HubSpot Pricing and Comparison with Affordable Alternatives

It’s obvious and well-documented that inbound marketing works better than outbound these days. You can’t just call customers and pester them to buy your products.

And the leader in inbound marketing software?

It’s HubSpot.

But the problem lies in HubSpot pricing: most businesses cannot afford those exorbitant costs.

That’s why — to make it easy for you — we’ve found all the details you need to know about HubSpot pricing plans, the features you’d get, and other commitments that come with a HubSpot subscription.

Later in this blog post, you’ll also see a comparison of HubSpot with its most affordable alternatives.

What Is HubSpot?

HubSpot is a comprehensive cloud-based CRM software that helps businesses align marketing, sales, and customer support teams. This, in turn, helps them improve conversion rates, optimize campaigns, and deliver exceptional customer support.

Founded in 2006, HubSpot quickly became the market leader in CRM systems and inbound marketing. In the beginning, HubSpot branded itself as a CRM software for marketers.

But it evolved into a launchpad that helps companies keep track of everything by offering bundled CRM suites, and even HubSpot CMS (Content Management System).

Note: Unless explicitly stated, all HubSpot pricing mentioned in this blog is based on the HubSpot CRM bundle.

What are the key features of HubSpot?

HubSpot CRM offers cutting-edge features in one powerful package. While HubSpot offers standalone products for marketing, sales, and customer support, we’ll check out its CRM bundle first.

Here’s a sneak peek at HubSpot CRM bundle’s key features:

• HubSpot Marketing Hub: Helps convert traffic, run inbound campaigns, and align goals with your sales team through marketing automation, lead generation, and multi-touch revenue attribution.
• HubSpot Sales Hub: Helps achieve cross-functional alignment, get deeper insights into prospects, and close deals faster through sales automation, engagement tools, and advanced CRM.
• HubSpot Service Hub: Scales customer service, unites teams, and helps retain customers through helpdesk automation, surveys, and knowledge base.
• HubSpot CMS Hub: Powerful content management features including drag-and-drop editor, themes, and SEO.
• HubSpot Operations Hub: Syncs customer data and automates business processes. You also get a unified view of customer interactions through 2-way data sync, data quality tools, and programmable automation.

Read also: What is HubSpot? Definition, Features, Pricing, Who it’s Best for

What are the benefits of using HubSpot?

As we said before, HubSpot is the leading CRM provider with almost two decades of growth and experience. According to HubSpot’s website, their CRM software is:

• Easy to adopt: Easy-to-use interface with better adoption that can result in richer insights and better data.
• Easy to align: Since HubSpot CRM is built on “one native codebase,” you get better team alignment and a seamless customer experience.
• Easy to adapt: HubSpot does not sacrifice usability for power and offers a vast selection of customizations.

Who is HubSpot best for?

HubSpot CRM is a fantastic tool for large enterprises with deep (and I mean really deep) pockets.

But, HubSpot CRM is not the ideal platform for small businesses. 

Let’s see why.

Read also: HubSpot vs Mailchimp vs EngageBay — Which Marketing Tool Is Worth Spending Money?

This is a long, detailed guide article. If you’re pressed for time, watch Megan Grant explain HubSpot CRM pricing in this quick video:

How Much Does HubSpot Cost?

HubSpot CRM is primarily priced based on the number of marketing contacts you have. Let’s take a deeper dive into HubSpot pricing plans and the features that come with each.

• Features in each pricing plan
• The cost of each HubSpot plan
• HubSpot discount for startups
• Pricing for HubSpot standalone plans

Read also: Pipedrive vs HubSpot vs EngageBay — Which CRM Is Smarter & Better?

What features do you get in each Hubspot pricing plan?

HubSpot CRM offers three paid plans. Before we talk about pricing for HubSpot, let’s check out the features in detail:

HubSpot Starter

• Starts at 1,000 Marketing contacts
• Includes 2 paid users: HubSpot Sales Hub Starter
• Includes 2 paid users: HubSpot Service Hub Starter
• Limits
  • Email send limit: 5X marketing contacts
  • 1 shared inbox
  • 25 active & 1,000 static lists
  • 10 reporting dashboards
  • 1,000 custom properties
  • 10 automated email actions

HubSpot Professional

• Starts at 2,000 Marketing contacts
• Includes 5 paid users: HubSpot Sales Hub Professional
• Includes 5 paid users: HubSpot Service Hub Professional
• Limits: 
  • Email send limit: 10X marketing contacts
  • 100 shared inboxes
  • 1,000 active & 1,000 static lists
  • 25 reporting dashboards
  • 1,000 custom properties
  • Unlimited automated email actions

HubSpot Enterprise

• Starts at 10,000 Marketing contacts
• Includes 10 paid users: HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise
• Includes 10 paid users: HubSpot Service Hub Enterprise
• Limits: 
  • Email send limit: 20X marketing contacts
  • 100 shared inboxes
  • 1,500 active & 1,500 static lists
  • 50 reporting dashboards
  • 1,000 custom properties
  • Unlimited automated email actions

Read also: 5 Top HubSpot Competitors That Cost a Lot Less

HubSpot Pricing: How much does each HubSpot plan cost?

Since HubSpot’s pricing is based on a sliding scale, we’ll first show you the starting price of each plan and then go into the details of each plan: 

For simplicity, let’s calculate the pricing of each plan at four different points, to get an idea on how expensive HubSpot pricing becomes as your contacts base expands: 

Pricing for HubSpot Starter

• 1,000 contacts: $50/mo ($18/mo for new users)
• 10,000 contacts: $440/mo
• 50,000 contacts: $2,040/mo
• 100,000 contacts: $4,040/mo

Pricing for HubSpot Professional

• 2,000 contacts: $1,780/mo
• 10,000 contacts: $2,280/mo
• 50,000 contacts: $4,080/mo
• 80,000 contacts: $5,180/mo

Pricing for HubSpot Enterprise

• 10,000 contacts: $5,000/mo
• 50,000 contacts: $5,400/mo
• 100,000 contacts: $5,850/mo
• 1,000,000 contacts: $11,750/mo

You can see how expensive HubSpot pricing gets as you upgrade your plan or as your contacts increase. 

But this isn’t the whole story.

HubSpot also charges a mandatory onboarding fee for the Professional and Enterprise plans. 

We’ll cover that in the subsequent sections.

Before that, let’s check out HubSpot pricing for startups.

Read also: 8 Surprisingly Awesome HubSpot Alternatives

HubSpot pricing for startups

With HubSpot for Startups (not to be confused with the HubSpot Starter plan), you can save 30%-90% on all tools. Here’s the breakdown to help you find out if you are eligible: 

• 30% discount: If you are associated with one of HubSpot’s entrepreneurial organizations. 
• 50% discount: If you’ve raised funding over $2 million in funding, associated with their entrepreneurial organizations, and have not yet raised series B funding. 
• 90% discount: If you’ve raised funding of under $2 million and are associated with their entrepreneurial organizations.

Does HubSpot offer standalone plans?

Yes, it does.

For simplicity, we’ve only added the starting prices. The cost will increase as you get more contacts and users. 

Here’s a quick comparison of all the standalone plans:

Read also: HubSpot vs MailChimp: A Complete Product Comparison

What Are the Drawbacks of HubSpot Pricing?

Since this blog talks about pricing, let’s bring to light the drawbacks of HubSpot pricing.

• Expensive onboarding
• Mandatory annual contracts
• Expensive add-ons
• Limited free plan
• Restricted HubSpot plans for startups

Costly onboarding fees

Firstly, HubSpot has mandatory onboarding sessions for all users. That said, Professional and Enterprise users must pay HubSpot’s exorbitant one-time onboarding fees.

How much is it?

• Professional: $3,750
• Enterprise: $12,000

You can see how expensive your final bill will be. 

If you want to know more about HubSpot migration services, you can check out their website. 

Annual contract

There’s a caveat to using HubSpot: you are contractually obligated to commit to one full year when you subscribe to their paid plans. 

What does this mean? You must pay for the entire year, even if you want to leave HubSpot CRM mid-year. 

For example, you joined on the 1st of January, 20XX. After using HubSpot CRM for a month, you decide to drop it. You’ll still have to pay for the whole year!

Expensive add-ons

If the high plan pricing isn’t enough, HubSpot’s add-ons are even more expensive. For example, HubSpot offers 3,100 custom reports included with the Professional plan, and charges you an extra $200/month for every 3,000 additional reports. 

Another example: HubSpot’s Professional plan offers a measly 25 dashboards. For more — you guessed it — you need an expensive add-on. How much, you ask? $200/month (for 300 dashboards). 

Here’s a summary of HubSpot add-ons: 

• API limit increase: +$500/month
• Dashboards: +$200/month
• Custom reports add-on: +$200/month

HubSpot free plan is designed to lure you in

One of the eye-catching features of HubSpot’s free plan: You can store up to 1,000,000 contacts for free. 

But what happens when you upgrade to a paid plan? All your contacts get included in the quota – meaning the cost will shoot up to the sky. 

What is a HubSpot marketing contact? According to HubSpot, “contacts that are set as marketing will count towards your contact tier. HubSpot tools can market to these contacts. Contacts cannot be set as marketing then non-marketing in the same month.”

Besides, the free plan comes with HubSpot branding, which can only be removed when you upgrade to a paid plan. 

Read also: Is HubSpot CRM Truly Free? An Unbiased Guide (with HubSpot User Reviews)

HubSpot for Startups plan has caveats

Firstly, you need to be part of their approved entrepreneurship organizations and should have some form of capital funding to get the 90% discount.

Also, this plan is for startups, not small businesses.

Finally, HubSpot CRM for Startups plan is valid only for year one. After the first year, you’ll get a fairly small discount year on year. This will still bring up the final cost to thousands of dollars.

Read also: HubSpot Pros And Cons — A Candid Assessment

User reviews of HubSpot

Check out some of the complaints that paid users shared after using HubSpot.

Now that you’ve seen the pricing and the drawbacks, let’s find out how expensive HubSpot CRM really is through an illustration.

Read also: HubSpot vs Keap: Is HubSpot Really a Better Product?

HubSpot Pricing: How Much Do You Have To Pay Annually? [Illustration]

Let’s say you are a mid-sized company with 20 users and 100,000 marketing contacts.

You need the Enterprise plan because it offers the tools your business needs. Assuming you need not more than 10 sales and 10 service users, let’s calculate HubSpot pricing: 

 Your first-year cost is $82,200!

And this is before all the add-ons HubSpot offers. Is this something small businesses or even mid-sized businesses can afford? 

That was a rhetorical question. Of course, SMBs can’t afford that. 

That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best HubSpot alternatives that won’t burn through your $$$. 

Read also: HubSpot vs GetResponse: A Comprehensive Review and Analysis

What Are the Best HubSpot Alternatives?

While there are hundreds of CRM software out there, EngageBay and ActiveCampaign are two great HubSpot alternatives. 

Let’s see how.

#1. EngageBay

EngageBay was built from the ground up with affordability in mind – an all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer support software for SMBs that need all the features but with a reasonable price tag. 

Let’s take a look at EngageBay’s features:

EngageBay Features

It’s hard to list out all the features EngageBay offers. We’ll look at the key ones: 

• Email marketing: Send newsletters, nurture your leads through drip campaigns, or use autoresponders to send out welcome emails, cart abandonment alerts, and birthday wishes. 
• Automation: Improve productivity and efficiency through EngageBay’s multistep visual automation builder. 
• Split testing: Test each element of your landing pages and email broadcasts using the A/B testing feature and determine the winning variation. 
• Sales pipeline: Streamline your sales funnel and pipelines using EngageBay’s easy-to-use tools. 
• Customer support: EngageBay offers a suite of support tools, including live chat, helpdesk, ticket prioritization, routing, canned responses, and service automation. 

Read also: EngageBay vs HubSpot — Market Leader or Emerging Powerhouse?

EngageBay Pricing

Let’s check out the pricing: 

Free

• $0/mo
• Includes 500 contacts 
• Includes 1,000 emails/mo
• You get email marketing, email broadcasts, autoresponders, landing pages, lead generation, project management, CRM, live chat, and helpdesk

Basic

• $14.99/mo
• Includes 1,000 contacts
• Includes 3,000 emails/mo
• You get email templates, lead scoring, web pop-ups, landing page builder, SMS marketing, and marketing and sales activity reporting dashboard

Growth

• $64.99/mo
• Includes 10,000 contacts
• Includes 25,000 emails/mo
• You get marketing automation, call records, email broadcast A/B testing, proposals, products, and timezone-based email delivery

Pro

• $119.99/mo
• Offers unlimited contacts
• Includes 50,000 emails/mo
• You get advanced features including proposal analytics, web analytics, SSO, goals, uptime SLA, account-based marketing, and a dedicated account manager
• EngageBay support includes free onboarding sessions, migration services, and priority phone support

In addition, you get a 10% discount on annual plans and a 20% discount on biennial plans. 

Learn more about EngageBay:

• Compare EngageBay with HubSpot
• Visit our website
• Request a demo with our experts
• Check pricing

Create my free EngageBay account now

#2. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is another excellent HubSpot alternative, mainly as it offers CXA (Customer Experience Automation) to help you put your customers first. 

ActiveCampaign Features

• The CXA (Customer Experience Automation) platform’s features to help you capture prospects include email marketing, landing pages, and segmentation. 
• Marketing automation, goals, dynamic content, and SMS marketing maps help you nurture your leads
• ActiveCampaign’s pipelines, win probability, sales engagement, and split actions help convert leads into paying customers. 
• You can also keep your customer engaged and loyal to your brand through site messaging, web personalization, and chats.

Read also: ActiveCampaign vs HubSpot vs EngageBay – Which CRM Is Best?

ActiveCampaign Pricing

ActiveCampaign has four plans: 

Lite

• $29/month for 1,000 contacts
• Includes email marketing, marketing automation, capture forms, sales emails, and segmented outreach. 

Plus

• $49/month for 1,000 contacts
• Includes landing pages, automations map, contact scoring, conditional content, task reporting, SMS marketing, and lead scoring

Professional

• $149/month for 1,000 contacts
• Includes predictive sending, website personalization, conversion reporting, win probability, and split automations

Enterprise

• Custom-priced
• Includes free design services, social data enrichment, custom domain, contact enrichment, HIPAA support, unlimited users, and more

Let’s compare HubSpot, EngageBay, and ActiveCampaign for 25,000 contacts:

Keep in mind that the above table does not consider HubSpot onboarding fees. We’re also comparing EngageBay’s highest-tier plan with HubSpot CRM and ActiveCampaign’s mid-tier plans. 

By moving from HubSpot to EngageBay, you can save up to 80% of costs!

Detailed Comparison of HubSpot and EngageBay

Conclusion: Which CRM Should You Choose?

It’s quite clear that HubSpot pricing does not favor small business owners, solopreneurs, agencies, and freelancers.

Everybody needs to do some marketing these days, even if they don’t really have a stable business yet.

EngageBay helps thousands of small business owners every day, thanks to the affordable pricing and the comprehensive set of features.

Sign up now for the free version, or book a 30-minute demo with our experts at a time of your convenience. 

Ciao!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is HubSpot very expensive?

Yes, HubSpot can become very expensive as your business grows.

While the Starter plan starts at $15/month, essential features like marketing automation and reporting are locked behind Professional and Enterprise plans–starting at $800/month, which many users consider cost-prohibitive. Also, you need to at least choose the Professional plan to make the most of HubSpot. 

How much does HubSpot cost per user per month?

Here’s a comprehensive pricing comparison of all HubSpot pricing plans.

Note: These are the starting prices of each plan. Depending upon the number of contacts and users, you might have to pay more. HubSpot Marketing Starter starts at $15+/month, HubSpot Marketing Professional starts at $800+/month, and HubSpot Enterprise starts at $3,200+/month. Monthly costs increase with the number of contacts, additional features, and hubs, often leading to unexpected cost surges for small businesses.  

For an in-depth analysis of HubSpot’s various pricing plans, please read this article in full.

How much does HubSpot charge per 1,000 contacts?

HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional plan starts at $800/month for 2,000 contacts and roughly $50/month for every additional 1,000 contacts. This pricing model can quickly become cost-prohibitive for many small businesses and startups and is a key reason many users switch to more affordable alternatives like EngageBay.

Who is HubSpot best for?

HubSpot is best for large businesses (enterprises) that want one solution for marketing, sales, and support. Though HubSpot is an excellent software, it is really expensive, making it a great choice for companies that have upwards of 500 employees and a poor choice for small businesses that have less than 100 employees.

SMBs need an alternative to HubSpot with affordable pricing. That’s the whole idea behind building EngageBay.

Is there a free version of HubSpot?

Yes, HubSpot offers a free-forever plan with basic features necessary for businesses to grow. This includes shared inboxes, team email, basic bots, custom properties, email tracking, dashboards, and more. 

Though this free plan is useful, the lack of marketing contacts and automation means businesses should eventually opt for a paid plan. 

And this is where small businesses face the heat. HubSpot quickly becomes really expensive, with some plans costing thousands of dollars a month – way out of budget for most small companies.

That’s why small businesses choose EngageBay: a super affordable HubSpot alternative with a similarly rich feature set and the same all-in-one approach that HubSpot now calls ‘flywheel’.

Is HubSpot 100% free?

HubSpot offers a free-forever CRM, but it comes with a lot of limitations. While you can view your data but must upgrade to expensive plans for workflows, automations, reporting and even basic editing. So, while HubSpot is 100% free to start, scaling will definitely require a paid plan. 

Which is the best CRM for small businesses?

For small businesses, EngageBay is a great choice; it offers an all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer support solution at just $1 a day. The all-in-one approach aligns all teams toward a single view of customers, eliminates data silos, and reduces inconsistencies, just like HubSpot does.

Plus, free onboarding and migration, a simple UI, and a tiny learning curve make it really easy for small businesses to move from HubSpot to EngageBay. 

What are the limitations of HubSpot?

The free version of HubSpot offers 1,000,000 contacts! But this clause is only applicable to the free plan. Let’s say you have 50,000 contacts in the free plan, and you are ready to upgrade to HubSpot’s paid plan. 

This is how much HubSpot’s most affordable CRM Suite will cost you for 50,000 contacts: $2,035/month.

Once you opt for the paid plans, the cost quickly shoots up — a pain point experienced by many small businesses using HubSpot. Many of them eventually drop HubSpot and choose more affordable solutions like EngageBay and ActiveCampaign.

How do I get the best price on HubSpot?

HubSpot offers startups a 30%-90% discount depending on the startup type. Here’s the breakdown: 

• 30% discount: If associated with one of HubSpot’s entrepreneurial organizations. 
• 50% discount: If you’ve raised funding above $2 million in funding, are associated with their entrepreneurial organizations, and have not yet raised series B funding. 
• 90% discount: If you’ve raised funding of under $2 million and are associated with their entrepreneurial organizations.

Note: These discounts only apply if you are part of HubSpot’s entrepreneurial partner organizations, and are only applicable for the first year. 

After that, you need to pay the full price.

What is the daily limit for HubSpot?

HubSpot has various daily limits for trial and established accounts, tiers, and API calls. Daily limits can also apply to workflow actions, reports, and other features–often requiring an expensive upgrade to improve or remove restrictions. 

Are there any limitations on the number of lists or contacts in HubSpot’s free and Starter plans?

Yes, the free plan allows up to 1,000,000 contacts but has limitations on features like active lists. The HubSpot Starter plan permits up to 25 active lists, which some users find restrictive as these lists are crucial for various functions.

Are there unexpected costs associated with using HubSpot?

Many users have reported unexpected additional costs and upgrades, especially when seeking specific features. These essential features are often locked behind higher-tier plans, leading to frustration over the perceived predatory pricing model.