7 min read
Choosing the Best HubSpot Plan for Your Growing Business
Johanne
:
Aug 31, 2024 8:44:08 AM

Discover how to maximise your business's potential by selecting the ideal HubSpot plan tailored to your needs.
Understanding HubSpot's Pricing Structure
HubSpot's pricing structure is designed to scale with your business's size and needs. From free tools to comprehensive enterprise solutions, HubSpot offers a range of plans, including CRM and Sales, Marketing, Service, and Content Hubs.
Each hub has its own set of features and is available in different tiers: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise.
Understanding how each tier differs in terms of functionality and limitations is essential to determine which plan aligns with your business goals and budgetary constraints. Moreover, HubSpot's pricing can be influenced by the number of users, contacts and additional features required.
As your business grows, you may need to consider add-ons or increased contact tiers, which can affect overall costs. Transparency in pricing ensures that you can anticipate your investment and avoid unexpected expenses as you expand your usage of the platform.
Evaluating Your Business Needs and HubSpot's Offerings
To select the right HubSpot plan, start by evaluating your business needs. Identify your primary goals: improving sales efficiency and increasing leads, cross-selling and enhancing customer service, streamlining digital self-service or improving the user experience.
Then, assess HubSpot's offerings to see which features support your objectives. For instance, if lead generation is a priority, focus on Marketing Hub Plus's capabilities, such as Email campaigns, Social Posts (Market + bundle has a content remix for this) Advertising, Marketing, Landing pages, and lead nurturing tools.
For more outstanding customer service for your B2B Contracted Customers, Service Hub's automated ticketing system, Self-Service Customer Portal and Knowledge Base may be more relevant.
While team size is a factor in selecting the right plan, the primary determinant is the sophistication of your internal processes and the number of departments that need visibility. For example, when Customer Service resolves a customer ticket, does it need input from the Purchasing, Scheduling, Provisioning, or Manufacturing teams to advise on Sales Orders or return statuses?
Micro businesses use the Starter Plans, and businesses looking to streamline operations and scale usually start with Professional plans.
Enterprise plans are designed for companies needing customised elements, such as when B2B eCommerce is needed to provide self-service for contracted customers as a HubSpot module or when HubSpot is used as the customer face of existing ERP or CRMs such as Salesforce, and its sophisticated APIs facilitate integration.
Comparing Core Features Across Different HubSpot Plans
It's really not that complicated. When comparing HubSpot plans, focus on core features that will have the most significant impact on your business operations. For instance, compare the automation capabilities across different tiers, as automation can save time and improve efficiency. The Professional (Pro) and Enterprise tiers typically offer more advanced automation features than the Starter tier.
Additionally, examine the analytics and reporting features. Understanding the performance of your sales and marketing efforts or customer service processes is crucial for making data-driven decisions, and higher-tier plans often provide more detailed insights.
Don't forget to review the limits on user seats, contacts and data storage, as these can quickly become a bottleneck if underestimated.
What's included in each Hub?
Marketing Hub
Marketing Hub includes everything you could ever need from marketing automation software - from lead generation, blogging, ads, and payment links, to email marketing! Let's take a closer look at what's included..
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Discover Marketing Hub Features
- Ads Software
Use CRM data to create highly targeted ad campaigns and report valuable insights. - Google Ads
Bring in more leads with Google Ads using CRM and web analytics data to inform your strategy. - Exit Intent Forms
Turn website visitors into leads with customisable popup forms. No coding necessary. - Blog Software
Publish blog content that drives traffic and conversions with integrated blogging tools. - Marketing Analytics & Dashboard Software
Measure performance for marketing campaigns with built-in analytics, reports, and dashboards. - Dedicated IP Address
Ensure your marketing emails get delivered using a dedicated IP. - Free Online Form Builder
Fill your CRM with leads from your website using a powerful online form builder. - Free Landing Page Builder
Create and test beautiful landing pages that generate leads and look great on any device. - Calls-to-Action
Convert visitors into leads with calls-to-action you can personalise, test, and optimise. - Lead Capture Software
Capture leads and automatically sync them to your CRM with HubSpot forms. - Social Media Management Software
Prioritize social interactions to spend more time with the people who matter most. - Free Email Hosting
Engage customers and boost clickthrough rates with easy-to-create personalised emails. - Campaigns
View, manage, and act on campaign priorities directly within your marketing software. - Free Email Marketing Tools
Create, personalise, and optimise marketing emails without waiting on designers or IT. - Drag and Drop Email Builder
Create beautiful, personalised emails with our CRM-connected drag and drop email builder. - Newsletter Builder
Create beautiful, engaging emails and send them to targeted contact lists. - Ad Management
Connect your HubSpot CRM with popular ad platforms and leverage data to maximise campaign impact. - Transactional Email Software
Use automated transactional emails to send receipts, welcome messages, and more. - SEO Marketing Software
Use in-editor SEO recommendations to increase organic search traffic. - Marketing Automation Software
Spend less time on busy work by automating email campaigns, lead scoring, and more. - Free Chatbot Builder Software
Qualify leads, book meetings, provide customer support, and scale conversations with chatbots. - Free Contact Database & Management Software
Keep records up to date with ease. Add contacts and log sales activity with a single click. - Lead Management & Tracking Software
Manage all your lead records in one centralized database to streamline outreach. - Team Email
Connect team email addresses to a universal inbox for easy and efficient collaboration. - Free Live Chat Software
Connect with visitors in real time to convert leads, close deals, and provide support. - Video Hosting
Embed videos and measure their performance on marketing, sales, and service collateral. - List Segmentation
Create a targeted list of contacts to deliver more personalized marketing campaigns. - Lead Management & Tracking Software
Manage all your lead records in one centralized database to streamline outreach. - WordPress Plugin
Access HubSpot's full suite of tools and features on your Wordpress site with this plugin. - ABM Software
Unite your marketing and sales teams with collaborative tools for account-based buying.
- Ads Software
Content Hub
The Content Hub’s content marketing features include a drag-and-drop page editor, dynamic content, website themes, forms, analytics, CDN, email marketing, blogging, AB testing and SEO tools. Social media management and Content Remix providing all you need to;
- Personalise Content: Content Hub utilises Smart CRM data to craft customised content experiences throughout the customer journey, enhancing your content's ROI.
- Distribute Content: Create one piece of content and repurpose it for multiple channels in one click, including social media, ads, email and even turn it into an audio file, maximising your reach.
- AI-powered tools
Click here to read more on Content Hub.
Marketing + Bundle is a discounted offer available for customers who want to purchase the same tier of Marketing Hub and Content Hub at the same time.
Sales Hub
Sales Hub includes a sales CRM, sales engagement, reporting, sales automation, forecasting, as dedicated prospecting space and ABM tools. Uncover all the features and watch a demo of Sales Hub here.
Service Hub
Service Hub‘s tools include live chat, help desk automation, conversation routing, a knowledge base, and customer surveys. Discover more about Service Hub in our blog article.
Commerce Hub
Commerce Hub is a valuable addition to HubSpot's suite of tools, offering comprehensive features for e-commerce businesses. This hub includes tools for managing online transactions, inventory, customer data and order fulfilment.
Operations Hub
Operations Hub is one of the newer hubs - designed to provide sophisticated data tools for custom integrations. This hub empowers businesses to streamline their operational processes by providing advanced automation, reporting and analytics features.
Analysing the ROI of Upgrading Your HubSpot Plan
Upgrading your HubSpot plan should be a strategic decision based on a clear return on investment (ROI). Calculate the potential revenue increase from improved lead generation and conversion rates against the cost of moving to a higher-tier plan. Consider time savings from automation and whether it allows your team to focus on more strategic tasks.
If you're considering an upgrade, use HubSpot's demos or trial periods to test the advanced features and gauge their value to your organisation. Remember, the most expensive plan isn't always the best choice if the additional features don't translate to increased profits or improved efficiency for your business.
Strategies for Implementing HubSpot Efficiently in Your Business
You have several options when it comes to getting started with HubSpot. Onboarding is a guided approach where your team are supported by a HubSpot specialist (this can be HubSpot or a HubSpot Partner, read about the differences here) or you can go for an implementation which we cover in our related blog.
The successful implementation of HubSpot in your business requires a strategic approach. Start by training your team on the platform's features and best practices to ensure they are used to their full potential. Streamline your processes by integrating HubSpot with other tools and systems you are already using, which can enhance data consistency and workflow automation.
Regularly review your HubSpot usage and performance metrics to adjust your strategy as needed. As your business evolves, your HubSpot plan may need to evolve with it. Stay informed about new features and updates, and be open to adjusting your plan to keep pace with your business's growth and changing needs.
Current HubSpot Pricing August 2024
Tips for Maximising your HubSpot CRM
Plan out the journey of your CRM, marketing, sales and service departments using paper or even a whiteboard. Start by collaborating with team leaders to envision the perfect system, then work on how HubSpot can align with this vision.
Focus on the marketing-to-sales and sales-to-service handovers and interactions, as these are frictionless in HubSpot but require process definition and agreement across these departments.
It's common for teams to try to adapt their processes to fit HubSpot, leading to frustration and dislike for the CRM. By starting with how you want your team to work and then finding the right tools to support that, you establish a solid foundation for success. Without this groundwork, you'll find yourself constantly patching up issues along the way.
Read more on maximising HubSpot here
FAQs
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What are the core drivers of HubSpot's pricing?
The core drivers of HubSpot pricing are:
- Pro or Enterprise plans for each hub. Plans can be a mix of starter, Pro and Enterprise
- Number of Marketing contacts
- Number of paid user seats for Sales and Service.
- Capacity add-ons
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How is HubSpot integrated into existing systems?
Most scaling businesses already have accounting, provisioning, subscription and warehouse management systems that HubSpot needs to integrate with.
Integrating HubSpot is a sophisticated project that requires dedicated project management and Systems Integration experience.
Several integration tools can be used, as well as custom API integration.
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Can HubSpot be implemented with Salesforce?
Given that the Sales, Customer Service, and Marketing teams prefer using HubSpot, it can be implemented over Salesforce.
Existing Salesforce to ERP integrations can stay in place, and HubSpot effectively becomes the new UI the business uses.
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Is HubSpot CRM really free?
Absolutely!
HubSpot unites your marketing, sales, and service teams on a single AI-driven customer platform.
It's user-friendly, delivers quick value, and offers all teams a cohesive view of the customer throughout their entire journey.
Each product within the platform is strong individually, but the true magic unfolds when they are used in combination.
You can get started for free - core of HubSpot - the SMART CRM, is free forever!
Related Articles
HubSpot Pricing Guide by Forbes
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