9 Best HubSpot Alternatives Selected by a HubSpot Partner

HubSpot is one of the most sought-after platforms when it comes to CRM, Sales, Marketing, and Customer support. Recently, HubSpot has been named a leader in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for B2B Marketing Automation Platforms as well.

For most companies, streamlining Sales, Marketing, and other key aspects of the business is critical for growth and scalability. For this purpose, they look for systems or solutions that holistically cover features for sales, marketing, and customer support. Software like HubSpot, Zoho, or Salesforce offer a variety of tools and functionalities to streamline and manage most of the business processes which then results in increased productivity, ROI, and less management load.

Even though HubSpot offers comprehensive solutions for Sales, Marketing, Customer Support, and CMS, many businesses still consider HubSpot Alternatives for their business needs. To help in CRM selection process, we have identified 7 critical factors to compare:

Pricing: Pricing is a fundamental element that businesses need to keep in mind according to their requirements. Since HubSpot is on the higher end of pricing so pricing is an important factor that businesses consider in the decision-making phase. 

Customization: It is all about how much modification you can further make to the solution e.g. custom properties, custom objects, interface restructuring, etc. 

Features: As a business, you may require some features that are limited to any system and that's why it's an important criterion. 

Integration: Seamless connectivity with third-party applications natively or via connecting tools like Zapier. 

Reliability: It’s the overall reputation and performance of any CRM tool including bug fixing history, outages, or improvements, etc.

User Interface (UI): Refers to the ease of use and required learning curve of any system.

Ecosystem: It includes a Partner or solution providers network, an organized knowledge base, community groups, or forums.

Further in this article, we will present the nine best HubSpot alternatives that 3 & Four as a HubSpot partner choose due to the above-mentioned aspects. We’ve also divided the nine alternatives into 4 different categories to make things clearer.

HubSpot CRM and Sales Alternatives

1. Pipedrive

As the name suggests, it helps you in creating explicit pipelines that streamline the process of getting more sales. Pipedrive provides almost all the needed key features like customization, integration, and a user-friendly interface. It’s also less expensive than HubSpot sales plans. This naturally makes Pipedrive a viable option for many companies and therefore, makes it a good HubSpot Alternative.

However, you need to keep in mind that this tool is sales-specific—you won’t be getting other solutions. Additionally, Pipedrive doesn’t have an extensive ecosystem like HubSpot. It lacks an organized partner community, learning resources, and other knowledge-sharing forums. There are fewer customization and integration options but it’s still best if you just need sales features.

As for pricing, it offers four different plans, starting with $9.90 per user/per month to $59.90 per user/per month. You can also avail of a 14-day free trial prior to purchase.

2. Copper CRM

Copper CRM is another sales software and a competitor of HubSpot. It’s the best CRM solution if you’re only concerned about sales and looking to integrate well with Google Workspace. With this tool, you can achieve seamless integration with Gmail and other Google products included in Google Workspace.

It offers a good amount of features to accelerate and automate your sales process, and there are some top-notch management tools as well to organize everything. The user interface is up to the mark and you probably won’t face any major issues with it.

Our experience with its customization options is a bit bland compared to HubSpot. On top of this, It has a pretty basic ecosystem that doesn’t include an extensive list of partners and learning platforms. Copper is primarily inclined towards Google Workspace, and you may experience integration issues if you use other service providers like Microsoft 365. This sales-focused CRM offers a 14-day free trial, along with three different plans, starting with $20 per user/per month to $93 per user/per month.

3. Zoho

If you’re in search of a CRM that comes with a lot of features and customization options at a low price, then Zoho could be an ideal choice for your business. A significant amount of businesses also prefer Zoho for high-end contact management, email marketing, and workflow automation at a reasonable price.

It allows you to integrate with a decent number of third-party and internal tools and applications with its Zoho connect feature, but it’s lower than HubSpot’s overall integration options. It has a solid ecosystem with partner support and multiple learning communities on different forums.

In comparison with HubSpot, one of its notable drawbacks is its complex user interface. It takes time for end users to get a solid grip on its tools and functionality. Zoho is quite economical if we have a look at its pricing which makes it an ideal HubSpot alternative. It starts from $14 per user/per month with limited features to $52 per user/per month with ultimate features.

HubSpot Marketing Alternatives

4. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign comes first on the list when it comes to HubSpot’s marketing alternatives. This marketing automation tool possesses a variety of features like email list segmentation, sales pipelines, SMS marketing, etc. it is equally good for B2B and B2C businesses and can be modified according to requirements.

On the other hand, there are a couple of drawbacks that you need to consider before opting for this marketing tool. Its user interface is not quite intuitive and users may require extra time to get used to it. Contrary to HubSpot, ActiveCampaign has a limited ecosystem with less number of partners, groups, and forums.

ActiveCampaign is a bit more expensive than other marketing tools but less expensive than HubSpot. There are four different plans, starting from $9/per month to $258 per/month.

5. MailChimp

MailChimp goes neck to neck with ActiveCampaign as a HubSpot alternative for marketing purposes. This tool now offers additional solutions like CRM and website design, along with its identical feature of email marketing, to be considered a true alternative to HubSpot.

The blend of AI inside its tools allows its users to have a thorough understanding of current marketing campaigns. It helps you make beneficial decisions that lead to more lead generation.

It offers good reliability, an easy-to-use interface, and a comprehensive ecosystem, but sometimes lacks in deliverability. The marketing emails may end up in the spam box, but it doesn’t happen often. In short, it’s best for small and mid-sized companies looking for email marketing.

MailChimp offers three paid plans with contacts per month limitation. Also, it has a free forever plan with a 10,000 monthly email send limit and 500 contacts.

6. Keap (Infusionsoft)

Keap, previously known as Infusionsoft, is an ideal marketing automation tool for companies looking for a HubSpot-like marketing solution. It helps e-commerce businesses to organize and manage their CRM, e-commerce functionalities, sales, and marketing automation under a single ecosystem.

You may experience deliverability issues in Keap’s email marketing campaigns. Some users have also faced reliability issues, which have taken a long to get resolved.

It comes in two different plans, starting with $129 /month to $199/month. Both plans can vary in pricing based on the number of contacts.

HubSpot Service Hub Alternatives

7. Zendesk

Zendesk is a go-to choice for many companies If you’re looking for a HubSpot alternative for customer support and other related functionalities. It is a standalone solution that includes all fundamental features, such as chat support, a call center, self-service, and a knowledge base.

It has a high-end ticketing feature to decrease the workload on support agents. Moreover, it’s reliable, has a clean user interface, and integrates with a range of applications. In short, it’s a perfect solution if you don't need your sales and marketing teams aligned with support. Zendesk starts at $19/per agent per month, which is also reasonable.

8. Freshdesk

Another HubSpot alternative that provides comprehensive support features is Freshdesk. It has a compact ticketing system, a shared inbox, and a pertinent knowledge base. In short, It’s a good customer service solution if you’re tight on budget.

Freshdesk is comparatively less reliable in comparison to HubSpot and Zendesk too. Also, there are limited integrations to connect with third-party tools and applications. Its pricing starts from $15/month and goes up to $79/month with three different plans.

9. WordPress

It’s the most popular CMS software and is a part of more than 455 million websites worldwide. WordPress has more than 54,000 plugins, 11,000 themes, and unlimited layout customization options that enable you to create websites the way you want.

Everything within the WordPress ecosystem is on top and it’s a perfect CMS for companies that require an extra level of customization. The only point of weakness could be its clunky user interface which is a bit confusing for non-developers and for WordPress we also need a lot of systems like Hosting Providers, Firewalls, and CDNs. The basic CMS of WordPress is completely free but different themes and plugins come at a price tag.

Most of the points mentioned above are based on research, personal experience, or clients' feedback.