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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is an essential tool for businesses, allowing them to track the needs of both current and potential clients – before the competition can swoop in. There are numerous CRM platforms to choose from, but 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 better than Hubspot for large-scale businesses. Salesforce is also a better CRM for sales than Hubspot CRM. 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 than Salesforce for small businesses. Hubspot is also a better CRM system for marketing than Salesforce, though it's a fine margin. Crucially, it runs on a freemium model – you can try Hubspot CRM for free, with the company then encouraging you to pay for additional upgrades and services as your needs grow.
Verdict |
Free Trial Version |
Cheapest paid plan
Price quoted is per user, per month
| ||
---|---|---|---|---|
BEST FOR SALES | BEST FOR MARKETING | |||
Salesforce | HubSpot | |||
A market leading CRM for good reason and a great all-rounder – should always be considered first. | A strong CRM system with an attractive free tier and great marketing features | |||
$25 | $50 |
Of course, these aren't the only CRM tools to consider. Check out some of these further alternatives, below. Or, scroll on to learn more about Salesforce and Hubspot.
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.
We'll take a look at Salesforce and Hubspot to give you a better idea of the strengths and advantages of each.
In This Guide:
Hubspot vs. 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. Hubspot offers an accessible interface – even for beginners – with admittedly less functionality overall, while Salesforce houses a massive feature catalog at the expense of ease of use.
The free Hubspot plan and good value premium tiers will make it particularly attractive for small business owners, while Salesforce is ideal for larger businesses ready to invest in an industry-leading, feature-rich CRM suite that can scale.
As CRM platforms go, Hubspot and Salesforce may initially look a long way apart. Hubspot's freemium model and relative lack of features contrasts sharply with the sprawling, feature-rich Salesforce CRM. That doesn't make either 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.
Verdict |
Data cap in basic plan |
Email integrations |
Social media integrations |
Marketing campaigns |
API |
Email Support |
Live chat support |
Phone support |
Free Trial Version |
Cheapest paid plan
Price quoted is per user, per month
|
Most expensive plan
Price quoted is per user, per month
| ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BEST FOR SALES | BEST FOR MARKETING | ||||||||||||
Salesforce | HubSpot | ||||||||||||
A market leading CRM for good reason and a great all-rounder – should always be considered first. | A strong CRM system with an attractive free tier and great marketing features | ||||||||||||
612MB/user | 5 documents | ||||||||||||
Open | Limited | ||||||||||||
$25 | $50 | ||||||||||||
$300 | $1,200 |
Hubspot vs Salesforce Pricing
Both Hubspot and Salesforce can become very expensive, very fast. That's why it's essential to only sign up to the tiered plan that's right for the needs of your business. You can use our simple CRM tailored quotes form to narrow down what you're after and get a price quote to help you decide.
Of course, Hubspot has one advantage over Salesforce – there's a free tier to Hubspot CRM. This isn't a short term trial, either – you can use Hubspot free forever, should you choose. But, on the paid plans, you'll have far more Hubspot features – and these paid plans aren't always better value than Salesforce equivalents.
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 Enterprise tiers 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 and our Hubspot Pricing Guide.
Hubspot Pricing
Starter Pricing |
Starter Standout Features |
Professional Pricing |
Professional Standout Features |
Enterprise Pricing |
Enterprise Standout Features | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Marketing Hub | Sales Hub | Service Hub | Growth Suite | ||||
$230 | $500 | $500 | $923 | ||||
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$12,600 | $9,850 | $9,850 | $18,400 | ||||
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$44,400 | $17,400 | $17,400 | $59,400 | ||||
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The Starter plan adds some of the more important features, like chatbots and marketing tools, but only allows for one user, with a $50 charge added for each additional. This makes it a pretty hard plan for a business to get behind, which leads us to the two higher tier options.
Hubspot Professional costs $400 per month and includes five users, with additional users beyond that costing $80 per month. Meanwhile, Hubspot Enterprise is priced at $1,200 per month with 10 free users, with additional users costing $120 per month. Each offers more flexibility with the number of users and adds some of the more advanced features, like hierarchical teams and social permissions.
Salesforce Pricing
Essentials |
Standout features (Salesforce Essentials) |
Professional |
Standout features (Lightning Professional) |
Enterprise |
Standout features (Lightning Enterprise) |
Unlimited |
Standout features (Lightning Unlimited) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Salesforce Sales Cloud | Salesforce Service Cloud | Salesforce Sales and Service Cloud | Salesforce Marketing Cloud | |||||
$25 per user, per mo | $25 per user, per mo | N/A | $400 per mo | |||||
|
| No combo deal available in the Salesforce first tier |
| |||||
$75 per user, per mo | $75 per user, per mo | $100 per user, per mo | $1,250 per mo | |||||
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$150 per user, per mo | $150 per user, per mo | $175 per user, per mo | $3,750 per mo | |||||
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$300 per user, per mo | $300 per user, per mo | $325 per user, per mo | By request | |||||
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From there, the pricing has three tiers that are viable for businesses: Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited, priced at $74, $150, and $300 per user, per month respectively for either Sales or Service Cloud.
Salesforce also allows you to pair two clouds together at a discount price, costing $100, $175, or $325 per user, per month for each respective tier. Each tier offers increased features and customizability.
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.
Salesforce has better features than Hubspot
Salesforce doesn't just have more features than Hubspot – this popular platform boasts the most robust catalog of features out of pretty much every CRM we've researched. The massive selection is perfect for larger businesses, as it allows for a lot of customizability to narrow down exactly what you want to use it for.
Marketing features
Naturally, Salesforce houses all the standard CRM features you'd expect, like contact tracking and sales data. However, you'll also find handy marketing features within the platform that can help you reach new customers via email marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing. You'll also find content management features, as well as lead generation functionality to seriously boost your customer numbers. Salesforce has its own marketing automation solution, Pardot, as well, though it comes at an extra cost.
Still, according to our research, Hubspot offers a wider range of marketing features that just barely beats out Salesforce, making it the best CRM for marketing available today.
Sales features
Attracting customers is one thing, but you've got to be able to sell to them too. With Salesforce sales features, you'll be able to manage your leads into a comprehensive funnel, making sure each contact ends up in a lucrative position. Plus, with opportunity management features, you can make sure that every potential lead turns into a real chance at a sale.
Hubspot is easier to use than Salesforce
While a massive feature catalog is a huge benefit for Salesforce, it does create a lot of extra work, which can seriously impede ease of use – particularly for beginners. With Hubspot, you're getting a comprehensive, intuitive interface that is easy to navigate, even if you aren't familiar with CRM software.
Hubspot is built for ease of use, with a simple layout that will let you easily access all the tools available on the platform. In fact, Hubspot is so dedicated to improving ease of use that they tested their software with drunk users to be sure it's as straightforward as possible, no matter how impaired you might be.
Salesforce has better customer support
While Salesforce may be lacking in the ease of use department, the customer support options are robust, which can make it worth the hassle. Not only does Salesforce offer a huge catalog of online documentation and tutorial videos that can help you figure out any issues, you'll also become part of the massive Salesforce community of users, who can help you solve any problems.
If you require an actual person to walk you through the complication of Salesforce, you're all set there too. Once you're logged into the platform, you can phone, email, and live chat with representatives to hammer out the details of your problem, so you don't have to rely on forms and forums to get it done.
Salesforce has better reporting and analytics
As you might expect, Salesforce's robust feature catalog comes with equally robust reporting and analytics functionality. The built-in system is widely customizable, just like the rest of the platform, giving you complete control over what you track and how you track it.
Hubspot is a bit more limited – the features list is a bit smaller, so you won't have the same access, particularly if you're relying on the free CRM available on the platform. It is a bit more open to third-party reporting tools, but who wants to go through all that hassle when Salesforce has it all built in?
Hubspot has better integrations with other software
When you can't beat them, join them! Hubspot might not be the most robust CRM out there, but it certainly provides a wide range of third-party integrations to get the most out of it. With its HubSpot App Ecosystem, you can integrate the CRM with WordPress, Mailchimp, Outlook, Slack, G-Suite, and more, which is a decidedly impressive and vital assortment of popular apps.
Because Salesforce is so robust, you wouldn't expect to need a lot of integrations, but their absence is noticeable compared to Hubspot. The popular CRM integrates with G-Suite, Mailchimp, and Quickbooks, but that's about it, so if you need more out of your integrations, Hubspot is the way to go.
Hubspot Salesforce Integration
If you really can't decide between the two, 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.
Hubspot has simpler implementation and training
Because Hubspot is easy to use, the setup process is pretty easy. You won't have to spend hours setting up your metrics, your analytics, or your integrations, as most of them will be set up for you upon installation. If you do need a bit of help, you can sign up for onboarding sessions for between $1,500 and $5,000 for your whole team, which is obviously not very cheap.
With Salesforce, you're a lot more likely to need the help getting started, and the company offers a wide range of helpful tools to do so. Between the online community of users and the robust support team, you'll be taken care of – and you'll need it, too, due to the complicated nature of the CRM. Salesforce even offers training seminars, which typically cost approximately $4,500. Again, definitely not the cheapest option.
Salesforce has better automation
One of the primary reasons why a business would sign up for CRM software is the use of automation to make business life a bit easier. Powered by artificial intelligence, these features can make a huge difference in freeing up time and resources for human employees to really get work done.
This matchup is a close one, but in the end, Salesforce's Einstein takes the cake. The AI-powered tool can help you automate a wide range of processes, from lead management to customer onboarding, with a world-leading company's resources behind it.
Salesforce does, however, have a trick up its sleeve with Salesforce Pardot Marketing Automation. This functionality – which is an add-on to Salesforce Marketing Cloud – can automate sales funnels for new prospective customers, and gives a killer edge to Salesforce's marketing capabilities.
Because CRM software is built on automation, Hubspot has solid options as well, although they're a bit less consolidated. Tools like lead and contact management features automation capabilities, with simple “if this then that” functionality, allowing you to automate where you see fit. Still, it's not as impressive as Salesforce's full-on automation suite, so we have to give the win to them.

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

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
Salesforce vs Hubspot: FAQs
Still torn between Salesforce and HubSpot? We answer common questions below:
Hubspot or Salesforce: - Which CRM Should You Choose?
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 concludes our 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.
Verdict |
Data cap in basic plan |
Email integrations |
Social media integrations |
Marketing campaigns |
API |
Email Support |
Live chat support |
Phone support |
Free Trial Version |
Cheapest paid plan
Price quoted is per user, per month
|
Most expensive plan
Price quoted is per user, per month
| ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BEST FOR SALES | BEST FOR MARKETING | ||||||||||||
Salesforce | HubSpot | Zendesk | Freshworks CRM | Microsoft Dynamics | Zoho CRM | SugarCRM | Apptivo | Sendinblue | amoCRM | ||||
A market leading CRM for good reason and a great all-rounder – should always be considered first. | A strong CRM system with an attractive free tier and great marketing features | An inexpensive, simple CRM tool that offers the best service features available | A highly intuitive CRM that is packed with plenty of features and even has a free plan option | A robust CRM platform that embeds brilliantly with Microsoft products | Flexible, friendly and effective, Zoho also starts at low price plans and has a great free trial | A great all-round CRM with a great, easy to understand dashboard | Stripped-down, but a solid CRM platform | A decent choice for email marketing that falls behind in some other areas | Intuitive and simple, amoCRM is a CRM suite that impresses | ||||
612MB/user | 5 documents | Unlimited | Unlimited | 10GB + 5GB/20 users | 1GB base + 512MB/user | 150GB/user | 3GB/user | Unlimited | 200MB/user | ||||
Open | Limited | Open | Open | Limited | Limited | Open | Limited | Open | Open | ||||
$25 | $50 | $89 | $29 | $80+ | $12 | $40 | $8 | $25 | $15 | ||||
$300 | $1,200 | $149 | $79 | $255 | $100 | $150 | $20 | $POA | $45 |
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