HubSpot and Salesforce are like the dynamic duo of sales and marketing CRMs.
Both category leaders, how on earth do you choose between them?
It's no surprise that Salesforce is often referred to as "a hammer to crack a nut" when it comes to mid-sized businesses. However, all this power is well and good, but it comes at a price - a high price tag and a steep learning curve that could rival climbing Mount Everest!!
On the other hand, HubSpot is a friendly neighbour, easy to use, budget-friendly and pretty powerful, with a ton of features to rival its competitors.
HubSpot offers a free plan for all your basic CRM needs, unlike Salesforce, which does not offer free plans.
You can get your hands on the Salesforce platform with a 30-day free trial, while HubSpot offers a 14-day free trial for its paid plans.
Both platforms bring the heat with essential CRM functionalities like sales forecasting, email marketing, and contact and lead management.
HubSpot has taken top place in the G2 awards for the past few years, knocking Salesforce from the top spot.
If you're a small or midsize business looking for an easy-to-use CRM that's focused on sales and marketing, HubSpot is certainly the way to go.
The best part? HubSpot offers a user-friendly interface that's perfect for beginners in the CRM world or those with limited technical knowledge. It simplifies tasks like email marketing and lead management right within the platform, making it accessible for teams without specialised training. This is especially beneficial for businesses that prioritise sales and marketing, providing a range of tools in these areas.
For SMBs, HubSpot's ease of use, integration of essential marketing tools, and cost-effectiveness make it a better choice than Salesforce. These features allow smaller businesses to effectively manage customer relationships without requiring extensive resources or technical expertise.
HubSpot streamlines workflows with its flexible automation capabilities, crucial for SMBs with limited staff. The platform's intuitive visual editor for custom workflows enables the creation of sales and service processes without the need for extensive technical knowledge.
Additionally, HubSpot's lead scoring helps prioritise viable leads, essential for SMBs focused on efficient conversions.
With a minimal and straightforward interface, HubSpot meets the needs of SMBs looking for an easy-to-navigate CRM tool, without the extensive training that Salesforce may demand. HubSpot's foundation in inbound marketing makes it particularly strong in sales and marketing tools, aligning well with the primary focus of many SMBs. In comparison, Salesforce, with its extensive customisation and scalability, may offer more than what SMBs actually need.
It should be noted that HubSpot is increasingly evolving into a more robust enterprise solution with impressive developments this year in customer sensitive data and HIPPA compliance.
Salesforce boasts impressive analytics and reporting capabilities, making it a valuable asset for businesses looking to delve deep into their data to steer decision-making. The reporting is notoriously difficult to configure and Salesforce specialists are required to tailor all custom reports.
HubSpot began as a nifty marketing tool that blossomed into a full-fledged CRM, whereas Salesforce initially focused on CRM and later expanded to include sales and marketing features.
Today, HubSpot remains the go-to for inbound marketing, while Salesforce is hailed for its sales automation prowess. Despite their origins, both platforms offer a similar array of features:
|
|
HubSpot |
Salesforce |
|---|---|---|
|
Sales reporting & forecasting |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Advanced sales reporting and forecasting, but requires an upgraded paid plan |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly advanced sales reporting and forecasting, with basic reporting available in baseline plans |
|
Marketing features |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Extensive marketing features available with the free and Starter plans |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Extensive marketing automation features available in separate marketing packages |
|
Ease of use |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Strong onboarding with step-by-step guidance; more integrated dashboard and navigation |
⭐⭐⭐ Strong onboarding with a demo-like account; layout is initially less intuitive |
|
Customisation |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Customisable workflows and automation, including JavaScript and Python coding for workflows |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly customisable (including coding capabilities) |
|
Pricing |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Extensive free plan, including a free CRM and baseline features; plans include specific product bundles; pricing packages can be customised and scaled by user: Free, Starter ($20/month), Professional ($500/month), Enterprise ($1,500/month) |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Charges per user per month; many features come as standalone apps accessible by purchase; plans are highly segmented; similar functionality can be much more expensive: Essentials ($25/user/month), Professional ($80/user/month), Enterprise ($165/user/month), Unlimited ($330/user/month), Unlimited+ ($500/user/month) |
|
AI features |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very well-integrated AI features even at lower pricing tiers, including generative AI, predictive analytics, and smart suggestions |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ AI functionality comes from the proprietary Einstein application, which offers generative tools, workflow automation, predictive analytics, and smart insights; isn't as conveniently integrated; scales features by plan |
When deciding between HubSpot and Salesforce, there are numerous feature/function comparisons available to help you understand the differences.
While all these features and functions are informative, they really don’t complete the comparison because the core of the decision rests on the nature of your business.
Let's face it, history matters. A company’s heritage is very useful when it comes to informing yourself when you make this critical decision.
If you’re in an IP-based business, like Professional Services or Technology, or a manufacturing business and your turnover is less than 100m you should choose Hubspot and here’s why....
Back in the day when I was a Director at PwC, we had (just like Accenture) thousands of skilled Salesforce consultants. The reason we had them was that Salesforce implementations are complex and very resource-heavy, resulting in the billing of huge amounts of time to projects.
This leads to an over-reliance on external experts indefinitely.
Which is what is needed if you’re Fortune 500, complex, global and multi-divisional.
If your business moves physical goods such as manufacturing or distribution, chances are you have a fairly sophisticated billing and inventory requirement being serviced by an ERP. If that ERP is SAP then chances are, on balance, your scale and complexity could well benefit from the sophistication of Salesforce.
If not, then HubSpot’s Marketing Hub, Sales Hub and Service Hub are an easy to implement CRM solution.
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