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Pipedrive and HubSpot are popular CRM platforms for small businesses. Here's how they compare.
Small businesses need user-friendly, capable customer relationship management (CRM) systems to handle customer relationships, nurture leads and improve sales. Pipedrive and HubSpot are popular CRM solutions with a range of features that can help you streamline your operations. We’ll compare their essential marketing, lead nurturing, communication and reporting features to help you choose the right solution and set up your business for CRM success.
Pipedrive and HubSpot are two of the best CRM software solutions around. Here’s an overview of their pricing and offerings.
Criteria | Pipedrive | HubSpot |
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Starting prices | $14 (per user per month, billed annually) | $20 per user per month (billed annually) |
Free trial for paid plans | Yes (14 days) | Free plan; 14-day free trial of select paid plans |
Marketing campaigns |
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Lead nurturing |
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Omnichannel communications |
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Reporting and analytics |
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Integrations and API |
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Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM. The company says it’s a CRM “designed by salespeople for salespeople.” It’s an excellent option for businesses that want to automate sales processes to close more deals. Sales teams will appreciate Pipedrive’s comprehensive insights, customizable dashboards, deal reports, goal tracking and sales forecasting tools. Meanwhile, marketing teams can leverage the platform to generate leads effectively. The pricing is competitive and you can add extra functionality to the platform via its 500-plus integrations. To learn more about Pipedrive’s features and functionality, read our in-depth Pipedrive review.
HubSpot is a well-rounded CRM for businesses that want to improve their sales and marketing outcomes with AI-powered automation and analytics. The platform includes significant built-in functionality. It’s also easy to customize with time-saving workflow automations for sales funnel management, lead nurturing, after-sales support and more. HubSpot has a free tier and a low-cost Starter plan. However, many of HubSpot’s most powerful automation, reporting and AI features require higher-tier plans. You can extend HubSpot’s functionality through more than 2,000 integrations available in its App Marketplace. Check out our detailed HubSpot CRM review for more information on the platform.
Flexible CRM software helps businesses by automating data entry, generating valuable insights, boosting productivity and centralizing data management.
Here’s how HubSpot and Pipedrive compare in essential CRM features and pricing.
HubSpot and Pipedrive offer various service levels. Notably, HubSpot has a free service for new users.
Pipedrive Pricing
Plan | Price | Features |
|---|---|---|
Essential | $14 per user, per month (billed annually) $24 per user, per month (billed monthly) |
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Advanced | $34 per user, per month (billed annually) $44 per user, per month (billed monthly) | Includes everything in the Essential plan, plus:
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Professional | $49 per user, per month (billed annually) $64 per user, per month (billed monthly) | Includes everything in the Advanced plan, plus:
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Power | $64 per user, per month (billed annually) $79 per user, per month (billed monthly) | Includes everything in the Professional plan, plus:
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Enterprise | $99 per user, per month (billed annually) $129 per user, per month (billed monthly) | Includes everything in the Power plan, plus:
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Pipedrive plan costs vary greatly, so businesses can start inexpensively and add more features as they grow. The Professional level delivers a particularly excellent value with essential sales team features. Higher-level plans offer more flexibility and may suit companies with complex sales processes.
Pipedrive’s add-on services like LeadBooster and Campaigns incur additional costs. While we were disappointed that Pipedrive doesn’t offer a free subscription, businesses can take advantage of a 14-day free trial on all paid tiers.
HubSpot Pricing
HubSpot’s pricing structure can be confusing because the company sells both its Smart CRM platform and several specialized products called Hubs. Smart CRM serves as the foundation for the HubSpot ecosystem, while products such as Sales Hub, Marketing Hub and Service Hub add functionality for specific business needs. Because this comparison focuses on CRM and sales functionality, we’ve highlighted the HubSpot pricing plans most relevant to customer relationship management, automation and sales workflows.
Plan | Price (Annual Billing) | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
Professional | $45/user/month |
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Enterprise | $75/user/month | Everything in Professional, plus:
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Plan | Price (Annual Billing) | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
Free | $0 |
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Starter | $20/user/month | Everything in the Free plan (with fewer limits), plus:
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Professional | $90/user/month | Everything in Starter, plus:
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Enterprise | $150/user/month | Everything in Professional, plus:
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Note that HubSpot’s listed subscription price may not reflect your total cost. Depending on your plan, you may also pay onboarding fees, purchase additional HubSpot Credits or incur charges for premium services and API usage. Sales Hub Professional customers typically pay a one-time onboarding fee of $1,500, while Sales Hub Enterprise customers typically pay $3,500.
If you want to compare CRMs with free tiers, monday is the only other leading CRM provider that currently offers a free service level.
HubSpot has a feature-full free platform and an excellent, affordable Starter tier that will give many companies the tools they need to improve performance.
Still, Pipedrive is also competitively priced, particularly if you want access to more advanced features. Additionally, Pipedrive offers better value for businesses with complex B2B sales processes.
HubSpot and Pipedrive have built-in marketing tools to help you connect with and convert leads successfully.
Pipedrive Marketing Campaign Features
According to Wpromote’s State of B2B Digital Marketing report, email and social media marketing are the most effective business-to-business (B2B) marketing tactics for top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel campaigns. Make sure you choose a CRM that can run both types of campaigns.
HubSpot Marketing Campaign Features
HubSpot wins this round. It offers more options and provides deeper insights into campaign data. The platform’s A/B testing, dynamic personalization and segmentation functions are excellent. The unique and helpful dynamic list feature also impressed us. Still, Pipedrive’s marketing platform is very good — better than those of most CRMs we’ve tested.
Pipedrive sells B2B decision-maker data, but the cost per contact is high compared with those of the best list broker services. However, Pipedrive lets you choose the number of records to buy; list brokers often require you to buy thousands.
Here’s how Pipedrive and HubSpot compare for lead nurturing.
Pipedrive Lead Nurturing Features
Pipedrive’s Sales Assistant feature helps reps manage their days, pipelines and workflows. Source: Pipedrive
HubSpot Lead Nurturing Features
HubSpot makes it easy to create and set up custom sales automations. Source: HubSpot
Pipedrive’s excellent lead nurturing tools give it the edge over HubSpot in this category. These tools are ideal for B2B sales teams that deal with multiple decision-makers, constant changes and multiple stages. However, HubSpot’s lead nurturing tools are sufficient for more straightforward sales.
If your leads aren’t turning into sales, evaluate whether they’re ready to buy, ensure you’re following up properly and examine your sales pitches for effectiveness.
HubSpot and Pipedrive incorporate omnichannel, one-on-one communication very well.
Pipedrive Omnichannel Communications
HubSpot Omnichannel Communications
HubSpot makes it easy for sales and marketing teams to send text messages via the platform. Source: HubSpot
HubSpot’s built-in email and VoIP functionality win this category. Additionally, HubSpot’s expansive range of apps allows you to communicate with clients on more channels.
CRM reports and data insights are invaluable for small businesses. Here’s how Pipedrive and HubSpot compare.
Pipedrive Reporting and Analytics Features
Add up to 25 widgets to your Pipedrive dashboard to stay abreast of the latest information. Source: Pipedrive
HubSpot Reporting and Analytics Features
HubSpot wins this category because of its AI-driven analytics, attribution reporting and customer segmentation capabilities. However, Pipedrive’s dashboard customization, deal reports and goal-tracking features are also very helpful.
AI features are becoming more important in CRM adoption decisions as businesses grow to appreciate the detailed insights these tools provide.
Expand the effectiveness of Pipedrive and HubSpot with third-party integrations and APIs.
Pipedrive Integrations
HubSpot Integrations
Salesforce CRM rivals HubSpot in app integrations. Read our detailed Salesforce CRM review to learn about this platform’s extensive offerings.
HubSpot is the clear winner for integrations, thanks to its more than 2,000 integrations, data-sync apps and easy-to-navigate app marketplace. However, Pipedrive is catching up; it has over 500 apps, impressive prebuilt webhooks and an API developer platform.
Pipedrive and HubSpot have unique target audiences. We recommend both platforms for companies with the following specific needs:
Pipedrive provides central organization for complex sales processes that feature multiple decision-makers and other obstacles to overcome. It stores and retains information on all prospects and walks reps through each sales process stage so that nothing is forgotten. We like that you can buy decision-maker information ad hoc in small volumes and the platform’s marketing functionality impressed us.
HubSpot is ideal for companies with more straightforward sales cycles and want their sales and marketing teams to work together. The company’s after-sales support impressed us, making it an excellent choice if your business conducts many post-purchase follow-ups. The free and Starter plans have good functionality. However, the platform’s Professional tier shines with advanced automation, forecasting, segmentation and AI-powered sales tools.
Focus is the primary difference between HubSpot and Pipedrive. HubSpot’s extensive marketing tools are excellent and will support sales, marketing and customer care teams for most products and services. Pipedrive also offers great marketing tools, but it shines because of its excellent support for salespeople with complex products.
Pipedrive is a very effective CRM for companies with sales teams that sell complex, customizable and often expensive products and services, particularly B2B companies. The interface is easy to use and the workflows are highly customizable to individual sales funnels.
HubSpot is a market-leading CRM, but it might not be the right fit for your company. For example, Salesforce and Oracle NetSuite provide more enterprise-level capabilities for large, complex businesses. HubSpot is easy to use, but Freshworks and Zoho, although not as full-featured as HubSpot, may be more user-friendly. (Read our HubSpot vs. Zoho comparison for more information.) Choosing the right CRM for your business can be challenging; your decision should be guided by price, ease of use and how much you can customize to fit your company’s specific needs and priorities.
HubSpot is a good choice for small and medium-sized businesses seeking to manage their sales, marketing and customer service functions from one dashboard. The platform is easy to use and offers a wide range of features, including an email marketing tool, lead scoring to prioritize the strongest deals and live chat integration to gather leads from your website.
You can also automate many workflows currently handled manually, such as tracking customer support tickets and sending follow-up emails after form submissions. These automations help improve response times and customer satisfaction.
HubSpot offers a free plan, so you can try the platform before committing.
Pipedrive is a very capable CRM primarily designed to help salespeople nurture and close deals. It’s particularly well-suited for small and medium-sized teams looking for a straightforward way to organize and track deals.
The platform makes it easy to create time-saving sales workflows to push deals along, such as automatically assigning tasks when a deal moves stages or sending personalized follow-up emails after a meeting. The software integrates with hundreds of other business apps and can connect to additional apps via Zapier, Make or its API interface.
HubSpot’s pricing structure can be confusing because the company sells both its Smart CRM platform and several specialized products called Hubs. Smart CRM serves as the foundation for the HubSpot ecosystem, while products such as Sales Hub, Marketing Hub and Service Hub add functionality for specific business needs. Because this comparison focuses on CRM and sales functionality, we’ve highlighted the HubSpot pricing plans most relevant to customer relationship management, automation and sales workflows.
| Plan | Price (Annual Billing) | Key Features |
| Professional | $45/user/month |
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| Enterprise | $75/user/month | Everything in Professional, plus:
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| Plan | Price (Annual Billing) | Key Features |
| Free | $0 |
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| Starter | $20/user/month | Everything in the Free plan (with fewer limits), plus:
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| Professional | $90/user/month | Everything in Starter, plus:
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| Enterprise | $150/user/month | Everything in Professional, plus:
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Note that HubSpot’s listed subscription price may not reflect your total cost. Depending on your plan, you may also pay onboarding fees, purchase additional HubSpot Credits or incur charges for premium services and API usage. Sales Hub Professional customers typically pay a one-time onboarding fee of $1,500, while Sales Hub Enterprise customers typically pay $3,500.
