Nutshell
AI-powered sales CRM and marketing automation built for small businesses that want to set up fast and start selling.
By Nutshell · HQ Ann Arbor, US · 4.3/5 verified-buyer score
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Small and mid-sized sales teams that want a CRM set up in days without IT help
- Businesses that want sales, marketing, chat, SMS and email marketing in one subscription
- Teams that want AI call/meeting notetaking so reps stop logging activity manually
- Budget-conscious buyers: no setup fees, no seat minimums, no long-term contracts
- Sales teams of one to roughly 50 reps that live in Gmail, Outlook and Google/Microsoft calendars
Ideal size: 1–50 users people · Small business or early scale-up with a small sales team and no dedicated admin
Not for
- Large enterprises needing deep customisation, complex data models or heavy admin control
- Organisations that require HIPAA, FedRAMP or ISO 27001 attestations
- Teams needing on-premise deployment or non-US data residency (infrastructure is fully in the US on AWS)
- Buyers who expect a free tier, or a named dedicated account manager bundled in the subscription
- Companies wanting an ERP or PSA: Nutshell covers relationship, pipeline and outreach, not delivery
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
Days, not weeks
~7 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$5,040/yr
Starts at $156 · Per user, per month, with 15% saved on annual billing: Foundation $13, Growth $25, Pro $42, Business $59, Enterprise $79 (listed monthly rates). Starting and typical figures assume annual-billed…
Implementation Friction
2/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Buyer Score
out of 5 · verified buyers
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
No seat minimums or maximums
Add-on costs
- Email marketing add-on from $5/month, priced by contact tier (150 free sends/month)
- SMS add-on from $15/month, priced by message credits
- Marketing add-on $49/month
- Engagement add-on $16 per user/month
- Prospecting add-on $37/month
- Quotes, invoices and contracts add-on $79/month
Company & support
Who is behind Nutshell, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- 2009 · 17 yrs in business
- Headquarters
- Ann Arbor, US
How you get support
- PhoneEnterprise only
- EmailAll plans
- Live chatAll plans
- Support portal / ticketsNot listed
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsAll plans
- Dedicated account managerNot listed
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Business hours
- Response time
- Not stated
In-app chat and email ([email protected]) Monday–Friday 7:30am–5:30pm EST; white-glove import 9am–6pm EST. Scheduled phone support is limited to Admin users on the Enterprise CRM plan. Free live support, onboarding and data migration on every plan.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where Nutshell sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line. A dashed ring marks an outlier pinned to the edge; hover for its value.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Nutshell
- folk
- Gorgias
- Proposify
- Regiondo
- HubSpot
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Nutshell. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
Ships an official MCP server. Connects to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT connectors and Cursor out of the box.
AI & MCP readiness
What Nutshell ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
AI features shipped
Vendor describes call/meeting notetakers that transcribe, summarise and log activity, sales and marketing assistants for follow-ups and campaign generation, AI agents, and lead researching and scoring. Usage is metered as monthly 'AI outcomes' per plan (10 on Foundation to 150 on Enterprise) with unlimited lighter 'AI assists' such as note transcription and reply suggestions.
In your ecosystem
- AI connection
- Official MCP server
- Model key
- Not recorded
- AI usage audit
- Not recorded
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Nutshell is an AI-assisted sales CRM plus marketing and engagement suite for small and mid-sized teams. It sells on speed: a 14-day free trial with no credit card, setup in days not weeks, no setup or implementation fees, no seat minimums, and free live chat/email support with data migration on every plan. Plans run $13–$79 per user per month with optional marketing, SMS, prospecting and quoting add-ons. SOC 2 audited, US-hosted on AWS, with an MCP connector for AI assistants.
Frequently asked questions
How long does implementation take, and are there setup or implementation fees?
Nutshell markets setup 'in days, not weeks' and says no technical expertise is required. Its pricing FAQ states there are no setup fees, implementation costs or surprise charges, and free data migration plus free onboarding are included during the trial and at subscription start. There are no seat minimums or maximums, so you can begin with a handful of users. Expect a short configuration exercise (pipelines, custom fields, email sync) rather than a multi-quarter project.
What does Nutshell cost for a 10-person sales team?
List prices are per user per month: Foundation $13, Growth $25, Pro $42, Business $59 and Enterprise $79, with 15% saved on annual billing. Ten users on the popular Pro tier is roughly $5,040 per year when billed annually. Add-ons are extra: marketing $49/month, engagement suite $16 per user/month, prospecting $37/month, quotes and invoices $79/month, email marketing from $5/month, and SMS from $15/month by volume.
What AI capabilities are included, and how is AI usage metered?
Nutshell AI covers call and meeting notetaking (transcription, summarisation and logging), sales and marketing assistants that draft follow-ups and campaigns, AI agents, and lead researching and scoring. Usage is metered as monthly 'AI outcomes' that scale by plan, from 10 on Foundation up to 150 on Enterprise; lighter 'AI assists' such as note transcription and email reply suggestions are unlimited. Buyers with high call volume should confirm headroom on their chosen tier.
Is Nutshell secure and certified?
Nutshell's security page states it has completed a successful SOC 2 audit, that data is encrypted in transit with 256-bit TLS 1.2 and encrypted at rest within AWS, and that it passed a CASA cloud application security assessment. Infrastructure is fully located in the United States, and SAML-based SSO with directory sync is available on the Sales Enterprise plan. Nutshell does not claim ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP or ISO 42001.
Does Nutshell connect to our existing stack and to AI assistants?
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 mail and calendar sync are built in, alongside hundreds of integrations such as DocuSign, Mailchimp, Intercom, Calendly, Aircall and Housecall Pro, plus a published Open API for developers. Nutshell's integrations page states that you can connect AI assistants including ChatGPT and Claude, and connect to Nutshell over MCP with read and write permissions.