Close vs EngageBay
Close's Solo Plan Costs $19 Monthly and $9 Annually — The Steepest Discount on the Page
EngageBay's Free Plan Allows 15 Users — Its $14.99 Paid Plan Allows 500 Contacts
The short answer
- Entry price
- EngageBay does not publish a single starting price we can rank against Close's $19/month, so we do not rank them. A zero in our data means one of two opposite things — a genuine free tier, or a product that is not sold at a fixed monthly rate at all — so calling either one "cheapest" would be wrong.
- Our rating
- 4.4/5 against 4.1/5. That gap is inside our own margin, so treat these as rated level and decide on the specifics below rather than on the score.
Close
from $19/monthSolo is $19 per user monthly but $9 annually — a 53% cut, far steeper than the 7% between Scale's two rates. Solo is also capped at 1 user and 10,000 leads. Every plan is per user, and calling is billed on usage at roughly $0.02 a minute on top.
What works
- ✓ Solo at $9/user on annual billing is a genuinely low entry price
- ✓ Essentials and above remove both the user cap and the lead cap
- ✓ AI credits are included on every tier, from 500 to 2,000 a month
- ✓ Calling costs are stated openly at around $0.02/minute
What does not
- ✗ Solo is limited to 1 user and 10,000 leads
- ✗ The annual discount shrinks sharply as you go up: 53% on Solo, 7% on Scale
- ✗ Calling and phone numbers are usage-billed on top of every plan
- ✗ Growth at $109/user monthly is where most sales teams actually land
EngageBay
see siteFree is genuinely free for teams up to 15 members, capped at 250 contacts. Every paid tier is priced per user — Basic $14.99, Growth $64.99, Pro $119.99 — so a five-person team on Growth is $324.95 a month. The contact limits are what you buy; the per-user multiplier is what you pay.
What works
- ✓ The free plan supports teams up to 15 members, not just one user
- ✓ Free includes CRM, helpdesk, live chat, landing pages and email sequences
- ✓ Biennial billing cuts Basic to $12.74 and Pro to $101.99 per user
- ✓ Contact allowances are published per tier rather than quoted
What does not
- ✗ Every paid tier multiplies by headcount — the free plan does not
- ✗ Basic at $14.99/user allows only 500 contacts
- ✗ Growth is $64.99 per user, so five people is $324.95/month
- ✗ Free is capped at 250 contacts and 1 landing page
Who should pick which
Pick Close if this is the thing that matters most to you:
Solo at $9/user on annual billing is a genuinely low entry price.
What most often rules it out: Solo is limited to 1 user and 10,000 leads.
Pick EngageBay if this is the thing that matters most to you:
The free plan supports teams up to 15 members, not just one user.
What most often rules it out: Every paid tier multiplies by headcount — the free plan does not.
Figures come from our review of each product, checked against the vendor's own pricing page. We do not convert currencies or rank prices quoted on different billing periods — where that applies it is said above, not quietly resolved.
A third option, and what it is not
Bonfire Terminal is an AI agent that runs as a desktop app on your own machine — no cloud, nothing you type leaves your computer. It does not do what Close or EngageBay do, and we will not pretend it does. If either is doing its job for you, keep it.
What the $27 actually gets you→The way in is the AI Marketers Club — $27 one-time, including 21 days of access. Keeping it after that is a separate purchase; the vendor's FAQ states Bonfire Terminal starts at $5,000. We earn a commission at no extra cost to you, which is why both tools' drawbacks are printed in full above and the $5,000 is here rather than left for you to find later.