Close Review, Pricing & Alternatives (2026)

Close is a hosted CRM and sales engagement platform made by Close, a company founded in 2013 by Steli Efti, Anthony Nemitz, and Thomas Steinacher. The product launched publicly as Close.io in January 2013 after the founders worked at Elastic Sales. Close adopted its current name after acquiring the close.com domain in 2019. Y Combinator lists Close in its Winter 2011 batch and identifies the company as active. Close describes its growth as bootstrapped, while contemporaneous coverage reported an early 2013 seed round. The company sells to sales teams that want customer records, outreach, calling, and sales operations in one hosted application instead of separate CRM and engagement products.

Close organizes sales work around leads, contacts, opportunities, and activities. A typical workflow begins with importing or creating leads, adding contacts, and recording email, call, or SMS interactions on each lead record. Reps can use built-in calling, texting, email sequences, forms, and workflows for follow-up. Growth adds Power Dialer, bulk email, custom activities, and broader automation. Scale adds predictive dialing, live call coaching, permissions, lead visibility rules, custom objects, and user groups. Reporting covers pipeline and activity performance. Developers can connect external systems through the REST API, OAuth 2.0, webhooks, event logs, pagination, rate limits, and the MCP server. This keeps communication history close to opportunity data.

Close does not name the underlying model used by its AI features. Recent product work includes Chloe, an AI sales agent that the company says can call, qualify prospects, book meetings, send follow-up, and update records inside Close. The 2025 and 2026 changelog includes native scheduling, a ChatGPT app, workflow improvements, Forms API updates, Playbooks API, blocked phone numbers, form submissions, field enrichment, WhatsApp messages, transcription fields, and an OpenAPI specification. Close also documents an MCP server for compatible AI agents. These additions extend automation around the CRM. Chloe is positioned as an in-product sales agent, while the ChatGPT connection has separate OpenAI account and data controls.

Close has four public seat plans and a 14-day free trial. Solo costs $19 per user monthly or $9 per user monthly with annual billing, supports one user, and allows up to 10,000 leads. Essentials costs $49 monthly or $35 annually per user and adds collaboration, forms, email, calling, SMS, and unlimited contacts and leads. Growth costs $109 monthly or $99 annually and adds workflows, Power Dialer, custom activities, and bulk email. Scale costs $149 monthly or $139 annually and adds advanced permissions, predictive dialing, extended recording, coaching, custom objects, and user groups. Calling and SMS are billed separately, while AI features use credits or plan allowances. The advertised annual Solo price is less than half its monthly equivalent. Higher-tier features therefore carry both seat and usage costs.

Close does not offer a self-hosted or open-source edition, and heavy calling, SMS, or AI use can make the total cost harder to predict. Avoma is a closer fit for meeting recording, transcription, conversation intelligence, scheduling, and revenue insights across conferencing tools. Salesforce offers broader enterprise customization and administration, while HubSpot combines sales with larger marketing and service products. Close instead concentrates on native sales communication, pipeline activity, and programmable CRM workflows. Its one-user Solo plan also limits the cheapest entry point for teams. Small and midsize teams that want CRM records, calling, messaging, and sales automation in one focused workspace should pick Close.