Salesforce is a global giant in CRM, with thousands of companies happily paying for its services. Hubspot, meanwhile, lets you get up and running for free. So, is it worth paying for Salesforce, or for the paid-for features Hubspot offers? Both CRM platforms are very capable with a lot of features available for your team. The big question isn't so much which one is the best overall, but which CRM platform is the best for your company.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is an essential tool for businesses in order to keep track of client and potential client needs – so the competition doesn't. There are numerous CRM platforms to choose from, and Hubspot and Salesforce are two of the biggest names you'll come across.
Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM options worldwide. Indeed, Salesforce is the best CRM to choose for large-scale businesses. It has rich third-party integrations, great developer tools for deep customization, and a wide range of products from CRM management to enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools. Hubspot, by comparison, is arguably a better CRM for small businesses. Crucially, it runs on a freemium model – you can try Hubspot CRM for free and then the company encourages you to pay for additional upgrades and services as your needs grow.
We'll take a look at Salesforce and Hubspot to give you a better idea of the strengths and advantages of each.
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Hubspot or Salesforce – Which Should You Choose?
The simple answer is, if you're a smaller business with ambitious plans to grow, then Hubspot is likely the better choice than Salesforce. The free Hubspot plan and good value premium tiers will make it particularly attractive for SMEs. Salesforce, meanwhile, is ideal for larger businesses ready to invest in an industry-leading, feature-rich CRM suite.
As CRM platforms go, Hubspot and Salesforce may initially look a long way apart. Hubspot's freemium model and relatively fewer features contrasts sharply with the sprawling, feature-rich Salesforce CRM. That doesn't make either one CRM the “best,” but it does mean different businesses will prefer one over the other.
Can you achieve great results with a freemium CRM platform like Hubspot? Absolutely. Plus, it's a slick, modern platform to use – nothing about it feels like costs are being cut. However, to get the best out of Hubspot, you'll want to pay for some of the premium features and plugins. At that point, it's worth pausing to consider a fully paid-for platform such as Salesforce, too.
To get a better idea of which CRM system is best for your company, let's take a look at the main pros and cons for both Hubspot and Salesforce:
Pros
- Free option available
- Simple user interface
- Integrates with Gmail and Outlook
Cons
- Training is largely online
- Not great for larger companies
- Limited features compared to Salesforce
Pros
- Wide feature set
- Frequently updated
- Robust support & training
Cons
- No free plan
- On the more expensive end of the industry
- Basic plan caps data at 612 MB/user
Scroll horizontally to view full table on mobile devices
| CRM |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly plans start at: | $50/user | Free |
| Most popular monthly plans: | $100/user | $400/5 users |
| Key Benefit | Feature-rich | Intuitive interface |
| Main Drawback | Steep learning curve | Training largely online |
| 24/7 Support | For an additional charge | Yes |
| Get Started | Get Salesforce Pricing Quotes | Try Hubspot for Free |
Hubspot vs Salesforce Pricing
If you decide to pay for additional features and services with Hubspot the first option is to subscribe to the Sales Hub. Prices start at $50 per user per month, with the Professional and and Enterprise adding features and cost from there.
We have some highlights below, but if you're after a deeper level of detail, we'd recommend checking our Salesforce Pricing Guide plus our Hubspot Pricing Guide pages.
Hubspot Pricing
For mobile users: Scroll horizontally to view the entire table
| Basic | Starter | Professional | Enterprise | |
| Base Monthly Cost | Free | $50 | $400 | $1,200 |
| Number of Users Included | Unlimited | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| Cost per Extra User | None | $50 | $80 | $120 |
Hubspot Professional costs $400 per month and includes five users, and additional users beyond that cost $80 per month.
Hubspot Enterprise is priced at $1,200 per month with 10 free users and additional users are $120 per month.
Salesforce's pricing is a little more “traditional”.
The bottom rung is Salesforce Essentials, which offers Sales Cloud or Service Cloud for $25 per user per month for up to five users.
From there the pricing has three tiers: Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited priced at $74, $150, and $300 per user per month respectively for either Sales or Service Cloud.
To get both clouds costs $100, $175, or $325 per user per month for each respective tier. Each tier offers increased features and customizability.
Salesforce Pricing
| Essentials | Professional | Enterprise | Unlimited | |
| Sales OR Service Cloud | $25 | $75 | $150 | $300 |
| Sales AND Service Cloud | $100 | $175 | $325 |
Remember, pricing can change depending on your needs. The best way to find the right fit is to get a customized price by clicking our simple Quotes Form.
Hubspot Salesforce Integration
Hubspot has a peculiar feature that allows you to sync information from Salesforce into Hubspot and then back again. This is very different from the usual features that let you import data from Salesforce in order to migrate to a new platform. It seems curious to offer deep integration with a competitor, but there are situations where this integration could become useful. If you already use Hubspot's Marketing Hub, for example, but the sales team is on Salesforce then this integration could help bridge the gap between the data held by the two teams.
Hubspot's integration is bi-directional, which means you can send information to Salesforce as well as pull information from it. There are limits to how much data you can pull from Salesforce on any given day depending on how many API calls your contract with Salesforce allows.
This feature is nice enough if you need it, though having both teams on the same platform would be much easier and offer more seamless data sharing. Salesforce integration is not available on the free or Starter tiers requiring at least Sales Hub Professional.
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Hubspot or Salesforce – Which CRM System Should You Choose?
If price is an issue and Hubspot's basic CRM is all you need then you might get by with that, and if you need Hubspot's added features the CRM's pricing is pretty good. Though for smaller teams with five or less Hubspot doesn't beat Salesforce Essentials pricing.
As far as features go they both offer the key tools you need from a CRM, and both have third-party integrations and deep online support pages. If you don't have Gmail or Outlook as your corporate email of choice then Hubspot is probably easier to deal with. In terms of interface, Hubspot is a little simpler compared to Salesforce making the learning curve a little steeper with the latter.
That's a basic look at Hubspot and Salesforce, but the best way to find the CRM that's right for your team is to get a customized quote based on your company's needs. Click the Get Quote button below to get started and find the CRM that's right for you.
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