HubSpot CRM Reviews

Pros

The CRM part is FREE! You can't beat that. It has all the functionality you need in a Customer management system. You can add on marketing, service desk, sales and more!

Cons

The marketing add-on is VERY expensive and there is no option for the Solo person. The software is geared to the enterprise which is too bad. It would be nice to see entry-level marketing functions

Alternatives Considered

ActiveCampaign, Salesforce Sales Cloud and SugarCRM

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

The cost was lower and the features greater than the other platforms

Pros

I got the starter pack for all, CSM, Marketing, Sales, etc. for a low price but you pay out the nose for marketing contacts and the value added isn't actually a whole lot. You could use an emailing service like ConstantContact or even a cold email service and get better value for monthly cost for marketing contacts.

Cons

I originally set it up to be an all-in-one location for all my contact management but that hasn't been the case, though it HAS replaced A LOT of my platforms, it still hasn't yet replaced Monday.com.

Also, there isn't an easy way yo separate out the CRM, like compartmentalize people who are receiving marketing compared to clients that are specifically sales. This means having two HubSpot accounts, one for marketing and one for sales and it's just a hastle. If they only made a user-level experience where you could effectively hide all the marketing contacts from sales until they become sales contacts, it would fix the issue.

The main thing we use Monday for is because it's a light platform we can push all our sales cycles through for task management. Where as HubSpot still has a poor sales pipeline management system with updates that should have been done YEARS ago. I've seen people complaining about the "NEW DEAL" tag with all new sales deals since 2018 and it's still there! Crazy to me this pipeline system need aa revamp and it's not getting enough attention

Alternatives Considered

monday.com

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

HubSpot seemed to be an all-in-one solution, but didn't pan out that way. Though it definitely replaced Pipedrive, couldn't replace Monday.

Switched From

Pipedrive and monday.com

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

Ease of use, contact updating is easy and their support is great.

Pros

Clean and easy to use UX. Fast to navigate.

Cons

The sales practices are predatory and the company is now under pressure to make a profit be very careful about opaque pricing. If your not getting 50% off thr listed price you are paying too much. Never ever take anything sales or support teams say without it being written down.

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

We were duped should have gone with salesforce

Pros

I like HubSpot because it's a complete CRM platform, you can organize your sales, marketing campaigns, customer service. This software will help you with the business growth strategy through marketing techniques. It has several plans and different costs. You will be able to obtain information in graphs of the statistics, access your contacts that are being created (clients, prospects), you can assign advisors to attend to each client. Something that I can highlight is that it has a free version in which you can use several tools, ideal for those who want to see how it works, and then there is the Enterprise version, which is the most complete and to handle more contacts.

Cons

It is a platform with many functions and at first it can be difficult to understand, it would be nice if it had more tutorials on the platform to guide you through the different tools

Pros

HubSpot CRM is really great because it furnishes my business with a straight forward and powerful software. It has provided me with a robust digital marketing instrument and an arsenal of tools which I can effectively use for sales and customer service. I love how it comes with a lightweight, yet proficient free starter plan for those who might want to take it for a test drive and see how it operates. The subscription model is great as it is divided in tiers so one can purchase a subscription which suits their budget and get features included in that tier. It offers a simple user interface and setting up and maintaining the software is trouble-free. Ever since I started using the software, attracting prospects is no longer a challenge, I am also able to to get business growth strategies through various marketing techniques. With the lead management feature, I can acquire and manage potential clients or custormers effortlessly. In addition to this, the software enables me to schedule appointments and or schedule a client with an advisor. The email management option helps me to send, reply track and organize emails all at once which improves customer service while saving me time. A combination of all these features and more makes me feel really satisfied with the software.

Cons

I have noticed that some features require an upgrade which can become costly for small businesses. In addition to this, the free tier does not come with some automations. Lastly, it would have been nice if they offered a reccuring task option as it would aid in prompting a user to follow up with clients regularly thus the reminder feature leaves much to be desired.

Pros

HubSpot provides out of the box features for tracking, lead management, and reporting. It's built with the end-user in mind. I love that I don't have to have a FTE HubSpot admin onsite to make these things happen.

Cons

HubSpot puts the primary emphasis on Contacts, where I believe it should be on Companies. We're signing up businesses, not individuals.

Alternatives Considered

Zoho CRM, Pipedrive and SugarCRM

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

More out of the box features that didn't require an onsite admin, better ROI on cost

Switched From

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Pros

Its interface is quite intuitive. I did not even need to watch any tutorials until much later.

Cons

The gap from the Starter bundle plan to the Professional bundle plan is soo wide. I am just about to become a paying user after 2 years of using Hubspot, so I'll probably not need to worry about the other plans yet.

Alternatives Considered

Zoho CRM

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

Hubspot allows me to have a lot more options in the beginning stage. Unlike Zoho CRM, you'd want to go to CRM PLUS to have a lot more value. Hubspot gives me all that value in its Starter Bundle plan.

Pros

Hubspot is a great tool for startups, free and powerful and very rich in complex features.

Cons

It is the training time that is too long to be able to use certain features.

Pros

Very thorough knowledge base. Easy to setup and maintain.

Cons

Certain features like workflows require an upgrade and can be expensive for some SMBs.

Pros

They offer so much in their free CRM, and it's so helpful. As a boutique marketing and media business, it give me everything I truly need under their free tier and I love that.

Cons

There are some automations that I wish were included in the free tier, but I understand why they're not.

Pros

Ease of use - it's obvious the way an iPhone or Google would be
Easy Integrations
Many capabilities and integrations
Fast start - up and running in no time flat

Cons

The sales team -- they just don't seem to really get Enterprise B2B CMO level folks... (in my experience!)
They have gotten chincy with on-boarding... used to be "all you need", now rather restricted timing
Customer Success people are good - but they're spread VERY thin with 100s of accounts

Alternatives Considered

ActiveCampaign, Pardot and Marketo Engage

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

ease of use, integrations, functionality

Switched From

Act-On

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

ease of use, integrations, reliability

Pros

I got introduced to HubSpot via its Academy, which truly has excellent educational content. HubSpot brilliantly uses its extensive knowledge base to attract prospects. As part of the InBound Sales certification course, I started using its CRM and gradually expanded to other service offerings, such as the self-service scheduling and chatbot services. What HubSpot does better than its competitors is the seamless integration between the mega modules (Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, CMS and Operations). You can start with as few/many modules as your organization needs.

Cons

The Starter Plans are cost-effective ($0 to $45/month) but shoot up astronomically as you scale up to Professional and Enterprise tiers ($360+/month). A more economical tier between Starter and Professional would better serve the SMBs.

Pros

The best thing about Hubspot is that it's a very popular CRM software so if you run into any problems - you can easily find someone to help you. Also, there are a lot of tutorials available online from where one can easily learn Hubspot CRM. Another thing that I like very much about Hubspot CRM is that it has a free plan which can be highly beneficial for small businesses and startups. Even the free plan is competitive with paid plans of other CRMs. Another pro about Hubspot CRM is its intuitive workflow and user interface that makes it very easy to learn and use. Hubspot CRM is the easiest CRM I have ever used - even someone with below-average knowledge can use Hubspot easily with proper training. Also, there are a lot of integrations available like WordPress integration which is very useful for small businesses.

Cons

There aren't many advanced features available with Hubspot CRM so it may not be very useful for large businesses. Also, there is a free plan and there is quite an expensive plan - I wish there was something in the middle as not everyone can afford it. However, one can start with a free plan and move to a paid plan when needed so that's a plus.

Alternatives Considered

Dynamics 365

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

Hubspot was recommended by many of my co-workers and also has a free plan.

Pros

Lead management is the best part for us managing all the leads based on the lead scoring model in place. The CRM helps us manage our sales pipeline very effectively and helps us identify interested opportunities.

Cons

This is a general one but it is expensive to use Hubspot for all small and medium size businesses, and also the reporting is quite basic.

Alternatives Considered

Zoho CRM

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

It was the experience of the CRM manager which was towards Hubspot

Switched From

Pardot

Pros

HubSpot is easy to deploy and setup. I like that you can upload an excel spreadsheet with all your contacts and companies into HubSpot which allows the data to be quickly synced. In addition there are a lot of integrations available for various commonly used business software with HubSpot such as WooCommerce and WordPress.

Cons

There are some features that are limited or not available depending on your level of membership plan.

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce Service Cloud and monday.com

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

Tracking everything in excel became unmanageable.

Switched From

Microsoft Excel

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

HubSpot was the perfect fit for our business and it allowed us to take advantage of a full blown CRM system at a low cost.

Pros

It is an incredibly powerful CRM, Marketing, Sales and Service tool. It can integrate easily with many platforms including Mailchimp, Shopify and WordPress from its extensive app marketplace. The software is also incredibly easy to use and it gives you a clear overview of your leads and clients as well as allowing you to store quotes, files, emails... basically, everything about your lead/client in one easy to access place. The workflows is another amazing tool as it allows you to easily set up an automated marketing funnel for each new lead. I prefer their workflow creation tool, to that of Salesforce, whose automations takes a while for my brain to understand. The HubSpot Academy is another amazing feature that teaches you about almost any aspect of growing your business.

Cons

I only have a few issues with the program.

1) As of date there is no recurring task option yet, so you can't for example set up a reminder to call a client every week for example. I do know that they are busy working on this though.

2) The pricing model is a bit steep, you can either go with the "cheap" plan, which gives you limited features or the "expensive" plans which allow you access to all the awesome features. There is no mid-tier plan for a company that finds the starter plan to limiting and who cannot yet afford the professional or enterprise plans. an example at the time of writing: the marketing hub costs $20 per month for the starter plan and then jumps to $800 per month for the professional plan.

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce Automotive CRM

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

Because of their free tier which gives you access to so many great tools already. To my knowledge, there aren't many other platforms out there that are that easy to use that come with a free plan.

Pros

We love the fact that hubspot enables us to keep a track of all our clients in one place. Not only that but it is free. The ability to import data from excel files allowed us to upgrade our database from google sheets and combined with hubspots internal database elevated the amount of info we had to hand on our clients, taking it to the next level. We also love the fact you can create custom fields to the CRM and different views for different users.

Cons

To be honest there is very little not to like with hubspot, in terms of the various software we use, this one takes a little more time to implement and adopt, however once customized to your requirements it becomes way easier to use.

Alternatives Considered

Airtable

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

Google sheets is limited and to get it to the level of customization we have with hubspot would be a nightmare. Hubspot is also really user friendly compared to google sheets.

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

We really like the interface for hubspot and the fact they have a lot of basic data on clients, like number of employees etc..

Pros

HubSpot is one of the few CRMs you can pick up and use without professional help. Using only their videos and articles, you can get a simple, powerful and FREE CRM set-up.

The set-up does take time and patience but it's possible. Contrast that vs. Salesforce and other CRMs which I've found to be basically impossible to use for a starter CRM.

Cons

HubSpot's email integration is powerful but it's task management / reminder features could use a lot of work. I can't complain too much since it's free.

HubSpot's pricing is also confusing since there are so many features and bundles to choose from. It's especially confusing since they also offer marketing services.

Also the dashboard isn't the most intuitive to set-up.

All of these above comments are on an absolute basis. When compared to other CRMs I found HubSpot lightyears easier.

Alternatives Considered

Pipedrive and Close

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

HubSpot had better recommendations

Switched From

Streak

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

Cheaper, better, easier

Pros

The biggest priorities for us when we implemented HubSpot in our company were to be able to realize revenue to marketing activities as well as have a better forecasting method for our sales team.

Cons

The biggest con for us is that we clearly stated we needed to be able to tie revenue back to marketing activities. This function is possible with the platform sold to us; however it is very manual. In order for us to have the automated version that we requested, we would need to pay a significant amount more than we currently are. This was a mistake made on the part of the salesperson and we were offered a discount to enable the feature; however it is still very costly so we are performing this task manually at the moment.

Alternatives Considered

Dynamics 365, Pardot, Salesforce Sales Cloud and SugarCRM

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

Price was a large factor. Salesforce and SugarCRM were both excellent contenders and we would have been happy to choose either of them. The biggest factor in our decision was price. The other factor was Salesforce and Sugar have software that is so powerful, we felt the built-in features we would pay for may not be utilized enough to receive an ROI.

Pros

Hubspot is effortless to set up and intuitive to use.
It counts with a vast array of features although it doesn't get overly complicated.
Its B2B library is extensive and you can find plentiful resources to learn about B2B sales and marketing

Cons

I wished its automation and reporting tools were more developed. The workflow feature does provide automation capabilities, however after entering into some depth, it eventually falls short.

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

Hubspot was more known. It integrated better with Google suite

Switched From

Zoho CRM

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

Hubspot was cheaper

Pros

Cost is great, free to get started with a low number of users. It actually delivers high value overall regardless of cost. The system has a wide variety of functionality, yet is well thought out.

The way the deal pipeline is constructed allows for the flexibility in how you can label and name your deal stages and how many you want to create. The drag and drop interface is intuitive, but a little slow.

Fields for individual users were customizable and overall HubSpot allows for a lot of flexibility.

Cons

Managing the deal pipeline can be cumbersome, difficult to read the titles of the deals when there are many of them, and the responsiveness of the platform could be improved a bit. The drag and drop isn't always responsive and can be very slow.

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

GoldMine is terrible, antiquated, and unbelievable that my previous company even used it. Something Cloud based is obviously required for so many reasons, and the fields and everything about Goldmine were not flexible.

Switched From

GoldMine Premium Edition

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

Salesforce is expensive, and HubSpot not only is free but also it has a lot of enterprise level features.

Pros

Easy to import contacts and create lists based on type of contact or type of connection. I like using this feature for organizing my contacts. I also like that I can add other users so that I can see the chronological timeline of all contact points without having to interact with the employee. Able to send emails out to specific lists easily and quickly.

Cons

Challenging to use at first and I had to google a lot to figure out how to use all the features. Issues with importing and not seeing all of the information but was about to troubleshoot on my own. Not super intuitive to start out.

Alternatives Considered

ConvertKit

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

More features in hubspot to connect with landing pages and emailing.

Switched From

Mailchimp

Pros

Start using free, and scale up as you grow, that is relaxed
HubSpot's sales tools reside in your inbox (Gmail an so on), so you don't have to switch back and forth between different windows and can get your work done faster.

By connecting your email account to HubSpot, you can send and receive emails to and from all your contacts directly in their HubSpot contact record.

Cons

It very well may be seen that the product was brought into the world in the USA. On the off chance that, for instance, leads are consequently moved to Hubspot and the information is enhanced, then, at that point a few names become something different or the designing of the telephone numbers isn't completed effectively. We have essentially deactivated this capacity and make the leads physically or incorporate them by means of structures.

Pros

HubSpot is excellent for small companies, especially if you can get the startup discount for 90% off for your first year. The system has a lot of power and plugs pleasantly into a lot of the coolest, best products (gmail, Slack). The system's Contacts and Companies systems are well-done and extend pleasantly into other parts of the platform.

Cons

HubSpot needs to stop removing features and putting them into new licenses that cost more money. I realize they need to make money but they're turning it into this nickel-and-dime situation that makes the system more complicated. It's starting to feel like a bloated mess like Saleforce. I think someone nimble is going to come in and outdo them if they aren't careful.

Alternatives Considered

Zoho CRM, NetSuite CRM, Agile CRM, SuiteDash, SugarCRM and Copper

Reasons for Choosing HubSpot CRM

HubSpot was cheaper and was more approachable than the customization nightmare that is Salesforce.com.

Switched From

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Reasons for Switching to HubSpot CRM

The feature set was stronger and we were approved for the startup discount.

Pros

I really liked the fact that HubSpot CRM is relatively easy to use. The navigation between its different sections and features is smooth.

The sales pipeline section lets you visualize what's happening at each of your stage pipeline, while sale forecasting shows you how much you'd be making if you were to close X deals.

Plus, there's the smartphone app: an excellent way to keep track of things and carry out tasks even when you're on the go.

Cons

The main con of HubSpot CRM, which is also true to other "freemium" tools, is the fact that certain features are only available in the paid plan(s).

That's not an issue itself but the fact that the paid plans don't cost $10 or so each month but much more than that, may lead a user facing the question 'Do I want to invest that kind of money or should I look for a more inexpensive option?'

Alternatives Considered

Pipedrive