Did you know that HubSpot has a market share of 37.55% as of August 2023?
After all, it is one of the most popular CRM and marketing automation platforms out there. But does that simply make HubSpot the best tool for every business?
Surely not!
I spoke to several CEOs, directors, and sales professionals from diverse industries to learn about their first-hand experience with HubSpot.
And guess what – most of them are looking for HubSpot alternatives.
For example, ‘Balance One Supplements’ saw a boost in their conversion rates after shifting from HubSpot. Here’s what James Wilkinson, their CEO, has to say –
Now, before you start your frantic hunt for the best HubSpot competitors, I’ve got good news!
I’ve already done the math for you. Here’s the first glance –
Software Name | Best For | Pricing Starts From |
---|---|---|
BIGContacts | Pipeline Management & Email Marketing Automation | $5/user/month |
Zoho CRM | Deal Management | $14/user/month |
Pipedrive | Pipeline Management | $9.90/user/month |
Salesforce CRM | Sales Engagement | $25/user/month |
ActiveCampaign | Workflow Automation | $19/user/month |
Insightly | Sales Process Automation | $29/user/month |
MailChimp | Email Marketing | $4.59/month |
Keap | Sales Automation | $159/month |
List of the 8 Best Alternatives to HubSpot
This list of the best HubSpot alternatives has been sourced from my personal experience working with CRMs over the years. I’ve also taken account of my discussions with sales/marketing managers, CEOs, founders, and industry peers as well.
1. BIGContacts – Best for Pipeline Management & Email Marketing Automation
I understand small businesses or startups don’t have the time or resources to invest in a complex and expensive CRM system. That’s where BIGContacts shines!
A great alternative to HubSpot – BIGContacts offers a visual sales pipeline.
I can add custom stages to the sales pipeline to match my sales cycle and gain more visibility into the sales process. Plus, with its drag-and-drop functionality, I can move deals seamlessly.
BIGContacts offers email marketing automation – something you’d want to have when shifting from HubSpot.
I can automatically send personalized emails from sales reps based on where my prospect is. The tool also lets me schedule follow-up emails and track the performance of existing campaigns. This has helped me nurture leads more effectively and close more deals.
Overall, I recommend BIGContacts as a cheaper alternative to HubSpot without compromising on any major feature.
What You’ll Like:
- Advanced email marketing capabilities for efficient lead nurturing and increased conversion rates
- The ability to set automated reminders for important tasks, appointments, etc., for timely engagement
- Enriches contact records with social media profiles and manages/tracks interactions from a single platform
- Generates comprehensive reports on sales performance, campaign effectiveness, lead conversion rates, etc.
- The ability to check pipeline progress, or email campaign performance through a mobile CRM
What You May Not Like:
- The 15-day free trial may fall short compared to the software’s extensive features
- The webform connection requires you to have some basic knowledge of HTML
Pricing:
- Forever free plan for startups with all premium features. Paid starts at $5/user/month with a 15-day free trial.
2. Zoho CRM – Best for Deal Management
Image Source: G2
As a sales professional, I’ve realized that aligning your sales, marketing, and customer support teams’ workflows is essential.
Zoho CRM is a worthy alternative to HubSpot that can help you do just that!
It lets you track deals from start to finish, so you never miss a beat. You can also visualize how your team is progressing and identify potential roadblocks. It also has predictive analytics features, so you can make accurate forecasts and identify growth opportunities.
With the software, you can automate sales tasks – like sending follow-up emails, scheduling appointments, etc. This frees up time so you can focus on closing more deals.
The tool also has a number of other handy features. For example, its advanced sales and marketing automation features help save time and streamline workflows.
What You’ll Like:
- Collaboration tools like group chat, screen sharing, tags, etc., for seamless teamwork and efficient communication
- Enables remote access, allowing users to manage their CRM data from anywhere, anytime
- Comprehensive contact management features to easily store, organize, and track customer information
- Lead nurturing through automated workflows and personalized communications
- Utilizes AI to provide accurate predictions and insights for better decision-making
What You May Not Like:
- The basic plan does not offer the customer segmentation feature
- Some users complain about limited customization capabilities, especially with the interface and workflows
Pricing:
- Starts at $14/user/month.
3. Pipedrive – Best for Pipeline Management
Image Source: G2
Pipedrive is a great software similar to HubSpot – with an upgrade in tracking and managing your pipeline.
Let me clarify – the tool will let you see exactly where every lead is in the sales process.
You can assess how close they are to making a final decision. With a quick glance, you can see which deals need immediate attention to convert or to be nurtured further.
Another feature you will find particularly useful is the ability to schedule and track activities. You can create tasks, set reminders, and assign them to team members, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.
Plus, the mobile CRM feature allows you to stay connected and productive on the go. You can even share personalized emails and track their engagement levels remotely.
What You’ll Like:
- Automated email marketing features to send personalized messages to prospects based on their actions
- A user-friendly sales pipeline management system to easily track deals and have greater visibility
- Lets you drag and drop deals from one stage to another, making it simple to manage and prioritize leads at any given time
- Enables you to keep track of customer data and conversations in one place for more personalized communication
- Historical data and trends to generate accurate sales forecasts to make informed decisions
What You May Not Like:
- The starter plan does not give you access to automation features
- Some users have found that modifying certain features or creating complex workflows requires technical expertise
Pricing:
- Starts at $9.90/user/month.
4. Salesforce CRM – Best for Sales Engagement
Image Source: cargas.com
Earlier this year, I attended a webinar where I learned about Salesforce’s sales engagement capabilities. As one of the competitors of HubSpot, it offers several features such as lead management, pipeline tracking, reporting, etc.
But these aren’t what makes it a great alternative. Its data intelligence feature is the real deal!
It lets you capture, score, and route leads effectively. You can segment leads based on their interests and needs and send targeted messages that are more likely to resonate with them.
For example, you can run a social media campaign for targeted customers who have abandoned their carts. Using Salesforce’s marketing automation tools, you can send personalized emails with discount codes and other incentives.
What You’ll Like:
- Robust lead management capabilities such as capturing leads faster, scoring them with greater accuracy, etc.
- Customizable dashboards provide real-time insights into key performance indicators
- Advanced forecasting tools to accurately predict revenue based on historical data and trends
- Automates routine tasks such as data entry, follow-ups, email notifications, etc. to save time and resources
- Lets you collect additional information about contacts with social media tracking
What You May Not Like:
- The basic plan does not offer access to workflow automation capabilities
- The pricing structure of the software might be less convenient for startups or SMBs
Pricing:
- Starts at $25/user/month.
5. ActiveCampaign – Best for Workflow Automation
Image Source: Email Vendor Selection
As one of the most promising alternatives to HubSpot, ActiveCampaign excels in its workflow automation feature. I got a chance to test the product inside out while collaborating with an old colleague on a project.
In my experience, the best thing about it was that I could create complex workflows with ease! Trust me, I’m not a tech whiz, but somehow, the tool felt quite intuitive.
For example, I created a workflow that automatically sends a welcome email to new subscribers – followed by a series of educational emails introducing them to my products and services. I also designed a workflow that automatically sends customers notifications about abandoned cart emails to boost conversions.
These workflows have helped me increase my email open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
What You’ll Like:
- Offers efficient contact and lead scoring, enabling you to prioritize sales efforts efficiently
- Provides reporting functionalities to track performance and make better decisions
- Offers a ‘win probability’ feature to assess the likelihood of closing deals and optimize sales strategies accordingly
- Allows for automatic segmentation of leads based on their actions, ensuring targeted and personalized communication
- Enables assigning tasks to individual salespeople, either manually or within automated workflows, ensuring smooth collaboration
What You May Not Like:
- The basic plan lacks the automatic sales engagement feature
- Some users have found the interface to be cluttered with tons of marketing features
Pricing:
- Starts at $19/user/month.
6. Insightly – Best for Sales Process Automation
Image Source: Insightly
I was recommended to use Insightly CRM by several industry peers. Its sales process automation is what makes it a great HubSpot alternative.
The software lets me easily create and customize the pipeline to match my team’s specific sales processes. And with its powerful automation capabilities, I can automate repetitive tasks so my team can focus on closing deals.
For example, I can set up automated emails to be sent to leads when they reach a certain stage in the sales pipeline. This saves me a lot of time and effort and ensures leads are always engaged.
What I also find useful is that you get complete control over how much access every team member has to the contact data – just by setting up custom user roles and permissions.
What You’ll Like:
- An intuitive drag-and-drop user interface that simplifies the process of organizing data
- Allows you to adapt the CRM to your unique processes, workflows, and industry requirements
- Real-time notifications to stay on top of customer interactions and ensure no opportunity slips through the cracks
- Automates repetitive tasks, such as assigning leads or sending follow-up emails to simplify your team’s workflow
- Offers an efficient bulk email feature, allowing you to send personalized emails to multiple contacts simultaneously
What You May Not Like:
- You cannot assign and route leads automatically in the starter plan
- Some users have found the interface to be overwhelming and crowded with features
Pricing:
- Starts at $29/user/month.
7. MailChimp – Best for Email Marketing
Image Source: Pageflows
Next in the list, you can check out MailChimp’s CRM platform. It’s a great platform for those looking for excellent email marketing capabilities in a CRM.
The tool lets you store and manage customer data in a centralized location. Its ready-made segments make contact management a breeze.
You can segment your audience based on their interests, demographics, or behavior and then send them targeted emails that are more likely to resonate. You can also create tags to filter audience data however you need to.
Besides these, I think you’ll love its audience dashboard.
It provides a quick overview of target customers, including top locations, recent sources of growth, common tags, and even customer lifetime value (CLV). This information is invaluable for crafting effective email marketing campaigns.
What You’ll Like:
- Allows you to organize new contacts anytime, anywhere through mobile app connectivity
- Detailed audience profiles facilitate targeted marketing
- Organizes your audience based on interests or behaviors – enabling more targeted marketing campaigns
- Audience engagement tracking to gain valuable insights and make data-driven decisions
- Enables you to connect with contacts directly through various communication channels, including email, text messaging, or calls
What You May Not Like:
- The free plan allows email support for only thirty days, which somewhat forces users to get the paid plan
- Some users claim that their email marketing campaigns end up in the spam folder
Pricing:
- A free plan is available with email support for only the first month. Paid options start from $4.60/month.
8. Keap – Best for Sales Automation
Image Source: Realty Biznews
I know several people in the industry who use different tools to manage their email marketing, social media marketing, and CRM. If you are one of them, I’d suggest you try an all-in-one sales and marketing automation platform like Keap!
Its sales automation feature is what makes it one of the most powerful competitors to HubSpot.
Keap can automatically nurture leads, send follow-up emails, and schedule appointments. Wondering how that happens?
Here’s an example- You can create a sales automation sequence that automatically sends a series of emails to new leads. While the first email introduces your business and the value it offers, the second provides more information about your products. You can set the third email to offer a free consultation. And so on.
This not only saves a lot of time and hassle but also ensures you never miss a chance to connect with leads and move them forward in the sales process.
What You’ll Like:
- Allows you to streamline business processes to save valuable time and enable efficient scaling
- Detailed reports help in making data-driven decisions and optimizing strategies for better outcomes
- Lets you automatically deliver targeted messages based on customer preferences
- Utilizes landing pages to collect essential data from website visitors, prospects, and customers
- Automates lead follow-ups to proposal generation and order processing, which simplifies sales tasks and increases overall efficiency
What You May Not Like:
- The starter plan does not offer lead scoring and multi-page sales funnels
- Reporting capabilities may not be as robust and in-depth compared to some other CRM tools.
Pricing:
- Starts at $159/month.
Which Is the Best HubSpot CRM Alternative?
Moving to a different platform might sound like a big step initially, but it can boost conversion rates, yearly revenues, and so on.
For example, Sudhir Khatwani, founder of ‘The Money Mongers,’ feels that HubSpot lacks affordable, scalable options. He also adds that while the free version is great for first-time CRM users, it loses its shine as your requirements become more specific – “...if you're aiming for the stars with features like in-depth analytics or tailored lead management, you might start to feel like you're wearing a one-size-too-small jacket.”
Regardless, you must remember that not all the HubSpot alternatives in the list are going to be the best pick for your business. To make things easier for you, here are my top three picks that I’d recommend any day-
Option A: BIGContacts
BIGContacts is an ideal choice if you’re looking for HubSpot alternatives for small businesses and startups. Its pipeline management system allows you to customize sales stages and move deals from one stage to another seamlessly. The tool offers email marketing automation, which lets you send personalized emails from sales reps based on where your prospect is.
Option B: Salesforce CRM
Salesforce is one of the most promising HubSpot competitors. It offers lead management, pipeline tracking, reporting, etc. But what sets it apart is its data intelligence feature. It lets you capture, score, and route leads effectively. You can segment leads based on their interests and needs and send targeted messages.
Option C: MailChimp
MailChimp is a great option for those looking for excellent email marketing capabilities in a CRM. The tool lets you manage customer data from a centralized location, segment your audience, and send targeted emails. The audience dashboard provides a quick overview of target customers’ top locations, recent sources of growth, common tags, etc.
So, which tool among these is the best HubSpot alternative for startups and SMBs? Well, I’d recommend BIGContacts. And here’s why I think so –
BIGContacts is scalable, competitively priced, and has no capped features, unlike free CRMs. Plus, the UI being so simple is a bonus to have, I think. You can also get a free trial or demo to understand how well it fares for your team!
Evaluation Criteria
The evaluation of products or tools chosen for this article follows an unbiased, systematic approach that ensures a fair, insightful, and well-rounded review. This method employs six key factors:
User Reviews / Ratings: Direct experiences from users, including ratings and feedback from reputable sites, provide a ground-level perspective. This feedback is critical in understanding overall satisfaction and potential problems.
Essential Features & Functionality: The value of a product is ascertained by its core features and overall functionality. Through an in-depth exploration of these aspects, the practical usefulness and effectiveness of the tools are carefully evaluated.
Ease of Use: The user-friendliness of a product or service is assessed, focusing on the design, interface, and navigation. This ensures a positive experience for users of all levels of expertise.
Customer Support: The quality of customer support is examined, taking into account its efficiency and how well it supports users in different phases – setting up, addressing concerns, and resolving operational issues.
Value for Money: Value for money is evaluated by comparing the quality, performance, and features. The goal is to help the reader understand whether they would be getting their money’s worth.
Personal Experience / Experts’ Opinions: This part of the evaluation criteria draws insightful observations from the personal experience of the writer and the opinions of industry experts.
Learn More About HubSpot Alternatives
Which type of CRM is HubSpot?
HubSpot is an all-in-one cloud-based operational CRM solution that helps automate key processes such as marketing, sales, and service to improve the customer experience and drive conversions.
What are some of the most common drawbacks of HubSpot CRM?
Based on my discussions with different market leaders using HubSpot’s CRM, here are some of the most common downsides that I have listed –
- Data Migration: The process of importing or exporting data from the platform isn’t a seamless process. You need to map the data field precisely for effective migration.
- Integration Limitations: HubSpot’s free CRM fails to offer a seamless integration with other software you use.
For example, you can’t sync contacts directly with your project management software, making it inconvenient to track customer interactions.
- Customer Support: Some users feel that the customer support response is not dependable if you are using their free CRM.
- Scalability & Pricing: As your contacts grow and your company develops, you will find HubSpot CRM quite expensive for startups or small businesses.
- Lead Scoring: When scoring leads for specific criteria, you can only automate one email action at a time in the free plan, which is inconvenient.
Does HubSpot have a complex interface?
A steep learning curve is not appropriate to streamline workflows. HubSpot’s CRM comes with extensive documentation and support to help users get familiar with its UI. Despite that, I think the interface can be intricate for first-time CRM users, especially beginners.
You should look for an alternative like BIGContacts, which is not just simple to use but has a pretty straightforward interface.
Who should look for a HubSpot alternative?
Despite being a popular CRM platform, HubSpot may not be the best fit for everyone.
If you are looking for a more affordable CRM platform or one more specialized to your industry, consider alternatives to Hubspot. Additionally, if you require more advanced features or customization options, you may find Hubspot’s interface limiting.
How do you choose the best Hubspot alternatives?
To help you make an informed choice, here are seven essential factors to consider when selecting the best HubSpot alternative –
- Feature Set: Ensure features like sales automation, email marketing, pipeline management, lead scoring, reporting, etc., are offered by the alternative CRM platforms without limitations.
- Ease of Use: User-friendliness is crucial for the successful adoption of any software. Look for an alternative that offers support resources for your team.
- Pricing: Consider upfront costs and ongoing fees, such as subscription charges and additional costs for add-ons or extra users.
- Integration Support: Check if the alternative CRM integrates with other tools and software you use, such as email marketing platforms, eCommerce systems, or analytics tools.
- Customer Support: Quick and effective support can be invaluable when you encounter issues or have questions.
- Data Security and Compliance: Ensure that the alternative CRM platform complies with data security regulations and offers robust data protection features.
- User Reviews: Research online reviews, testimonials, and case studies to gain insights into the experiences of existing users.
On which factor should you compare the pricing of HubSpot with its alternatives?
I think there is no single factor that can be the deciding platform when you are talking about the pricing of HubSpot and its alternatives. It depends on which feature your business requires and at what price different vendors are offering. That can be your parameter to figure out which pricing is the most justified.
For example, BIGContacts has a starting price of $5 per user per month. It’s a great deal for startups or small businesses with a small team.
Do you want to make more sales?
BIGContacts is the #1 contact management software & CRM to close more sales.