CRM advice from the person who has to make it work

Most writing about these tools comes from people who evaluate them. I'm usually the one wiring them into billing systems and finding out what breaks six months in. Everything here is written from an account I set up and use.

Articles

• Choosing a CRM for a marketing agency: what the setup tells you before you commit
  I set up HubSpot's free CRM as a one-person agency and wrote down what the onboarding assumed about me. Plus the three questions that matter more than any feature comparison.
  Aug 14, 2026
• HubSpot free plan limits: the numbers, and which one you hit first
  Every hard limit on HubSpot's free tier, taken from the official catalog — plus which ones actually stop an agency, and the one the onboarding spends for you.
  Aug 14, 2026