What a 15-person team should budget for a CRM, a help desk and a phone system

A team of 15 that sells, answers support email and takes calls usually ends up paying three vendors: one for the CRM, one for the help desk and one for the phone system. Each pricing page shows one price per seat, and none shows the total. This guide adds it up for fifteen people at three common combinations, at list prices read from each vendor’s own page on October 26, 2026, then shows how to budget your own.

What the bill is made of

For each tool, the monthly bill is the seat price times the people who need a seat, plus what the seat price leaves out:

• The plan that has what you need. A phone menu, round-robin assignment or custom roles may sit on a higher plan than the one advertised first.
• Add-ons. Marketing contacts, web forms and marketing email are often sold apart from the CRM.
• Usage. Call minutes, phone numbers and recording storage are charged by use at almost every phone vendor.
• Taxes and one-time fees.

Three combinations, priced for 15 people

Every price is the vendor’s own list price, in US dollars per seat a month, paid yearly, read on October 26, 2026. Totals leave out call minutes, numbers and taxes.

Zoho: CRM, Desk, Voice and Campaigns

What	Price	15 people
Zoho CRM Standard	$14 a user	$210
Zoho Desk Standard	$14 an agent	$210
Zoho Voice Basic (phone menu, call queues, recording)	$34 a user	$510
Zoho Campaigns Standard, up to 2,500 contacts	$12.75 a month	$12.75
Total		$942.75

Zoho Voice numbers and call charges are paid in prepaid credits on top. Sources: Zoho CRM pricing, Zoho Desk pricing, Zoho Voice pricing, Zoho Campaigns pricing.

Freshworks: Freshsales Suite, Freshdesk and Freshcaller

What	Price	15 people
Freshsales Suite Growth (with 500 marketing contacts)	$9 a user	$135
Marketing contacts add-on, 5,000	from $100 a month	$100
Freshdesk Growth	$19 an agent	$285
Freshcaller Pro (the first plan with a phone menu)	$39 an agent	$585
Total		$1,105

Freshcaller charges minutes past its included allowance, and recording, by the minute. Round-robin assignment and more than one SLA policy are on Freshdesk Pro, at $55 an agent. Sources: Freshsales Suite pricing, Freshdesk pricing, Freshcaller pricing and its plan comparison.

Pipedrive with Freshdesk and CloudTalk

Pipedrive sells no help desk and has no built-in calling, so this combination adds a help desk and a calling app that Pipedrive’s own pages name.

What	Price	15 people
Pipedrive Lite	$14 a seat	$210
LeadBooster add-on (web forms)	from $32.50 a month	$32.50
Freshdesk Growth	$19 an agent	$285
CloudTalk Essential	$29 a user	$435
Total, before Campaigns		$962.50

Pipedrive’s marketing email, Campaigns, is an add-on “starting from $13.33” a month; the price for a given number of subscribers is shown only inside Pipedrive. Lite has no email sync or automations: Growth adds them at $39 a seat, which is $375 a month more for fifteen. Sources: Pipedrive pricing, Pipedrive’s plan table, Freshdesk pricing, CloudTalk pricing.

Not everyone needs every seat

Fifteen people rarely all answer support or all take calls. With separate tools, you can buy seats only for those who use each one. Here is the same arithmetic for a team where all 15 use the CRM, 8 answer support and 10 take calls:

Combination	All 15 on everything	15 CRM, 8 help desk, 10 phone
Zoho	$942.75	$674.75
Freshworks	$1,105	$777
Pipedrive, Freshdesk, CloudTalk	$962.50	$684.50

The second column assumes each person in the help desk or on the phone also has a CRM seat, which is the usual case.

ContactRoll for the same fifteen

ContactRoll is one product with the CRM, the help desk and the phone system in it, priced per user. Fifteen people:

Plan	Per user, paid yearly	15 people
Standard	$29	$435
Plus (adds phone menus, owner-first ringing, warm transfer, custom roles, automation flows, the API and webhooks)	$59	$885

Calls are placed and answered in the browser through your own Twilio account, which bills you by the minute at Twilio’s prices with no markup. Compare what your minutes would cost with the calling cost calculator.

A team that needs a phone menu compares Plus with the combinations above: Zoho Voice Basic and Freshcaller Pro include one. A team that needs call groups, a line for callers, voicemail, recording, hold and transfer, but no phone menu, compares Standard. Every feature and the plan it is on is listed on the features page, and the plans on the pricing page.

How to budget your own

1. List who does what. How many people sell, answer support, take calls and send marketing email.
2. Find the plan that has what you need at each vendor, not the one advertised first. Check the phone menu, assignment rules, roles and automation.
3. Add the add-ons: marketing contacts, web forms, extra inboxes.
4. Estimate call minutes from last month’s phone bill, and price them at the phone vendor’s or Twilio’s per-minute rates.
5. Ask for one written quote a year from each vendor, with every line and every one-time fee, before taxes.
6. Count the time between tools. Three tools hold three copies of each customer, and someone keeps them in step.

Prices change. Check each vendor’s own page, linked above, on the day you decide.