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A CRM for sole traders has one job: make sure nothing you promised a client gets lost. It remembers who your clients are, reminds you when to follow up, and shows which quotes are still open. Whether you need one depends less on a feature list than on how you win work. A decorator sending ten quotes a month, a consultant with five retainer clients and a photographer who books through Instagram messages each get a different answer.
This comparison puts five tools side by side: Pipedrive, folk, HubSpot, Zoho CRM and Teamleader. You get the price for one user, what the free plans really allow, how each handles email and invoices, and the point where a spreadsheet stops being enough. VBS sells none of these tools and is a partner of none. We do build custom software, so on the last option at the bottom of the page we are not neutral, and we would rather say so up front.
If the word itself is new, start with what a CRM is. If you are really after orders, stock and finance in one system, read CRM vs ERP first.
A CRM is not your tax software
This trips up a lot of sole traders, so it comes before any prices. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies from 6 April 2026 to sole traders whose qualifying income was over £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year. The threshold then drops in two steps:
| You use MTD from | When qualifying income is over | Measured in tax year |
|---|---|---|
| 6 April 2026 | £50,000 | 2024 to 2025 |
| 6 April 2027 | £30,000 | 2025 to 2026 |
| 6 April 2028 | £20,000 | 2026 to 2027 |
Under MTD you keep digital records and send quarterly updates with software HMRC recognises for Income Tax.
A CRM is built for clients and follow-ups, not for quarterly updates. Pick your MTD software from HMRC's list of compatible software, usually your bookkeeping app, and treat the CRM as a separate decision. The same goes for VAT: once your VAT taxable turnover passes £90,000 in a rolling twelve months you must register, and your invoices then carry VAT. Whichever tool sends your invoices has to handle that, and for most sole traders that is the bookkeeping app, not the CRM.
You also keep records from the day you start trading, and you register for Self Assessment once you earn more than £1,000 from self-employment in a tax year. None of that needs a CRM. A CRM earns its place on the sales side: the enquiry you forgot to answer, the quote nobody chased.
Spreadsheet or light CRM: where the line sits
Most sole traders start in a spreadsheet. These are the moments it starts to cost you.
- Price
- A spreadsheetnothing extra
- A light CRMfree (HubSpot, Zoho) or from about 14 to 24 a month per user, in the vendor's currency
- Follow-ups
- A spreadsheetonly if you read the 'next step' column every week
- A light CRMa reminder lands on your phone on the day
- A spreadsheetyou search your inbox for the last price you quoted
- A light CRMemails sit on the client's record, depending on the plan
- A second person
- A spreadsheettwo people in one file quickly overwrite each other
- A light CRMbuilt for it, at a price per user
- Leaving
- A spreadsheetit is already a file
- A light CRMtest the export during the trial
Stay in the spreadsheet while you work alone and no follow-up has slipped. Move the week you catch yourself searching old emails for a price, or the day someone else needs the list.
Spreadsheet
Fits: A sole trader with a handful of clients a month
- Name, contact, last conversation
- A column with the status
Where it stops: Nobody sees who promised what. Reminders do not exist.
The question to the next step
Do more people work in the same client list, or do you forget follow-ups?
No? Then you stay here.
Light CRM
Fits: A team of two to five who sell together
- Contacts and companies
- A pipeline of deals
- Tasks and reminders
Where it stops: You still make the quote somewhere else and type it over.
The question to the next step
Do you type client details over from your CRM into your quote or invoice?
No? Then you stay here.
CRM with quotes and invoices
Fits: An SME where sales, scheduling and accounts wait on each other
- Quotes from your price list
- Invoices to your accounting
- Permissions per role
Where it stops: Your own way of working only half fits: a step the package does not know, you do on the side.
The question to the next step
Do you do a large part of your work outside the package, in Excel or on paper?
No? Then you stay here.
Custom CRM
Fits: A company with a process no package knows
- Your own steps and fields
- Links to your scheduling, ERP or shop
- A portal for your customers
Where it stops: You maintain it or have it maintained. Choose this only when the previous step really pinches.
An example of a decision path, not a fixed rule. Many companies rightly stay on the second or third step.
What one user pays per month
Pricing pages are written for teams. As a sole trader, read them for a single seat. Prices below are in the currency the vendor lists them in; your own invoice may come in pounds.
| Tool | Entry plan | One user, per month | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pipedrive | Lite | €14 billed yearly, excl. VAT | no, 14-day trial |
| folk | Standard | $24 billed yearly or $30 monthly | no, two-week trial |
| HubSpot | Starter | $7 per seat billed yearly or $10 monthly, for new customers | yes, up to two users |
| Zoho CRM | paid editions | per user, see CRM cost | yes, up to three users |
| Teamleader | SMART | €50 billed yearly, because the minimum is two users | no, 14 days without a card |
The catch sits in the last row. Teamleader charges for at least two users, so working alone costs the same as working with a partner. Pipedrive and folk charge per person from the first seat. HubSpot and Zoho give a free edition that a business of one can live in for a long time.
Worked example, with assumptions: one person, billed yearly, October 2026 list prices, no add-ons.
- Pipedrive Lite: €14 x 12 = €168. If you want your mailbox synced, you are on Growth: €39 x 12 = €468.
- folk Standard: $24 x 12 = $288.
- HubSpot: $0 on the free tools, $84 on Starter.
- Zoho CRM: $0 on the free edition.
- Teamleader SMART: €50 x 12 = €600, or €450 in the first year with 25 percent off the first invoice.
The cheapest CRM is not automatically the cheapest setup. Teamleader looks dearest here, but it also sends invoices and Peppol e-invoices, which a Belgian or Dutch client may require. Pipedrive Lite looks cheapest, but your invoices still come from somewhere else. Always add CRM and invoicing together. Team prices over three years are in CRM cost, and Teamleader with its add-ons in Teamleader pricing.
Free plans and where they stop
HubSpot's free CRM covers up to two users, 1,000 contacts and 1,000 records per other object, with no time limit. You can send 2,000 marketing emails a month, with HubSpot branding in them. What pushes you to pay is a third user, more records, or features from Starter. Whether that is enough for your case is answered in is HubSpot free.
Zoho CRM's free edition is free for up to three users. That makes it the roomiest free option if you work with a partner or a part-time assistant.
Pipedrive, folk and Teamleader have no free plan, only trials: 14 days for Pipedrive and Teamleader, two weeks for folk. Use them the way the steps below describe, with real clients, not demo data.
Email, pipeline and invoices
Email. Pipedrive syncs your mailbox from Growth upwards, not on Lite. folk includes email campaigns on Standard and adds email sequences on Premium at $48 a month billed yearly. HubSpot's free plan gives you marketing emails with its logo. If your main wish is simply to see which emails belong to which client, check that this works on the plan you are about to buy.
Pipeline. A business of one rarely needs more than one sales pipeline. Pipedrive is built around it, which pays off when selling is the biggest part of your week. folk keeps it lighter and leans on contacts and relationships. Teamleader only gives several pipelines on FLOW.
Invoices. Of these five, only Teamleader is an invoicing tool as well as a CRM, and it is shaped around Belgian and Dutch invoicing, with Peppol sending on every plan. For a UK sole trader with UK clients that is rarely the deciding point; your invoices and VAT sit in your bookkeeping app. If you work for clients in Belgium, where structured e-invoices between businesses are required since 2026, read Peppol for small businesses and the term Peppol.
One trial week, five checks
A trial only tells you something when you use it on your own clients.
- Move twenty real clientsImport twenty clients, not your whole list, and check that every field lands where you expect: name, company, email, phone and last contact.
- Send a real quoteWrite a quote for a live enquiry and see how long it takes compared with your current way. If the tool cannot quote, note which tool will.
- Connect your mailboxCheck that older emails attach to the right client and that new ones keep landing there without you tagging them.
- Set a follow-upPlan a follow-up for next week and check that the reminder reaches your phone, because that is where you will actually see it.
- Export everythingExport your clients back to a file. If notes and follow-ups come with them, you can leave later without losing your history.
When a custom CRM makes sense
For a sole trader a package wins almost every time. Custom work only enters the picture when your work follows rules no package knows: a price built from ten variables, a job that passes through three parties, or a portal where clients upload documents themselves. Or when you glue three tools and a spreadsheet together and retype the same data every month.
There is often a middle road: keep the package and build a small link next to it. We build integrations on the public API, with your own key or app registration; how that works with Teamleader is in Teamleader integration. Only when that gets too tight is custom CRM development the logical next step. The wider choice between buying and building is in build vs buy software, and for a growing firm in custom software for small business.
What we built before: a management platform for a Belgian payroll bureau that replaces their Excel workbook, tested locally on their real file with 309 employers and 971 employees. How we work is on custom software, at a fixed price per project after a conversation. Coming from spreadsheets yourself? Replace Excel with software walks through the move.
Moving your client list across
Every CRM imports a client list from a file. The work is in what comes before. Give each field its own column: name, company, email, phone, the last time you spoke and where the client came from. One row per person, not per company. Put anyone you have not spoken to in three years on a separate sheet instead of moving them. From your history, bring only open quotes; the rest stays in your archive.
A CRM only fills up when enquiries come in, and for most sole traders that starts with a website people can find. Web design for freelancers covers what that site needs to do.
AI can already prepare a lot of the CRM work for you: summarise an email thread, pull contact details out of a message, draft the follow-up. You still decide what goes out. How that looks for a business of one is in AI for the self employed, and if you would rather have it set up for you, see AI automation. Comparing the two best-known names in more depth? Read HubSpot vs Teamleader or HubSpot alternatives.
Questions about a first CRM
Is there a free CRM for sole traders?
Yes. HubSpot's free CRM covers up to two users and 1,000 contacts with no time limit, and Zoho CRM's free edition covers up to three users. Pipedrive, folk and Teamleader only offer trials.
Does a CRM count as Making Tax Digital software?
Not by itself. MTD for Income Tax needs software HMRC recognises for keeping records and sending quarterly updates. Check HMRC's list of compatible software; for most sole traders that is the bookkeeping app, with the CRM alongside it.
Do I need a CRM as a sole trader?
Not always. If you work alone with a small group of regular clients and your invoices come from your bookkeeping app, a well-kept spreadsheet is enough. A CRM pays off once follow-ups start slipping or someone else needs the list.
Why is Teamleader dearer for one person?
Teamleader charges for at least two users, so SMART costs €50 a month billed yearly even when you work alone. It includes quotes, invoices and Peppol sending, which matters mostly for clients in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Can I switch CRM later?
Yes, as long as you can export your data. Test it during the trial: export your clients and check that notes and follow-ups come with them.