Salesforce vs. HubSpot

Choosing the right CRM platform is foundational to your business. This page compares two of the top-rated CRM platforms — HubSpot and Salesforce — to help you choose the CRM that’s right for you.

Overview

While there are many CRM options on the market, HubSpot and Salesforce are consistently rated the top two options by users in terms of satisfaction and adoption. Both platforms provide large sales teams with a robust solution that scales with growth. This page will help you understand the differences between HubSpot and Salesforce so you can decide which is the right CRM for growing your business.

 

Pricing

The sticker price doesn’t always tell the whole story of the software you’re buying. To help you understand the difference in total cost of ownership between HubSpot and Salesforce, let’s break down the common expenses.

EXPENSE SALES HUB ENTERPRISE SALES CLOUD ENTERPRISE
List Price

$1,200/mo for 10 paid users (source)

$1,500/mo for 10 users (source)

Licensing Costs

Pay $120/mo for each additional paid user (source)

Pay $25 - $150 per additional user depending on package (source)

Implementation

Flat rate of $3,000 for Enterprise onboarding.
Additional technical consulting services available for additional fees (source)

Salesforce offers a ‘Jump-Start’ implementation for $5,000 (source)

Platform Maintenance

Enjoy a seamless platform built on one code base (source)

Set-up and maintain connectors for multi-cloud integrations

20 work hours to configure, with regular updates (Example - Marketing Cloud)

Customer Support Costs

Phone and email support included for all Professional and Enterprise plans (source)

20% of net-cost for phone support and 24/7 coverage

30% of net-cost for additional feature access (Add 5% for U.S. based support) (source)

Outbound Calling Software

Included in all plans. Calling limits apply (2,000 minutes per user/mo for Enterprise); not available in all countries (source)

Calling and Logging $45/user/mo (for 1,000 minutes) (source)

Sales Engagement Software

Included with Enterprise:
Team Email
Conversations Inbox
HubSpot Video
Email Sequences
(source)

Inbox $25/user/mo
More add-ons
(source)

ESTIMATED TOTAL COST FOR 1 YEAR
(for a team of 10)

$17,400

$43,680

 

Control, flexibility and support

Total control and flexibility 

HubSpot is uniquely dedicated to ease-of-use and simplicity for admins, reps, and managers. This way, you spend less time (and money) getting your sales system to work how you want it to. Customers have the freedom to organize and administer their CRM without the need to hire a dedicated admin.

Salesforce implementation and maintenance requires experienced and well-trained administrators. Most Salesforce customers need to bring in a consulting agency (source), hire one or more full-time admins (with an average salary of $77,503 according to Glassdoor), or have current employees become Salesforce administrators.

Support that scales with you

HubSpot is invested in your success from day one. They provide world-class support and customer success teams are available to all customers– with phone and email support at no extra charge for Pro and Enterprise customers– and you won’t pay more for it as you grow. HubSpot Academy, consistently ranked as one of the top online learning platforms in the world (source), is also available right at your fingertips.

Salesforce charges 20% of your net contract price for 24/7 premier support, while additional feature access costs 30% of your net contract price. With percentage pricing as you spend more on additional seats and add-on features, you’ll have to pay more for the same support. When choosing a Salesforce support plan, you’ll want to carefully forecast how much your team will need.

Capabilities

Your CRM is the foundation of your sales process. It should keep you organized, increase efficiency, give leadership clear direction on how to grow revenue, and scale with your growth. See how HubSpot and Salesforce compare across some of the most critical CRM capabilities.

HubSpot analytics tools

Power and functionality

HubSpot

HubSpot CRM combines a consumer-grade user experience with enterprise power. Sales Hub delivers on contact management, sales analytics, sales automation, pipeline management, and much more. Sales Hub products are trusted by thousands of growing mid-market B2B companies, enterprise brands, and high-growth unicorns to scale with them as they grow


Salesforce

Salesforce offers top-of-the-line contact management, dashboards, analytics, pipeline management, sales automation, forecasting and much more. They offer a wide range of powerful products for businesses of all sizes. 

Both HubSpot and Salesforce offer the most powerful, complete tools for sales teams on the market.

HubSpot meeting booking tool

Usability

HubSpot

HubSpot is consistently ranked the most user-friendly CRM and B2B software, with rep adoption often cited as a key benefit among HubSpot users. As a result, customers making the switch to HubSpot often see an improvement in their data quality. When paired with HubSpot’s powerful reporting and automation features, high-quality data gives admins greater visibility into the overall health of their business.


Salesforce

Salesforce is incredibly powerful with robust reporting that’s endlessly customizable. This customization can take time to implement and require training to master. G2 crowd users ranked HubSpot above Salesforce in ease of setup.

HubSpot and Salesforce both offer powerful tools for sales teams. But what good is power if the tools are hard to learn, understand, and put to use? A great CRM should be easy-to-use and loved by all.

HubSpot deals platform

All-in-one platform

HubSpot

HubSpot’s CRM and supporting Sales, Marketing, and Service suites have all been built by HubSpot from the ground up. The result is a unified and consistent user experience where data, reporting, and individual tools are all similar and work in concert with each other.


Salesforce

Salesforce offers more products and tools, but their breadth can come at the cost of usability and maintenance. Their platform has grown through acquisitions such as Pardot, which can create a less integrated user experience for customers.

HubSpot and Salesforce are all-in-one platforms. They both offer a CRM along with all the tools your front office teams need including sales, marketing, and service tools. Choosing an all-in-one CRM for your teams to use will not only unite your work and data, but also create a better end-to-end customer experience.

HubSpot property settings

Scale and customization

HubSpot

HubSpot prioritizes ease-of-use and prescriptive recommendations to make it easier for businesses to get started. HubSpot’s usability means that you have the flexibility to change and adapt your HubSpot instance over time, layering in more customization and complexity as your business scales.


Salesforce

Salesforce offers endless customization for the most complex organizations. This level of customization allows for best-in-class forecasting and reporting dashboards. However, these advanced features may require more admin support, which can make it difficult for businesses to change and adapt their Salesforce instance over time.

HubSpot and Salesforce both offer powerful software for fast-scaling businesses. As a business evolves, it’s important for your CRM to be able to grow and change with your business needs. With this in mind, having the flexibility and control to customize your CRM is critical.

HubSpot app collection

Ecosystems

HubSpot

HubSpot’s App Marketplace takes the same approach to 3rd party integrations as it does its own software – focusing heavily on power, ease-of-use, and quality. Installing and configuring integrations via the marketplace is simple with over 500 apps and integrations, many of which are native (HubSpot-built) integrations.


Salesforce

Salesforce’s AppExchange is the largest and broadest CRM app marketplace, offering a wide variety of options for different requirements. AppExchange is the fast and easy way to extend Salesforce with over 3,400 apps and integrations.

HubSpot and Salesforce both offer excellent add-on functionality through a robust app ecosystem. Both offer open APIs and developer tools to help you cater your CRM to your company.

Switching from Salesforce to HubSpot

Our dedicated migrations team is here to help you confidently move your sales team onto HubSpot, with minimal disruption to your business.

At HubSpot, we don’t just copy-paste your old, sub-optimal process. We help you design a new, better system – one that will scale with you for years to come. Below is a look at our proven phased approach for switching.

OUR APPROACH

Three phases of switching success

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