Attio

What it is

Attio is a CRM you shape rather than adopt. Instead of fixed contact and deal records, it works on custom objects, so the thing you track can be an investor, a property, a partner or a candidate, with the fields your business actually uses. Data syncs from your email and calendar in real time and enriches itself, which means the record fills in without anyone typing.

On top of that sit workflows for automation, reports, and an AI layer: Ask Attio for search and creation in plain language, plus AI agents. Call intelligence and sequences arrive on Pro.

Who it's for (and who it isn't)

It fits teams whose process does not match a standard sales pipeline, and teams that currently run on a shared spreadsheet because every CRM they tried felt like someone else's process. The free plan covers up to 3 seats and 50,000 records, which is enough to run a real early-stage business on.

It is a weaker fit for a team that wants an opinionated sales system out of the box, where HubSpot Sales Hub gives you deal stages and reporting without design decisions. It is also not the tool if calling is your main channel: Close builds around the phone in a way Attio does not.

Pricing

Attio is freemium. The free plan includes up to 3 seats, up to 3 custom objects, 50,000 records, 200 emails per month and up to 3 reports. Plus is EUR 39 per user per month, or EUR 31 billed annually. Pro is EUR 93 per user per month, or EUR 74 annually, and adds call intelligence and sequences. Enterprise is quoted on request and billed annually. Prices as shown here were quoted in euros.

The free plan's limits are unusual in a useful way. Record count is generous and seats are the constraint, so the upgrade trigger is hiring rather than growth in data.

Set it up

Official guide: Sync your email and calendar

1. Create an Attio account on the Free plan. It includes up to 3 seats (people who can log in) and 50,000 records (a record is one person or one company). Have the Gmail or Microsoft 365 account you use for work email ready. You now have an Attio workspace on the Free plan.
2. Click your workspace name in the top left, then "Account settings". Select "Email and calendar accounts" on the left and click "Connect Account" for your provider. Authorize Attio to sync (copy in) your data. On the Free plan you can sync one account. Attio now starts building records for everyone you have emailed or had a calendar event with, plus their companies.
3. Stay on the "Email and calendar accounts" page while the first sync runs. A progress tracker shows how far it is. You now see "In sync" on the page, and Attio sends you a confirmation email.
4. Click "Companies" in the left sidebar. You now see company records that Attio built from your email history. Open one and look at the Emails tab, which shows your emails with that company, and the Activity tab, which shows your meetings.
5. Import your own list. Save your spreadsheet as a .csv file with a header row and a Domain column, because Attio uses a company's domain to avoid duplicates. Under "Companies", click "Import / Export" in the top right, then "Import CSV". Click "Choose a .CSV file", select your file and click "Next". You now see your file's columns next to Attio fields.
6. Match each column to an Attio field (Attio matches many automatically). If a field is missing, click "+ Create new attribute". Click "Continue", fix any values Attio flags, click "Continue" again and then "Start import". You now see the progress and a table of the records being added.

When this works, Attio holds the people and companies from your email history plus your own list, and each company page shows the emails and meetings between you and that company.

On Pro (EUR 93/user/mo monthly or EUR 74 annually): two synced accounts per team member instead of one, call recording for meetings, and advanced email sharing, where you share your full inbox with individual users.

Strengths and limitations

The strength is the data model plus automatic capture. Being able to define what you track, while email and calendar sync keeps it fresh, addresses the two reasons CRMs fail: the wrong shape and stale data.

The limitations are freedom and price. A flexible system needs someone to design it, and a badly designed workspace is harder to fix than a rigid product you never configured. Sequences and call intelligence sit on Pro at EUR 93 per user per month, which is a real step. And the ecosystem around it is smaller than HubSpot's, so check that the specific tools you depend on are in the integration list.