Trying to choose which CRM software package is right for your business can be difficult. If like many businesses you are struggling to choose between Hubspot and Salesforce, this comparison of the two providers might help you decide which might fit your needs best.
Topics
Key features
Each of the software plans has a wide range of features and comparing them all would be a Herculean feat to accomplish so we have selected a range of the key features to compare. These are features included in the highest levels of plans and they may not be available on all plans.
| Features | HubSpot | Salesforce |
|---|---|---|
| Email marketing | Yes | Yes |
| Live chat | Yes | Yes |
| Contact management | Yes | Yes |
| Automations | Yes | Yes |
| Workflows | Yes | Yes |
| Sales pipelines | Yes | Yes |
| Quote management | Yes | Yes |
| Meeting scheduling | Yes | Yes |
| Insights and analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Reporting dashboard | Yes | Yes |
| Third party integrations | Yes | Yes |
| Collaboration tools | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes |
| Technical support | Email and in-app chat on Starter plans, also phone support on other plans | 2 day response unless purchase additional support plans |
Comparing options
Both HubSpot and Salesforce offer plans that are based on the teams or functions that will be using the software with features that are tailored to meet their needs. Both providers offer a choice of plan levels for each of these types with increasing amounts of functionality, as well as a combined plan bringing together all aspects of their software into an ultimate plan.
Below are the categories of plans that are available from the two providers.
Marketing software
HubSpot’s Marketing Hub is software that enables businesses to run inbound marketing campaigns easily through their platform and convert more customers. It allows them to incorporate landing pages, blogging, social media and more into the platform to track and manage campaigns better. You can run email marketing campaigns and track their success. Some of the features of the software include automation of processes, the ability to track ROI with revenue attribution reporting and utilising customer data to power your decisions.
Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud is software that assists businesses in planning marketing activities and gaining insights into these activities to track success and inform future decisions. The software can manage a wide range of marketing activities including email marketing, digital marketing, B2B demand generation, digital advertising and marketing analytics.
Sales software
HubSpot’s Sales Hub is software that helps bring teams closer together to assist in closing deals and building better customer relationships. The software allows businesses to manage their sales pipelines and use sales engagement tools in an easy-to-use platform. Its functionality includes quote and CPQ functionality, reporting and analytics, and integration with over 1,030 tools and apps.
Salesforce’s Sales Cloud is software that combines contract management, opportunity management, sales forecasting, process automation, mobile CRM and revenue intelligence. It combines Salesforce and Slack in providing a single place for all apps, data, alerts and conversations to take place allowing teams to work more closely together in closing sales and increasing repeat sales.
Service software
HubSpot’s Service Hub is a customer service software that assists in providing flexible customer support that can deepen customer relationships. It provides support in seamlessly onboarding customers and taking customers on an end-to-end service journey with the ability to scale with the number of customers. The product features include conversational tools, help desk automation, knowledge base functionality, customer feedback surveys and reporting functionality.
Salesforce’s Service Cloud is a customer service tool that allows businesses to automate their processes and create intelligent workflows. It is designed to support call centres and helps to make them operate more smartly with the use of productivity tools and cross channel support. Some of the features include case management, telephony integration, web services, knowledge base, track service contracts and entitlements, and 24/7 support.
CRM software
HubSpot’s CRM Suite provides a combined package of marketing, sales, service, CMS and operations. This provides the ability to automate business processes, align your teams through a single set of customer data, use programmable automation and tools that include data sync, data curation and data quality. Each of the advantages from the individual Hub modules are also gained in the combined plan.
Salesforce’s Customer 360 is a complete package that brings together sales, service, marketing, commerce, IT and analytics packages to create an ultimate package. This combined plan brings together all the advantages of the separate packages into a larger package with greater benefits as it caters for more of the business which aligns more teams and allows wider data sharing data for the greater good.
Website support software
HubSpot also offers CMS Hub which is designed to help build and scale a data-driven website and is aimed at marketers and website developers. It allows businesses to create personalised and secure experiences with premium hosting, flexible themes and dynamic content, drag and drop editing and build seamless customer digital experiences.
Salesforce offers the Commerce Cloud plan that is designed to support businesses that are selling online to connect and unify their sales channels and customer journeys. It allows businesses to collaborate, connect different shopping experiences, run personalised campaigns and boost sales conversions.
Operations software
HubSpot’s Operations Hub is software that has been designed to easily sync, clean and curate customer data. It allows businesses to manage customer relationships through digital workflows and automate processes whilst providing a single platform to hold all data and produce reports and insight.
Salesforce doesn’t offer a comparable product.
Small Business software
Salesforce offers Small Business plan options which are tailored versions of their plans for sales, service and marketing to help reduce administration and automate processes. Many of the features in the software for Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud are included in the basic level.
HubSpot doesn’t label any of their products as small business plans but their equivalent plans would probably be their free plans which are their basic version of some plans. These plans are the same as Salesforce and are the Sales Hub, Marketing Hub and Service Hub.
Pricing
Both HubSpot and Salesforce offer tiered plans that are based on an escalating pricing model. The price of plans increases as the number of users or contacts increases and the features included in the plans also increase.
HubSpot
Free plan – One of the key differences between the two providers is that HubSpot offers a free plan across part of its range of software which provides basic functionality at no cost. The plans that offer a basic free plan are Sales Hub, Marketing Hub and Service Hub.
HubSpot structures all its plans into three paid fee levels which are Starter plans for small businesses and teams, Professional for larger teams or businesses that need greater functionality, and Enterprise for large businesses with more complex needs that require greater control.
Sales Hub
- Starter plan is £38 per month for the first two users and additional users £19 per user.
- Professional plan is £369 per month for the first five users with additional users at £72.
- Enterprise plan is £990 per month for 10 users with additional users at £98.
Marketing Hub
- Starter plan is £38 per month for 1,000 contacts with additional contacts at £37.80 per 1,000 contracts.
- Professional plan is £655 per month per 2,000 contacts with additional contacts at £188.70 per 5,000 contacts per month.
- Enterprise is £2,624 per month for 10,000 contacts with additional contacts at £82 per 10,000 contacts per month.
Service Hub
- Starter plan is £38 per month for the first two users and additional users £19 per user.
- Professional plan is £297 per month for the first five users with additional users at £60.
- Enterprise plan is £990 per month for 10 users with additional users at £98.
CMS Hub
- Starter plan is £19 per month.
- Professional plan is £297 per month.
- Enterprise plan is £990 per month.
Operations Hub
- Starter plan is £37 per month.
- Professional plan is £590 per month.
- Enterprise plan is £1,640 per month.
CRM Hub
- CRM Suite is also £38 for 1,000 contacts and 2 users with additional costs for further contacts and users.
- Professional plan is £1,314 per month for 2,000 contacts and 5 users with additional costs for further contacts and users.
- Enterprise plan is £4,110 per month for 10,000 contacts and 10 users with additional costs for further contacts and users.
Salesforce
Salesforce has tried to make their pricing unique by offering Small Business plans which are tailored versions of their plans designed for smaller businesses.
Salesforce like HubSpot offer some tiered plans but theirs are not comparable across the different plans except for the Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. Salesforce’s other plans tend to offer a more unique pricing structure that is feature-driven rather than tiered.
Small Business plans
- Sales Cloud is for up to 10 users from £20 per month per user.
- Service Cloud is for up to 10 users from £20 per month per user.
- Marketing Cloud details are not available and you would need to contact them for a quote.
Sales Cloud and Service Cloud plans
- Essential plan is for up to 10 users from £20 per month per user.
- Professional plan is £60 per user per month.
- Enterprise plan is £120 per user per month
- Unlimited plan is £240 per user per month.
Marketing Cloud plans
- Pardot B2B Marketing Automation is from £1,000 per month for up to 10,000 contacts
- Email, Mobile and Web Marketing is from £320 per month
- Social Studio is from £800 per month
- Datarama is from £2,400 per month
- Google Marketing Platform is from £10,000 per month
Commerce Cloud plans
- The pricing for these plans are only available by requesting a quote.
Customer reviews
One good way of checking out a product before buying it is seeing what other people using it think about it, especially how they have found customer support.
HubSpot at the time of writing has customer reviews on Trustpilot, Reviews.co.uk and Review Centre but the last two review sites only have two reviews on each of them which are positive. Trustpilot has 274 reviews that are mixed and has resulted in an average overall rating based on reviewers rating them as 38% excellent, 17% as great and 35% as bad. The key positive feedback seems to be that it is easy to set up, use and integrate, and that they provide good training and onboarding support. The key negatives are that the lower plans are too basic and lack support.
Salesforce at the time of writing this only featured on two of the leading customer review sites that we explored and these were Trustpilot and Reviews.co.uk which only has two reviews, both of which were positive. Trustpilot had 251 reviews with an overall review score of bad as 79% of reviewers gave them a rating of bad. The reviewers’ comments are largely negative with the key feedback being that the software is hard to implement and develop, that resolving issues is difficult, that you either need to buy into additional support or employ a consultant to set it up as the support required is not available or comes at a great cost.
Try before you buy
HubSpot offers a free basic plan on their Sales Hub, Marketing Hub and Service Hub that allows you to try their software as long as want for free and you can upgrade to any paid plan at any point. They also offer a free 14-day trial on some of their paid plans where there is no free plan option, these plans are CMS Hub and Operations Hub.
Salesforce offers a 30-day free trial of their software to allow customers to get a feel for their software before committing to buying it. Their free trial is provided with no obligation, no payment or credit card details are required.
Pros
HubSpot’s key advantages are:
- Offers modular plans catering for specific functions
- Provides a combined plan
- Offers free plans or 14-day free trials on their products so you can try without committing
- Their plans cater for different business sizes and budgets
Salesforce’s key advantages are:
- Offers tailored software that caters for specific functions
- Provides a combined plan
- Offers a 30-day free trial
- Their plans cater for a range of needs and budgets
Cons
HubSpot’s key disadvantages are:
- Customer review scores are only average
- Some customers raised concerns about support and functionality on the more basic plans
Salesforce’s key disadvantages are:
- Poorly rated in customer reviews
- Customers raised concerns over the software being hard to deploy and technical issues being hard to overcome without employing consultants or paying high support fees