How to Build a Free CRM in Notion (Template Included)

Notion is one of the most underrated business tools available. Most people use it for notes. Power users build entire operating systems with it. Today we are building a CRM that handles contacts, deals, and follow-ups — for free.

This guide assumes you have a Notion account. The free plan is enough for everything we build here.

What You Will Build

By the end of this tutorial you will have:

A contacts database with company, role, and contact info
A deals pipeline with kanban view (like Trello)
Linked follow-up tasks with due dates
A dashboard view that shows hot leads at a glance

Step 1: Create the Contacts Database

Start a new page in Notion and create a full-page database. Add these properties:

Name (title) — Contact full name
Company (text)
Email (email)
Phone (phone)
Status (select): Lead, Prospect, Active, Churned
Source (select): Referral, Inbound, Cold Outreach, Social
Notes (text)

Step 2: Create the Deals Pipeline

Create a second database called Deals. Properties:

Deal Name (title)
Contact (relation → Contacts)
Stage (select): Discovery, Proposal, Negotiation, Closed Won, Closed Lost
Value (number, format: dollar)
Close Date (date)
Priority (select): High, Medium, Low

Switch to Board view and group by Stage for your kanban pipeline.

Step 3: Add Follow-Up Tasks

Create a Tasks database and relate it to both Contacts and Deals. This way every follow-up is linked to the context it came from.

Create a Tasks database with:

Task (title)
Contact (relation)
Deal (relation)
Due Date (date)
Done (checkbox)

Step 4: Build the Dashboard

Create a new page called CRM Dashboard. Use linked database views to show:

Hot Deals: filter Stage = Negotiation, sort by Value descending
Overdue Tasks: filter Done = false and Due Date is before today
New Leads This Week: filter Status = Lead and Created time is this week

Pros and Cons vs Paid CRMs

Pros

Cons

When to Upgrade to a Real CRM

This Notion CRM handles most solo and early-stage team needs. When you hit these limits, consider upgrading:

More than 500 active contacts
Need email sequences or drip campaigns
Multiple salespeople need collision detection
You want automatic deal activity logging

Notion

The all-in-one workspace that replaces five different tools. Start free, upgrade when your team grows.

Start with Notion free