Contents7
- 01How do you calculate the cost of a CRM over three years?
- 02How much do licences cost for 25 users?
- 03What the pricing page does not show
- 04And an open source CRM hosted on your own infrastructure?
- 05Subscription or open source CRM: how do you choose?
- 06Where should you start?
- 07Frequently asked questions
On a pricing page, a CRM costs a few dozen euros per user per month. In a budget, it costs that figure multiplied by every person who uses it and every month of commitment, plus everything the page shows in small print: mandatory onboarding, the higher edition you need for a single feature, AI credits, support.
We redid the calculation over three years, the period over which a change of tool has time to pay for itself, for a team of 25 users: that of a 100-person company whose sales, customer service and management teams work in the CRM. All prices are public, excluding tax, billed annually, and were recorded on 14 October 2026, from the vendors’ euro price lists.
In short
For 25 users, licences cost between €20,700 and €90,000 over three years in the mid-tier editions we compared, before any additional costs.
The hidden lines weigh as much as the list price: HubSpot’s mandatory onboarding, custom objects reserved for the Enterprise edition, annual commitment, Salesforce premium support.
An open source CRM like Twenty, hosted on your own infrastructure, has no per-user licence: its cost is setup, a server and operations, which do not grow with your headcount.
Below ten users, and with nobody to run it, a well-chosen subscription is often still the better deal.
How do you calculate the cost of a CRM over three years?
The formula fits on one line:
3-year cost = price per user per month × users × 36 + onboarding + extra editions or modules + AI credits beyond the quota + paid support
Two rules before you fill it in. First, take the edition that really covers your processes, not the one on the banner: if an essential feature only exists in Enterprise, the Enterprise price is the one that counts. Second, count the users you will have in three years, not today: a CRM billed per seat follows your hiring.
In every case, data migration and configuration also cost something, whether the tool is a subscription or open source software. Our article Leaving SaaS: the real three-year cost for a small business applies the same method to all of a company’s software.
How much do licences cost for 25 users?
Licences over three years for 25 users, in euros excluding tax (our calculation, public prices as of 14 October 2026)
Each line is the price per user per month shown by the vendor, multiplied by 25 and by 36: €23 at Zoho, €56.30 at Microsoft, €59 at Pipedrive, €90 at HubSpot, €100 at Salesforce. These editions are not equivalent feature for feature: this chart compares prices, not functionality. Above all, it shows the order of magnitude, and what moves it: the number of users, multiplied by 36.
The same calculation at 60 users, if the company grows, brings Sales Hub Professional to €195,870 over three years, onboarding included. Nothing changed in the tool, only in the team.
What the pricing page does not show
Mandatory onboarding. At HubSpot, the Professional and Enterprise editions of Sales Hub require a one-off paid onboarding programme: €1,470 and €3,420 in the euro price list. It enters the calculation on day one.
The higher edition for a single feature. The most common case: custom objects, the records specific to your business (properties, contracts, machines) on top of contacts and deals. In Sales Hub, they are reserved for the Enterprise edition, according to HubSpot’s knowledge base, with at most 10 object definitions. For 25 users, moving from Professional to Enterprise, at €150 per user, brings the bill to €138,420 over three years, onboarding included.
Commitment. At HubSpot, the Professional edition is paid monthly but committed annually, and the Enterprise edition is billed annually. On HubSpot’s French site, the Starter plan stops at 10 paid users: a team of 25 therefore starts at Professional. The Starter price of €7 per month is, incidentally, a “limited time” promotion on a €20 price.
Support. At Salesforce, the Premier support plan costs 30% of net licence fees. On the Pro Suite in our example, that would add €27,000 over three years.
AI credits. AI features are increasingly paid for in credits, with a monthly quota included and a rate per action. We cover how these rates add up in our business AI articles.
Watch out
The entry price is not your team’s price. Before you sign, ask in writing for the edition that covers your processes, the onboarding, the commitment period and the price beyond the planned number of users.
Savings, on the other hand, can often be found without changing tool: at HubSpot, view-only seats come at no additional cost. Managers who look at dashboards without changing anything do not need a paid seat.
And an open source CRM hosted on your own infrastructure?
An open source CRM changes the structure of the calculation: the “per user” line disappears. Twenty, the open source CRM we deploy, can be downloaded and hosted with no licence: on its pricing page, the basic self-hosted plan is $0 per user, with unlimited users, custom objects and records, workflows, AI agents and MCP server included. Dolibarr and Odoo Community, the two other solutions in our range, have no per-user licence either.
The cost shifts to three lines:
- setup: the data model, data migration and clean-up, connections to the website and email, training. Our offer installs Twenty for €4,500;
- the server: a private server with the hosting provider of your choice, with separate backup storage;
- operations: tested backups, updates, monitoring. In-house, it is counted in hours; outsourced, as a subscription. Our managed service for a self-hosted stack, up to five services, costs €450 per month.
For 25 users, that comes to €4,500 for setup and €16,200 for outsourced operations over three years, plus the server. At 60 users, the calculation barely changes: only the server grows, if needed.
Two limits to be aware of. Single sign-on (SSO) and row-level permissions require the Organization plan, at $19 per user per month even when self-hosted, which also brings a commercial licence without the obligations of the AGPL. And Twenty is a CRM, not an ERP: for quotes, invoicing and inventory in one place, look at Dolibarr or Odoo. Our guide Twenty, Dolibarr or Odoo: which one for your team? helps you decide.
From the field
We have run Twenty in production since early 2025. At Palmora Property, a property portal, it serves as the back office: properties, areas and visitor enquiries live there in custom-built objects, with no per-user licence. The item that demands rigour is not the licence, it is operations: verified backups, prepared updates, rotated access keys.
Twenty is also available in the cloud, hosted by the vendor: $9 per user per month on Pro, $19 on Organization, billed annually. For 25 users, that is $8,100 or $17,100 over three years, with no server to run. What you keep either way is your data in open software, which is easier to leave than a subscription with a partial export. Our full field report is in Twenty CRM in production: our review, limits included.
Subscription or open source CRM: how do you choose?
Keep a subscription CRM
Fewer than ten users, and little growth expected
Nobody to run a server, and no budget to outsource it
A strong need for the vendor’s marketing or service suite
Certifications the vendor provides that you could not obtain alone
Move to an open source CRM
A growing team, and a bill that would grow with it
Objects specific to your business, without changing edition
Data you want to keep on your own infrastructure
A provider or an in-house team to run it
The calculation has its blind spots too: reversibility, data location, training time. A tool the team does not adopt costs more than any licence.
Where should you start?
Start with your current numbers: the number of seats you pay for and the number actually used, the edition, the renewal date, and the features you are missing. Then apply the three-year formula, for the team you will have, not the one you have today.
If the gap justifies a change, our custom CRM and ERP offer chooses the right-sized solution with you, from €4,500, migrates your data and trains the team. If you are starting from HubSpot, our guide Migrating from HubSpot to an open source CRM in seven steps details the switch. And if the CRM is just one subscription among many, our move away from SaaS runs the same calculation for all your tools.
Frequently asked questions
How much does HubSpot cost for 25 users?
With Sales Hub Professional at €90 per user per month billed annually, 25 users cost €81,000 over three years, plus €1,470 for mandatory onboarding. If you need custom objects, reserved for the Enterprise edition of Sales Hub, the bill rises to €138,420 over the same period. These are the prices in the public euro price list as of 14 October 2026.
Does an open source CRM really cost nothing?
The licence costs nothing, the project does. You need setup (data model, migration, training), a server, and operations: tested backups, updates, monitoring. The difference is that these costs do not follow the number of users. Some advanced features, such as single sign-on in Twenty, also remain paid, even when self-hosted.
Do you need to pay a licence for everyone who looks at the CRM?
Not always. At HubSpot, view-only seats come at no additional cost: managers or a department that look without editing do not need a paid seat. Take stock of the licences you pay for and how they are actually used before any calculation: seats belonging to people who have left or never logged in often show up on the bill.
Is the monthly price the same as the annual price?
No. At Pipedrive, the Premium edition costs €59 per user per month billed annually, €79 billed monthly. At HubSpot, Sales Hub Professional goes from €90 to €100, with an annual commitment in both cases. Always compare two offers on the same billing cycle, and note the date you recorded the price next to it.
Sources
- Zoho, Zoho CRM pricing (new tab)zoho.com
- Microsoft, Dynamics 365 Sales pricing (new tab)microsoft.com
- Pipedrive, pricing (new tab)pipedrive.com
- HubSpot, Sales Hub pricing in euros (new tab)hubspot.com
- Salesforce, Sales Cloud pricing (new tab)salesforce.com
- HubSpot, create and edit custom objects, updated on 7 October 2026 (new tab)knowledge.hubspot.com
- HubSpot, product and services catalogue (new tab)legal.hubspot.com
- Twenty, pricing page (new tab)twenty.com
HubSpot, create and edit custom objects, updated on 7 October 2026
Read on knowledge.hubspot.com(new tab)Jim · founder of Brain Plus AI
Also in crm and customer data
Choose and price8 min
Leaving SaaS: the real three-year cost for an SME
Before you drop a single subscription, you need to compare two full costs over three years, human hours included. Here is the method, line by line, and what the calculation does not see.
Practical guide9 min
Migrating from HubSpot to an open source CRM in seven steps
Leaving HubSpot for Twenty, Dolibarr or Odoo can be done without losing your customers, provided you deal with the model, export, cleaning, import and history in order. Here is our seven-step method, and the honest list of what does not come across by itself.
Understand6 min
CRM adoption: why salespeople don't fill it in
When a CRM stays empty, it is almost never ill will: the tool asks salespeople for more than it gives back. The reasons that keep coming up, and what makes a CRM the tool the team opens of its own accord.