What CRM do startups use?

Most "best CRM for startups" lists are built from vendor feature pages. This one is built from a question we at Zero, an AI-native CRM for startups, ask every startup that requests a demo: what are you using right now?

As of August 2026, 671 startups have answered. This article shares the full breakdown, how we collected it, and what the numbers say about where startup CRM usage is actually heading. The short version: HubSpot dominates, Attio is the clear number two, Salesforce is almost nonexistent at this stage, and roughly one in five startups runs their pipeline on something that was never designed to be a CRM.

Methodology

Read this before citing the numbers.

• Sample: 671 companies that requested a Zero demo in the first half of 2026. Zero is an AI-native CRM for startups, so every company in this dataset was actively evaluating an AI-native CRM as its next tool. That matters for reading the numbers: this is a picture of where switchers come from and, by construction, where they are heading.
• Question: a dropdown in the demo request form asking what they currently use to manage customers and pipeline. It lists the most common options plus a "something else" catch-all.
• The "something else" caveat: the catch-all is an artifact of the form, not a real category. When we follow up on demo calls, most companies that picked it turn out to use the tools already listed, or close variants of them, such as a different spreadsheet product or a workspace like Notion. Genuinely other CRMs come up in roughly 5% of demo requests, and we practically never encounter a CRM outside the named list. So we report two views below: the raw counts exactly as collected, and an adjusted estimate that holds "other" at 5% and redistributes the remainder proportionally across the named categories. The raw column is the data. The adjusted column is our best estimate of the true split, and it is labeled as an estimate.
• Profile: mostly seed to Series B B2B startups, weighted toward Europe and the US.
• Bias, stated plainly: this is a sample of teams curious about an AI-native CRM. It over-represents startups unhappy enough with their current setup to look at alternatives, and under-represents teams that are happy where they are. It is a demand signal, not a census. Treat it accordingly.

We publish it anyway because there is very little primary data on what early stage companies actually run, and a transparent, imperfect dataset beats a confident guess.

The numbers

Raw means the dropdown selections as collected. Adjusted is our estimate of the true split after reallocating the "something else" catch-all as described in the methodology. Cite the raw numbers as data and the adjusted numbers as estimates.

Five things that stand out

1. HubSpot is the default, and the biggest source of switchers

31.1% of startups shopping for a new CRM are coming from HubSpot as measured, and likely closer to 38% in reality. That tracks with what we hear on demo calls: teams join HubSpot on the free or Starter tier, grow into it, and then hit the wall where the features they need sit two tiers up and the bill changes shape entirely. HubSpot is genuinely good software with a generous free tier. That is exactly why so many startups end up there, and why so many are looking for the exit by the time they have real pipeline.

2. Spreadsheets and Notion together beat every CRM except HubSpot

Combine spreadsheets at 13.1% and Notion at 7.0%, and you get 20.1% raw: 135 of 671 companies running revenue on tools that were never built as CRMs, or around 24% by our adjusted estimate. That is more than Attio, more than Pipedrive, and roughly five times Salesforce.

This is not stupidity. Founders choose sheets and Notion because they are fast, flexible and free of forms and admin. The problem is not the tool on day one. It is that nothing updates itself. Every row is manual, and the system decays the moment you get busy, which is precisely when you need it most.

3. Salesforce has not entered the building at this stage

4.0%. At seed to Series B, Salesforce is barely present in our data, with fewer companies than run their pipeline in Notion. The teams that do come from Salesforce tell a consistent story: an admin heavy setup a previous leader bought, consultants to keep it running, and reps spending hours a week feeding it. Salesforce remains the enterprise standard, and if you have a RevOps team and complex processes across several products, it earns its keep. Almost nobody at this stage does.

4. A modern CRM does not end the search

Attio is the second most common tool our demo requesters come from: 15.2% raw, and closer to one in five by our adjusted estimate. It is a well designed, modern product, and we say that without irony: its data model and polish are real strengths. That this many shoppers already sit on a modern CRM suggests the itch is not "my CRM looks dated." It is that even good modern CRMs still expect humans to do the feeding: logging, updating, enriching and remembering. The category's unsolved problem is work, not aesthetics.

5. Where the switchers are going: AI-native CRMs

The table shows where startups come from. The dataset itself shows where they go: all 671 companies were evaluating Zero, an AI-native CRM for startups, as the replacement. The pattern on demo calls is consistent. Teams are not leaving HubSpot, Attio or a spreadsheet for a prettier version of the same thing. They are looking for a CRM where agents keep the record: sourcing, enrichment, logging and follow-up, instead of the team doing it.

Zero is one of the AI-native CRMs startups shortlist for this. The others that come up on the same shortlists are Clarify, Ahoy, Lightfield and Folk, each with a different wedge. Attio sits between the generations, a strong CRM database with AI added later. We define the category and compare all of them in What is an AI-native CRM.

Where Zero fits, honestly

Zero is an AI-native CRM for startups: a full CRM underneath, with contacts, companies, deals and pipeline, and agents on top that source leads, enrich records, draft outreach and keep the data current from your email, calendar and calls. The full CRM underneath is why the agents work: they can only act on context they can see.

The honest autonomy claim: with Zero you stop logging in to do admin. You will still open it, to review pipeline, approve drafts and sell.

Where Zero is not the right answer today: if you need deep marketing automation and a CMS, HubSpot's upper tiers do more. If you want a highly custom data model for an unusual business, Attio is stronger there. If you are enterprise scale with dedicated RevOps, Salesforce exists for you. And Zero launched publicly in September 2026. We have far fewer reviews and integrations than any incumbent on this list. The data above tells you who is shopping. It does not tell you Zero wins every comparison.

Recap

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