| Functionality | 2 <p>Channeled's Slack-centricity means that it's overall feature set as a dedicated customer support tool is relatively lacking. To be more specific, Channeled is best suited to businesses who primarily manage their customer interactions via Slack and not via other channels such as SMS, live chat or email. That being said, when it comes to managing Slack threads, it provides a robust and complete feature set including shortcuts that can be triggered by emoji reactions within Slack, and analytics/sentiment analysis over Slack threads.</p> | 8 <p>HubSpot offers all of the support functionality most SMBs will need. It supports most channels, and you can also create help centres. It also has sophisticated automation and reporting functionalities.</p><p>However, it lacks some features like AI context suggestion, creation of community forums, and sophisticated chat functionality the likes of Intercom.</p> |
| Ease of Use | 9 <p>As a result of it's focus on Slack, Channeled has a shallow learning curve. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">An average SMB employee would require less than 30 minutes and no guidance to master the product. </span>It's onboarding process is simple, short and easy to understand and makes full use of Slacks native integrations. Additionally, it's web app is simple, intuitive and easy to navigate.</p> | 3 <p>HubSpot Service Hub is a powerful tool, though it takes time to implement. This is particularly true if you're setting up complex workflows automations which connects with third-party apps.</p><p>The inbox view is cluttered, and there are no keyboard shortcuts and macros that could help speed up support agents' workflows.</p> |
| Look and feel | 8 <p>Channeled's web app is simple, modern and easy to navigate. Additionally, it's design aesthetic is minimalist making it easy to work with and fast to load.</p> | 5 <p>HubSpot's inbox is cluttered and overwhelming. Too much information is displayed without color-coding, making it hard to find key details. While page load times are acceptable at 2-3 seconds, the interface could be more intuitive and smooth.</p> |
| Customisability | 3 <p>Channeled does provide some elements of customisability such as the ability to create custom tags which businesses can assign to conversation threads, or the ability to create custom shortcuts which can be triggered by emoji reactions directly from Slack. However, there are limited routes for further customisability such as the inability to manipulate analytics dashboards or save custom views.</p> | 7 <p>HubSpot offers great customisability for workflows but lacks some customisation for user-facing elements.</p><p>You can create custom fields, views, objects, and customer segments. Combined with custom event tracking, this allows for highly personalised customer experiences.</p><p>However, the customisation options for the Help Centre are limited compared to some competitors.</p> |
| Ease of Setup | 8 <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Channeled offers a simple self-serve free trial for their platform. We found the initial setup to be simple, taking <5 mins. Setting up your first channels are particularly easy too - given Channeled's focus on Slack. It takes only a few clicks to connect and configure.</span></p> | 4 <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Despite offering a self-serve free trial, we get the impression that HubSpot is not optimised for a smooth self-serve onboarding process. Initial setup was clunky, taking over 10 minutes. Connecting your first channels is an obscure process. It's clear that though HubSpot Service Hub is a powerful tool, it takes time to implement when it comes to setting up integrations, getting familiar with its sales oriented interface and implementing any workflow automations you need.</span></p> |
| Customer Support | 3 <p>Channeled customer support options for most of it's pricing tiers remains minimal. Channeled provides a contact email address for support requirements as well as a documentation website which offers explanations and walkthroughs of its core features; however, the latter is still largely unfinished at the time of writing.</p> | 6 <p>HubSpot's customer support is decent. Non-discounted paying customers get access to phone/video support. Discounted or non-paying customers have access to articles and live chat support, which is available 24/7 and generally provides good answers.</p> |
| Integratability | 7 <p>Channeled provides a number of integrations with popular CRMs (Salesforce, Hubspot), helpdesks (Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk), project management tools (Linear, Asana etc.) and automation platforms like Zapier. Additionally, it offers an API through which users can interact with data directly, though this is a relatively new feature that Channeled is continuing to build upon.</p> | 8 <p>HubSpot offers hundreds of pre-built integrations with common third-party tools that SMBs use, including CRMs, email marketing tools, and project management systems. It also has an extensive marketplace for additional integrations and an API for custom integrations.</p> |
| Ease of Migration | 7 <p>Businsses can export data themselves via the web app as well as through Channeled's dedicated API.</p> | 8 <p>HubSpot allows users to export key data (e.g. ticket and agent volume) via self-serve. Export of most other data are also available via API.</p> |
