Pipedrive gives small sales teams a clean visual pipeline, but you still do all the work in it, and every seat costs money. Orbit keeps the simple pipeline and adds one AI assistant, Hiro, that drafts follow-ups, nudges quiet deals, and chases unsigned proposals for your approval. The free plan needs no credit card. Below: the honest trade-offs and an afternoon migration plan.
Pipedrive earned its reputation with one idea: a clean, visual pipeline that small sales teams actually keep updated. If you have used it, you know the drag-and-drop feels good. The trouble is what the tool does not do: the bumps, the chasing, the writing. You drag the card, but you also do everything the card represents.
The second push is pricing structure. Pipedrive is per seat, like most team CRMs, and useful extras tend to sit in higher tiers or paid add-ons. Check their site for current pricing. For a one-person business, the whole structure is built around a team you do not have.
People searching for an alternative usually want to keep the visual pipeline and lose the manual labor around it.
Orbit keeps the pipeline simple and puts one AI assistant, Hiro, to work on it. Everything Hiro drafts is a suggestion you approve, edit, or dismiss.
Pipedrive has years of maturity Orbit does not. Its integration marketplace is broad, its mobile apps are polished, and its reporting and forecasting are built for sales managers who need a whole team's numbers in one view. Orbit's free plan has one pipeline and a simple money ledger, and its ecosystem is young.
If you manage even a small team of reps and lean on quotas, forecasts, or marketplace integrations, Pipedrive remains a strong choice. Pick Orbit when the team is you and the bottleneck is follow-through, not visibility.
A pipeline you drag is a to-do list. A pipeline with an assistant on it is a system.
Yes. Orbit has a deal pipeline with custom stages that you drag deals through, and the free plan includes one pipeline. The difference is that Orbit's assistant, Hiro, works the board with you: it nudges quiet deals, drafts follow-ups, and chases unsigned proposals, all waiting for your approval.
Yes. Export contacts and deals from Pipedrive as CSV files, import the contacts into Orbit, and recreate your stages in the pipeline. Most people finish the move, including tags and a booking page, in a single afternoon.
Orbit has one AI assistant, Hiro, that drafts the follow-up. When a deal goes quiet or a proposal sits unsigned, Hiro writes the message and shows it to you as a suggestion. You approve, edit, or dismiss it, so nothing sends on its own. Hiro can also update contacts, deals, and tasks on request.
Teams. If you have multiple reps and rely on team forecasting, activity reporting across people, or Pipedrive's integration marketplace, it is still the better fit. Orbit is aimed at solo founders, consultants, freelancers, and very small teams.
The CRM: up to 250 contacts, one pipeline, unlimited tasks, calendar, notes, a built-in email inbox capped at 100 a month, and basic Tables. No credit card needed. AI is included with free monthly credits. Two-way Google Calendar sync and webhooks arrive with any paid plan, and the MCP server arrives with Pro at $14/mo.
Free to start, no credit card. Import your deals, then ask Hiro to draft follow-ups for the quiet ones.
Free forever plan. No credit card. No spam.