HubSpot CRM Review 2024

Edited by Amy Smith

Updated


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Bottom line: HubSpot is one of the most popular customer relationship management (CRM) tools on the market, and for good reason. With its scalable sales and marketing tools and excellent customer support, it is suitable for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) needs.

Who should choose HubSpot CRM? Small businesses and new users who find the ease of use and feature set great. More advanced teams appreciate the HubSpot CRM as a one-stop scalable solution.

What we like about HubSpot CRM

  • Workable free plans: Out of the dozens of CRM tools available, HubSpot comes with the most comprehensive free tools available, which include marketing, sales, and other CRM tools.
  • Easy interface: Although HubSpot offers many tools and may seem complicated, its interface is easy for everyone to use, continuously adding new members.
  • Adapts to your needs: HubSpot is more than just a simple CRM platform; it’s an ecosystem of multiple Software as a service (SaaS) products, making it a perfect long-term solution that won’t outgrow you.

What fell flat

  • Pricing plans can be confusing: HubSpot has several pricing plans, custom bundles, and bundles, which can overwhelm new users.
  • Prices add up quickly: HubSpot offers free tools, but your costs will rapidly increase if your business and team grow.
  • The free plan lacks support: This no-cost plan lacks proper support; instead, it encourages you to seek help from its knowledge base and community forum.

HubSpot CRM’s Editorial Review

HubSpot has excellent overall user ratings, a great free plan, scalable features, and overall good customer service. I found HubSpot to fit most businesses thanks to its wide range of features, scalability, and integrations.

Additionally, HubSpot is well known for its free tools, flexible pricing plans, ease of use, and scalability, but there are some drawbacks to the pricing and support. Consider the advantages and disadvantages before choosing HubSpot as your CRM software.

See how we rate CRM software.

Plans & Pricing

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  • Free tools (free forever)
  • Starter (starting at $50 per month)
  • Professional (starting at $1,781 per month)
  • Enterprise (starting at $5,000 per month)

Features

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  • A suite of tools for managing all aspects of digital marketing
  • Comprehensive free plan
  • Excellent integrations
  • App marketplace

Support

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  • 24/7 email support
  • In-app support
  • Great customer service
  • Resources and training materials

Plans and Pricing

HubSpot offers free tools and three CRM bundle plans:

  • Free tools (free forever)
    • Good for: Microbusinesses, side-hustlers, and sole proprietorships.
  • Starter (starting at $50 per month)
    • Good for: Small businesses, entrepreneurs, and start-ups.
  • Professional (starting at $1,781 per month)
    • Good for: Scaling teams, midsize, and large teams.
  • Enterprise (starting at $5,000 per month)
    • Good for: Large teams, businesses, and corporations.

HubSpot pricing plans depend largely on how many marketing contacts you have and how many sales and service team members you allow access to. Depending on your needs, you can choose single products, create custom bundles, or choose ready-made bundles. Pricing for these ranges from $0 to over $5,000 per month and HubSpot offers a free trial for some of its plans.

If you need to increase ads or reports per month, or you need a dedicated IP, for example, you have to pay extra for that. HubSpot add-ons range from $25 per month for extra phone numbers to $500 per month for added application programming interface (API) calls.

See the most popular CRM plans offered by HubSpot:

Features

Regardless of the HubSpot plan you choose, you will get great features, including a suite of free CRM tools, unlimited users, and one million free contacts. Each plan includes great lead and pipeline management, email marketing tools, and integrations.

Compared to leading CRM solutions such as Zoho CRM and Freshsales, HubSpot offers a more versatile overall solution for businesses.

A suite of tools for managing all aspects of digital marketing

HubSpot tools are split into five sections: marketing, sales, service, CMS, and the operations hub. Each tool has a purpose, such as running marketing campaigns, strengthening customer relationships, and creating pipelines.

Here are the different HubSpot tools:

HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot Marketing software makes it easy to reach the right audience, turn visitors into customers, and run effective inbound marketing campaigns. Whatever your business size is, there will be something for you.

Using HubSpot Marketing Hub, you can attract visitors via social media, ads, and blogging, convert visitors into customers through awesome landing pages, and track ROI with advanced analytics.

HubSpot Sales Hub

HubSpot Sales software is an all-in-one sales CRM powerhouse. It is built to help businesses close more deals, strengthen customer relationships, and manage their sales pipelines more efficiently.

It can help you:

  • Connect with prospects: With the aid of tools such as email templates, email and call tracking, and sales automation, establishing connections with prospects is made simpler.
  • Deepen customer relationships: Using HubSpot Sales Hub meeting schedulers, live chat tools, and built-in CRM payments, enhancing customer interactions is easy.
  • Manage and create pipelines: Promotes effective time management by automating administrative tasks such as onboarding and sales enablement. The tool includes comprehensive reporting and analytics to evaluate business metrics.
admin interface for HubSpot Sales

The HubSpot Sales hub comes with a Mobile CRM app, allowing you to manage contacts and deals from anywhere in the world.

HubSpot Service Hub 

HubSpot customer service software helps you deepen relationships with customers, connect to the front office, and improve team performance. It is connected to the full CRM platform, so I found it easy to get started with and use.

The software can assist you with the following:

  • Enhance customer relationships: Create a knowledge base, provide customers with a customer portal, and offer live chat and omnichannel messaging for better customer services
  • Keep track of customer interactions: Integrate multiple platforms like live chat, email, and Facebook Messenger into one inbox to help you monitor customer interactions.
  • Enhance your team’s capacity: Create a help desk that prioritizes critical issues, gathers key insights to make your team more effective, and utilizes automation tools to eliminate manual processes.

HubSpot CMS Hub 

HubSpot Content Management software allows for the easy creation and management of website pages. With its pre-built themes and drag-and-drop editor, it is easy to design a website that matches your brand. You can easily integrate it with HubSpot CRM to manage other parts of your business.

Choosing a theme

HubSpot Operations Hub 

HubSpot Operations software automates business processes and syncs, cleans, and curates customer data.

The hub can help you to:

  • Sync and clean customer data: Compile all your apps and data into one easy package, eliminate time-consuming data cleanup, and understand the health of your data.
  • Automate processes: Keep your team efficient by using automation for different business processes like lead rotation, territory management, and renewals.

Comprehensive free plan to get you started

HubSpot’s free plan is the most comprehensive of any CRM platform, with dozens of tools available without a subscription.

This plan gives you access to all of the five HubSpot CRM tools, so regardless of whether you need help with marketing, sales, content management, or operational services, there will be something to suit your needs.

The bad news is that the free plan lacks customer support. I didn’t have access to in-app chat or phone support, but had the option to chat with other users in the HubSpot community, and find answers from the HubSpot Knowledge base.

Most of the features of the CRM tools are also locked on the free plan, but it’s definitely enough to help you get started.

Note: The free plan has HubSpot branding on forms, emails, landing pages, and chatbots for the marketing plan, and similar branding for other hubs. Subscribing to an entry-level plan removes those marks.

Excellent integrations and app marketplace

The HubSpot App Marketplace is a directory of integrations that connects to your HubSpot account and extends its functionality.

It includes apps for:

  • CRM
  • Marketing
  • Sales
  • Service
  • E-commerce apps — such as email marketing and order management

Each app in the marketplace has been vetted by HubSpot and approved for use with its accounts.

The benefits of the marketplace are numerous. Even with the free plan, I was able to use HubSpot’s third-party apps to customize my experience, which makes it a cost-effective option. Rather than purchasing separate software applications for each new team member or department, simply add the necessary apps to your existing HubSpot account.

HubSpot's app marketplace

Support

Great customer service to support your growth

All of the paid plans on HubSpot have 24/7 email and chat support, so you can get help whenever you need it.

The customer service was responsive and knowledgeable for me, so you can be sure that any issues will be resolved quickly.

Alternatively, you can chat with an on-page chatbot that can help with your questions. If the chatbot does not know the answer, you will be forwarded to a real person. The free plan comes with this option as well, but you are still encouraged to find your information from the self-service pages.

Detailed resources and training materials

HubSpot offers incredible resources and training materials, whether you are new to the platform or an experienced professional. I was impressed by the scope and depth of these materials, and they are well organized so you can quickly and easily find what you need.

Compared to its competitors, HubSpot offers the most comprehensive educational materials.

HubSpot Academy

HubSpot Academy is HubSpot’s free online education platform, offering everything from quick courses to comprehensive certifications. The courses are taught by industry experts and are designed to help businesses grow and scale their marketing efforts.

HubSpot user tutorials

Whether you’re looking to learn more about inbound marketing or want to take your sales skills to the next level, HubSpot Academy is an ideal place to start.

HubSpot Education

HubSpot offers a wealth of free educational resources on top of its great Academy platform.

The blog posts are particularly helpful, offering insights and tips on a wide range of topics relating to digital marketing. In addition, they also offer guides and e-books which can be downloaded from the website. I found all of these resources extremely helpful and an excellent way for businesses to learn more about effective digital marketing techniques.

Compare HubSpot CRM Alternatives

Choosing the best CRM for your business comes down to the value-to-cost ratio and ease of use — looking at the tools you need, integrations available, and whether it’s a CRM your team can easily adopt.” — Amy Nichol Smith, Content Marketing Manager

Although HubSpot is a great CRM solution, some great alternatives are Zoho CRMFreshsalesKeap, and PipeDrive. Consider these alternatives to HubSpot CRM:

CRM

Pricing + Basic Plan Features

Free

  • Choose single products
  • Create custom bundles
  • Choose ready made bundles

Consider HubSpot CRM if:
You’re a more advanced team looking for a one-stop, scalable solution

Free

  • Affordable plans for small businesses
  • Excellent automation and personalization tools for lead generation
  • Free plan available

Consider Zoho CRM if: 
You want to focus mainly on marketing

Free

  • Built-in phone, live chat, and email
  • 24/5 support for all plans
  • AI-assisted tools

Consider Freshsales if: 
You want a lightweight, speedy CRM

$149 per month

  • Almost all features available on both plans
  • Easy automation implementation
  • Priced fairly with a great value-to-cost ratio

Consider Keap if: 
You’re a small business that wants access to automation features at all tiers

$19.90 per month per user

  • Customizable pipelines with no limit
  • Built-in dialer included for web-to-phone calls
  • 2FA login for all plans

Consider Pipedrive if: 
You want a pipeline-focused CRM with unlimited customizable pipelines

Frequently Asked Questions About HubSpot CRM

Who created HubSpot?

HubSpot was founded in 2006 by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, two entrepreneurs who were looking for a better way to market and sell software products.

Who is HubSpot ideal for?

HubSpot is best for small businesses because it offers a comprehensive suite of marketing, sales, and customer service tools. These tools are designed to work together, making it easy for small businesses to attract and retain customers. In addition, HubSpot offers a variety of training and support resources to help small businesses get the most out of their investment.

Also, HubSpot is easy to use and scale as your business grows. That’s why it’s also a good choice for medium and large companies: its powerful features can be customized to meet the needs of any organization, no matter how big or complex.

What makes HubSpot CRM different from other popular CRMs?

While HubSpot’s prices can add up quickly, the company offers many standout features that make the investment worthwhile for businesses that want a long-term and scalable solution.

HubSpot’s features that stand out from its competitors:

  • Comprehensive suite of tools that covers all the digital marketing needs
  • Built-in A/B testing tools to increase your conversion rates
  • Customizable dashboard views with advanced filtering
  • Intuitive yet simple-to-use interface
  • Over 600 integrations and counting (more than most competitors)
  • Flexible reporting tools to help you understand your customer better

Is there a limit to HubSpot CRM users?

There is no limit on the number of users you can add. You will not get charged extra if you add more users.

What are the best alternatives to HubSpot?

HubSpot is one of the best choices for all-in-one CRM needs, but some great alternatives are Zoho CRMPipedriveEngage Bay, and Insightly.

How I Rated HubSpot CRM

I test sales and marketing tools based on the following factors:

  • Sale management: Does the platform offer sales tools to help with lead management and closing deals? What are its features?
  • Ease of use: Is the platform simple to set up and use?
  • Customization and automation: Can you tailor the software to your business needs?
  • Integrations and analytics: Does this software integrate easily with other business tools, and will its reporting features fit your needs?
  • The support provided: How easy is it to get help?
  • Free trial: Is a no-cost trial or demo offered?

Learn more about our review methodology.

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