CRM and email for an agency: what 5, 10 and 20 client accounts cost

An agency's cost for CRM and email software is the cost of one client multiplied by the number of clients, as long as each client has its own account, which is the structure priced here. We define one client profile and price it: two people who use the CRM, and a list of 2,500 contacts that receives four emails a month (10,000 emails). On that profile, one account per client, a CRM costs $28 or $78 a month per client on Pipedrive (Lite or Growth, annual billing) or nothing on HubSpot Free, which allows two users, and the email platform costs between $22.50 (Brevo Starter, billed yearly) and $95 (ActiveCampaign Plus) a month per client depending on the vendor and plan. For 20 clients that is between $450 and $1,900 a month for email alone at list prices.

We price one account per client because the vendors' pricing pages do not say that one account may be shared between independent clients, and we did not read their terms; some vendors run agency or partner programmes that we did not read either. Prices are in each vendor's currency and not converted; HubSpot is in euros and the rest in dollars. They are list prices, not a total cost. For the underlying ladders see Mailchimp pricing by contact volume, Klaviyo pricing by active profiles, ActiveCampaign pricing by contacts, HubSpot CRM pricing and which Pipedrive plan a small team needs.

HubSpot Professional's required onboarding is not in the table because the euro amount is not shown on the pricing page we read, and for an agency it would apply to each Professional account; HubSpot Starter's €7 is a limited-time offer price, not a stated renewal price (see our HubSpot pricing guide). On monthly billing Pipedrive Lite is $24 a seat and Growth $49, which makes two seats $48 and $98 a month per client. Pipedrive has no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and its email campaigns need a separate add-on.

Brevo needs its 15,000-email size for this list, not the 10,000-email one, because its calculator lists 1,500 contacts included at 10,000 emails and 2,500 at 15,000. Mailchimp's offer prices (50% off for the first 12 months) halve the Mailchimp rows for the first year only: $150, $300 and $600 a month for Standard across 5, 10 and 20 clients, against $300, $600 and $1,200 at list price. ActiveCampaign Starter and Plus include one user seat and its pages show yearly billing only. Klaviyo's price is for 2,500 active profiles and includes 25,000 emails a month. Brevo's calculator lists its contacts included figures as shown and we have not tested them.