Zero CRMs market themselves specifically as CRMs for bootstrapped startups, because bootstrapped startups are often broke or very price-sensitive until they reach at least $20,000 MRR 💸.

But that doesn’t mean some CRMs aren’t actually built for bootstrapped founders. In fact, some of them were created by bootstrappers themselves 🚀.

In this article, I’ll show you 3 excellent CRMs for bootstrapped startups 🎯.

CRM #1: Breakcold - The Bootstrapped AI Native CRM built by Bootstrappers

Breakcold is the perfect CRM for bootstrapped startups, built by bootstrappers 💪.

In this gigantic SaaS CRM market, Breakcold is, to my knowledge, one of the very few bootstrapped CRM companies alongside LessAnnoyingCRM. Most other CRMs have been VC-backed to some extent 💰.

So why is Breakcold relevant in this list?

Because it’s a CRM built by bootstrappers who actually use their own product. They’re literally running their own bootstrapped startup on the same CRM ⚙️.

Pros

Breakcold is a lightweight sales CRM that plugs into Email, Phone, LinkedIn, Telegram, and WhatsApp 🔗.

Bootstrapped startups don’t always rely heavily on email. Many use LinkedIn or Telegram to close deals, and Breakcold adapts well to these selling methods 🎯.

Pricing is also strong. It starts at $29/mo, and when you upgrade to higher tiers, you unlock high-value features that would usually be gated in tools like HubSpot or Pipedrive 💸.

Other big pros are:

AI Native CRM: the CRM is able to automatically update itself 🤖. This one is massive because as a founder you don’t have time to lose in manual data entry. You absolutely need an AI-first CRM.

Meeting recorder: you don’t have to pay for a separate AI notetaker. You have one built inside your Breakcold plan that links all your Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet calls directly to your leads 🎥.

Strong API: as you’re bootstrapping a startup, you’re probably tech savvy. Breakcold has a solid API to help you build powerful CRM workflows and custom automations ⚙️.

Customer support with the founder directly: one of the two co-founders of Breakcold handles support, even with multi-hundred customers. You get privileged access to the person who built it for tips and quick fixes if any issue arises.

You can shape the product: because you’re in direct contact with the founders, your feedback can genuinely influence the roadmap and features.

Slack community: you also get access to a community where you can learn from other founders and improve your sales process.

Cons

Breakcold doesn't have many cons for bootstrapped startups, as they don’t need super elaborated features compared to enterprises.

However, if you're a startup founder who needs a CRM that is an all-in-one sales AND marketing CRM, then Breakcold won’t be a fit.

It doesn’t have:

• custom landing pages

• built-in form builder

• CMS and email marketing like a Hubspot for example

Other than that, it’s a no-brainer. That’s why early-stage B2B startups are also choosing it 🚀

CRM #2: Close - For Bootstrappers who love cold calling

Some bootstrappers who are big salesmen love cold calling because it works so good.

With Close, you can get access to the perfect CRM for that.

Pros

Close can be pricey, but they have a startup program to help you out. Usually, it works for both funded and non-funded startups.

Close is also one of the best CRMs when it comes to calling integrations 📞

Close has many tutorials on their YouTube channel to help you learn how to use the software.

Other pros include:

• High number of native integrations: Close is, after Pipedrive, Salesforce and Hubspot, one of the most used CRMs on the planet. Therefore, many softwares integrate with it.

• Smart views: you can create pre-filtered views of your leads. Think of it like dynamic lists that help you keep your CRM organized without constantly updating lists manually.

Cons

Here are the cons of Close ⚠️

Close is known to be a traditional CRM, not an AI-native one 🤖

This can be a problem if you’re a founder handling everything from coding to marketing. You’ll spend quite some time on manual data entry, and to automate Close with their workflow features, you really need to be a CRM expert to make it work properly 🧠

Close also doesn’t plug into modern B2B channels like LinkedIn, Telegram, and many other platforms. If your startup mainly operates outside of email, you’re basically stuck 📩

CRM #3: TwentyCRM the Open Source Option

Some bootstrapped startups don’t like to pay anything to run their company 💸

For example, they’ll self-host tools like PostHog or Cal.com to get powerful software without paying for SaaS subscriptions 🖥️

TwentyCRM fits exactly into that mindset, it’s built for founders who prefer owning and hosting their stack instead of renting it 🚀

Pros

Here are the pros of TwentyCRM 🧠

Well, the biggest pro about TwentyCRM is that it's open-source, plain and simple.

You can host it yourself and not pay for your CRM except for server costs, which is pretty handy 🚀

But if we go deeper, I’d say the real pro of TwentyCRM is the fact that it’s basically a massive copycat of a bigger CRM called Attio.

When I look at it, I genuinely feel like they thought, “Ok, let’s build Attio, but open-source.”

Therefore, the pros of TwentyCRM are:

• Good data model: like Breakcold, TwentyCRM includes custom fields, custom objects, and many other options to properly handle CRM contacts 💻

• Powerful CRM workflows: you can build advanced conditional workflows with solid logic. For example, when a person is created, find the Stripe customer, retrieve the subscription amount, then add it to X, Y, Z field.

• Advanced roles and permissions: there’s strong granularity in roles and permissions, like being able to restrict editing of specific records only.

Customizable: it’s open-source, so if you need a specific feature, you can simply build it on top of the existing product.

Cons

Here are the cons of TwentyCRM:

To me, the biggest con of TwentyCRM is that, like every open-source project, it can die.

Secondly, the fact that it's just a massive open-source copycat makes it hard to figure out if they're able to innovate and create truly useful features for their users 🤔

Then, it's not a good CRM for bootstrapped founders if you think about it. As it resembles Attio, it's only a good fit for bigger startups, probably at Series B or C minimum, that need very advanced workflows.

It doesn't aim at small bootstrapped founders really.

Finally, it's not AI native and doesn't plug into B2B social media channels like LinkedIn and others on top of email 🚫

Are there any other viable alternatives to Breakcold & the other CRM for Bootstrapped Startups mentioned in this article?

Technically, all the CRMs with some sort of startup program are eligible, like Pipedrive, HubSpot, or Salesforce 🚀

But the problem with those companies is that just because they have a startup program doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a good fit for bootstrapped startups 🤔

That’s why, in my opinion, I limited this article to three options that I believe are the best based on the real needs of these types of companies 💡