You had deals moving. Proposals out. Jobs at different stages. A client you quoted three weeks ago and had not heard back from. Another one you needed to follow up before the end of the week. You needed somewhere to see all of it at once.

You searched for something to manage a sales pipeline. Pipedrive came up. It was recommended as the sales-focused CRM. Cleaner than HubSpot. Built around the pipeline view. You signed up.

The pipeline board made sense. You set up your stages. You moved deals along. You added contact notes. It worked.

Then the renewal came up. You looked at what else you had ever opened. The lead inbox. The smart contact data enrichment. The web visitor tracking. The automations dashboard. None of it. You had been paying for a full sales intelligence platform to manage a board and a list of contacts.

The Things Your Business Actually Opens

A pipeline board with your deal stages. A contact list. Notes against each deal or client. A reminder to follow up next week.

That is the job most small businesses hired Pipedrive to do. And Pipedrive does all four.

It also does smart contact data enrichment, email sync and open tracking, activity automations, a dedicated lead inbox, web visitor tracking, revenue forecasting dashboards, a marketplace of add-on integrations, and pipeline analytics reporting. You pay for all of it. Most small businesses open four things.

What your Pipedrive subscription pays for
  • Smart contact data enrichment
  • Email sync and open tracking
  • Activity automations
  • Lead inbox
  • Web visitor tracking
  • Revenue forecasting
  • Marketplace add-ons
  • Pipeline analytics reporting
What most small businesses actually open
  • Pipeline board with deal stages
  • Contact list
  • Notes per deal
  • Follow-up reminders

Who Pipedrive Is Actually Built For

Pipedrive is a serious tool for sales teams who actively manage a pipeline of deals through defined stages every single day. Teams that track win rates. Teams with a sales manager who reports on pipeline velocity and conversion at the end of every month. Businesses where the CRM is open on every screen in the office.

If you run a services firm, a trades business, a small agency, or a consultancy with a handful of active clients at any time, Pipedrive is built for a different customer. Your pipeline does not need forecasting. It needs to show you what is open and what needs attention. You are paying for a sales intelligence layer that sits entirely unused.

The Cost of the Platform You Are Not Using

Pipedrive Essential runs around A$21 to A$35 per user per month. A team of two or three people is paying A$42 to A$105 a month depending on the plan and the number of seats. The price compounds with every person who needs access to the pipeline.

Picture a small services firm with two people on the account. They use the pipeline board and the contact notes. They have never opened the web visitor panel. They have never set up an automation. They have never looked at revenue forecasting. Over three years, at around A$55 a month on average, they have spent close to A$2,000 to access a pipeline board and a notes field.

Pipedrive Essential over 3 years
A$1,980
A$55/mo average. 2 users. Recurring forever.
Merebase Merebase deal pipeline tracker
A$499
Once. No monthly fee after that.

What a Merebase deal pipeline tracker Includes

A Merebase pipeline tracker is built for the job your business has. You describe the stages your deals move through, the fields that matter for your work, the way your team tracks follow-ups, and the notes format that fits your process. The app is built to do exactly that.

What a Merebase deal pipeline tracker includes:

Contacts and companies. A pipeline board with your deal stages. Notes per deal or contact. Follow-up reminders and task tracking. Search and filter. Data export. Unlimited users. A$499 once. You bring your own hosting. A basic plan runs A$5 to A$20 a month.

There is no lead inbox you will never configure. No web visitor panel. No automations dashboard. The app does the job. The screen shows what your team needs and nothing else.

Your Data Is Already in Pipedrive

This is the reason most people stay. Their deal history and contact records are in Pipedrive and moving them feels like a project.

Pipedrive lets you export your contacts, organisations, and deals as CSV files. The data is yours. A custom Merebase app can import those files and continue from where Pipedrive left off. Your pipeline history and contact records come with you.

Once the data is in your own app, it stays there. No platform can reprice it, restrict access to it, or hold it when you decide to leave.

Common questions
Is there a cheaper alternative to Pipedrive for small businesses?
Yes. A Merebase deal pipeline tracker built by Merebase does what most small businesses actually use Pipedrive for: a pipeline board, contacts, notes per deal, and follow-up reminders. A$499 once. No subscription fee. No per-seat pricing. You bring your own hosting.
Can I migrate my Pipedrive contacts and deals to a Merebase app?
Yes. Pipedrive lets you export your contacts, organisations, and deals as CSV files. A custom Merebase app can import those files and continue from where Pipedrive left off. You keep your deal history and contact records. The scope for how your data migrates is agreed in writing before any payment.
What does a Merebase deal pipeline tracker include?
A Merebase deal pipeline tracker from Merebase includes contacts and companies, a pipeline board with your deal stages, notes per deal or contact, follow-up reminders and task tracking, search and filter, and data export. Unlimited users. Your data on your own hosting. A$499 once, agreed in writing before payment.
Do I need a dedicated CRM admin to run a Merebase pipeline app?
No. The app is built for your team to use without configuration overhead. There are no pipeline stage settings to reconfigure, no automation rules to maintain, and no integrations to reconnect when something breaks. The app does the job it was built for. Your team opens it and uses it.