# Freshsales Setup, in the Order That Saves You Work

> A Freshsales tutorial that starts with the two decisions you cannot reverse: field types and plan choice. Then import, pipelines, workflows, the phone, the chatbot and the API, with the published limits.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/freshsales-tutorial — The Professional's Toolkit · updated 2026-10-07_

---

This is a setup guide for Freshsales written in the order that saves you work, which is
not the order the product presents. Two decisions made in the first hour are expensive to reverse
later, and both of them are about data rather than configuration.

**OUR TAKE:** Spend the first session on your field design and your plan choice, not on the
pipeline. The pipeline takes ten minutes and can be changed any time. Field types cannot: lookup
and formula fields do not exist below the $39 plan, and if you build without them you will rebuild
later.



**5 text areas** — The long-form notes field allowance on the $9 plan. Custom fields are capped per field type, not as one pool — the limit most setups hit first.



- **21 days** — The trial. Included local call minutes do not apply during it, so testing the phone needs prepaid credits.
- **five dollars per ten** — Extra workflows on any plan. If you need thirty basic workflows on the entry plan, this may be cheaper than upgrading.
- **400 a minute** — The API ceiling on every plan. Batch overnight rather than looping — the limit does not move with price.

## Before you start: pick the plan your data needs

Freshsales has four plans and the pricing page shows three. The free plan, for up to three users,
appears only on the separate comparison page[2].

The decision that matters is not price, it is field types. On the free and $9 plans there are no
lookup fields and no formula fields[4], the two field types that let one record point at
another. Without them, your contacts, accounts and deals are three flat lists that happen to share
a database.

So answer this before anything else: does any record in your process need to refer to another one?
A deal pointing at a project, an account at a parent company, a contact at a referring partner. If
yes, you need the $39 plan, and starting cheaper will cost you a rebuild.

The other limits that decide a plan, all from the vendor's own documentation[4][5]:

| | Free | $9 | $39 | $59 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Users | 3 max | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited |
| Custom fields per entity | none published | 150 | 250 | 630 |
| Basic workflows | none | 20 | 50 | 100 |
| Sales pipelines | one | one | 10 | 25 |
| Sales sequences per user | none | none | 10 | 25 |
| Bulk emails per user per day | none | 250 | 1,000 | 5,000 |
| API access | none | yes | yes | yes |
| File storage per user | none | 2 GB | 5 GB | 100 GB |



> 💡 **undefined:** Design your fields before importing. They are capped per entity and per field type, and fields above a lower plan's limit must be deleted before you can ever move down.

## Step one: the trial, and what it does not include

The trial is twenty-one days of the full product. At the end the account is suspended rather than
dropped to the free plan unless you pick a tier[1].

One thing to know up front: the included local incoming call minutes do not apply during the
trial[8]. If you intend to test the phone properly; and the phone is the main reason to choose
this product; you will need to buy phone credits, which start at five dollars and cover both call usage and
the monthly rental on each number[2].

So if calling is your use case, add credits on day one rather than day nineteen. A trial that
discovers the dialer on the last afternoon has not tested the product.

## Step two: choose your data centre region, now

Freshworks offers four regions and says you choose from the outset. Getting this right at signup
matters because region changes afterwards are, at best, a support request.

The region choice is not available on the free plan[2]. If data residency is a requirement for
you, that alone decides your plan.

One trade-off the vendor documents for its telephony products rather than for the CRM: enabling
regional data residency disables call masking and verified caller ID. If you need both residency
and those calling features, raise it with the vendor in writing before you commit: the
documentation is not tagged for Freshsales, so we are not going to tell you it definitely applies,
only that it is the vendor's own statement about its own telephony stack.



> 💡 **undefined:** Build your first five workflows around data hygiene — assignment, stage timestamps, required fields — rather than cleverness. They pay off at once and cost nothing to change.

## Step three: import, and plan your fields first

Import and migration from another CRM are available on every plan including the free
one[2], which is unusually generous and makes a real-data trial possible.

Do not import first. Design fields first, for three reasons.

Custom fields are counted per entity: separately for contacts, accounts, deals and custom modules; and they are counted per field type, not as one pool. On the $9 plan you get 20 text fields, 30
dropdowns, 30 numbers, 30 checkboxes, 30 date pickers, 5 text areas and 5 multi-selects[4].
Five text areas is the one that catches people: long-form notes fields run out fast.

Dropdowns allow up to 300 options each[4], which is more headroom than most teams need.

And if you ever downgrade, fields above the lower plan's limit must be deleted before the move can
complete, the vendor works through an example where fifty fields have to go[4]. Designing
lean at the start is the cheapest insurance available.

## Step four: one pipeline, then stages

On the free and $9 plans you get one pipeline[2]. Ten on $39, twenty-five on $59.

If you are on a single pipeline, resist the urge to encode different sales processes as stages of
one flow. It works until it does not, and splitting a pipeline later means reclassifying every open
deal by hand. If you genuinely run two processes: new business and renewals, say; that is an
argument for the $39 plan rather than a configuration problem.

Deal management, visual pipelines and contact lifecycle stages are all on the free plan, so the
basic shape can be built and tested at no cost before you commit.



> ⚠ **undefined:** Choose your data centre region at signup. The choice is not available on the free plan, and changing it later is a support request at best.

## Step five: workflows, and the meter behind them

Basic workflows start on the $9 plan with a cap of twenty. Fifty on $39, a hundred on $59, and
advanced workflows, the ones that branch, do not exist below $39 at all[2].

Here is the part that is easy to miss: every plan, including the most expensive, sells additional
workflows at five dollars for ten[2]. The cap is not a wall that forces an upgrade. It is a meter you
can top up.

That changes how to think about the limit. If you are on $9 and need thirty basic workflows, the
answer may be $10 a month in add-ons rather than $30 a seat in upgrade, unless what you actually
need is branching, in which case no amount of top-up helps and the upgrade is the only route.

Build your first five workflows around data hygiene rather than cleverness: assignment, stage
timestamps, required-field enforcement. Those pay off immediately and cost nothing to change.

## Step six: sequences and bulk email, if you have them

Sales sequences do not exist below $39[2]. On $39 you get ten per user with a limit of 1,000
sequence emails per user per day; on $59, twenty-five sequences and 2,000 emails[2].

Personalised bulk email is separate and more generous: 250 a user a day on $9, 1,000 on $39, 5,000
on $59[2].

Two-way email sync and email templates are on the free plan, so basic email work needs no
investment at all.



> ⚠ **undefined:** Diarise the renewal notice date the day you sign. Plans renew automatically at the same seat count unless written notice is given thirty days before the term ends.

## Step seven: the phone

This is the product's real differentiator and it is worth setting up properly.

On the paid plans you get included local incoming minutes, 2,000 a month on $9, 3,000 on $39,
5,000 on $59; and beyond those, incoming local calls cost $0.013 a minute[8]. Those minutes
apply to local numbers only, not mobile or toll-free, and not to the free plan.

Call recording, call masking and voicemail drop are on the $9 plan. The power dialer, warm
transfer, conference calling and bring-your-own-carrier arrive at $39[2].

Two numbers the vendor does not publish, and both matter if calling is your core use: whether call
time is rounded up and what each phone number costs to rent monthly. Ask for both in writing.

## Step eight: the chatbot, carefully

The chatbot builder is on the free plan, with intent detection, multilingual bots and handover to a
human[2]. It is the most generous part of the free tier by a distance.

The caution is the session economics. The 500 sessions that appear as a plan feature are a one-time
grant per account, not a monthly allowance[1], and previewing a bot while building it consumes
them whether the bot is published or not[7]. Build with that in mind: test the logic in as few
preview sessions as you can, and do your arithmetic before launch, because past the grant sessions
cost $49 per hundred with no documented spending cap.

## Step nine: the API, when you are ready

API access begins on the $9 plan. The limits are published: 1,000 calls an account an hour on $9,
2,000 on $39, 5,000 on $59 — and 400 a minute on every plan including the top one[5]. A
request past the ceiling returns a 429.

Two things to design around. Webhooks do not arrive until $39, so on the cheap plan your
integration has to poll rather than be told[2]. And because the per-minute limit never moves,
any job that bursts needs throttling at 400 regardless of what you pay — batch overnight rather
than hammering in a loop.

One unresolved point, which we flag rather than resolve: two of Freshworks' own articles disagree
about whether these limits apply per account or per agent[5]. On a ten-seat team those readings
differ by a factor of ten. If your integration is anywhere near the ceiling, ask.

## Five mistakes worth avoiding

All five come from limits the product does not warn you about at the moment you hit them.

**Starting on the $9 plan with relational data.** Lookup and formula fields do not exist
below $39[4]. The product will let you build flat lists happily, and the day you need a deal
to point at a project you will rebuild. Decide this on day one.

**Running out of text areas rather than fields.** The $9 plan allows five text-area fields per
entity against twenty text fields and thirty dropdowns[4]. Teams think in total fields and run
out in one category. Audit your long-form notes needs early.

**Encoding two sales processes as stages of one pipeline.** On a single-pipeline plan it is the
obvious workaround and it is a trap: splitting later means reclassifying every open deal by hand.

**Assuming 500 chatbot sessions renew.** They do not — the grant is once per account[1], and
previewing your bot while you build it spends it[7]. Budget for $49 per hundred before launch,
not after.

**Polling the API in a tight loop.** The per-minute ceiling is 400 on every plan[5] and does
not move with price, so an integration written against the hourly figure will hit the minute one.
Batch, and throttle at 400.

## A sensible first thirty days

**Days one to three.** Decide the plan from your field-type needs. Start the trial. Buy phone
credits if calling matters, because the included minutes do not apply during the trial[8].
Choose your data centre region.

**Days four to seven.** Design fields on paper, per entity and per field type. Import a real subset
of your data rather than a sample — the free plan and every paid plan support migration from
another CRM[2], so there is no reason to test on fiction.

**Week two.** Build one pipeline and its stages. Set up two-way email sync and two or three
templates. Make calls, and record what the call quality and the logging actually look like.

**Week three.** Build five workflows, all of them about data hygiene. If you are on $39 or above,
turn on smart matches and contact scoring and let them run for a few days before judging them.

**Week four.** Test support deliberately: raise a real ticket and time the response. Given that
support is the subject of 60 per cent of this product's reviews and that the entitlement is
identical on every plan, this is the most informative hour of your trial. Then decide, with eleven
days left to export if the answer is no.



## FAQ

**How do I start with Freshsales?**

Pick your plan from your data needs first, not your budget: lookup and formula fields start at $39, and without them records cannot point at one another. Then design fields, then import, then build one pipeline, then workflows.

**Can I import my data from another CRM?**

Yes, and import plus migration from another CRM are available on every plan including the free one — which makes a real-data trial possible at no cost.

**How long is the Freshsales trial?**

Twenty-one days of the full product. At expiry the account is suspended rather than downgraded unless you choose a plan. Included local call minutes do not apply during the trial.

**How many workflows can I have?**

Twenty basic workflows on the $9 plan, fifty on $39, a hundred on $59. Advanced branching workflows start at $39. Every plan can buy additional workflows at five dollars for ten.

## Before you commit: the contract

Read this before the subscription starts rather than after.

The master agreement makes payment obligations non-cancelable and non-refundable, forbids reducing
your user count or downgrading your plan during a term, renews plans automatically at the same seat
count unless you give written notice thirty days before expiry, and reserves an explicit right to
adjust the fee at renewal[3].

Diarise the notice date the day you sign. It is the single cheapest administrative act in this whole
guide.



## Sources

[1] Freshworks vendor pricing page, read from the United States — https://www.freshworks.com/crm/pricing/ (2026-10)
[2] Freshworks vendor feature comparison for Freshsales — https://www.freshworks.com/crm/pricing-compare/ (2026-10)
[3] Freshworks master subscription agreement — https://www.freshworks.com/terms/ (2026-10)
[4] Freshworks vendor documentation on custom field limits — https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000002390-what-are-custom-field-limits- (2026-10)
[5] Freshworks vendor documentation on API request limits — https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000010025-does-freshsales-have-api-request-limits-for-an-account- (2026-10)
[6] Freshworks vendor documentation on downgrades — https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000002466-what-are-the-features-you-tend-to-lose-on-downgrade- (2026-10)
[7] Freshworks vendor documentation on AI agent sessions — https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000004664-freddy-ai-agent-sessions-faqs (2026-10)
[8] Freshworks vendor documentation on call minutes — https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000005964-overview-of-free-local-incoming-minutes (2026-10)
[9] HubSpot vendor pricing page — https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/sales (2026-10)
[10] Pipedrive vendor pricing page — https://www.pipedrive.com/en/pricing (2026-10)
[11] Salesforce vendor pricing page — https://www.salesforce.com/sales/pricing (2026-10)
[12] Zoho CRM vendor pricing page — https://www.zoho.com/crm/pricing/ (2026-10)
[13] Close vendor pricing page — https://close.com/pricing (2026-10)
[14] Capterra, user sentiment only — https://www.capterra.com/p/155563/Freshsales/ (2026-10)
[15] Trustpilot, user sentiment only — https://www.trustpilot.com/review/freshworks.com (2026-10)