With more information available and readily accessible, customers now decide for themselves what products or services they want to buy. This choice has rendered traditional mass marketing techniques less effective, giving rise to inbound marketing. The success of inbound marketing for drawing in potential customers and visitors makes customer relationship management (CRM) software like HubSpot a valuable business asset.
Table of contents
- What is HubSpot?
- Advantages of HubSpot
- Drawbacks of HubSpot
- HubSpot Alternatives: What to Look for
- Best HubSpot Alternatives
- Ready to Try a HubSpot Competitor for Your CRM Needs?
What Is HubSpot?
HubSpot is an integrated inbound marketing, sales, and customer service software. It’s an online platform that enables small and midsize businesses to build meaningful customer relationships through valuable content and delightful experience. The software combines features such as lead generation, marketing automation, analytics, contact management, meeting scheduling, help desk ticketing, customer feedback, and data syncing. HubSpot is modular by design; companies can separately purchase marketing, sales, customer service, CMS, and operations hub modules at different times depending on their business needs. Prices start at $50 per month, or $540 per year. HubSpot also offers mobile apps, and integration with select third-party software, as well as consulting and onboarding services.
Advantages of HubSpot
HubSpot offers a free CRM plan with tools for contact management, website activity, companies, deals, tasks, and activities. It also has free marketing, sales, service, and operations tools with full visibility for team collaboration, and storage for up to a million contacts. For some startups and small businesses, this is enough to get them off the ground at no cost. The CRM software also has mobile apps, hundreds of available integrations with other business tools, extensive online resources, and a responsive support staff.
Drawbacks of HubSpot
HubSpot has been around for 15 years and continues to be among the recognized leaders in the CRM software arena. However, many HubSpot competitors eager to get a share of its customer base are offering more affordable paid plans, or more advanced features. Recent industry innovations — such as more powerful marketing and traffic analytics — have left HubSpot lacking for some users. HubSpot is not as customizable as some of its competitors, either. There is similar software on the market that offers users the ability to custom-build their workflows or instances. Other negative feedback from customers includes HubSpot’s lack of social media integration, tedious onboarding process, and fewer choices for fonts and colors.
HubSpot Alternatives: What to Look for
HubSpot is a modular and scalable CRM platform that can grow with a team or company’s needs. It is therefore important for businesses looking at HubSpot’s top competitors to thoroughly research and explore their options before investing in another tool. Some features to consider:
- Task/workflow automation and automated funnels
- Easy-to-use automation builder and editor
- Affordable plans and simple pricing structure
- Powerful reporting, filters, and dashboards
- Pre-built, responsive templates
- Customizable contact management records
- E-commerce features
Read more: Different Types of CRM Software & Tools
Best HubSpot Alternatives
One reason for HubSpot’s complexity is its comprehensive set of available tools. HubSpot’s best competitors try to marry the tool’s most useful features with a user experience that is less confusing or frustrating. In our list of recommended HubSpot alternatives, we chose solutions that offer the complete CRM package — as opposed to mere marketing, sales, or automation tools.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a sales CRM and pipeline management software that helps sales teams focus on the right deals. Its signature pipeline sales approach provides users a CRM that is quick to set up, easy to use, and focused on activities. Pipedrive also has analytics so teams can get measurable results and continually improve their performance. Features include lead and deal management, communications tracking, task automation, AI suggestions, insights and reports, and mobile apps and integrations. Prices start at $15 per user per month, or $12.50 per user per month billed annually.
Sendinblue
Sendinblue is an all-in-one digital marketing and CRM toolbox that’s ideal for growing SMBs. It’s a smart and intuitive platform that enables companies to thrive, even in tough markets. The software is adaptable to a variety of business scale situations, providing enterprise-grade functionality within reach of small businesses. Sendinblue lets users communicate with features like email marketing and SMS marketing. It enables teams to personalize through tools like CRM, segmentation, and marketing automation. Also, it promotes conversion with its landing pages, signup forms, and Facebook Ads integration. A free plan is available, or paid plans start at $25 monthly for email volume of up to 10k.
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is a collaboration platform that offers free CRM, project management, and communications, as well as a contact center and website builder. Its CRM tool lets users improve conversion rates, automate marketing, and serve customers better. Bitrix24 offers an unlimited customer base; teams can easily segment their audience, automatically re-activate inactive customers, and offer up-sells within an intuitive interface. The software also has leads and demand generation, sales funnel and pipeline, data analytics, social media and messenger integration, email marketing, text messaging, calendars, quotes, and invoices, as well as integration with its other modules. Paid plans start at $19 per month for 2 users. An on-premise solution is also available.
Close
Close is an all-in-one CRM software with calling and emailing features that are built for sales teams. Its intuitive sales tools include advanced automation and outreach features to help companies grow their revenue. Close provides multi-channel sales tools like email, calls, SMS, and video in one platform. A central hub provides full context on every deal, including all communication, tasks, and reminders. Close also has robust reporting tools that dynamically track sales activities to turn data into insights. Prices start at $29 per user per month.
Read more: Top Salesforce Competitors for Project Management Teams
Ontraport
Ontraport is a sales and marketing platform for growing businesses. It provides the modern tools needed to sell, market, and manage businesses online — all in a single place. With Ontraport, teams can move faster by having all their tools and data in one platform. The software has four plans to help businesses scale, with the Basic plan starting at $79 per month for a single user. Higher-tier plans include a pre-set number of users with additional cost for additional users.
Freshworks CRM
Freshworks CRM is a sales CRM software that provides teams advanced AI-based features so they can earn customers for life. It presents a unified 360-degree view of the customer by capturing and combining customer experience in a single platform. Tools like intelligent lead scoring, actionable insights, unified activity views, email integration, visual sales pipeline, and deal segmentation allow teams to interact with a single intuitive interface so they can spend more time helping customers. Freshworks plans start at $35 per user per month, or $29 per user per month billed annually.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM helps teams across the globe convert more leads and engage more customers to grow their revenue. It has modern tools that allow remote teams to connect with customers wherever they are. It improves performance with sales automation and real-time reports. Zoho CRM also comes with an AI-powered, conversational sales assistant. Features of the CRM software include sales meetings and presentations, mobile apps, blended dashboards, team communication, omni-channel, real-time notifications, task automation, workflows, and reports. Premium plans start at $14 per user per month billed annually. A more affordable CRM for small business called Bigin is $7 per user per month billed annually.
Keap
Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, is a CRM, sales, and marketing software that helps organize small businesses. Keap’s combination of tools and features allows teams to capture and convert leads more efficiently. It has a friendly contact database, segmentation, targeted campaign, and automated sales funnel. Companies can follow up easily and receive payment faster with templates, automation, reminders, and payment gateway integration. The software consolidates all tools in one place so users have access to lead management, customer information, email and SMS campaigns, calendar booking, invoicing, and payments — all within the same system. Prices start at $79 per month for 1 user and 500 contacts. Additional users cost $30 each.
Ready to try a HubSpot competitor for your CRM needs?
HubSpot is a proven platform that helps teams, companies, and their customers grow in meaningful business relationships. Its great support for inbound marketing methods enables companies to reduce expenses, earn higher trust and credibility, and generate quality traffic and leads. But not all companies work the same way. Businesses with unique needs can start with our short list of HubSpot competitors and go from there.
