Close

What it is

Close is a CRM for teams that sell by talking to people. Calling is built in rather than bolted on, with VoIP and call recording, alongside SMS with templates, two-way email sync and email sequences. The record of a customer is a record of conversations, which is a different centre of gravity from a CRM organized around fields.

Its AI sales agent, Chloe, is included on every plan, with a monthly credit allowance that rises from 500 to 2,000 by tier. Automated outreach workflows arrive on Growth and above, as does email open tracking.

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

It fits small sales teams doing outbound or high-touch inbound where the phone matters: agencies, B2B services, anything with a real sales conversation rather than a checkout. If your reps currently work from a CRM in one window and a phone in the other, the consolidation is the point.

It is a weaker fit for businesses that sell without calling, where paying for a dialer you never use makes no sense. It is also not the choice if you need marketing automation and support in the same platform, which is HubSpot territory, or if you want a free tier to start on, since Close has none.

Pricing

Close is paid with no free plan, and offers a 14-day trial that does not require a credit card. Solo is $9 per user per month billed annually, or $19 monthly, and is limited to one user. Essentials is $35 per user per month annually, or $49 monthly. Growth is $99 annually or $109 monthly and adds workflows and email open tracking. Scale is $139 annually or $149 monthly.

The Solo tier is worth noticing: $9 per month billed annually for a single operator is unusually cheap for a CRM with calling included. The jump to team pricing at Essentials and especially Growth is where the budgeting decision actually sits.

Set it up

Official guide: Import Data into Close

1. Start the 14-day free trial of Close. It needs no credit card. Close has no free plan, and the cheapest plan after the trial is Solo: $9/user/mo billed annually ($19 monthly, 1 user). Have your work email login ready for the next step. You now have a Close account in its trial.
2. Connect your email so Close can send and log your emails. Go to Settings > Accounts & Apps, add your email account and sign in through the walkthrough. For any other email provider, click "Custom Email" and enter its SMTP and IMAP details (server settings your provider can give you). Save. Close now logs the emails you send.
3. Save your spreadsheet of leads (the companies and people you want to sell to) as a .csv or .xlsx file with a header row, which is a first row of column names. Write phone numbers with a + and country code. Click your profile at the top left, choose "Import Data" and upload the file. You now see a page where you assign each column to a Close field.
4. For each column, use the dropdown under "This column will be assigned to" to pick the matching Close field, then click "Next". Follow the prompts to finish the import. Your leads now appear in Close.
5. Open one lead and click the email icon at the top of the lead page. The email goes to the primary contact, the first person listed. Write it like any email and send it. Replies now arrive in your Close Inbox and appear on the lead.

When this works, your leads are in Close and one email is logged on a lead's page, so your sales emails and notes sit in one place.

Calling is billed separately from the plan. To call from Close, go to Settings > Communication > Phone & Voicemail and select "New Number". Close shows the monthly cost of the number before you confirm, and each call is charged per minute.

Strengths and limitations

The strength is that outreach is native. A rep can call, text, email and update the deal without switching tools, and the AI agent is included rather than sold as an add-on, which is not the industry norm.

The limitations are price and scope. There is no free plan, and the per-user cost at Growth and Scale is high compared to general CRMs. The product is deliberately sales-focused, so marketing and support live elsewhere. And built-in calling brings obligations you own, not the vendor: recording consent and telecom rules differ by country and are your responsibility to get right.