Highrise vs HubSpot: The Comparison Nobody's Giving You Straight
Every Highrise vs HubSpot comparison site still lists Highrise as if you can sign up today. Capterra has a page. GetApp has one. They're all useless - Highrise stopped accepting new customers on August 20, 2018. This isn't a comparison. It's a migration decision.
If you're still running Highrise, you're on a frozen product with no updates, no new integrations, and a shrinking window of relevance. If you're researching alternatives, you need to know what actually replaces the simplicity Highrise was famous for - because HubSpot isn't always the answer.
30-Second Verdict
- Highrise is dead. Existing accounts work, but the product is frozen forever.
- Want Highrise-like simplicity? Less Annoying CRM at $15/user/month is the spiritual successor.
- Want to scale a sales org? HubSpot Starter at $20/seat/month - but costs climb fast.
- Want visual pipelines without bloat? Pipedrive at $14/seat/month.
Highrise Is Dead - Here's What Actually Happened
Highrise launched in 2007, built by 37signals (later Basecamp). It was the CRM for people who hated CRMs - fast, clean, deliberately simple. At its peak, tens of thousands of businesses relied on it daily.
Then things got complicated. In 2014, 37signals explored selling Highrise as a standalone company. That never happened. By April 2018, Highrise "moved back in with Basecamp," and Jason Fried made the call: no more development.
The exact quote: "Today's version of Highrise is the forever version of Highrise."
On August 20, 2018, new signups were permanently shut off. Over 10,000 companies were still actively using the product. Existing customers can keep using their accounts - Highrise still runs on Basecamp's shared infrastructure and gets security patches. But there are no feature updates. No new integrations. No roadmap.
If you're still on Highrise in 2026, you're running a product that hasn't had a meaningful update in nearly eight years. The data's still there. The product works. But it's a time capsule, not a tool.
What Made Highrise Great (And What People Still Miss)
People don't just remember Highrise. They miss it.
Almost a decade later, users still post about it on Reddit. One user on r/selfhosted put it perfectly: "I remember like almost 10 years ago, there was a software called Highrise, by 37signals... it was exactly what I think a CRM is done 'the right way.'" Their praise? Adding a new contact took 30 seconds. Quick task scheduling. Zero bloat.
That same user said they'd tried vTiger for 20 years and found every CRM "too convoluted or not really well thought to simplify the job." That's the Highrise legacy - it set an expectation for simplicity that almost nothing has matched.
The numbers back this up. Highrise earned a 4.5/5 on GetApp across 130 reviews, with ease of use at 4.6. On TrustRadius, its usability score was 9.0/10 - and its support rating hit 9.0/10 too. For a product that cost $24-$149/month with no per-user pricing on most tiers, it was remarkable value.
The design philosophy was "less is more." No onboarding wizard, no certification course, no 47-page implementation guide. You signed up and started working. That's what people miss - not the features, but the feeling of a tool that respected their time.
Switching CRMs is painful enough - don't fill your new HubSpot or Less Annoying CRM with outdated contact data. Prospeo enriches your migrated contacts with 50+ data points at 98% email accuracy, refreshed every 7 days. At $0.01 per email, it costs less than one month of Highrise's old Basic plan to verify your entire database.
Clean data in your new CRM from day one. Not day ninety.
Highrise vs HubSpot: The Real Trade-Off
HubSpot is where most Highrise refugees landed, and it makes sense on paper. Free CRM tier, massive ecosystem, 875+ integrations. It's the default recommendation everywhere.
But "obvious" doesn't mean "right."
Use HubSpot if:
You're building a real sales org with 10+ reps and need marketing automation, pipeline management, and reporting in one platform. HubSpot's strength is the ecosystem - Sales Hub, Marketing Hub, Service Hub, Content Hub all talking to each other. The TrustRadius score of 8.4/10 across 1,701 ratings is earned. 97% of users say they'd buy again. Contact management scores 9.0/10.
If you're scaling past 20 people and need a platform that grows with you, HubSpot is genuinely good at that.
Skip HubSpot if:
You loved Highrise for its simplicity.
HubSpot is the opposite of simple. The free plan sounds generous until you hit the walls: 2 user seats, 1 deal pipeline, no automation, no custom reports, and HubSpot branding you can't remove. Most small teams outgrow it within 6-12 months.
The #1 complaint about HubSpot on Reddit isn't any single feature - it's the upsell architecture. One startup founder on r/startups described being told they needed five different packages just to do basic tasks. Their frustration: "Why have a CRM where you can't de-duplicate accounts?"
Another user on r/hubspot was more blunt: "HubSpot withholds core CRM functionality behind huge paywalls." They felt "strong-armed" by contract terms - couldn't upgrade mid-contract, couldn't switch to month-to-month.
Here's a stat that should give any Highrise fan pause: HubSpot's support rating on TrustRadius is 5.9/10. Highrise's was 9.0/10. That's not a small gap. It's a chasm.
The Real Cost Breakdown: Highrise's Simplicity vs HubSpot's Tiers
Highrise's pricing was beautifully simple. Four tiers, flat monthly rates, no per-seat charges. HubSpot's pricing requires a spreadsheet to decode.
| HubSpot Free | HubSpot Starter | HubSpot Pro | HubSpot Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $20/seat/mo | $100/seat/mo | $150/seat/mo |
| Users | 2 max | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Contacts | ~1,000 practical | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Automation | None | Basic | Full | Full |
| Commitment | None | Annual | Annual | Annual |
For reference, Highrise ran $24-$149/month flat - 6 to unlimited users, no per-seat charges.
That table only covers Sales Hub. The sticker shock hits when you need marketing automation: Marketing Hub Professional runs $890/month for 3 seats and 2,000 marketing contacts. Enterprise? $3,600/month.
We've seen teams walk into HubSpot expecting to pay $20/month and end up at $10K-$50K/year once they add the hubs they actually need. A 5-person team running Sales Professional plus Marketing Starter is already looking at $6,000-$7,000/year before add-ons.
Here's the thing: if your average deal size is under $5K and your team is under 10 people, HubSpot's free tier will frustrate you and their paid tiers will blow up your software budget. You don't need an enterprise platform. You need a tool that stays out of your way.
Better Alternatives for Highrise Refugees
Not every team needs HubSpot's ecosystem. If you loved Highrise, you valued simplicity over feature count. These tools actually honor that philosophy.
Less Annoying CRM - The Spiritual Successor ⭐ Top Pick
I watched a team migrate from Highrise to Less Annoying CRM last year. The transition took two days, and the feedback was identical to what people used to say about Highrise: "It just works."
$15/user/month. One plan. No tiers. No annual contracts. No contact limits. Free phone and email support for every user - including trial users. Less Annoying CRM consistently shows up in Reddit threads when people ask for Highrise replacements, and for good reason: it's the only CRM that shares Highrise's "less is more" DNA.
Founded in 2009, it's been quietly serving small teams for over 15 years. The feature set is deliberately constrained: contact management, lead tracking, tasks, calendar integration, email logging, custom fields, and pipelines. No marketing automation. No AI features. No bloat. The 30-day free trial gives you the full product - nothing held back.
Beats HubSpot on: simplicity, support quality, transparent pricing. HubSpot wins on: automation, marketing tools, reporting depth.
Pipedrive - For Teams That Think in Deals
Picture this: your sales team has 4 reps, each managing 15-30 active deals across 5 pipeline stages. They need to see at a glance what's stuck, what's closing this week, and what needs follow-up. That's Pipedrive's sweet spot.
Starting at $14/seat/month, it gives you drag-and-drop pipeline management, AI-powered reports, and 500+ integrations. The Growth tier at $39/seat/month adds email sync, automations, and sequences. Over 100,000 sales teams use it. The 14-day free trial doesn't require a credit card.
Skip Pipedrive if you just need a contact database with notes - it's overkill for that use case.
Nutshell - The Migration-First Option
Nutshell's pitch isn't features - it's the transition itself. They actively market to Highrise refugees with dedicated migration assistance that preserves your historical data and communication timelines. If you've got years of complex notes and deal histories in Highrise that you can't afford to lose, that matters more than any feature comparison.
Pricing: $13/user/month (Foundation) to $42/user/month (Pro, which adds automation and email sequences). Unlimited contacts on all tiers.
| Consideration | Nutshell Wins | Less Annoying CRM Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Migration support | ✅ Dedicated assistance | Self-serve import |
| Simplicity | Good | Best in class |
| Automation | Pro tier included | Not available |
| Price (solo user) | $13/mo | $15/mo |
Quick Mentions
- Copper ($9/user/month) - Built for Google Workspace teams. If your company lives in Gmail and Google Calendar, Copper integrates natively. Limited outside the Google ecosystem.
- Streak (Free / $49/user/month paid) - Runs entirely inside Gmail. Great for solopreneurs. Gets clunky with larger teams.
- Zoho CRM (Free for 3 users / $14/user/month paid) - Feature-rich and affordable, but the interface feels overwhelming compared to Highrise's minimalism.
Every Alternative at a Glance
The "Highrise Feel" column is my subjective rating of how close each tool comes to the original Highrise experience: simplicity, speed, and zero bloat.
| Tool | Starting Price | Free Plan | Best For | Highrise Feel | Our Pick? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Less Annoying CRM | $15/user/mo | 30-day trial | Simplicity lovers | ★★★★★ | 🏆 Best Highrise replacement |
| Nutshell | $13/user/mo | 14-day trial | Complex migrations | ★★★★ | Best for data preservation |
| HubSpot CRM | $0 (Starter $20) | Yes (2 seats) | Scaling sales orgs | ★★ | 🏆 Best for 20+ person teams |
| Pipedrive | $14/seat/mo | 14-day trial | Pipeline-driven teams | ★★★ | 🏆 Best visual pipeline |
| Copper | $9/user/mo | 14-day trial | Google Workspace | ★★★ | Best Gmail-native CRM |
| Streak | $0 ($49 paid) | Yes | Gmail solopreneurs | ★★★ | Best for one-person shops |
| Zoho CRM | $0 ($14 paid) | Yes (3 users) | Budget-conscious | ★★ | Best feature-to-price ratio |
How to Migrate from Highrise to Your New CRM
Migration sounds scary. It's not - if you follow the steps.
Export everything now. Contacts, notes, tags, deals - all exportable to CSV. Do this today, even if you haven't picked a new CRM yet. Don't wait for Highrise's infrastructure to have a bad day.
Map your fields. Highrise's custom fields won't auto-match. Spend 30 minutes mapping "Highrise field X -> New CRM field Y" before importing.
Clean before you import. Your Highrise data hasn't been updated in years. Emails have bounced. People have changed jobs. Import garbage, get garbage. Learn the workflow for how to keep CRM data clean.
Import in batches. Start with your top 500 contacts, verify the mapping worked, then do the rest. If you want a step-by-step, use this guide on how to import leads.
Test for duplicates. I've seen migrations create 4,000 duplicate contacts in the first week. Same risk applies here.
For small teams (under 5,000 contacts), expect 1-3 days. Larger datasets with complex histories take 1-2 weeks. If you're going to Nutshell, use their dedicated migration assistance.
Your New CRM Is Only as Good as Your Data
Real talk: your Highrise contacts are years old. People have changed jobs, companies have been acquired, emails have gone dead. Importing stale data into a shiny new CRM is like pouring expired milk into a clean glass.
Before you import anything, run your exported list through an enrichment tool like Prospeo. It verifies emails at 98% accuracy and returns 50+ data points per contact - job titles, company info, technographics - with a 92% match rate. It integrates natively with HubSpot, so if that's where you land, the data flows straight in. The free tier gives you 75 email verifications per month, enough to test whether your Highrise data is salvageable before committing to a full cleanup. If you need a broader comparison, see our rankings of email verifier websites and lead enrichment tools. For the full process, follow our guide on how to verify an email address.
Highrise kept things simple. Your prospecting data should too. Prospeo gives you 300M+ verified profiles with 30+ filters - no enterprise contracts, no upsell maze. Just accurate emails and direct dials at a price that respects small teams the way Highrise used to.
Enterprise-grade data without the enterprise pricing trap.
FAQ
Is Highrise CRM still available?
No. Highrise stopped accepting new signups on August 20, 2018. Existing accounts still function but receive zero feature updates - only security patches. There's no public commitment from Basecamp on how long the infrastructure will remain online.
Is HubSpot's free CRM really free?
Yes, but with hard limits: 2 seats, 1 pipeline, no automation, no custom reports, and permanent HubSpot branding. Most teams outgrow it within 12 months and face a jump to $20-$100/seat/month on annual contracts.
What's the simplest CRM replacement for Highrise?
Less Annoying CRM at $15/user/month is the closest match. One plan, no contracts, no contact limits, free phone support. Nutshell at $13/user/month is another strong option with dedicated migration assistance for preserving historical data.
How do I make sure my Highrise contacts are still valid before migrating?
Export your list to CSV and run it through an email verification tool before importing into any new CRM. Prospeo's free tier covers 75 verifications per month with 98% accuracy - enough to audit your list quality and decide whether a full cleanup is worth the investment.
