Best HubSpot Alternatives 2026

HubSpot is one of the most popular CRMs on the market, and for good reason — its free tier is genuinely useful, the UI is polished, and the all-in-one approach means fewer tools to manage. But I’ve helped dozens of companies migrate away from HubSpot over the past five years, and the reasons are almost always the same: pricing that escalates fast, feature gates that force expensive tier upgrades, and a marketing-contacts model that punishes growth.

Why Look for HubSpot Alternatives?

The pricing cliff is real. HubSpot’s free CRM is excellent. The Starter tier at $15/month per seat is reasonable. But the jump to Professional is where budgets break. Marketing Hub Professional starts at $800/month (and that only includes 2,000 marketing contacts). Sales Hub Professional jumps to $90/user/month. A 15-person sales team with 25,000 marketing contacts can easily hit $2,500-$3,000/month before adding any add-ons.

Marketing contacts pricing penalizes growth. HubSpot charges based on “marketing contacts” — the contacts you actively email or target with ads. On the surface this sounds fair, but in practice, growing companies find themselves constantly scrubbing lists or paying for contacts they imported months ago. A 50,000-contact database on Marketing Hub Professional costs around $1,500/month just for the contact tier. I’ve seen companies paying more for their contact overages than for the software itself.

Feature gating frustrates power users. Want custom reporting? That’s Professional tier. Need calculated properties? Professional. Predictive lead scoring? Enterprise only, at $150/user/month for Sales Hub. A/B testing on emails? Professional. Many teams sign up for HubSpot expecting full access to the tools they saw in demos, then discover those features sit behind a tier they can’t afford.

The all-in-one approach has tradeoffs. HubSpot wants you using all its Hubs — Marketing, Sales, Service, CMS, Operations. Each Hub is priced separately, and while bundles exist, they’re still expensive. If you only need a great sales CRM, you’re paying for a platform designed to do everything. If you only need email marketing with light CRM, same problem. The jack-of-all-trades design means specialists often outperform HubSpot in their specific domain.

Customization hits a ceiling. HubSpot has improved here significantly, adding custom objects and more workflow flexibility. But compared to Salesforce or Dynamics 365, the data model is still rigid. You get custom objects, but the relationships between them are limited. Complex businesses with multi-entity structures, non-linear sales processes, or industry-specific requirements often outgrow HubSpot’s customization options by year two or three.

Salesforce

Best for: Mid-market and enterprise teams that need deep customization

Salesforce is the CRM that HubSpot is most often compared against, and for good reason — they’re solving the same core problem from opposite directions. HubSpot prioritizes ease of use and quick setup. Salesforce prioritizes flexibility and power. If you’ve outgrown HubSpot’s data model or need reporting that spans complex object relationships, Salesforce is the most natural upgrade.

The customization gap between the two platforms is substantial. Salesforce lets you build custom objects with complex many-to-many relationships, create validation rules that enforce data quality at the field level, and build page layouts that change dynamically based on record type. HubSpot has custom objects now, but they still feel like an afterthought compared to Salesforce’s native architecture. If your sales process involves multiple related entities — say, you’re tracking deals, properties, units within properties, and inspections — Salesforce handles this natively where HubSpot requires workarounds.

The honest downside: Salesforce is harder to set up, harder to maintain, and more expensive when you factor in implementation. A proper Salesforce deployment for a 20-person team typically costs $30K-$75K in consulting fees, takes 6-12 weeks, and requires ongoing admin time of 10-20 hours per week. HubSpot deployments for the same team size might cost $5K-$15K and take 2-4 weeks. You’re trading simplicity for capability.

Pricing starts at $25/user/month for Starter, but most teams switching from HubSpot need Enterprise at $165/user/month to get the reporting, workflow, and customization features that justified the move. Factor in a Salesforce admin (internal or fractional) and you’re looking at a significantly higher TCO.

See our HubSpot vs Salesforce comparison Read our full Salesforce review

Pipedrive

Best for: Small sales teams that want a simple, visual pipeline

Pipedrive is the anti-HubSpot in the best way. Where HubSpot tries to be everything, Pipedrive focuses exclusively on being a great sales pipeline tool. I’ve migrated at least a dozen teams from HubSpot to Pipedrive, and the consistent feedback is: “Our reps actually use this one.”

The pipeline-centric interface is Pipedrive’s biggest advantage. Every screen is oriented around moving deals forward. Reps see their pipeline, their next activities, and their performance metrics without clicking through multiple menus. HubSpot’s sales tools are good, but they exist alongside marketing, service, and CMS modules that clutter the experience for a pure sales team. Pipedrive strips all that away.

Pipedrive’s activity-based selling approach is genuinely effective for small teams. Instead of obsessing over deal stages, Pipedrive prompts reps to schedule and complete activities — calls, emails, meetings. This methodology works particularly well for teams of 3-15 reps where individual activity directly correlates to pipeline movement.

The limitation is clear: Pipedrive is a sales tool, not a marketing platform. There’s no built-in blog, no landing page builder, no marketing-contact management. If you need those capabilities, you’ll pair Pipedrive with Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, or a similar tool. For teams that already have separate marketing tools or don’t do inbound marketing, this isn’t a problem. For teams that rely on HubSpot’s marketing features, Pipedrive isn’t a complete replacement.

Pricing starts at $14/user/month and the Advanced tier at $29/user/month covers what most small teams need, including workflow automations and email sync. That’s less than half what HubSpot Sales Hub Professional costs per user.

See our HubSpot vs Pipedrive comparison Read our full Pipedrive review

Zoho CRM

Best for: Budget-conscious teams that want an all-in-one suite

If your primary reason for leaving HubSpot is cost, Zoho CRM is probably where you should look first. The pricing difference is dramatic. A 25-person team on HubSpot’s Professional tiers across Sales and Marketing might pay $3,000-$4,000/month. The same team on Zoho One — which includes CRM, email marketing, project management, helpdesk, and 40+ other apps — pays roughly $1,125/month ($45/user/month).

Zoho CRM covers most of what HubSpot offers across its hubs: lead and deal management, email marketing via Zoho Campaigns, customer support via Zoho Desk, web forms, landing pages, and workflow automation. The integrations between Zoho apps are tight, and data flows between them without the third-party connector costs you’d face stitching together other tools.

The tradeoff is user experience. HubSpot’s interface is genuinely excellent — it’s one of the best-designed B2B SaaS products on the market. Zoho’s UI has improved significantly in recent years, but it still feels busier, less intuitive, and occasionally inconsistent across its different apps. Your team will need more training time, and some users will miss HubSpot’s polish. That said, most teams adapt within 2-3 weeks.

Zoho also offers a free tier for up to 3 users, and paid plans start at just $14/user/month for the Standard tier. For teams that want the full suite experience, Zoho One at $45/user/month is the best value proposition in the CRM market — it’s not even close.

See our HubSpot vs Zoho CRM comparison Read our full Zoho CRM review

ActiveCampaign

Best for: Marketing-heavy teams that rely on email automation

ActiveCampaign is the alternative I recommend most often to teams that chose HubSpot primarily for its marketing tools. If your business runs on email nurture sequences, automated follow-ups, and behavioral triggers, ActiveCampaign does this better than HubSpot — and at a fraction of the cost.

The automation builder is where ActiveCampaign really pulls ahead. HubSpot’s workflows are capable, but ActiveCampaign’s visual automation builder supports more complex conditional logic, branching paths, and goal-tracking within sequences. You can build automations that react to site visits, email engagement, deal stage changes, and custom field values with a level of granularity that requires HubSpot’s Professional or Enterprise tier.

The pricing comparison is stark. A team with 10,000 contacts on ActiveCampaign’s Plus plan (which includes CRM functionality) pays roughly $149/month. That same 10,000-contact database on HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional costs $800/month as a base, plus additional contact tier fees. At 50,000 contacts, the gap widens further — ActiveCampaign sits around $299/month while HubSpot Professional exceeds $2,000/month.

The CRM side of ActiveCampaign is functional but basic. You get deals, pipelines, contact records, and basic reporting. But there’s no forecasting, no custom objects, no advanced deal analytics. If your sales team needs more than basic pipeline tracking, you’ll either need to pair ActiveCampaign with a dedicated sales CRM or accept a less capable sales tool. For marketing-first businesses where the CRM is secondary, this tradeoff makes perfect sense.

See our HubSpot vs ActiveCampaign comparison Read our full ActiveCampaign review

Freshsales

Best for: Growing teams that want AI-powered lead scoring without enterprise pricing

Freshsales (part of the Freshworks suite) occupies an interesting middle ground — more capable than Pipedrive, more affordable than Salesforce, and with better built-in communication tools than HubSpot at comparable tiers. If you’re a team of 10-50 people that’s outgrown HubSpot’s free tier but can’t justify Professional pricing, Freshsales deserves serious consideration.

The standout feature is Freddy AI, Freshworks’ built-in AI engine that provides lead scoring, deal insights, and next-best-action recommendations. HubSpot offers predictive lead scoring only on its Enterprise tier ($150/user/month for Sales Hub). Freshsales includes AI scoring on its Pro plan at $39/user/month. For teams that want data-driven prioritization without enterprise budgets, this is a significant advantage.

Freshsales also bundles native phone, email, and chat directly into the CRM. You can make and receive calls, send emails, and handle live chat from the same interface without connecting third-party tools. HubSpot offers similar capabilities, but calling minutes are limited on lower tiers and the phone system requires either HubSpot’s add-on or a third-party integration for serious outbound volume.

The main limitation is ecosystem size. HubSpot’s marketplace has over 1,500 integrations. Freshsales has roughly 100 native integrations, plus anything you can connect through Zapier or Make. If your tech stack relies heavily on niche tools, check Freshsales’ integration directory before committing. The other consideration is community — HubSpot has a massive user community, extensive documentation, and a large pool of consultants. Freshworks’ community is growing but still significantly smaller.

Freshsales offers a genuinely useful free plan for up to 3 users, and the Growth plan at $9/user/month is one of the cheapest paid CRM options available. Most teams land on the Pro plan at $39/user/month, which includes Freddy AI, multiple pipelines, and workflow automations.

See our HubSpot vs Freshsales comparison Read our full Freshsales review

Monday CRM

Best for: Project-driven teams that want CRM and work management in one tool

Monday CRM is a different kind of HubSpot alternative. It doesn’t try to be a marketing platform or a sales-first tool. Instead, it combines CRM with project management in a way that makes particular sense for professional services firms, agencies, and any business where closing the deal is just the beginning of the work.

The biggest advantage over HubSpot is post-sale visibility. In HubSpot, once a deal closes, the customer typically moves to a separate system — a project management tool, a service ticket system, or a spreadsheet. Monday CRM keeps everything in one platform. A deal closes, and the associated project board spins up automatically with tasks, timelines, and assigned team members. This continuity eliminates the handoff friction that plagues many HubSpot implementations.

The board-based interface is incredibly flexible. Non-technical users can create custom views, add columns, build automations, and design dashboards without admin help. This self-service capability means less dependence on a CRM administrator — a real advantage for teams under 50 people who don’t have a dedicated ops person.

The limitation is reporting depth. Monday CRM’s dashboards are visual and easy to build, but they lack the analytical power of HubSpot’s custom reports, especially for marketing attribution, funnel conversion analysis, and multi-touch reporting. If data-driven marketing insights are core to your decision-making, Monday CRM will feel underpowered.

Pricing is straightforward: $12/seat/month for Basic CRM, $17/seat/month for Standard (which adds automations and integrations). There’s a minimum of 3 seats on paid plans. Most teams find the Standard tier sufficient.

See our HubSpot vs Monday CRM comparison Read our full Monday CRM review

Close

Best for: Inside sales teams doing high-volume outbound calling

Close is purpose-built for inside sales teams that spend most of their day on the phone. If your sales process involves high-volume cold calling, follow-up sequences, and rapid lead qualification, Close does this better than HubSpot — and with less configuration.

The built-in dialer is the headline feature. Close includes a power dialer (auto-dials your list while you handle calls) and a predictive dialer (dials multiple numbers and connects you only when someone answers). HubSpot offers calling, but it’s limited to manual dialing on most plans, with 500-2,000 calling minutes per user depending on your tier. Close’s calling is unlimited on all paid plans. For a team making 50+ calls per day per rep, this alone can justify the switch.

Close also combines calling, email, and SMS in a single activity timeline. Reps see every touchpoint with a lead without switching tools or tabs. The sequence builder lets you create multi-channel outreach cadences that blend calls, emails, and SMS in a single automated workflow. HubSpot’s sequences are solid for email, but adding calls and SMS requires more manual work and higher-tier features.

The limitation is straightforward: Close is a sales-only tool. There are no marketing features, no website CMS, no service desk, no landing pages. If you’re currently using HubSpot across multiple departments, Close only replaces the sales function. You’ll need additional tools for everything else. Close also lacks the advanced reporting and forecasting features that larger sales organizations need — there’s no territory management, no advanced forecast categories, no deal inspection dashboards.

Pricing starts at $49/user/month for the Startup plan. The Professional plan at $99/user/month adds the power dialer, custom activities, and multiple pipelines. It’s more expensive per seat than HubSpot Starter, but cheaper than HubSpot Professional when you factor in calling costs and sequence capabilities.

See our HubSpot vs Close comparison Read our full Close review

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Best for: Organizations already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem

Dynamics 365 is the enterprise alternative to HubSpot — and the one that makes the most sense when your company already runs on Microsoft. If your team lives in Outlook, collaborates in Teams, builds reports in Power BI, and manages data in Excel, Dynamics 365 plugs into all of that natively. HubSpot integrates with Microsoft tools, but it’s never as smooth as the native experience Dynamics provides.

The Outlook integration is the most tangible daily advantage. Dynamics 365 embeds directly into Outlook — reps can view contact records, log emails, create deals, and update fields without leaving their inbox. HubSpot has an Outlook add-in too, but it’s a sidebar that sometimes feels bolted on. The Dynamics integration is deeper because Microsoft built both products.

Dynamics 365 also offers capabilities that HubSpot simply doesn’t: on-premise deployment for organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements, deep ERP integration for companies running Dynamics 365 Finance or Supply Chain, and Power Platform access (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI) for building custom applications and reports. For complex organizations with regulatory requirements, this flexibility matters.

The honest assessment: Dynamics 365 is the most expensive and complex option on this list. Implementation typically takes 3-6 months with a consulting partner and costs $50K-$150K for a mid-size deployment. Ongoing administration requires either a skilled internal resource or a managed services partner. The UI, while improved in recent years, still feels more enterprise-software-functional than HubSpot-consumer-friendly. Your reps will need more training, and adoption will take longer.

Sales Professional starts at $65/user/month, and Enterprise is $95/user/month. These per-user costs are competitive with HubSpot’s Professional tiers, but the implementation and maintenance costs push the total investment higher.

See our HubSpot vs Microsoft Dynamics 365 comparison Read our full Microsoft Dynamics 365 review

Quick Comparison Table

Tool	Best For	Starting Price	Free Plan
Salesforce	Deep customization & enterprise scale	$25/user/month	No
Pipedrive	Simple visual pipeline for small teams	$14/user/month	No (14-day trial)
Zoho CRM	Budget-friendly all-in-one suite	$14/user/month	Yes (3 users)
ActiveCampaign	Email marketing & automation	$29/month (1K contacts)	No (14-day trial)
Freshsales	AI-powered lead scoring on a budget	$9/user/month	Yes (3 users)
Monday CRM	CRM + project management combined	$12/seat/month	No (14-day trial)
Close	High-volume outbound calling	$49/user/month	No (14-day trial)
Microsoft Dynamics 365	Microsoft-ecosystem organizations	$65/user/month	No (30-day trial)

How to Choose

If cost is your primary driver, go with Zoho CRM. Nothing else comes close on total cost of ownership, especially if you adopt Zoho One and replace multiple subscriptions at once.

If you need better email marketing at lower cost, choose ActiveCampaign. It’s the strongest option for teams where email automation is the core revenue driver and the CRM is secondary.

If your sales team hates complexity, pick Pipedrive. It does one thing — pipeline management — and does it extremely well. Rep adoption will be faster than any other option on this list.

If you’ve outgrown HubSpot’s customization, move to Salesforce. It’s more expensive and harder to manage, but the data model and ecosystem are unmatched. This is the right choice if you’re a 50+ person organization with complex processes.

If your team lives in Microsoft, consider Dynamics 365. The native integration advantage is real, but only if you’re already committed to the Microsoft stack. Don’t choose Dynamics just because your company uses Outlook — that’s not enough to justify the implementation cost.

If you’re an inside sales team making tons of calls, Close is your answer. The built-in dialer alone saves most teams $30-$50/user/month on separate calling tools.

If your sales and delivery teams need to work in one tool, Monday CRM bridges that gap better than any traditional CRM.

If you want AI features without enterprise pricing, Freshsales delivers. Freddy AI’s lead scoring at $39/user/month undercuts HubSpot’s equivalent by a wide margin.

Switching Tips

Export your data before doing anything else. HubSpot lets you export contacts, companies, deals, and tickets as CSV files from the CRM. But note that HubSpot doesn’t export workflow histories, email template performance data, or form submission details in a standard export. You’ll need to use the HubSpot API or a tool like Trujay or Import2 for a complete migration.

Plan for 2-4 weeks of migration, minimum. Even for a simple CRM switch, you need time to clean your data, map fields to the new system, test imports, configure automations, and train your team. Rushing this process is the #1 cause of failed CRM migrations. I typically tell teams to run both systems in parallel for 1-2 weeks before cutting over fully.

Your email sending reputation doesn’t transfer. If you’ve been sending marketing emails through HubSpot, your email deliverability reputation is tied to HubSpot’s shared or dedicated IPs. When you switch to a new platform, you’ll need to warm up your sending domain again. Start with your most engaged contacts and gradually increase volume over 2-4 weeks. Skip this step and your first campaign on the new platform will likely land in spam folders.

Audit your integrations first. Before committing to a new CRM, list every tool that currently connects to HubSpot — your website forms, ad platforms, Slack notifications, billing system, support desk. Check that each integration exists on your new platform. A surprising number of migrations stall because a critical integration doesn’t exist on the new CRM.

Don’t recreate HubSpot in your new tool. This is the most common mistake I see. Teams try to rebuild every workflow, every custom property, and every report exactly as it was in HubSpot. Your migration is an opportunity to simplify. Audit what you actually use versus what you set up and forgot about. Most teams actively use fewer than 40% of the automations they’ve built.

Budget for temporary productivity loss. Even the smoothest CRM migration causes a dip in team productivity for 2-4 weeks. Reps need to learn new interfaces, managers need to rebuild dashboards, and marketing needs to reconnect campaigns. If possible, time your migration during a slower business period — not in the middle of your biggest quarter.

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