Best Free CRM Pipeline for Service Businesses: Manage Leads with Kanban

Learn how to track every lead with a visual Kanban board, custom stages, drag-and-drop, and lead scoring — all free with DunaHub's pipeline CRM, without per-user fees.

Why a visual pipeline matters for service businesses

If you run a service business — gutter cleaning, pressure washing, landscaping, plumbing, electrical, or HVAC — you probably get leads from multiple places: phone calls, text messages, website forms, referrals, and walk-ins. The problem is that most small business owners lose leads because there's no system to track them. A quote request sits in your text inbox, you forget to follow up, and the customer hires someone else.

A visual pipeline (also called a Kanban board) solves this by showing you exactly where every lead is in your sales process. You can see at a glance: how many new leads came in today, which leads need a quote sent, which ones you're waiting to hear back from, and which jobs closed. Without a pipeline, leads fall through the cracks. With one, you close more jobs.

What "pipeline management" means

Pipeline management is the practice of tracking every potential customer — from first contact to paid job — through a series of stages that represent your sales process. Typical stages for a service business might be: New Lead, Quote Sent, Follow-up, Ready to Book, Booked, Lost.

Each lead moves through these stages. When you send a quote, you drag the lead to "Quote Sent." When the customer says yes, you drag it to "Ready to Book." This gives you real-time visibility into your sales funnel so you know what to work on next.

How to manage leads effectively (the method)

  1. Capture every lead from every source — phone, text, web form, referral — into one place.
  2. Define your sales stages based on how you actually sell. Keep it simple: 4–6 stages maximum.
  3. Move leads visually by dragging them from stage to stage as they progress.
  4. Score each lead so you know which ones to prioritize. Hot leads (ready now), warm leads (interested), cold leads (long-term).
  5. Keep all context attached to each lead: conversation history, quotes sent, job details, invoices.
  6. Review your pipeline weekly to see where leads get stuck and fix the bottleneck.

DunaHub's pipeline does all six automatically.

How DunaHub's pipeline works

DunaHub includes a visual Kanban pipeline on every plan, including Free. Each lead is a card that moves across customizable stages. Here's what it does:

  • Kanban board view — drag and drop leads between stages
  • Customizable stages — rename, recolor, and reorder stages to match your sales process
  • Lead scoring — each lead gets a Hot, Warm, or Cold score with a visual icon
  • Filters — filter by stage, date, assigned team member, or score
  • Lead detail panel — click any card to open a full panel with conversation history (SMS, email), jobs, proposals, and invoices attached
  • CSV import — upload leads in bulk from a spreadsheet
  • Public forms — leads from your auto-generated website go straight into the pipeline

When you move a lead from one stage to another, DunaHub can trigger automations (available on Starter+), such as sending a follow-up message via SMS or email.

For comparison: Jobber starts at $39/mo but has a less visual pipeline. Pipedrive costs $83/user/month. Kommo costs around $150/user/month. DunaHub is free up to 50 leads and uses flat-rate company pricing, not per-user fees.

What it costs

  • Free plan: up to 50 leads total
  • Starter plan ($9.90/month): up to 500 leads
  • Pro plan ($49/month): unlimited leads

No additional cost per user. No hidden fees for extra stages.

Who it's for

  • Contractors and home-service businesses with multiple lead sources (phone, SMS, website, referrals)
  • Owner-operators who need visibility into their sales process
  • Small teams that want a simple CRM without per-user pricing
  • Any service business tired of losing leads in text messages or spreadsheets

How to set it up in DunaHub

The pipeline comes pre-configured with default stages — New Lead, Quote Sent, Follow-up, Ready to Book, Booked, Lost. You can customize it in under two minutes:

  1. Go to Settings → Pipeline.
  2. Drag stages to reorder them.
  3. Click on any stage to rename it.
  4. Change stage colors if desired.
  5. Click Save.

To add leads:

  • Click the "+ Add Lead" button at the top of the pipeline
  • Import CSV (upload a spreadsheet)
  • Leads come in automatically from public forms on your free DunaHub website
  • Or connect TheBestFlorida integration (if applicable)

When you click any lead card, a panel opens showing everything: conversation history, lead score, notes, tags, and linked jobs, proposals, and invoices.

Use cases

Landscaping company: A homeowner fills out the contact form on the landscaper's free DunaHub website at 10 PM. The lead appears instantly in the "New Lead" stage. The owner wakes up, opens the pipeline, drags the lead to "Quote Sent" after sending a quote, and books the job the same day — all without spreadsheets or lost messages.

Pressure washing business: The owner imports 50 leads from a local home show CSV export. Each lead gets a warm score. The owner works through the pipeline, dragging leads from "Follow-up" to "Booked" as customers commit. None of the 50 leads get forgotten in a notebook.

Compliance & limits

  • Free plan: maximum 50 leads total
  • Starter plan: maximum 500 leads
  • Pro plan: unlimited leads
  • Stages: unlimited on all plans
  • Per-user fees: none. DunaHub uses flat-rate company pricing, not per-seat charges.

Last updated: June 9, 2026 · Applies to: DunaHub (US + BR) · Feature name: Pipeline (Kanban CRM)