Salesforce is regarded as one of the best customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for large-scale enterprises, with its Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional tool earning our Editors' Choice award. However, that enterprise-grade CRM is too complex and costly for smaller businesses. On the other end, the company's entry-level Salesforce Essentials offered limited features at a steeper price than its competitors in the small to medium size business (SMB) space. That brings us to Salesforce Starter, a streamlined version of the award-winning platform designed to replace Essentials on Salesforce's menu of CRM options. Starter is specifically targeted toward SMBs, giving Salesforce a seat at the table with HubSpot CRM, Freshsales, and Zoho CRM (our Editors' Choice pick that features deep third-party integrations).

How Much Does Salesforce Starter Cost?

Like its predecessor, Salesforce Essentials, Salesforce Starter costs $25 per user per month, billed annually. That's on the higher end of the affordability scale. Still, Starter does a better job than its predecessor of merging usability and scalability with a comprehensive set of sales, marketing, and service tools that won't overwhelm new CRM users.

The most notable bone that Salesforce has thrown to its SMB customers is that you can onboard up to 325 users on Starter, compared with Essentials' 10-user limit. Salesforce aims to make Starter flexible enough to grow with small to medium businesses, so you won't need to jump to a pricier, more complex solution before you're ready.

As with many of its competitors, you can test drive Salesforce Starter for 30 days without a credit card before diving into a yearlong commitment.

If you need more advanced features, Salesforce Professional is the next tier at $80 per user per month, billed annually. This plan adds tools like sales forecasting, quotes and contracts, and third-party API access. Then there are Salesforce's Enterprise tiers that range in cost from $165 to $500 per user per month, billed annually. These include the sophisticated features, high-level customization, and robust library of add-ons that make Salesforce one of the top CRMs.

How does Salesforce Starter fare against its rivals? Let's take Zoho CRM, for example. Zoho's Standard plan costs $14 per user per month, billed annually, making it notably more affordable than Salesforce Starter. Although it lacks the case management and artificial intelligence-optimized tools found in Salesforce Starter, Zoho compensates by offering lead scoring and sales forecasting. Both platforms are evenly matched when it comes to customization, reporting, and ease of use. Ultimately, your choice boils down to your budget and business needs.

How to Set Up Salesforce Starter

Salesforce Starter's setup process is one of its most impressive features. In contrast to earlier Salesforce products, Starter practically holds your hand (in a good way) through onboarding. There's still a noticeable learning curve, but you won't need to outsource onboarding to a Salesforce expert. This will save your business money.

To begin, you fill out a brief form and take a short survey regarding your business goals, which will then bring you to a two-minute video. (The video is merely a Salesforce commercial, so you won't lose much by skipping it.). When you're ready to purchase a plan, click the "Buy Now" button in the application's top-right corner to begin the three-step checkout process.

Then you'll see a homepage split into two main areas. The top section, Quick Look, features shortcuts to essential sales, marketing, and service tools. Click on these for a guided walkthrough of those elements, complete with on-page prompts and a sidebar checklist you can either move, minimize, or snooze as needed. The homepage's bottom half highlights your accurate sales activities and suggests the next steps based on those metrics.

The top tabs highlight the Accounts, Contacts, Sales, Service, Marketing, Calendar, Dashboard, and Reports sections. Above these tabs are a universal search bar and a notifications button. Guidance Center and Quick Settings offer setup checklists and admin tools, such as adding users or managing your Salesforce subscription.

These are all welcome features, and they make it clear that Salesforce Starter aims to provide SMBs with a turnkey CRM. Starter doesn't support what Salesforce calls "custom objects," which let third-party vendors integrate their software with the platform. That's in contrast to Saleforce's earlier Essentials product, but the benefit here is a less time-intensive setup. This is ideal for companies new to CRMs or smaller teams that lack the resources to allocate for a lengthy onboarding process.

Data Transfer and Syncing Options With Salesforce Starter

There are two ways to sign in to Salesforce Starter: the usual email-and-password method or syncing to your Google or Microsoft account. The latter method streamlines the login process and lets you directly upload contacts, emails, and calendar events to the CRM. Salesforce's Einstein Activity Capture automatically links synced data to appropriate deals, granting you more time to focus on revenue-generating tasks. ("Einstein" is Salesforce's catch-all branding for any feature it claims is powered by AI.)

To import sales data, leads, or opportunities, you must upload a CSV file. You can opt to populate your contacts that way, as well.

Salesforce Starter's Pillars of Sales Success

The Guidance Center focuses on three main pillars for selling on the platform: Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities. These serve as the backbone of your Starter sales operations, housing all the essential information and functions you'll need to initiate and advance deals.

An unobtrusive pop-up walks you through manually entering data for each section. After saving the data, you're taken to an overview page divided into three parts: personal details, accurate activities, and other related CRM data such as Cases and Files. This hub streamlines vital sales activities like sending emails, scheduling meetings, and logging calls, eliminating the need to toggle tabs or swap screens.

You can filter Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities with preset or custom list views. Tailor these lists for targeted marketing campaigns or generate quick sidebar charts to track specific metrics on the fly. You also can switch between table, Kanban, and split view formats, whichever suits your workflow best.

Maximizing Lead Generation in Salesforce Starter

Although Salesforce Starter's target audience is SMBs, many of which will have little or no experience with CRM software, it offers many features that aid growing companies in executing an efficient lead generation strategy without devoting too much time to grunt work (read: data entry). These tools are found in the Marketing hub. They don't rival what's available from standalone email marketing and marketing automation products, but they'll be a boon to smaller companies that don't want to navigate learning multiple applications for their sales functions.

Cadences, a feature also present in Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional, guides you through the prospecting process by mapping out activity sequences. These sync up with Tasks, which automatically update as leads progress through the pipeline.

Sorting leads and automating tasks is seamless, thanks to Segments and Flows. These sections have a visual interface with drag-and-drop elements and dropdown menus, leveling the playing field for people new to CRMs who don't want to be inundated with lines of unfamiliar, confusing code.

The Campaigns tab has an email builder with customizable templates and myriad components for businesses wanting to level up their outreach. Whether you're sending one email or preparing an email blast, the Einstein Send Time Optimization suggests the best times to hit send (you can disable this if you prefer manual timing).

The Performance tab offers a comprehensive view of your ongoing email campaigns so you'll know what's working and what's not. Notably, this component was often the slowest to load during our tests. (For context, we tested the software against the latest version of Chrome on a 2019 Intel-based MacBook Air.)

Salesforce Starter lets you send up to 2,000 emails per month, which should suffice for most small businesses. However, if you need to up that allowance, you can pay an extra $10 per month for another 1,000 sends.

Advanced options, such as lead scoring and sales forecasting, aren't part of the package, which is expected given Salesforce Starter's focus on user-friendliness for smaller businesses. Nor is there any integration with social media networks, which is something to keep in mind if you promote heavily on such platforms. However, Zoho CRM is worth investigating if you're looking for such features at a fair price.

Keeping Clients Happy With Salesforce Starter

In addition to its Sales and Marketing tools, Salesforce Starter also has a Service hub to help manage customer queries. The central feature here is Cases, where you log and view every interaction that a customer had with your company about a given issue. This way, any team member can easily step in and pick up where someone else left off for a smoother transition. (Once again, you can think of this as a subset of what you'd get from a standalone help desk product.)

There's also the Knowledge tab, where you write and publish articles about common customer problems and their solutions, all within the CRM. These articles are searchable and accessible right within each customer case, so you can resolve things quickly and keep things moving.

The last Service feature is Quick Text, designed to speed up outreach by letting you create preset email messages for occasions like birthdays or special promotions. We couldn't fully test this due to a minor bug. Still, it's worth noting that at the time of our test, Salesforce Starter was a just-launched product. As of this writing, it's still only available in a limited number of geographic regions, mainly owing to language localization issues.

Measuring Success With Dashboards and Reporting

Salesforce Starter has the weakest reporting capabilities among the full family of Salesforce Sales products. However, compared with most CRM competitors in the small business space (like Freshsales or HubSpot CRM), it's robust without the overkill of advanced features better suited for large enterprises.

Salesforce Starter comes with over 60 customizable report types across 11 categories, such as sales, marketing, service, and admin. You'll also have a range of nearly a dozen chart types, giving you the flexibility to present your data in the most meaningful way. You can organize dashboards according to report types and tailor the formatting to your liking.

You can make reports and dashboards public, private, or limited to specific users. With the Subscribe feature, you can opt to receive notifications for report or dashboard updates in real-time or at scheduled intervals.

Is Salesforce Starter Easy to Use?

Salesforce Starter aims to be accessible for newcomers to the Salesforce ecosystem or CRMs in general. While the platform is feature-rich, which could potentially steepen the learning curve, the on-page guidance and easy access to the Guidance Center are a boon for smaller teams that may not have the means to bring in a Salesforce expert to train them. There's also the Trailblazer Community, where you can find resources and answers to any questions you may have.

Salesforce is known for its high level of customization, and Salesforce Starter also delivers on that front. You can tweak the interface to your liking, which could range from something as basic as choosing between a wide-spaced or compact layout, or going all-in and incorporating the colors and logo of your company for a personal touch.

On the other hand, unlike its predecessor, Salesforce Essentials, Salesforce Starter doesn't support the platform's custom objects. As mentioned above, this restricts the range of third-party app integrations that are available. But once again, this is likely intentional given the platform's focus on simplicity for small businesses. If building a tech stack is necessary for your small business, look at HubSpot CRM instead.

Salesforce Starter syncs with the Salesforce mobile app, which is free to get on Android and iOS. While it lacks access to the advanced remote features available in Salesforce's Enterprise tiers, the core functionality should meet the needs of most small to medium businesses.

A User-Friendly Gateway to the Salesforce Platform

Salesforce bills Salesforce Starter as a platform for small- to medium-size businesses seeking a turnkey CRM. It succeeds in that regard, thanks to a straightforward setup process and a focus on core sales, marketing, and service tools. Its scalability and ease of use make it a suitable choice for companies that want to streamline their operations, minus the burden that often accompanies the introduction of new technology. For most SMBs, Salesforce Starter is a fine introduction to the Salesforce ecosystem (or CRMs in general).

There are concessions you must make if you opt for Salesforce Starter. Notably, a lack of support for third-party objects and fewer AI-powered tools than other Salesforce products. The trade-off is a CRM that's essentially ready to use out of the box, barring any tweaks you'll want to make to the interface. Editors' Choice winner Zoho CRM is a better value for your money, but the entry-level Starter is an excellent gateway into the broader Salesforce platform that offers room to grow.

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Our research shows that HubSpot is better than Salesforce for sales and marketing, as well as being one of the best CRMs for small businesses, thanks to its robust free plan. On the other hand, Salesforce is better than HubSpot for customer service because it offers more communication channels to reach customers.

If you're in the market for CRM, you've almost certainly heard of Salesforce, as its easily the most popular CRM in the world, boasting a whopping third of CRM market share. Subsequently, Salesforce offers a lot of pricing plans for different sizes and types of businesses, which is why getting a quote for your business is likely your best move.

Still, the HubSpot vs Salesforce matchup is a lot closer than you might think. In this guide, we'll cover all the specifics about these two CRM providers — from features and pricing to customer support and ease of use — and explain when and why one might be a better fit for your business.

We'll be pitting HubSpot vs Salesforce head to head throughout this article. Of course, these aren't the only CRM tools to consider. Check out some of these further alternatives, below. Or, scroll on to learn more about Salesforce and Hubspot.

HubSpot vs. Salesforce – Which Should You Choose?

Before we get to all the nitty gritty details of HubSpot vs Salesforce, understanding the fundamental differences between the two popular CRMs will help you make a decision when it comes to choosing for your business. Here are some basics about the differences between HubSpot and Salesforce:

HubSpot is better for small businesses than Salesforce
Salesforce is better for larger businesses than HubSpot
HubSpot offers an easier to use interface than Salesforce
Salesforce offers better analytics and reporting tools than HubSpot
HubSpot has better sales and marketing features than Salesforce
Salesforce has better customer service features than HubSpot
HubSpot offers a free forever plan, and Salesforce doesn't

In earnest, Salesforce and HubSpot are a lot more similar than many other popular CRM providers in the market, but the free forever plan is a big differentiator between the two. Salesforce not only has no free plan, but also has a higher price tag than most HubSpot plans, which is why the former is better for larger businesses, and the latter more focused on smaller businesses.

HubSpot vs Salesforce Pricing

Both HubSpot and Salesforce can become very expensive, very fast, which can be concerning for businesses trying to navigate the looming recession. That's why it's essential to only sign up to the tiered plan that's right for the needs of your business. You can use our simple CRM tailored quotes form to narrow it down and get a price quote to help you decide.

Of course, HubSpot has one advantage over Salesforce – there's a free tier to HubSpot CRM. This isn't a short-term trial, either – you can use HubSpot free forever, should you choose. But, on the paid plans, you'll have far more HubSpot features – and these paid plans aren't always better value than Salesforce equivalents.

Both HubSpot and Salesforce offer industry-specific options, each with their own set of plans. This means that entry-level plans for sales businesses, for example, could be a different price than those of marketing businesses. Take note of that while checking out the breakdown below.

HubSpot Pricing

First off, we'll start with the Hubs. HubSpot offers three different types of service, or Hubs, aimed at the different purposes of CRM: sales, marketing, and customer service.

The Sales Hub and Service Hub are priced similarly, but the Marketing Hub is a bit more expensive, which is commonplace for marketing-focused CRM providers. Take a look at how these HubSpot Hubs match up against each other below and read on for an in-depth look at each Hub.

Check out our complete guide to HubSpot pricing for more information

HubSpot Sales Hub pricing

The HubSpot Sales Hub starts off quite affordable, but as you can see from the table below, it gets expensive pretty fast. The entry price is enticing, particularly considering the free plan is available, but the advanced features — like lead scoring and custom reports — don't unlock until you hit the Professional plan, which is far above the industry standard on price.

It's also worth remembering that the Sales Hub pricing plans have a minimum number of users required and per user pricing, so you'll definitely be paying more than the per month price listed. Here's how all of the HubSpot Sales Hub plans match up against each other:





Unlimited (minimum 2 users)	Unlimited (minimum 5 users)	Unlimited (minimum 10 users)

		Predictive scoring

HubSpot Service Hub pricing

As is also the case with Salesforce, the Service Hub is identically priced to the Sales Hub. This means that the prices start pretty competitive in the entry-level plans, but they get expensive fast. While the Starter plan is quite competitive in the industry, substantially undercutting Salesforce, the Professional plan ramps up the price by a lot, with the Enterprise sending it up even further.

Like the Sales Hub, the HubSpot Service Hub also has the same minimum user requirement and per user pricing, so your monthly cost is going to be higher than these listed prices. Here's how the HubSpot Service Hub pricing plans match up against each other:





	Unlimited (minimum 2 users)	Unlimited (minimum 5 users)

HubSpot Marketing Hub pricing

If you thought the Sales Hub and Service Hub options were expensive, just wait until you see the Marketing Hub options. Prices are decidedly higher compared to HubSpot alternatives, although the Starter plan still stays below the comparative Salesforce plans by quite a bit.

The Marketing Hub does away with the per user pricing, and instead charges users based on the number of marketing contacts they would like to reach, starting at 1,000. Here's a breakdown of the Marketing Hub pricing plans:

Salesforce Pricing

Similar to HubSpot's Hubs, Salesforce offers different types of services depending on your needs, dubbed Clouds, for sales, marketing, and service. Each one offers a different set of pricing plans, but Salesforce offers some mix and match options that can save you some money if you want dual functionality.

Much like HubSpot, the Sales Cloud and Service Cloud are priced similarly, and can be combined for a cheaper option. Again, the Marketing Cloud is much more expensive, as it provides a wide range of additional features that are more valuable.

Check out our full guide to Salesforce pricing for more information

Salesforce Sales Cloud

The Sales Cloud is arguably the most popular option from Salesforce, despite being quite expensive compared to other Salesforce alternatives. The starting price is well ahead of the industry average (around $15 per month), and the more expensive plans are indeed far ahead of the market. Still, as one of the more feature-heavy options on this list, you're definitely getting what you pay for.

Unlike HubSpot, Salesforce does not have user minimum requirements for its plans, so what you see is what you'll pay for all options. Check out how these plans match up against each other below:






File storage: 1GB Data storage: 10GB + 20MB per license	File storage: 10GB + 2GB per license Data storage: 10GB + 20MB per license	File storage: 10GB + 2GB per license Data storage: 10GB + 20MB per license	File storage: 10GB + 2GB per license Data storage: 10GB + 20MB per license

	$15/user/month

Salesforce Service Cloud

In the same way that the Sales Hub and Service Hub cost the same for HubSpot, the Sales Cloud and Service Cloud from Salesforce also have nearly identical pricing, although the Service Cloud offers a few more pricing options, with five plans instead of four, adding an Unlimited+ plan that costs quite a bit more for advanced functionality like generative AI features.

The Service Cloud also doesn't have a minimum user requirement, so you'll pay the amount you see on the table below. Check out how these plans match up against each other now:







Requires Telephony Integration	Requires Telephony integration	Requires Telephony Integration or Service Cloud Voice Add-on
Yes – but limited to 1 license		Additional cost
Yes (Maximum of 2).	Yes (maximum of 2)	Yes (maxium of 2)	Yes (maximum of 2)	Yes (maximum of 2)

Internal knowledge base Agent monitoring Unified Case Queue Task Dashboard Team Comms Manual Ticket Routing	User hierarchy Int. knowledge base Team SLAs Agent monitoring Ind. Targets Unif. Case Queue Calendar Task Dashboard Team Comms Manual Ticket Routing	User hierarchy Int. knowledge base Team SLAs Agent monitoring Ind. Targets Unif. Case Queue Calendar Task Dashboard Team Comms Manual Ticket Routing	User hierarchy Int. knowledge base Team SLAs Agent monitoring Ind. Targets Unif. Case Queue Calendar Task Dashboard Team Comms Manual Ticket Routing	User hierarchy Int. knowledge base Team SLAs Agent monitoring Ind. Targets Unif. Case Queue Calendar Task Dashboard Team Comms Manual Ticket Routing

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement

The prices in the Salesforce Marketing Cloud are a bit jarring at first, but trust us, it's for good reason. The outrageously high prices stem from the fact that the Marketing Cloud is filled with a wide range of automation features that can handle operations in a streamlined way. Still, that doesn't change how expensive these plans are, making them clearly aimed at larger businesses than small startups.

Thankfully, these plans don't have a minimum user requirement either, but at this prices, you're going to be paying a lot no matter what. Here are how the Marketing Cloud Engagement pricing plans match up:






30 days	30 days	30 days

HubSpot vs Salesforce: Head-to-Head

Now that we understand the basics about how Salesforce and HubSpot differ on pricing and functionality, it's time to dig a little deeper. In this section, we'll explore how HubSpot and Salesforce compare on everything, including features, integrations, ease of use, customer support, reporting and analytics, automation, and training.

Salesforce and HubSpot both have a lot of features

Because Salesforce and HubSpot are both considered high-end CRM options, they both offer a vast array of features for a myriad of purposes. As we've said a few times now, it all comes down to what you need those features for, which is what we'll breakdown in this section.

Marketing features

When it comes to the specific features on Salesforce Marketing Cloud versus HubSpot Marketing Hub, we found that it's honestly not even close. HubSpot Marketing Hub is our top choice for CRM for marketing, thanks to its vast array of marketing channels, including content, social, email, and paid. Salesforce offers some very rudimentary options for channels like social, paid, and content, which is why we provide HubSpot the advantage on this one.

Additionally, we found HubSpot offers more when it comes to customer support, providing onboarding for new users and better customer support when you run into a problem.

Personalization in Email Marketing on HubSpot
Image: Tech.co testing

Sales features

You'd think with a name like Salesforce that the popular CRM would easily take the cake on sales features. However, we found that HubSpot absolutely holds its own, offering plenty of options for your business. In fact, HubSpot beats Salesforce on features like lead capture and lead conversion. Still, Salesforce offers better customer support, so it's pretty much a toss-up between these two popular options.

The sales forecasting dashboard in Salesforce
Image: Tech.co testing

Service features

Here is where Salesforce really shines. We found customer support CRM features thoroughly embedded in the Salesforce Service Hub, giving it an edge over HubSpot's Service Hub. It provides more communication channels, more ticketing channels, and more offline functionality than HubSpot.

The only weak spot we found for Salesforce when it comes to customer service features is customer feedback functionality, like surveys, as the CRM offers none to speak of. Still, that shouldn't deter you, as the other features more than make up for this small oversight.

Service Cloud dashboard in Salesforce
Image: Tech.co testing

HubSpot is easier to use than Salesforce

While a massive feature catalog is a huge benefit for Salesforce, we found that it does create a lot of extra work, which can seriously impede ease of use – particularly for beginners. We found that the platform is laden with very specific terminology that needs to be learnt before it makes any sense, which could create a substantial learning curve for those unfamiliar with the software.

With HubSpot, you're getting a comprehensive, intuitive interface that is easy to navigate, even if you aren't familiar with CRM software. The biggest highlight with managing business contacts with HubSpot is the tidy user-interface where you view all the information related to a contact. HubSpot has designed a clear way of providing a holistic view of who your contact is, what interaction you’ve had, and where they work.

Simply put, HubSpot is built for ease of use, with a simple layout that will let you easily access all the tools available on the platform. There's even a little help icon at the bottom of some screens, which will provide you with tailored advice on how to move forward (pictured below).

In fact, HubSpot is so dedicated to improving ease of use that it tested its software on drunk users to be sure it's as straightforward as possible, no matter how impaired you might be.

Pop up Help Options in HubSpot
Image: Tech.co testing

Salesforce has better customer support

While Salesforce may be lacking in the ease-of-use department, we found the customer support options to be quite robust, which can make it worth the hassle. Not only does Salesforce offer a huge catalog of online documentation and tutorial videos that can help you figure out any issues, but you'll also become part of the massive Salesforce community of users, who can help you solve any problems.

Our researchers found that HubSpot does not offer 24/7 live support on any of its plans, even the ones that cost thousands of dollars per month. Salesforce, on the other hand, provides it for an additional cost, and includes it for all Unlimited plans.

If you require an genuine person to walk you through the complication of Salesforce, you're all set there too. Once you're logged into the platform, you can phone, email, and live chat with representatives to hammer out the details of your problem, so you don't have to rely on forms and forums to get it done.

Best for growing businesses

Pros

30-day free trial
Tailored pricing plans
Provides sales and service functionality
Lots of analytics and data provided

Cons

Lacks basic marketing features
Limited help and support functionality
Busy interface can be hard to use

Salesforce has better reporting and analytics

As you might expect, Salesforce's robust feature catalog comes with equally robust reporting and analytics functionality. We found the built-in system to be widely customizable, just like the rest of the platform, giving you complete control over what you track and how you track it. We found that the best part of Salesforce analytics was that it allows you to store large levels of information, including emails, tasks, call logs, contact information, outreach campaign data and lead information.

Plus, with the new analytics add-on Tableau, you'll be able to get a full 360-degree view of how your customers interact with your business, giving you more actionable insights for improving sales.

HubSpot also offers a lot of reporting tools, and they're quite comparable to Salesforce actually. However, the only metric you get in every plan is to view revenue data, while other features like custom reports and sales forecasts are only available in the more expensive plans, which means you'll have to pay a lot to get access to the same features.

An example Sales Rep dashboard in Salesforce Sales Cloud
Image: Tech.co testing

HubSpot and Salesforce offer lots of integrations with other software

While both HubSpot and Salesforce are considered two of the most robust CRM options on the market, they can't do it all. In that case, you might be interested in integrating these platforms with other third-party apps that can, in fact, do it all. Fortunately, both Salesforce and HubSpot offer a lot when it comes to integrations, so no need to worry there.

Both HubSpot and Salesforce offer massive app stores that can unlock a wide range of functionalities for your business. They can integrate with Google Workplace, WordPress, FreshBooks, Eventbrite, and dozens of others.

HubSpot Salesforce Integration

If you really can't decide between the two, HubSpot has a peculiar feature that allows you to sync information from Salesforce into HubSpot and then back again. This is very different from the usual features that let you import data from Salesforce in order to migrate to a new platform. It seems curious to offer deep integration with a competitor, but there are situations where this integration could become useful. If you already use HubSpot's Marketing Hub, for example, but the sales team is on Salesforce, then this integration could help bridge the gap between the data held by the two teams.

HubSpot's integration is bi-directional, which means you can send information to Salesforce as well as pull information from it. There are limits to how much data you can pull from Salesforce on any given day, depending on how many API calls your contract with Salesforce allows.

This feature is nice enough if you need it, though having both teams on the same platform would be much easier and offer more seamless data sharing. Salesforce integration is not available on the free or Starter tiers, requiring at least Sales Hub Professional.

Pros

Free plan available
Provides sales, marketing, and service functionality
Tidy, easy to navigate interface

Cons

Limited customization
Basically no customer support
File storage limit to 5 documents

HubSpot has simpler implementation and training

Because HubSpot is easy to use, the setup process is pretty easy. You won't have to spend hours setting up your metrics, your analytics, or your integrations, as most of them will be set up for you upon installation. If you do need a bit of help, you can sign up for onboarding sessions for between $1,500 and $5,000 for your whole team, which is obviously not very cheap.

More specifically, the first part of the onboarding process for HubSpot — where you’re following a demo — is quite easy to follow and provides hands-on information on how to use the platform.

With Salesforce, you're a lot more likely to need the help getting started, and the company offers a wide range of helpful tools to do so. Between the online community of users and the robust support team, you'll be taken care of – and you'll need it, too, due to the complicated nature of the CRM. Salesforce even offers training seminars, which typically cost approximately $4,500. Again, definitely not the cheapest option.

In fact, our research found that the setup process for Salesforce was a full three minutes longer than that of HubSpot, mostly due to the clunkiness of the Salesforce platform and the ease of customer data import on HubSpot (pictured below).

Customer Data Import in HubSpot
Image: Tech.co testing

Salesforce has better automation

One of the primary reasons why a business would sign up for CRM software is the use of automation to make business life a bit easier. Powered by artificial intelligence, these features can make a huge difference in freeing up time and resources for human employees to really get work done.

This matchup is a close one, but in the end, Salesforce's Einstein takes the cake. The AI-powered tool can help you automate a wide range of processes, from lead management to customer onboarding, with a world-leading company's resources behind it. Even better, these automation features are available at a much lower price than HubSpot, which is always beneficial.

Salesforce does, however, have a trick up its sleeve with Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. This functionality – which is a part of the wider Salesforce Marketing Cloud – can automate sales funnels for new prospective customers and gives a killer edge to Salesforce's marketing capabilities.

Because CRM software is built on automation, HubSpot has solid options as well, although they're a bit less consolidated. Tools like lead and contact management features automation capabilities, with simple “if this then that” functionality, allowing you to automate where you see fit. Still, our research found HubSpot automation workflows to be complicated, which is unfortunate due to their invaluable nature for sales and marketing teams.

Cases page on Salesforce Lightning
Image: Tech.co Testing

Other CRM Alternatives

While HubSpot and Salesforce are considered two of the best options out there when it comes to CRM, they aren't the only providers available. In fact, there are plenty of great alternatives to HubSpot and Salesforce out there for everything from marketing to sales to customer service. Take a look at some of the options below or check out our guide to the best easy CRMs for a different perspective on the market.

Best CRM for Sales

Yes, it's hard to beat Salesforce when it comes to sales, as you may have guessed from the name. Still, it's an incredibly robust option that can be a bit intimidating for smaller businesses or just businesses that don't need all those features. If you're looking for a provider that's a bit more manageable, like Zoho CRM, we've done a bunch of research on the subject and can help you find a better CRM for sales.

Best CRM for Marketing

HubSpot is truly a top-tier CRM for marketing, mostly because it offers a robust set of marketing features in its free plan. Even better, our research found that it offers great marketing integrations, like one with Canva that will allow you to design email elements straight from the email editing space.

Still, HubSpot is not perfect for everyone. The high prices and the massive feature catalog can be too much for some, which means that another alternative could be a better fit. Fortunately, we've done the research to find some of the best options out there for CRM for marketing, including options like Pipedrive. Take a look and get started today.



			Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing


		21 days	30 days		14 days
A very expensive option that provides robust email and omnichannel features	The best option for businesses looking to scale	A good option for email, but not great for scalability	A bit too expensive for most, but great for managing teams closely	A good budget option for covering multiple marketing channels	A suitable all-in-one platform for sales and marketing but a bit expensive

Best CRM for Customer Service

Neither HubSpot nor Salesforce are ideal as CRM for customer service, although they certainly provide some robust options to handle it. Salesforce is definitely better than HubSpot for customer service, mostly because we found it to provide a single hub that houses communication, so you can more effectively stay in touch with potential customers, while seeing all the information you need.

Still, we've done the research and found a wide range of other options that might be a better fit for your business. Zendesk is one of our favorite but take a look at some of the other CRM alternatives to get started today.



				Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service


30 days	30 days	21 days	15 days	30 days	30 days
An fully-featured yet pricey CRM solution with excellent team management tools.	A robust platform aimed at businesses looking to scale	A practical option with lots of channels but no survey functionality	An affordable option with plenty of features for smaller businesses	A great, customizable platform aimed at larger businesses	A solid budget option with low costs and few features	A weak offering with few native service channels available

Requires Telephony integration/Voice add-on on all plans	Requires Telephony integration on Support plans, available on Suite plans	Available with Omnichannel plans		Available with Enterprise plan
Limited to 1 license (Essentials), unavailable (Pro), additional cost (Enterprise)		Available with Omnichannel plans	Available with Enterprise plan

About Our Research

If you've made it this far, you've likely realized that Tech.co takes our recommendations quite seriously. For all our business software reviews and guides, we've spent hours and hours doing in-depth research to bring you the most valuable, insightful, actionable information that ensure your business makes the right choice on the first try.

For CRM, we had a specific set of metrics by which we rated and ranked eleven different providers to provide you a clear picture of which ones are the best. The metrics we use are pricing, features, customization, team infrastructure, customer support, and scalability.

If you want to learn more about exactly what goes into our process here at Tech.co, feel free to check out our thorough research guide for a peak behind the curtain.

HubSpot or Salesforce: - Which CRM Is Better?

If price is an issue and HubSpot's basic CRM is all you need, then you might get by with that, and if you need HubSpot's added features, the CRM's pricing is pretty good. Though for smaller teams with five or less, HubSpot doesn't beat Salesforce Essentials' pricing.

As far as features go, they both offer the key tools you need from a CRM, and both have third-party integrations and deep online support pages. If you don't have Gmail or Outlook as your corporate email of choice, then HubSpot is probably easier to deal with. In terms of interface, HubSpot is a little simpler compared to Salesforce, making the learning curve a little steeper with the latter.

That concludes our basic look at HubSpot and Salesforce – but the best way to find the CRM that's right for your team is to get a customized quote based on your company's needs. Click the Get Quote button below to get started and find the CRM that's right for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Not exactly – they're both CRMs, but the functionality of each is decidedly different. Salesforce is a robust CRM with lots of features and a large company behind it to provide unparalleled customer support for users, making it perfect for larger companies. HubSpot, on the other hand, is aimed at smaller businesses, featuring an easier to use platform that's intuitive even for beginners. Plus, HubSpot offers a free plan, which Salesforce does not.

This truly depends on what you're looking for. Salesforce is considered the industry standard for CRMs, but it isn't perfect for every business. If you're a smaller company looking for an easy-to-use platform with a gentle learning curve, HubSpot is going to be the better option. However, if you need a robust CRM with lots of features, Salesforce is the most popular option for good reason.

HubSpot does offer users a free plan, rather than a trial, which can last forever – but it's understandably pretty weak. You'll have access to basic features, like contact management, task tracking, and forms, but you'll miss out on essentials like reporting and analytics. Still, it's a great way to test out the software before committing to a premium plan.

Salesforce has a somewhat affordable starting price of $25 per user, per month, which makes it within the budget of many small businesses. Still, with its robust functionality and sometimes hard to use interface, it can be a bit overwhelming for small businesses. HubSpot is a better option we've found, given its ease of use and affordable plans, not to mention a free forever option.

Salesforce does not offer a free forever plan, which means you'll have to pay $25 per user, per month minimum to use the platform for an extended period of time. Salesforce does, however, offer a 30-day free trial, which should be plenty of time to get a feel for the software before you commit.

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What is Salesforce Essentials?

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Who is Salesforce Essentials for?

How Salesforce Essentials differs from other Salesforce Lightning packages

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