A practical breakdown of the best Pipedrive alternatives for UK businesses – including the CRM we recommend.

If you’re a UK business owner currently using Pipedrive - or considering it - you’ll quickly notice the same issues:
rising costs, “per seat” pricing that punishes growing teams, and features locked behind expensive annual plans.

This leaves many SMEs asking:

“What are the best alternatives to Pipedrive – and which one should I choose?”

As someone who helps UK businesses implement CRM systems every day, I’ve tested nearly every Pipedrive alternative on the market. Below is an honest breakdown of the top options – with pros, cons and pricing – and the platform I recommend for most UK businesses.

1. HighLevel (via MarketerM8)

Best all-in-one CRM alternative for UK SMEs

HighLevel is one of the most complete sales, marketing and automation CRMs available to UK businesses – and if you use it through MarketerM8, you also get UK-based support and unlimited users.

HighLevel’s Opportunities pipeline is extremely similar to Pipedrive’s drag-and-drop pipeline, but more powerful because it integrates with your forms, funnels, appointments, automations, emails and entire CRM.

Pros

• Unlimited users (no per-seat fees)

• Drag-and-drop pipelines similar to Pipedrive

• Full CRM built in

• Advanced automation workflows

• Funnels and landing pages built in

• Email + SMS marketing included

• Calendars and bookings included

• Reputation management

• Social media planner

• One system instead of 6-10 disconnected tools

• UK help, support and onboarding via MarketerM8

Cons

• Steeper learning curve if setting up alone

• Overpowered for businesses wanting only a simple pipeline

Pricing (UK)

👉 £97 per month, unlimited users
(no contracts, cancel anytime)

This makes HighLevel the most cost-effective CRM for growing UK teams, especially compared with Pipedrive Ultimate at £79 per user per month.

2. HubSpot

Best for larger teams with budget to spare

HubSpot is one of the most well-known CRMs. It has a free tier, but the features most businesses actually need (automation, custom reporting, pipelines, quotes, sales forecasting) are locked behind expensive upgrades.

Pros

• Well-designed interface

• Widely used in tech and enterprise

• Free tier available for basic CRM

• Solid integrations and reporting

Cons

• Gets very expensive as you grow

• Features locked behind higher plans

• Pricing is complicated

• Add-ons can push costs into thousands per year

Pricing (UK)

• Free tier: basic CRM

• Starter: from ~£18/month

• Professional: ~£740/month

• Enterprise: £3,000+/month

HubSpot is excellent software, but not budget-friendly for most UK SMEs.

3. Zoho CRM

Best budget Pipedrive alternative

Zoho CRM is inexpensive and offers a good feature set for the price. The interface is a little dated, but it’s flexible and customisable, making it a decent option for micro-businesses.

Pros

• Low monthly cost

• Surprisingly robust features

• Good for small teams

• Large suite of additional Zoho apps

Cons

• User interface feels outdated

• Support quality can vary

• Harder to set up and customise

• Not as intuitive as Pipedrive or HighLevel

Pricing (UK)

• Standard: £14/month

• Professional: £20/month

• Enterprise: £40/month

A decent low-cost CRM, but not ideal if you want marketing automation or an all-in-one system.

4. Salesforce

Best for large enterprise – not recommended for SMEs

Salesforce is the biggest CRM provider in the world… but it’s also the most complex. It’s designed for enterprise companies with dedicated CRM teams, not small UK businesses.

Pros

• Extremely powerful

• Highly customisable

• Excellent reporting

Cons

• Expensive

• Complex and time-consuming

• Requires dedicated admin support

• Usually overkill for UK SMEs

Pricing (UK)

• “Essentials”: £20/month per user

• Professional: £60/month per user

• Enterprise: £120/month per user

Salesforce is great - if you have 50+ staff. For SMEs, it’s usually far too heavy.

5. Trello (Kanban Board)

Best for ultra-simple lead tracking

Trello isn’t a CRM, but many very small businesses use it for basic lead tracking.

Pros

• Free

• Simple drag-and-drop boards

• Easy for small teams

Cons

• No automation

• No CRM

• No reporting

• No email or SMS

• No integrations with your marketing

Pricing

• Free or ~£5/month

Great for organising ideas – not great for managing leads professionally.

So… What’s the best Pipedrive alternative in the UK?

After working with UK businesses across dozens of industries, the answer is clear:

👉 HighLevel (via MarketerM8) gives UK businesses the best balance of price, features and scalability.

Why?

• No per-user fees

• No annual lock-ins

• A full CRM, pipeline & automation system

• Unlimited users

• UK support from HighLevel specialists

• Replaces 6–10 other tools

• Integrates sales, marketing and operations

Pipedrive is good.
HighLevel is better – and far better value for UK teams.

Your next steps: three clear options

Now that you understand the alternatives to Pipedrive, you have three choices:

1. Book a discovery call with MarketerM8 – the UK’s HighLevel experts

If you want the simplest path – with UK-based support, pipeline setup and a clean implementation – book a call.
👉 https://www.marketerm8.com/book-a-call

2. Go directly to HighLevel and learn it yourself

You can sign up for HighLevel’s £97/month plan and build your pipelines manually.
It works – but expect a few weeks of testing and learning curves.

👉 https://www.gohighlevel.com/?fp_ref=ghl700311

3. Do nothing and stay with expensive, disconnected tools

You can keep juggling Pipedrive, spreadsheets and add-ons, paying more than you need while leads slip through the gaps.

Software should make your life easier – not harder.