HubSpot vs Salesforce: which is right for a small business?

How do HubSpot and Salesforce differ in approach?

HubSpot starts from a free CRM and sells hubs on top of it, while Salesforce starts from a CRM platform built to be customised, now packaged in suites for small businesses. HubSpot's free tools cover marketing, sales, service, content, data and revenue for up to two users, and you add Starter, Professional or Enterprise hubs as each part of the business grows.

Salesforce's small-business suites bring sales, service, marketing, commerce and Slack together. Starter Suite is the turnkey version for lean teams; Pro Suite adds what Salesforce is known for: custom apps and objects, process automation with Flows, a sandbox for testing, quoting, forecasting and access to AppExchange.

How much do HubSpot and Salesforce cost?

HubSpot is cheaper to start, and Salesforce is simpler to price. HubSpot's Starter Customer Platform is $7 a seat a month billed yearly as a new-customer price, against a struck-through $20 list price, or $10 billed monthly. HubSpot says the discount is for new customers and select offers are for a limited time, without saying how long. Smart CRM Professional is $45 a seat billed yearly, and Sales Hub Professional is $90.

Salesforce Starter Suite is $25 a user a month, the same price billed monthly or yearly, with no cap on how many users you add. Pro Suite is $100 a user a month billed yearly, and needs a contract. Salesforce labels both "starting price, transaction fees apply", so ask what the fees are for your payments before you sign.

What extra costs should a small team plan for?

HubSpot's main extra is onboarding: a required one-time fee of $1,500 for Professional hubs and $3,500 for Enterprise, on top of seats. Its AI also draws on HubSpot Credits; each tier includes some, and extra capacity costs $10 per 1,000 credits, with Pay-as-You-Go at $0.010 per credit.

Salesforce's extras are support and apps. Premier Support is an add-on for Pro Suite, with Success Plans sold separately, and apps from AgentExchange may carry their own costs from the provider. Ask Salesforce how agent use beyond the built-in assistant is billed before you plan on it.

How does the AI compare?

HubSpot puts more AI in its free and Starter tiers, and meters it in credits. The free CRM includes the Breeze Assistant, which researches companies, preps sales calls and summarises records. Starter adds Agent Hub, Agent Builder, a prospecting agent and a notetaker, with 500 credits included; Professional includes 3,000 and Enterprise 5,000. Admins can cap credit use per feature.

Salesforce includes click-based AI in Free Suite and assistive AI with an Employee Agent in Starter Suite, and describes AI agents that follow up on leads, keep the pipeline current and serve customers around the clock. Its Starter trial lets a team test the conversational assistant and multi-email nurture campaigns before paying.

Which suits a team that also does support and marketing?

Both cover sales, service and marketing, and HubSpot sells them as hubs you buy one at a time. Its free CRM already lists ticketing, a shared inbox, payment links and a chatbot builder, and Service Hub Professional adds a help desk and Customer Agent. Salesforce lists case management, knowledge, macros, routing, web messaging, email campaigns and segmentation among its small-business suite features, though its page doesn't make clear which suite includes each one.

Where does Mojobase fit?

Mojobase is a third option for teams that need to know their customers rather than manage a sales funnel, built for 1 to 25 people, and it works well for teams up to 100. Its CRM fills itself from your email and calendar: everyone you write to and meet, grouped by company, with who's owed a reply and who's gone quiet, and with Stripe connected, each customer's plan and unpaid invoices on the same page. It has no deal stages, forecasts, marketing campaigns or landing pages, so teams that sell through a pipeline are better served by HubSpot or Salesforce. It costs $39 a month for the first person and $25 for each after, with every app and the AI included.