We spent over 100 hours testing both Pipedrive, HubSpot, and other CRMs to create an apples-to-apples comparison guide.
Here’s our verdict:
What do they do?
Pipedrive is a simple CRM tool for small businesses. We rated it 7.4/10 (May 2024). If you’re looking for a simple sales CRM and most of your leads come from your website, Pipedrive is an strong option to consider. Read our latest Pipedrive review →
HubSpot Sales Hub is a more powerful CRM. We rated it 6.4/10 (May 2024). It's best for small businesses through to mid-sized enterprises. HubSpot CRM shares the same platform as Marketing Hub and Service Hub. It is a good fit for companies with a strong inbound sales motion or looking for a combined marketing, CRM & customer support platform.
Both Pipedrive and HubSpot have common CRM functionality like:
- Store, manage, and track customer data
- Streamline sales processes like prospecting, sales outreach, and managing a sales pipeline
- Group, de-duplicate, and enrich contacts
- Create, send, and track email outreach messages
Which CRM platform is cheaper?
Neither Pipedrive or HubSpot Sales Hub is cheaper at every price point.
Only looking at pricing plans doesn’t tell you which CRM is the best value for your business needs. You need to compare prices for like-to-like functionality.
For example, you can send automated email sequences with Pipedrive from $39/user per month. With HubSpot, that starts at $100/user/month - that’s 2.5x more expensive! But, HubSpot’s sequencing functionality is much more powerful than Pipedrive and could save you from buying a dedicated sales engagement tool.
Similarly, HubSpot includes an e-signature (so you can sign contracts with your customers) with its lowest paid plan. Pipedrive requires you to pay for a Smart Contracts add-on. But, the add-on is not a per user per month, so its cost doesn’t rise significantly with more seats.
Entry level pricing on Pipedrive starts at $29/user/month, but HubSpot has a feature-rich free tier.
HubSpot’s pricing tiers increase more sharply than Pipedrive - from $0 to $20 to $100 to $150 per user per month. You may get all the functionality you need with Pipedrive’s Advanced ($39/user/month) and Professional ($64/user/month) plans.
Both offer discounts if you pay annually, with Pipedrive offering up to 5 months free for their entry level plan!
The Top 6 Differences Between HubSpot CRM and Pipedrive
1: Pipedrive is easier to setup and use
Pipedrive’s user interface is really clean and simple. As a sales rep, you can get to most of what you need in one-click via the left hand main navigation.
When you’re viewing your Pipeline or a Contact, you can hover over links to see a summary without having to click through. Everything feels quick to get to. The mobile apps are just as easy to use as the web desktop app, but they are also fully featured too.
Tools like the Lead Inbox are already set up to give you one place to go to review new leads.
HubSpot has much more functionality, but this can feel overwhelming if you’re not familiar with the platform. Most screens have dozens of clickable buttons and links. You often have to click, click, and click again to get to the feature or detail that you need.
One standout example: You can’t get to the pipeline view in one click from the top navigation. Instead, you’ll find this key feature at the top of the ‘Sales’ dropdown. But, this is core functionality to the CRM.
Both HubSpot and Pipedrive have plenty of good help docs, tutorial videos, and guidance. HubSpot still has a much steeper learning curve to master all its functionality.
2: Pipedrive is probably cheaper over time
HubSpot offers a free tier for up to 5 users, plus discounts for startups of up to 90% in Year 1 that you can apply for. But, once you grow beyond these discounts, Pipedrive is cheaper for like-for-like functionality. Typically, the total price is about 30% lower with their mid-tier plans.
HubSpot keeps its highest pricing plan to annual contracts and billing only. All Pipedrive plans are available with monthly billing. As mentioned earlier, both offer discounts (typically 20%) if you pay annually.
For the Professional and Enterprise plans, HubSpot charges a 1-off onboarding fee of $1,500 and $3,500 to help you get set up. You can only buy either of these plans by talking to a sales rep. You can’t self-serve.
3: Hubspot is far more customizable
Unlike Pipedrive, HubSpot allows you to create custom objects. These make it easy to track data objects like "Subscription" and “Order” as well as the usual "Contact" and "Company" objects. HubSpot also allows you to track custom events like "add to cart". The reporting is much more granular in HubSpot too.
Pipedrive is not built to be as customizable as CRMs like HubSpot. Both tools allow you to create custom fields, customize pipeline stages, and choose what fields you see across different tools.
4: HubSpot has an integrated sales + marketing + customer support suite
HubSpot's CRM is tightly integrated with HubSpot Marketing Hub and HubSpot Service Hub. These are both fully featured marketing automation and customer support products.
Pipedrive does have add-ons for marketing like website forms, live chat, marketing email. But, these add-ons aren't as feature-rich as dedicated marketing tools like HubSpot. Pipedrive doesn't make them available as standalone software products.
Unless you have very basic marketing needs, HubSpot is the better integrated platform. It makes it much easier to keep all your tools, data, and team together. This would save your team time from learning and ‘jump between’ lots of different tools.
5: HubSpot offers richer functionality as a standalone CRM
Even as a standalone CRM, HubSpot has far more functionality than Pipedrive.
HubSpot allows you to engage with your customers via a much wider range of channels such Phone, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. You can prioritize leads with AI-powered lead scoring. The automated workflows are much more powerful too.
Automated email sequences are much better than Pipedrive too. HubSpot Sales Hub has many of the features and feel of sales engagement tools.
6: Pipedrive has better customer support for small businesses
In our tests, we found Pipedrive's customer support via in-app live chat and email has been excellent. They were quick to respond, friendly in tone, and helped us to solve our problem quickly.
HubSpot's customer support team was also quick to respond. But, we could only speak with an assigned support agent in our location. It felt slower and unhelpfully bureaucratic. The first interactions with chat bots and support agents felt frustrating. Both of them ask a lot of questions upfront instead of reading our first message and… just answering our question!
Which CRM is best for you?
In general, you get more functionality with HubSpot CRM and better ‘ease of use’ with Pipedrive.
Pipedrive is:
- Easier to setup and use
- Better customer support for small businesses
- Probably to be cheaper over time
HubSpot is:
- Far more customizable
- Has an integrated sales + marketing + customer support suite
- Offers richer functionality as a standalone CRM
Still not sure? Here’s three more alternatives to HubSpot and Pipedrive.
Need better value for money?
Take a look at Freshsales. Freshsales offers rich functionality at a relatively low price point. The downsides are that it isn't as easy to use as a tool like Pipedrive. Read our latest Freshsales review.
Need more functionality?
Take a look at Salesforce. Salesforce Sales Cloud is common amongst enterprise and mid-sized companies. However, you’ll find the costs are usually much higher and it is much more effort to use.
Need a tool that’s even easier to use?
Take a look at Attio. Founded in 2019, Attio is one of the newest sales CRMs. Customers love its simplicity and delightful UX, but may find some core functionality missing as it gets established. Read our latest Attio review.
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