hIf you're in the sales game, you've definitely heard of HubSpot. Today, we'll be talking about the best HubSpot CRM alternatives worth considering to take your sales process to the next level.
The customer relationship management (CRM) platform is now used by more than 150,000 businesses to manage sales, nurture leads, and automate marketing campaigns.
But if you're reading this, you're already asking the question: is there a better HubSpot CRM alternative for my team? 🤔
I'm going to be straight up with you. I'm biased as hell. If you're in sales, our CRM Close blows all other CRMs out of the water. It comes packed with everything you need to close a deal, from voice and telephone features to sales automation, email campaigns, and lead tracking.
But that decision is up to you–plus, not all businesses have the same needs. So let's put all our cards on the table.
This article will look at the pros and cons of using HubSpot for sales teams and nine of the best HubSpot CRM alternatives to choose from.
Let's dive in.
HubSpot CRM: Pros and Cons
There's a reason why so many sales teams start out using HubSpot.
It's one of the only CRMs offering a freemium platform, with enough basic features to manage leads and track deals. And there's a good chance your marketing team is already using it for marketing automation and tracking metrics.
Let's start with all the good stuff.
HubSpot CRM is a great choice for teams who want all of their tools in one spot (especially marketing and customer support.) It can handle inbound marketing strategies, marketing automation, basic lead generation, segmentation, social media management, and customer service under one roof.
Then there's the (huge) App Marketplace with hundreds of integrations for tools in your existing sales stack. Since HubSpot is so popular, it is unlikely that any software you use wouldn't be able to integrate with it.
However, managing sales in HubSpot isn't all rainbows and chocolate.
The software is built for any business—not specifically sales teams—so its customization options are limited. This can be an issue if you want to tweak how your team sells or targets prospects, and smaller sales teams who want features like call recording and automated dialing won't find the functionality they're looking for in HubSpot.
HubSpot's main selling point—that it's an all-in-one solution—is also kind of a drawback. Yes, it has tools to run marketing automation, customer support, and sales. But if a scrappy startup wants to focus on sales or already has a marketing automation platform, there are better purpose-built solutions that go beyond the basic features HubSpot offers.
Then there's the cost.
The free CRM plan is super limited. Teams only get 15 minutes of calling per user/month, which is worthless if you are serious about sales. It also doesn't include email automation, and you can only build a single sales pipeline without upgrading.
As for the paid plans, you'll probably find the price tag eye-watering as your team grows. It masks itself as a free or affordable tool, but HubSpot often targets enterprise customers and leaves smaller companies behind. Just look at the problems Darragh Geoghegan, VP of Revenue Operations at EcoOnline, ran into when he moved from Salesforce to HubSpot:
Yikes!
This may not be a huge issue for Enterprise companies with big marketing and sales budgets. But SMBs and startups will find these limitations and the price point very restrictive. For example, HubSpot's sales and marketing hubs are charged as add-ons ($50 each per user/per month), and if you want to use CMS, it's billed at $300 extra a month.
It all adds up. It's up to you to decide whether HubSpot's pros outweigh its cons. ⚖️
9 HubSpot CRM Alternatives You Have to Try
A single data source is arguably the most powerful weapon for salespeople.
The uphill battle most teams have is storing and organizing that data, so it's easy for salespeople to access and use it when needed. Because, on average, only 35 percent of a sales rep's time is spent actively selling.
The rest of their time is chewed up with manual tasks like searching for lead data and relevant content to send to prospects. Sales reps with data all in one place can shorten their sales cycles and get more done. It also means more money in your company's pocket.
So, if HubSpot isn't the right sales CRM to organize your data—which one is? 🤔
Here are our top nine picks 👇
Looking to optimize your contracting processes? Explore our selection of CRM platforms for contractors in the contractor domain.
1. Close: The HubSpot CRM Alternative for SMB + SaaS
✅ Best for: SMB & SaaS sales teams who want to smash their targets
Built by sales reps for sales reps: Close is the only serious CRM choice for teams who want to close more deals.
Lift the hood on the CRM platform, and it's got everything a sales rep needs to handle a deal, from prospecting to signing a contract to sales automation. The tool automatically logs all your interactions with prospects and leads, including emails, SMS messages, and phone calls. Every touch with a prospect is stored and tracked, so time to prep for calls and meetings is cut in half.
If you're looking to optimize your sales process, Close can't be beaten.
Close's inbuilt email marketing tools are also perfect for nurturing prospects. Thanks to custom email workflows, salespeople can create sequences to automatically send after an inquiry, meeting, or objection to win a prospect over.
Every prospect is also tracked based on where they are in their buying journey. Close stores every deal in your pipeline, and you can create custom sections like meeting booked, proposal sent, and deal won with the drag-and-drop builder.
The best part is these values are automatically updated when you push leads and prospects through your pipeline.
Because we created Close for salespeople, we also ensured it worked with existing tech stacks. It integrates with many popular selling tools like Conversify, LeadFuze, Viola Norbert, SavvyCal, and more.
If you are an SMB or SaaS sales team looking for a tool with everything HubSpot does not, look no further than Close. Don’t believe us? We’ve had teams leave us to go to HubSpot–only to come back again.
Close: Best Features for Salespeople
- Close doesn't have a big learning curve, so your team won't spend hours (or days) figuring out how to use it. It's just as easy to build an email template as to create automated SMS sequences from scratch.
- Thanks to features like the power dialer, email automation and pipeline tracking, your salespeople will spend less time on data and more time selling.
- SMBs and SaaS startups can be scrappy and don't have huge budgets. Close knows this, which is why even the basic package covers email templates, pipeline reporting, and task management.
- Close's mobile app feature is another valuable asset for salespeople. With the Close mobile app, your sales team can stay connected and productive on the go. Whether they're out meeting clients, attending events, or simply away from their desks, the mobile app allows them to access all of Close's essential features from their smartphones or tablets.
- Tons of integrations, including ActiveCampaign, Savvy Cal, Zoom, and yes, even HubSpot, which is ideal if your company uses its marketing solution.
💰Close Pricing
Close is one of the most affordable CRMs on the market for sales teams. The Starter plan costs just $49/month (billed annually) and has more than enough features to get your team started (think email automation, Workflows, call forwarding, and Zoom integrations).
If you have the budget to stretch, Close's crème de la crème tier (Professional) costs just $299/month (billed annually and includes 3 users). This gets you access to predictive dialers, call coaching, and custom email workflows—a steal compared to other CRMs on the list.
Pro-tip: If you want to stick with HubSpot for your marketing but prefer Close for sales, check out our native integration with HubSpot’s marketing tools. You can manage lead information, two-way sync prospect data, and customize touchpoints to supercharge your sales and marketing processes!
2. Pipedrive
✅ Best for: Sales teams who want a visual representation of their sales pipeline
Targeted towards SMBs, Pipedrive is known as the prettiest-looking CRM on the market.
It's a great option if you want to visualize data at a glance instead of spending time digging through spreadsheets and graphs. The main visual draw is in the tool's name: the sales pipeline. Your team can create multiple sales pipelines and customize each stage based on revenue goals, sales cycle length, and deals won.
What's cool about Pipedrive is (depending on the pricing tier) you can automate manual tasks across different sales cycle stages. Just add a "trigger" to a workflow, and you can program Pipedrive to assign leads to certain sales reps or sync prospect data to speed up the negotiation process.
As a whole, Pipedrive is a great tool for cutting down on boring, manual tasks so your team can focus on selling.
Pros:
- Pipedrive's visual pipeline is huge plus and gives sales managers a simple view of multiple sales pipelines in a couple of clicks
- It plugs into a ton of popular sales tools and will fit easily into most teams existing tech stacks
Cons:
- Some users report slow loading times and errors with the API connections
- Difficult to contact their support team
💰Pipedrive Pricing
Pipedrive's pricing plans start at $9.90/month/user, but features are limited. To get the most out of the platform, you'll probably need to cough up for (at least some) add-ons, which come with an extra fee.
3. Streak
✅ Best for: Startups that use Gmail and don't need many features
Streak is a sales CRM software that's totally Gmail based.
It transforms a Gmail inbox into a basic—but powerful—CRM solution. The obvious benefit to using Streak is that it's super simple to install and use, as it just requires installing an extension onto your internet browser.
Once it's up and running, you can manage deals, schedule meetings on Google Calendar, and collaborate over shared team emails from inside your Gmail account. Webhook API access is also a nice touch for teams with a little tech knowledge, but it's required for basic setups like shared pipelines and mail merge.
Pros:
- Integrates easily with Gmail, and there's very little learning curve
- Unlimited free version that packs in a ton of features
Cons:
- It runs on a Chrome extension, so it's not ideal if reps use several devices or use other platforms like Outlook.
- The lack of dashboard is a huge con. You can only access the CRM through your Gmail tab, so data and metrics are restricted.
💰Streak Pricing
The forever free plan includes 50 mail merges a day and 500 rows of data. Paid plans start at $15/month and include link tracking and more data storage.
Understand the undeniable advantages and benefits of a CRM platform.
4. Salesforce
✅ Best for: Enterprise companies with big budgets that want extensive customization
Salesforce is the OG CRM software. It's been around since 1999, and there's a reason why 150,000 companies trust it to handle sales processes—it's a powerhouse.
But, Salesforce isn't an entry-level or even mid-level CRM tool. It needs to be customized to your business to suit your sales processes (there are Salesforce consultants for a reason!) But once the platform is set up, it can manage any sales task or deal you throw at it.
The platform can automate manual tasks like data entry, deal flow, and revenue tracking. It can also automatically score leads and has a searchable database so you can find prospect data easily. Add in features like out-of-the-box integrations and advanced reporting, and Salesforce transforms into a decent choice for Enterprise companies with a healthy budget.
An excellent bonus is Salesforce's Trailblazer Community. It has a community of Salesforce fans that help each other with everything from feature tutorials to formula creation and automation.
Pros:
- It's completely customizable to suit any sales team's needs
- Salesforce integrates with tons of popular sales tools
- Advanced reporting and analytics to see every aspect of your sales team's work
- Good for a range of businesses, especially enterprise and ecommerce
Cons:
- Steep learning curve and complex features, especially if you are just getting started with a CRM
- It's expensive compared to other tools on our list. You also need to consider any added extras like a consultant to get you up and running. Its complex pricing and additional add-ons make it hard to budget for—not ideal for SMBs and startups!
💰Salesforce Pricing
Unfortunately, there's no freemium plan here! Salesforce costs between $25 - $330/user/month to access Sales Cloud. If you need features like sales enablement or analytics, it's a separate cost.
5. Freshsales
✅ Best for: Sales teams who want to dabble with AI assistants
Want to handball some of your sales tasks over to AI? If so, Freshsales' CRM may be your answer.
It's packed with all the usual features you expect from a CRM, like workflow automation, conversation tracking, and lead scoring. But the big bonus of using Freshsales is the AI tool.
Freddy AI gives sales teams insights into which prospects in their pipeline are worth pursuing.
The tool uses over 30,000 machine learning models to predict which deals are most likely to be won, how to respond to prospects, and even flags at-risk deals for you to focus on.
Pros:
- Scores leads and prioritizes prospects based on engagement levels
- Basic built-in features like email and chat to nurture prospects
- Advanced analytics tracking to create more accurate sales forecasts
Cons:
- Some users have said integrations could be improved
- Data syncs can be slow and tedious
💰Pricing
Freshsales offers a basic freemium plan that includes contact management and built-in email. However, if you want access to features like AI and multiple sales pipelines, paid plans start at $9/month/user.
For a comprehensive analysis of Freshsales' AI capabilities compared to other CRM solutions and alternatives, explore our article on Freshsales alternatives.
6. Zoho CRM
✅ Best for: Very small businesses focused on inbound marketing and sales
Zoho offers a lot of useful features to small sales teams and SMBs—just like HubSpot.
Zoho's small business CRM has a free plan that includes the basics like workflows, lead management and an easy-to-use dashboard. Like HubSpot, it integrates with marketing tools and social media channels like Twitter and Facebook to help bring in customers, which is perfect for small teams juggling many different tasks.
If you need more customization, a dedicated CRM administrator can manage VoIP systems, integrations with other sales tools and workflow programming. Of course, they'll need a bit of IT expertise, but having this option is ideal for teams who need to chop and change the platform without outsourcing to a specialist consultant (we're looking at you, Salesforce!).
Although it's free, some features are quite limited. Sales reps can only send out 50 emails a day and are restricted to 10. But for smaller sales teams with a couple of reps, this should be enough to hit the ground running without paying for a premium HubSpot plan.
Pros:
- Simple and basic solution for small businesses to get started with a CRM
- Workflow automations are easy to set up out of the box
- No-code web forms to capture leads without hiring an IT pro
Cons:
- Limited integrations with other sales apps
- No individual email tracking or lead notification features
💰Pricing
Freemium plan with basic features to get your team started. Paid plans start at $14/user/month and include sales forecasting, a/b testing and KPI tracking. If you want to take the paid plans for a test drive, Zoho has a 30-day free trial that unlocks its Ultimate plan (aka every premium feature offered).
7. Less Annoying CRM
✅ Best for: Small sales teams or individuals running sales with a limited budget
If you’re looking for a CRM that’s (you guessed it) less annoying, this tool is definitely an option to consider.
It's a simple setup with basic features, but it's a place to store customer data and delegate tasks and events. If your team handles a lot of cut-and-dry deals that don't involve multiple stakeholders or lots of moving parts, the basic dashboard has enough information (like notes, files and tasks) to keep sales reps up to speed with how each deal is progressing.
Add in the calendar, pipeline view, lead reports and agenda emails, and Less Annoying CRM is a great choice for teams who want to keep simple communication under one roof.
Pros:
- Simple and quick to implement
- Lead tracking and task management to keep basic sales deals on track
- The price is very competitive compared to some of the other tools on our list
Cons:
- Limited sales tools and customization for growing sales teams or complex sales
- Very limited integrations and reporting features could be better
💰Pricing
Super basic pricing structure: $15/user/month + tax, with no paid add-ons or other pricing tiers. What you see is what you get with Less Annoying CRM.
8. Keap
✅ Best for: Entrepreneurs and service-based businesses
The goal of Keap is to make an entrepreneur’s life easier—it automates manual labor so you can focus on getting new clients and doing your job.
If you are managing sales alone or have a small team, Keap offers lead management, landing page and web form setup to get you started. It also comes with essential selling tools like sales pipeline management, quotes and invoices, and automated lead capture and follow-up to keep deals moving through your pipeline.
In addition to lead generation, you can customize fields and contacts for your specific business processes so all data stored in the CRM can be used to close deals.
Pros:
- Easy data migration from multiple formats
- Automation features geared towards entrepreneurs offering services
- Plenty of resources to help learn the system
Cons:
- Limited user permissions if you are sharing the dashboard with others
- Building automations takes some time to learn, and the number of integrations with other apps is pretty small.
💰Pricing
Keap isn't the cheapest tool in the toolbox. Paid plans start at $129/month for 1500 contacts, and only two users are included.
9. SugarCRM
✅ Best for: Sales teams who are selling with prospects face-to-face
The last tool on our list is for sales teams out selling in the field or meeting prospects in person.
SugarCRM has niche features (that HubSpot doesn't offer) like GPS native integrations and offline sync that make a sales rep's life easier when on the road. With the right integrations, SugarCRM can map customer locations, data and even push real-time notifications to keep on top of tasks while salespeople are out in the field.
Back in the office, the CRM can automate lead routing, lead scoring and even comes with a pop-up builder to integrate forms into a website to capture leads. However, a big drawback is SugarCRM's pricing tiers. It's built for larger sales teams, so if you don't have at least three sales reps on the books it's not a great choice budget-wise.
Pros:
- Built-in Campaign Wizard to help collect leads, evaluate them and assign them to specific sales reps
- Lots of integrations plus a public API code
- 24/7 customer support if you need help
Cons:
- SugarCRM requires you to pay for a minimum of three seats, so it might not make the most sense for smaller teams or startups. A moderate learning curve also means you'll need time to learn the platform properly.
- If you've got a lot of customers and prospects, this tool is e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e!
💰Pricing
The Sugar Sell Essentials plan starts at $49/month for a minimum of three users. However, the cheapest plan doesn't come with some of the best features like lead scoring or calendar integration. To unlock them, you need to pay for the premier plan, which starts at $85/month with a 3 user minimum.
Ready to Choose the Best HubSpot Alternative?
If you are looking for a HubSpot alternative, there are plenty of options. But, as our list suggests, some CRMs are more suited to sales teams than others.
The best way to decide on the best CRM for you is to look at what features HubSpot is missing and find a tool that offers those features. Do you need a tool that you can use to create a customized sales pipeline, or are time-saving tools like lead scoring and predictive dialers more important?
Put together a list and use it to narrow down your options for a HubSpot alternative.
Yep, we're biased. But we think Close is arguably the best choice for small sales teams and SMBs who want to close more deals. It saves time (hello power dialer and email automation!) and tracks powerful insights so you can see what sales processes are working.
Best of all, Close is completely customizable without the eye-watering price tag of the HubSpot alternatives on our list.
Close ticks all the boxes for sales reps who want to land more deals ✅
Want to try Close for yourself? We offer a 14-day free trial—no credit card required!
