Honest answers.
No marketing fluff.
Direct answers to the questions sellers actually ask, how the product works, what your data does, security, and moving off your old CRM.
Getting started
zero to workingQHow long does setup take?
A few minutes. Sign up, add your first prospect, and you're working. There's no implementation project, no onboarding call, and no admin to configure before the team can log in.
Connecting Gmail or Outlook is a one-click OAuth flow you can do whenever you're ready. None of it blocks you from starting.
QDo I have to import my data before I can start?
No. You can add prospects one at a time, work your accounts by hand, or import a CSV later. Plenty of people start with a blank board and build from their next call.
When you are ready to bring a list over, the CSV importer auto-detects standard fields and lets you map the rest.
QIs there a learning curve?
Light. If you have used HubSpot, Apollo, or a spreadsheet pipeline, the layout will feel familiar within an hour. The core loop is add a prospect, work it through stages, log activity.
The gamification and AI features are additive, not required. You can ignore them and still run a clean pipeline on day one.
QDo you help with onboarding?
Free and free are self-serve, with in-app guides and a community forum. Most people never need more than that.
teams includes white-glove onboarding and a dedicated customer success manager who sets up your workspace and migrates your team.
Product & features
the tool itselfQWhat does DealArena actually do?
It is a sales CRM built for business development: manage prospects and accounts, work a kanban pipeline, track tasks and email, and keep every touch on the record. Everyday CRM work is on every tier.
On top of that sits a gamification layer (XP, levels, daily quests, badges) and, on paid tiers, a set of AI agents that research, draft, and coach.
QHow does the XP system work?
You earn XP for productive actions: adding prospects, running searches, completing tasks, advancing deals, and closing. XP accumulates and unlocks levels.
There are nine levels, from Rookie to Supergrade, across bronze, silver, gold, and diamond tiers. Daily quests, streaks and badges add variety, and it all lives on one page in the app.
QCan I customize my pipeline stages and fields?
Yes. Rename, reorder, add, or remove pipeline stages to match how your team sells. Prospect and account records support custom fields, and the database view filters and sorts on any of them.
Everything you customize is yours and exports cleanly to CSV.
QWhat signals does DealArena track on my prospects?
The Sauce ships in five drops, in this order: a live signals feed with SEC EDGAR filings and news on the companies in your book, a market tape with the Daily Sauce, Sauce Alerts with custom rules, Hot Sauce ranked leads, and The Crawler. Two are out today: The Crawler sits below the prospects on the Database page, and the news wire runs at the foot of the dashboard. Each drop lands on the changelog the Tuesday it ships.
On free the Enrichment Waterfall runs on our vendor accounts, so there is nothing for you to sign up for: one usage price per lookup, at whatever the vendor charges us.
QWhat are the daily and weekly challenges?
Rotating objectives like "add 10 prospects today" or "advance 5 deals this week." Completing them earns bonus XP toward levels and badges.
They are optional. Ignore them entirely and your XP still accrues from real work.
QAre there keyboard shortcuts?
Yes. Quick-add a prospect, move between pipeline stages, and work your task list without the mouse. The in-app command palette lists every shortcut.
This FAQ page has one too: press the / key to jump to search. And if you tend to try every key combination on a page, keep going. You might find something.
QIs there a mobile app?
Not yet. A mobile app focused on the calling workflow (prospect list, tap to dial, log the disposition, next prospect) is planned for later in 2026.
Until then the app blocks phones on purpose, hit it from a mobile browser and you get a page telling you to go find a keyboard. Pipeline review is not a bathroom activity.
QCan I self-host DealArena?
The source is public on GitHub for transparency, but commercial self-hosting is not currently supported.
If your organization requires on-premise deployment for compliance, contact us. It is something we would consider for teams under the right agreement.
Q… wait, how did I unlock this?
You entered the Konami code (↑↑↓↓←→←→ B A). Consider yourself a Supergrade, the ninth and final level of the XP ladder, unlocked here without closing a single deal.
The people who build DealArena still try this code on every site. If that's you, come build with us: team@dealarena.io.
AI & Origin
the agentsQWhat is Origin?
Origin is DealArena's drafting agent. On free and teams it writes outreach in your voice, tuned by the TOV Database and the writing samples you upload. It drafts on demand, nothing runs in the background, and nothing sends itself.
Origin runs on DeepSeek V4-free, with Kimi K3 on the heavy lifts.
QWhat is the difference between free and paid AI?
Everything ships free, and the AI runs on prepaid credits you buy when you use it. That's the model: the CRM is free, the models are what cost real money.
free unlocks the usage meter, ICP scoring, and the sequencer. free and teams add Origin drafting, the TOV Database, Account Prospecting, and BDM Legion. Those calls cost real money, so they live behind a subscription.
QDoes DealArena train AI on my data?
No. We do not use your data to train external AI models without your explicit consent. Your prospects and notes are yours.
When an AI feature runs, only the context needed for that request is sent to the model provider to generate a response, not to train it.
QCan I use my own Claude API key?
LLM bring-your-own-key is teams-only, and inference still routes through our key until multi-provider routing ships. Enrichment runs on our vendor accounts on every tier, so there are no vendor keys to bring either.
This is how heavy users keep AI costs predictable and under their own account controls.
QHow accurate is the AI, and does it make things up?
The AI drafts and suggests; it does not send or decide on its own. Every email, score, and recommendation is yours to review and edit before anything goes out.
Briefs and enrichment come from real sources you can trace, so a claim links back to the record, page, or filing behind it.
How we compare
vs the incumbentsQHow is this different from HubSpot or Salesforce?
Those are horizontal CRMs priced per seat for whole go-to-market orgs. DealArena is built specifically for business development reps, and the entry tier is a flat $35 seat rather than a per-module quote.
The differences a seller feels day to day: a five-vendor enrichment waterfall, a gamified motivation loop, and AI agents aimed at prospecting instead of generic automation.
QDo I still need Apollo, ZoomInfo, or my data tools?
Only if you want their proprietary contact databases. On free the Enrichment Waterfall runs The Hog, Findymail, Reverse Contact, PDL, Snov, and Hunter on our accounts, and you pay in usage per lookup.
Many people keep one data subscription and drop the rest of the stack once prospecting, pipeline, and outreach live in one place.
QWhy is DealArena free when other CRMs charge per seat?
Data validity, safety, and security. A free CRM has to pay for itself somehow, and it is usually with your data or your patience. With a Free tier we're able to provide unlimited contacts for our users and the cybersecurity and data protection they deserve.
You own your data. Every prospect, note, and email is yours, exportable in full, never trained on, never sold. Thirty-five dollars a seat keeps it that way.
QIs Free a real CRM, or a teaser?
It is the full CRM. No 30-day clock, no seat wall. Unlimited prospects, unlimited contacts, the whole pipeline. What Free does not get is the AI, no agents, no sequences, no usage. That's the line, and it's drawn in the open.
You upgrade when you want the agents and the dialer, not because we switched something off.
Privacy & security
who sees whatQDo I own my data?
Yes. Every prospect, note, email, and enrichment result is yours, and you can export the full dataset to CSV any time, including after canceling.
DealArena is the custodian, not the owner. We store your data so you can use the CRM, and we never claim ownership of it.
QIs my data secure?
Data in transit is encrypted with HTTPS (TLS 1.3) and data at rest is encrypted by our database provider. Sessions use signed cookies with HTTPOnly and SameSite flags, and passwords are hashed.
SOC 2 Type II certification is on the teams roadmap rather than complete today. If you need a formal audit, talk to us about teams.
QWhere is my data stored?
Managed Postgres on Neon and application servers on Render, both in US regions, with Cloudflare in front. Everything stays in the United States.
If you require data residency in a specific country, that is an teams conversation.
QIs DealArena GDPR and CCPA compliant?
Yes for the fundamentals we actually built: a consent banner, self-serve access and export, and account deletion that purges inside 24 hours. California users get the same, and since we do not sell personal data the "do not sell" box is ticked by default. Formal DSAR and breach process is teams-contract work.
Organizations that need a Data Processing Agreement get one on teams contracts.
QCan I export everything?
Yes. CSV export is built in for prospects, accounts, tasks, and email history. The full JSON export, profile, prospects, accounts, deals, tasks, meetings, activity, sequences, email, is self-serve from Settings and lands instantly.
No ticket, no 14-day wait. Database backups are available on request for teams customers.
Integrations & migration
connecting your stackQCan I import from HubSpot, Salesforce, Apollo, or Bullhorn?
Yes, all four via CSV. Export from your current tool, upload, and the importer auto-detects standard fields (name, company, email) and lets you map anything custom.
Native connectors with sync for HubSpot and Salesforce are on the roadmap, high priority given how many sellers come from those shops. A Bullhorn connector is being evaluated for staffing teams customers.
QWhat integrations are available right now?
Active: Gmail and Outlook OAuth, Google and Microsoft calendars, prospect-discovery tooling, and the five-vendor enrichment waterfall (PDL, Snov, Hunter, Findymail, Reverse Contact).
On the roadmap, in priority order: Slack, Google Drive, Calendly and Cal.com, Twilio for SMS, Loom and Vidyard for video, DocuSign and PandaDoc, native HubSpot and Salesforce connectors, Notion, Airtable, and Zapier.
QCan I connect my email?
Yes, Gmail and Outlook via OAuth. Sends go out from inside the CRM and land on the prospect's timeline with open and click tracking. Automatic inbound reply and bounce matching is built but not switched on yet.
We do not read your inbox proactively. Only email to or from a tracked prospect's address is linked.
QDoes it work with Slack or Teams?
Slack isn't wired yet, the Slack link on this site is our community workspace, not an integration. It's on the roadmap.
Microsoft Teams is being evaluated for teams. Discord is not supported yet but is straightforward to add if there is demand.
Teams & admin
multi-seat & controlQCan my whole team use DealArena?
Yes, on any tier. Workspaces, invites, and owner / admin / manager / rep roles are open to everybody, Free included, unlimited seats. What the paid tiers buy is the AI each of those seats can run.
If you are rolling out to a group, teams is built for it, with workspace setup and migration help included.
QWhat admin controls are there?
Role-based access control ships on every tier, owner, admin, manager, rep, so you decide who can see and edit what. Per-user usage spend shows up in the ledger; workspace-level budget caps aren't built yet.
Free, free, and free keep admin light by design, since they are built for individuals and small teams rather than large orgs.
QDo you support SSO?
Not yet. Sign-in is email and password, with TOTP two-factor available on every account.
SSO/SAML is an teams roadmap item, if it's a procurement blocker, say so and it moves up the list. SSO is not available on Free, free, or free.
QHow do I add or remove seats?
Invite and remove teammates from Settings → Team, on any tier. Billing isn't wired yet, so nothing prorates and nothing charges, email team@dealarena.io and we set the tier by hand.
Removing a seat never deletes that person's data; it stays in the workspace unless you export or delete it.
Plans, billing & support
money & helpQWhat features cost money?
Three things: Claude-powered AI (the Origin swarm, scoring, forecasting, the email co-pilot), usage beyond your plan's caps, and premium third-party data. Capital partner network visibility is a free and teams benefit.
Everyday CRM work, gamification, and standard integrations stay free.
QIs there a free free trial?
No. There is no trial tier. The CRM is free: full pipeline, unlimited contacts, the dialer, the sequencer. AI agents run on prepaid credits.
Paying more isn't just about the agents: free adds the sequencer, the dialer, and the call recorder; free adds the enrichment waterfall, the Power Dialer, the API, and team management.
QCan I switch between tiers?
Anytime, and right now it's a handshake, not a checkout. Payments aren't wired yet, so email team@dealarena.io and we move you.
Your data stays either way. teams is a guided setup with migration help.
QDo you offer annual pricing?
Free, free and free bill monthly. One rate, one line item, cancel whenever you want.
There is no annual contract to sign and no discount to chase. teams is the exception: those are annual by contract, with volume pricing that comes down as seat count goes up.
QWhat is your refund policy?
Nothing to refund yet, we aren't taking payments.
When billing goes live it's a 14-day money-back guarantee on free, annual prorated inside the first 30 days, and teams per contract.
QWho is teams for?
Teams at 25+ seats, staffing firms with 10+ recruiters, and any org that wants the org-shared Brain, the brand-trained Customer Success agent, or founder-led onboarding.
RBAC and the game layer ship on every tier, you don't buy teams for those. If you are a free seller or a team under five, free is plenty.
QWhat happens to my data if I cancel, or if DealArena shuts down?
If you cancel, you keep your data. Your account moves to read-only export mode, and export stays free for 90 days. Delete your account and primary data is purged within 24 hours, permanently, so export first.
Because your data is yours on every tier, you are never locked in. If the company ever wound down, you would be able to take your full dataset with you.
QHow do I contact support?
Free uses the community forum. free is email at team@dealarena.io with a 24-hour response target. teams gets a dedicated Slack channel and a named customer success manager.
Bug reports go to the team that builds the product, not a separate call center.
Still have a question?
Bug reports go to the team that builds the product, not a separate call center.