A Close CRM alternative for people who sell from their AI

What is Close good at?

Calling. As of 2026-10-18, Close is a CRM with built-in calling, SMS and email for SMB sales, sold to inside sales teams and founders. It wins on its built-in dialer, a solo tier and transparent pricing.

On Close's pricing page that day, Solo cost $9 for one user and 10k leads, and Essentials $35; both were priced per seat. There was no free plan, and there was a 14-day trial. Each extra organization cost $50 a month. Chloe, its AI agent, is on every plan, with 500 AI credits per user per month.

If your sales day is a list of calls, Close is built for that. Sashimi does not make calls.

Does Close work with Claude and ChatGPT?

We have not checked, so this page makes no claim either way. As of 2026-10-18, Close's AI connectors were not among the facts we confirmed, and the table marks them "Not checked". Close's own documentation has its current status.

What we can describe is Sashimi's side. Sashimi is a CRM built as an MCP server: the connector is the product, and its 140 tools were written for a model to call:

• Work in batches. create_leads, create_companies and create_deals take up to 100 rows per call, and update_deals moves a whole list of deals in one request.
• No double writes. Write tools accept an idempotencyKey, so a retry with the same key returns the first result instead of writing again.
• A trail for the team. list_mcp_activity shows who called which tool and what happened. Members see their own calls; admins see everyone's.
• One connector per workspace. Each connection sees one workspace, with the same permissions its member has on the web.

When does Sashimi fit instead of Close?

When your selling is email and follow-up rather than the phone, when you already work from Claude or ChatGPT, and when you run more than one business. If calls are the core of your day, Close fits better.

The contrast is heritage. Close is built around calling. Sashimi starts from the AI: you describe what you want and your AI calls the tools.

• "Create a sequence: intro email on day 0, follow-up email on day 3, call task on day 7."
• "Enrol the twelve new leads from the trade fair in it."
• "Which tasks are due this week?"

Creating a sequence sends nothing. Emails are scheduled only when you enrol a lead, company or deal with launch_sequence, and stop_sequence_run cancels a run. A step whose template variable has no value and no default is held, and a review task is created instead of a broken email.

Several businesses stay apart by design. Each gets its own workspace with its own leads, deals, stages, custom fields, sequences and members, and one login reaches all of them. The page on one CRM for multiple businesses explains how workspaces stay separate.

Roles follow the web. Members move deals and fill custom fields. Admins also edit stages, create custom fields, merge duplicates, manage members and delete from the AI.

What do I give up with Sashimi?

The phone, first. Sashimi is a small prospecting CRM in private beta, and these are its limits:

• Calling and SMS. Close has a built-in dialer. Sashimi offers no calling, meeting capture or integrations marketplace.
• A built-in AI agent. Close's Chloe is on every plan. Sashimi's own agents are switched off during the beta, and your Claude or ChatGPT does the reasoning.
• An app to work in. Sashimi has none by default; on-demand screens are coming soon, in beta. A web app remains for sign-in, settings, integration keys and Gmail.
• Gmail sending is beta. Sequence emails go out through your own Gmail, in beta while Google reviews Sashimi's access.
• A plan you can buy today. Sashimi is invitation only and free during the private beta; nothing can be bought yet. At launch it is priced per account with seats included: Solo is $15 a month for 3 workspaces and 1 seat, after a 14-day trial with no card.

How do I move from Close to Sashimi?

Start from a CSV or spreadsheet you already have and ask your AI to load it. You need a Claude plan with custom connectors (the free plan allows one; on Team and Enterprise an owner adds it) or ChatGPT with developer mode on the web. How Sashimi connects has the steps.

1. Connect your AI with the connection guide. Your AI app sends you to Sashimi, you choose the workspace and approve.
2. Load companies first, then people, then deals: "Create the companies in this sheet, then the contacts as leads linked to them, then the open opportunities as deals." Each of create_companies, create_leads and create_deals takes up to 100 rows per call.
3. Leads that repeat an email and companies that repeat a domain or name are skipped. Deals are never matched, so import them once.
4. Run find_duplicates; an admin then merges any pairs with merge_leads or merge_companies.

Only deletions can be undone: deleted records wait in the trash for 30 days, and deleting records from your AI needs an admin. Load ten rows before the whole file.

For a closer look at how the AI does the work, read what an agentic CRM is. Other comparisons are on the CRM alternatives page.