Close review
The CRM built for high-velocity sales teams
Our verdict
The sharpest CRM for phone-and-email inside sales — worth the premium if reps live in it all day, over-specced if they don't.
Best for: Inside sales teams that want calling, email and CRM in one window
Independent review. If you buy through links on this page we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes our scores — how we test.
What we liked
- Calling, SMS and email built into the CRM — no tab-juggling
- Genuinely fast interface designed around rep throughput
- Strong automation: sequences, Power Dialer, reporting
- Quick onboarding compared with heavyweight CRMs
What to watch
- Pricier per seat than general-purpose CRMs
- Built-in telephony billed on top as metered usage, passed through at cost
- Fewer third-party integrations than the market giants
What Close is for
Close is a CRM designed around one belief: reps should spend time selling, not switching tabs. So calling, SMS and email live inside the CRM, and the interface is built for speed — log a call, fire a sequence, dial the next lead without leaving the record.
Where it shines
Throughput. For an inside sales team the native phone and email genuinely cut friction: the Power Dialer, email sequences and clean reporting keep reps in a rhythm, and onboarding is quick next to enterprise CRMs. If your day is volume outreach, Close feels built for you because it was.
Where it frays
It’s a premium seat, and the built-in calling adds credit costs on top, so total cost per rep runs above a general-purpose CRM. The integration catalogue is also narrower than the market leaders — usually fine, occasionally a gap. And if your team doesn’t call much, you’re paying for the one thing that justifies the price.
Who should buy it
Buy it for a calling-heavy inside sales team that will use the native phone and sequences every day. If you mainly need a shared contact database with light activity, a cheaper general CRM is the smarter spend.
Pricing note: Per-seat across four tiers — Solo, Essentials, Growth, Scale. Solo is single-user at $19/mo ($9 billed annually); team plans start with Essentials at $49/mo ($35 annually), and the Power Dialer the pitch leans on only lands on Growth ($109/mo) and Scale ($149/mo). Calling is built in but metered — billed on top of the seat and passed through at cost, around $0.02 a minute. The value holds when reps live in the phone and email; for a plain contact database you're paying for power you won't touch.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Close CRM best for?
Inside and high-velocity sales teams that make a lot of calls and send a lot of email. Having telephony and email native to the CRM is its main advantage over general-purpose tools.
How does Close compare to HubSpot or Pipedrive?
Close is more opinionated around outbound activity and rep speed, with calling built in. HubSpot and Pipedrive are broader and cheaper per seat but push you toward add-ons for the same calling workflow.
Is calling included in the price?
The calling feature is built in, but usage is metered and billed separately from the seat licence — passed through at cost, around $0.02 a minute. Budget both when you compare total cost.
Bottom line
The sharpest CRM for phone-and-email inside sales — worth the premium if reps live in it all day, over-specced if they don't.
