product built for a company ten times larger.
The failure mode for small businesses is never "our CRM lacked forecasting". It is "nobody updated the CRM". Which is a simplicity and price problem, not a feature problem.
The maths that makes this trivial
A ₹999/month plan is ₹11,988 a year, or ₹9,999 on annual billing.
If your average deal is ₹25,000, the CRM pays for itself by recovering one deal every two and a half years. If your average deal is a ₹65,000 coaching admission or a ₹15,000 brokerage on a flat, it pays for itself faster still.
Meanwhile the typical Indian small business loses 20-40% of leads to follow-up failure. Recovering even a fraction of that is a return measured in multiples, not percentages. The subscription cost is not the variable worth optimising — adoption is.
How to choose in ten minutes
- Solo, want the cheapest real CRM? Salesvora Free (₹0), or Zoho Bigin if you want the Zoho ecosystem.
- 2-3 people? Salesvora Pro at ₹499/month.
- 4-15 people? Salesvora Max at ₹999/month — the only flat option that holds the line at this size.
- 20+ B2B sales users? You are out of this bracket. Look at Zoho CRM and budget per seat.
Get started
Start free with Salesvora — one user free, ₹499/month on Pro, ₹999/month on Max for up to 15 members with the full AI agent suite. Priced in INR, no contract, about 10 minutes to set up.
Related reading: Best free CRM in India for small teams · Best CRM for small business in India · Top 10 CRM software in India